Looking for something to read? Check out some of the new titles releasing during the week of January 7 – 13, 2024 with four debut series. I hope a few of these books take you to an exciting place. Have fun reading!

JANUARY 9
The Expectant Detectives by Kat Ailes (Cozy Mystery) *first book in a new series*
For Alice and her partner Joe, moving to the sleepy village of Penton is a chance to embrace country life and prepare for the birth of their first child. He can take up woodwork; maybe she’ll learn to make jam? But the rural idyll they’d hoped for doesn’t quite pan out when a dead body is discovered at their local prenatal class, and they find themselves suspects in a murder investigation. Format: Print, Digital, Audio

Bull’s Eye by Shannon Baker (Traditional Mystery)
Caught between juggling her dysfunctional family and a looming recall election, Sheriff Kate Fox feels like she’s on a bucking bronc with one hand stuck in the air. When a top bull breeder is mauled to death at a rodeo, Kate quickly realizes that this so-called accident hides a much darker truth. Format: Print, Digital, Audio

Death at a Scottish Wedding by Lucy Connolly (Cozy Mystery)
Finally feeling like Sea Isle, Scotland is becoming her new home, American doctor Emilia McRoy is delighted when she is invited to a wedding at Morrigan’s Castle. Her friends have warned her that it’s a three-day party and it’s bound to get wild, not to mention the impending snowstorm. Constable Ewan Campbell, owner of the castle, ensures their safety with the blizzard. What he didn’t ensure, is that all of his guests would survive the night alive. When Emilia explores the impressive castle, she finds a dead man in one of the turrets. Format: Print, Digital, Audio

The Sign of Four Spirits by Vicki Delany (Cozy Mystery)
When a psychic fair arrives in West London, Gemma Doyle, owner of the Sherlock Holmes Bookshop and Emporium, wants nothing to do with it. But somehow, at the urging of Donald Morris, an enthusiastic Sherlockian, she finds herself talked into attending a séance, along with baker and best friend Jayne Wilson, store assistant, Ashleigh, and former pop star Bunny Leigh. Format: Print, Digital, Audio

Blue Ridge by Peter Malone Elliott (Traditional Mystery)
After former Olympic contender turned burn-out horse trainer Cillian Clarke is framed for the murder of his identical twin Christopher, a rising-star Virginia politician, Cillian is forced to go on the lam. But when someone from Christopher’s past emerges and offers Cillian the chance to clear his name, Cillian is plunged headfirst into a sinister conspiracy that not only threatens the sanctity of democracy, but also promises to expose the devastating secret intertwining the brothers forever—the truth behind the death of a woman they both loved. Format: Print, Digital

The Family Man by Lyn Farrell (Cozy Mystery)
A woman approaches Rosedale Investigations to report her husband missing. Then another woman arrives to report her husband is missing. When the team sees the photographs of James Browning, they realize it’s the same guy; they have a bigamist on their hands. Detective Wayne Nichols locates Browning’s car at the local airport and learns the man’s been subpoenaed to provide evidence in the trial of a decade-old murder of a police officer-a shooting Browning witnessed. Format: Print, Digital

Goodbye Girl by James Grippando (Legal Thriller)
Piracy costs the movie and music industry billions. No one has been able to stop it. But that won’t stop Miami criminal defense lawyer Jack Swyteck. His latest client, Imani Nichols, is a Grammy-winning popstar whose career has skyrocketed. Despite her success, she’s the most underpaid superstar on the planet because of an onerous record contract she signed as a teenager with her now ex-husband Shaky Nichols, who has made himself rich off her royalties. Format: Print, Digital, Audio

The Heiress by Rachel Hawkins (Psychological Thriller)
When Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore dies, she’s not only North Carolina’s richest woman, she’s also its most notorious. The victim of a famous kidnapping as a child and a widow four times over, Ruby ruled the tiny town of Tavistock from Ashby House, her family’s estate high in the Blue Ridge Mountains. Format: Print, Digital, Audio

Never Touch a Dead Body by J.W. Hodge (Cozy Mystery)
Mercedes Harrigan, novice landlord, is a pro at cleaning up messy apartments but cleaning up after an elderly tenant dies presents a different dilemma. It’s not the dead body lying on the kitchen floor that has Sadie freaked out, she grew up playing among the caskets at her grandmother’s mortuary, it’s the coroner’s suspicion that the wiring in Sadies vintage apartments could be the culprit. Add a threatened lawsuit by the family of the deceased, along with bizarre clues that pop up but don’t add up and Sadie’s morale dips lower than the meager balance in her bank account. Format: Print, Digital, Audio

