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Reviews

Reviews

by Tom Rosenstiel - Fiction, Political Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

It’s presidential primary season in Washington, DC, and both parties are on edge. At campaign rallies for all the candidates around the country, there are disturbing incidents of violence and protest and shocking acts of civil disobedience. When Wendy Upton, the highly respected centrist senator, receives an anonymous threat that could destroy her promising career, she hires Peter Rena to investigate her past and figure out which side is threatening her and what they are threatening her with. As Rena digs through the senator’s seemingly squeaky-clean past, he must walk the tightrope between two parties at war with each other and with themselves, an electorate that is as restive as it has ever been, and a political culture that is as much driven by money as it is by ideology.

by Alan Furst - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

Occupied Paris, 1942. Just before he dies, a man being chased by the Gestapo hands off a strange-looking document to the unsuspecting novelist Paul Ricard. It looks like a blueprint of a part for a military weapon, one that might have important information for the Allied forces. As Ricard finds himself drawn deeper and deeper into anti-Nazi efforts, and into increasingly dangerous espionage assignments, he travels to Germany and along the escape routes of underground resistance safe houses to spy on Nazi maneuvers. When he meets Leila, a professional spy, they begin to work together to get crucial information out of France and into the hands of the Allied forces in London.

by Sophie Kinsella - Fiction, Women's Fiction

’Tis the season for change, and Becky Brandon (née Bloomwood) is embracing it, returning from the States to live in the charming village of Letherby and working with her best friend, Suze, in the gift shop of Suze’s stately home. Life is good, especially now that Becky takes time every day for mindfulness…which actually means listening to a meditation tape while hunting down online bargains. But Becky still adores the traditions of Christmas. Things are looking cheerier than ever, until Becky’s parents announce they’re moving to ultra-trendy Shoreditch --- unable to resist the draw of craft beer and smashed avocados --- and ask Becky if she’ll host this year. What could possibly go wrong?

by Timothy Egan - History, Memoir, Nonfiction

Moved by his mother's death and his Irish Catholic family's complicated history with the church, Timothy Egan decided to follow in the footsteps of centuries of seekers to force a reckoning with his own beliefs. He embarked on a thousand-mile pilgrimage through the theological cradle of Christianity to explore the religion in the world that it created. Egan sets out along the Via Francigena, once the major medieval trail leading the devout to Rome, and travels overland via the alpine peaks and small mountain towns of France, Switzerland and Italy, accompanied by a quirky cast of fellow pilgrims and by some of the towering figures of the faith. The goal: walking to St. Peter's Square, in hopes of meeting the galvanizing pope who is struggling to hold together the church through the worst crisis in half a millennium.

by Liza Palmer - Fiction, Humor

If there's one thing Joan Dixon knows about herself, it's that she is a damn good journalist. But when she is laid off from yet another soon-to-be-shuttered newspaper, and even the soulless, listicle-writing online jobs have dried up, she is left with few options. So she goes to work as a junior copywriter at Bloom, a Los Angeles startup where her bosses are all a decade younger. For once, Joan has a steady paycheck and a stable job. She befriends a group of misfit coworkers and even begins a real relationship. But once a journalist, always a journalist, and as Joan starts to poke beneath Bloom’s bright surface, she realizes that she may have accidentally stumbled onto the scoop of her lifetime. Is it worth risking everything for the sake of the story?

by John Marrs - Fiction, Science Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

You’re riding in your self-driving car when suddenly the doors lock, the route changes and you have lost all control. Then a mysterious voice tells you, “You are going to die.” Just as self-driving cars become the trusted, safer norm, eight people find themselves in this terrifying situation, including a faded TV star, a pregnant young woman, an abused wife fleeing her husband, an illegal immigrant, a husband and wife, and a suicidal man. From cameras hidden in their cars, their panic is broadcast to millions of people around the world. But the public will show their true colors when they are asked, "Which of these people should we save?” “Who should we kill first?"

by Martin Clark - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Kevin Moore, once a high-flying Virginia attorney, hits rock bottom after a tumultuous summer leaves him disbarred and separated from his wife. Short on cash and looking for work, he lands in the middle of nowhere with a job at SUBstitution, the world’s saddest sandwich shop. His closest confidants: a rambunctious rescue puppy and the 20-year-old computer whiz manning the restaurant counter beside him. Kevin is determined to set his life right again, but the troubles keep coming, including a visit from a mysterious stranger who wanders into the shop armed with a threatening “invitation” to join a multimillion-dollar scam. Before long, Kevin will need every bit of his legal savvy just to stay out of prison.

written by M.T. Edvardsson, translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles - Fiction, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

Eighteen-year-old Stella Sandell stands accused of the brutal murder of a man almost 15 years her senior. She is an ordinary teenager from a respectable local family. What reason could she have to know a shady businessman, let alone to kill him? Told in an unusual three-part structure, A NEARLY NORMAL FAMILY pushes a family to its limits. The father, a pastor, believes his daughter can only be innocent, despite mounting evidence. The mother, a defense attorney, believes no one is telling the truth. And the daughter, desperate for her dreams of the future, believes no one understands how far she is willing to go.

by Ben Mezrich - Biography, Nonfiction

Ben Mezrich's 2009 bestseller, THE ACCIDENTAL BILLIONAIRES, is the definitive account of Facebook's founding and the basis for the Academy Award–winning film The Social Network. Two of the story's iconic characters are Harvard students Tyler and Cameron Winklevoss: identical twins, Olympic rowers and foils to Mark Zuckerberg. BITCOIN BILLIONAIRES is the story of the brothers’ redemption and revenge in the wake of their epic legal battle with Facebook.

by Claire Harman - History, Nonfiction, True Crime

Early on the morning of May 6, 1840, the elderly Lord William Russell was found in his London house with his throat so deeply cut that his head was nearly severed. The crime soon had everyone, including Queen Victoria, feverishly speculating about motives and methods. But when the prime suspect claimed to have been inspired by a sensational crime novel, it sent shock waves through literary London and drew both Dickens and Thackeray into the fray. Could a novel really lead someone to kill?