Your Library, Your VoiceHelp us design your dream libraryThe city's New Central Library (Ngā Kete Wānanga o Ōtautahi) will be built in Cathedral Square and the Christchurch City Council wants your input on the design. What exciting things do you want to do in our New Central Library? How should the building look and feel? Have your say at http://yourvoice.ccc.govt.nz
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"When you live in a house of mirrors, the only way to stay alive is to believe that every reflection is real." ~ from Olen Steinhauer's The Cairo Affair
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New and Recently Released!
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Drowning city
by Ben Atkins
"In a city of elusive agendas, it's hard to find the truth. It's even harder to find what's right. A bootlegger's dream is rocked by an attempt to destroy his lucrative business. What begins as a curious evening snowballs into a night-time odyssey as Fontana searches for answers he never thought he'd have to find. The city is saturated with criminal and political extremism: is there anyone he can trust?"--Back cover.
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The counterfeit agent
by Alex Berenson
Unable to prevent the assassination of a CIA station chief by Iranian hostiles who are allegedly plotting a nuclear attack on the United States, John Wells goes undercover to discern the truth on an assignment that takes him from Guatemala and Thailand to Hong Kong and Istanbul.
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The sea of innocence
by Kishwar Desai
Simran Singh is desperate for a break and some time away from her busy job as a social worker-cum-crime investigator. And so the unspoilt idyll of Goa seems just the place: white beaches, blue seas and no crime. But when a disturbing video appears on her phone, featuring a young girl being attacked by a group of men, she realises that a darkness festers at the heart of this supposed paradise. And when she discovers out that the girl is Liza Kay, a British teenager who has gone missing, she knows she must act in order to save her. But first Simran must break through the web of lies and dark connections that flourish on these beaches.
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| The weight of blood: a novel by Laura McHughAs in Daniel Woodrell's Winter's Bone, the Ozarks are not a welcoming place for a teenage girl digging up family secrets and dark local history best left buried. Seventeen-year-old Lucy Dane has always been treated as an outsider, in part because of rumours surrounding her mother's disappearance not long after Lucy's birth. The discovery of the body of a long-missing school friend compels Lucy to look into both disappearances, but few are willing to help her. Vividly depicting both small town life and rural poverty, this debut also offers gripping suspense and quick pacing. |
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A circle of wives
by Alice LaPlante
Small-town detective Samantha Adams investigates the murder of a well-known and well-liked plastic surgeon who turns out to have been a closeted polygamist when his three wives show up at his funeral.
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Finders, keepers, losers, weepers
by Robert S. Levinson
A richer, darker, and more hard-boiled book than any of bestselling author Robert S. Levinson's ten previous novels. Indianapolis. 1989. International rock idol Nat Axelrod is imprisoned on a trumped-up rape charge. Nine years later, believed dead and all but forgotten, he emerges a revenge-driven cripple. Embarked on a hunt for the teenage beauty forced to tell the lies that put Nat behind bars, he is pursued by Laurent Connart, an unscrupulous, conflicted French tabloid journalist, and by his onetime champion, Danny Manings, a failed record-company executive seeking personal and professional redemption.
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| The accident: a novel by Chris PavoneIsabel Reed is a New York literary agent who's just received an anonymous manuscript that -- if published -- promises to make a lot of money, but will also destroy the career of a very powerful man. This man would do anything to keep the secret that's exposed in the manuscript, and though Isabel is careful, she's not quite careful enough. As copies of the manuscript start to get out, Isabel and quite a few others find themselves in mortal danger. The "suspense is palpable" (Publishers Weekly) but where author Chris Pavone really shines is in the backstories of his characters. And though The Accident stands alone, fans of his 2012 debut (The Expats) will enjoy seeing some familiar faces pop up here. |
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| The innocent sleep: a novel by Karen PerryFive years ago, Harry and Robin's three-year-old son, Dillon, was killed when their Tangier apartment building collapsed in an earthquake. With their relationship understandably affected, they've moved to Dublin to start again. But when Harry believes he's seen Dillon on a crowded street in Dublin, he is consumed with finding him again. Was Dillon kidnapped? Or is Harry hallucinating, debilitated by guilt for having left his son alone? Either way, his obsession takes over his life, once again straining his marriage. This twisty yet reflective tale is "an intriguingly emotional and conventional debut" (Kirkus Reviews) by established authors Paul Perry and Karen Gillece, working together for the first time under the pseudonym Karen Perry. |
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| The Cairo affair by Olen SteinhauerThe assassination of American diplomat Stan Bertolli in Hungary sends his wife, Sophie, on an under-the-radar hunt for answers that brings her first to Cairo, where she seeks answers from former lovers and WikiLeaks alike. It's 2011, and the region is roiling with Arab revolutions, but while some think Stan's death is connected to a rejected CIA plan to get rid of Gadhafi, others think the answers lie in the past, specifically his 1991 honeymoon in Yugoslavia. Shifting allegiances and political deceptions spell danger for everyone caught up in the action. |
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| Dark places by Gillian FlynnWhen Libby Day was seven years old, her mother and sisters were murdered while she hid nearby; after her testimony, her brother was sent to prison. Twenty-five years later, she starts selling off family artifacts to make some desperately needed money -- the buyers, a group of obsessed true-crime fanatics, also push her to look into the murders, which eventually forces her to question her memories. Graphic and violent, Dark Places is "a gritty, riveting thriller with a one-of-a-kind, tart-tongued heroine" (Booklist). The movie version is set to open in September, and will star Charlize Theron as Libby. Author Gillian Flynn also wrote the bestselling Gone Girl, which will be released as a movie the following month. |
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| Good people by Marcus SakeyWhen their downstairs tenant dies, debt-ridden Tom and Anna Reed feel like they've won the lottery -- there's $400,000 stashed in the tenant's kitchen and no reason not to keep the money for themselves. Too bad the cash didn't exactly belong to the dead man, but rather came from a drug deal gone bad -- and there are now several not-so-nice people looking for both the money and the missing drugs. So, do regular people Tom and Anna keep the money, or cut their losses and give it back? Read this "stellar performance" (Publishers Weekly) to find out, or watch the upcoming 2014 movie, starring James Franco and Kate Hudson. Either way, be wary of sudden windfalls. |
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| Flashfire: a Parker novel by Richard StarkProfessional thief Parker (no first name) has been starring in books since 1961, and his toughness, brutality, and deadliness are legendary. He's also been portrayed in several movies, though the recent release of Parker, starring Jason Statham, was the first time the main character in the film used the same name as the books. The eponymous 2013 flick was based on the events of the novel Flashfire, in which Parker has been stiffed by his companions in a robbery. Naturally, he decides to get back at them by figuring out their next target and robbing it first. But first he's got to deal with the assassins he's got on his tail. |
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Contact your librarian for more great books!
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