P.I.'s in Print H to Z

H TO Z

September 5, 2010

Hall, Parnell. CAPER: A Stanley Hastings Mystery. Pegasus Books. August '10. $25.00. "The latest in the beloved Stanley Hastings series - the unlikeliest private eye in New York City, who doesn't even carry a gun. Poor Stanley Hastings. After getting hired by a hitman and nearly getting shot, the put-upon PI needed some fun, so when a gorgeous damsel in distress walked through his office door she seemed just what the doctor ordered. Wrong again. The fair maiden turned out to be a married mom who wanted Stanley to find out why her teenage daughter was skipping school. Playing truant officer wasn't exactly Stanley's idea of fun, but at least it should be easy. Fat chance. Stanley being Stanley, nothing goes right, nothing is as it seems, bodies start to pile up, and faster than you can say 'fall guy', guess who's left holding the bag? Before the case is resolved, Stanley will be nostalgic for the good old days, when all he had to worry about was a hitman."

Hall, Tarquinn. THE CASE OF THE MISSING SERVANT. Simon & Schuster. May '10. $14.00. "Meet Vish Puri, India's most private investigator. Portly, persistent, and unmistakably Punjabi, he cuts a determined swath through modern India's swindlers, cheats, and murderers. In hot and dusty Delhi, where call centers and malls are changing the ancient fabric of Indian life, Puri's main work comes from screening prospective marriage partners, a job once the preserve of aunties and family priests. But when an honest public litigator is accused of murdering his maidservant, it takes all of Puri's resources to investigate. How will he trace the fate of the girl, known only as Mary, in a population of more than one billion? Who is taking potshots at him and his prize chili plants? And why is his widowed 'Mummy-ji' attempting to play sleuth when everyone knows mummies are not detectives? With his team of undercover operatives - Tubelight, Flush, and Facecream - Puri ingeniously combines modern techniques with principles of detection established in India more than two thousand years ago - long before 'that Johnny-come-lately' Sherlock Holmes donned his deerstalker. The search for Mary takes him to the desert oasis of Jaipur and the remote mines of Jharkhand. From Puri's well-heeled Gymkhana Club to the slums where the servant classes live, his adventures reveal modern India in all its seething complexity."

Kaminsky, Stuart M. DOUBLE SHOT. Forge Books. September '10. $18.99. "Abe Lieberman: a strong, sympathetic Chicago cop. His love for his family is matched by his quiet, zealous commitment to do what is right. Sometimes he's faced with some uncomfortable ethical choices in order to see that justice - rather than the letter of the law - is meted out. Lou Fonesca: a world-weary guy who got in a car and just started driving after his wife died and wound up in front of a Dairy Queen in Sarasota. He now makes his way amid bail jumpers and lost wives, solving the little cases and trying to get by. What do these two men have in common? They were both created by one of America's best-loved mystery authors, Stuart M. Kaminsky. Putting two of his most beloved series into one volume gives readers an introduction into Kaminsky's world. These wonderful mysteries don't hesitate to slip in a moral or two. NOT QUITE KOSHER and BRIGHT FUTURES are two full-length novels that Kaminsky fans will cheer at."

Lescroart, John. TREASURE HUNT. Dutton. February '10. $26.95. "Wyatt Hunt - hero of John Lescroart's New York Times bestseller -returns with a new protege, in an intricate, tightly plotted thriller set against San Francisco's glamorous charity circuit. Mickey Dade hates desk work, but that's all he's been doing at Wyatt Hunt's private investigative service, The Hunt Club. His itch to be active is answered when a body is discovered: It's Dominic Como, one of San Francisco's most high-profile activists - a charismatic man known as much for his expensive suits as his work on a half dozen nonprofit boards. One 'person of interest' in the case is Como's business associate, Alicia Thorpe - young, gorgeous, and the sister of one of Mickey's friends. As Mickey and Hunt are pulled into the case, they soon learn that the city's golden fundraiser was involved in some highly suspect deals. And the lovely Alicia knows more about this - and more about Como - than she's letting on. TREASURE HUNT is both a nail-biting thriller and a coming-of-age story, filled with Lescroart's trademark San Francisco flavors. Mickey Dade, its young protagonist, gradually learns the hard lessons Hunt knows only too well, as the world he though he knew unravels around him." Simultaneous release on Audio CD from Brilliance Audio. Available in paperback. Signet Books. January '11. $9.99.

