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New Fiction December, 2025 |
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The Black Wolf
by Louise Penny
Several weeks ago, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Sãuretâe du Quâebec and his team uncovered and stopped a domestic terrorist attack in Montrâeal, arresting the person behind it--a man they called the Black Wolf. But their relief is short-lived. In a sickening turn of events, Gamache has realized that plot, as horrific as it was, was just the beginning--perhaps even a deliberate misdirection. One he fell into. Something deeper and darker, more damaging, is planned. Did he in fact arrest the Black Wolf, or are they still out there? Armand is appalled to think his mistake has allowed their conspiracy to grow, to gather supporters. To spread lies, manufacture enemies, and feed hatred and division. Still recovering from wounds received in stopping the first attack, Armand is confined to the village of Three Pines, leading a covert investigation from there--
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The Tin Men by Nelson DeMilleArmy CID Special Agents Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor team up for their toughest assignment yet as they are dispatched to Camp Hayden to investigate the death of Major Roger Ames, the chief scientist in charge of the top-secret war games being conducted between a platoon of Army Rangers and a fleet of 'lethal autonomous weapons.' Brodie and Taylor find themselves at ground zero of the next generation of warfare, and must untangle the complex web of alliances, animosities, and secret agendas among the men and women of the isolated facility. In a place cut off from the world and exposed to the harsh desert elements, everyone is a suspect -- from the zealous camp commander who pushes his men to the limit, to the Rangers slipping into madness due to isolation, grueling training, and rampant abuse of performance-enhancing drugs, to the late Major Ames's own research colleagues. Brodie and Taylor must uncover layers of deception to find the hidden hand behind the murder of Major Ames, and the real purpose of the activities at Camp Hayden and its terrifying arsenal of next-generation weapons.
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Wreck
by Catherine Newman
If you loved Rocky and her family on vacation on Cape Cod, wait until you join them at home two years later. (And if this is your first meeting with this crew, get ready to laugh and cry--and relate.) Rocky, still anxious, nostalgic, and funny, is living in Western Massachusetts with her husband Nick and their daughter Willa, who's back home after college. Their son Jamie has taken a new job in New York, and Mort, Rocky's widowed father, has moved in. It all couldn't be more ridiculously normal--until Rocky finds herself obsessed with a local accident that only tangentially affects them--and with a medical condition that, she hopes, won't affect them at all--
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Calder Strong
by Janet Dailey
At 24, Joseph Dollarhide is struggling to find his place as the future head of his ranching family. His father, Blake, may have been disabled in an accident but he's as domineering as ever. Joseph's childhood friend, Chase Calder, has inherited the rival Calder operation, and for both young men, longstanding battles over water and grass continue. But there's yet another weight on Joseph's shoulders. Years ago, Joseph abandoned his teenage love, Annabeth, to court glamorous Lucy Merriweather, a seductive trickster. The affair, of course, imploded, and Annabeth went on to marry a farmer, Silas Mosby, and have two children. But now Joseph has spotted Annabeth and her family in town ... and he has no doubt that her oldest, a boy, is his--
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The Ex-Girlfriend Murder Club by Gloria ChaoIn this laugh-out-loud murder mystery, three women dating the same man band together to get revenge, but when they discover his body, they'll need to solve his murder before they go down for it.
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Hatchet Girls
by Joe R. Lansdale
When Hap and Leonard are called in on a strange request (subduing a meth-hopped hog) by a desperate young lady, they quickly learn this woman is part of a fringe group: The Hatchet Girls, who have pledged their allegiance to a crazed and grudge-bearing leader bent on bloody societal revenge. The timing couldn't be worse to be caught in such a vile, sticky wicket of a case: both boys are wrapped up in their domestic lives. Leonard is in the midst of wedding planning with fiancâee Pookie. And meanwhile, Hap and Brett are hard at work on their new home. Homemaking bliss will have to wait as Hap and Leonard are driven to stop the danger in its tracks and better understand the group's mission and the plans they have already set in place for helter-skelteresque mayhem--
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Hole in the Sky
by Daniel H. Wilson
A gripping sci-fi thriller and Native American First Contact story. Heliopause is a real place-the very outer edge of our solar system where the sun's solar winds are no longer strong enough to keep debris and intrusions from bombarding our system. It is the farthest edge of our protected boundary (it was recently crossed by Voyager), and the line beyond which space experts look for extraterrestrial presences. This is where Daniel Wilson's fascinating novel begins. Weaving together the story of Jim, a down-on-his-luck absentee father in the Osage territory of Oklahoma, and his daughter, Tawny, with those of a NASA engineer, a misfit anonymous genius who lives in military isolation analyzing a secret incoming Pattern, and a CIA investigator tasked with tracking unexplained encounters, Hole in the Sky explores a Native American first contact that pulls all five characters into something never before seen or imagined--
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Murder on the Red River by Marcie R. Rendon1970s, Red River Valley between North Dakota and Minnesota: Renee “Cash” Blackbear is 19 years old and tough as nails. She lives in Fargo, North Dakota, where she drives truck for local farmers, drinks beer, plays pool, and helps solve criminal investigations through the power of her visions. She has one friend, Sheriff Wheaton, her guardian, who helped her out of the broken foster care system.
One Saturday morning, Sheriff Wheaton is called to investigate a pile of rags in a field and finds the body of an Indian man. When Cash dreams about the dead man’s weathered house on the Red Lake Reservation, she knows that’s the place to start looking for answers. Together, Cash and Wheaton work to solve a murder that stretches across cultures in a rural community traumatized by racism, genocide, and oppression.
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Old Money by Kelsey MillerOn the Fourth of July, a teenager dies at an exclusive country club. Twenty years later, her cousin returns to her hometown, seeking answers behind closed gates...
