The Hidden Staircase Mystery Books recently updated its list of June 2010 hardcover mysteries as well shelved new June 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 debut during June.
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Title: A Killer Plot
Author: Ellery Adams
Series Character: Olivia Limoges, Books by the Bay
Format: Mass Market Paperback
What we know about the character: Olivia Limogies is a writer living in the small coastal town of Oyster Bay, North Carolina.
Her first case: Olivia is the subject of constant gossip. Ever since she came back to town -- a return as mysterious as her departure -- Olivia has kept to herself, her dog, and her unfinished novel. With a little cajoling from the eminently charming writer Camden Ford, she agrees to join the Bayside Book Writers, break her writer's block, and even make a few friends ...
But when townspeople start turning up dead with haiku poems left by the bodies, anyone with a flair for language is suddenly suspect. And it's up to Olivia to catch the killer before she meets her own surprise ending.
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Title: Damaged
Author: Pamela Callow
Series Character: Kate Lange
Format: Mass Market Paperback
What we know about the character: Kate Lange is an attorney in Halifax, Nova Scotia.
Her first case: Haunted by the death of her sister and wounded by her ex-fiancé's accusations, Kate throws herself into her new career at a high-powered law firm.
When the grandmother of a lonely private school student seeks her counsel, Kate thinks it's just another custody case. But then the teen is brutally murdered. And it isn't only Kate who wonders if her legal advice led to the girl's death.
Put on notice by Randall Barrett, the firm's charismatic managing partner, Kate must fight for her career, for her reputation—and for redemption.
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Title: The Amateur Historian
Author: Julian Cole
Series Characters: The Rounder Brothers
Format: Hardcover
What we know about the characters: Rick Rounder is a private investigator; his brother Sam is a detective.
Their first case: Rick returns to his hometown a decade after failing to save a young girl from her suicidal father. He sets up as a private eye, much to the envy of his policeman brother Sam, who has risen up the ranks to chief. The two brothers square up across the sibling divide as they are both drawn into the case of a missing girl.
But the case gets more complicated as Rick’s past catches up with him, and the only clues that the brothers have, relate to a girl who lived—and died—in poverty one hundred years ago. The amateur historian has one last lesson to teach.
MBN note: Originally published in the UK in 2007, the first of two books (to date) in the series.
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Title: Maid of Murder
Author: Amanda Flower
Series Character: India Hayes
Format: Hardcover
What we know about the character: India Hayes is a starving artist who pays the rent as a college librarian in Ohio.
Her first case: Childhood friend and now knockout beauty, Olivia Blocken is back in town to wed her bodybuilder finance with India a reluctant attendant ... not just because the bridesmaid's dress is a hideous mess, but because she's betraying her brother. Mark still carries a torch for the bride who once broke his heart and sent his life into a tailspin.
When Olivia turns up dead in the Martin College fountain and the evidence points to Mark, India must unmask the real culprit while juggling a furious and grieving Mother of the Bride, an annoyingly beautiful Maid of Honor, a set of hippie-generation parents, the police detective who once dated her sister and is showing a marked liking for her, and a provost itching to fire someone, anyone -- maybe even a smart-mouthed librarian.
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Title: A Cutthroat Business
Author: Bente Gallagher
Series Character: Savannah Martin
Format: Trade Paperback
What we know about the character: Savannah Martin is a real estate agent in Tennessee.
Her first case: Savannah has always been a good girl, doing what was expected and fully expecting life to fall into place in its turn. But when her perfect husband turns out to be a lying, cheating slimeball -- and bad in bed to boot -- Savannah kicks the jerk to the curb and embarks on life on her own terms. With a new apartment, a new career, and a brand new outlook on life, she's all set to take the world by storm. If only the world would stop throwing her curveballs ...
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Title: Grace Under Pressure
Author: Julie Hyzy
Series Character: Grace Wheaton, Manor of Murder
Format: Mass Market Paperback
What we know about the character: Grace Wheaton is a curator at the mansion/museum Marshfield Manor.
Her first case: Everyone wants a piece of millionaire Bennett Marshfield, owner of Marshfield Manor, but now it's up to Grace and handsome groundskeeper Jack Embers to protect dear old Marshfield. But to do this, they'll have to investigate a botched Ponzi scheme, some torrid Wheaton family secrets-and sour grapes out for revenge.
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Title: Classic Revenge
Author: Mitzi Kelly
Series Characters: The Silver Sleuths
Format: Hardcover
What we know about the characters: The Silver Sleuths are Trish Anderson, Edna Radcliff, and Millie Morrow, who have 193 years of combined "life" experience between them.
Their first case: The tragic accident claiming the life of Susan Wiley had been classified as just that, an accident. Then why is her husband being charged with her murder? The very thought is ludicrous. But Chief of Police Henry Espinoza doesn't agree, refusing to listen to arguments that Sam's neighbors, Trish Anderson, Edna Radcliff and Millie Morrow present regarding his character and the relationship he had with his wife.
