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Massachusetts Fiction February 2023
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Mystic river
by Dennis Lehane
Sean Devine must confront the world of violence and pain he tried to forget when his childhood friend's daughter is murdered, and the investigation brings him face-to-face with a vigilante killer and a man with a dangerous secret. .
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Robert B. Parker's the Devil wins : a Jesse Stone novel
by Reed Farrel Coleman
Investigating the discovery of three bodies in an abandoned factory after a huge storm, Jesse Stone discovers that one victim is recent while the others were teens, friends of her associate Molly Crane, who went missing 25 years earlier.
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A dark and stormy knit
by Anne Canadeo
The Black Sheep Knitters investigate when a dead body turns up covered in what appears to be the work of the Knit Kats, a protest group that uses knitting as graffiti on public items as a means to decorate and raise awareness. .
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Nantucket counterfeit : a Henry Kennis mystery
by Steven Axelrod
When the much-despised Artistic Director of the Nantucket Theater Lab, who was scamming and blackmailing cast and crew, is murdered, Police Chief Henry Kennis must tread carefully in a pool of suspects to catch a killer in the act.
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Nantucket five-spot : a Henry Kennis mystery
by Steven Axelrod
When a bomb threat brings the Department of Homeland Security to the island, Natucket's poetry-writing police chief Henry Kennis joins the investigation and discovers a crime rooted in betrayed friendship, infidelity and the quiet poisonous feuds of small town life.
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This is home : a novel
by Lisa Duffy
"Sixteen-year-old Libby Winters lives in Paradise, a seaside town north of Boston that rarely lives up to its name. After the death of her mother, she lives with her father, Bent, in the middle apartment of their triple decker home--Bent's two sisters, Lucy and Desiree, live on the top floor. A former soldier turned policeman, Bent often works nights, leaving Libby under her aunts' care. Shuffling back and forth between apartments--and the wildly different natures of her family--has Libby wishing for nothing more than a home of her very own. Quinn Ellis is at a crossroads. When her husband John, who has served two tours in Iraq, goes missing back at home, suffering from PTSD he refuses to address, Quinn finds herself living in the first-floor apartment of the Winters house. Bent had served as her husband's former platoon leader, a man John refers to as his brother, and despite Bent's efforts to make her feel welcome, Quinn has yet to unpack a single box. For Libby, the new tenant downstairs is an unwelcome guest, another body filling up her already crowded house. But soon enough, an unlikely friendship begins to blossom, when Libby and Quinn stretch and redefine their definition of family and home. With gorgeous prose and a cast of characters that feel wholly real and lovably flawed, This Is Home is a nuanced and moving novel of finding where we belong"
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A murderous tangle
by Sally Goldenbaum
"Birdie, Nell, Cass, and Izzy are prepping their coziest handiwork for a holiday gathering in Sea Harbor, Massachusetts. But as murder makes waves in their tightly knit coastal village, can the Seaside Knitters prevent a deadly trend from catching on? While the Seaside Knitters get ready to showcase their new Danish-inspired event, locals can't stop talking about Tess Bean--a bright-eyed environmental activist with a way of charming both animals and humans alike. Birdie's granddaughter is mesmerized by ethereal Tess's passion for saving the earth and ocean, and even Izzy's old Irish setter becomes attached to the young woman's gentle touch . . . Except not everyone is a fan of Tess and her strong opinions, especially after she starts questioning the "clean" practices of small-business owners. So when a popular bar owner whom Tess publicly calls out for bad practices is found dead from a fall off his club's deck, it's not long before she tops the suspect list for murder . . . In addition to a murderer walking their streets, the knitters are also grappling with an unusual wave of thefts up and down Harbor Road. Now, as Birdie's granddaughter struggles to protect her mentor's reputation, the Seaside Knitters must solve a dangerous mystery that not only threatens to unravel the fabric of their community and the approaching holiday, but also the lives of those they care about the most"
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The front
by Patricia Daniels Cornwell
Dispatched by the district attorney to a declining Massachusetts neighborhood to address a case related to a new public relations campaign, state investigator Win Garano becomes involved with a loosely organized association of vigilante police officers
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We ride upon sticks
by Quan Barry
Nearly three centuries after their coastal communitys witch trials, the women athletes of the 1989 Danvers Falcons hockey team combine individual and collective talents with 1980s iconography to storm their way to the state finals.
