mystery - Macmillan Library

Happy #BookBday (10/1/13 Edition)

Posted on October 1, 2013 by Anne Spieth

Cue the music: ♫♪♫♫♪ Da na na na na NAH, You say it's your Birthday! Da na na na na NAH, It's my Birthday, too! ♫♪♫♫♪
OK, not really, but maybe we just wanted some cake. Today we wish a very happy #BookBday to:

THREE CAN KEEP A SECRET by Archer Mayor
To mark the 25th anniversary of a long-running, critically acclaimed, New York Times bestselling series, Archer Mayor has written one of his best Joe Gunther books. An October Indie Next pick, THREE CAN KEEP A SECRET involves a complex case with two corpses, one escaped mental patient, and a long-held secret that binds them together.

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SERVICE by David Finkel
MacArthur Fellow and Pulitzer Prize-winning author David Finkel’s new book about life after war picks up with the same men he chronicled in his previous book, THE GOOD SOLDIERS. With three starred pre-publication reviews, such as this one from Booklist, it's not to be missed: "It is impossible not to be moved, outraged, and saddened by these stories, and Finkel’s deeply personal brand of narrative journalism is both heart-breaking and gut-wrenching in its unflinching honesty."

THE NIGHT GUEST by Fiona McFarlane
McFarlane's debut novel about trust, dependence, and fear centers on a widowed woman living outside an isolated beach town and the mysterious government care worker she admits into her home. Not only is it an Indie Next pick, it's also an Indies Introduce title--making it one of the ten best debuts of Fall 2013. "This book is at once a beautifully imagined portrait of isolation and an unsettling psychological thriller." — Publishers Weekly, starred review

Before we blow the candles out and dig in, don't forget there's an Early Word Galley Chat today! Join us at 4pm EST using the hashtag #ewgc. See you there!

Cat book bday

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Thriller Thursday (9/19/13 Edition)

Posted on September 19, 2013 by Anne Spieth

Today marks the start of Bouchercon, the world’s leading convention for crime fiction writers and their adoring fans. Our own Steve Hamilton is the Toastmaster Guest of Honor and we've got three great books nominated for Anthony Awards:

Anthony Award nominees
Best Novel
THE BEAUTIFUL MYSTERY by Louise Penny
THE OTHER WOMAN by Hank Phillippi Ryan

Best First Novel
DON'T EVER GET OLD by Daniel Friedman

Congratulations to the nominees!

UPDATE: a HUGE congratulations to Louise Penny who won the Anthony Award for Best Novel at Bouchercon 2013, this past Saturday, 9/21. This is Louise Penny’s 4th consecutive and 5th overall Anthony Award!

Now on to our #ThrillerThursday picks:
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Friday Reads (Super Spooky Friday the 13th Edition!)

Posted on September 13, 2013 by Anne Spieth

It's Friday the 13th! Aaah! Keep calm, and remember the commandments from horror movies:
1) Don't party too hard
2) Don't split up to investigate strange noises, and
3) For Pete's sake, don't just stand there if a killer comes at you. RUN!

It's only right that today our #FridayReads involve murder and mystery (interestingly enough, both victims in our books die from being stabbed to death):

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Thriller Thursday (9/12/13 Edition)

Posted on September 12, 2013 by Anne Spieth

Happy #ThrillerThursday friends! Today we'd like to tell you about three suspenseful, spine-tingling mysteries that just went on sale this week:

THE EDGE OF NORMAL by Carla Norton
The author of the #1 New York Times nonfiction bestseller PERFECT VICTIM (which the FBI have on their Behavioral Sciences Unit reading list), Norton makes her fiction debut with a perfectly crafted psychological thriller about a former kidnapping victim who must mentor and protect another young girl rescued from a similar situation. With three starred pre-publication reviews, THE EDGE OF NORMAL is a thriller with "the psychological depth of Jonathan Kellerman at his best.” (Booklist, starred review)

THE RED QUEEN DIES by Frankie Y. Bailey

Flash forward to the future: Albany 2019 where a street drug nicknamed "Lullaby" is all the rage. Originally used to treat soldiers with PTSD, it erases traumatic memories—including those of the star witness in a trial who now can't remember the crime. Biracial police detective Hannah McCabe faces similar perplexing problems as she attempts to solve the murders of three women, one of whom is a Broadway actress known as "The Red Queen." Now McCabe must sort through a tangled web of clues involving Alice in Wonderland to find the killer.

