Thursday, June 27, 2019

Meg's Picks: July 2019, part 2

Summer reads come in all shapes and sizes. If your preferences run serious or suspenseful, these might just be what you were looking for!

The Nickel Boys, by Colson Whitehead. Whitehead's 2016 novel The Underground Railroad won the 2017 Pulitzer Prize for Fiction and the 2016 National Book Award for Fiction. So if we're eager to see what comes next, I think that's only natural. Here, the strand of history he's dramatized follows two boys sentenced to a hellish reform school in Jim-Crow era Florida, based on an actual reformatory which operated for 111 years. If you prefer your summer reads serious and intense, you cannot miss this.

Lock Every Door, by Riley Sager. Riley Sager is totally a staff darling here at the library. We loved his debut, Final Girls, and his sophomore novel, The Last Time I Lied. We absolutely anticipate a hat-trick with Lock Every Door, in which Jules's new job as an apartment sitter in one of New York's oldest and most glamorous buildings may just cost more than it pays...

Stone Cold Heart, by Caz Frear. Frear is another new favorite, following her stellar suspense debut last summer, Sweet Little Lies, with a second novel featuring Detective Constable Cat Kinsella. She's back at London Metropolitan Police with her wisecracking partner Parnell, both of them trying to avoid the ire of boss DI Kate Steele. It's all business when they catch a case, though, involving a young Australian woman who's turned up dead following a party thrown by her new boss. The lead suspect's alibi is his wife, and she contradicts him, but which one is lying, and why? Murder is only the beginning of the mystery here.

Someone We Know, by Shari Lapena. Following 2018's An Unwanted Guest. Someone has been sneaking into houses, and their inhabitants computers, in a quiet suburb in upstate New York. They've been learning their neighbors' secrets, and perhaps sharing them. Who is he? What might he have learned? After two anonymous letters show up, rumors circulate, suspicions grow, and then a woman is found murdered. How far will these nice, unassuming neighbors go in order to keep their secrets?

Tuesday, June 18, 2019

Meg's Picks: July 2019, part 1

History, humor, and heart. These are just some of the bounty of July's new novels.

Dragonfly, by Leila Meacham. At the height of World War II, a group of young Americans receive a mysterious summons from their government, asking if they willing to fight for their country. While they are from very different backgrounds, each heeds the call for their own personal reasons. The group, code name Dragonfly, bond immediately. This is war, however, and the stakes in the cat-and-mouse game they're playing are incredibly high. One or more of them will have to pay the ultimate price... For fans of Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale, most definitely. 

The Chelsea Girls, by Fiona Davis. Hazel and Maxine meet as USO performers in Italy at the end of World War II, one a sheltered daughter of a renowned theater family, the other facing discrimination owing to a German-born grandfather. Following the war, Hazel pens a Broadway-bound play based on her experiences during the war, and Maxine comes from Hollywood to star...but a secret will threaten to tear their friendship apart. Davis has been developing quite a fan-base with novels like The Dollhouse and The Address--this latest is sure to be in demand.

You've Been Volunteered, by Laurie Gelman. Gelman's debut, Class Mom (2017), introduced snarky 40-something mom Jen Dixon whose appointment to kindergarten class mom put her smack in the middle of PTA drama with hilarious results. In this follow-up, Jen's son Max is now in third grade and Jen is once again catapulted into the role of class mom, even as her family life gets pulled in a dozen different directions. If your perfect summer read is a laugh-out-loud speed read, this is for you!

The Lager Queen of Minnesota, by J. Ryan Stradal. I adored Stradal's 2015 debut, Kitchens of the Great Midwest, and I've been anxiously awaiting her new novel, inspired by true events in Stradal's own family. Once upon a time, Helen Blotz inherited the family farm, which alienated her sister Edith. Helen used the proceeds from the sale of the farm to invest in her husband's family soda business, helping to turn it into the hottest brewery in Minnesota. Two generations later, the brewery's success is waning, though Edith's granddaughter's brewpub may bring family together again. Stradal's characters are deftly drawn and are deeply memorable. Have I mentioned I can't wait?


Thursday, June 13, 2019

Reading Ahead: July 2019, part 3

If variety is the spice of life, then this summer's book list is quite spicy!

Lady in the Lake, by Laura Lippman. Modern psychological insights meet classic noir in Lippman's latest, set in 1960's Baltimore. Thirty-something housewife Maddie separates from her husband after an old friend reminds her of all she used to long to be, beyond marriage and motherhood. She relishes her newfound freedom, her own apartment, her affair with a city patrolman. It's only when she manages to leverage her story concerning a murdered child and her correspondence with the killer into a position with the Star that Maddie really hits her stride. If a sophisticated crime novel is your favorite brand of summer reading, this should absolutely hit your list.

The Golden Hour, by Beatriz Williams. Willams's latest is an epic foray into one of the most enigmatic couples in history, the Duke and Duchess of Windsor, as seen through the eyes of a young woman who arrives in the Bahamas in 1941 determined to work her way into their inner circle. Williams is fast becoming a favorite staple for summer reading enthusiasts.

