Books ordered for July

Burnt Mountain by Anne Rivers Siddons

Synopsis

From one of our most acclaimed writers comes this dramatic tale of a well-born Southern woman whose life is forever changed by the betrayal of her mother and by the man she loves

Growing up, the only place tomboy Thayer Wentworth felt at home was at her summer camp - Camp Sherwood Forest in the North Carolina Mountains. It was there that she came alive and where she met Nick Abrams, her first love...and first heartbreak.

Years later, Thayer marries Aengus, an Irish professor, and they move into her deceased grandmother's house in Atlanta, only miles from Camp Edgewood on Burnt Mountain where her father died years ago in a car accident. There, Aengus and Thayer lead quiet and happy lives until Aengus is invited up to the camp to tell old Irish tales to the campers. As Aengus spends less time at home and becomes more distant, Thayer must confront dark secrets-about her mother, her first love, and, most devastating of all, her husband.

Escape by Barbara Delinsky

Synopsis

In her luminous new novel, Barbara Delinsky explores every woman’s desire to abandon the endless obligations of work and marriage—and the idea that the most passionate romance can be found with the person you know best.

Emily Aulenbach is thirty, a lawyer married to a lawyer, working in Manhattan. An idealist, she had once dreamed of representing victims of corporate abuse, but she spends her days in a cubicle talking on the phone with vic­tims of tainted bottled water—and she is on the bottler’s side.

And it isn’t only work. It’s her sister, her friends, even her husband, Tim, with whom she doesn’t connect the way she used to. She doesn’t connect to much in her life, period, with the exception of three things—her computer, her BlackBerry, and her watch.

Acting on impulse, Emily leaves work early one day, goes home, packs her bag, and takes off. Groping toward the future, uncharacteristically following her gut rather than her mind, she heads north toward a New Hampshire town tucked between mountains. She knows this town. During her college years, she spent a watershed summer here. Painful as it is to return, she knows that if she is to right her life, she has to start here.

Happy Birthday by Danielle Steel

Synopsis
In this beguiling new novel, Danielle Steel tells the story of three very different people, each of whom, on the same day, reaches a crucial turning point in life—a rite both bittersweet and full of hope, a time to blow out the candles, say goodbye to the past, and make a wish for the future.

Valerie Wyatt is the queen of gracious living and the arbiter of taste. Since her long-ago divorce, she’s worked hard to reach the pinnacle of her profession and to create a camera-ready life in her Fifth Avenue penthouse. So why is she so depressed? All the hours with her personal trainer, the careful work of New York’s best hairdressers, cosmetic surgeons, and her own God-given bone structure and great looks can’t fudge the truth or her lies about it: Valerie is turning sixty.

Valerie’s daughter, April, has no love life, no rest, and no prospect of that changing in the foreseeable future. Her popular one-of-a-kind restaurant in downtown New York, where she is chef and owner, consumes every ounce of her attention and energy. Ready or not, though, April’s life is about to change, in a tumultuous transformation that begins the morning it hits her: She’s thirty. And what does she have to show for it? A restaurant, no man, no kids.

Jack Adams once threw a football like a guided missile. Twelve years after retiring from the NFL, he is the most charismatic sports analyst on TV, a man who has his pick of the most desirable twentysomething women. But after a particularly memorable Halloween party, Jack wakes up on his fiftieth birthday, his back thrown out of whack, feeling every year his age.

A terrifying act of violence, an out-of-the-blue blessing, and two extremely unlikely love affairs soon turn lives inside out and upside down. In a novel brimming with warmth and insight, beginning on one birthday and ending on another, Valerie, April, and Jack discover that life itself can be a celebration—and that its greatest gifts are always a surprise.

Split Second (FBI Series #15) by Catherine Coulter

Synopsis

Praise for the FBI Thriller Series

“Bestseller Coulter’s riveting thriller opens with a bang. . . . Well-developed characters and an expertly paced plot that builds into a breathtaking conclusion.”

— Publishers Weekly on Knockout (starred review)

A serial killer is on the loose, and it’s up to FBI agents Dillon Savich and Lacey Sherlock to bring him down. They soon discover the killer has blood ties to an infamous and now long-dead monster. Savich and Sherlock are joined by agents Lucy Carlyle and Cooper McKnight, and the chase is on.

At the same time, Agent Lucy Carlyle learns from her dying father that her grandfather didn’t simply walk away from his family twenty-two years ago: he was, in fact, murdered by his wife, Lucy’s grandmother. Determined to uncover the truth, Lucy moves into her grandmother’s Chevy Chase mansion. What she finds, however, is a nightmare. Not only does she discover the truth of what happened all those years ago, but she faces a new mystery, one that has been passed down from mother to daughter for generations.

