"Waiting On" Wednesday: King of Diamonds

Jill at Breaking the Spine, hosts "Waiting On" Wednesday, a weekly event spotlighting those new and future releases that we're looking forward to getting our hands on.

And this week, the book I'm looking forward to is:

The King of Diamonds
Written by Simon Tolkien
Minotaur Books
Expected Release Date: March 15, 2011

Description from GoodReads:

A sophisticated mystery layered with dark secrets from the past, and slow-burning suspense.

It’s 1960, and David Swain is two years into his life sentence for murdering the lover of his ex-girlfriend, Katya Osman. In the dead of night, David escapes from prison, and that same night Katya is found murdered in her uncle’s home, Blackwater Hall.

Inspector Trave of the Oxford Police, last seen in The Inheritance, heads the manhunt for David, whom he first brought to justice two years earlier. But Trave’s suspicions lead him to Katya’s uncle Titus Osman, a rich diamond dealer, and his sinister brother-in-law, Franz Claes, who has gone to great lengths to hide his former ties with the Nazis. However, Trave’s motives are suspect - Osman is having an affair with Trave’s estranged wife, Vanessa, and a newcomer to the Oxford Police, Inspector Macrae, is eager to exploit Trave's weaknesses to further his own ambition. Caught up in his superiors’ rivalry, Trave's young assistant, Adam Clayton, finds himself uncertain who is right and which side to choose. Once David is captured and put on trial for his life, Trave is willing to risk everything that is dear to him—professionally and personally—to pursue his obsessive belief in Osman’s guilt.

I read Tolkien's first Inspector Trave novel (The Inheritance) last year and thought at the time that it would make a terrific series. So I'm glad to know that the author must have been thinking along those lines, too! I'm eagerly awaiting this new installment, but I do wish they'd come up with a better cover.

"Waiting On" Wednesday: The Brothers of Baker Street

Jill at Breaking the Spine, hosts "Waiting On" Wednesday, a weekly event spotlighting those new and future releases that we're looking forward to getting our hands on.

And this week, the book I'm looking forward to is:

The Brothers of Baker Street
Written by Michael Robertson
Minotaur Books
Release date: March 1, 2011

Description (from GoodReads):

The second in a highly original and absolutely marvelous series about two brother lawyers who lease offices on London's Baker Street--and begin receiving mail addressed to Sherlock Holmes. When brothers Reggie and Nigel Heath choose 221B Baker Street as the location for their law office, they don’t expect that their new office space would come with one huge stipulation, answering the letters sent to Sherlock Holmes, the most famous resident of that address.

Reggie is distressed because the love of his life, actress Laura Rankin (whom Nigel also adores), is gallivanting around with media mogul Lord Buxton. And while Reggie is working on a new case involving one of London’s Black Cab drivers who is accused of murdering two American tourists, the letters to Sherlock Holmes are piling up. There's even one from someone who claims to be the descendant of Professor James Moriarty.

With a case that would have puzzled even Sherlock himself and a pair of brother sleuths more different than night and day, The Brothers of Baker Street is sure to please mystery fans whatever their address.

I haven't read the first book in the series yet (The Baker Street Letters), and as I recall it didn't get terrific reviews. But this one sounds like it's definitely worth a try.

"Waiting On" Wednesday: Prophecy

Jill at Breaking the Spine, hosts "Waiting On" Wednesday, a weekly event spotlighting those new and future releases that we're looking forward to getting our hands on.

And this week, the book I'm looking forward to is:

Prophecy
Written by S.J. Parris
Doubleday
Expected Release Date: May 3, 2011

Description (from GoodReads):

S. J. Parris returns with the next Giordano Bruno mystery, set inside Queen Elizabeth’s palace and steeped in period atmospherics and the strange workings of the occult.

It is the year of the Great Conjunction, when the two most powerful planets, Jupiter and Saturn, align—an astrologi­cal phenomenon that occurs once every thousand years and heralds the death of one age and the dawn of another. The streets of London are abuzz with predictions of horrific events to come, possibly even the death of Queen Elizabeth.

When several of the queen’s maids of honor are found dead, rumors of black magic abound. Elizabeth calls upon her personal astrologer, John Dee, and Giordano Bruno to solve the crimes. While Dee turns to a mysterious medium claiming knowledge of the murders, Bruno fears that some­thing far more sinister is at work. But even as the climate of fear at the palace intensifies, the queen refuses to believe that the killer could be someone within her own court.

Bruno must play a dangerous game: can he allow the plot to progress far enough to give the queen the proof she needs without putting her, England, or his own life in danger?

************

I read the first of Parris's Giordano Bruno novels, Heresy, last year and really enjoyed it. So I'm very much looking forward to this next adventure.

"Waiting On" Wednesday: A Red Herring Without Mustard

Jill at Breaking the Spine, hosts "Waiting On" Wednesday, a weekly event spotlighting those new and future releases that we're looking forward to getting our hands on.

And this week, the book I'm looking forward to is:

A Red Herring Without Mustard
Written by Alan Bradley
Release date: February 8 or March 8, 2011

Description (from GoodReads):

Award-winning author Alan Bradley returns with another beguiling novel starring the insidiously clever and unflappable eleven-year-old sleuth Flavia de Luce. The precocious chemist with a passion for poisons uncovers a fresh slew of misdeeds in the hamlet of Bishop’s Lacey—mysteries involving a missing tot, a fortune-teller, and a corpse in Flavia’s own backyard.

