August 2020 list by Donalee Jacobs
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1st Case
by James Patterson
Recruited into the FBI when her unorthodox programming skills get her kicked out of MIT, a computer genius tracks a killer who has been targeting young women through a sophisticated messaging app.
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Afterland
by Lauren Beukes
Fleeing west to find a safe haven in a world vastly transformed by a pandemic that has killed nearly all men, a mother disguises her son as a girl to escape dangerous adversaries, including her own sister.
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Antkind
by Charlie Kaufman
A neurotic and underappreciated film critic becomes sole witness to a film he’s convinced will change his career trajectory and rock the world of cinema to its core. By the Oscar-winning screenwriter of Adaptation.
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The Boy in the Field
by Margot Livesey
Saving the life of a young boy, three siblings find their bond challenged by their parents' troubled marriage and their respective efforts to identify the boy's attacker, manage a new relationship and search for a birth parent.
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The Butterfly Lampshade
by Aimee Bender
Unable to explain bizarre phenomena that accompanied the most formative events of her youth, Francie reflects on how the perceptions of childhood can take on near-magical qualities that sometimes carry over into an adult world that fluctuates between realities.
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Choppy Water
by Stuart Woods
When his Maine vacation is interrupted by extreme weather that a menacing adversary uses as cover to target a close friend, Stone Barrington uncovers a massive scheme with corrupt ties spanning New York City through Key West.
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The Death of Vivek Oji
by Akwaeke Emezi
In the wake of a Nigerian mother's discovery of her son's body on her doorstep, a family struggles to understand the enigmatic nature of a youth shaped by disorienting blackouts, diverse friendships and a cousin's worldly influence.
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The Falcon Always Wings Twice
by Donna Andrews
Volunteering at her grandmother's craft-center Renaissance Faire, Meg is challenged to prove the innocence of her grandfather when he is wrongly accused of murdering a fairgrounds performer who was suspected of mistreating a rare falcon.
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Florida Man
by Tom Cooper
When his prospects are endangered by massive sinkholes appearing throughout Florida’s Emerald Island, a middle-aged beach bum uses his amateur spelunking skills to uncover artifacts that change his understanding of the island’s history and his own family’s birthright.
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The Geometry of Holding Hands
by Alexander McCall Smith
Investigating local rumors about mysterious occurrences taking place throughout Edinburgh, a skeptical Isabel finds the limits of her good sense and ethics tested by the demands of her family, including her tempestuous niece’s latest romantic entanglement.
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The Hollow Ones
by Guillermo del Toro
Forced to shoot her suddenly violent partner, a rookie FBI agent witnesses the escape of a shadowy form before embarking on a sanity-risking investigation into a centuries-old being.
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The Jackal
by J. R. Ward
The award-winning author of the Fallen Angels series presents a debut entry in a new Black Dagger Brotherhood spin-off set in an underground prison that is populated by thieving and murderous beings.
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Lone Jack Trail
by Owen Laukkanen
Assigned to help investigate the suspicious death of a former professional athlete recently released from prison, Marine veteran Jess Winslow is forced to confront some hard truths about a close friend who had a run-in with the victim on the day he died.
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The Midwife Murders
by James Patterson
When two kidnappings and a stabbing occur on her watch in a Manhattan university hospital, a fearless senior midwife teams up with a skeptical NYPD detective to investigate rumors that shift from the Russian Mafia to an underground adoption network.
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The Night Swim
by Megan Goldin
A popular true-crime podcaster finds an unsettling note on her windshield begging for help before she uncovers dark community secrets from the past and present, including one involving the disappearance of her own sister.
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No Offense
by Meg Cabot
A sequel to No Judgments finds a broken-hearted Molly relocating to a library in the Florida Keys before the discovery of an abandoned newborn leads to an unexpected partnership with an arrogant town sheriff.
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The Palace
by Christopher Reich
When a man to whom he owes his life reaches out from prison, international spy Simon Riske recruits a daring investigative reporter and a rogue Mossad agent to thwart an international conspiracy targeting major European cities.
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Paris Never Leaves You
by Ellen Feldman
Hiding her fateful past with a German officer during World War II, a Parisian bookstore clerk builds a new life for herself in the clubby, eccentric world of Manhattan publishing, before her daughter begins asking dangerous questions.
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Riviera Gold
by Laurie R. King
Visiting the French Riviera in the summer of 1925, Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes are embroiled in a mystery shaped by the traditional pleasures of Monte Carlo and the modern delights of the Jazz Age.
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Royal
by Danielle Steel
Sent into hiding during World War II, headstrong 17-year-old Princess Charlotte assumes an alias and enjoys the freedoms of a normal life in Yorkshire before her ill-fated romance with her guardians' son leads to the orphaning of a royal infant.
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The Second Mother
by Jenny Milchman
Hoping for a new start when she accepts a teaching position in a quaint one-room schoolhouse on coastal Maine, Julie Weathers realizes in the face of dangerous community secrets that she may have traded one set of problems for another.
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Sucker Punch
by Laurell K. Hamilton
When a young wereleopard is scheduled for execution for the brutal murder of his uncle, Anita Blake navigates escalating pressure from the local authorities and family demands for justice in the face of evidence that does not quite add up.
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Then She Vanished
by T. Jefferson Parker
Helping a rising politician whose wife has gone missing amid an inexplicable series of bombings, private investigator Roland Ford investigates the activities of a mysterious group before uncovering sinister ties to a kidnapping that threatens an entire city.
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When She Was Good
by Michael Robotham
A sequel to Good Girl, Bad Girl finds criminal psychologist Cyrus Haven uncovering answers about Evie Cormac’s dark past that force the latter to flee and question whether or not her secrets should remain hidden.
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The Wife Who Knew Too Much
by Michele Campbell
Marrying the once-wealthy man who she loved as an underprivileged girl, Tabitha discovers a diary by her new husband’s suicide-victim wife, who blames Tabitha and their husband for the violent way her life ended.
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