Alex Cross by James Patterson
Alex Cross was a rising
star in the Washington, DC, Police Department when an unknown shooter
gunned down his wife, Maria, in front of him. Alex's need for vengeance
was placed on hold as he faced another huge challenge-raising his
children without their mother.
Years later Alex is making a bold
move in his life. He has left the FBI and set up practice as a
psychologist once again. His life with Nana Mama, Damon, Jannie, and
little Alex finally feels like it's in order. He even has a chance at a
new love.
Then Cross's former partner, John Sampson, calls in a
favor. He is tracking a serial rapist in Georgetown, one whose brutal
modus operandi includes threatening his victims with terrifying photos.
Cross and Sampson need the testimonies of these women to stop the
predator, but the rape victims refuse to reveal anything about their
attacker.
When the case triggers a connection to Maria's death, Alex
may have a chance to catch his wife's murderer after all these years.
Is this a chance for justice at long last? Or the culminating scene in
his own deadly obsession?
Haiku by Andrew Vachss
Ho was a revered
sensei, but when his dismissive arrogance caused the death of a beloved
student, he renounced not only his possessions but also his role as a
master, and now roams the streets in search of a way to atone. Drawn by
his presence, a group forms around him: Michael, an addicted gambler who
has lost everything, including himself; Ranger, a Vietnam veteran with a
tenuous grip on reality; Lamont, a once-fearless street-gang warlord
turned hopeless alcoholic; Target, a relentless "clanger" who speaks
only by echoing the sounds of others; and Brewster, an obsessive
collector of hardboiled paperbacks he stashes in an abandoned building
even vermin avoid.
Late one night, Michael spots a woman in a
white Rolls-Royce throwing something into the river. Convinced that the
woman is a perfect blackmail target, he attempts to recruit the others
to search for her. But news that Brewster's library is slated for
demolition turns this halfhearted effort into a serious mission to find
the ultimate problem-solver: money, and with it a new home for
Brewster's precious collection.
Assassin by Ted Bell
In an elegant palazzo on
the Grand Canal, an American ambassador's tryst turns deadly. In the
seamy underbelly of London, a pub-crawling killer is on the loose. And
in a storybook chapel nestled in the Cotswolds, a marriage made in
heaven turns to hell on earth. Isolated incidents? Or links in a chain
of events hurtling towards catastrophe? So begins Assassin, the tour de
force thriller that heralds the return of every terrorist's worst
nightmare, Alex Hawke.
A shadowy figure known as the Dog is
believed to be the ruthless terrorist who is systematically and savagely
assassinating American diplomats and their families around the globe.
As the deadly toll mounts inexorably, Hawke, along with former NYPD cop
and Navy SEAL Stokely Jones, is called upon by the U.S. government to
launch a search for the assassin behind the murders.
Hawke, who
"makes James Bond look like a slovenly, dull-witted clockpuncher"
(Kirkus Reviews), is soon following a trail that leads back to London in
the go-go nineties, when Arab oil money fueled lavish, and sometimes
fiendish, lifestyles. Other murky clues point to the Florida Keys, where
a vicious killer hides behind the gates of a fabled museum. And to a
remote Indonesian island where a madman tinkers with strains of a deadly
virus and slyly bides his time.
Hawke must call upon resources
deep within himself. He must enter a race against time to stop a
cataclysmic attack on America's most populous cities and avengethe
inexplicable and horrific crime that has left him devastated.
Creepers by David Morrell
On a cold October
night, five people gather in a run-down motel on the Jersey shore and
begin preparations to break into the Paragon Hotel. Built in the glory
days of Asbury Park by a reclusive millionaire, the magnificent
structure - which foreshadowed the beauties of art deco architecture -
is now boarded up and marked for demolition. The five people are creepers, the slang term for urban explorers: city archeologists with
a passion for investigating abandoned buildings and their dying
secrets.
