New Fiction
A Gate at the Stairs- Moore, Lorrie
- 2009
- "...As the United States begins gearing up for war in the Middle East, twenty-year-old Tassie Keltjin, the Midwestern daughter of a gentleman hill farmer--his 'Keltjin potatoes' are justifiably famous--has come to a university town as a college student, her brain on fire with Chaucer, Sylvia Plath, Simone de Beauvoir. Between semesters, she takes a job as a part-time nanny. The family she works for seems both mysterious and glamorous to her, and although Tassie had once found children boring, she comes to care for, and to protect, their newly adopted little girl as her own. As the year unfolds and she is drawn deeper into each of these lives, her own life back home becomes ever more alien to her: her parents are frailer; her brother, aimless and lost in high school, contemplates joining the military. Tassie finds herself becoming more and more the stranger she felt herself to be, and as life and love unravel dramatically, even shockingly, she is forever changed..."--dust cover flap.
Torch of Freedom- Weber, David
- 2009
- In the sequel to "Crown of Slaves," the slavemasters of Mesa plot against the Star Empire of Manticore and the newly liberated slave planet of Torch. Anton Zilwicki and the notorious Havenite secret agent Victor Cachat set off on a dangerous mission to uncover the truth.
The Wrecker- Cussler, Clive
- 2009
- Detective Isaac Bell travels early-20th-century America pursuing thieves and killers. When train wrecks, fires, and explosions sabotage the Southern Pacific Railroad's Cascades express line, Bell quickly discovers that a mysterious saboteur is at work.
Between the Lines- Krentz, Jayne
- 2009
- Done with passion, Amber Langley agrees to a comfortable marriage of convenience to her calm, even-keeled boss and good friend, Cormick Grayson, only to discover that there's a lot more to Gray than meets the eye, and a platonic relationship is definitely not on his agenda. Witty, hilarious, racy, and well plotted, this is classic, rereadable Krentz; fans will rejoice that this 1986 Harlequin Temptation title is back in print and in hardcover.
I, Alex Cross- 2009
- Detective Alex Cross is pulled out of a family celebration and given the awful news that a beloved relative has been found brutally murdered. Alex vows to hunt down the killer, and soon learns that she was mixed up in one of Washington's wildest scenes. And she was not this killer's only victim.
Ice- Howard, Linda
- 2009
- As a brewing ice storm approaches, and despite the icy conditions that have always existed between him and Lolly Helton, combat veteran Gabriel McQueen makes the long haul to the middle of nowhere to find out whether she is safe and sound. Spotting strangers in Lolly's home--one of them packing a weapon--Gabriel rescues Lolly from her captors. But when the escape is discovered, the heat--and the hunt--are on.
Cat Striking Back: a Joe Grey mystery- 2009
- In Murphy's magical 15th mystery to feature tomcat Joe Grey (after Feb. 2009's Cat Playing Cupid), an anonymous tip leads Det. Juana Davis of the Molina Point, Calif., PD to an empty swimming pool, where she finds trace evidence of a murder but no corpse. When Sage, a feral feline, catches the canny killer in the act of placing the victim in a ditch dug in the garage floor of a house being remodeled, the cat-hating sociopath throws a hammer at Sage. Sage survives to report what he's witnessed to his cat pals who live with humans, including Joe. With so many smart four-footed sleuths on his trail, the killer is doomed. As in recent entries in this popular series, the cat detectives receive more face time than their two-footed cohorts, like Molina Point's often bumbling if well-intentioned police chief, Max Harper, who gets on the stick only late in the game. Mystery fans who prefer people in action will have to look elsewhere.
Wishin' and Hopin': a Christmas story- Lamb, Wally
- 2009
- Set in the fictional town of Three Rivers, Connecticut, this story follows fifth-grader Felix Funicello in the months leading up to Christmas 1964.
Mariposa- Bear, Greg
- 2009
- In bestseller Bear's intriguing near-future thriller, a powerful financier stands ready to seize control of America as the nation teeters on the brink of economic collapse. The Texas-based Talos Corp., helmed by CEO Axel Price, specializes in security technology software and the training of mercenaries. Standing between Price and the downfall of America are a few hardy FBI agents, notably Rebecca Rose, one of the stars of the previous book in the series, Quantico. Besides the nefarious Price, dangers include a supercomputer, Jones Zero, that may or may not be acting on the side of justice, and the fact that Rebecca and others have been used as guinea pigs for a powerful mind- and body-altering drug, Mariposa. Under less capable hands, the extraordinarily complicated plot, numbers of characters and the constant explanations of future technologies might lead to terminal turgidity, but SF veteran Bear keeps everything whizzing right along to the slam-bang conclusion.
Under the Dome- King, Stephen
- 2009
- The small town of Chester's Mill, Maine, is faced with a big dilemma when it is mysteriously sealed off by an invisible and completely impenetrable force field. With cars and airplanes exploding on contact, the force field has completely isolated the townspeople from the outside world. Now, Iraq war vet Dale Barbara and a group of the town's more sensible citizens must overcome the tyrannical rule of Big Jim Rennie, a politician bent on controlling everything within the Dome.
The Lacuna- Kingsolver, Barbara
- 2009
- Starred Review. Kingsolver's ambitious new novel, her first in nine years (after the The Poisonwood Bible), focuses on Harrison William Shepherd, the product of a divorced American father and a Mexican mother. After getting kicked out of his American military academy, Harrison spends his formative years in Mexico in the 1930s in the household of Diego Rivera; his wife, Frida Kahlo; and their houseguest, Leon Trotsky, who is hiding from Soviet assassins. After Trotsky is assassinated, Harrison returns to the U.S., settling down in Asheville, N.C., where he becomes an author of historical potboilers (e.g., Vassals of Majesty) and is later investigated as a possible subversive. Narrated in the form of letters, diary entries and newspaper clippings, the novel takes a while to get going, but once it does, it achieves a rare dramatic power that reaches its emotional peak when Harrison wittily and eloquently defends himself before the House Un-American Activities Committee (on the panel is a young Dick Nixon). Employed by the American imagination, is how one character describes Harrison, a term that could apply equally to Kingsolver as she masterfully resurrects a dark period in American history with the assured hand of a true literary artist.
Ford Country: stories- Grisham, John
- 2009
- John Grisham returns to Ford County, Mississippi, the setting of his immensely popular first novel, "A Time to Kill," with this wholly surprising collection of stories.
The Vows of Silence: a Simon Serrailler mystery- Hill, Susan
- 2009
- In Hill's unremarkable fourth novel to feature Chief Insp. Simon Serrailler (after 2008's The Risk of Darkness), Serrailler and his team race against time to stop a killer who's gunning down young women, apparently at random. Newlywed Melanie Drew is the first victim, shot at close range inside her flat in Lafferton. The killer shifts method for his second attack, using a rifle to shoot into a crowd outside a nightclub. Next, he uses a handgun to murder a young mother in front of her toddler. The variety of approaches leads the police to consider whether two different killers are at work, even as Serrailler's sergeant finds the visits of Drew's widowed husband to the scenes of the subsequent crimes suspicious. Hill does a decent job of generating suspense with sections from the murderer's point of view, but many readers will lament the lack of fair-play clues to his identity. Hill is also the author of the acclaimed horror novel The Woman in Black.
Kindred in Death- Robb, JD
- 2009
- Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her team investigate the brutal murder of the sixteen-year-old daughter of a newly promoted captain of the NYPSD.
Time Travelers Never Die- McDevitt, Jack
- 2009
- Shel and his friend Dave journey through time in search of Shel's missing physicist-father, but make a devastating discovery that changes their lives forever when Shel violates their agreement not to visit the future.
