In Reference to Murder

May Book Signing Roundup

Here's the latest monthly roundup of author booksigning events at mystery book stores around the U.S. and Canada coming up in May (for dates at chain stores and other venues, check out booktour.com and similar sites).

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Aunt Agatha's
Ann Arbor, MI

Author: Rosemary Harris / Jane Cleland 
Title:  Various titles
Event Time:  Thursday, May 14 at 7 p.m. (reservations required)

Author:  Tasha Alexander, Carrie Bebris and Kathryn Miller Haines
Title:  “History Mystery” Mother’s Day
Event Time: Sunday, May 10 at 2 p.m.

Author:  Elmore & Peter Leonard, interviewed by Loren D. Estleman
Title:  Various
Event Time:  Thursday, May 28 at 7 p.m. (off-site)

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Book Passage
Corte Madera, CA

Author:   Rebecca Cantrell
Title:  A Trace of Smoke
Event Time: Tue, May 26, 2009, 7:00 PM

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Booked for Murder
Madison, WI

Author:  Andrew Grant 
Title: Even 
Event Time:  Thursday, May 14, 6 p.m.

Author:  Lenny Kleinfeld
Title:  Shooters and Chasers
Event Time:  Thursday, May 21, 6 p.m.

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Book 'Em
South Pasadena, CA

Author:  John Shannon 
Title:  Palos Verdes Blue
Event Time:  Sunday, May 3, 1:00 p.m.

Author: Iain Pears  
Title:  Stone's Fall
Event Time: Wednesday May 13, 7:00 p.m.

Author:  Lee Child
Title:  Gone Tomorrow
Event Time:  TBA

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Centuries and Sleuths
Forest Park, IL

Author: Jerry Peterson / Gail Lukasik
Title:  Early's Fall / Death's Door
Event Time:  Saturday, May 2, 2009 2:00 p.m.

Author:  Jerry Peterson
Title:  Early's Fall
Event Time:  Tuesday, May 5, 2009 2:00 p.m.

Author:  Jeff Coen
Title:  Family Secrets: The Case That Crippled the Chicago Mob
Event Time:  Saturday, May 16, 2009 2:00 p.m.

Author:  Lenny Kleinfeld
Title:   Shooters & Chasers
Event Time: Saturday, May 23, 2009 2:00 p.m. 

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Clues Unlimited
Tucson AZ

Author:  Jon Talton
Title:  Pain Nurse
Event Time:  Saturday, May 2nd at 2:00 p.m.

Author:  Louise Ure / Elizabeth Gunn / J. M. Hayes 
Title:  Liars Anonymous / New River Blues / Server Down
Event Time:  Friday, May 8th at 7:00 p.m., bookstore-warming party

Author: Diane Emley
Title:  Nan Vining police procedural series
Event Time:  Saturday, May 16th at 2:30 p.m.

Author:  John Shannon
Title:   Palos Verdes Blue
Event Time:  Thursday, May 21st at 4:30 p.m.

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Foul Play Books
Westerville, OH

Author:  Rosemary Harris
Title:  Pushing Up Daisies and The Big Dirtnap
Event Time:   May 19th at 6:00PM.

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M is for Mystery
San Mateo, CA

Author:  Juan de Recacoechea & Adrian Althoff
Title: Andean Express
Event Time:  Sat.,May 2nd at 2:00 PM

Author:  Jane Cleland
Title:  Killer Keepsakes
Event Time: Fri., May 8th at 7:00 PM 

Author:  Christi Phillips
Title:  Devlin Diary
Event Time: Sat., May 9th at 2:00 PM 

Author: Greg Rucka
Title:  Walking Dead
Event Time:  Mon., May 11th at 7:00 PM

Author:  Iain Pears
Title: Stone’s Fall
Event Time:  Tues.,May 12th at 7:00 PM

Author: Javier Calvo
Title:  Wonderful World
Event Time: Wed., May 13th at 7:00 PM

Author: Garry Disher
Title:  Blood Moon
Event Time:  Sat., May 16th at 2:00 PM

Author:  Reif Larsen
Title:  The Selected Works of T. S. Spivet
Event Time:  Sun., May 17th at 3:00 PM

Author:  George Pelecanos
Title:  The Way Home
Event Time:   Mon., May 18th at 7:00 PM

Author:  Seth Harwood
Title:  Jack Wakes Up
Event Time:  Tues., May 19th at 7:00 PM

Author: Valerie Laken
Title: Dream House
Event Time:  Wed., May 20th at 7:00 PM

Author: Tom Lowe
Title:  A False Dawn
Event Time:  Thurs.,May 21st at 7:00 PM

Author:  Rebecca Cantrell
Title:  A Trace of Smoke
Event Time:  Thurs., May 21st at 7:00 PM

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Murder by the Book
Houston, TX

Author:  Jane Cleland /  Rosemary Harris
Title:    Killer Keepsakes / The Big Dirt Nap
Event Time:  Wednesday, May 6, 6:30 p.m.