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Overdue by Stephanie PerkinsIs it time to renew love or start a new chapter? Ingrid Dahl, a cheerful twenty-nine-year-old librarian in the cozy mountain town of Ridgetop, North Carolina, has been happily dating her college boyfriend, Cory, for eleven years without ever discussing marriage. But when Ingrid's sister announces her engagement to a woman she's only been dating for two years, Ingrid and Cory feel pressured to consider their future. Neither has ever been with anybody else, so they make an unconventional decision. They'll take a one-month break to date other people, then they'll reunite and move toward marriage. Ingrid even has someone in mind--her charmingly grumpy coworker, Macon Nowakowski, on whom she's secretly crushed for years. But plans go awry, and when the month ends, Ingrid and Cory realize they're not ready to resume their relationship--and Ingrid's harmless crush on Macon has turned into something much more complicated. Overdue is a beautiful, slow-burn romance full of lust and longing about new beginnings and finding your way.
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The Picasso Heist: A Thriller
by James Patterson
The art world ignites with the discovery of a previously unknown Picasso painting. After being hidden away for fifty years in the attic of a French villa, it's valued at $100 million and put up for auction. Echelon, the Upper East Side auction house brokering the sale, is flooded with interest. ... None of the interested parties has a chance at winning the Picasso without the help of Halston Graham. The young auction-house employee graduated second in her class at Columbia, but she's a first-rate art thief--and an expert gambler who knows how to calculate the odds and play her considerable leverage against all sides. To complete the Picasso heist, she must stay one step ahead of the truth before the gavel falls--
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Remain: A Supernatural Love Story by Nicholas SparksWhen New York architect Tate Donovan arrives in Cape Cod to design his best friend's summer home, he is hoping to make a fresh start. Recently discharged from an upscale psychiatric facility where he was treated for acute depression, he is still wrestling with the pain of losing his beloved sister. Sylvia's deathbed revelation--that she can see spirits who are still tethered to the living world, a gift that runs in their family--sits uneasily with Tate, who struggles to believe in more than what reason can explain. But when he takes up residence at a historic bed-and-breakfast on the Cape, he encounters a beautiful young woman named Wren who will challenge every assumption he has about his logical and controlled world. Tate and Wren find themselves forging an immediate connection, one that neither has ever experienced before. But Tate gradually discovers that below the surface of Wren's idyllic small-town life, hatred, jealousy, and greed are festering, threatening their fragile relationship just as it begins to blossom. Tate realizes that in order to free Wren from an increasingly desperate fate, he will need to unearth the truth about her past before time runs out . . . a quest that will make him doubt whether we can ever believe the stories we tell about ourselves, and the laws that govern our existence. Love--while transformative--can sometimes be frightening. A story about the power of transcendent emotion, Remain asks us all: Can love set us free not only from our greatest sorrows, but even from the boundaries of life and death?
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Sharp Force by Patricia CornwellDuring the early hours of Christmas morning, chief medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta receives a chilling call. The Phantom Slasher has struck again. The serial killer has terrorized Northern Virginia for months. His pattern is to stalk with a sophisticated technology that enables him to invade his victims' homes and watch their every move. They wake up to a ghost-like hologram before being murdered in their beds. Scarpetta is summoned to Mercy Island, the site of a notorious psychiatric hospital where two people have been brutalized, one of them from Scarpetta's past. It soon becomes apparent that she could be next...
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The Second Chance Cinema
by Thea Weiss
At the end of a cobblestone alley, shrouded by fog and empty storefronts, lies a glittering magical cinema, with 'The Story of You' presented on the marquee. Ellie and Drake, a newly engaged couple, stumble upon it while walking around their city late one night. Ellie, a dreamer who has made a career of writing about nearly forgotten businesses, is immediately intrigued. Tickets in hand, they make their way into the deserted red-velvet auditorium and to their great surprise, see projected before them memories from their respective pasts. Risk-averse Drake is reluctant when Ellie insists they return to the cinema, but he finally concedes. There's a moment she's haunted by from her past that she doesn't fully remember. If she could only watch what happened, then maybe she'd finally know she wasn't to blame. Meanwhile, Drake is concerned that Ellie will get the wrong idea about a past relationship from what she sees on the screen. As their memories inch closer to the day they met, they realize they both have been keeping secrets from each other--
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At Midnight Comes the Cry: A Clare Fergusson/Russ Van Alstyne Mystery by Julia Spencer-FlemingIt's Christmas time in Millers Kill, and Reverend Clare Fergusson and her husband Russ van Alstyne - newly resigned from his position as chief of police - plan to enjoy it with their baby boy. On their list: visiting Santa, decorating the tree, and attending the church Christmas pageant. But when a beloved holiday parade is crashed by white supremacists, Clare and Russ find themselves sucked into a parallel world of militias, machinations and murder. Meanwhile, single mom and officer Hadley Knox has her hands full juggling her kids and her police work. She doesn't want to worry about her former partner - and sometimes lover - Kevin Flynn, but when he takes leave from the Syracuse PD and disappears, she can't help her growing panic that something has gone very wrong. Novice lawyer Joy Zho is keeping secrets from her superiors at the state Attorney General's Office. She knows they wouldn't condone her off-the-books investigation, but she's convinced a threatening alt-right conspiracy is brewing - and catching the perpetrators could jump start her career. NYS Forest Ranger Paul Terrance is looking for his uncle, a veteran of the park service gone inexplicably missing. He doesn't think much of an ex-cop and out-of-town officer showing up in his patch of the woods, but he's heard the disturbing rumors of dangerous men in the mountains. In New York Times Julia Spencer-Fleming's latest novel, as Christmas approaches, these five people will discover their suspicions hang on a single twisting thread, leading to the forbidding High Peaks of the Adirondacks. As the December days shorten and the nights grow long, a disparate group of would-be heroes need to unwind a murderous plot before time runs out.
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The Seven Rings: The Lost Bride Trilogy, Book 3 by Nora RobertsLong ago, Arthur Poole built a grand house overlooking the turbulent ocean, in a Maine village that bore his name. Today, Sonya MacTavish lives in that house--a manor that has been cursed for generations. Within its walls, she has witnessed the deaths of seven brides and the thefts of seven wedding rings. And now, to break the curse and banish a malevolent spirit once and for all, a difficult task must be completed. After Sonya, her boyfriend, Trey, and their friends are forced to hear, see--and feel--the suffering of the house's many ghosts as their torment is reenacted by the evil presence, their bond only strengthens and their anger is renewed. Refusing to let her spirit be broken, Sonya searches each room for clues to her ancestors' hidden story, putting the picture together, unearthing small treasures, and uncovering the moments of joy that existed among the sorrows. She's determined to bring light to this haunted place--to fill it with people, with life and hope, once again. But the enemy in the black dress continues to hover, to come at her in frightening forms. They may be illusions--but illusions can be powerful enough to wound and kill. She feeds on fear, and lies are her weapon. This dark-hearted witch wants to be mistress of Poole Manor, at any cost. And Sonya will need to fight a battle across two realms to finally take possession of the house on the clifftop--and of her own future...
