Solomon Bull: When the Friction has its Machine


Clayton Lindemuth - 2017
    You’ll find all the “thrilling… visceral… unsparing…” prose that earned his debut Cold Quiet Country the coveted starred review from Publishers Weekly. Blackfoot Indian Solomon Bull is the son of a rebel who died in the seventies fighting for the American Indian Movement. He trains for an Arizona race called Desert Dog, run through cactus beds, aqueducts, up sheer rock walls and through clouds of Africanized killer bees. The race will tell Solomon whether he’s a mere man, or heir to his murdered father’s revolution. Solomon tries to focus on Desert Dog. Ex-mercenary Cal Barrett designed the race to shred people, and rumor is he recruits winners into a clandestine paramilitary outfit. But on a whim Solomon bets his roommate he can cost dirty Senator Clyman ten points in his reelection bid. After antics involving spray paint and a highway billboard, the senator’s security chief suddenly shows up everywhere Solomon is… Then Rachel, hailing from the Treasury’s office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence, introduces herself by soaping Solomon in the shower after a long run. She’ll do anything to get Solomon to infiltrate Cal Barrett’s clandestine organization. Something big is going down soon, she promises. Senator Clyman’s security man attacks. Rachel hounds. Solomon’s picked a bigger fight than intended. But now his roommate introduces Amanda, a prostitute who looks like an angel but for the boots and cigarette burns all over her back. She tells a story about Senator Clyman and an innocent Navajo boy that frames Solomon’s identity question in stark terms. Will Solomon turn his back on the victims of true evil? Will he become a cog in the machine his father died fighting? Solomon Bull is a young man learning why men exist. It’s about love, sacrifice, and a Native American on the pendulum between assimilation and war.

Just Add Water


Jinx Schwartz - 2004
    Pushing forty and still single, Hetta is the epitome of the b word: bold, bossy, brassy, breezy and brash. After leaving a lifelong swath of failed multi-national affairs in her jet stream, it is no wonder Hetta prefers living with her dog R.J. But old habits die hard, and trolling for triceps is Hetta s hobby. Plying the waterfront in search of Saturday brunch, Hetta s attention is snagged by a parade of passing yacht--especially their predominantly male skippers--and experiences a champagne-induced epiphany: if she had a boat, she could get a man. In hopes a floating Valhalla will overcome an all-time low-water mark in her life, Hetta buys her dream boat in spite of a spectacular ignorance of all things nautical. But a shadowy stalker, an inconvenient body, and Hetta s own self-destructive foibles imperil not only her new life, but a newly- found romance.

Children of the Fog


Cheryl Kaye Tardif - 2011
    Choose! Sadie O'Connell is a bestselling author and a proud mother. But her life is about to spiral out of control. After her six-year-old son Sam is kidnapped by a serial abductor, she nearly goes insane. But it isn't just the fear and grief that is ripping her apart. It's the guilt. Sadie is the only person who knows what the kidnapper looks like. And she can't tell a soul. For if she does, her son will be sent back to her in “little bloody pieces.” When Sadie's unfaithful husband stumbles across her drawing of the kidnapper, he sets into play a series of horrific events that sends her hurtling over the edge. Sadie's descent into alcoholism leads to strange apparitions and a face-to-face encounter with the monster who abducted her son--a man known only as...The Fog.

Nobody's Safe Here


Bill Percy - 2016
    Meanwhile, Deputies Andi Pelton and Boyd Ordrew clash as they investigate Jared Hansen, a boy caught with rifles and a paranoid plan to kill his schoolmates. Their problem? Jared, a great kid, a school leader, has no previous problems. Ordrew’s convinced Jared’s a mass shooter-in-waiting, but Andi’s not. Ed joins their search for whatever caused his radical transformation from great kid to psychotic killer. It’s a race against time: Magnus grows more irrational and homicidal, Jared's insanity may not be controlled before it’s too late, and Ed’s risky plan to save the boy may destroy his relationship with Andi. Nobody’s Safe Here, a psychological thriller, tells the story of a community of ordinary, decent people facing terrifying mysteries.

