Recreation

New Titles Fiction December 2019 (arrived in November 2019)

ADVENTURE

The burning land, George Alagiah.
As greed and corruption taint the optimism of a nation, the political becomes deeply personal for former childhood friends, Lindi and Kagiso. Their beloved home country, South Africa, is rapidly turning into a powder keg, as nations fight for ownership of its land and resources. With the murder of one of the nation's bright young hopes, the fuse is well and truly lit.
A minute to midnight, David Baldacci.
Atlee Pine has spent most of her life trying to find out what happened that fateful night in Andersonville, Georgia. Her six-year-old twin sister, Mercy, was taken and Atlee was left for dead while their parents were apparently partying downstairs. One person who continues to haunt her is notorious serial killer, Daniel James Tor, confined to a Colorado maximum security prison. Does he really know what happened to Mercy?
The king of fear : a Garrett Reilly thriller, Drew Chapman.
Garrett Reilly sees what others do not: numbers, patterns, a nation on the brink of collapse. His unique talents saved countries from falling into a world war in The Ascendant. But it also made him a marked man marked by terrorist groups ; marked by the US Government.
Sword of kings, Bernard Cornwell.
Uhtred of Bebbanburg is a man of his word. An oath bound him to King Alfred. And now an oath will wrench him away from the ancestral home he fought so hard to regain. For Uhtred has sworn that on King Edward's death, he will kill two men.
Final option, Clive Cussler and Boyd Morrison.
When the CIA realizes the identities of three American spies in Brazil have been compromised, they turn to Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the Oregon to rescue the agents. What seems a routine operation turns out to be a trap designed by Juan Cabrillo's greatest enemy, a man driven by hate to seek the ultimate revenge.
The nugget, P. T. Deutermann.
Lieutenant Bobby Steele, USN, is a fresh-faced and eager naval aviator: a "Nugget," who needs to learn the ropes and complex procedures of taking off and returning safely to his aircraft carrier. A blurry night of drinking lands him in an unfamiliar bed aboard the USS Oklahoma; later that day, the Japanese destroy Pearl Harbor. After cheating death and losing his friend in this act of war, the formerly naive Steele vows to avenge the attack.
American magic : a thriller, Zach Fehst.
When an enigmatic message uploaded to the dark web turns out to contain an ancient secret giving regular people the power to do impossible things, like levitate cars or make themselves invisible, American government officials panic. They know the demo videos on YouTube and instructions for incantations could turn from fantastical amusement to dangerous weapon at the drop of the hat, and they scramble to keep the information out of the wrong hands.
In darkness visible, Tony Jones.
In 2005, Marin Katich, living in Croatia under an alias, is being watched. Before the year is out, he has been assaulted, arrested, charged with serious war crimes and locked up in Scheveningen Prison in The Hague, waiting for his case to come before the International War Crimes Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.
Empire of lies, Raymond Khoury.
Istanbul, 1683: Mehmed IV, sultan of the Ottoman Empire, is preparing to lay siege to Vienna, capital of the Holy Roman Empire, when a mysterious visitor arrives in his bedroom; naked, covered in strange tattoos, to deliver a dangerous, world-changing message.
Agent running in the field, John le Carre.
Set in London in 2018, Agent Running in the Field follows a twenty-six year old solitary figure who, in a desperate attempt to resist the political turbulence swirling around him, makes connections that will take him down a dangerous path.
Whatever it takes, Andy McNab.
For James Mercer, the financial ruin of his family by the institutions they trusted can never be undone. It shattered everyone, leaving him with a burning need to right the wrongs they suffered. He will stop at nothing to recoup what they are owed. It's not theft, it's payback.
The silent war, Andreas Norman
As the head of Swedish Intelligence in Brussels, Bente Jensen has many enemies, even among those who ought to be her allies--such as Jonathan Green of MI6. In a city heaving with competing espionage agencies, he is the person she fears and distrusts most. She has good reason. They share a past.
Separated at the border : a novel, Michael Walsten.
Diamond Herrera, a 24-year-old freelance journalist, and Jason Taylor, an ex-Army Ranger and journalism professor, team up with the ACLU and the Catholic Church to fight human trafficking and abuse at a privately-run immigrant youth detention facility in the Florida Everglades.
Panacea, F. Paul Wilson.
Medical examiner Laura Henning has two charred corpses and no answers. Both bear a mysterious tattoo but exhibit no known cause of death. Their only connection is a string of puzzling miracle cures. Her preliminary investigation points to a cult that possesses the fabled panacea; the substance that can cure all ills, but everyone knows that's impossible. Or is it?
Empty hearts : a novel, Juli Zeh
A few short years from now, the world is an even more uncertain place than it is today, and politics everywhere is marching rightward: Trump is gone, but Brexit is complete, as is Frexit. There's a global financial crisis, armed conflict, and mass migration, and an ultrapopulist movement governs in Germany.

FANTASY

Hex Life : wicked new tales of witchery, Christopher Golden ]
Brand-new stories of witches and witchcraft written by popular female fantasy authors, including Kelley Armstrong, Rachel Caine and Sherrilyn Kenyon writing in their own bestselling universes! These are tales of witches, wickedness, evil, and cunning.
Ninth house, Leigh Bardugo.
Galaxy 'Alex' Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale's freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug-dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs, and much, much worse. In fact, by age twenty, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. Some might say she's thrown her life away.
The song of the Sycamore, Edward Cox.
On the broken world of Urdezha, Wendal Finn died on the hostile plains of the wasteland, one more casualty in the endless war between the city-dwellers and the clansfolk. But now Wendal has returned to his home city of Old Castle, possessed by something he brought back from the wasteland, something old and best left forgotten.
The princess beard, Delilah S. Dawson and Kevin Hearne.
Once upon a time a princess slept in a magical tower cloaked in thorns and roses, waiting for true love's kiss. Or so her father told her. Instead, she woke up on her own, cut off all that pesky long hair, and used it to escape. But she kept the beard, because it made a great disguise.
The true bastards, Jonathan French.
Fetching was once the only female rider in the Lot Lands. Now she is the proud leader of her own hoof, a band of loyal half-orcs sworn to her command. But in the year since she became chief, the Lots have tested her strength to the breaking point. The Bastards are scattered, desperate, their ranks weakened by a mysterious famine, their fortress reduced to smoldering slag.
The library of the unwritten, A. J. Hackwith.
Many years ago, Claire was named head librarian of the Unwritten Wing a neutral space in Hell where all the stories unfinished by their authors reside. Her job consists mainly of repairing and organizing books, but also of keeping an eye on restless stories that risk materializing as characters and escaping the Library.
Blood of an exile, Brian Naslund.
Bershad stands apart from the world, the most legendary dragonslayer in history, both revered and reviled. Once, he was Lord Silas Bershad, but after a disastrous failure on the battlefield he was stripped of his titles and sentenced to one violent, perilous hunt after another. Now he lives only to stalk dragons, slaughter them, collect their precious oil, and head back into the treacherous wilds once more.
A pilgrimage of swords, Anthony Ryan.
It is two hundred years since the deity known as the Absolved went mad and destroyed the Kingdom of Alnachim, transforming it into the Execration, a blasted wasteland filled with nameless terrors. For decades, desperate souls have made pilgrimage to the centre of this cursed land to seek the Mad God's favour, their fate always unknown.

