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In case you missed them...
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OverBooked Club
Monday, January 12, 5:30
Library Conference Room
Come chat about books with Kristen and Michelle.
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The Alphabet Sleuths
by Laura Jensen Walker
Disposing of a body is as easy as A, B, C! Introducing the Alphabet Girls, four senior gal pals turned accidental sleuths--The Thursday Murder Club meets The Golden Girls, with a splash of Killers of a Certain Age At sixty-nine years old, Claire Reynolds is changing things up. She's volunteering. Learning to rollerblade. She's rescued a shelter dog. And today, she's killed a man. It wasn't on her to-do list, but stuff happens. Besides, the man in question was strangling her good friend Daphne, and what's a gal to do? Scream, possibly. Call the cops. Or--at retired officer Daphne's insistence--call in the rest of their senior gal pals, roll up the body in a blanket, and toss it off a cliff. The dead man is a member of the local crime family, and if the police get involved it's not just Daphne at risk, it's them all. But the body's just the start. Soon the Alphabet Girls--Atsuko, Barbara, Claire, and Daphne--must transform into the Alphabet Sleuths, if they're to keep both their liberty . . . and their lives. Meet Atsuko Kimura (75, retired journalist), Barbara Wright (age redacted, retired actress), Claire Reynolds (69, retired paralegal), and Daphne Cole (62, retired cop) in the first funny, fast-paced Alphabet Girls Mystery from award-winning author Laura Jensen Walker.
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Ambush of the Heart
by Mary Connealy
As Owen Riley and his fellow marshals escort Delaney Bridger to Fort Russell, a gang of outlaws ambushes them, bringing death and devastation to their party. Romance sparks between Owen and Delaney as they fight for survival on their perilous wilderness trek toward the fort. Can they overcome the obstacles and find a future together?
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And the Crowd Went Wild: A Chicago Stars Novel
by Susan Elizabeth Phillips
#1 New York Times bestselling author Susan Elizabeth Phillips is back with the latest novel in her beloved Chicago Stars series, featuring a romance between a star quarterback and one of the country's most beautiful--and misunderstood--actresses.After a mortifying--and very public--humiliation, Dancy Flynn is desperate to find sanctuary far from the crowd. But where can a washed-up sex symbol hide? How about making an unannounced appearance at the secluded lake house of the sweet, sensitive high school boyfriend she hasn't seen in almost twenty years?But Chicago Stars quarterback Clint Garrett is no longer the kid Dancy remembers. Now he's a gridiron superhero, still holding a massive grudge against her for breaking his teenage heart. With no room in his life for either complexity or distractions, he banishes Dancy to a refurbished old railroad caboose tucked away in the woods...and out of his sight.Except Dancy's not good at staying invisible. Her efforts to rebuild her career clash with Clint's desperation to regain his focus, all made more challenging by a rescue dog, a local woman in trouble, a meddling mother, an ex with an agenda...and the sizzle of rekindled emotions. As Dancy attempts to get her life on track and Clint tries to get his groove back, can these two one-time lovers navigate their rocky pasts and complicated present to find themselves...and each other? Tropes include: second-chance romanceenemies to loversforced proximitychildhood sweethearts
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Antihero: An Orphan X Novel
by Gregg Hurwitz
In the next book in this New York Times best-selling series, Evan Smoak takes on his most complex mission yetone where he not only has to protect but also avenge, and find a way to balance vengeance with mercy. Once a black ops assassin for the government known as Orphan X, Evan Smoak broke with the program and went deep underground, using his operational rules and skills to help the truly desperate with nowhere else to turn. When Luke Devine, one of the most powerful men in the world, has a psychological crisis, Evan flies to the East Coast to help him. While there, he learns of a young woman who was kidnapped off the New York City subway, clearly in danger and in need of aid. With no name and few clues, Evan and his team track down the missing woman, who was assaulted and abandoned. Evan offers his helpand sets out finding the young men responsible. But the woman insists that Evan abandon his usual methodsno vengeance and, in particular, no killing. Which will prove no easy feat given the mounting incoming threats from all sides. In a mission that takes Evan from coast to coast, from the poorest corners of society to the richest, Orphan X must figure out a way to protect the innocent, avenge the victimized, and balance justice with a measure of mercy.
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The Asset: A Joe DeMarco Thriller
by Mike Lawson
Backchannel intel points Joe DeMarco in the direction of a possible double agent in the latest pulse-pounding thriller from Edgar and Barry Award finalist Mike Lawson starring his beloved Washington DC troubleshooter.In the middle of the night, on a winding road in a suburb outside of Washington D.C., a homeless veteran is killed in a hit-and-run--a tragedy that barely catches the attention of the media and police.Days later, John Mahoney, the former Speaker of the House, is confronted by Diane Lake, an ex-CIA agent turned political researcher with a knack for digging up unsavory intelligence on some of D.C.'s biggest players. Diane is there with a gift for Mahoney: the news that Lydia Chang, the wife of one of his biggest rivals, might be working undercover as a Chinese agent.Knowing it's too early to get the FBI involved, Mahoney does the only thing left to do. He calls in Joe DeMarco.DeMarco might not have the title of political researcher, but he's no stranger to digging up dirt either. As DeMarco starts his investigation, he soon learns there's a lot more going on than Mahoney suspected, and instead of answers, all he finds are more questions. Who's the mysterious man Lydia Chang has been meeting in the park? Does Diane Lake have an ulterior motive? And why does everything point back to a random hit-and-run?