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All That We See or Seem
by Ken Liu
Ken Liu returns with his first scifi thriller in a brand-new series following a former orphan hacker as she is thrust into a high-stakes adventure where she must use her AI-whispering skills to unravel a virtual reality mystery--
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And Then There Was the One by Martha WatersIn a quaint village in the Cotswolds, Georgiana Radcliffe has accidentally become an amateur detective after helping solve four murders in a single year. When the chairman of the village council turns up dead, everyone agrees with the official ruling of a heart attack, but Georgie can't help but suspect that the council chairman is a fifth victim. Now, murder tourists are flocking from around the country, in hopes of becoming sleuths themselves. Along with her reporter friend, she reaches out to a famous London detective for assistance in ascertaining why they have become a magnet for murder. But the fancy detective is simply too busy--or can't be bothered--to help, and instead dispatches his secretary, Sebastian Fletcher-Ford--a posh womanizer who, truthfully, is just trying to get out of his hair, much to practical, no-nonsense Georgie's dismay. But as they investigate in the charming Buncombe-upon-Woolly--with plentiful scones, sheep on the village green, and murder tourists at every turn--Georgie finds that her previous assessment of Sebastian may have been wrong, and rather than solving a murder, she may be solving for love instead.
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Christmas at the Women's Hotel: A Biedermeier Story
by Daniel M. Lavery
Christmas at the Biedermeier Hotel means work. For much of the year, employment comes infrequently to Biedermeier residents. But during the Advent season, they're in high demand all over the city--as holiday window dressers, sales-girls at the card stores on Forty-Second Street, Broadway usherettes, assisting the Lincoln Center laundress at the Nutcracker, or working for Pinkerton as off-season security guards at the World's Fair. Katherine explores the possibility of reconnecting with a younger sister moving to New York. Lucianne goes into business for herself, running a telephone-order, strictly Social Register male escort agency out of her room, while Mrs. Mossler attempts to solve the mystery of the Biedermeier's skyrocketing phone bill and frets over Christmas tips for the hotel's few remaining employees. And while the three gem thieves who broke into the American Museum of Natural History have recently been apprehended, not all of the stolen jewels have been recovered--and Patricia and Carol have been behaving very strangely recently. Christmas is a season of wonder and mystery, after all--
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Fallen Star by Lee GoldbergA fifty-five-gallon drum washes up in the Malibu Lagoon stuffed with the corpse of Gene Dent, the key player in a bribery scandal that ensnared several local politicians. LASD detectives Eve Ronin and Duncan Pavone know the case--and all the likely suspects--well. Just as they begin their investigation, the sheriff publicly reveals evidence linking the crime to LA's mayor. But Eve and Duncan realize the bombshell allegation, true or not, arises from corruption within the sheriff's own office...because they helped cover it up years ago. If the sheriff goes down, so will they. Eve is agonizing over her moral dilemma when a helicopter crashes in the hillside below her Calabasas home. It's not a coincidence. Eve soon discovers among the twisted wreckage and dead passengers shocking connections to her own past...and they lead straight to a fight for her life.
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A Ferry Merry Christmas by Debbie MacomberA delayed ferryboat brings people together in the best of ways during the holiday season in this Christmas novel from #1 New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macombe.
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The Keeper of Magical Things by Julie LeongCertainty Bulrush wants to be useful—to the Guild of Mages that took her in as a novice, to the little brother who depends on her, and to anyone else she can help. Unfortunately, her tepid magic hasn’t proven much use to anyone. When Certainty has the chance to earn her magehood via a seemingly straightforward assignment, she takes it. Nevermind that she’ll have to work with Mage Aurelia, the brilliant, unfairly attractive overachiever who’s managed to alienate everyone around her.
The two must transport minorly magical artifacts somewhere safe: Shpelling, the dullest, least magical village around. There, they must fix up an old warehouse, separate the gossipy teapots from the kind-of-flaming swords, corral an unruly little catdragon who has tagged along, and above all, avoid complications. The Guild’s uneasy relationship with citizens is at a tipping point, and the last thing needed is a magical incident.
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Nash Falls by David BaldacciNash is an intelligent man, tough but fair-minded. He has a wife and a daughter and a very high-level position at Sybaritic Investments, where his innate skills and dogged tenacity have carried him to the top of the pyramid in his business career. Despite never going on grand adventures, and always working too many hours, he has a happy and upscale life with his family. However, following his estranged Vietnam-veteran father's funeral, Nash is unexpectedly approached by the FBI in the middle of the night. They have an important request: become their inside man to expose an enterprise that is laundering large sums of money through Sybaritic. At the top of this illegal operation is Victoria Steers, an international criminal mastermind that the FBI has been trying to bring down for years. Nash has little choice but to accept the FBI's demands and try to bring Steers and her partners to justice. But when Steers discovers that Nash is working with the FBI, she turns the tables on him in a way he never could have contemplated. And that forces Nash to take the ultimate step both to survive and to take his revenge: He must become the exact opposite of who he has always been. And even that may not be enough.
