New Year’s Books–Part 1

 

 

Between now and New Year’s,  I will spotlight some New year’s books for your reading pleasure. This is the first day of the list of books that I hope you enjoy.  Happy Reading.

 

Sisters Bernie and Libby Simmons are reunited with a distant relative who wants them to cater a New Year’s Eve event—and help find a guilty party . . .
 
It’s been years since Bernie and Libby’s parents became estranged from Ada Sinclair’s side of the family—though the reasons for the rift are lost to history. The sisters, however, are intrigued when Ada makes contact. She tells them about the long-ago deaths of her father and his business partner, which happened within hours of each other—and were both ruled accidental.

Ada thinks otherwise—and has a plan. On New Year’s Eve, she’ll gather a group of guests and read from a diary she’s found in her mother’s attic that she thinks will expose the culprit. The Simmons sisters agree to provide refreshments for the bash, and when the night arrives, Ada’s ready to count down to a confession. But as midnight approaches, a guest drops dead. It looks like the menu tonight includes champagne and cyanide . . .

In the tumult, the diary disappears. When Ada is arrested for murder, she’ll have to hope that Bernie and Libby can provide a resolution before the clock runs out.

Includes Original Recipes for You to Try!  (Amazon)

Editions Available:  Kindle, Hardcover, Audiobook

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Delphi, South Dakota is a dusty little prairie town, the kind people drive through on their way to bigger cities. But as Tory Bauer, middle-aged, widowed, overweight, cranky waitress might say, “Everything that happens in big towns, happens here too. We just don’t look as good naked.”

In Cold Front, the fifth of six mysteries featuring the crew at the Delphi Café, a New Year’s Eve blizzard turns deadly when a snowy trip into the countryside turns up a frozen body. With her personal life in turmoil, Tory finds herself snowbound and, once again, smack in the middle of an investigation.  (Amazon)

Editions Available:  Kindle, Paperback

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

From USA TODAY Bestselling Author Harper Lin

The 2nd book (20,000-word novella) in the Emma Wild 4-book Holiday Mystery Series. Includes Recipes!

Superstar singer Emma Wild is back for another murder mystery in her Canadian hometown of Hartfield, Ontario. Things are heating up with Emma’s high school sweetheart, the handsome Detective Sterling Matthews, but when her movie star ex, Nick Doyle, comes looking for her with a huge diamond engagement ring, Emma’s world turns upside down.

When the owner of The Sweet Dreams Inn is stabbed to death with a chunky knitting needle, Nick is the prime suspect because he is the inn’s only guest. Emma and Sterling must work together once again to prove Nick’s innocence and find the real killer.

Three’s a crowd on this murder case. Will Emma make up her mind between her first love and her Hollywood hunk?

This is Book 2 in a 4-Book Holiday Mystery Series.

Book 1: Killer Christmas (Free ebook)
Book 2: New Year’s Slay
Book 3: Death of a Snowman
Book 4: Valentine’s Victim

Save and own the complete 4-Book Emma Wild Holiday Series Box Set!  (Amazon)

Editions Available:  Kindle, Paperback

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Private investigator Sarah Booth Delaney and her friends are celebrating New Year’s Eve at the party of the year, a smashing Winter Garden party at the Prince Albert Hotel. It’s a dazzling success…until Frangelica “Sister” McFee walks through the door. Sarah Booth knew Sister in college, before Sister became a bestselling author and moved to New York, and fame and fortune don’t seem to have tempered her arrogance and cruelty.

Sister’s latest book is a memoir about the death of her mother and brother many years ago. Now, a film about the book is in the works, and a film crew has descended upon Zinnia, Mississippi, to tell the complete tale. The film crew soon realizes there may be more to the story than meets the eye—or is told in Sister’s memoir—and they hire Sarah Booth to discover the absolute truth about those deaths so many years ago. But Sarah Booth quickly realizes that someone is desperate to keep the truth hidden and will go to any lengths necessary to protect a long-held secret.

Carolyn Haines’s next Sarah Booth Delaney novel, Sticks and Bones, is sure to delight series fans and newcomers alike.  (Amazon)

Editions Available:  Kindle, Hardcover, Paperback, Audiobook

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

A collection of KILLER stories from some of today’s hottest crime fiction writers, edited by grandmaster and #1 New York Times bestselling author LEE CHILD

Killer Year is a group of thirteen authors whose first novels were published in the year 2007. Now, each member of this widely-praised organization has written a story with his or her own unique twist on the world of crime. Each entry in this one-of-a-kind collection is introduced by the author’s Killer Year mentor, including bestselling authors James Rollins, Tess Gerritsen, Jeffery Deaver. Other contributors―of original stories, essays, and commentary―include acclaimed veterans Ken Bruen, Allison Brennan, Duane Swierczynski, Laura Lippman, and M.J. Rose. This is a book that no fan of the genre can do without.  (Amazon)

Editions Available:  Kindle, Hardcover, Paperback, Audiobook

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

In the third novel of her captivating foxhunting series, Rita Mae Brown welcomes readers back for a final tour of a world where most business is conducted on horseback–and stables are de rigueur for even the smallest of estates. Here, in the wealth-studded hills of Jefferson County, Virginia, even evil rides a mount.