Liang, Diane Wei. PAPER BUTTERFLY: A Mei Wang Mystery. Simon & Schuster. March '10. $15.00. "Mei Wang, 31, lives and works as a private detective in China's capitol city. After her resignation from the Ministry for Public Security, Mei saw her status drop swiftly in the eyes of her former colleagues, her TV-star sister, and even her mother. But sharp, intuitive Mei has taken her valuable experience and her insider knowledge of the police and city politics and set herself up as a successful private investigator. Now, with her own car, her own business, even a male receptionist to reflect her well-to-do status, Mei Wang is ensconced in her own little corner of the biggest city in China. When Mei receives a call from the chief executive at Guanghua Record Company, she learns that one of Mr. Peng's top starlets - the beautiful pop star Kaili - has been missing for four days. Mei must find the starlet while keeping up the record company's facade that nothing is amiss. Though Kaili is a piece of Mr. Peng's moneymaking machine, Mei learns that she is also a troubled, mysterious young woman whom no one really knows. The discovery of a secret stash of letters in Kaili's apartment sets Mei on an investigation that will take her back to a troubled past that belongs not only to Kaili, but to the entire nation. Meanwhile, in Gansu Province, a work camp laborer named Lin is finally released from eight years of forced labor on the outskirts of civilization. He angrily remembers the betrayal that cost him his youth and his sweetheart, who was torn from his life when he was sent to the work camp. As Mei tries to retrace Kaili's steps, so does Lin retrace his own past...and he carries a secret to the case that no one would ever expect. PAPER BUTTERFLY, the second mystery featuring private detective Mei Wang, is as beautiful and lyrical as it is eye-opening."

Lutz, Lisa. REVENGE OF THE SPELLMANS. Simon & Schuster. March '10. $14.00. Third in the series. "YOU THOUGHT YOUR LIFE WAS COMPLICATED. Private investigator Isabel Spellman is back on the case and back on the couch - in court-ordered therapy after getting a little too close to her previous subject. As the book opens, Izzy is on hiatus from Spellman Inc. But when her boss, Milo, simultaneously cuts her bartending hours and introduces her to a 'friend' looking for a private eye, Izzy reluctantly finds herself with a new client. She assures herself that the case - a suspicious husband who wants his wife tailed - will be short and sweet, and will involve nothing more than the most boring of PI rituals: surveillance. But with each passing hour, Izzy finds herself with more questions than hard evidence. Meanwhile, Spellmania continues. Izzy's brother, David, the family's most upright member, has adopted an uncharacteristically unkempt appearance and attitude toward work, life, and Izzy. And their wayward youngest sister, Rae, a historic academic underachiever, aces the PSATs and subsequently offends her study partner and object of obsession, Detective Henry Stone, to the point of excommunication. The only unsurprising behavior comes from her parents, whose visits to Milo's bar amount to thinly veiled surveillance and artful attempts (read: blackmail) at getting Izzy to return to the Spellman Inc. fold. As the case of the wayward wife continues to vex her, Izzy's personal life - and mental health - seem to be disintegrating. Facing a housing crisis, she can't sleep, she can't remember where she parked her car, and, despite her shrinks' persistence, she can't seem to break through in her appointments. She certainly can't explain why she forgets dates with her lawyer's grandson, or fails to interpret the come-ons issued in an Irish brogue by Milo's new bartender. Nor can she explain exactly how she feels about Detective Henry Stone and his plans to move in with his new Assistant DA girlfriend... Filled with the signature side-splitting Spellman antics, REVENGE OF THE SPELLMANS is an ingenious, hilarious, and disarmingly tender installment in the Spellman series."

