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New Mystery and Thriller Titles Through the End of 2021

Thrilled to announce several mystery and thriller titles coming out between now and Dec 31. Finish out the year with a new title and maybe a new-to-you author or series!

Book Info + Buy Links + Author Links

Pre-purchase titles and when they arrive, it will feel just like Christmas . . .

Police Procedurals, Traditional Mysteries, Thrillers, Cozies, Suspense . . . something for every crime fiction reader.


July — New Mystery and Thriller Titles

6 — The Parting Glass by Lissa Marie Redmond

New Mystery

While on Injured on Duty status, Lauren Riley’s hired as a private investigator to travel to rural Ireland in search of a Picasso painting stolen twenty years earlier in this nerve-shredding thriller.

An old wound forces Cold Case Detective Lauren Riley onto Injured on Duty leave. Unless she rests she faces the threat of early retirement. However, dreading the prospect of doing nothing for six months, Lauren renews her private investigator license.

She’s soon contacted by Sharon Whitney, the ex-wife of wealthy Buffalo resident – and suspected mob boss – Howard Whitney. During their bitter divorce twenty years earlier a Picasso painting was stolen from their home and never recovered. After the main suspect passes away from ill health in Ireland, Sharon to hires Lauren to locate the painting – before her ex-husband does.

Lauren expects a low-stress, fact-finding trip yet arrives in Ireland to discover suspicions around the suspect’s death and his home ransacked. With the clock ticking, uncovering the truth behind the painting’s disappearance may be far more dangerous than Lauren imagined.

To purchase The Parting Glass, click on the following link: Amazon

To learn more about Lissa, click the link here.


1New Mystery3 — Premonition by Wendy Whitman

If you’re not paranoid, you’re not paying attention…

Cary Mackin is a TV journalist who has covered crime for nearly twenty years. After losing her job she moves to a small town in Connecticut—only to get caught up in the web of a deranged serial killer. Cary has a dark secret that drives everything she does: a deep-seated, lifelong fear that one day she will be murdered. As the madman Cary stumbled upon continues to terrorize the beautiful countryside where she now resides, will her premonition come true?

Premonition…a psycho-thriller roller coaster ride that probes the dark corners of one woman’s seemingly overwhelming paranoia…or is it? From a crime and justice expert, Premonition nails every detail of the criminal mind, the hunter and the hunted. Premonition is full of twists and surprises…I love it! Bravo!” —Nancy Grace, Founder, CrimeOnline.com, Host of CrimeStories on Fox Nation, Sirius XM, and NYT Bestselling Author

To purchase Premontion, click on the following links: Amazon, B&N, and IndieBound

To learn more about Wendy, click the link here


13 — Midnight Spells Murder by Mary Angela

New MysterySpirit Canyon’s annual Spirit Spooktacular weekend is on, and for local amateur sleuth Zo Jones, it’s boomtime for business at her Happy Camper gift shop . . . until a murderer drops in for a browse.

To celebrate Halloween at the Happy Camper, Zo schedules a talk by successful author and self-proclaimed witch Marianne Morgan. Although Marianne’s benign brand of witchcraft is more about feminine empowerment than black magic, her presence is still not welcomed by everyone.

Then on a midnight stroll home, Zo spots what seems to be a new Halloween decoration propped up outside the Happy Camper. What she finds is not a mannequin but a dead Marianne, her lifeless body dressed in traditional witch’s garb. But why would someone send this good witch back to the spirit world permanently?

Soon Zo realizes that plenty of folks have motives for murdering Marianne. What’s worse, nosy TV newsman Justin Castle plans to broadcast a report associating Marianne’s murder with the Happy Camper. Zo calls on her partner in sleuthing, local forest ranger Max Harrington, to help her find the culprit before Justin’s report airs. Otherwise Zo’s business just might go bust. But to catch this killer, Zo will have to risk much more than just her reputation . . .

To purchase Midnight Spells Murder, click the following links: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, KoboGoogle Play

To learn more about Mary, click the link here


August — New Mystery and Thriller Titles

1 — The Receptionist by Kate Myles

New MysteryIn this domestic thriller, sex, ambitions, and disaster burn more intensely than the Los Angeles sun.

Emily is a top talent agent who rules the land of talk shows and reality TV. Whip-smart and brutally practical, she outmaneuvers all rivals…except in her personal life. Emily willfully ignores her CEO husband Doug’s philandering in exchange for their glamorous one-percenter lifestyle, until a surprise pregnancy changes everything.

