Reviewed By Liz

ISBN 0451220986

MR. MONK IN OUTER SPACE – Adrian Monk is a brilliant detective…with obsessive-compulsive disorder. Although he’s able to solve baffling murders for the San Francisco Police, his phobias and personality ticks leave him utterly incapable of handling even the simplest aspects of day-to-day life. Based on the TV series starring Tony Shalhoub.

Check out Lee’s web site at www.leegoldberg.com.

Available at Amazon

New book releases are a feature provided for our readers by reviewedbyliz, but are not written by us. Where available, the descriptions of the books are those provided by the publisher.

ISBN 1569474796

PRAYER OF THE DRAGON – Summoned to a remote village from the hidden lamasery where he lives, Shan, formerly an investigator in Beijing, must save a comatose man from execution for two murders in which the victims’ arms have been removed. Upon arrival, he discovers that the suspect is not Tibetan but Navajo. The man has come with his niece to seek ancestral ties between their people and the ancient Bon. The recent murders are only part of a chain of deaths. Together with his friends, the monks Gendun and Lokesh, Shan solves the riddle of Dragon Mountain, the place “where world begins.”

Check out Eliot’s web site at www.eliotpattison.com.

Available at Amazon

New book releases are a feature provided for our readers by reviewedbyliz, but are not written by us. Where available, the descriptions of the books are those provided by the publisher.

ISBN 0061123951

CAT DECK THE HALLS – A Joe Grey Mystery – The cats who saved Christmas . . . The charming seaside village of Molena Point, California, leads one to expect a quiet traditional Christmas surrounded by family and friends—but not this holiday season. Instead of singing carols and climbing into Christmas trees, Joe Grey, feline P.I., is faced with his most difficult case yet—and that’s saying a lot for a wily tomcat who for years has been solving crimes the police can’t even crack.

At midnight in the deserted gardens of the shopping plaza, a stranger lies dead beneath the village Christmas tree; the only witness to the shooting is a little child. But when the police arrive, summoned by an anonymous phone call of feline origin, both the body and the child have disappeared. As police scramble for leads, the grey tomcat, his tabby lady, and their tortoiseshell pal, Kit, launch their own unique investigation.

Together Joe Grey, Dulcie, and Kit face their most heartbreaking case yet as they care for the child who may be the killer’s next target. Trying to sort out perplexing clues amidst the happiness of the season, they shadow a cast of colorful characters. But neither the police nor their unknown feline assistants are aware that they might have stumbled over the murderer and never known it, until an electrifying final scene when the killer’s identity is revealed.

Check out Shirley’s web site at www.joegrey.com.

Available at Amazon

New book releases are a feature provided for our readers by reviewedbyliz, but are not written by us. Where available, the descriptions of the books are those provided by the publisher.

ISBN 0758212259

KILLER KNOTS – A Bad Hair Day Mystery – Scissor-wielding sleuth Marla Shore is looking forward to a leisurely cruise with her fiancé Dalton Vail. Too bad Dalton’s teenage daughter and his parents are along for the ride. Instead of a seduction at sea, Marla is meeting the in-laws and hoping nothing goes too terribly wrong.

It’s a vain hope. A mysterious envelope stuck into her cabin door reads: I know what you did and I have what you want. If it hadn’t been addressed to “Martha” Shore and obviously delivered by mistake, Marla might have feared it referred to the nudie pictures buried in her past. But that embarrassment would been better than what the note does foretell: troubled waters lie dead ahead.

So instead of cruise control, Marla’s on high-alert, searching for the note’s recipient before the cruise goes down the drain. If Marla doesn’t find the culprit fast, this spunky stylist may end up with her own split end: caught between the devil and the deep blue sea.

Check out Nancy’s web site at Nancy J. Cohen’s home on the web.

Available at Amazon

New book releases are a feature provided for our readers by reviewedbyliz, but are not written by us. Where available, the descriptions of the books are those provided by the publisher.

ISBN 042521849X

SHROUDS OF HOLLY – A Pennyfoot Hotel Mystery – While decorating the Pennyfoot’s ballroom for a Christmas reception, Cecily sends her husband Baxter and stable manager Samuel into the woods to cut some fresh boughs of holly for the ballroom. An hour later their one-horse open carriage returns with the horse, the holly…and the unwelcome gift of a dead body. Baxter and Samuel are nowhere to be found. In what should be a season of celebration with friends and family, Cecily means to reunite hers and solve the mystery-even if a killer leads her in a merry measure.

Check out Kate’s web site at doreenrobertshight.com.

Available at Amazon

New book releases are a feature provided for our readers by reviewedbyliz, but are not written by us. Where available, the descriptions of the books are those provided by the publisher.

Welcome to Sample Chapter Sunday!

Sample Chapter Sunday is the cure for the boring Sunday afternoons when you have no new reading material. You can swing by here and find links to sample chapters of mysteries by favorite authors and authors you haven’t read before.

Any mystery author is welcome to put a link to their online sample chapter by leaving a comment on this post. Hopefully, they will also give us their name, title of the book, and a brief description or synopsis to pique our interest. Tell your friends to come read and your favorite authors to come show off their sample chapters!

