Alexander, Tasha. The Counterfeit Heiress: A Lady Emily Mystery. Minotaur. Oct. 2014. 304p. ISBN 9781250024695. $25.99; ebk. ISBN 9781250024688. CD: Macmillan Audio. SUSPENSE
Appropriately, this latest in the New York Times best-selling series starring Lady Emily opens with a murder at a lavish masquerade ball, for the victim is not who she seems to be, setting off complicated questions of identity as Lady Emily heads to Paris to unmask a murderer. Mystery 
with romance reader outreach.
Butler, Robert Olen. The Empire of Night: A Christopher Marlowe Cobb Thriller. Mysterious: Grove Atlantic. Oct. 2014. 384p. ISBN 9780802123237. $26. SUSPENSE
In Pulitzer Prize winner Butler’s third Christopher Marlowe Cobb thriller—which debuted with The Hot Country, a Washington Post Best Book of the Year—Kit is sent to 1917 Berlin to sniff out a mole associated with the British government and snuff out plans to turn zeppelins into fighting machines. His comrade in arms for this adventure? His mother.
Connolly, John. The Wolf in Winter: A Charlie Parker Thriller. Emily Bestler: Atria. Oct. 2014. 416p. ISBN 9781476703183. $26. THRILLER
After the death of a homeless man and the disappearance of his daughter, the insular folks of Prosperous, ME, are resentfully stuck with hard-charging Charlie Parker, who’s investigating the troubles while gawking at the ancient church their forebears transported stone by stone from England. Bumped from April; from the Shamus and Barry Award winner.
Cussler, Clive & Dirk Cussler. Havana Storm. Putnam. Oct. 2014. 480p. ISBN 9780399172922. $28.95 CD: Random Penguin Audio. ACTION & ADVENTURE
Investigating a toxic outbreak in the Caribbean, Pitt gets caught up in a post-Castro power struggle, while the hunt for an Aztec stone leads his enterprising children, marine engineer Dirk and oceanographer Summer, to Cuba as well. But wasn’t that stone lost with the sinking of the battleship Maine in 1898?
Dunn, Matthew. Dark Spies: A Spycatcher Novel. Morrow. Oct. 2014. 416p. ISBN 9780062309464. $26.99. ESPIONAGE
Dunn, a former senior field operative with MI6, provides authentic thrills with his Will Cochrane series, which moves mostly to the United States for this outing. Will is understandably alarmed 
when he spots a Russian spymaster who’s supposed to be dead and even more alarmed when the CIA tells him not to take a shot at the guy. Does that stop him? With a 50,000-copy first printing.
Francis, Felix. Dick Francis’s Damage. Putnam. Oct. 2014. 368p. ISBN 9780399168222. $26.95. THRILLER
A murder at the Cheltenham Racing Festival might have something to do with illegally doping the horses. Francis, who researched some of the mysteries written by his father, Diamond Dagger winner Dick Francis, has been writing his own “Dick Francis” thrillers since his father’s death in 2010.
Higashino, Keigo. Malice. Minotaur: St. Martin’s. Oct. 2014. 288p. tr. from Japanese by Alexander O. Smith. ISBN 9781250035608. $24.99; ebk. ISBN 9781250035615. CD: Macmillan Audio. POLICE PROCEDURAL
An international best seller, Edgar finalist, and among Japan’s best-known novelists, Higashino here puts a celebrated novelist on the verge of leaving his country in a locked room in a locked house, then leaves him there, murdered. Kunihiko Hidaka is discovered by his wife and his best friend, who Police Detective Kyochiro Kaga discovers to be one slippery fish.
Johnson, Craig. Wait for Signs: Twelve Longmire Stories. Viking. Oct. 2014. 192p. ISBN 9780525427919. $22. MYSTERY
Johnson’s first short story, the Hillerman Award–winning “Old Indian Trick,” featured Sheriff Walt Longmire, star of Johnson’s subsequent best-selling series (which includes the LJ Best Mystery Hell Is Empty) and also seen in the A&E hit series Longmire. Each Christmas Eve, Johnson has subsequently made available a Longmire short story. Now all the stories are collected in one volume, adding “Petunia, Bandit Queen of the Bighorns” for eager fans. With a six-city tour.
