November 2 Patriot
             Suspense novels featuring long-running characters are plentiful this month.   Richard Castle’s Heat Rises is his third in the best selling series featuring NYPD Homicide Detective Nikki Heat. She teams up with hot-shot reporter Jameson Rook to catch a sadistic killer. The sixth “Dexter” novel by Jeff Lindsay finds the forensic analyst and nighttime vigilante Dexter Morgan learning that he is being followed by a killer who is copying his methods. "Prey" author John Sandford’s fifth novel starring Detective Virgil Flowers is called Shock Wave. Local merchants and environmentalists in a small Minnesota river town oppose the construction of a megastore called Pye-Mart. Both the company’s headquarters and the construction site are bombed simultaneously. Flowers must find the perpetrators. Bonnie concludes Iris Johansen’s trilogy about forensic sculptor Eve Duncan’s nail-biting search for her daughter’s remains and her killer.  With the help of her lover Joe Quinn, her friend CIA agent Ling, and Bonnie’s father, the pieces start to fall into place.
             Also check out James Hunt’s Police and Thieves, about two brothers. Dan grew up to be an auto mechanic and professional thief. Seth, the “good” brother, became a parole officer. Seth is murdered and Dan heads to Seattle to learn more. What he uncovers is a gang of greedy cops operating behind the protection of their badges. John Connolly’s latest unusual thriller of “wicked whimsy” is called The Infernals. The demon Mrs. Abernathy is ready to kill a lad named Samuel Johnson because he helped stop the invasion of earth by evil forces. So Sam is on the run with his beloved dachshund but they get yanked through a portal to a very dangerous place. Critics say that David Guterson’s (Snow Falling on Cedars) new novel Ed King is “exuberantly rambunctious.” It is a bold retelling of Sophocles’ Oedipus where a modern man kills his father and marries his mother. Ed is born to an underage nanny named Diane who becomes a call girl, cocaine dealer and trophy wife. Ed is adopted by a nice couple who thrives in his middle class life until teenage rebelliousness causes him to be the driver of a car involved in a fatal accident.      
            Best selling authors with new titles out include John Grisham, David Baldacci, and Danielle Steel. The Litigators is an entertaining romp filled with the kind of courtroom strategies, theatrics, and suspense that have made John Grisham America’s favorite storyteller. The partners at Finley & Figg, all two of them, call themselves “a boutique law firm.” Boutique, as in chic, selective, and prosperous. They are, of course, none of these things. What they are is a two-bit operation always in search of their big break.  They are ready to tackle a really big case, a case that could make the partners rich without requiring them to actually practice much law.  Baldacci’s Zero Day is about combat veteran John Puller, now working as an investigator for the Army’s criminal division, who tries to solve the murder of an army man and his Pentagon contractor wife in their isolated rural home. The local homicide detective, a headstrong woman with personal demons of her own, joins forces with Puller in the investigation. As Puller digs through deception after deception, he realizes that absolutely nothing he's seen in this small town, and no one in it, are what they seem. Steel’s more predictable tale, Hotel Vendome is about a man who, following his divorce, has devoted himself to his young daughter and his 5-Star hotel. When his daughter grows up and leaves home, he falls in love with a woman who understands his professional passions.
            Jennifer Chiaverini’s Wedding Quilt finds Caroline McClure thinking about the symbolic features on a painstakingly made wedding quilt designed to display the signatures of the guests at her daughter’s wedding. In As the Pig Turns, M.C. Beaton’s latest Agatha Raisin mystery, a pig roast goes horribly awry when the “pig” on the spit turns out to be a local policeman. Come in and check us  out ! ! !