FICTION

Find me, Andre Aciman.
Elio has left behind his first love. Now a classical pianist living in Paris, he believes his youthful desires are behind him yet after a glancing encounter at a chamber music concert, he once again finds himself falling for an older man. As their affair intensifies, his thoughts turn to the past, and to Oliver, whose presence in Elio's heart has never dimmed.
Right after the weather, Carol Anshaw.
It's the fall of 2016. Cate, a set designer in her early forties, lives and works in Chicago's theater community. She has stayed too long at the fair and knows it's time to get past her prolonged adolescence and stop taking handouts from her parents. She has a firm plan to get solvent and settled in a serious relationship.
The Christmas invitation, Trisha Ashley.
Recovering after an illness Meg is far from in the Christmas mood, in fact she's hardly aware it's approaching at all. They didn't celebrate it where she grew up and she's never gone in for the tinsel, baubles and mistletoe of it all. But when the opportunity arises to spend the run up to Christmas in the snowy countryside, rather than dreary London, she can't say she isn't curious.
All this could be yours, Jami Attenberg.
If I know why they are the way they are, then maybe I can learn why I am the way I am," says Alex Tuchman of her parents. Now that her father is on his deathbed, Alex; a strong-headed lawyer, devoted mother, and loving sister, feels she can finally unearth the secrets of who Victor is and what he did over the course of his life and career.
The divers' game, Jesse Ball.
The Divers' Game moves through worlds in which kindness is no longer meaningful. A scathing indictment of the inequalities of Western society, it makes visible the violence that has threaded its way into every aspect of our lives, and the radical empathy we need to combat it.
Watershed : a novel, Mark Barr.
Amidst construction of a federal dam in rural Tennessee, Nathan, an engineer hiding from his past, meets Claire, a small-town housewife struggling to find her footing in the newly-electrified, job-hungry, post-Depression South. As Nathan wrestles with the burdens of a secret guilt and tangled love, Claire struggles to balance motherhood and a newfound freedom that awakens ambitions and a sexuality she hadn't known she possessed.
The anatomy of dreams, Chloe Benjamin.
Sylvie Patterson joins scientist Adrian Keller and former flame Gabe on a quest to introduce people to lucid dreaming, but a mysterious couple inspire Sylvie to question the ethics of their work while she grapples with the shifting boundaries of reality.
A life without water, Marci Bolden.
Carol Denman divorced her husband twenty years ago and has never looked back. But on the day before her daughter's thirtieth birthday, John barges back into Carol's life with a request that threatens the fragile stability she has built.
The family secret, Tracy Buchanan.
Since Amber lost her child ten years ago, her sole focus has been keeping her small business afloat. Her life seems to be on hold, until the morning she finds a girl on the beach outside her gift shop. A girl who has no shoes, no name, and no idea where she came from.
A dog's promise, W. Bruce Cameron.
The dog who thinks of himself as 'Bailey' knows one thing for sure: all dogs go to heaven after they have fulfilled their purpose on earth. But Bailey's work on earth is far from finished, there are still so many more humans that need a dog's talent for unconditional love.
The Christmas boutique : an Elm Creek quilts novel, Jennifer Chiaverini.
Just weeks before Christmas, severe wintry weather damages the church hall hosting the Christmas Boutique an annual sale of handcrafted gifts and baked goods that supports the county food pantry. Determined to save the fundraiser, Sylvia Bergstrom Compson offers to hold the event at Elm Creek Manor, her ancestral family estate and summertime home to Elm Creek Quilt Camp.
Overthrow : a novel, Caleb Crain.
One autumn night, as a grad student named Matthew is walking home from the subway, a handsome skateboarder catches his eye. Leif, mesmerizing and enigmatic, invites Matthew to meet his friends, who are experimenting with tarot cards. It's easier to know what's in other people's minds than most people realize, the friends claim. Do they believe in telepathy? Can they actually do it?
Down is up, Ruth Dalglish
Marilyn's world has just been turned upside-down. A criminal action has brought financial disaster to a successful business, and now the comfortable lifestyle and popularity she and her husband had enjoyed seem to be slipping through her fingers. Marilyn feels helpless, until a meeting with a former spiritual mentor gives her hope and she is drawn into a new kind of life as she begins to look at her world with new eyes.
Moonlight over Mayfair, Anton Du Beke.
With a new King on the throne tensions are rising in London and across Europe. Not yet recovered from the Great Depression, there's talk of another war coming. Demonstrator dancer Raymond de Guise must hide his own views and put on a show for the rich and powerful guests of the Buckingham. But a lot can happen on the dancefloor.
Your duck is my duck : stories, Deborah Eisenberg.
Each of the six stories in Your Duck is My Duck, Eisenberg's first collection since 2006, has the heft and complexity of a novel. With her own inexorable but utterly unpredictable logic and her almost uncanny ability to conjure the strange states of mind and emotion that constitute our daily consciousness, Eisenberg pulls us as if by gossamer threads through her characters.
Thursday nights at the Bluebell Inn, Kit Fielding.
In every pub in every town unspoken stories lie beneath the surface. Each week, six women meet at The Bluebell Inn. They form an unlikely and occasionally triumphant ladies darts team. They banter and jibe, they laugh. But their hidden stories of love and loss are what, in the end, will bind them.
Invisible as air : a novel, Zoe Fishman.
Sylvie Snow knows the pressures of expectations: a woman is supposed to work hard, but never be tired; age gracefully, but always be beautiful; fix the family problems, but always be carefree. Sylvie does the grocery shopping, the laundry, the scheduling, the schlepping and the PTA-ing, while planning her son's Bar Mitzvah and cheerfully tending her husband, Paul, who's been lying on the sofa with a broken ankle. She's also secretly addicted to the Oxycontin.
White sands of summer, J.H. Fletcher.
This multi-faceted saga tells the interlinked story of two sisters as they face poverty, loss and betrayal through the changing landscape of Australia in the 40s and 60s. Will wealth and love be theirs for the taking or will they run like sand through their fingers?
Goodnight stranger, Miciah Bay Gault.
Lydia and Lucas Moore are in their late twenties when a stranger enters their small world on Wolf Island. Lydia, the responsible sister, has cared for her pathologically shy brother, Lucas, ever since their mom's death a decade before. They live together, comfortable yet confined, in their family house by the sea, shadowed by events from their childhood. When Lydia sees the stranger step off the ferry, she feels an immediate connection to him.
To keep the sun alive : a novel, Rabeah Ghaffari.
The year is 1979. The Iranian Revolution is just around the corner. In the northeastern city of Naishapur, a family, including their friends and servants, ranging from young to old, reveal the personal behind the political, reminding us of the human lives that animate historical events.
On division, Goldie Goldbloom.
Surie Eckstein is soon to be a great-grandmother. Her in-laws, postwar immigrants from Romania, live on the first floor. Her daughter Tzila Ruchel lives on the second. She and Yidel, a scribe in such demand that he makes only a few Torah scrolls a year, live on the third. When Surie discovers she is pregnant at fifty-seven it is a shock. She feels ashamed, unable to share the news even with her husband.
Amity and the angel, Sharon Griffiths.
Fin and Amity yearn for a life with music, colour and freedom. But they live on a remote grey island off northern Britain, one of the few communities to survive the great oil wars that nearly wiped out the world. Technology is only a memory. Life is a strict regime of work and prayer. Books; unless about diseases in chickens, have been burned, musical instruments smashed, make-up and mirrors are the toys of the Devil. And don't even think about dancing.
A pure heart, Rajia Hassib.
Sisters Rose and Gameela Gubran could not have been more different. Rose, an Egyptologist, married an American journalist and immigrated to New York City, where she works in the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Gameela, a devout Muslim since her teenage years, stayed in Cairo. During the aftermath of Egypt's revolution, Gameela is killed in a suicide bombing. When Rose returns to Egypt after the bombing, she sifts through the artefacts Gameela left behind, desperate to understand how her sister came to die.
The Jewel, Neil Hegarty.
At the heart of this moving and unusual novel is a strange painting by a woman who committed suicide rather than live with neglect and pain. Her final glowingly beautiful work was painted with a technique more usual for posters and banners, and not designed to last. She intended it as her shroud. It hangs in a Dublin gallery, and it is desired by a collector who is willing to pay to have it stolen.
What happens in paradise : a novel, Elin Hilderbrand.
A year ago, Irene Steele had the shock of her life: her loving husband, father to their grown sons and successful businessman, was killed in a plane crash. But that wasn't Irene's only shattering news: he'd also been leading a double life on the island of St. John, where another woman loved him, too.
Mrs. Caliban, Rachel Ingalls
In the quiet suburbs, while Dorothy is doing chores and waiting for her husband to come home from work, not in the least anticipating romance, she hears a strange radio announcement about a monster who has just escaped from the Institute for Oceanographic Research.
The girl with the Leica, Helena Janeczek
A novel based on the life of Gerda Taro, a German-Jewish war photographer, anti-fascist activist, artist and innovator who, together with her partner, the Hungarian Endre Friedmann, was one half of the alias Robert Capa, widely considered to be the twentieth century's greatest war and political photographer.
The Alexandrite, Dione Jones.
How many lives does Jack have to blow before getting it right? And is sleeping with Marilyn Monroe worth getting murdered again? When Jack Cade is fired from a no-pay production of Hamlet, he has no inkling his next role will be opposite Marilyn Monroe--forty years back in time, in 1956.
The swing of things, Linda Keir.
Attorney Jayne Larsen loves her stay-at-home husband. Eric is attentive and a great father to their daughter. He's also unfailingly committed to their Wednesday date nights-- but things have gotten too predictable. Enter Theo and Mia Winters, the effortlessly cool, attractive couple who are the center of everyone's attention.
