Mid-November Book Reading Wrap-Up

 

Mid-Summer Book Haul w/New Black Mysteries

 

February Reading Wrap Up -- By a Creek (2024)

 

2024 New Releases I’m Looking Forward To List (Just Might Be Considered the "Baddie" Version)

2024 New Releases I’m Looking Forward To List

Watch Where They Hide by Tamron Hall. It’s the second book in her TV journalist, Jordan Manning, series. This time Jordan is going to investigate the disappearance of a stay-at-home mom who recently left her abusive husband to live with her sister. Of course, as a TV journalist, Jordan uses her profession to not only bring awareness to the woman’s disappearance, but to also solve the crime. This comes out on March 12th.

Pay Dirt by Sara Paretsky. This is V. I. Warshawski’s 22nd case. This involve V.I. searching for a friend of her protegee who is later found remote house. Drugs are involved. The FBI is involved. Classic V.I. going after the bigwigs of Chicago. This comes out April 16th.

Circle in the Water by Marcia Muller. This is Sharon McCone’s 36th case. This has Sharon requested to solve a string of pranks surrounding occupants of an elite and wealthy neighborhood. What McCone finds throughout her search is not only murder, but a meth lab. So, what’s really going on in this neighborhood. This releases April 23th.

Forget me Never by Susan Wittig Albert. After about a three year break, Susan Wittig Albert’s China Bayles is back with her 29th investigation. As I’m writing this, there isn’t much information available on what the book is about (unless you scoured through the authors blog), but according to Amazon it is slated to release on May 29th. My only hope is that Albert is back to giving China a murderous crime to solve. Because, though I love all the ghost and New Age stuff, I really with the stories would go back to being these small-town high stake murder affairs.

Truth Be Told by Patricia Raybon. This is the third book in Raybon’s Annalee Spain mystery series. Taking us back to 1924, amateur detective and once schoolteacher, Annalee Spain, is going to be involved with a political-centric type murder mystery. This I due out on June 11th.

A Lethal Lady by Nekesa Afia. Book three in Afia’s Harlem Renaissance Mystery is due out July 30th. We’re back into the mind of her main character, Louise Lloyd, who thought trading Harlem for Paris would avail her of solving murders. Evidently, she’s dead wrong.

"2024 New Release Mystery Book Baddies I'm Looking Forward To," said the Zebra in the Blue Shirt.

 

CHOP IT UP: Against the Currant by Olivia Matthews

 

CHOP IT UP: Hide & Fall by Tracy Clark

 

CHOP IT UP: Unnatural Death: A Scarpetta Novel by Patricia Cornwell

 

Another Currently Reading...

 

"Fifteen-year-old Justin Billings wants nothing more than to break the destructive chain of enmeshment clouding his deliberately sheltered adolescence. However, autonomy is fiercely chastised in the Billings household. Justin's newfound dignity threatens his scheming single-mother Wendy's benefit scam, of which Justin's fabricated autism diagnosis serves as an integral cog.

Whether forced into spending time with unsavoury babysitters, or following Wendy on her endeavours, Justin lives a burdensome life. Never fully welcome, wherever he goes. Being the only kid at school without a mobile phone only adds to his isolation.

Determined to flee Wendy's unbearable psychological abuse, Justin wittingly enters the north Wales care system. Unbeknown to him, only compounding his brittle vulnerability. While desperate for independence, engrained self-abhorrence sees him perpetually preyed on by society's wolves. Local tearaway and fellow resident, Darcy Quinney, sniffs his diffidence from a mile off, and gleefully assumes Wendy's puppeteer role."

GRAB YOUR COPY ON AMAZON BY CLICKING THE LINK HERE!

Got the NEW Patricia Cornwell Kay Scarpetta Book...

Unnatural Death, BABY! Happy Release Day! Can't believe I've been reading Kay Scarpetta's crime-filled adventures for fourteen years now. Never missed a book since 2009! And why should I when Kay Scarpetta is my literary aunt in my head. 

Anyway, I'll never forget that night in July 2009 where--after having bought the book the year previous--I laid across my bed and read The Body Farm in its entirety during one long night. I've been hooked on the series since! 

I've held out throughout the not-so-great "hard" books. Loved time spent during Kay's revival era ten years ago. And love Kay in her newfound era where more of the peculiar is fused into her medical examiner cases. Such as the illusion of Bigfoot trampling over two rogue government officials taking refuge in the Virginia woodlands.

Or... so it all seems...

2023 November Book Releases I THINK I WANT...

 

Currently Reading [& Fussing] ~ Glory Be by Danielle Arceneaux #Blackmysteries #marchmysterymadness

 

Excerpt: The 8th Grade Killer by Katy Pierce

Images are Amazon affiliate links to the book

CHAPTER ONE

Amber hopped down from a haphazard pile of driftwood and peered off across Lake Michigan, watching the sunset spill its reds and oranges across the dark water.

At her back, Harborside was already tucking itself into bed. There wasn’t much to do in her hometown—it was mostly filled with boring old shops and creeps walking around with big maps, listening to murder podcasts. But Amber did love this beach. The summer wind blowing off the lake was already cooling down the evening, and she was happy she’d remembered to grab her hoodie.

The crowd of swimmers and beach volleyballers was already disappearing behind her as she trudged through sand in the opposite direction, the distant cheers swallowed by the gentle lapping of waves and an occasional bark from her dog, Cooper. Amber giggled at the big, dumb yellow lab. His tail was wagging at an almost dangerous speed as he trotted ahead along the shoreline.

“Cooper,” she called, knowing the cheeky mutt would ignore her. “Cooper, get back here!”

