Cockroaches: by Jo Nesbo

Cockroaches

by Jo Nesbo
Paperback, 400 pages

You may have heard me say this before. But I love Jo Nesbo!!!!

Stieg Larsson's books showed the world how dark and fascinating Nordic mysteries can be, but he was primarily a journalist and that shows in his writing. Jo Nesbo weaves a wonderful story and takes you down with him through dark twists and shadowy corners. I especially love his Harry Hole series. I have read all of them now, but not in order. That's okay, they are wonderful on their own but reading all of them really gives you insight into Hole and what made him such a dark mess.

Nesbo only got better as a writer, but he was wonderful to begin with. Get to know Harry Hole, he is fascinating.

From the back flap:

The thrilling sequel to Jo Nesbo's debut novel, The Bat, Cockroaches sees Harry Hole sent to Bangkok to investigate the murder of the Norwegian ambassador.
     Detective Harry Hole arrives in a steaming hot Bangkok. But it's work, not pleasure. The Norwegian ambassador has been found dead in a seedy motel room, and no witnesses have come forward. The ambassador had close ties to the Norwegian prime minister, and to avoid a scandal Harry is sent there to hush up the case. But he quickly discovers that there is much more going on behind the scenes and very few people willing to talk. When Harry lays hands on some CCTV footage that will help him unravel what happened that night, things only get more complicated. The man who gave him the tape goes missing, and Harry realises that failing to solve a murder case is by no means the only danger in Bangkok.

 Jo Nesbø’s books have sold more than twenty million copies worldwide, and have been translated into forty-seven languages. His Harry Hole novels include The Bat, The Redbreast, Nemesis, The Devil’s Star, The Redeemer, The Snowman, The Leopard, Phantom, and Police, and he is the author of Headhunters and several children’s books. He has received the Glass Key Award for best Nordic crime novel. He is also a musician, songwriter, and economist and lives in Oslo.

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Bellman & Black: A Ghost Story by Diane Setterfield

Bellman & Black

A Ghost Story

by Diane Setterfield

Trade Paperback, 320 pages

This is a unique story of love, loss, drive, madness, human folly and blackbirds.

An epic saga of one man's life, from thoughtless child to determined businessman with all the triumphs and sufferings along the way.

Rooted throughout the story is a dark feathery current of mystery, an invisible relationship with the rooks that populate this Victorian town. You will never look at birds the same way.

From the Back Flap:

Bellman & Black is a heart-thumpingly perfect ghost story, beautifully and irresistibly written, its ratcheting tension exquisitely calibrated line by line. Its hero is William Bellman, who, as a boy of 11, killed a shiny black rook with a catapult, and who grew up to be someone, his neighbours think, who "could go to the good or the bad." And indeed, although William Bellman's life at first seems blessed--he has a happy marriage to a beautiful woman, becomes father to a brood of bright, strong children, and thrives in business--one by one, people around him die. And at each funeral, he is startled to see a strange man in black, smiling at him. At first, the dead are distant relatives, but eventually his own children die, and then his wife, leaving behind only one child, his favourite, Dora. Unhinged by grief, William gets drunk and stumbles to his wife's fresh grave--and who should be there waiting, but the smiling stranger in black. The stranger has a proposition for William--a mysterious business called "Bellman & Black" . . .

About the Author

DIANE SETTERFIELD is a former academic specializing in twentieth-century French literature. She lives in Oxford, England. Her first novel, The Thirteenth Tale, debuted at #1 on The New York Times besteller list. The author lives in Oxford, England.

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Dexter's Final Cut: A Novel by Jeff Lindsay

Dexter's Final Cut
A Novel
by Jeff Lindsay
Hardcover, 368 pages

I love Dexter. I love the books, I love the show, I love the whole concept of this monster hero with the wry sense of humour. It satisfies my need for Dark.

This most recent book of the series is Dex at his best. Who else would he feel at home with than the seemingly soulless Hollywood machine?

Our poor dark hero is the model for a new TV show and finds himself being observed at his workplace by an overly interested actor. This makes it hard for Dexter to do his dark deeds, harder still to work on his cases while he has to babysit stars and duck paparazzi. Still, Dreamy Dex finds himself caught up in the machinations and romanticism of Hollywood life, even while the body count grows.

