Reading right now:

“Spirits and Sourdough” is the tenth book in the Magical Bakery Mystery series by Bailey Cates. If you need a break from domestic thrillers, you might want to read this cozy series featuring witchy bakery owner Katie Lightfoot in Savannah. This well-done light murder mystery series has supernatural elements and an excellent reoccurring cast. In this most recent installment, Katie goes on a ghost tour of Savannah only to have a newly dead ghost turn up demanding that her murder be solved.

On hold right now:

There are so many bestselling mystery authors coming out with new books in March that you better start putting holds on all your favorites right now. Harlan Coben’s “The Match” is his second book in the Wilde series. C. J. Box’s “Shadows Reel” is his 22^nd book in the Joe Pickett series. Stuart Woods has “A Safe House” coming out which is his 61^st Stone Barrington mystery novel. “What Happened to the Benefits” is Lisa Scottoline’s latest standalone novel. Janet Evanovich launch’s a new series with “The Recovery Agent” featuring Gabriela Rose as a recovery agent. Jude Deveraux’s fourth book in her Medlar Mystery series is “A Relative Murder.” Fern Michaels latest domestic thriller is “Fear Thy Neighbor.” Phillip Margolin’s fifth book in his Robin Lockwood series is “The Darkest Place.” Jacqueline Winspear’s 17^th novel in the Maisie Dobbs series is “A Sunlit Weapon.” If that isn’t enough for you, April brings two of our biggest mystery authors David Baldacci and John Sandford coming out with new books which no one will want to miss. Baldacci’s “Dream Team” is the third in his Aloysius Archer series. Sandford starts a new series with Letty Davenport.

 

With another New Year here, it’s a good time to mention an author that you may have missed that you simply don’t want to miss. If you didn’t read Darby Kane’s “Pretty Little Wife,” you need to make sure you do so right now. The book is a domestic suspense novel with so many twists and turns that you will stay up all night and call in sick the next day to see what is going to happen next. Now to top it all off, her second book “The Replacement Wife” just came out last month. Which means when you finish the first, you’ll have another great book to look forward to.

 

Reading right now:

“Everything We Didn’t Say” by Nicole Baart is a family drama with a mystery in the background. When Juniper Baker fled from Jericho, Iowa, she left behind a daughter to be raised by her parents and a murdered local couple.  She returns to make amends with her now teenage daughter and to solve the murder of her brutally murdered neighbors. Juniper has been holding a secret, but doesn’t know if releasing her knowledge will help her start again or destroy any hope of starting over.

 

On hold right now:

It’s been five years since Joanne Harris added a book to the St. Oswald series called “A Narrow Door.” It seems the time has come for this boy’s prep school to open it’s doors to girls and to a headmistress. The new headmistress, Rebecca Buckfast, is ruthlessly ambitious. It seems she killed to get the job and may have to kill again to keep her secrets buried.

Noah Hawley’s “Anthem” takes the world’s current insanity to a whole new level. Starting with a pandemic of teen suicide, he makes it personal by following a young man who is trying to recover from his sister’s death and finds himself on a quest to end the pandemic which is somehow tied to a man known as the Wizard. This book is an adventure thriller which goes down the road to redemption. It is more thriller than mystery, but is worth mentioning here because of the times we live in and the impact it is having on reviewers.

In “Find Me” by Alafair Burke, Hope Miller reinvented her life after being in a terrible car accident. She gives herself a name and settles into life in a small town in New Jersey for 15 years. Suddenly her best friend discovers that she has vanished leaving behind only a drop of blood where she was last seen. Her DNA sample matches a blood sample connected to a notorious Kansas murder. Now the hunt is on to find Hope and the truth about what she knows.

Other Mysterious Things:

So many books are being turned into movies or series these days that you cannot even begin to keep up. The 1957 Patricia Highsmith novel “Deep Water” is coming out as a movie with Ben Affleck. Kenneth Branagh is working on turning another Agatha Christie novel into a movie (“Death on the Nile”). Hugh Laurie is directing a limited series from another Agatha Christie called “Why Didn’t They Ask Evans?” A new book called “Argylle” by Ellie Conway is already being turned into a movie.  “Luckiest Girl Alive” by Jessica Knoll will star Mila Kunis is set to come out this year. It looks like there will be so many that this list will grow and grow so enjoy a great mystery book and let’s hope some of the movies are worth watching.