The Sunday Salon.. It's a Mystery to Me: 2 New Mystery Writers & Bookish Buzz for the Week Ahead!

It's the Sunday Salon! The time to relax, chat with other readers and see what's new in our bookish worlds. I'm on my second cup of coffee this morning, having just come back from a leisurely walk with the family through the historic cemetery that's located in our town. Wooster Cemetery is rolling hills, plenty of trees, wildlife and joggers. Headstones date back to the early 1800's, with a rich history of revolutionary war heros, and is in fact named after General David Wooster, a major general in the militia of Connecticut in the American Revolutionary War. General Wooster was killed during an attack on Gen. Tryon's British troops, who had come to our town and burned 19 of our buildings, searching for the supplies Tyron knew Wooster was storing for the patriots. It's interesting to walk through the old section of the cemetery, and glance at the names on the headstones, recognizing so many of which the streets are named for. Even recognizing names of families still living in our town. Something you may not know about me is I'm a genealogy buff, and enjoy the research involved in finding out the histories behind the names. There are many mysteries behind the histories usually... which is what today's Sunday Salon is really all about- MYSTERIES! (OK, maybe not the best segue into today's post, but, Hey, I'm only on my second cup of coffee!...)

One of the authors I met at BookExpo America was Alan Orloff. He was signing copies of his new book, Diamonds for the DEAD, at the Mystery Writers of America table, and I couldn't resist seeing what Diamonds and Dead had in common! Here's the Back of the Book Description...

Diamonds for the DEAD by Alan Orloff... When Josh Handleman returns to his boyhood home to sit shiva for his estranged father, he gets the shock of his life: his frugal dad was a diamond collector worth millions. Now the gems are missing and Josh begins to suspect his father’s death might have been murder, not an accident.

Hounded by grief and remorse, Josh resolves to find his dad’s diamond stash. His emotion-laden treasure hunt throws him into the middle of a feud between two stubborn old Russian Jews—and puts Josh squarely in the sights of his father’s killer.

Diamonds For the DEAD has gotten glowing reviews from mystery fans. I want to thank Alan for signing a book at the MWA table and to Midnight Ink Books for the review copy of Diamonds for the DEAD! I'll be reading & reviewing Diamonds for the DEAD in an upcoming post, so keep on the lookout for that! (BTW, I love the cover!) In the meantime, I was doing a little research... Alan Orloff's book was published by Midnight Ink Books, so I thought I would take a look and see what other new books were coming out from their authors. One author in particular caught my eye... Sue Ann Jaffarian. I had missed Sue Ann at Book Expo, but am so excited to read about her upcoming book, Murder in Vein, which is her new vampire series! Here's the description from the publisher...

Murder in Vein ( A Fang-in-Cheek Mystery) by Sue Ann Jaffarian... The sight of the blood covered fangs exploded from her deep memory like a ball through a plate glass window. The man had bitten Bobby, torn into him like a barbequed rib on the Fourth of July. Women are going missing in Los Angeles. Two have been found mutilated and dead. And Madison Rose would have been the next victim if it hadn't been for Doug and Dodi Dedham. They saved her life that terrible night. And that's how she discovered what the harmless-looking, gray-haired couple really were—vampires.

Incredulous, terrified, and reluctantly fascinated, Madison gradually learns about the vampire way of life—and how the killer is putting their peaceful community at risk by posing as one of them. Despite the obvious danger, Madison helps the Dedhams and LAPD Detective Notchey piece together the clues to catch the killer. And there's a high price to pay if she dares to reveal their existence—her life.

Vampires are still Hot, and Murder in Vein sounds like a great start to a fun series, and is scheduled to be released in September of 2010... Alan Orloff and Sue Ann Jaffarian are new authors to me, and I'm excited about "trying them out"! If you like "trying out" new authors and enjoy mysteries, I encourage you to check out Midnight Ink Books and the authors they publish! There's also another way to check out some new authors MONDAY ONLY through Word Riot an online literary journal! For one day, and one day only, Word Riot is sponsoring "Published for a Day", where they will have links to downloadable novels and short story collections from writers who have been previously published on their site and other well known literary sites. These will be in PDF form, and as readers, we can download for free! Here is the link for the post on Published for a Day, and here is the link to Word Riot. Thanks goes to Michael Kindness of Books on the Nightstand for sharing this. He mentioned this because he's got a friend, Steve Himmer, who's book will be available for download. Check out Steve Himmer’s The Bee-Loud Glade while you're there, and remember this is only for ONE DAY! The downloads all disappear on tuesday!

There are a couple of HOT releases this week too! This summers "IT" book is The Passage by Justin Cronin and it's coming out this tuesday, June 8th! Everyone has been talking about it, It was the hottest book at BookExpo this year, and now everyone can read it! Also released this week, for all the Twilight fans, was The Short Second Life of Bree Tanner: An Eclipse Novella by Stephanie Meyer. What's even nicer is that starting at noon on June 7th, you can read the novella free at Breetanner.com!

Don't forget that June in Audiobook month, and you can enter to win an audiobook of WAR by Sebastian Junger until June 19th! I've been posting all the great recommendations from everyone on my June is Audiobook Month post, Plus, there will be ANOTHER audiobook giveaway tomorrow, June 7th for MEMOIR MONDAY! Want to know what it is?... OK, it's Queen Latifah's Put On Your Crown. It's an inspiring, uplifting memoir aimed at raising self esteem! It's like sitting down with your BFF and talking about life. I really enjoyed it and you can read my review and enter the giveaway starting tomorrow! And stop by on tuesday, June 8th as the book tour for The Art of Devotion by Samantha Bruce-Benjamin makes a stop at Chick with Books! It's a beautifully written novel and I'll have a full review!

What's on your literary plate this week?! What are you reading?! How about listening too?! I'd love to hear all about it!! So share it here!

Happy reading... Suzanne