October 19 Patriot
          Two lesser-known mystery writers have new titles out. Fans of Agatha Christie and Louise Penny will really enjoy Agatha prize winning author G. M. Malliet’s new series starring Max Tudor.  Critics say that Wicked Autumn is a delightful cozy mystery with ironic humor and spicy village charm.  Max Tudor has adapted well to his post as vicar of St. Edwold’s in the idyllic village of Nether Monkslip. The quiet village seems the perfect home for Max, who has fled a harrowing past as an MI5 agent. Now he has found a measure of peace among urban escapees and yoga practitioners, artists and crafters and New Agers. But this new-found serenity is quickly shattered when the highly vocal and unpopular president of the Women’s Institute turns up dead at the Harvest Fayre. The death looks like an accident, but Max’s training as a former agent kicks in, and before long he suspects foul play.  Archer Mayor is also a lesser-known author to watch. His police procedural novels featuring Joe Gunther and the Vermont Bureau of Investigation try to figure out who is behind puzzling Tag Man burglaries where rich people (some with dark secrets) are waking up in their high security, alarm-equipped homes to find a Post-it note stuck to their bedside tables reading, "You're it." It is never immediately evident what was taken.
          Charlaine Harris,’ author of the wildly popular Sookie Stackhouse novels, has also written several excellent stand-alone novels. Secret Rage, features a former model in her late twenties who returns to her hometown to finish college. But there is rapist on campus who attacks her. Convinced that the assailant is someone she knows, Nickie sets out to track him down. Alice Hoffman also departs from her usual fare of off-beat fantasy to tell the story of a Roman siege which slaughtered most of the 700 Jewish defenders. The Dovekeepers is the story of a hated daughter, a baker’s wife, a girl disguised as a warrior and a medicine woman who keeps doves and secrets while the Roman soldiers draw near.
            New historical fiction includes William Kennedy’s Chango’s Beads and Two Tone Shoes, which concludes the Albany stories begun with Ironweed. Journalist Daniel Quinn, whose life is radically changed by an encounter with Ernest Hemingway in Havana, helps a beautiful woman run guns to the rebels.  Fast forward to Albany, NY on the day of Bobby Kennedy’s assassination when the streets seethe with anger and riots,  and a wino has been hired to shoot the mayor. Critics say this literary novel is both a serious look at people’s right to fight oppression, and a clever political romp. Sharon Kay Penman also expertly weaves well-researched historical events into a fast-paced story of the medieval era. Lionheart is about Richard I’s determination to conquer the Holy Land and free his imprisoned sister. Penman is already at work on a sequel.
          Author Marisa De Los Santos takes three young people - Pen, Will, and Cat and gives them quirks, beliefs, errors and hardship. They love one another as friends until they don't. The blow-up among them leaves each adrift. A college reunion promises to help them sort things out, but it's not that easy. To say they would travel to the ends of the earth to redeem their friendship is putting it lightly. Falling Together is this uplifting and powerful story of friendship and finding love. Leah Cohen also writes powerful novels about love and loss. Losing a newborn baby is terrible enough but when that baby also came with a shroud of secrets, intense grief can drive the family members apart. The Grief of Others is the story of the crushing sorrow of such a family.
             Chris Bohjalian’s suspenseful novel The Night Strangers wraps a family drama in an eerie ghost story. Pilot Chip Linton is haunted by the crash landing of his regional jet that killed 39 people. He and his wife decide to make a fresh start and move with their twin daughters to a small New Hampshire town, where Chip discovers a mysterious door in the basement sealed with 39 bolts. Increasingly haunted by the crash, Chip believes he can hear three of the passengers speaking to him and he begins to  lose his confidence and self-esteem.
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October 12 Patriot
          New bestselling nonfiction includes another attention-getter by Pulitzer Prize winning economist Thomas Friedman (The World is Flat).  His latest, That Used to be Us: How America Fell Behind in the World We Invented, is about four big problems that we are NOT dealing with: globalization, information technology, energy consumption and lasting deficits. He analyzes these problems and offers solutions.   Another best seller is long-distance swimmer Lynne Cox’s biography of Roald Amundsen on the 100th anniversary of him reaching the South Pole. It is called South with the Sun. Another interesting personality is Alexandra Fuller’s mother, Nicola Fuller whose adventurist spirit and abiding love for Africa were challenged by the tragic deaths of three of her young children and her subsequent mental breakdown. Cocktail Hour Under the Tree of Forgetfulness  shows the contradictions and extremes of life in Africa.
          Two new titles are of special interest to New Yorkers. After the Fall: New Yorkers Remember September 2001 and the Years That Followed is a compilation of interviews with those personally affected by the destruction of the WorldTradeCenter, immediately following the attack and for the following decade. The Columbia University Oral History Research Office completed this staggering look at haunting tales of improbable survival and evolving anguish in this book of  “living memory.”  Super Bowl Monday is a wonderful account of Super Bowl XXV between the New York Giants and the Buffalo Bills, a look at sports as a diversion from the strife-filled real world. There were four lead changes in that game that was won by one point, making it one of the most exciting games ever played. 
          There are several great new cookbooks and entertaining guides, starting with the perennial favorite, Christmas with Southern Living 2011. Popular romance author Debbie Macomber has also published a Christmas Cookbook filled with her favorite recipes as well as entertaining ideas.  Bite by Bite: 100 Stylish Little Plates You can Make for Any Party by Hollywood caterer Peter Callahan can be used for year round entertaining. There are photos and recipes for 100 of his most famous enticing creations and. Other titles include Emeril Lagasse’s Sizzling Skillets and other One Pot Wonders and fun book with pictorial directions to make Easy Cut-Up Cakes for Kids. 
          History lovers will appreciate Mary Boleyn: The Mistress of Kings, the newest Alison Weir biography of the 16th century sister to Ann Boleyn, part of the Tudor Court  who, in later years, actually married for love. Also, Eyes in the Sky by Dino Brugioni, about Eisenhower, the CIA, the Cold War and aerial espionage.  Animal lovers will enjoy Unlikely Friendships: 47 Remarkable Stories from the Animal Kingdom, which is one heartwarming tale after another of animals who bond in the most unexpected ways. A cat and a bird, a mare and a fawn, an elephant and a sheep, a snake and a hamster. Winter travelers seeking warmer climates will like knowing there are three 2011 travel guides to the Bahamas, the Caribbean, and Costa Rica. Entrepreneurs will be interested in the new Web Marketing All-in-One Reference for Dummies, a guide to establishing an online  presence using email, blogs, social media marketing and online advertising and pay-per-click. Woodland gatherers will appreciate the new beginners guide to identifying edible mushrooms, called Mushrooming without Fear.
          More serious self-help books include The Complete Guide to Special Education which offers expert advice on IEPs and how to best help kids to achieve, and Self-Therapy for the Stutterer, a guide to help those with speech blocks to more fluency.
          Whatever your information needs, check out your public library! ! !
 

