AKASHIC BOOKS
The Eye of Cybele (Mar., $27) by Daniel Chavarría calls on ancient Greece for an epic mystery about a mad priest and a whore who join up with Socrates.
Spy's Fate (May, $25) by Arnaldo Correa. Misadventure marks post-Cold War U.S. and Cuban intelligence operations.
ALLISON & BUSBY
(dist. by IPM)
Simpson's Homer: A Tim Simpson Mystery (Apr., $25.95) by John Malcolm. In this 13th entry in the series, a painting goes missing.
The Nightwalker: An Eric Ward Mystery (Apr., $25.95) by Roy Lewis. The detective investigates an explosion involving an environmental protest group.
Monsieur Pamplemousse on Vacation (Apr., $25.95) by Michael Bond. The gastronomic detective's 13th adventure takes him to southern France.
BALLANTINE
Southampton Row (Mar., $25) by Anne Perry. Thomas and Charlotte Pitt step in when a politician's wife is suspected of murdering a noted clairvoyant. Advertising. 15-city author tour.
Final Round (Apr., $23.95) by William Bernhardt. A maverick golfer turns sleuth when murder tees off at the Masters tournament. Advertising. 10-city author tour.
Vertical Burn (June, $24.95) by Earl Emerson. The author, a Seattle Fire Department lieutenant, returns with a tale of a firefighter accused of sabotaging the rescue of his partner. Advertising. 10-city author tour.
Flesh Tones (July, $21) by M.J. Rose. A woman accused of murder argues that she was only easing the death of her ill lover. Advertising. Author publicity.
The Apprentice (Aug., $24.95) by Tess Gerritsen. Two stalkers trail the homicide detective hunting them. Advertising. 8-city author tour.
BANTAM
Catch as Cat Can: A Mrs. Murphy Mystery (Mar., $24.95) by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown. Murder accompanies spring in Crozet, Va., and feline sleuth Mrs. Murphy is on the job. 75,000 first printing. Ad/promo. Author publicity.
Body of Lies (Apr., $24.95) by Iris Johansen. A forensic sculptor fears that a government official is bent on deceiving her. 150,000 first printing. Ad/promo. Author publicity.
Fatal (May, $24.95) by Michael Palmer. The deaths of a young doctor's wife and father bring him home to West Virginia to get at the truth. 120,000 first printing. Ad/promo. Author tour.
The Survivors Club (June, $23.95) by Lisa Gardner. Which one of three raped women killed their attacker on his way to trial? 100,000 first printing. Ad/promo. Author publicity.
Chopping Spree (July, $23.95) by Diane Mott Davidson. Murder is on the menu when Goldy is asked to cater an event for overprivileged mall shoppers. 125,000 first printing. Ad/promo. Author tour.
BERKLEY PRIME CRIME
The Wicked Flea (Mar., $21.95) by Susan Conant. Holly Winter struggles with a poorly trained canine and barely trained humans.
Steps to the Altar (Apr., $22.95) by Earlene Fowler. Folk art expert Benni Harper prepares for two weddings while digging up clues to a decades-old unsolved murder.
You've Got Murder (Apr., $21.95) by Donna Andrews launches a techno-cozy series in which workaholic techie Zach, who has created an artificial intelligence personality named Turing, is missing from work, and AI Turing, sensing foul play, is trying to find him.
BRIDGE WORKS
Doctored Evidence (June, $23.95) by Michael Biehl. Murder is disguised as an operating room accident. Author tour.
CARROLL & GRAF
Streets of Fire: A Jack Liffey Mystery (May, $24) by John Shannon. In the series' fifth entry, Liffey searches L.A.'s mean streets for the adopted son of a prominent 1960s civil rights campaigner.
To Catch a Spy: A Toby Peters Mystery (July, $24) by Stuart Kaminsky continues the PI's outings, this time with Cary Grant.
