March may come in like a lion and out like a lamb but in between, there is plenty of time to read some new books!
A Simple Favor by Darcey Bell
Widowed, single-mom Stephanie is always happy to do things
for her best friend Emily and Emily’s five-year-old son Nicky who is best
friends with Stephanie’s son Miles, so picking Nicky up after school and
bringing him to the house to play is not a big deal, is in fact, something
Stephanie has done many times. But this
time is different: Emily doesn’t return to suburban Connecticut from her
high-powered job as a fashion exec in Manhattan. Neither Stephanie nor Emily’s husband Sean
are able to contact Stephanie; it is as if she has disappeared without a
trace. Blogger Stephanie reaches out to
her community for support and after Emily is found dead, Stephanie turns to
Sean for comfort, hoping they and their boys can heal and get on with their
lives and their new reality. Soon,
though, Stephanie starts beginning to get the feeling that even though all
signs point to Emily being dead she may in fact not be; Stephanie can’t figure
out if that’s the case what Emily is playing at but knows that best friends
share secrets and is the secrets Stephanie shared with Emily are revealed, her
life as she knows it will never be the same again. This domestic thriller is cunning and clever
as unexpected secrets are revealed and nothing is what it appears to be.
A Twist of the Knife by Becky Masterman
Former FBI agent Brigid Quinn has almost settled in to a
quiet, married life in Tucson when she is called to Florida where her elderly
father is in the hospital, her mother in need of support. Brigid’s former partner, Laura Coleman, on
leave from the Bureau, is also in Florida, volunteering for the Innocence
Project, working to get death sentences commuted or thrown out and new trials
granted. Laura is currently working on
the conviction of Marcus Creighton who is on death row after being convicted of
murdering his wife and three young children: except Creighton professes his
innocence in his wife’s death, though he willing admits the two did not get
along and her was having an affair, and the bodies of his children have never
been found. Time is running out for
Creighton who is scheduled to be executed in five days and Brigid finds herself
tracking down old witnesses, some of whom she is certain are lying, and finds
herself believing that Creighton might
actually be innocent, though will she be able to find convincing evidence
before it is too late. Juggling the
investigation with her family crisis, Brigid begins to learn everything is not
so black and white, including her family, which she knew had problems and
issues, but she didn’t realize the extent to which her father shaped her life
and what sacrifices her mother made and at what cost. Brigid Quinn is one of the most complex
characters to come along recently, smart and tough, willing to take a fresh
look at any situation whether it is her current investigation or the family
into which she was born. Twists and
turns in the plot keep the tension high and readers guessing until almost the
very last page.
Almost Missed You by Jessica Strawser
Violet cannot believe she has the life she has. Violet and Finn have married after a chance
meeting on a beach and many missed connections and have Bear, the love of their
life, a three-year-old son. Now, during
a family on another beach, Violet returns to their room where Bear should have
been taking a nap to find that Finn and Bear have vanished into thin air,
leaving no trace, as if they never existed at all. Hurtled into an unimaginable nightmare,
Violet cannot understand what has happened and cannot even imagine Finn taking
Bear of his own accord. As Violet
grieves her family, Finn’s best friend from college begins to put pieces
together and Finn’s past, a past Violet knew nothing of, begins to unravel,
bringing Violet closer to the truth and her new reality.
Close Enough to Touch by Colleen Oakley
Jubilee Jenkins almost dies the first time a boy kisses her
in high school…literally. Jubilee has a
rare allergy to the human touch and after the embarrassment of landing in the
hospital after the kiss, and learning that it was done on a dare, Jubilee
becomes a recluse, not leaving her house for nine years, even after her mother
marries and moves to Long Island. After
learning of her mother’s death, and her monthly checks stopped, Jubilee
realizes she must find a job. After
running into one of her classmates, she lands a job at the local library where
she meets Eric and his adopted son Aja who have just moved to town after Eric’s
divorce. Eric is struggling to be a
father to Aja, cope with his divorce, and mend his relationship with his
daughter Ellie who is still living in New Hampshire with her mother. Eric finds himself drawn to Jubilee and
doesn’t understand why she holds him at arms’ length, literally. As Eric tries to find a way for Jubilee to
let him in, Jubilee and Aja develop an unusual relationship and she finds
herself opening up to a ten year old in ways she can’t open up to her
contemporaries. This is an unusual love
story full of heart, hope and characters who must first love, trust, and
forgive themselves before they can be part of meaningful relationships.