October 5 Patriot

             National Book Award winner (Cold Mountain) Charles Frazier’s latest effort is getting rave reviews. Nightwoods is set in 1950s rural North Carolina where Luce is named guardian of her murdered sister’s troubled twins. She struggles to build a life with them until she is targeted by the twins’ father – her sister’s killer – who believes the children have a large cache of money. It is a spellbinding tale of love and suspense, told against a gritty background of bootlegging and violence. Chad Harbach’s debut novel is also climbing up the best seller lists.  The Art of Fielding explores relationships--between friends, family, and lovers--and the unpredictable forces that complicate them. There's an unintended affair, a post-graduate plan derailed by rejection letters, a marriage dissolved by honesty, and at the center of the book, the single baseball error that sets all of these events into motion.

            Best known for his Dave Robicheaux novels, James Lee Burke’s thirtieth novel is about Hackberry Holland, a seventy-something reformed drunk and womanizer who is now the sheriff in a small Texas border town. Feast Day of Fools begins when ex-boxer Danny Boy begs to be locked up. Hack wrings a confession from him. He needs the safety of jail after witnessing a gruesome torture killing in the desert. Critics are also giving Lee Child’s The Affair two thumbs up. It traces the story of Jack Reacher’s early life in the military before the events that made him a vigilante hero. Sandra Brown also writes powerful and bestselling suspense novels.  Lee Coburn is Lethal. He is a trained killer suspected of murdering seven men in a warehouse. He is the object of a manhunt when he feigns injury to get into the home of Honor, a mother with a four year old. This is not a random home but deliberately chosen because Coburn believes that Honor’s late husband left something valuable.

            Lesser known authors also have well-reviewed novels out this month. Imagine the surprise of middle-age accountant Martin Talbot when he learns that his aging mother, who has Alzheimer’s and lives in a nursing home, was the Black Stiletto, an internationally-known black-leather clad vigilante. While Martin is reading his mother’s diaries, mob-enforcer Ranelli has been paroled after a 52 year prison term and he is looking for the “Black Stiletto” whom he blames for his brother’s death.  The author is Raymond Benson. More murder and mayhem await in Lisa Black’s Defensive Wounds. Forensic scientist Theresa MacLean is called in to investigate the brutal murder of a criminal defense attorney whose body was found in the Ritz-Carlton, the hotel where her daughter is working for the summer. The crime scene is a forensic nightmare, for crime scenes at hotels, even the most luxurious, are teeming with trace evidence that has been left behind by innumerable guests and may or may not be related to the murder. But what Theresa finds is even worse than she imagined. As more murders occur, the clock is running to find the killer.