CUMBERLAND HOUSE
Death Dance (Mar., $24.95), edited by Trevanian, collects 14 stories of the beauty of dance put to darker uses by Henry Slesar, Andrew Kennedy and others.
Speaking of Wrath (May, $24.95), edited by Lawrence Block, assembles the work of Faye Kellerman, Brendan DuBois and Block himself.
DELL/DELACORTE
Warning Signs (Mar., $24.95) by Stephen White. When a Boulder, Colo., DA is murdered, clinical psychologist Alan Gregory finds that more violence is to come. 85,000 first printing. Ad/promo. Author publicity.
Gone for Good (May, $23.95) by Harlan Coben. First his mother dies, then Will Klein's girlfriend disappears. 125,000 first printing. Ad/promo. Author publicity.
The Edge of Justice (June, $21.95) by Clinton McKinzie. Local corruption in Wyoming hinders the investigation of an accidental climbing death. 60,000 first printing. Ad/promo. Author publicity.
Top Hook (June, $24.95) by Gordon Kent. Married naval lieutenant-commanders are implicated in a CIA hunt for the traitor known as Top Hook. 40,000 first printing. Advertising. Author publicity.
Unfit to Practice (Aug., $24.95) by Perri O'Shaughnessy. South Lake Tahoe attorney Nina Reilly faces possible disbarment when client files are stolen. 125,000 first printing. Ad/promo. Author publicity.
DO-NOT PRESS
(dist. by Dufour Editions)
Split (May, $29.95) by Bill James. The creator of Harpur & Iles launches a new hard-boiled series.
DOUBLEDAY
The Last Detective (Aug., $25.95) by Robert Crais features the return of Elvis Cole.
DUTTON
The Big Gamble: A Kevin Kerney Novel (July, $23.95) by Michael McGarrity. The New Mexican police chief probes the past when a missing woman's murdered body is discovered. Ad/promo. 15-city author tour.
Bubbles in Trouble (July, $22.95) by Sarah Strohmeyer. The spandex-wearing, cleavage-baring hairstylist and sleuth is back, and so is murder. Author publicity.
FORGE
Something Borrowed, Something Black (Apr., $24.95) by Loren D. Estleman. On his honeymoon, a retired professional killer's past catches up with him. Advertising.
Cat in a Midnight Choir (May, $24.95) by Carole Nelson Douglas. Midnight Louie uncovers who pulled off the murder of a Las Vegas stripper. Advertising.
Louisiana Bigshot (Aug., $24.95) by Julie Smith. New Orleans PI Talba Wallis suspects something fishy when an old friend disappears. Advertising. Author publicity.
HARMONY
The Blood Doctor (July, $25) by Barbara Vine. A hereditary peer in England's House of Lords wonders if his great-great-grandfather's obsession with blood could have led to unnatural deaths. 50,000 first printing.
HYPERION
Black Water (Apr., $23.95) by T. Jefferson Parker. Merci Rayborn investigates the death of a woman found dead on the bathroom floor. 100,000 first printing. Ad/promo. Author publicity.
The Art of Deception (July, $23.95) by Ridley Pearson is a new Lou Boldt novel. 175,000 first printing. $250,000 ad/promo. Author publicity.
INTRIGUE PRESS
Scream Black Murder: A WorldKrime Mystery (Mar., $23.95) by Philip McLaren. Two Aboriginal detectives pursue a serial killer in Sydney. Advertising.
Detective Lauriant Investigates: A WorldKrime Mystery (Apr., $23.95) by Graham R. Wood contains two mysteries set in 1960s France. Advertising.
KENSINGTON
Blueberry Muffin Murder: A Hannah Swensen Mystery (Mar., $22) by Joanne Fluke. A celebrity lifestyle maven is found murdered in Hannah's bakery.
Cold Justice: A Kali O'Brien Mystery (June, $23) by Jonnie Jacobs. Kali suspects that the imprisoned "Bayside Strangler" is innocent--which means that the real fiend is still on the loose.
