Mystery Notes

In David Wishart's (I, Virgil) latest humorous Marcus Corvinus Roman mystery, A Vote for Murder, Corvinus's uneventful visit to his stepdaughter in the rustic Alban Hills takes a deadly turn with the murder of one of two candidates running for censor. The rival politician, though, may not be the only person with a motive to kill. (Hodder & Stoughton [Trafalgar Sq. dist.], $24.95 368p ISBN 0-340-77129-1)

Severn House rolls out three novels from veteran British crime authors: Flawed Light, Clare Curzon's first novel, originally published as Greenshards (1972), a contemporary gothic set at a country house (Severn, $25.99 192p ISBN 0-7278-5959-5); Vivien Armstrong's No Birds Singing, in which DCI Roger Hayes looks into the mysterious death of a hairdresser in the quaint village of Newton Greys ($26.99 224p ISBN -5984-6); and Joan Lock's Dead Letters, her third Victorian historical after 2002's Dead Born, in which Detective Inspector Best must thwart the threats of a fiend to set off an explosion at the annual Metropolitan Police Fête at London's Alexandra Palace ($26.99 192p ISBN -5969-2).