Tuesday, 24 July 2018

New Mystery Series - Part 4; the Final Bit

It's another hot day. We've got the patio doors open and a fan blowing. The dogs are panting, trying to keep cool and Jo and I are vegetating on the sofa.... More of the same in the coming week.

In my last three entries I've been going through my bookshelves and providing you with the new mystery series / authors I've been purchasing with the aim of giving them a try. As I mentioned in Part 3, I've managed to try 12 new mystery series so far this year. Today I'll go to the end of the alphabet with my list. I hope you see some you might be interested in trying.

1. Thomas Perry (US). So far I've read the first book in Perry's Butcher Boy thriller series. My older brother  suggested I try his Jane Whitfield series as well. The Butcher Boy series consists of 3 books and Jane Whitfield of 8 books. I have 3 books in the series. I'll provide the synopsis for the first book, Vanishing Act (1995).

"Jane Whitefield is a Native American guide who leads people out of the wilderness--not the tree-filled variety but the kind created by enemies who want you dead. She is in the one-woman business of helping the desperate disappear. Thanks to her membership in the Wolf Clan of the Seneca tribe, she can fool any pursuer, cover any trail, and then provide her clients with new identities, complete with authentic paperwork. Jane knows all the tricks, ancient and modern; in fact, she has invented several of them herself. So she is only mildly surprised to find an intruder waiting for her when she returns home one day. An ex-cop suspected of embezzling, John Felker wants Jane to do for him what she did for his buddy Harry Kemple: make him vanish. But as Jane opens a door out of the world for Felker, she walks into a trap that will take all her heritage and cunning to escape...."

2. Mark Pryor (US). Pryor has an interesting background, growing up in England, moving to the US and eventually finding himself employed as an Asst DA in Austin, Texas. He has written mysteries and non-fiction. I was interested in trying his series featuring Hugo Marston, an ex-FBI agent now working as head of security at he US Embassy in Paris. I have the first book, The Bookseller (2012). There are 7 books in the series. The synopsis is below.

"Max—an elderly Paris bookstall owner—is abducted at gunpoint. His friend, Hugo Marston, head of security at the US embassy, looks on helplessly, powerless to do anything to stop the kidnapper. Marston launches a search, enlisting the help of semiretired CIA agent Tom Green. Their investigation reveals that Max was a Holocaust survivor and later became a Nazi hunter. Is his disappearance somehow tied to his grim history, or even to the mysterious old books he sold?

On the streets of Paris, tensions are rising as rival drug gangs engage in violent turf wars. Before long, other booksellers start to disappear, their bodies found floating in the Seine. Though the police are not interested in his opinion, Marston is convinced the hostilities have something to do with the murders of these bouquinistes.

Then he himself becomes a target of the unknown assassins.

With Tom by his side, Marston finally puts the pieces of the puzzle together, connecting the past with the present and leading the two men, quite literally, to the enemy's lair.

Just as the killer intended."


3. Qiu Xiaolong (China). Born in China Qiu Xiaolong moved to the US after Tienanmen Square to avoid persecution by the Communist Chinese government. He has published 9 mystery novels set in Shanghai in the 1990's all featuring Chief Inspector Chen Cao. I've enjoyed other mysteries set in China and am looking forward to starting this one. I have two books in the series and will highlight the first book, Death of a Red Heroine (2000).

"A young “national model worker,” renowned for her adherence to the principles of the Communist Party, turns up dead in a Shanghai canal. As Inspector Chen Cao of the Shanghai Special Cases Bureau struggles to trace the hidden threads of her past, he finds himself challenging the very political forces that have guided his life since birth. Chen must tiptoe around his superiors if he wants to get to the bottom of this crime, and risk his career—perhaps even his life—to see justice done."

4. Matt Rees (UK). Rees is a Welsh author and journalist who has created the Palestine Quartet featuring Palestinian sleuth, Omar Yussef. I have the first book in the series, the Collaborator of Bethlehem (2007), and the synopsis is below.

"The murder of a leader of the Palestinian Martyrs Brigade leads to the arrest of George Saba, a Palestinian Christian accused of collaborating with the Israelis. Omar Yussef, a modest history teacher at a United Nations school in the West Bank, is impelled to investigate the murder to exonerate his former pupil, who he knows is innocent. As he struggles to save George, Omar Yussef is drawn into a complex plot where it is impossible to tell friend from enemy."

5. Eric Rickstad (US). Rickstad is an American writer of the Silent Girls / Canaan Crime books (2) and also some standalone novels. I have both books. The synopsis for Lie in Wait is below.

"Even in a quiet Vermont town, unspeakable acts of the past can destroy the peace of the present.

In the remote pastoral hamlet of Canaan, Vermont, a high-profile legal case shatters the town’s sense of peace and community. Anger simmers. Fear and prejudice awaken. Old friends turn on each other. Violence threatens.

So when a young teenage girl is savagely murdered while babysitting at the house of the lead attorney in the case, Detective Sonja Test believes the girl’s murder and the divisive case must be linked.

However, as the young detective digs deeper into her first murder case, she discovers sordid acts hidden for decades, and learns that behind the town’s idyllic façade of pristine snow lurks a capacity in some for great darkness and the betrayal of innocents. And Sonja Test, a mother of two, will do anything to protect the innocent."


6. Julie Smith (US). I've read books in two of Smith's mystery series, those featuring New Orleans police detective Skip Langdon and San Francisco lawyer Rebecca Schwarz. I have the 3rd book in the Talba Wallis mystery series set in Louisiana, Louisiana Lament. It consists of 4 books.