Author: Various
Title:   Hit List: An Anthology of Latino Mystery
Event Time:  Friday, May 8, 6:30 p.m.

Author:  Leann Sweeney
Title:   The Cat, the Quilt and the Corpse
Event Time: Saturday, May 9, 4:30 p.m. 

Author:  Iain Pears
Title:  Stone's Fall
Event Time: Friday, May 15, 6:30 p.m.

Author:  Jon Land
Title:  Strong Enough to Die
Event Time: Saturday, May 16, 5:00 p.m. 

Author:  Tom Lowe
Title:   A False Dawn
Event Time: Sunday, May 17, 1:00 p.m

Author:  Garry Disher
Title:  Blood Moon
Event Time: Thursday, May 21, 6:30 p.m. 

Author:  George Pelecanos
Title:   The Way Home
Event Time: Friday, May 22, 6:00 p.m.

Author:  Raymond Benson
Title:  TBA
Event Time: Saturday, May 23, 2:30 p.m.

Author:  Susan Rogers Cooper, Betty Gordon, Nancy Glass West, Rosemary Poole-Carter
Title:  Various
Event Time:  Saturday, May 23, 5:00 p.m.

Author:  Lee Child w/ special guest Andrew Grant
Title:    Gone Tomorrow 
Event Time: Thursday, May 28, 6:30 p.m.

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Murder on the Beach
Delray Beach, FL

Author:  Neil Plakcy / Anthony Bidulka
Title:  Mahu / Sundowner Ubuntu
Event Time: Monday, May 4, 2009 at 7 pm

Author:  Elaine Viets
Title:  Killer Cuts
Event Time:   Friday, May 8, 2009, at 7 pm

Author:  James Grippando
Title:  Intent to Kill
Event Time:  Thursday, May 21, 2009, at 7 p.m.

Author:  James O'Neal (aka Jim Born)
Title:  The Human Disguise
Event Time:  Friday, May 29, 2009, at 7 p.m.

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Mysteries to Die For
Thousand Oaks, CA

Author:  Laura Levine
Title:  Killer Cruise
Event Time:  Saturday, May 2, 2:30 p.m.

Author:  Jon Talton
Title:   The Pain Nurse
Event Time: Saturday, May 9, 12:00 p.m.

Author:  Tom Epperson
Title:  The Kind One
Event Time: Saturday, May 9, 2:00 p.m. 

Author: John Shannon
Title: Palos Verdes Blue
Event Time:  Saturday, May 16, 1:00 p.m.

Author: Tom Lowe
Title:  A False Dawn
Event Time:  Thursday, May 21, 1:00 p.m.

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Mysterious Galaxy
San Diego, CA

Author:  Juan de Recacoechea & Adrian Althoff
Title:  Andean Express
Event Time:  Monday, May 4, 2009 7:00 p.m.

Author:  Jeffrey J. Mariotte
Title:  Cold Black Hearts
Event Time:  Saturday, May 9, 2009 12:00 p.m.

Author: Jim Butcher 
Title: Turn Coat
Event Time: Saturday, May 9, 2009 1:00 p.m.

Author: Seth Harwood
Title:   Jack Wakes Up
Event Time:  Saturday, May 16, 2009 2:00 p.m.

Author:  Tom Lowe
Title:  A False Dawn
Event Time:  Wednesday, May 20, 2009 7:00 p.m.

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Mysterious Bookshop
New York, NY

Author:  Lyndsay Faye
Title:   Dust and Shadow: An Account of the Ripper Killngs by Dr. John H. Watson
Event Time:  May 5th, 6:30-8pm,  book release party

Author: Jilliane Hoffman
Title:  Plea of Insanity
Event Time:  May 7th, 6-7:30pm

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Mystery Bookstore
Los Angeles, CA

Author:  Gary Phillips / Summer Brenner
Title:  Jook  / I-5
Event Time:  Wednesday, May 6 at 7:00 p.m.

Author:  Jon Talton
Title:  The Pain Nurse
Event Time:  Saturday, May 9 at 4:00 p.m.

Author:  Robert Fate, Robert S. Levinson, Gary Phillips, and Eric Stone
Title:  Various
Event Time:  Wednesday, May 13 at 7:00 p.m. (off-site)

Author: Alicia Gaspar de Alba, L.M. Quinn, and S. Ramos O'Briant
Title:  Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery
Event Time:   Saturday, May 16 at 3:00 p.m.

Author:  George Pelecanos
Title:  The Way Home
Event Time:  Tuesday, May 19 at 7:00 p.m.