As the hunt for the killer escalates, Savich realizes he’s become the killer’s focus, and perhaps the next victim. Only Lucy can stop this madness before it’s too late.

Dreams of the Dead (Nina Reilly Series #13) by Perri O'Shaughnessy

Synopsis

Perri O’Shaughnessy “will keep you turning pages into the night,” applauds USA Today, in praise of the celebrated novels of suspense starring the audacious yet all-too-human defense attorney Nina Reilly. Now, in a spellbinding new thriller, O’Shaughnessy plunges Nina back into the center of a murderous family game, and reawakens a very real nightmare she had every reason to believe was dead . . . and buried.

A mix of slick and seamy, South Lake Tahoe, California, is the perfect setting for adventurers, criminals—and lawyers. In addition to coping with her demanding, sometimes creepy, clients, Nina Reilly is dealing with prickly personal issues involving her sixteen-year-old son Bob, his estranged father, and her investigator, confidante, and sometimes lover Paul van Wagoner. Then, in walks disaster. The millionaire owner of a Tahoe ski resort, Philip Strong is the father of Jim Strong, a sociopath who devastated many innocent lives, including Nina’s. Two years earlier, she had to defend Jim against charges of murder. He shattered her life, then vanished. Paul van Wagoner made sure of it.

Now in negotiations to sell his ski resort, Philip has received a letter purportedly from his fugitive son in extradition-free Brazil, demanding his share of the profits. Philip is convinced it’s authentic. Nina’s certain it’s a con, but to prove that means exposing the secrets of someone very close to her. Then two local women are brutally murdered. Nina begins to question their links to her new client, and the truth about Jim Strong’s sudden disappearance. As Nina’s worst fears flood back, with time running out, she’s about to discover that the dreams of the dead can still destroy the living.

With its breakneck pace, pulsing human drama, and serpentine twists, Dreams of the Dead establishes once again why Perri O’Shaughnessy has been hailed as “a master of the legal thriller” (Vincent Bugliosi).

Dandelion Summer by Lisa Wingate

Synopsis
The latest in the inspirational and heartwarming Blue Sky Hill series from Lisa Wingate.

All her life, Epiphany Salerno has been tossed like a dandelion seed on the wind. Now, at sixteen, she must move to the low-rent side of Blue Sky Hill and work where she's not wanted: in an upscale home on The Hill.

J. Norman Alvord's daughter has hired a teenager to stay with him in the afternoons. Widowed and suffering from heart trouble, Norman wants to be left alone. But in Epie's presence, Norman discovers a mystery- memories of another life and a woman who saved him. As he and Epie take an unexpected road trip through sleepy Southern towns, they form a life-changing friendship-and uncover long-held family secrets.

The Distant Hours by Kate Morton

Synopsis
September 1940, and in the skies above the Weald of Kent the Battle of Britain rages. On a moonlit night on the grounds of Millderhurst Castle, twelve-year-old Queenie sits high in the branches of an oak tree waiting impatiently for the dog-fighting to begin. The unimaginable happens—an enemy plane crashes in the wood where she’s perched. The family takes in the injured pilot, expecting him to die that very night. But he recovers and his life will forever alter the family’s destiny.

?

September 1959, Queenie is now a successful playwright in London. She receives word that her father is dying and she heads home for the first time in nearly twenty years. Memories wait around every corner, including an unspeakable death and a heartbreaking disappearance.

Morton once again enthralls readers with a richly atmospheric story featuring characters beset by love and circumstance and haunted by memory.

I Still Dream About You by Fannie Flagg

Synopsis

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

The beloved Fannie Flagg is at her irresistible and hilarious best in I Still Dream About You, a comic mystery romp through the streets of Birmingham, Alabama, past, present, and future.

Meet Maggie Fortenberry, a still beautiful former Miss Alabama. To others, Maggie’s life seems practically perfect—she’s lovely, charming, and a successful agent at Red Mountain Realty. Still, Maggie can’t help but wonder how she wound up living a life so different from the one she dreamed of as a child. But just when things seem completely hopeless, and the secrets of Maggie’s past drive her to a radical plan to solve it all, Maggie discovers, quite by accident, that everybody, it seems, has at least one little secret.

I Still Dream About You is a wonderful novel that is equal parts southern charm, murder mystery, and that perfect combination of comedy and old-fashioned wisdom that can be served up only by America’s own remarkable Fannie Flagg.