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A Box Full of Darkness
by Simone St James
Strange things happen in Fell, New York. A mysterious drowning at the town's roadside motel. The unexplained death of a young girl whose body is left by the railroad tracks. For the Esmie siblings--Violet, Vail, and Dodie--the final straw was the shocking disappearance of their little brother. It started as a normal game of hide-and-seek. The three closed their eyes and counted to ten while Ben went to hide. But this time, they never found their brother-he was gone and the ongoing search efforts turned up no clues. As their parents grew increasingly distant, Violet, Vail, and Dodie were each haunted by visions and frightening events that made them leave town and never look back. Violet still sees dead people--spirits who remind her of Sister, the menacing presence that terrorized her for years. And now after two decades running from their past, it's time for a homecoming. Because Ben is back, and he's ready to lead them to the answers they've longed for and long feared. If the ghosts of Fell don't get to them first--Provided by publisher.
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Brawler: Stories
by Lauren Groff
One of our best American writers, Lauren Groff returns with a fierce new story collection, her first since the award-winning and bestselling Florida. Read alone, each story in Lauren Groff's electric collection is an individual triumph, bold, agile, and packed with power. Read together, they hum in exhilarating resonance. Ranging from the 1950s to the present day and moving across age, class, and region -- from New England to Florida to California -- these nine stories reflect and expand upon a shared theme: the ceaseless battle between humans' dark and light angels. In every human there is both an animal and a god wrestling unto death, one character tells us. Among those we see caught in this match are a young woman suddenly responsible for her disabled sibling, a hot-tempered high school swimmer in need of an adult, a mother blinded by the loss of her family, and a banking scion endowed with a different kind of inheritance. Motivated by love, impeded by the double edges of other peoples' good intentions, they try to do the right thing for as long as they can. Precise, surprising, and provocative, anchored by profound insight into human nature, Brawler reveals the repeated, sometimes heartbreaking turning points between love and fear, compassion and violence, reason and instinct, altruism and what it takes to survive. It is a timeless, stunning achievement from one of the very best short story writers working today.
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Cross and Sampson: An Alex Cross and John Sampson Thriller
by James Patterson
In latest thriller from the world's most popular storyteller, detective partners Alex Cross and John Sampson are called to separate locations to investigate a pair of serious crimes. Inspiration for #1 hit streaming show, Cross. In Washington, DC ... Metro PD detective John Sampson stands in a crater in the middle of a DC street, calling in the bomb squad. Dispatch, this is Sampson. Contact the FBI and the ATF. We've got a suspected terrorist attack here. In Chapel Hill, NC ... Alex Cross searches the apartment of a missing psychology grad student--his own son Damon. Has following in his famous father's footsteps made Damon a target? From FBI headquarters, in police stations, on airplanes, and at murder scenes, the detectives track crimes committed hundreds of miles apart. It will take more than distance to weaken the partnership of Sampson & Cross.
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Crown City
by Naomi Hirahara
Pasadena, 1903: Eighteen-year-old Ryunosuke Ryui Wada staggers off the boat from Yokohama, Japan, ready to reinvent himself after the untimely deaths of his parents. Though battling loneliness and culture shock, Ryui does his best to settle into his work as an art dealer's apprentice while adjusting to his new home. From his enigmatic photographer roommate, Jack, to the beautiful seamstress living downstairs, Ryui finds himself surrounded by colorful characters and unbelievable opportunities and is soon utterly swept up in all Crown City has to offer. But tensions are seething under Pasadena's bustling prosperity. Ryui is the victim of an anti-Japanese attack, and a painting is stolen from the studio of Toshio Aoki, Pasadena's most successful Japanese artist, who then hires Ryui and Jack to investigate. It's not long before their sleuthing leads them into real danger. Ryui is a naive young man in a foreign country-has he bitten off more than he can chew? In this fish-out-of-water mystery, studded with cameos by real historical figures, Edgar Award-winner Naomi Hirahara brings to life a fascinating slice of California history-- Provided by publisher.
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Crown of War and Shadow: Kingdoms of the Compass
by J. R. Ward
DELUXE EDITIONfeaturing gorgeous stenciled edges, a foil case stamp, a detailed map, and designed endpapers J.R. Ward is a powerhouse in the genre and never disappoints --Rebecca Yarros, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author Absolutely unputdownable --Jennifer Armentrout, #1 New York Times Bestselling Author Crown of War and Shadow is a brand new, sweeping, slow-burn romantasy from #1 New York Times bestseller J. R. Ward, perfect for fans of Sarah J. Maas, Rebecca Yarros, and Jennifer Armentrout An outcast burdened with a curse. A mercenary out for himself. A kingdom that must be saved. In the deep, dark, dead of night, passions rise, and empires fall... The Fulcrum is failing, and demons are slipping into the mortal world. No one is safe. Especially not Sorrel. An orphan and an outcast within the walls of her small village because of her mystical abilities. She wants to survive...and find somewhere she can call her true home. But Fate has other plans. Sorrel has been chosen. Cursed. She must cross the Badlands to return the Queen's crown and convince the fearsome female to save their world from destruction. Well aware she's no brave hero, Sorrel makes a dangerous deal with Merc, a brooding, commanding mercenary known only by his unscrupulous profession. The deal? A night in his bed that she will never forget, in exchange for her safe passage. But Merc has secrets of his own, and even though desire runs hot between them, adventure, danger, and betrayal lurk around every corner. Crown of War and Shadow is the first book in the Kingdoms of the Compass series. Crown of War and Shadow*Forced proximity/Only one bed*Chosen mates*Dark mercenary*Who did this to you?*Touch her and die*I'll die for you*Hidden magic
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Death of a Groom
by M. C. Beaton
Sergeant Hamish Macbeth returns to protect his sleepy Scottish village of Lochdubh in the latest mystery in M.C. Beaton's beloved, New York Times bestselling series. It is February and the Scottish Highlands village of Lochdubh is dealing with heavy snow and freezing temperatures. Sergeant Hamish Macbeth can handle the weather, but with a surprise influx of high-society visitors for a Valentine's Day wedding at Tommel Castle Hotel, he has bigger problems. The guest list includes not one, but two women from his own romantic past And Hamish isn't the only one disrupted by the arrival of the wedding party. The groom--the supposedly suave and sophisticated Darius Palmerston--is involved in a series of incidents in the local pub. Tensions between guests and villagers escalate until, shortly after the lavish wedding ceremony, a body is found in the hotel dining room. The gruesome killing means Hamish suddenly has a murder investigation on his hands, one with a very long list of suspects.