My Old Kentucky Homicide by Gin Jones (Cozy Mystery) *first book in a new series*
Kentucky native Jess Walker’s big-city career has kept her too busy to visit her sisters and hometown. However, she relents when she’s invited to celebrate her nephew’s third birthday at the newly established Three Sisters B&B in the heart of bourbon country. The nostalgic bubble is quickly popped however when Jess realizes her family hasn’t been entirely honest with her. She was invited not so much for a family reunion, but to help them impress some VIP guests for inclusion in a tourism co-op on the bourbon trail. Format: Print, Digital

The Night Island by Jayne Ann Krentz (Romantic Suspense)
Talia March, Pallas Llewellyn, and Amelia Rivers, bonded by a night none of them can remember, are dedicated to uncovering the mystery of what really happened to them months ago—an experience that amplified innate psychic abilities in each of them. The women suspect they were test subjects years earlier, and that there are more people like them—all they have to do is find the list of others who took that same test. When Talia follows up on a lead from Phoebe, a fan of the trio’s podcast, she discovers that the informant has vanished. Format: Print, Digital, Audio

A Bean To Die For by Tara Lush (Cozy Mystery)
Lana Lewis is brewing up new concoctions at Perkatory, a popular café in Devil’s Beach, when she decides she wants to try her hand at growing her own coffee. She secures a gardening plot in the community garden, thanks to her father and the garden’s owner, Darla. Darla’s list of rules is long, but that doesn’t stop someone from leaving Jack Daggett’s body amongst the gardening plots. Format: Print, Digital, Audio

Three-Decker Murder In A Nutshell by Frances McNamara (Historical Mystery 1900s)
In November 1919 a woman is found dead. Police assume she fell from the back porch of a three-decker in East Boston. At the funeral home, they discover she was shot. Medical examiner Magrath is furious at newly hired police detective Peter Attwood for the mistake. Since the police strike in September, experienced Irish detectives like McNally have been blackballed and inexperienced men like the Harvard student have been hired. Frances Glessner Lee is determined to help both Magrath and young Peter who is grandson to her widowed friend. Lives of Boston Brahmins and Irish clash as they hunt for the truth. Format: Print, Digital

JANUARY 11
Blotto, Twinks and the Phantom Skiers by Simon Brett (Traditional Mystery)
Blotto and Twinks are off on another adventure – and this time they’re bound for the Alpine village of Luzvimmen in Switzerland, where Blotto participates in racing the prestigious and very fast Croissant Run, though someone seems determined to sabotage his chances. Format: Print, Digital, Audio

Man-Killer by Lawrence Kelter (Traditional Mystery) *first book in a new series*
Gina Marie Cototi is a feisty Sicilian sparkplug, a Brooklyn-based PI with a fondness for family, friends, and one roguishly handsome Casanova named Rocco Benelli. Hey, nobody’s perfect. This headstrong sleuth drives a split-window ’63 Corvette coupe and never, I mean never, misses Sunday dinner with Ma, Dad, and her sister Theresa. Format: Print, Digital

Honeymoon Homicide Hijinks by Maggie March (Cozy Mystery)
When Lucy and Travis set off for a honeymoon at Green Acres Glamping Ranch they expected romance, relaxation, and s’mores by the campfire. What they didn’t bargain for was stumbling upon a grisly murder scene during their moonlit stroll around the lake. Format: Print, Digital

A Body on the Doorstep by Marty Wingate (Historical Mystery 1920s) *first book in a new series*
London, 1921: Mabel Canning is proud to be a modern woman working for the Useful Women’s Agency, carrying out tasks for gentlewomen from flower arranging to washing muddy dogs. But when she answers the door for wealthy widow Rosalind Despard, she almost chokes on her cucumber sandwich when she finds a soldier’s body on the doorstep. Format: Print, Digital, Audio

A Body at the Séance by Marty Wingate (Historical Mystery 1920s)
London, 1921: As a winter wind blows through the streets of London, Mabel Canning is hired by the Useful Women’s Agency to attend a séance at the home of famous medium Madame Pushkana. But when Mabel hears a choking noise and a loud thud, she quickly turns on the lights to find herself at the scene of a murder. Format: Print, Digital, Audio