Here we go with more debut novels you may have missed. In 1996 David Baldacci wrote “Absolute Power” and in 1997 the movie came out with Clint Eastwood. Since that debut, Baldacci has written almost 50 books which include adult, children, and young adult books. Not everyone’s debut novel catapults them into best selling novelist. Sometimes it takes years to hit that breakthrough book. Despite that knowledge, I think most of us are excited to hear about a debut novel that gets a big push from the publisher and starts getting great word of month because if we’re lucky we’ll still be loving that author’s work 20 years from now. 

Reading right now:

“Too Close” by actress and screenwriter Natalie Daniels is the debut novel of a writer who lives in London and Spain. This psychological mystery is about two neighbors who become “Too Close.” Connie and Ness become inseparable until one day Connie wakes up in a psychiatric hospital with no memory of the crime she supposedly committed.

On hold right now:

 Playwright Trish Harnetiaux’s “White Elephant” is a thriller Christmas novel. Claudine and Henry Calhoun’s real estate office hold a White Elephant gift exchange every Christmas, but this year the competition gets out of control. Unexpectedly an antique cowboy statue shows up in the mix. This ugly statue was used by Henry to commit a murder and hidden by Claudine. Who found the statue and how much do they know? This year’s White Elephant party will prove murderous.

“Girl in the Rearview Mirror” by Kelsey Rae Dimberg centers around Finn Hunt who leaves her past behind when she moves to Phoenix and become the nanny for a US Senator’s four-year-old daughter. One day a woman walks into her life and threatens to bring everything down.

Scriptwriter Soren Sveistrup’s first book is “The Chestnut Man.” Sveistrup’s new novel is a more traditional mystery with detectives Naia Thulin and Mark Hess trying to find the killer called the “Chestnut Man.”

“The Vanished Bride” by Bella Ellis the first book in a new series as well as her first novel. This Bronte Sisters mystery features Charlotte, Emily, and Anne Bronte solving crimes long before they starting writing.

Felicity McLean’s first novel “The Van Apfel Girls are Gone” In the summer of 1992, the Van Apfel sisters disappeared leaving their friend Tikka and her old sister haunted by the loss of their friends. Years later Tikka returns home to try to solve the disappearance.

Also don’t miss: “Her Daughter’s Mother” by Daniele Petrova and “Theme Music” by T. Marie Vandelly.

Other Mysterious Things:

New historical mystery authors are cropping up every day giving those of us who love Anne Perry some new blood to look forward to reading. A.M. Stuart’s new book is her first book and the first in a new historical series (“Singapore Sapphire” a Harriet Gordon mystery). A new spy novel by Lara Prescott is called “The Secrets We Kept.”