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Easter Egg Murder
by Leslie Meier
Light pink, robin's egg blue, daffodil yellow, mint green--Easter eggs hiding sweet treats come in every pastel color. But in a few small towns this year, cracking them could be more fatal than fun... EASTER EGG MURDER by LESLIE MEIERIn Provence to visit her daughter, part-time reporter Lucy Stone is soaking up the atmosphere, even if it includes one Carole Capobianco, the empty-nester she encountered on the flight over. Not exactly two peas in a pod, they're both amused by the tale of a neighbor's chickens refusing to lay eggs. The decoy eggs he's set out to encourage the egg-centric hens are not only gorgeously Faberge-style, they're being stolen! That's confusing enough, but what's happened to the cook is deadly serious. DEATH BY ANOTHER EASTER EGG by LEE HOLLISWhen an ambitious young reporter dies mid-meal at Hayley Powell's Bar Harbor restaurant, Hayley is horrified. Determined to save her eatery's reputation, Hayley scrambles to crack the case wide open like an egg, discovering that the victim was about to break a juicy story--one that a number of people (er, suspects) did not order off the menu. Which makes finding the killer more than devilishly hard . . . AN EGGY WAY TO DIE by PEGGY EHRHARTCleaning up after the Easter egg hunt in the Arborville park, friends Pamela and Bettina are startled to find something else hidden--the dead body of a local cookbook author, surrounded by broken shells and slippery yolks. The pair are far from hard-boiled detectives, but as they search for clues, they find that the whole case smells distinctly like rotten eggs . . .
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Get Over It, April Evans
by Ashley Herring Blake
A summer job at a lake-town resort brings together two women with an unlikely connection in this new contemporary romance by USA Today bestselling author Ashley Herring Blake. April Evans' life is in shambles. She's had to close her tattoo shop in Clover Lake and she's subletting her house to cover her mortgage. And her love life? Nonexistent ever since Elena, her ex-fiancée, left her for a younger woman three years ago. When she is asked to teach a summer art class at the town's new resort called Cloverwild, April jumps at the opportunity, especially since the job comes with boarding. She's sure that this is the silver lining she needs . . . until she meets her cabinmate: Daphne Love, the woman who stole her ex-fiancée. And even worse, it's clear Daphne has no idea who April is. Daphne Love is cursed in, well, love. She thought she'd found the unconditional love she craved in her girlfriend, Elena, but now she's single again and utterly brokenhearted. When her friend hooks her up with a summer gig as an art instructor at a swanky resort in New Hampshire, Daphne feels optimistic for once. If only she had a roommate and coworker who didn't seem to hate her on sight. Their already-tense relationship gets even shakier when April and Daphne find themselves competing for a rare opportunity to showcase their art in a London museum. But slowly, barriers begin to fall, and an inexplicable allure keeps drawing them closer, leaving them to wonder if the perfect picture they're looking for can only be made with each other.
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The Hard Line
by Mark Greaney
Court Gentry's current family operates out of an office park in Norfolk, Virginia. Ghost Town is an off-the-books direct action team run by Matt Hanley, former CIA deputy director. They take on the jobs the Agency needs handled discreetly, and those jobs are rolling in. Somewhere at the top of the US intelligence apparatus, security experts and intelligence operations worldwide are being threatened. It starts with a blown safe house in Tunis. Then Court himself barely escapes from an ambush in the jungles of Nicaragua. Now, key members of the US counterintelligence community are being assassinated in their own neighborhoods. With the feds compromised, it's up to Court and his team to stop the hit squads. But eliminating professional kill teams may be the least of the Gray Man's worries when he finds himself targeted by the legendary assassin code-named Whetstone--a man driven out of retirement by a very personal quest to rain down hellfire on Court and everyone he's ever loved, starting with the father he hasn't seen in twenty years-- Provided by publisher.
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Hearts on the Fly
by Toni Shiloh
Jabari Hall has spent his life on the ice until an injury leaves him benched. When his teammates set him up on a blind date, he never expected to be sitting across from Val Elliott, his ex's sister. With Val's loyalty on the line and Jabari searching for a new purpose, can they make it to the goal together, or will their hearts wind up in the penalty box?
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The Heir of Whitestone
by Catherine Coulter
A brilliant young innovator with a mysterious past and a boldly sharp-witted Lady uncover deadly secrets in #1 New York Times bestselling author Catherine Coulter's thrilling, new Victorian-era romantic mystery filled with daring escapes, exciting twists, witty humor, and characters you won't soon forget. When Alex Ivanov was 12, someone tried to kill him. Now, 11 years later, they still want him dead. England, 1842. Queen Victoria reigns, Buckingham Palace is overrun with rats, and the streets of London are filled with intrigue. Alex Ivanov is a brilliant young innovator, designing cutting-edge train engines. But Alex has a secret--he isn't really Alex Ivanov. As a boy, he was pulled from the Thames, presumed drowned, with no memory of who he was. Rescued and raised by the formidable Ryder Sherbrooke, Alex has built a new life, but his past is catching up with him. Lady Camilla Rohman has problems of her own. Trapped by a scheming stepmother and a family determined to see her married off, she is as clever as she is desperate. When fate throws her into Alex's path, their connection is undeniable. But as their whirlwind romance turns into marriage, danger follows. On their honeymoon, a series of deadly attacks make one thing clear--someone wants Alex dead. As they race to uncover the truth, old enemies and long-buried secrets come to light, leading them to a shocking revelation that will change everything...
