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Burnt Land by Tua Harno


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Casimir Bridge


Darren D. Beyer - 2016
    A nuclear terror plot is thwarted just outside Washington, D.C. And it’s an election year. Mandisa “Mandi” Nkosi is a young reporter who, while on a trip to Johannesburg to connect with her roots, is contacted by an anonymous source with evidence that material seized from a nuclear terror plot will point squarely at one of humanity’s most important companies as the supplier. The source also unveils that the “evidence” against the company - Applied Interstellar Corporation (AIC), a science and technology behemoth with more corporate and political foes than can be counted - is a setup, and part of a plot to destroy AIC and gain control of its technological secrets. The deeper Mandi digs, the more of a target she becomes. What follows is a heart-pounding, unforgettable ride through the hallowed halls of big government, far-flung star systems, and the revelation of a conspiracy that runs so deep, Mandi’s life, and the future of humanity, are put at stake. ˃˃˃ A thrilling, fast-paced technothriller story that spans two planets, four star systems, and crosses the depths of space. Winner: 2016 Beverly Hills Book Award (Science Fiction)Winner: 2016 Readers Favorite Bronze Metal (Thriller)Winner: 2016 Pinnacle Achievement Award

Noble Chase


Michael Rudolph - 2016
    For fans of Greg Iles and Linda Fairstein.Beth Swahn is a young associate at Wilcox, Swahn & Giles when she makes a costly mistake - she believes her client. During what is supposed to be a celebratory dinner, she quickly realizes that $70 million of a settlement has gone missing, and worse, so has her client. With the millions lost, her professional reputation at stake, and even her safety on the line, Beth has to act quickly. With the help of a few tight-knit and talented friends and her step-father Max, a powerful, retired lawyer, she embarks on her own private investigation and learns that the hunt for the money - and the truth - will take her to the most unexpected places and will challenge her survival skills to confront a very complicated and surprising enemy.

Blind Retribution


K.T. Roberts - 2016
    When a car bomb explodes, taking with it the wife of a prominent heart surgeon, NYPD detective Maxine Turner is sure she has arrested the right suspect—until Cory Rossini, a private investigator, begins muddying the waters. Max already has enough to deal with: her longtime partner is retiring, her latest case is suddenly anything but simple, and she now has a troubling attraction to a man who is proving to be annoyingly persistent.Having taken on the task of proving his friend’s innocence, Cory isn’t about to drop the ball—no matter how distractingly beautiful he finds the detective assigned to the investigation. When his sleuthing turns up other homicides connected to the cardiology department, including a young woman whose throat has been slit, he convinces Max that they should work together. And as they delve further into the vicious murders, they search for the one lead that will steer them straight to a killer…

Venice Black


Gregory C. Randall - 2018
    She is planning to lose herself in the maze of canals and forget about her ex-husband’s conviction for operating a meth lab on Cleveland’s south side.The legacy of the Bosnian War’s brutal ethnic cleansing has brought journalist Marika Juric to Venice on a single-minded crusade: to gather enough evidence to keep one of the war’s masterminds from becoming Croatia’s next president. And there are those who’ll do anything to stop her.But these two strangers share more than their unexpected arrivals in the City of Masks. They’re mirror images of each other—down to their hair, their smiles, and the same desperation in their eyes. The resemblance isn’t just uncanny. It’s dangerous.When the secrets of Alex’s escape rush headlong into Marika’s obsession, the fates of both women become entwined in a vaporous hall of mirrors. Working together is their only way to survive.

Grievance


Christine Bell - 2017
    On her wedding anniversary, an intimate bridal gift is delivered to her door. Then, a bizarre home invasion shatters her sense of security, and a mysterious Facebook memorial appears. Like a hungry ghost, someone seeks to claim her love and loss as their own, to erase Lily from her own life and possess her beloved forever, in an embrace of macabre devotion.As more threats follow, Lily’s home and family are no longer her safe haven, and it’s become difficult to tell friend from foe. But after everything she’s already lost, she won’t give up her memories—or her family—without a fight.

The Receptionist


Kate Myles - 2021
    Refusing to follow her instincts, she goes ahead with the marriage in order to preserve her hard-earned membership in the one percent. A master maneuverer, Emily is confident that she can outsmart her husband, clean up his messes, while enjoying the fabulous fruits of high-powered coupledom.When her husband embarks on an audacious affair with his volatile young receptionist, Emily’s savvy is put to the test. His reckless decisions set off a chain of shocking scandals, plunging Emily into a cat-and-mouse fight for survival. Someone will die. Someone will kill. The question is, who will be left standing?

