New Mystery Novels

Novels Hot Off The Press

Just want to update our readers on new releases by authors who’ve been interviewed here on Hook’em and Book’em. Every few months, this blog will post an update on the status of these novels: books just hitting the shelves, books almost on the shelves, and a few books that hit the shelves before we learned of them.

So here goes for a summer of continuous great reading …

Deceit by Brandilyn Collins
Some evil shouts from rooftops; some scuttles in the dark. The worst evil tips its face toward light with shining innocence. Baxter Jackson shone with the worst of them.

Joanne Weeks knows Baxter Jackson killed Linda—his second wife and Joanne's best friend—six years ago. But Jackson, a church elder and beloved member of the town, walks the streets a free man. Joanne is determined to bring Jackson down, no matter what the police say. Using her skills as a professional skip tracer, she sets out to locate the only person who can put Jackson behind bars.

Melissa Harkoff was a traumatized sixteen-year-old foster child in the Jackson household when Linda disappeared. At the time Melissa claimed to know nothing of Linda's whereabouts ... but was she lying? In relentless style, Deceit careens between Joanne's pursuit of the truth and the events of six years past, when Melissa came to live with the Jacksons. What really happened in that household? Beneath the veneer of perfection lies a story of shakable faith, choices, and the lure of deceit. Released: July 2010

Ice Cold by Tess Gerritsen 

(You may want to watch the new TNT show RIZZOLI and ISLES, an exciting murder mystery series that is getting great reviews. It is based upon the characters from Tess’s Rizzoli and Isles series, Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles.).

In Wyoming for a medical conference, Boston medical examiner Maura Isles joins a group of friends on a spur-of-the-moment ski trip. But when their SUV stalls on a snow-choked mountain road, they’re stranded with no help in sight.

As night falls, the group seeks refuge from the blizzard in the remote village of Kingdom Come, where twelve eerily identical houses stand dark and abandoned. Something terrible has happened in Kingdom Come: Meals sit untouched on tables, cars are still parked in garages. The town’s previous residents seem to have vanished into thin air, but footprints in the snow betray the presence of someone who still lurks in the cold darkness—someone who is watching Maura and her friends.

Days later, Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli receives the grim news that Maura’s charred body has been found in a mountain ravine. Shocked and grieving, Jane is determined to learn what happened to her friend. The investigation plunges Jane into the twisted history of Kingdom Come, where a gruesome discovery lies buried beneath the snow. As horrifying revelations come to light, Jane closes in on an enemy both powerful and merciless—and the chilling truth about Maura’s fate. Release Date: June 29th, 2010

Predator by Terri Blackstock

The murder of Krista Carmichael’s fourteen-year-old sister by an online predator has shaken her faith and made her question God’s justice and protection. Desperate to find the killer, she creates an online persona to bait the predator. But when the stalker turns his sights on her, will Krista be able to control the outcome?

Ryan Adkins started the social network GrapeVyne in his college dorm and has grown it into a billion-dollar corporation. But he never expected it to become a stalking ground for online predators. One of them lives in his town and has killed two girls and attacked a third.

When Ryan meets Krista, the murders become more than a news story to him, and everything is on the line. Joining forces, he and Krista set out to stop the killer. But when hunters pursue a hunter, the tables can easily turn. Only God can protect them now. Released: May 2010

Fresh Kills by James Scott Bell

(This shortstory eBook release escaped my attention until after the interview with James Scott Bell last January. My apologies, Jim and the other six bestselling writers in this collecton of short stories.).

Fresh Kills is a collection of short stories by seven bestselling writers who are the authors of the popular literary blog The Kill Zone (http://killzoneauthors.blogspot.com/). These tales vary from the paranormal to the chilling to the just plain scary. Contributors include James Scott Bell, John Gilstrap, Michelle Gagnon, Kathryn Lilley, John Ramsey Miller, Clare Langley-Hawthorne, and Joe Moore. Released: January 2010

Tomorrow We Die by Shawn Grady

Paramedic Jonathan Trestle has had a week of death. Every call seems to end up with someone flatlining until finally he is able to revive a disheveled patient long enough for the man to hand him a crumpled piece of paper and say, “Give this to Martin.” With the simple decision to honor a dying man’s last wish, Trestle soon finds himself snared in a mystery of murder and danger. His only clue is a scrap of paper covered with indecipherable dashes, but with his future, freedom, and life on the line, he must race for the truth before the Angel of Death comes calling for him. Released: July 2010

Medical Error by Richard L Mabry

Dr. Anna McIntyre's life is going along just fine—until someone else starts living it! Her patient dies because of an identity mix-up; forged prescriptions jeopardize her career; her credit is in ruins—and "she" has tested positive for HIV. Is trying to clear her name a terminal diagnosis with no hope for a cure? To be released: September 2010

Back on Murder by J. Mark Bertrand

Houston homicide detective Roland March was once one of the best. Now he's disillusioned, cynical, and on his way out. His superiors farm him out on a variety of punishment details•until an unexpected break gives March one last chance to save his career. And his humanity.

