The Hidden Staircase Mystery Books recently updated its list of October 2013 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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Title: Murder at Hatfield House
Author: Amanda Carmack
Series Character: Kate Haywood
Formats: Mass Market Paperback and ebook
What we know about the character: Kate Haywood is a simple musician in the employ of a princess in this historical series set in the mid-16th century.
Her first case: England is in tumult under the rule of Queen Mary and her Spanish husband. Confined to house arrest at Hatfield House, young Princess Elizabeth is the country's greatest hope. Far from court intrigues, Elizabeth finds solace in simple things: the quiet countryside and peaceful recreation, including the melodies of her chief musician and his daughter, Kate Haywood.
But Kate will prove herself most valuable when an envoy of the queen — sent to flush out heretics in the princess's household — is found dead on the grounds of Hatfield. Acting as Elizabeth's eyes and ears, Kate is sent out on the trail of a killer whose mission could destroy her family, friends — and the future of England.
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Title: Drizzled with Death
Author: Jessie Crockett
Series Character: Dani Greene, Sugar Grove
Formats: Mass Market Paperback and ebook
What we know about the character: Dani Greene is a fourth-generation maple syrup maker in Sugar Grove, New Hampshire.
Her first case: The annual pre-Thanksgiving pancake-eating contest is a big event in Sugar Grove, New Hampshire. It's sponsored by the Sap Bucket Brigade, aka the firefighters auxiliary, and the Greene family farm provides the syrup. But when obnoxious outsider Alanza Speedwell flops face first into a stack of flapjacks during the contest, Greener Pastures' syrup falls under suspicion.
Dani knows the police — including her ex-boyfriend — are barking up the wrong tree, and she's determined to pull her loved ones out of a very sticky situation. The odds may be stacked against her, but she's got to tap the real killer before some poor sap in her own family ends up trading the sugar house for the Big House …
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Title: Murder and Marinara
Author: Rosie Genova
Series Character: Victoria Rienzi, Italian Kitchen
Formats: Mass Market Paperback and ebook
What we know about the character: Whodunit writer Victoria Rienzi is getting back to her roots by working at her family's Italian restaurant along the Jersey shore.
Her first case: When Victoria takes a break from penning her popular mystery series and moves back to the Jersey shore, she imagines sun, sand, and scents of fresh basil and simmering marinara sauce at the family restaurant, the Casa Lido. But her nonna's recipes aren't the only things getting stirred up in this Italian kitchen.
Their small town is up in arms over plans to film a new reality TV show, and when Victoria serves the show's pushy producer his last meal, the Casa Lido staff finds itself embroiled in a murder investigation. Victoria wants to find the real killer, but there are as many suspects as tomatoes in her nonna's garden. Now she'll have to heat up her sleuthing skills quickly…before someone else gets a plateful of murder.
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Title: Malicious Mischief
Author: Marianne Harden
Series Character: Rylie Keyes
Formats: Trade Paperback and ebook
What we know about the character: Is it strange to have the unemployment office on speed dial? Not for twenty-four-year-old college dropout Rylie Keyes, who has PI training that she keeps hidden from her ex-detective grandfather.
Her first case: Rylie's current job at a small retirement home is worlds more important than all her past gigs. Fact is, if she loses this one, she'll fail to stop the forced sale of her grandfather's home, a modest lakeside bungalow that has been in the family for ages. But to keep her job she needs to figure out the truth behind the death of a senior citizen found murdered in her care.
The victim was thought to be a penniless man with a silly grudge against Rylie. However, his enemies will do whatever it takes to keep their part in his murder secret.
Forced to dust off the PI training, Rylie has to juggle the attentions of two very sexy, very different cops who both arouse and fluster her at the same time. And as she trudges through the case, she has no idea that along the way she just might win, or lose, a little piece of her heart.
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Title: The King's Hounds
Author: Martin Jensen
Series Character: Winston and Halfdan
Formats: Trade Paperback and ebook
What we know about the characters: Halfdan's mixed lineage — half Danish, half Saxon — has made him a pauper in the new kingdom of Cnut (Canute) the Great. He meets up with former monk and manuscript illuminator Winston on his way to Oxford, where Cnut holds court and hires them to investigate crimes in this historical series set in early 11th century England.
Their first case: The newly crowned King Cnut of Denmark has conquered England and rules his new empire from Oxford. The year is 1018 and the war is finally over, but the unified kingdom is far from peaceful.
