May Publications
In Three Dirty Women and the Bitter Brew, Julie Wray Herman (Three Dirty Women and the Garden of Death) continues her series featuring the three owners of a landscaping company. One of the partners, Korine McFaile, is stuck with a hostile roommate at a convention—and when her roommate turns up murdered, Korine is the prime suspect. (Silver Dagger [silverdaggermysteries.com], $23.95 192p ISBN 1-57072-178-5) Maren Matthews comes home from a long day teaching nursery school to find a murdered professor, her idiosyncratic husband's colleague, on her kitchen floor. In Death of a Prof: The Nursery School Murders II by Jake Fuchs (Death of a Dad), Maren contends with bizarre nursery school parents, wildlife reclaiming the Berkeley, Calif., hills, and her own worrisome suspicions about the murder. (Creative Arts, $13.95 paper 255p ISBN 0-88739-335-7) In This Won't Hurt a Bit: A Mystery, Timothy Sheard's first novel, the police believe a young laundry worker murdered a surgical resident whose body is found in the hospital. Hospital custodian Lenny Moss, unconvinced, undertakes his own investigation, and digs up evidence pointing at some prestigious suspects. (Creative Arts, $15.95 paper 324p ISBN 0-88739-313-6) D.H. Olson has done a signal service in collecting eight of legendary pulp writer Donald Wandrei's I.V. Frost stories in Frost. First published in Clues (later Clues Detective Stories) in the 1930s, these outré detective tales featuring Prof. Frost and his beautiful sidekick Jean Moray may be dated, but they have real period charm. (Fedogan & Bremer [fedbrem@visi.com], $29 307p ISBN 1-878252-42-9) In The Glass Cocoon by Christopher J. Jarmick and Serena F. Holder, Phillip Craven of Seattle and Patricia Ridgeway of Taos, having fallen in love in an Internet chatroom, plan to meet in person soon. Then people connected to them start getting killed, and as Phillip and Patricia realize they are being watched, their virtual lives and their real lives threaten some deadly collisions. (Flibbertigibbet [dist. Five Star], $18.95 paper 520p ISBN 0-9702078-0-8) Series heroine Tory is called to her home town when her father lands in a coma after a hit-and-run in Aileen Schumacher's (Framework for Death) Rosewood's Ashes: A Tory Travers/David Alvarez Mystery. When several murders occur, Tory and Detective Alvarez connect them to a 1923 massacre of African-Americans by the Klan. (Intrigue [www.intrigue.com], $23.95 348p ISBN 1-890768-32-4) In the first in Laurel Schunk's (The Voice He Loved) Lithuanian Trilogy, A Clear Northern Light, set during WWII, Petras Simonaitas believes his sister was murdered by her baron fiancé, a Nazi who shortly rapes and impregnates Petras's girlfriend Rima. Petras and Rima flee and live quietly until the baby's birth, when the Baron and the Nazis descend on them. (St. Kitts [P.O. Box 8173, Wichita, Kans. 67208], $24.95 332p ISBN 0-9661879-6-2) Tony is thrilled to sub for the suspiciously less-than-thrilled injured guitarist of a popular country band in J.R. Ripley's (Skulls of Sedona) Lost in Austin: A Tony Kozol Mystery. The guitarist vehemently wants Tony gone, and when other band members are murdered, series star Tony finds he's risking life and limb in this Country Western romp. (Long Wind [www.LongWindPub.com], $19.95 243p ISBN 1-892695-06-5)Deadroll: A Cycling Murder Mystery, fourth in Greg Moody's (Derailleur) series, lands Will and Cheryl Ross back among danger, intrigue and the unexpected. All in one day former pro-cyclist Will is fired, performs a heroic feat, gets another job and provokes the wrath of some murderous folks. (Velo [www.velocatalogue.com], $14.95 paper 272p ISBN 1-884737-92-7) Susan Dunlap (No Immunity) presents The Celestial Buffet and Other Morsels of Murder, some of which feature series heroine Jill Smith. In the title story, the protagonist unexpectedly finds herself dead and destined for she knows not where. The afterlife may not be what it seems. (Crippen & Landrau [P.O. Box 9315, Norfolk, Va. 23505], $40 signed, 215p ISBN 1-885941-53-6)
