Tuesday, December 4, 2012

Books ordered for December


NanoNano   
  • Robin Cook
  • Synopsis
  • After a tumultuous year in which her mentor is murdered and her estranged father comes back into her life, Pia Grazdani, the embattled medical student from Death Benefit, decides to take a year off from her medical studies and escape New York City. Intrigued by the promise of the burgeoning field of medical technology and the chance to clear her head, Pia takes a job at Nano, LLC, a lavishly funded, security-conscious nanotechnology insititute in the picturesque foothills of the Rockies. Nano, LLC is ahead of the curve in the competitive world of molecular manufacturing, including the construction of microbivores, tiny nano-robots with the ability to gobble up viruses and bacteria.
    But the corporate campus is a place of secrets. She's warned by her boss not to investigate the other work being done at the gigantic facility, nor to ask questions about the source of the seemingly endless capital that funds the institute's research. And when Pia encounters a fellow employee on a corporate jogging path, suffering the effects of a seizure, she soon realizes she may have literally stumbled upon Nano LLC's human guinea pigs. Is the tech giant on the cusp of one of the biggest medical discoveries of the twenty-first century—a treatment option for millions—or have they already sold out to the highest bidder?

    Threat VectorThreat Vector   
  • Tom Clancy, 
  • Mark Greaney
  • Synopsis
  • #1 New York Times bestselling author Tom Clancy is back and the stakes have never been higher.
    Jack Ryan has only just moved back into the Oval Office when he is faced with a new international threat. An aborted coup in the People's Republic of China has left President Wei Zhen Lin with no choice but to agree with the expansionist policies of General Su Ke Qiang. They have declared the South China Sea a protectorate and are planning an invasion of Taiwan.
    The Ryan administration is determined to thwart China’s ambitions, but the stakes are dangerously high as a new breed of powerful Chinese anti-ship missile endangers the US Navy's plans to protect the island. Meanwhile, Chinese cyberwarfare experts have launched a devastating attack on American infrastructure. It's a new combat arena, but it’s every bit as deadly as any that has gone before.
    Jack Ryan, Jr. and his colleagues at the Campus may be just the wild card that his father needs to stack the deck. There's just one problem: someone knows about the off-the-books intelligence agency and threatens to blow their cover sky high.

    Midnight Rider

    Midnight Rider   
  • Diana Palmer
  • Synopsis
  • Count Eduardo Cortes's fortune—and future at his beloved ranch—are in question. Tragedy, money woes and family pressure are now driving him toward a marriage of convenience. That is, until he encounters Bernadette Barron, wandering frightened and disheveled after a society ball.…
    Beneath the grime, it's clear Bernadette is beautiful and rich. But is she just another heartbreak waiting to happen or has Eduardo finally found the one woman who can save his ranch and heal his heart? The Spanish count can provide Bernadette with the title she needs—but can he return her feelings?
    Gazing into her husband's penetrating eyes, Bernadette sees not only his calculating ways but also his quick arousal to passion. Will their growing desire be enough to overcome the mounting challenges they face…and to claim the love she will not be denied?

    Castonbury Park: Scandalous Whispers: The Wicked Lord Montague\The Housemaid's Scandalous SecretCastonbury Park: Scandalous Whispers: The Wicked Lord Montague\The Housemaid's Scandalous Secret   
  • Mortimer
  • Helen Dickson
  • Synopsis
  • The Wicked Lord Montague
    Lord Giles Montague has always lived his life just the way he wants—fighting on the battlefields and fighting off the ladies of London's ton. But the notorious Montague is now the heir to Castonbury Park, forcing his reluctant return to the family estate.
    Since growing up with the Montagues, Miss Lily Seagrove has known that Giles is arrogant, rude…and infuriatingly handsome. But she's of Gypsy heritage, and although Lily might be able to get under his battle-scarred skin, can she dare to dream of becoming lady of the manor?
    The Housemaid's Scandalous Secret
    Returning to Castonbury Park is just another job for Colonel Ross Montague. With his family in disarray, he promises to do his utmost to see decorum restored once more. Until he's sidetracked by the beguiling eyes of Castonbury's newest maid—Lisette.
    When neither can deny their blazing desire, all society's rules are discarded. In a house where gossip is rife, Lisette must try her best to keep her salacious liaison a secret or risk losing her job…and her heart.