The family gift, Cathy Kelly.
Freya Abalone has a big, messy, wonderful family, a fantastic career, and a new house on the outside. On the inside, she's got Mildred the name she's given to that nagging inner critic who tells us all we're not good enough. And now Freya's beloved blended family is under threat.
I wish you happy : a novel, Kerry Anne King.
Rescuing abandoned animals is easier for Rae than attempting relationships with people. According to her therapist, she lacks a dimmer switch-her energy is either full-intensity on or off. Lately, she's been opting for off. But the switch flips back on when Rae's car collides with a cyclist, leaving the rider fighting for her life.
Whisper me this : a novel, Kerry Anne King.
Single mother Maisey Addington has always fallen short of her own mother's expectations never married, a bit adrift, wasting her high IQ on dead-end jobs. The only thing Maisey's sure she's gotten right is her relationship with her twelve-year-old daughter, Elle until a phone call blows apart the precarious balance of their lives.
Christmas shopaholic, Sophie Kinsella.
Becky Brandon (nee Bloomwood) adores Christmas. It's always the same Mum and Dad hosting, carols playing, Mum pretending she made the Christmas pudding, and the next-door neighbours coming round for sherry in their terrible festive jumpers. And now it's even easier with online bargain-shopping sites if you spend enough you even get free delivery.
England, their England, A.G. Macdonell.
Banished from his native Scotland by a curious clause in his father's will, Donald Cameron moves to London and decides to conduct a study of the English people; a strange race who, he is told, have built an entire national identity around a reverence for team spirit and the memory of Lord Nelson.
An echo of scandal, Laura Madeleine.
Accused of murder, Alejandra flees her home, escaping to the southern edge of Spain, where she faces a life of poverty and destitution. Seduced by the power of the rich and the anonymity that waits across the water in Tangier, Ale makes a bid for a new start. But it will come at a cost: a life of deception.
Manchester happened, Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi.
If there's one thing the characters in Jennifer Makumbi's stories know, it's how to field a question. Told with empathy, humour and compassion, these vibrant, kaleidoscopic stories re-imagine the journey of Ugandans who choose to make England their home.
If you want to make god laugh, Bianca Marais.
On the outskirts of Johannesburg, seventeen-year-old Zodwa Bambisa lives in desperate poverty in tiny metal shack in a squatter camp, under the shadowy threat of a civil war and a growing AIDS epidemic. Eight months pregnant with a child she does not want, Zodwa carefully guards secrets that could get her killed if discovered.
Into the sunset, Clare Matravers.
"The Holden Family dynamics are set to change in a major way. Sapphire is thrilled. James, not so much. The new situation sends him into a tail spin, and he takes action with potentially drastic consequences. Candace is not impressed either. Ready or not, she has little choice but to fly the family nest and to try out her adult wings. She spreads them wide - until a shocking event sends her flying homewards again.
Ripples in the water, Clare Matravers.
Sapphire Nord is in trouble - BIG trouble and doesn't know what to do. A friend suggests a possible solution - but it's drastic and has major consequences. What will Sapphire decide? Her life is touched by tragedy, romance, an illness and faith before she encounters a mysterious woman with a huge secret - one that involves Sapphire, and will change her life forever.
The truth will out, Clare Matravers.
Candace O'Brien is suspicious. Why does the whispering always stop the moment she appears? There must be a big secret - one which involves her somehow. How can she find out the truth? Sapphire Nord has a big secret. But when will be the right time to reveal it to her loved ones? And how will they react?
Aerialists : stories, Mark Mayer.
Aerialists is a fiercely inventive collection of nine stories in which classic carnival characters become ordinary misfits seeking grandeur in a lonely world.
Starting from now, Fleur McDonald.
When twenty-five-year-old journalist, Zara Ellison receives her mother's ominous text message, Call me when you can, Zara knows it's not good news. Two weeks later, Zara has left her much-loved city life to relocate to Barker, the sleepy country town in which she grew up. For Zara, family comes first.
Once, twice, three times an Aisling, Emer McLysaght
Aisling is thirty, flirty and frazzled. But just when she should finally be feeling all grown-up she's floundering. Because when you're recovering from a broken heart as well as struggling to keep your cafe as sizzling as your award-winning sausages, it's hard to feel you've really made it as an adult.
After the flood, Kassandra Montag.
After years of slowly overtaking the continent, starting with the great coastal cities, rising floodwaters have left America an archipelago of mountaintop colonies surrounded by a deep expanse of open water. Civilization as it once was is gone. Bands of pirates roam the waters, in search of goods and women to breed. Some join together to create a new kind of society, while others sail alone, barely surviving.
The cheffe : a cook's novel, Marie NDiaye
A novel about a legendary French female chef the facts of her life, the nearly ineffable qualities of her cooking, and the obsessive, sometimes destructive desire for purity of taste and experience that shaped her life.
Love, unscripted, Owen Nicholls.
For film projectionist Nick, love should mirror what he sees on the big screen. And when he falls for Ellie on the eve of the 2008 presidential election, it finally does. For four blissful years, Nick loved Ellie as much as he loved his job splicing film reels together in the local cinema. Life seemed picture-perfect. But now it's 2012, Ellie has moved out and Nick's trying to figure out where it all went wrong.
Girl, Edna O'Brien.
Northeast Nigeria. When a group of schoolgirls are abducted by Boko Haram, they are suffer incarceration, horror, and hunger. A hair-raising escape into the manifold terrors of the forest leads, not so much to freedom as to a descent into the labyrinthine bureaucracy and hostility awaiting a victim who returns home with a child blighted by enemy blood.
There was still love, Favel Parrett.
Prague, 1938: Eva flies down the street from her sister. Suddenly a man steps out, a man wearing a hat. Eva runs into him, hits the pavement hard. His hat is in the gutter. His anger slaps Eva, but his hate will change everything, as war forces so many lives into small, brown suitcases.
A wedding on Christmas Street, Ivy Pembroke.
Sam is about to propose to his girlfriend Libby, and his neighbours in Christmas Street all think they know the right way to do it. With their help and sometimes hinderance Sam gains a fiancee and the wedding planning begins.
The light of the fireflies, Paul Pen
For his whole life, the boy has lived underground, in a basement with his parents, grandmother, sister, and brother. Before he was born, his family was disfigured by a fire. Ever since his sister had a baby, everyone's been acting very strangely. The boy begins to wonder why they never say who the father is, about what happened before his own birth, about why they're shut away.
The light in the hallway, Amanda Prowse.
When Nick's wife Kerry falls ill and dies, he realises for the first time how fragile his happiness has always been, and how much he's been taking his good life and wonderful family for granted. Now, he suddenly finds himself navigating parenthood alone, unsure how to deal with his own grief, let alone that of his teenage son, Olly.
The sea & us, Catherine de Saint Phalle.
After many years spent living in Seoul, a young man called Harold drifts back to Australia and rents a room above a fish and chip shop called The Sea and Us. Who he meets and what he experiences there propels him to question his own yearnings and failings, and to fight for meaning and a sense of place that can only be reached by facing what is lost.
Guestbook : ghost stories, Leanne Shapton.
In a new incarnation of an ancient form the ghost story an exploration of the earthly and sublime experience of existence.
Three little truths, Eithne Shortall.
Three women looking for a fresh start on idyllic Pine Road. Their friendship will change their lives, and reveal secrets they never imagined.
Grand union : stories, Zadie Smith.
Interleaving ten completely new and unpublished stories with some of her best-loved pieces from the New Yorker and elsewhere, Zadie Smith presents a dizzyingly rich and varied collection of fiction.
The study of animal languages, Lindsay Stern.
Ivan is a tightly wound philosophy professor whose reverence for logic and order governs not only his academic interests, but also his closest relationships. His wife, Prue, is quite the opposite: a pioneer in the emerging field of biolinguistics, she is young and beautiful, full of life and feeling. Thus far, they have managed to weather their differences.
Olive, again, Elizabeth Strout.
Olive, Again follows the blunt, contradictory yet deeply loveable Olive Kitteridge as she grows older, navigating the second half of her life as she comes to terms with the changes, sometimes welcome, sometimes not, in her own existence and in those around her.
An Irish country family, Patrick Taylor.
Before Doctor Barry Laverty joined Doctor Fingal O'Reilly's practice in the colourful Irish village of Ballybucklebo, he was an intern, working long hours, practicing new medical techniques, falling in love, and learning what is most important in the medical field for a family physician the bonds of family, friendships, and human kindness.
Let it snow : a novel, Nancy Thayer.
Christina Antonioni is preparing for the holidays at her Nantucket toy shop, unpacking last-minute shipments and decorating for her loyal Christmas shoppers. But when her Scrooge of a landlord, Oscar Bittlesman, raises her rent, it seems nearly impossible for Christina to continue business on the wharf.
The ever after of Ashwin Rao, Padma Viswanathan.
In 2004, almost 20 years after the fatal bombing of an Air India flight from Vancouver, 2 suspects finally are on trial for the crime. Ashwin Rao, an Indian psychologist trained in Canada, comes back to do a "study of comparative grief," interviewing people who lost loved one in the attack. What he neglects to mention is that he, too, had family members who died on the plane.
The dearly beloved : a novel, Cara Wall.
Charles and Lily, James and Nan. They meet in Greenwich Village in 1963 when Charles and James are jointly hired to steward the historic Third Presbyterian Church through turbulent times. Their personal differences however, threaten to tear them apart.
The weekend, Charlotte Wood.
Four older women have a lifelong friendship of the best kind: loving, practical, frank and steadfast. But when Sylvie dies, the ground shifts dangerously for the remaining three. Can they survive together without her?

