White House Executive Chef Olivia “Ollie” Paras often finds herself in hot water in Julie Hyzy’s series.  And the fifth entry, “Affairs of Steak” (293 pages, Berkley Prime Crime, $7.99) is no exception:  Ollie is in danger of being sliced, diced and filleted.

Ollie and her nemesis, White House sensitivity director Peter Everett Sargeant, have been assigned to scout potential locations for a party the first lady is giving for the secretary of state.  But when they arrive at a trendy Washington bistro, they find the bodies of the president’s chief of staff and an aide to the first lady in the kitchen.  And there’s more:  They glimpsed what may have been the fleeing killer, and now their lives are in danger.

With gusto and grace—and a generous dash of politics, office and otherwise – Hyzy has again served up a spicy mystery that will appeal to fans of history, food and the nation’s capital.  Capped with a clever plot and a surprising conclusion, “Affairs of Steak” will leave you eager for Hyzy’s next dish.

Only rarely is an inheritance either a blessing or a burden.  In most cases, it’s a maddening combination of the two, and that’s the situation facing Darla Pettistone in “Double Booked for Death” (325 pages, Berkley Prime Crime, $7.99), the first in a projected series by Ali Brandon.

Texan Darla has been left an independent bookstore in New York City by her great-aunt Dee, and Darla has spent several months getting used to the responsibility, the culture shock, and the bookstore cat, Hamlet, who has a pronounced feline attitude.  But the store is profitable, and to bolster it further, Darla agrees to hold a book-signing event for Valerie Baylor, the author of a best-selling supernatural series for teenagers.

But not long into the event, Valerie steps outside for a smoke and is run down in the street.  When photographic evidence shows someone pushing her (and the identity of the killer is unknown, because all the attendees were wearing black capes), the question arises:  Was Valerie sent to her death by fundamentalist protesters, a demonstrator accusing her of plagiarism or someone within her own strange entourage?

Darla and her neighbor, retired police officer Jacqueline “Jake” Martelli, set out to help the cops, and Brandon leads the reader on a merry chase as she shifts attention among the suspects.

Brandon, a pen name for Diane A.S. Stuckart, author of the Leonardo da Vinci mystery series, shifts gears with skill in this clever series opener, complete with amiable characters (even Hamlet has his nice moments, and he’s no dummy).  Bibliophiles, ailurophiles and mystery fans will enjoy “Double Booked for Death.”

Thieves are making the rounds in Long Farnden, England, and Lois Meade is going to put up with it – especially after daughter Josie, who runs the village shop, falls victim.

So Lois, who runs New Brooms, a housecleaning service, sets out to track down the villains in “Foul Play at Four” (312 pages, Berkley Prime Crime, $24.99), the 11th installment in Ann Purser’s series featuring the intrepid businesswoman.  Enlisting the help of her family, her employees and even one of her clients, the upper-crust Mrs. Tollervey-Jones, Lois is able to assist Detective Chief Inspector Hunter Cowgill – who has a crush on Lois – in his detecting.

Purser spins an interesting yarn, but the chief attraction of her series, as always, is in tough but tender, common-sensical Lois herself.  An interesting take on the English-village mystery, “Foul Play at Four” – like Purser’s series – is a quick and entertaining read.

When someone calls a food item something to die for, it’s not to be taken literally. But in “Crops and Robbers” (304 pages, Berkley Prime Crime, $7.99), the third installment in Paige Shelton’s series featuring Becca Robins and Bailey’s Farmers’ Market in Monson, S.C., you have to wonder.
Becca, who sells jams and preserves at the market, is excited about the upcoming visit from the Central South Carolina Restaurant Owners Association, whose officers will sample the market’s various wares for possible purchase. But association president Joan Ashworth disses Becca’s strawberry preserves, and Joan is soon found stabbed to death in Becca’s barn. Worse, Becca’s mom, Polly Robins, is discovered bloody at the scene, and the murder weapon bears her fingerprints.
Convinced that her mother is innocent, Becca sets out to investigate, a move that wins the approval of her friend Sam Brion, the town’s top police officer. Learning that all might not be kosher with the restaurant organization, Becca soon develops alternative suspects and imperils her own life. Meanwhile, she finds herself growing attracted to Sam, despite her devotion to her artist boyfriend, Ian.
Shelton again concocts a credible whodunit filled with likable characters, and she stirs in enough cuisine content to keep foodies happy. Like its predecessors, “Crops and Robbers” is as scrumptious as homegrown tomatoes.

