Summer Reading Series 12: Hidden Gems

I don’t really want to brag here, but librarians often have an inside scoop on authors and titles before they become household names.  Dan Brown?  We were there before The DaVinci Code. The Help?  That was an in-house favorite among our staff before Hollywood got hold of it.  And Room?  Yup, we were recommending it to everyone who came through the doors as soon as we had read it.

So what do we want you to know about that you might not have heard of?

A Discovery of Witches, by Deborah Harkness.  Our staff has been on pins and needles waiting for the sequel to come out next year since this debut novel hit shelves back in February.  The best description we can come up with is “a cross between Harry Potter, True Blood and The Time Traveler’s Wife”.  When witch and Yale historian Diana Bishop discovers a mysterious ancient manuscript (which supposedly never existed) in Oxford’s Bodleian Library, she attracts the attention of 1,500 year-old vampire Matthew Clairmont.  Unfortunately, the event has attracted the attention of less-savory characters, and Diana finds herself in danger, even as she works to discover why the manuscript has resurfaced now, after all these centuries, and what the others want with it.  We can’t recommend this highly enough!

The Maggie O’Dell series, by Alex Kava.  Start with A Perfect Evil, and they just keep getting better.  Follow FBI profiler Maggie O’Dell through murder investigations, tangles with local law enforcement, and her own personal demons through a thriller series that, while a bit on the gory side, will keep you turning pages.  If you’re looking for a new thriller author to try, Alex Kava’s definitely a hidden gem.

The 37^th Hour, by Jodi Compton.  Her debut novel, a police procedural, is one that has resonated with me since I read it.  Her other work is definitely worth a read, but this is where I’d start.  Set in Minneapolis, The 37^th Hour features Sheriff's Det. Sarah Pribek, who specializes in missing-person cases.  When Sarah suffers the withdrawal of her mentor, the evasion of a suspect, and the disappearance of her husband of two months, she’s left with a narrow window in which to resolve her issues.  In missing-person cases, the first 36 hours are the most crucial, but what happens once that window closes?  Serious crime fiction, seriously amazing.

Our summer reading series has a few weeks left, and I’ve saved some of the best for last.   But don’t worry—the blog will continue regardless of season, so keep checking back on Tuesdays and Thursdays for new posts!  Up next: reading ahead—what to look forward to reading this fall.