Falling for Autumn Reads

Even before I started reviewing books for a living, I was attracted to lists of titles due for release in the approaching months. They spurred in me hope for my continuing entertainment, but also anticipation of what authors I’d enjoyed before might have in store for me next. Of course, in those bygone days I had only publishers’ printed catalogues of their forthcoming works, and the weighty Books in Print, to page through for reading ideas; the myriad online resources we now have available didn’t exist. I would dog-ear or tear out catalogue spreads devoted to works that caught my eye, and then watch hungrily for the books of my dreams to actually appear on bookstore shelves. That I never had enough open hours or money to read everything I thought interesting did not discourage me one iota from giving it a fair shot.

These days, I have even less time to read. (Blame that on my consuming pastime of blogging, and the usual obligations of both work and marriage.) Yet I remain optimistic of my ability to read everything that catches my eye. That I often wind up at the end of any particular year with extra books I never quite got around to digesting, doesn’t convince me in the least to lower my goals. Next year, I’m sure, I shall find more hours in which to bury my nose deep within fragrant printed pages.

I’m a reader; it’s what I do.

So when I sat down to tally up all of the interesting (to me, anyway) crime, mystery, and thriller works due out between now and New Year’s Day, I didn’t restrict myself to only what I thought I could read in that time; I registered every work I want to read--reality be damned. There are more than 130 titles listed below, of books from both sides of the Atlantic. The realist on my right shoulder says I’ll probably get through a third of those, but the optimist on my left shoulder is already looking for more free reading hours. Maybe if I can cut my sleeping time in half ... or eliminate TV watching altogether ... or get my cat to pitch in on household chores ...

Nothing’s impossible, right?

SEPTEMBER (U.S.):

• The Affair, by Lee Child (Delacorte)

• All Cry Chaos, by Leonard Rosen
(Permanent Press)

• The Assassin in the Marais, by Claude Izner (Minotaur)

• The Best Bad Dream, by Robert Ward (Mysterious Press)

• The Black Stiletto, by Raymond Benson (Oceanview)

• The Blood Royal, by Barbara Cleverly (Soho Crime)

• The Burning, by Jane Casey (Minotaur)

• The Burning Soul, by John Connolly (Atria)

• City of Secrets, by Kelli Stanley (Minotaur)

• Damage Control, by Denise Hamilton (Scribner)

• Death of the Mantis, by Michael Stanley (Scribner)

• Dove Season, by Johnny Shaw (AmazonEncore)

• The End of the Line, by Stephen Legault (TouchWood)

• Feast Day of Fools, by James Lee Burke (Simon & Schuster)

• Getting Off, by Lawrence Block (Hard Case Crime)

• Ghost Hero, by S.J. Rozan (Minotaur)

• Headhunters, by Jo Nesbø (Vintage Crime/Black Lizard)

• A Killer’s Essence, by Dave Zeltserman (Overlook)

• A Killing in China Basin, by Kirk Russell (Severn House)

• London Frog, by Joseph Pittman (Vantage Point)

• A Mortal Terror, by James R. Benn (Soho Crime)

• Motor City Shakedown, by D.E. Johnson (Minotaur)

• Nairobi Heat, by Mukoma Wa Ngugi (Melville House)

• Naughty in Nice, by Rhys Bowen (Berkley)

• Nazareth Child, by Darrell James (Midnight Ink)

• Operation Napoleon, by Arnaldur Indridason (Minotaur)

• The Perfect Suspect, by Margaret Coel (Berkley)

• Pirate King, by Laurie R. King (Bantam)

• The Potter’s Field, by Andrea Camilleri (Penguin)

• Quarry’s Ex, by Max Allan Collins (Hard Case Crime)

• The Revisionists, by Thomas Mullen (Mulholland)

• A Rhumba in Waltz Time, by Robert S. Levinson (Five Star)

• Robert B. Parker’s Killing the Blues, by Michael Brandman (Putnam)

• The Ronin’s Mistress, by Laura Joh Rowland (Minotaur)

• Sorry, by Zoran Drvenkar (Knopf)

• The Surrogate, by Tania Carver (Pegasus)

• Tag Man, by Archer Mayor (Minotaur)

• Temporary Perfections, by Gianrico Carofiglio (Rizzoli Ex Libris)

• Trackers, by Deon Meyer (Atlantic Monthly)

• Trick of the Dark, by Val McDermid (Bywater)

• Zillionaire, by Gary Alexander (Five Star)

SEPTEMBER (UK):

• A Bespoke Murder, by Edward Marston
(Allison & Busby)

• The Bloody Meadow, by William Ryan (Mantle)

• Bryant & May and the Memory of Blood, by Christopher Fowler
(Faber & Faber)

• The Crowded Grave, by Martin Walker (Quercus)

• Death’s Other Kingdom, by P.J. Brooke (Constable)

• The Diamond Chariot, by Boris Akunin (Weidenfeld & Nicolson)

• Dorchester Terrace, by Anne Perry (Headline)

• The Fear Index, by Robert Harris (Hutchinson)

• The Invisible Ones, by Stef Penney (Quercus)

• Lethal Investments, by K.O. Dahl

• The Retribution, by Val McDermid (Little, Brown)

• Secrets of the Dead, by Tom Harper (Arrow)

OCTOBER (U.S.):

• Bad Moon, by Todd Ritter (Minotaur)

• Bad Moon Rising, by Ed Gorman (Pegasus)

• Ballistic, by Mark Greaney (Berkley)

• Burned, by Thomas Enger (Atria)

• Cell 8, by Anders Roslund and Börge Hellström (SilverOak)

