Here’s a sneak preview of some of the mystery novels that will be coming out this year.
Cleansed by Fire by James R. Callan and published by DWB Publishing, will be out in January. It’s the first book in the Fr. Frank Mystery series.
Churches are burning and Fr. Frank learns something that could help the police. But, he learns it in the confessional so he can’t use it. He is compelled to work around this information to stop the arsons. And, a mysterious man has come to town who seems to be connected to the drug scene and is hanging around the local teens. Fr. Frank has more to do than preach the Sunday sermon.
Bogey’s Ace in the Hole by Marja McGraw will be released in February by Oak Tree Press. It’s the second of the Bogey Man Mystery series.
The only people who might strike terror in the hearts of Chris and Pamela Cross are the Church Ladies who want them to find a missing friend. When the friend turns up on her own, Chris finds a new kind of terror, a Murder for Hire plot the woman has overheard. Ride along in the 1950 vintage Chevy with Chris, the Church Ladies, his wife Pamela, their son, Mikey, and two crazy yellow Labrador retrievers while they try to find not only a potential killer, but the intended victim.
John R. Lindermuth’s The Limping Dog is a standalone mystery coming in March from Whiskey Creek Press.
The alleged developer of a radical new microprocessor system goes missing when his yacht crashes on a reef. Some assert the system was lost with its creator, others believe it exists and have devious plans to profit from the invention and are willing to kill for it.
Also in March, we can look forward to the publication of American Caliphate, an archaeological mystery, written by William Doonan and published by Oak Tree Press.
Archaeologists Jila Wells and Ben Juarez are not thrilled at the prospect of returning to Peru; the ambush that nearly cost Jila her life still haunts her. But the ruined pyramids at Santiago de Paz hide an important document that would shock the Islamic world.
Murder a Cappella also by James R. Callan and Diane Bailey is the first book in the Sweet Adeline mystery series and will be published in April by Wayside Publications, an imprint of Written World Communications.
Tina Overton is part of a chorus at the International Competition of the Sweet Adelines (women who sing barbershop harmony). But when two members of the chorus are gunned down while singing in front of the Alamo, Tina must search behind the sequins and the glitz of the competition to find the killer. And when she won’t accept the easy answer, she becomes a target herself.
Poisoned Pairings by Lesley A. Diehl will be published by Mainly Murder Press in May. It will be the second in her Hera Knightsbridge Master Brewer Mystery series.
A student, helping to set up for a beer and food pairings event in Hera Knightsbridge’s microbrewery, dies there under suspicious circumstances. At first the death looks like a suicide but the medical examiner determines it is murder and Hera and her lover, Deputy Sheriff Jake Ryan, again find themselves partners in searching for the killer. Connections among the student, the family of a dead brewer, a religious leader and the gas companies lead Hera and Jake into a maze of confusing and conflicting clues. Before the two can unravel the case’s tangled threads, Jake is called away on another job, leaving Hera alone to uncover the identity of the killer before she becomes the next victim.
Lesley A. Diehl has another book coming out in 2012. Grilled, Chilled and Killed will be published by Oak Tree Press. It’s the second in her Big Lake Mystery series featuring Emily Rhodes, retired preschool teacher and bartender turned amateur snoop.
It seems as if Emily is destined to discover dead bodies. This time she finds one of the contestants at the local barbeque cook-off dead and covered in barbeque sauce in a beer cooler. Her snooping skills are stimulated once again and she’s determined to find the killer.
Resort to Murder by Marta Chausee will be released in the spring by Oak Tree Press.
Amateur sleuth and hotel industry executive wife, Maya French, becomes involved in solving murders on a glamorous resort property in Central Florida. Not only top execs of Sapphire Hotels and Resorts come to bad ends, but also, her own husband is soon accused of wrongdoing and disappears.
Jim Barrett is the author of the true crime book, Ma Duncan. It was published in 2003 by Ivy House Publishing Group. “Ma Duncan,” the movie, is scheduled for filming in 2012 based on the screenplay co-written by Jim and Peter Lawrence.
In 1958, Elizabeth “Ma” Duncan hired two men to kill her 8 month pregnant daughter-in-law out of jealously for her son, Frank Duncan. Before deciding to kill Olga Duncan, “Ma” did several bizarre things. She annulled her son’s marriage by posing as Olga and hiring a man to pose as Frank. She openly “shopped” for murderers, contacting eight other individuals in the Santa Barbara area before she found the killers. Elizabeth Duncan was the last woman executed in California, along with her cohorts and therefore the last triple execution in California.
Happy Reading! And, Happy New Year!