THE WRONG GIRL by Hank Phillippi Ryan

Award-winning and Boston Globe bestselling author Hank Phillippi Ryan continues her thrilling Jane Ryland and Jake Brogan series with a chilling new novel that explores a terrifying scenario: What if you didn’t know the truth about your own family? Boston reporter Ryland is tipped off that a respected adoption agency may be reuniting birth parents with the wrong children; meanwhile, detective Brogan's latest case is a domestic violence homicide resulting in two toddlers being shuttled into the foster care system. Then Brogan discovers an empty cradle at the murder scene. With a missing infant and a killer at large, Ryland and Brogan follow clues that threaten to blow the lid off an adoption agency scandal and lead them deeper into the heart of a foster care system in crisis.

Can't wait to find out what happens next? Neither can we! Share what you're reading this #ThrillerThursday with us @MacmillanLib. Stay suspenseful, friends! [...]

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Debut of the Month: Claws of the Cat

Posted on June 11, 2013 by Ali Fisher

Fans of historical and international Mysteries, take note! Susan Spann's CLAWS OF THE CAT is a kick butt debut featuring a ninja detective navigating the political and social perils of sixteenth-century Japan and it's Library Journal's Debut of the Month!

When a samurai is brutally murdered in a Kyoto teahouse, master ninja Hiro has no desire to get involved. But the beautiful entertainer accused of the crime enlists the help of Father Mateo, the Portuguese Jesuit priest who Hiro is sworn to protect, leaving the master shinobi with just three days to find the killer and save the girl and the priest from the dead man’s vengeful son.

"While Spann demonstrates admirable attention to detail in her ninja detective debut, it’s the contemporary tone of her prose that makes this intriguing 16th-century historical so accessible. Laura Joh Rowland fans will like this book for the time period, but the 'buddy tone' is reminiscent of Ian Morson’s 'Nick Zuliani' series and Gary Corby’s 'Athenian Mysteries' series." —Library Journal (starred review, Debut of the Month)

"Spann's debut provides an absorbing look at Japanese culture along with a sharp mystery." —Kirkus Reviews

"[S]et in a mostly untapped period of Japanese history, the book should do well with fans of [Laura Joh Rowland and I. J. Parker]." —Booklist

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Sign Up Now: Thrilling Mysteries Booklist Webinar

Posted on April 17, 2013 by Ali Fisher

Join us at the Booklist webinar "Thrilling Mysteries: Can’t-Miss Crime Fiction for Spring" on April 30th (CORRECTION: 2pm EDT) to learn about a few of our hot forthcoming spring crime novels! It's going to be killer.

Here's the official description:

"May is Mystery Month at Booklist, a time when we indulge our taste for crime. Booklist Online editor Keir Graff will preview online-exclusive feature content, while publishers AudioGO, HarperCollins, Macmillan (!!), Poisoned Pen Press, Seventh Street Books, Random House, and Severn House will share the best titles for libraries from their forthcoming lists. Our mystery webinar gets bigger and better every year!"

If you want to help us spread the word, retweet the info below:

#BooklistWebinar: Can’t-Miss Crime Fiction for Spring! It's going to be killer. bit.ly/11gwK5I 4/30, 4pm EDT #collectiondevelopment

— Macmillan Library (@MacmillanLib) April 17, 2013

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Best. Title. Ever. After.

Posted on November 9, 2012 by Ali Fisher

White as snow, red as blood, black as ebony.

Let's talk about SNOW WHITE MUST DIE by German mystery writer Nele Neuhaus. It's the beginning of a spell-binding new contemporary mystery series, it's already huge international bestseller, and it has the most wicked title!

On a rainy November day police detectives Pia Kirchhoff and Oliver von Bodenstein are summoned to a mysterious traffic accident: A woman has fallen from a pedestrian bridge onto a car driving underneath. According to a witness, the woman may have been pushed. The investigation quickly turns into a small town witch hunt and Pia and Oliver will have to work fast to solve the case before anyone else dies.

"Again and again, Neuhaus inserts the old Grimm fairy tale refrain—'White as snow, red as blood, black as ebony'—that describes Snow White [...] to underscore the grimmest of human emotions: white for icily plotted revenge, red for raging jealousy, black for homicidal madness." -Publishers Weekly (starred review)

With more than three million copies already in print worldwide(!), your patrons will happily be the next victims of this exciting new series!

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The 2012 Shamus Award Nominees!

