Cecelia Hollander
Raef Corbanson and his companions--Lief the Icelander, and Laissa, have fled from Constantinople – and land in Normandy. Their goal is to return to Raef’s home in the Viking town of Jorvik in England which puts Raef back in his home territory. His old friend and shipmate Sweyn Forkbeard is now King of Denmark, and soon overthrows King Ethelred II of England. Raef’s connections throw him into the middle of the struggle between Sweyn, Ethelred, and Ethelred’s son Edward. Things get even more complicated when Raef becomes foster father of Sweyn’s son Knut…who, after a brutish civil war with Edward, will become King Canute when he takes the throne of England.

Susan Issacs
Happily married Susan is left alone with her three four year old boys, big suburban house, and nagging questions when plastic surgeon hubby Jonah Gersten turns up stabbed to death in a hooker's Upper East Side apartment. Though the police and prosecutors see the case against call girl Dorinda Dillon as open and shut, it just doesn’t feel right to Susan. Her husband adored her; how could he end up in a prostitute’s bed? Determined to learn the truth about Jonah’s killer, she enlists the aid of her glamorous grandmother Ethel. Together, the two fashionably clad investigators dig deep to expose what really happened. Sharply funny and witty in only the way Issacs can be.

Robert Tanenbaum
Sharif Jabbar, the demagogic founder of a Harlem mosque, is awaiting trial in the Tombs, Manhattan’s infamous criminal detention complex. Charges against his terrorist attack on the city were dismissed once, and now that the Islam convert is being held on new allegations, New York District Attorney Roger “Butch” Karp is determined to bring him to justice. His opponent is radical activist attorney Megan O’Dowd, who is convinced that Jabbar is being railroaded by the NYPD. What Butch discovers is that everyone, from Jabbar and O’Down to the city’s most powerful and untouchable players, has a secret that could cost them everything. While Butch navigates the treacherous waters of his criminal court case, his wife, Marlene Ciampi pursues her own investigation of indigent Manhatten street vendor Dirty Warren, accused of the murder of society girl Michelle Oakley. Marlene doesn’t think he’s guilty, but her only ally is religious vigilante David Grale, the deranged, but charismatic, leader of the Mole people, those citizens of New York City that call the sewers and tunnels their home. Then Marlene discovers a parallel between the Oakley murder and that of another debutante; a sexual underworld populated by upscale call girls and their clients; the wealthiest of the city’s denizens. From the sexual fantasies of the rich and powerful to the realities of a terrorist, Butch and Marlene must navigate a treacherous game of politics, lies and murder.

Bill Pronzini
There are seven deadly sins. But the often deeply personal sin of betrayal is not on that list. Each of the detectives at the agency, Tamara, Nameless, and Runyon, are betrayed in different ways. Tamara discovers that her former lover Lucas Zeller was scamming charities, bilking them in the name of the homeless. Nameless himself discovers cocaine in his daughter’s bedroom while he looks into the case of an old woman whose family is not very nice. And Jake, with his case of a bail jumper, is forced into the position of perhaps betraying someone. So it is that these three people, dedicated to helping others, are hurt and hindered because of betrayal in their own lives.

Stephen King
Told through the voice of George Granny Grantham, (Under the Dome), the retired third base coach of the New Jersey Titans, this is a story about an odd baseball player with a secret past. He recalls the spring of 1957, when Billy Blakely, a catcher from the Titans' Iowa farm system, was called up and helped to boost the team up and out of the basement and added lots of excitement to the game. Billy hit with such ferocity and performed so well that his teammates forgave such eccentricities as his frequently addressing himself in the third person, or bloodying runners who collided with him. Of course, these are clues to a pathology that King coaxes out in a narrative steeped so perfectly in the argot of the game and the behavior of its players and fans that readers will willingly suspend their disbelief. This suspenseful short novel by King is a deftly executed suicide squeeze, with sharp spikes hoisted high and aimed at the jugular on the slide home. A macabre tale about the dark underside of this all–American sport.

Alexander McCall Smith
Corduroy Mansions is the nickname of a genteel, crumbling mansion block in London’s Pimlico neighborhood, and the home turf of a new cast of captivating and quirky characters. There’s the middle-aged wine merchant William, who’s trying to convince his reluctant twenty-four-year-old son, Eddie, to leave the nest; and Marcia, the restaurant proprietor who has her sights set on William. There’s also the much-hated member of Parliament, Oedipus Snark; his mother, Berthea, who’s writing his biography and loathing every minute of him; and his long-suffering girlfriend, Barbara, a literary agent who would like to be his wife (or anyone’s wife for that matter). There’s the vitamin evangelist, the psychoanalyst, the art student with a puzzling boyfriend, and the Pimlico terrier, Freddie de la Haye, who can fasten his own seat belt and is almost certainly the only avowed vegetarian canine in London. Full of comings and goings, face-to-face and behind-the-back meetings and misses, the in and outs of neighborliness in all its unexpected variations – Alexander McCall gives us a new world to play in, filled with life, laughter, and the special sense of humanity that only he can evoke.