The Monster in the Box: an Inspectoctor Wexford novel- Rendell, Ruth
- 2009
- Over the years there have been several unsolved, apparently motiveless murders in the town of Kingsmarkham, and Wexford (as a young policeman) quietly suspected that the increasingly prosperous Targo -- van driver, property developer, kennel owner, and animal lover -- was behind them. Now, half a lifetime later, Inspector Wexford spots Targo back in Kingsmarkham after a long absence.
Nine Dragons- Connelly, Michael
- 2009
- The murder of John Li, a South L.A. liquour store owner, hits LAPD Detective Harry Bosch hard, and he promises Li's family that he'll find the killer. As he uncovers a link to a Hong Kong triad--a lethal and far-reaching crime ring that follows many immigrants to their new lives in the U.S.--his world instantly explodes and the person he holds most dear is taken from him.
Pursuit of Honor- Flynn, Vince
- 2009
- Mitch Rapp comes up against a new and deadly enemy when he is unofficially ordered to find three terrorists by any means necessary. They've attacked Washington D.C., killing 185 and wounding hundreds. So far, however, his investigation has been painfully complicated and has yet to yield a single solid lead--and the last thing Rapp expected was to be in New York City to decide the fate of a man that could be his cover.
There Goes the Bride: an Agatha Raisin mystery- Beaton, MC
- 2009
- Near the start of bestseller Beaton's splendid 20th Agatha Raisin mystery (after 2008's A Spoonful of Poison), the lovelorn middle-aged detective reluctantly attends the wedding of her ex-husband, James Lacey, in the market town of Hewes. But before James can tie the knot with the lovely, much younger Felicity Bross-Tilkington, the bride is shot to death. Felicity's mother hires Agatha and her young detecting associate, Toni Gilmour, to find the monster responsible, despite the disapproval of Felicity's real estate whiz father, George. As other corpses connected to George begin turning up, his visiting friend, the debonair Sylvan Dubois, flirts shamelessly with Agatha. Sylvan's deadly charm puts Agatha in harm's way after she figures out the Frenchman and George are involved in illegal activities. Some Beaton fans may wish her heroine will find lasting romance and happiness, but a closing twist or two suggests Agatha is unlikely to settle down with one man anytime soon.
Breaking the Rules- Bradford, Barbara
- 2009
- For the 30th anniversary of her first novel, A Woman of Substance, Bradford delivers her 25th book. The riches-to-more-riches tale features beloved matriarch Emma Harte's plucky great-granddaughter, M, who, at 23, moves to New York to start a modeling career, banking on her intelligence and business savvy, her Audrey Hepburn looks and her well-connected friends to help her. A violent attack had compelled M to leave behind a life of privilege in London, and from her new home in a shared Chelsea brownstone, M begins her ascent, eventually landing on the catwalks of Paris and falling in love with a famous British actor, though her successes soon attract the attention of family enemies. The plot, while contrived, satisfies on the fashion-and-passion front, and, as always, at the heart of the action stands a determined heroine scrambling up the ladder of success supported by minor characters, each with a complicated backstory. Fans will not mind if the connections holding them together seem tenuous.
October 26 - November 1, 2009
Abandoned: a thriller- McFadyen, Cody
- 2009
- When a woman who has been missing for nearly eight years suddenly reappears in a church filled with law enforcement agents, FBI Special Agent Smoky Barrett is thrown in the path of a serial-killer-for-hire who thrives in absolute darkness and doesn?t derive pleasure from the kill. There?s a reason this psychopath let one of his victims go free, and by the time Smoky pierces the darkness of his twisted mind, it may cost her more than she can bear to lose.
Grave Secret- Harris, Charlaine
- 2009
- In bestseller Harris's solid fourth Harper Connelly mystery (after 2007's An Ice Cold Grave), Harper, who can not only locate bodies but also deduce the cause of death, and her stepbrother, Tolliver Lang, are summoned to Texas by members of the wealthy Joyce family, who are looking for answers behind the death of their patriarch, Rich. But when an act of violence threatens the pair, Harper realizes that the circumstances behind Rich's death may have ties to her own troubled childhood in nearby Texarkana. Further complicating matters, Tolliver and his drug addict father, who's recently been paroled, have an uneasy reunion that stirs up long-buried memories about the unsolved disappearance eight years earlier of Harper's older sister, Cameron. Harper and Tolliver's relationship, which blossomed into romance in Ice Cold, is the beating heart of the story and helps smooth over the somewhat rushed and questionably coincidental plot.
True Blue- Baldacci, David
- 2009
- A former Washington D.C. cop, Mason Perry, out to prove herself and a young lawyer from a prestigious law firm, Roy Kingman, meet after he discovers the dead body of a female partner at the firm. As they investigate the death, they start uncovering surprising secrets from both the private and public world of the nation's capital--and what began as a fairly routine homicide takes a terrifying and unexpected turn into something complex, diabolical, and possibly lethal.
Neuropath- Bakker, Scott
- 2009
- Tom's best friend Neil worked for the National Security Agency, cracking the minds of suspected terrorists. Now it is Neil himself who has cracked and gone AWOL--what's more, he has left behind evidence that he has been employing his unique skills on civilians, kidnapping and mutilating people with a connection to Tom. Only when Neil gets near his ultimate target does he reveal the full horror of his plan.
Boston Noir- Lehane, Dennis
- 2009
- Brand-new stories by: Dennis Lehane, Stewart O'Nan, Patricia Powell, John Dufresne, Lynne Heitman, Don Lee, Russ Aborn, Itabari Njeri, Jim Fusilli, Brendan DuBois, and Dana Cameron.Dennis Lehane (Mystic River, The Given Day) has proven himself to be a master of both crime fiction and literary fiction. Here, he extends his literary prowess to that of master curator. In keeping with the Akashic Noir series tradition, each story in Boston Noir is set in a different neighborhood of the city—the impressively diverse collection extends from Roxbury to Cambridge, from Southie to the Boston Harbor, and all stops in between.Lehane’s own contribution—the longest story in the volume—is set in his beloved home neighborhood of Dorchester and showcases his phenomenal ability to grip the heart, soul, and throat of the reader.In 2003, Lehane’s novel Mystic River was adapted into film and quickly garnered six Academy Award nominations (with Sean Penn and Tim Robbins each winning Academy Awards). Boston Noir launches in November 2009 just as Shutter Island, the film based on Lehane’s best-selling 2003 novel of the same title, hits the big screen.
Look at the Birdie: unpublished short fiction- Vonnegut, Kurt
- 2009
- Look at the Birdie is a collection of fourteen previously unpublished short stories from one of the most original writers in all of American fiction. In this series of perfectly rendered vignettes, written just as he was starting to find his comic voice, Kurt Vonnegut paints a warm, wise, and funny portrait of life in post—World War II America–a world where squabbling couples, high school geniuses, misfit office workers, and small-town lotharios struggle to adapt to changing technology, moral ambiguity, and unprecedented affluence.
Here are tales both cautionary and hopeful, each brimming with Vonnegut’s trademark humor and profound humanism. A family learns the downside of confiding their deepest secrets into a magical invention. A man finds himself in a Kafkaesque world of trouble after he runs afoul of the shady underworld boss who calls the shots in an upstate New York town. A quack psychiatrist turned “murder counselor” concocts a novel new outlet for his paranoid patients. While these stories reflect the anxieties of the postwar era that Vonnegut was so adept at capturing–and provide insight into the development of his early style–collectively, they have a timeless quality that makes them just as relevant today as when they were written. It’s impossible to imagine any of these pieces flowing from the pen of another writer; each in its own way is unmistakably, quintessentially Vonnegut.
Featuring a Foreword by author and longtime Vonnegut confidant Sidney Offit and illustrated with Vonnegut’s characteristically insouciant line drawings, Look at the Birdie is an unexpected gift for readers who thought his unique voice had been stilled forever–and serves as a terrific introduction to his short fiction for anyone who has yet to experience his genius.