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The last noel
by Heather Graham
When two escaped killers take refuge in their home during a storm on Christmas Eve, Skyler O'Boyle decides to play a daring psychological game to throw the violent criminals off guard, while her daughter, Kat, escapes and stumbles upon a third felon, who is hiding a secret that could save them all.
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Shock
by Robin Cook
To earn some extra money, Deborah Cochrane and Joanna Meissner, two financially strapped graduate students, become involved with a Boston fertility clinic in search of egg donors, but they become suspicious about the clinic and its head, Dr. Spencer Windgate, and risk their lives to uncover the truth
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Live by night
by Dennis Lehane
In 1926, during the Prohibition, Joe Coughlin defies his strict law-and-order upbringing by climbing a ladder of organized crime that takes him from Boston to Cuba where he encounters a dangerous cast of characters who are all fighting for their piece of the American dream. .
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I know a secret : a novel
by Tess Gerritsen
Investigating the death of a horror film producer whose murder scene has been gruesomely staged, detective Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles are baffled by an apparent lack of a cause of death, a case that is further complicated by a second, equally bizarre murder.
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The bell jar
by Sylvia Plath
Esther Greenwood, a talented and successful writer, finally begins to succumb to madness when the world around her begins to falter.
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Caleb's crossing
by Geraldine Brooks
Forging a deep friendship with a Wampanoag chieftain's son on the Great Harbor settlement where her minister father is working to convert the tribe, Bethia follows his subsequent ivy league education and efforts to bridge cultures among the colonial elite. By the Pulitzer Prize-winning author of March. .
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The wolves of Andover : a novel
by Kathleen Kent
In colonial Massachusetts, servant girl Martha Allen and laborer Thomas Carrier kindle a promising courtship and must lean on each other to get through a host of dangers that lurk in the unforgiving wilderness. By the best-selling author of The Heretic's Daughter.
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The heretic's daughter : a novel
by Kathleen Kent
A witchcraft accusation in their Salem, Massachusetts, home further complicates the challenging relationship between Martha Carrier and her equally willful daughter, Sarah, who are forced to stand together against the escalating hysteria and superstition of the trials that are threatening Martha's life. A first novel.
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Magic lessons / : The Prequel to Practical Magic
by Alice Hoffman
A prequel to the movie-inspiring novel unveils the origin story of Maria Owens, who after being discovered as an abandoned baby in rural 17th-century Salem is taught in the Unnamed Arts before cursing her own family in love.
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Cape Cod
by William Martin
The Hilyards and the Bigelows land with the "Mayflower," and the lives of their descendants span four centuries of American history, personal conflict, success and failure, love, and an almost forgotten family murder
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Spindle city : a novel
by Jotham Burrello
On June 23, 1911 -- a summer day so magnificent it seems as if God himself has smiled on the town -- Fall River, Massachusetts is reveling in its success. The Cotton Centennial is in full swing as Joseph Bartlett takes his place among the local elite in the parade grandstand. The meticulously planned carnival has brought the thriving textile town to an unprecedented halt; rich and poor alike crowd the streets, welcoming President Taft to America's ''Spindle City.'' Yet as he perches in the grandstand nursing a nagging toothache, Joseph Bartlett straddles the divide between Yankee mill owners and the union bosses who fight them. Bartlett, a renegade owner, fears the town cannot long survive against the union-free South. He frets over the ever-present threat of strikes and factory fires, knowing his own fortune was changed by the drop of a kerosene lantern. When the Cleveland Mill burned, good men died, and immigrant's son Joseph Bartlett gained a life of privilege he never wanted. Now Joseph is one of the most influential men in a prosperous town. High above the rabble, as he stands among politicians and society ladies, his wife is dying, his sons are lost in the crowd facing pivotal decisions of their own, and the differences between the haves and have-nots are stretched to the breaking point. Spindle City delves deep into the lives, loves, and fortunes of real and imagined mill owners, anarchists, and immigrants, from the Highlands mansions to the tenements of the Cogsworth slum, chronicling a mill town's -- and a generation's -- last days of glory
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Writers & lovers : a novel
by Lily King
A follow-up to the award-winning Euphoria follows the story of a former child golf prodigy-turned-unemployed writer whose determination to live a creative life is complicated by her relationships with two very different men.
