Backfire by Catherine Coulter

Posted on September 26, 2012 by Linda

Backfire, the 16th book in Coulter’s FBI Thriller series begins when San Francisco Judge, Ramsey Hunt, is presiding over a murder trial. The proceedings take a radical turn when the prosecutor, O’Rourke is suddenly nowhere to be found. Judge Hunt suspects that O’Rourke’s life has been threatened–But a twist–Judge Hunt is shot as he stands on the patio of his home. Hunt, a longtime friend of FBI agents Lacey Sherlock and Dillon Savich receive news of the attack just as Savich receives a note: “You deserve this for what you did.” Who is behind the shooting of Judge Ramsey Hunt? Who is threatening Savich?Where is the missing prosecutor? Savich and Sherlock race to San Francisco to find out–watching their backs all the while. Enjoy the entire series, which begins with The Cove.

Slaughter Canyon by Joseph A. West

Posted on September 4, 2012 by Linda

Uncle Sam wants Deputy U.S. Marshall Matt Battles …to be an outlaw! Battles is blackmailed by President Chester A. Arthur who needs an undercover agent to discover why Hatfield J. Warful is gathering every notorious gunslinger to his home in Slaughter Canyon. Thanks to a false news report planted by the Secret Service, Battles is wanted for robbery and murder, leaving him no choice but to infiltrate Warful’s gang–but the trigger happy gunfighters share unpleasant history with the supposed ex-marshall. A target from both the law and the outlaws, Battles faces the challenge of his life. If his particular mission fails, the result could be a second Civil War.

Close Your Eyes by Iris Johansen

Posted on August 2, 2012 by Linda

Close Your Eyes, another suspense novel from Iris Johansen involves Kendra Michaels who was blind the first 20 years of her life. A miraculous new procedure has restored her sight and her other senses remain much keener than any normal person’s. Kendra is a music therapist and uses her unusual skills to help troubled kids find a sense of peace through music. Her keen senses some in hand with law-enforcement groups and now the FBI is knocking on her door–again. She doesn’t want to get involved in another case after experiencing a devastating search for a lost child. But, into her life walks Adam Lynch, not an FBI agent, but a consultant who specializes in getting jobs done at any cost. He is charismatic and manipulative. The case at hand involves her ex-boyfriend, Jeff, an agent himself, who has disappeared. When it becomes apparent he might be the next person on a serial killer’s hit list, Kendra gets sucked in–

Catch Me by Lisa Gardner

Posted on June 25, 2012 by Linda

In four days, someone is going to kill me…At 8pm on January 21st, twenty-eight-year-old Charlie Grant believes she is going to be murdered and she want’s Boston’s top homicide detective, D.D. Warren, to handle her death investigation. Her death will be up close and personal, no evidence of forced entry, no sign of a struggle. Charlie tells a chilling story: Her two childhood best friend were murdered on January 21st, two years apart. Now only Charlie remains to count down her final hours. Gardner’s latest edition to the D.D. Warren Series, Catch Me is a scare-your-socks-off thriller, packed with enigmatic characters (some good, some crazily evil) and superb storytelling.

Rurally Screwed: My Life Off the Grid with the Cowboy I Love by Jessie Knadler

Posted on June 13, 2012 by Linda

Jessie, a thiry-something New York City girl, editor for a splashy women’s magazine, describes herself not as “happy,” but caustically content with her life–work, parties, and drinking and has a long-time relationship with a guy who at best is a jerk. Assigned to go to Montana to do an article on rodeo, she meets Jake, a twenty-five-year-old bull rider. Jake votes Republican, listens to Garth Brooks, owns guns and is a Christian. Jessie is blindsided by a genuinely lovable, optimistic, old-fashioned gentleman. After a short long-distance courtship, she impulsively ditches Manhattan, and finds herself living in backwoods Virginia, canning, sewing, and raising chickens. After a time, she asks, “is it worth it?” The answer comes among war, Bible clubs and moonshine. Rurally Screwed is a hilarious true-life love story, reminiscent of Macdonald’s The Egg and I. Take a peek at Jessie’s website, www.rurallyscrewed.com with pictures and funny comments on life in the country.

