Mailbox Monday is hosted by Marcia at The Printed Page.
We share what books that we found in our mailboxes last week. (the past two weeks)
Hangman: A Decker/Lazarus Novel
by Faye Kellerman (purchased for Kindle) ~ Fifteen years ago, high school senior Chris Whitman went to jail for murdering his girlfriend, Cheryl Diggs. Propelled by a misguided sense of chivalry, he confessed, determined to save another classmate, the beautiful and vulnerable Terry McLaughlin, from having to testify at his trial. When the truth came out, Chris was released from prison, married Terry—pregnant with his 
child—and changed his last name to Donatti. He also became a professional killer. Peter Decker was the detective on the case, and over the years, he and Terry kept in touch. Now his friend is in L.A. and asking for a favor. Though Decker knows full well that getting involved will bring Terry's sociopathic husband back into his life, the obsessive and duty-bound LAPD lieutenant reluctantly agrees. The favor soon becomes complicated when Terry goes missing and Donatti disappears, leaving their fourteen-year-old son, Gabe, with no one to turn to except Decker and his wife, Rina Lazarus.
But Peter's search for Terry must share center stage with a gruesome murder. Adrianna Blanc, a neonatal nurse at St. Timothy's Hospital, had signed off her night shift at eight a.m. Six hours later, a foreman supervising the construction of a house in a nearby suburb discovered her body swinging from the rafters, a cable wire around her neck. Her car was found where she had parked it the night before, with no signs of foul play.
A dedicated and conscientious professional, Adrianna had a circle of close friends. Yet as Decker and his able team soon learn, the young woman also had her share of detractors. A party-hearty girl, she enjoyed booze, kinky sex, and revenge-cheating on her boyfriend, Garth Hammerling, another nurse at St. Tim's. Suspicions heat up when Decker and his team find that one of Adrianna's last phone calls was a provocative and disturbing message to her vacationing boyfriend—who himself has vanished without a trace. Was Adrianna's death something personal because of her carefree lifestyle? Or was this unusually cruel and very dramatic murder the first signs of a serial killer? With lives hanging in the balance, Decker and his colleagues, Sergeant Marge Dunn and Detective Scott Oliver, need to find answers and fast.
As if juggling two investigations weren't enough for the lieutenant (not to mention turning sixty!), things are becoming even more dangerous with his precarious home life. Ever the concerned parent, Decker wants to look after Terry's son, Gabe. Yet who will protect his own family? Because if there's one thing he knows for sure, with a sociopath like Donatti on the loose, no one is ever really safe.
Torn Apart
by Shane Gericke (for Kindle) ~ A tidal wave of violence is rushing full-speed toward the quiet Chicago suburb of Naperville, Illinois. Detective Emily Thompson is locked and loaded - ready to stop the
bloody crime spree in its tracks. But she's up against a deadly countdown that threatens everyone she knows and loves...Her partner. Her best friend. Her whole world. In these final desperate hours, Emily will bring down the most diabolical killer she has ever faced - or die trying. 
Always the Baker, Never the Bride
by Sandra Bricker (Netgalley, ARC, for review) ~ Thirty-six-year-old Emma Rae Travis has been baking specialty cakes and melt-in-your-mouth pastries at The Backstreet Bakery in historic Roswell, just outside of Atlanta, for the last six years. But here s the rub about her job as a baker ... Emma is diabetic. When she tastes her creations, it can only be in the most minute 
portions. Emma is considered an artisan for the stunning crème brulee wedding cake that won her the Passionate Palette Award last year, but she s never even had one full slice of it. When Jackson Drake hears about this local baker who has won a prestigious award for her wedding cake artistry, he tells his assistant to be sure and include her in the pastry tastings scheduled at his new wedding destination hotel the following week. And for Jackson, that particular day has started out badly with two workmen trapped in a broken elevator and a delivery of several dozen 300-thread-count bed linens in the wrong size abandoned in the lobby. But when the arrogant baker he met a week prior in Roswell stumbles into the dining room with a platter of pastries and a bucketful of orders, he knows for certain: It s going to be a really rotten day. Can these two ill-suited players master the high-wire act and make a go of their new business venture? Or will they take each other crashing downward, without a net? And will the surprise wedding at The Tanglewood be theirs? Release date: September 1st.
When the Devil Whistles
by Rick Acker (Netgalley, ARC, for review) ~ Allie Whitman is a professional whistleblower with a knack for sniffing out fraud in government contracts. Conner Norman is a gifted litigator and together they form Devil to Pay, Inc., a shell corporation that files lawsuits based on Allie s investigations
. They soon find themselves fighting potentially fatal battles in and out of the courtroom, going great lengths to protect secrets that could ruin them both. Release date: October 1st. 