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Her Last Breath
by Taylor Adams
From the critically acclaimed author of No Exit and The Last Word comes a story of two friends who embark on an ill-fated caving expedition--and the dark truth of what happens deep underground. After years of excuses, Tess has finally agreed to go caving with her best friend Allie. Their lives have diverged sharply since high school--Allie is a self-made travel influencer, while Tess is a shy (and claustrophobic) legal assistant struggling to pay for law school. Maybe she's a little jealous of Allie's globe-trotting life. Who wouldn't be?As Tess and Allie descend into the depths, they realize they're not alone. A stranger who claims to be a fellow caver harasses them. Confident, take-no-shit Allie insults the guy--and he retaliates. Soon, Tess is trapped inside a narrow crawl space hundreds of feet underground, fighting to stay alive.Twenty-four hours later, as a hospitalized Tess recounts her harrowing story of survival, the detective interviewing her shares new and shocking secrets about Allie's true past. Together, they begin to suspect the brutal attack wasn't so random after all.Who was Allie, really? Why did this man target them? And did Tess really leave the danger behind when she escaped the cave?
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How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates
by Shailee Thompson
A delightful celebration of rom-coms, slasher flicks, and the women who love them. --Kirkus Reviews (starred review) A humorous, swoony, and downright terrifying slasher rom-com in which a cinephile gets caught in the middle of a murder spree at a speed-dating event and must use her encyclopedic knowledge of the romance and horror genres to make it as a real-life Final Girl. When Jamie Prescott and her best friend Laurie attend a speed-dating event, Jamie expects to meet a roster of mediocre men and indulge in some street food afterwards. She doesn't expect one of her dates to have his throat slit at their table during a blackout. After the lights come back on and there are more bodies on the floor, it becomes clear that dating can be a very dangerous pastime. Armed with makeshift weapons and Jamie's extensive knowledge of what NOT to do in a slasher, the remaining speed daters try to find an exit while the killer adds to their body count. As the night progresses and Jamie comes face-to-mask with the murderer, she begins to suspect they are committing the slayings to woo one of the daters and turn them into a real-life Final Girl. But Jamie has other plans, and as she fights for her life, she can't help but find herself ensconced in a love triangle with two of the other survivors. Will she make it through the bloodshed to find her Happily Ever After? Or does this machete-wielding psychopath have another ending in mind? For fans of Love in the Time of Serial Killers and Butcher & Blackbird, How to Kill a Guy in Ten Dates is one killer love story.
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I'll Make Me a World: The 100-Year Journey of Black History Month
by Jarvis R. Givens
On its one-hundredth anniversary, a powerful and essential meditation on the origins, evolution, and future of Black History Month from one of America's leading historians of Black education and the author of American Grammar.In I'll Make Me a World, acclaimed Harvard scholar Jarvis R. Givens takes us on a personal and political journey through the 100-year history of Black History Month--from its radical beginnings in 1926 as Negro History Week to its role today as a celebration and flashpoint in America's cultural battles. Drawing on archival research, personal stories involving family and students, and especially the wisdom of Black educators, Givens recovers the legacy of Carter G. Woodson and many others who envisioned Black history as a liberatory force--knowledge that shapes who we are, how we resist, and what we dream.With striking clarity, Givens challenges today's myopic commemorations of iconic figures and urges us to expand our understanding of Black history to include the everyday lives of ordinary people--the workadays whose stories have long gone untold but form critical parts of Black history. Indeed, people who played important roles in passing on Black memories that helped disrupt oppressively narrow perspectives on human life. Givens also attends to the labor involved in preserving Black history, especially in intellectual environments where it is constantly denigrated and undervalued, and he insists that more transparency about such processes is necessary to ensure this worthy tradition is passed on to future generations.I'll Make Me A World is a call to remember, reimagine, and reclaim an intellectual tradition built by communities well before our time, and to take seriously what is politically at stake in its preservation. At a time when Black history is under attack, this book offers an inspiring vision for how it can still be a source of power, truth, and possibility.
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In His Wake
by Chad Zunker
A political assassination draws an investigative reporter into a far-reaching conspiracy in a riveting thriller by Chad Zunker, Amazon Charts bestselling author of The Wife You Know and Family Money.The death of reporter Dean Dawson's estranged father in a boating accident leaves Dean and his brothers with mixed emotions. After all, the man abandoned his family and lived a life of inexplicable lies and broken promises. But four months after that fatal night cruise, their father is becoming a greater mystery than they imagined.When a presidential candidate is assassinated in Austin, Dean is contacted by April North, his former girlfriend and an associate of Dean's father at a powerhouse law firm. She's stumbled upon a shocker. A cryptic text she wasn't supposed to see on her boss's phone not only implicates the firm in the assassination but also suggests that Dean's father may still be very much alive.As the brothers are pulled into a dark conspiracy, Dean and April are on the run as the next targets of a mysterious assassin--and one kill shot away from discovering the truth and a father's dangerous secrets.
