The Mystery Bookstore

JANUARY DELICATE BUT DEADLY CLUB SELECTION

Blaize Clement, CAT SITTER AMONG THE PIGEONS
Minotaur, $24.99 (signed first edition)
Pet-sitter Dixie Hemingway is looking after an old man's cat when his granddaughter turns up with a baby of her own. She's in trouble, but Dixie has no idea just how much trouble until people start trying to kill her and her baby. Some vicious con artists have used the young woman as a pawn in their scam. They're willing to do anything to hold on to the money they stole, and they're some of the most important people in town.
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DECEMBER DELICATE BUT DEADLY CLUB SELECTION

Maggie Barbieri, THIRD DEGREE
Minotaur, $24.99 (signed first edition)
If you're not already reading this series, you're missing out. English professor Alison Bergeron can't stay out of trouble. A routine stop for coffee puts her in the middle of a brawl between controversial local blogger Carter Wilmott and his archenemy, George Miller. When George cracks Carter over the head, and Carter dies, it looks like a straightforward case of manslaughter – except that Carter's car blows up, and the autopsy shows he had enough arsenic in his system to kill him anyway.
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NOVEMBER DELICATE BUT DEADLY CLUB SELECTION

Joelle Charbonneau, SKATING AROUND THE LAW
Minotaur, $24.99 (signed first edition)
This fun first novel introduces Rebecca Robbins, who returns to her hometown of Indian Falls, Illinois, to sell the roller rink she inherited from her mother. The discovery of a dead handyman in the rink's bathroom derails her plans, and Rebecca finds herself drawn back into small town life.

OCTOBER DELICATE BUT DEADLY CLUB SELECTION

Laura Disilverio, SWIFT JUSTICE
Minotaur, $24.99 (signed first edition)
Charlotte "Charlie" Swift, in this series debut, is starting a new career as a private investigator after eight years as an investigator with the Air Force. She works alone, but has a silent partner – who disappears, leaving his wife with nothing but their house, the Hummer, and half of Swift Investigations. The wife, Gigi, decides to take an active interest in the firm, and shows up as Charlie is looking for the mother of an abandoned baby. Distracted and determined to go it alone, Charlie sends Gigi on a series of goofy assignments; but when the baby's mother turns up dead, Charlie can use the extra help.
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SEPTEMBER DELICATE BUT DEADLY CLUB SELECTION

Betty Webb, KOALA OF DEATH
Poisoned Pen hardcover, $24.95 (signed simultaneous first edition)
Zookeeper Teddy Bentley finds the body of her colleague, television personality Koala Kate, floating in the marina where Teddy lives. Kate didn't drown, though; she was strangled. Both the Gunn Zoo and Gunn Landing Harbor are full of likely suspects, and when Teddy takes over Koala Kate's TV gig, she finds herself at risk as well.

AUGUST DELICATE BUT DEADLY CLUB SELECTION

Ellen Crosby, THE VIOGNIER VENDETTA
Scribner, $24.00 (signed first edition)
The fifth Wine Country mystery puts Virginia winemaker Lucie Montgomery in Washington, DC at cherry blossom time. She's supposed to meet an old friend, but Rebecca never shows up; the next morning, police ask Lucie to identify Rebecca's clothes, neatly folded in a canoe floating down the Potomac River. Along with Rebecca, a price antique silver wine cooler, dating to the War of 1812, has also disappeared. How are the two connected – and is Rebecca's disappearance suicide, murder, or something else?

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JUNE DELICATE BUT DEADLY CLUB SELECTION

Jeanne Matthews, BONES OF CONTENTION
Poisoned Pen, $24.95 (signed first edition)
This first book in a new series introduces Dinah Pelerin, a would-be anthropologist from Australia. Her wealthy and eccentric American uncle has called all the members of his extended family to a remote lodge at the Top End of Australia, with the announced intention of rewriting his will and then committing medically–assisted suicide. Dinah sees this as one last chance to get some information about her father, who was killed during the commission of a felony when Dinah was a child. When she gets to the Top End, however, she finds that things are even stranger and more emotionally unstable, than she expected, and the nearby murder of an apparent stranger brings everything to a boiling point.

Because the original April DBD selection arrived so late, members received signed copies of THE BLACK CAT by Martha Grimes instead – and now this is the May selection:

Rita Mae Brown & Sneaky Pie Brown, CAT OF THE CENTURY
Bantam, $26.00 (signed first edition)
Mary Minor "Harry" Haristeen’s Aunt Tally is about to turn 100, and Aunt Tally's old college sees it as a wonderful opportunity to honor her and do a little fundraising. Plans go forward despite an impending blizzard, but then a board member disappears, after it's discovered that she withdrew (but replaced) $25,000 from the alumni association's account. The board member's car is still on campus, and police find human blood near the school's stables; it's up to Harry and her sleuthing companions, the cats Mrs. Murphy and Pewter and the corgi Tee Tucker, to find out what happened, and why.
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Previous selections:

Parnell Hall, THE PUZZLE LADY VS. THE SUDOKU LADY
Minotaur, $24.99 (signed first edition)
Cora Felton, the Puzzle Lady of Bakerhaven, Connecticut, is big in Japan. Her latest book of sudoku puzzles has just made it to the top of the Japanese bestseller list, displacing Japan's Sudoku lady, Minami. Minami comes to the United States with her 16–year–old niece to meet Cora in person, but someone's killed before the meeting can take place – and Minami becomes determined to prove that she can solve crimes just as well as Cora can. The book includes four sudoku puzzles and two crosswords by New York Times puzzle editor Will Shortz.