After the Snow by S.D. Crockett

Posted on June 6, 2012 by Linda

The year is 2059. Imagine Britain, plunged into darkness and bitter cold. Fifteen-year-old Willo Blake, born after the snows that ushered in a new ice age, encounters outlaws, halfmen, and a starving abandoned girl as he journeys in search of his family who mysteriously disappeared from their secluded mountain home.

In recent years, much speculation has existed about how global warming might affect land, life and culture. Envision what might happen if climage change moved in the other direction. After the Snow offers readers both a warning–a stark meditation on what might happen in the future and an opportunity to reflect on how we life and who we are in the world now.

Copper Beach by Jayne Ann Krentz

Posted on April 25, 2012 by Linda

Abby Radwell uses her psi-powers to ward off a crazed intruder who is after an encrypted chemical book that she has the rare power to unlock. A deranged killer threatens her to find the book for him, or else! Abby deals in antiquarian books, some with paranormally encrypted texts, but she keeps her powers undercover except for a few selected clients. She seeks help from Sam, an expert in rare minerals and paranormally-charged crystals. Sam is willing to help because he believes the blackmailer wants the very same lab notebook his family has been trying to keep off the market for decades. Abby and Sam’s relationship quickly becomes something much more personal. Wicked wit, psi-enhanced passion and a twisted plot come together as Krentz delivers another funny, sexy and suspenseful chase–the first book in her new Dark Legacy series, Copper Beach.

The Wedding Kiss by Hanna Alexander

Posted on March 27, 2012 by Linda

A Wedding Kiss can be life-changing. Keara’s father has just gambled their farm away and gone to jail accused of murder. In desperation, she approached Elam Jensen with an offer of marriage. Elam’s wife died of smallpox a year ago, and Keara has been helping take care of his children. A marriage of convenience becomes much less convenient when Keara and Elam share their first kiss on their wedding day! It becomes more than they expected when God Shows them what He really has in store for their lives. A mysteriously injured visitor shows up unexpectedly on their wedding day. Will her private battle draw them into deadly danger?
Visit Eureka Springs, Arkansas, in 1901 and discover what excitement and romance await along the White River Hollow.

My Life, Deleted by Scott Bolzan

Posted on March 20, 2012 by Linda

Just before Christmas, the chronicle of My Life, Deleted, began with an insigificant accident at work. Scott Bolzan slipped and fell in the washroom. But when he woke up in the emergency room, he didn’t know who he was or what was going on around him. He knew the numbers from 1 to 10, but didn’t know in what order. And that was just the beginning. He is left with unbearable headaches, a family he doesn’t know, a job he can no longer do, a pro football career forgotten and more questions than a toddler. His word to describe his condition was “lost.” The doctors thought the amnesia would fade in a few weeks, but months later, Scott is still learning about the world around him. This is a journey of desperation, confusion, and suspense. But the glue that holds this story together is the up-and-down relationship between husband and wife and their struggle to fall in love again and survive as a family. A two-year struggle for a recovery that is nothing short of incredible. Scott and his wife can be seen on YouTube: Scott Bolzan-My Life Was Deleted.

The Drop by Michael Connelly

Posted on February 24, 2012 by Linda

Los Angeles police detective, Harry Bosch, has been placed on The DROP, (the Deferred Retirement Option Plan) and is facing retirement in three years. But never one to slow down, Bosch seeks challenging cases to test his mental, physical and moral strength. Good for Harry! He gets two new cases: the DNA match of an eight-year-old boy associated with the rape of a teenage girl in 1989 and the surprising death of a city councilman’s son who was pushed from a hotel window. Connelly tightly twists the two cases, still giving a light touch of family, romance and many unexpected snafus. This is the 17th book in this police procedural which began with , the Black Echo.