The Christmas Cookie Club- Pearlman, Ann
- 2009
- Mark your calendar. It's the Christmas Cookie Club! Every year on the first Monday of December, Marnie and her twelve closest girlfriends gather in the evening with batches of beautifully wrapped homemade cookies. Everyone has to bring a dish, a bottle of wine, and their stories. This year, the stories are especially important. Marnie's oldest daughter has a risky pregnancy. Will she find out tonight how that story might end? Jeannie's father is having an affair with her best friend. Who else knew about the betrayal, and how can that be forgiven or forgotten, even among old friends such as these? Rosie's husband doesn't want children, and she has to decide, very soon, whether or not that's a deal breaker for the marriage. Taylor's life is in financial freefall. Each woman, each friend has a story to tell, and they are all interwoven, just as their lives are.
On this evening, at least, they can feel as a group the impulses of sisterly love and conflict, the passion and hopefulness of a new romance, the betrayal and disillusionment some relationships bring, the joys and fears of motherhood, the agony of losing a child, and above all, the love they have for one another. As Marnie says, the Christmas Cookie Club, if it's anything, is a reminder of delight.The Christmas Cookie Club is about the paths Marnie and her friends have traveled, the absolute joy they take in life and love despite the decisions they've regretted, the hard choices and amends they've had to make, and the sacrifices along the way. Ultimately, The Christmas Cookie Club is every woman's story. As you read about Marnie and her friends, their struggles and triumphs, what makes them laugh and what has made them cry, you'll see yourself and some of the ingredients of your own story. Celebrating courage and joy in spite of hard times and honoring the importance of women's friendships as well as the embracing bonds of community, Ann Pearlman has written a novel that speaks to us all.
The Scarpetta Factor- Cornwell, Patricia
- 2009
- Kay Scarpetta--now a senior forensic analyst for CNN--becomes embroiled in a surreal plot that includes a famous actor accused of an unthinkable sex crime and the disappearance of a beautiful millionairess with whom her niece Lucy seems to have shared a secret past.
Blood Game- Johansen, Iris
- 2009
- When a Georgia senator's daughter is found murdered, and her body drained of blood, Eve Duncan is drawn into the web of Kevin Jelak--a serial murderer who is on Eve's short list of killers who might know something about her missing daughter Bonnie.
The Museum of Innocence- Pamuk, Orhan
- 2009
- It is 1975, a perfect spring in Istanbul. Kemal, scion of one of the city's wealthiest families, is about to become engaged to Sibel, daughter of another prominent family, when he encounters Fusun, a beautiful shopgirl and a distant relation. Thus begins an obsessive but tragic love affair that will transform itself into a compulsive collection of objects--a museum of one man's broken heart--that chronicles Kemal's lovelorn progress and his afflicted heart's reactions.
And Another Thing...- Colfer, Eoin
- 2009
- An Englishman's continuing search through space and time for a decent cup of tea . . .Arthur Dent's accidental association with that wholly remarkable book, The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, has not been entirely without incident.Arthur has traveled the length, breadth, and depth of known, and unknown, space. He has stumbled forward and backward through time. He has been blown up, reassembled, cruelly imprisoned, horribly released, and colorfully insulted more than is strictly necessary. And of course Arthur Dent has comprehensively failed to grasp the meaning of life, the universe, and everything.Arthur has finally made it home to Earth, but that does not mean he has escaped his fate.Arthur's chances of getting his hands on a decent cuppa have evaporated rapidly, along with all the world's oceans. For no sooner has he touched down on the planet Earth than he finds out that it is about to be blown up . . . again.And Another Thing. . . is the rather unexpected, but very welcome, sixth installment of the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. It features a pantheon of unemployed gods, everyone's favorite renegade Galactic President, a lovestruck green alien, an irritating computer, and at least one very large slab of cheese.
Serpent in the Thorns: a Crispin Guest medieval noir- Westerson, Jeri
- 2009
- Convicted of treason, Crispin Guest was stripped of his title, his land, his money and his friends. Now with only his considerable wits to sustain him, Guest works the mean streets of 14th century London, building a small reputation for his skill. In 1383, a simple-minded tavern girl comes to his door—a body was found where she works and she’s the only person who could have killed him. Except for the fact that the man was killed in place by a precisely aimed crossbow bolt. Making matters worse, the murdered man was one of three couriers from the French king, transporting a relic intended to smooth the troubled relations between France and England. Events quickly spin out of control and Guest now finds himself the prime suspect in the murder, one with terrible diplomatic implications. As the drumbeat of war between the two countries grow, Guest must unravel the con spiracy behind the murder to save not only his country, but himself as well.
The Test- Gussin, Patricia
- 2009
- Renowned philanthropist and billionaire Paul Parnell had reached the pinnacle of monetary success, but not without cost. Had he put too much emphasis on work and spent too little time with his family? Determined to leave something far more valuable than money to his six children, Paul instructs his lawyers to create an unusual last will and testament. This unorthodox will, which stipulates that the lion's share of Paul's two billion dollar estate be given to the heirs who pass 'the test,' was Paul's last hope of creating an enduring legacy by inspiring his children to give back to society and embrace a code of moral values. The six children-Rory, Frank, Dan, Monica, Carla and Ashley-have only one year to make a difference. But what a difference one year will make. Before these six very different siblings can complete the test, they'll be forced to face their personal demons and the incredibly evil influence that could claim one of their own.
The Sound of Sleigh Bells- Woodsmall, Cindy
- 2009
- In mourning over the death of her fiance, Beth Hertzler works alongside her beloved Aunt Lizzy in their dry goods store. When Beth responds to a woodcarving, Lizzy sees the changes in her niece and hunts down Jonah, the artist who created the healing work of art. Lizzy is determined that Beth meets this man. Will Lizzy's elaborate plan to reintroduce her niece to love work? Will Jonah be able to offer Beth the sleigh ride she's always dreamed of and a second chance at real love-or just more heartbreak?
The Professional- Parker, Robert
- 2009
- Elizabeth Shaw specializes in wills and trusts at the Boston law firm of Shaw & Cartwright, and over the years she's developed a friendship with wives of very wealthy men. However, these rich wives have a mutual secret: they've all had an affair with a man named Gary Eisenhower--and now he's blackmailing them for money. Shaw hires Spenser to make Eisenhower "cease and desist," so to speak, but when women start turning up dead, Spenser's assignment goes from blackmail to murder.
A Glass of Water- Baca, Jimmy
- 2009
- Poet Baca's blistering novel takes to task the treatment of Mexican migrant workers in the US. When a young Mexican couple, Casimiro and Nopal, cross the border in 1984, their new life begins promisingly: they find work on a Texas farm and build a stable home for their two sons, Lorenzo and Vito. But before the boys reach adulthood, Nopal is murdered and her killer escapes. The family struggles to go on, with Lorenzo eventually taking over his father's farm duties and settling into domestic bliss with Carmen, a college student studying migrant workers. Vito's restless spirit leads him to fight in amateur boxing matches and to everyone's surprise, he shows a tantalizing level of talent and considers a serious fighting career. But even as the brothers find their own measures of success, they are haunted by the injustice of Nopal's murder. Interspersed with Lorenzo and Vito's lives are glimpses of Casimiro's youth and even Nopal's thoughts from the world beyond. A general sense of social and political unrest permeates the story, often to the point of distraction. But the sheer passion that drives Baca's novel is undeniable.
Intervention- Blackstock, Terri
- 2009
- Barbara Covington has one more chance to save her daughter from a devastating addiction: staging an intervention. But when eighteen-year-old Emily disappears on the way to drug treatment—and her interventionist is found dead at the airport where she was last seen—Barbara enters her darkest nightmare of all.
