all your Reads in Here

Today's blog has two purposes, the weekly "What Are You Reading?" post, and also the last giveaway of the year. First, the discussion of what we're reading. Then, check below the line for this week's giveaway. Some of us are lucky enough to have a long weekend for the Thanksgiving holiday. To me, that means extra reading time! I have a stack of books beside me as I write this. I've just started Michelle Obama's  Becoming . I'm also reading two forthcoming books, so if either of these sound interesting to you, write them down to get at your library or pre-order at your favorite bookstore. Julia Kelly's The Light Over London has two storylines. One is about an antiques dealer who discovers a diary from World War II. The other storyline is about the woman who wrote the diary, a young woman who defied her parents to join the women's branch of the British Army in the anti-aircraft gun unit. It's a January 8 release. I'm also reading Wine an...

Congratulations to the winners of the last contest. Jana B. from Smyrna, TN and Marie R. from Horseheads, NY won copies of Dig Your Grave. Charlotte W. from Covington, GA and Bill T. from St. Clair Shores, MI won the copies of The Guilty Dead. The books are going out in the mail today. This week, I'm giving away mysteries with a Sherlock Holmes connection. I have one ARC of Sherry Thomas' latest Lady Sherlock mystery,  The Hollow of Fear . Charlotte Holmes uses the cover of "Sherlock Holmes, consulting detective" to investigate crimes. This time, the estranged wife of her dear friend Lord Ingram is found dead on his estate, and all of society suspects him. Charlotte disguises herself to find the truth. I have two copies of Bradley Harper's A Knife in the Fog. The debut mystery brings a young Arthur Conan Doyle to London where he teams up with his mentor, Professor Joseph Bell, and a journalist, Margaret Darkness to search for the killer who will become known as J...

Congratulations to the winners of the last contest. John S. from Iowa City, IA won Death in the Stars . Carola Dunn's The Corpse at the Crystal Palace goes to Robin C. from Ashtabula, OH. The books are going out in the mail today. This week, I'm giving away copies of book that feature the police working with an outside partner. I have two copies of each book, so there will be four winners. The latest Monkeewrench book is P.J. Tracy's  The Guilty Dead . Minneapolis police detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth are investigating the death of a philanthropist. But, when they team up with the software experts at Monkeewrench, they discover a link between that death and a larger plot. Or, you could head to Arizona for Steven Cooper's Dig Your Grave . Phoenix Police Detective Alex Mills doesn't hesitate to ask for help from a friend who is a psychic, Gus Parker. Several prominent victims have been discovered in graves they seem to have dug themselves. Ghoulish signs war...

Congratulations to the winners of the last contest. Christi K. from Arlington, TX won Haunted Hayride with Murder . Sue R. from Allen, TX will receive Death Bakes a Pecan Pie . The books are going out in the mail today. This week, I'm giving away two mysteries set in the 1920s. In Carola Dunn's The Corpse at the Crystal Palace , Daisy Dalrymple's casual outing to the Crystal Place in London takes a mysterious and murderous turn. Daisy brings family members and Nanny Gilpin to the Palace, but the nanny goes off to the ladies room and fails to return. When Daisy goes looking, she finds another woman dead, dressed in a nanny's uniform, and Daisy's stepdaughter finds Mrs. Gilpin lying unconscious in a small lake. Together with her husband, Detective Chief Inspector Alex Fletcher, Daisy looks into the mysterious case of nannies. It's 1927 in Frances Brody's Death in the Stars . Eclipse fever grips England, and Kate Shackleton agrees to accompany Selina Fellini, a...

Congratulations to the winners of the last contest. Copies of Die Me a River  are going to Jana B. of Tigard, OR, Sue F. from Crosslake, MN and Lisa G. of Pensacola Beach, FL. The copies of Last Call are going to Daniel M. of Weymouth, MA, Jim G. from Prescott, AZ and Taylor W. from Kalispell, MT. The books are going out today. This week, I'm giving away 2 cozy mysteries with autumn settings. Auralee Wallace's Haunted Hayride with Murder is set in New Hampshire as leaves change and Erica Bloom enjoys apple cider and cozy sweaters. She isn't quite as excited when some local teens discover a dead man's foot bones in a boat. And, the bones belong to a long-gone local with scandalous connections to an apple orchard rumored to be haunted by a witch. In Livia J. Washburn's Death Bakes a Pecan Pie , it's time for the Harvest Festival in Weatherford, Texas. Phyllis is determined to bake a killer pecan pie. But, she might be sidetracked. Hollywood comes to town as a mov...

