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New Fiction - September 2020
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The Abstainer
by Ian McGuire
An Irish-American veteran of the Civil War, Stephan Doyle, returns to England where he joins a secret society intent on ending British rule in Ireland by any means necessary and must choose sides when his nephew arrives on his doorstep from America, imperiling his new life.
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Anxious People
by Fredrik Backman
Taken hostage by a failed bank robber while attending an open house, eight anxiety-prone strangers—including a redemption-seeking bank director, two couples who would fix their marriages and a plucky octogenarian—discover their unexpected common traits.
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The Awkward Black Man: Stories
by Walter Mosley
Bestselling author Walter Mosley has proven himself a master of narrative tension, both with his extraordinary fiction and gripping writing for television. Touching and contemplative, each of these unexpected stories offers the best of one of our most gifted writers.
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The Big Door Prize
by M. O. Walsh
When an unassuming DNA machine is installed at their local grocery store, Douglas and his wife, Cherilyn, are swept up by their community’s efforts to transform lives by reconnecting with their ancestry.
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The Book of Two Ways
by Jodi Picoult
Experiencing memories of a man other than her husband while surviving a plane crash, an end-of-life doula on the brink of a fateful decision envisions two disparate paths that find her staying with her family or reconnecting with the past.
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The Brilliant Life of Eudora Honeysett
by Annie Lyons
Wanting to organize an assisted death on her own terms, a world-weary octogenarian forges an unexpected bond with an exuberant 10-year-old who drags her to tea parties, shopping sprees and other social excursions.
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Chance of a Lifetime
by Jude Deveraux
In 1844 Ireland, Liam O'Connor, a rogue and a thief, fell in love with Cora McLeod, the squire's daughter, and unwittingly altered the future, and now, a century later, angels have given Liam the task of making sure Cora falls in love with the man she was supposed to marry before Liam interfered, with his soul hanging in the balance.
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Dear Ann
by Bobbie Ann Mason
A woman facing a life crisis reflects on her past as a naïve graduate student who set aside her educational ambitions at the height of the Summer of Love to pursue an obsessive relationship.
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Eli's Promise
by Ronald H. Balson
The National Jewish Book Award-winning author of The Girl From Berlin explores the human cost of war and the consequences of survival in the story of a Polish business owner who seeks justice for a wartime betrayal.
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The Evening and the Morning
by Ken Follett
A prequel to The Pillars of the Earth follows the experiences of a young boatbuilder, a scholarly monk and a Norman noblewoman against a backdrop of the Viking attacks at the end of the 10th century in England.
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A Girl Is a Body of Water
by Jennifer Nansubuga Makumbi
Coming of age with the support of the women in her Ugandan village, a girl struggling with abandonment seeks answers at the side of a local witch who shares stories about their culture’s heritage of female strength.
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Hench
by Natalie Zina Walschots
Anna does boring things for terrible people because even criminals need office help and she needs a job. Then she becomes unfairly unemployed, and soon is using her talents for manipulating data to expose how the heroes of her world do more harm than good. A sharp, witty, and modern adventure debut.
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His Only Wife
by Peace A. Medie
Enduring a life of minimal prospects among her uncles many wives, a young seamstress relocates to Accra when she is married in absentia to a wealthy man whose family would separate him from the woman he loves.
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Homeland Elegies
by Ayad Akhtar
A deeply personal work about identity and belonging in a nation coming apart at the seams, Akhtar blends fact and fiction to tell an epic story of longing and dispossession. Part family drama, part social essay, it is the story of a father, a son, and the country they both call home.
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Jack
by Marilynne Robinson
A conclusion to the story that began with the Pulitzer Prize-winning Gilead traces the story of prodigal son John Ames Boughton, who pursues a star-crossed, interracial romance with a high school teacher who is also the son of a preacher.
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Just Like You
by Nick Hornby
Miserably married to a man with whom she once shared everything in common, Lucy forges an unexpected bond with her 22-year-old babysitter, a man from an entirely different class, culture and generation.
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The Last Story of Mina Lee
by Nancy Jooyoun Kim
Suspecting foul play in the wake of her mother’s accidental death, Margot Lee investigates her mother’s past as a Korean War orphan and undocumented immigrant before uncovering profound secrets.
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A Little Bit of Karma
by ReShonda Tate Billingsley
Three years into their marriage, a couple who host a wildly successful call-in radio show find the romance dying after a combination of infidelity, deceit and the mysterious death of the other woman.
