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New Fiction - August 2020
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The Aloha Spirit
by
Linda Ulleseit
Inspired by a true story, this historical novel traces the struggles of a woman of Spanish descent who is adopted by a Hawaiian family in Honolulu at seven, married at sixteen and the mother of two by nineteen. To escape the abuse of her alcoholic husband, she flees Hawaii after the bombing of Pearl Harbor for California, where she seeks to make a new life for herself.
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Atomic Love
by
Jennie Fields
Recruited by the FBI to spy on her former lover, a guilt-riddled Manhattan Project physicist becomes torn between lingering feelings for her ex and her growing attraction to a special agent, a former prisoner of war.
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Bear Necessity
by
James Gould-Bourn
Taking an impulse job as a dancing bear mascot, Danny is not recognized while wearing the costume by his young son, who begins opening up about his mother's death a year earlier.
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Black Bottom Saints
by
Alice Randall
A celebrated columnist, nightclub emcee and philanthropist reflects on his encounters with legendary black artists from the Great Depression through post-World War II in an enthralling story that pays tribute to Detroit's legendary neighborhood, a mecca for jazz, sports, and politics.
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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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Bright Side Sanctuary for Animals
by
Becky Mandelbaum
The award-winning author traces an emotionally charged weekend at an animal sanctuary in Western Kansas, where personal and community bonds are tested in the wake of an estranged daughter's homecoming.
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Cher Ami and Major Whittlesey
by
Kathleen Rooney
A tale based on true events follows the experiences of an army officer who answers the call to service during World War II before his life is astonishingly reshaped by his battlefield encounters with a messenger pigeon.
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The Dazzling Truth
by
Helen Cullen
When Maeve Morelli, a Brooklyn student, meets Murtagh Moone in Dublin in 1978 it starts a saga that ranges from the joys of marriage and children to Maeve's failing struggle against depression. A beautifully-told story, both heart-wrenching and full of love.
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The Death of Vivek Oji
by
Akwaeke Emezi
In the wake of a southeastern 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 Doctor of Aleppo
by
Dan Mayland
Set in Aleppo, Syria, circa 2012–2016, a city swept by war, Mayland presents a heroic and heartbreaking novel that concentrates on concepts of homeland, family, loss, and, above all, survival.
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The Exiles
by
Christina Baker Kline
Sent to a Tasmanian penal colony after conceiving her employer's grandchild, a young governess befriends a talented midwife and an orphaned Aboriginal chief's daughter while confronting the harsh realities of British colonialism and oppression in 19th-century Australia.
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The Great Offshore Grounds
by
Vanessa Veselka
A dysfunctional family's understanding of who they truly are is upended by a long-held secret in this sprawling work of astonishing depth and scope about three siblings contending with poverty in the Pacific Northwest.
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I Give It to You
by
Valerie Martin
Renting a Tuscan apartment where she plans to spend the summer writing, an American academic becomes captivated by her hostess' family heritage and the unsolved death of a relative from World War II.
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Jackie and Maria
by
Gill Paul
A story of love, passion, and tragedy as the lives of Jackie Kennedy and Maria Callas are intertwined—and they become the ultimate rivals, in love with the same man.
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Last Call on Decatur Street
by
Iris Martin Cohen
Working as a Crescent City burlesque dancer after college pressures and a drinking problem lead to her expulsion, Rosemary interweaves her pain into seductive performances before resolving to go sober in this thoughtful and vivid novel.
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The Last Great Road Bum
by
Héctor Tobar
A novel inspired by true events follows the experiences of an Illinois adventurer who gives his life to fight beside other activists in 1960s El Salvador.
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The Last of the Moon Girls
by
Barbara Davis
Lizzy Moon never wanted Moon Girl Farm, but when her beloved grandmother Althea dies, Lizzy must return and face the tragedy still hanging over the farm's withered lavender fields: the unsolved murders of two young girls, and the cruel accusations that followed Althea to her grave.
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Leonard and Hungry Paul
by
Ronan Hession
Two friends—who still live with their parents, are resolutely kind, and like to read and play board games—discover that they are not considered “normal” and struggle to protect their concept of what’s meaningful in life.
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Migrations
by
Charlotte McConaghy
A woman who has dedicated her life to protecting the environment convinces a fishing captain and his salty crew to follow the world's last flock of Arctic terns on a migration of dark revelations. An ode to our threatened world, and a breathtaking page-turner about the lengths we will go for the people we love.
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The New American
by
Micheline Aharonian Marcom
Inspired in part by interviews with Central American refugees, this timely novel recounts the epic journey of a young Guatemalan American college student who gets deported and decides to make his way back home to California.
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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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Ordinary Hazards
by
Anna Bruno
An award-winning debut finds a powerhouse businesswoman settling down with a motley crew of locals at a hometown bar where a series of decisions over the course of a single night changes their lives forever.