To see the access the sample chapters that the authors have posted links to, click on the COMMENTS link below (If you are an author, this is also the place you add a comment and post you book description and sample chapter links).

ISBN 978-1-880284-91-9

FACE DOWN O’ER THE BORDER is the tenth book in the Lady Susanna Appleton Face Down series. While the series is set in Elizabethan England, most of this book takes place in Scotland. As the story opens, Lady Appleton’s sister-in-law, Lady Glenelg, returns to consciousness to discover that the is lying at the bottom of a staircase with the body of her dead mother-in-law lying on top of her. Lady Glenelg can remember nothing of the last few hours, and assumes that she and her mother-in-law somehow fell together down the stairs. Until she sees the bruises on her mother-in-law’s neck – they could only have been made by someone trying to strangle her.Lady Glenelg and her mother-in-law, Lady Russell, were never the best of friends and recently that had disagreed over the upbringing of Lady Glenelg’s son. Lady Russell had arranged for the young boy to live and study with Scotland’s boy king, James VI. Lady Glenelg had been in Scotland to be near her son and to try to get him back. Knowing she will be suspected in the death of her mother-in-law, but unwilling to leave Scotland without her son, Lady Glenelg goes into hiding with an old friend after sending her daughter home to England. Lady Appleton rushes off to Scotland when she hears of the situation and her niece fails to arrive home. Lady Appleton is desperate to reunite her sister-in-law’s family but has to negotiate Scottish law, powerful royals, and a murderer to accomplish her mission.Once again, Emerson has given us a good mystery wrapped in a delightful historical setting. Emerson’s books are well-researched and have a huge amount of detail in them. She includes real historical figures and events in her stories and I always learn a dozen or more historical tidbits when I read one of her books.

Favorite character? The resourceful and devoted Fulke. Did I guess it? Most of it. Will I read another? Absolutely.

Mystery Book Reviews by Liz at http://reviewedbyliz.com ©2007

Available at Amazon!

ISBN 0425218341

A CAROL FOR A CORPSE – A Hemlock Falls Mystery – For the Quilliam sisters, there’s nothing jolly about this Christmas. Someone with a paintball gun is taking down inflatable Santas all over town. And Meg and Quill are near-broke. At least there’s one bright star on the horizon: a big-time magazine and television show will feature the Inn. But soon the editor’s husband skis to his death. Now, if the Quilliams are to save the Inn from a lawsuit, they’ll need to prove this was no accident. But the slopeside slayer has a message for them: You better watch out.

Check out Claudia’s web site at www.claudiabishop.com/.

Available at Amazon

New book releases are a feature provided for our readers by reviewedbyliz, but are not written by us. Where available, the descriptions of the books are those provided by the publisher.

ISBN 1590584589

THE CRITIC – The Second of the Enzo Files – Gil Petty, the world’s number one wine critic, went missing during a tasting tour of the little-known wine region of Gaillac. Four years ago, his body was discovered strung up on a cross in the vineyards of southwest France.
Check out Peter’s web site at www.petermay.co.uk/.

Available at Amazon

New book releases are a feature provided for our readers by reviewedbyliz, but are not written by us. Where available, the descriptions of the books are those provided by the publisher.

ISBN 978-0-425-21610-1

THE FALSE-HEARTED TEDDY is the second book in the Brad Lyon Bear Collector’s Mystery series. Former homicide detective Brad Lyon and his teddy-crafting wife Ashleigh are at a bear show when a fellow teddy bear designer dies under mysterious circumstances. Brad and Ashleigh try to save the woman’s life and, when they are unable to, alert the police to the fact that she may have been murdered. Unfortunately, the Lyons fall under suspicion when they get into a confrontation with the investigating officers. Brad mounts his own investigation into the murder when he decides that the police are not competent, and proceeds to question the suspects around the scheduled bear show events.

I quite liked Lamb’s first teddy bear book, but was disappointed with this one for several reasons. First and foremost, some of the actions that Brad takes aren’t appropriate to the character Lamb has created and they aren’t endearing to the reader. Lamb is supposed to be a nice guy – a retired detective finding Nirvana making teddy bears with his wife. But to move the story along, Lamb has written a confrontation with the local police which makes Brad look like a jerk and leads him to pursue an investigation on his own. When he intentionally breaks several laws doing so, he lowers himself further in the reader’s estimation. And when he vengefully embarrasses a fellow crafter in front of a large audience, he just looks like an ass. I want to read about characters that I like – but I don’t like Brad Lyon in this book.

Due to some inexpertly dropped clues, I also knew who the killer was going to be before the murder was committed, which is a definite disadvantage in a mystery. Lamb is a new author and I think that both of the book’s problems are a result of insufficient plot development. The plot is too simplistic, there aren’t enough suspects or clues, and Lamb is forced to make Brad act in uncharacteristic ways to justify the story line. Unfortunately, there aren’t enough interesting bear crafting details to redeem this book’s shortcomings.

Favorite character? None. Did I guess it? Yes. Will I read another? Perhaps. The things that are wrong with this book can be contained within it. Every author turns out a clinker now and again.

Mystery Book Reviews by Liz at http://reviewedbyliz.com ©2007

Available at Amazon!