Heat Wave by Nancy Thayer

Synopsis

Unerringly perceptive, superbly written, every page packed with the warmth and compassionate wisdom that have become Nancy Thayer’s trademark, Heat Wave tells the moving story of a woman who, after her seemingly perfect life unravels, must find the strength to live and love again.

Making the startling discovery that her family finances are in dire straits is only the latest shock endured by Carley Winsted after her husband’s sudden death from a heart attack. Resisting her in-laws’ well-meaning overtures to take in Carley and her two daughters, the young widow instead devises a plan to keep her family in their beloved home, a grand historic house on the island of Nantucket.

The solution is right at Carley’s front door: transforming her expensive, expansive house into a bed-and-breakfast. Not everyone, however, thinks this plan prudent or quite respectable—especially not Carley’s mother-in-law. Further complicating a myriad of challenges, a friend forces Carley to keep a secret that, if revealed, will undo families and friendships.

When her late husband’s former law partner keeps showing up at the most unexpected times, Carley must cope with an array of mixed feelings. And then, during a late-summer heat wave, the lives of Carley and her friends and family will be forever changed in entirely unexpected ways.

Lyrical, emotional, dramatic, and ultimately wonderfully uplifting, Nancy Thayer’s latest novel is compelling from its first page to its last.

Outrage (Butch Karp Series #23) by Robert K. Tanenbaum

Synopsis

Months after a brutal double homicide in uptown Manhattan shocks the city, sensational newspaper headlines herald the arrest and indictment of Felix Acevedo, a shy Bronx teenager who confessed to the horrific crimes. But downtown, in the district attorney’s office, Butch Karp is seething.

No sooner does he bask in the relief of successfully closing the case on murderous imam Sharif Jabbar than he is thrust into the center of a high-profile prosecution that threatens the integrity of his office. An ambitious young assistant district attorney, seeking career advancement, cuts corners to indict Acevedo, disregarding Karp’s fundamental rule: Never charge the accused unless the evidence leads inexorably to proof beyond a reasonable doubt. Now, damned by a coerced confession and a frenzied media bent on lynching him, Acevedo sits in jail while a vicious killer stalks the city.

Karp’s wife, Marlene Ciampi, one half of the “crime-fighting family” proclaimed by the media, hits the streets for clues that will save the unjustly accused defendant. What she discovers puts her on the trail of the true perpetrator — a drug-addicted psychopath with an ax to grind — and a disgruntled police detective who is willing to lie, withhold evidence, and kill to be labeled a hero. But it also puts her in the center of a dangerous race to be the last man standing and if she’s not careful, one of the other players will take the prize.

From the gruesome crime scene to a trial that will leave listeners on the edge of their seats, Robert K. Tanenbaum’s unstoppable novel unfolds at breakneck speed as Karp and Ciampi fight for justice in a dramatic and challenging case that will thrill listeners to the bone.

Portobello by Ruth Rendell

Synopsis

Ruth Rendell is widely considered to be crime fiction’s reigning queen, with a remarkable career spanning more than forty years. Now, in Portobello, she delivers a captivating and intricate tale that weaves together the troubled lives of several people in the gentrified neighborhood of London’s Notting Hill.Walking to the shops one day, fifty-year-old Eugene Wren discovers an envelope on the street bulging with cash. A man plagued by a shameful addiction—and his own good intentions—Wren hatches a plan to find the money’s rightful owner. Instead of going to the police, or taking the cash for himself, he prints a notice and posts it around Portobello Road. This ill-conceived act creates a chain of events that links Wren to other Londoners—people afflicted with their own obsessions and despairs. As these volatile characters come into Wren’s life—and the life of his trusting fiancée—the consequences will change them all.

Portobello is a wonderfully complex tour de force featuring a dazzling depiction of one of London’s most intriguing neighborhoods—and the dangers beneath its newly posh veneer.

Whispers In The Dark by Michael Tanner

Synopsis

Ralph Craig was born blessed with good looks, intelligence, and a way with women. Based on a true story, this novel covers the highs and lows of Ralph and his effects on the people who love him. Filled with passion, romance and deceit, Whispers in the Dark will take you through a life of manipulation in order to achieve the goals which matter only to Ralph. Gripping from beginning to end, this story exposes the unrivaled power of a Patriarch and the loves and family he leaves in the dust.

Monument to Murder (Capital Crimes Series #25) by Margaret Truman

Synopsis

Times are tough in Savannah for former cop and current PI Robert Brixton, so when he agrees to take on a 20 year-old murder case, he figures he's got nothing to lose. It's not long before the trail leads him deep into the corrupt underbelly of Savannah's power elite, and right into the lap of a secret government organization that's been offing "troublesome" politicians for decades. The cold case heats up when he joins forces with former attorneys Mackensie and Annabel Lee Smith to investigate the organization and the murders they committed in the name of patriotism.