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The Proving Ground: A Lincoln Lawyer Novel
by Michael Connelly
Following his resurrection walk and need for a new direction, Mickey Haller turns to public interest litigation, filing a civil lawsuit against an artificial intelligence company whose chatbot told a sixteen-year-old boy that it was okay for him to kill his ex-girlfriend for her disloyalty. Representing the victim's family, Mickey's case explores the mostly unregulated and exploding AI business and the lack of training guardrails. Along the way he joins up with a journalist named Jack McEvoy, who wants to be a fly on the wall during the trial in order to write a book about it. But Mickey puts him to work going through the mountain of printed discovery materials in the case. McEvoy's digging ultimate delivers the key witness, a whistleblower who has been too afraid to speak up. The case is fraught with danger because billions are at stake. It is said that machines became smarter than humans on the day in 1997 that IBM's Deep Blue defeated chess master Garry Kasparov with a gambit called the knight's sacrifice. Haller will take a similar gambit in court to defeat the mega forces of the AI industry lined up against him and his clients--
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Red City by Marie LuAlchemy is the hidden art of transformation. An exclusive power wielded by crime syndicates that market it to the world's elites in the form of Sand, a drug that enhances those who take it into a more perfect version of themselves: more beautiful, more charismatic, simply more. Among the gleaming skyscrapers and rolling foothills of Angel City, alchemy is controlled by two rival syndicates. For years, Grand Central and Lumines have been balanced on a razor's edge between polite negotiation and outright violence. But when two childhood friends step into that delicate equation, the city -- and the paths of their lives -- will be irrevocably transformed.
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The Tourists by Christopher ReichRetired special agent Mac Dekker travels to Paris to propose to Ava Attal, once Mossad's deadliest operative. After too long, life is good. But before he can propose, Ava leaves the table to take an urgent call. And never returns. Mac launches a frantic search, spiraling through the city's brightest and darkest places. People are lying, agents are dying, and he finds himself caught in the crosshairs of CIA shadows and enigmatic assassins while battling a wealthy, ruthless prince planning a truly terrifying act of violence. With only hours to find Ava and save thousands of lives, Mac's CIA training kicks in, along with his instincts: Is Ava truly missing, or did she come to Paris on a mission even more secretive than his own?
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Venetian Vespers
by John Banville
A novel set in Venice at the turn of the twentieth century, narrated by a writer who becomes entangled in a web of conspiracy and murder--
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The Wayfinder by Adam JohnsonA grand historical novel about a girl from a remote Polynesian island who goes on an epic journey to the heart of the Tongan Empire.
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Workhorse by Caroline PalmerAt the turn of the millennium, Editorial Assistant Clodagh Clo Harmon wants nothing more than to rise through the ranks at the world's most prestigious fashion magazine. There's just one problem: she doesn't have the right pedigree. Instead, Clo is a workhorse surrounded by beautiful, wealthy, impossibly well-connected show horses who get ahead without effort, including her beguiling cubicle-mate, Davis Lawrence, the daughter of a beloved but fading Broadway actress. Harry Wood, Davis's boarding school classmate and a reporter with visions of his own media empire, might be Clo's ally in gaming the system--or he might be the only thing standing between Clo and her rightful place at the top. In a career punctuated by moments of high absurdity, sudden windfalls, and devastating reversals of fortune, Clo wades across boundaries, taking ever greater and more dangerous risks to become the important person she wants to be within the confines of a world where female ambition remains cloaked. But who really is Clo underneath all the borrowed designer clothes and studied manners--and who are we if we share her desires? Hilariously observant and insightful, Workhorse is a brilliant page-turner about what it means to be in thrall to wealth, beauty, and influence, and the outrageous sacrifices women must make for the sake of success.
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And to All a Good Bite: An Andy Carpenter Mystery by David RosenfeltReluctant lawyer Andy Carpenter can't wait for Christmas. He doesn't care much about the season, unless it's football season. Andy's excited to finally relax and watch the games. But when there's a murder related to an old case in Paterson, New Jersey, Andy puts the games on pause. Two years ago, a gas leak in an office building led to a tragic explosion that killed seven people. Jeff Wheeler was there to pick up his girlfriend and ran into the building to help. All he heard was the barking of a dog, Rufus, and was able to save him. The pup was the sole survivor and Jeff was named a hero. Initially, Rufus went to the Tara Foundation since his owner had died in the accident. But Andy met Jeff and liked him, respecting his courage and allowed him to adopt Rufus. Since then, Jeff and Rufus have formed an unbreakable bond. The accident never sat right with Jeff. He believed that one of the building owners was responsible for the tragedy. Now that owner has been murdered and Jeff is arrested for the crime, Rufus is left with Jeff's sister, who begs Andy to take the case. Andy remembered Jeff's tremendous bravery and with the lingering Christmas spirit, decides to help reunite the two. With David Rosenfelt's signature humor and hijinks, it's time to close this case for good and bid it a good night.
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Bad Bad Girl
by Gish Jen
Gish's mother--Loo Shu-hsin--is born in 1925 to a wealthy Shanghai family where girls are expected to behave and be quiet. Every act of disobedience prompts the same reprimand: 'Bad bad girl! You don't know how to talk!' She gets sent to Catholic school, where she is baptized, re-named for St. Agnes, and, unusually for a girl, given an internationally-minded education. Still, her father would say, 'Too bad. If you were a boy, you could accomplish a lot.' Aggie finds solace in books, reading every night with a flashlight and an English-Chinese dictionary, before announcing her intention to pursue a Ph.D in America. ... Lonely and adrift in Manhattan, Aggie begins dating Chao-Pei, an engineering student also from Shanghai. While news of their country and their families grows increasingly dire, they set out to make a new life together: marriage, a number one son, a small house in the suburbs. By the time Gish is born, her parents' marriage is unraveling, and her mother, struggling to understand her strong-willed American daughter, is repeating the refrain that punctuated her own childhood--
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Big Kiss, Bye-Bye by Claire-Louise BennettA woman confronts the afterlife of intimacy, in a deeply tender novel by one of our most acclaimed and inventive fiction writers The things that hold life in place have been lifted off and put away. Uprooted by circumstance from city to deep countryside, a woman lives in temporary limbo, visited by memories of all she's left behind. The most insistent are those of Xavier, who has always been certain he knows her better than anyone, better than she knows herself. Xavier, whom she still loves but no longer desires, a displacement he has been unable to accept. An unexpected letter from an old acquaintance brings back a torrent of others she's loved or wanted. Each has been a match and a mismatch, a liberation and a threat to her very sense of self. The ephemera left by their passage -a spilled coffee, an unwanted bouquet, a mind-blowing kiss--make up a cabinet of curiosity she inventories, trying to divine the essence of intimacy. What does it mean to connect with another person? What impels us to touch someone, to be touched by them, to stay in touch? How do we let them go? In yet another tour de force of fiction, Claire-Louise Bennett explores the mystery of how people come into and go out of our lives, leaving us forever in their grasp.
