New for March...

Writers & Lovers by Lily King

Casey Peabody, who as a 14-year-old was a golfing champion, is now thirty-one years old, living alone in a small room in Boston, has just lost her mother, can’t get her novel written, is in massive debt from her undergraduate and graduate schools, and waiting tables at the Harvard Club.  As hopeless as it all sounds, Casey continues riding her banana bike to work each day and plodding away at her novel.  She begins to date a successful writer and one of his students at the same time, looking for some energy to continue propelling her forward.  In the hands of a less experienced author, this book might come across as cluttered and sentimental, but instead it is thoughtfully and beautifully written, often feeling that each word has been carefully chosen.  King is equally comfortable writing about working the front of a restaurant as she is writing about writers’ colonies and retreats, all of which comes together in this elegant story with a very happy, though somewhat trite and too comfortable, ending.

You Are Not Alone by Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen

Shay Miller is striking out on all sides: she lives in Manhattan, but in a friend’s apartment; sure, that friend is a terrific guy, but he he has no interest in Shay except as a friend.  A research analyst who loves statistics, Shay is having a hard time finding permanent work, and on the morning of a very promising interview, she witnesses a young woman throwing herself in front of a subway train.  Shay knows what it feels like to be lonely, but can’t imagine hurling herself off a subway platform.  She finds a necklace she believes to be the young woman’s and becomes obsessed with her and with the statistics surrounding her death.  Sisters Cassandra and Jane Moore, have it all: their own PR firm, a solid circle of friends, a glamorous life, and the ability to seemingly get whatever they want.  And they want Shay.  At first Shay is flattered that IT women want her in their elite circle until it becomes clear to Shay that they are after something else, but what does Shay have that they could possibly want?  This smart cat and mouse game will keep readers guessing until the very end.

Conspiracy of Bones by Kathy Reichs

It has been almost five years since the last Temperance Brennan novel, but it was well worth the wait.  A lot has happened to Tempe in the last five years, she has discovered she has a cerebral aneurysm and though she had surgery to keep it at bay, she fears it is interfering with her work and lifestyle.  The medical examiner, Tempe’s boss and friend, was killed, and the new medical examiner in Charlotte, North Carolina is Margot Heavner, who is very forthright in announcing she has no need for Tempe’s consultations and has no plans to call upon her expertise.  Tempe and Heavner go way back to a time when Tempe called her out after an interview.  As Tempe tries to regain her footing, she receives morgue photos of a faceless, handless, unidentified man; Tempe has no idea who sent them and doesn’t care for the way Heavner is handling the investigation and sets off on her own investigation, risking any chance she has of ever working in Charlotte again. With retired police detective Skinny Slidell at her side, Tempe sets out to identify the man, uncover the details in several missing, and abused children cold cases, and even manages to tie in a decades old ferry sinking.  Reichs deftly ties up all loose ends, and carefully interweaves each story into the other in this latest thriller that redefines Tempe Brennan while highlighting all the things readers, and now viewers, have come to love about her.

Gone by Midnight by Candice Fox

Crimson Lake, Australia, is where people often find themselves when they no longer fit into a traditional society.  Ted Conkaffey was a cop with a wife and a beautiful baby girl until he was accused of kidnapping and attacking a thirteen-year-old girl.  Though he was arrested, no charges were ever filed, but he continues to live his life under the stigma.  Little by little, his wife Kelly is letting Ted back into hers and their daughter’s lives, so much so that she will be entrusting Ted with their daughter while she goes to a conference for a week.  Amanda Pharrell is a young woman who, at the age of seventeen, became a convicted murder.  She has many odd behaviors, but she and Ted have formed and unusual PI partnership and have been successful in solving several crimes.  When a young boy goes missing from the hotel room where he and three of his friends are staying while their parents have dinner downstairs, his mother Sara, hires the unlikely pair to find her son.  The timing couldn’t be worse for Ted, but he knows a parent’s anguish.  As he and Amanda search alongside of the police, they run into some unsavory characters, and even turn to them to help locate the boy.  With strong characterizations, a rugged setting, and a tight plot, this series will appeal to fans of Jane Harper and C.J. Box.

Eight Perfect Murders by Peter Swanson

When he first became a bookseller, Malcolm Kershaw wrote a blog post about eight mysteries that he felt had the best murders.  Years later, someone is committing murders mimicking these murders and the FBI wants to know what Malcolm knows about them.  When an agent begins to get too friendly with Malcolm, including him in too much of her investigation, things take an even stranger turn as they chase a killer from Massachusetts to Maine, where nothing is what it seems to be, and no one knows who could be next.  This brilliantly plotted mystery pays homage to the great murders in classic mystery fiction, while spinning a web of deceit and intrigue making it hard to know what to believe and who to trust.  For fans of Anthony Horowitz and classic murder mysteries.  

Darling Rose Gold by Stephanie Wrobel

Patty Watts loved her daughter Rose Gold more than anything; how could she have poisoned her for so many years, keeping her so sick that could barely function without Patty; when Rose Gold figures out what has been going on, Patty is arrested for child abuse and sent to prison.  Now she is being released and Rose Gold has invited Patty to come and live with her and her infant son.  Patty is delighted to have her daughter back, and the baby is a bonus.  But from the beginning Patty feels uneasy about things: Rose Gold has purchased the house Patty grew up in, a house that holds terrible memories for Patty; other things begin not to add up and before long, Patty wonders if maybe Rose Gold learned too well from her mother.  Told in alternating narratives and in alternating time periods, Rose Gold and Patty’s stories unfold into something disturbing and diabolical from this debut author, a voice to watch in the crowded psychological thriller field. 