" Allyson Brown, the Girl Gatsby, is a woman of wealth, hostess of fabled parties, patron of the arts--especially of poets. Found floating in her own swimming pool, shot to death.

Poet and fledgling detective Talba Wallis gets an urgent call from the sister she barely knows: Janessa. To Girl Gatsby Janessa is close friend. But this call isn't an invitation to an elegant literary salon. Janessa wants off the hook as the principal murder suspect.

Investigating, Talba and her irascible boss, Eddie, find the reality behind the Gatsby glamour. Allyson was widely hated, a con artist who neglected her children, failed to pay her bills, and lied to everyone she wanted something from. The one person she loved may have ushered her to her death.

The case takes Talba and Eddie from literary parties to Gulf Coast bait shops, from biker bars to abandoned wharves, and finally, to the story of another Gatsby, which may yield answers, or greater mysteries."


7. Dana Stabenow (US). American writer Stabenow writes science fiction, historical fiction and mysteries. I've been interested to check out her Kate Shugak mystery series set in Alaska. I have the 3rd book in the series and have the 1st book on order. I'll provide the synopsis for A Cold Day for Murder (1992).

"Kate Shugak returns to her roots in the far Alaskan north, after leaving the Anchorage D.A.'s office. Her deductive powers are definitely needed when a ranger disappears. Looking for clues among the Aleutian pipe-liners, she begins to realize the fine line between lies and loyalties--between justice served and cold murder."

8. John Straley (US). Straley is an American writer who also features Alaska in his mystery books. I'm interested in his Cecil Younger series. The first book is The Woman Who Married a Bear (1992).

"Sitka, Alaska, is a subarctic port surrounded by snow-dusted mountains. In addition to honest work, there is a lot of alcohol consumed and other people's money appropriated. Bars are loud, fights are mean. Rowdy youths party in the ancient Russian cemeteries, sitting on overturned gravestones. Sitka is hardly straight-laced, but murder is uncommon enough to be widely noted—like the Indian big-game guide killed by an ex-miner obeying voices from the earth's center. The victim's mother, a Tlingit Indian, summons to her nursing home a local investigator named Cecil Younger. The case is old and ostensibly solved. She wants him to investigate anyway. What he unearths is a virtual fairy tale contrived to hide a primal conspiracy."

9. Arthur Upfield (Australia).  Australian writer Upfield lived from 1890 - 1964 and is known for his mystery series featuring Detective Inspector Napoleon 'Bony' Bonaparte of the Queensland Police Force. Bony is a half-caste Aborigine. The books were made into a 1970's TV series. I have found 4 books in the series. I have the synopsis for the 3rd book Wings Above the Diamantina (1936).

" The discovery of a stolen red monoplane on the dry, flat bottom of Emu Lake meant many things to many people: for Elizabeth Nettlefold, it meant a new purpose in life; for Dr. Knowles, brilliant physician and town drunk, it meant the revival of a romantic dream; for person or persons unknown, it meant a murder plan gone badly awry; and for Detective Inspector Napoleon Bonaparte, it meant one of the toughest cases of his career."

10. Nicola Upson (UK). Nicola Upson is a British writer of historical mysteries featuring British mystery writer, Josephine Tey, an interesting concept. As of 2017 there are 7 books in the series. I have the 6th book, London Rain, so far. The synopsis is below.

" London, 1937. Following the gloomy days of the abdication of King Edward VIII, the entire city is elated to welcome King George. Just one of the many planned festivities for the historic coronation is a BBC radio adaptation of Queen of Scots, and the original playwright, Josephine Tey, has been invited to sit in on rehearsals.

Soon, however, Josephine gets wrapped up in another sort of drama. The lead actress has been sleeping with Britain’s most venerable newsman, Anthony Beresford—and his humiliated wife happens to work in the building. The sordid affair seems to reach its bloody climax when Beresford is shot to death in his broadcasting booth at the deafening height of the coronation ceremony.

Josephine’s dear friend, Detective Chief Inspector Archie Penrose, has the case wrapped up before long. But when a second, seemingly related murder throws Penrose for a loop, it falls to Josephine to unravel a web of betrayal, jealousy, and long-held secrets… caught all the while in a love triangle of her own making."


11. Janwillem van de Wetering (Netherlands). Dutch writer Wetering lived from 1931 - 2008 and amongst his work the Grijpstra and de Gier mysteries, two Amsterdam police officers. There were 14 books in the series. I have the first book, Outsider in Amsterdam (1975) on my books shelf. The synopsis is below.

"On a quiet street in downtown Amsterdam, the founder of a new religious society/commune—a group that calls itself “Hindist” and mixes elements of various “Eastern” traditions—is found hanging from a ceiling beam. Detective-Adjutant Grijpstra and Sergeant de Gier of the Amsterdam police are sent to investigate what looks like a simple suicide, but they are immediately suspicious of the circumstances. 

This now-classic novel, first published in 1975, introduces Janwillem van de Wetering’s lovable Amsterdam cop duo of portly, worldly-wise Grijpstra and handsome, contemplative de Gier. With its unvarnished depiction of the legacy of Dutch colonialism and the darker facets of Amsterdam’s free drug culture, this excellent procedural asks the question of whether a murder may ever be justly committed."


Well, there you go. Just a few series you might like to try. I'm not sure what my next entry will cover. I bet you can't wait, eh? Have a great week!  

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