DP54Cover - Deadly Pleasures

Cassie Maddox is still trying to recover. Another gripping
psychological thriller featuring the headstrong protagonist.
PW & BL
**THE DIRTY SECRETS CLUB, Gardiner, Meg (Dutton,
$24.95). Dr. Jo Beckett, a forensic psychiatrist (or
deadshrinker), performs psychological autopsies to uncover
the truths behind grisly crimes. Recruited to consult
on the possible suicide of prosecutor Callie Harding, who
drove her BMW off a San Francisco bridge and struck an
airport minivan on the road below, Jo discovers this
accident is the latest in a string of high profile murdersuicides.
DP
**CARELESS IN RED, George, Elizabeth (HarperCollins,
$27.95). Scotland Yard’s Thomas Lynley is caught in the
middle of a seemingly perfect crime. PW & LJ
**THE FORGERY OF VENUS, Gruber, Michael (Morrow,
$24.95). Gruber creates a fascinating world of
secrets, genius, and conspiracies and combines it with
brilliant storytelling, complex characterizations, and sterling
prose to produce this spellbinding
novel. Kirkus, PW & BL
**CHEATING AT SOLITAIRE, Haddam,
Jane (St. Martin’s Minotaur, $24.95).
Former FBI agent Gregor Demarkian,
fleeing from his own wedding preparations,
is hired to review a case--one that he
finds has little evidence and twisted by an
out-of-control media--in what may be the
most compelling case of his entire career.
PW. BL, Kirkus & LJ
**GAME OVER, Harrod-Eagles, Cynthia
(Severn House, $28.95). A Bill Slider
Mystery -- When ex-BBC correspondent
Ed Stonax is found dead, the last thing
Detective Inspector Slider needs to complicate
his life is the reappearance of an
old enemy issuing death threats. Trevor Bates, aka The
Needle, is on the loose and trying to kill him, and with a
high-profile murder to solve, Slider must try to find a spare
moment to marry Joanna before their baby is born and stay
alive long enough to do it . BL & DP
**GONE TO GROUND, Harvey, John (Harcourt, $25.00).
When police detective Will Grayson and his partner, Helen
Walker, investigate the violent death of Stephen Bryan, a
gay academic, their first thoughts are of an ill-judged
sexual encounter or a fatal lovers quarrel. But they soon
shift focus to the book Bryan was writing about a film stars
mysterious death. Kirkus & Booklist
**MUMMY DEAREST, Hess, Joan (St. Martin’s, $24.95).
After a somewhat long and, at times, strange courtship,
Claire Malloy -- a single, widowed mother of a teenage
daughter and a bookseller in Farberville, Arkansas - has
finally said ‘I do’ to her swain, Lt. Peter Rosen of the
Farberville Police Department. Now they are on their
honeymoon in Luxor, Egypt. Then things go bad. DP
**WHAT NEVER HAPPENS, Holt, Anne (Grand Central,
$24.99). All over Oslo, celebrities are turning up dead
in the most macabre of situations. Its clear that the killer
seeks some sort of retribution, but for what? New parents
Deadly Pleasures
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Adam Stubo and Johanna Vik are reluctantly drawn into
the investigation. BL & DP
**GOODBYE SISTER DISCO, Hunt, James Patrick (St.
Martin’s Minotaur, $23.95). In The Betrayers, Hunt
introduced George Hastings, an even-handed St. Louis
police detective who caught a dirty FBI agent. Now
Hastings is back on the case when the daughter of a
wealthy businessman is kidnapped and her boyfriend
killed. LJ & BL
**THE DRAINING LAKE, Indridason, Arnaldur (St.
Martin’s Minotaur). The declining water level of lake
reveal human remains tied to Russian-made spy equipment.
DP
**THE NIGHT FOLLOWING, Joss, Morag (Dell, $22.00).
The quiet wife of a doctor discovers that her husband has
been having an affair. Moments later, driving along a
winding country road and distracted perhaps by her own
thoughts, perhaps blinded by sunlight, she fails to see sixtyone-year-old
Ruth Mitchell up ahead, riding her bicycle.
She hits her, killing her instantly. And drives
away. DP
**THE WATER’S EDGE, Judson, Daniel
(St. Martin’s Minotaur, $24.95). When Jake
“Payday” Bechet hears that two men have
been murdered a few miles from where he
lives in the Hamptons---hanged from the
Shinnecock Bridge, their hands severed---he
knows that trouble is coming. Trouble for
him, for everyone, because it means that
someone has betrayed the Castello crime
family. Whether it’s someone trying to move
in on their drug operation or the cops making
their own statement, he doesn’t know, but he
wants to stay far away from it all. DP
**TOUCHSTONE, King, Laurie R. (Bantam,
$24.00). Laurie R. King takes us to a
remote cottage in Cornwall where a gripping tale of
intrigue, terrorism, and explosive passions begins with a
visit to a recluse upon whom the fate of an entire nation
may rest. Booklist, LJ & DP
**HEAD WOUNDS, Knopf, Chris (Permanent Press,
$28.00). Part-time carpenter, full-time drinker and coconspirator
with an existential mutt named Eddie Van
Halen, Sam Aquino tries to lead the simple life. But as
always, fate intervenes, this time in the form of Robbie
Milhouser, local builder and blundering bully who shares at
least one thing with Sam; an irresistible attraction to the
beautiful Amanda Anselma. PW & DP
**THE HEADHUNTERS, Lovesey, Peter (Soho Press,
$24.00). Gemma loathes her sleazy boss, which she
confides in her friend Jo. On a double date with Rick and
Jake, they discuss forming a mutual murder society, in jest
of course. When three of Gemma’s coworkers go missing,
is it just a coincidence, or has the joke gone too far? PW
& DP
**CURSE OF THE SPELLMANS, Lutz, Lisa (Simon &
Schuster, $25.00). The “parental unit” started a private
investigation business when Dad retired from police work.
His wife assists him and their two daughters, Isabel, (Izzy) a