New Releases: May 4, 2020
Adult Fiction
The Borgia Confessions - Alyssa Palombo
Genres: Fiction, Historical, Romance
During the sweltering Roman summer of 1492, Rodrigo Borgia has risen to power as pope. Rodrigo’s eldest son Cesare, forced to follow his father into the church and newly made the Archbishop of Valencia, chafes at his ecclesiastical role and fumes with jealousy and resentment at the way that his foolish brother has been chosen for the military greatness he desired.
Maddalena Moretti comes from the countryside, where she has seen how the whims of powerful men wreak havoc on the lives of ordinary people. But now, employed as a servant in the Vatican Palace, she cannot help but be entranced by Cesare Borgia’s handsome face and manner and finds her faith and conviction crumbling in her want of him.
As war rages and shifting alliances challenge the pope’s authority, Maddalena and Cesare's lives grow inexplicably entwined. Maddalena becomes a keeper of dangerous Borgia secrets, and must decide if she is willing to be a pawn in the power games of the man she loves. And as jealousy and betrayal threaten to tear apart the Borgia family from within, Cesare is forced to reckon with his seemingly limitless ambition.
CLICK HERE TO RESERVE “The Borgia Confessions” by Alyssa Palombo"
The Companion - Kim Taylor Blakemore
Genres: Fiction, Historical, Mystery
1855, New Hampshire. Lucy Blunt is set to hang for a double murder. Murderess or victim? Only Lucy knows the truth.
In the shadow of the gallows, Lucy reflects on the events that led to her bitter downfall—from the moment she arrived at the rambling Burton mansion looking for work and a better life to the grisly murders themselves.
In a mysterious household of locked doors and forbidden affections, Lucy slips comfortably into the shadows, where she believes the indiscretions of her past will remain hidden. But when Lucy’s rising status becomes a threat to the mistress’s current companion, the delicate balance of power and loyalty begins to shift, setting into motion a brewing storm of betrayal, suspicion, and rage.
Now, with her execution looming closer, Lucy’s allies fight to have her sentence overturned as the tale she’s spinning nears its conclusion. But how much of her story can we trust? After all, Lucy’s been known to bend the truth…
CLICK HERE TO RESERVE “The Companion” by Kim Taylor Blakemore
Cross Her Heart (Bree Taggert #1) - Melinda Leigh
Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Romance, Thriller
For more than twenty-five years, Philadelphia homicide detective Bree Taggert has tucked away the nightmarish childhood memories of her parents’ murder-suicide…Until her younger sister, Erin, is killed in a crime that echoes that tragic night: innocent witnesses and a stormy marriage that ended in gunfire. There’s just one chilling difference. Erin’s husband, Justin, has vanished.
Bree knows how explosive the line between love and hate can be, yet the evidence against her troubled brother-in-law isn’t adding up. Teaming up with Justin’s old friend, former sheriff’s investigator and K-9 handler Matt Flynn, Bree vows to uncover the secrets of her sister’s life and death, as she promised Erin’s children. But as her investigation unfolds, the danger hits close to home. Once again, Bree’s family is caught in a death grip. And this time, it could be fatal for her.
A Good Man - Ani Katz
Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Thriller
Thomas Martin is everything a man is supposed to be. He has a beautiful wife and a loving daughter, a good house on Long Island, a flourishing career at a prestigious Manhattan advertising firm. He’s a good son and brother, taking it upon himself to support his ailing mother and adult sisters. He knows it’s his God-given duty to shield them, his girls, from the everyday horrors of the world.
But he has failed, and unspeakable tragedy has befallen his family.
Now, Thomas struggles to come to terms with what has become of his life. If only he can tell the story as he saw it, he believes he might find out how and why things unravelled so horribly; how he failed so disastrously.
Because Thomas Martin is a good man.
If She Were Dead - J P Smith
Genres: Fiction, Mystery
Amelie and Janet are in love with the same man: Janet's husband. One knows it; the other doesn't. Or does she? As best-selling novelist Amelie Ferrar knows, an affair with a married person is like a work of fiction - a kind of spy story with its own rules and customs, negotiations and compromises, and many private rituals. But like any spy story, there will inevitably be a betrayal: something will slip; someone else will find out; someone may even die.
As Amelie falls deeper into her obsession with the man she loves - and his wife - the line between the fiction she writes and the reality she lives begins to blur...and the twisted ending to this story is one that not even she could have seen coming.
Last Girl Standing - Lisa Jackson & Nancy Bush
Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Thriller
At Bristol High they were an elite clique known as the Five Firsts: Amanda, Bailey, Carmen, Delta and Zora . . . ABCD & Z. They could have accepted their classmate, Emmy, as "E", but she was too bookish and a scholarship student to boot, so they rejected her and chose wealthy Zora instead.