Amber smiled as he barked at a bug crawling toward the water, batting it with his paw before the next distraction drew him away.

“Are you even listening to me?” Jaclyn, Amber’s friend, snapped her attention back to their gossip. “I asked if you saw what Bethany is wearing.”

Mild curiosity grabbed Amber as she picked up the perfect stone to toss into the lake. Meanwhile, Jaclyn huffed in frustration as she struggled over a tree trunk. They had been coming to this beach all their lives, yet Jaclyn still had trouble navigating nature.

Feeling unusually gracious, Amber decided to humor her. “No, what?”

“It’s the sluttiest bikini I’ve ever seen!” Jaclyn threw her arms into the air, her body exploding with the news. She often made comments like that, and Amber picked out a slight twinge of jealousy in her tone.

“Sounds about right for Bethany.” Amber tried to stifle a chuckle, grabbing at Jaclyn’s mouth to bring her volume down. Jaclyn tended to shout her opinions, and while Amber loved her candor, she didn’t want anyone overhearing what they really thought of their mutual friend.

Amber could appreciate a good slutty bikini, but wearing one was an art form and Bethany was no artist. She didn’t understand that deciding when to wear a swimsuit was almost as crucial as the choice of swimsuit itself. For Bethany to wear something like that at Whittler’s Cove, at night, was a bold statement.

“Bethany’s probably still trying to ride Abigail’s brother. I saw them there too.” Jaclyn rolled her eyes at how obvious Bethany was being. She was normally too savvy to do something as stupid as wearing a string bikini in early summer.

“Probably. She’s gone into whore hyperdrive since graduation. Abigail’s brother is pretty hot, though.”

“Oh, is he? I guess so…”

Two New #Blackmysteries Launching Within the Coming Weeks

Just a general heads up since we’re talking about Black women writing mysteries–per my last post on Tracy Clark. We have two pieces coming up in the first two months of 2023 (that I am aware of now).

Patricia Sargeant is writing as Olivia Matthews in another new series centered around baking pastries with a West Indian flare down to the Brooklyn streets. The first book in the series is Against the Currant: A Spice Isle Bakery Mystery. It’s due out January 24th, with a follow-up called Hard Dough Homicide coming in May 2023. So Matthews is not playing, honey. And I live for the back-to-back releases. Matthews is coming for the cozy field, as it appears this new series will share in all its West Indian culture and flavor. 

As a matter of fact, culture and taste were two things I found missing in the first book of her previous series. I have yet to read the second book, but I hope to get to it soon. In the meantime, I'm looking forward to Matthew's new (dare I say "daring") series. Many times authors such as Matthews have to either remove or water down cultural references and themes in their work. So this is Matthew saying to the cozy field: NOT TODAY, SATAN. NOT TODAY! That aside, my pre-order is in. Read Matthew's Sister Lou series if you can.

Author Patricia Raybon is back with her 1920s historical fiction-themed series featuring ex-college professor Annalee Spain. Double the Lies will release on February 7th of 2023. Despite my flurry of criticisms about the first book, I look forward to buying this one upon release. 

And such a treat this series is because you hardly EVER find a mystery series that takes place in the flapper days with a black woman in the lead. Like, NEVER. Go to the bookstore and see what I'm talking about! Anyway, how absolutely BOLD this cover is. The feeling I get knowing Raybon and Annalee Spain is COMING for the girls this season does my heart good. Can’t wait to get my hands on this one, too. With, of course, the hopes the author improves on her plotting and not rely on traditional mystery tropes to tell her story.

Patricia Cornwell LIVID Hype

 

Just a Reminder: Shanora Williams...

 ... Lastest pyschologically thriller, The Wife Before, has been out. I'm late to have gotten my copy, but I have it (can't keep up with everything, man). The synopsis reads as (according to Amazon)...

"Samira Wilder has never had it easy, and when her latest lousy job goes south, things only promise to get harder. Until she unexpectedly meets a man who will change her life forever. Renowned pro golfer Roland Graham is wealthy, handsome, and caring, and Samira is dazzled. Best of all, he seems to understand her better than anyone ever has. And though their relationship moves a bit fast, when Roland proposes, Samira accepts. She even agrees to relocate to his secluded Colorado mansion. After all, there’s nothing to keep her in Miami, and the mansion clearly makes him happy. Soon, they are married amid a media firestorm, and Samira can't wait to make a fresh start—as the second Mrs. Graham . . .

Samira settles into the mansion, blissfully happy—until she discovers long-hidden journals belonging to Roland’s late wife, Melanie, who died in a tragic accident. With each dusty page, Samira comes to realize that perhaps it was no accident at all—that perhaps her perfect husband is not as perfect as she thought. Even as her trust in Roland begins to dwindle and a shadow falls over her marriage and she begins to fear for her own life, Samira is determined to uncover the truth of Melanie’s troubled last days. But even good wives should know that the truth is not always what it seems . . ."

It's giving Daphne du Maurier Rebecca vibes–though possibly the Black version. Regardless, if it's anything like her last book, The Perfect Ruin, I know it'll be goooooooooodddddddddd.

June 2022 New Releases (#BlackMysteries) & Currently Reading

 

Who is Ready for the New V.I. Warshawski?

Her and I didn't always get along. But I've learned to love her. And she has learned to trust me. Well, you know what I mean. The point is that my pre-order for Sara Paretsky's 22nd V. I. Warshawski novel, Overboard, is in and ready to go. Next Tuesday... well... we already know what it is when our favorites release new books, eh? "On and poppin'" is the right expression for the occassion.

Currently Reading in May...

 

CHOP IT UP: The Maid by Nita Prose