New Hardcover Mysteries for August 2008

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

For this announcement we're trying something a bit different. Below we've listed those authors with returning series characters, new series characters, and non-series or stand-alone mysteries. All titles are available on our August mystery books page.

Authors with mysteries having returning series characters (in parentheses) this month:

Jo Bannister (Brodie Farrell), Linda Barnes (Carlotta Carlyle), Nancy Bell (Jackson Crain), Cordelia Frances Biddle (Martha Beale), Gail Bowen (Joanne Kilbourn), Simon Brett (Fethering), Matt Bronleewe (August Adams), Carl Brookins (Sean NMI Sean), Mary Jane Clark (Sunrise Suspense Society), Barbara Cleverly (Joe Sandilands), Harlan Coben (Myron Bolitar), Stephen Coonts (Tommy Carmellini), Susan Rogers Cooper (E. J. Pugh), Colin Cotterill (Dr. Siri Paiboun), Ellen Crosby (Lucie Montgomery, Wine Country), Mary Daheim (Judith McMonigle Flynn, Bed-and-Breakfast), Mike Doogan (Nik Kane, Alaska), Kaitlyn Dunnett (Liss MacCrimmon), Geraldine Evans (Rafferty and Llewellyn), Charles Finch (Charles Lennox), Luiz Alfredo Garcia-Roza (Inspector Espinosa), Louise Gaylord (Allie Armington), David Lynn Golemon (Jack Collins, Event Group), Ann Granger (Lizzie Martin), Michael Harvey (Michael Kelly), Jack Higgins (Sean Dillon), Suzette A. Hill (Francis Oughterard), Steven James (Patrick Bowers), J. A. Jance (Joanna Brady), Quintin Jardine (Skinner), Stuart M. Kaminsky (Inspector Rostnikov), Janice Kaplan (Lacy Fields), Faye Kellerman (Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus), Margaret Maron (Deborah Knott), Keith McCarthy (John Eisenmenger and Helena Flemming), Richard Montanari (Kevin Byrne and Jessica Balzano), Nick Oldham (Henry Christie), Elizabeth Peters (Vicky Bliss), Frederick Ramsay (Ike Schwartz), Kathy Reichs (Temperance Brennan), Priscilla Royal (Prioress Eleanor), David Skibbins (Warren Ritter, Tarot Card), Kate Wilhelm (Barbara Holloway), Richard Yancey (Teddy Rusak, Highly Effective Detective)

Authors with mysteries introducing new series characters (in parentheses) this month:

Sibylle Barrasso (Macy Adams), Edna Buchanan (Michael Venturi), Sally Goldenbaum (Seaside Knitters), Thomas White (Clemson Yao)

Authors with non-series or stand-alone mysteries this month:

Brunonia Barry, Greg Bear, Stella Cameron, Jacqueline Carey, Esteban Martin and Andreu Carranza, Robin Cook, Chet Cunningham, Dick Francis and Felix Francis, Stephen Frey, John Gardner, Michael Hogan, John R. King, Michael Koryta, Bill Loehfelm, Eric Van Lustbader, Amy Mackinnon, George Pelecanos, Donald Pfarrer, Jim Proebstle, John Ringo, Luis Miguel Rocha, Marcus Sakey, John Saul, Carolyn D. Wall, Edward Wright

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 Savings: DVD Sale at A&E and Doubleday Book Club Labor Day Special

Mystery Savings periodically provides our readers with current promotions that offer discounts or other incentives for purchasing mystery-themed products and services products through our partner websites. Below is a list of offers recently received that we're pleased to pass on at this time.

Back by popular demand: A&E's 3 for $30 sale! Select from hundreds of titles. Just add 3 qualifying DVDs from any of several available categories to your cart and get them for the low price of $30. Hurry, offer ends August 27, 2008. (Limit 15 total DVDs per order.)

Summer is flying by and Labor Day is coming up on Monday, September 1st. Celebrate Labor Day with relaxing reads from the Doubleday Book Club. Get 5 books for 99 cents plus a free book with membership. Choose from the latest mysteries and thrillers or from a number of other categories including children's, cooking, romance, and more!

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Mystery Book Review: Buried Too Deep by Jane Finnis

Mysterious Reviews, mysteries reviewed by the Hidden Staircase Mystery Books, is publishing a new review of Buried Too Deep by Jane Finnis. For our blog readers, we are printing it first here in advance of its publication on our website.

Buried Too Deep by Jane Finnis
An Aurelia Marcella Mystery

Poisoned Pen Press (Hardcover)
ISBN-10: 1-59058-399-X (159058399X)
ISBN-13: 978-1-59058-399-9 (9781590583999)
Publication Date: June 2008
List Price: $24.95

Synopsis (from the publisher): The spring of 98 AD is a time of optimism in the turbulent frontier province of Britannia. Business is brisk at the mansio (inn) that Aurelia Marcella runs with her twin brother Lucius on the road to York.

Then a wagon arrives bearing a local farmer with a grievous sword wound who is seeking treatment with the local Greek doctor. And Lucius appears at the mansio on a mission. When the farmer dies, the twins head for the coast to return the man to his family and to check out a shipwreck bearing valuable official cargo. A band of outlawed sea-raiders led by a Gaul are suspected of stealing it along with killing the farmer.

It all adds to the feuding that has erupted between the colonists and the natives. The natives claim the newcomers are stealing the best farmland, while the settlers accuse the locals of plotting rebellion against Rome. Both sides are using terrorist tactics: burning, kidnapping, and even murder. The trouble escalates and long-buried grudges are revived as counsellors, citizens, chiefs, and slaves mix in. But a subtle, personal agenda is at work as well—one or more of the combatants may have hired the Gauls to orchestrate the violence.

Review: Set at the end of the 1st century, Buried Too Deep, Jane Finnis' third novel to feature innkeeper Aurelia Marcella and her twin brother, Roman government agent Lucius, is a story of mystery, greed, kidnapping, and murder.

The Marcella's mansio (inn), The Oak Tree, is situated on the road to York in northern England (Britannia). The inn is frequented mostly by travelers on Roman imperial business, soldiers, government officers, and the occasional wayfarer. The location of the inn amidst vast arable lands also attracts people wishing to settle there and start their own farms. But the area already has two very wealthy landowners, living in residences built more like fortresses than homes, who want more land and with it more power. And then there are the Gauls who have been invading the region causing all sorts of havoc from destroying crops, herding sheep off their lands, burning buildings, kidnapping, and even murder. There's enough mayhem to keep even the most busy government agent busy, but Lucius must also content with a shipwreck off the coast rumored to contain a vast treasure, attracting the attention of everyone in the vicinity. And is a potential threat to Roman rule really a possibility?

It is easier to classify Buried Too Deep as more action adventure than mystery. It is always interesting to read novels set in a time period so different from today, and Finnis does a terrific job in bringing England under the influence of the Roman Empire to life. The characters are well drawn with full lives. The narrative is entertaining and in many ways, and especially in the way it develops and ends, this is a moving story. In short, readers should expect a wonderfully written historical novel but not much in the way of suspense.

Special thanks to guest reviewer Betty of The Betz Review for contributing her review of Buried Too Deep and to Poisoned Pen Press for providing an ARC 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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