The Hidden Staircase Mystery Books recently updated its list of January 2013 hardcover mysteries as well as shelved new January 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 January.
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Title: On the Rocks
Author: Sue Hallgarth
Series Character: Willa Cather and Edith Lewis
Formats: Trade Paperback and ebook
What we know about the characters: Willa Cather is a Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist; her partner Edith Lewis is a painter.
Their first case: The year is 1929 and Willa Cather and her partner Edith Lewis are summering on Grand Manan, an island in the Bay of Fundy. In their cottage's sparsely-furnished attic room, Cather is at work writing Shadows on the Rock, her tenth novel.
Relaxing after a hectic winter of working at a New York City ad agency, J. Walter Thompson, Edith is painting watercolors from the cliffs two hundred feet above the rising tides of Whale Cove. Out of the corner of her eye, Edith sees a body plunge from the edge of a cliff to the rocks below …
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Title: Good Bait
Author: John Harvey
Series Character: Karen Shields and Trevor Cordon
Formats: Hardcover and ebook
What we know about the characters: DCI Karen Shields is in charge of a Homicide & Serious Crime Unit; DI Trevor Cordon is a police officer in Cornwall.
Their first case: When a 17-year-old Moldovan boy is found dead on Hampstead Heath, the case falls to DCI Karen Shields and her overstretched Homicide & Serious Crime Unit. Karen knows she needs a result. What she doesn't know is that her new case is tied inextricably to a much larger web of gang warfare and organized crime which infiltrates almost every aspect of London society.
Several hundred miles away in Cornwall, Detective Inspector Trevor Cordon is stirred from his day-to-day duties by another tragic London fatality. Traveling to the capital and determined to establish the cause of death and trace the deceased's daughter, Cordon becomes entangled in a complicated situation of his own. A situation much closer to Karen's case than either of them will ever know.
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Title: The Lost Reflection
Author: Bruce T. Jones
Series Character: Brian Denman
Formats: Trade Paperback and ebook
What we know about the character: Brian Denman is an ex-CIA agent and mercenary turned private investigator.
His first case: Brian Denman unearths the scum and scandals among the politically powerful. When his friend Phillip Wilder, owner and editor of Urban Legends tabloid, recruits him to gather information for a blockbuster story, Brian cascades into a series of unexpected events.
Sent to New Orleans, Brian probes into the centuries old myth of what the Vatican conceals on the third floor of the Ursuline Convent. As he delves deeper into the mystery, Brian is hurled into New Orleans's dark and dangerous underworld, a labyrinth culminating in an epic battle of destiny and revenge.
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Title: Aloha, Lady Blue
Author: Charley Memminger
Series Character: Stryker McBride
Formats: Hardcover and ebook
What we know about the character: Stryker McBride is a former crime reporter who lives on a hugely expensive houseboat, the "Travis McGee".
His first case: When Stryker receives an unexpected SOS call from a sultry beauty queen, he agrees to look into the suspicious death of the woman's grandfather.
As Stryker investigates, he encounters a cast of characters as diverse as Hawaii itself, including Auntie Kealoha, a charming entertainer turned mobster, and her 400 pound right-hand man, a Chinese-Hawaiian named Tiny Maunakea. Soon, Stryker discovers a deadly secret buried deep in the heart of Hawaii that has consequences much larger than one old man's death.
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Title: Hiding Gladys
Author: Lee Mims
Series Character: Cleo Cooper
Formats: Trade Paperback and ebook
What we know about the character: Cleo Cooper is a field geologist in North Carolina.
Her first case: Cleo Cooper is either about to strike it rich or lose it all. Discovering a huge and rare granite deposit is a geologist's dream come true. The multi-million dollar quarry deal will also benefit Cleo's friend Gladys Walton, who owns the rural North Carolina property. So what could go wrong? Finding a dead body in Gladys's well, for starters.
A hitchhiking rattlesnake and a near-fatal accident during the drill test convinces Cleo that someone is dead set on scaring her — and halting the project. The two likely suspects? Gladys's greedy, grown children, Robert Earle and Shirley, who try every dirty trick in the book to cash in on the granite-rich land. But are they nasty enough to resort to murder?
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Title: The Bughouse Affair
Author: Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini
Series Character: Carpenter and Quincannon
Formats: Hardcover and ebook
What we know about the characters: Set in 1890s San Francisco, former Pinkerton operative Sabina Carpenter and ex-Secret Service agent John Quincannon are private investigators.
Their first case: Sabina's case involves the hunt for a ruthless lady "dip" who uses fiendish means to relieve her victims of their valuables at Chutes Amusement Park and other crowded places. Quincannon, meanwhile, is after a slippery housebreaker who targets the homes of wealthy residents, following a trail that leads him from the infamous Barbary Coast to an oyster pirate's lair to a Tenderloin parlor house known as the Fiddle Dee Dee.
The two cases eventually connect in surprising fashion, but not before two murders and assorted other felonies complicate matters even further. And not before the two sleuths are hindered, assisted, and exasperated by the bughouse Sherlock Holmes.
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Title: Burden of Truth
Author: Terri Nolan
Series Character: Birdie Keane
Formats: Trade Paperback and ebook
What we know about the character: Birdie Elizabeth Keane is an investigative journalist in Los Angeles.
Her first case: Birdie Elizabeth Keane would give anything — even her Pulitzer — to see Matt Whelan, the love of her life, one more time. The sudden death of the Los Angeles cop has left her devastated, angry, and baffled. Coming from a traditional Irish-Catholic family of cops, Birdie can't ignore the bizarre coincidences surrounding his “accidental” death—or her suspicion that he planned it.