The all-important New Year’s Hunt commences amid swirling light snow. It is the last formal hunt of the season; therefore, participation is required no matter how hungover riders are from toasting the midnight before. On this momentous occasion, “Sister” Jane Arnold, master of the foxhounds, announces her new joint master and the new president of the Jefferson Hunt. And her choices will prove to be no less than shocking.

The day’s festivities are quickly marred, though, by what appears on the surface to be an unrelated tragedy. Sam Lorillard, former shining star and Harvard Law School alum, lies dead of a stab wound on a baggage cart at the old train station, surrounded by the outcasts and vagabonds who composed his social circle at the end of life. No one can remember when Sam started drinking, but the downward spiral was swift–and seemingly deadly.

Murder is followed by scandal when Sister Jane discovers dishonest hunting practices going on in a neighboring club. Unsure whether to turn a blind eye or report the infringement to the proper authority, Sister and her huntsman, Shaker Crown, decide to investigate a little further, with the help of their trusty hounds. But when they come a little too close to the staggering truth–and uncover an unforeseen connection to Lorillard’s murder–they realize they might not survive to see the next New Year’s Hunt.

Intricate, witty, and full of the varied voices of creatures both great and small, Full Cry is an astute reminder that even those with the bluest of blood still bleed red.  (Amazon)

Editions Available:  Kindle, Hardcover, Paperback, Audiobook

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Mah-Jongg?Yep. In hip Hollywood, that kitsch old game is fast becoming the next “new” obsession — and that calls for a party! Madeline Bean and her charming partner Wesley Westcott are determined to throw a gonzo Chinese New Year banquet. But among the hot mah-jongg tiles, the steamy dim sum, and the frosty Singapore slings, no one expects to find one of the players ice-cold dead!

Meanwhile, in one of the historic celebrity mansions that Wesley is restoring as a sideline, a well-aimed crowbar uncovers a stash of precious objects — including an antique mah-jongg set. As Madeline pieces together how these two events are connected, she must separate the yin from the yang to uncover a killer. It doesn’t take a fortune cookie to spell it out. There is always a price to pay…whether gambling at mah-jongg — or murder.  (Amazon)

Editions Available:  Kindle, Hardcover, Paperback

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The squadroom at 5:15 on New Year’s morning looked much as it did on any other day…
But an exceptionally heinous crime was already sending a wave of outrage through even the veteran cops of the 87th Precinct: a wealthy couple, returning home from New Year’s festivities, discovered their baby — and the infant’s teenage sitter — murdered. Parents themselves, detectives Carella and Meyer resolve to bring in the perpetrator at any cost. Meanwhile, gang warfare is overtaking the city’s streets, threatening its very foundation. A sinister song of death and destruction echoes through the 87th, and it isn’t “Auld Lang Syne.”  (Amazon)

Editions Available:  Kindle, Hardcover, Paperback, Audiobook

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

It is New Year’s day, 1900, when the brilliant violinist Sebastian Cavendish is found dead. The last few days of his life are a mystery, but in the final hours of 1899 he wrote a cryptic suicide note mentioning a “cursed inheritance”, took poison, and died in agony. Yet his friends and relations are utterly perplexed. The man they knew and grieve for was vivacious, exuberant and extroverted. His fellow musicians speak of his passion, his drive, and his love of living. The socialites he met, all of whom lavished him with praise, saw only a dazzling future ahead of him. So why, his friends and loved ones ask, would he change his plans at such short notice, disappear for days on end, and take his own life? Vanessa Weatherburn, an established detective and ex-tutor to one of Sebastian’s friends, is engaged to investigate the dead man’s final movements. It is a journey which will reveal to her the science of genetics, the history of Sebastian’s equally brilliant grandfather and the long-kept secrets of the Cavendish family.  (Amazon)

Editions Available:  Kindle, Hardcover, Paperback

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Exhausted after shopping for teenagers, struggling with cappuccino machines, and eating way too many cookies, Susan Henshaw is glad she hired “The Holly and Ms. Ivy” to cater her annual New Year’s bash. But when the blond and buffed Z Holly, chef extraordinaire and notorious ladies’ man, is found strangled in a van full of helium balloons, Susan starts hunting for a killer — and a way to save her party!  (Amazon)

Editions Available:  Kindle, Paperback