New Fiction – June 2008

General Fiction

Skeletons at the Feast by Chris Bohjalian - during the final months of World War II, a small, diverse group of people make their way westward across a ravaged Europe in a desperate attempt to reach British and American lines

Blood Noir by Laurell K. Hamilton - when vampire hunter Anita Blake agrees to do a favor for Jason, her werewolf lover, she becomes caught up in the middle of a scandal that makes her a pawn in an ancient vampire queen's rise to power

Moon Shell Beach by Nancy Thayer - Lexi Laney returns to Nantucket after an eleven-year absence and a bitter divorce and struggles to rebuild a childhood friendship destroyed by deception and betrayal

Chasing Harry Winston by Lauren Weisberger - making a pact that they will change the things that most challenge them within a year's time, Manhattan friends Emmy, Leigh, and Adriana shed their downtrodden identities in order to pursue the high life

Breath by Tim Winton - falling under the spell of an enigmatic extreme-sports surfer, a thrill-seeking pair of western Australian adolescents is initiated into a world of high-stakes adventures and dangerous boundary testing

The Tenth Gift by Jane Johnson – a volume of seventeenth-century embroidery patterns that also contains faint diary entries brings together the lives of two women of different eras--Cat Tregenna, kidnapped by Muslim pirates in 1625, and Julia Lovat, a modern-day woman seeking to   authenticate Cat's story

Swine Not?   by Jimmy Buffett - moving with their beloved pet pig Rumpy from their Tennessee hometown to a posh no-pets-allowed New York City hotel, southern belle Ellie McBride and her twin children struggle to hide Rumpy from the hotel staff

Comfort Food by Kate Jacobs - tired of playing the hostess as her fiftieth birthday approaches, celebrity chef Augusta Simpson tries to distance herself from her overly dependent loved ones and receives assistance from handsome fellow chef Oliver in her efforts to launch an on-air cooking class

The House on Fortune Street by Margot Livesey – the same events in the life of London therapist Dara MacLeod are related from the perspectives of her friend Abigail, Abigail’s boyfriend Sean, Dara’s father and Dara herself

Mysteries

The Front by Patricia Cornwell - dispatched by the district attorney to a declining Massachusetts neighborhood to address a case related to a new public relations campaign, state investigator Win Garano becomes involved with a loosely organized association of vigilante police officers

Phantom Prey by John Sandford - terrified by her daughter's disappearance and the signs of a deadly struggle in their home, a widow implores Lucas Davenport to use his connections to expedite the investigation, subsequently revealing the work of a serial killer

Careless in Red by Elizabeth George - resigned from Scotland Yard after the murder of his wife, Thomas Lynley witnesses the death of a young man while hiking the Cornish coast, and aids local investigators in a case that tests his loyalty to his former employer

Blood Trail by C.J. Box - in the wake of an elk hunter's grisly murder, Wyoming game warden Joe Pickett is directed by the governor to investigate the relevance of a mysterious poker chip found at the crime scene

From Dead to Worse by Charlaine Harris - in the wake of Hurricane Katrina and an explosion at the vampire summit, Louisiana cocktail waitress Sookie Stackhouse confronts the disappearance of her boyfriend Quinn and dramatic changes in the paranormal world of the vampires and weres

Poisoned Tarts by G.A. McKevett - As Halloween approaches, P. I. Savannah Reid finds herself knee-deep in tricks and treats when a member of The Skeleton Key Three, a celebutante clique, goes missing, and the wealthy host of the annual Halloween bash is murdered

Master of the Delta by Thomas H. Cook - returning home to his father's estate in 1954 Mississippi to take a job teaching at the local high school, Jack Branch befriends Eddie, one of his students and the son of the Coed Killer, a notorious local murderer, but he soon discovers that his efforts on Eddie's behalf could have deadly consequences in a small town hiding dark secrets

The Triumph of Caesar by Steven Saylor - retired from his profession of "Finder," Gordianus cannot refuse a call from Calpurnia, the wife of Julius Caesar, who wants him to investigate rumors of conspiracies against her husband

Clubbed to Death by Elaine Viets - after her deadbeat ex-husband arrives back in her life with his new lady, Marcella, known as the Black Widow for her string of dead spouses, Helen Hawthorne finds herself charged with murder when he mysteriously vanishes