Perfect Little Ladies- Drake, Abby
- 2009
- Nobody knows that better than Elinor Young, one of the posh housewives of Westchester County. She's worked hard all her life to get where she is. With her perfect husband, gorgeous grown-up children, and a house with more rooms than she can count, Elinor has it all—including her own personal blackmailer. Somehow, someone has figured out that she hasn't been spending her afternoons in Manhattan with ladies who lunch but with a major married politician, and now she's got to shell out a whole lot of money or the truth about her life will be exposed. If her family learns everything it would be embarrassing—besides she never set out to hurt them—but if the town finds out she's really screwed!So she gathers her friends around her, spills the beans to them, and decides to do whatever it takes to prevent scandal. But when Elinor and friends set out to track down the extortionist, none of them expected other secrets to be told.
Race for the Dying- Havill, Steven
- 2009
- The young Dr. Thomas Parks expects to practice trauma medicine with a distinguished doctor in Port McKinney, Washington. What he does not expect is to be nearly killed within an hour of arriving. The accident changes his life, and with long hours of painful convalescence, Thomas makes a sobering discovery: the physician who has invited Thomas to join his practice is not what he seems.At the center of the conflict is mail-order diagnosis, whichflourished until the U.S. mail fraud statutes of 1908. In its landmark report of 1910, the American Medical Association reported that several physicians had organizations that recorded more than 3,000 postal responses per month, a large percentage of which included money for worthless medicine.Steven F. Havill departs from his well-received mystery series to bring readers this fascinating historical novel.
September 28 - October 4, 2008
Frostbitten- Armstrong, Kelley
- 2009
- Being the world's only female werewolf has its advantages, such as having her pick of the Otherworld's most desirable males. And Elena Michaels couldn't have picked a more dangerously sexy and undyingly loyal mate than Clayton Danvers. Now their bond will be put to the ultimate test as they follow a bloody trail of gruesome slayings deep into Alaska's frozen wilderness--a trail left by a werewolf more wolf than human and more unnatural than supernatural.
A Deep Dark Secret- Roby, Kimberla
- 2009
- In the outside, twelve-year-old Jillian Maxwell is the perfect child. She's helpful with chores around the house, gets straight As in school, has plans for college, and stays out of trouble. She seems to have everything a girl could want: a big, beautiful new home, an adoring little sister, a mother who cares about her, and an attentive stepfather. But inside, Jillian harbors a terrible secret.
Whistlin' Dixie in a Nor'easter- Patton, Lisa
- 2009
- Funny, heartfelt and loaded with southern charm…You'll laugh out loud at as Leelee Satterfield plants her debutante flag on the snowy fields of Vermont. You'll be whistlin' "more, more!" by novel's end. I promise.
The Broken Teaglass- Arsenault, Emily
- 2009
- Charming and witty are not the usual adjectives used to describe a mystery novel, but in the case of Emily Arsenault’s debut, all expectations and definitions must be relinquished. Not since A. S. Byatt’s Possession have I come across such a fascinating secret history as the one hidden within the pages of The Broken Teaglass and the ones we all carry inside us.
Capitol Offense- Bernhardt, William
- 2009
- Accused of murdering a police officer he held responsible for the tragic death of his wife, Professor Dennis Thomas implores high-profile lawyer Ben Kincaid to defend him.
Rough Country- Sandford, John
- 2009
- While competing in a fishing tournament in a remote area of northern Minnesota, Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension investigator Virgil Flowers gets a call from Lucas Davenport to investigate a murder at a nearby resort, where a woman has been shot while kayaking. The more he digs, the more he discovers the arrows of suspicion that point in many directions. Then he finds that this was not the first murder: there was a second, seemingly unrelated one, the year before.
Mama Dearest- Harris, E.
- 2009
- New York City, you've been warned: Yancey Harrington Braxton is back. The ambitious singer and actress is fired up to move past her recent professional and personal setbacks -- including an explosive romance with NFL tight end John Basil Henderson -- and prove her talents are stronger than ever. After being out on tour, Yancey realizes what she really wants is to star in her own reality TV series, and she's even found a rich and well-connected lover to make it happen. There are, however, two women fierce enough to derail Yancey's plans with ambitions of their own: Madison B., a hot new bombshell taking the music industry by storm, and Ava Middlebrooks, who happens to be Yancey's own mama dearest.Ava is out, about, and ready to reclaim her throne. Not even a stint in prison for attempted murder has curbed Ava's competitive nature, and it doesn't faze her in the least that her #1 rival is her own daughter. Ava is willing to do whatever it takes to make Yancey pay, including using Madison B. to turn Yancey's world upside-down by forcing her to confront the past...and making her comeback dreams more exciting and dangerous than she ever imagined.Taking readers on a wild, passion-filled tour of the entertainment world, E. Lynn Harris's Mama Dearest delivers sensual thrills and electric plot twists -- with one unforgettable woman of radiant star power, sexual magnetism, and unapologetic ambition at the heart of the action.
Blood's a Rover- Ellroy, James
- 2009
- Starred Review. Ellroy concludes the scorching trilogy begun with 1995's American Tabloid with a crushing bravura performance. As ever, his sentences are gems of concision, and his characters—many of whom readers will remember from The Cold Six Thousand and from American history classes—are a motley crew of grotesques often marked by an off-kilter sense of honor: stone bad-asses, in other words, though the women are stronger than the men who push the plot. The violence begins with an unsolved 1964 L.A. armored car heist that will come to have major repercussions later in the novel, as its effects ripple outward from a daring robbery into national and international affairs. There's Howard Hughes's takeover of Las Vegas, helped along by Wayne Tedrow Jr., who's working for the mob. The mob, meanwhile, is scouting casino locations in Central America and the Caribbean, and working to ensure Nixon defeats Humphrey in the 1968 election. Helping out is French-Corsican mercenary Mesplede, who first appeared in Tabloid as the shooter on the grassy knoll and who now takes under his wing Donald Crutchfield, an L.A. peeping Tom/wheelman (based, curiously, on a real-life private eye). Mesplede and Crutchfield eventually set up shop in the Dominican Republic, where the mob begins casino construction and Mesplede and Crutchfield run heroin from Haiti to raise money for their rogue nocturnal assaults on Cuba. In the middle and playing all sides against one another is FBI agent Dwight Holly, who has a direct line to a rapidly deteriorating J. Edgar Hoover (the old girl) and a tormented relationship with left-wing radical Karen Sitakis, and, later, Joan Klein, whose machinations bring the massive plot together and lead to more than one death. Though the book isn't without its faults (Crutchfield discovers a significant plot element because something told him to get out and look; Wayne's late-book transformation is too rushed), it's impossible not to read it with a sense of awe. The violence is as frequent as it is extreme, the treachery is tremendous, and the blending of cold ambition and colder political maneuvering is brazen, all of it filtered through diamond-cut prose. It's a stunning and crazy book that could only have been written by the premier lunatic of American letters.
- Intervention
- Blackstock, Terri
- 2009
- Barbara Covington has one more chance to save her daughter from a devastating addiction: staging an intervention. But when eighteen-year-old Emily disappears on the way to drug treatment-and her interventionist is found dead at the airport where she was last seen-Barbara enters her darkest nightmare of all.
Hothouse Orchid- Woods, Stuart
- 2009
- Special Agent Holly Barker returns to her hometown of Orchid Beach, Florida, and faces off against an old nemesis--the man she brought charges against for sexual harassment, attempted rape, and rape. The army officer in question was acquitted of all charges, and is now Orchid Beach's new police chief. Will Holly return to the CIA? Or will she challenge her old nemesis for control of the Orchid Beach Police Department?
A Change in Altitude- Shreve, Anita
- 2009
- Newlyweds Margaret and Patrick join a climbing expedition to Mount Kenya, and during their harrowing ascent, a horrific accident occurs. In the aftermath of the tragedy, Margaret struggles to understand what happened on the African mountain and how these events have transformed her and her marriage, perhaps forever.