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Mystery Company
Carmel, IN 

Author:   Jane Cleland
Title:  Killer Keepsakes
Event Time:  Saturday, May 16, 2 pm

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Mystery Lovers Bookshop
Oakmond, PA

Author:  Donna Andrews, Rhys Bowen, Jane Cleland, Jeff Cohen, Toni Kelner, John Lamb, Con Lehane, G.M. Malliet, Nancy Martin, Louise Penny, MarciaTalley, Elaine Viets, and many more
Title: 14th Annual Festival of Mystery with over 40 authors
Event Time:  Monday, May 4, 2009, 4 p.m.

Author:  Lisa Scottoline
Title: Look Again
Event Time:  Saturday, May 16, 2009, 11 a.m.

Author:  Diane Mott Davidson
Title:  Fatally Flaky
Event Time: Sunday May 17, 2009, 2 p.m. 

Author:  Cara Black / Garry Disher
Title: Murder in the Latin Quarter / Blood Moon 
Event Time: Saturday, May 23, 2009, Coffee & Crime breakfast, starting at 10 am   

Author: Michael Connelly / George Pelecanos  
Title:  The Scarecrow / The Turnaround
Event Time: Sunday May 31, 2009, 2 p.m. (off-site)

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Once Upon a Crime Books
Minneapolis, MN

Author: Jane Cleland / Rosemary Harris
Title: Killer Keepsakes / The Big Dirt Nap
Event Time:  Tues. May 12 - 7:00

Author: John Sandford 
Title: Wicked Prey 
Event Time:  Wed. May 13 - 7:00

Author:  Anthony Neil Smith
Title:  Hogdoggin'
Event Time:  Sat. May 16 - 12:00-2:00

Author: David Housewright
Title:  Jelly's Gold
Event Time:  Tues. May 26 - 7:00

Author:  Terri Persons
Title:  Blind Sight
Event Time:  Thurs. May 28 - 7:00

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Partners & Crime
Greenwich, NY

Author:  Michael Connelly / George Pelecanos  
Title:  The Scarecrow / The Turnaround
Event Time:  Friday, May 29, 2009, 7:30 p.m.

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Poisoned Pen
Scottsdale, AZ

Author: Elizabeth Gunn
Title:  New River Blues
Event Time:  Saturday, May 2, 2009, 2:00 pm

Author:  J.M. Hayes
Title: Server Down
Event Time:  Saturday, May 2, 2009, 2:00 pm

Author:  Harley Jane Kozak
Title:  A Date You Can't Refuse
Event Time: Sunday, May 3, 2009, 2:00 pm 

Author: Jane Cleland
Title:  Killer Keepsakes
Event Time: Thursday, May 7, 2009, 7:00 pm

Author: Louise Ure 
Title:  Liars Anonymous
Event Time: Saturday,  May 9, 2009, 2:00 pm

Author:  Laurie R. King
Title:  The Language of Bees
Event Time:  Saturday, May 9, 2009, 3:00 pm

Author: Greg Rucka
Title: Walking Dead  
Event Time:  Tuesday, May 12, 2009, 7:00 pm

Author:  Iain Pears
Title:  Stone's Fall
Event Time: Thursday, May 14, 2009, 7:00 pm

Author: Lindsey Davis
Title:  Alexandria
Event Time:  Saturday, May 16, 20, 2:00 pm

Author:  Tom Lowe
Title: False Dawn
Event Time:  Monday, May 18, 2009, 7:00 pm

Author: John Sandford
Title:   Wicked Prey
Event Time: Tuesday, May 19, 2009. 7:00 pm

Author:  Garry Disher
Title:  Blood Moon
Event Time:  Wedneday, May 20, 2009, 7:00 pm

Author: John Shannon
Title:  Palos Verdes Blues
Event Time:  Wednesday, May 20, 2009, 7:00 pm

Author:  George Pelecanos
Title:  The Way Home
Event Time: Thursday, May 21, 2009, 7:00 pm

Author: Lee Child
Title:  Gone Tomorrow
Event Time:  Wednesday, May 27, 2009, 06:30 pm

Author:  Andrew Grant   
Title:  Even
Event Time:  Wednesday, May 27, 2009, 7:00 pm

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Seattle Mystery Bookshop
Seattle, WA

Author:  Louise Ure
Title:  Liars Anonymous 
Event Time:   Wed, May 6, noon

Author: Greg Rucka
Title:  Walking Dead
Event Time:   Sat, May 9, noon

Author: Mary Malloy 
Title:  The Wandering Heart
Event Time:  Mon, May 11, noon

Author:  Jon Talton
Title:  The Pain Nurse
Event Time:   Sat, May 16, noon

Author:  Garry Disher
Title:  Blood Moon
Event Time:   Mon, May 18, noon

Author:  Various
Title:  Seattle Noir Anthology
Event Time: Sat, May 23, 2pm 

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Uncle Edgar's Mystery Bookstore
Minneapolis, MN

Author: Tate Hallaway (aka Lyda Morehouse) 
Title:  Dead If I Do
Event Time: Saturday, May 9, 1-2 pm

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Vrooman's
Pasadena, CA

Author: Laurie R. King
Title: The Language of Bees
Event Time: Friday, May 8, 2009,  7:00pm

Author:  John Sandford 
Title:  Wicked Prey
Event Time:  Wednesday, May 27, 2009 - 7:00pm

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Whodunit?
Winnipeg, Manitoba

Author:  Susan Bowden
Title:  Various
Event Time:  Wednesday, May 13th, 2009, at 7 p.m.