Conviction by Julia Dahl
Reporter Rebekah Roberts receives a letter from a young man,
DeShawn Perkins who is serving a sentence in prison for the murder twenty-two
years ago of his foster parents and his foster sister in Crown Heights, with
the words “I didn’t do it”. Still free-lancing
for The Tribune in New York, Rebekah
is intrigued by the letter and begins to investigate the man’s claim, finding
herself on a trail that takes her into the city’s past and into the past of
someone she holds dear, someone whose present could be hurt by Rebekah uncovers
if she chooses to reveal it. A gripping
mystery that deftly weaves past and present and once again delves into the
Hasidic community in Brooklyn with no easy answers or choices for Rebekah.
Dead Letters by Caite Dolan-Leach
Ava Antipova has run to Paris from her dysfunctional family
and their failing vineyard in New York State even though it meant leaving her twin
sister Zelda behind. Ava is shocked when
she receives an e-mail from her mother whose grasp on reality is often skewed
by dementia, prescription drugs and alcohol.
Even though Ava and Zelda were identical twins, their personalities
couldn’t have been any different, Ava more serious, Zelda wilder and freer. When Ava begins to receive messages from
Zelda she is certain her twin is playing with her and is really alive, hiding
out somewhere, orchestrating the entire caper, but the more Ava learns about
her twin, the more she realizes the twisted life Zelda was living and wonders
what Zelda had gotten herself into. This
cleverly crafted novel will quickly draw readers in and capture their
attention, especially after the puzzle Zelda has left for Ava is deciphered. Haunting and twisted, the characters within
are most complex and unhealthy making for a deliciously creepy read as Zelda
leads Ava on the cat and mouse chase of their lives.
Never Let You Go by Chevy Stevens
Ten years ago, Lindsey Nash escaped with her six-year-old
daughter from an abusive relationship.
A car accident her now ex-husband Andrew had the night she escaped was
fatal for the other driver, landing Andrew in jail for ten years. Certain that she has cut all ties with
Andrew, Lindsey has successfully raised her daughter Sophie into an
imaginative, well-centered teenager, has started her own business, has a new
relationship and continues to be active in support groups for abused women and
is certain Andrew will never find her again in a remote town off of Vancouver
Island. Andrew has managed to locate
Lindsey and Sophie and she begins to feel someone is tracking her and stalking
her at both home and on her job; her new boyfriend has a suspicious accident
and Andrew has approached Sophie trying to convince her that he has changed;
but Lindsey doesn’t believe that and doesn’t believe Andrew will ever let her
go---alive. With one shocking twist,
everything changes in a heartbeat leaving Lindsey to struggle with the question
who wants to hurt her and why and how does that person know so much about her
and her habits? This tightly plotted
thriller does not let go until the final pages, revealing only what needs to be
revealed, keeping the pace brisk and setting the characters on edge. This
page-turning psychological thriller is completely absorbing and so full of
uncertainties and unknowns that it is hard to recognize what is the truth and
who is telling it.
The Book of Polly by Kathy Hepinstall
Ten-year-old Willow Havens was born to an almost
sixty-year-old, tough-as-nails, Southern woman.
Willow’s father died before she was born and her brother and sister,
almost a generation apart, are on their own, living their own disasters of
lives, leaving Willow in Polly’s care, to worry that Polly will die. Everything Willow does is to either ensure
Polly doesn’t die or to learn about her mother’s life, such as how she ended up
in Texas from Bethel, Louisiana where she still has kin with whom she doesn’t
have a close relationship. When Willow
runs across the name Garland Jones, she becomes convinced he is the key to
Polly and sets out to find out why Garland was in jail and what caused the rift
between him and Polly separating them forever.