Lutz, Lisa. THE SPELLMANS STRIKE AGAIN. Simon & Schuster. March '10. $25.00. Fourth in the series. "AT THE RIPE OLD AGE OF THIRTY-TWO, FORMER WILD CHILD ISABEL 'IZZY' SPELLMAN HAS FINALLY AGREED TO TAKE OVER THE FAMILY BUSINESS. AND THE TRANSITION WON'T BE A SMOOTH ONE. First among her priorities as head of Spellman Investigations is to dig up some dirt on the competition, slippery ex-cop Rick Harkey - a task she may enjoy a little too much. Next, faced with a baffling missing-persons case at the home of an aging millionaire, Izzy hires an actor friend, Len, to infiltrate the mansion as an undercover butler - a role he may enjoy a little much. Meanwhile, Izzy is being blackmailed by her mother (photographic evidence of Prom Night 1994) to commit to regular blind dates with promising professionals - an arrangement that doesn't thrill Connor, an Irish bartender on the brink of becoming Ex-boyfriend #12. At Spellman headquarters, it's business as unusual. Doorknobs and light fixtures are disappearing every day, Mom's been spotted crying in the pantry, and a series of increasingly demanding Spellman Rules (Rule #27: No Speaking Today) can't quite hold the family together. Izzy also has to decipher weekly 'phone calls from the edge' from her octogenarian lawyer, Morty, as well as Detective Henry Stone's mysterious interest in rekindling their relationsh...well, whatever it was. Just when it looks like things can't go more haywire, little sister Rae's internship researching pro bono legal cases leads the youngest Spellman to launch a grassroots campaign that could spring an innocent man from jail - or land Rae in it. THE SPELLMANS STRIKE AGAIN is hands down the most hilarious, thrilling, and moving book in this bestselling, award-nominated series. And it proves beyond a reasonable doubt that Isabel Spellman, no matter how much she matures, will never be able to follow Rule #1: Act Normal."

Manning, John. THE KILLING ROOM. Pinnacle Books. May '10. $6.99. "ONCE YOU ENTER... Old houses have their secrets. The Young residence - A beautiful Maine mansion overlooking the Atlantic - is no exception. But the secrets here are different. They can kill... THE ONLY WAY OUT... Carolyn Cartwright, private detective and ex-FBI agent, has been hired by Howard Young to investigate a string of gruesome family deaths. The crimes are horrific, brutal, and senseless. And the time has come for the killing to begin again... IS TO DIE... One by one, members of the Young family are chosen to die. Old and young, weak and strong, no one is safe from a killer with a limitless thirst for revenge. And the only way for Carolyn to uncover the shocking truth is to enter the room no one has ever left alive - and make herself the next target..."

McKevett, G.A. A BODY TO DIE FOR. Kensington Press. February '10. $6.99. "Voluptuous P.I. Savannah Reid isn't a huge fan of diets and she'd rather walk through fire then go to the gym. But when the nation's hottest weight loss guru becomes a suspect in a big, fat murder case, even Savannah can't resist the chance to find out once and for all if the beloved queen of fitness took the -die - in diet a little too far... Weight loss diva Clarissa Jardin became a household name after she transformed herself from flabby to fit with an exercise program she designed. Known for her in-your-face attitude, Clarissa uses her own incredible - before and after - pictures to lure legions of fans into buying her weight loss books, DVDs, diet meals, and workout clothes. Raking in millions of dollars, Clarissa has the whole world in the palm of her hand - that is, until her husband, Bill, is found mysteriously shot to death. Detective Dirk Coulter calls P.I. Savannah Reid to the crime scene and it isn't long before Clarissa's squeaky clean image starts to unravel. It turns out that Clarissa has a dirty little secret: she's always been thin. Her chubby twin sister, Rachel? Not so lucky. Clarissa paid Rachel to pose for her weighty - before - photos, while Clarissa appears in the gorgeous - after - shots. But when Clarissa's career went through the roof, Rachel wanted a bigger piece of the pie and threatened to go public with the scam if she didn't get it. Rachel has been extorting money from Clarissa for years, with Bill dropping off the hush money. Only this time, Bill's the one that got hushed -for good. As the investigation continues, Savannah realizes she's only scratched the surface of this dysfunctional family's secrets. Delving into the twins' twisted relationship, she uncovers evidence of insatiable greed, out-of-control gambling, and even an extra-marital affair. Did Clarissa exact her revenge against a cheating husband? Did Rachel want to live her beautiful sister's life bad enough to kill for it? Or was an even darker figure lurking in the background, waiting to strike? With the whole world watching this celebrity whodunit, Savannah has to crack the case fast - before another victim gets his - or her - just desserts...."