Valentine by Elizabeth Wetmore 

The women in this debut novel, set against the oil fields of 1976 Odessa, seek their own form of justice when a 14-year old girl, Gloria Ramirez is brutally assaulted; on the morning after Valentine’s Day, Gloria crawls her way to the porch of Mary Rose Whitehead, beaten and barely alive.  There doesn’t seem to be justice for women in this area of Texas, especially young women such as Gloria.  The women of the town form an alliance, protecting the young girl, and making sure the men of the town know that justice isn’t always something that is handed down in a court of law.  The narrative is told from various points of view, and explores many different social issues including race and class, issues that are still, sadly, relevant today.  How these women tell this story, and what they bring to it from their own lives, helps create a complete, if somewhat dark tale, but each provides strength to others, and ultimately to the community.

In Five Years by Rebecca Serle

Everything is perfect---on schedule---in corporate lawyer Dannie Kohan’s life:  she has just landed the job of her dreams, has an apartment on Gramercy Square, and has just become engaged to David, the man with whom she is a perfect fit; then why on the night of her engagement does she dream of waking up five years later in a loft in Brooklyn with another man?  Over the next five years, Dannie and David continue living together, focusing on their careers, but never make time for marriage; all the while in the back of Dannie’s mind is her dream and that mysterious man.  Fast forward to June 2024: Dannie’s best friend Bella is back from Europe where she often lives a glamorous life with many lovers, and wants Dannie to meet her new boyfriend who turns out to be the man of Dannie’s dreams, literally.  When Bella introduces her boyfriend Greg, Dannie recognizes him as the man from her dream that was named Aaron, which is actually Greg’s first name.  Completely thrown off kilter, Dannie, who has told no one except her therapist about the dream isn’t sure what to do, especially when Bella announces she’s in love, and Greg is the one; when Bella receives unthinkable news, Dannie and Greg begin to form an alliance to help their friend.  While much of this sounds familiar, it feels fresh and new in Serle’s (The Dinner Party) capable hands, and there are some unexpected moments along the way.

Lady in Waiting: My Extraordinary Life in the Shadow of the Crown by Anne Glenconner

Lady Anne began her friendship with Queen Elizabeth II at an early age: she was a disappointment to her father as she was unable to inherit his estate, but quickly gained favor with the royal family as Maid of Honor at Queen Elizabeth’s coronation, and Lady in Waiting to Princess Margaret until her death.  As a confident of the Princess, she was privy to many personal events in the lives of the Royals, including romantic entanglements, family troubles and illnesses, and traveling to many locations, meeting many celebrities, all the while keeping the confidence of the royal family, and still keeping her sense of self, in this fresh memoir that will appeal to royal watchers and fans of The Crown alike. 

My Dark Vanessa by Kate Elizabeth Russell

Vanessa Wye is a sophomore at a boarding school in Maine and is having time making friends and finding her place; when her 42-year-old English teacher, Jacob Strane, begins showing her some extra attention she is flattered and eventually believes she is in love as their relationship turns sexual.  When their relationship is threatened to be exposed, Vanessa leaves Browick, but remains in touch with Strane.  Almost twenty years later, Vanessa is approached by a reporter who tells her another student of Strane has accused him of sexual abuse and she would like Vanessa to corroborate the accusations; Vanessa, still believing Strane was the love of her life, begins to think back to their relationship and sees things in a little bit of a different light.  This powerful debut is smartly written, will strike a chord with many, and start much debate and discussion.

On the Corner of Hope and Main by Beverly Jenkins

Henry Adams, Kansas, a town originally founded by freed slaves is the setting for the tenth in the “Blessings” series.  It is election time and Trent July has decided that after four years as mayor, it’s time for him to do something else, and husband and wife Barrett and Sheila Payne are each funning for the sea.  Town owner Bernadine Brown, you really can buy everything on eBay, is surprised to see her ex-husband out of work with the oil company he worked for, now campaign manager, just as her romance with Malachi July is heating up again.   Small town antics and pettiness get in the way of the election, but the town’s younger set straightens everyone out and by the end, the community is strong, relationships are mended, and Henry Adams has a new mayor.  While it’s not necessary to start at the beginning of the series, which features small town closeness, rivalries, friendships and all the complications that come with it all, a first visit to Henry Adams is sure not to be the last.

Precious You by Helen Monks Takhar

Forty-one-year-old Katherine Ross, the editor of a London magazine had a meteoric rise, but now she feels she is, at best stagnant, at worse, a dinosaur, especially when twenty-four-year-old Lily arrives as her new intern but is quickly given a lot of responsibility by her aunt, who is the new publisher of the magazine.  Instead of being able to take Lily under her wing, Katherine is reminded of what she once was and quickly becomes jealous as she sees Lily taking over much of her work, often publicly shaming Katherine, something Katherine feels may be intentional.  Before long, Lily has taken over many aspects of Katherine’s life, both at the magazine and in her personal life.  Told in alternating voices, secrets are exposed, plots revealed, all with irrevocable consequences for each woman in this tautly plotted debut thriller.

