Mutt Cafe

Santa 365: A Chet and Bernie Mystery eShort Story

by Spencer Quinn
Atria Books
Mystery & Thrillers
Pub Date Nov 24, 2015

Description

Santa doesn’t just deliver gifts—he takes them too!—in this delightful holiday e-short featuring New York Times bestselling sleuths Chet and Bernie.

He sees you when you’re sleeping. He knows when you’re awake. This year, jolly old St. Nick knows Bernie has been sleeping on preparations for a special Christmas celebration with his son Charlie. Enter Plumpy Napoleon, fresh from a short stint in prison, to save Bernie from the naughty list. Plumpy calls his latest business plan “Santa 365.” For a small fee (that only gets bigger), he’ll fill your life with holiday cheer, including elves, a festive party, gifts, and even a Christmas tree delivered right to your front door. Bernie signs on for the full yuletide experience. But after the blowout holiday bash, Bernie and Chet the dog discover one of Santa’s helpers helped himself to more than Christmas candy....

Simon’s Cat:  Off to the Vet…and Other Cat-astrophes

by Simon Tofield

Akashic Books

Pub Date:  October 29, 2015

Description

In the last five years, Simon's Cat has become a global phenomenon. Star of thirty-nine films, which have been watched over 500 million times, and winner of a dozen major industry awards, Simon's Cat has captured the hearts of a worldwide audience. In this brand-new book we see Simon's Cat face any feline's most dreaded scenario--he's off to the vet. And he's not at all happy about it.

Sharing its theme with the first-ever full-color Simon's Cat feature animation, funded by a record-breaking Indiegogo campaign and due to be released alongside the new book, Simon's Cat Off to the Vet...and Other Cat-astrophes is packed with over 240 pages of hilarious new gags and adventures featuring our favorite furry friend and his companions--both old and new.

Says Tofield: "Taking my naughty cat to the vet is one of the most requested film ideas from our fans. It was b...

Claws for Alarm: A Nick & Nora Mystery

by T.C. LoTempio

Berkley Prime Crime

Mystery & Thrillers

Pub Date: November 3, 2015

Description

“The purrfect sleuthy duo”* is back, and this time murder hits close to home for Nora Charles and her partner Nick, a stealthy little feline gumshoe groomed to solve a shocking crime.

Since inheriting her mother’s sandwich shop, Nora Charles is more about hot grilled paninis than cold-blooded murder—until her sister Lacey is arrested. The victim, an esteemed art collector and Lacey’s bullying professor, was stabbed in the heart. Apparently, all over a lousy grade.
 

Off campus, things were just as dicey. The prof had an ex with secrets, a trophy wife set to inherit a fortune in masterworks, and a scorned student mistress. Going undercover, Nora realizes that investigating this crime is the biggest test of her sleuthing career. Because if she fails, even Nick’s animal instinct won’t be enough to rescue Lacey from a perfectly executed framing.

INCLUDES DELIC...

Plot Boiler: A Black Cat Bookshop Mystery

by Ali Brandon

Berkley Prime Crime

Mystery & Thrillers

Pub Date: November 3, 2015

Description

The New York Times bestselling author of Literally Murder returns to Pettistone’s Fine Books, where the silence of Hamlet the cat speaks volumes about two mysterious deaths…

It’s almost Fourth of July, and to boost customer traffic in their Brooklyn neighborhood, bookseller Darla Pettistone decides to throw a block party. All the local shop owners are thrilled—except the proprietor of Perky’s Coffee Shop, who thinks Darla is trying to poach his customers by selling her own caffeinated brew in her new bookshop café.

But when Hamlet comes upon the owner’s not-so-perky wife, it’s clear a killer has crashed the party. And when a second local business owner shuffles off this mortal coil—as Hamlet’s namesake would say—Darla and her curious cat must perform some fancy footwork to shine a spotlight on a secret worth killing for…

Review

Count on Ali Brandon to...

Murder Most Howl: A Claws & Paws Mystery

By Krista Davis

Berkley Prime Crime

Mystery & Thrillers

Pub Date: November 24, 2015

Description

Holly Miller is delighted her grandmother has finally left the Sugar Maple Inn to take a well-deserved vacation. It means Holly’s in charge, but running the inn might be more challenging than she realized. Wagtail’s throwing a weekend-long murder mystery game to draw in tourists during the slow season, the inn has a full house, and a blizzard is on the way.

Trouble is unleashed the night the game begins, when the storm blows in and the lights go out. It gets worse the following morning when Holly’s Jack Russell terrier, Trixie, discovers a body—one that’s actually dead. Now Holly, her calico kitten Twinkletoes, and Trixie must play by the rules and find one dirty dog...