Starting from Scratch: A Novel
by Susan Gilbert-Collins (For review, giveaway) ~ Why is someone who just defended her doctoral dissertation still wasting her time at her childhood home, two months after her mother’s funeral, making coq au vin and osso buco? Olivia Tschetter, the youngest of four 
high-achieving South Dakotan siblings, is not returning to “normal”—or to graduate school— quickly enough to suit her family. She wants only to bury herself in her mother’s kitchen, finding solace in their shared passion for cooking.Threatened with grief counseling, Olivia accepts a temporary position at the local Meals on Wheels, where she stumbles upon some unfinished business from her mother’s past—and a dark family secret. Startling announcements from two siblings also challenge the family’s status quo. The last thing she needs is a deepening romantic interest in a close but platonic (she thought) friend.But while Olivia’s mother is gone, her memory and spirit continue to engage Olivia, who finds herself daring to speak when she would never have spoken before. Told with humor and compassion, Starting from Scratch explores the shifting of family dynamics in the wake of shattering loss and the healing power of cooking. Enter giveaway HERE
A Bad Day's Work: A Novel
by Nora McFarland (For review, giveaway) ~ Lilly Hawkins is having one of those days. . . .The last thing she needs is a murder to solve. Nothing seems to be going Lilly’s way. A TV news photographer at her hometown television station, she’s one of the hardest working "shooters" there, but her pit-bull personality and a series of unlucky blunders have put her job in jeopardy. So when an urgent story breaks in the middle of the night, Lilly is determined to turn her bad luck around and get the 
respect she deserves. But the pressure is on; either she delivers amazing video or she’s fired. After busting her butt and dodging the cops, Lilly has what could be the biggest scoop of her career—exclusive video of a murder scene. Or does she have it? Lilly is stunned when the tape played in front of the entire newsroom is nothing but dead air. Soon she’s on the run from criminals and police, both of whom claim Lilly’s video is the key to solving the murder and think she pocketed the real tape. Can she escape her pursuers long enough to catch the killer, or will she end the day as the next victim? Lilly’s bad day just keeps getting worse, but the one thing she knows for sure is that she’d like to live to see more of them. . . . Enter the giveaway HERE
Driven to Ink: A Tattoo Shop Mystery
by Karen Olson (For Review) ~ The latest in the cleverly designed tattoo shop mystery series. Brett Kavanaugh is a tattoo artist and owner of Vegas's hottest 
tattoo shop, The Painted Lady. And in her spare time, she does some sleuthing. After discovering the corpse of a Dean Martin impersonator-sporting a spider web tattoo and a clip cord from a tattoo machine wrapped around his neck-Brett infiltrates That's Amore, a drive-through wedding chapel, as a bride-to-be looking for the mark of a murderer... Release date: September 7th
A Deadly Row (A Math Puzzle Mystery)
by Casey Mayes (For Review) ~ Capturing the hot new craze: The new Math Puzzle mystery series. Math whiz Savannah Stone makes a living creating Math puzzles in rural North Carolina. But when the mayor starts receiving death threats, Savannah needs to solve this puzzl
e-before the next box to be filled is the mayor's coffin. Release date: September 7th.
Buzz Off (Story Fischer)
by Hannah Reed (For review) ~ It's September - National Honey Month - in Moraine, Wisconsin. After her mentor in the honey business is found 
suspiciously stung to death in his apiary, beekeeper Story Fischer must sort through a swarm of suspects, including her ex-husband. Release date: September 7th
Angel Interrupted (A Dead Detective Mystery)
by Chaz McGee (For review) ~ Some cases are as cold as the grave... A lost soul in limbo, Kevin Fahey is trying to prove he's a better ghost than he ever was a man.
And trying to help Maggie Gunn, the detective who replaced him, is a good way to start. Release date: September 7th
Deadly Daggers (Renaissance Faire Mystery)
by Joyce & Jim Lavene (For review) ~ Jessie Morton's latest apprenticeship at the Renaissance Faire is in service to Daisy, the 
master swordsmith. But when a professional dueler-and Daisy's former flame-is murdered, it's up to Jessie to keep a sharp eye out for the killer. Release date: September 7th
Scoop to Kill: A Mystery a La Mode
by Wendy Lyn Watson (For review) ~ A sleuth sure to melt readers' hearts-from the author of I Scream, You Scream During the local college's annual Honor's Day festivities, a graduate student is killed. When the English professor 
suspected of his murder also meets an untimely end, Tallulah Jones steps out from behind the counter of Remember the a-la-Mode to clear the professor's name-before anyone else gets put on ice... Release date: September 7th.
Juliet
by Anne Fortier (For review) ~ Fortier bobs and weaves between Shakespearean tragedy and popular romance for a high-flying debut in which American Julie Jacobs travels to Siena in search of her Italian heritage--and possibly an inheritance--only to discover she is descended from 14th-century Giulietta Tomei, whose love for Romeo defied their feuding families and inspired Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Julie's hunt leads her to the families' descendants, still living in Siena, 
still feuding, and still struggling under the curse of the friar who wished a plague on both their houses. Julie's unraveling of the past is assisted by a Felliniesque contessa and the contessa's handsome nephew, and complicated by mobsters, police, and a mysterious motorcyclist. To understand what happened centuries ago, in the previous generation, and all around her, Julie relies on relics: a painting, a journal, a dagger, a ring. Readers enjoy the additional benefit of antique texts alternating with contemporary narratives, written in the language of modern romance and enlivened by brisk storytelling. Fortier navigates around false clues and twists, resulting in a dense, heavily plotted love story that reads like a Da Vinci Code for the smart modern woman. Release date: August 24th
Desperate Choices by Kathy Ivan (Netgalley, for review) ~ When psychic Theresa Crawford's former beau walks into her New Orleans New Age shop, she senses trouble. Big trouble. Max Lamoreaux hasn't come to discuss their relationship-the private investigator is on a case, and he needs Theresa's help. Max's godson is missing. The police have declared Tommy a runaway, but Max's gut tells him otherwise. While he's highly skeptical of Theresa's abilities, her visions provide the only clue as to who's taken Tommy. The longer Max works with Theresa, the harder it is to resist his desire for the sexy woman.But Theresa harbors her own dark secrets from her past. Secrets that broke them up before-and could drive them apart again, unless Theresa can learn to trust Max with everything...Release date: September 27th.