Congratulations to the winners of the last contest. Burning Ridge is going to Dianne C. from Elk Grove Village, IL, G.B. from East Lansing, MI, and Jane T. from West Linn, OR. Karen R. of Katy, TX and Sandie H. of Sarasota, FL won The Cats Came Back . The books went out on Wednesday. This week, I'm giving away multiple copies of two mysteries. If you are a fan of debuts, you might want to enter to win Paula Matter's  Last Call . It launches a terrific new character and series. Bartender Maggie Lewis is suspended from her job at a Florida VFW after someone kills an obnoxious customer, and sets Maggie up as a suspect. Since the local police never found her husband's killer, Maggie sets out to solve the case herself. Die Me a River is the latest book in Denise Swanson's Welcome Back to Stumble River series. School psychologist Skye Denison-Boyd is on maternity leave with her newborn twins, but while she and her husband, Wally, are meeting with a priest about the christen...

Congratulations to the winners of the last contest. Linda M. from Franklin, PA won Shelved Under Murder . Sara G. of Granite City, IL will receive Hitting the Books . The books went out in the mail yesterday. I have one more week with an unusual schedule, so the time frame will be short again for the giveaway. And, I have multiple copies of both books. This contest will end Tuesday, October 16 at 5 PM CT. So, if you want to enter, do it soon. First, a mystery featuring a dog. Burning Ridge is Margaret Mizushima's latest Timber Creek K-9 Mystery. And, I hadn't read the previous ones, so you can enter for this book even if you haven't read earlier ones in the series. Officer Mattie Cobb and her K-9 partner Robo are called in to spearhead the investigation when a charred body is discovered in a shallow grave on Colorado's Redstone Ridge. But, Mattie seems to have a personal connection to the dead man. When she goes missing, the local veterinarian teams up with Robo to fin...

Congratulations to the winners of the last contest. Shawna H. from Lewisburg, TN won Trust Me by Hank Phillippi Ryan. A Gathering of Secrets by Linda Castillo is going to Jacquie F. of Chicago, IL. The books are going out in the mail today. Important to note - This week and next the giveaways will kick off on Friday as usual, but, due to my schedule, they will end early so I can get them in the mail to the winners. Watch for the deadlines! You won't want to miss the giveaways. This week, I'm giving away two mysteries featuring library directors and small town libraries. Hitting the Books is Jenn McKinlay's latest Library Lover's mystery. When library director Lindsey Norris witnesses a hit-and-run, she's concerned about the victim, a popular local tennis coach. Then, the woman becomes the target of a second murder attempt. Are these "accidents" linked to the stash of library materials found in a stolen car? Lindsey's on the case. In Victoria Gilbert...

Congratulations to the winners of the last contest. Natalie S. from Hyde Park, MA will receive Julia Keller's Bone on Bone . A Borrowing of Bones by Paula Munier goes to Willetta H. from Dearborn, MI. The books are going out in the mail today. I have two mysteries to give away this week with connections to headlines. Hank Phillippi Ryan's Trust Me  is her first standalone, the story of a grieving woman who is given the chance to write the "instant bestseller" follow-up to a televised case in which a mother is on trial for killing her young daughter. The cover of the ARC says "There are three sides to every story. Yours. Mine. And the truth." Linda Castillo is back in Ohio's Amish country with A Gathering of Secrets . When a fire destroys a barn on an Amish farm, Chief of Police Kate Burkholder is called because the oldest son of the family is missing. The body of eighteen-year-old Daniel Gingerich is found, and, by all accounts, he was a golden boy, bel...

Congratulations to the winners of the last contest. Kristina A. from Dunedin, FL won A Tale of Two Kitties. Purrder She Wrote goes to Pat P. from Sesser, IL. The books are going out in the mail today. Bones. What would a mystery be without bones? This week, I have two mysteries that have bones in the titles.  Bone on Bone is Julia Keller's latest book. And, I'll be honest. I hadn't read earlier books in this series, and it really didn't matter. Of course, the series is better if you start at the beginning, but you can still enter and read this one. The book opens three years after the last book Fast Falls the Night. Bell Elkins returns to Acker's Gap, West Virginia. The town may have changed some, but crime and desperation still affects the town. Brent and Linda Topping know that because their world has been upended by the drug addiction of their son, Tyler. Then, Brent is murdered by his son's suppliers. Then, when Linda rushes to help her son, she's shot....