    Private London   
  • James Patterson, 
  • Mark Pearson
  • Synopsis
    The next explosive book in James Patterson's #1 bestselling Private series!
    For Hannah Shapiro, a beautiful young American student, this particular nightmare began eight years ago in Los Angeles, when Jack Morgan, owner of Private—the world's most exclusive detective agency—saved her from a horrific death. She has fled her country, but can't flee her past. The terror has followed her to London, and now it is down to former Royal Military Police Sergeant Dan Carter, head of Private London, to save her all over again.
    In central London, young women are being abducted off the street. When the bodies are found some days later, they have been mutilated in a particularly mysterious way. Dan Carter's ex-wife, DI Kirsty Webb, is involved in the investigation and it looks likely that the two cases are gruesomely linked.
    Dan Carter drawn on the whole resources of Private International in a desperate race against the odds. But the clock is ticking... Private may be the largest and most technologically advanced detection agency in the world, but the one thing they don't have is the one thing they need—time.

    Collateral Damage (Stone Barrington Series #25)

    Collateral Damage (Stone Barrington Series #25)   
  • Stuart Woods
  • Synopsis
  • Stone Barrington returns in the thrilling new novel from the New York Times–bestselling author.
    After a productive trip to Bel-Air, Stone Barrington is back in Manhattan—and back in his element, ready to return to the world of deluxe fine dining and elegant high society that New York does best.
    But then an unexpected visit from his friend and periodic lover, CIA assistant director Holly Barker, draws Stone into a dangerous game of murder and vengeance, against an enemy with plans bigger than they could ever imagine. . . .



    Shadow WomanShadow Woman   
  • Linda Howard
  • Synopsis
  • From perennial New York Times bestselling author Linda Howard comes a thrilling and sensual new novel of romance, suspense, intrigue . . . and memories that can kill.
     
    SHADOW WOMAN
     
    Lizette Henry wakes up one morning and makes a terrifying discovery: She doesn’t recognize the face she sees in the mirror. She remembers what she looks like, but her reflection is someone else’s. To add to the shock, two years seem to have disappeared from her life. Someone has gone to great and inexplicable lengths to keep those missing years hidden forever. But the past always finds a way to return.
     
    Strange memories soon begin to surface and, along with them, some unusual skills and talents that Lizette hasn’t a clue about acquiring. Sensing that she’s being monitored, Lizette suddenly knows how to search for bugs in her house and tracking devices in her car. What’s more, she can elude surveillance—like a trained agent.
     
    Enter a mysterious and seductive stranger named Xavier, who claims he wants to help—but who triggers disturbing images of an unspeakable crime of which Lizette may or may not be the perpetrator. With memories returning, she suddenly becomes a target of anonymous assassins. On the run with nowhere to hide, Lizette has no choice but to rely on Xavier, a strong and magnetic man she doesn’t trust, with a powerful attraction she cannot resist. As murky waters become clear, Lizette confronts a conspiracy that is treacherous and far-reaching and a truth that, once revealed, may silence her and Xavier once and for all.

