New Hardcover Mysteries for March 2008

The Hidden Staircase Mystery Books has updated its list of new hardcover mysteries scheduled for publication in March 2008.

For our series fans, we've listed those titles with their series character(s) separately below:

• A Reason to Kill by Jane Adams. Rina Martin (1st).

• The Silver Swan by Benjamin Black. Quirke (2nd). Scheduled to be reviewed by Mysterious Reviews.

• Murder in the Rue De Paradis by Cara Black. Aimee Leduc (7th). Scheduled to be reviewed by Mysterious Reviews.

• Tell Me, Pretty Maiden by Rhys Bowen. Mollie Murphy (7th).

• The Invisible by Andrew Britton. Ryan Kealey (3rd).

• Cross by Ken Bruen. Jack Taylor (6th).

• St. Barts Breakdown by Don Bruns. Mick Sever (4th). Scheduled to be reviewed by Mysterious Reviews.

• The Silver Needle Murder by Laura Childs. Theodosia Browning, Tea Shop (9th).

• The Case Runner by Carlos Cisneros. Alejandro del Fuerte (1st).

• Turn Up the Heat by Jessica Conant-Park. Chloe Carter, Gourmet Girl (3rd).

• The Fourth Man by K. O. Dahl. Frank Frolich (1st).

• Killer Heat by Linda Fairstein. Alex Cooper (10th).

• Carrot Cake Murder by Joanne Fluke. Hannah Swensen (10th).

• A Taste to Die For by J. G. Goodhind. Hannah Driver (2nd).

• Chasin' the Wind by Michael Haskins. Mad Mick Murphy (1st).

• Murder in the Park by Veronica Heley. Ellie Quicke (9th).

• The Price of Blood by Declan Hughes. Ed Loy (3rd).

• Goodbye Sister Disco by James Patrick Hunt. George Hastings (2nd).

• Compulsion by Jonathan Kellerman. Alex Delaware (22nd).

• Death in Hellfire by Deryn Lake. John Rawlings (12th).

• Another Thing to Fall by Laura Lippman. Tess Monaghan (10th).

• Curse of the Spellmans by Lisa Lutz. Isabel Spellman (2nd).

• Soldier of Fortune by Edward Marston. Captain Rawson (1st).

• Murder Melts in Your Mouth by Nancy Martin. Blackbird Sisters (7th).

• Notorious by Michele Martinez. Melanie Vargas (4th).

• Close Call by John McEvoy. Jack Doyle (2nd). Scheduled to be reviewed by Mysterious Reviews.

• The Iron Tongue of Midnight by Beverle Graves Myers. Tito Amato (4th). Scheduled to be reviewed by Mysterious Reviews.

• The Cruelest Month by Louise Penny. Armand Gamache (3rd).

• Buckingham Palace Gardens by Anne Perry. Thomas Pitt (25th).

• Knock 'em Dead by Rhonda Pollero. Finley Anderson Tanner (2nd).

• Friend of the Devil by Peter Robinson. Alan Banks (17th). Scheduled to be reviewed by Mysterious Reviews.

• Dead Heat by Joel C. Rosenberg. Jon Bennett and Erin McCoy (5th).

• Miss Julia Paints the Town by Ann B. Ross. Julia Springer, Miss Julia (9th).

• The Law of Second Chances by James Sheehan. Jack Tobin (2nd).

• The Orpheus Deception by David Stone. Micah Dalton (2nd).

• Hollywood Crows by Joseph Wambaugh. Nathan Weiss (2nd).

• Black Widow by Randy Wayne White. Doc Ford (15th).

• Dead Time by Stephen White. Alan Gregory (16th).

For more information on any of these titles, please visit the New Mysteries page on our website. If you're interested in new paperbacks, visit The Mystery Bookshelf where you can discover a library of new mysteries.

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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Mystery Bestsellers for February 29, 2008

A list of the top 15 mystery hardcover bestsellers for the week ending February 29, 2008 has been posted on the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books website.

Quite a bit of reshuffling on the mystery bestseller list this week, though James Patterson's 7th Heaven retains its number one spot. Two new titles enter the top 15.