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The Orphan Collector
by
Ellen Marie Wiseman
This touching novel chronicles the devastation the 1918 flu pandemic wrought on a German immigrant family in Philadelphia, particularly 13-year-old Pia Lange who is taken to an orphanage against her will, and resolves to find out what happened to her brothers.
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The River Home
by
Hannah Richell
In their ramshackle Somerset home, with its lush gardens running down to the river, the Sorrells have gathered for a last-minute wedding—an occasion that is met with trepidation by each member of the family.
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A Room Called Earth
by
Madeleine Ryan
Attending a party under the full moon in Melbourne, a young woman on the autism spectrum makes magical, extraordinary connections with the people she encounters, including a man with whom she pursues a rare intimate encounter.
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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 Royal Governess
by
Wendy Holden
Accepting the position of a lifetime tutoring the princesses Elizabeth and Margaret Rose, young Marion Crawford defies protocol to introduce the princesses to the experiences of everyday people while witnessing some of the 20th century's most seismic events.
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A Saint from Texas
by
Edmund White
A bold and sweeping new novel that traces the extraordinary fates of twin sisters, one destined for Parisian nobility and the other for Catholic sainthood.
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The Shame
by
Makenna Goodman
Homesteader Alma lives off the land with her family on a vast Vermont property, raising chickens and sheep, harvesting produce, and decorating her home. Then, she abruptly leaves it all behind—speeding away and bound for New York in this propulsive and funny debut about a woman in isolation, whose mind attempts to betray her.
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The Standardization of Demoralization Procedures
by
Jennifer Hofmann
Developing a mysterious illness at the twilight of his career, a Cold War Stasi officer obsessively investigates the disappearance of a Berlin waitress before he is forced to reckon with his past transgressions involving an unconventional physicist.
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Summer
by
Ali Smith
A highly anticipated concluding entry in the best-selling series features a stand-alone story that is lightly connected to the events in Winter, Spring and the award-winning Autumn.
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Sweet Sorrow
by
David Nicholls
A man on the brink of marriage reevaluates his teen experiences with first love, a milestone that was complicated by his father's depression, an unorthodox newcomer and a summer theater troupe performance of Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet
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The Switch
by
Beth O'Leary
Ready for an adventure in the months after her husband of 60 years departs, a woman from a picture-postcard Yorkshire village offers to swap places with her burned-out adult granddaughter to pursue romance in bustling London.
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A Traveler at the Gates of Wisdom
by
John Boyne
From the award-winning author comes an epic tale of humanity. Spanning from Palestine in 1 CE to outer space in 2080, Boyne traces a quest for revenge across centuries in this inventive, engrossing novel.
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True Story
by
Kate Reed Petty
Haunted by the roles they played in covering up the sexual assault and attempted suicide of a student 15 years earlier, reclusive ghostwriter Alice and her former schoolmate, Nick, explore memories from different viewpoints that eventually reveal what really happened.
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When These Mountains Burn
by
David Joy
A vigilante who would save his addict son, a disabled thief confronting irresistible temptation and a frustrated DEA agent find redemption and opportunity in an unlikely partnership.
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With or Without You
by
Caroline Leavitt
A rock musician longing for stardom makes a difficult choice when his wife falls into a coma on the eve of his tour, before she wakes up with an incredible talent of her own.
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The Woman in Red
by
Diana Giovinazzo
Forced into early marriage in 19th-century Brazil, Anita is swept into an affair with mercenary resistance leader Giuseppe Garibaldi before joining the violent decade-long effort to liberate Southern Brazil from Portugal.
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The Wright Sister
by
Patty Dann
An inspiring and poignant chronicle of feminism, family, and forgiveness, The Wright Sister is an unforgettable portrait of a woman, a sister of inventors, who found a way to reinvent herself.
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21 Immortals
by
Rozlan Mohd. Noor
Noor, a former Malaysian police officer, does a stellar job in this series launch featuring Inspector Mislan, whose latest case could be his last as his investigation takes him to every level of this modern, multi-ethnic, American-pop-culture-influenced society, and to where moneyed power and influence demand their say.
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Acceptable Risk
by
Lynette Eason
Barely back home after being held hostage overseas, journalist Sarah Denning digs for the truth behind her brother's death with the help of former Army Ranger Gavin Black.
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Booked for Death
by
Victoria Gilbert
Charlotte Reed, the heir to a recently renovated book-themed B&B, finds herself wrongly implicated in the murder of a rare book dealer who claimed the inn was built with stolen funds.
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The Boys' Club
by
Erica Katz
An Ivy League overachiever accepts a job at a prestigious Manhattan law firm where the dynamics of workplace sexism force her to choose between her career and doing what is right.