The Coral Thief- Stott, Rebecca
- 2009
- Paris, 1815. Napoleon has just surrendered at Waterloo and is on his way to the island of St. Helena to begin his exile. Meanwhile, Daniel Connor, a young medical student from Edinburgh, has just arrived in Paris to study anatomy at the Jardin des Plantes–only to realize that his letters of introduction and a gift of precious coral specimens, on which his tenure with the legendary Dr. Cuvier depends, have been stolen by the beautiful woman with whom he shared a stagecoach.
In the fervor and tumult of post revolutionary Paris, nothing is quite as it seems. In trying to recover his lost valuables, Daniel discovers that his beautiful adversary is in fact a philosopher-thief who lives in a shadowy world of outlaws and émigrés. Daniel’s fall into this underworld is also a flight, for as he falls in love with the mysterious coral thief and she draws him into an audacious plot that will leave him with a future very different from the one he has envisioned for himself, Daniel discovers a radical theory of evolution and mutability that irrevocably changes his conception of the world in which he lives.
Little Bird of Heaven- Oates, Joyce
- 2009
- Zoe Kruller is as close to glamorous as life gets in the rough river town of Sparta, New York. Sexy, flirtatious, and ambitious, she hates her job at Honeystone Dairy, sings in a country-and-western band, and abandons her mechanic husband, Delray, and her son, Aaron. Krista Diehl admires Zoe's red fingernails and expressive voice, particularly when she sings the sweetly melancholy song "Little Bird of Heaven," but she is too young to understand that her handsome carpenter father, Eddy, is having an affair with Zoe. Until Zoe is brutally murdered. Prime suspects Delray and Eddy are slowly and tortuously destroyed over time by corrosive grief, suspicion, and remorse, leaving Krista and Aaron saddled with grim legacies and a dangerous mutual attraction. In this narcotic, unnerving, brilliantly composed tale of the struggle for control over the body's archaic urges, and the quest for morality in a catastrophically corrupted world, Oates creates magnetic characters of heightened awareness and staggering valor. As these sensitive stalwarts fight soul-strangling poverty, hate, crime, despair, and malignant desire, Oates captures with eviscerating precision the used-up, maligned, yet persistent beauty and spirit of stricken rural America, retaining her title as our great and tireless bard of erotic mayhem, malevolent dereliction, delirious anger, impassioned violence, and ferocious strategies of survival.
Top Producer- Vonnegut, Norb
- 2009
- Starred Review. Vonnegut's debut meets the gold standard for financial thrillers as it puts the frenzied, cutthroat world of Wall Street's best stockbrokers (aka the top producers) on brilliant display. Ripples from the bizarre murder of Charlie Kelemen, wealthy hedge fund operator, quickly reach his best friend, Grove O'Rourke. A top producer at the boutique investment bank Sachs, Kidder and Carnegie, O'Rourke tries to help Kelemen's widow sort out some financial questions. This process leads him deeper and deeper into a labyrinth of deceit. As fallout from Charlie's death and dealings start to taint O'Rourke, the sharks, inside and outside his own firm, smell blood and begin to circle. O'Rourke won't go down without a fight, and not all the blood in the water will be his. Vonnegut, himself a veteran fund manager, handles the arcane terminology and slang of Wall Street with aplomb, never letting it get in the way of the story.
The Lost Symbol- Brown, Dan
- 2009
- In this stunning follow-up to the global phenomenon The Da Vinci Code, Dan Brown demonstrates once again why he is the world’s most popular thriller writer. The Lost Symbol is a masterstroke of storytelling--a deadly race through a real-world labyrinth of codes, secrets, and unseen truths . . . all under the watchful eye of Brown’s most terrifying villain to date. Set within the hidden chambers, tunnels, and temples of Washington, D.C., The Lost Symbol accelerates through a startling landscape toward an unthinkable finale.As the story opens, Harvard symbologist Robert Langdon is summoned unexpectedly to deliver an evening lecture in the U.S. Capitol Building. Within minutes of his arrival, however, the night takes a bizarre turn. A disturbing object--artfully encoded with five symbols--is discovered in the Capitol Building. Langdon recognizes the object as an ancient invitation . . . one meant to usher its recipient into a long-lost world of esoteric wisdom.When Langdon’s beloved mentor, Peter Solomon--a prominent Mason and philanthropist--is brutally kidnapped, Langdon realizes his only hope of saving Peter is to accept this mystical invitation and follow wherever it leads him. Langdon is instantly plunged into a clandestine world of Masonic secrets, hidden history, and never-before-seen locations--all of which seem to be dragging him toward a single, inconceivable truth.As the world discovered in The Da Vinci Code and Angels & Demons, Dan Brown’s novels are brilliant tapestries of veiled histories, arcane symbols, and enigmatic codes. In this new novel, he again challenges readers with an intelligent, lightning-paced story that offers surprises at every turn. The Lost Symbol is exactly what Brown’s fans have been waiting for . . . his most thrilling novel yet.
A Separate Country- Hicks, Robert
- 2009
- Set in New Orleans in the years after the Civil War, John Bell Hood, arguably one of the most controversial generals of the Confederate Army--and one of its most tragic figures--struggles with his inability to admit his failures until those who taught him to love, and to be loved, transformed him.
The Betrayal: a novel on John Calvin- Bond, Douglas
- 2009
- Set amidst the backdrop of the scholarship of humanism of renaissance France, and its love of luxury, power, and decadence, this fast-paced biographical novel on John Calvin is told from the perspective of a rival whose envy escalates to violent intrigue. The Betrayal is the tale of the private war of one man who was determined to sell all for an allegiance to the King of France and the jealous intellectuals of the Sorbonne - even if it costs him his own soul.
Get set for royal intrigue, desperate escapes, violent martyrdom, hazard-all romance, painful loss, high-risk debate, and sword-point confession. And learn how God can use the humility and unflinching faithfulness of one man to break down the barrenness and bitterness of another - all accomplished by grace alone.
Table Manners- King, Mia
- 2009
- Deidre McIntosh finally has all the ingredients for a perfect life. She has her own line of cakes and cookies, and the perfect boyfriend, Kevin Johnson, one of Seattle's top bachelors. Creative, energetic, and loving, Deidre is the person friends go to when they need a helping hand.But when Kevin's ex-fiancée, the sultry and successful magazine publisher Sabine Durant, suddenly appears in Seattle, it's Deidre who needs help. Already intimidated by Kevin's glamorous, moneyed world--and his sister, who wants Deidre out of Kevin's life--she knows she's no match for Sabine.Deidre turns to her friends for advice, but finds they're having crises of their own. When her business begins to slip from her fingers, Deidre knows she must to do something to keep her career and her love life from imploding. Can everyone's favorite go-to person save herself?
A Quiet Belief in Angels- Ellory, Roger
- 2009
- In his American debut, British author Ellory (A Simple Act of Violence) presents an intriguing but overstuffed saga of a man haunted by a serial killer. In 1939, in rural Augusta Falls, Ga., someone brutally rapes and murders a classmate of 12-year-old Joseph Vaughn, the first in what will become more than 30 similar crimes over decades. At age 15, living alone with his mother after the death of his father and yearning to be a writer, Vaughan gathers together a group of local boys and forms the Guardians in the hope of preventing more attacks. It's the failure of the group, and himself in particular, that eventually drives Vaughan to Brooklyn, where, in an improbable twist, he gets caught up in another murder linked to the killings back home. Ellory simply tries to juggle too many narrative elements. The sheer number of characters and subplots dilute the quiet power of his prose, particularly evident in scenes of Vaughn's childhood.
