|
See Upcoming Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy Releases
See Upcoming Mystery Releases
Previous Staff Picks
Staff Picks for July/August 2006
Charity's Staff Picks
In the Bleak Midwinter by Julia Spencer-Fleming
"Clare Fergusson, the new priest at St. Alban's, stands out in the conservative Episcopal parish at Miller's Kill, New York. She is not just a priest but a tough ex-Army chopper pilot, and nobody's fool. When a newborn infant left at the church door brings her together with the town's police chief, Russ Van Alstyne, who's also ex-Army and a cynical good shepherd for the stray sheep of his hometown, their search for the baby's mother quickly leads them into the secrets that shadow Miller's Kill like the ever-present Adirondacks. What they discover is a world of trouble, an attraction to each other-and murder…"
$6.99
Maisie Dobbs by Jacqueline Winspear
"The daughter of a struggling greengrocer, Maisie Dobbs was only thirteen when she was sent to work as a maid for wealthy London aristocrats. But being bright and thoughtful beyond her years, Maisie studies her way to Cambridge, then serves as a nurse on the Front during the Great War. Now, it's the spring of 1929, nearly ten years after the Armistice and Maisie has just opened up her own detective agency. Her first assignment, a seemingly open-and-shut infidelity case, will reveal a much deeper, darker mystery, forcing Maisie to revisit the horrors of the war and the ghost she left behind. An absorbing read."
$14.00
Decorated to Death by Dean James
"Simon Kirby-Jones, a vampire sleuth, pulls up stakes in the United States and moves to a small English village. Hardly one to become star-struck, Simon nevertheless deigns to attend a tea at Blitherington Hall in honor of celebrity interior designer Zeke Harwood, star of the popular television show Tres Zeke. The self-acclaimed King of Home Decorating is found dead in a locked drawing room. Simon must peel away the layers of lies to reveal who killed the decorator."
$5.99
Death of a Poison Pen by M. C. Beaton
"A sudden plague of maliciousness strikes the beautiful Highland town of Lochdubh in the form of a rash of poison pen letters. Things turn deadly when the local postmistress is found hanged in her room… with a vicious note beneath her dangling feet. Though his superiors call it an obvious suicide, Constable Hamish Macbeth pronounces it a murder - and sets off a media circus. The Constable gets caught in the middle of this volatile case and dangerous romances."
$6.99
Evan Can Wait by Rhys Bowen
"A film crew - led by the smug, smarmy Grantley Smith - has descended on the tiny Welsh village of Llanfair, to document the raising of a World War II plane from the lake where it landed long ago. And Constable Evans is keeping order and helping them out, trying to find local people with stories to tell of that time. When Smith is found dead, Evans uncovers a deadly plot reaching back to WWII."
$5.99
Andrew's Staff Picks
The Conqueror Worms by Brian Keene
"Just in time for picnic season, Keene delivers this wild, gruesome page-turner about two elderly West Virginia good old boys menaced by giant earthworms -and worse. Octogenarian Teddy Garnett tells this story of a global flood that has left humanity in tatters. Holed up in his mountain home, Teddy and his buddy Carl Seaton struggle through daily life, puzzling over things even stranger than a 40-day rainstorm, including the giant slime-coated holes that keep showing up in Teddy's yard. Before long, Teddy and Carl are fending off man-eating earthworms the size of buses."
$6.99
In the Night Room by Peter Straub
"Willy Patrick, the respected author of the award-winning young-adult novel "In the Night Room", thinks she is losing her mind-again. One day, she is drawn helplessly into the parking lot of a warehouse. She knows somehow that her daughter, Holly, is being held in the building, and she has an overwhelming need to rescue her. But what Willy knows is impossible, for her daughter is dead.
On the same day, author Timothy Underhill, who has been struggling with a new book, is confronted with the ghost of his nine-year-old sister, April. Soon after, he begins to receive eerie, fragmented e-mails that he finally realizes are from people he knew in his youth-people now dead. Like his sister, they want urgently to tell him something. When Willy and Timothy meet, the frightening parallels between Willy's tragic loss and the story in Tim's manuscript suggest that they must join forces to confront the evils surrounding them."
$7.99
The Blue Girl by Charles De Lint
"17-year old Imogene's tough, rebellious nature has caused her more harm than good-so when her family moves to Newford, she decides to reinvent herself. She won't lose her punk/thrift-shop look, but she'll try to avoid the gangs, work a little harder at school, and maybe even stay out of trouble for a change.
But trouble shows up anyway. Imogene quickly catches the eye of Redding's bullies, as well as the school's resident teenage ghost. Then she gets on the wrong side of a gang of malicious fairies. When her old imaginary childhood friend, Pelly, actually manifests, Imogene realizes that the impossible is all too real. And it's dangerous. If she wants to survive high school-not to mention stay alive-she has to fall back on the skills she picked up in her hometown, running with a gang."
