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Fiction Finds
October 2026 |
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Choke Point: A Thriller
by Brad Thor
#1 New York Times bestselling author Brad Thor thrills with his new summer blockbuster starring Scot Harvath. A devastating series of bombings tears through Bangkok. Scores of American citizens are dead. The attacks send shock waves around the world. As global assistance pours into Thailand--including the FBI's famed Evidence Response Team--the president of the United States quietly prepares a plan B: Scot Harvath, America's top spy, trained to operate outside the law and probe the dark corners others can't...or won't. But the bomber Harvath is pursuing isn't a terrorist. He's something far more dangerous--one of ours. Meanwhile, in Washington, a former United States Marine is being hunted--and he has no idea why. Desperate for answers, he turns to the one person he still trusts--his ex-fianc e, a rising star in the White House. The problem is, she isn't sure she can trust him. As Harvath closes in on the bomber, a devastating truth begins to emerge. China has quietly deployed its most elite intelligence unit to Thailand. Their objective: to ignite chaos, trigger a military coup, and seize control of a narrow but critical piece of land, one that could give Beijing a decisive advantage. If the plan succeeds, Beijing will secure a key gateway between two oceans, eroding American naval dominance and tipping the balance in any war between the world's great powers. China will control the ultimate geopolitical choke point.
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Helm
by Sarah Hall
Helm is a ferocious, mischievous wind - a subject of folklore and awe, part-elemental god, part-aerial demon blasting through the sublime landscape of Northern England since the dawn of time. Through the stories of those who've obsessed over Helm, an extraordinary history is formed: the Neolithic tribe who tried to placate Helm, the Dark Age wizard priest who wanted to banish Helm, the Victorian steam engineer who attempted to capture Helm -- and the farmer's daughter who fiercely loved Helm. But now Dr. Selima Sutar, surrounded by infinite clouds and measuring instruments in her observation hut, fears human pollution is killing Helm.
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The Halifax Hellions
by Alexandra Vasti
From USA Today bestselling author Alexandra Vasti comes The Halifax Hellions: a pair of sexy, hilarious romps in which the most scandalous ladies in London finally meet their match. From the day of their debut, when Matilda smoked a cheroot and Margo tied a cherry stem in a knot with her tongue, the Halifax twins have flouted convention at every turn. But when Matilda runs off with the dangerous Marquess of Ashford--who has every reason to hate her--she may have gone a bit too far. Determined to stop Matilda's inexplicable elopement, her sister Margo turns to her oldest friend for help: because if anyone can get her to Scotland in time, it's starchy solicitor Henry Mortimer. But the road to Scotland is paved with secrets. Beneath his buttoned-up exterior, Henry is ardently, wildly, miserably in love with Margo. And Matilda and Ashford's relationship too may not be quite what it seems. Between salacious engravings, secret identities, and demanding feral cats, nothing about the journey goes as planned. With the Halifax Hellions at the reins, a week in a carriage is exactly enough time to turn the world upside down . . . and, perhaps, find the love stories they never expected. For the first time ever in print, The Halifax Hellions brings together Margo and Matilda's novellas, along with a swoony new epilogue.
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De-Witched
by Sophie H. Morgan
All's fair in love and warlocks...Six weeks ago, Leah Turner snuck into a witch high-society masked ball and promised to abide by two rules: 1. Don't draw attention to yourself. 2. Don't talk to anyone. As a human, Leah took a huge risk by even attending--and by talking to the enigmatic warlock who had her wanting to rip off her mask. But this Cinderella had to leave the ball before anyone discovered her secret. Gabriel Goodnight is everything a Higher family warlock should be. Powerful, responsible--to a fault, some might say. Still, before he can inherit his parents' business, he'll have to prove his merit to the board one final time...by living among humans, without his powers, for three months. When Gabriel walks into Leah's bar, she immediately recognizes him--but it's obvious he has no idea who she is, and he definitely doesn't know she knows about magic. This condescending, uptight man is hardly the Prince Charming she thought she knew...but that doesn't mean they can't have a little fun...A perfect example of grumpy/sunshine goodness.