A TED-Talking business guru with a reckless streak, Doug embarks on an audacious relationship with Chloe, the stunning young receptionist at his market research firm.

But Chloe has a secret: a volatile past she’s desperate to forget. Their chaotic entanglement sets off a chain of shocking scandals, plunging Emily into a scheming fight for survival.

As they each try to fight their way to the top, there’s only one question: How far will Emily go to protect her child and preserve her carefully curated life?

To purchase The Receptionist, click on the following link: Amazon

To learn more about Kate, click the link here.


3 — The Price of Silence by Rick Treon

“Fast-paced and intricate … This one will keep you guessing into the middle of the night because you just can’t stop turning the pages.” — Carl Vonderau, author of Murderabilia, winner of the Left Coast Crime 2020 Best Debut Mystery Novel

After narrowly escaping death on the High Plains of Texas, true-crime writer Bartholomew Beck thought he could move on.

But while celebrating another bestseller, powerful figures from Beck’s past have been plotting their revenge.

When a betrayal and attempted murder set the plan in motion, Beck quickly realizes he’ll have to rely on old friends to escape the wrath of those he’s wronged.

And while fighting for their lives and livelihoods, everyone who cares about Beck begins learning The Price of Silence.

To purchase the book, click on the link here.


3 —The Third Warrior by Carol Potenza

New MysteryAncient prophecies and murder

When Fire-Sky Pueblo Police Sergeant Nicky Matthews is lured by an eerie spirit to the body of a missing cowboy, it should’ve been a cut and dry case—the New Mexico summer heat must have driven the poor guy to cool off in an isolated water tank with tragic consequences. But as Nicky investigates the cowboy’s erratic last days, his death turns more and more sinister.

Betrayals close to home

Someone in the Fire-Sky police department is warning Albuquerque’s most vicious drug gang of undercover operations on the Pueblo. Begging Nicky to help him find the snitch, her former lover—and New Mexico’s State Police Chief—barrels back into her life, endangering her growing relationship with Conservation Agent Franco Martinez. But when the trail leads back to her best friend, Nicky is torn between her loyalties and her job.

A stalking death

The two investigations collide as fires erupt on and off the Pueblo. With the tension, heat, and body count rising, Nicky’s actions take a reckless and dangerous turn, her behavior and emotions driven by elements outside of her control. She soon realizes the spirit who led her to the first body only appears to those about to die.

And lately, she’s seen him a lot.

To purchase The Third Warrior, click the following link: Amazon

To learn more about Carol, click the link here.


10 — Graveyard Fields by Steven Tingle

Davis Reed is plagued by the three “A’s”: anger, alcohol, and anxiety. A former Charleston police officer, turned private detective, Davis hopes to gain some respect, self and otherwise, by writing a book. His subject: the true story of a B-25 bomber that crashed on Cold Mountain in western North Carolina just after the end of World War II.

From the comfort of a mountain cabin in Cruso, NC Davis spends his days popping anti-anxiety pills, drinking copious amounts of home brewed beer, and not writing a book. But when he discovers a set of keys on a mountain trail, he becomes curious, then obsessed, about finding the rightful owner.

With the help of his friend Dale Johnson, a 275 pound local deputy who is full time ornery and part time clever, and Dale’s cousin Floppy, a motor mouthed mechanic with a penchant for conspiracy theories and kleptomania, Davis works to uncover the mystery of the keys while navigating a world of small town secrets, shady characters, 80’s heavy metal, and murder.

But Davis has his own secrets and even though he’s escaped to the mountains some bad business in Charleston is beginning to catch up with him. For an anxiety riddled man looking for peace and quiet Davis somehow stumbles into more chaos and crossfire than any amount of beer and pills can alleviate.

To purchase Graveyard Fields, click on the following links: AmazonBarnes & NobleBooks A MillionBookshop.orgHudsonBooksellersIndieBoundPowell’sTargetWalmart

To learn more about Steven, click the link here.


24—Missing At Christmas by KD Richards

To bring her sister home for the holidays

They’ll put everything on the line.

Private investigator Shawn West is stunned when the attack victim he rescues is Addy Williams—the one woman he never forgot. She’s turning a quiet upstate New York town inside out to bring her missing sister home by Christmas. Shawn offers to help if she’ll provide a cover for his own investigation into a suspicious company in town, but can they work together to find Addy’s sister…or are they already too late?

From Harlequin Intrigue: Seek thrills. Solve crimes. Justice served.

Discover more action-packed stories in the West Investigations series. 

