ALL DRESSED IN WHITE: An Under Suspicion Novel by Mary Higgins Clark and Alafair Burke (Mystery/Thriller)
Audiobook available, narrated by Jan Maxwell
Five years ago, Amanda Pierce was excitedly preparing to marry her college sweetheart. Then, with their guests and families all gathered together, she disappeared. In present-day New York City, Laurie Moran realizes a missing bride is the perfect cold case for her investigative television series, “Under Suspicion.” She and her team set out to recreate the night of the disappearance at the Florida resort with Amanda’s friends and family in attendance. Laurie and “Under Suspicion” host Alex Buckley quickly realize everyone has a theory about why Amanda vanished into thin air. Reviewed by Amie Taylor.
AVENUE OF MYSTERIES by John Irving (Fiction)
Audiobook available, narrated by Armando Duran
Fourteen-year-old Juan Diego, who was born and grew up in Mexico, has a 13-year-old sister. Her name is Lupe, and she is a mind reader. Regarding what has happened as opposed to what will, Lupe is usually right about the past; without your telling her, she knows all the worst things that have happened to you. What might a teen girl be driven to do if she thought she could change the future? As an older man, Juan Diego will take a trip to the Philippines, but what travels with him are his dreams and memories; he is most alive in his childhood and early adolescence in Mexico. Reviewed by Roz Shea.
CORRUPTED: A Rosato & DiNunzio Novel by Lisa Scottoline (Legal Thriller)
Audiobook available, narrated by Kate Burton
Thirteen years ago, Bennie Rosato took on Jason Leftavick, a 12-year-old boy who was sent to a juvenile detention center after fighting a class bully. Bennie couldn't free Jason, and to this day it's the case that haunts her. Jason has grown up in and out of juvenile prison, and his adulthood hasn't been any easier. Bennie no longer represents those accused of murder, but when Jason is indicted for killing the same bully he fought with as a kid, she sees no choice but to represent him. Forced to relive the darkest period of her life, Bennie will do everything in her power to get the truth --- and justice. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
CRIMSON SHORE by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (Thriller)
Audiobook available, narrated by Rene Auberjonois
Special Agent A.X.L. Pendergast, together with his ward Constance Greene, travels to the quaint seaside village of Exmouth, Massachusetts, to investigate the theft of a priceless wine collection. But inside the wine cellar, they find something considerably more disturbing: a bricked-up niche that once held a crumbling skeleton. Pendergast and Constance soon learn that Exmouth is a town with a very dark and troubled history, and this skeleton may be only the first hint of an ancient transgression, kept secret all these years. But they will discover that the sins of the past are still very much alive. Reviewed by Ray Palen.
DEAR MR. YOU by Mary-Louise Parker (Memoir/Letters)
Audiobook available, narrated by Mary-Louise Parker
DEAR MR. YOU renders the singular arc of a woman’s life through letters Mary-Louise Parker composes to the men, real and hypothetical, who have informed the person she is today. Beginning with the grandfather she never knew, the letters range from a missive to the beloved priest from her childhood to remembrances of former lovers to an homage to a firefighter she encountered to a heartfelt communication with the uncle of the infant daughter she adopted. Reviewed by Jana Siciliano.
A DEATH IN THE FAMILY: A Detective Kubu Mystery by Michael Stanley (Mystery)
Faced with the violent death of his own father, Assistant Superintendent David “Kubu” Bengu, the smartest detective in the Botswana police, is baffled. Who would kill such a frail old man? Kubu's frustration grows as his boss, Director Mabaku, bans him from being involved in the investigation. The picture becomes even murkier with the apparent suicide of a government official. Are Chinese mine-owners involved? And what role does the US Embassy have to play? Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
THE EXPLORERS GUILD: Volume One: A PASSAGE TO SHAMBHALA by Kevin Costner and Jon Baird, illustrated by Rick Ross (Historical Fantasy)
The Explorers Guild, a secret society of adventurers who journey to hidden worlds seeking out myths and uncovering legends, has but one mission among its members --- to go beyond our known boundaries and seek the truth. With the mystical city of Shambhala in the Guild’s sights, an epic adventure awaits. When several members set out in search of the veiled city, what was once an undertaking to seek truth quickly turns deadly and more complicated than anyone involved first believed. Reviewed by Amy Gwiazdowski.
