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Week of December 7, 2015

New in Paperback

Week of December 7, 2015

Releases for the week of December 7th include THE SKELETON ROAD by Val McDermid, a gripping stand-alone novel about a cold case that links back to the Balkan Wars of the 1990s; THE GIRL FROM HUMAN STREET, in which award-winning New York Times columnist Roger Cohen tracks his family’s story of repeated upheaval, four generations of wandering from pre-Shoah Lithuania to apartheid-era South Africa, and then to England, the United States and Israel; and HER BRILLIANT CAREER by Rachel Cooke, an exuberant group biography that follows 10 women in 1950s Britain whose pioneering lives paved the way for feminism and laid the foundation of modern women's success.

Amnesia by Peter Carey - Fiction

December 8, 2015


When Gaby Baillieux releases the Angel Worm into Australia’s prison computer system, hundreds of asylum-seekers walk free. And because the Americans run the prisons, the doors of some 5,000 jails in the United States also open. Is this a mistake, or a declaration of cyber war? Felix Moore, known to himself as “our sole remaining left-wing journalist,” is determined to write Gaby’s biography in order to find the answers. But how can he get Gaby --- on the run, scared, confused and angry --- to cooperate?

Becoming Richard Pryor by Scott Saul - Biography

December 8, 2015


Drawing upon a mountain of original research --- interviews with family and friends, court transcripts, unpublished journals and screenplay drafts --- Scott Saul traces Richard Pryor’s rough journey to the heights of fame: from his heartbreaking childhood, his trials in the Army and his apprentice days in Greenwich Village, to his soul-searching interlude in Berkeley and his ascent in the “New Hollywood” of the 1970s.

The Bullet by Mary Louise Kelly - Thriller

December 8, 2015


In a split second, everything Caroline Cashion has known is proved to be a lie. A single bullet is found lodged at the base of her skull. Caroline is stunned. She has never been shot. Then, over the course of one awful evening, she learns the truth: that she was adopted when she was three years old after her real parents were murdered. She was wounded too, a gunshot to the neck. Surgeons had stitched up the traumatized little girl, with the bullet still there. Now, Caroline has to find the truth of her past.

Captive Paradise: A History of Hawaii by James L. Haley - History

December 8, 2015


James L. Haley's CAPTIVE PARADISE is the story of King Kamehameha I, The Conqueror, who unified the islands through terror and bloodshed, but whose dynasty succumbed to inbreeding; of Gilded Age tycoons like Claus Spreckels, who brilliantly outmaneuvered his competitors; of firebrand Lorrin Thurston, who was determined that Hawaii be ruled by whites; and of President McKinley, who presided over the eventual annexation of the islands.

The Fifth Heart by Dan Simmons - Historical Mystery

December 8, 2015


In 1893, Sherlock Holmes and Henry James come to America together to solve the mystery of the 1885 death of Clover Adams. Holmes has faked his own death because he has come to the conclusion that he is a fictional character. This leads to serious complications for James. If his esteemed fellow investigator is merely a work of fiction, what does that make him? And what can the master storyteller do to fight against the sinister power that may or may not be controlling them from the shadows?

The Girl from Human Street: A Jewish Family Odyssey by Roger Cohen - Memoir

December 8, 2015


Award-winning New York Times columnist Roger Cohen turns a compassionate yet discerning eye on the legacy of his own forebears. As he follows them across continents and decades, mapping individual lives that diverge and intertwine, vital patterns of struggle and resilience, valued heritage and evolving loyalties (religious, ethnic and national) converge into a resonant portrait of cultural identity in the modern age.

Her Brilliant Career: Ten Extraordinary Women of the Fifties by Rachel Cooke - Biography

December 8, 2015


Rachel Cooke goes back in time to offer an entertaining and iconoclastic look at 10 women in the 1950s --- pioneers whose professional careers and complicated private lives helped to create the opportunities available to today's women. These plucky and ambitious individuals --- among them a film director, a cook, an architect, an editor, an archaeologist and a race car driver --- left the house, discovered the bliss of work, and ushered in the era of the working woman.