Maggie Needs an Alibi (July, $22) by Kasey Michaels introduces mystery author Maggie Kelly, a resident of New York City's tony Upper East Side, who comes under suspicion when her publisher is found murdered.
LITTLE, BROWN
City of Bones (Apr., $25.95) by Michael Connelly. Detective Harry Bosch tears open a 20-year-old murder case. Ad/promo. 10-city author tour.
The Beach House (June, $26.95) by James Patterson and Peter de Jonge. Lawyers and protectors for the super-rich stand between Jack Mullen and the reason his brother drowned. Ad/promo. 5-city author tour.
Bad Boy Brawly Brown: An Easy Rawlins Mystery (July, $24.95) by Walter Mosley. Easy comes face-to-face with a corpse and the cops who think he's responsible. Ad/promo. 10-city author tour.
LYONS PRESS
The Shooting Gallery: A Detective Yablonsky Mystery (June, $19.95) by Joseph Trigoboff. Somebody bumped off a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist in this sequel to The Bone Orchard.
MODERN LIBRARY
The Book of Spies: An Anthology of Literary Espionage (July, $24.95), edited by Alan Furst, gathers yarns by Eric Ambler, Joseph Conrad and others. Author publicity.
MORROW
April Fool Dead: A Death on Demand Mystery (Apr., $23.95) by Carolyn Hart. Murder is no joke for Annie Darling in this 13th installment of the series. Ad/promo. Author publicity.
MYSTERIOUS PRESS
Put a Lid on It (Apr., $23.95) by Donald E. Westlake. Career thief Meehan is asked to swipe an embarrassing video sure to ruin a presidential reelection campaign. Ad/promo.
Dead Midnight (June, $24.95) by Marcia Muller. Sharon McCone might be deleted in the cutthroat computer world of San Francisco. Ad/promo. Author publicity.
Saving Room for Dessert: A Rocksburg Novel (Aug., $23.95) by K.C. Constantine. William Rayford is the first African-American cop in town. Ad/promo.
Slow Dollar (Aug., $23.95) by Margaret Maron. Judge Deborah Knott is drawn into the dubious world of a traveling carnival show. Ad/promo.
NEW AMERICAN LIBRARY
Chicago Confidential (June, $22.95) by Max Allan Collins is another entry in the Nathan Heller novels that fictionalize notorious 20th-century crimes, this time with the Mafia in 1950s Chicago.
Dead Tide (July, $23.95) by Jeannine Kadow teams up an anchorwoman with a rebel manhunter to trap a serial killer.
POCKET/PB PRESS
Funny Money (June, $24) by James Swain. A blackjack scam in Atlantic City leads to death by car bombing.
Last Light (July, $24) by Andy McNab. A British secret service operator is ordered to complete an assassination or the 11-year-old orphan in his care will be killed.
Absolute Rage (Aug., $25) by Robert K. Tanenbaum. The murder of a union official and his family endangers the family of Butch Karp. 100,000 first printing.
PUTNAM
The Wheat Field (Mar., $24.95) by Steve Thayer. Is there a political conspiracy behind the double shotgun murder in a Wisconsin wheat field, and will the local deputy sheriff uncover it? Advertising.
The Man with the Red Tattoo (June, $23.95) by Raymond Benson. In this new entry in the James Bond series, 007 battles a criminal mastermind in Japan.
Acid Row (July, $24.95) by Minette Walters. Amid hearsay about a pedophile and a missing girl, an angry mob takes over an unsavory London housing project. Advertising.
McNally's Alibi: An Archy McNally Novel (July, $24.95) by Vincent Lardo. The Palm Beach, Fla., PI is on the track of a missing manuscript. Advertising.
