Monday, October 01, 2012

Firsts on the 1st: New Series Characters Being Introduced in October 2012 Mysteries

Mystery Books for October 2012 featuring New Series Characters

The Hidden Staircase Mystery Books recently updated its list of October 2012 hardcover mysteries as well as shelved new October paperbacks on The Mystery Bookshelf.

In this series of monthly posts, which we call Firsts on the 1st, we're introducing readers to new series characters who will make their mysterious American debut in print during October.

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The Aden Effect by Claude Berube
Print and/or Kindle Edition

Title: The Aden Effect
Author: Claude Berube
Series Character: Connor Stark
Formats: Hardcover and ebook

What we know about the character: Connor Stark is a former naval officer turned mercenary.

His first case: Set against a background of modern piracy in the Gulf of Aden, the story begins as the new Ambassador to Yemen, C. J. Sumner, is assigned to negotiate access to the oil fields off the island of Socotra and enlist help countering pirates who are capturing ships at will off the Horn of Africa. Meeting with resistance to her diplomatic overtures, Sumner recruits Connor Stark, who knows the region, as her defense attache. When Stark sets up a meeting with the owner of a Yemeni shipping company and the ruling family, the challenges begin.

Against this backdrop, diplomatic security agent Damien Golzari is investigating the death of a State Department official's son when he stumbles on an illicit khat trade involving Somali refugees in the United States. His probe leads him to Yemen and the shipping company owned by Stark's contact. As a result of this chance discovery, the two men are forced to become unwitting allies when they discover that their mysterious roads lead to one source.

To earn the favor of the Yemeni government, Sumner sets up a humanitarian-assistance mission to Socotra. But the Navy warship assigned to assist her is attacked by pirates. Stark assumes command and mounts a daring counterattack. Sumner negotiates a treaty to develop the oil fields and provide mutual security from the pirates, who, unknown to her, are working with other powers. In a final confrontation, Stark and Golzari must decide whether to challenge a navy and the most powerful man in the world.

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Field of Schemes by John Billheimer
Print and/or Kindle Edition

Title: Field of Schemes
Author: John Billheimer
Series Character: Lloyd Keaton
Formats: Hardcover and ebook

What we know about the character: Lloyd Keaton is a sportswriter.

His first case: One lie told with the best of intentions leads to murder and threatens to ruin the man who told it. Dale Loren, an ex-pitcher whose promising career was short-circuited by mismanagement, now helps others reach the majors as a trainer for a triple-A baseball team. When a hot-shot outfielder asks him for steroids, he provides a harmless mixture of cold cream and lemon juice, telling him it's a brand-new steroid that can't be detected by baseball's drug testing regimen. Believing the mixture gives him an illegal edge, the outfielder goes on a hitting spree and is called up to the majors where, cut off from his supply of "steroids," he falls into a deep slump. Then he tests positive for drugs and names Loren as his supplier. After testifying before a congressional committee, Loren is fired. Shortly afterward, the outfielder is found dead under mysterious circumstances.

Local sportswriter Lloyd Keaton — who lost his money, marriage and a major-market career to a gambling addiction — sets out to clear Loren's name. In the process he is threatened by mobsters, shot at, and learns his teenage son is hooked on steroids. When a long-time friend is critically injured in a suspicious accident, Keaton's world spirals out of control, and he reverts to his destructive gambling habit.

Keaton soon discovers that the highest stakes are off the field … and he'll risk more than he ever imagined to protect his family and find the truth.

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Drop Dead on Recall by Sheila Webster Boneham
Print and/or Kindle Edition

Title: Drop Dead on Recall
Author: Sheila Webster Boneham
Series Character: Janet MacPhail, Animals in Focus
Formats: Trade Paperback and ebook

What we know about the character: Janet MacPhail is an animal photographer.

Her first case: When a top-ranked competitor keels over at a dog obedience trial, Janet is swept up in a maelstrom of suspicion, jealousy, cut-throat competition, death threats, pet-napping, and murder.

She becomes a "person of interest" to the police, and apparently to major hunk Tom Saunders as well.