Drawn in Blood- Kane, Andrea
- 2009
- Bestseller Kane's disappointing sequel to Twisted (2008) pays more attention to the romantic growing pains between FBI agent Sloane Burbank and her hunky former FBI colleague, Derek Parker, than the crime at hand. Dragon Head, boss of a Chinese triad, is targeting Sloane's father, Matthew, and his circle of friends in a years-old revenge plot that hinges on a stolen painting. Derek and his task force are already on the Dragon Head's scent for stateside crimes when Sloane's parents' Manhattan apartment is burglarized. Matthew privately hires Sloane to protect him while keeping the past hidden from the Feds and Derek. Despite a few incidents early on, the heart-racing action is relegated to Sloane and Derek's bedroom and when the two aren't amorously engaged, they're arguing about who's hiding what from whom. They're not hiding anything from the reader, though: Kane tells us too much up front, and little is left for the big reveal.
Evidence of Murder- Black, Lisa
- 2009
- Cleveland forensic examiner Theresa MacLean has her share of troubles; she's a single parent, and her fiancé has recently been killed during a bank robbery. When her cousin Frank, a homicide detective, enlists her help in collecting evidence in the death of a former escort, she doesn't expect to become entangled in the investigation. But she can't accept that a recently married woman with a five-month-old baby would take her own life. Clues and evidence elude her, but she can't let go; the personalities of the dead woman and the people surrounding her just don't fit the version of events provided to the police. Theresa's intuition tells her that the woman was murdered, and she intends to do everything she can to prove it. VERDICT In this second novel in a new series (after Takeover), Black weaves a highly entertaining if somewhat improbable tale of drama and suspense. Fans of forensic thrillers will look forward to seeing more of her witty and likable heroine.
August 31 - September 6, 2009
The Missing- Lewis, Beverly
- 2009
- "Englisher" Heather Lang has come to Amish country to relive fond memories of her mother and to contemplate a grave medical prognosis of her own. While in Bird-in-Hand, Heather meets Grace Byler and the two young women strike up a fast friendship, amazed by how well they click. Following the only clue they have, Grace and Heather travel together in hopes of finding Grace's mother and bringing her home. Will they find what they're looking for...or something much more?
The Ghost Trap- Stephens, Kaley
- 2009
- In her impressive debut novel, Stephens offers a rugged and tender tale. Jamie Eugley, a ninth-generation lobsterman in the port village of Owls Head has cared for his brain-injured girlfriend, Anja, for three long years. Jamie suffers deep guilt over her near drowning accident while aboard his lobster boat and her subsequent debilitating coma. Anja's medical improvement has been frustratingly slow, but Jamie continues to nurse his naïve, stubborn fantasy of marrying the recovered Anja. Meanwhile, he deals with a dangerous and violent trap war among the lobstermen and a romance with Happy Klein, a first mate on a tourist schooner up for the summer season who wants Jamie to come back with her to Key West. The bawdy humor, snappy dialogue, colorful local sea myths and rich lobstering details add to the immense appeal of this textured narrative about a superstitious but independent lobsterman's inward and outward struggles.
The Last Song- Sparks, Nicholas
- 2009
- #1 bestselling author Nicholas Sparks's new novel is at once a compelling family drama and a heartrending tale of young love.Seventeen year old Veronica "Ronnie" Miller's life was turned upside-down when her parents divorced and her father moved from New York City to Wilmington, North Carolina. Three years later, she remains angry and alientated from her parents, especially her father...until her mother decides it would be in everyone's best interest if she spent the summer in Wilmington with him. Ronnie's father, a former concert pianist and teacher, is living a quiet life in the beach town, immersed in creating a work of art that will become the centerpiece of a local church.The tale that unfolds is an unforgettable story of love on many levels--first love, love between parents and children -- that demonstrates, as only a Nicholas Sparks novel can, the many ways that love can break our hearts...and heal them.
Twisted Tree- Meyers, Kent
- 2009
- Starred Review. In his beautiful and unsettling new novel, Meyers (The Work of Wolves) examines the effects of a murder on the residents of a small South Dakota town. In an opening sequence that is so disturbing it's difficult to read, teen Hayley Jo Zimmerman is stalked and abducted by a serial killer. The rest of the novel uses the rippling consequences of Hayley Jo's murder to explore the smaller rural tragedies in Twisted Tree, S.D.: Elise, a forlorn grocery clerk, judges everyone by their purchases and hides the secret terrors of her past as a missionary; Sophie Lawrence cares for her invalid stepfather while losing her sanity; Angela Morrison learns to accept the harsh realities of being a rancher's wife; Stanley, Haley Jo's father, channels his grief into a desperate need to connect with a stranger. The novel is brimming with arresting descriptions, and the western setting is employed to surprising effect, as in a sequence contrasting the removal of an invasive salt cedar bush with a father's awareness of his son's first crush. Meyers's small masterpiece deserves comparison to the work of Raymond Carver, Joy Williams and Peter Matthiessen.
Day After Night- Diamant, Anita
- 2009
- Diamant's bestseller, The Red Tent, explored the lives of biblical women ignored by the male-centric narrative. In her compulsively readable latest, she sketches the intertwined fates of several young women refugees at Atlit, a British-run internment camp set up in Palestine after WWII. There's Tedi, a Dutch girl who hid in a barn for years before being turned in and narrowly escaping Bergen-Belsen; Leonie, a beautiful French girl whose wartime years in Paris are cloaked with shame; Shayndel, a heroine of the Polish partisan movement whose cheerful facade hides a tortured soul; and Zorah, a concentration camp survivor who is filled with an understandable nihilism. The dynamic of suffering and renewed hope through friendship is the book's primary draw, but an eventual escape attempt adds a dash of suspense to the astutely imagined story of life at the camp: the wary relationship between the Palestinian Jews and the survivors, the intense flirtation between the young people that marks a return to life. Diamant opens a window into a time of sadness, confusion and optimism that has resonance for so much that's both triumphant and troubling in modern Jewish history.
Dawn's Prelude- Peterson, Tracie
- 2009
- Newly widowed Lydia Sellers, longing to put the memories of a painful marriage behind her, determines to travel to Alaska to join her aunt. Lydia's arrival in Sitka, however, brings things she didn't expect: the acquaintance of Kjell Bjorklund, the handsome owner of the sawmill; and the discovery that she is pregnant with her dead husband's child. What will this mean for her budding relationship with Kjell? And what lengths will her stepchildren go to reclaim their father's fortune? Lydia soon finds her life--and that of her child's--on the line.
Await Your Replay- Chaon, Dan
- 2009
- The lives of three strangers interconnect in unforeseen ways--and with unexpected consequences--in acclaimed author Dan Chaon’s gripping, brilliantly written new novel.
Longing to get on with his life, Miles Cheshire nevertheless can’t stop searching for his troubled twin brother, Hayden, who has been missing for ten years. Hayden has covered his tracks skillfully, moving stealthily from place to place, managing along the way to hold down various jobs and seem, to the people he meets, entirely normal. But some version of the truth is always concealed.A few days after graduating from high school, Lucy Lattimore sneaks away from the small town of Pompey, Ohio, with her charismatic former history teacher. They arrive in Nebraska, in the middle of nowhere, at a long-deserted motel next to a dried-up reservoir, to figure out the next move on their path to a new life. But soon Lucy begins to feel quietly uneasy.My whole life is a lie, thinks Ryan Schuyler, who has recently learned some shocking news. In response, he walks off the Northwestern University campus, hops on a bus, and breaks loose from his existence, which suddenly seems abstract and tenuous. Presumed dead, Ryan decides to remake himself--through unconventional and precarious means.Await Your Reply is a literary masterwork with the momentum of a thriller, an unforgettable novel in which pasts are invented and reinvented and the future is both seductively uncharted and perilously unmoored.