All he has to do? Find the missing teenage daughter of a Houston evangelist that every cop in town is already looking for. But March has an inside track, a multiple murder nobody else thinks is connected. Battling a new partner, an old nemesis, and the demons of his past, getting to the truth could cost March everything. Even his life. Released: June 2010

J. Mark Bertrand

Author Interview: J. Mark Bertrand

  

Crime genre novelist J. Mark Bertrand’s main character has one foot out the door. Back on Murder, scheduled to be released next month, opens with homicide detective Roland March knowing his career is in the toilet unless he can pull off the impossible.

J. Mark Bertrand’s publishing career, however, is starting off with a bang. His first two novels will hit the book shelves this year. In July, Bethany House is set to release J. Mark Bertrand’s novel, Back On Murder, a gritty crime story unfolding on the big-city streets of Houston. Last February, Mark and coauthor Deeane Gist saw their novel, Beguiled— a romance suspense novel— quickly rise on CBA and ECPA listings just weeks after its release.

It looks like this will be a great year for this new author.

YOUNG: Give us the down and dirty on Back On Murder. What is the story about?

BERTRAND: It’s about two seemingly unrelated cases—the shooting death of a La Tercera Crips gang lord and a house full of his minions; and the disappearance of a beautiful suburban teen, which is getting all the media attention. Houston homicide detective Roland March bounces from one detail to the next, convincing himself along the way that the two cases are connected.

YOUNG: Give us some insight into your main character, Roland March. The story begins with everyone knowing March’s career is almost over. Tells us a little about why he keeps fighting to stay in the game. What drives him?

BERTRAND: When we meet March, things have gotten so bad for him in homicide that his bosses are loaning him out on pointless details. He shows up at a crime scene and is pretty much superfluous. Everybody ignores him. And yet he used to be good at the job. He made some famous cases back in the day. When he gets a break in the gang killing, he sees his chance to get “back on murder.” His wife would rather see him get out of law enforcement. Even March can’t explain exactly why he’s staying. But that break galvanizes him. He gets a taste of what it used to be like and wants it all back.

YOUNG: Your protagonist bucks a traditional concept in the Christian publishing industry—main character strengthens his faith in God or resolves his spiritual conflict after facing adversity. Here, March is a non-believing skeptic with a jaundiced view of the church. An outsider. Will March ever resolve spiritual quandaries or will those issues be left for other characters to resolve.

BERTRAND: March doesn’t fit the stereotype, that’s for sure. And I’d argue as a novelist that’s a good thing. There’s something to be said for defamiliarization, for looking at the world through a fresh set of eyes.

One of the questions people ask, given the publisher, is whether Back on Murder is Christian fiction. All I can say is, it’s crime fiction, written by an author who’s a Christian, narrated by a protagonist who isn’t. Complicated enough for you? If your definition of the genre is how well it fits that “faces adversity then solves spiritual conflict” trope, then this doesn’t qualify … but neither would The Moviegoer or Wise Blood. (And no, I didn’t just compare myself to Walker Percy and Flannery O’Connor. Or if I did, it was knowing full well I’m not worth to tie their shoelaces!) The French film director Claude Chabrol once pointed out to Roger Ebert that not every Communist movie has to be about the wheat harvest. The same thing goes for any artist with a strong point of view.

As far as March’s issues go, let’s just say this. Things are going to get worse for the detective before they get better.

YOUNG: Intriguing. Can’t wait to see if March will survive. This story takes place in Houston, Texas. Is this city a special place for you or are there other reasons for placing the story in this location?

BERTRAND: I lived in Houston a long time, went to grad school there, and have a love/hate relationship with the city to this day. In crime fiction now, a sense of place is very important. Surprisingly, despite being the fourth largest city in the United States, Houston is underrepresented in the genre. I chose it for that, and because in so many ways—oil, suburban sprawl, mass market religion, and so much more—it’s the perfect metaphor for the world we live in now. If you’re writing about Houston, you’re writing about America, too.

YOUNG: Mark, I read in one of your articles that crime fighting intrigued you at an early age. Anything happen to shake your enthusiasm? How did you go from the junior sleuth of earlier years to the crime novelist of today?

BERTRAND: I’m not a detective today for the same reason I’m not a general: they don’t let you start at the top! Growing up watching Magnum P. I. and Remington Steele, I was so going to be a private detective. I even did a couple of correspondence courses and talked my way into a kind of apprenticeship with a local private eye. The dream persisted until I reached college, where my love of literature kicked in. For someone so committed to the gritty, surreal reality of the job, it’s ironic to think how romanticized my view was.