At a pre-graduation party just before the end of senior year, Lance Ventura, the hottest guy in school, falls down an embankment toward the river and is barely rescued in time to save his life. One of the Five Firsts, Carman, rushes to save him, but isn't so lucky. Her sudden death causes a community to mourn and rumors of foul play to swirl, but the tragedy is ruled an accident.
Fast forward ten years and the classmates all meet again at the high school reunion. Some of them have had good fortune in their lives. Others, not so much.
CLICK HERE TO RESERVE “Last Girl Standing” by Lisa Jackson & Nancy Bush
Long Range (Joe Pickett #20) - C J Box
Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Thriller
When Joe Pickett is asked to join the rescue efforts for the victim of a startling grizzly attack, he reluctantly leaves his district behind. One survivor of the grizzly's rampage tells a bizarre story, but just as Joe begins to suspect the attack is not what it seems, he is brought home by an emergency on his own turf. Someone has targeted a prominent local judge, shooting at him from a seemingly impossible distance. While the judge was not hit, his wife is severely wounded, and it is up to Joe to find answers--and the shooter.
The search for the would-be assassin becomes personal when Joe's best friend, Nate Romanowski --just as he's adjusting to the arrival of his first child--falls under suspicion for the crime. It's a race against the clock as Joe tries to clear Nate's name and identify the real shooter, all while deciphering the grizzly encounter. Beset by threats both man-made and natural, the two men must go to great lengths to keep their loved ones safe.
The Memory Wood - Sam Lloyd
Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Thriller
When Elijah stumbles across thirteen-year-old Elissa, in the woods where her abductor is hiding her, he refuses to alert the police. Because in his twelve years, Elijah has never had a proper friend. And he doesn’t want Elissa to leave.
Not only that, Elijah knows how this can end. After all, Elissa isn’t the first girl he’s found inside the Memory Wood.
As her abductor’s behaviour grows more erratic, Elissa realises that outwitting strange, lonely Elijah is her only hope of survival. Their cat-and-mouse game of deception and betrayal will determine both their fates, and whether either of them will ever leave the Memory Wood . . .
The Other Mrs. - Mary Kubica
Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Thriller
Sadie and Will Foust have only just moved their family from bustling Chicago to small-town Maine when their neighbor Morgan Baines is found dead in her home. The murder rocks their tiny coastal island, but no one is more shaken than Sadie.
But it’s not just Morgan’s death that has Sadie on edge. And as the eyes of suspicion turn toward the new family in town, Sadie is drawn deeper into the mystery of what really happened that dark and deadly night. But Sadie must be careful, for the more she discovers about Mrs. Baines, the more she begins to realize just how much she has to lose if the truth ever comes to light.
Recipe For a Perfect Wife - Karma Brown
Genres: Fiction, Historical
When Alice Hale leaves a career in publicity to become a writer and follows her husband to the New York suburbs, she is unaccustomed to filling her days alone in a big, empty house. But when she finds a vintage cookbook buried in a box in the old home's basement, she becomes captivated by the cookbook’s previous owner--1950s housewife Nellie Murdoch. As Alice cooks her way through the past, she realizes that within the cookbook’s pages Nellie left clues about her life--including a mysterious series of unsent letters penned to her mother.
Soon Alice learns that while baked Alaska and meatloaf five ways may seem harmless, Nellie's secrets may have been anything but. When Alice uncovers a more sinister--even dangerous--side to Nellie’s marriage, and has become increasingly dissatisfied with the mounting pressures in her own relationship, she begins to take control of her life and protect herself with a few secrets of her own.
CLICK HERE TO RESERVE “Recipe For a Perfect Wife” by Karma Brown
Watching From the Dark (DCI Jonah Sheens #2) - Gytha Lodge
Genres: Fiction, Mystery, Thriller
Aidan Poole logs on to his laptop late at night to Skype his girlfriend, Zoe. To his horror, he realizes that there is someone else in her flat. Aidan can only listen to the sounds of a violent struggle taking place in the bathroom—and then the sound of silence. He is desperate to find out if Zoe is okay. But then why is he so hesitant to call the police?
When Aidan’s cryptic messages finally reach them, Detective Chief Inspector Jonah Sheens and his team take the case—and discover the body. They soon find that no one has a bad word to say about Zoe, a big hearted young artist at the center of a curious web of waifs and strays, each relying on her for support, each hiding dark secrets and buried resentments. Has one of her so-called “friends” been driven to murder? Or does Aidan have the biggest secret of them all?
CLICK HERE TO RESERVE “Watching From the Dark” by Gytha Lodge