            Mystery writer Karen Harper has penned an intriguing tale about the Amish.  Sarah Kauffman has been painting murals on a few of the Amish community's barns. Each was designed like a quilt square, representing a piece of the Amish traditions Sarah loved. The works of art were intended to draw more tourists to the HomeValley in the struggling economy. But instead, one by one, each barn is set ablaze and destroyed. The book is called Fall from Pride. Sharon McCrumb’s new mystery The Ballad of Tom Dooley is based on a true crime made famous by the Kingston Trio. In the 1860s, North Carolina mountain girl Laura Foster is murdered and her lover, Confederate soldier Tom Dula, is hanged.

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Sept 21 Patriot

            There are new novels for every taste this week: suspense, mystery, romance and Christian.  Using the pseudonym J.D. Robb offered Nora Roberts the opportunity to reach a new and different group of readers. The first futuristic suspense J. D. Robb book, Naked in Death, was published in paperback in 1995, and readers were immediately drawn to Eve Dallas, a tough cop with a dark past, and her even more mysterious love interest, Roarke. Her latest is New York to Dallas, an “In Death” novel in which NYC homicide cop Eve Dallas is in a race against time to recapture an escaped child killer.

            John Connolly also writes popular suspense tales. Burning Soul finds detective Charlie Parker caught in a web of corruption and deceit involving the FBI, a mobster and a teenage girl when he investigates threats against a man who is hiding a criminal past. Mystery writer Ruth Rendell also has a new suspense novel out. When four bodies are discovered in an underground tomb, former Chief Inspector Wexford is pulled out of retirement to follow a complex trail. Three of the bodies have been there over 10 years but one has only been there about two years. Critics say that Rendell is “brilliant” in showcasing London through the eyes of Wexford.  The book is called The Vault.

            Because The Race begins with historical facts of early 1900s America, critics say that the latest Clive Cussler adventure does NOT go “over the top” like some of his other tales. Det. Isaac Bell of the Van Dorn Detective Agency oversees a female aviator about to participate in a 1910 cross country race. He must protect her from her violent husband who has already has committed one murder. This is Cussler’s fourth Bell novel.  Author Robert Parker, author of nearly 70 novels, died earlier this year. His estate and his long-time publisher G. P. Putnam’s Sons have come together, striking a deal that allows Parker’s  best-selling series, Spenser (39 novels since 1974) and Jesse Stone (9 novels since 1997), to continue in the hands of two new writers, Michael Brandman and Ace Atkins. The first Brandman book is out this week. It is called Robert B. Parker’s Killing the Blues and it continues the story of Boston Police Chief Jesse Stone whose investigation into a violent series of car thefts is complicated by politics and the summer tourist season.

            The fourth Chet and Bernie mystery is here. Cool canine Chet and his beloved hapless PI Bernie have been hired to find a boy possibly snatched by his divorced dad, but Chet noses out clues that make the search more desperate. Check out Spencer Quinn’s The Dog Who Knew Too Much. Rhys Bowen’s fifth Royal Spyness mystery is called Naughty in Nice. Lady Georgiana is in Nice to search for the Queen’s missing snuff box. While there, she is invited to participate in a Coco Chanel fashion show where a necklace belonging to the Queen is missing. There is also a murder! With all of this going on, when is a girl going to find time to go to the casino!

 Jacquelyn Mitchard continues her explorations of survivor guilt in Second Nature. She returns to the Cappadora family saga (The Deep End of the Ocean) placing them in Chicago where Beth and her sons meet a young burn victim, Sicily Coyne who undergoes a face transplant. Mary McGarry Morris also excels at family dramas with tingly psychological twists. Her newest is Light from a Distant Star. With her father’s business in trouble and her mother now employed, 13-year-old Nellie is the determined caregiver for her little brother. The adults she encounters – like the stripper who rents a nearby apartment – complicate her life further. Then a violent act lands Nellie in court as a witness where no one believes her.

