Omnimystery News is pleased to present a list of mystery, thriller, and suspense books SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR and available from Barnes&Noble as of Sunday, September 11, 2016 …
Closed Casket by Sophie Hannah
A Hercule Poirot Mystery (2nd in series)
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication Date: September 06, 2016
SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR
With these words, Lady Athelinda Playford — one of the world's most beloved children's authors — springs a surprise on the lawyer entrusted with her will. As guests arrive for a party at her Irish mansion, Lady Playford has decided to cut off her two children without a penny … and leave her vast fortune to someone else: an invalid who has only weeks to live.
Among Lady Playford's visitors are two strangers: the famous Belgian detective Hercule Poirot, and Inspector Edward Catchpool of Scotland Yard. Neither knows why he has been invited — until Poirot begins to wonder if Lady Playford expects a murder. But why does she seem so determined to provoke a killer? And why — when the crime is committed despite Poirot's best efforts to stop it — does the identity of the victim make no sense at all?
Manitou Canyon by William Kent Krueger
A Cork O'Connor Mystery (15th in series)
Publisher: Atria Books
Publication Date: September 06, 2016
SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR
Since the violent deaths of his wife, father, and best friend all occurred in previous Novembers, Cork O'Connor has always considered it to be the cruelest of months. Yet, his daughter has chosen this dismal time of year in which to marry, and Cork is understandably uneasy.
His concern comes to a head when a man camping in Minnesota's Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness goes missing. As the official search ends with no recovery in sight, Cork is asked by the man's family to stay on the case. Although the wedding is fast approaching and the weather looks threatening, he accepts and returns to that vast wilderness on his own.
As the sky darkens and the days pass, Cork's family anxiously awaits his return. Finally certain that something has gone terribly wrong, they fly by floatplane to the lake where the missing man was last seen. Locating Cork's campsite, they find no sign of their father. They do find blood, however. A lot of it.
With an early winter storm on the horizon, it's a race against time as Cork's family struggles to uncover the mystery behind these disappearances. Little do they know, not only is Cork's life on the line, but so are the lives of hundreds of others.
The Kept Woman by Karin Slaughter
A Will Trent Mystery
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication Date: September 20, 2016
SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR
With the discovery of a murder at an abandoned construction site, Will Trent of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation is brought in on a case that becomes much more dangerous when the dead man is identified as an ex-cop.
Studying the body, Sara Linton — the GBI's newest medical examiner and Will's lover — realizes that the extensive blood loss didn't belong to the corpse. Sure enough, bloody footprints leading away from the scene indicate there is another victim — a woman — who has vanished … and who will die soon if she isn't found.
Will is already compromised, because the site belongs to the city's most popular citizen: a wealthy, powerful, and politically connected athlete protected by the world's most expensive lawyers — a man who's already gotten away with rape, despite Will's exhaustive efforts to put him away.
But the worst is yet to come. Evidence soon links Will's troubled past to the case … and the consequences will tear through his life with the force of a tornado, wreaking havoc for Will and everyone around him, including his colleagues, family, friends — and even the suspects he pursues.
Precious and Grace by Alexander McCall Smith
A No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency Novel (17th in series)
Publisher: Pantheon
Publication Date: October 11, 2016
SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR
Precious Ramotswe and her Chief Associate Co-Director, Grace Makutsi, have worked together for many years. Together, they have solved numerous complex cases, seeing eye-to-eye on most professional matters.
But when a Canadian woman invokes their help in recovering memories of her early childhood in Botswana, differences of opinion arise between the two firm friends, and diplomacy is called for. And it's not just clients who need Mma Ramotswe's help — this is also sought by Mr. Polopetsi, her assistant, who becomes involved in a pyramid scheme, and Fanwell, the junior mechanic, who finds a stray dog that will not go away.
Both, of course, receive the help — and sympathy — that Mma Ramotswe dispenses with the graciousness and warmth for which she is so well-known.
The Obsidian Chamber by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child
An Agent Pendergast Novel (16th in series)
Publisher: Grand Central
Publication Date: October 18, 2016
SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR
After a harrowing, otherworldly confrontation on the shores of Exmouth, Massachusetts, Special Agent A.X.L. Pendergast is missing, presumed dead. Sick with grief, Pendergast's ward, Constance, retreats to her chambers beneath the family mansion at 891 Riverside Drive — only to be taken captive by a shadowy figure from the past.
Proctor, Pendergast's longtime bodyguard, springs to action, chasing Constance's kidnapper through cities, across oceans, and into wastelands unknown. And by the time Proctor discovers the truth, a terrifying engine has stirred-and it may already be too late …
Escape Clause by John Sandford
A Virgil Flowers Mystery (9th in series)
Publisher: Putnam
Publication Date: October 18, 2016
SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR
The first storm comes from, of all places, the Minnesota zoo. Two large, and very rare, Amur tigers have vanished from their cage, and authorities are worried sick that they've been stolen for their body parts. Traditional Chinese medicine prizes those parts for home remedies, and people will do extreme things to get what they need. Some of them are a great deal more extreme than others — as Virgil is about to find out.
Then there's the homefront. Virgil's relationship with his girlfriend Frankie has been getting kind of serious, but when Frankie's sister Sparkle moves in for the summer, the situation gets a lot more complicated. For one thing, her research into migrant workers is about to bring her up against some very violent people who emphatically do not want to be researched. For another … she thinks Virgil's kind of cute.