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END

New Mystery & Crime Fiction Novels Coming in May 2009

Here's a partial representative listing of new crime fiction novels arriving in May, which this month includes new titles by Ken Bruen, Douglas Preston/Lincoln Child, Lee Child, Michael Connelly, Denise Dietz, Charlaine Harris, John Hart, Elmore Leonard, George Pelecanos, John Sandford, Alexandra Sokoloff, and Elaine Viets among many other wonderful and deserving offerings. You can also check out the links at the bottom for more, as they're too numerous to list here.

Simon Beckett: Whispers of the Dead (May 19, 2009).  Forensic anthropologist David Hunter is thrust into his first murder investigation on U.S. soil—and his most devastating case yet.

Ken Bruen: Sanctuary (May 12, 2009).  P.I. Jack Taylor receives a letter containing a list of victims. But it is not until a child is added to the list that Taylor determines to find the identity of the killer, and stop them at any cost.

Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child: Cemetery Dance (May 12, 2009). William Smithback, a New York Times reporter, and his wife Nora Kelly, a Museum of Natural History archaeologist, are brutally attacked in their apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side. While Captain Laura Hayward leads the official investigation, FBI special agent Aloysius Pendergast and Lieutenant Vincent D'Agosta undertake their own private-and decidedly unorthodox-quest for the truth.

Lee Child: Gone Tomorrow (May 19, 2009). On a nearly empty Manhattan subway car, Jack Reacher notices a woman passenger he suspects is a suicide bomber. The deadly result of his confronting her puts him on a trail leading back to the Soviet war in Afghanistan in the 1980s and forward to the war on terrorism.

Michael Connelly: The Scarecrow (May 26, 2009). Forced out of the Los Angeles Times amid the latest budget cuts, newspaperman Jack McEvoy decides to go out with a bang, using his final days at the paperto write the definitive murder story of his career.

Lindsey Davis: Alexandria (May 12, 2009). In first century A.D. Rome, Marcus Didius Falco works as a private “informer,” often for the emperor, ferreting out hidden truths and bringing villains to ground. But even informers take vacations with their wives, so in A.D. 77, Falco and his wife, Helena Justina, with others in tow, travel to Alexandria, Egypt. But they aren’t there long before Falco finds himself in the midst of nefarious doings—when the Librarian of the great library is found dead, under suspicious circumstances.

Denise Dietz: Strangle a Loaf of Italian Bread (May 15, 2009). Ellie Bernstein is hanging out with her boyfriend, Lt. Peter Miller of Colorado Springs Homicide, when he's called to a murder scene. Ignoring his obligatory warning, Ellie plans to find out who strangled Sara Lee, who looked and sounded just like Barbra Streisand, and tossed her body into the dumpster behind Uncle Vinnie's Gourmet Italian Restaurant.

Anne Emery: Cecilian Vespers (May 1, 2009). Lawyer and bluesman Monty Collins attends the opening of the Schola Cantorum Sancta Bernadetta, a kind of choir school for grownups, who would be learning or relearning the traditional music of the Roman Catholic Church, in Halifax, Nova Scotia. When a controversial participant, German theologian Fr. Reinhold Schellenberg, is found nearly decapitated on the altar of an old church just before evening vespers on St. Cecilia's day, Monty gets involved in the murder investigation.

J.M. Gregson: Wild Justice (May 1, 2009). When Tamsin Hayes decides to kill her husband, she sets in train a series of events she could never have predicted. For there is a seedy side to Tim Hayes, which the police are already investigating when he is violently murdered. Was he dispatched by the wife who had vowed to rid herself of him? Or one of the other suspects who emerge once DCI Percy Peach and DS Lucy Blake begin their investigation?

Beth Groundwater: To Hell in a Handbasket (May 15, 2009). All gift-basket designer Claire Hanover wants is some quality time with her family, especially daughter Judy, who's been away in Paris for her senior year of college. But a ski trip to Breckenridge takes a deadly turn when the sister of Judy's love interest is killed in a suspicious snowboarding accident.

Charlaine Harris: Dead and Gone (May 5, 2009). Except for Sookie Stackhouse, folks in Bon Temps, Louisiana, know little about vamps—and nothing about weres. Until now. The weres and shifters have finally decided to reveal their existence to the ordinary world. At first all goes well. Then the mutilated body of a were-panther is found near the bar where Sookie works—and she feels compelled to discover who, human or otherwise, did it.