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The Lying Life of Adults
by Elena Ferrante
The best-selling author of My Brilliant Friend presents the story of an Italian teen who searches for a sense of identity and clear perspectives when she finds herself torn between the refinements and excesses of a divided Naples.
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Monogamy
by Sue Miller
Derailed by the sudden passing of her husband of 30 years, an artist on the brink of a gallery opening struggles to pick up the pieces of her life before discovering harrowing evidence of her husband’s affair.
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The Offing
by Benjamin Myers
During an English summer following World War II an unlikely friendship emerges between a teenage, nationalistic working class young man and an older bohemian woman, who introduces him to new ideas, foods and the power of poetry. When the teenager discovers an unpublished book holding a tragic secret message from her deceased lover, both their lives are irrevocably changed.
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The Paper Daughters of Chinatown
by Heather B. Moore
Based on true events, follows the story of one of many young, Chinese women who traveled to 19th century San Francisco for an arranged marriage, but were sold into prostitution, and the pioneering advocate who helped them.
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The Paris Secret
by Natasha Lester
Discovering a priceless collection of Dior gowns in her grandmother’s vacant cottage, a fashion conservator delves into the mystery of their origins in the years following World War II while uncovering her beloved grandmother’s remarkable story.
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Piranesi
by Susanna Clarke
Living in a labyrinthine house of endless corridors, flooded staircases and thousands of statues, Piranesi assists the dreamlike dwelling's only other resident throughout a mysterious research project before evidence emerges of an astonishing alternate world.
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Red Pill
by Hari Kunzru
Navigating an existential crisis in a haunted Berlin suburb after accepting a prestigious writing fellowship, an aspiring author becomes locked in a cosmic, Darwinian rivalry against the creator of a popular television series.
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The Resurrection of Fulgencio Ramirez
by Rudy Ruiz
In the 1950s, tensions remain high in the border town of La Frontera and yet young love blooms between Fulgencio Ramirez, the son of impoverished immigrants, and Carolina Mendelssohn, the local pharmacist’s daughter. Laced with magical realism, the story weaves together the past and present as Fulgencio strives to succeed in America, break a mystical family curse, and win back Carolina’s love.
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The Return
by Nicholas Sparks
Moving into a family beekeeper cabin to recuperate from war injuries, an Afghanistan veteran falls in love with a guarded sheriff while working with a sullen local teen to investigate the mystery of a grandparent’s death.
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The Secret French Recipes of Sophie Valroux
by Samantha Verant
When a French-born American chef loses everything to a sabotaging rival, she returns to France to care for her ailing grandmother and rediscovers her heritage and culinary passions.
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Set My Heart to Five
by Simon Stephenson
A first novel by a former Pixar screenwriter follows the emotional awakening of a human-like bot, a small-town dentist who, in the wake of an inexplicable response to a classic movie (bots aren't supposed to have feelings), endeavors to forge real connections.
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Something Worth Doing
by Jane Kirkpatrick
A historical tale based on true events follows the experiences of a mid-19th-century pioneer and mother of six who denies herself the joys of a simpler life to run a newspaper about women’s rights and lead suffrage efforts.
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The Talented Miss Farwell
by Emily Gray Tedrowe
A seemingly unassuming, caring and sensible community treasurer in the small town of Pierson, Illinois, uses embezzled funds to finance her second identity - that of a wealthy New York art collector and heartless capitalist. How long can the talented Miss Farwell continue to pull off her double life?
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Transcendent Kingdom
by Yaa Gyasi
A follow-up to the best-selling Homegoing finds a sixth-year PhD candidate grappling with the childhood faith of the evangelical church in which she was raised while researching the science behind the suffering that has devastated her Ghanaian immigrant family.
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V2: A Novel of World War II
by Robert Harris
A World War II German rocket engineer under orders to launch V2 rockets at London from Occupied Holland and an actress-turned-English Intelligence officer who would neutralize the bombings land on opposite sides in a desperate hunt for a saboteur.
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What Are You Going Through
by Sigrid Nunez
A woman who is content to listen to the people she encounters talk about themselves is asked by one to do something extraordinary, in a novel by the National Book Award-winning author of The Friend.
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What's Not Said
by Valerie Taylor
When a middle-aged woman’s emotionally abusive husband is diagnosed with a life-threatening illness, their secret lives collide head-on, revealing a tangled web of sex, lies, and DNA and forcing her to decide whose life to save—her husband’s or her own.
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The White Coat Diaries
by Madi Sinha
Struggling through the realities of her hard-won residency and cultural family expectations, a brilliant young doctor follows the example of a respected chief resident before risking everything to expose the cover-up of a fatal mistake.