The Boy from the Woods by Harlan Coben

This stand-alone from Coben pairs the unlikely duo of Wilde, a man who lives mostly off the grid in the woods in Ramapo Mountain State Forest (NJ) with his best friend’s mother, attorney Hester Crimstein, to search for a missing teenage girl.  Wilde was found as a child in the woods, alone, but with very good survival skills, and unexpected language abilities for someone living in the woods; unable to locate any parents or family, Wilde was place in a foster home, and eventually adopted, becoming best friends with David Crimstein, who has since died, and is the godfather of David’s son Matthew.  Matthew reaches out to his grandmother, retired from a high-profile law firm, now a talk show attorney, still tough as nails, when his friend, bullied classmate Naomi Pine goes missing.  Matthew wants to keep Naomi’s disappearance as quiet as possible, but when Crash, Matthew’s friend and one of Naomi’s tormenters disappears, as does Naomi a second time after she reappears, it is more serious, especially with a ransom note demanding money and the appearance of a finger.  Crash’s father, a TV producer, has a long, possibly criminal connection, to a political candidate, complete with videotapes that could spell the end for everyone.  At a rapid pace, kaleidoscopic images give way to a clear picture of murder, political intrigue, and long help family secrets all leading up to an ending with several unexpected, and mostly unseen, surprises coming.

Separation Anxiety by Laura Zigman

Judy Vogel is lonely: she and her husband Gary are pretty much separated, owing in part to Gary’s high levels of anxiety, though they can’t afford to live separately and want to be in the house together for their 13-year-old son who has problems of his own and is in a Montessori middle school; her writing career stalled after one big picture book and a television deal, and her best friend is dying of cancer.  While cleaning out the basement, she finds the baby sling she never used for her son but begins using for her dog which offers her a little comfort, much in the same way that smoking pot helps calm Gary down.  Through couples’ therapy, puppet people staying at their house, and outright contempt at some of the things going on at Teddy’s school, Judy tries to hold it all together, struggles to make sense of it all, and keep her sense of humor all with a twenty pound sheltie strapped to her chest. 

The Bramble and the Rose by Tom Bouman

In northeastern Pennsylvania’s Wild Thyme Township, Henry Farrell is the law.  When a neighbor reports a headless body that has been mauled by a bear.  Farrell calls in support, including wildlife forensic specialist Mary Weaver, to help identify the man and learn if it was suicide, an accident, or murder.  The discovery of the head and learning the man was former law enforcement, leads everyone to the conclusion it was murder.  Henry has little time to investigate, however, as he becomes the prime suspect in his former lover’s murder and must hold his marriage together amidst the accusations.  His nephew Ryan’s disappearance adds to Henry’s list of things to do when all he’d prefer to be doing is fishing and solving neighborly disputes.  This is the third novel featuring the introspective Henry Farrell and the northern wonderland he calls home.  Well plotted with gorgeous prose, this series is a must for any mystery reader.

The Last Couple Standing by Matthew Norman

For over fifteen years, the Core Four, Megan and Terry, Sarah and Doug, Alan and Amber, and Mitch and Jessica have done everything together: graduate college, get married, have children, buy houses, socialize, and now divorce.  Mitch and Jessica are the last of their friends to remain married, but begin to feel the pressure of divorce, and decide to take a good hard look at their marriage and do something to shore it up before it’s too late.  Jessica thinks that having sex with other people might be just the ticket: they set up rules which include no repeats.  When Jessica begins to get in deeper than she expected, things get messy and she and Mitch wonder if things really were good before and all of this wasn’t necessary.  This tender, smart novel explores what goes into a marriage, and serves as a reminder that marriages take work and care to be fulfilling.  Funny dialogue and pop-culture references for the older crowd make this a fast-paced, enjoyable read.

The Return by Rachel Harrison

Elise, Julie, Molly, and Mae were best friends in college, and have remained close, though Elise and Julie share a special bond.  After Julie and her husband purchase a remote inn in Maine, she disappears.  After two years and a memorial service, her friends accept that Julie will not return; all except for Elise who knows she would feel it if Julie were no longer alive.  Two years to the day Julie disappears, she reappears and the friends decide to organize a girls’ weekend to reunite with their friend.  Once together, Elise knows there is something wrong with Julie: she doesn’t look anything like she used to, she has a voracious appetite, including for meat, something that Julie would never have eaten before she disappeared, and the more she eats, the more emaciated she becomes.  Over the weekend it becomes clear that the Julie they’ve gotten back is not the same Julie who left them: but where has she been and who or what has she become?  This horror story is elevated to a new level with the complexities of the women’s relationships and the fierceness with which Elise wants Julie back, and the lengths to which she is willing to go to make that happen. 

Cozy Up with these New Mysteries from Kensington…

Murder in an Irish Cottage by Carlene O’Connor

In the fifth Irish Village Mystery Series, Garda Siobhan O’Sullivan plans to spend her holiday with her five siblings in Kilbane, helping to run her family’s café, named after their deceased mother, Namoi; her fiancé, Macdara, is also a Garda, and when his cousin Jane calls for help, he and Siobhan, who is on holiday, go to Jane’s rural village where they find Ellen, Jane’s mother, dead, apparently smothered with a pillow, and perhaps poisoned by tea drunk from a nearby cup in the cottage that is scheduled to be demolished because the local villages insist the cottage, built on a local fairy path, is cursed.  The local Garda don’t take kindly to Siobhan and Macdara’s presence, but when a friend of theirs from school tells them that Ellen was far from the most popular person in the village, their suspect list increases exponentially.  The contrast and interplay between the more outgoing Siobhan, who isn’t ready to rule out Macdara’s cousin Jane as a suspect, and Macdara, who doesn’t want to think his cousin may have been involved in killer her mother, This Irish mystery is sure to charm readers new to the series as well as longtime fans, full of plenty of folklore, and a bit of fairy magic.

