Series-ously Good New Mysteries: May Edition

Can you believe it is already May? Here are the mystery series titles that caught my eye this month.

Sixth Grave on the Edge by Darynda Jones is
the sixth installment of the Grave Reaper series following "Fifth Grave Past the Light". I love, love, love this series. Charley Davidson is a paranormal private eye and a grim reaper-in-training. This series is sassy, wise-cracking, and funny with a touch of paranormal, romance and mystery all thrown into the mix. This time out, Charley is now engaged to Reyes Farrow, the only begotten son of evil. She happens to get Reyes' FBI file and cannot resist opening it. That's when everything goes crazy - a naked corpse riding shotgun in her car, a man losing his soul in a card game, a deaf boy who sees dead people, a woman running from mobsters, and a very suspicious Reyes. This romp with Charley sounds just as fun as the previous five.

Katherine Hall Page has published twenty titles in her Faith Fairchild series. The most recent being The Body in the Piazza. Small Plates is part of the series but she has taken things in a different direction this time. Small Plates is a collection of short stories. Many of the stories involve Faith and her detecting ability but there are some standalone titles, as well. If you like traditional mysteries, give Faith a try.


Catnapped by Elaine Viets is the thirteenth title in the Dead-End Job mystery series following Board Stiff. In each book in this series, Helen Hawthorne goes undercover at a "dead-end" job in order to investigate the current case her PI husband, Phil Sagemont and she have been hired to solve. This time around Helen and Phil are hired by celebrity, Trish Barrymore. She and her bitterly divorced husband share cat custody of Chartreaux, their pedigree show cat. When Mort is killed and Chartreaux goes missing, she hires the agency to find her cat and solve the murder before the police pin it on her. When Helen and Phil discover that Trish's husband, Mort had some shady dealings within the cat show circles, Helen goes undercover as an assistant to one of the competitors who shows prize-winning Persians. Did Trish plan the whole thing or is there a ruthless killer out there?

Jailhouse Glock by Lizbeth Lipperman is the second in the Dead Sister Talking mystery series following Heard it Through the Grapevine. Rookie cop, Maddy Castillo gets framed for murder. Luckily, her three sisters and the ghost of her fourth sister are around to help. Help is what she needs - hardened criminals have descended on Vineyard, Texas and Maddy's all tangled up in their search for a prized possession worth millions.

Death of a Mad Hatter by Jenn McKinlay is the second title in the Hat Shop mystery series following Cloche and Dagger. Scarlett Parker and her British cousin, Vivian Tremont own Mim's Whims - a ladies' hat shop on London's Portobello Road. This time out they are creating hats for an Alice in Wonderland themed afternoon tea which is to raise funds for a local children's hospital. Scarlett and Viv are outfitting the host family. The Grisby family are hoping to raise enough money to name a
new hospital wing after their patriarch. Unfortunately, the Grisby heir is poisoned and traces of the poison are found on the hat that Scarlett and Viv made for him. With the police wondering about their involvement, Scarlet and Viv have to figure out who actually poisoned the heir.

See you next month!