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Delusional: A Michael Bennett Thriller
by James Patterson
A New York Times bestseller from the world's bestselling author. Detective Michael Bennett and army-sniper-turned-NYPD-officer Rob Trilling travel to Montana to investigate a case that crosses state borders and family lines. In New York City, a series of deadly bombs explodes. Across the river, a military base is burglarized for munitions. In Montana, violence and arson rock a small town outside of Bozeman. Are the incidents related? Bennett, Trilling, and the ATF investigate. A single-minded group angry with the government keep turning up in unexpected places, insisting that they're only trying to make the world a better place. To law enforcement, their claims seem delusional. Will words or gunpowder light the next fuse?
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Beings
by Ilana Masad
From the celebrated author of All My Mother's Lovers, a new novel based on true events asks whether extraterrestrial life might be what ties us to one another, to history, and to reality itself.
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Promise Me Never
by LIV Constantine
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Next Mrs. Parrish comes an unmissable thriller about a woman who becomes embroiled in the mystery of her husband's deceased first wife--and after moving to his remote house in the woods, uncovers terrifying secrets. Aspiring writer Savannah's scheme to meet superstar horror novelist Bennett Bryson turns out better than she ever imagined: not only does her charming and handsome literary idol offer to read her work, he is instantly smitten with her. After a whirlwind romance, Savannah says yes to marriage, and the two settle into Bennett's secluded upstate home. But just as Savannah thinks she has it made, cracks appear in her perfect new life. Bennett's behavior becomes dark and controlling: he criticizes Savannah's writing, dictates her permitted activities, and spends most of his time locked in his office, forbidding her from entering. And everywhere, Savannah cannot escape the shadow of Bennett's first wife, the free-spirited and passionate artist Poppy, who died in a tragic accident, but who seems still to be Savannah's rival for Bennett's affection. Then comes an enigmatic warning: Bennett is not who he seems. The women that came before Savannah have disappeared. And Savannah could be next. Isolated and unsure whom to trust, Savannah tries to piece together the mystery of the man she married, and the woman he married first. But Savannah has no idea what her husband is really hiding. And someone out there knows Savannah has secrets of her own. As these two writers will learn the hard way--past really is prologue. With memorably complicated characters, deliciously devious betrayals, and truly shocking twists, this edge-of-your-seat novel from one of today's most original writers will keep you guessing until the last page.
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The Shadow Friends: A Thriller
by Tess Gerritsen
From New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen comes a harrowing and emotional thriller where ghosts of the Cold War return with a vengeance--and cannot be outrun.When a renowned disease expert and Russian defector dies mysteriously during a global affairs conference in Purity, Maine, the tight-knit band of former spies in the Martini Club once again sees their quiet coastal retirement interrupted by international intrigue. And when a waitress at the conference hotel is found murdered, Ingrid Slocum sees chilling links to a disastrous mission that nearly killed her three decades ago.Desperate to uncover the truth, Ingrid's drawn back into the game by a magnetic ex-CIA colleague--and former lover--who was with her on the long-ago doomed mission. He convinces her to join him, and together they head to Amsterdam to track down her would-be killer.Ingrid's frantic husband Lloyd and Maggie Bird are close behind, but a clandestine network of assassins is intent on stopping them. Forced to question every allegiance, the Martini Club must rely on the skills they tried to leave behind. Because in this game of revenge and deception, the past never dies--it just hides in the shadows.
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The Age of Calamities: Stories
by Senaa Ahmad
Collection of short stories by Senaa Ahmad, including Let's Play Dead, The Napoleons Are Multiplying, The Wolves, Our Lady of Resplendent Misfortune, Inside the House of the Historian, It Was Probably a Very Nice Day, Not Everything Is Ancient History, The Houseguest, and Choose Your Own Apocalypse.
