The Hidden Staircase Mystery Books recently updated its list of September 2009 hardcover mysteries as well put up new September paperbacks on The Mystery Bookshelf. In this post, which we're calling Firsts on the 1st, we're introducing readers to new series characters who will make their debut during September.
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Title: Heat Wave
Author: Richard Castle
Series Character: Nikki Heat
Format: Hardcover
What we know about the character: Nikki Heat is an NYPD homicide detective. Tough, sexy, professional, Nikki Heat carries a passion for justice as she leads one of New York City's top homicide squads.
Her first case: A New York real estate tycoon plunges to his death on a Manhattan sidewalk. A trophy wife with a past survives a narrow escape from a brazen attack. Mobsters and moguls with no shortage of reasons to kill trot out their alibis. And then, in the suffocating grip of a record heat wave, comes another shocking murder and a sharp turn in a tense journey into the dirty little secrets of the wealthy. Secrets that prove to be fatal.
Heat Wave is a tie-in to the ABC television series Castle.
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Title: The Hidden Man
Author: David Ellis
Series Character: Jason Kolarich
Format: Hardcover
What we know about the character: Jason Kolarich is an attorney in an unnamed Midwestern city.
His first case: Twenty-seven years ago, two-year-old Audrey Cutler disappeared from her home in the middle of the night. She was never found. All the detectives had to go on were vague eyewitness accounts of a man running down the Cutlers’ street, apparently carrying someone. Without enough evidence to suggest otherwise, Griffin Perlini—a neighbor with prior offenses against minors—was arrested, but never convicted. The case is long closed when Perlini is murdered nearly thirty years later. Now a man named Mr. Smith appears in Jason Kolarich’s office, saying only that he represents a third party who wants the man charged with murder off the hook and that Kolarich is perfect for the job. The new client: Audrey Cutler’s older brother, Sammy—Kolarich’s estranged childhood best friend—a man he hasn’t seen in nearly twenty years. But when Kolarich starts receiving violent threats from Mr. Smith’s enigmatic employer, he figures out that the secrecy behind this nameless third party—and the key to winning Sammy’s case—is entangled with the mystery of Audrey’s disappearance.
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Title: Deadly Descent
Author: Charlotte Hinger
Series Character: Lottie Albright
Format: Hardcover
What we know about the character: Lottie Albright is director of the Carlton County Historical Society in western Kansas.
Her first case: False accusations threaten senatorial candidate Brian Hadley’s political career, and secrets whispered to Lottie as editor of the county history books spur a personal search for his aunt’s murderer. Ignoring warnings from her twin sister, Josie, that she is in over her head, Lottie dons a badge to have access to information. She delves into a horrifying “cold case” to prove her merits as a deputy and impresses Sheriff Sam Abbot with her ability to combine historical research methods and police procedure. To help her sister, Josie adds her expertise in untangling the web of families bound by a lethal legacy of prideful secrets. Soon Lottie is stalked by a clever killer threatened by the twins’ ability to connect the dots.
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Title: Murder at Longbourn
Author: Tracy Kiely
Series Character: Elizabeth Parker
Format: Hardcover
What we know about the character: Elizabeth Parker is a fact-checker for a Washington DC newspaper. She's also just dumped her unhealthy lifestyle along with her two-timing boyfriend.
Her first case: An invitation to join her Aunt Winnie for a How to Host a Murder Party on New Year’s Eve at Winnie’s new Cape Cod B&B comes just in time. But when the local wealthy miser ends up the unscripted victim, Elizabeth must unearth old secrets and new motives in order to clear her beloved aunt of suspicion. The suspects include the town gossip, a haughty rich woman, and an antiques business owner. If that isn’t bad enough, Elizabeth must also contend with her childhood nemesis, Peter McGowan---a man she suspects has only matured in chronological years---and her suspicions about his family’s interest in Winnie’s inn. Is it any wonder her New Year's resolution to achieve inner poise is in tatters?
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Title: Hell's Kitchen Homicide
Author: Charles Kipps
Series Character: Conor Bard
Format: Hardcover
What we know about the character: Conor Bard is a forty-something New York City homicide detective from Precinct One Eight in Hell's Kitchen, who dreams of becoming a rock star.
His first case: When a corpse is discovered at the edge of the Hudson River, Conor is called to the scene. The victim is Walter Lawton, a hugely successful criminal defense attorney with rumored ties to the Mafia. Among the prime suspects is Lawton's chic, sexy wife, who stands to inherit two hundred million dollars and was having an affair with one of her husband's most dangerous associates. Did Lawton's ruthless wife kill him with the help of her mafioso lover? Or was it one of Lawton's bitter clients who murdered him? Or an elusive Albanian gunman? And how does Monica, the sorrowful, intriguing young Albanian woman Conor meets, fit into the picture?
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Title: Stuck on Murder
Author: Lucy Lawrence
Series Character: Brenna Miller
Format: Mass Market Paperback
What we know about the character: Brenna Miller teaches a popular decoupage class in the picturesque New England town of Morse Point.
