Mystery Collectors, Keep Your Eyes Peeled for Belinda Bauer

It seems that Belinda Bauer's appeal / fame hasn't quite peaked here in the States yet. But her first novel, Blacklands (Bantam, Jan. 2, 2010), won her the CWA Gold Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel 2010. Her second novel, Dark Side, was released earlier this month - (so far, only in the U.K.)


Both novels have garnered a series of good reviews, collecting 4 and 5 stars from Amazon.co.uk. And 3.5 and 5 stars from Goodreads.


While both books use the same setting, and the same cast of characters, the perspective changes, so that the hero of the first book, plays only a minor role in the second.


Dark Side (From the Inside Flap):
Jonas had always felt the local police held him in warm regard. Now a small dagger of ice had pierced that warmth and everything had changed in an instant.

Shipcott in bleak midwinter: a close-knit community where no stranger goes unnoticed. So when an elderly woman is murdered in her bed, village policeman Jonas Holly is doubly shocked. How could someone have entered, and killed, and left no trace?
Jonas finds himself sidelined as the investigation is snatched away from him by an abrasive senior detective. Is his first murder investigation over before it’s begun?
But this isn’t the end of it for Jonas, because someone in the village blames him for the tragedy. Someone seems to know every move he makes. Someone thinks he’s not doing hisjob. And when the killer claims another vulnerable victim, these taunts turn into sinister threats.
Blinded by rising paranoia, relentless snow and fear for his own invalid wife, Jonas strikes out alone on a mystifying hunt. But the threats don't stop - and neither do the murders . . .
Signed copies of Blacklands, as of Jan 2011, are listing for over $150 on Abebooks.com, while signed copies of Dark Side are listing at around $50.  


Blacklands
Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: Bantam Press (2 Jan 2010)
ISBN-10: 0593062949
ISBN-13: 978-0593062944


Dark Side
Hardcover: 368 pages
Publisher: Bantam Press (6 Jan 2011)
ISBN-10: 0593062965
ISBN-13: 978-0593062968

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