Halfdan's land that he should have inherited were all taken by the new king's men. He lost everything to the war but his sense of humor. Once a proud nobleman, Halfdan now wanders the country aimlessly, powered only by his considerable charm and some petty theft. When he finds an unlikely ally in Winston, a former monk, he sees no reason not to accept his strange invitation to travel together to Oxford. Winston has been commissioned to paint a portrait of the king at the invitation of his new wife, and the protection of a clever man like Halfdan is well worth its price in wine and bread.
But when the pair's arrival in court coincides with news of a murder, the king has a brilliant idea: Why not enlist the newly arrived womanizing half-Dane and the Saxon intellectual to defuse a politically explosive situation? The pair represents both sides of the conflict and seem to have crime-solving skills to boot. In their search for the killer, Halfdan and Winston find seduction, adventure, and scandal in the wild early days of Cnut's rule.
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Title: Chili Con Carnage
Author: Kylie Logan
Series Character: Maxie Pierce, Chili Cook-Off
Formats: Mass Market Paperback and ebook
What we know about the character: Maxie Pierce is the daughter of Texas Jack Pierce, king of the chili cook-off circuit.
Her first case: Romance is supposed to be the spice of life. But Maxie Pierce is so done with bad relationships — well, almost. She just has to get rid of the latest loser, Roberto. Besides, she has more important things to worry about. Her daddy, Texas Jack Pierce, king of the chili cook-off circuit, has been missing for nearly six weeks now. In his place, she must team up with her irritating half sister, Sylvia, to promote the family business at the Taos Chili Showdown, to be judged by celebrity chef Carter Donnelly.
But when Maxie discovers Roberto's body in the chef's trailer — only hours after publicly breaking up with him while wearing a giant red chili pepper costume — she suddenly finds she's the one in the spotlight as the police pepper her with questions. Now this Chili Chick needs to kick up the search to catch the real killer and get back to finding her father …
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Title: The Seance Society
Author: Michael Nethercott
Series Character: O'Nelligan and Plunkett
Formats: Hardcover and ebook
What we know about the characters: Set in mid-1950s Connecticut, Mr. O'Nelligan and Lee Plunkett are private investigators.
Their first case: It's 1956, and Lee Plunkett has taken over the family business as a private investigator despite his reluctance to follow in his father's footsteps. When murder intrudes on a group of ghost seekers, Lee is asked to solve the case by a cop on the verge of retirement.
At the urging of his perpetual fiancée Audrey, Lee enlists the help of Mr. O'Nelligan, a scholarly Irishman with a keen eye for solving mysteries. The duo is drawn into a murder investigation involving the "Spectricator", a machine designed to communicate with the dead.
Soon, Plunkett and O'Nelligan are knee-deep in a suspect pool that includes a surly medium, a former speakeasy queen, a mysterious Spanish widow, and a whole slew of eccentric servants.
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Title: Thoreau at Devil's Perch
Author: B. B. Oak
Series Character: Henry David Thoreau
Formats: Trade Paperback and ebook
What we know about the character: In this historical series, author Henry David Thoreau has all the makings of a great crime solver — the analytical skills of a surveyor, the observational skills of a scientist, a photographic memory, and a passion for collecting arcane information. His instinct for detecting human foibles is razor-sharp and he has a heart-felt sense of justice. And like most legendary detectives, he marches to his own drummer.
His first case: The lush, overgrown banks of Massachusetts' Assabet River are the ideal place for Dr. Adam Walker to find coveted medicinal plants for his remedies. But on one balmy August morning he finds something very different. A stranger, identifying himself as Henry David Thoreau of nearby Walden Pond, approaches and entreats Adam to accompany him upriver. He has discovered the body of a young black man at the base of the cliff known as Devil's Perch.
As they examine the broken corpse and the surrounding scene, both men become convinced that the unfortunate victim was dead long before he fell. Yet the coroner's jury insists otherwise, dismissing the matter as an accident. Angered by the injustice, Adam and his lovely cousin Julia Bell agree to assist Thoreau in investigating.
As the case progresses, the mysteries only deepen and there is no mistaking the brutal slaying of a womanizing army captain as anything other than the coldest murder. Journeying from their tranquil village to Boston's most disreputable district, they gradually uncover the monstrous truth even while a vicious killer prepares to end their inquiry for good.
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Title: Blowback
Author: Valerie Plame and Sarah Lovett
Series Character: Vanessa Pierson
Formats: Hardcover and ebook
What we know about the character: Vanessa Pierson is a covert CIA ops officer.