GRAPHIC NOVEL

Platinum end. 9, story, Tsugumi Ohba
With Kanade Uryu now dead, Mirai and Saki are able to rest for the first time in a while and mourn the death of their partner, Mukaido. But then a new god candidate appears on television and begins revealing all of their secrets. Is this the start of a new battle, or is there a peaceful way out of their plight?
JoJo's bizarre adventure. Part 4, Diamond is unbreakable. 2, Hirohiko Araki
Jotaro Kujo discovers a lead on the stolen bow and arrow, but is it too late to stop the thief? While Jotaro is investigating that lead, Josuke Higashikata and Koichi Hirose find a new ally in Okuyasu?!
Black Panther. [7], The intergalactic empire of Wakanda. Part two, Ta-Nehisi Coates
When a dissident from the Martian-conquered future, Erik Killraven, threatens to overthrow Wakanda, the disgraced prince must wager what little is left of his soul to save his people! And for years, the Maroons have lain dormant, planning the next stage of their rebellion.
Critical role. Vox Machina origins. [1], Matthew Colville
Six would-be heroes on seemingly different jobs find their paths intertwined as they investigate shady business in the swamp town of Stilben.
I am a hero. Omnibus 11, Kengo Hanazawa
It's the end of humanity as we know it but are you a part of the zombie-human hive mind or about to die outside of it? With Hiromi absorbed into a huge, mobile ZQN nest, will Hideo be able to extract her or will he seal his death warrant with his ignorance and hasty choices?
Cells at work! : code black. 02, story by Shigemitsu Harada
This new take stars a fresh-faced Red Blood Cell and his friend, the buxom White Blood Cell, as they struggle to keep themselves and their world together through alcoholism, smoking, erectile dysfunction, athlete's foot, gout it's literal body horror! Whoever this guy is, he's lucky his cells can't go on strike!
Tokyo ghoul : re. 13, Sui Ishida
Furuta has finally gone too far in his mad power grab at the Commission of Counter Goul. Disgusted at his abuse of countermeasure law, Urie and a group of investigators decide to take him down.
Smashed : Junji Ito story collection, [translation & adaptation, Jocelyn Allen].
Thirteen chilling nightmares presented by the master of horror.
Gideon Falls. 3, Stations of the cross, Jeff Lemire
Father Burke tracks a vicious killer to Gideon Falls, 1886. A killer that can travel through time and space. A killer named... Norton Sinclair?
Hunter S. Thompson's Fear and loathing in Las Vegas : a savage journey to the heart of the American dream, adapted by Troy Little.
Records the experiences of a free-lance writer who embarked on a zany journey into the drug culture.
Black Science. Volume 9, No authority but yourself, Rick Remender, writer ; Matteo Scalera, artist ; Moreno Dinisio, colors ; Rus Wooton, lettering.
Sometimes our lives are boiled down to one moment, one choice. This is that moment for Grant McKay. The Anarchist League of Scientists charges forward for one final adventure.
Paper girls. 6, Brian K. Vaughan
After surviving adventures in their past, present and future, the Paper Girls of 1988 embark on one last journey, a five-part epic that includes the emotional double-sized series finale.
Rusty Brown, [Chris Ware].
Rusty Brown is shown as a young Nebraskan boy and as a man approaching middle age, who has a lifelong obsession with collecting action figures and similar pop cultural detritus, particularly Supergirl.
The saga of Tanya the evil. 08, original story, Carlo Zen
Finally, the Osfjord clash between Major Tanya Degurechaff and Colonel Anson Sue reaches its climax! Who will emerge victorious?! As the former salaryman prepares to launch her decisive attack, an old enemy makes a shocking appearance on the battlefield. And that enemy is none other than Being X?!

HISTORICAL

The man with two names, Vincent B. Davis II.
Quintus Sertorius has spent the first 20 years of his life training horses on his family farm, but this must end when his father dies and his village's political connections to Rome are severed. For the sake of his family, Quintus must leave his village for the Eternal City. If he succeeds, his people will be fed.
The noise of war, Vincent B. Davis II.
Rome, 105 BC. Quintus Sertorius fought while the enemy slaughtered 90,000 of his brethren in the city's bloodiest defeat. Battling night terrors and survivor's guilt, he vows to preserve his beloved Rome and embarks on a covert mission deep into enemy territory.
A transcontinental affair, Jodi Daynard.
May 1870. Crowds throng the Boston station, mesmerized by the mechanical wonder huffing on the rails: the Pullman Hotel Express, the first train to travel from coast to coast. Boarding the train are congressmen, railroad presidents, and even George Pullman himself. For two young women, strangers until this fateful day, it's the beginning of a journey that will change their lives.
Chimes of a lost cathedral, Janet Fitch.
After the loves and betrayals of The Revolution of Marina M., young poet Marina Makarova finds herself alone amid the devastation of the Russian Civil War; pregnant and adrift, forced to rely on her own resourcefulness to find a place to wait out the birth of her child and eventually make her way back to her native city, Petrograd.
Paris savages, Katherine Johnson.
Based on a true story, Paris Savages takes us from colonised Australia to the heart of Europe in 1882, where three young Aboriginal people were taken to perform for mass entertainment. On beautiful Fraser Island, the population of the Badtjala people is in sharp decline following a run of brutal massacres. When German man Louis Muller offers to sail eighteen-year-old Bonny to Europe in the hope of seeking help from the Queen of England in exchange for performing to huge crowds the brave and headstrong Bonny agrees.
The diamond hunter, Fiona McIntosh.
When six-year-old Clementine Knight loses her mother to malaria during the 1870s diamond rush in southern Africa, she is left to be raised by her destitute, alcoholic father, James. Much of Clementine's care falls to their trusty Zulu companion, Joseph One-Shoe, and the unlikely pair form an unbreakable bond.
Ribbons of scarlet : a novel of the French Revolution's women, Kate Quinn [and five others]
In late eighteenth-century France, women do not have a place in politics. But as the tide of revolution rises, women from gilded salons to the streets of Paris decide otherwise - upending a world order that has long oppressed them.

HORROR

American midnight : tales of the dark, selected and introduced by Laird Hunt.
A masquerade ball cut short by a mysterious plague; a strange nocturnal ritual; a black bobcat howling in the night: these tales are some of the most strange and unsettling in all of American literature, filled with unforgettable imagery and simmering with tension.
Dark illusion, Christine Feehan.
At any other time, Julija Brennan would find solace in the quiet of the Sierra Mountains, but now the mage is in the race of her life. Having broken free from her controlling family, Julija's attempt to warn the Carpathians of the coming threat has failed and put a target on her back-and those who are hunting her are close behind.
Full throttle : stories, Joe Hill.
In this masterful collection of short fiction, Joe Hill dissects timeless human struggles in thirteen relentless tales of supernatural suspense.
The secret of Cold Hill, Peter James.
Cold Hill House has been demolished to make way for a new housing estate. Luxury-living at it's best with high specification gadgets all thrown in part-exchange available for the right buyers. The first two families move in, and as soon as they do, the unearthly residents of Cold Hill begin to make themselves known.
Things we say in the dark, Kirsty Logan.
So here we go, into the dark. Some things can't be spoken about in the light of day. But we can visit our fears at night, in the dark. We can turn them over and weigh them in our hands and maybe that will protect us from them. But maybe not.
Sherlock Holmes & the Christmas demon, James Lovegrove.
It is 1890, and in the days before Christmas Sherlock Holmes and Dr John Watson are visited at Baker Street by a new client. Eve Allerthorpe eldest daughter of a grand but somewhat eccentric Yorkshire-based dynasty is greatly distressed, as she believes she is being haunted by a demonic Christmas spirit.
All roads end here, David Moody.
In a world where violence is omnipresent and civilization is crumbling, a man with the ability to anticipate violence is drawn into the complex machinations of a group of survivors.
Suicide woods : stories, Benjamin Percy.
In his first story collection since the acclaimed Refresh, Refresh, Benjamin Percy delivers a potent brew of horror, crime, and weird happenings in the woods.