Posted on January 30, 2012 by Linda

Gideon’s Corpse by Douglas J. Preston and Lincoln Child.
A plume of radiation above New York City hints that a major city will be vaporized. Ten days to find the terrorists. And Gideon Crew, tracking the mysterious terrorist cell from the suburbs of New York to the mountains of New Mexico, learns the end may be something worse–far worse–than mere Armageddon.

Posted on December 26, 2011 by Linda

Still Missing by Chevy Stevens
In her debut novel, Still Missing, Annie’s life is great: she has a handsome, attentive boyfriend; loyal friends; and a real-estate career on the upswing. Then, at an open house one sunny afternoon, a stranger with tousled blond hair and a pleasant manner kidnaps her, takes her to a remote cabin, rapes and enslaves her. It’s the beginning of her year-long ordeal. Annie finally manages to escape. Afterward, during sessions with her psychologist, Annie takes the reader back to her abduction and narrates how she struggled to survive during and after the horror. Stevens’ dark, mesmerizing character study follows a twisted path from victim-hood toward self-empowerment.

In Chevy’s second novel, Never Knowing, the setup is tantalizing. Sara Gallagher has always known she was adopted, but she suddenly feels a sense of urgency about tracking down her birth parents. She is about to marry the love of her life and also because she is the mother of a six-year-old and would at least like to know her own medical history. Then Sara learns that her birth mother is the only surviving victim of the notorious Campsite Killer, who was never caught, and that the Campsite killer/rapist is her father. When the news is leaked on the web, Sara’s life becomes surreal, especially after her birth father starts calling her.

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

Posted on December 8, 2011 by Linda

In State of Wonder , Patchett takes the reader into the primitive world of the Amazon in Brazil. MarinaSingh gave up a career as a doctor after botching an emergency delivery as anintern, opting instead for the more orderly world of research for apharmaceutical company. While trying to locate a rogue scientist, Dr. AnnickSwenson, Marina’s colleague and friend, Anders Eckman, is reported to have died in thejungle. Marina isasked by her company’s CEO to locate his body and communicate with themysterious and uncommunicative Dr. Swenson. The doctor has been working on afertility drug by studying the Lakashipeople, whose women bear children into old age. Marina’s search is fraught with poisonous snakesand poisonous memories, malarial mosquitoes and sickening losses, but her timeamong the Lakashi tribe is transformative. Patchett exhibits an extraordinaryability to bring the horrors and the wonders of the Amazon jungle to life, andher singular characters are wonderfully drawn. Part scientific thriller,part engaging personal odyssey, “State of Wonder” is a suspensefuljungle adventure with an unexpected ending and other assorted surprises.

Posted on November 22, 2011 by Linda

Sixteen-year-old Cat’s best childhood friend, openly gay Patrick, is in a coma, a victim of a brutal hate crime. The local sheriff is ready to pin the crime on out-of-towners, but Cat’ssuspicions lie elsewhere. For the past three years, Cat has retreated from most of her friends after being sexually abused by one of her brother’s friends. Cat slowly learns about her old friends in the meth-addled underbelly of her hill-country Southern town. Despite ominous warnings to leave it be, Catfinds the will to expose the homegrown hatred that gave rise to Patrick’sattack. Shine is a bleak story leavened by the things Cat learns about herself (and the attack) in the course of her investigation.

Before I Go to Sleep: a Novel by S.J. Watson

Posted on November 19, 2011 by Linda

“Memories define us. What if you lost yours every time you went to sleep?” Your name, your identity, your past, even thepeople you love – all forgotten overnight. Every day, Christine awakens in a bed beside a man she does notrecognize—nor does she recognize the face she sees in a mirror—Christine haslost twenty years of memories—because of an “accident.”

”AsI sleep, my mind will erase everything I did today. I will wake up tomorrow asI did this morning. Thinking I’m still a young woman. Thinking I have a wholelifetime of choice ahead of me … And the one person I trust may only betelling me half the story.” Welcome to Christine’s life as related in Before I Go to Sleep.

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