Muller, Marcia. BURN OUT. Grand Central. December '09. $7.99. "Traumatized by a recent life-or-death investigation, Sharon McCone flees to her ranch in California's high desert country to contemplate her future. Deep depression shadows her days and nights, and a chance encounter with a troubled, highly secretive Native American woman begins to haunt her dreams. Even though she is determined not to investigate anything during her stay - and perhaps not ever again - McCone is drawn into the plight of the young woman and her dysfunctional family. A murder and traces of violence at a deserted resort lead her across the desert and into Nevada, and finally to a remote and isolated ranch, where danger lies closer that she expects and where her future and life itself may hang in the balance."

Muller, Marcia. LOCKED IN. Grand Central. October '10. $7.99. "Shot in the head by an unknown assailant, San Francisco private eye Sharon McCone finds herself trapped by locked-in syndrome: almost total paralysis but an alert, conscious mind. Since the late-night attack occurred at her agency's offices, the natural conclusion was that it was connected to one of the firm's cases. As Sharon lies in her hospital bed, furiously trying to break out of her body's prison and discover her attacker's identity, all the members of her agency fan out to find the reason why she was assaulted. Meanwhile, Sharon becomes a locked-in detective, evaluating the clues from her staff's separate investigations and discovering unsettling truths that could put her life in jeopardy again. As the case draws to a surprising and even shocking conclusion, Sharon's husband, Hy, must decide whether or not to surrender to his own violent past and exact fatal vengeance when the person responsible is identified."

Paretsky, Sara. HARDBALL. Putnam. August '10. $9.99. "Chicago politics - past, present, and future - take center stage in New York Times-bestselling author Sara Paretsky's brilliant new V.I. Warshawski novel. Chicago's unique brand of ball is sixteen-inch slow pitch, played in leagues all over the city for more than a century. But in politics, in business, and in law enforcement, the game is hardball. When V.I. Warshawski is asked to find a man who's been missing for four decades, a search that she figured would be futile becomes lethal. Old skeletons from the city's racially charged history, as well as haunting family secrets - her own and those of the elderly sisters who hired her - rise up to brush her back from the plate with a vengeance. A young cousin whom she's never met arrives from Kansas City to work on a political campaign; a nun who marched with Martin Luther King Jr. dies without revealing crucial evidence; and on the city's South Side, people spit when she shows up. Afraid to learn that her adored father might have been a bent cop, V.I. still takes the investigation all the way to its frightening end."

Parker, Robert B. THE PROFESSIONAL. Putnam Books. November '09. $26.95. Thirty-sixth in the Spenser series. "A knock on Spenser's office door can only mean one thing: a new case. This time the visitor is a local lawyer with an interesting story. Elizabeth Shaw specializes in wills and trusts at the Boston law firm of Shaw & Cartwright, and over the years she's developed a friendship with wives of very wealthy men. However, these rich wives have a mutual secret: they've all had an affair with a man named Gary Eisenhower - and now he's blackmailing them for money. Shaw hires Spenser to make Eisenhower 'cease and desist,' so to speak, but when women start turning up dead, Spenser's assignment goes from blackmail to murder. As matters become more complicated, Spenser's longtime love, Susan, begins offering some input by analyzing Eisenhower's behavior patterns in hopes of opening up a new avenue of investigation. It seems that not all of Gary's women are rich. So if he's not using them for blackmail, then what is his purpose? Spenser switches tactics to focus on the husbands, only to find that innocence and guilt may be two sides of the same coin. With its eloquently spare prose and some of the best supporting characters to grace the printed page...." Simultaneous release on Audio CD from Random House Audio. Paperback edition. Berkley Books. October '10. $9.99.

Pronzini, Bill. BETRAYERS. Forge Books. August '10. $24.99. A Nameless Detective story. "We're told that there are seven deadly sins; not on the list is the deadliest of them all: Betrayal. For each of the detectives at the agency, a betrayal - personal, against a child, against the elderly - becomes not only the driving force behind an investigation, but the source of the kind of resolve that cannot be derailed by threats of any kind. Tamara's case began as something personal but explodes as her investigation of her former lover Lucas Zeller leads to a scam bilking charities in the name of helping the homeless and indigent. For Nameless, with a case he doesn't want but can't turn down, trying to find out who is gaslighting an old woman only exposes the ugly side of family. When he goes home, tired and annoyed, he discovers that his adopted daughter, Emily, has a secret of her own. Runyon has a different difficulty: his case of a bailjumper with some bad family ties is easy enough as these things go, but he's being confronted by a demon that is going to try to force him into a betrayal.... Three people who care, three people devoted to helping others trying to help themselves, three people finding themselves in a world of hurt because of the betrayers."

