The Hidden Staircase Mystery Books recently updated its list of February 2013 hardcover mysteries as well as shelved new February 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 February.
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Title: The Beggar's Opera
Author: Peggy Blair
Series Character: Ricardo Ramirez
Formats: Trade Paperback and ebook
What we know about the character: Inspector Ricardo Ramirez is the head of the Major Crimes Unit of the Cuban National Revolutionary Police.
His first case: In beautiful, crumbling Old Havana, detective Mike Ellis hopes the sun and sand will save his troubled marriage. He doesn't yet know that it's dead in the water, much like the little Cuban boy last seen begging the couple for a few pesos on the world famous Malecón.
For Inspector Ramirez, head of the Havana Major Crimes Unit, arresting Ellis isn't the problem — the law is. He has only seventy-two hours to secure an indictment and prevent a vicious killer from leaving the island. And Ramirez has his own troubles. He's dying of the same dementia that killed his grandmother, an incurable disease that makes him see the ghosts of victims of his unsolved cases. As he races against time, the dead haunt his every step …
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Title: Buried In a Bog
Author: Sheila Connolly
Series Character: Maura Donovan, County Cork
Formats: Mass Market Paperback and ebook
What we know about the character: Maura Donovan is a bartender in a small Irish village in County Cork.
Her first case: Honoring the wish of her late grandmother, Maura visits the small Irish village where her Gran was born — though she never expected to get bogged down in a murder mystery. Nor had she planned to take a job in one of the local pubs, but she finds herself excited to get to know the people who knew her Gran.
In the pub, she's swamped with drink orders as everyone in town gathers to talk about the recent discovery of a nearly one-hundred-year-old body in a nearby bog. When Maura realizes she may know something about the dead man — and that the body's connected to another, more recent, death — she fears she's about to become mired in a homicide investigation. After she discovers the death is connected to another from almost a century earlier, Maura has a sinking feeling she may really be getting in over her head …
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Title: Crossbones Yard
Author: Kate Rhodes
Series Character: Alice Quentin
Formats: Hardcover and ebook
What we know about the character: Alice Quentin is a psychologist.
Her first case: Alice is a woman with some painful family secrets, but she has a good job, a good-looking boyfriend, and excellent coping skills, even when that job includes evaluating a convicted killer who's about to be released from prison. One of the highlights of her day is going for a nice, long run around her beloved London — it's impossible to fret or feel guilty about your mother or brother when you're concentrating on your breathing — until she stumbles upon a dead body at a former graveyard for prostitutes, Crossbones Yard.
The dead woman's wounds are alarmingly similar to the signature style of Ray and Marie Benson, who tortured and killed thirteen women before they were caught and sent to jail. Five of their victims were never found. That was six years ago, and the last thing Alice wants to do is to enter the sordid world of the Bensons or anyone like them. But when the police ask for her help in building a psychological profile of the new murderer, she finds that the killer — and the danger to her and the people she cares about — may already be closer than she ever imagined.
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Title: Scratch Deeper
Author: Chris Simms
Series Character: Iona Khan
Formats: Hardcover and ebook
What we know about the character: Detective Constable Iona Khan is a police officer in Manchester (England).
Her first case: In sun-soaked Mauritius, a retired Law Lord is brutally murdered, while in rain-sodden Manchester, the Labour Party conference is beginning.
Promoted to Greater Manchester Police's Counter Terrorism Unit, DC Khan's first case appears to be a trivial use of false identity regarding a Sri Lankan student asking suspicious questions about Manchester's tunnel system.
But when she learns the identity of the conference's guest speaker, Iona realizes it may not be so trivial after all, and she must enter the dark world beneath the city to prevent a possible catastrophe.
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Title: Bear is Broken
Author: Lachlan Smith
Series Character: Leo Maxwell
Formats: Hardcover and ebook
What we know about the character: Leo Maxwell is an attorney in San Francisco.
His first case: Leo grew up in the shadow of his older brother, Teddy, a successful yet reviled criminal defense attorney who racked up enemies as quickly as he racked up acquittals. As children, their father was jailed for the murder of their mother, and Teddy was left to care for Leo who tried to emulate his older brother, even following him into the legal profession.
The two are at lunch one day when Teddy, supposed to give the closing argument of his current trial that afternoon, is shot: in public, in cold blood, the shooter escaping without Leo being able to identify him. As Teddy lies in a coma, Leo comes to the conclusion that the search for his brother's shooter falls upon him and him alone, as his brother's enemies were not merely the scum on the street but embedded within the police department as well. As he begins to examine the life of a brother he realizes he barely knew, Leo quickly realizes that the list of possible suspects is much larger than he could have imagined.
The deeper Leo digs into Teddy's life, the more questions arise: questions about Teddy and his ex-wife, questions about the history of the Maxwell family, even questions about the murder that tore their family apart all those years ago. And somewhere, the person who shot his brother is still on the loose, and there are many who would happily kill Leo in order to keep it that way.
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Title: Brooklyn Bones
Author: Triss Stein
Series Character: Erica Donato
Formats: Hardcover and ebook
What we know about the character: Erica Donato is a young widow who works at a local museum in New York City.
Her first case: A crime of the past comes much too close to home when Erica's teenage daughter Chris finds a skeleton behind a wall in their crumbling Park Slope home.
Erica — young widow, over-age history Ph.D candidate, mother of a teen, product of blue-collar Brooklyn — is drawn into the mystery when she learns this was an unknown teen-age girl, hidden there within living memory. She and her daughter are both touched and disturbed by the mysterious tragedy in their own home.
Chris's dangerous curiosity and Erica's work at a local history museum lead her right back to her neighborhood in its edgy, pre-gentrification days, the period when the age of Aquarius was turning dark. A cranky retired reporter shares old files with her. The charming widow of a slumlord has some surprises for her. The crazy old lady who hangs around her street keeps trying to tell her something. And there are people, including some she is close to, who know the whole story and will stop at nothing to make sure it stays buried forever.
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For a list of more hardcover mysteries scheduled for publication during February, 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 February 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.