Congratulations to the winners of the last giveaway. Glen D. of Yuba City, CA won Toucan Keep a Secret . The Man Who Couldn't Miss will go to Karen R. from Katy, TX. The books are going out today. How about some cat cozy mysteries this week? A Tale of Two Kitties is the latest Magical Cats Mystery by Sofie Kelly. Minnesota librarian Kathleen Paulson didn't know about a family feud, but everyone else in town of a certain age remembers the situation between Victor and Leo James, when Victor had an affair with his brother's wife, and then she died in car accident. The brothers are trying to reconcile, but then Kathleen finds Leo dead, and Leo's son tops the suspect list. Kathleen teams up with her cats, Hercules and Owen to prove her friend didn't kill his father. P urrder She Wrote by Cate Conte is a Cat Cafe Mystery. Maddie James is excited over the grand opening of Daybreak Island's cat cafe, her new business venture. Then one of her volunteers gets into an a...

This week, I'm giving away two mysteries with humor. David Handler's humor is witty while Donna Andrews is broader. Keep that in mind when you enter the contests. Writer Stewart Hoag is back in David Handler's latest Hoagy and Lulu mystery, The Man Who Couldn't Miss . His ten-year stretch of writer's block is gone, and he's writing up a storm while staying at his ex-wife's place. But, Merilee Nash is also in the midst of a storm. She and some of her former classmates in Yale's Drama Department are doing a one-night show to raise money for a historic Connecticut theater. When one of the cast is murdered during the play, it's up to Hoagy, accompanied by his beloved Basset hound, Lulu, to find a killer. Toucan Keep a Secret is the twenty-third adventure featuring Meg Langslow. Meg's at Trinity Episcopal locking up after an event and checking on the toucan Meg's friend Rev. Robyn Smith is fostering. After she hears hammering in the columbarium, ...

Congratulations to the winners of the last contest. Lisa W. from Rochester, IN won The Night of the Flood . Daniel M. from Weymouth, MA will receive Ten Year Stretch . The books will go out in the mail on Saturday. This week, I'm giving away two mysteries set in London. Let's start with a fun Victorian mystery, Dianne Freeman's  A Lady's Guide to Etiquette and Murder . Frances Wynn, an American-born wealthy young widow encounters the pleasures and scandals of a London social season. She's been accused of Killing her philandering husband, although he died in his lover's bed. But, together with the neighbor who helped her move the body, she's caught up in the investigation of a mysterious burglar who's stealing from London's elite. It's a fun mystery that is so good it calls for a sequel. The second mystery is set in 1914 when Joanna Black and her son witness a man fall from a building.   Leonard Goldberg's The Daughter of Sherlock Holmes  intr...

Congratulations to the winners of the last giveaway. Jane N. from Vashon, WA won These Honored Dead . Suzanne R. of Nashville, TN will receive A Tale of Two Murders . The books will go out in the mail today. This week, I'm giving away two interesting collections - mystery stories. The first one, The Night of the Flood, is a novel told in stories. E.A. Aymar and Sarah M. Chen edited the collection about the night Maggie Wilbourne was to be executed in Pennsylvania. A group of women protesting the execution struck, blowing up a local dam and flooding the town of Everton. Fourteen new authors wrote chapters in this engrossing book, authors such as Jenny Milchman, Wendy Tyson, Alan Orloff and Hilary Davidson. Ten Year Stretch celebrates a decade of crime fiction at CrimeFest in England. Twenty brand new stories were commissioned to celebrate the anniversary. Martin Edwards and Adrian Muller edited the collection. The original stories were written by authors such as Maj Sjowall, Simon...

Congratulations to the winners of the last giveaway. Anita A. from Bellevue, NE and Cindi S. from Greenfield, WI will receive the copies of The Race to Save the Romanovs . I'll put the books in the mail tomorrow. This week, I'm giving away two mysteries with sleuths from history. A Tale of Two Murders by Heather Redmond introduces Charles Dickens as a sleuth. When two young women are murdered, a year apart, Dickens enlists the help of a fellow journalist and a young woman he's attracted to, his boss's daughter. There are traces of Dickens' future books in the first in a new series. These Honored Dead is Jonathan F. Putnam's first Lincoln and Speed mystery. Joshua Speed, the enterprising son of a wealthy plantation owner, has struck off on his own, opening a general store in Springfield, Illinois. When an orphaned girl is found murdered, Speed's former girlfriend is the primary suspect. Speed enlists the help of a new friend, a newly minted lawyer named Abra...