Quinn, Spencer. DOG ON IT: A Chet and Bernie Mystery. Atria Books. November '09. $15.00. "Meet Chet, the wise and lovable canine narrator of DOG ON IT, who works alongside Bernie, a down-on-his-luck private investigator. Chet might have flunked out of police school ('I'd been the best leaper in K-9 class, which had led to all the trouble in a way I couldn't remember exactly, although blood was involved'), but he's a detective through and through. In this, their first adventure, Chet and Bernie investigate the disappearance of Madison, a teenage girl who may or may not have been kidnapped, but who has definitely gotten mixed up with some very unsavory characters. A well-behaved, gifted student, she didn't arrive home after school and her divorced mother is frantic. Bernie is quick to take the case - something about a cash flow problem that Chet's not all that clear about - and he's relieved, if vaguely suspicious, when Madison turns up unharmed with a story that doesn't add up. But when she disappears for a second time in a week, Bernie and Chet aren't taking any chances; they launch a full-blown investigation. Without a ransom demand, they're not convinced it's a kidnapping, but they are sure of one thing: something smells funny. Their search for clues takes them into the desert to biker bars and other exotic locals, with Chet's highly trained nose leading the way. Both Chet and Bernie bring their own special skills to the hunt, one that puts each of them in peril. But even as the bad guys try to turn the tables, this duo is nothing if not resourceful, and the result is an uncommonly satisfying adventure. With his doggy ways and his endearingly hardboiled voice, Chet is full of heart and occasionally prone to mischief. He is intensely loyal to Bernie, who, though distracted by issues that Chet has difficulty understanding - like divorce, child custody, and other peculiar human concerns - is enormously likable himself, in his flawed, all-too-human way."

Quinn, Spencer. THEREBY HANGS A TAIL: A Chet and Bernie Mystery. Atria Books. January '10. $25.00. "The second book of an irresistible series narrated by a loveable and wise dog. In the newest Chet and Bernie mystery, Chet gets a glimpse of the show dog world turned deadly. 'We run a detective agency, me and Bernie, called the Little Detective Agency on account of Little being Bernie's last name. My name's Chet, pure and simple. Headquarters is our house on Mesquite Road, a nice place with a big tree out front, perfect for napping under, and the whole canyon easily accessible out back, if it just so happens someone left the gate open. And then, up in the canyon - well, say no more.' ...Chet and his human companion Bernie have both had some setbacks in life - Bernie in combat, Chet in K-9 school, but together they make up a team like no other. In THEREBY HANGS A TAIL, Bernie and Chet are called on to investigate threats made against an unlikely target - a pretty, pampered show dog named Princess. What seems like a joke turns into a serious case when Princess and her owner are abducted. To make matters worse, Bernie's on-again, off-again girlfriend, reporter Susie Sanchez, disappears too. When Chet is separated from Bernie, he's on his own to put the pieces together, find his way home, and save the day. With genuine suspense and intrigue, combined with humor and insight into the special bond between man and dog, THEREBY HANGS A TAIL will have everyone talking." Available in paperback. Pocket Books. November '10.

Winspear, Jacqueline. AMONG THE MAD. Picador. December '09. $14.00. "Maisie Dobbs must catch a madman before he commits murder on an unimaginable scale. It's Christmas Eve 1931. On the way to see a client, Maisie Dobbs witnesses a man commit suicide on a busy London street. The following day, the prime minister's office receives a letter threatening a massive loss of life if certain demands are not met - and the writer mentions Maisie by name. After being questioned and cleared by Detective Chief Superintendent Robert MacFarlane of Scotland Yard's elite Special Branch, she is drawn into MacFarlane's personal fiefdom as a special adviser on the case. Meanwhile, Billy Beale, Maisie's trusted assistant, is once again facing tragedy as his wife, who has never recovered from the death of their young daughter, slips further into melancholia's abyss. Soon Maisie becomes involved in a race against time to find a man who proves he has the knowledge and will to inflict death and destruction on thousands of innocent people. And before this harrowing case is over, Maisie must navigate a darkness not encountered since she was a nurse in wards filled with shell-shocked men. In AMONG THE MAD, Jacqueline Winspear combines a heart-stopping story with a rich evocation of a fascinating period to create her most compelling and satisfying novel yet."

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