Death by Chocolate Frosted Donut Sarah Graves

Jacobia “Jake” Tiptree”, former Wall Street money manager, moved to Eastport, Maine over a decade ago after her bitter divorce, and hoping to get her son Sam away from the bad influences and friends he found in the city where she began to fix up her old house and, with the help of her friend Ellie, solved several murders.  Now Jake and Ellie run the Chocolate Moose, a chocolate bakery on the island, catering to locals and tourists, and currently, a host of pirates, young and old, during the town’s annual Pirate Festival.  In town for the festivities is Henry Hadlyme, an insufferable television food personality who likes nothing, including the Chocolate Moose.  After a very public argument with him, Hadlyme is found dead in the bakery’s basement, dead, run through with Jake’s husband’s sword, making her the prime suspect.  Though local police chief Bob Arnold is fairly certain Jake had nothing to do with the man’s death, she is still the prime suspect, and so Jake and Ellie fine themselves once again sleuthing, and before long, come up with a long list of other people, currently in Eastport, who are also not loosing much sleep over Hadlyme’s death.  Fans of Graves’s first long running series to feature Jake and Ellie, Home Repair is Homicide, will eat up this new series, focusing on the chocolate bakery, but with all the Northeast island charm they’ve come to know and love; readers new to Eastport will not be at a disadvantage, however.  Plenty of chocolate baked goods, impish pirates, and plenty of seafaring, including a mysterious ship firing on the town, add to this cozy mystery.

Statue of Limitations by Kate Collins

The author of the Flower Shop series returns with the first in an all new series with a gardening theme.  Recently divorced Athena returns to her coastal Michigan hometown with her son to work in her family’s garden center.  Alone in the center one night, Athena finds someone trying to steal a life-sized statue of the goddess Athena, claiming that it is his family’s, and that her grandfather had no right to buy it for his Greek restaurant.  Adding to her headaches, all the shops on Greene Street, where her family has their shop, are slated to be torn down to make room for more condos after the project was cancelled by the family’s patriarch, who then suddenly died.  A second murder makes Athena suspicious, and when her grandparents are approached by the developer sweetening the deal for them to sell, Athena kicks into high gear to save Little Greece and keep her family businesses thriving.  Blogging about her family’s antics, who do not realize they are the subjects of the entertaining blog, help Athena work out some of her frustrations and see things in a different light.  With delightful characters and a close-knit Greek community, fans of Collins’s last series will be delighted to see her back.

Murder Makes Scents by Christin Brecher

The second mystery to feature Nantucket candle maker Stella Wright finds Stella and her mom, Millie, a perfume expert, recently returned from a perfume conference in Paris where Millie wasn’t able to sit on the panel “The Art of Scent Extractions” as it was cancelled after a murder.  Back at home, Stella receives a note threatening her mother who the note’s writer claimed smuggled a secret fragrance formula out of Paris.  A host of zany characters at Stella’s cousin Airbnb, mixed in with the cast of locals, keeps things light as Stella searches for a trans-Atlantic killer as she is about to celebrate a milestone birthday.

It's Leap Year!

Which means an extra day this year to read all the books coming out in February...

Pretty as a Picture by Elizabeth Little

Film editor Marissa Dahl has had a string of less than stellar assignments, owing, perhaps to her quirky personality and behavior; she has a good eye for editing, though, and is hired as the replacement editor for legendary director Tony Rees on a film depicting the unsolved murder of a young starlet decades ago.  Marissa doesn’t learn much about the assignment other than it requires her to travel to Kickout Island, a small island off the coast of Delaware and a long non-disclosure agreement.  Once she arrives, she doesn’t learn much else about the production, other than it has been riddle with accidents, firings, and more rumors than she would normally expect on a movie set.  At the hotel she meets two teenage girls, Grace Portillo and Suzy Koh, intent on solving the murder, drawing Marissa, who they realize can access “insider information” under the guise of research for work, into the investigation.  Full of movie references and industry gossip, this sophomore thriller intersperses a post-production podcast providing additional details into Marissa’s time in on the set and subsequent film references.

Mercy House by Alena Dillon

Sister Evelyn and like-minded nuns run Mercy House in Brooklyn’s Bedford-Stuyvesant section.  Once known as a very dangerous section, Bed-Sty is slowly gentrifying, though not fast enough for some women suffering abuse.  Evelyn and the other nuns, who enjoy more freedoms since Vatican II, minister to these women, helping them in any way they can, giving them refuge, holding daily Reiki sessions, even hand holding through divorce and abortions, all of which are strictly forbidden by Canon Law.  When Bishop Hawkins arrives on their doorstep as part of a country-wide audit of orders of Religious Women, who realize they must live in the here and now if they are to truly help people, along with Evelyn’s soul searching and need to forgive herself, and the possibility of losing everything she has built over the year, makes this a realistic story with with broad appeal and book group potential.

All the Best Lies by Johanna Schaffhausen

Over a decade ago, FBI agent Reed Markham rescued a then   Now, that teenager is Ellery Hathaway, a policeman from Boston who has been suspended pending the outcome of an investigation deeming her fit for duty.  Reed, having just learned that the man he thought was his adoptive father, State Senator Angus Markham, is actually his biological father and decides it’s time to investigate his mother’s murder, a crime that occurred over forty years ago with a young Reed, then Joey, lying in a crib in the next bedroom.  With a clear calendar for the foreseeable future, Ellery agrees to travel to Las Vegas, where the crime occurred, with Reed to discover what happened to Camilla.  At first, Reed gets a lot of cooperation from the local law enforcement, but soon gets pushback, though he’s not sure if they don’t want their resources going to a decades old murder, or if someone knows something they want to hide.  One thing is clear, what Reed learns along the way is enough to destroy certain people and the lives they’ve created for themselves, including his own.  At the same time, Ellery’s long estranged father is reaching out to her and she must decide if she is willing to let him back into her life, and for how long.  A growing relationship adds to tensions between Reed and Ellery as they each struggle to overcome their pasts and shape their futures.  This outstanding second entry into a series with strong, complex, compelling characters will appeal to fans of Julie Keller. 

teen aged Abby Hathaway from a killer.

