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Bennett, SJ. All the Queen’s Men. Morrow. (Her Majesty the Queen, Bk. 2). Mar. 2022. 336p. ISBN 9780063051140. $27.99. lrg. prnt. MYSTERY

Following The Windsor Knot, YA author Bennett’s triumphant first foray into adult mystery, Elizabeth II returns to sleuth again with the help of Assistant Private Secretary Rozie Oshodi. As the queen worries about a missing painting, Rozie does not immediately share news of the troublesome letters received by some of the staff. Then a staffer winds up dead in the pool house at Buckingham Palace, and it’s time to act. With a 75,000-copy first printing.

Cranor, Eli. Don’t Know Tough. Soho Crime. Mar. 2022. 336p. ISBN 9781641293457. $24.95. MYSTERY/SPORTS

After pulling up his California roots to become head coach of a high school football team in Arkansas, Trent Powers invites star running back Billy Lowe to live with him and his family. Billy is wound knot-tight and is sometimes explosively angry with teammates owing to dread of his unsteady mother’s violent boyfriend. Then the man is murdered, and the town shatters into violence of its own. Winner of the Peter Lovesey First Crime Novel Contest.

Garrett, Kellye. Like a Sister. Mulholland: Little, Brown. Mar. 2022. 336p. ISBN 9780316256704. $28. Downloadable. MYSTERY

When the body of Black reality TV star Desiree Pierce is found in a Bronx playground, the police quickly surmise death by overdose. But estranged half-sister Lena will have none of it; despite Desiree’s hard partying, she would never have sojourned above 125th Street in Manhattan, far south of the Bronx. Now Lena is hunting for the ugly truth. From Agatha/Anthony award winner Garrett, cofounder with Walter Mosley of Crime Writers of Color; a 35,000-copy first printing.

Luna, Louisa. Hideout. Doubleday. (Alice Vega, Bk. 3). Mar. 2022. 368p. ISBN 9780385545532. $27. Downloadable. MYSTERY

After two well-received outings (e.g., The Janes), Alice Vega returns to demonstrate her talent for uncovering seemingly unrecoverable truths. This time she’s seeking Zeb Williams, who vanished three decades ago after running out with the ball during a tied college football game. Alice traces him to southern Oregon, where a white-supremacist hate group called the Liberty Boys is menacing the community. Alice must take them on even as she deals with troubled partner Max Caplan at home.

McTiernan, Dervla. The Murder Rule. Morrow. Mar. 2022. 304p. ISBN 9780063042209. $27.99. lrg. prnt. MYSTERY

The winner of Ned Kelly, Barry, and International Thriller Writers honors, McTiernan again stirs up tension with the story of a young lawyer who appears to be urgently challenging a corrupt system to save an innocent man from death row. But she’s got other designs, tied to her outing a secret her mother has been hiding. With a 100,000-copy first printing.

Montgomery, Jess. The Echoes. Minotaur: St. Martin’s. (Kinship, Bk. 4). Mar. 2022. 288p. ISBN 9781250623423. $27.99. MYSTERY/HISTORICAL

In 1928 Kinship, OH, Sheriff Lily Ross faces an abundance of trouble. Just as an amusement park created by county commissioner Chalmer Fitzpatrick prepares to open, a young woman’s drowning death on his property reveals secrets dating back for generations. Then there’s the baby left on his doorstep. Meanwhile, the daughter Lily’s brother fathered with a Frenchwoman before his death is expected to arrive any moment, but it seems she may have been kidnapped. Fourth in Montgomery’s popular series; with a 50,000-copy first printing.

Pandian, Gigi. Under Lock & Skeleton Key. Minotaur: St. Martin’s. (Secret Staircase Mystery. Bk. 1). Mar. 2022. 352p. ISBN 9781250804983. $26.99. MYSTERY

In this series launch from the multi-award-winning Pandian, actress Tempest Raj recovers from a terrible accident by returning to her childhood home in California, where she ends up working for her father’s construction company. The company reinvents family homes by installing such amenities as secret staircases and hidden nooks, and one project delivers an unexpected surprise: the dead body of Tempest’s former double, encased within a supposedly long-sealed wall. Was Tempest the intended victim? And is the Raj family curse for real? With a 50,000-copy first printing.

Segura, Alex. Secret Identity. Flatiron: Macmillan. Mar. 2022. 368p. ISBN 9781250801746. $27.99. MYSTERY

Segura, who writes the “Pete Fernandez Mystery” series and has penned comic books as well, combines his passions in a story featuring aspiring comics writer Carmen Valdez. It’s 1975, the comic book industry is slumping, and Carmen treasures her job at Triumph Comics, where a colleague asks her to help him create the first female superhero. Then he’s found dead, having turned in the scripts they worked on together without crediting her, and a stubborn cop starts making connections. With a 75,000-copy first printing.

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