Aames Says “Cheese,” Goff Is For The Birds; Orenduff Steals Pot
February 12th, 2011Welcome to The Murder Circle–Left Coast Crime edition. While I won’t be attending, I can certainly give a shout-out to authors who will be there.
Following THE LONG QUICHE GOODBYE, Avery Aames offers another ”cheesy” entry with this second in the series, LOST AND FONDUE. When Charlotte Bessette helps out with a fundraiser in an old winery, someone winds up dead in the cellar. Charlotte has to solve a case as full of holes as Swiss cheese.
Out in time for LCC is the 5th in the bird-watching series by Christine Goff, DEATH SHOOTS A BIRDIE. Rachel Wilder is off to a convention to save an endangered species in the Okefenokee swamp, but the keynote speaker is the first fatality. Oh, and the covers of the books are beautiful.
It’s “pot” as in pottery, not marijuana, and Hubert Schuze was a treasure hunter until an act of Congress dubbed him a thief. THE POT THIEF WHO STUDIED EINSTEIN is the 3rd in Mike Orenduff’s New Mexico series. Set in Albuquerque, the series has won the New Mexico Book of the Year and now is up for a Lefty. Get a taste of the Southwest and find out the brand of champagne to take back home after the convention.
Get your heart racing with Tammy Kaehler’s debut novel, DEAD MAN’S SWITCH. Race car driver Kate Reilly is excited to get a place in the American Le Mans, but not enough to murder another driver. She finds herself in the hot seat as the #1 suspect and it takes more than a hot Corvette to find the truth. Speed to your local store for a copy when the book comes out in August.
Imogene Duckworth is a waitress with aspirations of being a PI. She gets a chance for on-the-job training when diner owner Uncle Huey is found dead with mesquite-smoked sausage stuffed down his throat. That’s how they do it in Saltlick, Texas! CHOKE is the first in the series by Kaye George.
Divorce can be murder, especially in HOLLYWOOD FOREVER. When Samantha Crowley’s husband, a famous novelist, decides to trade her in for a younger muse, Samantha plans to kill his fictional character she helped to create. Looking for a good listener, she has talks with Bugsy Siegel at his grave. But when she seeks advice on the divorce from the living, they wind up dead! Look for Susan Goldstein’s debut novel at LCC.
Hubert Champion went to the Mojave Desert to escape from his former life as a psychologist and FBI collaborator. Now he runs a run-down mini-mart. When a young woman shows up covered with her father’s blood, Hubert has to face past demons to come to her aid. Check out RETICENCE OF RAVENS by M.M. Gornell.
The California desert is also the scene for the beginning of Lou Allin’s novel THAT DOG WON’T HUNT. Cowboy drifter Rick Cooper is on the run when he gets a ride with alcoholic widow Gladys Ryan. She convinces him to come to Canada and fix up a hunting lodge for fun (ahm!) and profit. But all good things must come to an end, and this time the ending just might be deadly.