Thrillers

Odd Hours by Dean Koontz - haunted by dreams of a powerful red tide, Odd Thomas, accompanied by two otherworldly sidekicks, is drawn to a small California coastal town, where nothing is as it appears and where he confronts overwhelming and sinister forces out to stop his quest

Shadow of Power by Steve Martini - a hate crime involving the murder of a legal scholar noted for penning controversial works places defense attorney Paul Madriani in a media spotlight that compromises his investigation into an elusive witness within the cloistered confines of the Supreme Court

Executive Privilege by Phillip Margolin - on assignment tailing a college student, private detective Dana Cutler is forced to flee for her life when the student is murdered, while junior lawyer Brad Miller discovers strange coincidences between Dana's case and another killing

Shadow Command by Dale Brown - dismissed by a new president who has sided with critics of the Armstrong Space Station, General Patrick McLanahan hides the truth about Russian blackmailers who would seize control of American interests overseas

The Moonpool by P.T. Deutermann - when the murdered body of a private detective is found to be contaminated with radioactive matter, ex-cop Cam Richter conducts a personal investigation that reveals dangerous security problems at a nuclear power plant

The Reapers by John Connolly - when his friend, a former member of an elite assassin organization, is abducted by a vengeful adversary, Charlie Parker and his associates set out to find him, in a case that forces Charlie to test the boundaries of his ethics

Judgment Day by Sheldon Siegel - Mike Daley and Rosie Fernandez, partners in a successful San Francisco law firm, attempt to stop the execution of a former mob lawyer convicted of three killings in a Chinatown restaurant--a case complicated by the fact that Mike's late father had been one of the first cops on the scene

Escape by Robert Tanenbaum - while New York D.A. Butch Karp works to convict Jessica Campbell, a rabble-rousing political science professor, for the murders of her three children, a terrorist plans a spectacular attack in Manhattan, and only an eccentric team of crime fighters stands in his way

To the Death by Patrick Robinson - when Admiral Arnold Morgan breaks up a terrorist cell in the U.S. following a bombing at Boston's Logan Airport, the Hamas high command, led by Morgan's old enemy, Ravi Rashood, vows to assassinate the admiral when he leaves American soil

Black Out by Lisa Unger - Annie Powers's idyllic life in a Florida suburb with a wealthy, doting husband and beautiful young daughter begins to unravel when the demons of the past return to haunt her in the form of an enigmatic dark figure, the murder of her psychologist, and confusing, violent memories

Devil May Care by Sebastian Faulks - this newest installment in the iconic James Bond series is set in the Cold War, picking up where Fleming left off in 1966 with Octopussy and The Living Daylights

Romance

Blue Smoke and Murder by Elizabeth Lowell - protecting a river guide with ties to the art world, reluctant bodyguard Zach Balfour realizes his charge is in more danger than previously known in the high-stakes world of art collecting

Secrets by Jude Deveraux – still harboring an unrequited love for a man she met in childhood, Cassandra impulsively breaks her engagement in order to become the now-widowed man's nanny, but realizes that her chance for winning his heart is threatened by dark secrets

The Angel by Carla Neggers - while investigating the mysterious legend of an ancient stone angel in Ireland, folklorist Keira Sullivan is rescued from disaster by Simon Cahill, who does not believe in myths or magic but believes the danger Keira faces is real

Mercy Street by Mariah Stewart - forced out of her job on the police force, detective Mallory Russo takes up a new career as a true-crime author, until she is asked to join a team of law enforcement specialists to investigate cold cases, a venture bankrolled by billionaire Robert Magellan

Historical Fiction

The Steel Wave by Jeff Shaara – a fictional account of D-Day and the Allied invasion of Europe, chronicling the events of the campaign and the personalities who took part, from the ordinary servicemen to such leaders as Dwight Eisenhower and George Patton

Killing Rommel by Steven Pressfield - in the fall of 1942, with Rommel's forces poised to overrun Egypt, the Suez, and the oil rich Middle East, the British launch a desperate plan to send a small, heavily armed team behind German lines to stop Field Marshal Erwin Rommel and his Afrika Korps

Fatal Waltz by Tasha Alexander - when her friend's husband is wrongfully accused of murdering Lord Basil Fortescue, Lady Emily Ashton searches for answers, in a case that risks her own fiancé’s life and takes her from London's glittering ballrooms to Vienna's sordid alleys