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Bog Queen by Anna NorthIn the gorgeous new novel by the New York Times bestselling author of Outlawed, a strangely well-preserved Iron Age body turns up in an English bog, and the American forensic anthropologist on the case is thrust into an absorbing, complex mystery.
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Coyote Hills
by Jonathan Kellerman
Clay Edison has left behind the Alameda County coroner's office to strike out on his own as a private investigator. He's perfectly happy working low-stakes embezzlement cases--that is, until PI Regina Klein calls him with a mystery only he can solve. The son of a wealthy couple has washed up dead on the shores of San Francisco Bay with drugs in his system and a head injury. The police are calling it an accident. But the parents are adamant something's not right--and as Clay digs deeper, he uncovers a horrifying tangle of betrayal and lies--
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The Things Gods Break by Abigail OwenThe gods want her dead...Hades will bury them. You'd think I'd have learned by now: Don't mouth off to deities. Don't fall for the King of the Underworld. And definitely don't get dragged into a divine death match where I'm the cursed mortal prize. But here I am--trapped in Tartarus, humanity's worst pit stop, squaring off against monsters who make the gods look merciful. Titans, twisted by centuries of rage and ruin, are sealed behind seven ancient locks. And guess what? I'm the key. To escape, I'll have to survive every horrifying trial they throw at me. To win, I might have to become something the gods never saw coming. Oh, and Hades? He's about to break every rule the gods ever wrote. Because to save me...the god of death will burn the world. But if I break free? So do the Titans. And the world won't just suffer--it'll beg for the end.
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Cruel & Bitter Things: A Bad Choices Novel
by Joseph Souza
When Gwynn Denning sees Sam Townsend at an event in town, she knows she will kill him. Townsend date-raped her friend, Tift Ainsley, back in college. Or at least that's what Tift told her after she came back to her dorm that night.Gwynn swears that this will be the last time she kills. She's a mother to an adorable little boy and the director of a home for neglected and abused children. Although her marriage is unraveling, her life is otherwise good, thanks to Dr. Kaufman, her therapist. Ever since she was a young girl, she's wanted to eradicate the murderous thoughts that occasionally plagued her.When she learns that someone saw her leaving the event with Townsend, it sets off a series of catastrophic events that requires Gwynn to stay one step ahead of the law. Making matters worse, she's fallen for the detective in charge of investigating the murders she's committed. The consequences of Gwynn's actions forces her to confront the painful truth about her past and the dark secrets kept hidden by her family.Gwynn wants to be normal like everyone else. But how far will she go to stay out of prison?
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The Devil Is a Southpaw
by Brandon Hobson
Milton Muleborn has envied Matthew Echota, a talented Cherokee artist, ever since they were locked up together in a dangerous juvenile detention center in the late 1980s. Until Matthew escaped, that is. A novel within a novel, we read here Milton's dark, sometimes comic, and possibly unreliable account of the story of their childhood even as, years later, he remains jealous of Matthew's extraordinary abilities and unlikely success. Milton reveals secrets about their friendship, their families, and their nightmarish, surreal, experience of imprisonment. In revisiting the past, he explores the echoing traumas of incarceration and pride.--Provided by publisher.
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The Devil She Knows
by Alexandria Bellefleur
Samantha Cooper is having a day from hell. In less than 24 hours, her life has unraveled, leaving her single and with nowhere to live. Adding insult to injury, she's trapped in an elevator with a gorgeous woman claiming to be a demon. Daphne is not at all what Samantha expected from someone claiming to be an evil supernatural entity. She's pretty, witty, dressed in pink, and smells nice. And she's here to offer Samantha a deal she can't refuse: six wishes in exchange for one tiny trade--Samantha's soul. There's a glaring loophole in their contract, one Samantha fully intends to exploit so she doesn't fork over her soul. After all, she only needs one wish to win her ex back. Hell-bent to gather the last of the one thousand souls she needs so that she can be free of her own devilish deal, Daphne grants each of Samantha's wishes--with a twist, so that Samantha is forced to make another--
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The Hidden City: A Charles Lenox Mystery
by Charles Finch
It's 1879, and Lenox is convalescing from the violent events of his last investigation. But a desperate letter from an old servant forces him to pick up the trail of a cold case: the murder of an apothecary seven years before, whose only clue is an odd emblem carved into the doorway of the building where the man was killed. When Lenox finds a similar mark at the site of another murder, he begins to piece together a hidden pattern which leads him into the corridors of Parliament, the slums of East London, and ultimately the very heart of the British upper class--
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The Isle in the Silver Sea
by Tasha Suri
Deep within the forest, hidden behind the trees lies a witch - Simran. Her destiny is a thing she'd been forced into, not chosen. And when all is quiet in the wood she feels a familiar tug, drawing her toward her incarnate: A handsome female knight called Vina. Vina's life is bound by knightly duty and by her tale. Walking away from it means the death of the Isle. But seeing it out means destroying the only person who has looked beyond the armor to see the woman inside. There is no easy path to love and in order to free themselves from a tale neither of them chose, the two will need to write a story stronger than the one given to them. But what tale is stronger than The Knight and the Witch?--
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The Land in Winter by Andrew MillerDecember 1962: In a village deep in the English countryside, two neighboring couples begin the day. Local doctor Eric Parry commences his rounds in the village while his pregnant wife, Irene, wanders the rooms of their old house, mulling over the space that has grown between the two of them. On the farm nearby lives Irene's mirror image: witty but troubled Rita Simmons is also expecting. She spends her days trying on the idea of being a farmer's wife, but her head still swims with images of a raucous past that her husband, Bill, prefers to forget. When Rita and Irene meet across the bare field between their houses, a clock starts. There is still affection in both their homes; neither marriage has yet to be abandoned. But when the ordinary cold of December gives way--ushering in violent blizzards of the harshest winter in living memory--so do the secret resentments harbored in all four lives.
