Not everyone can attend our events so these webcasts provide yet another passport to you readers.

Two things:

I (also Patrick and other staff) am reading up a storm during the holidays and the week to come. As publishing shut down Dec. 21 and doesn't reopen until January 2 or 3, I can't confirm a great many titles, especially Signed books. Until I do, the January Booknews has to sit. My plan is to get it posted on the 7th.

And, why the 7th? Will is enjoying a holiday in Europe and will be back then, prepared to post.

NOTE: he did do the Lists of New Books for January which you can find by clicking here. 

BUT only the mass market is correct. I have been adding or amending the lists for trade paperbacks (for instance, the PD James Death Comes to Pemberley), hardcovers, and Signed hardcovers.

SO if you browse them, remember please they will update on the 7th. If you don't see something you expect, have faith!

Thanks for your patience, Barbara

SUNDAY JANUARY 6 2:00 PM A Cookie Cozy

Betty Webb 2 PM signs The Llama of Death (Poisoned Pen $25 or $15) 

Publisher's Weekly (PW) reviews: 

Zookeeper Theodora "Teddy" Bentley's human relationships prove more taxing than her animal ones in Webb's amusing third Gunn Zoo mystery. Teddy's employer, Central California matron Aster Edwina Gunn, is responsible for sending her to the Gunn Landing Renaissance Faire to offer rides on Alejandro the llama. It's hardly Aster's fault, however, when Alejandro's enclosure at the Faire provides the site for the murder by arrow of Victor Emerson, mail order minister and wedding chapel proprietor. The incompetent Deputy Elvin Dade, as acting sheriff, quickly muddies the case by arresting Caroline Piper Bentley Hufgraff O'Brien Petersen, Teddy's oft-married mother. While the Faire's colorful characters provide grist for Teddy's investigation, her fugitive embezzler father makes an unexpected appearance. Animal lore and human foibles spiced with a hint of evil test Teddy's patience and crime solving in this appealing cozy.

Comes third after The Anteater of Death and The Koala of Death ($15 each). While "cozy" these books are far from silly and address unusual animals (and people) clustered together on California's coast near Monterey. 

MONDAY JANUARY 7 7:00 PM

Sharan Newman signs Death Before Compline (Bagwyn/ASU Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies $9.95) 

The 7 stories take us into 12th century Europe and show with sympathy and humor, the astounding variety of good intentions gone wrong and the corruption of human desires. Many of the stories feature Catherine LeVendeur, the beloved protagonist of ten of Newman's novels, and Solomon, Catherine's Jewish merchant cousin. These stories takes us into the day to day reality of medieval religious and family life, as it is lived by a variety of people: from nuns, noble people, scholars, courtiers, merchants, hermetic spinsters and children. Fans of the novels will find this collection delightful as the author explains the origins of these stories and the evolution of her protagonists in the novels. Did I mention the recipes? Sharan recommends the Templar Roast Lamb.

NOTE: At our Event, Bagwyn Books celebrates its launch with the author of its first publication. Newman's collection of short stories take us into the day to day reality of medieval religious and family life, as it was lived by a variety of people: nuns, noble people, scholars, courtiers, merchants, hermetic spinsters and children.

WEDNESDAY JANUARY 9 7:00 PM

James Rollins & Rebecca Cantrell sign The Blood Gospel (Morrow $28) 

An earthquake in Masada, Israel, kills hundreds and reveals a tomb buried in the heart of the mountain. A trio of investigators-Sergeant  Jordan Stone, a military forensic expert; Father Rhun Korza, a Vatican priest; and Dr. Erin Granger, a brilliant but disillusioned archaeologist-are sent to explore the macabre discovery, a subterranean temple holding the crucified body of a mummified girl. But a brutal attack at the site sets the three on the run, thrusting them into a race to recover what was once preserved in the tomb's sarcophagus..

