October Publications

Agatha Christie meets California writers' retreat in Lora Roberts's satirical take on the publishing world, Another Fine Mess: A Bridget Montrose Mystery. Palo Alto author Bridget is looking forward to spending two weeks working on her novel at Ars Ranch near Santa Cruz, but the mix of established literati and student writers proves highly combustible—and deadly. Roberts is also the author of Murder Follows the Money and five other novels in her Liz Sullivan series. (Perseverance [www.danielpublishing.com], $13.95 paper 216p ISBN 1-880284-54-5)

The same publisher also offers Nancy Baker Jacobs's (the Devon McDonald PI series) lively Flash Point: A Susan Kim Delancey Mystery, her first suspense novel, which introduces a California arson investigator as sleuth. ($13.95 paper 216p -56-1)

From Five Star come story collections by two pros: The Tell-Tale Tattoo and Other Stories, by K.K. Beck, one of today's leading practitioners in the Agatha Christie tradition (Five Star, $25.95 283p ISBN 0-7862-4570-0); and Secrets and Other Stories of Suspense, by bestseller Carolyn Hart, who's won Agatha, Anthony and Macavity awards. ($15.95 288p -4328-7)