A national election campaign is tough enough without being a serial killer’s target.
But that’s the situation in which the charismatic Edgar Carlton finds himself in “London Calling” (320 pages, SohoConstable, $25), James Craig’s debut novel.
As inspector John Carlyle investigates a brutal murder in a luxury London hotel, he learns from a note left by the killer that the slaying is not the first and won’t be the last. And he discovers that the killing may be linked to the Merrion Club, a group of rich snots at Cambridge University of which Carlton and his brother, Xavier, were members during their college years.
In the closing days of Britain’s election campaign, Carlton’s lead in the polls is dwindling. The leader of the opposition party—never specified but clearly the Conservatives—hopes to replace the incumbent and also stay alive. But more murders follow.
Craig, who has worked as a journalist and a consultant in London for almost 30 years, infuses “London Calling” with his first-hand knowledge. He takes the reader on a compelling ride in this sleek and nasty first effort, complete with a shocking conclusion, and his portrait of the fortysomething Carlyle—including flashbacks to the cop’s past—is fully fleshed. “London Calling” will appeal to readers of thrillers that mix politics with (gasp!) crime.

Talk about tangled family relationships.  In “Bad Moon” (358 pages, Minotaur Books, $25.99), Todd Ritter’s follow-up to last year’s “Death Notice,” the interweaving provides a complex thriller.

When 10-year-old Charlie Olmstead disappeared on June 20, 1969 – the night Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walked on the moon – the consensus was that he had ridden his bike into a creek in Perry Hollow, Pa., and had been swept over Sunset Falls.  But his mother, Maggie, was convinced otherwise.

Now, 42 years later, Maggie has succumbed to cancer, and her dying wish to her younger son, best-selling novelist Eric Olmstead, is that he find out what happened to Charlie.  Complications set in for Eric immediately:  The initial investigation was conducted by Sheriff Jim Campbell, and the current sheriff is Jim’s daughter and Eric’s high school girlfriend, Kat Campbell.

What follows is an intricate and intimate mystery of the past, as Eric and Kat – assisted by Nick Donnelly, a former state cop turned private investigator of cold cases – discover that Maggie may have been correct in her investigations and that Charlie was but one victim of a serial killer/abductor.

With well-drawn characters and a plot filled with twists, Ritter – a reporter for The Star-Ledger in Newark, N.J. – draws the reader into a heart-pounding, single-sitting read, complete with more than one shocker.  With the no-nonsense pacing of a journalist and the imagination of a novelist, Ritter has again written a thriller that likely will murder a good night’s sleep.

Those paw-shaped bumper stickers that ask “Who saved who?” may not be grammatical, but they speak to the heart. And that’s what Linda O. Johnston does in “The More the Terrier” (296 pages, Berkley Prime Crime, $7.99), the second in her series featuring Los Angeles-area pet rescuer Lauren Vancouver.
When Lauren gets a call from her former mentor, Mamie Spelling, asking for help, she can’t imagine what’s wrong. But when she arrives at Mamie’s home, she finds out: Mamie has become an animal hoarder and claims that wealthy Bethany Urber, the head of a network of rescue organizations, has threatened to expose her. And when Bethany is found dead, with Mamie holding the murder gun, Lauren—not certain of Mamie’s guilt but not uncertain, either—sets out to discover the truth and vows to go in whatever direction it leads her.
Lauren quickly learns that Bethany, although a good organizer, had a nasty habit of rubbing her colleagues and acquaintances the wrong way. And although Lauren’s boyfriend, Capt. Matt Kingston of L.A. Animal Services, has misgivings, he simply asks Lauren to be careful in her amateur sleuthing.
With a pack of suspects, an intuitive and intelligent heroine and a bevy of animals, “The More the Terrier” should find fans among whodunit lovers and animal aficionados alike. And Johnston’s message of finding good forever homes for homeless pets resonates with sincerity.