With what he knows, Brixton can bring down Washington D.C.'s leading social hostess, if not the administration itself. But can he outwit an organization that is hell-bent on keeping its secrets—secrets that go all the way back to the assassinations of Jack and Bobby Kennedy?

Margaret Truman brings us into the corridors of Washington power as only she can, where the end too often justifies the means, where good people are destroyed by those for whom the only goal is survival... whatever the cost.

No Rest for the Dead by Andrew F. Gulli

Synopsis
More than twenty New York Times bestselling authors team up to create a first-rate serial novel — a collaboration that combines the skills of America’s greatest storytellers to produce a gripping, spellbinding mystery.

“The lineup of writers who have contributed to this mystery is akin to the Murderers’ Row of the 1927 New York Yankees. There is not a weak spot in the bunch.”
—David Baldacci, from the Introduction

Alexander McCall Smith. Sandra Brown. Faye Kellerman. J.A. Jance. Jeffery Deaver. Kathy Reichs. Lisa Scottoline. Jeff Lindsay. These are only a handful of the names that make up the all-star lineup of authors behind No Rest for the Dead, a tale of vengeance, greed, and love that flows seamlessly, in the words of David Baldacci, “as it passes from one creator's mind to the next.”

When Christopher Thomas, a ruthless curator at San Francisco’s McFall Art Museum, is murdered and his decaying body is found in an iron maiden in a Berlin museum, his wife, Rosemary, is the primary suspect, and she is tried, convicted and executed. Ten years later, Jon Nunn, the detective who cracked the case, is convinced that the wrong person was put to death. In the years since the case was closed, he's discovered a web of deceit and betrayal surrounding the Thomases that could implicate any number of people in the crime. With the help of the dead woman's friend, he plans to gather everyone who was there the night Christopher died and finally uncover the truth, suspect by suspect. Solving this case may be Nunn’s last chance for redemption … but the shadowy forces behind Christopher’s death will stop at nothing to silence the past forever.

In this innovative storytelling approach, each of these twenty-five bestselling writers brings their distinctive voice to a chapter of the narrative, building the tension to a shocking, explosive finale. No Rest for the Dead is a thrilling, page-turning accomplishment that only America’s very best authors could achieve.

From the Introduction of No Rest for the Dead:
There is always that case, the one that keeps me awake at night, the one that got away. It’ll always be there, gnawing at the edges of my mind. It doesn’t matter that ten years have passed, it doesn’t matter that the case is officially closed. An innocent woman was executed, I was the one who helped make it happen, and on the sad night when the needle was inserted into her arm, injecting her with death, part of my life ended too.
It never felt right, never made sense. Sure, there was motive and opportunity, there was the physical evidence. But if you met her, if you knew her the way I got to know her . . . It wasn’t until later, after I’d taken a step back from the case, that I realized it had angles I hadn’t seen, layers I hadn’t uncovered, back when it mattered, back when I could have saved her….

With contributions from:
David Baldacci (Introduction)
Jeff Abbott
Lori Armstrong
Sandra Brown
Thomas Cook
Jeffery Deaver
Diana Gabaldon
Tess Gerritsen
Andrew F. Gulli
Peter James
J.A. Jance
Faye Kellerman
Raymond Khoury
John Lescroart
Jeff Lindsay
Gayle Lynds
Philip Margolin
Alexander McCall Smith
Michael Palmer
T. Jefferson Parker
Matthew Pearl
Kathy Reichs
Marcus Sakey
Jonathan Santlofer
Lisa Scottoline
R.L. Stine
Marcia Talley

Then Came You by Jennifer Weiner

Synopsis

An unexpected love story. . .

Jules Wildgren is a Princeton senior with a full scholarship, acquaintances instead of friends, and a family she’s ashamed to invite to parents’ weekend. With the income she’ll receive from donating her “pedigree” eggs, she believes she can save her father from addiction.

Annie Barrow married her high school sweetheart and became the mother to two boys. After years of staying at home and struggling to support four people on her husband’s salary, she thinks she’s found a way to recover a sense of purpose and bring in some extra cash.

India Bishop, thirty-eight (really forty-three), has changed everything about herself: her name, her face, her past. In New York City, she falls for a wealthy older man, Marcus Croft, and decides a baby will ensure a happy ending. When her attempts at pregnancy fail, she turns to technology, and Annie and Jules, to help her dreams come true.