The Second Life of Mirielle West


Amanda Skenandore - 2021
    Based on little-known history, this timely book will strike a chord with readers of Fiona Davis, Tracey Lange, and Marie Benedict.Based on the true story of America’s only leper colony, The Second Life of Mirielle West brings vividly to life the Louisiana institution known as Carville, where thousands of people were stripped of their civil rights, branded as lepers, and forcibly quarantined throughout the entire 20th century. For Mirielle West, a 1920’s socialite married to a silent film star, the isolation and powerlessness of the Louisiana Leper Home is an unimaginable fall from her intoxicatingly chic life of bootlegged champagne and the star-studded parties of Hollywood’s Golden Age. When a doctor notices a pale patch of skin on her hand, she’s immediately branded a leper and carted hundreds of miles from home to Carville, taking a new name to spare her family and famous husband the shame that accompanies the disease.At first she hopes her exile will be brief, but those sent to Carville are more prisoners than patients and their disease has no cure. Instead she must find community and purpose within its walls, struggling to redefine her self-worth while fighting an unchosen fate.As a registered nurse, Amanda Skenandore’s medical background adds layers of detail and authenticity to the experiences of patients and medical professionals at Carville – the isolation, stigma, experimental treatments, and disparate community. A tale of repulsion, resilience, and the Roaring ‘20s, The Second Life of Mirielle West is also the story of a health crisis in America’s past, made all the more poignant by the author’s experiences during another, all-too-recent crisis.

Winter of the Wolf


Martha Hunt Handler - 2020
    Though all evidence points to a suicide, her heart and intuition compel her to dig deeper. With help from her friend Julie, they retrace Sam’s steps, delve into his Inuit beliefs, and reconnect with their spiritual beliefs to uncover clues beyond material understanding.  Both tragic and heartwarming, this twisting novel draws you into Bean's world as she struggles with grief, navigates high school dramas, and learns to open her heart in order to see the true nature of the people around her. Winter of the Wolf is about seeking the truth—no matter how painful—in order to see the full picture. In this novel, environmentalist and award-winning author, Martha Handler, brings together two important pieces of her life—the death of her best friend’s son and her work as president of the Wolf Conservation Center—to tell an empathetic and powerful story with undeniable messages.

Little White Secrets


Carol Mason - 2020
    A marriage ready to crack. A secret that can break them. For Emily Rossi, life may not be perfect, but it’s pretty close. She has a great career, a house in the country, a solid marriage to Eric and two wonderful children—tennis superstar Daniel and quiet, sensitive Zara. But when her fourteen-year-old daughter brings home a toxic new best friend, Emily’s seemingly perfect family starts to spiral out of control.Suddenly Zara is staying out late, taking drugs and keeping bad company. And just when Emily needs Eric to be an involved father, he seems too wrapped up with his job in London to care. What’s more, he’s started drinking again.When a dark secret from the past emerges, Emily’s life is turned upside down. Struggling to protect the people she loves, can she save her damaged family? Doing so may mean keeping a secret of her own…

This Secret Thing


Marybeth Mayhew Whalen - 2020
    Out of protection. Out of fear. Everyone has a reason to lie.Everyone in Raleigh, North Carolina, is talking about Norah Ramsey, the single mother accused of being a suburban madam. But Norah’s not the only one keeping secrets.After her mother’s arrest, Norah’s teenage daughter, Violet, is devastated and alone. She has no one to turn to until her grandmother Polly arrives. Polly, long estranged from Norah, is running from her own troubles. Down the street, Bess, once Norah’s best friend, desperately tries to hide secrets while Casey, Bess’s daughter, flees college after a traumatic event, only to find that home isn’t the safe haven she expected. And Nico, the detective who has doggedly pursued Norah Ramsey in hopes that she will lead him to his missing brother, is drawn further into these women’s lives while facing his own domestic disturbance.Scandal has brought each of them to a crossroads. Now, as they delve into Norah’s secrets, they must come to terms with secrets of their own—ones that still have the power to hurt or to heal.