Blood Coins, Vol. 1


Aiden James - 2013
    A very dark secret.An archivist for the Smithsonian Institute and also a part-time operative for the CIA, no one would ever suspect the handsome ‘thirty-ish’ William is in fact the most reviled human being to ever walk the earth. His infectious warmth and sense of humor make such an assertion especially hard to believe.But long ago, William Barrow had another name…one that is synonymous with shame and betrayal: Judas Iscariot.Forced to walk the earth as a cursed immortal, William/Judas is on a quest to reclaim the thirty silver shekels paid to him in exchange for Jesus Christ. Twenty-one coins have now been recovered—thanks in large part to the help from his latest son, the esteemed Georgetown University history professor, Alistair Barrow.Ever hopeful the complete coin collection will buy him a full pardon from God and end his banishment from heaven, William plans a visit to a remote village deep within Iran’s Alborz Mountains to retrieve ‘silver coin number twenty-two’. But the CIA has a different objective for this trip, one that pits both father and son against an unscrupulous Russian billionaire searching for something else that’s just as precious within the ancient mountains of Iran…something that threatens peace in the modern world if William and Alistair fail to reach it first.Immortal ReignFor William Barrow, two thousand years is a very long time…too long, when it is a perpetual punishment for betraying Jesus Christ.The man originally known as Judas Iscariot is on a mission to recover thirty silver shekels once paid to him for his ultimate treachery. Twenty-two coins have been recovered, leaving just eight to go. But when his Russian nemesis, Viktor Kaslow, also becomes immortal, the stakes are immediately raised.Kaslow has followed William and his son, Alistair, to Hong Kong in search of a ‘blood coin’ passed down through Genghis Khan. The coin presently belongs to an esteemed Chinese collection. But along with the coin are other cursed items from the famed Mongol Emperor. William soon learns he can’t have the ‘one’ without the others.William has waited eight hundred years for a second chance to reclaim this particular coin that inspired the Mongolian Empire’s bloody violence it was once famous for. While Kaslow closes in, seeking his own vengeance, William and Alistair race against the CIA and an unscrupulous American businessman intent on reaching the cursed ‘treasure trove’ before them.Much is at stake for the Barrows and the world, as a deadly weapon unseen for centuries lies in wait alongside blood coin number twenty-three….Immortal DestinyIn this third installment of The Judas Chronicles, William Barrow (AKA Judas Iscariot) is faced with recovering the silver coin he dreads above all others. Known as the "Singing Coin" among the ancients, this shekel was originally lost long ago...on the very night of Jesus Christ's arrest in Jerusalem. Hoping to save it for last, until after the other twenty-nine coins are recovered, Viktor Kaslow's recent designs for the coin thwart William's plan.A new murder spree has begun for the ruthless Kaslow, who races against William and the immortal Roderick Cooley to obtain the coin from a reclusive Essene sect residing in the Bolivian Andes. But unlike William and Kaslow's previous confrontations, this one involves many more outside interests, since this coin contains unusual properties. If it falls into the wrong hands, the entire world will be brought to its trembling knees...The stakes have never been higher for William, his family, and the welfare of mankind. To stop Kaslow, William must rely on the help of Roderick, Alistair, and a host of others, both mortal and immortal, to have any hope of reclaiming blood coin number twenty-four before time runs out.

Celilo's Shadow


Valerie Wilcox - 2017
    No matter how much time has passed, it’s always there, ready to punch you in the chest when you least expect it. All it takes is something ordinary—a brief glance, a certain food, or a melody on the radio—and regret strikes hard and fast. For Odessa Feldman, the trigger is a Pacific Northwest storm. When the muddy bones of a murder victim buried over fifty years ago are discovered in the storm’s aftermath, Odessa overcomes her long struggle with guilt to finally reveal the truth. But her overdue confession comes with a difficult price—reliving her role in the tragic summer of 1956 and worse, betraying the best friend she’d ever had. Dessa and Ellie Matthews were both fourteen-years-old when they met that summer. Ellie’s father was a foreman at the dam under construction on the Columbia River. At least that’s what he said. But, like murder and the motives behind it, some things in life are rarely as they seem.

Ghost Writer


Netta Newbound - 2017
    With her deadline looming, she finds the only way she can write is by ditching her laptop and reverting back to pen and paper. But the story which flows from the pen is not just another work of fiction. Unbeknown to her, a gang of powerful and deadly criminals will stop at nothing to prevent the book being written. Will Natalie manage to finish the story and expose the truth before it’s too late? Or could the only final chapter she faces be her own?

