Lady of Bones

December 1, 2021

In a series starter from the ever-popular Armstrong, homicide detective Mallory is in 2019 Edinburgh when she experiences A Rip Through Time and winds up in one of the city's alleyways in 1869, inhabiting the body of strangled-if-not-quite-dead housemaid Catriona Thomson and soon hunting for a killer (50,000-copy first printing). In Atherton's Aunt Dimity and the Enchanted Cottage, the redoubtable sleuth and her English-village neighbors fail in their attempt to befriend standoffish newcomer Crispin Windle until they discover the ruins of a Victorian woolen mill--and the graves of children who worked there, whom they seek to identify (30,000-copy first printing; originally scheduled for July 2021). In Nonna Maria and the Case of the Missing Bride, crusty but beloved widow Nonna Maria--who lives on the isle of Ischia in the Gulf of Naples and was inspired by the No. 1 New York Times best-selling Carcaterra's grandmother--intervenes when a young bride-to-be declares that she's afraid of her fianc�. In Haines's Lady of Bones, Mississippi-based Sarah Booth Delaney of the Delaney Detective Agency is attending a party alit with jack-o-lanterns when she's approached by a woman seeking her vanished daughter, who has been investigating the disappearance of young women in New Orleans every Halloween for the last five years (40,000-copy first printing). The internationally best-selling author of the "Dark Iceland" and "Hulda" series, J�nasson sets his new standalone during an Icelandic blizzard, with four frantic friends sheltering in an abandoned hunting lodge and facing a reignited tragedy that likely makes them wish they were all Outside (50,000-copy first printing). In Klingborg's Wild Prey, Inspector Lu Fei of the Chinese Police travels to a remote region of Myanmar to find a missing 15-year-old girl in a case involving the illegal trafficking of exotic animals (50,000-copy first printing). In Robert B. Parker's Revenge Tour, Lupica assigns PI Sunny Randall the thankless task of investigating actress friend Melanie Joan Hall when Melanie's manager turns up dead, her bank account looks to be wiped out, and details of her past suddenly seem more imagined than real. In Paretsky's Overboard, a seriously injured teenage girl discovered by V.I. Warshawski on Lake Michigan's rocky shore subsequently vanishes from the hospital, and the iconic detective must chase down a monstrous conspiracy with pandemic-ridden Chicago as backdrop (100,000-copy first printing). Pursuing a massive drugs-and-weapons shipment being shepherded across the U.S.-Mexican border by former cops with the warning "You talk, you die" written on their bodies, Patterson/Paetro stalwart Sgt. Lindsay Boxer suddenly has 22 Seconds to decide what her fate will be. Second in the new series from librarian Weaver, who launched her writing career with the delightful Amory Ames mysteries, The Key to Deceit has breaker-and-enterer Ellie McDonnell again approached by stuffed-shirt good-guy Major Ramsey in World War II London: he wants her to discover which side the female spy found bobbing in the Thames was on (40,000-copy first printing).

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April 11, 2022
In Haines’s taut 24th Sarah Booth Delaney mystery (after 2021’s Independent Bones), the Zinnia, Miss., PI is approached by Frances “Frankie” Moore, an old friend of her late mother, to find Frankie’s daughter, Christa, who has gone missing in New Orleans. When Sarah Booth travels to the Big Easy and delves into the case with her sheriff boyfriend, Coleman Peters, and her partner in the Delaney Detective Agency, Tinkie Bellcase Richmond, she discovers a trail of disappearances—not only Christa but also Christa’s artist friend, Britta Wagner, as well as a friend of Britta’s. As a budding investigative journalist, Christa was examining the disturbing activities of a local cult, heightening Sarah Booth’s apprehension about the intended fate of Christa and Britta, as well as her own personal danger, as Halloween—a key event for the cult—approaches. Haines’s message about vulnerable people who are prey to unscrupulous individuals, juxtaposed with the determination of Sarah Booth’s circle to find the missing women, adds poignancy. Cozy readers will enjoy spending time with Sarah Booth and company. Agent: Marian Young, Young Agency.

April 15, 2022
Is there a secret to eternal life, or is its promise just a big con? That's the question Sarah Booth Delaney has to answer in her 24th adventure. Now that Tinkie Bellcase Richmond, the partner in Sarah Booth's Mississippi detective agency, has finally given birth to the adorable Maylin, not even the sudden appearance of her household haint, Jitty, dressed as death can distract Sarah Booth for more than a short time. Jitty does offer up a cryptic warning, so when Frances "Frankie" Moore arrives seeking help in finding her journalist daughter, Christa, Sarah Booth prepares for the worst. Because Tinkie must stay home in Zinnia with Maylin, Sarah Booth's boyfriend, Sheriff Coleman Peters, accompanies her to New Orleans, where Christa was investigating human trafficking and a cult. Christa's roommate, free-spirited German artist Britta Wagner, had already vanished, and Christa's disappearance makes Frankie fear for their safety. Christa's boyfriend, Carlos Rodriguez, and her friends in the apartment complex where she lived are not much help, but the sleuths do learn that she was looking into the People of Earth, a cult whose charismatic leader claims she can stop the aging process. Her search for a magical garden Britta was hired to paint takes Sarah Booth all over New Orleans until she finds hints of strange rituals in the garden of a deserted house. Carlos goes AWOL, Christa's friends come clean, and there's a race against time to find the missing women before they're sacrificed. A spooky, dangerous adventure whose premise is all too believable.

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May 15, 2022
Sarah Booth Delaney and her PI partner, Tinkie Bellcase Richmond, are looking forward to the first Halloween with Tinkie's new baby. In the midst of a decorating party with their eclectic group of friends in the Mississippi Delta town of Zinnia, Frances, a friend of Sarah Booth's long-deceased mother, arrives to ask their assistance in finding her daughter, Christa, missing in New Orleans. As they talk, Tinkie realizes her high-school classmate, Pouty, might be involved in the ""cult of immortality"" that Christa was investigating. The partners split up, Tinkie staying home doing research and pumping Pouty, Sarah Booth heading to New Orleans with her boyfriend, county-sheriff Coleman. Once in New Orleans, they are drawn into the cult's shadowy world, quickly learning they can trust no one. With all things pointing to a blood sacrifice by the cult on Halloween, they call in all their friends, including Jinty, the family ghost, hoping to find Christa and her roommate, who was also taken by the cult, before it's too late. An entertaining romp for devotees of the irrepressible Sarah Booth.

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