Maybe she should have seen it coming.

As “Tempest in the Tea Leaves” (304 pages, Berkley Prime Crime, $7.99), Kari Lee Townsend’s series debut, opens, Sunny Meadows has escaped her domineering parents in New York City and moved to the upstate town of Divinity to open a fortune-telling business.  But she has a grim vision for her first client, librarian Amanda Robbins: After reading the tea leaves, she sees Amanda murdered.  A few hours after Amanda leaves, Sunny does her duty and reports her vision to the cops, and when Amanda is found poisoned, guess who is the primary suspect.

But a police captain, not wanting to have the case grow cold, assigns hunky Detective Mitch Stone to take Amanda on as an assistant, and together, with some help from Morty, the spooky cat who adopts Sunny, the two opposites crack the case.

A fine whodunit laced with generous helpings of humor,  “Tempest in the Tea Leaves” marks an entertaining beginning to Townsend’s series. And it wouldn’t be wrong to predict continued success.

In the run-up to the 1936 Summer Olympics in Berlin, the Nazis hauled down the swastikas and spruced up the city that would be the center of international intention. But putting lipstick on a particularly noxious pig could not disguise the boar’s murderous nature.
Enter Hannah Vogel, the heroine of “A Game of Lies” (320 pages, Forge, $24.99), the third in Rebecca Cantrell’s series featuring the intrepid crime reporter and Allied spy. Hannah’s adventures began in 1931 in 2009’s “A Trace of Smoke” with the murder of her brother. She fled Germany for South America but returned three years later, in 2010’s “A Night of Long Knives” on a personal mission. Now she’s back under an assumed name, ostensibly to cover the Olympics for her Swiss newspaper but actually to contact her old friend Peter Weill, who says he has information for her to pass to the British.
But when they meet at the Games, Peter drops dead, and Hannah must try to learn what he had intended to give her. Assisted by SS officer Lars Lang, who has been aiding Hannah in her spying, she sets out to uncover what Peter wanted to give her. But can she trust Lars, an interrogator, or will knowing him lead to both their deaths? And will she discover the Nazi secret that threatens humanity?
Cantrell skillfully evokes the nightmare of a Hitler-run Germany, where even former doubters have sworn allegiance to the dictator, in this roller coaster of a novel. Add her deft hand with characters—Hannah and Lars are, as always, fully drawn and further developed, and the reader is in for a scary, informative and entertaining read. And the denouement points to further novels in this celebrated and thoughtful series.

For middle-aged lovers, relationship-threatening danger most often comes from children from previous relationships, and Melinda Wells spins the story in a different way in “Pie a la Murder” (308 pages, Berkley Prime Crime, $7.99), the fourth entry in her series featuring television cook Della Carmichael of Los Angeles.

Della’s boyfriend, newspaper reporter Nick D’Martino, has an 18-year-old daughter, Celeste, he has not seen since she was tiny, but she, Nick’s former wife and the ex’s Eurotrash royal boyfriend are in L.A., and Celeste and Nick want to get to know each other.  The problem:  Della knew nothing of Celeste’s existence.  She’s willing to give it a try, even helping to set Celeste, an aspiring actress, up for a photo shoot with celebrity photographer Alec Redding. 

But when a naughty photo from the session turns up, Nick is enraged, Alec is found dead, and Della is determined to clear her man with a bit of amateur sleuthing, all the while continuing with her job and the charity bake-sale contest she’s promoting. 

As usual, Wells spices this clever mystery with plausible characters and plenty of food, and the result is a story that whets the appetite for the next installment in Della’s adventures.

You know the type:  the stuck-up girl who can’t wait to get out of town after high school, moves to the big city and becomes a success.