Review

If you love animals and mystery, Murder Most Howl is a terrific selection. This novel is a pet lover's delight combining a bevy of wonderful dogs and cats and a fun and original m...

Embracing the Wild in Your Dog

By Bryan Bailey

Smith Publicity

Outdoors & Nature, Nonfiction

Pub Date: October 6, 2015

Description

The ontogeny of anthropomorphism, where we attach our human traits to our pets, is the most damaging and paralytic problem associated with dog ownership today. Believing in a fairy tale world where dogs possess the same moral consciousness and a sense of altruism as attributed to humans has led to consequences that include a drastic increase in leash laws, dogs being outlawed in a rising number of city and national parks, some breeds being banned in several states, an alarming escalation of aggression to humans, a rising cost in homeowner and business insurance, and a record number of clinically maladaptive dogs.

This book is not a dog obedience book. Rather, it is about developing a deep understanding of the authors of your dog's behavior; nature and the wolf. For all that man has done to carve the wolf from the wild to create a biological doll, today's dog...

Death by Tea

by Alex Erickson

Kensington Books

Mystery & Thrillers

Pub Date: November 24, 2015

Description

Mystery lovers have descended on Pine Hills for this year's book club competition, to be held at Krissy Hancock's bookstore café. But the killer in their midst seems determined to outwit all the armchair sleuths—and send Krissy to the remainder bin forever.

Just before two dueling book clubs are set to square off at Death by Coffee, one of the competitors turns up dead—bludgeoned with the silver teapot that was to serve as the prize. Suspicion immediately falls on Krissy, who was seen skulking around town in dark clothes on the night of the murder.

To clear her name and find the real killer, Krissy turns to an old flame, Officer Paul Dalton. But even Paul can't ignore the trail of evidence that seems to point in her direction. And with Krissy's personal nemesis, Officer John Buchannan, working overtime to pin the murder on her, it will take an amazing feat of detective work to clo...

Death Before Decaf: A Java Jive Mystery

By Caroline Fardig

Alibi

Mystery & Thrillers

Pub Date: November 17

Description

Perfect for fans of Janet Evanovich and Diane Mott Davidson, Caroline Fardig's captivating new mystery novel takes readers behind the counter of a seemingly run-of-the-mill coffeehouse . . . where murder is brewing.

After her music career crashes and burns spectacularly, Juliet Langley is forced to turn to the only other business she knows: food service. Unfortunately, bad luck strikes yet again when her two-timing fiancé robs her blind and runs off with her best waitress. Flushing what's left of her beloved café down the toilet with her failed engagement, Juliet packs up and moves back to her college stomping grounds in Nashville to manage an old friend's coffeehouse. At first glance, it seems as though nothing's changed at Java Jive. What could possibly go wrong? Only that the place is hemorrhaging money, the staff is in open revolt, and Juliet finds one unlucky employ...

Doctor Who: System Wipe

By Oli Smith

Science Fiction & Fantasy

Pub Date: November 19, 2015

Description

The Eleventh Doctor finds himself trapped in the virtual world of Parallife. As he tries to save the inhabitants from being destroyed by a deadly virus, Amy and Rory must fight to keep the Doctor's body in the real world safe from the mysterious entity known as Legacy.

Review 

Doctor Who: System Wipe is an adventure targeted to younger fans of the series.  The novel has less tension, and is designed not to scare young readers.  

In System Wipe, the 11th Doctor, Amy, and Rory arrive on a devastated, uninhabited Earth.  When the Doctor finds a power source, he connects to a virtual world - Parallife.  Once it was an immensely popular online game.  Now, with the players gone, the characters left behind have a life and sentience of their own.  But something is destroying Parallife, erasing land and characters with increasing velocity.  While the Doctor struggles to save the inhabitants...

Death Comes to Kurland Hall

By Catherine Lloyd

Kensington Books

Mystery & Thrillers

Pub date: November 24, 2015

Description

As wedding bells chime in Kurland St. Mary, a motley group of visitors descends on the village—and with a murderer on the prowl, some of them may not be returning home…

Lucy Harrington has returned to Kurland St. Mary to help with her friend Sophia Giffin's wedding. But her homecoming is made disagreeable by the presence of Major Robert Kurland, whose bungled proposal has ruffled Lucy's composure, and a meddling widow who has designs on her father, the village rector.

Wary of the cloying Mrs. Chingford from the start, Lucy has doubts about the busybody's intentions with her father. But everyone else seems to think they make an ideal match—until the courtship is curtailed when Mrs. Chingford is found dead at the bottom of a staircase. It's clear that it wasn't an accident, and in hopes of finding the culprit, Lucy and Robert call a truce and begin scrutinizing the wed...