The Hidden Staircase Mystery Books recently updated its list of July 2012 hardcover mysteries as well as shelved new July 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 July.
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Title: Pies and Prejudice
Author: Ellery Adams
Series Character: Ella Mae LaFaye, Charmed Pie Shoppe
Format: Mass Market Paperback
What we know about the character: Baker Ella Mae LaFaye is the owner of the Charmed Pie Shoppe in rural Georgia.
Her first case: When the going gets tough, Ella Mae bakes pies. So when she catches her husband cheating in New York, she heads back home to Havenwood, Georgia, where she can drown her sorrows in fresh fruit filling and flakey crust. But her pies aren't just delicious. They're having magical effects on the people who eat them--and the public is hungry for more.
Discovering her hidden talent for enchantment, Ella Mae makes her own wish come true by opening the Charmed Pie Shoppe. But with her old nemesis Loralyn Gaynor making trouble, and her old crush Hugh Dylan making nice, she has more than pie on her plate. and when Loralyn's fiancé is found dead — killed with Ella Mae's rolling pin — it'll take all her sweet magic to clear her name.
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Title: Murder for Choir
Author: Joelle Charbonneau
Series Character: Paige Marshall, Glee Club
Format: Mass Market Paperback
What we know about the character: Paige Marshall is a singing coach at a high school glee club.
Her first case: Even as a struggling opera singer, Paige has never seen anything like the cutthroat competition of the Prospect Glen High School show choir. Coaching these championship-hungry students may be her toughest gig yet …
Especially when her best young male singer is suspected of killing the arrogant coach of Prospect Glen's fiercest rival. To clear his name, Paige will have to sort through a chorus of suspects, and go note-for-note with a killer who wants her out of the spotlight for good.
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Title: The Sleeping and the Dead
Author: Jeff Crook
Series Character: Jackie Lyons
Format: Hardcover
What we know about the character: Jackie Lyons is a former Memphis Police Department vice detective, now crime scene photographer.
Her first case: Jackie is trying to put her life back together: her husband has sent divorce papers, she's broke, and needs a place to live. But a failed marriage, unemployment, and most recently a fire in her apartment aren’t her only problems: she also sees ghosts.
Since Jackie left the force, she’s been making ends meet by photographing crime scenes for her old friends on the force, and for the occasional collector. When she is called to the murder scene of the Playhouse Killer's latest victim, she starts seeing crime scenes from a different perspective-- her new camera captures images of ghosts. As her new camera brings her occasional ghostly visitors into sharper relief, it also points her toward clues the ex-detective in her won’t let go: did the man she has just started dating kill his wife? Is the Playhouse Killer someone she knows?
,br>As Jackie works to separate natural from supernatural, friend from foe, and light from dark, the spirit world and her own difficult past become the only things she can depend on to solve the case.
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Title: Harry Lipkin, Private Eye
Author: Barry Fantoni
Series Character: Harry Lipkin
Format: Hardcover
What we know about the character: Harry Lipkin is a tough-talking, soft-chewing, rough-around-the-edges, slow-around-the-corners private investigator in Miami, who carries a .38 along with a spare set of dentures and specializes in the sort of cases that cops can't be bothered with.
His first case: Harry might not be the best P.I. in Miami, but at 87, he's certainly the oldest.
His latest client, Mrs. Norma Weinberger, has a problem. Someone in her home is stealing sentimental trinkets and the occasional priceless jewel from her; someone she employs, trusts, cares for, and treats like family. With the stakes so low and blood pressure that's a little too high, Harry Lipkin must figure out whodunit before the thief strikes again.
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Title: Freezing
Author: Clea Koff
Series Character: Jayne Hall and Steelie Lander
Format: Trade Paperback
What we know about the characters: Jayne Hall and Steelie Lander are forensic anthropologists in Los Angeles.