As if murder and the threat of impending romance aren't enough to drive her bonkers, Janet has to move her mother into a nursing home, and the old lady isn't going quietly. Janet finds solace in her Australian Shepherd, Jay, her tabby cat, Leo, and her eccentric neighbor, Goldie Sunshine. Then two other "persons of interest" die, Jay's life is threatened, Leo disappears, and Janet's search for the truth threatens to leave her own life underdeveloped — for good.

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Iced Chiffon by Duffy Brown
Print and/or Kindle EditionApple iBook

Title: Iced Chiffon
Author: Duffy Brown
Series Character: Reagan Summerside, Consignment Shop
Formats: Mass Market Paperback and ebook

What we know about the character: Reagan Summerside owns a consignment shop in Savannah, Georgia.

Her first case: Reagan's messy divorce has left her with nothing but a run-down Victorian and a bunch of designer clothes. Strapped for cash, Reagan makes use of the two things she has left, turning the first floor of her home into a consignment shop and filling it with the remnants of her rich-wife wardrobe.

Thanks to his cunning lawyer Walker Boone, her ex got everything else, including the Lexus — not to mention a young blond cupcake. When Reagan finds the cupcake dead in the Lexus, she's determined to beat Boone to finding the murderer. As it turns out, the gossip fiends flooding Reagan's shop will give her a lot more than just their unwanted clothes — they have information more precious than a vintage Louis Vuitton …

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Pago Pago Tango by John Enright
Print and/or Kindle Edition

Title: Pago Pago Tango
Author: John Enright
Series Character: Apelu Soifua
Formats: Trade Paperback and ebook

What we know about the character: Detective Sergeant Apelu Soifua is a police officer in Pago Pago, American Samoa.

His first case: Apelu Soifua spent seven years in the San Francisco Police Department, where the job was just a job and solving crimes required cool detachment. But back home on American Samoa, life is personal — especially for a cop. Because on a small island where no one is a stranger and secrets are widely known but never discussed, solving crimes requires a certain … finesse.

Here, Apelu must walk the line between two cultures: Samoan versus American, native versus new. And that gulf never yawns wider than when a white family's home in Pago Pago is burglarized. And what appears to be a simple, open-and-shut case turns out to anything but. As the evidence piles up, Apelu follows a tangled trail between cultures, dead bodies, hidden codes, and a string of lies on his hunt for the ugly truth buried at the heart of paradise.

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What the Cat Saw by Carolyn Hart
Print and/or Kindle EditionApple iBook

Title: What the Cat Saw
Author: Carolyn Hart
Series Character: Nela Farley
Formats: Hardcover and ebook

What we know about the character: Nela Farley is an unemployed investigative reporter plagued by a sixth sense.

Her first case: Ever since the death of her fiancé, Nela understands the thoughts of cats when she looks into their eyes. Nela knows that what she's experiencing is completely irrational and tries to convince herself that she is simply transferring her own thoughts that she doesn't want to face.

When her adventurous sister, Chloe, goes on a trip and asks for a favor, Nela welcomes the distraction and agrees to substitute at Chloe's job at a charitable foundation. Chloe has arranged a place for her sister to stay, but when Nela shows up, she encounters the previous tenant's cat and gets a flash of thought: "… dead … dead and gone … She loved me … board rolled on the second step …"

Nela wants to ignore what the cat saw, but the idea that the death of former tenant Marian Grant wasn't an accident is something she can't ignore. As Nela begins to do some research into Marian's life, strange events begin to occur, all seeming to lead back to the Haklo Foundation. But when a detective becomes suspicious of Nela's sister and a second murder occurs, Nela realizes she'll have to make the most of her unwanted ability to figure out what's really going on, before she meets her own untimely end …

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City of Saints by Andrew Hunt
Print and/or Kindle EditionApple iBook

Title: City of Saints
Author: Andrew Hunt
Series Character: Art Oveson
Formats: Hardcover and ebook

What we know about the character: Art Oveson is a Salt Lake City Deputy.

