The Hidden Staircase Mystery Books recently updated its list of September 2013 hardcover mysteries as well as shelved new September 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 September.
And this month, because there are so many new first-in-series titles, we're splitting our post into three: hardcovers, trade paperbacks, and mass market paperbacks. This post will cover new trade paperbacks.
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Title: Five and a Half Tons
Author: John Bayliss
Series Character: J. F. Springer
Formats: Trade Paperback and ebook
What we know about the character: J. F. Springer is a private investigator in Westerby-on-Sea.
His first case: The year is 1962, and Westerby-on-Sea is slumbering through its drab off-season. Life is quiet for J.F. Springer, Private Detective — and, though he admires Philip Marlowe and Sexton Blake, quiet is pretty much how he likes it. Called in to find a missing woman, he has high hopes of solving the case and getting paid in double-quick time.
But for Springer, life is never so simple. Soon he's embroiled in an affair that involves housebreaking, missing diamonds, threats to his life, an apparent suicide, and a pigeon-fancier who suspects Springer has amorous designs on his daughter. The police take an interest, first arresting Springer, then warning him off, and finally using him as bait in a trap.
To further complicate Springer's life, Jim Tarbet, the local wideboy, is determined to make Springer repay a trifling debt. Like a famous predecessor, Springer tries to be taller, but all around there are too many goons and not enough brains.
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Title: Tip of a Bone
Author: Christine Finlayson
Series Character: Maya Rivers
Formats: Trade Paperback and ebook
What we know about the character: Maya Rivers is an amateur sleuth in Newport, Oregon.
Her first case: A buried bone. A missing eco-activist. A deadly fire.
It's not what Maya Rivers bargained for when she moved to the coastal town of Newport, Oregon, seeking a fresh start. Yet when her brother Harley is accused of an unthinkable crime, Maya insists on adding "amateur sleuth" to her career options. She soon discovers an eerie clue … but the closer she gets to the truth, the closer a murderer follows.
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Title: Grapes of Death
Author: Joni Folger
Series Character: Elise Beckett, Tangled Vines
Formats: Trade Paperback and ebook
What we know about the character: Elise Beckett's family owns the River Bend vineyard near Austin, Texas.
Her first case: Elise Beckett has a wonderful family, a good job on the family-owned River Bend vineyard, and a smart, stable boyfriend — even if he does live five hours away. But when her long-distance beau offers her a dream job, she's torn between her family responsibility and exciting new horticulture research.
Before Elise has time to think about her decision, Uncle Edmond, the family's money-loving and temper-toting black sheep—shows up to bully her mother into giving him ownership of the vineyard, which he claims is his inheritance. After she refuses, Edmond storms away, only to be later found dead by the river. What seems to be an accidental drowning turns out to be murder. Now Elise must help Sheriff's Deputy Jackson Landry solve the mystery before the killer strikes again.
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Title: Plum Deadly
Author: Ellie Grant
Series Character: Maggie Grady, Pie in the Sky
Formats: Trade Paperback and ebook
What we know about the character: Maggie Grady leaves her high-flying New York financial career to return to the town she grew up in, Durham (North Carolina), and a job at the family-owned pie business.
Her first case: Unjustly accused of cooking the books, Maggie Grady is forced to retreat to her home town. Her aunt Clara greets her with open arms and a job at the family-owned business that has baked the best pies in the South for over forty years. Unfortunately, while Maggie is determined to return to banking, her reputation there seems permanently in the pits. That is, until her old boss, Lou, visits with news that he's found the real crook. Before he can reveal the details, though, Maggie finds his body right behind the pie shop.
With only her own word that Lou planned to exonerate her, Maggie is in the spotlight. The police seem to suspect that Aunt Clara's damson pie may not be just dangerously delectable, but downright deadly. Maggie doesn't just have her own name to clear; she has to make sure that her aunt's beloved business isn't harmed, either. Yummy local reporter Ryan Summerour appears eager to help, and Maggie can't help hoping that it's not just the police who find her a person of interest — but Ryan, as well. She'd thought it challenging to make the perfect pie crust that Aunt Clara demands, but that turns out to be nothing compared with finding a murderer.