Their first case: When a bundle of frozen body parts tumbles out the rear door of a van on a Los Angeles freeway, FBI agent Scott Houston knows just where to go for an off-the-record analysis: Agency 32/1, a non-profit missing persons identification resource center run by forensic anthropologists Jayne Hall and Steelie Lander. Jayne and Steelie quickly determine that the remains are human, though from several women. But Scott’s call has unintended consequences for the two women, putting their lives in jeopardy, as their unique skills uncover evidence leading directly to the killer …
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Title: Going Organic Can Kill You
Author: Staci McLaughlin
Series Character: Dana Lewis, Blossom Valley
Format: Mass Market Paperback
What we know about the character: Dana Lewis is the new marketing maven for O'Connell Organic Farm and Spa in Blossom Valley, California.
Her first case: As Dana readjusts to life back home with her recently widowed mother, her latest career move isn't exactly a piece of cake. In fact, it's all tofu fish sticks, stuffed squash blossoms, and enough wheat grass shots to scream bloody murder — especially when Dana discovers the body of Maxwell Mendelsohn, Hollywood producer and opening weekend guest, deader than a yoga corpse pose. While Dana pens the Spa's blog and balances the attentions of the local police and reporter Jason Forrester, her escalating job duties now include finding clues, motives and suspects. One thing's for certain, she better act fast before all this healthy living kills her.
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Title: Sly Fox
Author: Jeanine Pirro
Series Character: Dani Fox
Format: Hardcover
What we know about the character: Dani Fox is an assistant district attorney in Westchester, New York.
Her first case: Westchester, New York, 1976 — Cocaine abuse is rampant, the county courthouse is a boys' club, and men are still legally permitted to beat their wives. Enter Dani Fox, the feisty, ambitious twenty-five-year-old assistant district attorney tired of feeling like an outsider and hungry to bring abusers to justice.
Dani confronts emotionally challenging crime scenes and uncooperative colleagues, facing threats to her safety--and even the safety of her pet pig, Wilbur--in order to protect society's silent victims. Spearheading the country's first domestic violence unit in a shifting legal landscape, Dani must find allies where she can, especially when she discovers a seemingly simple case has some shocking twists. But who can she trust, and which of her colleagues will she end up battling both in and out of the courtroom?
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Title: Suzy's Case
Author: Andy Siegel
Series Character: Tug Wyler
Format: Hardcover
What we know about the character: Tug Wyler is a New York attorney.
His first case: When Henry Benson, a high-profile criminal lawyer known for his unsavory clients, recruits Tug to take over a long-pending multimillion-dollar lawsuit representing a tragically brain-damaged child, his instructions are clear: get us out of it; there is no case. Yet the moment Tug meets the disabled but gallant little Suzy Williams and June, her beautiful, resourceful mother, all bets are off.
With an offbeat, self-mocking style, Tug Wyler’s a far cry from your ordinary lawyer. Unswerving in his dedication to his mostly disadvantaged clients, he understands only too well how badly they need him with the system stacked against them. Tug is honest about his own shortcomings, many of them of the profoundly politically incorrect variety, and his personal catchphrase, handy in all situations, is "At least I admit it."
When his passionate commitment to Suzy’s case thrusts him into a surreal, often violent sideshow, the ensuing danger only sharpens his obsession with learning what really happened to Suzy. Blending razor-sharp intuition, intellectual toughness, and endlessly creative legal brinkmanship, Tug determinedly works his way through a maze of well-kept secrets—encountering a cast of memorably eccentric characters along the way—to get to the truth.
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Title: Death in August
Author: Marco Vichi
Series Character: Inspector Bordelli
Format: Hardcover
What we know about the character: Inspector Bordelli is a police inspector in 1960s Florence. Though introduced in 2002 in Il Commissario Bordelli, this is his first US appearance.
His first case: Florence, summer 1963. Inspector Bordelli is one of the few policemen left in the deserted city. He spends his days on routine work and his nights tormented by the heat and mosquitoes.
Suddenly one night, a telephone call gives him a new sense of purpose: the suspected death of a wealthy signora. Bordelli rushes to her hilltop villa and picks the locks. The old woman is lying on her bed—apparently killed by an asthma attack, though her medicine has been left untouched.
With the help of his young protégé, the victim’s eccentric brother, and a semi-retired petty thief, the inspector begins a murder investigation. Each suspect has a solid alibi, but there is something that doesn't quite add up …
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For a list of more hardcover mysteries scheduled for publication during July, 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 July 2012 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.