PUTNAM/MARIAN WOOD
A Murder of Promise (Mar., $24.95) by Robert Andrews continues the D.C. cop series begun with A Murder of Honor, and here dot-com avarice, ferocious computer games and savage hackers are a lethal combination.
ST. MARTIN'S MINOTAUR
North of Nowhere (May, $23.95) by Steve Hamilton is the fourth in the series featuring PI Alex McKnight, ex-ballplayer and ex-cop.
A Fine and Bitter Snow (June, $24.95) by Dana Stabenow looks at the difference between justice and revenge as Alaska PI Kate Shugak investigates the poisoning of a controversial professor.
Agatha Raisin and the Day the Floods Came (July, $22.95) by M.C. Beaton. The curtain rises on the 12th outing of the prickly amateur sleuth.
Hard Freeze (Aug., $24.95) by Dan Simmons. Joe Kurtz isn't finished with the Farino mob family--or rather, they aren't done with him.
SCRIBNER
From a Buick 8 (Mar., $28) by Stephen King concerns boys, men and a terrifying force only they can contain.
Wrongful Death (May, $25) by Baine Kerr is a medical and legal thriller.
SIMON & SCHUSTER
The Stone Monkey: A Lincoln Rhyme Novel (Mar., $25) by Jeffery Deaver. Forensics genius Rhyme and his beautiful sidekick venture into New York City's world of Chinese organized crime. 250,000 first printing. Ad/promo. 13-city author tour.
Daddy's Little Girl (Apr., $26) by Mary Higgins Clark. When she was six, a 28-year-old journalist gave evidence that convicted a man of her sister's murder, but could she have been wrong? 1 million first printing. LG, DBC, MG, BOMC, QPB selections. Ad/promo. 7-city author tour.
Jolie Blon's Bounce (June, $25) by James Lee Burke. Dave Robicheaux encounters two brutal murders in New Iberia, La. 175,000 first printing. Ad/promo. 14-city author tour.
SLEEPING BEAR PRESS
Take Dead Aim (Mar., $24.95) by Don Wade. The CIA and British intelligence go undercover on the PGA tour to smoke out an IRA assassin.
SOHO PRESS
Living Dead Girl (May, $22) by Tod Goldberg. As a man searches for his missing ex-wife, he stumbles into danger. Author tour.
Betrayal (June, $25) by Clare Francis is a psychological thriller involving adultery, love and mendacity.
TEXAS TECH UNIV. PRESS
Death Assemblage (Mar., $23.95) by Susan Cummins Miller. The first of the Frankie MacFarlane series takes place in Nevada's mountains.
VIKING
The Shape of Water: A Salvo Montalbano Mystery (May, $20.95) by Andrea Camilleri. In this first translation of a bestselling Italian series, a Sicilian sleuth explores the murder of a smalltown big shot.
WALKER & CO.
Sasso (Apr., $25.95) by James Sturz. During a hot Italian summer, six bodies are found in caves surrounding a small town.
Step to the Graveyard Easy (June, $23.95) by Bill Pronzini. Two grifters lead Matthew Cape down a trail of deceit in California.
WARNER
Act of God (Apr., $24.95) by Susan R. Sloan. An attack on a family services center in Seattle leaves nearly 200 innocent men, women and children dead. Advertising. Author publicity.
Mortal Allies (May, $24.95) by Brian Haig. JAG lawyer Sean Drummond is back and on the case of a gay officer in South Korea accused of murder. Ad/promo.
The Cabinet of Curiosities (June, $25.95) by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child. The discovery of serial murders dating back to 1880s Manhattan appears to ignite a new round of death. Ad/promo.
The Legacy (July, $25.95) by D.W. Buffa. Joseph Antonelli defends a young black man accused of murdering a California senator aspiring to the presidency. Ad/promo. Author publicity.
Stone Kiss (Aug., $25.95) by Faye Kellerman. Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus confront murder in the family of his half-brother, Rabbi Jonathan Levin. Ad/promo. 5-city author tour.