You can never get enough Dexter!

From the back flap: 

Hollywood gets more than it bargained for when television's hottest star arrives at the Miami Police Department and develops an intense, professional interest in a camera-shy blood spatter analyst named Dexter Morgan.

Mega-star Robert Chase is famous for losing himself in his characters. When he and a group of actors descend on the Miami Police Department for "research," Chase becomes fixated on Dexter Morgan, the blood spatter analyst with a sweet tooth for doughnuts and a seemingly average life. To perfect his role, Chase is obsessed with shadowing Dexter's every move and learning what really makes him tick. There is just one tiny problem . . . Dexter's favorite hobby involves hunting down the worst killers to escape legal justice, and introducing them to his special brand of playtime. It's a secret best kept out of the spotlight and away from the prying eyes of bloated Hollywood egos if Dexter wants to stay out of the electric chair. The last thing he needs is bright lights and the paparazzi. . . but even Dexter isn't immune to the call of fame.

Jeff Lindsay's razor sharp, devilish wit, and immaculate pacing prove that he is in a class of his own, and this new novel is his most masterful creation yet.

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Never Go Back: A Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child

Never Go Back
A Jack Reacher Novel
by Lee Child
Hardcover, 416 pages

This is the eighteenth book in Lee Child's Jack Reacher series and the most personal one to date. We get to know a little more about our favourite ex military man when he heads back to his old unit to ask the mysterious woman on the phone for dinner.

But, as they say, you can't go home again. Jack finds himself in a tangled mess as soon as he hits town and he needs all of his wits and even his heart to sort out just what the hell is going on.

Our giant of the roads gets a little sentimental in this book and I love it. He doesn't break character, of course, we just get to see a bit more of his soft and chewy core underneath the hardened shell.

Reacher fans will love this new installment in the series. New fans will love this look into Reacher's life. Some of us might even develop a wee crush on the man. Not saying who....


From the Back Flap:

Former military cop Jack Reacher makes it all the way from snowbound South Dakota to his destination in northeastern Virginia, near Washington, D.C.: the headquarters of his old unit, the 110th MP. The old stone building is the closest thing to a home he ever had.

Reacher is there to meet—in person—the new commanding officer, Major Susan Turner, so far just a warm, intriguing voice on the phone.

But it isn’t Turner behind the CO’s desk. And Reacher is hit with two pieces of shocking news, one with serious criminal consequences, and one too personal to even think about.

When threatened, you can run or fight.

Reacher fights, aiming to find Turner and clear his name, barely a step ahead of the army, and the FBI, and the D.C. Metro police, and four unidentified thugs. 

Combining an intricate puzzle of a plot and an exciting chase for truth and justice, Lee Child puts Reacher through his paces—and makes him question who he is, what he’s done, and the very future of his untethered life on the open road.

Photo credit: Sigrid Estrada

Lee Child

Lee Child is the author of seventeen previous Jack Reacher thrillers, including the New York Times bestsellers Persuader, The Enemy, One Shot, and The Hard Way, and the #1 bestsellers The Affair, Worth Dying For, 61 Hours, Gone Tomorrow, Bad Luck and Trouble, and Nothing to Lose, as well as the short stories “Second Son” and “Deep Down.” His debut, Killing Floor, won both the Anthony and the Barry awards for Best First Mystery, and The Enemy won both the Barry and Nero awards for Best Novel. Foreign rights in the Reacher series have sold in more than forty territories. All titles have been optioned for major motion pictures, the first of which - “Jack Reacher” - was released in December.
 A native of England and a former television director, Child lives in New York City.

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Night Film: A Novel by Marisha Pessl

Night Film
A Novel
by Marisha Pessl
Hardcover, 624 pages

Wow! This has got to be my favourite book this year. A mystery with so many layers, you will savour every page. And you get a lot of pages for your buck, topping at over 600.