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Title: Greg Honey
Author: Russ Gregory
Series Character: Greg Honey, Honey Agency
Formats: Trade Paperback and ebook
What we know about the character: Greg Honey is a one-man detective agency.
His first case: Honey Agency: If we can't solve your problem, we're sorry.
Greg Honey has bigger issues than a sketchy tagline for his one-man detective agency. To start with, his mother is pressuring him to date debutantes, his stalker keeps leaving threatening messages, his new boyfriend is at least four levels higher up on the gay boy food chain, and his best friend, Willa, has lost her panties. To top it all off, things keep pointing toward trouble at the family estate. Will Greg figure out what's going on in time to help Willa find her panties? Lord knows he wants to because Greg is more than a detective … he's also a Honey.
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Title: Burying Ben
Author: Ellen Kirschman
Series Character: Dot Meyerhoff
Formats: Trade Paperback and ebook
What we know about the character: Dot Meyerhoff is a psychologist for the Kenilworth Police Department.
Her first case: Dot Meyerhoff has barely settled into her new job when Ben Gomez, a troubled young rookie that she tries to counsel, commits suicide without any warning and leaves a note blaming her. Overnight, her promising new start becomes a nightmare. At stake is her job, her reputation, her license to practice, and her already battered sense of self-worth. Dot resolves to find out not just what led Ben to kill himself, but why her psychologist exhusband, the man she most wants to avoid, recommended that Ben be hired in the first place. Ben's surviving family and everyone else connected to him are determined to keep Ben's story a secret, by any means necessary. Even Ben, from the grave, has secrets to keep.
Right from the start, Dot's investigation efforts get her into trouble. First she alienates Ben's training officer, who is barely managing to hold onto his own job. With the police chief watching over her shoulder, she tries to help the officer with disastrous consequences. After reaching out to console Ben's pregnant--and slightly sociopathic--widow, Dot winds up embroiled in the affairs of her incredibly dysfunctional family. Dot's troubles are compounded by a post-divorce romance, the ex who still has a hold over her, and an unwelcome visit from his new wife. By the time she uncovers the real reasons behind Ben's suicide and brings the people responsible to justice, Dot has not only resurrected belief in herself, she has also acquired some surprisingly useful new skills: impersonating a public official, burglary, and assault with a deadly weapon.
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Title: Shotgun Moon
Author: K. C. McRae
Series Character: Merry McCoy
Formats: Trade Paperback and ebook
What we know about the character: Merry McCoy has served her time. Convicted of killing the man who raped her four years earlier, she returns to the family ranch in Hazel, Montana, where she plans to steer clear of the law.
Her first case: When her cousin Lauri is accused of murdering an ex-boyfriend, Merry can't let her be railroaded the same way she was.
Setting out to prove Lauri's innocence, Merry gets close to her former flame, Officer Jamie Gutierrez, the one cop in town she can trust. With Jamie and a no-holds-barred parole officer backing her up, Merry discovers the town's good old boys — and girls — still like to play rough.
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Title: In the Moors
Author: Nina Milton
Series Character: Sabbie Dare
Formats: Trade Paperback and ebook
What we know about the character: Sabbie Dare is a Shamanic counselor.
Her first case: Sabbie Dare doesn't believe her troubled client, Cliff Houghton, is capable of evil. But Cliff has become the prime suspect in the murder of a young boy after the police catch him lurking in the moors where the body was found.
Continuing the therapy they'd begun together, Sabbie recovers disturbing childhood memories from Cliff's subconscious, shedding light on a spate of crimes that terrorized the English countryside twenty years earlier. And when a second child goes missing, Sabbie must piece together fragments of the buried past before another innocent victim is robbed of his life.
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For a list of more hardcover 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 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.