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After the Fall
by Edward Ashton
Part alien invasion story, part buddy comedy, and part workplace satire, After The Fall by Edward Ashton, author of Mickey7 (inspiration for the film Mickey 17), asks an important question: would humans really make great pets?Humans must be silent. Humans must be obedient. Humans must be good. All his life, John has tried to live by those rules. Most days, it's not too difficult. A hundred and twenty years after The Fall, and a hundred years after the grays swept in to pick the last dregs of humanity out of the wreckage of a ruined world, John has found himself bonded to Martok Barden nee Black Hand, one of the good grays. Sure, Martok is broke, homeless, and borderline manic, but he's always treated John like an actual person, and sometimes like a friend. It's a better deal than most humans get. But when Martok puts John's bond up as collateral against an abandoned house in the woods that he hopes to turn into a wilderness retreat for wealthy grays, John learns that there are limits to Martok's friendship. Soon he finds himself caught between an underworld boss who thinks Martok is something that he very much is not, a girl who was raised by feral humans and has nothing but contempt for pets like John, and Martok himself, whose delusions of grandeur seem to be finally catching up with him. Also, not for nothing, something in the woods has been killing people. John has sixty days before Martok's loan comes due to unravel the mystery of how humans wound up holding the wrong end of the domestication stick and find a way to turn Martok's half-baked plans into profit enough to buy back his life, all while avoiding getting butchered by feral humans or having his head crushed by an angry gray. Easy peasy, right?
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Artificial Wisdom
by Thomas R. Weaver
In a climate-ravaged landscape where AI and humans vie for political power, a journalist must unravel a murderous plot that will either upend the world or save it.
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Otherworldly
by Dwain Worrell
From award-winning writer, producer, and filmmaker Dwain Worrell comes a poignant and thrilling science fiction adventure about a young astronaut navigating addiction and loss who finds herself stranded on a mysterious planet where members of her crew go missing one by one.Cleo Xavier is a renowned astronaut and explorer--not an addict. At least, that's what she tells herself. She's always been able to navigate the isolation and loneliness that come with space exploration, which makes her a perfect candidate to join four other astronauts on a mission to Orbis Alius, the farthest planet in the solar system, to test its terraforming viability.But when Cleo and her crew arrive on Orbis Alius, its surrounding wasteland reveals mysteries and horrors that none of them could ever imagine. Here, the tortured atmosphere changes as dramatically as the landscape. The sky itself seems to be descending. And something sinister lurks in the unknown. One by one, the crew goes missing and Cleo must venture deeper into the planet to save them--even while she finds herself falling to old vices as the isolation she once so craved becomes as oppressive as the shifting black fog.The farther Cleo ventures and the more she uncovers about the secrets Orbis Alius holds, the more she starts to realize that maybe she isn't alone at all.
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Saltcrop
by Yume Kitasei
From the acclaimed author of The Stardust Grail comes the epic tale of two sisters who sail across oceans to find their missing third sister--and Earth's environmental salvation. In Earth's not too distant future, seas consume coastal cities, highways disintegrate underwater, and mutant fish lurk in pirate-controlled depths. Skipper, a skilled sailor and the youngest of three sisters, earns money skimming and reselling plastic from the ocean to care for her ailing grandmother. But then her eldest sister, Nora, goes missing. Nora left home a decade ago in pursuit of a cure for failing crops all over the world. When Skipper and her other sister, Carmen, receive a cryptic plea for help, they must put aside their differences and set out across the sea to find--and save--her. As they voyage through a dying world both beautiful and strange, encountering other travelers along the way, they learn more about their sister's work and the corporations that want what she discovered. But the farther they go, the more uncertain their mission becomes: What dangerous attention did Nora attract, and how well do they really know their sister--or each other? Thus begins an epic journey spanning oceans and continents and a wistful rumination on sisterhood, friendship, and ecological disaster.