Jennifer Weiner
When Sylvie Serfer met Richard Woodruff in law school, she was a very different person than she is currently. She was outspoken and opinioned, with wild curly hair and sparkling eyes. Sylvie remade herself as the ideal politician’s wife and, at fifty-seven, she is quiet, has straight hair and acknowledges that her job is her husband, the Senator. Lizzie, their younger daughter, is 24, and a recovering addict, whose mantra HALT helps her keep her life under control. However, trouble always seems to find her. Her older sister, Diana, an emergency room physician, seems to have everything Lizzie doesn't — a husband, a young son, the perfect home — but she’s trapped in a loveless marriage; with temptation waiting in one of the ER’s exam rooms. After Richard’s extramarital affair becomes public, the three women are drawn into the painful glare of the national spotlight. Once the press attention has passed, they seek refuge in an old Connecticut beach house where they re-bond and learn to find purpose, comfort and strength in each other. A warm hearted read about the power of love to redeem family.

Dean Koontz
Thought killed in “Dead and Alive”, Victor Leben, once known as Victor Helios, has recovered and has begun creating again. Now, using a combination of organic silicon circuitry and nanotechnology and gestated using stem cells, he melds flesh and machine into superhuman replicants. Backed by a powerful man, and hidden in a secret location, Victor is certain nothing can stop him. But Erika 5, his last “wife”, sees him while shopping; disbelieving her eyes, but could it be? Soon the replicants begin to replace people, and she alerts Decaulion, Victor’s first creation. He brings in the detective couple from New Orleans, Carson O’Connor and Michael Maddison; who are now married, and parents of their first child. The five meet in a Montana town to confront an evil that they believed had died two years before. They don't know they will be tested by dangers more horrible than any they've h confronted before. But this danger will force them to find sources of strength and perseverance they never knew they had. And they will need all the strength the can find in order to fight the truly epic battle that will decide if humanity will survive. The first in a new Frankenstein cycle.

Tess Gerritsen
In Wyoming for a medical conference, Boston medical examiner Maura Isles joins her friends on a ski trip. But when their SUV stalls on a snow-choked mountain road, they’re stranded and seek refuge in the village of Kingdom Come; where twelve identical houses eerily stand dark and abandoned. Something terrible has happened in Kingdom Come and the town’s residents seem to have vanished into thin air. But in the snowy darkness, someone is watching Maura and her friends. Then Maura vanishes. Days later, Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli receives the grim news that Maura’s charred body has been found in a mountain ravine. Shocked and grieving, Jane is determined to learn what happened. The investigation plunges Jane into the twisted history of Kingdom Come, where a gruesome discovery lies buried beneath the snow. As horrifying revelations come to light, Jane closes in on an enemy both powerful and merciless—and the truth about Maura’s fate.

Lisa Gardner
On a warm summer night in one of Boston’s working-class neighborhoods, four members of a family are brutally murdered. The father, a possible suspect, clings to life in the ICU. Is this a murder-suicide? Police detective D. D. Warren is sure that there’s more to this case than meets the eye. This is confirmed when another family is found dead at home. Danielle Burton is a survivor, a dedicated nurse whose passion is to help children at a pediatric psych ward. But she is still haunted by the night when her father killed the rest of the family, but spared her. That dark anniversary is approaching, and Danielle realizes that the killing has started again. A devoted mother, Victoria Oliver has isolated herself to provide some semblance of a childhood for her mentally disturbed and increasingly violent eight year old son. She will love and protect him no matter what, even if he threatens to kill her. These three individuals are drawn together by the investigation of a killer that will stop at nothing to kill again.

W. Michael and Kathleen O'Neal Gear
Circa 1400 A.D. Two young people from Yellowtail Village, Odion and Tutelo, are captured by warriors from the Mountain People and given to an vicious witch woman named Gannajero, who intends to sell them as sex slaves. The female war chief of the village, Koracoo, and her deputy, Gonda, the father of the two kidnapped youngsters, set off to rescue them. As they track the group of children that were taken, they are pursued themselves by two rival warriors. Their quest is full of danger, bloodshed and torture, as well as rich cultural detail and mysticism. A wonderful new title in the North American Forgotten Past series.

J.A. Jance
Two murders committed generations apart threaten to destroy three separate families. The first, the unsolved murder of a college co-ed, is passed to retired homicide detective Brandon Walker, now working with a cold case squad. In the second, Half Anglo and Half Apache Dan Pardee, is a member of the border patrol west of Tucson, joins homicide investigator Brian Fellows to track a killer who's gone off the charts in the Tohono O’odham Nation. Assisted by the Shadow Wolves, Indians who patrol Indian lands near the Mexico Border, and inspired by 4 year old Angelina Enos the small survivor of a similar encounter, who has wiggled her way into his heart, Pardee uncovers clues and gets closer to a killer intent on completing what he began when he killed his wife, his two children and the family dog. A terrific mystery dedicated to the late Tony Hillerman and named for the desert flower that only blooms only once a year, at night, the Cerebus.

