Tantalizing Tales — September 2024 — Part One

A surprisingly short round-up column to start off September, likely due to the fact that I think I actually have a better than decent shot at reading all the other books I’ve yet to talk about here!

First up, we have An Honorable Assassin by Steve Hamilton. This third book in the Nick Mason series finds our hero on a plane to Jakarta, promoted to lead assassin for a vast shadow organization that reaches every corner of the globe. This time, there’s only one name on his list: Hashim Baya — otherwise known as the Crocodile — international fugitive and #1 most wanted on Interpol’s Red Notice list. Baya is the most dangerous and elusive criminal Mason has ever faced.

Which makes it that much worse when, for the first time in his career, Mason fails his mission and Baya gets away alive.

There’s only one thing Mason can do now. To save himself, his ex-wife and his daughter, he must make this mission his life, hunting down the target on his own. But Mason isn’t alone in his search. For Interpol agent Martin Sauvage, apprehending Baya has become a personal vendetta. Sauvage is a man just as haunted as Mason is, and just as determined.

Never have the stakes been so high for Mason, or the forces surrounding him so great. Sauvage wants Baya in prison. Mason needs him in a body bag. Assassin and cop are on a five-thousand-mile collision course, leading to a brutal final showdown.

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Fatal Intrusion is the first novel in a dynamic team-up series written by bestselling authors Jeffrey Deaver and Isabella Maldonado! Carmen Sanchez is a tough Homeland Security agent who plays by the rules. When her sister is attacked, revealing a connection to a series of murders across Southern California, she realizes a conventional investigation will not be enough to stop the ruthless perpetrator.

With nowhere else to turn, Sanchez enlists the aid of Professor Jake Heron, a brilliant and quirky private security expert who, unlike Sanchez, believes rules are merely suggestions. The two have a troubled past, but he owes her a favor and she’s cashing in. They team up to catch the assailant who, mystifyingly, has no discernable motive and fits no classic criminal profile. All they have to go on is a distinctive tattoo and a singular obsession that gives this chillingly efficient tactician the nickname Spider.

Over the next seventy-two hours, Sanchez and Heron find themselves in the midst of a lethal chess match with the killer as they race to stop the carnage. As the victims mount, so do the risks. Because this spider’s web of intrigue is more sinister — and goes far deeper — than anyone could possibly anticipate.

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Finally we have a reprint from one of my favorite publishers of vintage crime, Pushkin Vertigo. Modern readers are more familiar with the name A. A. Milne as the creator of Winnie The Pooh. He was also, however, the author of numerous dramas, essays and novels for adults, among them the droll and finely crafted whodunit, The Red House Murder.

In this murder mystery, readers are taken to the Red House, a comfortable residence in the placid English countryside that is the bachelor home of Mr. Mark Ablett. While visiting this cozy retreat, amateur detective Anthony Gillingham and his chum Bill Beverley investigate their genial host’s disappearance and its connection with a mysterious shooting. Was the victim, whose body was found after a heated exchange with the host, shot in an act of self-defense? If so, why did the host flee? If not, what drove their host to murder?

Between games of billiards and bowls, the taking of tea and other genteel pursuits, Gillingham and Beverley explore the possibilities in a light-hearted series of capers involving secret passageways, underwater evidence and other atmospheric devices. Sparkling with witty dialogue, deft plotting, and an intriguing cast of characters, this rare gem will charm mystery lovers, Anglophiles and general readers alike.

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And that’s all the new publications we have for you this week! Let me know if you’re able to get to any of these books before I do, dear readers. I’d love to hear your opinions, and see if that will help spur me to push any of them higher up the mountain range that is my To Be Read pile.

And, as always, you can check out the list of my favorite books this year so far in my Bookshop storefront linked below!