Reading Ahead: April 2018, part 1

Spring is upon us, and that means the leading edge of "summer reads" are also here! Thrillers are a favorite regardless of the season, and we have some new titles by perennial favorites to offer!

The Fallen, by David Baldacci. This most recent entry in Baldacci's Amos Decker/Memory Man series (following 2017's The Fix) finds Decker, the man who cannot forget the smallest detail, in the small rust-belt town of Baronville, where a series of bizarre murders has police stumped. When yet another murder hits very close to home for Decker, he realizes that the scope of this spree may extend well beyond Baronville, and that he, with his unique talent, may be the only one who can put an end to them. Also available in Large Print. 

The Cutting Edge, by Jeffery Deaver. For Deaver fans who have been pining for a new Lincoln Rhyme novel, pine no longer! Lincoln and Amelia have returned to New York, quickly taking a case of a brutal triple murder in Manhattan's Diamond District. The murder scene is a jewelry store on 47th Street, but the killer left behind more than a half-million dollars worth of gems. As more crimes follow, it appears that the killer's target is not gems, but engaged couples themselves, determined to turn a moment of pure joy into one of horror. His one mistake, leaving a witness alive, may be what cracks the case, but it may spell disaster before he can be stopped. Also available in Large Print.

The First Family, by Michael Palmer & Daniel Palmer. In a novel that returns to the setting of Palmer's The First Patient (2008), the president and his family are relentlessly scrutinized, by the public, the media, and security staff. When his sixteen-year-old chess champion son begins experiencing fatigue, moodiness and uncharacteristic outbursts, it is passed off as stress and teen angst. But a secret service agent, tasked with the family's well-being, calls in her ex-husband, a physician, for a second opinion. The boy's symptoms are baffling, his health deteriorating, and stranger still, he shares the same symptoms as another teen, this one a musical prodigy. Time is of the essence as they struggle to diagnose the mysterious illness, only to find betrayals that breach the highest levels of national security.