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Inharmonious
by Tammye Huf
A compelling love story--inspired by the author's own family history--set in the segregated South during and after World War II, perfect for fans of Kristin Hannah's The Women and Brit Bennett's The Vanishing Half.When three young Black men enlist in the US Army hoping to serve their country with honor, their lives are forever changed.When Pearl Harbor is attacked in 1941, Cora's brother, Benny, rushes to enlist against the wishes of Cora and their mother. Able to pass as white due to his pale skin and light eyes, Benny reports for duty only to realize he's been mistakenly enlisted as a white man in a racially segregated military.Lee has been friends with Benny ever since he was a troubled teenager, and he's been sweet on Cora for nearly as long. When Lee enlists without telling Cora, she is heartbroken and feels betrayed by the man she expected to spend the rest of her life with.Meanwhile, family friend Roscoe, encouraged by Benny, offers to marry Cora in order to ensure that she and her mother--who both remain home--will be provided for should Benny not make it back.Benny does return, but his new white identity leaves him struggling to find his place in between, in a country that only sees race. As America promises postwar prosperity to white veterans through the GI Bill, Black soldiers are excluded.While the war may be over, the fight has only just begun for Cora, Lee, Benny, and Roscoe.
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Isles of the Emberdark: A Cosmere Novel
by Brandon Sanderson
From #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson comes a legendary standalone novel that navigates the seas and the stars of a far-future Cosmere. Illustrated by Esther Hi'ilani Candari. All his life, Sixth of the Dusk has been a traditional trapper of Aviar--the supernatural birds his people bond with--on the deadly island of Patji. Then one fateful night he propels his people into a race to modernize before they can be conquered by the Ones Above, invaders from the stars who want to exploit the Aviar. But it's a race they're losing, and Dusk fears his people will lose themselves in the effort. When a chance comes to sail into the expanse of the emberdark beyond a mystical portal, Dusk sets off to find his people's salvation with only a canoe, his birds, and all the grit and canniness of a Patji trapper. Elsewhere in the emberdark is a young dragon chained in human form: Starling of the starship Dynamic. She and her ragtag crew of exiles are deep in debt and on the brink of losing their freedom. So when she finds an ancient map to a hidden portal between the emberdark and the physical realm, she seizes the chance at a lucrative discovery. These unlikely allies might just be the solution to each other's crises. In their search for independence, Dusk and Starling face perilous bargains, poisonous politics, and the destructive echo of a dead god. Sanderson expands his thrilling novella Sixth of the Dusk into a mythic novel of legends, lore, and warring galactic superpowers.
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Jigsaw: An Alex Delaware Novel
by Jonathan Kellerman
Psychologist Alex Delaware and Detective Milo Sturgis, the most beloved duo in American crime fiction, return in this electric thriller from the #1 New York Times bestselling master of suspense (Los Angeles Times). This one looked like a slam dunk: a young woman found dead at her kitchen table, DNA on cigarette butts linking quickly to an ex-boyfriend with a criminal record. Or so homicide lieutenant Milo Sturgis thought. Then everything changed and a quick close turned into a mind-bending whodunit. That's when Milo called in psychologist Alex Delaware, his best friend and a long-term consultant on those cases. The ones that are different. Then there's another one: an old woman found brutally murdered, her body stashed in a deep freeze and mutilated. And when Milo learns who she is, he's stunned. This victim is someone he once knew. Complicating matters further, her home is an extreme hoarder's den, virtually impassable due to years of stored trash and apparently meaningless objects. Except for the envelopes of cash stashed among the garbage. As Alex and Milo dig deeper into the seemingly unrelated crimes, they discover shocking links between the victims and realize they have a labyrinthine--and deadly--puzzle to solve. Cast against the unforgettable L.A. ambience unique to the novels of Jonathan Kellerman, this is classic Delaware at its best.
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Laws of Love and Logic
by Debra Curtis
A STUNNING DEBUT NOVEL FROM JENNA BUSH HAGER'S NEW VENTURE, THOUSAND VOICES A woman finds herself torn between her first love and her devoted husband in this extraordinary debut novel that asks the question: Can one heart hold two great loves? A magnificent, spellbinding love story.--Clare Leslie Hall, New York Times bestselling author of Broken Country In the serene town of Portsmouth, Rhode Island, Lily Webb is deeply in love with a charismatic boy, a college-bound quarterback whose spectacular athletic talents are matched only by his fierce devotion. But their dreams of a life together are cut short when his passionate protectiveness leads to an irrevocable choice--one that tears them apart and leads Lily down a path of heartbreak from which she may never recover. Lily already knows the sting of loss, beginning with the death of her mother, a tragedy that left deep scars on both her and her gifted younger sister, Jane. Jane seeks escape in the abstract world of mathematics and quantum mechanics--when she can keep the demons that fuel her addictions at bay. As the years pass, Lily buries her twin griefs deep in her heart, finding solace and a new beginning with Marshall Middleton, a renowned ornithologist whose love is as steadfast as the migration patterns he studies. Yet the shadows of her past linger. When the boy who was once everything to Lily reappears in her life, she struggles with questions around that terrible night in high school. Can she reconcile the wild wonderment of her first love with the comfort and safety of her second? Laws of Love and Logic explores love's enduring power and the human spirit's capacity for forgiveness and redemption.
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More Than Enough
by Anna Quindlen
A woman confronts the surprising results of an ancestry test and begins to question the meaning of family and friendship in this wise, tender novel teeming with life--from the beloved #1 New York Times bestselling author of After Annie No one knows you like your book club. High school English teacher Polly Goodman can talk about everything and anything with the women in her book club, which is why they've become her closest friends and, along with her veterinarian husband, the bedrock of her life. Her students, her fraught relationship with her mother, her struggles with IVF--Polly's book club friends have heard about it all. But when they give Polly an ancestry test kit as a joke, the results match her with a stranger. It is clear to Polly that this match is a mistake, but still she cannot help but comb through her family history for answers. Then, when it seems that the book club circle of four will become three, Polly learns how friendships can change your life in the most profound ways. Written with Anna Quindlen's trademark warmth, humor, and insight into the power of love and hope, More Than Enough explores how we find ourselves again and again through the relationships that define us.