The official synopsis:
On a damp October night, the body of young, beautiful Ashley Cordova is found in an abandoned warehouse in lower Manhattan. By all appearances her death is a suicide—but investigative journalist Scott McGrath suspects otherwise. Though much has been written about the dark and unsettling films of Ashley's father, Stanislas Cordova, very little is known about the man himself. As McGrath pieces together the mystery of Ashley's death, he is drawn deeper and deeper into the dark underbelly of New York City and the twisted world of Stanislas Cordova, and he begins to wonder—is he the next victim? In this novel, the dazzlingly inventive writer Marisha Pessl offers a breathtaking mystery that will hold you in suspense until the last page is turned.

Vibrant, fascinating characters, a completely fresh and intriguing sleuthing team, and enough twists and turns to keep you guessing until the last page. And possibly even after that. Seriously, you will want to think about the book, talk about the book and make sure your best friends all get to read it so you can talk about it with them.

Author
MARISHA PESSL grew up in Asheville, North Carolina, and now lives in New York City. Special Topics in Calamity Physics, her debut novel, was a bestseller in both hardcover and paperback. It won the 2006 John Sargent Sr. First Novel Prize (now the Center for Fiction's Flaherty-Dunnan First Novel Prize), and was selected as one of the 10 Best Books of the Year by The New York Times Book Review. The author lives in New York, NY.

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Kelley Armstrong - Omens

Omens
The Cainsville Series
by Kelley Armstrong
Hardcover, 496 pages

Welcome to Cainsville!

Kelley Armstrong is best known for her internationally bestselling Women of the Otherworld series and hot on its heels is another fantastic series starting with Omens - our first look into Cainsville and what lurks therein. 

Olivia Taylor Jones is the daughter of a wealthy family; beautiful, educated, and busy doing volunteer work until her marriage to equally suitable CEO, James Morgan.

This bubble is ripped apart almost immediately by an avalanche of reporters and speculations on her heritage. A fine way to find out you were adopted. And may be the birth daughter of serial killers.

In the frantic need to find out who she is and what all this means, Olivia sets out on a new life path. One in which she must fend for herself and use what little life experience she has to find out who she really is - and who her parents really are. 

This novel has it all - mystery, thriller, romance, and a creepy town that just starts to unfold in this debut book of the series. Once you read this one, you'll be longing for the next. 

Photo credit: Kathryn Hollinrake

KELLEY ARMSTRONG is the bestselling author of the Women of the Otherworld series, the Nadia Stafford crime series, and two bestselling YA trilogies, Darkest Powers and Darkness Rising. She lives in rural Ontario.

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The Heist: A Novel by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg

The Heist
A Novel
by Janet Evanovich and Lee Goldberg
Hardcover, 320 pages

From Janet Evanovich, #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Stephanie Plum novels, and Lee Goldberg, bestselling author and television writer for Monk, comes the first adventure in an electrifying new series featuring an FBI agent who always gets her man, and a fearless con artist who lives for the chase.

I can see a tv show or movie coming out of  this new series already. Think early Castle meets Mission Impossible. This unlikely team shares witty, flirty hot banter while attempting a take-down that no other organization dares to do. Off the books of course, if they get caught they will be charged and prisoned like common criminals. Okay. One of the team is a criminal, but the other is a cop who - until given this assignment - had spent her career chasing the very man she is now paired up with.

Sexy and exciting, The Heist is a great beach blanket read!

The hardcover edition of The Heist contains stickers—“I ‘Heart’ Plum” and “The Con Is On”—and a sneak peek from the next Stephanie Plum novel!

Photo credit: Roland Scarpa

Authors
Janet Evanovich is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Stephanie Plum series, the Lizzy and Diesel series, twelve romance novels, the Alexandra Barnaby novels and Trouble Maker graphic novel, and How I Write: Secrets of a Bestselling Author.

Lee Goldberg is a screenwriter, TV producer, and the author of several books, including King City, The Walk, and the bestselling Monk series of mysteries. He has earned two Edgar Award nominations and was the 2012 recipient of the Poirot Award from Malice Domestic.

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Sweet Tea Revenge: A Tea Shop Mystery by Laura Childs

Sweet Tea Revenge
A Tea Shop Mystery
by Laura Childs
Hardcover, 336 pages

Sweet Tea Revenge is the 14th book in Laura Childs' best-selling Tea Shop Mystery series. This cozy series is based in the polite society of Charleston, a slow and easy drawl of a community with a rich history.