A twisting trail of clues leads her to a sixteen-year-old murder, a cold case she's always wanted to solve. With dangerous forces closing in, Birdie races to decipher Matt's last message for her. Each stunning revelation brings her closer to the dark truth about a man she thought she knew — Was he a dirty cop? — and unimaginable, painful secrets about the people she loves most.
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Title: The Jerusalem Puzzle
Author: Laurence O'Bryan
Series Character: Sean Ryan and Isabel Sharp
Formats: Trade Paperback and ebook
What we know about the characters: Sean Ryan is a director and co-founder of The Institute of Applied Research in Oxford, England. Isabel Sharp is an Assistant Senior Officer in the British Consulate in Istanbul.
Their first case: Behind Lady Tunshuq's Palace in the Muslim quarter of Jerusalem, archaeologist Max Keiser has been found dead. In the same city, Doctor Susan Hunter who was translating an ancient script discovered in Istanbul, is missing. With his girlfriend Isabel Sharp, Sean Ryan is about to piece together the mystery of his colleague Max's death and Susan's disappearance. But as they explore the ancient and troubled city, they soon find themselves drawn into a dangerous and deadly game of fire.
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Title: Dante's Wood
Author: Lynne Raimondo
Series Character: Mark Angelotti
Formats: Trade Paperback and ebook
What we know about the character: Mark Angelotti is a psychiatrist in Chicago.
His first case: Back at work after a devastating illness, Mark believes he has put his past behind him when he is asked to examine Charlie Dickerson, a mentally handicapped teenager whose wealthy mother insists he is a victim of sexual abuse. Mark diagnoses a different reason for Charlie's ills, but his prescription turns deadly when a teacher is murdered and Charlie confesses to the police.
Volunteering to testify on Charlie's behalf, Mark's worst fears are realized when paternity tests show the victim was pregnant with Charlie's child. Now it's up to Mark to prove Charlie's innocence in a case where nothing is as first meets the eye.
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Title: The Hard Bounce
Author: Todd Robinson
Series Character: Boo Malone and Junior McCullough
Formats: Hardcover and ebook
What we know about the characters: William "Boo" Malone and his bouncer friend Darrell "Junior" McCullough provide security for a Boston nightclub.
Their first case: Boo Malone lost everything when he was sent to St. Gabriel's Home for Boys. There, he picked up a few key survival skills; a wee bit of an anger management problem; and his best friend for life, Junior. Now adults, Boo and Junior have a combined weight of 470 pounds (mostly Boo's), about ten grand in tattoos (mostly Junior's), and a talent for wisecracking banter. Together, they provide security for The Cellar, where the bartender Audrey doles out hugs and scoldings for her favorite misfits, and the night porter, Luke, expects them to watch their language. At last Boo has found a family.
But when Boo and Junior are hired to find Cassandra, a well-to-do runaway slumming among the authority-shy street kids, Boo sees in the girl his own long-lost younger sister. And as the case deepens with evidence that Cassie is being sexually exploited, Boo's blind desire for justice begins to push his surrogate family's loyalty to the breaking point. Cassie's life depends on Boo's determination to see the case through, but that same determination just might finally drive him and Junior apart. What's looking like an easy payday is turning into a hard bounce — for everyone.
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Title: An Affair to Dismember
Author: Elise Sax
Series Character: Gladie Burger, Matchmaker
Formats: Mass Market Paperback and ebook
What we know about the character: Gladie Burger is a matchmaker in a small town in California.
Her first case: Three months has been Gladie Burger's limit when it comes to staying in one place. That's why Gladie is more than a little skeptical when her eccentric Grandma Zelda recruits her to the family's matchmaking business in the quaint small town of Cannes, California. What's more, Gladie is also highly unqualified, having a terrible track record with romance. Still, Zelda is convinced that her granddaughter has "the gift". But when the going gets tough, Gladie wonders if this gift has a return policy.
When Zelda's neighbor drops dead in his kitchen, Gladie is swept into his bizarre family's drama. Despite warnings from the (distractingly gorgeous) chief of police to steer clear of his investigation, Gladie is out to prove that her neighbor's death was murder. It's not too long before she's in way over her head — with the hunky police chief, a dysfunctional family full of possible killers, and yet another mysterious and handsome man, whose attentions she's unable to ignore. Gladie is clearly being pursued — either by true love or by a murderer. Who will catch her first?
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Title: The Russian Donation
Author: Christoph Spielberg
Series Character: Felix Hoffman
Formats: Trade Paperback and ebook
What we know about the character: Dr. Felix Hoffmann is a physician at a Berlin hospital.
His first case: Felix Hoffmann's life is textbook success: a seasoned physician at a Berlin hospital, respected by colleagues, and devoted to his amorous and intelligent girlfriend Celine. It's a life filled with medical work, televised soccer games, and the chill of German beer.
Yet, when a former patient shows up dead by causes unknown, Hoffmann signs a death certificate that may be his own. Curiosity and sheer medical devotion propel him to investigate. However, his autopsy order goes unfulfilled as the body is cremated and hospital records vanish. Soon, Hoffmann discovers a diagnosis of conspiratorial proportions. The deeper he scans, the darker it gets, until a criminal clue emerges from Russia. Despite adversity, Hoffmann is determined to sleuth through with his own brand of logic and the aid of Celine's powers of deduction.
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For a list of more hardcover mysteries scheduled for publication during January, 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 January 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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