Monday, December 16, 2013

What's New on Fiction This Week

An Honest Heart by Kaye Dacus 
Great Exhibition Series Book # 2

Set during the Industrial Revolution and the Great Exhibition of 1851, An Honest Heart is a “sitting-room romance” with the feel of a Regency-era novel but the fashions and technological advances of the mid-Victorian age.

Featuring dual romance stories, the main plot involves seamstress Caddy Bainbridge and the choice she must make between two men: one from the aristocracy, the other from the working class. Award-nominated author Kaye Dacus pinpoints the theme of honesty—both men in this love triangle have deep secrets to hide, and Caddy’s choice will be based on which of them can be honest with her.

Courtship . . . cunning . . . candor. Who possesses an honest heart?


For more information on Kaye Dacus and her latest works visit her website.  

Storm Front by John Sandford

The thrilling new novel in the #1 New York Times' bestselling series.

In Israel, a man clutching a backpack searches desperately for a boat. In Minnesota, Virgil Flowers gets a message from Lucas Davenport: You’re about to get a visitor. It’s an Israeli cop, and she’s tailing a man who’s smuggled out an extraordinary relic—an inscribed stone revealing startling details about the man known as King Solomon.

Wait a minute, laughs Virgil. Is this one of those Da Vinci Code deals? The secret scroll, the blockbuster revelation, the teams of murderous bad guys? Should I be boning up on my Bible verses?

He looks at the cop. She’s not laughing. As it turns out, there are very bad men chasing the relic, and they don’t care who’s in the way or what they have to do to get it. Maybe Virgil should start praying.
 


For more information on John Sandford and his latest works visit his website.  


The Legend of Drizzt Collector's Edition Book #1 by R.A. Salvatore

Celebrate Twenty Years of Drizzt!

Drizzt Do'Urden made his first mistake the moment he was born: he was a boy. In the rigid matriarchy of the dark elf city of Menzoberranzan, that makes his life forfeit. But when his own mother tries but fails to kill him, Drizzt's path is set. He must find a way to escape the treacherous Underdark, even if that means setting out alone into the no less dangerous World Above.

Contains the novels Homeland, Exile, and Sojourn.

For more information on R.A. Salvatore and his latest works visit his website.  


The Legend of Drizzt Collector's Edition Book #2 by R.A. Salvatore

An outstanding value for Drizzt fans everywhere!

A demonic artifact, hurled by an angel through the spaces between planes of existence to keep it out of the hands of a demon prince, has found its way to FaerĂ»n. There it corrupts a young wizard, turning him into a power-mad invader. Only a small band of heroes, including the exiled dark elf Drizzt Do’Urden can stand in his way—and stir up a long list of enemies in the process.

The Legend of Drizzt® Collector’s Edition, Book II collects the fourth, fifth, and sixth novels in this best-selling series: The Crystal Shard, Streams of Silver, and The Halfling’s Gem in a trade paperback edition that is a great value for anyone who’s ready to continue the experience the Legend of Drizzt. 


For more information on R.A. Salvatore and his latest works visit his website.  



The Legend of Drizzt Collector's Edition Book #3 by R.A. Salvatore

The new Legacy of the Drow...

This trade paperback omnibus collects the complete texts of The Legacy, Starless Night, Siege of Darkness, and Passage to Dawn—New York Times best sellers all—in a great value package. The Legend of Drizzt® Collector’s Editions are perfect for both longtime fans and collectors, and readers new to the action and adventure of The Legend of Drizzt. 


For more information on R.A. Salvatore and his latest works visit his website.


Waterfront Weddings by Annalisa Daughety and Cara Putnam

Rocky pasts make for difficult love in two contemporary romances.

Stranded at a swanky Charleston resort hotel, can a wedding planner survive a hurricane when her estranged husband appears on the scene? 

Will an attorney’s Mackinac Island homecoming leave her in hot water as island gossip swirls and an old love comes far too close?

For more information on Annalisa Daughety or Cara Putnam and their latest works click on their names to visit their websites.
 
Deadline by Fern Michaels

No sooner have Toots Loudenberry and her three best friends--Sophie, Ida, and Mavis--returned from Sacramento, where Sophie provided some much-needed psychic advice to the First Lady of California, when another situation demands their attention. . .

Laura Leigh, a Hollywood starlet whose main talent seems to be landing in trouble, is missing. Toots' daughter, Abby, has both a personal and professional stake in the story. Not only is she editor-in-chief at gossip magazine The Informer, but entertainment attorney Chris Clay, Abby's would-be beau, was the last person seen with Laura. And now he's missing, too.