Theodosia Browning owns the Indigo Tea Shop where she dispenses just the right brew to suit each customer, along with the perfect nibbles to complement the tea and the occasion. An idyllic refuge from her past busy business life, the tea shop is her pride and joy.

But Theo has a Nancy Drew-like ability to find herself amidst mystery and develop her own hunches along the way.

In Sweet Tea Revenge, Theodosia is dressed to act as bridesmaid for her good friend Delaine Dish. But before the nuptials are completed, Delaine's intended is found dead. Theo must now comfort her distraught friend while trying to figure out who all had motive, and opportunity, to kill the groom. 

This is a fun series of easy reading mysteries with a delicious tea shop theme. There are even tea tips, recipes and links to all things tea.

Pour yourself a cuppa and curl up on your favourite rocker on the porch and enjoy some Sweet Tea Revenge!  


Laura Childs is the New York Times bestselling author of the Tea Shop Mysteries, the Cackleberry Club Mysteries, and the Scrapbooking Mysteries. She is a consummate tea drinker, scrapbooker, and dog lover, and travels frequently to China and Japan with Dr. Bob, her professor husband. In her past life she was a Clio Award–winning advertising writer and CEO of her own marketing firm.

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The Andalucian Friend

The Andalucian Friend
by Alexander Söderberg
Hardcover, 464 pages

Are you ready for some high-octane adventure?

The Andalucian Friend is a complex high-speed chase of a book where the lines between bad guys and good guys is a blur.

Think dark Nordic crime fiction meets Quentin Tarantino.

A beautiful nurse, Sophie Brinkmann, is entranced by a mysterious patient. Hector Guzman sees something in her that she doesn't see in herself and wants to know her better.

At the same time, a shadowy section of the police department are watching Guzman and trying to build a case around him. The nurse starts looking like a way in.

Sophie Brinkmann is a widow with a teenage son who finds herself an unwitting pawn in a dangerous game.

Add in international drug smuggling, arms trading, Russians, Germans, Spanish and Swedish gangsters, cops and hired guns, and you have a heart-racing blockbuster of a novel.

Photo credit: Malin Lauterbach

ALEXANDER SÖDERBERG has worked as a screenwriter for Swedish television. His work includes the TV adaptations of Camilla Läckberg's and Åke Edwardsson's novels. He lives in the countryside in the south of Sweden with his wife and children. THE ANDALUCIAN FRIEND is his first novel.

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Defending Jacob: A Novel by William Landay

Defending Jacob
A Novel
by William Landay
Paperback, 496 pages

NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY
Entertainment Weekly • The Boston Globe • Kansas City Star

Wow. That's all I can say. Wow.

Okay, I guess I should say a little more.

Defending Jacob is a criminal law courtroom procedural but so much more than that.

The ADA of a small New England town, Andy Barber, is called in when a boy is murdered. The boy is his own son's age and in some of his classes. Fairly soon into the investigation, Andy's son becomes a suspect.

What follows is an intense battle to defend his son, Jacob Barber.

"Award-winning author William Landay has written the consummate novel of an embattled family in crisis—a suspenseful, character-driven mystery that is also a spellbinding tale of guilt, betrayal, and the terrifying speed at which our lives can spin out of control."

The book is written from Andy's point of view and he has the ability to see the procedures clearly due to his career as a lawyer but also has the burning desire to defend his son at all costs.

More than just a crime novel, Defending Jacob delves into nature vs. nurture, genetics, social media, bullying, and the effects of a trial on everyone involved.

Once you get into this novel it swallows you up. I truly felt changed after reading it and I immediately had to phone a friend to talk about the book.