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The Perfect Hosts by Heather GudenkaufMadeline and Wes Drake have invited two hundred of their closest friends and family to their sprawling horse ranch for the most anticipated event of the year: a 'pistols and pearls' gender reveal party so sensational it is sure to make headlines. But the party descends into chaos when the celebratory explosive misfires, leaving one woman dead and a trail of secrets. As the aftershocks of the bloody party ripple across the small town, Agent Jamie Saldano is brought on the scene to investigate. Battling his own demons from the past, Saldano unearths a web of deceit spun around the Drakes. The appearance of some unexpected houseguests only deepens the mystery.
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The Predicament: A Gabriel Dax Novel by William Boyd1963, Guatemala. The country is in turmoil, and the CIA is not pleased that a charismatic, left-wing ex-priest and trade union leader is poised to win the upcoming presidential election. Amid this uncertainty, Gabriel Dax arrives on orders from his MI6 handler Faith Green, who has tasked him with assessing the situation undercover while posing as a reporter. Upon arrival, Gabriel grows increasingly suspicious that the genial local CIA agent, Frank Sartorius, is more untrustworthy than he appears. Soon, a political assassination with suspicions of Mafia involvement leads to riots, and Dax escapes back to Europe and his normal life. But when Green compels him to investigate shady characters in West Berlin ahead of the arrival of the magnetic young President Kennedy, it becomes clear that an even greater danger is afoot. A gripping novel of politics and spy craft with dramatic twists and turns, The Predicament shows Boyd to be one of our most masterful contemporary storytellers--
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Simultaneous
by Eric Heisserer
Federal agent Grant Lukather works for an unknown department of Homeland Security called Predictive Analytics. They look for patterns in tips and chatter to prevent a terrorist event before it happens. One of these calls, about a possible explosion in New Mexico, leads Grant to a case with unimaginable consequences. He meets Sarah Newcomb, a therapist who uses past-life hypnosis in her treatment but has recently stumbled upon a phenomenon that seems to defy logic. Grant follows this thread to another crime: a copycat killer case in Colorado. With the help of one of Sarah's patients, they embark upon an investigation that spans multiple states, timelines, and consciousnesses. With limited time and only a tenuous grasp of how this phenomenon works, the unlikely trio are in a race for their lives--past, present, and future--
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The Ten Year Affair by Erin SomersA sliding-doors novel about a chance meeting between two young parents, both happily married (just not to each other) that sparks a will-they-won't-they romance.
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The Eight Heartbreaks of Hanukkah
by Jean Meltzer
Evelyn Schwartz has the perfect Hanukkah planned: eight jam-packed days producing the live-action televised musical of A Christmas Carol. Who needs family when you've got long hours, impossible deadlines, and your dream job? That is, until an accident on set lands her in the medical bay with one of her chronic migraines, and she's shocked to find her ex-husband, David Adler, filling in for the usual studio doctor. It's been two years since David walked away from Evelyn and their life in Manhattan, and his ex-wife is still the same workaholic who puts her career before everything else--especially her health. But when Evelyn begins hallucinating 'ghosts' tied to her past heartbreaks, and every single one leads to David, he finds himself spending much more time with her than he anticipated--
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Evensong by Stewart O'NanThe Humpty Dumpty Club is distraught when their powerhouse leader, Joan Hargrove, takes a bad fall down her stairs, knocking her out of commission. Now, as well as running errands and shepherding those less able to their doctors' appointments, they have to pick up the slack. Between navigating their own relationships and aging bodies and attending choir practice, these invisible yet indomitable women help where they can. They bake cookies, they care for pets, they pick up prescriptions, they sit vigil by the sick, and most of all, they show up for the people they've pledged to help. In the face of death, divorce, and the myriad directions our lives can take, the Humpty Dumpty club represents the power of community and chosen family.
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Other People's Fun
by Harriet Lane
Ruth is alone, unnoticed, and at a loss: her marriage has ended, her daughter is leaving home, and her job is leading nowhere. But luckily Sookie is back in her life-vivid, self-assured Sookie, who never spared the time for Ruth when they were teenagers, but who now seems to want to be friends Ruth is caught up in Sookie's life, she sees that everything is not as Instagrammable as Sookie would have you believe. As the truth about Sookie becomes clearer, so too does the choice Ruth will have to make--
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We Are Green and Trembling
by Gabriela Cabezón Cámara
Lyrical and swashbuckling, tender and surreal, Gabriela Cabezón Camara's new novel finds glimmers of hope for the future in the brutal history of colonial Latin America
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Like Family
by Erin O. White
Radclyffe, New York, is an idyllic upstate town, nestled in the hills and complete with artisanal bakeries, pottery studios, and hidden swimming holes. Ruth and her wife, Wyn, are living the dream (or Wyn's dream, at least) with their four children on their small farm, which is also the bucolic gathering place for their circle of friends. It's a sweet life, but there's a secret at its center, one that not even Ruth's best friend, Caroline, knows. What Caroline does know is that she loves and depends on Ruth, and on the bond between their families. More than anything, she wants her tender-hearted son not to grow up lonely the way she did. Unfortunately, no one can assure her of that, especially not her husband. He just wants things to be easy, drama-free--which is impossible, as he has donated his sperm to his cousin Tobi and her wife so that they could have kids of their own. Now those children are asking unanswerable questions. After an unexpected death in their community, all three couples are forced to confront the tensions that have long been buried beneath the surfaces of their lives--
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Saeris Fane doesn't want power. The very last thing she needs is her name whispered on an entire court's lips, but now that she's been crowned queen of the Blood Court, she's discovering that a queen's life is not her own. A heavy weight rests upon her shoulders. Her ward--and her brother--need her back in her homeland...but the changes that have strengthened Saeris have also made her weak. Born under blazing suns, Saeris will surely die if she makes her way home through the Quicksilver. Kingfisher of the Ajun Gate has defeated armies and survived all manner of horrors, but traveling back to Zilvaren with Carrion Swift might just be the death of him. The male just will not shut up. Hidden dangers await them down the narrow alleyways of the Silver City. Unfolding secrets pose impossible threats. Fisher must wrangle the smuggler and accomplish his goals quickly if he wants to see his mate again. A darkness falls across Yvelia. The realm and their friends are in danger. Together, Saeris and Fisher will pass through fire and brimstone to save them. |
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The Quiet Mother: A Detective Konrad Novel
by Arnaldur Indridason
A woman is found murdered in her Reykjavik home, her apartment ransacked. On her desk lies a note with retired detective Konrad's phone number. Days earlier, she had begged him to find the child she gave up nearly fifty years ago. But Konrad, reluctant to reopen old wounds, turned her away. Now, haunted by guilt, he vows to uncover the truth--for her and for himself. As Konrad digs into her tragic past, he is drawn into a web of secrets, lies, and betrayal. Each revelation points to a hidden life that connects her death to a decades-old murder--and to shadows from Konrad's own family history--
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The First Witch of Boston by Andrea CatalanoMassachusetts Bay Colony, 1646. Thomas and Margaret Jones arrive from England to build a life in the New World. Though of differing temperaments, cautious Thomas and fiery Margaret, a healer, are bound by a love that has lasted decades. With a child on the way, their new beginning promises only blessings. But in this austere Puritan community, comely faces hide malicious intent. Wrong moves or words are met with suspicion, and Margaret's bold and unguarded nature draws scorn. Soon, Margaret is mistrusted as more cunning woman than kind caregiver. And when personal tragedies, religious hysteria, and wariness of the unknown turn most against her, even the devotion Margaret and her husband share is at risk.