Linda Howard is called the Queen of Romantic Suspense. Angie Powell is on a camping trip with clients when she finds herself at gunpoint. The sinfully handsome guide is off site tracking a wounded bear. Will Angie survive? Find out in Prey.

Robin Lee Hatcher’s new Christian romance Belonging is about a new schoolteacher who needs to prove herself to the people of Frenchman’s Bluff, Idaho. Her inexperience has some concerned, especially widower Colin Murphy. Beverly Lewis’ The Mercy is the first in a new trilogy. It explores whether there is any possible middle ground between a woman reclaiming her old-fashioned Amish lifestyle and thoroughly modern man?

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September 14 Patriot

             Author Ruth Logan Herne has published the third in her romantic “Men of Allegany County” series. The first, Reunited Hearts is about a military hero returning home and learning that his old girlfriend has a son who looks just like him; the second, Small-Town Hearts is about a candy mogul intent on locating one of his chain of  sweet shops in tiny Jamison, NY, which would mean the end Megan Russo’s little shop.  The third, Mended Hearts tells about a high-powered businessman who is smitten by the town’s quiet, shy librarian. These were written after the author came to Wellsville in Allegany County in 2007 for a Little League championship. These titles are part of Harlequin Publishers “Love Inspired” inspirational romance books and will be found in the paperback section of your library.

            Other new romances include titles by well known authors Jude Deveraux and Diana Palmer.  Deveraux’s Heartwishes finds Gemma Ranford determinedly pursuing the task of cataloging the documents of the old and prestigious Frazier family when she comes across a reference to a legendary stone reputed to grant wishes to family members. With handsome eldest son Colin Frazier at her side, she seeks to solve the mystery of the stone. FBI agent Jon Blackhawk must convince single mother Jocelyn Perry, who is the beautiful and resourceful assistant who comes to his aid time after time, that he is worth the risk in Palmer’s Merciless.

            Vampire Queen Betsy Taylor thought she couldn't die. So what's she doing in the morgue? It could have something to do with a time- traveling trip she made, and a foe with a wicked agenda that could finally be the real death of Betsy if she's not careful. The tenth in Mary Janice Davidson’s "Queen Betsy" series is a rollicking good time called Undead and Undermined.  Mary Balogh holds readers in thrall as she takes a staid, dutiful Nobleman named Edward and pairs him with an impulsive, fun-loving heroine named Angeline and proves that opposites do attract. The Secret Mistress is actually a prequel to Balogh’s earlier books about Lady Angeline’s brothers.

            Because women in the 1800s are subjected to the whims of the male population, spirited Lillian pretends to be married to a soldier who is stationed far away. Then she takes her savings and opens a store in frontier town. The townspeople there believe her story of the soldier husband and her business flourishes. Much to her surprise, a man claiming to be her husband, Patrick Donovan, arrives in town to claim his bride.  This clever tale about a strong heroine is called The Counterfeit Bride by Nancy Parra. The Legacy is Katherine Webb’s first novel that critics say is impossible to put down. After their stern grandmother’s death, sisters Erica and Beth return to her foreboding English estate. As they go through their grandmother’s belongings, Erica hopes to sort out the threads of her troubled life including the truth behind a cousin’s disappearance 23 years ago. What begins as a quiet tale about a troubled relationship between two sisters snowballs into a desperate quest for truth and identity. 

            J. Courtney Sullivan’s Maine has been on the best seller lists for much of the summer. It is the final summer in Maine for the Kelleher family and its four strong-willed women are dreaming of bare feet, cocktails at sunset, and that magical ocean air. Alice is the matriarch, a regular fixture at morning mass, and an equally regular fixture in the wicker chair on the sun porch where she spends all afternoon drinking manhattans and smoking cigarettes. Maggie is Alice’s granddaughter, a thirty-two-year-old writer who has just realized she's pregnant, a fact she has yet to tell her off-again boyfriend. Maggie’s mother, Kathleen, is the prodigal daughter, camped out in California, wishing desperately to avoid the annual Kelleher showdown. And Ann Marie, Alice’s daughter-in-law, is the long-suffering martyr and avid dollhouse collector who is determined to keep this chaotic household in order.

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