MYSTERY

The poison garden, A.J. Banner.
Elise Watters seems to have it all; a blissful marriage, a gorgeous Victorian home surrounded by lush gardens, and a dream job running her late mother's herbal boutique. But on the eve of her first wedding anniversary, Elise makes a shocking discovery that turns her life upside down and casts doubt on everything she thought she knew.
Beating about the bush, M.C. Beaton.
When private detective Agatha Raisin comes across a severed leg in a roadside hedge, it looks like she is about to become involved in a particularly gruesome murder. Looks, however, can be deceiving, as Agatha discovers when she is employed to investigate a case of industrial espionage at a factory where nothing is quite what it seems.
The books of the dead : a death in Paris mystery, Emilia Bernhard.
When American sleuth Rachel Levis stumbles upon an employee of the French national library strangled in the bathroom of a cafe, she's not surprised to be asked to help with the investigation by her old acquaintance Capitaine Boussicault--after all, she and her best friend Magda solved a tricky murder only eighteen months before.
Dreams of fear, Hilary Bonner.
Jane Ferguson suffers from horrific nightmares which she claims not to be able to explain. And when her traumatised 6-year-old daughter finds Jane dead, hanging by the neck in the hallway of the family's seaside home, it is assumed she took her own life. But routine police enquiries reveal evidence indicating that Jane has been murdered.
Galway girl : a Jack Taylor novel, Ken Bruen.
Jack Taylor has never quite been able get his life together, but now he has truly hit rock bottom. Still reeling from a violent family tragedy, Taylor is busy drowning his grief in Jameson and uppers when a high-profile officer in the local Garda is murdered. After another Guard is found dead, and then another, Taylor's old colleagues from the force implore him to take on the case.
I see you, Mary Burton.
FBI special agent Zoe Spencer uses skeletal remains to recreate the faces of murder victims through sculpture. Though highly scientific, the process is also sensitive and intimate; she becomes attached to the individuals she identifies, desperate to find justice for each. As Zoe examines old remains, she sees a teenage girl looking back at her--the victim in a cold case from over a decade ago.
Blue moon, Lee Child.
In a nameless city, two ruthless rival criminal gangs, one Albanian, the other Ukrainian, are competing for control. But they hadn't counted on Jack Reacher arriving on their patch.
City of pearl, Alys Clare.
October, 1093. At her mentor's urgent request, Lassair is accompanying Gurdyman across the sea to Spain. But why is he so insistent on embarking on this difficult and dangerous journey just as winter approaches? And why does he seem so afraid? Could there be any connection to the vagrant found lying dead outside his home, a single pearl clutched in his outstretched hand?
Kiss the girls and make them cry : a novel, Mary Higgins Clark.
When investigative journalist Gina Kane receives an email from a "CRyan" describing her "terrible experience" while working at REL, a high- profile television news network, including the comment "and I'm not the only one," Gina knows she has to pursue the story.
Whatever it takes, Paul Cleave
When seven-year-old Alyssa is kidnapped, Deputy Noah Harper decides he will do what it takes to find her - but that means crossing lines he can never come back from. Finding the girl safe isn't enough to stop Noah from losing his job, his wife, and from being kicked out of Acacia Pines.
Endgame, Daniel Cole.
When retired police officer Finlay Shaw is found dead in a locked room, everyone thinks it's suicide. But disgraced detective William 'Wolf' Fawkes isn't so sure. Together with his former partner Detective Emily Baxter and private detective Edmunds, Wolf's team begin to dig into Shaw's early days on the beat.
No mercy, Martina Cole.
Diana Davies has been head of the family business since the death of her husband, an infamous bank robber. She's a woman in a man's world, but no one messes with her. Her only son, Angus, is a natural born villain, but he needs to earn Diana's trust before she'll allow him into the business. Once he's proved he has the brains to run their clubs in Marbella, he is given what he's always wanted. It's the beginning of a reign of terror that knows no bounds.
The night fire, Michael Connelly.
Back when Harry Bosch was just a rookie homicide detective, he had an inspiring mentor who taught him to take the work personally and fight for for every case. Now that mentor, J.J. Thompson, is dead, but after his funeral his widow hands Bosch a murder book that Thompson took outlining the unsolved killing of a troubled young man.
The perfect wife, JP Delaney.
Abbie awakens in a daze with no memory of who she is or how she landed in this unsettling condition. The man by her side claims to be her husband. He tells Abbie that she is a gifted artist, an avid surfer, a loving mother to their young son, and the perfect wife. He says she had a terrible accident five years ago, and that, through a huge technological breakthrough, she has been brought back from the abyss.
The friend, Teresa Driscoll.
On a train with her husband, miles from home and their four-year-old son, Ben, Sophie receives a chilling phone call. Two boys are in hospital after a tragic accident. One of them is Ben. She thought she could trust Emma, her new friend, to look after her little boy.
The promise, Teresa Driscoll.
It was their darkest secret. Three schoolgirls made a promise to take the horrible truth of what they did to the grave. Thirty years later, Beth and Sally have tried to put the trauma behind them. Though Carol has distanced herself from her former friends, the three are adamant that the truth must never come to light, even if the memory still haunts them.
The locust farm, Jeremy Dronfield.
A refuge. A haven. A nightmare. Carole Perceval lives alone on a remote Yorkshire farm, trying to forget a painful past in the solitude of the moors. Her life is one of tranquil routine, until one rain-swept night, a dishevelled figure appears out of the darkness, hammering on her door. Lost and confused, the man has no memory, no idea who he is. His only certainty is that he is being pursued, that he has to escape at all costs. Exhausted, desperate, the farm is his final refuge. At first terrified, Carole finds something in this enigmatic stranger that answers a deep-seated need of her own. The man she calls Steven represents a chance to exorcise her demons, and to heal her own wounds by helping someone else to become whole again. For Steven, Carole's unconditional trust provides a haven from the lethal, implacable forces he believes are intent on destroying him. Both of them dream of escape. Of change. Of redemption. And both are about to step into a nightmare.
In the valley of the devil, Hank Early.
Earl Marcus found new hope after confronting the unspeakable evil unleashed by his father's fundamentalist Church of the Holy Flame. Now plying his trade as a private investigator in the North Georgia mountains, he's drawn once again into a dark abyss of depravity, and murder.
All the devils, Barry Eisler.
Ten years ago, the daughter of Homeland Security Investigations agent B.D. Little vanished into thin air. So did seven other girls; the crimes all bearing the same signature characteristics. Now the disappearances have begun again. And Agent Little's efforts to investigate are being blocked by forces far above his pay grade. Desperate, he turns to Seattle sex-crimes detective Livia Lone, the most obsessive hunter of predators Little knows. Livia will need that obsessiveness, and a lot more. Because the two men Little is pursuing are fearsome. Both Special Forces veterans with a dozen tours in Iraq between them. Both sadists and serial rapists. And one, the congressman scion of the vice president of the United States - a man who will use all his power to protect his son's secrets and further his own ambitions. The conspirators have all the assets and all the angles. And every reason to believe they'll evade justice, as they always have before. They don't understand that for Livia Lone, justice is only a guideline. Revenge is the rule.
Twisted 26, Janet Evanovich.
Grandma Mazur is a widow again. The unlucky groom was one Jimmy Rosolli, local gangster, lothario (senior division) and heart attack waiting to happen well, the waiting's over. It's a sad day, but if she can't have Jimmy at least Grandma can have all the attention she wants as the dutiful widow.
The Mitford scandal, Jessica Fellowes.
The newly married and most beautiful of the Mitford sisters, Diana, hot-steps around Europe with her husband and fortune heir Bryan Guinness, accompanied by maid Louisa Cannon, as well as some of the most famous and glamorous luminaries of the era. But murder soon follows, and with it, a darkness grows in Diana's heart.
The dead wife, Sue Fortin.
It's been two years since the Sinclair case closed but when reporter Steph Durham receives a tipoff that could give her the scoop of the year, she's drawn deeper and deeper into the secretive Sinclair family. Elizabeth's death wasn't a tragic accident. And the truth will come at a deadly price.
Bryant & May : England's finest : more lost cases from the Peculiar Crimes Unit, Christopher Fowler.
The Peculiar Crimes Unit has solved many extraordinary cases over the years, but some were hushed up and hidden away. Until now. Arthur Bryant remembers these lost cases as if they were yesterday. Unfortunately, he doesn't remember yesterday, so the newly revealed facts could come as a surprise to everyone, including his exasperated partner John May.
Read and buried : a Lighthouse Library mystery, Eva Gates.
The Bodie Island Lighthouse Library Classic Novel Book Club is reading Journey to the Center of the Earth by Jules Verne while workers dig into the earth to repair the Lighthouse Library's foundations. The digging halts when Lucy pulls a battered tin box containing a Civil War-era diary from the pit.
The shape of night, Tess Gerritsen.
We've all done things we're ashamed of. When Ava arrives at Brodie's Watch, she thinks she has found the perfect place to hide from her past. Something terrible happened, something she is deeply ashamed of, and all she wants is to forget. But the old house on the hill both welcomes and repels her and Ava quickly begins to suspect she is not alone.
False positive : a novel, Andrew Grant.
Alabama detective Cooper Devereaux makes no apologies for his luxe lifestyle or his high-risk tactics. But he may have met his match in fellow detective Jan Loflin. Devereaux's just beat an abuse charge and Loflin is fresh off a long undercover stint in Vice when they're partnered on a case that will test them both beyond their wildest dreams.
A sudden death in Cyprus, Michael Grant.
Having melted easily into Cyprus's relaxed expat community, fugitive crime writer David Mitre is feeling relatively secure. His cash stashed in secret accounts and his exit routes mapped out, he can concentrate on his writing. All that changes when he's witness to a cold-blooded murder in broad daylight on Paphos Beach.
The guardians, John Grisham.
In a small Florida town, a young lawyer is shot to death. A young black man, a former client, named Quincy Miller is charged and convicted. For 22 years, Miller maintains his innocence from inside prison. Finally, Guardian Ministries takes on Miller's case, but the Episcopal minister in charge gets more than he bargained for as powerful people do not want Miller exonerated.
The arrangement, Robyn Harding.
Natalie, a young art student in New York City, is struggling to pay her bills when a friend makes a suggestion: Why not go online and find a sugar daddy--a wealthy, older man who will pay her for dates and even give her a monthly allowance? Lots of girls do it, Nat learns. All that's required is to look pretty and hang on his every word. But when Gabe abruptly ends things, Nat can't let go.
Under lying, Janelle Harris.
Susan has everything she ever wanted. A loving husband, an angelic daughter and the cottage of her dreams in County Cork. Her picture-perfect life seems too good to be true. And it is. At a housewarming party with their new neighbours, her daughter Amelia goes missing.
Broken glass, Alexander Hartung
Detective Nik Pohl has seen every shade of darkness in his career. Not used to playing by the rules, he finds himself frozen out by his superiors. What's worse, now he's being blackmailed by a shadowy businessman into investigating a seemingly crimeless disappearance.
The missing ones, Edwin Hill.
Hester Thursby has given up using her research skills to trace people who don't want to be found. A traumatic case a few months ago unearthed a string of violent crimes, and left Hester riddled with self-doubt and guilt.
The benefit of hindsight, Susan Hill.
In this, the tenth Simon Serrailler crime novel, Simon must engage with his own demons as Lafferton struggles to cope with a series of crimes that threaten the sanctity of hearth and home.
The family, Louise Jensen.
Laura is grieving after the sudden death of her husband. Struggling to cope emotionally and financially, Laura is grateful when a local community, Oak Leaf Organics, offer her and her 17-year-old daughter Tilly a home. But as Laura and Tilly settle into life with their new 'family', sinister things begin to happen.
The good samaritan, John Marrs.
The people who call End of the Line need hope. They need reassurance that life is worth living. But some are unlucky enough to get through to Laura. Laura doesn't want them to hope. She wants them to die.
When you disappeared, John Marrs.
Catherine's cosy life as a housewife and mum-of-three is quickly thrown into disarray when husband Simon disappears without explanation. She is convinced he hasn't left by choice as confusion and spiraling debts threaten to tear her family apart. Meanwhile Simon has begun a carefree new life travelling the world. And he's determined not to disclose his past to all he meets, even if it means resorting to extreme and violent measures.
Impossible causes, Julie Mayhew.
The arrival of three strangers on Lark, a remote island with a population of 300, is the cause of much speculation. The first, a young teacher - the only male teacher on the island - the other two, a mother and her teenage daughter. What have they come to escape? And what will they find waiting for them on Lark?
Strangers at the gate, Catriona McPherson.
Finnie Doyle and Paddy Lamb are leaving city life in Edinburgh behind them and moving to the little town of Simmerton. Paddy's been made partner at the law firm in town, and Finnie has snagged a job as a church deacon. Their rented cottage is quaint; their new colleagues are charming, and they can't believe their luck. But only days after moving into the gate house, Finnie begins to have doubts.
Before the devil fell : a novel, Neil Olson.
Will Connor returns to his hometown, a village north of Boston, to care for his injured mother. He's kept his distance from the town since high school, but once home he finds himself reexamining a horrific incident that took place during one of his mother's 'spirit circles'.
19th Christmas, James Patterson & Maxine Paetro.
Christmas is coming, but crime never stops for the Women's Murder Club. Sergeant Lindsay Boxer is looking forward to spending time with her family over the holidays. But when she receives a tip-off that the biggest heist ever to hit San Francisco is being planned for Christmas Day, everything changes.
Criss cross, James Patterson.
Mere hours after witnessing the execution of a killer he helped put behind bars, Alex Cross is called to the scene of a copycat murder. A note signed 'M' rests on the corpse 'You messed up big time, Dr. Cross.'
Desert flowers, Paul Pen
Rose and Elmer have created an idyllic sanctuary for themselves and their five daughters in Mexico's Baja California desert. Out there in the middle of nowhere, blissfully cut off from the burdens of modern society, they're free to raise their beautiful family and preserve its secret. And they're never giving it up. Then a young hiker named Rick comes looking for a place to stay. It's just for the night, he says but long enough for Rose and Elmer to fear they've made a horrible mistake.
A Christmas gathering : a novel, Anne Perry.
As beautiful as it may be, their friends' country home is not where Lady Vespasia wishes to spend Christmas with her new husband, Victor Narraway. She'd rather pass a relaxing holiday at home with him especially because Victor, former head of the London Special Branch, seems to be hiding some undercover dealings with the other guests who have gathered in the spacious home.
Westwind, Ian Rankin.
It always starts with a small lie. That's how you stop noticing the bigger ones. After his friend suspects something strange going on at the launch facility where they both work and then goes missing - Martin Hepton doesn't believe the official line of "long-term sick leave". Refusing to stop asking questions, he leaves his old life behind, aware that someone is shadowing his every move.
Into the dark, Karen Rose.
Michael Rowland is not your typical teenager. Deaf from birth, he's always looked out for his five-year-old brother, Joshua. When his stepfather comes after Joshua, Michael takes the child and runs. He's determined to protect his brother at all costs, even if that means making himself vulnerable to a danger he can't hear coming.
A mortal likeness : a Victorian mystery, Laura Joh Rowland.
A photographer in 1889 London, Miss Sarah Bain runs a private detective agency with her friends, Lord Hugh Staunton and former street urchin Mick O'Reilly. Their new big case arises when a wealthy banker, Sir Gerald Mariner, posts a handsome reward for finding his missing infant.
The hangman's secret, Laura Joh Rowland.
Photographer Sarah Bain and her friends Lord Hugh Staunton and sometime street urchin Mick O'Reilly are private detectives with a new gig--photographing crime scenes for London's Daily World newspaper. The Daily World is the latest business venture of their sole client, Sir Gerald Mariner, a fabulously wealthy and powerful banker. One cold, snowy January morning, Sarah, Hugh, and Mick are summoned to the goriest crime scene they've ever encountered.
Bloody genius, John Sandford.
At the local state university, two feuding departments have faced off on the battleground of PC culture. Each carries their views to extremes that may seem absurd, but highly educated people of sound mind and good intentions can reasonably disagree, right? Then someone winds up dead.
The complete stories, Dorothy L. Sayers.
A collection of all of Dorothy Sayers's short stories in one volume, including the exploits of aristocrat Lord Peter Wimsey and working-class salesman-sleuth, Montague Egg.
A cruel deception : a Bess Crawford mystery, Charles Todd.
Sister Bess Crawford, who has been working with the severely wounded in England in the war's wake, is asked to carry out a personal mission in Paris for a Matron at the London headquarters of The Queen Alexandra's. Bess is facing decisions about her own future, even as she searches for the man she is charged with helping.
Cold wrath, Peter Turnbull.
On a hot summer morning, Miles Law cycles into the village of Millington in the Vale of York, on his way to a few hours' work as an under gardener at The Grange. But when he arrives, he finds his employer slumped in an armchair in the drawing room, a bullet wound on his forehead.
A masterpiece of corruption, L.C. Tyler.
It is December 1657. John Grey has returned to the study of law in London. He receives a mysterious invitation which seems to have come from some of his mother's royalist friends; possibly members of the largely ineffectual secret organisation, the Sealed Knot.
An equal justice, Chad Zunker.
An ambitious Stanford graduate, David Adams has begun a fast-track career at Austin's most prestigious law firm. It's a personal victory for the rising superstar; a satisfying reversal from his impoverished and despairing childhood. But after the shocking suicide of a fellow associate; one who, in his final hours, offered David an ominous warning, he feels the pull of powerful forces behind the corporation's enviable trappings.