Her first case: For Brenna, teaching a decoupage class is the only way to gloss over her painful past. But it hasn’t been easy making friends in a town that doesn’t warm up to outsiders. And it doesn’t help when the pushy mayor asks her to convince her enigmatic landlord, Nate Williams, to sell his lakefront property to land developers. But just when Brenna thinks the mayor’s given up, his body is found stuffed in a trunk at Morse Point Lake. And a witness claims that Nate’s truck was at the docks on the night of the murder. Now Brenna needs to help prove Nate’s innocence before his fate is signed, sealed and delivered.
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Title: Hound
Author: Vincent McCaffrey
Series Character: Henry Sullivan
Format: Hardcover
What we know about the character: Henry Sullivan is a bookhound who buys and sells books he finds at estate auctions and library sales around Boston.
His first case: When a woman from Henry's past, Morgan Johnson, calls to ask him to look at her late husband’s books, he is drawn into the dark machinations of a family whose mixed loyalties and secret history will have fatal results.
Vincent McCaffrey is the owner of Boston’s legendary Avenue Victor Hugo Bookshop.
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Title: The Yard Dog
Author: Sheldon Russell
Series Character: Hook Runyon
Format: Hardcover
What we know about the character: Hook Runyon is a "yard dog", a railroad detective, assigned to run off hobos and arrest pickpockets. He lives in a caboose, collects rare books, and drinks busthead liquor. The series is set in Oklahoma near the end of World War II.
His first case: When a coal picker by the name of Spark Dugan is found run over by a reefer car, Hook and his sidekick, Runt, the local moonshiner, suspect foul play and are drawn into a scheme far greater than either could have imagined. This conspiracy reaches the highest echelons of the camp and beyond and will push Hook and Runt to their physical and mental limits.
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Title: Working Stiff
Author: Annelise Ryan
Series Character: Mattie Winston
Format: Hardcover
What we know about the character: Mattie Winston is a former nurse turned deputy coroner in a small Wisconsin town.
Her first case: As a Deputy Coroner, Mattie gets to poke her nose into everyone else's business, but her first case -- a murder -- hits a little too close to home. The victim is Karen Owenby, Mattie's former coworker and the woman who had an affair with Mattie's soon-to-be-ex-husband, David. As Mattie tries to determine if her husband is a killer, her judgment is clouded by her attraction to the darkly handsome homicide detective in charge of the case, though her romantic notions are dampened by the fact that her own name is at the top of the suspect list. Unable to pursue the case officially, Mattie launches her own investigation, aided by a cast of quirky characters who help her uncover a trail of sordid secrets, deadly betrayals, and missing underwear.
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Title: Shades of Grey
Author: Clea Simon
Series Character: Dulcie Schwartz
Format: Hardcover
What we know about the character: Dulcie Schwartz is a doctoral student at Harvard University.
Her first case: Dulcie's having an awful summer. Her beloved cat Mr. Grey's been put to sleep, and her new room-mate, Tim, is a jerk. Walking home, she sees a cat the spitting image of Mr. Grey, and hears a voice say, I wouldnt go in just now. She enters to find Tim dead stabbed with her own knife. Dulcie's in the frame for murder and she hasn't seen the last of Mr. Grey, either.
Clea Simon is also the author of the Theda Krakow mystery series.
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Title: Targets of Deception
Author: Jeffrey Stephens
Series Character: Jordan Sandor
Format: Hardcover
What we know about the character: Jordan Sandor is a former agent with the CIA.
His first case: Jordan is reluctantly drawn back into action when a series of violent events leads him to search out a new al-Qaeda conspiracy to initiate a new wave of cataclysmic assaults with poison gas. He follows the deadly trail from New York to Florida to Paris and, ultimately, to the small town of Portofino on the Italian Riviera. Never sure who he can trust and who may be an enemy, Jordan relies on his experience, instincts and skills as he risks his life to uncover plans for attacks against the United State and its allies. The terrorist strategy is cunning and far-reaching, with the lives of millions of people at stake. When Jordan discovers a rogue agent behind the plot, he realizes he is the one man who can prevent the catastrophe.
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Title: A Duty to the Dead
Author: Charles Todd
Series Character: Bess Crawford
Format: Hardcover
What we know about the character: Bess Crawford is a British Army nurse who grew up in India. The series is set in the early days of World War I.
Her first case: On board a hospital ship, Bess grows fond of the young, gravely wounded Lieutenant Arthur Graham. Something rests heavily on his conscience, and to give him a little peace as he dies, she promises to deliver a message to his brother. It is some months before she can carry out this duty, and when she's next in England, she herself is recovering from a wound. When Bess arrives at the Graham house in Kent, Jonathan Graham listens to his brother's last wishes with surprising indifference. Neither his mother nor his brother Timothy seems to think it has any significance. Unsettled by this, Bess is about to take her leave when sudden tragedy envelops her. She quickly discovers that fulfilling this duty to the dead has thrust her into a maelstrom of intrigue and murder that will endanger her own life and test her courage as not even war has.
Charles Todd is the mother and son writing team of Caroline Todd and Charles Todd. They also write the Ian Rutledge mystery series.
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For a list of more mysteries scheduled for publication during September, 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 September 2009 releases.
Please 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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