Fans of Margery Allingham’s mysteries already know about The Tiger in the Smoke, a 1952 installment of the author’s Albert Campion series. Here, however, is a different perspective:

Campion—the London gentleman who frequently dabbles in criminal investigations with the forbearance of Scotland Yard and city authorities—makes an obligatory though somewhat superficial and irrelevant appearance in this tale, one that offers itself as a murder mystery, morality play, and treasure quest.

The Council of the Cursed: A Mystery of Ancient Ireland by Peter Tremayne
Minotaur / Hardcover / $24.99
ISBN 978-0-312-37565-2
Publication Date: 3 November 2009

When the fascinating action of The Council of the Cursed begins, church leaders from Western Europe gather together for an important but contentious and volatile meeting in Burgundy in the year 670.

Then—in a classic locked room mystery—Abbot Dabhoc of Hibernia is murdered, and the barely conscious Bishop Ordgar of Canterbury and Abbot Cadfan of Gwynedd are found with the victim.

Tilt A Whirl
By Chris Grabenstein
Carroll & Graf / Avalon

In the seaside resort community of Sea Haven, New Jersey, the police don’t have much to do. John Ceepak, formerly a military policeman with a thirteen year career in the Army, has recently been hired as Sea Haven’s new chief of police.

Here is news about several new mysteries that deserve special attention. Books by Paretsky, Lovesey, Indridason, and Penny are almost always worth every moment spent with them. I especially look forward to reading Paretsky’s mystery set in 1966 (a hazy year in my memory for more than a few reasons) and Indridason’s bone-chilling (no pun intended) Icelandic murder mystery (set in a singular country that I called “home” for nearly two years in the early 80s).