$7.99
Hellblazer: Dangerous Habits by Garth Ennis and William Simpson
"In this Hellblazer graphic novel, John Constantine learns that his years of constant smoking have left him with terminal lung cancer. After surviving countless hair-raising excursions into the netherworld of the occult, will Constantine be felled by something so prosaic as a terminal disease?"
Not if he can help it.
$14.99
Small Steps by Louis Sachar
"Two years after being released from Camp Green Lake, Armpit is home in Austin, Texas, trying to turn his life around. But it's hard when you have a record, and everyone expects the worst from you. The only person who believes in him is Ginny, his 10-year old disabled neighbor. Together, they are learning to take small steps. And he seems to be on the right path, until X-Ray, a buddy from Camp Green Lake, comes up with a get-rich-quick scheme. This leads to a chance encounter with teen pop sensation, Kaira DeLeon, and suddenly his life spins out of control, with only one thing for certain. He'll never be the same again.
In his first major novel since Holes, critically acclaimed novelist Louis Sachar uses his signature wit combined with a unique blend of adventure and deeply felt characters to explore issues of race, the nature of celebrity, the invisible connections that determine a person's life, and what it takes to stay on course. Doing the right thing is never a wrong choice-but a small step in the right direction."
$16.95
Lelia's Staff Picks
No Good Deeds by Laura Lippman
"For Tess Monaghan, the unsolved murder of a young federal prosecutor is nothing more than a theoretical problem, one of several cases to be deconstructed in her new gig as a consultant to the local newspaper. But it becomes all too tangible when her boyfriend brings home a young street kid who doesn't even realize he holds an important key to the man's death. Tess agrees to protect the boy's identity no matter what, especially when one of his friends is killed in what appears to be a case of mistaken identity. But with federal agents determined to learn the boy's name at any cost, Tess finds out just how far even official authorities will go to get what they want. Soon she's facing felony charges -- and her boyfriend, Crow, has gone into hiding with his young proté gé , so Tess can't deliver the kid to investigators even if she wants to. Time and time again Tess is reminded of her father's old joke, the one about the most terrifying sentence in the English language: 'We're from the government -- and we're here to help.' "
$24.95 prior to new hardcover discount
Dying in Style by Elaine Viets
"Mystery shopper Josie Marcus's report about Danessa Celedine's exclusive store is less than stellar, and it may cost the fashion diva fifty million dollars. But Danessa's financial future becomes moot when she's found murdered, strangled with one of her own thousand-dollar snakeskin belts--and Josie is accused of the crime."
$6.99
Another Word for Murder by Nero Blanc
"Crossword editor Belle Graham and her P.I. husband Roscoe come to the aid of their new friend, Karen Tacete, when Karen's dentist husband is kidnapped, only to later turn up dead, and her daughter falls victim to a series of bizarre threats that mirror a series of enigmatic crosswords with nursery rhyme clues that have been sent to Belle."
$14.00 trade paperback and $7.99 mass market
Fail-Safe by Eugene Burdick
"Something has gone wrong. A group of American bombers armed with nuclear weapons is streaking past the fail-safe point, beyond recall, and no one knows why. Their destination -- Moscow.
In a bomb shelter beneath the White House, the calm young president turns to his Russian translator and says, "I think we are ready to talk to Premier Kruschchev." Not far away, in the War Room at the Pentagon, the secretary of defense and his aides watch with growing anxiety as the luminous blips crawl across a huge screen map. High over the Bering Strait in a large Vindicator bomber, a colonel stares in disbelief at the attack code number on his fail-safe box and wonders if it could possibly be a mistake.
First published in 1962, when America was still reeling from the Cuban missle crisis, "Fail-Safe" reflects the apocalyptic attitude that pervaded society during the height of the Cold War, when disaster could have struck at any moment."
$14.00
The Dragon Stone by John Conlee
"The Dragon Stone-A Tale of Arthur, Merlin & Cabal, is the medievel story of King Arthur, narrated by his faithful dog, Cabal. Cabal, one of the story's central figures, originates in the numerous references to King Arthur's dog that are found in some of the earliest surviving examples of Arthurian literature. Unfortunately, Cabal - in contrast to Merlin and the Lady of the Lake, or Excalibur and the Holy Grail - has been largely forgotton. If every dog must have his day, as the old saying goes, then it is high time that Cabal, King Arthur's valiant (and verbal)dog, should have his. The Dragon Stone is intended for readers aged 10-14 but the novel is entirely appropriate for any reader who loves the story of King Arthur, or who shares the author's deep affection for dogs, or who may still feel just a little bit young at heart."
$11.95
|