Buried


C.J. Carmichael - 2012
    Now someone with inside knowledge is feeding clues to true crime writer Dougal Lachlan, promising him the best story of his career. Pursuing the leads means returning to Twisted Cedars, where his sister Jamie, is about to marry a man he deeply dislikes.Local Twisted Cedars librarian Charlotte Hammond prefers her mysteries - and her romances - between the covers of a good book, especially since the disappearance of her older sister, Daisy, eight years ago. But then the dark and tortured soul who is Dougal Lachlan walks into the Twisted Cedars Library asking for her help.Before long Charlotte realizes there is no safe zone. Not even in libraries...and especially not in Twisted Cedars.Twisted Cedar MysteriesBuried, Book 1Forgotten, Book 2Exposed, Book 3

Surviving Valencia


Holly Tierney-Bedord - 2012
    Charmed, bright, and beautiful, they held their family together and elevated the Lodens to greatness. In their loss, a shadow is cast upon the family, particularly on the remaining child, who lacks the easy grace and popularity her older siblings took for granted. As an adult, her life begins to turn from mediocre to amazing when she is saved by cool, artistic Adrian. The kind of happiness once reserved only for others is finally hers, until pieces of the past begin ruining what seems to be a perfect life.

Mercy


Richard Turner - 2016
    His unexpected arrival in Williamstown is met with a mix of anger and suspicion. With gangs of demobilized Confederate soldiers roaming the woods, Cooper is quick to realize that his job may be harder than first expected. Yet, the terror that plagues the farms and plantations around Williamstown cannot be easily explained away. Something is in the woods waiting for night to fall and the truth may be more terrifying than can be imagined.

Loose Ends


D.D. VanDyke - 2013
    As a straightforward case takes unexpected twists, Cal must quell a growing fear that an anguished mother may never see her child again. With a shadowy crime lord lurking behind every unexpected clue, Cal struggles to tie up loose ends before evil claims its next victim.Loose Ends is book one in a new P. I. mystery series from D. D. VanDyke. Set against the rich backdrop of the San Francisco Bay Area, Cal Corwin novels brim with intrigue and fully fleshed characters from cops and criminals to hit men, oddball family and unexpected allies.

Terminal House


Sean Costello - 2017
    Now imagine being intimately aware of the process, but helpless to arrest it. Would you be afraid? For retired physician Ben Hunter, that malign force is Alzheimer’s disease—and he is terrified.Now a resident in a major geriatric center, Ben straddles an ever-widening gulf between a muddled present and an idealized past, never quite certain which will support his weight. Against this backdrop, he meets Roxanne Austen, an 18-year-old student who both enriches his life and accelerates his descent into bewilderment.With equal measures of frankness and humor, Terminal House illuminates the many challenges of aging, including dementia, death and dying, voluntary euthanasia, and romantic love.Here's a sample of what advance readers are saying about Terminal House:"As a retired editor who doesn't watch television I probably read 300 novels a year (about one a day).Unequivocally,Terminal House is the best of the year, actually the best for a long while. How someone who is not that old could capture the feelings, desires, memories and fears of an older person is astounding. He emotionally touched the true feelings of both elderly people and the younger persons around them. No one will be able to put this book down once they start reading.

The Billionaire's Will


Marti Talbott - 2013
    They were also the most expensive, so it was no coincidence that they were hired to find the heir to a fortune totaling over 1.6 billion dollars. Nicholas Gladstone left everything to a granddaughter he didn't know he had until a week before he died, but which one was it - the maid secretly working in the parent's home, an office worker, or the young woman tragically killed in a car accident?

Disappearing Earth


Julia Phillips - 2019
    In the ensuing weeks, then months, the police investigation turns up nothing. Echoes of the disappearance reverberate across a tightly woven community, with the fear and loss felt most deeply among its women.Set on the remote Siberian peninsula of Kamchatka, Disappearing Earth draws us into the world of an astonishing cast of characters, all connected by an unfathomable crime. We are transported to vistas of rugged beauty – densely wooded forests, open expanses of tundra, soaring volcanoes and the glassy seas that border Japan and Alaska – and into a region as complex as it is alluring, where social and ethnic tensions have long simmered, and where outsiders are often the first to be accused.In a story as propulsive as it is emotionally engaging, and through a young writer's virtuosic feat of empathy and imagination, this powerful novel provides a new understanding of the intricate bonds of family and community, in a Russia unlike any we have seen before.Beautifully written, thought-provoking, intense and cleverly wrought, this is the most extraordinary first novel from a mesmerising new talent.

The Third Girl


Nell Goddin - 2015
    She’s looking for peace, beautiful gardens, and pastry—a slower, safer life than the one she’d been living outside of Boston. But you know what they say about the best intentions… Molly has barely gotten over jet-lag before she hears about a local student’s disappearance. In between getting her old ramshackle house in order and reveling in French food, Molly ends up embroiled in the case, along with the gendarmes of Castillac. And unlike the Nancy Drews she loved as a child, this mystery stirs up emotions she thought had been put to rest..and terrifies the residents of her beloved village.