John Hart: The Last Child (May 12, 2009).  Somebody has abducted Johnny Merrimon’s twin sister, Alyssa. Thirteen-year-old Johnny hasn’t been able to let her go, and even now, a year later, he is still scouring his North Carolina town, looking in every dark place, in the belief that his sister may still be alive and close by. Keeping an eye on Johnny, while fighting his own personal demons, is Clyde Hunt, the police detective who’s spent the last year working the case, even as his marriage and career have crumbled around him. When they discover the truth, they find that it’s something darker and more frightening than either of them could have imagined.

David Housewright: Jelly's Gold (May 12, 2009). Rushmore McKenzie, a retired St. Paul policeman and unexpected millionaire, often works as an unlicensed P.I., doing favors as it suits him. When graduate students Ivy Flynn and Josh Berglund show up with a story about $8 million in missing stolen gold from the ‘30s, McKenzie is intrigued. When Berglund is shot dead outside of Ivy’s apartment, the treasure hunt turns unexpectedly deadly.

Graham Ison: Hardcastle's Mandarin (May 1, 2009). Ernest Hardcastle, head of the Whitehall CID, is called to investigate the murder of Sir Nigel Strang, permanent secretary at the Ministry of Munitions, in his office. Given his work, Hardcastle wonders whether the Germans might be responsible. Then another murder leads Hardcastle to a worker at Woolwich Arsenal, who is suspected of passing information to the enemy. But is there a connection? Hardcastle must find out.

Michael Jecks: The King of Thieves (May 1, 2009. It's 1325, and Sir Baldwin de Furnshill, Keeper of the King's Peace and his friend Bailiff Simon Puttock are in France to join Prince Edward and Bishop Walter's entourage as they make their journey to the palace of the French king, Charles IV. The Prince must make a demeaning submission in order for the English to keep hold of their French territories. Meanwhile, Queen Isabella has been causing a scandal in the French courts with English traitor Roger Mortimer. The Prince's entourage are delivered into the Queen's custody, but it becomes clear that they have enemies within the palace walls. Simon and Baldwin soon discover a murderous plot that threatens England's future.

Craig Johnson: The Dark Horse (May 28, 2009). Sheriff Longmire investigates when his instincts tell him something isn’t right about a prisoner accused of killing her husband. Wade Barsad, a man with a dubious past, locked his wife’s horses in their barn and burned the animals alive. In return, Mary shot Wade in the head six times—or so the story goes. Walt doesn’t believe Mary’s confession, and he’s determined to dig deeper.

Chris Knopf: Hard Stop (May 1, 2009). Sam Acquillo, who left his job as head of the Technical Services and Support Division of Con Globe for the humdrum life of a skilled carpenter in the Hamptons, is a magnet for trouble. George Donovan, Con Globe's chairman of the board, tries a carrot and stick approach to get Acquillo to find his missing girlfriend, Iku Kinjo, a brilliant and compelling consultant. Half of that ploy works, and Acquillo is drawn back into the deadly machinations of corporate intrigue, where the payoff may be wealth or death.

Elmore Leonard: Road Dogs (May 12, 2009). Elmore Leonard returns with three of his favorite characters: Jack Foley from Out of Sight, Cundo Rey from LaBrava, and Dawn Navarro from Riding the Rap.

Craig McDonald: Rogue Males (May 19, 2009). McDonald has collected a no-holds-barred series of interviews with 16 authors who have shaped and defined narrative fiction and songwriting, including crime fiction legends Elmore Leonard and James Crumley (in one of his last interviews); premier stylists James Sallis and Daniel Woodrell; noir kingpins James Ellroy and Ken Bruen, and top thriller writers Lee Child and Randy Wayne White.

Christopher Nicole: Angel of Destruction (May 1, 2009. In the seventh Anna Fehrbach outing, the end of the war has not allowed beautiful but deadly Fehrbach to retire. Working for the SS her principal antagonist was the Soviet Union, and to Joseph Stalin and his henchman Lavrenty Beria she remains the most wanted of all war criminals. Although under the aegis of the CIA, the Russians remain on her trail and elaborate plans are being laid for her capture and execution.

Terri Persons: Blind Sight (May 26, 2009). A deer hunter tracking his wounded prey through the Minnesota woods gets much more than he bargained for when he makes the grisly discovery of a young girl’s body. The case becomes increasingly complex as psychic FBI agent Bernadette Saint Clare and Tony Garcia's personal relationship heats up, and the investigation is hampered by the many lies that lead them on a circuitous—and deadly—route to the truth.

George Pelecanos: The Way Home (May 12, 2009). Christopher Flynn is trying to get it right. After years of trouble and rebellion that enraged his father and nearly cost him his life, he has a steady job in his father's company, he's seriously dating a woman he respects, and, aside from the distrust that lingers in his father's eyes, his mistakes are firmly in the past. When a temptation almost too big to resist comes along, Chris does the right thing, but old habits and instincts rise to the surface, threatening this new-found stability with sudden treachery and violence.