What fun. Here's the start of a series imagined as if Elizabeth Kostova's The Historian melded with Dan Brown's The DaVinci Code ---and toss in a chapter about Masada from James Michener's The Source (the only Michener I've ever read cover to cover). So we get the dreadful siege of beleaguered First Century Jews by the Romans, with twists; a whole vampire strain, plus a lost, sacred relic (a book) with a quest and clues and... Cantrell's familiarity with Germany appears in scenes in Bavaria (Garmisch-Partenkirchen, a ski mecca near the Zugspitze, plus lakes). Rollins' trademark blend of science and the supernatural and whiplash plotting blend with their shared love of history and dramatic scenes.

And then:

Sat. Jan. 12: Coffee and Crime 10:30 AM

Tues. Jan. 15: Thomas Caplan signs The Spy Who Jumped Off the Screen ($16 paperback edition)

Wed. Jan. 16: Sue Grafton signs Kinsey and Me ($28)

Sat. Jan 19: Mystery Tea: Priscilla Royal 2 PM signs Sanctity of Hate ($25 or $15)

Mon. Jan. 21: Brad Meltzer 6:30 PM signs The Fifth Assassin ($29)

Tues. Jan 22: Steven Hunter signs The Third Bullet ($27)

Thurs. Jan 24: Hardboiled Crime Club

Sun. Jan. 27 Ian Rankin 2 PM signs Standing in Another Man's Grave ($26)

Wed. Jan 30: Erica Bauermeister signs The Lost Art of Mixing ($26)

Thurs. Jan. 31: Charles Todd signs Proof of Guilt ($26)

Feb. 2: Earlene Fowler 2 PM signs The Road to Cardinal Valley ($26)

Grafton, Sue. Kinsey and Me (Putnam $28)  In stock now, Signed here on January 16 at The Pen 7:00 PM

Sinclair, John Gordon. Seventy Times Seven Signed (Faber $31)  

Patrick makes this excellent debut by Scottish-born actor Sinclair a  final Hardboiled Pick for 2012. 

Danny McGuire doesn't like his job, but he's good at it. Since his brother's murder eight years earlier he has become a professional killer: a hit man for hire, bent on retribution.

The Job: Danny's been contracted to eliminate the 'Thevshi' - the Ghost - the most elusive informant that has ever penetrated the Republican movement in Northern Ireland. But there's a problem: the Thevshi claims to know who's responsible for his brother's death. Danny's never killed someone he needed to talk to first.

The Target: When Finn O'Hanlon (A.K.A. the Thevshi) is attacked in a bar in Alabama he realises that his past has finally caught up with him. Forced to flee, he embarks on a desperate journey to find Danny McGuire before it's too late.

The Complication: But Danny and Finn are up against someone who's spent years hiding a secret, and it's a secret they'll go to any lengths to protect.

Hess, Joan. Deader Homes and Gardens ($7.99).

Hyzy, Julie. Fonduing Fathers ($7.99).

Indridason, Arnaldur. Operation Napoleon  ($9.99)

Lowell, Elizabeth. Beautiful Sacrifice ($7.99).

MacInnes, Helen. Above Suspicion($9.99)

Madison, Ada. Function of Murder ($7.99)

Margolin, Phillip. Capitol Murder ($9.99)

Murphy, JJ. A Friendly Game of Murder ($7.99).

Peikoff, Kira. Living Proof ($7.99)

Wambaugh, Joseph. Harbor Nocturne ($9.99)

From Dana Stabenow:

In 1999 Alaska magazine asked me if I'd like to travel around Alaska and write about it. My momma didn't raise no fool so I said yes quick before they asked somebody else. For five years I hiked the Chilkoot Trail and went bear watching in Katmai and whale-watching in Sitka and went to Nome for the end of the Iditarod and rode an oil tanker into Valdez. Hands down the best job I ever had.

And now, just for you, all those columns and feature articles are collected in one $4.99 e-book available at Amazon.com,Amazon.co.uk, Barnes & Noble and Kobo  It's still crawling toward the virtual shelves at Apple. Seek and ye will eventually find

STORM SEASON: 3 Novellas. One storm.
I teamed up again with Erica Spindler and JT Ellison. This time it's a killer storm and three novellas. Maggie O'Dell and RJ Tully are sent to Pensacola, Florida, in the middle of violent thunderstorms to track down a U.S. Senator's missing family.