Window on the Bay, by Debbie Macomber. This standalone romance from Macomber finds college friends Jenna and Maureen now divorced empty nesters, each encouraged by their children to try dating again. Maybe it's time to dust off their passports and travel? Or maybe romance is right in their own backyard, just waiting to surprise them. A comfortable, easy read.

Surfside Sisters, by Nancy Thayer. Keely was eager to leave Nantucket behind to follow her dream of becoming a writer. Now a successful novelist with all that accompanies it, living in New York, keely's starting to reconsider what's important to her. A relationship gone sour has resulted in some serious writer's block, made worse when her editor rejects her latest novel. The slower, calmer pace of island life may be just the cure for what ails her.

I'll be picking up next week with my Meg's Picks posts--hint: there's a LOT of them for July! See you then!

Tuesday, June 11, 2019

Reading Ahead: July 2019, part 2

A selection of new suspense for your perusal!

Game of Snipers, by Stephen Hunter. Hunter's latest Bob Lee Swagger novel, following 2017's G-Man, finds storied marksman Swagger, now 72 and retired, enjoying the solitude of his Idaho ranch. That peace is interrupted by a stranger, Janet McDowell, who comes to Swagger for help: track down the man who killed her son, a task that will require him to assemble his old team and work with both the FBI and Mossad in a race to the epic showdown implied by the title.

Good Girl, Bad Girl, by Michael Robotham. Robotham's new haunting thriller features a forensic psychologist, Cyrus Haven, who is preoccupied by two major cases. One is the case of a murdered young figure skater, cut down just as her star was on the rise. The other is to assess the fitness for release of a highly vulnerable teen from a children's home--she was found six years ago, hiding in a North London home when a murder had recently occurred. At that time, she was malnourished and so traumatized she couldn't remember her name. Though the two girls' cases are vastly different, Cyrus soon discovers the very adult problems of each were absolutely enough to incite violence. If one girl already died for such secrets, might the other still be in danger?

Bark of Night, by David Rosenfelt. When lawyer Andy Carpenter finds out that his veterinarian has been instructed to euthanize a perfectly healthy French bulldog, Truman, he's understandably angry and agrees to take on Truman as part of his canine rescue program. When they check the dog's microchip, however, they discover that the man who dropped him off was not his owner, and then his real owner is found murdered. And then the man who ordered Truman's demise is also found murdered...

The Shameless, by Ace Atkins. Years ago, teenager Brandon Taylor walked into the woodlands of Mississippi and was found a week later, dead of what was ruled a self-inflicted gunshot wound. But a cold-case podcaster and her producer are in town now, questioning the ruling and asking after files and evidence that seem to have gone missing. Sheriff Quinn Colson (last seen in 2018's The Sinners) wants to help, but an old case that was supposedly closed will have to take a back burner to his current concerns: a crime syndicate running guns, drugs and a human trafficking ring through the county, and a racist gubernatorial candidate whose campaign seems to be funded by the syndicate. If Quinn can't shut the whole thing down, fast, trouble is going to make itself right at home in the county, for good.


Thursday, June 6, 2019

Reading Ahead: July 2019

I know, we're already talking July! But this summer's books just cannot wait any longer! And some of your favorite best-selling authors are leading the charge!

The New Girl, by Daniel Silva. Legendary chief of Israeli intelligence Gabriel Allon (last seen in 2018's The Other Woman) has spent much of his life fighting terrorists. Now, he's the one man who can be trusted to track down the men who have brutally kidnapped the daughter of the much-maligned crown prince of Saudi Arabia and rescue the young woman in question. In the process, Gabriel and the prince become uneasy allies in a secret game that may change relations in the Middle East forever. If you like your espionage plotted at breakneck speed, this is for you.

Under Currents, by Nora Roberts. At a distance, the Bigelow family looks like perfection: successful surgeon father, stylish wife, two children who excel. But those children, Zane and Britt, know the truth: appearances can be very deceiving. As Zane's father's abuse becomes more severe, and his mother ever complicit, Zane tries to protect his little sister, even as he counts down the time until he can be free of this oppressive household. It's only after one final act shatters the facade that Zane realizes that there is both pain and freedom in facing the truth, and he vows to do better as he forges a new life and starts a family of his own. How long will it be, though, before darkness looms again in his life?

Labyrinth, by Catherine Coulter. The new FBI thriller from Coulter (Paradox, 2018, etc.) finds Agent Sherlock navigating the winding roads of West Virginia only to lose control of her vehicle. She's knocked unconscious, but upon waking, she's sure she remembers someone else involved in the accident. Perhaps he is involved in the string of local murders she's investigating?

Smokescreen, by Iris Johansen. When forensic sculptor Eve Duncan learns that a guerilla attack on an African village has left a number of children burned beyond recognition, she races to the site to lend a hand in identifying the bodies for their desperate families. Upon her arrival at the site, however, she soon realizes that something even more dire is afoot. Series fans won't want to miss out.

Shamed, by Linda Castillo. Castillo returns to Painter's Mill and Police Chief Kate Burkholder as an Amish woman has been murdered and her young grandchild kidnapped. Kate now needs answers from the tight-lipped Amish community, and quickly, as she learns that long-kept secrets may be responsible for a current crime-spree. If you're looking for an Amish cozy, this isn't it--Castillo's Amish suspense series is gritty and deeply engrossing.