Last autumn I was reading Tasha Alexander’s Death in St Petersburg, the twelfth title in the Lady Emily series. . In this book Lady Emily and her husband Colin Hargraves are visiting Russia. After an evening at the ballet they come across the body of one of the prima ballerinas. This death leads them into the demi monde world of dancers and their royal and aristocratic lovers. Just as I was finishing the book there was a story on BBC Newsworld about a new movie that was creating some controversy in Russia. The movie which was called Matilda, described a relationship between Tsar Nicholas II and ballerina Matilda Kshesinkaya, which occurred before Nicholas was married to Princess Alix of Hesse. As Nicholas and his family are, due to their murders, regarded as almost saint like by many Russians, the movie was seen as almost blasphemous. We’ve got Death in St.Petersburg, in stock in trade paperback at $22.50.
The eleventh installment of Ian Hamilton’s Ava Lee series is being released in December. A couple of weeks ago I was reading an advanced copy of the book which is called The Goddess of Yantai. Much of the plot centres around the problems that Ava’s friend Chinese film actress Pang Fai is having with the China Movie Syndicate. This body seems to control all aspects of film production e.g. which actors are given important roles, and distribution how, when and where films are released etc. Almost the next day there was a lot of coverage in various media outlets about the disappearance of Fan Bingbing, described as “China’s most famous actress”. She was one of China’s highest paid stars, having appeared in many Chinese and Western movies including the X Men franchise. Fan has not been seen in public since early July and there were suggestions that she had been banned from acting. Much of the media commentary about this disappearance is eerily reminiscent of Hamilton’s novel. The Goddess of Yantai, is due to be released on December 4th in trade paperback at $19.95.
A customer who was in the store last week recounted a similar experience. A long time fan of Gerald Seymour, who if you don’t know him is a British writer who writes stand alone military thrillers, she had on her previous visit bought a copy of Jericho’s War. But what had struck her while reading the novel, which is set in Yemen was how the fighting around Hodeidah which she saw on the television news echoed the book she was reading. We are sold out of Jericho’s War (mass market $10.99) and waiting for new copies to arrive but we do have a number of his other titles in stock, in both new and used.
One of the talking heads on television during the recent Supreme Court kerfuffle has been mystery writer Linda Fairstein. Fairstein is the author of twenty Alexandra Cooper novels. Alexandra Cooper like her creator is a senior sex crimes investigator in Manhattan. The twentieth novel, Blood Oath, is being released in March 2019. My favourite book in the series is Killer Look, published in 2016 and available in mass market. Please check out our stock of new and Linda Fairstein novels next time you are in the store. Killer Look (#18 in the series) is in stock in mass market for $10.99 and Deadfall #19 is in stock in mass market $12.99.