The Holdout by Graham Moore

Ten years ago, an LA jury acquitted Bobby Nock, an African American teacher of killing his 15-year-old student Jessica Silver, with whom he was having an affair.  Maya Seale, now a defense attorney was the only original not guilty vote, and was able to convince her fellow jurors to acquit.  Now, the jurors are reassembling for a docuseries on the case and fellow juror Rick claims to have evidence refuting their verdict, even though Jessica’s body has never been found. Rick’s body is found in Maya’s hotel room and she becomes the number one suspect and not investigates with all the zeal of an attorney in order to clear her name.  Told in the present through Maya’s eyes, and in the past by each juror, this legal thriller has plenty of twists and turns, and drawn out tension until the very end. 

Oona Out of Order by Margarita Montimore

At the stroke of midnight each New Year’s Eve, beginning in 1982 as she is about to turn nineteen, Oona Lockhart leaps to a different age, which she will be for one year, until she makes the next leap.  Her first leap is into 2015 when she is 51…but in her mind, she knows she is still nineteen, trying to decide whether she should go on tour with her band and boyfriend Dale, or move to London and continue her studies.  In 2015, Oona has no idea which she chose, and spends the year of her first leap trying to settle into her new life, a life which her mother and her friend and confidant Kenzie have reached chronological; knowing what has happened with Oona along the way, they try to ease her into her current reality without causing too much shock.  Just as Oona is set in 2015, the ball drops again and she leaps into another year.  Eventually, Oona gets the hang of leaping, and tries to enjoy being a club-hopping party girl in one year, and the wife of a struggling restaurateur the next.  Each year, Oona writes herself a note before her leap, hoping she can be her best self in the next year, knowing it probably won’t happen.  Oona learns to handle her fate with grace and humor, and learns to lean on her mother and Kenzie, accepting what they will and won’t tell her.  Oona is a heartfelt character readers will fall in love with as she navigates her fate; she learns to look forward to her future, even if it is really her past.

No Bad Deed by Heather Chavez

On the way home to her family one rainy night, veterinarian Cassie Larkin sees a man attacking a woman on the side of the road; Cassie calls 911 and then jumps out of her car to help the woman with little disregard for her own safety. The attacker threatens Cassie to leave the woman alone, and then steals Cassie’s car.  Cassie is shaken as the attacker has her car and can find where she and her husband Sam live with their two children Leo and Audrey.  The next night, Sam is trick-or-treating with Audrey, calls Cassie and says “we need to talk” and then disappears.  It seems to Cassie Sam has been having an affair and wants out of their marriage; but then threats begin, and someone is very close to her family, but why and who, has something against Cassie, she cannot fathom.  One thing is clear, Carver Sweet hates her: but who is he, and why does he hate Cassie so much?  Desperate, Cassie turns to her somewhat estranged father Red who provides the answers Cassie needs to locate her husband and children, and to unlock a past that has been kept well hidden.  This well paced-plot slowly reveals the necessary details until everything falls into place for Cassie, a strong protagonist, who summons everything she has to save her family.

Minor Dramas & Other Catastrophes by Kathleen West

Helicopter Mom Julia Abbott lives for her children in the upscale neighborhood of Liston Heights, Minnesota; all her energies and activities are channeled toward her children, so much so that when she pops into school to see if her son Andrew has made the cast list for the upcoming musical, she accidentally elbows a student which is, of courses caught on a phone and goes viral, sending Julia into a downward spiral.  English teacher Isobel Johnson is loved by the students, but not so much by the parents; Isobel’s progressive curriculum pushes the envelope with the conservative community as she explores social issues such as the motherhood penalty, white savior complex, and explores queer theory alongside The Great Gatsby.  A pop-up Facebook group for parents of Liston Heights High gives the parents an open forum to complain about teachers, and each other, proving that it’s not just the students who can be the mean girls in high school.  West lets no one off the hook as she explores parents, school administrators, and teachers, all profess to have the best interests of the children at heart, but who, under a microscope are all being pulled in many directions, not all of which align with the students’ needs.  A frank portrait of an elite high school and its community shown through the eyes of the adults. 

The Lucky One by Lori Rader-Day

As a child, Alice Fine was kidnapped from her backyard, but rescued within 24-hours by her policeman father who immediately moved his family to Chicago where he joined his family construction firm; Alice hasn’t forgotten the ordeal and feels there is something she knows about her kidnapping that is just out of her reach and volunteers for the Doe Pages, a site dedicated to finding missing people hoping to remember an important piece of her past.  When she recognizes the man she believes to be her kidnapper as a recent missing person post, Alice knows it’s time to step up her search.  At the same   time, Merrily Cruz is searching for a man she knows as her not-quite-step-father.  When Alice and Merrily’s searches and paths ross, old lies and secrets are revealed and the two must detangle a web of deception that has been been with them almost their entire lives in this twisty thriller, the latest from Anthony and Mary Higgins Clark winner Rader-Day.