Such is Priscilla “Priss” Porter.  But she’s back in her hometown of Prosper, Mo., and she has a job for Stella Hardesty, a likable vigilante who puts the fear of God into abusive men.  But Priss’ problem isn’t abusive.  He’s dead, and Priss wants Stella to dispose of the body and tries a bit of blackmail:  a flash drive containing photos of Stella at work on a particularly bad guy.

That’s the scene that Sophie Littlefield sets up in “A Bad Day for Scandal” (290 pages, Minotaur Books, $24.99), the third entry in her series featuring Sophie, who’s getting closer to Sheriff Goat Jones and doesn’t want him seeing hard evidence of her work.

And that doesn’t seem likely when Priss and her brother, Liman Porter, go missing.  Sophie and her assistant, Chrissy Shaw, follow the trail to Kansas City, where she learns that Priss had gotten rich by running a male escort service for lonely and libidinous women.

There’s much more, but Littlefield triumphs again in a mystery that blends a killer plot, a fascinating protagonist you can’t help loving and laughs as well as thrills.  Littlefield has created a series rich in originality, and her latest novel meets expectations, and then some.

When a plane crashes into the town gazebo when Stoneham, N.H., is celebrating its Founders Day, not only the pilot but speaker Deborah Black is killed. But is this a tragic accident or, as mystery-bookstore Tricia Miles suspects, a murder-suicide?  And if the latter, why?

Those are the questions that Lorna Barrett poses in “Sentenced to Death” (340 pages, Berkley Prime Crime, $7.99), the fifth entry featuring Tricia, her friends and her fellow booksellers.

Tricia considered Deborah a friend, but she learns that she didn’t really know her at all, nor the fact that she and her husband, David, were often at odds.  And the pilot, she finds, was terminally ill with cancer.

As is her custom, Barrett fills this true whodunit with generous doses of humor.  And Tricia and her pals (and that includes store cat Miss Marple)  become more appealing with each installment.

With interest in the Civil War at one of its occasional peaks – the sesquicentennial is upon us – what better time for a mystery in which a re-enactment plays a large part.

That’s what Julie Hyzy has concocted in “Grace Interrupted” (304 pages, Berkley Prime Crime, $7.99), the second entry in her series featuring Grace Wheaton, the curator and estate director of Marshfield Manor somewhere in the Southeast.

When obnoxious re-enactor Zachary Kincade is stabbed to death, suspicion centers on Jack Embers, the manor’s gardener and a man to whom Grace is attracted.  But Grace learns that plenty of other people have reason to want Zachary dead and, with the cops’ blessing, sets out to do some amateur sleuthing.

Hyzy, whose other works include the White House chef series starring Olivia “Ollie Paras, creates a pleasant read with a well-conceived plot and a particularly endearing character in Grace.  Old times may not be forgotten, but Hyzy puts a contemporary twist on them.

San Francisco bookbinder Brooklyn Wainwright has been given an old copy of the “Kama Sutra” to evaluate and soon finds herself in an awkward position.

No, it’s not what you’re thinking – although Brooklyn and her boyfriend, Derek Stone, can’t resist some hands-on research in Kate Carlisle’s “Murder Under Cover” (304 pages, Obsidian, $7.99), the fourth book in her series featuring Brooklyn.

The “Kama Sutra” has made its way to Brooklyn via her friend Robin Tully, a sculptor and tour guide who has just returned from India, where her mother entrusted her with the book for Brooklyn.  But Robin has barely arrived home when she awakes to find the guy she met the night before shot to death beside her in her bed.

The victim turns out to be a Ukrainian national, and Derek, who runs an international security business, soon learns that a flash drive at the center of a Russian-Ukrainian dispute may be at the heart of the matter. More mayhem follows as Brooklyn and Derek try to solve the case – and protect Robin. 

Carlisle crafts an intricate plot, and Brooklyn is as appealing as ever.  “Murder Under Cover”  - not only a fun read but an educational one – finds her at the top of her form, with no hiding of her light under a bushel – or a bedsheet.