THE GIRL IN THE ICE: A Konrad Simonsen Thriller written by Lotte and Søren Hammer, translated by Paul Norlen (Mystery/Thriller)
Under the heartless vault of Greenland's arctic sky, the body of a girl is discovered. Half-naked and tied up, buried hundreds of miles from any signs of life, she has lain alone for 25 years. When Detective Chief Superintendent Konrad Simonsen is flown in to investigate this horrific murder and he sees how she was attacked, it triggers a dark memory and he realizes this was not the killer's only victim. As Simonsen's team works to discover evidence that has long since been buried, they unearth truths that certain people would prefer stayed forgotten. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
THE GUILTY by David Baldacci (Thriller)
Audiobook available, narrated by Kyf Brewer and Orlagh Cassidy
Will Robie escaped his small Gulf Coast hometown of Cantrell, Mississippi after high school, severing all personal ties, and never looked back. Not until the unimaginable occurs. His father, Dan Robie, has been arrested and charged with murder. Unlike the missions Robie undertook in the service of his country, where his target was clearly defined, digging into his father's case only reveals more questions. Robie is drawn into the hidden underside of Cantrell, where he must face the unexpected and possibly deadly consequences of the long-ago choices made by father and son. Reviewed by Barbara Lipkien Gershenbaum.
HOSTAGE by Kristina Ohlsson (Thriller)
Shortly after a crowded New York-bound Boeing 747 takes off from Stockholm, a bomb threat is found in one of the aircraft’s lavatories. Police superintendent Alex Recht teams up with the energetic and often abrasive Eden Lundell from the security service’s counterterrorism unit to deal with the hijacking. Fredrika Bergman, who is currently working at the Justice Department, returns to the police force to act as a liaison between the government and the police. The investigation team soon realizes that the plot behind the hijacking is far more complex than they initially thought. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
THE IMPROBABILITY OF LOVE by Hannah Rothschild (Fiction)
At a neglected secondhand shop, Annie McDee purchases a painting that happens to be a lost masterpiece by one of the most important French painters of the 18th century. But who painted this masterpiece is not clear at first. Soon Annie finds herself pursued by interested parties who would do anything to possess her picture. In her search for the painting’s identity, Annie will unwittingly uncover some of the darkest secrets of European history --- as well as the possibility of falling in love again. Reviewed by Norah Piehl.
KATHERINE CARLYLE by Rupert Thomson (Fiction)
Unmoored by her mother’s death and feeling her father to be an increasingly distant figure, Katherine Carlyle abandons the set course of her life and starts out on a mysterious journey to the ends of the world. Instead of going to college, she disappears, telling no one where she has gone. What begins as an attempt to punish her father for his absence gradually becomes a testing ground of his love for her, a coming-to-terms with the death of her mother, and finally the mise-en-scène for a courageous leap to true empowerment. Reviewed by Rebecca Munro.
THE MAGIC STRINGS OF FRANKIE PRESTO by Mitch Albom (Fiction)
Audiobook available, performed by Mitch Albom and a full cast
At nine years old, Frankie Presto --- a war orphan raised by a blind music teacher in a small Spanish town --- is sent to America in the bottom of a boat. His only possession is an old guitar and six precious strings. But Frankie’s talent is touched by the gods, and his amazing journey weaves him through the musical landscape of the 20th century. Frankie becomes a pop star himself but soon realizes that, through his music, he can actually affect people’s futures. At the height of his popularity, Frankie vanishes. Only decades later does he reappear --- just before his spectacular death --- to change one last life. Reviewed by Kate Ayers.
