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Reviews

Reviews

by Ian Rankin - Fiction, Mystery

Rebus' retirement is disrupted once again when skeletal remains are identified as a private investigator who went missing over a decade earlier. Rebus' old friend, Siobhan Clarke, is assigned to this case, but neither of them could have predicted what buried secrets the investigation will uncover. Rebus remembers the original case --- a shady land deal --- all too well. After the investigation stalled, the family of the missing man complained that there was a police cover-up. As Clarke and her team investigate the cold case murder, she soon learns a different side of her mentor, a side he would prefer to keep in the past.

written by Max Allan Collins, with illustrations by Marcelo Salaza and Marcio Freire - Fiction, Graphic Novel, Hard-boiled Mystery, Mystery

Mickey Spillane's tough-talking, brawling, skirt-chasing private detective Mike Hammer returns to comics in this thrilling noir series, based on an original plot by Mickey Spillane, written by Max Allan Collins. When a chance encounter with a captivating femme fatale leads to a violent mob retaliation, hard-boiled detective Mike Hammer finds himself dodging both bullets and hard broads as he undertakes the most dangerous case of his career.

by Christopher Fowler - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Mystery, Mystery

After accidentally sinking a barge painted like the Yellow Submarine, detectives Arthur Bryant and John May are relegated to babysitting Monty Hatton-Jones, the star prosecution witness in the trial of a disreputable developer whose prefabs are prone to collapse. The job for the demoted detectives? Keep the whistle-blower safe for one weekend. The task proves unexpectedly challenging when their unruly charge insists on attending a party at the vast estate Tavistock Hall. With falling stone gryphons, secret passageways, rumors of a mythical beast, and an all-too-real dismembered corpse, the bedeviled policemen soon find themselves with “a proper country house murder” on their hands.

by Philip Norman - Biography, Music, Nonfiction

For half a century, Eric Clapton has been acknowledged to be one of music's greatest virtuosos, the unrivalled master of an indispensable tool, the solid-body electric guitar. Winner of 17 Grammys, the Rock 'n' Roll Hall of Fame's only three-time inductee, he is an enduring influence on every other star soloist who ever wielded a pick. Now, with Clapton's consent and access to family members and close friends, rock music's foremost biographer returns to the heroic age of British rock and follows Clapton through his distinctive and scandalous childhood, early life of reckless rock 'n' roll excess, and twisting and turning struggle with addiction in the ’60s and ’70s.

by Mike Lupica - Fiction, Mystery

Sunny Randall is "on" again with Richie, the ex-husband she never stopped loving and never seemed to be able to let go, despite her discomfort with his Mafia connections. When Richie is shot and nearly killed, Sunny is dragged into the thick of his family's business as she searches for answers and tries to stave off a mob war. But as the bullets start flying in Boston's mean streets, Sunny finds herself targeted by the deranged mastermind of the plot against the Burke family, whose motive may be far more personal than she could have anticipated.

by Timothy Hallinan - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

Los Angeles burglar Junior Bender and his girlfriend, Ronnie, are in desperate need of cash to hire a kidnapper to snatch Ronnie’s two-year-old son back from her ex. A nameless woman in an orange wig has offered Junior 50 grand to break into the abandoned house of a recently deceased 97-year-old recluse, Daisy Horton, and steal a doll from her collection. Junior figures there must be something hidden inside the doll that can get him in a heap of trouble. It doesn’t take long for him to realize that he’s not the only one looking for the doll. When an old friend ends up murdered, Junior decides he will stop at nothing to figure out who the woman in the orange wig is, and why she wants the doll badly enough to leave a trail of bodies in her wake.

by Oakley Hall - Fiction, Hard-boiled Mystery, Mystery

It begins on Death Row, with a condemned man refusing the services of the lawyer assigned to defend him. It begins with a beautiful woman dead, murdered --- Vassilia Caroline Baird, known to all simply as V. But the story this novel tells begins years earlier, on a struggling farm in the shadow of the Great Depression and among the brawling "cat skinners" of Southern California, driving graders and bulldozers to tame the American West. And the story that unfolds is a lyrical outpouring of hunger and grief, of jealousy and corruption, of raw sexual yearning and the tragedy of the destroyed lives it leaves in its wake.

by James Patterson - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

A leader has fallen, and Alex Cross joins the procession of mourners from Capitol Hill to the White House. Then a sniper's bullet strikes a target in the heart of DC. Alex Cross' wife, Bree Stone, newly elevated chief of DC detectives, must solve the case or lose her position. The Secret Service and the FBI deploy as well in the race to find the shooter. Alex is tasked by the new President to lead an investigation unprecedented in scale and scope. But is the sniper's strike only the beginning of a larger attack on the nation?

by Ken Bruen - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

After much tragedy and violence, Jack Taylor has a new woman in his life, a freshly bought apartment, and little sign of trouble on the horizon. Once again, though, trouble comes to him, this time in the form of a wealthy Frenchman who wants Jack to investigate the double-murder of his twin sons. Meanwhile, Jack is roped into looking after his girlfriend’s nine-year-old son, and is in for a shock with the appearance of a character out of his past. The plot is one big chess game, and all of the pieces seem to be moving at the behest of one dangerously mysterious player: a vigilante called “Silence,” because he’s the last thing his victims will ever hear.

by Jason Starr - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Jack and Maria live in a claustrophobic Manhattan apartment with their eight-year-old son. While they both love Jonah, they don’t seem to have much else in common. When Jack finds out about a new extramarital dating app, he quickly meets Sophia, who goes by the online name Fugitive Red. Jack and Sophia hit it off and have a steamy online affair. When Jack agrees to rendezvous with Sophia at her townhouse, he discovers her dead and immediately becomes a person of interest in the murder. Convinced that Sophia’s husband is the killer, Jack sets out to prove his innocence and save his marriage. Instead, he leaves a trail of dead bodies in his wake. Worse, he discovers that he has been the victim of a sinister scheme that may cost him his life.