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Mule Boy
by Andrew Krivak
An elegiac novel of men lost in a coal mining disaster and the boy who survives to tell the storyOn New Year's Day, 1929, Ondro Prach, the thirteen-year-old son of Slovak immigrants in Pennsylvania coal country, begins a new job as mule boy. He knows the danger--his father died in the mines--but he is proud of his position handling the animal that hauls cartloads of coal from shafts deep within the earth to the surface. After Ondro earns the trust of the miners and the mule in his charge, the room the men are working collapses and their fate is sealed.From that moment onward, Ondro carries the hard memory of that day, a burden that leads to addiction and imprisonment, costing him his family. But, years later, when the miners' loved ones come searching for answers, he finds the strength to share what the men spoke of and prayed for in the pitch black.Told in incantatory prose set to the rhythm of human breath, this sublime novel turns the memento mori into a meditation not only on death but on what it takes to tunnel through darkness and live.
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Murder Will Out: A Mystery
by Jennifer K. Breedlove
Little North Island, off the coast of Maine, is so beautiful it could be a postcard. Organist Willow Stone cherishes her memories of childhood summers spent on the island with her godmother Sue... even though her visits ended abruptly, and she hasn't seen or heard from her godmother in over fifteen years. Until a letter from Sue—and word of Sue’s death—brings Willow back to the picturesque island.Come for the memories. Stay for the murder...
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Paper Cut
by Rachel Taff
Darkly addictive with a blistering pace and puzzle-box structure --Katy Hays, New York Times bestselling author of The Cloisters A page-turning suspense debut about a woman infamous for escaping a cult as a teenager, who finds her future threatened when dangerous secrets come back to haunt her--perfect for fans of Jessica Knoll and The Girls.Everybody knows the story. Nobody knows the truth...Lucy Golden is a true-crime icon, infamous for the murder she committed while escaping a California cult twenty years ago. But as everyone in Los Angeles knows, fame is fleeting, and Lucy and her story are always just one news cycle away from obscurity. Not to mention, she's fending off a stalker and moderating an icy feud between her acclaimed photographer mother and her scandalous rock star sister. Worst of all, online trolls are asking increasingly threatening questions about the legendary crime. Questions that could tear her life apart.So when a hotshot documentarian makes her case the subject of his next film, Lucy sees a chance to silence any doubters once and for all. But as filming begins, she must return to the California desert and come face-to-face with a cast of players from her torrid history. Of course, the past is never what it seems, and long-buried secrets soon collide with present-day threats. Can Lucy stop her critics from digging up the truth before it's too late? And how far will she go to protect the story she's been telling--and selling--all along?Told in a narrative split between the present day and Lucy's hit memoir about her fated summer in the cult, Paper Cut combines psychological suspense with coming-of-age Californian cult noir and a sharp examination of the true-crime phenomenon. As incisive as it is propulsive, this mesmerizing debut will keep readers hooked until the last page.
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Rebel of the Regency: The Scandalous Saga of Caroline of Brunswick, Britain's Queen Without a Crown
by Ann Foster
The dramatic, absolutely outrageous story of Caroline of Brunswick, a beloved icon of the Regency era, who uplifted the voice of the public and unabashedly defied society's expectations, yet was shockingly robbed of her crown, from the host of the Vulgar History podcast.Caroline Amelia Elizabeth, Princess of Brunswick, was born in the northern German town of Braunschweig. Her mother and father, the duke and duchess, instantly knew one thing: there was something irrefutably untamable about their daughter. She grew up a wild child, sequestered from others to protect her family's reputation--an 18th-century Rapunzel.She was freed from this gilded cage by an unexpected marriage proposal from George Augustus Frederick, Prince of Wales and the eldest son of George III and Queen Charlotte. Caroline was entirely unprepared for the backstabbing mean girls of the royal court. Always staying true to herself, she stepped into her role of queen-to-be without compromising her character, showing off her affinity for fashion, her many eccentric hobbies, and ultimately, her infallible spirit, despite being ostracized as an outsider by her in-laws.And so Caroline became the unlikely figurehead of the anti-monarchists, aided by the just-emerging tabloid press. Yet, despite her status as a revolutionary heroine, Caroline's name faded away following her death. Until now.For fans of Normal Women, Ann Foster brings us the riveting story of Caroline of Brunswick, Britain's uncrowned queen, through an empowering examination of womanhood and autonomy that feels just as relevant today.
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The Reservation
by Rebecca Kauffman
On the morning of the most important booking in the long history of the celebrated restaurant, Aunt Orsa's erupts into chaos with the discovery that twenty-two rib eye steaks have been stolen. Hers is the most august of fine-dining establishments in this Midwestern college town, and tonight Orsa is set to host a large party honoring a very special guest--a bestselling author of national renown. And what's up with the recent spate of online reviews, from insulting to frankly terrible? Is Orsa, who wants only to be loved, being sabotaged on several fronts? No one is above suspicion, not the Mennonite baker nor the tattooed hard-ass chef de cuisine. Could the culprit be among the servers, or even the inexperienced undergrad working as hostess?-- Provided by publisher.