Fiber-optics communication is coming to Martha’s Vineyard, and so is murder.  But 92-year-old poet and sleuth Victoria Trumbull is on the case in Cynthia Riggs’ “The Bee Balm Murders” (304 pages, Minotaur Books, $24.99), the 10th installment in her series.

When Orion Nanopoulos, the fiber-optic entrepreneur, expresses interest in renting a room from Victoria, she’s reluctant to accept a long-term tenant.  But Orion wins her over, and when a man’s body is discovered in a trench his crew is digging, and he recognizes the victim, events conspire to draw Victoria into the investigation.

The cops don’t seem to be making progress, and Victoria is intrigued by the web of financial skullduggery, personal animus and infidelity in which the murder seems to be tangled.  When another murder takes place, her determination to find the killer rises.

Riggs, who turns 80 this year, is a 13th-generation resident of Martha’s Vineyard.  Her no-nonsense approach to mystery writing never fails to entertain, she knows where and how to use wry humor, her sense of place is perfect, and her plotting is completely believable.  And then there’s Victoria, a most unusual amateur sleuth – and one who becomes more endearing with each novel.

So many Southern writers have infused their work with a vivid sense of place that the quality has become almost a prerequisite for fiction set in the South.

But it need not be confined there, as Sally Goldenbaum has proved in her “Seaside Knitters” series set in the fictional town of Sea Harbor, patterned after Rockport on Massachusetts’ Cape Ann.

In “The Wedding Shawl” (307 pages, Obsidian, $24.95), the gang of four is getting ready for the nuptials of one of their members, Izzy Chambers, by making her a shawl for the ceremony.  But happy times turn sad – and perilous – when Tiffany Ciccolo, the hairdresser scheduled to do Izzy’s locks for the big day, is found dead in her office in the basement of a salon.

Tiffany’s death is soon linked to that of her friend Harmony Farrow, a high school student who drowned in an old quarry on their graduation night 15 years ago.  And Izzy’s aunt, Nell Endicott (another member of the foursome), has hired Harmony’s mother, Claire Russell, to make beautiful the backyard where the wedding will take place.  The knitters don’t learn Claire’s real identity immediately, of course, but they set out to discover the identity of Tiffany’s killer before the murder spoils Izzy’s big day.  Among their suspects is Andy Risso, a musician who was Harmony’s boyfriend and whom Tiffany now wants for herself.

Goldenbaum, as always, constructs a captivating plot, but the enduring charms of her series are Sea Harbor itself and the testament to friendship that she creates in the members of the knitting group and the town’s other residents.  Each novel in the series is fresh, and Goldenbaum shows no sign of losing her originality.

South African writer Jassy Mackenzie exploded onto the thriller scene last year with “Random Violence,” and her second effort, “Stolen Lives” (313 pages, Soho Press, $25)  has plenty of violence, but little of it random.  And that’s because the novel deals with one of the nastiest of evils:  human trafficking for the sex trade.

As the novel opens, private investigator Jade de Jong is hired as a bodyguard by wealthy Pamela Jordaan, whose husband, Terence, has vanished. But it’s not long before Jade and her on-again, off-again boyfriend, the semi-married cop David Patel, are involved in an investigation that stretches from Johannesburg to London.

Malice blooms like poisonous flowers throughout the story, as Jade struggles to realize who’s on the side of the angels – and that number is perilously low.  With seamless prose, Mackenzie paints a grim and powerful portrait of sex trafficking – and a gripping one of her protagonist. 

With danger and mayhem at every turn – and Mackenzie provides plenty of twists – “Stolen Lives” is a page turner of superior power.  Its shocking conclusion leaves the reader breathless – and eagerly awaiting the next installment in Jade’s life.

Clothes make the man (or the woman), but how about the corpse? And can they contribute to a solution to murder?

Yes, and yes, as mystery fans will find in “Deadly Threads” (279 pages, Minotaur Books, 24.99), the sixth entry in Jane K. Cleland’s series featuring New Hampshire antiques dealer Josie Prescott.