Jones, Darynda. Seventh Grave and No Body. St. Martin’s. Oct. 2014. 352p. ISBN 9781250045645. $25.99. CD: Macmillan Audio. MYSTERY
Fans are clamoring already for this seventh book in the New York Times best-selling and RITA Award–winning series starring Grim Reaper Charley Davidson. Now Charley is facing a bunch of hellhounds who have escaped to Earth while she also traces her father, who’s vanished during an investigation. Plus trouble is coming right at her hot fiancé.
Kirkman, Robert & Jay Bonansinga. The Walking Dead: Descent. Thomas Dunne: St. Martin’s. Oct. 2014. 320p. ISBN 9781250057174. $25.99; ebk. ISBN 9781466860773. CD: Macmillan Audio. HORROR
Kirkman, creator of the Eisner Award–winning comic book and executive producer of the blockbuster TV series on which this hardcover series is based, joins with Stoker Award finalist Bonansinga to tell us what happens in Woodbury after the Governor dies.
Lovett, Charlie. First Impressions: A Novel of Old Books, Unexpected Love, & Jane Austen. Viking. Oct. 2014. 320p. ISBN 9780525427247. $27.95. MYSTERY
Since he revealed a true bibliophile’s streak in the New York Times best-selling The Bookman’s Tale, it’s not surprising to see Lovett return with a story starring an Austen enthusiast named Sophie Collingwood. As part of her work at an antiquarian bookshop, Sophie has fielded two requests for the second edition of Little Book of Allegories by Richard Mansfield, a friend of Austen. The result: questions regarding the authorship of Pride and Prejudice and a threat on Sophie’s life. With a five-city tour.
Maden, Mike. Blue Warrior. Putnam. Oct. 2014. 320p. ISBN 9780399167393. $26.95. ACTION & ADVENTURE
Following the up-to-the-minute techno-thrilling Drone, Maden returns with another Troy Pearce novel. Here, Troy deploys his team and his drones to help rescue friends trapped in an international tug-of-war over invaluable Rare Earth Elements discovered in the Sahara desert. The situation is particularly heated because the local Tuaregs are fighting for their independence.
Meyer, Deon. Cobra. Atlantic Monthly. Oct. 2014. 384p. ISBN 9780802123244. $26. THRILLER
Featuring Benny Griessel, protagonist of Meyer’s Barry Award–winning Thirteen Hours, Meyer’s latest opens with a triple murder in South Africa’s Franschhoek wine valley, with two of the victims bodyguards of a British citizen who has vanished. Left behind: all his possessions and a spent shell case bearing the head of a cobra, also found when the security guards questioning a pickpocket are killed. Top South African crime writer Meyer has sold 100,000 copies of his books in the United States and been published in 20 languages.
Novak, Chase. Brood. Mulholland: Little, Brown. Oct. 2014. 320p. ISBN 9780316228008. $26; ebk. ISBN 9780316228015. lib. ebk. ISBN 9780316366038. CD/downloadable: Hachette Audio. 
GOTHIC
Novak, actually the fine literary writer Scott Spencer in horror mode, continues the story he began in Breed, featuring a fertility treatment that turns some of the offspring (as well as their parents) into monstrous creatures. Products of the treatment, twins Adam and Alice are being cared for by their aunt, who’s anxiously watching for signs of trouble even as a bunch of feral children threaten to invade their space. Movie rights for both books have been bought by Summit Entertainment; with a 35,000-copy first printing.
Park, Tony. The Delta. St. Martin’s. Oct. 2014. 528p. ISBN 9781250055583. $27.99; ebk. ISBN 9781466858909. CRIME
When assassin-for-hire Sonja Kurtz blows her latest assignment—killing the president of Zimbabwe—she ends up hiding out in Botswana’s Okavango Delta, where she’s recruited as an eco-commando and finds herself unexpectedly in the midst of a nasty war. A No. 1 best-selling author in Australia who receives rave reviews elsewhere (“Break-neck in pace, with narrow escapes from death on every page,” Daily Mail, UK), Park is getting his debut here.