A Good Neighborhood by Therese Anne Fowler

Seventeen-year-old Juniper Whitman and her family, mother, Julie, step-father Brad, and younger sister Lily, have moved to the Oak Knoll neighborhood in North Carolina; they had, what the neighbors consider, an extravagant house built on a lot they cleared, to the distress of their backyard neighbor Valerie Alston-Holt, all the trees, and possibly have damaged her oak tree in the process: an oak tree that becomes a metaphor for her son Xavier.  Julie, who came from a poor background, and was a single mother for almost ten years, often seems almost grateful to Brad for choosing her; Brad is gregarious and outgoing, the owner of a successful HVAC company he built from the ground up, but he has an edge to him, such as mistaking Xavier, who is half-black, as a hired hand when Brad sees him cleaning up his yard, which his family either fails to see or overlooks.  Juniper, who has taken a pledge of purity, and Xavier are drawn to each other, a relationship they keep from the Whitmans; when Valerie sues Brad Whitman and the company that built his house over her dying oak tree, things Brad’s true personality emerges, and things spiral out of control to the point of no return. Family dynamics are complicated, relationships with neighbors are complicated, and many social issues are touched upon: ecology, modern day race relations, and sexual harassment, in this first modern day novel from Fowler; back stories and commentary is provided by a first person plural narrator, much like a Greek chorus, claiming to represent the neighborhood.  Fans of Jodi Picoult and Southern family fiction will enjoy this; book groups will find a lot to discuss.

Dead to Her by Sarah Pinborough

Marcie is Jason Maddox’s second wife and knows how hard it is to be accepted into the elite social crowd of Georgia, all the while under the scrutiny of the legacy Southern belles, yet she can’t help but feel a little superior to Keisha when her husband, William Radford, many years her senior, returns from London with his new bride.  Marcia begins to suspect Jason and Keisha have a mutual attraction and befriends Keisha if for no other reason, than to keep an eye on her.  Keisha has her own agenda, encouraged by a ragtag assortment of relatives, con men and voodoo women, and very few people are surprised when William is found near death.  The surprise comes when they learn who else is a suspect in the attack, and who sides with whom, all leading up to a final evil twist that some readers might think they see coming, but as with Pinborough’s earlier novels, nothing is ever as simple as it seems.

Saint X by Alexis Schaitkin

What begins as a quiet story of a vacation in paradise turns deadly when a teenage girl’s body is found in a cay and two local men arrested, but then quickly released; years later in New York, Alison’s sister Claire searches for answers as to what happened to her sister on the island and learns more about the sister she realizes she never really knew as she follows one of the men arrested in connection with her sister’s disappearance..  This family drama slowly draws readers in as a search for the truth that turns into an obsession.  This debut novel will be hard to put down, but it deserves to be read slowly so as not to miss a thing. 

Watching from the Dark by Gytha Lodge

Late one night, Aidan Poole is Skyping with his girlfriend Zoe when he hears sounds of a struggle off screen.  Aidan is desperate to learn what has happened to Zoe, but delays in calling the police and reports the incident anonymously.  Detective Jonah Sheens is suspicious from the very beginning and wants to find out who reported the incident certain it will lead to a suspect.  As the police investigate, they uncover many suspects who might have killed Zoe in a fit of passion or in a jealous rage.  The months leading up to her murder are told from her point of view, exploring the relationship between her and Aidan, her roommate and best friend, Maeve and Angeline, and a co-worker Victor who was carrying a torch for Zoe.  As each person and their relationship with Zoe is revealed, it becomes even more unclear who may have murdered her.  The narrative is effective, told in alternating timelines, making a good case for several suspects, but only one was crafty enough to almost get away with murder.  This sophomore effort from Lodge is every bit as compelling as her first thriller, She Lies in Wait. 

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Such a Fun Age by Kiley Reid

Lifestyle blogger Alix Chamberlain, her newscaster husband and two daughters have moved from Manhattan to Philadelphia where Alix is writing her book on the art of letter writing, based on the letters she has handwritten over the years, while pretending to still live in Manhattan.  Alix is having a hard time assimilating into her new city, mostly because of her unwillingness to accept that any place other than New York could be home, finds herself relying more and more on her young African American babysitter, 26-year-old Emira, to care for her precocious three-year-old Briar.  The Temple graduate is about to lose her health insurance and though she adores Briar, often feels embarrassed to be “just a baby-sitter”.  The family relies heavily on Emira, though, and one night Alix calls her after ten o’clock, to take Briar to the grocery store while Alix and her husband deal with a situation at home.  Harassed by a security guard at the upscale store, Emira would rather the incident go away, but a young man, Kelley, has captured the incident on his cell phone.  After Emira runs into him on the subway, several days later, the two begin to date and develop a serious relationship only to learn that Kelley and Alix share a past that puts Emira in an impossible situation, but allows her to take a broader view of her own situation.  Full of heart and wisdom, viewing situations from many different angles, this debut novel is written with the assurance of a seasoned author.

The Prized Girl by Amy K. Green

When a former child beauty pageant queen, Jenny, is found raped and murdered, her small town takes the loss personally and vilifies her older half-sister Virginia for not being a better sister and role model, a persona she willingly takes on rather than expose her step-mother as a drunken lush and her father as uncaring, or take a chance of the town finding out about her own secrets.  Virginia has her own suspicions as to Jenny’s death, and as she begins her own investigation, her story with the town that has kept its hold on her, begins to unravel, a story that begins to parallel that of Jenny’s, making Virginia feel all the more responsible for not protecting Jenny.  The story is told in two narratives: from Jenny’s in the days leading up to her murder and Virginia’s, as she follows not only her sister’s final days, but her own past in a town that protects its own and doesn’t want to see the evil that lives among them.  A disturbing but gripping psychological debut. 

