WHAT’S NEW THIS MONTH – October 2023

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New Releases
Praise and Awards
Author Appearances
Free/Low Cost Resources

New Releases

GUILT STRIKES AT GRANGER’S STORE, the 10th book in Terry Shames’s Samuel Craddock series, comes out October 3, from Severn House.

Samuel Craddock investigates a series of strange happenings at the feed store: an assault, a fatal shooting, a fire. Then a long-dead body wrapped in a shellacked tarp is discovered under a floor. Craddock learns that the shooting victim was one of three young men who installed the floor 30 years ago. To solve the crime, Craddock must uncover the link between the past and present deaths.

CHEAP TRILLS, number four in Wendall Thomas‘s Cyd Redondo screwball travel mystery series, comes out on the 30th from Beyond the Page books.

After her mother sneaks off on an Eat, Pray, Love tour to Bali that goes terribly wrong, travel agent Cyd Redondo must outwit a ring of songbird smugglers and take on a killer, all while keeping three endangered Bali starling chicks alive in her purse.

BARGAINS TO DIE FOR, the second book in Dorothy Howell‘s Hollis Brannigan personal shopper cozy mystery series, will be released October 24th from Worldwide Mystery.

When personal shopper Hollis Brannigan stumbles over a murder victim in one of LA’s most exclusive shops, she discovers that finding the killer is more than she bargained for!

The sixth book in Sybil Johnson‘s craft-based cozyAurora Anderson Mystery Series, BRUSH UP ON MURDER, comes out October 10th. 

Love is in the air in Vista Beach, home of computer programmer and decorative-painting enthusiast Aurora (Rory) Anderson. But a string of bank robberies is ruining the romantic vibe. While Rory helps friends prepare for a Valentine’s Day wedding, a body is found and the groom is implicated in the murder. Rory puts her heart into the investigation hoping to clear her friend’s name.

Book four in Joanne Jaytanie‘s Winter Sisters series, RETRIEVING REMY, will drop October 24. Remi LeRoux of New Orleans is a psychiatrist-turned-tarot-card-reader who can predict the future, but she’s  completely confused by strange visions linked to her lifeline. She encounters one odd thing after another, including a would-be-fatal bullet, an intriguing stranger, and an entire paranormal community. When further shootings place her and the irresistible man in danger, she jumps into gear. Can this accidental pairing uncover a sinister conspiracy before the next flip of the deck is death?

THE UNVARNISHED GARY PHILLIPS comes out October 10 from Three Rooms Press.

This 17-story collection includes Phillips’ most thrilling, outlandish, and madcap pulp fiction, stories straddling the line between bizarro, sci-fi, noir, and bronze-age Marvel comics. It’s greindhouse meets blaxploitation by way of B movie drive-in fare.

“Phillips gives us smart-ass characters punching their way through kick-ass action scenes. An incredible read!” —Rachel Howzell Hall, New York Times and Wall Sreet Journal bestselling author

Volume II of Amnon Kabatchnik‘s series COURTROOM DRAMAS ON THE STAGE came out in August. This book concentrates on plays mounted in the twentieth century. Among the playwrights whose works are discussed are Ayn Rand, Maxwell Anderson, Agatha Christie, Jean Genet, Arthur Miller, Herman Wouk, James Baldwin, Terence Rattigan, and Aaron Sorkin.

Volume I, which came out in May, analyzes more than fifty plays from Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, the Middle Ages, the Elizabethan era, and early America. The playwrights Aeschylus, Sophocles, and Euripides are represented, as well as Marlowe, Shakespeare, and  Byron.

Amnon Kabatchnik‘s HORROR ON THE STAGE, which came out in June, covers plays featuring Frankenstein, Dracula, the Werewolf, the Mummy, the Zombie, and such real-life monsters as Jack the Ripper and Lizzie Borden.  Also identified are terrifying plays adapted from works like Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde, The Turn of the Screw, The Invisible Man, Phantom of the Opera, and stage treatments of nightmarish stories by Edgar Allan Poe, Oscar Wilde, H.G. Wells, Henry James, and Arthur Conan Doyle.

Praise and Awards

Crime Reads has included Naomi Hirahara‘s EVERGREEN on its list of the best works of historical fiction thus far in 2023.  “Hirahara has found a pivotal subject and brought her immense talents to bear.”

Author Appearances

There will be a launch party on Sunday October 8 at 5pm at Village Well Books and Coffee in Culver City for Terry Shames‘s new GUILT STRIKES  AT GRANGER’S STORE, out now from Severn House.

On Wednesday October 11 at 10:00am Terry will give a talk A on “Cooking up a Mystery” in the Food for Thought series at Neuehouse Creative Workspace, 73 Market St, Venice, CA. Check out Terry’s event page for more information.

Gary Phillips will appear at Vroman’s bookstore on Tuesday October 24 at 7 pm to talk about his new book, UNVARNISHED GARY PHILLIPS: A MONDO PULP COLLECTION.

Free/Low Cost Resources

Sisters in Crime Webinar Archives.

Members of Sisters in Crime national have free access to a library of archived webinars on a wide range of topics, from getting your novel onto the screen, to using Bookstagram and Scrivener, to forensic psychology and myths about the FBI.

Explore Jane Friedman’s Publishing Tips

Jane has 25 years of experience in the publishing industry, with expertise in business strategy for authors and publishers. She’s the author of The Business of Being a Writer,  and the co-founder and editor of The Hot Sheet, a paid newsletter for authors. Check out her articles on finding a literary agent, writing query letters and identifying key book publishing paths in 2023. Her blog is also free!

BlackBird Writers

Each year, Blackbird Writers hosts a Halloween Flash Sale event for mystery authors from across the country. This year, it will take place October 28-29. “Imagine the the cross promotion benefits of 100 authors chirping about the sale! Then imagine your books flying off the shelves. It can happen here!”
For more info, contact Sheila Lowe

Something Sound Fishy? Too Good to Be True? Check out Writer Beware

The official blog of Writer Beware® shines a bright light into the dark corners of the shadow-world of literary scams, schemes, and pitfalls. Also providing advice for writers, industry news, and commentary. As entertaining as it is educational.