Kill You Twice by Chelsea Cain
Gretchen Lowell Series #5
Nothing makes Portland
detective Archie Sheridan happier than knowing that Gretchen Lowell—the
serial killer whose stunning beauty is belied by the gruesome murders
she’s committed—is locked away in a psych ward. Archie can finally heal
from the near-fatal physical and emotional wounds she’s inflicted on him
and start moving on with his life.
To this end, Archie throws
himself into the latest case to come across his desk: A cyclist has
discovered a corpse in Mount Tabor Park on the eastern side of Portland.
The man was gagged, skinned, and found hanging by his wrists from a
tree. It’s the work of a killer bold and clever enough to torture his
victim for hours on a sunny summer morning in a big public park and yet
leave no trace.
And then Archie gets a message he can’t
ignore—Gretchen claims to have inside knowledge about this grisly
murder. Archie finally agrees to visit Gretchen, because he can’t risk
losing his only lead in the case. At least, that’s what he tells himself
. . . but the ties between Archie and Gretchen have always been
stronger, deeper, and more complex than he’s willing to admit, even to
himself. What game is she playing this time? And even more frightening,
what long-hidden secrets from Gretchen’s past have been dredged up that
someone would kill to protect?
The Innocent by David Baldacci
America has
enemies--ruthless people that the police, the FBI, even the military
can't stop. That's when the U.S. government calls on Will Robie, a stone
cold hitman who never questions orders and always nails his target.
But Will Robie may have just made the first--and last--mistake of his career . . . THE INNOCENT
It
begins with a hit gone wrong. Robie is dispatched to eliminate a target
unusually close to home in Washington, D.C. But something about this
mission doesn't seem right to Robie, and he does the unthinkable. He
refuses to kill. Now, Robie becomes a target himself and must escape
from his own people.
Fleeing the scene, Robie crosses paths with a
wayward teenage girl, a fourteen-year-old runaway from a foster home.
But she isn't an ordinary runaway-her parents were murdered, and her own
life is in danger. Against all of his professional habits, Robie
rescues her and finds he can't walk away. He needs to help her.
Even
worse, the more Robie learns about the girl, the more he's convinced she
is at the center of a vast cover-up, one that may explain her parents'
deaths and stretch to unimaginable levels of power.
Now, Robie may have to step out of the shadows in order to save this girl's life . . . and perhaps his own.
When in Doubt, Add Butter by Beth Harbison
As far as Gemma is
concerned, her days of dating are over. In fact, it’s her job to cater
other peoples’ dates, and that’s just fine by her. At thirty-seven, she
has her own business, working as a private chef, and her life feels full
and secure. She’s got six steady clients that keep her hands full.
There’s
Lex, the fussy but fabulous department store owner who loves Oysters
Rockefeller and 1950s comfort food; Willa, who needs to lose weight
under doctor’s orders but still believes butter makes everything better;
a colorful family who may or may not be part of the Russian mob; an
Ć¼berwealthy Georgetown family; the picture-perfect Van Houghtens, whose
matriarch is “allergic to everything”; and finally, a man she calls “Mr.
Tuesday,” whom she has never met but who she is strangely drawn to.
For
Gemma, cooking is predictable. Recipes are certain. Use good
ingredients, follow the directions, and you are assured success. Life,
on the other hand, is full of variables. So when Gemma’s takes an
unexpected turn on a road she always thought was straight and narrow,
she must face her past and move on in ways she never would have
imagined. Because sometimes in life, all you need is a little hope, a
lot of courage, and---oh yes---butter.
No Mark Upon Her by Deborah Crombie
Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James Series #14
When a K9
search-and-rescue team discovers a woman's body tangled up with debris
in the river, Scotland Yard superintendent Duncan Kincaid finds himself
heading an investigation fraught with complications. The victim, Rebecca
Meredith, was a talented but difficult woman with many admirers—and
just as many enemies. An Olympic contender on the verge of a
controversial comeback, she was also a high-ranking detective with the
Met—a fact that raises a host of political and ethical issues in an
already sensitive case.
To further complicate the
situation, a separate investigation, led by Detective Inspector Gemma
James, Kincaid's wife, soon reveals a disturbing—and possibly
related—series of crimes, widening the field of suspects. But when
someone tries to kill the search-and-rescue team member who found
Rebecca's body, the case becomes even more complex and dangerous,
involving powerful interests with tentacles that reach deep into the
heart of the Met itself.