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A Sociopath's Guide to a Successful Marriage
by Mk Oliver
A whip-smart and darkly funny crime novel--perfect for fans of My Sister, the Serial Killer and The Maid--that follows a wife and mother with a deadly secret that she must suppress if she wants to maintain her picture-perfect façade. Meet Lalla Rook. Lalla has a lot on her plate: She needs to guarantee her husband makes partner, secure her dream house in Hampstead, and get her daughter into a prestigious prep school. And on the afternoon she stabs a stranger seven times after he breaks into her living room, she has a four-year-old's birthday party to host. With an unambitious partner, two demanding children, and a barely adequate large house in a nice (if not quite fashionable) part of town, Lalla's life isn't quite perfect yet. And she can't pretend she hasn't missed the adrenaline rush that comes with transgressing. Besides, as a wife and mother, she's already an expert multi-tasker. So, disposing of a body, framing a friend, and being the world's best mother can easily be managed alongside the usual domestic minutiae. It's just that her husband Stephen seems distracted, her daughter's drowning of the class hamster is affecting her academic future, and then there is the unexpected intruder. Who is this man and what does he want from her? Because Lalla has a past she'd rather keep hidden--and the sudden appearance of the police means that avoiding them will be yet another task to cross off her to-do list. Funny, calculating, hypercompetent, and ambitious, Lalla is your next favorite antiheroine. Just don't mention it to her mother-in-law.
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Stolen in Death
by J. D. Robb
A violent death and a vault of stolen treasures has Eve Dallas struggling to solve crimes old and new in the next thriller in the #1 New York Times-bestselling series.A blow to the head with a block of amethyst has left multibillionaire Nathan Barrister dead--while nearby, a vault, its door ajar, sits filled with priceless paintings, jewelry, and other treasures. Lieutenant Eve Dallas's husband, Roarke--who misspent his youth in Ireland as a scrappy thief--recognizes at least two stolen pieces among the hoard. The crime scene suggests a burglar caught in the act. But only one item seems to be missing. Then it's revealed that the vault had actually belonged to the victim's late father--and no one in the household knew it was there until a recent remodeling project exposed it. To protect the family name and business, they explain to Eve, they'd been looking for a way to return the ill-gotten gains anonymously and avoid the police. But now the police are all over their elegant house, and have a bigger, bloodier mystery to solve. By all accounts, Nathan Barrister was a good man, a generous employer, a devoted husband and father. As for his father--he clearly had secrets. Now it's up to Eve and her team to find out if those secrets got Nathan killed--and if it was a crime of passion or revenge.
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To Kill a Cook
by W. M. Akers
Tender at the Bone meets Finlay Donovan is Killing It in this hilarious, fast-paced mystery about a feisty food critic in 1970s NY who finds her chef friend murdered and realizes she might be the only one to find the killer. Nobody in Manhattan eats better than Bernice Black. It's 1972, and she is the city's busiest restaurant critic, juggling her fiance and his two young sons with demands of fine dining. Bernice talks fast, walks faster, has a razor-sharp wit and no patience for anything--or anyone--that gets in her way. When she stops by the famed restaurant of her favorite chef and mentor, Laurent Tirel, early one morning, she stumbles across a horrific scene in the kitchen: Laurent's severed head, perfectly preserved in a flawless mold of jellied aspic. Her meeting with the cops assigned to the case proves only one thing-they know nothing about food or the seedy underworld that BB Black has made her home. With layoffs looming, Bernice makes the gamble of her career--she promises her editor she can catch Laurent's killer before the week is out. To Kill a Cook is a delicious, witty, fast-paced mystery with a lovable, unforgettable protagonist at it center.
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What Happened That Night
by Nicci French
From international bestselling master of suspense Nicci French comes a hair-raising locked-room thriller about a group of old university friends with a killer in their midst.Old friends, new secrets, one deadly reunion.Tyler Green, convicted of murdering his friend Leo at a student house party in 1993, has been released after almost three decades in prison. He has always protested his innocence.On a warm evening in London, Tyler summons eight of his university friends who were present on that fateful night. Is it just a reunion - or something else? With wine--and accusations-- flowing liberally, the reunion descends into violent chaos, and one friend will end the night with their throat slit in the upstairs bedroom...the same way that Leo's was in 1993.When Detective Inspector Maud O'Connor gets called to investigate, she has her own doubts about Tyler's guilt, despite what his old friends, the rest of the Metropolitan Police Force, and even the Home Secretary would like her to believe....
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When I Kill You
by B. A. Paris
The multimillion-copy and New York Times bestseller B. A. Paris returns with a triumphant, unsettling next suspense novel, When I Kill You. Who is watching Nell Masters? Nell Masters is certain someone is following her. The hairs on the back of her neck rise when she travels to and from work, there are silent calls to her office, and a huge bouquet of flowers arrives without a card. And Nell has a reason to be looking over her shoulder, because she has a secret that she's hiding from everyone in her life, including her new partner, Alex. But Alex also has secrets of his own. Fourteen years earlier, when Nell went by the name Elle Nugent, she witnessed a student, Bryony Sanders, getting into a stranger's car. When Bryony was found murdered, Elle became obsessed with finding the person responsible. She was convinced she knew who it was and her fixation with Brett Parker, the man she accused, led her down a dangerous path . . . Now, Nell tries to convince herself that this unnerving feeling of being watched is all in her mind. Has someone from her past discovered her new identity? Has the stalker become the stalked? Or is there something even more deadly at play?