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You Want More
by George Singleton
With sharp-witted humor, George Singleton has a reputation as one of the wisest observers of the South. This compilation of acclaimed and prize-winning short fiction touch on the mysteries of childhood, the complexities of human relationships, and the absurdity of everyday life.
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All the Devils Are Here
by Louise Penny
Horrified when his billionaire godfather is targeted in a near-fatal accident, Chief Inspector Gamache follows clues deep within the Paris Archives to uncover gruesome, decades-old secrets.
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And Now She's Gone
by Rachel Howzell Hall
When a desperate family implores her to track down a woman who may not want to be found, Grayson Sykes unravels violent secrets that embroil her in an increasingly dangerous game of cat and mouse.
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Back Bay Blues
by Peter Colt
A sequel to The Off-Islander finds Vietnam veteran-turned-Boston private investigator Andy Roark uncovering connections between a murder and an anti-communist refugee group that is extorting local business owners, including a restaurant owner who risked everything to escape Saigon.
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Before She Was Helen
by Caroline B. Cooney
A woman hiding her identity behind half a century of secrets lands in the center of a dangerous conspiracy involving a neighbor's disappearance from their South Carolina retirement community.
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The Bones Remember
by Sara E. Johnson
A traveling forensic investigator, Alexa Glock dives deep into her latest case involving shark cage diving, which has resulted in murder and a shocking discovery.
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Chaos
by Iris Johansen
A CIA agent breaks into a billionaire’s mansion to secure financing for an unsanctioned mission in Africa to rescue schoolgirl hostages, including her sister, from a cold-blooded killer. First in a new series.
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The Darkest Evening
by Ann Cleeves
Discovering a toddler in an abandoned vehicle near the run-down home where her estranged father grew up, Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope approaches the property during a boisterous Christmas party before discovering the body of a woman outside.
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The Deadly Hours
by Susanna Kearsley, et al.
Four interconnected mystery novellas follow the trail of a priceless pocket watch from the mid-1700s until the Great War as it crosses paths with four couples who seek to contain its mysterious force.
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A Deception at Thornecrest
by Ashley Weaver
Anticipating the imminent arrival of her baby, Amory Ames is confronted by a woman also claiming to be Milo’s wife, before a second visitor upends the village’s Springtide Festival with secret identities, whirlwind romances and murder.
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Don't Look for Me
by Wendy Walker
The daughter of a woman who allegedly went missing by choice visits the small town where her mother was last seen to investigate unsettling witness accounts.
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Fool's Paradise
by Mike Lupica
Surprised by the murder of a man he met the night before at an AA meeting, Paradise Police Chief Jesse Stone follows leads to one of the wealthiest families in town to identify the victim and his mysterious agenda.
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The Forger's Daughter
by Bradford Morrow
Threats, promises, and the allure of Edgar Allan Poe’s Tamerlane—the rarest book in American literature—pull readers back into the dangerous and fascinating world of literary forgery in this heart-stopping sequel to The Forgers.
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For Whom the Book Tolls
by Laura Gail Black
Accepting shelter and a job from her uncle in the wake of unsavory events in her Charlotte hometown, Jenna finds her uncle murdered in his antique bookstore and teams up with new friends to clear her name of suspicion in this appealing cozy debut.
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Funeral for a Friend
by Brian Freeman
Jonathan Stride investigates after his best friend confesses on his death bed to covering up a murder that leads to the discovery of a body buried in his yard in the latest addition to the series.
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Grave Secrets
by Alice James
This fun, fast cozy introduces "estate agent by day, necromancer by night," Lavington “Toni” Windsor who has lived all her life in the sleepy county of Staffordshire, where she occasionally raises the dead in order to help her police officer brother solve a local murder.
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Haunted Homicide
by Lucy Ness
When she stumbles upon the dead body of Muriel Sadler, the president of the Portage Path Women’s Club, in the basement of the mansion she is restoring, Avery Morgan, with a little otherworldly assistance, sets out to solve this case before everything comes crashing down.
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In a Midnight Wood
by Ellen Hart
Attending a high-school reunion in their hometown of Castle Lake, Jane Lawless and Cordelia Thorn investigate former classmates to discover the truth about what happened to a boyfriend who went missing decades earlier.
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Interference
by Brad Parks
When her husband, a quantum physicist, goes missing in the midst of a strange, violent seizure, Brigid Bronik discovers that his research had gained unwanted attention and wonders if the very same physics that endangered him could actually be used to save his life.