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The Cabinets of Barnaby Mayne
by
Elsa Hart
Visiting a formidable science-book collector’s home in the hopes of identifying plant specimens, 18th-century herbalist Cecily Kay finds herself investigating her host’s untimely murder when she observes unsettling inconsistencies.
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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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To Coach a Killer
by
Victoria Laurie
A sequel to Coached to Death finds Cat's efforts to secure her position as East Hampton's premiere life coach complicated by a string of murders that implicates a handsome local bad boy who has made her an unusual offer.
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Cry Baby
by
Mark Billingham
A prequel to Sleepyhead finds DS Tom Thorne navigating a broken marriage while investigating a boy's disappearance and the murders of two people connected to the case against a backdrop of the European Soccer Championships of 1996 London.
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The Day Lincoln Lost
by
Charles Rosenberg
An inventive historical thriller that reimagines the tumultuous presidential election of 1860, capturing the people desperately trying to hold the nation together&;and those trying to crack it apart.
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Dead Man Dancing
by
John Galligan
Investigating the savage beating of a migrant worker who refuses to reveal his attacker, Sheriff Heidi Kick is catapulted into a murder case in the underground world of illicit cage fighting, before her husband suddenly disappears.
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Death at High Tide
by
Hannah Dennison
The first installment in the delightful Island Sisters series of cozy mysteries, featuring two sisters who inherit an old hotel in the remote Isles of Scilly off the coast of Cornwall and find it full of intrigue, danger, and romance.
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The Eighth Detective
by
Alex Pavesi
A young editor travels to a remote Mediterranean village to convince a reclusive writer to republish his classic detective stories, before discovering that the books hide even greater mysteries.
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Every Kind of Wicked
by
Lisa Black
Forensics expert Maggie Gardiner is swept up in a dangerous web of lies when detective Jack Renner's investigation into a university student's death violently converges with a suspicious overdose case being overseen by Maggie's homicide detective ex.
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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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Final Cut
by
S. J. Watson
The award-winning author of Before I Go to Sleep explores themes of memory and identity in the story of a documentary filmmaker who investigates the disappearance of a girl from a quiet fishing village.
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Fire in the Blood
by
Perry O'Brien
A traumatized Army soldier in Afghanistan goes AWOL and finds the limits of his military training tested when he tries to uncover the truth behind his wife's fatal hit-and-run accident.
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The First to Lie
by
Hank Phillippi Ryan
A devastating act of betrayal catapults a young woman onto an obsessive path to justice that embroils a glamorous manipulative wannabe, an in-too-deep reporter and a grieving widow into a high-stakes game of cat and mouse.
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Ghost Ups Her Game
by
Carolyn Hart
Bailey Ruth Raeburn, of Heaven's Department of Good Intentions, confidently sets out on an unauthorized mission when she receives a call for help in a case that will test even her Heavenly powers.
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The Glass Kingdom
by
Lawrence Osborne
Fleeing to Bangkok with a suitcase of money to hide in plain sight in a luxury high-rise, Sarah bonds with a circle of ex-pat women before political chaos and military coup attempts turn the apartment's residents against each other.
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God of War
by
Jeff Rovin
After the devastating outbreak of a killer super virus, the Black Wasp Team must prevent America’s enemies from gaining access to the most dangerous weapon the world has ever seen.
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The Last Mrs. Summers
by
Rhys Bowen
Helping her friend inspect a recently inherited but uninhabitable Cornwall property, Georgie investigates a bossy host's suspicions that her husband murdered his first wife, allegations that are complicated by a creepy housekeeper and a long-ago tragedy.
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The Less Dead
by
Denise Mina
Navigating burnout, an unfaithful ex and a relative's recent death, Margo reaches out to her birth family before discovering that her biological mother was murdered years earlier by a killer who begins sending her threatening letters.
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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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Murder at Kingscote
by
Alyssa Maxwell
Covering Newport's first automobile parade, Messenger editor-in-chief Emma Cross investigates a pair of accidents that implicate her inebriated son in the demise of a disreputable butler, an inheritance dispute and revelations about a child inmate at an insane asylum.
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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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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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A Private Cathedral
by
James Lee Burke
Swept up in a criminal underworld rivalry involving a pair of star-crossed teen lovers, Detective Dave Robicheaux is targeted by a time-traveling superhuman assassin who forces him to confront the demons of his own past.
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The Quiet Girl
by
S.F. Kosa
After a tense argument, Alex drops everything to patch things up with his new wife, Mina. But Mina has vanished, leaving behind her wedding band and a string of secrets in her wake. Hitchcock fans won’t want to miss this nuanced, multilayered novel of psychological suspense.
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Say No More
by
Karen Rose
A follow-up to Say You're Sorry finds cult escapee Mercy Callahan teaming up with homicide detective Rafe Sokolov to track down the leader of the twisted cult that would reclaim her dead or alive.