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A Whiff of Murder
by Angela M. Sanders
This intoxicating debut spin-off of the author's popular small-town Oregon-set Witch Way Librarian mysteries features an intriguing young woman with a unique connection to the magical realm of scent. Sometimes, she can even sniff out a killer . . . Some people read auras--a light or color that surrounds others, revealing their character or emotions. Lise Bloom reads ribbons--of fragrance, that is. Whether she's around old friends or new, fragrance often unfurls from them--an ability called clairalience. Hoping to gain insight into her gift, Lise works at the Lucky Lotus, a New Age shop. Unfortunately, the oils the owner, Dyann, concocts, nauseate Lise and impede her sense of scent. Worse, the shop feels more like wealthy Dyann's hobby than a spiritual place, thanks to her toxic love-torment relationship with her ex-husband, Richard. Dyann is so pleased with her latest vengeful scheme that she shares it with Lise and gleefully remarks that when Richard finds out, he'll kill her. For Lise, it's the last straw. Persuaded to quit by her caring, colorful crew of housemates, Lise emails Dyann a resignation letter. But when she goes to the store the next morning, she detects a fetid odor she doesn't recognize--and discovers a spilled bottle of Mayan ceremonial liqueur . . . beside Dyann's dead body. In her rush to call the police, Lise doesn't notice that Dyann's half-completed reply to Lise's resignation email is on the monitor of her desktop computer--making her the prime suspect. Now, she'll have to follow her nose to uncoil a venomous truth. It just may lead her life in an entirely new direction--unless a killer cuts it short . . .
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The Whisking Hour: A Bakeshop Mystery
by Ellie Alexander
Another delicious installment in Ellie Alexander's Bakeshop Mysteries set in Ashland, OR! Fall is in full flush in the charming hamlet of Ashland, Oregon, and baker Juliet Capshaw is excited to celebrate the season with a night at the theatre. Lance Rousseau, Ashland's renowned theater director and one of Jules' closest friends, has put his own spin on a production of the Broadway classic Perfect Crime, drawing the audience into a cozy New York apartment as a nefarious set of suspects pulls off the perfect murder. As the final show approaches, Jules and the team at Torte are eagerly whipping up a murderous feast for the cast party, baking a bevy of treats like panna cotta eyeballs with blood orange coulis, deviled eggs, and savory cheese fingers with pumpkin dipping sauce. On the day of the soirée, life seems to imitate art when a storm rolls over the Siskiyou Mountains, ushering in gusty winds and unrelenting rain. The audience buzzes with electric energy as the lights flicker and the actors take the stage. After the actors take their final bow, the cast trickles into Carpenter Hall, ready for a night of frivolity. But when an actor is discovered dead in his dressing room, Jules wonders if she's just witnessed the real perfect murder.
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Wolf Hour
by Jo Nesbo
From the modern master of Nordic noir comes a shocking new thriller set in contemporary Minneapolis, in which a detective and a crime writer conduct parallel investigations, six years apart, into a series of puzzling murders Jo Nesb is one of today's most interesting thriller writers. --Lee Child Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2016. When a small-time criminal and gun dealer is shot down in the street, all signs point to Tomas Gomez, a quiet man with a mysterious past--and deep connections to a notorious gang--who has seemingly vanished into thin air. Other murders soon follow, and it appears Gomez is only getting started. Meanwhile, Bob Oz, a down-and-out suspended police officer with a dubious past of his own, becomes fascinated by the case: he is obsessed with the notion of hunting down a serial killer who only he can understand, a killer with a story as tragic as his own. Minneapolis, Minnesota, 2022. An enigmatic Norwegian man with ties to Minneapolis - a self-described crime writer - has traveled to the United States to research the Gomez case, in the hopes of writing a book about it. But as his investigation progresses, the writer's seemingly neutral position reveals itself to be more complicated than the reader is initially led to believe. Wolf Hour is a twisty and unforgettable thriller in classic Jo Nesb style, which bears out Vanity Fair's observation that Nesb explores the darkest criminal minds with grim delight and puts his killers where you least expect to find them. . . . His novels are maddeningly addictive.
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The Writer's Room: The Hidden Worlds That Shape the Books We Love
by Katie Da Cunha Lewin
A journey into the unique spaces where some of literature's greatest writers created their most memorable works Virginia Woolf famously wrote in A Room of One's Own that it is necessary to have five hundred a year and a room with a lock on the door if you are to write fiction or poetry. Writers have worked in all kinds of places, from garrets and sheds to boarding houses, bathrooms, and even while on the move. What is it that fascinates us about the writer's room? This book takes readers inside literature's creative spaces to explore this tantalizing question. Beginning with her own secondhand writing desk, Katie da Cunha Lewin invites us to consider how these environments embody the craft of writing and shape the literary works we love. She paints vivid portraits of Woolf's garden room at Monk's House, Emily Brontë's shared table in the parsonage, Sigmund Freud's study with its legendary couch, and the bustling Parisian cafés where Ernest Hemingway crafted stories in notebooks. She dismantles the familiar furniture of the writer's room to cast it in a surprising new light, from the hotel rooms where Maya Angelou wrote poetry to the busses where Lauren Elkin wrote on her phone to the kitchen tables around which Audre Lorde and the founders of Women of Color Press convened. Lyrical, insightful, and rich with personal insights, The Writer's Room reveals how these spaces are brimming with possibilities, shaping the creative process of authors and capturing the imaginations of readers. The writers featured include Maya Angelou - James Baldwin - Claire-Louise Bennett - Ray Bradbury - the Brontë sisters - Alexander Chee - Agatha Christie - Lucille Clifton - Roald Dahl - Don DeLillo - Charles Dickens - Emily Dickinson - Joan Didion - Ernest Hemingway - bell hooks - Victor Hugo - Zora Neale Hurston - Derek Jarman - John Keats - Jack Kerouac - Hanif Kureishi - Harper Lee - Doris Lessing - Deborah Levy - Hilary Mantel - Paule Marshall - Sylvia Plath - Thomas Pynchon - William Shakespeare - Zadie Smith - Muriel Spark - Mark Twain - Alice Walker - Edith Wharton - Virginia Woolf
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