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Homebound: A GMA Book Club Pick: A Novel
by Portia Elan
A NATIONAL BESTSELLER - A GOOD MORNING AMERICA BOOK CLUB PICK - A NEW YORKER BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR - In a dazzling ode to human inventiveness and the desire for meaning, four lives are entangled across time by one unfinished story, saved to a floppy disk in the 1980s and destined to ripple across the centuries. A joy...and a hauntingly beautiful exploration of what makes us human. It kept me up all night --MADELINE MILLER, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Song of Achilles A big, bold, ecstatic world--full of heart and wonder. --RUTH OZEKI, New York Times bestselling author of A Tale for the Time Being 1983. Becks is nineteen, blasting her Walkman, and hiding from the fact that her beloved uncle, and the only person who understood her, is dead. Luckily, he left her a half-finished video game to complete--one last collaboration to find her way out of loneliness. 2078. Dr. Portman works at the intersection of artificial intelligence and robotics, wrestling with her responsibility to Earth's precarious future. But increasingly, it seems an exceptional project may transcend everything she believed to be possible... 2586. After decades of life on the sea, Yesiko knows a scavenger's work is rife with moral compromise. Yet when a long-lost piece of technology walks aboard her ship, she is set on a path toward a sacrifice even she may be unwilling to make. Linking these women across the centuries is a chain reaction of love, longing, and creativity that reveals our deep interconnectedness. Clear-eyed and hopeful, Homebound imagines how future generations will find meaning in the things we leave behind.
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The Sixth Nik
by Daniel Kraus
Perfectly aligned for readers of Iain M. Banks's The Culture series and Ursula K. Le Guin's The Ones Who Walk Away from Omelas, The Sixth Nik is a galaxy spanning adventure from the New York Times bestselling and Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Angel Down and Whalefall. Deep into space, far past the triworld outposts, beyond range of the lethal trollbot internet, soars The Sickness: a ship woven from biomatter and capable of reacting to every need of its human crew. Sisilla, a nine-year-old cultist with a brain enhanced by arcane tech known as niks, has boarded to investigate the enigma of F m--a plague-riddled planet that has abruptly gone rogue. The mysterious crew includes a faceless assassin, a beautiful engineer jigsawed by plastic surgery, a peyote-addicted medic, and--most lethal of all--a rugged, NonModded captain with a score to settle with Sisilla. Other dangers abound. A hacked robot begins to believe Sisilla is its daughter. The Sickness itself is mutating, possibly even pregnant. And the secret of F m is more horrific than anyone could have imagined. To survive, Sisilla will need to forsake her predetermined fate and embrace the unknown.
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Lightbreakers
by Aja Gabel
A Belletrist Book Club PickRiveting . . . Lightbreakers is a marvel. . . propulsive and unforgettable.-Washington Post You will love this genre-busting book. . . A beautiful meditation of grief, time, and love. -Samin Nosrat What would you give to relive the past? Maya, an artist, and Noah, a quantum physicist, share an insatiable curiosity about the world. But their happy marriage has a shadow over it: Serena, the child Noah had with his first wife, who died before she turned four. When Noah is invited by the Janus Project to help unravel the secrets of time travel, he jumps at the opportunity. At a laboratory deep in the Texas desert, he begins participating in dangerous, secret experiments that could result in something he thought impossible: seeing his daughter again. Meanwhile, Maya returns to her own past in Japan and to a formative lover who once shattered her heart. As Noah and Maya grapple with hope and despair, new information emerges that the experiments might not be what they seem. A heartachingly moving novel, Lightbreakers plumbs the mysteries of human connection, and explores how to love in a world where time is both a healer and a thief.
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Want to request any of these titles? Place a hold through the online catalog or call the library 831-768-3404 for assistance. |
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Watsonville Public Library
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