On this evening, they are joined by a reporter who wants to
profile them - anonymously, as this is highly illegal activity - for a
New York Times article. Frank Balenger, a sandy-haired, broad-shouldered
reporter with a decided air of mystery about him, isn't looking for
just a story, however. And after the group enters the rat-infested
tunnel leading to the hotel, it becomes clear that he will get much more
than he bargained for. Danger, terror, and death await the creepers in a
place ravaged by time and redolent of evil.
Promise Me by Harlan Coben
It has been six years
since entertainment agent Myron Bolitar last played superhero. In six
years he hasn't thrown a punch. He hasn't held, much less fired, a gun.
He hasn't called his friend Win, still the scariest man he knows, to
back him up or get him out of trouble.
All that is about to change . . . because of a promise.
The
school year is almost over. Anxious families await word of college
acceptances. In these last pressure-cooker months of high school, some
kids will make the all-too-common and all-too-dangerous mistake of
drinking and driving. But Myron is determined to help keep his friends'
children safe, so he makes two neighborhood girls promise him: If they
are ever in a bind but are afraid to call their parents, they must call
him.
Several nights later, the call comes at 2:00 am, and true
to his word, Myron picks up one of the girls in midtown Manhattan and
drives her to a quiet cul-de-sac in New Jersey where she says her friend
lives.
The next day, the girl's parents discover that their
daughter is missing. And that Myron was the last person to see her.
Desperate to fulfill a well-intentioned promise turned nightmarishly
wrong, Myron races to find her before she's gone forever. But his past
will not be buried so easily - for trouble has always stalked him, and
his loved ones often suffer. Now Myron must decide once and for all who
he is and what he will stand up for if he is to have any hope of saving a
young girl's life.
McNally's Secret by Lawrence Sanders
Something is tarnished
on the Gold Coast of Florida--behind Palm Beach's highfalutin' facade
bubbles a lowdown brew of blackmail, fraud, adultery, and murder.
Playboy/sleuth Archy McNally specializes in "discreet cases" for his
father's old-line law firm.
When he is called in to retrieve some
property stolen from a wealthy matron's mansion, Archy's genius is put
on the line. LG Features Alternate.
The Appeal by John Grisham
In a crowded courtroom
in Mississippi, a jury returns a shocking verdict against a chemical
company accused of dumping toxic waste into a small town’s water supply,
causing the worst “cancer cluster” in history. The company appeals to
the Mississippi Supreme Court, whose nine justices will one day either
approve the verdict or reverse it.
Who are the nine? How will they vote? Can one be replaced before the case is ultimately decided?
The
chemical company is owned by a Wall Street predator named Carl Trudeau,
and Mr. Trudeau is convinced the Court is not friendly enough. With
judicial elections looming, he decides to try to purchase himself a seat
on the Court. The cost is a few million dollars, a drop in the bucket
for a billionaire like Mr. Trudeau. Through an intricate web of
conspiracy and deceit, his political operatives recruit a young,
unsuspecting candidate. They finance him, manipulate him, market him,
and mold him into a potential Supreme Court justice. Their Supreme Court justice.
The Society by Michael Palmer
At the headquarters of
Boston's Eastern Quality Health, the wealthy and powerful CEO is
brutally murdered. She's not the first to die --- nor the last. A serial
killer is on the loose and the victims have one thing in common: all
are high-profile executives in the managed care industry.
Dr.
Will Grant is outraged by a system that cares more about money than
about patients --- and he intends to do something about it. But his
determination has attracted a dangerous zealot who will stop at nothing
to make Will his ally. On the case is rookie detective Patty Moriarity.
To save her faltering career --- and countless lives --- she will have
to risk trusting Will, knowing he may be the killer she's hunting.
Chill Factor by Sandra Brown
Five women are missing
from the sleepy mountain town of Cleary, North Carolina, and a blue
ribbon has been left near where each woman was last seen. Lilly Martin
has returned to Cleary to close the sale of her cabin. But when her car
skids and strikes a stranger, Ben Tierney, as he emerges from the woods,
they've no choice but to wait out a brutal blizzard in the cabin.
And
as the hours of their confinement mount, Lilly wonders if the greater
threat to her safety isn't the storm, but the stranger beside her....