But each of their plans is thrown into disarray when Marcus’s daughter Bettina, intent on protecting her father, becomes convinced that his new wife is not what she seems . . .

With startling tenderness and laugh-out-loud humor, Jennifer Weiner once again takes readers into the heart of women’s lives in an unforgettable, timely tale that interweaves themes of class and entitlement, surrogacy and donorship, the rights of a parent and the measure of motherhood.

Books ordered for June

These Things Hidden by Heather Gudenkauf

Synopsis

When teenager Allison Glenn is sent to prison for a heinous crime, she leaves behind her reputation as Linden Falls' golden girl forever. Her parents deny the existence of their once-perfect child. Her former friends exult her downfall. Her sister, Brynn, faces whispered rumors every day in the hallways of their small Iowa high school. It's Brynn—shy, quiet Brynn—who carries the burden of what really happened that night. All she wants is to forget Allison and the past that haunts her.

But then Allison is released to a halfway house, and is more determined than ever to speak with her estranged sister.

Now their legacy of secrets is focused on one little boy. And if the truth is revealed, the consequences will be unimaginable for the adoptive mother who loves him, the girl who tried to protect him and the two sisters who hold the key to all that is hidden.

Star Island by Carl Hiaasen

Synopsis

Meet 22-year-old Cherry Pye (née Cheryl Bunterman), a pop star since she was fourteen-and about to attempt a comeback from her latest drug-and-alcohol disaster.

Now meet Cherry again: in the person of her "undercover stunt double," Ann DeLusia. Ann portrays Cherry whenever the singer is too "indisposed"— meaning wasted — to go out in public. And it is Ann-mistaken-for-Cherry who is kidnapped from a South Beach hotel by obsessed paparazzo Bang Abbott.

Now the challenge for Cherry's handlers (über-stage mother; horndog record producer; nipped, tucked, and Botoxed twin publicists; weed whacker-wielding bodyguard) is to rescue Ann while keeping her existence a secret from Cherry's public — and from Cherry herself. The situation is more complicated than they know. Ann has had a bewitching encounter with Skink, the unhinged former governor of Florida living wild in a mangrove swamp, and now he's heading for Miami to find her . . .

Will Bang Abbott achieve his fantasy of a lucrative private photo session with Cherry Pye? Will Cherry sober up in time to lip-synch her way through her concert tour? Will Skink track down Ann DeLusia before Cherry's motley posse does? All will be revealed in this hilarious spin on life in the celebrity fast lane.

Now You See Her by James Patterson , Michael Ledwidge

Synopsis

The perfect life

A successful lawyer and loving mother, Nina Bloom would do anything to protect the life she's built in New York—including lying to everyone, even her daughter, about her past. But when an innocent man is framed for murder, she knows that she can't let him pay for the real killer's crimes.

The perfect lie

Nina's secret life began 18 years ago. She had looks to die for, a handsome police-officer husband, and a carefree life in Key West. When she learned she was pregnant with their first child, her happiness was almost overwhelming. But Nina's world is shattered when she unearths a terrible secret that causes her to run for her life and change her identity.

The perfect way to die
Now, years later, Nina risks everything she's earned to return to Florida and confront the murderous evil she fled. In a story of wrenching suspense, James Patterson gives us his most head-spinning, action-filled story yet—a Hitchcock-like blend of unquenchable drama and pleasure.

Smokin' Seventeen (Stephanie Plum Series #17) by Janet Evanovich

Synopsis

Where there’s smoke there’s fire, and no one knows this better than New Jersey bounty hunter Stephanie Plum.

Dead bodies are showing up in shallow graves on the empty construction lot of Vincent Plum Bail Bonds. No one is sure who the killer is, or why the victims have been offed, but what is clear is that Stephanie’s name is on the killer’s list.

Short on time to find evidence proving the killer’s identity, Stephanie faces further complications when her family and friends decide that it’s time for her to choose between her longtime off-again-on-again boyfriend, Trenton cop Joe Morelli, and the bad boy in her life, security expert Ranger. Stephanie’s mom is encouraging Stephanie to dump them both and choose a former high school football star who’s just returned to town. Stephanie’s sidekick, Lula, is encouraging Stephanie to have a red-hot boudoir “bake-off.” And Grandma Bella, Morelli’s old-world grandmother, is encouraging Stephanie to move to a new state when she puts “the eye” on Stephanie.

With a cold-blooded killer after her, a handful of hot men, and a capture list that includes a dancing bear and a senior citizen vampire, Stephanie’s life looks like it’s about to go up in smoke.