  • Living with Honor: A MemoirLiving with Honor: A Memoir   
  • Sal Giunta
  • Joe Layden
  • Synopsis
  • A compelling memoir from a true hero—an ordinary man who joined the army and became one of the few living persons to ever be awarded the celebrated Medal of Honor.
    Sal Giunta was just a regular kid from Iowa when he enlisted in the army to figure out what to do with his life. He never thought that a few tours of duty later, he would be the first living person since the Vietnam War to be awarded the esteemed Medal of Honor.
    Deployed into Afghanistan, Giunta had a firsthand perspective of the ground war and its daily difficulties. He and around 150 of his company were stationed in the dangerous Korengal Valley in 2007. Giunta called it, “basically hell on earth.”
    Late one night in October of 2007, Giunta’s company embarked on a sting operation into the Taliban’s forces. They were ambushed on a rugged mountain path by twenty insurgents. Giunta sprang into action and with little regard for his own safety, he withstood enemy fire to administer medical aid to his wounded fellow soldiers—even rescuing one soldier who was being carried away by the insurgents—until his squad reached safety.
    For the unrivaled bravery and selflessness of his actions, Giunta was awarded the Medal of Honor by President Obama. In this fascinating and riveting memoir, he depicts the realities of war, as well as the moment-by-moment details of the event that earned him the nation’s highest distinction.

    Rise to Greatness: Abraham Lincoln and America's Most Perilous Year

    Rise to Greatness: Abraham Lincoln and America's Most Perilous Year   
  • David Von Drehle
  • Synopsis
  • The electrifying story of Abraham Lincoln's rise to greatness during the most perilous year in our nation’s history
    As 1862 dawned, the American republic was at death's door. The federal government appeared overwhelmed, the U.S. Treasury was broke, and the Union’s top general was gravely ill. The Confederacy—with its booming economy, expert military leadership, and commanding position on the battlefield—had a clear view to victory. To a remarkable extent, the survival of the country depended on the judgment, cunning, and resilience of the unschooled frontier lawyer who had recently been elected president.
    Twelve months later, the Civil War had become a cataclysm but the tide had turned. The Union generals who would win the war had at last emerged, and the Confederate Army had suffered the key losses that would lead to its doom. The blueprint of modern America—an expanding colossus of industrial and financial might—had been indelibly inked. And the man who brought the nation through its darkest hour, Abraham Lincoln, had been forged into a singular leader.
    In Rise to Greatness, acclaimed author David Von Drehle has created both a deeply human portrait of America’s greatest president and a rich, dramatic narrative about our most fateful year.

    Shadow CreekShadow Creek   
  • Joy Fielding
  • Synopsis
  • There’s something deadly lurking in the shadows at Shadow Creek . . .
    Due to a last-minute change in plans, a group of unlikely traveling companions finds themselves on a camping trip in the Adirondacks. They include the soon-to-be-divorced Valerie; her oddball friends, Melissa and James; her moody teenage daughter, Brianne; and Val’s estranged husband’s fiancĂ©e, Jennifer. Val is dealing with unresolved feelings toward her ex and grappling with jealousy and resentment toward his younger, prettier new flame, a woman with some serious issues of her own. Brianne is sixteen and openly rebellious, caught up in a web of secrets and lies.
    What Val and her companions don’t know is that a pair of crazed killers is wreaking havoc in the very same woods. When an elderly couple is found slaughtered and Brianne goes missing, Val finds herself in a nightmare much worse than anything she could have anticipated. She was half-expecting it to be the trip from hell, but what she never could have predicted was that this impromptu little excursion

  • Tripwire (Jack Reacher Series #3)Tripwire (Jack Reacher Series #3)   
  • Lee Child
  • Synopsis
  • The bestselling novel featuring the "wonderfully epic hero" (People) who inspired the hit film Jack Reacher.
    Ex military policeman Jack Reacher is enjoying the lazy anonymity of Key West when a stranger shows up asking for him. He’s got a lot of questions. Reacher does too, especially after the guy turns up dead. The answers lead Reacher on a cold trail back to New York, to the tenuous confidence of an alluring woman, and the dangerous corners of his own past.




    Luck of the DrawLuck of the Draw   
  • Piers Anthony
  • Synopsis
  • Bryce is summoned to Xanth as part of a wager between the Demons Earth and Xanth. To his surprise, he has left behind his home and family and eighty-year-old body forever, in exchange for youth and magic….and a quest. He must court and marry Princess Harmony, who is anything but willing to be courted!
    Luck of the Draw is Anthony’s thirty-sixth pun-filled adventure in the magical land of Xanth.