Flavia had asked the old Gypsy woman to tell her fortune, but never expected to stumble across the poor soul, bludgeoned in the wee hours in her own caravan. Was this an act of retribution by those convinced that the soothsayer had abducted a local child years ago? Certainly Flavia understands the bliss of settling scores; revenge is a delightful pastime when one has two odious older sisters. But how could this crime be connected to the missing baby? Had it something to do with the weird sect who met at the river to practice their secret rites? While still pondering the possibilities, Flavia stumbles upon another corpse—that of a notorious layabout who had been caught prowling about the de Luce’s drawing room.

Pedaling Gladys, her faithful bicycle, across the countryside in search of clues to both crimes, Flavia uncovers some odd new twists. Most intriguing is her introduction to an elegant artist with a very special object in her possession—a portrait that sheds light on the biggest mystery of all: Who is Flavia?

As the red herrings pile up, Flavia must sort through clues fishy and foul to untangle dark deeds and dangerous secrets.

This is Bradley's third novel featuring the wonderful eleven-year-old sleuth Flavia de Luce. I was a bit skeptical about the first novel in the series - The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie. Precocious children in adult fiction usually turn me off. But the book turned out to be a great read. Haven't read the second book in the series yet (The Weed That Strings the Hangman's Bag), so I better get busy and do that before I get my hands on this new installment.

"Waiting On" Wednesday: Stitch Me Deadly

Jill at Breaking the Spine, hosts "Waiting On" Wednesday, a weekly event spotlighting those new and future releases that we're looking forward to getting our hands on.

And this week, the book I'm looking forward to is:

Stitch Me Deadly
Written by Amanda Lee
Signet Books
Release date: February 1, 2011

Description (from GoodReads):

Marcy Singer owns The Seven Year Stitch, an embroidery specialty shop in the small town of Tallulah Falls, Oregon. Trouble strikes when an elderly woman brings an antique piece of embroidery into the shop-and promptly dies of unnatural causes. Now Marcy has to stitch together clues to catch a crafty killer.

Amanda Lee is a pseudonym of author Gayle Trent, who also writes as Holly Jordan. This is the second in Lee's Embroidery Mystery series; the first was last year's The Quick and the Thread. Haven't read that one yet, but I love Monica Ferris's Needlecraft Mystery series (featuring amateur sleuth and needlework shop owner Betsy Devonshire), so I thought I'd give these a try.

"Waiting On" Wednesday: One True Sentence

Jill at Breaking the Spine, hosts "Waiting On" Wednesday, a weekly event spotlighting those new and future releases that we're looking forward to getting our hands on.

And this week, the book I'm looking forward to is:

One True Sentence
Written by Craig McDonald
Minotaur Books
Release date: February 15, 2011

Description (from GoodReads):

A Movable Feast meets The Dante Club, this crime novel by Edgar-nominated Craig McDonald begins when a literary magazine editor’s body lands in the Seine.

Paris, 1924. Hector Lassiter, crime novelist and best friend of Ernest Hemingway, is passing the Pont Neuf when he sees a body fall into the Seine, the first in a string of brutal murders that befall literary magazine editors on both banks of the City of Lights. Eager to solve the mystery, Gertrude Stein gathers the most prominent crime and mystery writers in the city, including Hector and the dark and intriguing mystery novelist Brinke Devlin. Soon, Hector and Brinke are tangled not only under the sheets but in a web of murders, each more grisly than the next, and Hemingway, Hector, and Brinke have to scramble to find the killer before they become the next victims.

Paris in the 1920s and a few grisly murders! And Gertrude Stein running the show? How could I pass that up?

"Waiting On" Wednesday: A Nose for Justice

This is my first time joining in on "Waiting On" Wednesday. Hosted by Jill at Breaking the Spine, WOW is a weekly meme that "spotlights upcoming releases that we're eagerly anticipating."

And the book I'm eagerly anticipating is:


A Nose for Justice
By Rita Mae Brown
Publication Date: 21 September 2010

Product Description (from Amazon.com):

Explosive sabotage and the startling unearthing of a hundred-year-old skeleton on a Nevada ranch thrillingly start off this debut novel in a tail-wagging new series from New York Times bestselling author Rita Mae Brown.

With the ruins of her high-powered Wall Street job now far in the rearview mirror of her rented silver Camaro, thirty-two-year-old Mags Rogers arrives at her great-aunt Jeep’s sprawling Wings Ranch to reassemble her life. In the passenger seat, with his suspicious nose to a cracked window, is Mags’s beloved wirehaired dachshund, the urbane Baxter.

Mags was named for her great-aunt, Magdalena—though everyone calls the spry octogenarian rancher Jeep. From piloting planes in World War II to discovering one of America’s largest gold deposits, Jeep has enjoyed a lifetime jam-packed with love and adventure, and she’s not done yet. At her side—to Baxter’s low-down distress—is Jeep’s loyal German Shepherd mix, King. The growlings are mutual: King sniffs that Baxter is a “fuzzy sausage.”

Meanwhile, someone pipe-bombs Red Rock Valley’s pumping station, endangering the water supply near and far. Deputy Pete Meadows links the sabotage to a string of local murders, but he doesn’t yet know if it’s a corporate plot or twisted eco-terrorism. He’s also called out to Wings Ranch when human bones are dug up in Jeep’s barn; the dead man’s ring identifies him as an elite Russian military officer from the late 1800s, apparently knifed to death. In her search to find out whodunit, Mags uncovers fascinating history about Jeep’s ranch, including an intriguing connection to Buffalo Bill.

Mags and Pete have mysteries to solve, among them why they are so drawn to each other. Baxter and King team up when it comes time to protect their humans. And all the while, Jeep Reed, the sassiest wit in the West, has a bold plan for Red Rock Valley in which they all will play a part.

I love the Mrs. Murphy mysteries Rita Mae Brown writes (with the aid of Sneaky Pie Brown, her pet tabby cat). So this new series is something I'm really looking forward to, even if it does take the spotlight off those clever kitties.