Surrounded by enemies with
friendly faces, pressured to find answers quickly while protecting the
Yard at all costs, his career and reputation on the line, Kincaid must
race to catch the killer before more innocent lives are lost—including
his own.
Trickster's Point by William Kent Krueger
Cor O'Connor Series #12
The dying don’t easily become the dead.
The next novel in William Kent Krueger’s New York Times bestselling
series finds Cork O’Connor sitting in the shadow of a towering monolith
known as Trickster’s Point, deep in the Minnesota wilderness. With him
is Jubal Little, who is favored to become the first Native American
elected governor of Minnesota, and who is slowly dying with an arrow
through his heart.
Although the men have been bowhunting, a
long-standing tradition among these two friends, this is no hunting
accident. The arrow turns out to be one of Cork’s, and he becomes the
primary suspect in the murder. He understands full well that he’s been
set up. As he works to clear his name and track the real killer, he
remembers his long, complex relationship with the tough kid who would
grow up to become a professional football player, a populist politician,
and the lover of the first woman to whom Cork ever gave his heart.
Jubal was known by many for his passion, his loyalty, and his ambition.
Only Cork knows that he was capable of murder.
11th Hour by James Patterson
Women's Murder Club Series #11
Your best friend
Lindsay
Boxer is pregnant at last But her work doesn't slow for a second. When
millionaire Chaz Smith is mercilessly gunned down, she discovers that
the murder weapon is linked to the deaths of four of San Francisco's
most untouchable criminals. And it was taken from her own department's
evidence locker. Anyone could be the killer--even her closest friends.
Or a vicious killer?
Lindsay
is called next to the most bizarre crime scene she's ever seen: two
bodiless heads elaborately displayed in the garden of a world-famous
actor. Another head is unearthed in the garden, and Lindsay realizes
that the ground could hide hundreds of victims.
You won't know until the 11th hour
A
reporter launches a series of vicious articles about the cases and
Lindsay's personal life is laid bare. But this time she has no one to
turn to--especially not Joe.
The Seamstress by Frances De Pontes Peebles
As seamstresses, the
young sisters Emilia and Luzia dos Santos know how to cut, how to mend,
and how to conceal. These are useful skills in the lawless backcountry
of Brazil, where ruthless land barons called "colonels" feud with bands
of outlaw cangaceiros, trapping innocent residents in the cross fire.
Emilia,
whose knowledge of the world comes from fashion magazines and romance
novels, dreams of falling in love with a gentleman and escaping to a big
city.
Luzia also longs to escape their little town, where
residents view her with suspicion and pity. Scarred by a childhood
accident that left her with a deformed arm, the quick-tempered Luzia
finds her escape in sewing and in secret prayers to the saints she
believes once saved her life.
But when Luzia is abducted by a
group of cangaceiros led by the infamous Hawk, the sisters' quiet lives
diverge in ways they never imagined. Emilia stumbles into marriage with
Degas Coelho, the son of a doctor whose wealth is rivaled only by his
political power.
She moves to the sprawling seaside city of
Recife, where the glamour of her new life is soon overshadowed by
heartache and loneliness. Luzia, forced to trek through scrubland and
endure a nomadic existence, proves her determination to survive and
begins to see the cangaceiros as comrades, not criminals.
In
Recife, Emilia must hide any connection to her increasingly notorious
sister. As she learns to navigate the treacherous waters of Brazilian
high society, Emilia sees the country split apart after a bitter
presidential election. Political feuds extend to the countryside, where
Luzia and the Hawk are forced to make unexpected alliances and endure
betrayals that threaten to break the cangaceiros apart. But Luzia will
overcome time and distance to entrust her sister with a great
secret--one Emilia vows to keep. And when Luzia's life is threatened,
EmIlia will risk everything to save her.
Judgment Call by J.A. Jance
Joanna Brady Series #15
When Joanna Brady's
daughter, Jenny, stumbles across the body of her high school principal,
Debra Highsmith, in the desert, the Cochise County sheriff's personal
and professional worlds collide, forcing her to tread the difficult
middle ground between being an officer of the law and a mother. While
investigating murders has always meant discovering unpleasant facts and
disquieting truths, the experienced Joanna isn't prepared for the
knowledge she's about to uncover. Though she's tried to protect her
children from the dangers of the grown-up world, the search for justice
leads straight to her own door and forces her to face the possibility
that her beloved daughter may be less perfect than she seems--especially
when a photo from the crime scene ends up on Facebook. A photo only one
person close to the crime scene could have taken.