After You- Buxbaum, Julie
- 2009
- The complexities of a friendship. The unexplored doubts of a marriage. And the redemptive power of literature... Julie Buxbaum, the acclaimed author of The Opposite of Love, delivers a haunting, gloriously written novel about love, family, and the secrets we hide from each other--and ourselves.It happened on a tree-lined street in Notting Hill to a woman who seemed to have the perfect life. Ellie Lerner’s best friend, Lucy, was murdered in front of her young daughter. And, as best friends do, Ellie dropped everything--her marriage, her job, her life in the Boston suburbs--to travel to London and pick up the pieces of Lucy’s life. While Lucy’s husband, Greg, copes with his grief by retreating into himself, eight-year-old Sophie has simply stopped speaking.Desperate to help Sophie, Ellie turns to a book that gave her comfort as a child, The Secret Garden. As the two spend hours exploring the novel’s winding passageways, its story of hurt, magic, and healing blooms around them. But so, too, do Lucy’s secrets--some big, some small--secrets Lucy kept hidden, even from her best friend. Over a summer in London, as Ellie peels back the layers of her friend’s life, she’s forced to confront her own as well: the marriage she left behind, the loss she’d hoped to escape. And suddenly Ellie’s carefully constructed existence is spinning out of control in a chain of events that will transform her life--and those around her--forever. A novel that will resonate in the heart of anyone who’s had a best friend, a love lost, or a past full of regrets, After You proves once again the unique and compelling talent of Julie Buxbaum.
Even Money- Francis, Dick
- 2009
- The third collaboration between bestseller Francis and son Felix (after Silks), a taut crime thriller, features an especially sympathetic hero. Bookmaker Ed Talbot is struggling with his wife's mental illness, even as technology threatens to give the big bookmaking outfits an insurmountable advantage over his small family business. Soon after a man shows up at Ascot and identifies himself as Ed's father, Peter, whom Ed believed long dead, a thug demanding money stabs Peter to death. Ed is in for even more shocks when he learns his father was the prime suspect in his mother's murder and that Peter's killing, rather than a random act of violence, may be linked to a mysterious electronic device used in some horse-racing fraud. Ed must juggle his amateur investigations into past and present crimes with his demanding family responsibilities. Though some readers may find the ending overly pat, the authors make bookmaking intelligible while easily integrating it into the plot.
206 Bones- Reichs, Kathleen
- 2009
- Starred Review. At the start of bestseller Reichs's outstanding 12th thriller to feature Dr. Temperance Brennan (after Devil Bones), Brennan finds herself bound and injured in an underground tomb. In flashbacks, Reichs fills in the how and why of the forensic anthropologist's deadly predicament. When Brennan and Andrew Ryan of the Sûreté du Québec arrive in Chicago on business, she's accused of botching the autopsy of Rose Jurmain, a Canadian heiress. Knowing only that an anonymous caller instigated the investigation, Brennan is determined to uncover who's out to sabotage her. Back in her Montreal lab, Brennan soon realizes that not only is Jurmain's death possibly linked to the brutal murders of other elderly women but that whoever is out to tarnish her reputation refuses to back off. With her usual blend of cutting-edge forensic science and a stubborn, compelling heroine, Reichs manages to juggle several story lines without losing an ounce of momentum.
Baking Cakes in Kigali- Parkin, Gaile
- 2009
- Once in a great while a debut novelist comes along who dazzles us with rare eloquence and humanity, who takes us to bold new places and into previously unimaginable lives. Gaile Parkin is just such a talent—and Baking Cakes in Kilgali is just such a novel. This gloriously written tale—set in modern-day Rwanda—introduces one of the most singular and engaging characters in recent fiction: Angel Tungaraza—mother, cake baker, keeper of secrets—a woman living on the edge of chaos, finding ways to transform lives, weave magic, and create hope amid the madness swirling all around her.In Kigali, Angel runs a bustling business: baking cakes for all occasions—cakes filled with vibrant color, buttery richness, and, most of all, a sense of hope only Angel can deliver.…A CIA agent’s wife seeks the perfect holiday cake but walks away with something far sweeter…a former boy-soldier orders an engagement cake, then, between sips of tea, shares an enthralling story…weary human rights workers…lovesick limo drivers. Amid this cacophony of native tongues, love affairs, and confessions, Angel’s kitchen is an oasis where people tell their secrets, where hope abounds and help awaits.In this unlikely place, in the heart of Rwanda, unexpected things are beginning to happen: A most unusual wedding is planned…a heartbreaking mystery—involving Angel’s own family—unravels…and extraordinary connections are being made among the men and women who have tasted Angel’s beautiful cakes…as a chain of events unfolds that will change Angel’s life—and the lives of those around her—in the most astonishing ways.
Mortal Friends- Hitchcock, Jane
- 2009
- In bestseller Hitchcock's whirling and suspenseful comedy of manners, gauche, aggressive Cynthia Rinehart, a self-made millionairess, explodes onto the philanthropy scene and the grand dames of old money Washington collectively clutch their husbands. Meanwhile, the Beltway Basher, suspected to be a member of the D.C. elite, continues to bump off young brunettes. Reven Lynch, an unmarried antique-shop owner, is tapped to play society informant, perhaps because her love interest, notorious playboy (and the D.C. version of Sex and the City's Mr. Big) Bob Poll, is also a person of interest in the case. Gossip, manipulation and infidelity all happen behind Washington's velvet curtain, and it's the stuff of high school, but with higher nay, deadlier stakes. And among the backbiting, Hitchcock (Social Crimes) manages to stew a convincing homicide plot, peppered with enough red herrings to keep the reader guessing, and guessing again, to the novel's neat finish.
The Girl Who Played with Fire- Larsson, Stieg
- 2009
- Mikael Blomkvist, crusading journalist and publisher of the magazine Millennium, has decided to publish a story exposing an extensive sex trafficking operation between Eastern Europe and Sweden, implicating well-known and highly placed members of Swedish society, business, and government. He soon finds himself confronted with a puzzling series of murders which point to the guilt of his old assistant Lisbeth Salander.
The Law of Nines- Goodkind, Terry
- 2009
- Turning twenty-seven may be terrifying for some, but for Alex, a struggling artist living in the midwestern United States, it is cataclysmic. Inheriting a huge expanse of land should have made him a rich and happy man; but something about this birthday, his name, and the beautiful woman whose life he just saved, has suddenly made him--and everyone he loves--into a target. A target for extreme and uncompromising violence....
Vanished- Finder, Joseph
- 2009
- Known for his stand-alones, bestseller Finder (Power Play) introduces Nick Heller, an elite corporate intelligence specialist and former Special Services badass, in this exciting series opener. After a frantic call from his 14-year-old nephew, Gabe, Heller returns home to Washington, D.C., from a job in California to find Gabe's mother in a coma and Gabe's stepfather, Roger, who is Heller's older brother, vanished without a trace. Though the brothers have been estranged since their father's much-publicized securities fraud conviction years earlier, Nick vows to protect Gabe and his mother and unravel the mystery of Roger's alleged abduction. The investigation leads him to some disturbing revelations about Roger, not the least of which involves a powerful and dangerous private military company. Written in staccato chapters that are emotionally supercharged and action packed, this thriller will more than satisfy adrenaline junkies and have them guessing until the very end.
The Magicians- Grossman, Lev
- 2009
- Mixing the magic of beloved children's fantasy classics (from Narnia and Oz to Harry Potter and Earthsea) with the sex, excess, angst, and anticlimax of life in college and beyond, Lev Grossman's Magicians reimagines modern-day fantasy for grownups. Quentin Coldwater lives in a state of perpetual melancholy, privately obsessed with his childhood books about the enchanted land of Fillory. When he’s admitted to the surreptitious Brakebills Academy for an education in magic, Quentin finds mastering spells is tedious (and love is even more fraught). He also discovers his power has thrilling potential--though it's unclear what he should do with it once he's moved with his new magician cohorts to New York City. Then they discover the magical land of Fillory is real and launch an expedition to use their powers to set things right in the kingdom--which, naturally, turns out to be a much murkier proposition than expected. The Magicians breathes life into a cast of characters you want to know--if the people you want to know are charismatic, brilliant, complex, flawed magicians--and does what Quentin claims books never really manage to do: "get you out, really out, of where you were and into somewhere better. " Or if not better, at least a heck of a lot more interesting.