Angry at being dismissed so easily, the women resolve to prove Sam's innocence, not only to help their friend, but to show Henry they are not ready for a nursing home just yet. Using the experience, determination, and pigheadedness their combined ages of 193 years afford them, they rush headlong into danger and intrigue, learning something about themselves during the process. They seem to have a knack for this detective stuff!
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Title: The Ice Princess
Author: Camilla Lackberg
Series Character: Bertil Mellberg
Format: Hardcover
What we know about the character: Bertil Mellberg is a police superintendent in the small Swedish coastal town of Fjällbacka.
His first case: Returning to her hometown after the funeral of her parents, writer Erica Falck finds a community on the brink of tragedy. The death of her childhood friend, Alex, is just the beginning. Her wrists slashed, her body frozen in an ice-cold bath, it seems, at first, that she has taken her own life. Erica conceives a memoir about the beautiful but remote Alex, one that will help to overcome her writer's block as well as answer questions about their own past. While her interest grows to an obsession, local detective Patrik Hedstrom is following his own suspicions about the case. But it is only when they start working together that the truth begins to emerge about this small town with a deeply disturbing past!
MBN note: Not a new character per se, Bertil Mellberg has been around since 2002 and is featured in seven (to date) mysteries published in Swedish. This first in the series is also the first to be published in English.
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Title: Bones of Contention
Author: Jeanne Matthews
Series Character: Dinah Pelerin
Format: Hardcover and Trade Paperback
What we know about the character: Dinah Pelerin is an anthropologist.
Her first case: The Top End of Australia is a land teeming with crocodiles, poisonous snakes, and curious Aboriginal myths. It’s a strange place to choose to end one’s life, but that is what Dinah’s wealthy American uncle has done. Dying of cancer, he has summoned his entire family – current wife, ex-wife, assorted children and niece – to a remote, comfortless lodge where he intends to rewrite his will and commit suicide with the aid of a rogue Australian physician with whom he shares a mysterious history.
Dinah sees this time with her uncle as a last chance to learn the truth about her father, who died during the commission of a felony when she was a child. But when she arrives, she discovers that the truth has more and darker ramifications than she’d bargained on.
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Title: City of Angels
Author: Sheralyn Pratt
Series Character: Rhea Jensen
Format: Trade Paperback
What we know about the character: Rhea Jensen is a 20-something private investigator.
Her first case: Rhea is your typical single girl ... if by typical you mean a private investigator who studies ways to escape from handcuffs while waiting to take down another serial sleaze. But when a seemingly open-and-closed embezzlement case goes awry, her on-again-off-again boyfriend starts fooling around behind her back, and some Mormon missionaries stop her on the street during a stakeout, Rhea realizes her life is anything but typical ... even by her standards.
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Title: The Dog Park Club
Author: Cynthia Robinson
Series Character: Max Bravo
Format: Hardcover
What we know about the character: Max Bravo is a retired opera singer and amateur sleuth in Berkeley (California).
His first case: Max Bravo — vain, arch, brittle — is bored with his life when his opera career stalls out on the mid-tier. His hobby — debauchery — has become routine. And there's not enough fairy dust in the world to change the fact that, after a thirty-year adolescence, Max is finally middle-aged. But when Max becomes enmeshed with the eccentric regulars at a Berkeley dog park, he finds himself swept along into a bumbling, keystone chase to corner the murderer of a beautiful and beguiling young woman.
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Title: Neighborhood Boys Who Ran
Author: Jack Rosenblatt
Series Character: Jack Dooney
Format: Hardcover
What we know about the character: Jack Dooney is a private investigator in New York City.
His first case: Boyhood friends move on after Regis High School: Sal to the family business, Billy to law, and Jack to private investigation after a stint in the NFL. A simple errand for Billy sets Jack off on the race of his life through the streets, bridges, penthouses, subways, offices, churches, and bars in every borough of the city. Jack s loyalty is soon tested but never waivers. Calling on an improbable and outrageous assortment of local characters and his own ability to bluff, charm, and think fast, Jack perseveres for answers he may not want. Knowing the City as only a lifelong New Yorker can, he plays it to his advantage especially since the bad guys are just boys from another neighborhood.
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Title: Murder in the Abstract
Author: Susan C. Shea
Series Character: Danielle "Dani" O'Rourke
Format: Hardcover
What we know about the character: Dani O'Rourke is a fund-raiser for the (fictional) Devor Museum in San Francisco.
Her first case: Dani's gala evening at the Devor Museum ends in catastrophe when the body of a young artist plummets from her office window. The police label it murder and suspect Dani. Self-preservation and an insider's understanding of how money moves the art world drive her to investigate who might have a motive for murder. Dani's playboy ex-husband and a green-eyed cop complicate matters as her search moves through the fashionable worlds of San Francisco and Santa Fe.
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For a list of more mysteries scheduled for publication during June, 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 June 2010 releases.
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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