John Sandford: Wicked Prey (May 12, 2009). In the 19th "Prey" installment, Investigator Lucas Davenport has to deal with a crippled former thief with a grudge who sets his sights on Davenport's adopted daughter, while dealing with a young sniper who's theatening to disrupt the Republication Convention in St. Paul.

Kate Sedley: The Dance of Death (May 1, 2009). Roger the Chapman is far from pleased when the Spymaster General to the King commands him to accompany the beautiful but manipulative Eloise Gray on a special journey to Paris, pretending to be her husband. Roger guesses that the French king is making overtures to the Duke of Burgundy on behalf of the Dauphin a move which could wreck the relationship with Englands staunch ally and most important customer for her wool exports.

Tom Rob Smith: The Secret Speech (May 19, 2009). In the second thriller to feature Leo Demidov (after Child 44), Demidov is now working as a homicide detective, having repudiated his days as an MGB officer, but his former colleagues, fearful of reprisals from their victims, have begun taking their own lives. Leo himself becomes the target of Fraera, the wife of a priest he imprisoned. Now the leader of a violent criminal gang, Fraera kidnaps Leo's daughter, Zoya, and threatens to kill Zoya if Leo doesn't liberate her husband from his gulag prison.

Alexandra Sokoloff: The Unseen (May 26, 2009).  After experiencing a precognitive dream that ends her engagement and changes her life forever, a young psychology professor from California decides to get a fresh start by taking a job at Duke University. She soon becomes obsessed with the files from the world-famous Rhine parapsychology experiments, which attempted to prove ESP really exists, and teams up with a handsome professor. Unaware that the entire original team ended up insane or dead, the two professors and two gifted Duke students move into the abandoned mansion to replicate the investigation, with horrifying results.

Rebecca Tope: Slaughter in the Cotswolds (May 2009). Thea Osborne throws herself into house-sitting in Lower Slaughter following her beloved father's death - anything to keep her busy and away from some of her rather difficult relatives which does the trick for a short period of time. But when Thea's prickly elder sister turns up on her doorstep after witnessing a horrific murder, the tentative tranquillity in Lower Slaughter vanishes, replaced by the sinister connotations of the town's name.

Peter Turnbull: Informed Consent (May 1, 2009). A badly injured man is found lying in a street in the centre of York in the early hours of the morning. He subsequently succumbs to his injuries without regaining consciousness. Detectives Hennessey and Yellich are brought in to investigate. Their inquiries reveal that the man was looking into the death of his brother and they discover a vindictive divorce and her involvement with a deeply suspect finance company which has connections to other unsolved murders.

Elaine Viets: Killer Cuts (May 5, 2009). Helen Hawthorne’s latest dead-end job is in Miguel Angel’s Fort Lauderdale hair salon, where a trim can cost as much as a car payment and a blowout can wipe you out. But when one of the salon’s most famous clients, gossip blogger and cable-TV show host Kingman “King” Oden is murdered at his own wedding, things get a little hairy and King becomes the prime suspect. To save her boss—and her job— Helen is determined to find the murderer.

For more of the new hardcover, trade paperback, and paperback releases (as well as reissues), check out the following sites from The Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore, Books N Bytes, San Diego's Mystery Books, Powells Books, the Bloodstained Bookshelf, and Fantastic Fiction.

A Book Recap-ture

In case you were monetarily-challenged like moi and unable to participate in the LA Times Festival of Books, here's a Recap of the Recaps, to keep you in the loop:

The Rap Sheet featured a three-part report on the "Fest of the West" starting with Part I from the pre-festival Mystery Bookstore party hosted by the Mystery Writers of America and followed by Part II looking at panels and signings on the first day and Part III's writeup of the Sunday festivities.

Jeri Westerson also had a two-part review from an author's perspective, located here and here.

Sarah Weinman was busy as a moderator but managed to pass along some thoughts.

GalleyCat had a backstage pass and reported on the book award winners, and Make Mine Mystery blog's Anne Carter participated in the successful Sisters in Crime booth.

Obsessions of a Pop Culture Nerd had a two-part recounting of the "Cops & Crooks in California" panel with Don Winslow, T. Jefferson Parker, Joseph Wambaugh, and Robert Crais as moderator, listed here and here.

If you're a Tweeple, you can check out Twitter's #latimesfob of on-site Tweets.

Not surprisingly, the LA Times was also there. The main page is here, but since it's almost book-length in its coverage, if you want to jump to the crime-fiction highlights, check out the following:

• Classic California Crime (true crime)

• Fiction: Closing Time including thriller writer Jerry Stahl (who was also interviewed about his latest, Pain Killers)

• Publishing: From Keyboard to Bookstore featuring Johnny Temple, the publisher and co-founder of Akashic Books and its noir series

• James Ellroy's weird, wild, and definitely not boring speech

• Historical crime fiction authors Tom Epperson, Denise Hamilton and Nina Revoyr with Sarah Weinman moderating discussing "Cold Cases"

• Don't want to leave some four-legged (and one two-legged) mystery fans.