Iris Johansen
While mapping the ancient underwater city of Marinth in the Atlantic Ocean, submersible designer Hannah Bryson realizes she may have uncovered the truth about why the ancient city went into decline before it was engulfed by a tsunami 4,000 years ago. But now, with her new findings, Hannah realizes that the ancient city’s explosive secret could have dire consequences for the modern world. And Hannah isn’t the only one who realizes this. When her key artifact, a set of panels that were raised from the ocean floor, is hijacked by Gadaire,(a sociopath who wants to use it to create an environmental Armegeddon), she must match wits against a terrifying enemy who will kill anyone who stands in his way, including herself. She knows that her best hope for survival lies with Kirov, a mysterious and deadly man from her past. Together they race to unravel Marinth’s last great secret in order to prevent a catastrophe of global proportions. Chock full of action, you won’t be able to turn the pages quickly enough. A terrific, fast paced thriller.

Carl Hiassen
22 year old Singer Cherry Pye is attempting a comeback to the stage from her latest drug and alcohol disaster, something that was hidden from the public through the use of a double named Ann DeLusia. But, when Ann, posing as Cherry, is kidnapped by an obsessed paparazzo, Cherry's handlers have to figure out how to rescue her while keeping her existence secret from everyone, including Cherry herself. But it’s no easy matter to find her, and Ann makes an impression on Slink, the former governor of Florida who is living in a mangrove swamp. So impressed is he, that he’s coming to Miami to see her. Between Cherry, Ann, the paparrazi who kidnapped her, and Slink, chaos and hilarity ensue. A laugh out loud read, great for the summer!

Donna Andrews
Meg Lansdowne and her husband, associate professor Michael, are very shortly to become parents to twins. They host a Spanish playwright for the production of his play by one of Michael's grad students. Senor Mendoza turns out to be quite a party goer, and soon their home is filled with students from the drama and Spanish departments. Into this walk Dr. Jean Wright, the dean of the English department, and an administrator from the college president’s office who refuse to allow Michael's student to do his formerly approved dissertation and insist the play be cancelled. When the dean is found dead, Meg's house becomes a crime scene. The only way to restore peace is to help Chief Burke solve the murders – at the same time as rescuing the student’s dissertation and Michael’s tenure - all before dashing off to the hospital to give birth to her twins!

James Lee Burke
Robicheaux, back in Louisiana, intends to spend some time with his adopted daughter Alafair while she takes a semester off from law school, but her involvement with Kermit Abelard, son of one of the region’s robber barons, causes conflict between them. Robicheaux investigates a series of murders of young women in neighboring Jefferson Davis parish, and the Abelard family might be involved in them. When their prime suspect turns up dead, the case takes a nasty turn, and the violence comes home to Robicheaux’s doorstep. An atmospheric, taut novel that's different from anything that Burke has written before.

Daniel Silva
Determined to leave the Mossad behind, Gabriel Allon has retreated to Cornwall with his beautiful wife Chiara in order to heal. But his seclusion is interrupted by London art dealer Julian Isherwood. An art restorer has been murdered in England and a long-lost portrait by Rembrandt stolen. Isherwood persuades Gabriel to use his expertise to search for the painting and those responsible for the crime. He follows clues leading from Amsterdam to Buenos Aires and then to a villa on Lake Geneva, discovering deadly secrets and evil men that are connected to the painting and will do anything for money. Gabriel is drawn into the murky world he wanted to leave behind, filled with numerous characters, each with their own agenda. No one writes a thriller like Silva; and this book will keep you riveted to the last page.

Nora Roberts
Fiona Bristow, dog trainer and canine search-and-rescue trainer, relocated to Orcas Island in Puget Sound eight years ago after barely escaping from a serial killer called the Red Scarf killer. Intensely private, Simon Doyle, a cabinet maker by trade, moves to Orcas Island with his unwanted puppy, Jaws. Fiona and Simon meet when Simon, desperate to control Jaws’ destructive tendencies, comes to Fiona’s training center for obedience training. Simon is attracted to Fiona and they begin a romance. Then a serial killer with the same M.O. as the Red Scarf killer begins a killing spree in the area and Fiona’s composure splinters. The man who almost killed her is in prison, but obviously has a follower or this is a copycat killer. Fiona is forced to rely on Simon for protection when the killer comes calling.

Mary Janice Davidson
Vampire Queen Betsy Taylor is struggling to finish the 'Book of the Dead.' Then the Devil strikes a bargain with her. She offers Betsy a chance to finish the book and discover all its mysteries if Betsy and her half-sister Laura will go to Hell long enough for Laura to embrace her dark heritage and make nice with her mother, aka Lucifer. This means they have to find out about their family’s history, which will impact their future in ways they can’t anticipate. Which is, of course, what good old mom wanted all along!