May 7 2013 New Mystery Release Roundup

As we have been doing for the past several months after "new release Tuesday", here is a recap of this month's batch of new mystery/thriller releases.  With over 30, there is probably something for everyone:

• Ace Atkins' Robert B Parker's Wonderland, the latest authorized book in the Spenser series
• Duffy Brown's Killer in Crinolines, the second book in her Agatha Award nominated Consignment Shop cozy mystery series
• Emily Brightwell's Mrs Jeffries Turns the Tide, the 31st book in her Victorian British mystery series with housekeeper Mrs. Jeffries
• Lucy Burdette's (aka Roberta Isleib) Topped Chef, the third book in her Key West Food Critic cozy mystery series with Hayley Snow
• Alyse Carlson's The Begonia Bribe, the second book in her Garden Society cozy mystery series with Camellia Harris
• Linda Castillo's Long Lost, an e-book exclusive short story from her Kate Burkholder Amish country series 
• Marcia Clark's Trouble in Paradise, an e-book exclusive short story in her Rachel Knight legal mystery/thriller series
• Ann Cleeves Silent Voices, the 4th book in her British mystery series with DI Vera Stanhope
• Chris Culver's The Outsider, the second book in his series with Muslim detective Ash Rashid
• Claire Donally's Cat Nap, the second book in her Maine based Sunny and Shadow cozy/cat mystery series
• Joanne Fluke's Video Kill, a reissue of an early thriller from the author of the Hannah Swensen series
• Sally Goldenbaum's Angora Alibi, the seventh book in her Seaside Knitting cozy mystery series with Izzy Chambers
• Chris Grabenstein's Free Fall, the eight book in his Anthony Award winning Jersey Shore series with John Ceepak and Danny Boyle
• Charlaine Harris' Dead Ever After, the final Sookie Stackhouse/True Blood novel
• Carolyn Hart's Dead, White, and Blue, the 23rd book in her Agatha, Anthony, and Macavity Award winning Death on Demand series with mystery bookstore owner Annie Darling
• Tami Hoag's e-book exclusive short story The First Victim, featuring her series characters Sam Kovak and Nikki Liska 
• Swedish author Camilla Lackberg's The Stranger
• John Le Carre's latest suspense novel A Delicate Truth
• John Lescroat's latest mystery/thriller The Ophelia Cut 
• Liz Lipperman's Heard It Through the Grapevine, the first book in her Dead Sister Talking paranormal/cozy mystery series
• Karen MacInerney's Brush with Death, the 5th book in her Gray Whale Inn cozy mystery series with Natalie Barnes
• David Morrell's Victorian historical mystery/thriller Murder as a Fine Art
• Liz Mugavero's Kneading to Die, the first book in her new Pawsitively Organic Gourmet Pet Food cozy mystery series
• Kathryn O'Sullivan's Foal Play, the Malice Domestic Award winning new humorous small town cozy with Colleen McCabe, set on the Outer Banks
• Nancy Parra's Gluten for Punishment, the first book in her Baker's Treat cozy mystery series with gluten-free baker Toni Ryder
• Ann Purser's The Sleeping Salesman Inquiry, the 4th book in her British village mystery series with spinster Ivy Beasley
• Linda Rodriguez's Every Broken Trust, the second book in her series with Chief of Campus Police Skeet Bannion
• John Sandford's Silken Prey, the 23rd book in his popular Lucas Davenport series
• Joanna Campbell Slan's Picture Perfect Corpse, the 6th book in her Agatha Award nominated Scrapbooking cozy mystery series with Kiki Lowenstein
• Rochelle Staab's Hex on the Ex, the third book in her highly regarded Mind for Murder mystery series with psychologist Liz Cooper
• Leann Sweeney's The Cat, the Mill, and the Murder, the 5th book in her Cats in Trouble cozy mystery series
• Victoria Thompson's Murder in Chelsea, the 15th book in her historical Gaslight mystery series with early 1900s NYC midwife Sarah Brandt
• Elaine Viets' Board Stiff, the 12th book in her popular Dead End Job humorous cozy mystery series with Helen Hawthorne

Are there any that you missed?  Any that we missed?