The Prosecution Rests

As part of Edgar Week this year, the latest Mystery Writers of America anthology, titled The Prosecution Rests, will be formally launched tomorrow at 6:00 pm at The Mysterious Bookshop in New York City. The Linda Fairstein-edited anthology is a combination of stories by invited authors and also authors selected via an open contest which resulted in a total of 22 high-caliber stories.

The book starts off with an offering by the late Edward Hoch, "The Secret Session," centering on judicial corruption at the appellate level. The other stories cover a variety of different aspects of both courtroom justice and legal pitfalls, ranging from a civil suit brought when the holder of a life-insurance policy turns out not to be fatally ill after all (James Grippando); a look at euthanasia (Leigh Lundin); a law clerk who stumbles upon two murders (Barbara Parker); and even the Salem Witch Trials (Kate Gallison).

Several of the authors will be on hand to sign the book tomorrow evening, your chance to mingle with Anita Page, Angela Zeman, Kate Gallison, Daniel Hale, Diana Hansen-Young, John Putre, S.J. Rozan, Morley Swingle, Joe Wallace, and Linda Fairstein. (Hat tip to the Women of Mystery blog.)

Friday Follow-Up Fun

Here are a few of the Friday blog happenings to check out:

Graphic Novel Friday over at Omnivoracious reviewed the "nuanced, pitch-perfect" Britten and Brulightly, a noir graphic novel by Hannah Berry.

The Rap Sheet's weekly Friday feature, The Book You Have to Read, takes on Kent Anderson's Sympathy for the Devil.

Patti Abbot's Friday Forgotten Books roundup has several offerings including her own contribution, Paula Fox's novel Desperate Characters, and links to titles by others.

Redlines and Deadlines is having a whimsical contest:  using only the phrases from spam/junk email subject lines, create a coherent little vignette, no more than 200 words. Rules are on the blog site. But hurry — the deadline is May 1st.

Media Murder

MOVIES

The Gaumont Film Company has acquired Paranoia by suspense novelist Joseph Finder and hired Barry Levy to write the screen adaptation. Finder's High Crimes was previously adapted for a movie starring Morgan Freeman and Ashley Judd.

The movie based on Ken Bruen's London Boulevard has added Ray Winstone, Anna Friel, and David Thewlis to the cast. They join the already-announced Colin Farell and Keira Knightly.

Several novel-to-film rights were announced recently:

• Fox 2000 acquired the screen rights to Patricia Cornwell's bestselling books featuring medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta to develop as a vehicle for Angelina Jolie.

• Henry Chang's Chinatown Beat (with Detective Jack Yu) were optioned to Silverock Films.

• Stanley Evans's Seaweed on the Street, in which a Native American community cop combines crime sleuthing with Coast Salish mythology, was optioned on behalf of Full Regalia Enterprises.

• The rights to Michael McClelland's Oyster Blues, depicting an English professor/P.I. and a waitress who are on the run thinking that they are wanted for murder, was sold to producer Jon Judelson (of The Inventors fame).

TV

ABC picked up 13 episodes of Copper, a Canadian co-production revolving around five rookie cops

Lifetime Network is adding a number of new dramas and movies:

• The Fallen (working title), based on T. Jefferson Parker's novel of the same name, from executive producer McG (The OC, Charlie's Angels) and executive producers/writers Ed Decter and John Strauss (Head Over Heels).

• Murder in Suburbia, the detective series formatted from the popular British series, written and executive produced by Jon Maas (True Confessions of a Hollywood Starlet).

• Two murder-mystery franchise movies based on Ellen Byerrum's popular Crimes of Fashion novels Killer Hair and Hostile Makeover, with Mark Consuelos (Hope & Faith), Maggie Lawson (Psych), Mario Cantone (Sex and the City) and Mary McDonnell (TV's Battlestar Galactica), to debut in July.

• They join the already-announced At Risk and The Front, both based on Patricia Cornwell novels, slated for broadcast in 2010. 

WEB/RADIO

Public Radio's To the Best of Our Knowledge featured a program with Michael Chabon talking about writing that transcend genres; Judith Freeman was interviewed about her book The Long Embrace: Raymond Chandler and the Woman He Loved; author M.C. Beaton and Matthew Prichard, Agatha Christie's grandson, discussed the joys of the English "cosy" and the quality of Christie's plotting; and Richard Price talked about his crime-novel-that's-not-a-crime-novel, Lush Life.

NPR chatted with Marc Blatte about his debut novel Humpty Dumpty Was Pushed which has been billed as "hip hop noir."

Walter Mosley was interviewed on Minnesota Public Radio.