With the help of friends in high--and low--places, the Godmothers will navigate Hollywood's glittering inner circles and seedy underbelly to discover the truth. Along the way, they'll uncover unexpected secrets that not even one of Sophie's séances could have predicted.


For more information on Fern Michaels and her latest works visit her website.
 
Apple Turnover Murder by Joanne Fluke

Early summer brings plenty of work for baker Hannah Swensen, even before Mayor Bascomb's wife drops by The Cookie Jar to place an order for her charity event...For eleven-hundred cookies! 

And Hannah almost flips when her business partner, Lisa, suggests setting up an apple turnover stand. But she places her faith in Lisa and agrees to be a magician's assistant in the fundraiser's talent show. The only snag is the show's host, college professor Bradford Ramsey. Hannah and her sister, Michelle, each had unfortunate romances with Ramsey, and when the cad comes sniffing around between acts, Hannah tells him off. 

But when the curtain doesn't go up, she discovers Ramsey backstage - dead, with a turnover in his hand. Now Hannah must find a killer who's flakier than puff pastry - and far more dangerous.
 
For more information on Joanne Fluke and her latest works visit her website.
 
Gypped by Carol Higgins Clark

When Regan Reilly returned to the West Coast, where she began her career as a PI, she never imagined that her unsuccessful appearance on a game show seven years earlier would throw her trip totally off course!

REGAN REILLY is in Los Angeles with her husband, Jack, head of the NYPD Major Case Squad. After Jack finishes his meetings with the LAPD, the couple may head north to the wine country, or may head south to Baja. Their only plan is to see which way the wind blows.

The first day back, Regan goes shopping at an upscale new mall in West Hollywood. To her surprise, she runs into Zelda, a woman she'd become friendly with seven years before at a television studio in Burbank, when they were waiting to appear on the game show Puzzling Words. They haven't seen each other since.

Zelda and Regan didn't win much money, but Zelda made up for it! A year ago an elderly neighbor she barely knew left Zelda eight million dollars. She has been enjoying her newfound wealth but is aware of the need to give back. At a recent fundraiser, she bid on a week's stay in an old Hollywood Hills estate and was the lucky winner. She's currently in residence there and invites Regan to a party at the mansion.

While Jack attends a business dinner, Regan goes to Zelda's by herself, unaware that she is being followed. Regan is more than surprised at the run-down condition of the house and grounds. People should be paid to stay here, she thinks. Zelda introduces Regan to a colorful cast of characters, including her old neighbors, friends from her yoga class, a filmmaker, Zelda's financial adviser, her bookkeeper, and her personal assistant. It's all good fun. As the guests are leaving, Zelda asks Regan to stay for a cup of tea. They've barely sat down to chat when Zelda falls ill. A worried Regan doesn't want to leave Zelda alone and decides to spend the night at the isolated, aging estate. It's not long before Zelda asks Regan to investigate people in her life, starting with her father's new wife, Bobby Jo. The couple said  "I do" in the back of a cab at a drive-through chapel in Las Vegas after only three months of togetherness.

Has Zelda's windfall put her in danger? Regan is determined to find out, not knowing that she's a target herself!

 
For more information on Carol Higgins Clark and her latest works visit her website.
 
Cat Telling Tales by Shirley Rousseau Murphy   

Even the bright seaside village of Molena Point has been hit hard by the economic downturn, bringing a rash of foreclosures in which many residents are abandoning their family pets. While feline P. I. Joe Grey's human friends join together to care for the starving cats, a fire leaves a twelve-year-old boy homeless. The body of his alcoholic guardian is discovered in the smoldering ruins, causing Joe to wonder if escape was really impossible for the elderly woman or if something more sinisteroccurred.

Meanwhile, Debbie Kraft descends uninvited on the Damens' home with her two children, claiming that her ex-husband has left her with no money and nowhere else to go. But when Joe learns that the victim of the fire was Debbie's estranged mother and that Debbie is not broke at all but carrying plenty of cash, his fur is on end with suspicion.

As Debbie's abandoned tomcat follows her all the way down the coast from Oregon with his own clues to add to the mix, Joe learns that Debbie's Realtor ex-husband may be involved in a number of intricate real estate scams. Furthermore, his sales partner may be missing, and while Joe and his pals prowl through the dead woman's house, they discover that her reclusive neighbor has disappeared as well.

But it's not until Debbie's tomcat arrives that Joe and his feline detective pals find the biggest clue of all: a grave that the cops have missed. And as the pieces of the puzzle begin to come together, tortoiseshell Kit sees her own dreams coming true in the handsome new cat with whom she might share her life's adventures.

 
For more information on Shirley Rousseau Murphy and her latest works visit her website.