NEW ZEALAND FICTION

Vote Dimple Potts, Greg Billington.
When the Mayor of the small New Zealand town of Brewster's Neck is killed by an Auckland bus, his deputy, Dimple Potts must 'step up to the plate.' But it is with great indignation that Dimple realises he has not inherited a sinecure. A challenger arises - the radical Sarah Bumbulis - baker of Brewster's Neck and opposed to a Council scheme to mine coal.
The case of the distant relative, Jill Darragh.
Set against the 1893 suffragette movement in Wellington, New Zealand, a campaign to prevent women gaining the parliamentary votes becomes tainted with murder.
The case of the romance writer, Jill Darragh
It is 1894 in Wellington, New Zealand. a year after women have obtained the vote, secretarial agency owner Sophia Holmes is once again involved with murder, mayhem and plagiarism
Waterline : a novel Chris Else.,
The world is going crazy. In a South Pacific nation overrun by technology, an affluent family has fallen on hard times. Brian, Stella and their two teenage kids must move from the capital to Byte, a small, rain-swept city in the grip of a Kafkaesque, computerised bureaucracy and a gang of religious vigilantes. When Brian falls foul of the authorities, Stella, Mandy and Luke must fend for themselves.
Faces in the water, Janet Frame ; introduced by Hilary Mantel.
"I was now an established citizen with little hope of returning across the frontier; I was in the crazy world, separated now by more than locked doors and barred windows from the people who called themselves sane." When Janet Frame's doctor suggested that she write about her traumatic experiences in mental institutions in order to free herself from them, the result was Faces in the Water, a powerful and poignant novel.
The absolute book, Elizabeth Knox.
Taryn Cornick believes that the past is behind her - her sister's death by violence, and her own ill-conceived revenge. She has chosen to live a life more professional than personal. She has written a book about the things that threaten libraries - insects, damp, light, fire, carelessness and uncaring. The book is a success, but not all of the attention it brings her is good. There are questions about a fire in the library at Princes Gate, her grandparents' house, and about an ancient scroll box known as the Firestarter.
Next of kin, Kate Langdon.
Career-woman-extraordinaire, Alex, has her heart set on a partnership in the firm she's been slogging her guts out for. That's until her sister rings with some shocking news. Distraught, Alex returns home to New Zealand, to find both her mother and sister's lives in chaos.
Crazy days, sleepless nights, Isabella Morisson-Mathai.
This is a work of NZ fiction set in Palmerston North looking at three generations of one family who suffer from various forms of mental distress. This story is mainly about love, hope and recovery and is based on true stories.
The burning river, Lawrence Patchett.
In a radically changed Aotearoa New Zealand, Van's life in the swamp is hazardous. Sheltered by Rau and Matewai, he mines plastic and trades to survive. When a young visitor summons him to the fenced settlement on the hill, he is offered a new and frightening responsibility-a perilous inland journey that leads to a tense confrontation and the prospect of a rebuilt world.
The strength of eggshells, Kirsty Powell.
She's six feet tall and handles a motorbike like a professional, but Kate has insecurities that match her height and she ignores her past by pushing her fingers into her ears. Why did her mother Jane only communicate through poetry? What became of her grandmother Meredith who traveled up the Whanganui River on a paddle steamer to marry a returned soldier in an ill-fated valley, beyond the Bridge to Nowhere? And what should Kate do about her own two-pointed love triangle?
The wild card, Renee.
Ruby Palmer has been dealt a rough hand. She was left in a kete at the back door of the Porohiwi Home for Children when she was a baby, and then at seven she discovered that Betty - who stopped the bad stuff happening to Ruby at the Home - has drowned. Now in her thirties, Ruby suspects her friend was murdered .
Drongo : A Kiwi road novel, Ian Richards.
18 year old Andy Ingle, with his yellow typewriter called Half-Arse under his arm, embarks on one of the great Kiwi road trips, hitchhiking from Palmerston North to Dunedin, over to the West Coast and back up to Auckland. On the way falling in with drug dealers, a washed-out Professor of Literature, members of the Miss NZ Pageant, and a rag-tag collection of some of the most eccentric and entertaining characters to appear in Kiwi fiction.

