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Week of February 9, 2015

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Week of February 9, 2015

Releases for the week of February 9th include MEAN STREAK by Sandra Brown, a heart-pounding story of survival that takes the age-old question "Does the end justify the means?" and turns it on its head; A KING'S RANSOM, Sharon Kay Penman's long-anticipated sequel to LIONHEART that tells the vivid and heart-wrenching story of the last event-filled years in the life of Richard I of England, Coeur de Lion; and DARK INVASION, Howard Blum’s gritty, true-life tale of German espionage and terror on American soil during World War I, and the NYPD Inspector who helped uncover the plot --- the basis for the film to be produced by and starring Bradley Cooper.

Astoria: Astor and Jefferson's Lost Pacific Empire: A Story of Wealth, Ambition, and Survival by Peter Stark - History

February 10, 2015


ASTORIA is the true-adventure tale of the 1810 Astor Expedition, an epic, now forgotten, three-year journey to forge an American empire on the Pacific Coast. Peter Stark offers a harrowing saga in which a band of explorers battled nature, starvation and madness to establish the first American settlement in the Pacific Northwest and opened up what would become the Oregon trail, permanently altering the nation's landscape and its global standing.

The Bear by Claire Cameron - Suspense

February 10, 2015


While camping with her family on a remote island, five-year-old Anna awakes in the night to the sound of her mother screaming. A rogue black bear is attacking the family's campsite and pouncing on her parents as prey. At her dying mother's faint urging, Anna manages to get her brother into the family's canoe and paddle away. But when the canoe runs aground on the edge of the woods, the sister and brother must battle hunger, the elements, and a wilderness alive with danger.

Bird Box by Josh Malerman - Horror/Thriller

February 10, 2015


Something terrifying is out there that must not be seen. One glimpse and a person is driven to deadly violence. Five years after it began, a handful of scattered survivors remain, including Malorie and her two young children. Living in an abandoned house near the river, she has dreamed of fleeing to a place where they might be safe. Now that the boy and girl are four, it is time to go. But the journey ahead will be terrifying --- one wrong choice and they will die. And something is following them.

Dark Invasion: 1915: Germany's Secret War and the Hunt for the First Terrorist Cell in America by Howard Blum - History

February 10, 2015


When a “neutral” United States becomes a trading partner for the Allies early in World War I, the Germans implement a secret plan to strike back. A team of saboteurs devise a series of “mysterious accidents” using explosives and biological weapons to bring down vital targets. New York Police Inspector Tom Tunney, head of the department’s Bomb Squad, is assigned the difficult mission of stopping them.

Defiant: The POWs Who Endured Vietnam's Most Infamous Prison, the Women Who Fought for Them, and the One Who Never Returned by Alvin Townley - History

February 10, 2015


During the Vietnam War, hundreds of American prisoners-of-war faced years of brutal conditions and horrific torture at the hands of North Vietnamese guards and interrogators. To quash the powerful underground resistance of the POWs, their captors singled out its 11 leaders and banished them to an isolated jail that would become known as Alcatraz. As they suffered in Hanoi, their wives at home launched an extraordinary campaign that would ultimately spark the nationwide POW/MIA movement.

February Fever: A Murder-by-Month Mystery by Jess Lourey - Mystery

February 8, 2015


Mira James’ hot and heavy relationship with boyfriend Johnny Leeson is definitely warming up her winter. But when Johnny has to go to Portland, Oregon, for a month-long internship, airplane-averse Mira lets her septuagenarian friend Mrs. Berns talk her into a visit. After a few glasses of champagne and Mrs. Berns’ encouragement, Mira begins to relax and enjoy herself…until a fellow passenger is murdered and a snowstorm traps the train in the Rockies. If Mira can’t track down the killer, she may end up derailed --- permanently.

The Good Luck of Right Now by Matthew Quick - Fiction/Humor

February 10, 2015


In a series of extremely personal letters to actor Richard Gere, a mentally challenged man in his late 30s named Bartholomew shares his confusing, complicated search for the meaning of life. No letters are actually mailed. The letter writer also imagines Gere's answers and is encouraged by them.

I Am Abraham: A Novel of Lincoln and the Civil War by Jerome Charyn - Historical Fiction

February 9, 2015


This unforgettable portrait of Abraham Lincoln and the Civil War effortlessly mixes humor with Shakespearean-like tragedy to create an achingly human portrait of the 16th president. Jerome Charyn conducts an orchestra of historical figures and fictional extras centered on a profoundly moral but troubled commander in chief whose relationship with his Ophelia-like wife and his sons is explored with penetrating psychological insight and the utmost compassion.