Posted on September 18, 2012 by Ali Fisher

pwa logo The Private Eye Writers of America (PWA) shortlisted two excellent Minotaur mysteries and a great Forge mystery for the 2012 Shamus Award for Best PI Hardcover! See our nominees below:

BYE BYE, BABY
by Max Allan Collins

THE HIGHLY EFFECTIVE DETECTIVE CROSSES THE LINE
by Richard Yancey

A BAD NIGHT’S SLEEP
by Michael Wiley

Michael Wiley is a previous Shamus Award finalist for his first novel, THE LAST STRIPTEASE. Sign up for CriminalElement.com to read excerpts from A BAD NIGHT'S SLEEP and BYE BYE, BABY. You'll also get access to a lot of exciting material for mystery lovers!

See all of the 2012 nominees here!

The winner will be announced on October 5th, 2012 during the PWA banquet at Bouchercon in Cleveland, Ohio.

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Booklist Webinar: The Murderous Month of May!

Posted on April 24, 2012 by Ali Fisher

Come one! Come all!

This afternoon at 2pm (Eastern) Talia will be telling you all about our hottest new mystery titles in Booklist's The Murderous Month of May: Hot Mysteries for Spring webinar!

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Barbara’s Mystery Preview for LJ!

Posted on April 6, 2012 by Ali Fisher

Barbara Hoffert posted an extensive Mystery Preview for May 2012-August 2012 on Library Journal's website with some great upcoming titles that you'll want to take a peek at.

Barbara listed quite a few hawk... ehem, excuse me... hot titles coming from Minotaur later this year:

"Winner of the Agatha, Anthony, and Barry awards, plus multiple Lefty and Bromberg awards for best funny mysteries, Donna Andrews sets out to prove herself again with SOME LIKE IT HAWK." (July)

"Linda Castillo, winner of a Daphne du Maurier Award for Excellence in Mystery/Suspense, gets appropriately atmospheric in GONE MISSING." (June)

"Sara Foster’s BENEATH THE SHADOWS is set in North Yorkshire, where Grace and Adam move to escape London. And then Adam vanishes." (June)

"Paul Doiron’s BAD LITTLE FALLS puts registered Maine guide Mike Bowditch on remote Canadian border, where a drug dealer has apparently been murdered in the midst of a blizzard." (August)

"Finally, librarian Eleanor Kuhns has won 2011’s Mystery Writers of America/Minotaur Books First Crime Novel Competition. Set in 1796 Maine, A SIMPLE MURDER features soldier turned traveling weaver Will Rees, accused of murdering a Shaker woman." (May)

She also included three excellent titles coming from Forge:

"Bill Pronzini, winner of the Edgar, Macavity, and inaugural Shamus awards, brings back the Nameless Detective, whose wife goes missing in the Sierra foothills [in] HELLBOX." (July)

"In Macavity Award winner Rebecca Cantrell’s A CITY OF BROKEN GLASS, journalist Hannah Vogel, in 1938 Poland for a festival, rushes to cover the story when she learns that 12,000 Polish Jews have been deported from Germany." (July)

"Loren D. Estleman, winner of a Shamus Award for his debut novel, SUGARTOWN, and several for his short stories, returns with BURNING MIDNIGHT, another Amos Walker mystery set in Detroit." (June)

She mentions a great crime title from Bloomsbury USA:

"In contemporary Milan, as seen in Conor Fitzgerald’s THE NAMESAKE, magistrate Matteo Arconti’s namesake is found dead near a court building in what turns out to be a threatening message to Rome." (June)

Oh yes, and finally a winner from Holt:

"Finally, don’t forget VENGEANCE. [...] Author Benjamin Black, whose Quirke novels have been big hits, is of course the Man Book prize winner John Banville." (June)

Great picks, Barbara!

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Cue the music: ♫♪♫♫♪ Da na na na na NAH, You say it's your Birthday! Da na na na na NAH, It's my Birthday, too! ♫♪♫♫♪ OK, not really, but maybe we just wanted some cake. Today we wish a very happy #BookBday to:

UPDATE: a HUGE congratulations to Louise Penny who won the Anthony Award for Best Novel at Bouchercon 2013, this past Saturday, 9/21. This is Louise Penny’s 4th consecutive and 5th overall Anthony Award!

White as snow, red as blood, black as ebony.

Cue the music: ♫♪♫♫♪ Da na na na na NAH, You say it's your Birthday! Da na na na na NAH, It's my Birthday, too! ♫♪♫♫♪
OK, not really, but maybe we just wanted some cake. Today we wish a very happy #BookBday to: