Coming in August...
The Darkest Secret by Alex Marwood
Sean Jackson is turning fifty and feels at the top of his
game: he has made a fortune in the London real estate market and has women
practically falling at his feet, to the displeasure of his second wife. The weekend long party Sean plans for himself
begins with his ex-wife dropping off his teenage daughters unexpectedly and
ends with the disappearance of one of his three year old twins. Who is never found. Twelve years and two wives later, Sean is
dead and as his family, and those who were at his fateful party weekend
reassemble to pay their respects secrets, jealousies and accusations begin to
come out and one of Sean’s older girls Mila, finds shocking clues to the
disappearance of her younger half-sister, but when the truth finally comes out
can she trust the people telling her that what she learns is the entire truth
and who is the real monster and who is truly to blame? As dysfunctional as they come, the families
that Sean Jackson creates will suffer because of his ego, some of them to the
point of ego in this psychological thriller that has a touch of Marwood’s
sardonic humor and some chilling characters the likes of which we can hope to
never encounter.
A Great Reckoning by Louise Penny
Chief Inspector
Armand Gamache may have retired from the Quebec Sûreté, but cannot stay away
completely when he takes a job as the head of the Sûreté Academy, much to the
surprise of his wife and friends, as many of his detractors and even enemies
are employed there as well. Hoping to
spark the interest of four cadets that Gamache is afraid he may lose, especially
Amelia Choquet, a cadet Armand has a special affinity for, in spite of her poor
attitude and the tattoos that cover her body, he brings them to Three Pines
where a mysterious map has been found in the wall of the bistro and asks them
to decipher the clues and read the map of the area, and perhaps learn why Three
Pines is perpetually left off published maps.
A closed room murder at the academy casts suspicion on all the cadets
and instructor, but strangest of all, a copy of the map from the bistro is
found with the dead body. Little by
little, more is revealed about the Surete Academy, Three Pines, Amelia and even
Gamache, as this series continues to be one of the best realized in both sense
of place and person.
Behind Closed Doors by PA Paris
Grace has taken over the responsibility for her younger
sister Millie who has Down’s syndrome but will be leaving her school to come
and live with Grace within the year.
Having this responsibility, Grace is shocked that a man as handsome as
Jack not only falls in love with her but seemingly with Millie as well,
offering to make a home for both of them.
While on their honeymoon in Thailand Grace realizes there is a dark and
terrifying side to Jack, a side of his personality that she never anticipated,
one that is cruel and sadistic. Jack
holds Millie’s safety as a threat over Grace to control Grace as she
desperately seeks a means to escape the nightmare that has become her life, a
life few believe when she tries to tell them as Jack has carefully crafted a
façade that paints Gras as vulnerable and even unstable in this compulsively
readable chilling tale.
Behold the Dreamers by Imbola Mbue
Jende Jonga emigrated from Cameroon to the US and is living
in Harlem with his wife Neni and son.
Jende has just gotten a job as chauffeur for Clark Edwards, a Lehman
Brothers executive and Neni is enrolled in college, working for the Edwards in
the Hamptons during the summer: all things seem hopeful for the Jongas. Until the collapse of Lehman Brothers. As the Edwards carefully constructed life
begins to crack and crumble, the Jonga’s find themselves doing things,
independent of each other, things that they never imagined themselves, or each
other doing. Confronted with the harsh
realities of life in America, the Jongas make an incredibly difficult, bittersweet
decision, but on Jende feels he and his family can live with and in the long
run, will be better off with in this modern take of the search for the American
Dream.
Sorrow Road by Julia Keller
Acker’s Gap, West Virginia is besieged by snow
storm after snow storm and prosecuting attorney Bel Elkin’s daughter Carla has
called Bel abruptly and said she is leaving Washington, D.C. where she has
lived to be near her father since high school and is coming home. Bel is worried about Carla on the slippery
roads especially when she learns that a law school friend has been killed in an
accident just hours after she met with bell and asked Bel to look into the
death of her father at a local nursing home Thornapple Terrace where other
Alzheimer patients have been dying at an alarming rate. Bel becomes suspicious and looks into the
deaths as her daughter, who is being very secretive about her return takes a
job collecting oral histories from rural West Virginia, including the nursing
home in question. A parallel story of
three young friends in 1938 who join the Navy six years later has startling
connections to the modern day deaths.
Acker’s Gap is filled with exceptional characters, especially Bel who
has many demons from her past, demons she is hoping she didn’t pass on to her daughter,
demons that she hopes do not cause her to give up a relationship she cherishes
more than she will admit to herself. The
plot drags a little in places and isn’t as tight as past entries in this
series, nonetheless, a visit to Acker’s Gap is always welcomed.
The Book that Matters Most by Ann Hood
Unsure of what to do after her husband of 25-years leaves
her, Ava joins a local book group, the members of which are choosing the book
that matters most to them for their monthly selections. As Ava works her way, grudgingly at first,
through the selections and through her grief, she is unaware that her daughter
has left her art program in Venice and is living in Paris, having fallen into
some bad circumstances. Though Ava
begins to heal she is still haunted by her mother’s death when Ava was a young
child and the book that that matters most to Ava, a book that proves to have
healing powers that far exceed any reasonable expectations in this book that
takes a woman from loss and desperation to joy and hope, making this a book
that will surely be the book that matters most to future readers.
The City Baker’s Guide to Country Living by Louise Miller
Be prepared to be charmed: after accidentally setting fire
to the exclusive Boston dinner club where she is the chef, Olivia Rawlings
escapes to Guthrie, Vermont where her best friend is living. Offered a job at the Sugar Maple Inn, Livvy
decides to stay for a while, navigating the local town and sorting out her
life, a life that has been marked by running away from things. In Guthrie Livvy rediscovers the simple joys
of a perfectly baked apple pie, playing her banjo and the big heartedness of
friends who become family as Livvy discovers the life she is meant to leave,
even if it isn’t the life she thought she’d live.
The Couple Next Door by Shari Lapena
Anne and Marco Conti are certain their infant daughter Cara
will be safe at home while they attend a small dinner party next door,
especially if they take turns checking on her every half hour. But when they return at home the end of the
night, Cora is missing and Anne and Marco are suspects, especially Anne who has
been struggling with post-partum depression.
As the investigation begins to unfold, secrets about each other, their
families and even their next door neighbors emerge creating a baffling crime
with many unseen twists and turns that ends with a final shocking and
unexpected act.
The Dollhouse by Fiona Davis
Told in alternating voices and decades, the glamourous world
of the Barbizon Hotel during the 1950’s is brought to life by a present day
reporter whose life in the hotel, now condos, is falling apart. As Rose becomes obsessed with a story that involves
hotel resident, Darby McLaughlin, who came to Manhattan to attend secretarial
school in 1952 and stayed, she becomes wrapped up in a suspicious death
involving Darby and a maid, the truth about which when revealed may change
everything for everyone, or may change nothing, fading away quietly into
history.
With Love from the Inside by Angela Pisel
Grace Bradshaw has lived with the knowledge that the state
will determine the date and time of her death.
Grace is on death row, having been convicted of the murder of her infant
son almost twenty years ago. It has been
almost twelve years (eleven years, five months and twenty-seven days) since she
last heard her daughter’s Sophie’s voice, but it is the memories of Sophie and
the hope of reconciliation that keeps Grace going. After the death of her father, Sophie gave up
the visits to her mother, trying to put the tragedies of her life behind her to
create a new life, one that doesn’t include a mother convicted of murdering her
baby brother. And she succeeds: she is
married to a successful plastic surgeon who is devoted to her as is his family,
and her past is safely behind her until her mother runs out of appeals and the
date of her execution is set: February 15.
Wrestling with her own demons, Sophie returns to her hometown and past
where she finds evidence that may exonerate her mother if it is not too
late. Even if it is too late, Sophie
must decide if it’s not too late to reconcile with her mother and if she does,
at what cost to Sophie’s present life will it be. As Grace spends her last weeks writing to
Sophie, trying to shed light on what happened, Sophie fights for the mother she
gave up on, trying to forgive her mother and herself for the past decade. Mothers and daughters, the families we are
born into and the families we create, our stories and our histories are all
neatly woven into this compassionate, haunting story.