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Little Bookshop of Murder
by Maggie Blackburn
Returning to Brigid's Island, NC, for her mother's funeral, a Shakespearean scholar finds she has inherited a beachside bookshop--and a murder mystery--in this delightful new cozy series.
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The Killings at Kingfisher Hill
by Sophie Hannah
Hired to discretely investigate murder allegations against a wealthy client's wife, Hercule Poirot swaps seats with a nervous train passenger before a second killing is complicated by a series of impossible confessions.
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The Kingdom
by Jo Nesbo
In this stand-alone mystery, a mechanic from a rural mountain village finds the limits of his family loyalties tested when his entrepreneur brother announces plans to revitalize the community through a hotel project that becomes increasingly overshadowed by greed and dangerous secrets.
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The Last Agent
by Robert Dugoni
A spy who was convicted of treason travels to Russia after receiving a tip that the agent who sacrificed her life to save his might still be alive, in the second novel of the series following The Eighth Sister.
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Make Them Cry
by Smith Henderson
Invited to Mexico to learn a high-ranking cartel member’s invaluable secret, a DEA agent with a talent for interrogation uncovers a criminal conspiracy that throws her entire understanding of justice and duty into question.
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Mortmain Hall
by Martin Edwards
After being framed for murder, a journalist flees to Mortmain Hall where an eccentric female criminologist hosts a group of eclectic people who have all escaped wrongful convictions
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Murder at Hotel 1911
by Audrey Keown
A hotel clerk prone to panic attacks turns amateur detective in this elegant and atmospheric debut that combines a knotty mystery with the believable real-life problems of its appealing sleuth.
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Murder Goes to Market
by Daisy Bateman
If you had asked computer programmer Claudia Simcoe what she expected to come of her leaving San Francisco for the California coast to open a farm-to-table marketplace, "assembles a mismatched team to investigate a murder" would not have been her first guess.
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Murder Most Sweet
by Laura Jensen Walker
Declared a chief suspect when her scarf is used to strangle a visiting tourist, talented baker and mystery writer Teddie St. John works to clear her name before finding herself wooed by the victim's suspiciously dry-eyed fiancé.
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Next To Last Stand
by Craig Johnson
Walt Longmire visits the 7th Cavalry Headquarters of 1946 Fort Bliss, Texas to investigate links between a fatal heart attack, a fire that has destroyed a high-profile work of American art and a shoebox containing a million dollars.
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Nightshade
by M. L. Huie
A follow-up to Spitfire finds British spy Livy Nash questioning her loyalties to respond to a lost colleague’s call sign years after World War II, before encountering a Russian spy who invites her to become a double agent.
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One By One
by Ruth Ware
When an offsite company retreat is upended by an avalanche that strands them in a remote mountain chalet, eight coworkers are forced to set aside their corporate rankings and mutual distrust in order to survive.
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One for the Books
by Jenn McKinlay
When a growing guest list upends her plans for a smaller wedding, Lindsey and her friends visit a prospective venue on Bell Island, where they stumble on the murdered body of the man who was to officiate.
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The Orphan's Guilt
by Archer Mayor
When a man’s routine DUI defense reveals evidence of a years-old shaken-baby murder case, Joe Gunther and his Vermont Bureau of Investigation team peel back layers of history to uncover links to other deaths.
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A Question of Betrayal
by Anne Perry
A sequel to Death in Focus finds daring young MI6 photographer Elena Standish embarking on a first mission in Mussolini’s Italy to rescue and uncover the truth about a former lover who betrayed her six years earlier.
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The Readers' Room
by Antoine Laurain
A Parisian editor is drawn into a murder investigation when an unknown thriller author is shortlisted for a prize in a witty novel that combines intrigue and charm.
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The Red Horse
by James R. Benn
Convalescing from respective health setbacks at a mysterious British hospital in the days following the Liberation of Paris, Billy and Kaz learn that the former’s girlfriend and the latter’s sister have been captured and transported to the Ravensbruck concentration camp.
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Sanctuary
by V.V. James
After Sanctuary’s star quarterback is killed at a high school party in what is believed to be a tragic accident, the community begins to turn against his ex-girlfriend, Harper Fenn, the daughter of a known witch.
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The Sleeping Nymph
by Ilaria Tuti
After traces of matter from a human heart are revealed through DNA analysis of a painting, Superintendent Teresa Battaglia investigates a cold case that reinvigorates the killer.