    The Colour of Milk: A Novel

    The Colour of Milk: A Novel   
  • Nell Leyshon
  • Synopsis
  • "this is my book and i am writing it by my own hand."
    Mary and her three sisters rise every day to backbreaking farmwork that threatens to suppress their own awakening desires, whether it's Violet's pull toward womanhood or Beatrice's affinity for the Scriptures. But it's their father, whose anger is unleashed at the slightest provocation, who stands to deliver the most harm. Only Mary, fierce of tongue and a spitfire since birth, dares to stand up to him. When he sends her to work for the local vicar and his invalid wife in their house on the hill, he deals her the only blow she may not survive.
    Within walking distance of her family farm, the vicarage is a world away–a curious, unsettling place unlike any she has ever known. Teeming with the sexuality of the vicar's young son and the manipulations of another servant, it is also a place of books and learning–a source of endless joy. Yet as young Mary soon discovers, such precious knowledge comes at a devastating price, as is gradually made clear once she begins the task of telling her own story.
    Reminiscent of Alias Grace in the exploration of the power dynamics between servants and those they serve and of Celie's struggles in The Color Purple, this quietly devastating tour de force reminds us that knowledge can destroy even as it empowers.

    Empire and Honor (Honor Bound Series #7)

    Empire and Honor (Honor Bound Series #7)   
  • W. E. B. Griffin
  • William E. Butterworth IV
  • Synopsis
  • October 1945: The Germans and Japanese have surrendered. For Cletus Frade and his colleagues in the OSS, it should be time to pack up — but they have far more important things to do.
    Chief among them is the protection of their assets, especially the human ones. In the closing months of the war, the United States made a secret deal with the head of German intelligence’s Soviet section. In exchange for a treasure trove of intelligence — in particular the identity of the Soviet spies in the U.S. atomic bomb program — his people would be spirited to safety in Argentina. Only a handful of people know about it. If word got out, all hell would break loose, and the U.S. would lose some of its most valuable sources and secrets.
    Meanwhile, in Argentina, a U-boat captain pops up out of the blue and surrenders his submarine and crew. And in the American Zone of Occupation in Germany, a young counter-intelligence agent pursues an unusual assignment perhaps a little too vigorously. The consequences of both actions will affect not only Frade and company, but everything they’re working on.
    Now things are really going to get complicated.
    Filled with the special flair that Griffin’s fans have come to expect from him, Empire and Honor is another rousing adventure from one of our finest storytellers.

    Lunatics

    Lunatics   
  • Dave Barry, 
  • Alan Zweibel
  • Synopsis
  • Philip Horkman is a happy man, the owner of a pet store called The Wine Shop, and on Sundays a referee for a local kids’ soccer league. Jeffrey Peckerman is the proud and loving father of a star athlete in the girls’ ten-and-under soccer league, and he’s not exactly happy with the ref.
    The two of them are about to collide in a swiftly escalating series of events that will send them running for their lives, pursued by the police, soldiers, subversives, bears, revolutionaries, pirates, and a black ops team that does not exist. Where all that takes them you can’t even begin to guess, but the literary journey there is a masterpiece of inspiration, chaos, and unadulterated, well, lunacy. And they might even learn a lesson or two along the way.

    Shiver

    Shiver   
  • Karen Robards
  • Synopsis
  • When she swore off love, he was the last man she imagined would steal her heart.
    If driving a piece-of-crap tow truck through the seediest part of town with a Smith & Wesson beside her means putting a roof over her son’s head, then Samantha Jones is going to be the best damn repo woman on the books. The streetwalkers, the drug pushers, the bands of looking-for-trouble punks haunting the mean streets at midnight don’t intimidate her. These are her people. The guy she finds bound and bloodied in the trunk of her latest conquest, a flashy new BMW, is a different breed entirely.
    Daniel Panterro was certain he was going to die. Instead, by a stroke of luck, he was beaten to within an inch of his life and left for dead. But if he’s having a bad day, Sam’s day is about to get way worse. Danny knows he hasn’t seen the last of the vicious drug runners who kidnapped him from protective custody. His only recourse is to take his pretty savior hostage and force her to help him. There’s no going back for Sam and her four-yearold son, Tyler. They’re in way too deep.
    With ruthless killers stalking their trail, Sam’s only choice is to trust this handsome, menacing stranger. But as she relinquishes control, Sam feels an unmistakable desire. Could she be tempted by Danny, who seems intent on protecting her and Tyler from even his own darkest secrets? And what is the price of falling in love with a man who operates on the edge of danger—her heart, her life . . . or both?

