by Matt Lubbers-Moore
I can’t believe that summer is already half over. It only seems like it just began. At the academic library where I work, we are getting ready for fall classes to begin. This year is especially busy as all of the furniture that has been in storage over the span of the pandemic have to be put back out as social distancing guidelines have expired. It is a thrilling time as we are seeing the library come back to be seen as a place for the students to collaborate and congregate. It’s starting to feel like home again.
I am also thrilled by the announcement that Michael Nava released this past week that Amble Press is going to be publishing a new book from Richard Stevenson. Stevenson, the acclaimed author of the Donald Strachey series, has created a new character! I, for one, am excited to read his new mystery!
On with the Books!
In the Dark: Vol 1 by Jin Shisi Chai (author) Beans (Translator)
Out July 30
Even if trapped in darkness, one will always search for the light. This is a story of a young police officer searching for the answer to “Who am I?” Xie Lanshan was an undercover drug enforcement officer who made his way inside the Golden Triangle’s most feared armed organization as the right-hand man of drug lord Mu Kun. After successfully returning to his post from the operation, an accidental case of police misconduct triggered a series of unexplainable headaches and hidden memories that began haunting him. While investigating the truth behind his father’s death many years ago, Xie Lanshan utilizes his unique and sharp thinking from the perspective of a psychotic murderer to solve difficult cases around him. Plagued by this growing change and instability of both his mental health and personality, he will later meet a mysterious forensic sketch artist named Shen Liufei. Together, the two men will maintain a strange relationship; as friends and enemies, they solve mysterious cases one by one. But, perhaps, there was another motive for the forensic artist to approach the young officer.
Red Tide at Heron Bay by Gerri Hill
E-book Out August 1
Lauren Voss has a nice, quiet, orderly life running her grandmother’s Heron Bay Resort on the Texas coast. Three years removed from a break-up that left her ex, and her life, behind in San Diego, she’s adjusted to the slow pace in Rockport, seeking out neither new friends nor lovers. Vandalism at the resort’s clubhouse, and a cryptic message written in blood, brings Detective Harley Shepherd, with her obnoxious Hawaiian shirts, into her life.
Illusion Lake by Sheryl Wright
E-book Out August 1
A secret consortium, a bent banker, and a desperate lawyer are all that stand between Elliott Snowmaker and the inheritance of her great-uncle’s failing aircraft restoration business. Elliott doesn’t think twice about leaving her home in Toronto and making the long trip to New Mexico and Illusion Lake. Once there, she soon discovers that somebody wants her gone, and gone fast. Kiva Park is only at Illusion Lake for the winter. With a thriving criminal practice up north, handling the mundane chores of her dad’s general law office is a little on the dull side. But her plans for a quiet winter fly out the window when Elliott walks in the door.
The Graveyard of God’s Name by Neil Plakcy
Out August 2
Husbands and close-protection partners Aidan Greene and Liam McCullough are called to protect a young Oxford student with a valuable manuscript. Danny Cardozo, a gay, Jewish scholar, has been entrusted with an ancient scroll, a copy of the Biblical book of Leviticus written soon after the destruction of the Second Temple. When villains threaten him, he heads to an isolated home on the resort island of Djerba, off the Tunisian coast. Danny could build a career as a scholar from the revelations he has discovered in the ancient scroll – if he or any of the elderly men helping him don’t die first. This is the twelfth book in the Have Body Will Guard series.
A Light to Kill By by Mikel J. Wilson
Out August 3
While more revelations come to light about Emory’s past and the mystery surrounding the man in the ski mask, Mourning Dove Investigations is challenged with another bizarre case. Moments after construction tycoon Blair Geister’s death, a mysterious wandering light kills someone on her Southern estate. Is the avenging spirit of the millionairess on a killing spree, or are other forces threatening those in her inner circle? As the will is read, suspicion and jealousy arise, and fingers point to the heirs of her fortune. Private investigator Emory Rome and his Mourning Dove partners accept an invitation to stay at Geisterhaus and unravel its secrets before more lives are lost. It’s the third book in the Mourning Dove series.
Death Foretold by David S. Pederson
Out August 11
A traveling spiritualist is found shot to death in an alley late at night with his underwear around his ankles. But the perpetrator is an enigma. Was it the young trick with a drug problem the spiritualist met in the alley? The unusual woman who runs the boarding house where the trick lives? The dead man’s wife, another spiritualist with secrets of her own? The handsome, alcoholic protégé? The beautiful woman who leads the spiritualist’s fan club? Or someone else altogether? It’s the seventh book of the Detective Heath Barrington series.
Painted to Death by Meg Perry
August 31
This is the first book in the Kevin Brodie series, a spin off from the Jamie Brodie academic mystery series. Although it features many LGBTQ characters this series will not be headlined by a gay character.
X for Extortion by Garrick Jones
To be Declared
This is the second book in the World War II adventure thriller series. Date not yet set by publisher but is highly anticipated for an August release.
Check out other mystery articles, reviews, book giveaways & mystery short stories in our mystery section. And join our mystery Facebook group to keep up with everything mystery we post, and have a chance at some extra giveaways. Be sure to check out our new mystery podcast too with mystery short stories, and first chapters read by local actors. Last month we posted an episode that featured an LGBTQ+ character written by an LGBTQ+ author.
Click on this link to take you to Mysterious Galaxy’s website where you can purchase many of these books & a portion will go to help support KRL:
0 Comments