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The matchmaker : a novel
by Elin Hilderbrand
Storied matchmaker and Nantucket resident Dabney Kimball has her own life and match turned upside down when her true love of 27 years prior returns to the island, in this new novel from the best-selling author of Summerland. .
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Run
by Ann Patchett
Struggling with single parenthood and a scandal that cost him his political career, Bernard Doyle fights his disappointment with his adopted sons' career choices before a violent event forces the members of his family to reconsider their priorities. By the author of Bel Canto. .
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The given day : a novel
by Dennis Lehane
An epic tale set at the end of World War I follows the experiences of a family whose lives mirror the political unrest of an America caught between its well-patterned past and an unpredictable future. By the author of Mystic River.
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The last days of Dogtown : a novel
by Anita Diamant
Endeavoring to build a life for herself in a dying early nineteenth-century New England town, Judy Rhines struggles with feelings of profound loneliness and impacts the lives of Black Ruth, a freed slave who dresses as a man and works as a stone mason; Mrs. Stanley, an imperious madam; and Oliver, who overcomes a painful childhood. By the author of The Red Tent..
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Still Alice : a novel
by Lisa Genova
Feeling at the top of her game when she is suddenly diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's Disease, Harvard psychologist Alice Howland struggles to find meaning and purpose in her everyday life as her concept of self gradually slips away. A first novel. Simultaneous. .
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Just like this
by Cole McCade
"Rian Falwell has a problem. And his name is Damon Louis. Rian's life as the art teacher to a gaggle of displaced boys at Albin Academy should be smooth sailing - until the stubborn, grouchy football coach comes into his world like a lightning strike and ignites a heated conflict that would leave them sworn enemies if not for a common goal. A student in peril. A troubling secret. And two men who are polar opposites but must work together to protect their charges. They shouldn't want each other. They shouldn't even like each other. Yet as they fight to save a young man from the edge, they discover more than they thought possible about each other - and about themselves"
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The River House
by Carla Neggers
Hired to organize an entrepreneurial boot camp, a successful party planner reconnects with a childhood friend who has become a high-flying businessman and whose professional ambitions complicate their growing bond.
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Christmas camp : a novel
by Karen Schaler
Planning a working holiday to avoid seasonal distractions, an ambitious businesswoman is redirected by her boss to a Christmas-themed camp, where she becomes unexpectedly involved with her host's son and his efforts to save the family inn. 25,000 first printing.
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Prep : a novel
by Curtis Sittenfeld
During the late 1980s, fourteen-year-old Lee Fiora leaves behind her close-knit, middle-class Indiana family to enroll in an elite co-ed boarding school in Massachusetts, becoming a shrewd observer of, and eventually a participant in, their rituals and mores. A first novel. Reader's Guide included. .
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Tilling the truth
by Julia Henry
When her friend Tamara O’Connor is framed for the murder of the woman standing in the way of her selling off a beautiful beachside property, Lilly Jayne and her Garden Squad must weed through the suspects and dig up the real killer. Original.
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What comes next
by John Katzenbach
After the police falter in their investigation, a retired college professor vows to track down a young woman he witnessed being snatched off the street, kidnapped by a sadistic couple who put their victim's slow torture up for public display on the Internet. (This title was previously listed in Forecast.
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Red 1-2-3
by John Katzenbach
Sharing nothing in common except their red hair, three women from drastically different backgrounds receive chilling letters in the mail from a killer who makes them fear for their lives until they find one another and use the clues he has left behind to work together and protect one another. By the author of What Comes Next. 30,000 first printing.