To purchase Missing at Christmas, click the following link: Amazon

To learn more about K.D., click the link here.


September — New Mystery and Thriller Titles

7 — Never Saw Me Coming by Vera Kurian

New MysteryYOU SHOULD NEVER TRUST A PSYCHOPATH.
BUT WHAT IF YOU HAD NO CHOICE?

It would be easy to underestimate Chloe Sevre… She’s a freshman honor student, a legging-wearing hot girl next door, who also happens to be a psychopath. She spends her time on yogalates, frat parties and plotting to kill Will Bachman, a childhood friend who grievously wronged her.

Chloe is one of seven students at her DC-based college who are part of an unusual clinical study of psychopaths–students like herself who lack empathy and can’t comprehend emotions like fear or guilt. The study, led by a renowned psychologist, requires them to wear smart watches that track their moods and movements.

When one of the students in the study is found murdered in the psychology building, a dangerous game of cat and mouse begins, and Chloe goes from hunter to prey. As she races to identify the killer and put her own plan for revenge into action, she’ll be forced to decide if she can trust any of her fellow psychopaths–and everybody knows you should never trust a psychopath.

Never Saw Me Coming is a compulsive, voice-driven thriller by an exciting new talent in fiction that will keep you pinned to the page and rooting for a would-be killer.

To purchase Never Saw Me Coming, click the following link:  Bookshop.org

To learn more about Vera, click the link here.


30 — Appointment in Tehran by James Stejskal

ThrillerThe exciting new instalment from the Snake Eater Chronicles is set against the backdrop of the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis.

When radical Iranian students seize the U.S. Embassy compound in Tehran and take over fifty diplomats hostage the U.S. President has to negotiate with a government that wants only to humiliate the United States. When talks fail, the President must turn to the military to bring the Americans home by force.

As preparations are made for an audacious rescue, an American intelligence officer hides alone in a Tehran safehouse with a secret. He is protecting a powerful weapon known as the Perses Device, which is now at risk of being captured and employed against the United States. The Agency Director orders that it must be brought out at all costs.

But as a small American team clandestinely enters Tehran to lead the way for the rescue force, a traitor spills the secret and KGB Spetsnaz operatives begin their own search for the weapon.

At the last minute, one more American is added to the advance team—his sole mission is to get the Agency officer and the Perses device to safety.

When the rescue mission fails, only two Americans are left to run the gauntlet of enemy agents and get the weapon out.

Getting in was easy…

To purchase Appointment in Tehran, click the following link: Amazon

To learn more about James, click the link here.


October — New Mystery and Thriller Titles

5 — The Savage Kind by John Copenhaver

New MysteryTwo lonely teenage girls in 1940s Washington, DC, discover they have a penchant for solving crimes–and an even greater desire to commit them–in the new mystery novel by Macavity Award-winning novelist John Copenhaver.

Philippa Watson, a good-natured yet troubled seventeen-year-old, has just moved to Washington, DC. She’s lonely until she meets Judy Peabody, a brilliant and tempestuous classmate. The girls become unlikely friends and fashion themselves as intellectuals, drawing the notice of Christine Martins, their dazzling English teacher, who enthralls them with her passion for literature and her love of noirish detective fiction.

When Philippa returns a novel Miss Martins has lent her, she interrupts a man grappling with her in the shadows. Frightened, Philippa flees, unsure who the man is or what she’s seen. Days later, her teacher returns to school altered: a dark shell of herself. On the heels of her teacher’s transformation, a classmate is found dead in the Anacostia River–murdered–the body stripped and defiled with a mysterious inscription.

As the girls follow the clues and wrestle with newfound feelings toward each other, they suspect that the killer is closer to their circle than they imagined–and that the greatest threat they face may not be lurking in the halls at school, or in the city streets, but creeping out from a murderous impulse of their own.

To purchase The Savage Kind, click the following link: Bookshop.org

To learn more about John, click the link here.


14 —The Woman in the Woods by Lisa Hall

SuspenseShe’s out there. Waiting for you.

From the bestselling author comes a haunting read about witchcraft and superstition that will have you gripped…

When Allie moves to a quaint old cottage with her husband, it’s their dream home. Nestled in the village of Pluckley, it seems a perfect haven in which to raise their two children. But Pluckley has a reputation. It’s known as England’s most haunted village. And not long after the birth of their new son, Allie begins to notice strange things…

What’s the flash of white she sees moving quickly through the woods to the back of their house? And what’s the strange scratching noise coming from the chimney?