THE MURALIST by B. A. Shapiro (Mystery)
Audiobook available, narrated by Xe Sands
When Alizée Benoit, a young American painter working for the Works Progress Administration (WPA), vanishes in New York City in 1940, no one knows what happened to her. Not her Jewish family living in German-occupied France. Not her arts patron and political compatriot, Eleanor Roosevelt. Not her close-knit group of friends and fellow WPA painters. And, some 70 years later, not her great-niece, Danielle Abrams, who, while working at Christie’s auction house, uncovers enigmatic paintings hidden behind works by those now-famous Abstract Expressionist artists. Do they hold answers to the questions surrounding her missing aunt? Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman.
PLAYING WITH FIRE by Tess Gerritsen (Thriller)
Audiobook available, narrated by Julia Whelan and Will Damron
In a shadowy antiques shop in Rome, violinist Julia Ansdell happens upon a curious piece of music --- the Incendio waltz --- and is immediately entranced by its unusual composition. Back home in Boston, from the moment Julia’s bow moves across the strings, drawing the waltz’s fiery notes into the air, something strange is stirred. The music has a terrifying and inexplicable effect on her young daughter, who seems violently transformed. Convinced that the hypnotic strains of Incendio are weaving a malevolent spell, Julia sets out to discover the man and the meaning behind the score. Reviewed by Judy Gigstad.
THE PROMISE: An Elvis Cole and Joe Pike Novel by Robert Crais (Thriller)
Audiobook available, narrated by Luke Daniels and MacLeod Andrews
When Elvis Cole is secretly hired to find a grief-stricken mother, he's led to an ordinary house on a rainy night in Echo Park. Only the house isn't ordinary, and the people hiding inside are a desperate fugitive and a murderous criminal with his own dangerous secrets. LAPD K-9 Officer Scott James and his German shepherd, Maggie, track the fugitive to this same house, coming face-to-face with Mr. Rollins, a killer who leaves behind a brutally murdered body and enough explosives to destroy the neighborhood. Scott is now the only person who can identify him, but Mr. Rollins has a rule: Never leave a witness alive. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
RED TIDE: A Billy Knight Thriller by Jeff Lindsay (Thriller)
In Jeff Lindsay's long-awaited sequel to his debut novel, TROPICAL DEPRESSION, Billy Knight wants to ride out Key West’s slow season with the occasional charter and the frequent beer. But when he discovers a dead body floating in the gulf, Billy gets drawn into a deadly plot of dark magic and profound evil. Along with his plucky, gun-happy friend, Nicky, and Anna, a resilient and mysterious survivor of her own horrors, Billy sets out to right the wrongs the police won’t, putting himself in mortal peril on the high seas. Reviewed by Ray Palen.
THE THEORY OF DEATH: A Decker/Lazarus Novel by Faye Kellerman (Mystery)
Audiobook available, performed by Richard Ferrone
Former LAPD lieutenant Peter Decker is relishing the quiet and slow pace of his new job with the Greenbury police department. But then the body of a nude man is found deep within the woods. The death appears to be a suicide, but until the coroner’s ruling, the scene must be treated as a suspicious crime. Decker’s investigation takes him and former Greenbury colleague Tyler McAdams to Kneed Loft College, where they must penetrate enigmatic formulas and codes to solve a dark, twisted crime devised by some brilliant and depraved masterminds. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
YAPPY HOUR by Diana Orgain (Cozy Mystery)
Audiobook available, narrated by Caroline Shaffer
Every Friday night, the Roundup Crew, a group of dog-loving friends, meets at a neighborhood wine bar for Yappy Hour. When Rachel, the owner, mysteriously leaves town and asks her sister, Maggie, to run the bar in her absence, things get complicated fast. Maggie arrives to open up and finds a body sprawled on the floor, along with an incriminating letter with Rachel's name on it nearby. On impulse, she hides the letter from the hunky detective, Officer Brad Brooks, who is dispatched to the scene. When Rachel is declared the top suspect by the police, Maggie decides to investigate on her own. Reviewed by Maggie Harding.
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