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Shadows of the Dead
by
Spencer Kope
The best tracker in the world, a man with a secret and a special set of skills, must find two nearly untraceable killers before time runs out for their victims.
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The Silent Wife
by
Karin Slaughter
Investigating a brutal murder that eerily resembles another from years earlier, Will Trent reopens the case of a possibly wrongly convicted prisoner before teaming up with medical examiner Sara Linton to hunt down the true killer.
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Squeeze Me
by
Carl Hiaasen
When a high-society dowager murdered at the height of Palm Beach's charity gala season is declared a political martyr by the colorful president she supported, a talented wildlife wrangler uncovers the truth amid the discovery of a controversial affair.
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Still Here
by
Amy Stuart
Malcolm is gone. Disappeared. And no one knows where or why. His colleague and fellow private investigator, Clare, is certain she can find him, but his past is far more complex-and far more sinister-than Clare could ever have imagined.
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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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Trust No One
by
Debra Webb
Can wealth and power shield the privileged from justice? A double homicide and a missing woman lead a detective to unearth disturbing secrets in this gripping thriller.
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Under Pressure
by
Robert Pobi
When hundreds are killed in an explosion at the Guggenheim that does little damage to the building, Special Agent Brett Kehoe teams up with astrophysicist Lucas Page to identify possible links to an internet hub bombing.
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We Are All the Same in the Dark
by
Julia Heaberlin
The discovery of an unknown girl found by the side of the road a decade after an unsolved disappearance compels a young police officer's investigation into dangerous local and personal secrets.
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The Wicked Sister
by
Karen Dionne
Living in self-imposed exile in a psychiatric facility where she is tortured by fractured memories of her parents' murder, Rachel uncovers maternal secrets and an unspeakable act of evil that unveils the true nature of her bond with her sister.
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The Widening Stain
by
W. Bolingbroke Johnson
Murders plague a university library—and only an intrepid book cataloger can solve them in this wryly amusing mystery classic.
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Winter Counts
by
David Heska Wanbli Weiden
A vigilante enforcer on South Dakota's Rosebud Indian Reservation enlists the help of an ex to investigate the activities of an expanding drug cartel, while a new tribal council initiative raises controversial questions.
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Breathe the Sky
by
Michelle Hazen
Two strangers start out saving animals and end up rescuing each other in this heartwarming romance.
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Like Lovers Do
by
Tracey Livesay
Driven and focused, Dr. Nicole Allen is an accomplished surgeon. Benjamin Reed Van Mont is a successful financial planner. The pair ignore their mutual attraction and strike up a friendship, but they've underestimated their true feelings for each other.
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Loathe at First Sight
by
Suzanne Park
In this smart rom-com, Melody Joo is thrilled to land her dream job as a video game producer, but her new position comes with challenges: an insufferable CEO; sexist male coworkers; and an infuriating--yet distractingly handsome-- intern, Nolan MacKenzie.
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Someone to Romance
by
Mary Balogh
Forced to consider an arranged marriage in spite of her disdain for the ton, Lady Jessica is brazenly courted by the heir to a mysterious fortune who declares his intentions to marry her upon their first encounter.
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You Lucky Dog
by
Julia London
When Carly discovers that the dog walker has accidentally switched out her dog Baxter for another basset hound, she reaches the end of her leash. When Max finds a depressed male dog in place of his cheerful Hazel, he is bewildered. But Baxter is besotted with Hazel, so for his sake, Carly starts to spend more time with Hazel and Max, until she begins to understand the appeal of falling for your polar opposite.
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Architects of Memory
by
Karen Osborne
Millions died in the war against the alien Vai. Now a salvaged Vai weapon holds the key to redemption—or annihilation in this twisty, political space opera about corporate espionage and alien contact.
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Driftwood
by
Marie Brennan
A diverse cast of characters from various slowly-dying worlds, memorialize a missing man—rumored to be immortal—in a series of vignettes filled with magic and mystery.
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The First Sister
by
Linden A. Lewis
A Sisterhood priestess with no name and no voice confronts a difficult choice between duty and her heart, in this layered space opera with themes of colonization, technology, genetic manipulation, and corruption.
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Ink & Sigil
by
Kevin Hearne
A spin-off to the best-selling Iron Druid Chronicles follows the adventures of an eccentric magical defender who is cursed to be hated by anyone who hears his voice, a challenge that is complicated by his apprentices' fatal freak accidents.
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The Space Between Worlds
by
Micaiah Johnson
An outsider who can travel between worlds discovers a secret that threatens the very fabric of the multiverse in this stunning debut, a powerful examination of identity, privilege, and belonging.
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St Charles Public Library Temporary Address: 305 S. 9th Street. St Charles, Illinois 60174 630-584-0076http://www.scpld.org/ |
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