Berkley Books Spotlight

Berkley Prime Crime has four new books coming out today.

Up first is a hardcover, A Panicked Premonition by Victoria Laurie.  This is the fifteenth book in the Psychic Eye series and finds FBI consultant and professional psychic Abby Cooper racing to solve a case that could impact her husband’s business.  Dutch’s business involves creating panic rooms for his clients, and when two of them are murdered inside their panic room and the evidence points to Dutch’s missing partner, Abby has to use her abilities in the race to find the missing man and figure out what is really happening.

Next comes the paperback release of Knit Your Own Murder.  This is the nineteenth in the Needlecraft Mystery series by Monica Ferris and originally came out in hardcover last year.  This book involves a murder at a fund-raising auction where Betsy Devonshire and some of her knitting friends are creating stuffed animals and toys in front of the audience as they bid.  In the middle of the event, Maddy Hanover dies from poison.  She leaves behind many snipped relationships, and Betsy finds herself trying to figure out who committed the murder.  This book also includes a pattern for a knitting project.

The final two books are both paperback originals.  Up first is Lions and Tigers and Murder, Oh My, the sixth Devereaux’s Dime Store mystery from Denise Swanson.  A wealthy philanthropist, Elliot Winston, is looking to open a wildlife park on the edge of Shadow Bend, Missouri, and among those opposing him is his own wife.  When the wife disappears after a bitter fight, the police blame Elliot.  Dime store own Devereaux “Dev” Sinclair isn’t so sure, and she starts working with PI Jake Del Vecchio to figure out what is really going on.

Peg Cochran is also back this month with her second Farmer’s Daughter Mystery, Sowed to Death.  Appropriate for July, this book is set during the county fair for Lovett, Michigan.  Shelby McDonald, the blogger known as the Farmer’s Daughter, is entering jams and jellies from the produce she grows on her farm.  However, the fair turns tragic when a demonstration of the Jaws of Life produces a dead body instead of the demonstration dummy everyone was expecting.  Shelby’s neighbor is the prime suspect, and naturally she jumps in to help clear his name.  This book features three recipes.

With today being a holiday (at least here in the states), hopefully you can sneak off to your local bookstore and pick up the books that interest you and maybe even celebrate your freedom to read by enjoying them.