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Staff Picks for August
Featured author-- Jack Whyte
Andrew's Staff Picks
A Darkness More Than Night by Michael Connelly
"Terrence McCaleb is asked by the LAPD to help them investigate a series of murders that have them baffled. They are the kind of ritualized killings that McCaleb specialized in solving with the FBI, and he is reluctantly drawn from his peaceful new life back into the horror and excitement of tracking down a terrifying homicidal maniac. More horrifying still, the suspect who seems to fit the profile that McCaleb develops is someone he has known and worked with in the past: Detective Harry Bosch."
$7.99
Exquisite Corpse by Poppy Z. Brite
"To serial slayer Andrew Compton, murder is an art, "the most intimate art." After feigning his own death to escape from prison, Compton makes his way to the United States with the sole ambition of bringing his "art" to new heights. Tortured by his own perverse desires, and drawn to possess and destroy young boys, Compton inadvertently joins forces with Jay Byrne, a dissolute playboy who has pushed his "art" to limits even Compton hadn't previously imagined. Together, Compton and Byrne set their sights on an exquisite young Vietnamese-American runaway, Tran, whom they deem to be the perfect victim.
Swiftly moving from the grimy streets of London's Piccadilly Circus to the decadence of the New Orleans French Quarter, and punctuated by rants from radio talk show host Lush Rimbaud, a.k.a. Luke Ransom, Tran's ex-lover, who is dying of AIDS and who intends to wreak ultimate havoc before leaving this world, "Exquisite Corpse" unfolds into a labyrinth of murder and love. Ultimately all four characters converge on a singular bloody night after which their lives will be irrevocably changed -- or terminated."
$12.00
Captains Outrageous by Joe R. Lansdale
"Edgar-winner Lansdale's (The Bottoms) sixth Hap and Leonard mystery marvel is sure to keep you laughing amid the carnage. No good deed goes unpunished, especially when Hap Collins becomes a reluctant hero down in East Texas while working as a security guard for a chicken plant. After rescuing a local girl from a savage beating, Hap receives a big reward. Problem is while on the outs with his girlfriend, Brett, he decides to use some of the reward money on a sea cruise shared with his best friend, Leonard Pine. After all, the closest Hap's family had ever come to a cruise "was a rowboat down the Sabine River with a fishing pole." So off to the Caribbean the fearless pair go, only to run smack dab into the usual heap of trouble. Not only does the food stink, but on their first tourist stop to check out some Mayan ruins, they miss the boat back to the ship. Stranded in Playa del Carmen, they run into muggers and, aided by a mysterious old fisherman and his troubled daughter, get caught in a sticky web of intrigue, violence and chicanery. As the body count mounts, they find no place is safe, not even East Texas. The two friends ultimately go back to Mexico to take care of some business they're not apt to soon forget. Lansdale's quick wit is in top form, and his raunchy, sometimes ridiculous and yet so lovable heroes continue to amuse. Take this one along on your next cruise."
$12.95
Backstabber by Tim Cockey
"Hitchcock Sewell is at it again and better than ever--welcome back to Charm City, where the corpses are cold, the undertaker is hot, and the fun never stops. It's getting worse. This time in Tim Cockey's new mystery "Backstabber", Hitch has actually been called to the scene of a murder even before the police. Why? Well, his friend Sisco was hoping that maybe Hitch would do him a favor...scoop up the body and take it away, maybe slip it into a grave somewhere when no one was looking. But Hitch is no fool. He's not about to get dragged into this mess. The usual cast of characters is on hand: Billie, Julia, Alcatraz, the return of good old police lieutenant Kruk--as well as a whole new crowd, including the listless magician, Mr. Wow; the antique lesbians, Scotty and Nance; rival undertakers, George and Happy Fink; and a hearse full of others. You'll laugh till you stop."
$21.95 prior to 25%
new hardcover discount
Perfect Circle by Sean Stewart
"Ghosts are like homeless people, we are told by DK "Dead" Kennedy, the hero of World Fantasy Award winner Stewart's latest blend of magical realism and Texas regionalism: most of us look away, but he can't. This ability to see the other side complicates life tremendously (he can't drive because at night ghosts look just like the living, and he's wrecked cars avoiding them), especially when a distant cousin hires him to exorcise the ghost of a girl the cousin murdered. Part of the novel deals with DK's offbeat career as an alternative exorcist, but what Stewart seems really to focus on is how these abilities now threaten his relationships with family, both immediate and extended. DK still loves his ex-wife and is active in the life of his daughter, but comes to realize that he's like a ghost in their lives: "Not all ghosts are dead, but all are hungry." Stewart's compelling account of how DK comes to grips with his ghosts, both actual and metaphorical, is alternately poignant and hilarious, with some genuinely creepy moments and one or two powerful jolts."