The gruesome
picture is just the tip of the iceberg. Even a small, close-knit town
like Bisbee has its secrets. Navigating her way through the unfamiliar
world of social media, Joanna discovers shocking--and
incriminating--information. The details build, from a hushed-up
suspension, to a group of teenagers with a grudge against the late Ms.
Highsmith, to a hateful video calling for the principal's death. The
video evidence points to one particular privileged boy, who's already
lawyered up thanks to his father, a well-to-do doctor determined to
protect his son's reputation. Yet the deeper Joanna digs, the more
complications she uncovers. It seems the quiet, upstanding principal had
a hidden past, full of mysterious secrets she'd successfully kept
buried for years.
As the seasoned sheriff juggles professional
constraints and personal demands--budget cuts, new team members, an
arrogant coroner, a confused teenager, a precocious toddler, and a
high-maintenance mother--she finds herself walking a fine line between
justice and family that has never been so blurred.
Odd Apocalypse by Dean Koontz
Odd Thomas Series #5
The stallion reared
over me, silently slashing the air with the hooves of its forelegs, a
creature of such immense power that I stumbled backward even though I
knew that it was as immaterial as a dream. . .
The woman astride the
ghostly mount reaches out desperately, the latest spirit to enlist the
aid of Odd Thomas, the unassuming young fry cook whose gift—or curse—it
is to see the shades of the restless dead, and to help them when he can.
This mission of mercy will lead Odd through realms of darkness he has
never before encountered, as he probes the long-held secrets of a
sinister estate and those who inhabit it.
ODD APOCALYPSE
Once
presided over by a flamboyant Hollywood mogul during the Roaring ’20s,
the magnificent West Coast property known as Roseland is now home to a
reclusive billionaire financier and his faithful servants. And, at least
for the moment, it’s also a port in the storm for Odd Thomas and his
traveling companion, the inscrutably charming Annamaria, the Lady of the
Bell. In the wake of Odd’s most recent clash with lethal adversaries,
the opulent manor’s comforts should be welcome. But there’s far more to
Roseland than meets even the extraordinary eye of Odd, who soon suspects
it may be more hell than haven.
A harrowing taste of Roseland’s
terrors convinces Odd that it’s time to hit the road again. Still, the
prescient Annamaria insists that they’ve been led there for a reason,
and he’s promised to do his best for the ghost on horseback. Just how
deep and dreadful are the mysteries Roseland and her masters have kept
for nearly a century? And what consequences await whoever is brave, or
mad, enough to confront the most profound breed of evil? Odd only knows.
Like his acclaimed creator, the irresistible Odd Thomas is in top-notch
form—as he takes on what may well be the most terrifying challenge yet
in his curious career.
Shadow of Night by Deborah Harkness
All Souls Trilogy #2
Deborah Harkness exploded onto the literary scene with her debut novel, A Discovery of Witches, Book One of the magical All Souls Trilogy
and an international publishing phenomenon. The novel introduced Diana
Bishop, Oxford scholar and reluctant witch, and the handsome geneticist
and vampire Matthew Clairmont; together they found themselves at the
center of a supernatural battle over an enchanted manuscript known as
Ashmole 782.
Now, picking up from A Discovery of Witches’ cliffhanger ending, Shadow of Night
plunges Diana and Matthew into Elizabethan London, a world of spies,
subterfuge, and a coterie of Matthew’s old friends, the mysterious
School of Night that includes Christopher Marlowe and Walter Raleigh.
Here, Diana must locate a witch to tutor her in magic, Matthew is forced
to confront a past he thought he had put to rest, and the mystery of
Ashmole 782 deepens.
Time Untime by Sherrilyn Kenyon
Darh-Hunter Series #17; Hellchaser #5
The Mayans aren’t the only ones with a 2012 prophecy…
Long
before recorded history, there was a Keetoowah warrior so feared that
everyone trembled before his wrath. Only a brutal betrayal by the one
closest to him could defeat him. But not even death was the end of a man
so strong.
The Time Untime approaches…
Kateri Avani has
been plagued her entire life with dreams she doesn’t understand. Images
of places she’s never been and of a man she’s never seen. Her quest for
answers has driven her to Las Vegas where she hopes to finally silence
the demons in her mind.
What she never anticipates is coming face
to face with the warrior who has haunted her her entire life. One who
belongs to a world the scientist in her refuses to believe is real.