A King's Ransom by Sharon Kay Penman - Historical Fiction

February 10, 2015


This long-anticipated sequel to LIONHEART is a vivid and heart-wrenching story of the last event-filled years in the life of Richard, Coeur de Lion. Taken captive by the Holy Roman Emperor while en route home, he was to spend 15 months imprisoned, while Eleanor of Aquitaine moved heaven and earth to raise the exorbitant ransom. For the five years remaining to him, betrayals, intrigues, wars and illness were ever present.

Lion Plays Rough: A Leo Maxwell Mystery by Lachlan Smith - Mystery

February 10, 2015


When a mysterious woman nearly runs Leo Maxwell down, then appears at his office and asks him to defend her brother on a murder charge, Leo thinks he’s found the case that will make his name. One problem: he hasn’t actually met the client. And after taking a series of photographs that seem to blow the lid on corruption in the police department, Leo quickly learns that all is not as it seems --- beginning with the alluring woman who hired him.

The Long and Faraway Gone by Lou Berney - Mystery

February 10, 2015


In the summer of 1986, six movie-theater employees were killed in an armed robbery, while one inexplicably survived. Then, a teenage girl vanished from the annual State Fair. Twenty-five years later, the reverberations of those unsolved cases quietly echo through the survivors’ lives. A private investigator in Vegas, Wyatt’s latest inquiry takes him back to a past he’s tried to escape. Similarly, Julianna struggles with the past --- with the day her beautiful older sister Genevieve disappeared. When Julianna discovers that one of the original suspects has resurfaced, she’ll stop at nothing to find answers.

The Matchmaker by Elin Hilderbrand - Romance

February 10, 2015


Clendenin Hughes is the boy who took Dabney Kimball Beech’s heart with him long ago when he left Nantucket to pursue his dream of becoming a journalist. Now, after spending 27 years on the other side of the world, Clen is back on the island, and Dabney has never felt so confused or so alive. But when tragedy threatens her own second chance, Dabney must face the choices she's made and share painful secrets with her family.

Mean Streak by Sandra Brown - Romantic Suspense

February 10, 2015


Dr. Emory Charbonneau disappears on a mountain road in North Carolina. By the time her husband Jeff reports her missing, the trail has grown cold. Emory, suffering from an unexplained head injury, regains consciousness and finds herself the captive of a man with a violent past. As her husband's deception is revealed, and the FBI closes in on her captor, Emory begins to wonder if the man with no name is, in fact, her rescuer from those who wish her dead --- and from heartbreak.

Missing You by Harlan Coben - Thriller

February 10, 2015


On an online dating site, NYPD Detective Kat Donovan finds the profile of her ex-fiancé Jeff, the man who shattered her heart and who she hasn’t seen in 18 years. Kat feels a spark, wondering if this might be the moment when past tragedies recede and a new world opens up to her. But when she reaches out to the man in the profile, her reawakened hope quickly darkens into suspicion and then terror as an unspeakable conspiracy comes to light.

The Pilgrims by Will Elliott - Fantasy

February 10, 2015


Eric Albright is a luckless slacker willing to let his life just drift by…until the day a small red door appears on the graffiti-covered wall of the railway bridge near his flat, and a gang of strange-looking people dash out of the door and rob the nearby newsagent. From that day on, Eric and his sometimes friend, Stuart Casey, wait for the door to reappear. When it does, they choose to go through…to a place where a mountain-sized dragon with the powers of a god lies sleeping beneath a great white castle.

The Race Underground: Boston, New York, and the Incredible Rivalry That Built America's First Subway by Doug Most - History/Transportation

February 10, 2015


In the late 19th century, two brothers from one of the nation's great families --- Henry Melville Whitney of Boston and William Collins Whitney of New York --- pursued the dream of his city digging America's first subway, and the great race was on. The competition between Boston and New York played out in an era not unlike our own: one of economic upheaval, life-changing innovations, class warfare, bitter political tensions, and the question of America’s place in the world.

Ruby by Cynthia Bond - Historical Fiction

February 10, 2015


Ephram Jennings has never forgotten the beautiful girl with the long braids running through the piney woods of Liberty, their small East Texas town. Young Ruby, who has suffered beyond imagining, flees Liberty for the bright pull of 1950s New York. When a telegram from her cousin forces her to return home, 30-year-old Ruby finds herself reliving the devastating violence of her girlhood. Meanwhile, Ephram must choose between loyalty to the sister who raised him and the chance for a life with the woman he has loved since he was a boy.

Watching You by Michael Robotham - Psychological Thriller

February 10, 2015


Marnie Logan’s husband Daniel has inexplicably vanished, and the police have no leads in the case. Without proof of death or evidence of foul play, she can't access his bank accounts or life insurance. Depressed and increasingly desperate, she seeks the help of clinical psychologist Joe O'Loughlin. It appears that a cold-blooded killer is eliminating the people in Marnie's life, and now that O'Loughlin is a part of it, he is next in line.