His first case: To the outside observer, Salt Lake City seems to be the squeaky-clean "City of Saints" — its nickname since Mormon pioneers first arrived. Its wide roads, huge Mormon temple topped by a horn-blowing angel, and orderly neighborhoods give it the appearance of the ideal American city, but looks can be deceiving.

When a beautiful socialite turns up dead, Art Oveson, a twenty-something husband, father, and devout Mormon just getting his start — finds himself thrust into the role of detective. With his partner, a foul-mouthed former strikebreaker, he begins to pursue the murderer — or murderers. His search takes him into the underbelly of Salt Lake City, a place rife with blackmail, corruption, and death.

Winner of the 2011 Tony Hillerman Prize for Best First Novel set in the southwestern United States.

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The Dark Winter by David Mark
Print and/or Kindle EditionApple iBook

Title: The Dark Winter
Author: David Mark
Series Character: Aector McEvoy
Formats: Hardcover and ebook

What we know about the character: Aector McEvoy is a Yorkshire Detective Sergeant.

His first case: Hull, the northern England port, is as old and mysterious as its bordering sea. There, a series of suspicious deaths have captured the attention of DS McAvoy, whose keen intelligence leads him to notice a pattern missed by others: All of the victims were at one time the sole survivors of tragedies large and small.

As McAvoy strives to connect the cases to a single culprit, he is continually torn between his duties and his aching desire to spend more time with his wife and child — both of whom he adores.

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Murder in the Ashram by Kathleen McCaul
Print and/or Kindle Edition

Title: Murder in the Ashram
Author: Kathleen McCaul
Series Character: Ruby Jones
Formats: Mass Market Paperback and ebook

What we know about the character: Ruby Jones is an international news journalist.

Her first case: Ruby Jones has moved to Delhi to pursue her dreams. But when the body of Stephen Newby, her flatmate and best friend, is pulled from the Yamuna River — and the mystery around his death becomes more and more mysterious — she puts her investigative instincts to good use as she tries to uncover who's responsible.

Ruby's questions take her deeper and deeper into the world of Indian policing, and into the heart of a yoga ashram. She discovers that the yoga world isn't always the calm, spiritual place advertised; beneath the breathing exercises and dog poses lies something sinister — something that she's certain points to dark, hidden secrets that could have huge repercussions for all involved if discovered.

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The 13th Tablet by Alexandre G. Mitchell
Print and/or Kindle Edition

Title: The 13th Tablet
Author: Alexandre G. Mitchell
Series Character: Mina Osman
Formats: Trade Paperback and ebook

What we know about the character: Mina Osman is an archeologist.

Her first case: Iraq, 2004. Lawlessness is spreading throughout the country and looters have plundered the museums and historical sites. Mina Osman, a young American of Iraqi descent, is fighting to preserve the country's antiquities. When she stumbles upon an ancient cuneiform tablet, it proves to be of unimaginable significance — its cryptic language holds a secret that will play a part in a series of earth-shattering events.

Aided by ex-US Army Major Jack Hillcliff, Mina travels across the world to unlock the secrets of the 13th Tablet but at each step she is pursued by deadly enemies who will stop at nothing to obtain the tablet and its power for themselves.

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The Island Caper by Paul Sunshine Murphy
Print and/or Kindle Edition

Title: The Island Caper
Author: Paul Sunshine Murphy
Series Character: Jake Lafferty
Formats: Trade Paperback and ebook

What we know about the character: Jake Lafferty is a recently retired investment banker, who lives on his fifty-five foot trawler.

His first case: After Jake moves onto his long range trawler and travels to the Bahamas, his retirement is interrupted when he pulls a beautiful girl from the water, saving her life. The nonstop plot kicks into overdrive when his newly found soul mate is murdered.

From that point, Jake's past as a former CIA operative draws him into a dangerous yet exciting adventure through the Bahamas, Haiti and Mexico chasing a colorful but ruthless group of Latino drug smugglers. Jake works with his former colleagues to track down and apprehend Pablo Salvador Medellin, boss of the second largest drug cartel in existence, squelching his attempt to bring the largest quantity of cocaine into the U.S. market that has ever been attempted.