    The Dark HourThe Dark Hour   
  • Robin Burcell
  • Synopsis
  • A high-profile killing has brought FBI Special Agent and forensic artist Sydney Fitzpatrick to Amsterdam—even as the assassination of a prominent U.S. senator rocks the political world. Two seemingly unrelated murders are leading Sydney to the threshold of a shocking conspiracy to spread a plague of death across the globe, especially when her sketch of a killer—and possible conspirator—reveals the face of a female CIA agent believed to be dead.
    The murder of a witness and the disappearance of the missing agent's husband, covert government operative Zachary Griffin, has Sydney racing against the clock to prevent a biological nightmare of astronomical proportions. For the dark hour is rapidly approaching when all secrets will be revealed . . . and the lives of countless millions will hang in the balance.

    Presumed Guilty

    Presumed Guilty   
  • Tess Gerritsen
  • Synopsis
  • Guilty—Until Proven Innocent…
    Miranda Wood thinks she has seen the last of Richard Tremain, her rich and married ex-lover—until she discovers him stabbed to death in her bed. With her knife.
    Miranda is the obvious suspect, and she looks even guiltier when her bail is posted by an anonymous donor. Was this an act of kindness designed to buy her time to clear her name? Or is someone trying to manipulate Miranda and draw her into the dark and secret world of a murdered man, where everybody's presumed guilty?
    With her world falling around her, Miranda is determined to discover who killed Richard. But proving her innocence may become secondary to staying alive.…

    The Wrong Man (Jason Kolarich Series #3)The Wrong Man (Jason Kolarich Series #3)   
  • David Ellis
  • Synopsis
  • Criminal defense attorney Jason Kolarich returns in this shocking new thriller by the Edgar® Award–winning author.
    A young paralegal is brutally killed. A homeless Iraq war veteran has been caught with the murder weapon and the victim’s belongings—and he can’t remember what happened…
         
    Jason Kolarich has been asked by the young man’s aunt to defend him. It seems like a standard insanity defense based on Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder—until Kolarich realizes that his client is actually innocent. The victim had been working a case of her own, following a trail of paper and money that connected international terrorists to corporate America, where there are those who want to teach the U.S. government a lesson.
         
    Kolarich knows finding the true murderer is the key to exposing the conspiracy. As time grows short for both his client and thousands of innocent Americans, he races to find a trained killer and uncover the details of the attack. But Kolarich soon discovers that the game has already been rigged—and that he himself is about to become the next target…

  • Confessions
  • Confessions   
  • JoAnn Ross
  • Synopsis
  • Whiskey River is a quiet Arizona mountain town—until it's rocked by murder. The death of Laura Swann Fletcher, the beautiful wife of charismatic senator Alan Fletcher, makes headlines across the nation.
    Trace Callaghan's job is to solve Laura's murder, and solve it quickly. As the sheriff of Whiskey River, he has a reputation for unwavering logic and deliberate action. But this case is unlike any he's ever handled before—because Laura's sister, Mariah, insists on being fully involved, an involvement that extends beyond seeing her sister's killer unmasked.
    In this twisted case packed with illicit desires and dark secrets, everyone is a suspect. And nothing is what it seems.…
    Whiskey River is a quiet Arizona mountain town--until it's rocked by murder. The death of Laura Swann Fletcher, the wife of senator and presidential hopeful Alan Fletcher, makes headlines across the nation. As sheriff, it's Trace Callihan's job to solve the murder. But this case is different, because Mariah, Laura's sister insists on being "completely" involved. Original.