ROMANCE

Christmas baby for the billionaire, Donna Alward.
Tycoon Jeremy's world is upended upon discovering that his summer romance with resort manager Tori Sharpe has left her pregnant!
From heartache to forever, Caroline Anderson.
Fresh out of broken relationships, trauma specialist Ryan McKenna and nurse Beth Costello's passion-fuelled fling was a welcome escape. But the shock of an unexpected pregnancy and the heartache of losing the baby they never knew they wanted was too much to bear.
The innocent's emergency wedding, Natalie Anderson.
Katie Collins can't believe she's standing in front of notorious playboy Alessandro Zetticci, asking him to marry her - immediately! Desperate to escape the wedding her ruthless foster-father has planned for her, who better to ask for help than his nemesis?
Someone to remember, Mary Balogh.
Matilda Westcott has spent her life tending to the needs of her mother, the Dowager Countess of Riverdale, never questioning the life of solitude she has spun for herself. To Matilda, who considers herself the aging spinster daughter, marriage is laughable love is a game for the young, after all. But her modest, quiet life of order unravels when a dashing gentleman from her past reappears, threatening to charm his way into her heart yet again.
Reunited in the snow, Amalie Berlin.
Lia Monterrosa arrives at an Antarctic science station as resident staff doctor - and comes face to face with her ex-fiance!
The widow of Rose House, Diana Biller.
A young widow restores a dilapidated mansion with the assistance of a charming, eccentric genius, only to find the house is full of dangerous secrets.
Cinderella's prince under the mistletoe, Cara Colter.
Reeling from the revelation that he's not the rightful heir to his country's throne, Crown Prince Luca Valenti heads to the mountains to find his long-lost sister before scandal erupts. Snowbound with enchanting down-to-earth housekeeper Imogen Albright, Luca learns there's more to life than royal duty.
We met in December, Rosie Curtis.
Twenty-nine-year-old Jess is following her dream and moving to London. It's December, and she's taking a room in a crumbling, but grand, Notting Hill house-share with four virtual strangers. On her first night, Jess meets Alex, the guy sharing her floor, at a Christmas dinner hosted by her landlord. They don't kiss, but as far as Jess is concerned the connection is clear.
Falling again for her island fling, Ellie Darkins.
Marine biologist Meena isn't prepared for the jolt of recognition when she meets tycoon Guy Williams while working on development plans for his luxury island resort. Years ago they had a whirlwind fling, but afterwards an accident stole Meena's memories and much more.
A mistletoe kiss for the single dad, Traci Douglass.
GP Nick Marlowe has returned to his hometown to focus on raising his young son. The last person he expects to see in Bayside is high-flying Beverly Hills surgeon Belle the childhood sweetheart he let go so she could pursue her dream of attending medical school.
New Zealand brides box set. Books 1-3, Diana Fraser
Yours to give: YouTube sensation Laura McKinney has one goal--to live life to its fullest by accepting challenges from all around the world and filming them. She believes long-term relationships are for idiots, and marriage is ridiculous.
His surgeon under the Southern Lights, Robin Gianna.
Only when he's exploring the Antarctic's freezing waters can marine biologist Dr Zeke Edwards forget the heartache of losing his family. Until an unexpected passionate kiss with new colleague Dr Jordan Flynn starts to break through the barriers around his heart.
Royal holiday, Jasmine Guillory.
Vivian Forest has been out of the country a grand total of one time, so when she gets the chance to tag along on her daughter Maddie's work trip to England to style a royal family member, she can't refuse.
Christmas in Vermont, Anita Hughes.
Emma can't believe her luck when she finds an open pawn shop on Christmas Eve in Manhattan. She's there to sell the beautiful bracelet her ex-boyfriend gave her when a familiar looking watch catches her eye. It's the same engraved watch she gave her college boyfriend, Fletcher, years ago.
Just for fun, Rosalind James.
Dumped at the altar, fashion designer Emma Martens decides to take her honeymoon to Fiji alone. On the plane trip, she meets rugby player Nic Wilkinson and they have a week-long fling. Scared of commitment, Nic leaves Emma to play rugby in England, unaware of Emma's pregnancy.
Just for now, Rosalind James.
After catching her husband cheating, teacher Jenna McKnight decides to make a new start in Auckland and answers an ad for a live-in nanny. Bachelor rugby player Finn Douglas simply wants a caretaker for his children, but he didn't count on falling for Jenna.
Just good friends, Rosalind James.
Kate Lamonica isn't Koti James's type. Too small. Too dark. And heaps too much work. So it's an easy bet that he can be her friend for six weeks without making a move on her, no matter what his mates would have said.
Just my luck, Rosalind James.
After a bitter divorce, Allison Villiers leaves America for New Zealand to move in with her sister and pick up the pieces of her shattered life. She takes a job as a rock climbing instructor and meets Nate Torrance, the new captain of the All-Blacks rugby team, as he settles into his new position.
Just once more, Rosalind James.
December in New Zealand. One very pregnant, very tired Hannah Montgomery Callahan playing hostess to it all, doing her best and wondering if her best is good enough. And one legendary All Black captain willing to do whatever it takes to show her that when he promised to be there for her forever, he meant it
The beguilement of Lady Eustacia Cavanaugh, Stephanie Laurens.
Stacie; Lady Eustacia Cavanaugh, is adamant marriage is not for her. Haunted by her parents' unhappy union, Stacie believes that, for her, marriage is an unacceptable risk. .
Tangled with a Texan, Yvonne Lindsay.
When detective Zoe Warren arrives in Royal, Texas, to investigate a case, wealthy rancher Cord Galicia can't believe his innocent best friend is the prime suspect. So Cord decides to woo Zoe as a distraction. .
Your perfect year : a novel, Charlotte Lucas ;.
Someone has left a leather-bound day planner with the handwritten title Your Perfect Year in Jonathan's spot on his mountain bike at his fitness course! Determined to discover its owner, Jonathan opens the calendar to find that someone known only as H has filled it in with suggestions, tasks, and affirmative actions for each day.
Heart of the Cross, Emily Madden.
Tinahely, Ireland, 1959: Rosie Hart is content leaving her home behind to follow her new husband to Australia. But she soon discovers there is no room for her or their young son in the life he has built in vibrant Kings Cross. As their marriage crumbles, Rosie will need to fight for the golden future her son deserves... until the day her world is shattered and all hope turns to dust.
Bombshell for the black sheep, Janice Maynard.
After their one night together, there are explosive consequences. When he disappeared after their last sizzling encounter, artist Fiona James vowed to forget rebellious billionaire Hartley Tarleton. Now Hartley has returned to Charleston to deal with the skeletons in his family's closet and maybe turn his searing chemistry with Fiona into more than a one-night thing
The nurse's Christmas temptation, Ann McIntosh.
Nurse Harmony Kinkaid has grabbed the chance to spend Christmas working on a remote Scottish island. Without her beloved grandmother, the season won't be the same. But her organised world is thrown off balance by her fierce attraction to daredevil Dr Cameron MacRurie.
Seven letters, J. P. Monninger.
Kate Moreton is in Ireland on sabbatical from her teaching position at Dartmouth College when she meets Ozzie Ferriter, a fisherman and a veteran of the American war in Afghanistan.
A wedding in December, Sarah Morgan.
In the snowy perfection of Aspen, the White family gathers for youngest daughter Rosie's whirlwind Christmas wedding. First to arrive are the bride's parents, Maggie and Nick. Their daughter's marriage is a milestone they are determined to celebrate wholeheartedly, but they are hiding a huge secret about their own: they are on the brink of divorce.
Melting the trauma doc's heart, Alison Roberts.
Trauma doctor Zac Cameron has escaped the horrors of the battlefield and settled in a small community hospital. He's just about coping until an unexpected visitor whirls into town renowned surgeon Dr Olivia Donaldson.
The welcoming, Nora Roberts.
FBI agent Roman DeWinter came to the seaside inn with only the clothes on his back and a loaded .38 revolver. His orders: expose a criminal organization based at the vacation hideaway. His downfall: forsaking all reason for a few precious moments with lovely innkeeper Charity Ford.
Christmas from the heart, Sheila Roberts.
Olivia Berg's charity has helped generations of families in need in Pine River, Washington, but this year might be the end of the road. Hightower Enterprises, one of their biggest donors since way back when Olivia's grandmother ran the charity, has been taken over by Ebenezer Scrooge the Second, aka CFO Guy Hightower, and he's declared there will be no more money coming to the charity.
Virgin princess's marriage debt, Pippa Roscoe.
At an opulent Paris ball Princess Sofia meets the man she thought she'd never see again billionaire Theo Tersi. Theo's certain she abandoned him years earlier, but in truth a devastated Sofia was forced to return to her royal duties.
Demanding his desert queen, Annie West.
Desert Prince Karim needs a bride to ensure his smooth ascension to the throne. Intelligent, captivating Queen Safiyah is the perfect choice - but the pain of their broken engagement years ago remains.
How to propose to a princess, Rebecca Winters.
When Dr Nico Barsotti meets Princess Fausta of Domodossola it's love at first sight for them both! But before he asks for Fausta's hand in marriage, orphaned Nico resolves to uncover the secrets of his birth. Fausta's always longed for a life away from the royal court, so their future is uncertain when Nico reveals his discovery he's a crown prince!

