If you were a fan of Dorothy Cannell, I found a new series that reminded me of her characters and her settings. Murder at Honeychurch Hall, (tp $18.50), is the first in the series and the second title, Deadly Desires at Honeychurch Hall, will be available in October. The main character is a Kat Stanford is a presenter of a TV show but she is giving it up to open an antique shop with her widowed mother, however, unbeknownst to our heroine her mother has moved away from London and bought a somewhat ramshackle property in the West of England. Kat tracks her down and she and her mother are soon embroiled in various rural shenanigans involving the local nobility. The author is Hannah Dennison who previously wrote the Vicky Hill series.
I had not read any of Deanna Raybourn’s previous series but I really enjoyed the first in her new series, A Curious Beginning (tp$20). The series is set in Victorian England and the main character is a young woman called Veronica Speedwell, who is an entomologist specializing in butterflies. The story begins with the death of her aunts who have raised her since she was a baby. Returning from the funeral an attempt is made to kidnap her and she is rescued by a somewhat enigmatic German nobleman. From there on the plot, as they say, thickens. Veronica is a very appealing heroine and I am looking forward to the second title due out next year.
I know that Sian has written about Darcie Wilde’s, A Useful Woman, a couple of times. I finally got around to reading it and thoroughly enjoyed it. I was reticent to read it because I have since my teens been a super fan of Georgette Heyer’s Regency novels all of which I have read. In fact all of which I own and had just finished a rereading.
Susie Steiner is a writer for the Guardian newspaper and Missing, Presumed is her first mystery novel. A graduate student has disappeared from the flat that she shares with her boyfriend. As the daughter of one of the Queen’s doctors, whose parents have many connections to the government of the day, the local police are from the get go under enormous pressure to find out what happened. The plot has many twists and turns, and it is a very satisfying read. The main police character is D.S Manon Bradshaw and I hope that this will be the beginning of a series.
Quintin Jardine’s Bob Skinner series has been a perennial favourite of mine. The newest title in the series has recently arrived in the store, Private Investigations (tp$22.99). Skinner has now officially left the Scottish police force and does have a private investigators licence. Two seemingly unconnected events, a request by the brother of one of his previous lovers to help settle an insurance claim and a rear-ender in a mall car park coalesce and lead Skinner and the Scottish police force to a series of much larger crimes. The involvement of the police of course brings in the usual cast of characters. An excellent way to while away a summer afternoon and evening.
Summer is always a good time to try new authors and a good way of doing that is to check out the used section. Despite what the sign on the door, might have led you to believe we have bought a fairly substantial amount of books for our used section. As a result we do have many series where we have almost complete runs of titles in a series. So please come and check them out.