Sisterhood Everlasting by Ann Brashares

Synopsis

Return to the Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants . . . ten years later

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Ann Brashares comes the welcome return of the characters whose friendship became a touchstone for a generation. Now Tibby, Lena, Carmen, and Bridget have grown up, starting their lives on their own. And though the jeans they shared are long gone, the sisterhood is everlasting.

Despite having jobs and men that they love, each knows that something is missing: the closeness that once sustained them. Carmen is a successful actress in New York, engaged to be married, but misses her friends. Lena finds solace in her art, teaching in Rhode Island, but still thinks of Kostos and the road she didn’t take. Bridget lives with her longtime boyfriend, Eric, in San Francisco, and though a part of her wants to settle down, a bigger part can’t seem to shed her old restlessness.

Then Tibby reaches out to bridge the distance, sending the others plane tickets for a reunion that they all breathlessly await. And indeed, it will change their lives forever—but in ways that none of them could ever have expected.

As moving and life-changing as an encounter with long-lost best friends, Sisterhood Everlasting is a powerful story about growing up, losing your way, and finding the courage to create a new one.

The Silent Girl (Rizzoli and Isles Series #9) by Tess Gerritsen

In the murky shadows of an alley lies a female’s severed hand. On the tenement rooftop above is the corpse belonging to that hand, a red-haired woman dressed all in black, the body nearly decapitated. Two strands of silver hair — not human — cling to her body. They are Rizzoli’s only clues, but they’re enough for her and medical examiner Maura Isles to make a startling discovery: This violent death had a chilling prequel.

Nineteen years earlier, a horrifying murder-suicide in a Chinatown restaurant left five people dead. One woman connected to that massacre is still alive: a mysterious martial arts master who knows a secret she dares not tell, a secret that lives and breathes in the shadows of Chinatown. A secret that may not even be human. Now she’s the target of someone, or something, deeply and relentlessly evil.

Cracking a crime resonating with bone-chilling echoes of an ancient Chinese legend, Rizzoli and Isles must outwit an unseen enemy with centuries of cunning — and a swift, avenging blade.

The Map of Time by Félix J. Palma

Synopsis

THE PHENOMENAL INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLERSet in Victorian London with char-acters real and imagined, The Map of Time is a page-turner that boasts a triple play of intertwined plots in which a skeptical H. G. Wells is called upon to investigate purported incidents of time travel and to save lives and literary classics, including Dracula and The Time Machine, from being wiped from existence. What happens if we change history? Félix J. Palma explores this question in The Map of Time, weaving a historical fantasy as imaginative as it is exciting—a story full of love and adventure that transports readers to a haunting setting in Victorian London for their own taste of time travel.

Carte Blanche: The New James Bond Novel by Jeffery Deaver

Synopsis

Jeffery Deaver has been selected by Ian Fleming Publications to write the new James Bond thriller that will publish on June 14th. The plot of the new novel—which features a contemporary setting and brings Fleming’s legendary 007 character firmly into the modern age—is being kept tightly under wraps until publication. Stay tuned…

"The face of war is changing. The other side doesn't play by the rules much anymore. There's thinking, in some circles, that we need to play by a different set of rules too..."

James Bond, in his early thirties and already a veteran of the Afghan War, has been recruited to a new organization. Conceived in the post-9/11 world, it operates independent of MI5, MI6 and the Ministry of Defense, its very existence deniable. Its aim: To protect the Realm, by any means necessary.

A Night Action alert calls James Bond away from dinner with a beautiful woman. Headquarters has decrypted an electronic whisper about an attack scheduled for later in the week: Casualties estimated in the thousands, British interests adversely affected.

And Agent 007 has been given carte blanche.

State of Wonder by Ann Patchett

Synopsis
Ann Patchett raises the bar with State of Wonder, a provocative and ambitious novel set deep in the Amazon jungle.

Research scientist Dr. Marina Singh is sent to Brazil to track down her former mentor, Dr. Annick Swenson, who seems to have disappeared in the Amazon while working on an extremely valuable new drug. The last person who was sent to find her died before he could complete his mission. Plagued by trepidation, Marina embarks on an odyssey into the insect-infested jungle in hopes of finding answers to the questions about her friend's death, her company's future, and her own past.

Once found, Dr. Swenson is as imperious and uncompromising as ever. But while she is as threatening as anything the jungle has to offer, the greatest sacrifices to be made are the ones Dr. Swenson asks of herself, and will ultimately ask of Marina.