The Tenant by Katrine Engberg

Copenhagen Police investigator Jeepe Korner and his partner Anette Werner investigate the death of a young woman whose face was heavily mutilated, but in an intricate design in this Danish debut.  Twenty-one-year-old Julie Stender is found in her apartment, one of three in a building owned by retired professor cum mystery author Esther DeLaurenti, and Julie’s death eerily mimics the plot in Esther’s current work in progress.  As Jeepe and Anette investigate, they learn that the young woman had accumulated many secrets in her short life, but so did those around her, including her father, and Kirstoffer, a young singing teacher whom Esther has befriended, and who dated Julie for a short while.  Jeepe is a bit of a sad figure, reeling from his recent divorce, and struggling with a bad back and pain pills, but there is something appealing about him as he fights his way back to life; by contrast, Anette is gregarious, and sometimes abrasive, but for the most part, the two complement each other well.  Not as dark as many Nordic Noirs, this book reads more like an English police procedural.  The investigation, for the most part, is well plotted, though there are a couple of head scratching moments --- how’d they miss that? --- and the last quarter of the book feels a bit overstuffed as the author tries to get all the pieces needed for the final confrontation in; some of these bits were subtle earlier in the book, maybe a little too subtle.  Overall, though, Engberg is a debut author worth watching, with lively prose, an off-beat sense of humor, and a forward moving plot.

The Other People C.J. Tudor

On his way home from work one night two years ago, Gabe sees his five-year-old daughter Izzy, looking out the back window of the car ahead of him saying “Daddy”.  He tries to catch up with the car, but loses it; later he is told he must have been seeing things because his wife and daughter were killed that night in their home; Gabe doesn’t believe Izzy is dead, he was too distraught to identify his family, and now spends his time driving on the M1 in search of someone who saw something.  On a tip from a man called the Samaritan, he finds the car from that night submerged in a pond, and is more convinced than ever that Izzy was in that car.  An underground network known as The Other People provides alternative justice and provides Gabe hope, but their help comes at a very high price.  Fran is on the run with a girl named Alice who has night terrors and visions that horrify the young girl, and seem to have a connection to Gabe. This fast-paced, horrifying novel with a touch of the supernatural will appeal to fans of Stephen King, Dean Koontz, and Paul Tremblay.

Recipe for a Perfect Wife by Karma Brown

Alice and her husband Nate have just bought a fixer upper in the suburbs of New York City.  No longer working for a high power publicity firm, Alice is at odds about the move, having a baby, and starting the novel she always professed she wanted to write.  Nate continues along as, in his mind, this is what they both wanted, and this is what they have been planning for, continuing to commute for his job, studying for exams that will assure him a higher position in the company.  The discovery of old magazines and a heavily annotated cookbook left in the basement by Nellie, the previous owner of the home, makes Alice realize she is not alone in her struggles with her strong-willed, ambitious husband.  Told in alternating narratives: Alice’s in the present day and Nellie’s, mid-20^th century, connected by the recipes Nellie made and Alice is now trying, the women’s parallel stories unfold, with Alice’s next door neighbor Sally, who was a child when she knew Nellie, filling in some of the gaps, providing letter’s Nellie wrote to her mother and never mailed.  Both Alice and Nellie are complex, fully drawn, brave women, struggling with their roles as wives and women in the social construct of their time, in this novel explores women’s roles, ending with a surprise, and somewhat sinister ending.

Welcome to the Pine Away Motel and Cabins by Katarina Bivald

Henny has lived in the same small Oregon town for her entire life; she never had any desire to leave, and being dead doesn’t change her opinions: she wants to stay.  She was quite content running the Pine Away Motel with one her best high school friends, MacKenzie, but one night is hit by a truck and killed.  She is not ready to be dead, in her early thirties, her father isn’t ready for her to be dead, and neither are her friends,  but what no one but Henny knows is, she is still hanging around: she can still see, her, and touch her friends, but she’s pretty sure they can’t see her.  Henny roams around, looking for her body, hoping to reunite with it and return to her life as it was.  When she realizes that isn’t to be, she continues hanging with friends and family, watching them, and perhaps helping them, grieve for their friend, and eventually heal from her loss.  Perfect for book groups and fans of Fannie Flagg.

The Janes by Louisa Luna

Alice Vega is suspicious---and rightfully so, when she is called to consult on a case with the San Diego police---and is to be paid in cash.  Two young teenage girls have been found murdered near a border tunnel, and the police suspect human trafficking and drug running.  Vega, as a private eye, has more latitude than the police do, can go more places than they can, and ask all the hard questions.  She calls on her sometimes partner Cap who is still recovering, along with his teenage daughter, from the last investigation he assisted Vega with.  In San Diego, the two follow a trail of mostly unwitting participants until they uncover a ring of evil and greed that goes deeper and stretches further than first glance.  This gritty novel plums not only depths of just how evil can be, what people are willing to do for money without asking too many question, as well as the redemptive nature of the human heart, and the persistence of hope.

Kingdomtide by Rye Curtis

Seventy-two-year-old Cloris Waldrip and her band have been looking forward to August 31, 1986: the Texas couple is schedule to take a small plane to a cabin in the Bitterroot Mountains of Montana for a few days; the plane crashes killing the pilot and Cloris’s husband, leaving her to try and escape the wilderness. Ranger Debra Lewis is drinking herself to death as quickly as she can after learning her husband was married to two other women, but she is bound and determined to find the 72-year-old Methodist lady who has survived the plane crash, even after the highers-up decide even if Cloris survived the crash, there is no way she would still be alive.  Cloris, taking what she can from the plane, wanders the mountains, surviving on her wits and faith, finding companionship from an unexpected place.  From the beginning, readers know Cloris has survived and is living in a home in Texas, but this does not detract from her compelling story.  Told in alternate chapters between her ordeal, one that she often turns into a chance for reflection and prayer, and Lewis’s story, though not as compelling as Cloris’s, this debut author hits all the right notes.