In this outing, Cleland focuses on vintage clothing.  Josie has planned a series of classes on the subject and has acquired the services of her friend Riley Jordan to help teach.  But Riley misses the start of the first class, and it’s not long into that session that Josie finds her body beneath a table.

Suspicion, naturally, falls on Riley’s philandering husband, restaurateur Bobby Jordan, but Josie quickly realizes that the suspect list is far longer.  And she cracks the case, with the help of Hank, the office Maine coon cat, who finds a valuable clue while knocking his toy mouse around.

Cleland, who once owned a New Hampshire-based antiques and rare books operation, knows her stuff and shares it with her readers in a decidedly nonprofessorial manner.  Like all her books, “Deadly Threads” offers a puzzle, a surprising conclusion and a cast of amiable and endearing characters, first of whom, of course, is Josie herself.  Le this talented evening sew up an evening for you.

Grief can incapacitate even the strongest among us, even to the point of panic attacks and fear of leaving one’s home.

Such is the fate of Diana Highsmith, a computer hacker turned security consultant and the protagonist of Hallie Ephron’s second stand-alone thriller, “Come and Find Me” (288 pages, Morrow, $24.99). 

More than a year ago, Diana’s lover, Daniel Schechter, fell to his death while mountain-climbing in Switzerland.  Returning to the Boston area, Diana and Daniel’s friend Jake Filgate start a computer-security business – but Diana, afraid of venturing out, works from home.  Her only visitor is her younger sister, Ashley, and when Ashley goes missing, Diana forces herself to leave her home and find her.

What follows is a compelling yarn of deception and danger, as Diana learns that things are seldom what they seem to be.

Ephron’s page-turner is also a cautionary tale about the power of information technology, and Diana is an intriguing character.  And although this novel seems to be a stand-alone, readers can hope that a sequel is not out of the question. 

There’s a dastardly killer on the streets of London, and the perp is using one of the city’s hallowed traditions:  the Black Cabs.
        And could the maniac be a descendant of Dr. James Moriarty, the, errrr, fictional nemesis of the equally fictional Sherlock Holmes?
        Maybe.
        Welcome to “The Brothers of Baker Street” (274 pages, Minotaur Books, $24.99), the second installment in Michael Robertson’s series featuring barrister Reggie Heath, his brother, Reggie, and the beautiful actress Laura Rankin, who has been involved with both.
        The fun begins when Reggie, whose office is in the 200 block of Baker Street and who regularly receives letters at that site addressed to Holmes, gets one from someone claiming Moriarty as an ancestor.  Meanwhile, Reggie, who for years has shied away from criminal cases,  has decided to defend Neil Walters, a Black Cab driver accused of murdering two Houston tourists.
          But when Reggie finds Walters dead, and the cops believe Reggie’s the killer, Nigel flies in from Los Angeles and enlists Laura’s help. 
          What follows is a puzzler, a romp and a novel crying out for the talented and imaginative Robertson to quickly bring forth a sequel.  As Mark Twain said, reports of death can be greatly exaggerated.

Combine Savannah, the supernatural and the silver screen, and you have a winning and readable trifecta. 
And that’s what Mary Stanton does in “Angel’s Verdict” (286 pages, Berkley Prime Crime, $7.99), the fourth entry in her series featuring attorney Brianna Winston-Beaufort, who represents not only earthly clients but also dead ones seeking a reduction in their afterlife punishment.
This time out, Bree is consulted by a very much alive Justine Coville, an elderly actress who’s playing a part in a movie about a notorious Savannah murder case from the 1950s.  Justine’s request is simple enough, but it leads Bree to look into the old case and be retained by a ghostly client.  When more murder follows, the stakes grow.
Stanton’s cast of Bree’s angelic assistants is as endearing as ever, and the story ends in a surprising but, in retrospect, foreshadowed conclusion.  For fans of unusual mysteries, “Angel’s Verdict” is a quick and entertaining companion for a wintry night.