David Ewen (who also operates Book World News with USA Today) has started a televised program called "Morning Coffee" on the web to promote authors, publishers, writers, and book sellers.

Borders has made a 10-minute movie about Janet Evanovich's Stephanie Plum series. In honor of the next Plum book, Finger Lickin' Fifteen, Borders is encouraging fans to make their own Plum videos of 2 to 10 minutes, post them on YouTube and notify Borders of the URL. Borders will then share some of them with other Borders customers on its website and via the Borders Shortlist e-mail.

A New Hit List

Hit List: The Best of Latino Mystery is a new collection of short crime fiction edited by Sarah Cortez and Liz Martínez. There are seventeen stories including Edgar-finalist Manuel Ramos's "The Skull of Pancho Villa," A.E. Roman's "Under the Bridge", featuring New York City PI Chico Santana (a lead-in to the author's debut novel, Chinatown Angel), a humor piece by S. Ramos O'Briant titled "Death, Taxes ... and Worms," and contributions by established writers Mario Acevedo, Carolina García-Aguilera and Steve Torres. Readers might find it a "spicy" alternative to the recent wave of Scandinavian crime fiction (it's always nice to have balance in life...).

And the results are in from yesterday's poll of cliched review phrases. The winner is: "X meets Y" (as in "Agatha Christie meets Stephen King"). Running a close second was "Unputdownable."

Rollicking, Sweeping, Unflinching Cliches

"A real page turner" — possibly the most overused cliche in the history of book reviewing and blurbing. Much has been written about the efficacy and abuses of reviews and book jacket blurbs, such as these essays from Michelle Gagnon and Tess Gerritsen about blurbs, and David J. Montgomery's Crime Fiction Dossier (here and here) and the New York Times about reviews. One thing remaining, however, is that even the best reviewers can become so overwhelmed at times they resort to a few tried and true phrases.

So, here's your chance to weigh in:  Which of the following cliched phrases gives you the nails-on-a-blackboard response when you encounter them in a print or online review/blurb?

A Southwest Fest

No matter what your book interest or genre, the Los Angeles Times Festival of Books this weekend has got you covered. Crime fiction is particularly well represented, both via the panel and speaker sessions indoors and the outdoor stages on Saturday and Sunday, April 25th and 26th.

Saturday and Sunday panel sessions are sponsored by sponsored by the Mystery Writers of America and include:

SATURDAY, APRIL 25

PANEL 1011, 10:30 a.m.
Mystery: A Dark & Stormy Night
Moderator: Lee Goldberg

• Jan Burke
• Stephen J. Cannell
• Robert Dugoni
• Craig Johnson

PANEL 1012, 12 p.m.
Mary & Carol Higgins Clark in Conversation with Amy Alkon
Interviewer: Amy Alkon

• Mary Higgins Clark
• Carol Higgins Clark

PANEL1013, 1:30 p.m.
Mysteries in Black & White
Moderator: Sarah Weinman

• Denise Hamilton
• Michael Koryta
• Simon Lewis

PANEL1014, 3 p.m.
Mystery: Cops & Crooks in California
Moderator: Robert Crais

• T. Jefferson Parker
• Joseph Wambaugh
• Don Winslow

SUNDAY, APRIL 26

PANEL2011, 10:30 a.m.
Mystery: Cold Cases
Moderator: Sarah Weinman

• Tom Epperson
• Denise Hamilton
• Nina Revoyr

PANEL 2012, 12 p.m.
Mystery: Crime & Punishment
Moderator, Gary Phillips

• Paul Levine
• Lisa Scottoline
• John Shannon
• Stuart Woods

PANEL 2013, 1:30 p.m.
Mystery: Guns & Gams
Moderator: Mary McNamara

• Cara Black
• Harley Jane Kozak
• Lisa Lutz

PANEL 2014, 3 p.m.
Mystery: Gun in Cheek
Moderator: Rob Roberge

• Thomas Perry
• Mark Haskell Smith
• Paul Tremblay

And on the outside Los Angeles Times stage on Sunday:

2 p.m.
David Baldacci, First Family

3 p.m.
Lisa Scottoline, Look Again

When Do You Quit?

Susan Boyle on Britain’s Got Talent is a model for perseverance. Toni McGee Causey over at the Murderati Blog takes it a step further and talks about writers working through rejection and how to know when to call it quits, basically concluding that "You quit when you have another dream that means more to you."

Author blogs like Murderati can be a wealth of inspiration and ideas. Another is Type M for Murder which has a new posting about writing secondary characters taken from Donald Maass' book The Fire in Fiction: Passion, Purpose and Techniques to Make Your Novel Great. One excerpt: "Supporting players in manuscripts are too often forgettable. They walk on, walk off, making no particular impression. What wasted opportunities, in my opinion, especially when you consider that secondary characters aren't born, they're built."

Take advantage of these free offerings from writers who have been there, done that, are still learning, and quite happy to pass along some tips gained from their experiences along the way.