Congratulations to the winners of the last giveaway. Nancy H. of White River Junction, VT won Fiction Can Be Murder . Jeannette G. from Benicia, CA will receive Broken Places . The books will go out in the mail today. This week, I have two copies of Helen Rappaport's nonfiction title, The Race to Save the Romanovs . It's subtitled "The Truth Behind the Secret Plans to Rescue the Russian Imperial Family". I haven't finished my copy yet, but it's a fascinating examination of the connections between the royal families of Europe, and the politics that prevented a rescue attempt. Rappaport, who is also the author of  The Last Day of the Romanov s and  The Romanov Sisters , includes information in the text about her research, and, sometimes, the inability to access papers. If you'd like to win a copy of The Race to Save the Romanov s, email me at Lesa.Holstine@gmail.com . I'll make it easy to enter. Your subject line should read "Win Romanovs." Ple...

Congratulations to the winners of the last giveaway. Dyeing Up Loose Ends goes to Janice R. from Pittsford, NY. Theresa M. from Milwaukee, WI won On the Hook . The books will go out in the mail today. A Clark Giveaway sounds a little odd, doesn't it? The authors of both mysteries have the last name of Clark. Tracy Clark's debut mystery,  Broken Places , is a Chicago mystery that introduces Cass Raines, cop turned private investigator. When the only father figure she's ever known, Father Ray Heaton, reports vandalism problems at his church, she's upset. But, she's angry and determined to find a killer when she finds his murdered body beside a dead gangbanger. And, she doesn't agree with the police verdict. (One of the best debuts I've read this year.) Becky Clark's Fiction Can Be Murder is also a series debut. Mystery author Charlemagne "Charlee" Russo thought the twisty plots and peculiar murders in her books were only the products of her ima...

Congratulations to the winners of the last contest. Copies of Lost Books and Old Bones will go to Marie R. from Horseheads, NY and Susan B. from Seattle, WA. England Expects will go to Sharon B. in Albuquerque, NM. The books are all going out on Saturday. This week, I'm giving away needlework cozy mysteries. On the Hook is Betty Hechtman's twelfth Crochet mystery featuring the Tarzana Hookers crochet club. Molly Pink and the Tarzana Hookers are crocheting baby blankets for charity, but the entire group is tangled up in a mystery. Adele's acting coach is fond dead in a house that Elise Belmont is showing now that she has her realtor's license. And, Molly left a scarf at the murder scene. The only way out is for Molly to find the real killer. Prefer knitting? Maggie Sefton's Dyeing Up Loose Ends is the sixteenth and final Knitting mystery. Kelly Flynn has been enjoying motherhood and avoiding murder, but when a friendly waitress is found dead, Kelly enlists the help ...

This week, I'm giving away books whose authors' names begin with "S". Let's start with Paige Shelton's  Lost Books and Old Bones because I have two copies of that title. This is the latest Scottish Bookshop mystery featuring Delaney Nichols, an American who has moved to Edinburgh. She works at The Cracked Spine. Delaney is now friends with a few medical school students. But, when one of the students' friends is found murdered outside in the alley, Delaney is caught up in the investigation and the history of murder connected to the medical school and scalpels found at The Crooked Spine. Or, you can go back to the 1950s in Sara Sheridan's England Expects. Former Secret Service operative Mirabelle Bevan teams up with her close friend and coworker Vesta Churchill to investigate  the case of a murdered journalist. Sportswriter Joey Gillingham stops off at a Brighton barbershop, and ends up with a slashed throat. The murder is the talk of the town, with rum...

Congratulations to the winners of the last contest. Down a Dark Road will go to Kevin T. from Dallas, TX. Alicia B. from Albuquerque, NM won the copy of Whispers of the Dead . The books are going out in the mail today. There's no giveaway this week because I'll be out of town next week. However, check back on Friday, July 13. I'll have a new giveaway. I just won't be there to mail out books.