State of Wonder is a world unto itself, where unlikely beauty stands beside unimaginable loss. It is a tale that leads the reader into the very heart of darkness, and then shows us what lies on the other side.

Trader of Secrets (Paul Madriani Series #12) by Steve Martini

Synopsis

Defense attorney Paul Madriani is embroiled in a case as perilous as any he has ever faced—one that involves an angry killer who will stop at nothing short of vengeance and two missing NASA scientists who are holding secrets that a hostile government desperately wants to purchase—in blood if they must.

Madriani's daughter, Sarah has evaded the man known as Liquida, and is being kept under armed guard for her own safety. But one morning Sarah slips her ring of protection. What she doesn't know is that her assailant is at this very moment waiting patiently outside in the dark. At the same time, in California two men in a parked car argue over millions in cash that could be slipping through their fingers and a scheme involving government technology-for-sale that could rock the world.

Paul Madriani, his companion Joselyn Cole and his long-time law partner Harry Hinds, track Liquida not knowing that their quest will carry them deep into the vortex of international terror. It is a journey that will lead them toward a bizarre and cruel twist of nature—and the ultimate weapon of mass destruction. Madriani and his party race against time to find Liquida and the scientist who is the "trader of secrets" before he can unleash the weapon that can set the world ablaze. 

The Kingdom (Fargo Adventure Series #3) by Clive Cussler, Grant Blackwood

Synopsis

Sam and Remi Fargo return for the thrilling third adventure in the acclaimed new series.

In Spartan Gold and Lost Empire, Clive Cussler brought readers into the world of husband-and-wife team Sam and Remi Fargo, whose passion and instinct for treasure-hunting has led to extraordinary discoveries-and perilous journeys.

Their next adventure, however, might be their most astonishing yet.

The Fargos are used to hunting for treasure, not people. But then a Texas oil baron contacts them with a personal plea: an investigator friend of the Fargos' was on a mission to find the oil baron's missing father-and now the investigator is missing, too. Would Sam and Remi be willing to look for them both? Though something about the situation doesn't quite add up, the Fargos agree to go on the search.

What they find will be beyond anything they could have imagined. On a journey that will take them to Tibet, Nepal, Bulgaria, India, and China, the Fargos will find themselves embroiled with black-market fossils, a centuries-old puzzle chest, the ancient Tibetan kingdom of Mustang, a balloon aircraft from a century before its time . . . and a skeleton that could turn the history of human evolution on its head.

Packed with the endless imagination and breathtaking suspense that are his hallmarks, The Kingdom once again proves that Clive Cussler is "just about the best storyteller in the business" (New York Post).

Learning (Bailey Flanigan Series #2) by Karen Kingsbury

Synopsis

Learning, book two in The Bailey Flanigan series, picks up where Leaving ended. Bailey Flanigan and Cody Coleman are not only separated by physical distance, they are also faced with great emotional distance. Bailey grows closer to her dream to be an actress and dancer in New York, while Cody coaches a small high school football team ... on and off the field. But neither feels complete without the chance to share their dreams with one other.Can distance truly make the heart grow fonder? Or will Cody learn to turn to others to share in his happiness? And when tragedy strikes? Who will be there to provide comfort in the face of loss?As Cody's past catches up with him, he must learn to reach out for help or risk withdrawing permanently inside himself. Both Bailey and Cody find themselves learning significant life lessons in this poignant love story, featuring members from Karen Kingsbury's popular Baxter family. .

The Art of Saying Goodbye by Ellyn Bache

Synopsis

She was the thread that wove their tapestry together.

With a group of women as diverse as the ladies from Brightwood Trace, you might not think them to be close. There's Julianne, a nurse with an unsettling psychic ability that allows her to literally feel what her patients feel, Andrea, a strong fortress sheltering a faltering core, Ginger, a mother torn between being a stay-at-home mom or following her career aspirations, and Iona, the oldest, whose feisty, no-nonsense attitude disarms even toughest of the tough. Not exactly the ingredients for the most cohesive cocktail . . . Until you add Paisely, the liveliest and friendliest of the clan, who breathed life into them all.

But when their glowing leader falls ill with cancer, it's up to these women to do what Paisely has done for them since the beginning: lift her up. Overcoming and accepting the inevitability of loss, the women draw closer than ever; finding together the strength to embrace and cherish their lives with acceptance, gratitude and most importantly, love. Finally living with the vigor that Paisely has shown them from the start, they are able to see their lives in a new light, while learning to say goodbye to the brightest star they've ever known. Over the course of just three months, these four women will undergo a magnificent transformation that leaves nobody unchanged.