William Landay is the author of The Strangler, a Los Angeles Times Favorite Crime Book of the Year, and Mission Flats, winner of the Creasey Memorial Dagger Award for Best First Crime Novel and a Barry Award nominee. A former district attorney who holds degrees from Yale and Boston College Law School, Landay lives in Boston, where he is at work on his next novel of suspense.
Visit the author at www.williamlanday.com or on Facebook at facebook.com/williamlanday

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A Question of Identity by Susan Hill

A Question of Identity

A Simon Serrailler Crime Novel

by Susan Hill

Hardcover, 368 pages

I first discovered Susan Hill when I saw she had a hearty endorsement from one of my heroes, P.D. James. Like James, Hill crafts an intricate British crime novel that starts at the edges and peels away layer by layer until you get to the climax.

In A Question of Identity, the town of Lafferton is blanketed by snow and the hush keeps the crime rate low. However, someone has been lurking about the new senior housing in Duchess of Cornwall Close. One elderly woman is murdered in her new home in a most terrifying way. DCS Simon Serrailler juggles his personal and professional life as he mounts a hunt for the killer. When more are killed, he finds a link between these murders and murders from the past.

What he can't find is an identity for the killer.

A Question of Identity explores human emotions as much as mystery, and of course what is more mysterious than human emotions?

A great fireside English mystery. Fans of P.D. James and Ruth Rendell will love Susan Hill's Simon Serrailer series.

Other books in the series:

The Various Haunts of Men
The Pure in Heart
The Risk of Darkness
The Vows of Silence
The Shadows in the Street    
The Betrayal of Trust 

Susan Hill’s novels and short stories have won the Whitbread, Somerset Maugham and John Llewellyn Rhys Prizes. Her novels include The Mist in the Mirror, the Simon Serallier crime series, and I’m the King of the Castle. She also wrote Mrs. de Winter, the sequel to Rebecca, and her ghost story The Woman in Black was adapted for the stage and has been running in London for over 21 years. She lives in Gloucestershire, where she runs her own small publishing company, Long Barn Books.

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Edge of Black by J.T. Ellison

Edge of Black

by J.T. Ellison

Paperback, 368 pages

The path of the righteous man is beset on all sides.

I fell in love with J.T. Ellison's novels with her Lt. Taylor Jackson series. Ellison does a hard-hitting procedural crime drama and is not afraid to kill her darlings. Edge of Black is the second in the Samantha Owens, M.D. series, a spin-off from the Jackson books. 

Owens is trying to piece her life back together after losing her husband and children to the floods. But after barely settling in to her new job, new city and new life - she finds herself in the middle of a seeming terrorist attack. A pathogen of some sort is let loose in the Washington Metro and, although many are afflicted with breathing and lung issues, only three die. 

This in itself is a puzzle, and the more Samantha, her new boyfriend and ex-army ranger Xander, and detective Fletcher dig, the more puzzling it gets. 

They find themselves racing against the clock to solve the mystery before more people die, including them. 

A great winter read for curling up under a blanket - you won't be able to put it down. 

1st book in this series

photo by Chris Blanz, Cabedge

J.T. Ellison is the bestselling author of eight critically acclaimed novels, multiple short stories and has been published in over twenty countries. Her novel THE COLD ROOM won the ITW Thriller Award for Best Paperback Original of 2010 and WHERE ALL THE DEAD LIE was a RITA® Nominee for Best Romantic Suspense of 2012. She lives in Nashville with her husband and the ghost of a poorly trained cat, and is hard at work on her next novel. Visit JTEllison.com for more insight into her wicked imagination, or follow her on Twitter @Thrillerchick.

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Shadow Creek by Joy Fielding

Shadow Creek
by Joy Fielding
Trade Paperback, 384 pages

Get ready for a stay up late, wrapped in a blanket with all the curtains drawn kind of thriller.

What starts as a Noël Coward-esque odd grouping of companions thrown together in the Adirondacks turns into don't-trust-anyone, edge-of-your-seat tale of bloody murders and deceit.

Something evil lurks in the woods and this decidedly un-merry band of mis-matched people, each battling their own demons, are in for the struggle of their lives.


There's something deadly lurking in the shadows at Shadow Creek . . .

JOY FIELDING is the author of the New York Times bestsellers Charley's Web, Heartstopper, Mad River Road, See Jane Run, and other acclaimed novels. She divides her time between Toronto and Palm Beach, Florida. Visit her website at www.JoyFielding.com

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