In the Company of Sherlock Holmes: Stories Inspired by the Holmes Canon edited by Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger - Mystery Anthology

December 7, 2015


The Sherlock Holmes stories by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle were recently voted as the top mystery series of all time. Now, Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger have assembled a stellar group of contemporary authors from a variety of genres and asked them to create new stories inspired by that canon. Readers will find Holmes in times and places previously unimagined, as well as characters who themselves have been affected by the tales of Sherlock Holmes.

The Kings of London: A Breen and Tozer Mystery by William Shaw - Historical Mystery

December 8, 2015


Detective Sergeant Breen has a death threat in his inbox and a mutilated body on his hands. The dead man was the wayward son of a rising politician, and everywhere Breen turns to investigate, he finds himself obstructed and increasingly alienated. Breen begins to see that the abuse of power is at every level of society. And when his actions endanger those at the top, he becomes their target. Out in the cold, banished from a corrupt and fracturing system, Breen is finally forced to fight fire with fire.

Once Shadows Fall by Robert Daniels - Psychological Thriller

December 8, 2015


After years of paying her dues on the force, Beth Sturgis has earned her place as a detective for the Robbery-Homicide division of the Atlanta PD. Now, she's heading up a major manhunt for a potential serial killer who’s working his way inward from the outskirts of the city. The copycat elements in the first crime scene lead Sturgis to retired FBI agent Jack Kale, who was responsible for apprehending and nearly killing the murderer known as the Scarecrow, the same Scarecrow who appears to be this new killer's terrible inspiration.

Shame and the Captives by Thomas Keneally - Historical Fiction

December 8, 2015


Alice is a young woman living on her father-in-law’s farm on the edge of an Australian country town, while her husband is held prisoner in Europe. When Giancarlo, an Italian anarchist at the prisoner-of-war camp down the road, is assigned to work on the farm, she hopes that being kind to him will somehow influence her husband’s treatment. What she doesn’t anticipate is how dramatically Giancarlo will expand her outlook and self-knowledge.

The Skeleton Road by Val McDermid - Thriller

December 8, 2015


While preparing to convert a Victorian Gothic building in historic Edinburgh, builders find skeletal remains hidden in a high pinnacle that hasn’t been touched by maintenance in years. Cold case detective Karen Pirie takes the case and attempts to find the corpse’s identity. It turns out that the bones may be from as far away as former Yugoslavia, and Karen will have to dig deeper into the tragic history of the Balkans, war crimes and their consequences, and the notion of justice itself.

The Spark and the Drive by Wayne Harrison - Fiction

December 8, 2015


Justin Bailey is 17 when he arrives at the shop of legendary muscle car mechanic Nick Campbell. Anguished and out of place among the students at his rural Connecticut high school, Justin finds in Nick, his captivating wife Mary Ann, and their world of miraculous machines the sense of family he has struggled to find at home. But when Nick and Mary Ann’s lives are struck by tragedy, Justin’s own world is upended.

Tokyo Kill: A Jim Brodie Thriller by Barry Lancet - Thriller/Adventure

December 8, 2015


When an elderly World War II veteran shows up unannounced at Brodie Security begging for protection, Jim Brodie --- in Tokyo to hunt down a rare ink painting for a client --- agrees to provide a security detail until the man comes to his senses. Instead, a brutal murder rocks Brodie and his crew, sending them deep into the realm of the Triads, Chinese spies, kendo warriors, and an elusive group of killers whose treachery spans centuries --- and who will stop at nothing to complete their mission.

The Wilderness of Ruin: A Tale of Madness, Fire, and the Hunt for America's Youngest Serial Killer by Roseanne Montillo - True Crime

December 8, 2015


In the early 1870s, local children begin disappearing from the working-class neighborhoods of Boston. Several return home bloody and bruised after being tortured, while others never come back. With the city on edge, authorities believe the abductions are the handiwork of a psychopath, until they discover that their killer --- 14-year-old Jesse Pomeroy --- is barely older than his victims. The criminal investigation that follows sparks a debate among the world’s most revered medical minds, and will have a decades-long impact on the judicial system and medical consciousness.