Tigerlily's Orchids by Ruth Rendell

Synopsis

From the incomparable, award-winning Ruth Rendell — "the grand dame of British crime fiction" (The Gazette) —comes her latest psychological thriller.

When Stuart Font decides to throw a house-warming party in his new flat he invites everyone in his building. The party will be one everyone remembers. But not for the right reasons....

Living opposite, in reclusive isolation, is a young, beautiful Asian woman, christened Tigerlily by Stuart. As though from some strange urban fairytale, she emerges to exert a terrible spell on the occupants of Lichfield House.

Ruth Rendell's novels of London amount to a modern cultural history of the city – a fictional urban archaeology of Holland Park in the hippie-chick era, redbrick terraces before and after the attentions of the "property ladder". Now she turns her sharp powers of observation on to a small suburban block of private flats, very precisely located in the social scale, too far away from the centre to be really expensive, just a cut above council housing. Rendell charts the local changes in sharp detail: the closure of the local off-licence, the problems of Mr Ali's corner shop.

As for the inhabitants of the flats, they are at first glance perfectly ordinary people. But trust Rendell to take a second look – and behold, this is an extraordinary bunch: a young doctor with a semi-disastrous career as a newspaper medical consultant, a middle-aged woman in the process of cheerfully drinking herself to death, a caretaker with deeply unpleasant habits.

And there's young Stuart, good-looking, self-confident – the kind of man other men hate on sight. Rendell stirs some outsiders into this mix: the husband of Stuart's cold-hearted mistress, a beautiful oriental girl with bruises on her arms who is glimpsed in the garden next door: the "Tigerlily" of the title. How will their lives mesh together?

It's not much of a surprise, nor really intended, that they come together through Stuart's murder, following a party. There are plenty of candidates for killer, and tension is created by following the various possibilities as each character tries to carry on after the crucial event of his death. The most trustworthy is Duncan, an elderly widower, whose flat is always mysteriously warm. From his flat, he can keep watch on the peculiar household next door, but his naivety protects him from any sinister conclusions – until the end.

Rendell juggles with several mysteries. As well as the problem of Stuart's murderer, and that of the strange oriental characters, we follow the thread of a young woman drawn into petty crime. A fourth strand is supplied by a tenant who was an admirer of the handsome Stuart and finds herself homeless, reduced to living with an unsavoury young man in an attic. Out of this spider's web of interwoven lives emerges the truth of Stuart's murder – a beautifully disguised and manipulated surprise, set amid the jittery background of the restless city.

From Barcelona, with Love by Elizabeth Adler

Synopsis

New York Times bestselling author of It All Began in Monte Carlo

From the Hollywood Hills to the streets of Barcelona, from lush vineyards and wineries to the most exclusive homes in Europe, let Elizabeth Adler take you on a journey with a story that will hold you spellbound.

Bibi Fortunata was the hottest ticket in town: singer, actress, and celebrity. Two years ago she was arrested on suspicion of murdering her lover and his new mistress, who was also Bibi’s best friend.

Bibi was front-page news in a way her publicists had never dreamed of. But the police were never able to prove anything and she was set free, with the cloud of suspicion and murder still hanging over her. Bibi left for Barcelona where she quite simply disappeared.

But when Bibi’s daughter comes to private investigators Mac Reilly and Sunny Alvarez for help, they can’t resist the temptation to solve this mystery once and for all. Who really killed Bibi’s lover? Who would want to frame Bibi? And who is beckoning them from Barcelona?

Filled with Adler’s trademark lush descriptions, twisty plots, and decadent luxury, From Barcelona, with Love will transport you.

Hell on Two Wheels: An Astonishing Story of Suffering, Triumph, and the Most Extreme Endurance Race in the World by Amy Snyder

Synopsis
Contestants have died, been maimed, and spiraled down into the nightmarish realm of madness. Half of them don't finish-in fact, only 200 racers have ever made it to the end. Outside magazine calls it "the toughest test of endurance in the world." RAAM-the Race Across America-is a bicycle race like no other. This epic race is the most brutal organized sporting event you've never heard of and one of the best-kept secrets in the sports world. Author, Amy Snyder follows a handful of athletes before, during, and after the 2009 event-the closest and most controversial in history. Hell on Two Wheels is a thrilling and remarkably detailed account of their ups and downs, triumphs and tragedies. By experiencing the race from the perspective of the racers themselves, Hell on Two Wheels breaks new ground in helping us appreciate how such a grueling effort can be so cleansing and self-revelatory. This is more than just a race-it's a monster, a crucible, an unforgettable allegory about the human experience of pain and joy and self-discovery.