The Confessions of Edward Day- Martin, Valerie
- 2009
- In this fictional memoir, Valerie Martin brilliantly re-creates the seamy theater world of 1970s New York, when rents were cheap, love was free, and nudity on stage was the latest craze. Edward Day, a talented and ambitious young actor finds his life forever altered during a weekend party on the Jersey Shore, where he seduces the delicious Madeleine Delavergne and is saved from drowning by the mysterious Guy Margate, a man who bears an eerie physical resemblance to Edward. Forever after, Edward is torn between his desire for Madeleine and his indebtedness to Guy, his rival in love and in art, on stage and off.
Blindman's Bluff- Kellerman, Faye
- 2009
- In bestseller Kellerman's solid 18th novel to feature L.A. police detective Lt. Peter Decker and his wife, Rina (after The Mercedes Coffin), Rina finds that some jury duty should include hazardous duty pay. A shooting rampage at the 70-acre compound and mansion owned by shopping mall magnate Guy Kaffey leaves Kaffey, his wife and two guards dead. Kaffey's oldest son, Gil, apparently was left for dead and two other guards are missing. A plethora of suspects and motives has Decker and his colleagues looking at Guy's brother, Mace, and Guy's younger son, Grant, as well as the missing guards, other household staff, the remaining off-duty staff and possibly business rivals. Decker's cool professionalism is thoroughly tested when a chance courtroom encounter thrusts Rina into the case and puts her in harm's way. Kellerman expertly keeps interlocking investigations moving along with a minimum of confusion but plenty of doubt as to the guilty party or parties.
Smash Cut- Brown, Sandra
- 2009
- The murder of Paul Wheeler has all the elements of a blockbuster: family rivalries, incalculable wealth, and a prominent man dying in the arms of his beautiful mistress. It's a case that could earn Derek Mitchell even greater star power. When the Wheeler family approaches him about defending Creighton for his uncle's murder -- even before he's charged -- he jumps at the chance. But the more Derek learns about Creighton and his darker side, the more he doubts the young man's innocence.
Intervention- Cook, Robin
- 2009
- The author of more than 20 medical thrillers strikes again. A forensic pathologist, Jack Stapleton, becomes embroiled in an archaeological mystery that could forever alter the relationship between medicine and religion. The fast-paced story moves around geographically, from New York City, where Jack lives, to Egypt, where Jack's old friend, archaeologist Shawn Daughtry, makes a startling discovery, to Rome, where Jack and Shawn team up to help a mutual friend protect the Church from the implications of Shawn's discovery. The mixture of traditional medical thriller and historical thriller is provocative, and, as usual, the inventive story should keep Cook's fans turning the pages. Unfortunately, the novel is consistent with much of Cook's previous work in another, considerably less fortunate way. It reads like a clumsy first draft by a novice writer. The dialogue is, for the most part, hopelessly amateurish; frequently passages, or even entire conversations, are pretexts for explaining things to the reader (as when one character asks another to define the term gnosticism), often when no explanation is necessary (as when a character exclaims that the year AD 121 is the near the beginning of the second century). Background information about the lead characters is dispensed in large, unwieldy chunks rather than gradually throughout the story. The characters themselves are paper-thin collections of traits and motivations. While the book will likely appeal to Cook's established audience, it is distinctly inferior to offerings by such medical-thriller writers as Michael Palmer, Tess Gerritsen, and Daniel Kalla.
The Deep Blue Sea for Beginners- Rice, Luanne
- 2009
- Years ago, Lyra Davis left behind a world of wealth and privilege and the people she loved most in the world, unable to reconcile the expectations of her celebrated family with the longings of her own wild heart. Now she lives quietly among a community of expatriates on the isle of Capri--until her daughter Pell travels across an ocean to find the mother she remembers and the deeper truths they all need so desperately.
By Invitation Only- Femina, Jodi
- 2009
- Nobody knows the Hamptons like Jodi Della Femina, who captures the inside world of love, society, and scandal in this delicious summer page-turner.Toni Fratelli has a busy summer ahead. After several setbacks in Manhattan force her to move home to East Hampton, her To Do list is full. She has to help her father run his popular Italian restaurant. Start up her own catering company. And plan, cater, and be the Maid of Honor at her best friend’s wedding on the beach.Unfortunately for Toni, the groom’s mother is a competitive New York socialite who’ll stop at nothing to make sure her son doesn’t marry a local girl – especially on the family’s Southampton estate. The biggest caterer in the Hamptons is trying to run her fledgling business out of town. And worse than anything, Toni seems to be losing her best friend to a circle of snooty bridesmaids. Everything might be tolerable – if her dad could just stop treating her as if she was seventeen again.At least Toni finds love. When she meets a sexy surfer named Chris, it quickly turns into the most romantic summer fling of her life. But there’s more to Chris than his vintage Mustang and used guitar … and he’s not sure Toni’s going to like the truth. Before the end of the summer she’ll be forced to face her hopes – and fears – as trying to forgive becomes her biggest challenge yet.
Rules of Vengeance- Reich, Christopher
- 2009
- In this sequel to the "New York Times"-bestselling thriller "Rules of Deception," Doctors Without Borders physician Jonathan Ransom is once more on the run. The only way to clear his name is to locate his wife Emma, but finding her may prove more dangerous than he knows.
A Bad Day For Sorry- Littlefield, Sophie
- 2009
- Stella Hardesty dispatched her abusive husband with a wrench shortly before her fiftieth birthday. A few years later, she’s so busy delivering home-style justice on her days off, helping other women deal with their own abusive husbands and boyfriends, that she barely has time to run her sewing shop in her rural Missouri hometown. Some men need more convincing than others, but it’s usually nothing a little light bondage or old-fashioned whuppin' can’t fix. Since Stella works outside of the law, she’s free to do whatever it takes to get the job done---as long as she keeps her distance from the handsome devil of a local sheriff, Goat Jones.When young mother Chrissy Shaw asks Stella for help with her no-good husband, Roy Dean, it looks like an easy case. Until Roy Dean disappears with Chrissy’s two-year-old son, Tucker. Stella quickly learns that Roy Dean was involved with some very scary men, as she tries to sort out who’s hiding information and who’s merely trying to kill her. It’s going to take a hell of a fight to get the little boy back home to his mama, but if anyone can do it, it’s Stella Hardesty.Sophie Littlefield possesses all the verve and confidence of a seasoned pro. This debut novel rings true at every heart-stopping turn, utterly bewitching us with its gutsy, compassionate voice and boasting some of the most captivating, complex characters in crime fiction today.
The Traffickers- Griffin, W.E.B.
- 2009
- Dope smuggling, prostitution and murder preoccupy Sgt. Matt Payne of the Philadelphia PD in the uneven ninth Badge of Honor novel from bestseller Griffin and son Butterworth (after Final Justice). Payne, known as the Wyatt Earp of the Main Line because of his involvement in so many shootings, receives a call from an old pal, Chad Nesbitt, who tells him that a mutual friend, Skipper Olde, is somehow involved in a catastrophic fire. Matt doesn't care about Skipper, but Skipper's girlfriend, whom Matt had a crush on in high school, has been badly burned. Meanwhile, 21-year-old Juan Paulo Delgado, El Gato, is going about his usual business of pimping, beating and beheading undocumented Mexican women. Sophomoric, jokey dialogue and intrusive author lectures will lead many readers to tire of the whole business long before the evildoer receives his just and expected reward. Author tour.