So, I forgot to do my June Treasures in My Closet post, and only remembered on May 1. I can see why, though. There are only ten books on the list, and I’ve read eight of them already. What about you? Are there June titles you’re waiting to read?
I’ll kick off the list with the new book by one of my favorite traditional mystery authors, Connie Berry. A Collection of Lies is the fifth Kate Hamilton mystery. Kate and her new husband, DI Tom Mallory, take a working honeymoon in Devon, England. While she investigates the provenance of a bloodstained dress on loan to a local history museum, Tom investigates a murder. (Release date is June 18.)
Judy Nightingale and Philippa Watson from John Copenhaver’s The Savage Kind return in his book, Hall of Mirrors. In May 1954, Lionel Kane witnesses his apartment engulfed in flames with his lover and writing partner, Roger Raymond, inside. Police declare it a suicide due to gas ignition, but Lionel refuses to believe Roger was suicidal.
A month earlier, Judy Nightingale and Philippa Watson—the tenacious and troubled heroines from The Savage Kind—attend a lecture by Roger and, being eager fans, befriend him. He has just been fired from his day job at the State Department, another victim of the Lavender Scare, an anti-gay crusade led by figures like Senator Joseph McCarthy and J. Edgar Hoover, claiming homosexuals are security risks. Little do Judy and Philippa know, but their obsessive manhunt of the past several years has fueled the flames of his dismissal. In the wake of Roger’s death, Lionel searches for clues, but Judy and Philippa threaten his quest, concealing dark secrets of their own. (Release date is June 4.)
The seventh Countess of Harleigh mystery is Dianne Freeman’s An Art Lover’s Guide to Paris and Murder. I’ll admit the murder investigation was a little confusing to me, but Paris during the Paris Exposition was beautifully described. Frances and her husband, George, have two points of interest in Paris. One is an impromptu holiday to visit the Paris Exposition. The other is personal. George’s Aunt Julia has requested her nephew’s help in looking into the suspicious death of renowned artist Paul Ducasse. Though Julia is not entirely forthcoming about her reasons, she is clearly a woman mourning a lost love. At the exposition, swarming with tourists, tragedy casts a pall on the festivities. A footbridge collapses. Julia is among the casualties. However, she was not just another fateful victim. Julia was stabbed to death amid the chaos. With an official investigation at a standstill, George and Frances realize that to solve the case they must dig into Julia’s life—as well as Paul’s—and question everything and everyone in Julia’s coterie of artists and secrets. (Release date is June 25.)
While I didn’t find J.M. Hall’s A Clock Stopped Dead to be as witty as the description suggested, it’s probably just my taste in humor. Retired teachers Pat, Liz and Thelma are happiest whiling away their hours over coffee, cake and chat at the Thirsk Garden Centre café.But when their good friend tells them about an unsettling experience she had in a sinister-feeling charity shop, they simply can’t resist investigating…Because the entire shop has vanished into thin air.Before long, our trio of unlikely sleuths find themselves embroiled in a race against the clock to get to the bottom of this mystery – but who has a secret to hide and how far will they go to keep it concealed? (Release date is June 18.)
M.E. Hilliard completes a four-book story arc as her librarian Greer Hogan returns to Manhattan to investigate her husband’s murder in Smoke and Mirrors. Having spent months quietly investigating in the village of Raven Hill, Greer Hogan returns to New York City determined to find her husband’s murderer. She secures a temporary gig at a private library inventorying the personal collection of a deceased magician. In her free time, Greer sleuths, leaving no stone unturned–even the ones which could be hiding deadly secrets. When two more people are killed and Greer realizes she can’t escape the smoke and mirrors surrounding her suspects, she confides in one of her new colleagues, a magician named Grim with whom she’s bonded over similar traumas. Though she knows he’s got secrets of his own, the tricky Grim may be exactly the assistant Greer needs to pull a rabbit out of a hat and shine a spotlight on a killer before the curtains come down on her for good. (Release date is June 4.)