Order from amazon.com or Barnes & Noble   

 Just for fun, I checked out Mr. Taylor's story "Broken Voices" on Amazon in the US. It is available for Kindle download @ $1.99-a better price than on Amazon.uk and definitely downloadable

Cleeves, Ann. Dead Water Signed (Macmillan $39).

The 5th book in Cleeves' Shetland series - which is now the major BBC1 drama Shetland starring Douglas Henshall. When the body of journalist Jerry Markham is found in a traditional Shetland boat, outside the house of the Fiscal, down at the Marina, young Detective Inspector Willow Reeves is drafted in to head up the investigation. Since the death of his fiancée, Inspector Jimmy Perez has been out of the loop, but his interest in this new case is stirred and he decides to help the inquiry. Markham - originally a Shetlander but who had made a name for himself in London - had left the islands years before. In his wake, he left a scandal involving a young girl, Evie Watt, who is now engaged to a seaman. He had few friends in Shetland, so why was he back? Willow and Jimmy are led to Sullum Voe, the heart of Shetland's North Sea oil and gas industry. It soon emerges from their investigation that Markham was chasing a story in his final days. One that must have been significant enough to warrant his death . .

Griffiths, Elly. A Dying Fall Signed (Quercus $35).

 Ruth's old friend Dan Golding thinks he has made a discovery that will change archaeology forever - but he needs Ruth's help. Then, Dan is killed in a fire, leaving Ruth with one clue: the tomb of the Raven King. DCI Nelson is also rediscovering the past. He meets his friend Sandy Macleod, now at Blackpool CID, who tells him there are mysterious circumstances surrounding Dan's death. A Neo-Nazi group at Dan's University has been making threats and could be involved. Many of Dan's colleagues seem fearful and have secrets to hide. Ruth is drawn into the mystery, and where she goes, so does her daughter, Kate. This time, it's not just Ruth's life at risk.

Hewson, David. The Killing 2 Signed ($36).

It is two years since the notorious Nanna Birk Larsen case. Two years since Detective Sarah Lund left Copenhagen in disgrace for a remote outpost in northern Denmark. When the body of a female lawyer is found in macabre circumstances in a military graveyard, there are elements of the crime scene that take Head of Homicide, Lennart Brix, back to an occupied wartime Denmark - a time its countrymen would wish to forget. Brix knows that Lund is the one person he can rely on to discover the truth. Reluctantly she returns to Copenhagen and becomes intrigued with the facts surrounding the case. As more bodies are found, Lund comes to see a pattern and she realises that the identity of the killer will be known once the truth behind a more recent wartime mission is finally revealed . . . 

Pride and Prejudice

Kernick, Simon. Ultimatum Signed (Century $32). 

8 am: an explosion blasts through a cafe in central London. Minutes later a call is made to a local radio station: 'We've just detonated a bomb. Another will explode shortly. The British Government has until midnight tonight to meet all our demands, or a far greater attack will take place somewhere in the country that will bring fire down on all your heads." So, who will do what with this warning? DC Boyd and DI Bolt are at the center of whatever is going to go down. Kernick's urban thrillers resonate with fans of Mark Billingham and, though grittier, Harlan Coben.

Macbride, Stuart. Close to the Bone Signed (Collins $33). 

Those hard men in Aberdeen get harder each Macbride bestseller. Talk about Granite City... The first body is chained to a stake: strangled, and stabbed, with a burning tyre around its neck. But is this a gangland execution or something much darker?Someone's leaving little knots of bones outside Detective Inspector Logan McRae's house, but he's got more pressing things to worry about. Rival drug gangs are fighting over product and territory; two teenage lovers are missing; someone's crippling Asian immigrants; and Logan's been lumbered with an ambitious new Detective Sergeant, a mountain of paperwork, and the unwelcome attention of his superiors and the local crime boss. When another body turns up, it looks as if the similarities between these murders and the plot of a bestselling novel are more than just a coincidence. And perhaps those little knots of bones are more important than they look...