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The Boston girl : a novel
by Anita Diamant
Recounting the story of her life to her granddaughter, octogenarian Addie describes how she was raised in early 20th-century America by suspicious Jewish immigrant parents in a teeming multicultural neighborhood. Online reading group guide. By the author of The Red Tent and Day After Night.
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The marvelous Monroe girls
by Shirley Jump
The New York Times best-selling author presents this heartwarming story of sisterhood, second chances and falling in love. Original.
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Celebration at Christmas cove
by Carrie Jansen
"In this humorous and heartwarming romance, sparks fly between a woman who can't wait to leave a wintry New England island, and a widower who would do anything to stay. Travel magazine writer Celeste Bell is in a terrible mood. Not only was her flight tothe Caribbean diverted to a Massachusetts island, now it looks like she'll have to spend Christmas there. Single and still mourning the loss of her mother a year earlier, Celeste is desperate to avoid any emotional entanglements and all holiday festivities. She just doesn't feel like celebrating. But that's exactly what community center executive director Nathan White and his young daughter, Abigail, want to do. Nathan is entirely focused on making sure that his daughter has a happy Christmas, especiallywith the knowledge that if he can't raise money for the community center soon, it will close and they'll have to leave the island. When he meets Celeste, Nathan begins to feel a connection and wonders if he's brave enough to risk his heart once more. Thawing their frozen hearts and saving the community center will require a Christmas miracle. But 'tis the season..."
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The red garden
by Alice Hoffman
Traces the multi-generational story of wintry Blackwell town through the experiences of such characters as a wounded Civil War solider who is saved by a passionate neighbor and a woman who meets a fiercely human historical figure. By the best-selling author of The Third Angel.
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The Gilly salt sisters
by Tiffany Baker
Two sisters in Cape Cod fight over the town's wealthiest bachelor as they learn about life, love and family history in this novel from the New York Times best-selling author of The Little Giant of Aberdeen County.
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Just like that
by Cole McCade
"Summer Hemlock never meant to come back to Omen, Massachusetts... But with his mother in need of help, Summer has no choice but to return to his hometown, take up a teaching residency at the elite Albin Academy, and work directly under the man who made his teenage years miserable. Professor Fox Iseya. Forbidding, aloof, commanding: psychology instructor Iseya is a cipher who's always fascinated and intimidated shy, anxious Summer. But that fascination turns into something more when the older man challenges Summer to be brave. What starts as a daily game to reward Summer with a kiss for every obstacle overcome turns passionate, and a professional relationship turns quickly personal. Yet Iseya's walls of grief may be too high for someone like Summer to climb until Summer's infectious warmth shows Fox everything he's been missing in life. Now both men must be brave enough to trust each other, to take that leap. To find the love they've always needed. Just like that"
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A city in terror : Calvin Coolidge and the 1919 Boston Police Strike
by Francis Russell
Back in print, this classic account of the police strike that plunged Boston into a period of chaos while bringing the governor of the state, Calvin Coolidge, to national prominance, recalls a terrifying moment in American history when mobs ruled the streets of a major American city. Reprint.
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The times of their lives : life, love, and death in Plymouth Colony
by James Deetz
Offers an honest, often-startling portrait of Plymouth Colony, including the legal system, religion, agriculture, family life, women's roles, alcohol use, sexual misconduct, domestic violence, suspicious deaths, and violent crimes
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The world of Plymouth Plantation
by Carla Gardina Pestana
Published to coincide with the 400th anniversary of the Mayflower landing and the establishment of the colony, this revealing account of life in Plymouth Plantation goes beyond familiar founding myths to portray real life in the settlement.
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September 1918 : war, plague, and the World Series
by Skip Desjardin
Describes the events of September 1918, when America entered World War I, the Spanish flu pandemic was raging and Babe Ruth led the Boston Red Sox to the last World Series victory they would see for 86 years.
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