"You mess around with Sparkle," Frankie told Virgil, "you could get yourself stabbed."
"She carries a knife?"
"No, but I do."
Forget a storm — this one's a tornado.
Night Watch by Iris Johansen and Roy Johansen
A Kendra Michaels Mystery (4th in series)
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Publication Date: October 25, 2016
SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR
Born blind, Kendra Michaels spent the first twenty years of her life living in the darkness. Then, thanks to a revolutionary medical procedure developed by England's Night Watch Project, she was given the gift of sight. Her highly-developed senses (honed during her years in the dark), combined with her new found vision, have made her a remarkable investigator, sought after by law-enforcement agencies all over the country. But her newest case becomes deeply personal as she uncovers the truth about the shadowy organization that has given her so much.
Kendra is surprised when she is visited by Dr. Charles Waldridge, the researcher who gave her sight. All is not well with the brilliant surgeon; he's troubled by something he can't discuss with Kendra. When Waldridge disappears the very night he visits her, Kendra is on the case, recruiting government agent-for-hire Adam Lynch to join her on a trail that leads to the snow-packed California mountains. There they make a gruesome discovery: the corpse of one of Dr. Waldridge's associates. But it's only the first casualty in a white-knuckle confrontation with a deadly enemy who will push Kendra to the limits of her abilities. Soon she must fight for her very survival as she tries to stop the killing … and unearth the shocking secret of Night Watch.
The Wrong Side of Goodbye by Michael Connelly
A Harry Bosch Mystery (21st in series)
Publisher: Little, Brown
Publication Date: November 01, 2016
SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR
Harry Bosch is California's newest private investigator. He doesn't advertise, he doesn't have an office, and he's picky about who he works for, but it doesn't matter. His chops from 30 years with the LAPD speak for themselves.
Soon one of Southern California's biggest moguls comes calling. The reclusive billionaire has less than six months to live and a lifetime of regrets. He hires Bosch to find out whether he has an heir. Using all of his cold case skills, Bosch pieces together a 65-year-old mystery and finds out that the case is not as simple — or cold — as he thought.
Night School by Lee Child
A Jack Reacher Thriller (21st in series)
Publisher: Delacorte Press
Publication Date: November 07, 2016
SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR
It's 1996, and Reacher is still in the army. In the morning they give him a medal, and in the afternoon they send him back to school. That night he's off the grid. Out of sight, out of mind.
Two other men are in the classroom — an FBI agent and a CIA analyst. Each is a first-rate operator, each is fresh off a big win, and each is wondering what the hell they are doing there.
Then they find out: A Jihadist sleeper cell in Hamburg, Germany, has received an unexpected visitor — a Saudi courier, seeking safe haven while waiting to rendezvous with persons unknown. A CIA asset, undercover inside the cell, has overheard the courier whisper a chilling message: "The American wants a hundred million dollars."
For what? And who from? Reacher and his two new friends are told to find the American. Reacher recruits the best soldier he has ever worked with: Sergeant Frances Neagley. Their mission heats up in more ways than one, while always keeping their eyes on the prize: If they don't get their man, the world will suffer an epic act of terrorism.
Chaos by Patricia Cornwell
A Kay Scarpetta Mystery (24th in series)
Publisher: William Morrow
Publication Date: November 15, 2016
SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR
In the quiet of twilight, on an early autumn day, twenty-six-year-old Elisa Vandersteel is killed while riding her bicycle along the Charles River. It appears she was struck by lightning — except the weather is perfectly clear with not a cloud in sight. Dr. Kay Scarpetta, the Cambridge Forensic Center's director and chief, decides at the scene that this is no accidental Act of God.
Her investigation becomes complicated when she begins receiving a flurry of bizarre poems from an anonymous cyberbully who calls himself Tailend Charlie. Though subsequent lab results support Scarpetta's conclusions, the threatening messages don't stop. When the tenth poem arrives exactly twenty-four hours after Elisa's death, Scarpetta begins to suspect the harasser is involved, and sounds the alarm to her investigative partner Pete Marino and her husband, FBI analyst Benton Wesley.
She also enlists the help of her niece, Lucy. But to Scarpetta's surprise, tracking the slippery Tailend Charlie is nearly impossible, even for someone as brilliant as her niece. Also, Lucy can't explain how this anonymous nemesis could have access to private information. To make matters worse, a venomous media is whipping the public into a frenzy, questioning the seasoned forensics chief's judgment and "a quack cause of death on a par with spontaneous combustion."
Banana Cream Pie Murder by Joanne Fluke
A Hannah Swensen Mystery (21st in series)
Publisher: Kensington
Publication Date: February 28, 2017
SIGNED BY THE AUTHOR
After an extravagant honeymoon, Hannah's eager to settle down in Lake Eden and turn domestic daydreams into reality. But when her mother's neighbor is discovered murdered in the condo downstairs, reality becomes a nightmarish investigation. Victoria Bascomb, once a renowned stage actress, was active in the theater community during her brief appearance in town … and made throngs of enemies along the way. Did a random intruder murder the woman as police claim, or was a deadlier scheme at play?
As Hannah peels through countless suspects and some new troubles of her own, solving this crime — and living to tell about it — might prove trickier than mixing up the ultimate banana cream pie …
Important Note: Signed books are limited in quantity. Availability has been verified as of 09/11/16 at 2:00 PM ET.
