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Reviews

Reviews

by Amy Rowland - Fiction

When Lena, the transcriptionist for the Record, a New York City newspaper, reads a shocking piece about a Jane Doe mauled to death by a lion, she is surprised to see that she recognizes the woman, having met her on the bus a few days before. Obsessed with understanding what caused the woman to deliberately climb into the lion's den, Lena begins a campaign for the truth that will destroy the Record's complacency and shake the venerable institution to its very foundation.

by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins - Fiction, Hard-boiled Mystery, Mystery

Mike Hammer finds himself up against a clever serial killer targeting only cops. The culprit, who Hammer’s old friend, Captain Pat Chambers, had put away many years ago, is suddenly freed on new, seemingly indisputable evidence. Hammer wonders if this placid, very odd old man might somehow be engineering cop killings that all seem to be either accidental or by natural causes.

by Maeve Binchy

The late Maeve Binchy imagined a street in Dublin with many characters coming and going, and every once in a while she would write about one of these people. She would then put it in a drawer; "for the future," she would say. The future is now. Across town from St. Jarlath’s Crescent, featured in MINDING FRANKIE, is Chestnut Street, where neighbors come and go. Behind their closed doors, we encounter very different people with different life circumstances, occupations and sensibilities.

by Emma Donoghue - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Mystery, Mystery

In the summer of 1876, San Francisco is in the fierce grip of a record-breaking heat wave and a smallpox epidemic. Through the window of a railroad saloon, a young woman named Jenny Bonnet is shot dead. The survivor, her friend Blanche Beunon, is a French burlesque dancer. Over the next three days, she will risk everything to bring Jenny's murderer to justice --- if he doesn't track her down first.

by David Rosenfelt - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Years ago, Katie Sanford’s husband was convicted of the murder of Jenny Robbins but then died in prison. The tragedy is brought up again in the wake of a hurricane that has just wreaked havoc on their quiet Maine town. Since its founding, Wilton has had a quaint tradition of creating a time capsule every 50 years, and the storm unearthed the most recent capsule. Someone predicted Jenny’s death, as well as 11 other tragedies, which are still occurring even long after the death of Katie’s husband.

by Daniel Levine - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Mystery, Mystery

Mr. Hyde is trapped, locked in Dr. Jekyll’s surgical cabinet, counting the hours until his inevitable capture. As four days pass, he has the chance to tell his story --- the story of his brief, marvelous life. Summoned to life by strange potions, Hyde knows not when or how long he will have control of “the body.” As the experiment continues, their mutual existence is threatened, not only by the uncertainties of untested science, but also by a mysterious stalker.

by Richard Montanari - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Luther Wade grew up in Cold River, a warehouse for the criminally insane. Two decades ago the hospital closed it doors forever, but Luther never left. He wanders the catacombs beneath the city, channeling the violent dreams of Eduard Kross, Europe's most prolific serial killer of the 20th century. A two-year-old girl found wandering the streets of Philadelphia by detectives Kevin Byrne and Jessica Balzano may hold the key to solving a string of murders committed in and around Priory Park.

by Alice Hoffman - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Mystery, Historical Romance, Mystery, Romance

Coralie Sardie is the daughter of the sinister impresario behind The Museum of Extraordinary Things, a Coney Island boardwalk freak show that thrills the masses. One night, Coralie stumbles upon a striking young man taking pictures of moonlit trees. When Eddie Cohen photographs the devastation on the streets of New York following the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, he becomes embroiled in the suspicious mystery behind a young woman’s disappearance and ignites the heart of Coralie.

by Valerie Martin - Fiction, Historical Fiction

While on a voyage to Africa, an unproven young writer named Arthur Conan Doyle hears of the Mary Celeste and decides to write an outlandish short story about what took place. This causes quite a sensation between sought-after Philadelphia spiritualist medium Violet Petra and a rational-minded journalist named Phoebe Grant, who is seeking to expose Petra as a fraud. Then there is the family of the Mary Celeste's captain, a family linked to the sea for generations and marked repeatedly by tragedy.

by Harry Dolan - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller
A chance encounter on a lonely road draws David into a romance with the enigmatic Jana Fletcher, a beautiful young law student. David would like to know her secrets, but he lets them lie --- until it’s too late. When Jana is brutally murdered, the police consider David a prime suspect. But as he sets out to uncover the truth about Jana, he begins to realize he’s treading a very dangerous path --- and that her killer is watching every move he makes.