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The Women of Arlington Hall
by Jane Healey
1947: Adventurous Radcliffe graduate Catherine Cat Killeen cancels her wedding and upends a future that no longer suits her. At the behest of her professor and hungry for a challenge, Cat arrives in Virginia to work on a confidential military project. A student in cryptoanalysis, Cat is already ahead of the game--to assist in rooting out Soviet spies who have infiltrated the US. Joining the government girls of Arlington Hall, Cat gains the respect of her superiors and the friendship of her peers. Then, on a night out in DC, Cat runs into Jonathan Dardis, her arrogant and privileged Harvard rival and newly minted agent for the FBI. What Cat and Jonathan share is a competitive drive and an attraction that's becoming just as spirited. They're also united in the same critical goal for America. Together, they're diving deep into the shadows of espionage. The stakes of the codebreaking operation grow ever higher, and Cat's relationship with Jonathan opens her heart. Amid dangerous intrigue and grave secrecy, Cat is ready for every risk--no matter how personal the stakes get.--
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On the Calculation of Volume (Book III)
by Solvej Balle
A literary phenomenon nearly forty years in the making, and a speculative masterwork (New York Magazine), Balle's epic On the Calculation of Volume in Book III introduces new thrills to the adventures of Tara Selter's endless November day
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Blood of Hercules Collector's Edition
by Jasmine Mas
I'm just a girl. And it turns out, I'm Hercules. I'm struggling to survive in a Titan infested world where Spartans, immortals from twelve royal families who have god-like powers and obscene wealth, rule over all. A shy-stammering foster child with nothing, I keep my head down, cover my scars, and focus on excelling in school. At least, I try to. Then it happens. My blood test reveals I'm part of the powerful elite. I'm one of them. A Spartan. Forced to attend the Spartan War Academy, I undergo the most harrowing test of all time to see if I have what it takes to be an immortal. There's just a few problems. Achilles and Patro are my scary mentors. Kharon, the ferryman of death, and Augustus, the son of war, are my terrifying professors. Also, I'm pretty sure either someone's stalking me everywhere I go, or my sanity's slipping--I have a bad feeling both are true. I'm surrounded by Villains and they're smothering me with their hate, obsession, and dark possessiveness. Too bad for them, they have no clue just who they're messing with.--
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I, Medusa by Ayana GrayMeddy has spent her whole life as a footnote in someone else's story. Out of place next to her beautiful, immortal sisters and her parents--both gods, albeit minor ones--she dreams of leaving her family's island for a life of adventure. So when she catches the eye of the goddess Athena, who invites her to train as an esteemed priestess in her temple, Meddy leaps at the chance to see the world beyond her home. In the colorful market streets of Athens and the clandestine chambers of the temple, Meddy flourishes in her role as Athena's favored acolyte, getting her first tastes of purpose and power. But when she is noticed by another Olympian, Poseidon, the course of Meddy's promising future is suddenly and irrevocably altered. When her locs are transformed into snakes as punishment for a crime she did not commit, Medusa must embrace a new identity--not as a victim, but as a vigilante--and with it, the chance to write her own story as mortal, martyr, and myth. Exploding with rage, heartbreak, and love, I, Medusa portrays a young woman caught in the crosscurrents between her heart's deepest desires and the cruel, careless games the Olympian gods play.
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The Corpse Bloom
by Bryan Wiggins
When a kidney transplant performed by Boston General Hospital's preeminent surgeon goes bad, the life of his patient is only the first thing Dr. Brad Baker will lose. Threatened with a malpractice suit, Brad takes a leave of absence to accept a job offer from Carlos Cardoza, the suave director of a remote transplant clinic in Campeche, Mexico.But over the next several months, Brad becomes uneasy about the source of the cadaveric kidneys he transplants into his wealthy patients. By the time Brad learns of the true intentions of his employer, he finds escape nearly impossible from the jungle of incriminating circumstances he's trapped within. And when a DEA agent intercepts Brad to offer the key to his release, Brad struggles to apply a cure for his problems that may prove more deadly than them. He'll need to risk everything-and everyone-he loves to find his way home.
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When the Cranes Fly South by Lisa RidzénBo is running out of time. Yet time is one of the few things he's got left. These days, his quiet existence is broken up only by daily visits from his home care team. Fortunately, he still has his beloved elkhound Sixten to keep him company ... though now his son, with whom Bo has had a rocky relationship, insists upon taking the dog away, claiming that Bo has grown too old to properly care for him. The threat of losing Sixten stirs up a whirlwind of emotion, leading Bo to take stock of his life, his relationships, and the imperfect way he's expressed his love over the years.