Ren
Waya came back from the dead to keep the prophecy he began from coming
true and ending the world. For thousands of years, he has fought the
same evil that once possessed him. But now that evil has found the one
person he can’t fight. The one person who, against his will, holds the
most sacred part of him.
His heart.
But if he doesn’t kill
Kateri, the deadliest of evils will reemerge and destroy everyone else
on the planet. It was a sacrifice he made once.
Will he be able to make it again?
Over the Edge by Mary Connealy
Kincaid Brides Series #3
Seth Kincaid survived a
fire in a cave, but he's never been the same. He was always a reckless
youth, but now he's gone over the edge. He ran off to the Civil War and
came back crazier than ever.
After the war, nearly dead from his
injuries, it appears Seth got married. Oh, he's got a lot of excuses,
but his wife isn't happy to find out Seth doesn't remember her. Callie
has searched, prayed, and worried. Now she's come to the Kincaid
family's ranch in Colorado to find her lost husband.
Callie isn't a
long-suffering woman. Once she knows her husband is alive, she wants to
kill him. She's not even close to forgiving him for abandoning her.
Then
more trouble shows up in the form of a secret Seth's pa kept for years.
The Kincaid brothers might lose their ranch if they can't sort things
out. It's enough to drive a man insane--but somehow it's all making Seth
see things more clearly. And now that he knows what he wants, no one
better stand in his way.
A Soft Place to Land by Susan Rebecca White
For more than ten
years, Naomi and Phil Harrison enjoyed a marriage of heady romance,
tempered only by the needs of their children. But on a vacation alone,
the couple perishes in a flight over the Grand Canyon. After the
funeral, their daughters, Ruthie and Julia, are shocked by the
provisions in their will.
Spanning nearly two decades, the sisters'
journeys take them from their familiar home in Atlanta to sophisticated
bohemian San Francisco, a mountain town in Virginia, the campus of
Berkeley, and lofts in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. As they heal from loss,
search for love, and begin careers, their sisterhood, once an oasis,
becomes complicated by resentment, anger, and jealousy. It seems as
though the echoes of their parents' deaths will never stop
reverberating--until another shocking accident changes everything once
again.
Thirteen by Kelley Armstrong
Otherworld Series #13
War is coming to the
Otherworld. A sinister cult known as The Supernatural Liberation
Movement is hell-bent on exposing the truth about supernaturals to the
rest of the world. Their violent, ruthless plan has put everyone at
risk: from werewolves to vampires, from witches to half-demons.
Savannah
Levine - fiery and unpredictable - stands at the heart of the
maelstrom. There is a new, dark magic inside her, granting her the power
to summon spells of terrifying strength. But whether this magic is a
gift or a curse, no one knows.
On the eve of battle, all the
major players must come together in a last, desperate fight for survival
- Elena and Clay; Adam and Savannah; Paige and Lucas; Jeremy and Jaime;
Hope, Eve and more...They are fighting for lives.
They are fighting for their loved ones.
They are fighting for the Otherworld.
Some Like it Hawk by Donna Andrews
Meg Langslow Mystery Series #14
Meg Langslow is plying
her blacksmith's trade at “Caerphilly Days,” a festival inspired by her
town’s sudden notoriety as "The Town That Mortgaged Its Jail." The
lender has foreclosed on all Caerphilly's public buildings, and all
employees have evacuated —except one. Phineas Throckmorton, the town
clerk, has been barricaded in the courthouse basement for over a year.
Mr.
Throckmorton's long siege has only been possible because of a pre-Civil
War tunnel leading from the courthouse basement to a crawl space
beneath the bandstand. The real reason for Caerphilly Days is to conceal
the existence of the tunnel: the tourist crowds camouflage supply
deliveries, and the ghastly screeching of the tunnel's rusty trap door
is drowned out by as many noisy activities as the locals can arrange.
But the lender seems increasingly determined to evict Mr.
Throckmorton—and may succeed after one of its executives is found shot,
apparently from inside the basement. Meg and her fellow townspeople
suspect that someone hopes to end the siege by framing Mr. Throckmorton.
Unless the real killer can be found quickly, the town will have to
reveal the secret of the tunnel—and the fact that they've been aiding
and abetting the basement’s inhabitant. Meg soon deduces that the killer
isn't just trying to end the siege but to conceal information that
would help the town reclaim its buildings--if the townspeople can find
it before the lender destroys it in a gut-busting caper that will have
giggles and guffaws coming as fast as a four-alarm fire.