Polly is diagnosed with cancer
when Willow is a teen and Willow decides it is time to take matters into her
own hands to save her mother, and brother and sister in the process, and learn
once and for all what makes Polly Polly.
This novel, more than a coming of age story, tells the stories of our
families, how we love them and how their pasts, hidden and known, shape us in
unforeseen ways.
The Cutaway by Christina Kovac
Virginia Knightly feels as a TV news producer in Washington,
D.C. she is at the top of her game. A
“MISSING” flyer from the police department crosses her desk and intrigues her
for reasons she cannot explain. Attorney
Evelyn Carney left a restaurant one night after an argument with her husband
and hasn’t been seen since. Virginia,
who has a photographic memory for images, remembers seeing the woman in a
recent video clip and feels there is more to the story than just a marital spat
and sets out on a trail through the darker side of Washington, D.C.’s judicial
and legal system never surprised where her path takes her. At the same time, Virginia and her colleagues
face possible changes at the station that could destroy everything this young
woman has built up. A new voice in crime
fiction, Christina Kovac will draw readers in and keep them in suspense until
the final page of this debut novel.
The Gargoyle Hunters by John Freeman Gill
In 1974, much of New York City is crumbling, including
thirteen-year-old Griffin’s family. His
parents have separated, his mother, Griffin and his sister living in the family
brownstone joined at any one time by borders in an attempt to earn enough money
to pay the mortgage. For his livelihood,
Griffin’s father “rescues” and resells pieces of architectural history he
rescues from rubbish heaps, torn down buildings, and even buildings still
standing, and resells them to be repurposed and appreciated. Griffin, longing to win his father’s
approval, save his family home and maybe, just maybe, his family, becomes part
of his father’s team, his specialty, stealing the gargoyles that grace the
eaves of buildings, keeping an eye on the sidewalks below. Griffin learns to navigate locked up
buildings with tenuous and questionable foundations much as he learns to
navigate his own life, and as he works to free the architectural treasures of a
city in turmoil from their moorings, he works himself free of his family and
grows into his own person. This homage
to the parts of the city seen every day but not often notice, and within our
families, will remind readers to take a look beyond what is immediate to
them.
The Roanoke Girls by Amy Engel
Lane Roanoke never knew her grandparents until after her
mother’s suicide when as a teen she moves to their farm in rural Kansas to live
with them and her cousin Allegra they have raised. Lane never knew anything her mother’s family and
never knew who her father was, but once inside Roanoke she learns the secrets
that have a tragic hold on the women in the family and vows not to become part
of them. Running away just before she’s
seventeen, Lane doesn’t return until ten years later when she receives a
message from her grandfather that Allegra has disappeared. With nothing keeping her in LA, Lane returns
home vowing not to get caught up in the past, only to find and help Allegra, perhaps
assuaging the guilt she carries of having left without her cousin. The minute she arrives, the past slams into
Lane’s present and she’s forced to face the secrets that the family has held
along with the boyfriend she left behind.
Alternating chapters between the past and present create a visceral
story that cannot be looked away from no matter how uncomfortable it becomes.
The Underworld by Kevin Canty
Set in a silver mining town in Idaho during the 1970’s, this
story, based on true events, imagines a town after a horrific mine fire where
everyone in the town has been touched: some lost friends, fathers, brothers,
husbands or boyfriends, no one is spared.
And even the survivors are scarred as they try to reconcile why they
were the lucky ones. Told mostly from
the point of view of a young college student who has left his hometown, his
sister-in-law, the young mother of twins, and his father, a miner himself who
has lived to see the light of day once more, this visceral tale of love and
loss brings a rough and tumble town to life, and finds compassion and hope in
unexpected places.
