November Publications
When Joan and new husband Lt. Fred Lundquist travel to Bishop Hill for a belated honeymoon, the only witness to murder in the small Swedish-American community is Fred's Alzheimer's-afflicted mother in Witness in Bishop Hill, Sara Hoskinson Frommer's (The Vanishing Violinist) latest appealing Joan Spencer mystery. Expect plenty of cozy chills as Joan strives to prevent a vicious killer from striking again. Agent, Stuart Krichevsky.(St. Martin's Minotaur, $23.95 256p ISBN 0-312-30243-6)
On the heels of 2001's Biggie and the Quincy Ghost comes Biggie and the Devil Diet, another installment in Nancy Bell's charming series featuring eccentric sleuth Biggie, her 13-year-old grandson, J.R., and the folks of Job's Crossing, Tex. A ranch converted to a retreat for overweight teenage girls, a lot of good eating (including a recipe for Willie Mae's King Ranch Casserole) and murder all contribute to the fun. (St. Martin's Minotaur, $22.95 224p ISBN 0-312-30184-7)
The "Redneck Riviera," aka the Mississippi coast, provides the sultry setting for Jackpot Bay, the fourth Jack Delmas novel (Massacre Island, etc.) from Martin Hegwood, senior attorney for the secretary of state's office of Mississippi. With a deadly gun battle at the Jackpot Bay casino, a sexy security auditor and a rock concert besieged by fundamentalists, Jack has plenty to straighten out in this fast-paced, hard-edged thriller. (St. Martin's Minotaur, $23.95 272p ISBN 0-312-28096-3)
Zen koans lie at the heart of Heather Dune Macadam's literary first mystery, The Weeping Buddha, in which two Long Island cops have the misfortune to know both of the murder victims at a Suffolk County crime scene. Macadam's nonfiction book, Rena's Promise: A Story of Sisters at Auschwitz, was nominated for a National Book Award. (Akashic, $16.95 paper 360p ISBN 1-888451-39-4)
In Jerry Labriola's Murders at Brent Institute, the follow-up to Murders at Hollings General, series sleuth Dr. David Brooks investigates what looks like a contract killing of the top scientist at the Brent Institute of Biotechnology. Labriola, a physician for nearly 35 years and coauthor with Dr. Henry Lee of Famous Crimes Revisited, brings his forensics expertise to this timely tale involving bioterrorism. 10-city author tour. (Strong [P.O. Box 715, Avon, Conn. 06001], $21.95 348p ISBN 1-928782-38-8)
PI Theo Nikonos, recently acquitted of double murder in the U.S., hopes to find peace of mind studying Europe's great cathedrals in La Magdalena: A Theo Nikonos Mystery, by William M. Valtos (The Authenticator). But an encounter with a nun called La Magdalena puts him on the track of a shattering secret that reaches back to the earliest days of Christianity. (Hampton Roads [www.hrpub.com], $15.95 paper 560p ISBN 1-57174-278-6)
October Publication
In The Fractal Murders: A Pepper Keane Mystery, Mark Cohen's lively first novel, Boulder, Colo., math professor Jayne Smyers hires PI Pepper Keane to look into three apparently unrelated deaths—except all the victims, she has discovered, were researching those strange geometric forms, fractals. You don't have to be able to balance your check book to enjoy this clever puzzler, which has been selected as a fall Book Sense 76 Top 10 Mystery. (Muddy Gap [www.muddygap.com], $13.95 paper 282p ISBN 0-9718986-0-X)
