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Reviews

Reviews

by Jacqueline Winspear - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Mystery, Mystery

During the months following Britain’s declaration of war on Germany, Maisie Dobbs investigates the disappearance of a young apprentice working on a hush-hush government contract. As news of the plight of thousands of soldiers stranded on the beaches of France is gradually revealed to the general public, another young man beloved by Maisie makes a terrible decision that will change his life forever. Maisie’s investigation leads her from the countryside of rural Hampshire to the web of wartime opportunism exploited by one of the London underworld’s most powerful men. Yet when a final confrontation approaches, she must acknowledge the potential cost to her future --- and the risk of destroying a dream she wants very much to become reality.

by J. D. Robb - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

On a chilly February night, during a screening of Psycho in midtown, someone sunk an ice pick into the back of Chanel Rylan’s neck. As Eve Dallas puzzles over a homicide that seems carefully planned and yet oddly personal, she receives a tip from an unexpected source: an author of police thrillers who recognizes the crime --- from the pages of her own book. The good news is that Eve and her billionaire husband, Roarke, have an excuse to curl up in front of the fireplace with their cat, Galahad, reading mystery stories for research. The bad news is that time is running out before the next victim plays an unwitting role in a murderer’s deranged private drama.

by Felix Francis - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

A smartly dressed man has been found unconscious at the local racecourse and is rushed to the hospital, where he subsequently dies. But who is he? Where does he come from? Doctor Chris Rankin, a specialist who treated the deceased --- and who struggles with mental health issues --- is intrigued by the nameless dead man and starts asking questions. However, someone doesn't want the questions answered and will go to any lengths to prevent it, including an attempted murder. But when no one will believe that someone tried to kill Chris, the doctor is left with no option but to discover who the nameless man was and why he died…preferably before following him into an early grave.

by Nora Roberts - Fiction, Romance, Romantic Suspense, Suspense, Thriller

The Bodine ranch and resort in western Montana is a family business that is kept running by Bodine Longbow with the help of a large staff, including new hire Callen Skinner. There was another member of the family once: Bodine’s aunt, Alice, who ran off before Bodine was born. She never returned, and the Longbows don’t talk about her much. The younger ones, who never met her, quietly presume she’s dead. So when Alice suddenly reappears, the Longbows are shocked. The twisted story she has to tell about the past --- and the threat that follows in her wake --- will test the bonds of this strong family, and thrust Bodine into a darkness she never could have imagined.

by Sara Paretsky - Fiction, Mystery

To her parents, she's Victoria Iphigenia. To her friends, she's Vic. But to clients seeking her talents as a detective, she's V.I. And her new case will lead her from her native Chicago and into Kansas, on the trail of a vanished film student and a faded Hollywood star. Accompanied by her dog, V.I. tracks her quarry through a university town, across fields where missile silos once flourished --- and into a past riven by long-simmering racial tensions, a past that holds the key to the crimes of the present. But as the mysteries stack up, so does the body count. And in this, her toughest case, not even V.I. is safe.

by Ian Rankin - Fiction, Mystery

When Rebus starts reexamining the facts behind the long-ago murder of a glamorous woman at a luxurious hotel --- on the same night a famous rock star and his entourage were also staying there --- the past comes roaring back to life with a vengeance. And as soon as Rebus starts asking questions about the long forgotten crime, a fresh body materializes. His inquiries reunite him with his old pals --- Siobhan Clarke and Malcolm Fox --- as they attempt to uncover the financial chicanery behind the savage beating of an upstart gangster, a crime that suggests the notorious old school crime boss Big Ger Cafferty has taken to retirement as poorly as Rebus himself.

by Andrew Gross - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

Poland, 1944. Alfred Mendl and his family are brought on a crowded train to a Nazi concentration camp after being caught trying to flee Paris with forged papers. A renowned physicist, Mendl holds knowledge that only two people in the world possess. And the other is already at work for the Nazi war machine. In Washington, DC, Intelligence lieutenant Nathan Blum routinely decodes messages from occupied Poland. But never did he expect the proposal he receives from “Wild” Bill Donovan, head of the OSS: to sneak into the most guarded place on earth on a mission to find and escape with one man --- the one man the Allies believe can ensure them victory in the war.

by Nora Roberts - Fiction, Romance, Romantic Suspense, Suspense, Thriller

Naomi Bowes lost her innocence the night she followed her father into the woods. In freeing the girl trapped in the root cellar, Naomi revealed the horrible extent of her father’s crimes and made him infamous. No matter how close she gets to happiness, she can’t outrun the sins of Thomas David Bowes. Now a successful photographer living under the name Naomi Carson, she has found a place that calls to her, a rambling old house in need of repair, thousands of miles away from everything she’s ever known. But the sins of her father can become an obsession, and, as she’s learned time and again, her past is never more than a nightmare away.

by J. D. Robb - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Just as Dennis Mira is about to confront his cousin Edward about selling the West Village brownstone that belonged to their grandfather, he gets a shock: Edward is in front of him, bruised and bloody…and then everything goes black. When Dennis comes to, Edward is gone. Luckily Dennis’ wife is a top profiler for the NYPSD --- and a close colleague of Lieutenant Eve Dallas. Now Eve is determined to uncover the secrets of Edward Mira, but whoever is behind this disappearance, Edward is not going to be their last victim.

by Sara Paretsky - Fiction, Mystery

For six stormy weeks back in high school, V.I. Warshawski thought she was in love with Frank Guzzo. When he broke up with her, she went off to college and he started driving trucks for Bagby Haulage. She forgot about him until the day his mother was convicted of bludgeoning his kid sister to death. Newly released from prison after 25 years behind bars, Stella is looking for exoneration, so Frank asks V.I. for help. Her questions about the case lead her straight into the vipers’ nest of Illinois politics she’s wanted to avoid.