Into the Sound


Cara Reinard - 2021
    The line goes dead. The mystery begins.During a superstorm, Holly Boswell receives a panicked call from her sister, Vivian: Come get me…There’s somebody coming. But when Holly arrives at a Long Island marina, there’s only her sister’s abandoned car. Vivian is gone.It’s all eerily familiar. Holly and Vivian used to play hide-and-seek as children. It was a reprieve from the mental abuses of their parents, psychology professors who raised the siblings as if it were research. Decades later, Holly is reminded of their childhood games.In her relentless search for the answers, Holly is reading between the lines in Vivian’s journals. She’s untangling clues in their mother’s diary and discovering secrets from her sister’s private world that are casting a dangerous shadow. Maybe Vivian has reasons for wanting to disappear from her well-to-do life. Or is it something more sinister? As Holly follows Vivian’s trail, she can’t shake the feeling that someone might be following her.

The Beloveds


Maureen Lindley - 2018
    Everything falls into their laps without effort: happiness, beauty, good fortune, allure. Betty Stash is not a Beloved—but her little sister, the delightful Gloria, is. She’s the one with the golden curls and sunny disposition and captivating smile, the one whose best friend used to be Betty’s, the one whose husband should have been Betty’s. And then, to everyone’s surprise, Gloria inherits the family manse—a vast, gorgeous pile of ancient stone, imposing timbers, and lush gardens—that was never meant to be hers. Losing what Betty considers her rightful inheritance is the final indignity. As she single-mindedly pursues her plan to see the estate returned to her in all its glory, her determined and increasingly unhinged behavior—aided by poisonous mushrooms, talking walls, and a phantom dog—escalates to the point of no return. The Beloveds will have you wondering if there’s a length to which an envious sister won’t go.

Need To Find You


Joseph Souza - 2016
    Souza continues to be a master of character development."Yasmine 'Yaz' Weeks would prefer to forget her troubled past and the vile crimes committed against her, but when she discovers a hidden memoir in a kidnapped girl's cell phone, Yaz finds herself on the run with an opportunity for retribution. She soon learns that the memoir has the potential to ruin both the reputation of its late great author, Robert Cornish, as well as the reputations of many influential people.Whip Billings, an ex-cop, unwittingly becomes entangled in the mystery of the missing phone. Realizing that this newfound memoir could significantly hurt the sales of Cornish's classic novel, Force of Will, he begins to search for Yaz. But why are the cops, and a mysterious drug kingpin known only as The Viking, also looking for her?In his quest to find Yaz, Whip uncovers a vast network of political corruption, long hidden family secrets, and a series of reprehensible crimes. As the bodies in town begin to pile up, Whip knows that he must track down Yaz before she also turns up dead.

River Bodies


Karen Katchur - 2018
    The crime is eerily similar to a twenty-year-old cold case: another victim, brutally murdered, found in the Delaware River. Lead detective Parker Reed is intent on connecting the two murders, but the locals are on lockdown, revealing nothing.The past meets the present when Becca Kingsley, who returns to Portland to be with her estranged but dying father, runs into Parker, her childhood love. As the daughter of the former police chief, Becca's quickly drawn into the case. Coming home has brought something ominous to the surface - memories long buried, secrets best kept hidden. Becca starts questioning all her past relationships, including one with a man who's watched over her for years. For the first time, she wonders if he's more predator than protector.In a small town where darkness hides in plain sight, the truth could change Becca's life - or end it.

The Last Laugh of Edouard Bresson


Amélie Antoine - 2017
    It’s a treasure hunt.To his fans, Édouard Bresson is the greatest comic standing—charismatic, adored, unmatched, and aiming ever higher for the unpredictable. To his ex-wife, he fulfilled all expectations, except as a husband and a lover. To his brother, he’s a hero. And to his estranged son, Arthur, he’s always been a mystery. Never more so than now…After the performance of a lifetime at the sold-out Stade de France, Édouard decides to vanish. Très drôle.Arthur isn’t laughing. Édouard has sent him a letter and instructions to a puzzle—a treasure hunt for the son he ignored and misses and loves. If Arthur is willing to find out everything there is to know about his father and to understand the choices he made, all he has to do is put the pieces together.As the trail of clues winds its way through the past—reflected in the memories of both father and son—what unfolds is a surprising journey of forgiveness, family, and self-discovery.