Have you discovered Cara Hunter’s DI Adam Fawley police procedurals yet? Hope to Die is the sixth in the series. I reviewed Hunter’s third one, No Way Out, when it was released. In the current one, a grisly murder scene at isolated farm on the outskirts of Oxford. A man lies dead in the kitchen—shot point blank. The farm’s elderly owners claim the shooting was self-defense against a burglar. But something about the crime scene doesn’t sit right with DI Adam Fawley, whose gut tells him there’s more to their story. If the victim came to rob the house, why wasn’t he wearing gloves or carrying tools? Why didn’t the owner of the house call the police right after the shooting? Why did his wife wash his blood splattered clothes immediately? Digging deeper, the police realize this is no ordinary burglary gone wrong. There’s an unmistakable link to an infamous case from years earlier involving a child’s murder and an alleged miscarriage of justice. When the news leaks out, the press goes wild. I’m impressed with the team Hunter puts together in this series. The series has been optioned for television. I’m hoping this Oxford-set series becomes as popular as Ann Cleeves’ Vera. (Release date is June 11.)
Sunset Lake Resort is by Joanne Jackson. When Ruby’s father passes away, but fails to leave her the millions some expected, Steve, her husband of 35 years, moves out. Alone, but in control of her own affairs for the first time in her life, Ruby is torn between panic and relief. When she investigates the remote beach cabin her father had left her instead of his estate, she discovers a dilapidated beach resort in a remote location, seemingly untouched since its former owner, Cecelia Johansen, died under mysterious circumstances. Despite the condition of the property and rumours it is haunted, Ruby decides to move to Sunset Lake Resort, determined to find out why her father bought it, and why he left it to her. (Release date is June 1.)
How can you resist the covers of Miranda James’ Requiem for a Mouse? It’s the sixteenth Cat in the Stacks mystery. At last, Charlie and Helen Louise’s wedding is only a month away. They’re busy preparing for the big day, and the last thing Charlie needs is a new mystery to solve. Enter Tara Martin, a shy, peculiar woman who has recently started working part-time at Helen Louise’s bistro and helping Charlie in the archive. Tara isn’t exactly friendly and she has an angry outburst at the library that leaves Charlie baffled. And then she abruptly leaves a catered housewarming party Charlie’s son Sean is throwing to celebrate his new home in the middle of her work shift. Before ducking out of the party, Tara looked terrified and Charlie wonders if she’s deliberately trying to escape notice. Is she hiding from someone? When Tara is viciously attacked and lands in the hospital, Charlie knows his instincts were correct: Tara was in trouble and someone was after her. With the help of his much beloved cat, Diesel, Charlie digs deeper, and discovers shocking glimpses into Tara’s past that they could never have predicted. (Release date is June 25.)
In Antoine Laurain’s French Windows, Nathalia Guitry was a successful photographer. Until the day she caught a murder on camera. At therapy, Doctor Faber suggests a way out of her creative block: she must write stories about the people she sees in the building opposite, floor by floor. Starting with the actor turned YouTube life coach on the ground floor and going all the way to the fifth via a cartoonist and an ex-trader, Nathalia creates vivid accounts of her Parisian neighbours’ lives. But are her tales real or imaginary? As their sessions play out, the doctor becomes increasingly uncertain. And when she gets to the final floor, it’s up to Faber to do the talking . . .  (Release date is June 25.)
The last June release is Katharine Schellman’s The Last Note of Warning. It’s the third Nightingale mystery set in 1920’s New York City. Prohibition is a dangerous time to be a working-class woman in New York City, but Vivian Kelly has finally found some measure of stability and freedom. By day, she’s a respectable shop assistant, delivering luxurious dresses to the city’s wealthy and elite. At night, she joins the madcap revelry of New York’s underworld, serving illegal drinks and dancing into the morning at a secretive, back-alley speakeasy known as the Nightingale. She’s found, if not love, then something like it with her bootlegger sweetheart, Leo, even if she can’t quite forget the allure of the Nightingale’s sultry owner, Honor Huxley.Then the husband of a wealthy client is discovered dead in his study, and Vivian was the last known person to see him alive. With the police and the press both eager to name a culprit in the high-profile case, she finds herself the primary murder suspect. (Release date is June 4.)
Well, what do you think? Anything you want to read on this list? Or, what are you planning to read that comes out in June?
The book I’m looking forward to in June is Winter Lost by Patricia Briggs. It’s the latest in her Mercy Thompson series. And I have ARCs of Haunting License by Carol J Perry and Come Shell or High Water by Molly MacRae.
Sandy, Thank you for sharing. I just don’t have many June titles here.