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Crimson Thaw by Bruce Robert CoffinIn the unforgiving wilderness of Maine, a disgraced detective must confront his past to solve a chilling murder. Detective Brock Justice's career is on thin ice. Once the golden boy of Maine State Police, Brock now finds himself exiled to the remote northeastern wilderness, punishment for crossing the thin blue line. Assigned to the Major Crimes Unit--North, he suffers the added indignity of partnering with newly-minted Detective Chloe Wright, a rookie with her own hidden struggles. The pair's uneasy alliance is put to the test almost immediately when a routine snowmobile retrieval in the coastal town of Blue Hill unexpectedly escalates into a full-blown murder investigation. Even as the case exposes the darkest corners of the town, their fragile partnership threatens to undermine the investigation at every turn. Brock and Chloe's hunt draws them into the lives of several intriguing locals: the town doctor, a biker gang involved in drug trafficking, a politically connected sheriff, and Brock's own father. With each revelation, the line between ally and enemy blurs, compelling Brock and Chloe to question their trust in everyone around them, including each other. Even as winter's icy grip loosens from Blue Hill, the noose of suspicion tightens. Brock must navigate not only a shaky partnership and a town harboring deadly secrets, but also the shadows of his own past. Can he and Chloe piece together the puzzle before Maine's wilderness swallows them whole? Retired Detective Sergeant Bruce Robert Coffin delivers a masterful blend of police procedural and small-town intrigue in this page-turning thriller
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The Hitchhikers by Chevy StevensOn the remote Canadian highways in 1976, Tom and Alice set out to heal their fractured marriage. An RV, a new beginning, and the hope of recovery after a devastating tragedy. Then they meet two young hitchhikers, Ocean and Blue-a seemingly innocent couple who aren't who they seem. They are Jenny and Simon. And they have left a trail of blood, destruction, and madness behind them. Now Tom and Alice are trapped-prisoners in a deadly game, with nowhere to turn. But as the tension builds and the lines blur, the question becomes: in whose heart does evil truly lie?
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Shadow Ticket by Thomas PynchonMilwaukee 1932, the Great Depression going full blast, repeal of Prohibition just around the corner, Al Capone in the federal pen, the private investigation business shifting from labor-management relations to the more domestic kind. Hicks McTaggart, a onetime strikebreaker turned private eye, thinks he's found job security until he gets sent out on what should be a routine case, locating and bringing back the heiress of a Wisconsin cheese fortune who's taken a mind to go wandering. Before he knows it, he's been shanghaied onto a transoceanic liner, ending up eventually in Hungary where there's no shoreline, a language from some other planet, and enough pastry to see any cop well into retirement--and of course no sign of the runaway heiress he's supposed to be chasing. By the time Hicks catches up with her he will find himself also entangled with Nazis, Soviet agents, British counterspies, swing musicians, practitioners of the paranormal, outlaw motorcyclists, and the troubles that come with each of them, none of which Hicks is qualified, forget about being paid, to deal with. Surrounded by history he has no grasp on and can't see his way around in or out of, the only bright side for Hicks is it's the dawn of the Big Band Era and as it happens he's a pretty good dancer. Whether this will be enough to allow him somehow to Lindy-hop his way back again to Milwaukee and the normal world, which may no longer exist, is another question.
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A chilling secret. One woman who can decipher the truth. On a frigid, windswept day in Scotland's Western Isles, Eleanor Bruton's body is discovered on the shore. To her family Eleanor was an ordinary middle-aged woman. She did flower arrangements and plumped kneeler cushions at church. Little did they know she was harboring a dark and all-consuming secret. A scrap of fraying embroidery that seems worthless at first glance.For over a century, two rival organizations of women have gone to deadly lengths to secure the valuable artifact in the hopes of finding the original medieval manuscript from which it was torn. The Order of St. Katherine: devoted to the belief that women must pull strings in the shadows to exercise control. And the Fellowship of the Larks, determined to amass as many overt positions of power for women as possible...so long as their methods of doing so never come to light.When Dr. Anya Brown garners international attention for her translation of the cryptic Folio 9, she is handpicked by Diana Cornish, a professor and high-ranking member of the Fellowship, to join the exclusive Institute of Manuscript Studies in St. Andrews. Unbeknownst to Anya she's been recruited at great personal danger to translate ancient texts that the Fellowship believes critical to their mission. Meanwhile at Scotland Yard, Detective Constable Clio Spicer begins a private investigation into the death of Eleanor Bruton.As all the women grow further entangled in this ancient web, circumstances spin wildly out of control and their lives may be in grave danger.Perfect for fans of Alex Michaelides and Ruth Ware, The Burning Library is the story of a centuries-old secret set to divide and consume those who seek to unearth it. |
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The Color of Hope by Danielle SteelFollowing the unexpected death of her beloved husband, art gallery owner Sabrina Thompson finds herself adrift in their Malibu beach house. Her three adult children--scattered from New York to London to Milan--are concerned for her well-being and encourage her to take a trip to Paris. Once abroad, an impulsive day trip from Paris to Biarritz leads Sabrina to discover the charming medieval village of Arcangues in the Basque countryside, with its unique and iconic blue shutters and historic chateau. The chateau is the ancestral home of Xavier de Bonport, who is trapped in a loveless marriage and trying to dig himself out financially after a business failed due to the pandemic. He needs rental income as urgently as Sabrina needs a refuge. With Xavier living in a smaller house on the property, Sabrina begins to transform the chateau into a temporary home. As they each sense compassion and resilience in the other, as well as kindness, a friendship blossoms. Inspired by the stories of Xavier's grandmother, who saved hundreds of Jewish children during World War II, Sabrina considers fostering some children at the request of the local Dominican nuns, whose orphanage is filled to capacity. As a newfound family begins to fill the chateau, Sabrina and Xavier wonder if their friendship is becoming something more.
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Fallen City
by Adrienne Young
Luca Matius has one purpose: to carry on the family name, maintaining its presence in the Forum once his powerful and cruel uncle dies. But his noviceship with the city's Philosopher places him in the middle of a catastrophe that will alter the destiny of his people. Maris Casperia was raised amidst the strategic maneuvers of the Citadel's inner workings, and she knows what her future holds--a lifetime of service to a corrupt city. But her years of serving as a novice to the last Priestess who possesses the stolen magic of the Old War has made her envision a different kind of future for the city. When she meets Luca, a fated chain of events is set into motion that will divinely entangle their lives. As a secret comes to light and throws the city into chaos, Luca and Maris hatch a plot to create a calculated alliance that could tip the scales of power--
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