Plame, Valerie & Sarah Lovett. Burned: A Vanessa Pierson Novel. Blue Rider. Oct. 2014. 336p. ISBN 9781466858909. $26.95. ESPIONAGE
When an explosion in Paris prefaces the disappearance of a miniaturized nuclear device, covert CIA ops officer Vanessa Pierson is all set to blame her nemesis, evil nuclear arms dealer Bhoot. But he contacts her to say that someone in the U.S. government is responsible—and that the two of them must work together to avert catastrophe. Insider stuff from the agent scandalously outed during the George W. Bush administration; with an eight-city tour to Atlanta, Austin, Miami, New York City, Philadelphia, Portland, Santa Fe, and Seattle.
Rawles, James Wesley. Liberators: A Novel of the Coming Global Collapse. Dutton. Oct. 2014. 336p. ISBN 9780525953913. $26.95. ACTION & ADVENTURE
When economic crisis leads to the shredding of America’s social fabric, with cities given over to rioting, Afghanistan War vet Ray McGregor returns to his parents’ ranch in British Columbia with friend Phil. Soon they’re fighting an army of occupation, using the kind of skills that the New York Times best-selling author Rawles espouses on his popular SurvivalBlog.com.
Ryan, Hank Phillippi. Truth Be Told. Forge: Tor. Oct. 2014. 400p. ISBN 9780525953913. $24.99; ebk. ISBN 9780765374974. CD: Macmillan Audio. SUSPENSE
A multi-award-winning investigative reporter for Boston’s NBC affiliate as well as a winner of the Agatha, Anthony, Mary Higgins Clark, and Macavity awards, Ryan returns with the story of a murderous plot behind the eviction of a middle-class family from their suburban home. Socially relevant suspense.
Sandford, John. Deadline. Putnam. Oct. 2014. 400p. ISBN 9780399162374. $27.95. CD/downloadable: Penguin Audio. CRIME
Here’s a scary premise: at a closed Minnesota school board meeting, the vote is four to one in favor of killing a local reporter. Which is why Sandford standby Virgil Flowers, who’s been investigating a ring of dognappers supplying medical labs, is later called in to investigate some serious bloodshed.
Shannon, Samantha. The Mime Order. Bloomsbury USA. Oct. 2014. 320p. ISBN 9781620408933. $25. FANTASY
Bad news for Paige Mahoney: she may have escaped the dreadful penal colony of Sheol I, but she’s still on top of London’s most-wanted list, and the rift in the clairvoyant community won’t help keep her safe. Recent Oxford grad Shannon debuted with The Bone Season, a Today Book Club pick that launched a seven-book series and was sold to 20th Century Fox.
Sheldon, Sidney & Tilly Bagshawe. Sidney Sheldon’s Chasing Tomorrow. Morrow. Oct. 2014. 400p. ISBN 9780062304025. $26.99. THRILLER
Tracy Whitney, who you may remember from Sheldon’s If Tomorrow Comes, returns with one last heist in mind before she pursues her dreams of marriage and a child with partner Jeff. Alas, the past has a way of intruding. Bagshawe was handpicked by the Sheldon estate to continue his gold-plated line of stories.
Smith, Wilbur. Desert God: A Novel of Ancient Egypt. Morrow. Oct. 2014. 480p. ISBN 9780062276452. $28.99. CD: HarperAudio. HISTORICAL
With a book that’s described as Game of Thrones meets ancient Egypt, internationally celebrated Smith returns to the characters and setting of River God, his best-selling book in America. Taita, a slave and adviser to the Pharaoh, hopes to advance his country by destroying the Hyksos army and forging an alliance with Crete. With a 200,000-copy first printing.
Twelve Hawks, John. Spark. Doubleday. Oct. 2014. 320p. ISBN 9780385538671. $25.95. CD: Random Penguin Audio. THRILLER
Off-the-grid author Twelve Hawks, who’s triumphed with New York Times best-selling books like 
The Traveler, returns with a thriller about an employee of the monster multinational corporation DBG tasked with neutralizing (read: kill) anyone who poses a problem. Jacob finds his job easy enough, as he suffers from the real-life Cotard’s syndrome, in which people think they are dead, but he runs into trouble when targeting vanished second-year associate Emily Buchanan. Cult following here.
Woods, Stuart. Paris Match. Putnam. Oct. 2014. 320p. ISBN 9780399169120. $26.95. CD: Random Penguin Audio. ACTION & ADVENTURE
You’d think visiting Paris would be fun, but in the shadow of the Arc de Triomphe Stone Barrington finds himself being pursued by an old nemesis. Then there’s a project back home that threatens to implode. Dependable stuff.