• Cemetery Girl, by David Bell (NAL)

• Chelsea Mansions, by Barry Maitland (Minotaur)

• Choke Hold, by Christa Faust (Hard Case Crime)

• The Consummata, by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins
(Hard Case Crime)

• A Crimson Warning, by Tasha Alexander (Minotaur)

• Deep Cover, by Peter Turnbull (Severn House)

• The Gravedigger’s Ball, by Solomon Jones (Minotaur)

• Headstone, by Ken Bruen (Mysterious Press)

• Hell and Gone, by Duane Swierczynski (Mulholland)

• London Calling, by James Craig (Soho Constable)

• The Night Eternal, by Guillermo del Toro and Chuck Hogan (Morrow)

• Professor Moriarty: The Hound of the D’Urbervilles,
by Kim Newman (Titan)

• Resuscitation, by D.M. Annechino (Thomas & Mercer)

• The Secret in Their Eyes, by Eduardo Sacheri (Other Press)

• Stolen Souls, by Stuart Neville (Soho Crime)

• The Stonehenge Legacy, by Sam Christer (Overlook)

• The Strange Death of Father Candy, by Les Roberts (Minotaur)

• A Study in Sherlock: Stories Inspired by the Holmes Canon, edited by Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger (Bantam)

• Sweet Money, by Ernesto Mallo (Bitter Lemon Press)

• Troubled Bones, by Jeri Westerson (Minotaur)

• Ulysses’ Dog, by Jim Nisbet (Overlook)

OCTOBER (UK):

• Bad Signs, by R.J. Ellory (Orion)

• Blood Falls, by Tom Bale (Preface Publishing)

• Blood Relative, by David Thomas (Quercus)

• Crying Out Loud, by Cath Staincliffe (Severn House)

• Guns in the Gallery, by Simon Brett (Creme de la Crime)

• Icelight, by Aly Monroe (John Murray)

• The Impossible Dead, by Ian Rankin (Orion)

• Midwinter Sacrifice, by Mons Kallentoft (Hodder & Stoughton)

• Nine Inches, by Colin Bateman (Headline)

• Prague Fatale, by Philip Kerr (Quercus)

• Slash and Burn, by Colin Cotterill (Quercus)

• The Unlucky Lottery, by Håkan Nesser (Mantle)

NOVEMBER (U.S.):

• The Betrayal of Trust, by Susan Hill (Overlook)

• Blink of an Eye, by William S. Cohen (Forge)

• The Boy in the Suitcase, by Lene Kaaberbøl and Agnete Friis (Soho Crime)

• Breaking Point, by Dana Haynes (Minotaur)

• A Burial at Sea, by Charles Finch (Minotaur)

• Coffin Man, by James D. Doss (Minotaur)

• The Corn Maiden and Other Nightmares, by Joyce Carol Oates (Mysterious Press)

• A Corpse’s Nightmare, by Phillip DePoy (Minotaur)

• Dead Last, by James W. Hall (Minotaur)

• Dead Man’s Grip, by Peter James (Minotaur)

• Deed of Murder, by Cora Harrison (Severn House)

• The Devil’s Ribbon, by D. E. Meredith (Minotaur)

• The Drop, by Michael Connelly (Little, Brown)

• 11/22/63, by Stephen King (Scribner)

• Fly by Night, by Ward Larsen (Oceanview)

• Forever Rumpole: The Best of the Rumpole Stories, by John
Mortimer (Viking)

• The House of Silk, by Anthony Horowitz (Mulholland)

• I Am Half-Sick of Shadows, by Alan Bradley (Delacorte)

• Lawyer Trap, by R.J. Jagger (Pegasus)

• Mercury’s Rise, by Ann Parker (Poisoned Pen Press)

• The Templar Magician, by Paul Doherty (Minotaur)

• The Territory, by Tricia Fields (Minotaur)

• V Is for Vengeance, by Sue Grafton (Marian Wood/Putnam)

NOVEMBER (UK):

• Air Lock, by Charlie Charters (Hodder & Stoughton)

• The Coast Road, by John Brady (McArthur & Company)

• Easy Money, by Jens Lapidus (Pantheon)

• Rogue’s Gallery, by Robert Barnard (Allison & Busby)

• Western Approaches, by Graham Hurley (Orion)

DECEMBER (U.S.):

• Assume Nothing, by Gar Anthony Haywood (Severn House)

• The Cold Room, by Robert Knightly (Severn House)

• Collateral Damage, by H. Terrell Griffin (Oceanview)

• Danger in the Wind, by Jane Finnis (Poisoned Pen Press)

• Dark Men, by Derek Haas (Pegasus)

• Death at the Wedding Feast, by Deryn Lake (Severn House)

• El Gavilan, by Craig McDonald (Tyrus)

• Hurt Machine, by Reed Farrel Coleman (Tyrus)

• Murder in Mount Holly, by Paul Theroux (Mysterious Press)

• A Perilous Conception, by Larry Karp (Poisoned Pen Press)

• Ran Away, by Barbara Hambly (Severn House)

• The Silence, by J. Sydney Jones (Severn House)

• Too Much Stuff, by Don Bruns (Oceanview)

• Triple Shot, by Sandra Balzo (Severn House)

• Vigilante, by Stephen J. Cannell (St. Martin’s Press)

• The Villa of Death, by Joanna Challis (Minotaur)

A question for readers: Are there other promising new books in this genre, due out between now and the end of December, that I’ve somehow neglected to mention? Any and all suggestions are welcomed in the Comments section of this post.

(Top: Photo illustration by Mandi Campbell. Used with permission.)