Hill Women by Cassie Chambers

Growing up in Owsley County, Kentucky, the poorest county in the state, in the Appalachian Mountains, strong women were a part of Cassie’s life: her Granny raised seven children, kept the farm running smoothly, and never let a neighbor go for want even if it meant doing without.  Her aunt Ruth was the strongest tobacco farmer, not married until her forties, and seemingly content to stay on the farm.  Cassie’s mother Wilma was the first of her seven brothers and sisters to graduate high school; leaving home to go to college an hour away, Wilma married and became pregnant at nineteen, but never gave up her dream of finishing college.  Living between her parents’ house and her Granny’s farm, Cassie ended up with the best of both worlds: self-reliance, hard-working, and creative thinking to get what she needed, and when she had the chance to go to New Mexico for school, she didn’t hesitate, a choice which led her to Yale, and then to Harvard Law School.  After graduating and travelling the world, the one place Cassie wanted to be was back home with the women who helped raise her; she knew there was still abject poverty in eastern Kentucky and decided to help rural Kentucky women as they faced domestic abuse, violence, and the opioid crisis.  Cassie tried to work within the system, finding ways around it, looking for other people to help, and has become a member of the Democratic National Committee, and a strong, tireless advocate for the women of her home state, giving them the tools to make their own choices, even if it is to stay where they are rooted in tradition, but with a safer, healthier way of life for them and their families.

 

Dear Edward by Ann Napolitano

A twelve-year-old boy is the sole survivor when the plane that is carrying his mother, father, and brother to their new home in California, crashes.  While Edward has many physical injuries he needs to heal from, he is also grieving his family, trying to adjust to living with his uncle and aunt, who is also grieving from the death of her sister; he is also one of the most famous people in the United States right now, and has not only strangers reaching out to him, thinking he is charmed, but the families of the other people who were killed in the crash, who spent their last minutes on earth with Edward.  Uncertain how to live his life now, Edward seeks solace where he can, and finds it in unexpected places, in this story that takes a young man from anonymity to fame, from grief to happiness, finding love where he least expects it.  A good recommendation for book groups.

How Quickly She Disappears by Raymond Fleischmann

It is 1941 and has been twenty years since Elisabeth saw her 10-year-old sister Jacqueline disappeared from their Lititz, Pennsylvania home.  Now Elisabeth is living in Alaska with her home-schooled daughter and her all-but-estranged husband who does work with native Alaskans and Native Americans and is often away from home.  When a stranger, Alfred, arrives in their midst, he commits an act of violence that sets off a chain of events that will change Elisabeth’s life forever: Alfred tells Elisabeth if she will fulfill three of his requests he will reveal what happened to her sister, and perhaps where she is now, for Elisabeth is certain she would know if Jacqueline was no longer alive.  Elisabeth is desperate to find her sister, but at what cost to herself, and to her young daughter.  The barren, frozen setting is a perfect backdrop for this unnerving debut that will leave readers wondering, just how far would they go for their family and the lines that they would cross for their own peace of mind.

Long Bright River by Liz Moore

The Kensington neighborhood in Philadelphia has been devastated by the opioid crisis, people dying, what seems to be daily.  Mickey is a police officer assigned to this sector and keeps her eye out for her sister Kacey, an addict living on the streets.  Kacey vanishes as a rash of young women are being found murdered and Mickey is afraid the next face she sees will be her sisters and begins to search for Kacey in earnest, and the murderer, against the orders of her sergeant.  Playing close to the edge, crossing lines, putting her life…and that of her young son’s…in jeopardy, Mickey begins to go rogue in the name of family.  The narrative alternates between present day and the story of the sisters growing up in the care of their grandmother.  Details are slowly revealed about the sisters, their upbringing, and their family, little by little, keeping the tension high and the reader on their guard.  This well-written novel is a heartbreaking story with an edge, and explores the bonds and limits of family and they secrets kept from each other, and how each person views themselves within the family and how others view them.  Complex characters and a detailed plot provide plenty of discussion for book groups.

You Were There Too by Colleen Oakley

Mia Graydon and her surgeon husband Harrison have moved from Philadelphia to the quieter river town of Hope Springs hoping for a new start after three miscarriages, the death of one of Harrison’s young patients, and less than stellar reviews of Mia’s art after her first solo show.  Since the death Noah, Harrison has, almost unbeknownst to Mia, withdrawn from their marriage and has been rethinking children.  Mia finds herself face to face with the man of whom she has been dreaming about since she was in high school; when Mia and Oliver meet, he admits he too has been dreaming about her, but neither knows what this strange, yet strong, connection means.  As Oliver and Mia grow closer, and Mia and Harrison grow apart, she finds herself reassessing her choices and considering her future, while trying to decipher what her dreams mean.  As Mia and Harrison assimilate into their new town, their new found tentative peace suddenly turns tragic and heartbreaking, as Mia finally understands her dreams.  This heartfelt novel is not over sentimental, and takes a fascinating look at dreams and missed chances and what they may mean; book groups will find much to discuss.

When We Were Vikings by Andrew David Macdonald

Twenty-one-year old Zelda was born on the Fetal Alcohol Spectrum and has a hard time with some things in life: with others, she is amazing.  She loves Vikings and knows it is important to be a legend and a hero in your life which she does amazingly: whether it is living with her brother Gert who wants the best for Zelda but has his own set of problems, wanting to have sex with her boyfriend, or conquering many of her fears as she tackles a new job at the library.  The novel tackles some difficult subjects (alcoholism, violence, drugs, abuse, and the challenges of Special Needs young adults), the characters some of the most special to come along in a while, making this a stand out debut.  For fans of Ginny Moon, and The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night Time.

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