$15.00
Lelia's Staff Picks
By a Spider's Thread by Laura Lippman
Mark Rubin's family is missing -- and the police can't do a thing because all the evidence indicates that his wife left willingly. So the successful furrier turns to Tess Monaghan, hoping she can help him find his wife and three children. Tess doesn't know quite what to make of Rubin, a wealthy Orthodox Jew who refuses to shake her hand and doles out vitally important information in grudging dribs and drabs. According to her client, he and his beautiful wife, Natalie, had a flawless, happy marriage. Yet one day, without any warning or explanation, Natalie gathered up their children and vanished.
Tapping into a network of fellow investigators spread across the country, Tess is soon able to locate the runaway wife and her stolen progeny, moving furtively from state to state, town to town. But the Rubins are not alone. A man is traveling with them, a stranger described by witnesses as "handsome" and "charming" but otherwise unremarkable to these casual observers, who have no way of sensing the fury beneath his smooth surface.
The motive behind Natalie's reckless flight lies somewhere in the gap between what Mark Rubin will not say and what he refuses to believe. An intricate web of betrayal and vengeance is already beginning to unravel, as memory begets rage and rage leads to desperation -- and murder. And suddenly much more than one man's future happiness and stubborn pride are in peril; the lives of three innocent children are dangling by the slenderest of threads."
$24.95 prior to 25%
new hardcover discount
The Taking by Dean Koontz
"On the morning that will mark the end of the world they have known, Molly and Niel Sloan awaken to the drumbeat of rain on their roof. It has haunted their dreams through the night, and now they find a luminous golden downpour drenching their small California mountain town. As the rain continues to fall, as hours pass and the young couple hear news of extreme weather phenomena across the globe, an obscuring fog turns once familiar streets into a ghostly labyrinth. By evening, the town has lost all modes of communication, and the Sloans have gathered together with some of their neighbors, sensing a threat they cannot identify or even imagine. In the night, strange noises arise and mysterious lights are seen drifting among the trees. The rain diminishes with the dawn but a moody gray-purple twilight prevails. Within the misty gloom, the small band will encounter something that reveals in a terrifying instant what is happening to the world--something that is hunting "them with ruthless efficiency. "
$27.00 prior to 25%
new hardcover discount
Pasta Imperfect by Maddy Hunter
"They've survived Switzerland. They've tackled Ireland. Now, in the third novel in the laugh-out-loud Passport to Peril mystery series, the gang from lowa is off to Italy. It's a family affair when the unstoppable Emily Andrew is joined by spunky Nana, ex-husband Jack (now Jackie), and her mother in Italy for a romance publishing tour. But when the publisher announces a moral-boosting romance-writing contest with a grand prize of a book contract, Emily finds someone's ambition is getting out of hand as aspiring romance writers start turning up dead."
$6.50
Take the Bait by S. W. Hubbard
"The mountains guard their secrets....
The remote village of Trout Run lies inside New York State's vast Adirondack Park, a tiny community cloistered within deep forests and rugged mountains. You can drive for miles without seeing another soul -- so when high school senior Janelle Harvey vanishes while walking home along a lonely forest road, only the trees are mute witnesses to her disappearance.
Police Chief Frank Bennett is new to Trout Run, and he's determined not to make another mistake in judgment like the one that cost him his previous job. But no one -- family, friends, or clergy -- seems willing to tell all they know about Janelle. Yet as the search goes on, Frank determinedly peels back the layers of mystery...only to find that even in a town where everyone knows your name, there are some secrets no one wants shared."
$6.50
A Deadly Bouquet by Janis Harrison
"In her fourth outing, florist Bretta Solomon has been hired along with a few other River City business owners to put together the town's wedding of the year. But when the landscaper responsible for the nuptial's setting and the bride's hairdresser both die suspiciously on the same day, Bretta can't help but think there's something more sinister in the air than love and marriage. It's up to her to figure out just exactly what's going on before the guests arrive for the big event."
$6.50
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