John Lescroart's 12th Dismas Hardy legal thriller, Betrayal, has the San Francisco defense attorney agreeing to clean up the caseload of another attorney that has disappeared. He thinks it will be easy. But one of the cases is far from small-time: —the sensational clash between National Guard reservist Evan Scholler and an ex-Navy SEAL and private contractor named Ron Nolan. Two rapid-fire events in Iraq conspired to bring the men into fatal conflict: Nolan’s relationship with Evan’s girlfriend, Tara, a beautiful school-teacher back home in the states, followed by a deadly incident in which Nolan’s apparent mistake results in the death of an innocent Iraqi family as well as seven men in Evan’s platoon. As the murky relationship between the US government and its private contractors plays out in the personal drama of these two men, and the consequences become a desperate matter of life and death, Dismas Hardy begins to uncover a terrible and perilous truth that takes him far beyond the case and into the realm of assassination and treason. Publishers Weekly calls Betrayal "a first-rate addition to the author's ongoing series." Also available on MP3 CD from Mysteriosi: Digital Audio Mysteries.

Chief Inspector Alan Banks and Detective Inspector Annie Cabbot must work together to solve two chilling crimes in Friend of the Devil, the 17th mystery in this series by Peter Robinson. On loan to a sister precinct, Detective Inspector Annie Cabbot draws the first case: a woman named Karen Drew is found in her wheelchair with her throat slit. Karen Drew seems to have lived a quiet and nearly invisible life for the past seven years. Try as she might, Annie turns up nothing in the woman's past that might have prompted someone to wheel her out to the sea and to her death. Meanwhile Chief Inspector Alan Banks has suspects galore in the case of Hayley Daniels who is found raped and strangled. Everywhere she went, the nineteen-year-old student attracted attention. Anyone could have followed her on the night she was out drinking with friends, making sure she never made it back home. Then a breakthrough spins Annie's case in a shocking and surprising new direction, straight toward Banks. Coincidence? Not in Eastvale. Banks and Annie are searching for two killers who might strike again at any moment and with bloody fury. Publishers Weekly calls Friend of the Devil "stunning" and adds that "readers will be on the edge of their seats as the two explore not only the depths of human depravity but also their own murky relationship."

On our bestseller page, we've added an icon next to every title that is available for immediate download onto the Amazon Kindle. To learn about this wireless reading device, visit the Amazon Kindle page for more information.

The top four mystery bestsellers this week are depicted below:

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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First Clues: More New Mysteries for Kids

We've updated our website First Clues: Mysteries for Kids by adding four new mystery series.

Bestselling adult mystery author Peter Abrahams introduced a new series for young adults in 2005 with the publication of Down the Rabbit Hole. Collectively called the Echo Falls Mysteries, the series is set in fictional Echo Falls, home of a thousand secrets. A fan of Sherlock Holmes, series lead 13-year-old Ingrid Levin-Hill uses her skills to investigate crime in her community.

Down the Rabbit Hole won the 2005 Agatha Award for Best Children's / Young Adult Novel.

Behind the Curtain, the second book in the series, was published in2006. A third, Into the Dark, is scheduled for publication in March 2008. Amateur sleuths aged 9 and older should enjoy this series.

Bill McCay and Alex Simmons write The Raven League Mysteries. In the first book of the series, Sherlock Holmes is Missing!, Archie Wiggins is kicked out of the Baker Street Irregulars, the gang of urchins that assists the famous consulting detective. But then Holmes himself goes missing—and it seems the Irregulars might have had something to do with it. Now Wiggins and a few other misfits form the Raven League and take matters into their own hands.

The second and most recent book in the series, Buffalo Bill Wanted!, was published in 2007. The series is appropriate for readers aged 9 to 12.

The Time Spies Mysteries, by Candice Ransom, blend history, biography, mystery and adventure. Join Mattie, Alex, and Sophie on their adventures as the magical spyglass whisks them back in time to meet unsung American heroes. Each book ends with a fun, do-it-yourself craft project that encourages readers to delve deeper into the subject of the story.

Published in 2006, the first book in the series, Secret in the Tower, introduces the siblings aged 5, 8, and 9. Gold in the Hills, the eighth book in the series, is scheduled to be published next month. Two additional titles will be published later in the year.

Visit the series website for more information about the books and biographies of the characters.