SAGA

The way home, Kay Brellend.
North London, 1916. When Olivia Bone and Lieutenant Lucas Black shared a passionate kiss one summer's evening, it seemed as if their love might finally have a chance to bloom. But their brief happiness is cut short when Lucas is sent to fight on the front line, leaving Livvie uncertain if she'll ever see him again.
Snow angels, Nadine Dorries.
The nurses of St Angelus Hospital face the hardship of another winter, in this heartbreaking story by Nadine Dorries. The Angels must battle through the snow to save Victoria's baby and young doctor Teddy Davenport begins to make some serious mistakes.
A precious gift, Rosie Goodwin.
Nuneaton, 1911. Holly Farthing's grandfather has always been strict but when he tries to force Holly to marry a widower twice her age she finally says no. Refusing to support her any longer Gilbert Mason gives Holly an ultimatum marry Mr Dolby or leave.
The girl who came from rags, Gracie Hart.
Eliza Wild has come a long way from her hungry childhood days in a rented miner's cottage on Pit Lane on the outskirts of Leeds. Her sewing skills have enabled her to go into business with a wealthy patron and to give her young niece, Victoria, a better life than she and her sister, Mary-Anne, ever dreamed of. There's also Eliza's sweetheart, Tom, who is determined to marry her but having worked so hard to get to where she is, will Eliza take a chance on love when it means she might lose everything she has ever worked for?
Just one wish, Rachael Johns.
Alice has always been a trailblazer as a scientist, activist, and mother. She knew her choices would involve sacrifices, but now, on the eve of her eightieth birthday, she's beginning to wonder if she's sacrificed too much.
The last paradise, Di Morrissey.
Grace has the perfect life: a job she loves, a beautiful daughter and a rich, successful husband. But one night, when their world falls apart in a shocking disaster, Grace suddenly sees what she couldn't admit her marriage and her husband are a fraud.
Changing times : a Ragley story, 1963-64, Jack Sheffield.
For the residents of Ragley, the war is finally starting to feel like a distant memory. But Lily Feather can't quite forget the events of the war and the years that followed. Buried in her past remains a terrible secret from which she cannot escape but that still threatens her fragile family.

SCIENCE FICTION

Rebel born, Amy A. Bartol.
Roselle St. Sismode is many things: victim of a conspiracy, unwilling host of an ever-evolving mind algorithm, spy for a rebel army, and heir to the Fate of Swords. As a warrior, she's also the anticipated main event at the Secondborn Trials. When the opening ceremonies erupt in chaos, Roselle is abducted by a sadistic agent with a diabolical plan.
How Rory Thorne destroyed the multiverse, K. Eason.
Rory Thorne is a princess with thirteen fairy blessings, the most important of which is to see through flattery and platitudes. As the eldest daughter, she always imagined she'd inherit her father's throne and govern the interplanetary Thorne Consortium. Then her father is assassinated, her mother gives birth to a son, and Rory is betrothed to the prince of a distant world.
Aurora blazing : a novel, Jessie Mihalik.
Bianca von Hasenberg did her duty for High House von Hasenberg and ended up trapped in a terrible marriage. When her husband dies unexpectedly and leaves her a happy widow, she vows never to marry again. Instead, she uses her connections to save other young women.
Salvaged, Madeleine Roux.
Rosalyn Devar is on the run from her famous family, the bioengineering job she's come to hate, and her messed-up life. She's run all the way to outer space, where she's taken a position as a "space janitor," cleaning up ill-fated research expeditions.
Alien archives : eighteen stories of extraterrestrial encounters, Robert Silverberg.
Every day we are discovering new worlds in far-reaching galaxies which may or may not sustain life as we know it. In Alien Archives: Eighteen Stories of Extraterrestrial Encounters, sci-fi Grand Master Robert Silverberg collects his finest short stories and novellas about one of the genre's most enduring themes.
The Rosewater redemption, Tade Thompson.
Life in the newly independent city-state of Rosewater isn't everything its citizens were expecting. The Mayor finds that debts incurred during the insurrection are coming back to haunt him. Nigeria isn't willing to let Rosewater go without a fight. And the city's alien inhabitants are threatening mass murder for their own sinister ends.
The book of the new sun. Volume 2, Sword and citadel, Gene Wolfe.
An extraordinary epic, set a million years in the future, in the time of a dying sun, when our present culture is no longer even a memory. The torturer's apprentice, Severian, exiled from his guild after falling in love with one of his prisoners, is now the Lictor of Thrax, a city far distant from his home.

WESTERN

The road agent, Clyde Barker.
What should have been the simple robbery of a stagecoach for outlaw Brent Clancy turns into a deadly game of wits with a band of assassins determined to kill the President of the United States.
Baruch Elias, Frank Chandler.
Baruch Elias is a lucky man. At twenty-three he has pretty much everything he wants including the girl he hopes to marry. But life never runs so smooth. When a rider races into the yard with some devastating news, he has to unravel a fire, a family secret, a fatal accident and work out how all that fits together.
The sons of some dear mother, Matt Cole.
The five sons of Dorothy Daniels Frank, a notorious gunman; Hugh, an attorney; Urban, a drifter who works odd jobs; Virgil, a sober and serious rancher; and the youngest, Casey reunite in their hometown of Blue Springs Creek, Missouri, for their mother's funeral, after she is murdered.
Ridgeway's bride, Will DuRey.
Cassie Edmond was puzzled by the odd behaviour of those around her. First it was the curious bark from their dog Butte, then the old Ute called Charlie who sometimes called to trade for coffee and flour but now sat silent on his droop-headed paint at the yard gate. Finally it was her father, lifting down his Winchester to go hunting for meat when the meal she'd been preparing was ready for the table.
Revenge riders, Alex Frew.
Hawk had Indian forebears, but lived the life of a peaceful rancher. Until, that is, the bandits came. With his wife dead and his son gone, kidnapped and beyond finding, Hawk returns to the ways of his people.
Sundown comes twice, Art Isberg.
Judd Miller and his brother work to start a small ranch outside the town of Red Bluffs. But other interests in their valuable property lead to the powerful mayor of the town, working with other crooked officials, to fleece the brothers of their deeded ground, culminating in the killing of Judd's brother.
Hell in paradise, Pete B. Jenkins.
Ex-sheriff Jed Grayson is on his way to Wyoming when he stops at the township of Paradise to rest few days. At the Golden Nugget Saloon he has an altercation with Zach Bassett, the son of the wealthiest rancher in the territory. Beating Zach to the draw, he humiliates the youngster in front of the saloon's patrons. Zach gets even.
Hopeman's legacy, I.J. Parnham.
When Leopold Hopeman bequeaths his fortune to the townsfolk of Little Creek, they use the money wisely and found the prosperous Hopeman Town. But with the booming settlement attracting men who want only personal gain, Mayor Tucker hires former Pinkerton detective Nimrod Dunn to find out why the fortune is now being squandered.
The last one standing, Derek Rutherford.
In the Territories one man is more evil and terrible than all others. From murdering Chinese immigrant workers on the Transcontinental Railroad to slaughtering anyone who dares beat him at cards, Moose Schmidt kills and maims or no other reason than to enjoy the surge of control and power it gives him.
Return to Sundown Valley, Cole Shelton.
Luke Dawson and his Navajo Indian sidekick, Honani, both Union soldiers, have ridden home from the Civil War. Each man yearns to return to a normal life but while they rode away to the War, things changed in Sundown Valley. Instead of peace in the valley, they face Dallas Zimmer who's consumed by greed and has a bunch of killers at his disposal.