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Sacrifice Fly by Tim O'Mara
Print and/or Kindle EditionApple iBook

Title: Sacrifice Fly
Author: Tim O'Mara
Series Character: Raymond Donne
Formats: Hardcover and ebook

What we know about the character: Raymond Donne is an ex-cop, now a schoolteacher.

His first case: Raymond Donne wasn't always a schoolteacher. Not only did he patrol the streets of Williamsburg, Brooklyn, as one of New York's Finest, but being the nephew of the chief of detectives, he was expected to go on to bigger things. At least he was until the accident that destroyed his knees. Unable to do the job the way he wanted, he became a teacher in the same neighborhood, and did everything he could to put the force behind him and come to terms with the change.

Then Frankie Rivas, a student in Ray's class and a baseball phenom, stops showing up to school. With Frankie in danger of failing and missing out on a scholarship, Ray goes looking for him, only to find Frankie's father bludgeoned to death in their apartment. Frankie and his younger sister are gone, possibly on the run. But did Frankie really kill his father? Ray can't believe it. But then who did, and where are Frankie and his sister? Ray doesn't know, but if he's going to have any chance of bringing them home safely, he's going to have to return to the life, the people, and the demons he walked out on all those years ago.

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The Bookseller by Mark Pryor
Print and/or Kindle Edition

Title: The Bookseller
Author: Mark Pryor
Series Character: Hugo Marston
Formats: Trade Paperback and ebook

What we know about the character: Hugo Marston is a former FBI profiler.

His first case: Max — an elderly Paris bookstall owner — is abducted at gunpoint. His friend, Hugo Marston, head of security at the US embassy, looks on helplessly, powerless to do anything to stop the kidnapper. Marston launches a search, enlisting the help of semiretired CIA agent Tom Green. Their investigation reveals that Max was a Holocaust survivor and later became a Nazi hunter. Is his disappearance somehow tied to his grim history, or even to the mysterious old books he sold?

On the streets of Paris, tensions are rising as rival drug gangs engage in violent turf wars. Before long, other booksellers start to disappear, their bodies found floating in the Seine. Though the police are not interested in his opinion, Marston is convinced the hostilities have something to do with the murders of these bouquinistes.

Then he himself becomes a target of the unknown assassins.

With Tom by his side, Marston finally puts the pieces of the puzzle together, connecting the past with the present and leading the two men, quite literally, to the enemy's lair.

Just as the killer intended.

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Rogue by Mark Sullivan
Print and/or Kindle EditionApple iBook

Title: Rogue
Author: Mark Sullivan
Series Character: Robin Monarch
Formats: Hardcover and ebook

What we know about the character: Robin Monarch is a professional thief and CIA operative.

His first case: Two years ago, Robin Monarch was a top level CIA operative — perhaps the best they had when it came to black bag operations. Then one day, in the middle of an operation, with his team around him in the field, Monarch walked away, leaving his old life and friends behind without a word of explanation.

Now this ex-soldier, ex-operative, and orphan with a murky past is a thief, stealing from the super-rich and has surfaced in St. Tropez. But when a complicated, high profile jewel heist goes wrong, Monarch is led into a carefully woven trap designed to force him to complete the very same mission he walked away from years ago.

It will take all of his skills (as well as those of the team he burned) and all of his cunning, if Monarch is to thwart the violent and deadly goals of the very powerful cabal who will do whatever it takes to bring the very dangerous "Green Fields" technology under their control.

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For a list of more hardcover mysteries scheduled for publication during October, please visit our New Mysteries home page. If you're interested in new paperbacks, visit The Mystery Bookshelf, where you can discover a library of new mysteries, also updated with October 2012 releases. See also our regularly updated eBook site for new mysteries, suspense novels and thrillers, MysterEbooks.com.

Please also visit the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books where we are committed to providing readers and collectors of mystery books with the best and most current information about their favorite authors, titles, and series.

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