Hi Lesa,
From your list I’d like to read ‘An Art Lover’s Guide to Paris and Murder’, although I’m a couple of books behind in the series.
Also being published in June is a book I’m planning to read called ‘HOW TO SOLVE MURDERS LIKE A LADY’ by Hannah Dolby. Here is a quote from the wonderful fantasticfiction.co.uk site: “Jane Austen meets Sherlock Holmes in this delightful mystery of manners that will steal your heart, and transport you to a world of seaside scandal and moonlit balls; dubious doctors and duplicitous crooked lords; adventurous escapades and stolen kisses.”
It’s the second in her Violet Hamilton series. (the first was ‘No Life for a Lady’) Cozy and much fun.
Thanks, Lindy! I have to check out No Life for a Lady. It sounds good!
What happened to my post? I listed about 10 more books.
Well, darn. I don’t know what happened to it, Jeff. It’s not in my list for approval, and you always participate, so I shouldn’t have to approve yours anyways.
Good morning! I’ve already read a couple on your list and will look for the new Miranda James book (yes, the covers lure me in). Aside from the Hannah Dolby book Lindy mentioned (I love her first in the series), June titles I will be looking for are Seven Summer Weekends by Jane L. Rosen, Not in Love by Ali Hazelwood, How to Age Disgracefully by Claire Pooley, and A Novel Love Story by Ashley Poston (preordered this one). I’ve already read and reviewed these June titles: Deep Beneath Us by Catriona McPherson, Summer Romance by Annabel Monaghan, Come Shell or High Water by Molly MacRae, The Phoenix Ballroom by Ruth Hogan, and the Rom-Commers by Katherine Center.
Oops, I forgot to mention these additional June titles I’ve read: The Next Mrs. Parrish by Liv Constantine, Tangled Up in You by Christina Lauren, and The Year of What If by Phaedra Patrick.
Thank you, Margie! Although it doesn’t look like there are any blockbusters for June.
Thanks for mentioning ‘How to Age Disgracefully’! I hadn’t known about it and I’ve loved both her other books. And now … I’ve just ordered it. My husband despairs.
Thanks Lesa. I look forward to the June reads of Connie Berry, Dianne Freeman, and M.E. Hilliard. I have read their previous books in their series and enjoyed them.
All good ones, Pat. I’ve read them all.
Would like to read the new book by Miranda James!
Just an an enjoyable series, Carol. Always fun.
Maybe I did something wrong.
Just the titles, then:
Walter Mosley, Farewell, Amethystine
Jacqueline Winspear, The Comfort of Ghosts
James Lee Burke, Clete
Peter Swanson, A Talent for Murder
Jane Casey, A Stranger in the Family
Claudia Gray, The Perils of Lady Catherine De Bourgh
Allison Brennan, You’ll Never Find Me
Chris Whitaker, All the Colors of the Dark
Ace Atkins, Don’t Let the Devil Ride
Paul Doiron, Pitch Dark
Sherry Thomas, A Ruse of Shadows
Oh, you have some good ones, Jeff. I’m glad you came back and listed them again. Thank you!
The Comfort of Ghosts has been announced as the final book in the Maise Dobbs series.
I had forgotten that, MM!
I had missed the new Kate Hamilton, thank you! On my list –
Husbands and Lovers, Beatriz Williams
The Glassmaker – Tracey Chevalier
Shelterwood- Lisa Wingate
Birding with Benefits – Dubb
Oh, The Glassmaker! I know people who will want to read that one, Cindy.
One Deadly Eye by Randy Wayne White-The new Doc Ford novel.
Murder Buys A One Way Ticket by Laura Levine
Thank you, Glen! It will be a while, but I’ll be interested in your review of the new Doc Ford.
I’ll be looking for the Cara Hunter’s novel. I’ve read the first three in the DI Hawley series, well written with an interesting cast of characters.
I agree, MM. I like that it is a team effort in Hunter’s books.
I have CLETE and PITCH DARK here by way of NetGalley.
The eight books I read from May all came through NetGalley, Kevin. Love NetGalley.
I often have to come back to these posts! I am looking forward to the new Kate Hamilton book!!
Happy June!
I know. My library doesn’t yet have some of the July releases that others have mentioned, so I’ll have to come back to remind myself of those books.