Her first case: Vanessa Pierson is finally close to capturing the world's most dangerous international nuclear arms dealer: Bhoot, alias the ghost. One of her assets has information about Bhoot's upcoming visit to a secret underground nuclear weapons facility in Iran — in only a few days. But just as Pierson's informant is about to give her the location, they're ambushed by an expert sniper. Pierson narrowly escapes. Her asset: dead.
Desperate to capture Bhoot and the sniper before they inflict more damage, Pierson enlists all of the Agency's resources to find them. But with each day, the pressure of the manhunt mounts, causing her to push her forbidden romance with a fellow ops officer to its limit when she asks him to do the impossible. Despite the risks, she refuses to halt her pursuit of the terrorists, and she puts her cover and her career — and her life — at risk.
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Title: White Ginger
Author: Thatcher Robinson
Series Character: Bai Jiang
Formats: Trade Paperback and ebook
What we know about the character: Bai Jiang is a souxum, a people finder, in San Francisco.
Her first case: Armed with Buddhist philosophy and wicked knife skills, Bai Jiang works at being a better person by following her conscience, while struggling with what she likes to think of as "aggressive assertiveness".
When a girl goes missing in San Francisco's Chinatown, Bai is called upon as a souxun, a people finder, to track down the lost girl. The trail leads to wannabe gangsters, flesh peddlers, and eventually to those who have marked Bai for death.
Enlisting the aid of her closest friend and partner, Lee — a sophisticated gay man who protects her, mostly from herself — and Jason — a triad assassin and the father of her daughter — they follow the girl across the Bay and across the country. Bai confronts paid assassins and triad hatchet men, only to find that being true to her beliefs as a Buddhist and staying alive are often at odds. At the same time, fighting a faceless enemy who seems committed to having her killed fills her with anger and fear that sometimes turns into a burning rage with deadly consequences.
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Title: Death Over Easy
Author: Toby Speed
Series Character: Emma Trace
Formats: Hardcover and ebook
What we know about the character: Emma Trace is an editor.
Her first case: As risk-averse Emma Trace races to win a bet and dodge a flight in her uncle's aerobatic airplane, the cook at her favorite breakfast spot is found murdered, and Emma is under suspicion.
Forced to look for clues to clear her name, Emma becomes the target of a vicious killer when she uncovers an elaborate blackmail scheme involving members of her small community.
And although she's terrified to fly, Emma knows there may be no other way to prevent further killings and save the life of the man she loves.
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Title: Killer Image
Author: Wendy Tyson
Series Character: Allison Campbell
Formats: Trade Paperback and ebook
What we know about the character: Allison Campbell is Philadelphia's premier image consultant.
Her first case: Allison Campbell helps others reinvent themselves, but her most successful transformation was her own after a scandal nearly ruined her. Now she moves in a world of powerful executives, wealthy, eccentric ex-wives and twisted ethics.
When Allison's latest Main Line client, the fifteen-year-old Goth daughter of a White House hopeful, is accused of the ritualistic murder of a local divorce attorney, Allison fights to prove her client's innocence when no one else will. But unraveling the truth brings specters from her own past. And in a place where image is everything, the ability to distinguish what's real from the facade may be the only thing that keeps Allison alive.
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Title: Styx & Stone
Author: James W. Ziskin
Series Character: Ellie Stone
Formats: Trade Paperback and ebook
What we know about the character: Eleonora "Ellie" Stone is a journalist in this series set in the 1960s.
Her first case: Ellie is sure that Sgt. McKeever meant that as a compliment, but that identity — a girl wanting to do a man's job — has throttled her for too long. It's 1960, and Ellie doesn't want to blaze any trails for women; she just wants to be a reporter, one who doesn't need to swat hands off her behind at every turn.
Adrift in her career, Ellie is back in New York City after receiving news that her estranged father, a renowned Dante scholar and distinguished professor, is near death after a savage bludgeoning in his home. The police suspect a routine burglary, but Ellie has her doubts. When a second attempt is made on her father's life, in the form of an "accident" in the hospital's ICU, Ellie's suspicions are confirmed.
Then another professor turns up dead, and Ellie's investigation turns to her father's university colleagues, their ambitions, jealousies, and secret lives. Ellie embarks on a thorny journey of discovery and reconciliation, as she pursues an investigation that offers her both a chance at redemption in her father's eyes, and the risk of losing him forever.
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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 2013 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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