Applauded by readers, librarians, and critics alike, The Thrilling Tales Mysteries by M. T. Anderson have best friends Lily Gefelty, Katie Mulligan, and Jasper Dash participating in adventures that feature characters adapted from other mystery series. Jasper Dash, for example, is a Tom Swift-type of entrepeneurial scientist. (Note the play of words on the character's name!)

Two books are currently available in the series: Whales on Stilts! and The Clue of the Linoleum Lederhosen. A third, Jasper Dash and the Flame-Pits of Delaware, is scheduled for publication later this year. Though the series is intended for readers aged 9 to 12, adults who enjoyed reading series mysteries in their youth will appreciate the references to familiar characters and settings.

First Clue Mysteries is pleased to provide information on over 80 mystery series for children and young adults. Each series is conveniently listed under three different age categories (New Sleuth, ages 4 to 7; Future Sleuth, aged 7 to 10; and Sleuth in Training, ages 10 and older). If you have a favorite mystery series you'd like to see added to our site, please contact us.

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Mystery Book Review: Murder, Mayhem and a Fine Man by Claudia Mair Burney

Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, has written a review of Murder, Mayhem and a Fine Man by Claudia Mair Burney. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.

Murder, Mayhem and a Fine Man by Claudia Mair Burney
An Amanda Bell Brown Mystery

Howard Publishing (Trade Paperback)
ISBN-10: 1-4165-5194-8 (1416551948)
ISBN-13: 978-1-4165-5194-2 (9781416551942)
Publication Date: January 2008
List Price: $12.99

Synopsis (from the publisher): Amanda Bell Brown knows that life as a forensic psychologist isn't quite as cool as it looks on prime-time TV. But when she turns thirty-five with no husband or baby on the horizon, she decides she's gotta get out and paint the town -- in her drop-dead red birthday dress. Instead, she finds herself at the scene of a crime -- and she just may know who the killer is. She needs to spill her guts, but not on the handsome lead detective's alligator shoes -- especially if she wants him to ask her out. A complicated murder investigation unearths not just a killer but a closet full of skeletons Amanda thought were long gone. Murder, mayhem, and a fine man are wreaking havoc on her birthday, but will her sleuthing leave her alive to see past thirty-five?

Review: Claudia Mair Burney's debut mystery introduces Amanda Bell Brown, a 35-year-old forensic psychologist in Murder, Mayhem and a Fine Man. The book reviewed is a reissued, and certainly updated, edition of a book of the same title published in 2006 by Navpress Publishing in which Amanda Bell Brown is turning 40, not 35 as in this version.

Dr. Amanda Bell Brown lives by the words she heard from her late beloved Christian great-grandmother. On her 35th birthday, Amanda (known as Bell to friends and family) accompanies her sister, Carly, a medical examiner, to a crime scene where two men were found dead. There Amanda meets, and immediately falls in love with, a certain Lt. Jazz Brown (no relation), the police detective investigating the crime. When Amanda enters the house of the victims, she remembers she has been in there before under dire, devastating circumstances that she thought she had forgotten. She realizes she knows, rather knew, one of the dead men from those horrible days when they belonged to a cult and lived with a man everyone called “Father.” When Amanda tells Jazz she knew one of the men, he immediately asks her to work with him in finding the person or persons who killed the men.

Murder, Mayhem and a Fine Man is sort of an odd mixture of chick lit, comedy, and Christian mystery, but it works (more or less). The "more" part is the murder and mayhem. The plot is credible and Bell is a likeable amateur sleuth. The Biblical quotations that are used throughout the story are appropriate and a terrific addition. And the touch of comedy here and there helps keep the story light and entertaining. The "less" part is the relationship between Bell and Jazz. The attraction between them at times seems forced and there was really no chemistry between the two. In many ways, this budding love story detracts from the murder mystery which is by far the stronger element here.

However, what unites everything here is the engaging character of Bell. She is a refreshing addition to the cast of today's amateur sleuths.

Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Murder, Mayhem and a Fine Man and to Simon & Schuster for providing an a copy of the book for this review.

Review Copyright © 2008 — Hidden Staircase Mystery Books — All Rights Reserved.

For more mystery book reviews visit Mysterious Reviews, a partner with the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books which is 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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