As Allie discovers more about the history of their new home, she uncovers a story of witchcraft and superstition, which casts a long shadow into the present day. And not everything is as it seems. Her family might well be in danger, but it’s a danger none of them could have foreseen…

Bestseller Lisa Hall’s The Woman in the Woods is full of creeping unease and nerve-wracking tension, and will have readers on the edge of their seats…

To purchase the Woman in the Woods, click on the following link: Amazon

To learn more about Lisa, click on the link here.


November — New Mystery and Thriller Titles

2 —All Her Little Secrets by Wanda M. Morris

New MysteryAll Her Little Secrets is a brilliantly nuanced but powerhouse exploration of race, the legal system, and the crushing pressure of keeping secrets. Morris brings a vibrant and welcome new voice to the thriller space.” —Karin Slaughter, New York Times and international bestselling author  

In this fast-paced thriller, Wanda M. Morris crafts a twisty mystery about a black lawyer who gets caught in a dangerous conspiracy after the sudden death of her boss . . . A debut perfect for fans of Attica Locke, Alyssa Cole, Harlan Coben, and Celeste Ng, with shades of How to Get Away with Murder and John Grisham’s The Firm.

Everyone has something to hide…

Ellice Littlejohn seemingly has it all: an Ivy League law degree, a well-paying job as a corporate attorney in midtown Atlanta, great friends, and a “for fun” relationship with a rich, charming executive, who just happens to be her white boss. But everything changes one cold January morning when Ellice arrives in the executive suite and finds him dead with a gunshot to his head.

And then she walks away like nothing has happened. Why? Ellice has been keeping a cache of dark secrets, including a small-town past and a kid brother who’s spent time on the other side of the law. She can’t be thrust into the spotlight—again.

But instead of grieving this tragedy, people are gossiping, the police are getting suspicious, and Ellice, the company’s lone black attorney, is promoted to replace her boss. While the opportunity is a dream-come-true, Ellice just can’t shake the feeling that something is off.

When she uncovers shady dealings inside the company, Ellice is trapped in an impossible ethical and moral dilemma. Suddenly, Ellice’s past and present lives collide as she launches into a pulse-pounding race to protect the brother she tried to save years ago and stop a conspiracy far more sinister than she could have ever imagined…

To purchase All Her Little Secrets, click the links here: Amazon, Barnes & Noble & IndieBound

To learn more about Wanda, click the link here.


December — New Mystery and Thriller Titles

7 — How To Book a Murder by Cynthia Kuhn

Cover Coming Soon!

Perfect for fans of Jenn McKinlay and Kate Carlisle, in award-winning author Cynthia Kuhn’s series debut, small-town bookseller and literary event planner Emma Starrs is out to close the book on a killer intent on crashing the party.

To help save her family’s floundering Colorado bookstore, Starlit Bookshop, newly minted Ph.D. Emma Starrs agrees to plan a mystery-themed dinner party for her wealthy, well-connected high school classmate Tabitha Baxter. It’s a delightful evening of cocktails and conjecture until Tabitha’s husband, Tip—hosting the affair in the guise of Edgar Allan Poe’s detective C. Auguste Dupin—winds up murdered.

In a heartbeat, Emma and her aunt Nora, a famous mystery writer, become suspects. Emma is sure the party’s over for Starlit events, until celebrated author Calliope Nightfall, whose gothic sensibilities are intrigued by the circumstances, implores the bookseller to create a Poe-themed launch event for her latest tome. Throwing a bash to die for while searching for additional clues is already enough to drive Emma stark raven mad, but another shocking crime soon reveals that Silvercrest has not yet reached the final chapter of the puzzling case.

Someone in this charming artistic community has murder on the mind, and if Emma cannot outwit the killer, she and her beloved aunt will land behind bars, to walk free nevermore.

To pre-purchase How to Book a Murder, click on the links: AmazonBarnes & NobleBooks A MillionBookshop.orgHudson BooksellersIndieBoundPowell’sTargetWalmart


Elena Taylor is the author of All We Buried, available now in print, e-book, and audio book format at all your favorite on-line retailers. And don’t forget many independent bookstores can order books for you and have them shipped to your home or for curbside pickup.

For more information on All We Buriedclick on the link here to visit the home page.

Foreword INDIE Award Finalist, Best Mystery 2020

Elena Hartwell

Author and developmental editor.

This Post Has 2 Comments

  1. Mary

    Thanks for including Midnight Spells Murder! Much appreciated.

    1. Elena Hartwell

      Such a great book! Looking forward to writing my review.

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