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Thick as Thieves
by Sandra Brown
While a woman investigates her absent father’s involvement in a 20-year-old heist that ended in murder, two vengeful accomplices wait for a corrupt district attorney to make a fatal mistake.
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Three Single Wives
by Gina LaManna
Inspired by a best-selling thriller, a trio of book club members engage in a night of wine and rebellion that leads to the cover-up of a cheating spouse’s accidental death and a suspected betrayal by one of their own.
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Total Power
by Vince Flynn
When an ISIS plot devastates America’s power grid, Mitch Rapp and his CIA team race to find the responsible cyberterrorists to prevent the nation from succumbing to total collapse.
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Troubled Blood
by Robert Galbraith
Private Detective Cormoran Strike is visiting family in Cornwall when he is approached by a woman asking for help finding her mother who went missing in 1974. The investigation turns up a fiendishly complex case with leads that include tarot cards, a psychopathic serial killer and witnesses who cannot all be trusted.
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When No One Is Watching
by Alyssa Cole
Finding unexpected support from a new friend while collecting stories from her rapidly vanishing Brooklyn community, Sydney uncovers sinister truths about a regional gentrification project and why her neighbors are moving away.
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All Scot and Bothered
by Kerrigan Byrne
When she inherits a school for girls in London (that doubles as a gambling hall by night), Cecelia Teague, a Vicar’s daughter and mathematician, engages in a battle of wills with the Lord Justice of High Court who is convinced the business is trafficking young girls.
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Her Night With the Duke
by Diana Quincy
After one night of reckless passion with a complete stranger, Lady Delilah Chambers is shocked to discover that he is none other than the duke who is set on wedding her beloved stepdaughter and must find a way to keep him at arm’s length.
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The Love Study
by Kris Ripper
It’s been six years since 28-year-old commitment-phobe Declan Swick-Smith left his fiancé at the altar, but maybe it's time to change. When he meets Sidney, a popular nonbinary YouTuber with an advice show, he's willing to try dating again - but the only person he's feeling chemistry with is Sidney.
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Ties that Tether
by Jane Igharo
Unexpectedly falling in love with a white man after her mother’s latest disastrous matchmaking effort, a young Nigerian woman struggles to follow her heart without breaking her mother’s or compromising her own identity.
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Tools of Engagement
by Tessa Bailey
A talented but insecure real-estate designer competes on a house-flipping reality TV show where she's pitted against her derisive brother and partnered with a Texas cowboy who is anything but her ideal.
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Battle Ground
by Jim Butcher
When the Last Titan, a being more dangerous than anything humanity has faced in a millennium, declares war on the city of Chicago, professional wizard Harry Dresden embarks on a defense that permanently transforms the mortal world.
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Burning Roses
by S. L. Huang
A wolf-weary Red Riding Hood and a middle-aged Hou Yi the Archer join forces when deadly sunbirds begin to ravage the countryside, threatening everything the pair have grown to love.
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A Deadly Education
by Naomi Novik
An unwilling dark sorceress clashes with a popular classmate at a school for the magically gifted where there are no teachers, no holidays, and no friendships save strategic ones. Survival is more important than any letter grade, for the school won't allow its students to leave until they graduate... or die.
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Dead Man in a Ditch
by Luke Arnold
A former soldier turned PI solves crime in a world that's lost its magic in this brilliant fantasy novel, sequel to The Last Smile in Sunder City.
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Fearless
by Allen Stroud
Year 2118. Captain Ellisa Shann commands Khidr, a search and rescue ship with a crew of twenty-five, tasked to assist the vast commercial freighters that supply the different solar system colonies when they pick up a distress call from the freighter Hercules.
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Master of Poisons
by Andrea Hairston
The righthand man to the lord of the Arkhysian Empire and a young woman training to be a powerful sorcerer work together to save their homeland from the poison that is eating farmlands and fouling drinking water.
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The Midnight Library
by Matt Haig
Between life and death there is a library, and within that library every book provides a chance to try another life in this whimsical fantasy that asks, "Would you have done anything different, if you had the chance to undo your regrets?"
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Shadows in Death
by J. D. Robb
Spotting an infamous assassin from Dublin among the onlookers at a Washington Square Park murder scene, Lieutenant Eve Dallas and her husband, Roarke, struggle to protect each other when they discover the killer is targeting them.
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To Sleep in a Sea of Stars
by Christopher Paolini
A space voyager living her dream of exploring new worlds lands on a distant planet ripe for colonization before her discovery of a mysterious relic transforms her life and threatens the entire human race.
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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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