Guest Blog: Mike Faricy on Robert Parker's Jesse Stone

Minnesota native Mike Faricy, author of "Russian Roulette" and 7 other funny, quirky crime novels (all available for $2.99 for Kindle), joins us on the blog to discuss PI characters who have been an influence on his writing.  Up today is Robert B. Parker's Jesse Stone.

Thanks to Must Read Mysteries for letting me share my thoughts on PI characters I’ve read and how they influenced my writing. To start, since I seem to have an authority problem, let’s not look at PI characters. I feel like starting with a Chief of Police, although he was an LAPD detective before he was forced out the door. I’m talking about Robert B. Parker’s conflicted protagonist, Jesse Stone.

Best known for his Spenser novels, Parker wrote the first Jesse Stone novel, Night Passage, in 1997. He wrote a total of nine novels in the Jesse Stone series before he passed away in 2010. The last one, Split Image, was published after his death. The Jesse Stone novels are the only ones Parker wrote using the third-person narrative. Michael Brandman has continued the series and penned Robert B. Parker’s Killing the Blues, released in September, 2011.

I like Jesse Stone for a variety of reasons, not the least is he’s one terribly troubled individual. In his early days Jesse was a minor league shortstop who lost his shot at the major leagues once his throwing arm was injured. You get the sense he’s been on relatively thin ice ever since. Parker himself said it best, “Jesse is a much damaged individual who is coming to terms with himself as he goes along.”

Jesse is plagued by recurring demons; drink, depression and his ex-wife. Which came first? Jesse’s divorce from his ‘film star’ wife seems to have lit the fuse to his ongoing battle with drink, scotch and soda being his preference. His drinking forces his departure from the LAPD and guarantees his hire by the Paradise, Massachusetts town council. Jesse, intoxicated at his job interview, gets pegged as an individual the town council will be able to control. They make him an offer he really can’t refuse, by the way, it’s also the only offer he has.

Almost every time he seems to have beaten his drink problem, his ex-wife washes up on shore, leading to a bout of depression and then a drink relapse drifting in her wake. But at least half of that seems to be Jesse’s fault, he’s never really honest with himself where the ex is concerned and then feels blindsided when things don’t work out, yet again. Jesse is complex, damaged, and lacking answers, all of which make for a fascinating read.

The Jesse Stone novels have been turned into made for TV movies on CBS. Tom Selleck is cast as Jesse Stone, you watch about sixty seconds and know there is no one else who could play Jesse Stone as well as Selleck. Actually, Selleck, in conjunction with Michael Brandman wrote the screen plays for the series. The reports I’m reading suggest the most recent movie, Benefit of Doubt, which aired just this past May 20, will be the last Jesse Stone CBS does. Selleck and Brandman suggest this is not the end of the series, just the last one with CBS involvement, I hope the series continues.

The television adaptations differ slightly. In Parker’s novels, Jesse Stone is in his mid thirties. Obviously Selleck plays a more mature character. In Night Passage, Jesse interviews for the chief of police job drunk, in the television adaptation he’s just very hung over. Selleck also, in the most recent production, carries a Colt Commander .45 ACP pistol rather than the Smith & Wesson Model 36 snub nosed revolver, but his portrayal of the dark side of Stone’s personality is uncanny. Jesse Stone is known for his dry, matter of fact one-liners and Tom Selleck delivers them perfectly. In Benefit of Doubt Jesse Stone says, “I think it looks like he hung himself.” 

“Yeah, I think he hung himself,” replies Captain Healy.

“That’s not the same thing,” Jesse says.

Robert B. Parker himself said, “Tom Selleck nails the character.” Indeed he does.