It is the year 2056, five years after an influenza pandemic killed nearly half the world's population. Tharon Trace is about to turn twelve, that uncertain age between child and teenager, if she lives that long. When she and her two best friends witness a murder, they are abducted and swept into a web of conspiracy and danger. Tharon and her friends must escape and warn someone about the threats they overheard, but who can they trust? Deputy Dana Donovan has resolved to stop waiting for the man she loves to love her. Before she can figure out how to find the life she's been missing, she must find the missing chil- dren. She teams up with Tom Trace, Tharon's father, whose skill at tracking puts them fast on the children's trail. But will they be fast enough to rescue the children before the killers find them again?
Shall We Not Revenge by D.M. Pirrone
In the harsh early winter months of 1872, while Chicago is still smoldering from the Great Fire, Irish Catholic detective Frank Hanley is assigned the case of a murdered Orthodox Jewish rabbi. His investigation proves difficult when the neighbor-hood's Yiddish-speaking residents, wary of outsiders, are reluctant to talk. But when the rabbi's headstrong daughter Rivka unexpectedly offers to help Hanley find her father's killer, the detective receives much more than the break he was looking for. Their pursuit of the truth draws Rivka and Hanley closer together and leads them to a relief organization run by the city's wealthy movers and shakers. Along the way, they uncover a web of political corruption, crooked cops, and well-buried ties to two notorious Irish gangsters from Hanley's checkered past. Even after he is kicked off the case, stripped of his badge, and thrown in jail, Hanley refuses to quit. With a personal vendetta to settle for an innocent life lost, he is determined to expose a complicated criminal scheme, not only for his own sake, but for Rivka's as well.
Spinning in Her Grave by Molly MacRae
Kath Rutledge is settling in as the owner of the Weaver's cat, a fiber and fabric shop in Blue Plum, Tennessee. But nothing, not even the ghost haunting her shop prepares her for the mystery that will leave the whole town spinning . . . It's time for Blue Plum's annual historical festival, and everyone-including Kath and her spunky fiber and needlework group, TGIF (Thank Goodness It's Fiber)-is getting into the action. Expert spinners are being gathered, and a businessman has approached Kath about using the second-floor of her store for part of a reenact- ment. But the reenactment ends in real-life bloodshed when local bake Reva Louise Snapp is shot-with a bullet from a modern day gun. Kath has her theories about who wanted to end Reva Louise's life. But there's talk of a sniper stalking Blue Plum, and Kath's shop is suspected of being the murderer's hideout. Now Kath, her TGIF pals, and the gloomy ghost, Geneva, must unravel the mystery quickly, or someone else might be left hanging by a thread . . .
Plagued by Quilt by Molly MacRae
Yarn shop owner Kath Rutledge is at a historic farm in Blue Plum, Tennessee, volunteering for the high school program Hands on History. But when a long-buried murder is uncovered on the property, Kath needs help from Geneva the ghost to solve a crime that time forgot . . . Kath and her needlework group TGIF are preparing to teach a workshop at the Holston Homeplace Living History Farm, but their lesson in crazy quilts is no match for the crazy antics of the assistant director, Phillip Bell. Hamming it up with equal parts history and histrionics, Phillip leads an archaeological dig of the farm's original dump site-until one student stops the show by uncovering some human bones. When a full skeleton is later excavated, Kath can't help but wonder if it's somehow connected to Geneva, the ghost who haunts her shop, and whom she met at this very site. After Phillip is found dead, it's up to Kath to thread the clues together before someone else becomes history.
The Bride Wore Dead by EM Kaplan
Just days after Josie is the last-minute bridesmaid at a massive Boston Brahmin wedding, the lovely bride dies on her honeymoon at an exclusive Arizona resort. The mother of the bride thinks Josie can find out what really happened. Josie discovers the dead bride may not have been the first dead girl. And to Josie's horror, the killer has set his sights on her next.
"Truly, a Catholic wedding in Boston was a wonder of the ancient world, Josie thought-one of the things that everyone needed to witness once in her life. The pageantry of velvet robes and incense. The standing, the sitting, and the standing some more. The Latin incantations that reminded Josie of a horror movie-the main source of her knowledge of Latin: The Exorcist and The Omen, parts one and two.
To Josie, the wedding was a big, sweaty blur and she imagined that it had to be even worse for the bride. During the ceremony, a trickle of perspiration had run down the side of the bride Leann's face. Josie was close enough to see it, even though she was the tenth and last-minute forlorn bridesmaid whose calla lily bouquet had started to droop. Calla lilies, weren't those traditionally funeral flowers?"
Implications by Richard DavidsonBishop Howard Chandler has assigned Pastor Arthur Blake to investigate the burning of a church in the small city of Amboy, Illinois. Arthur learns from that church's pastor that she had to overcome past improprieties by former members. During the investigation of the fire's cause, Arthur and the state fire investigators uncover disturbing aspects of the ninety-year-old church's design and history. Arthur calls on his federal associates for assistance, as the investigation of a local church fire expands to seeking solutions to related crimes occurring from the present, to recent years, and back to the Prohibition Era. Progress in the investigation intertwines with new developments in Arthur's family life.
Mercy by B.J. Daniels
For U.S. marshal Rourke Kincaid, there's the law...and then there's his law. When the two don't agree, he always trusts his instincts. A killing spree has gripped the Northwest, showing a strange connection that only he sees, and now the old rules of justice no longer apply. Forced to turn rogue, he goes deep undercover to track his mysterious female suspect to a quiet, unassuming cafe in the wild, isolated mountains of Beartooth, Montana. But encountering Callie Westfield complicates his mission in ways he never expected. As suspicious as she seems, her fragile beauty and sexy charm get to Rourke. Then the gory crimes begin anew. With his heart suddenly at war with his instincts, he has only two options. Either turn Callie over to the law, or put everything - including his badge and his life - ont he line to protect her.
Retribution by Annie Rose Alexander An NFL Linebacker, Brian Williams, is found dead in the middle of the street in the nation's capital. In the following weeks more famous athletes are found murdered, each in a different way. The police and FBI are stumped. Homicide detectives Ariel Summers and Paul Costello are brought in to investigate. Ariel's private investigator boyfriend, Jason Steel, is hired by William's wife to find answers and is soon clashing with Ariel over the investigation and her arrest of his new client. But as the death toll continues to rise, the citizens of DC panic. When Ariel and Jason's close friends and family members are threatened, they are forced to work together on a plan to trap the nation's most dangerous and cold-blooded assassin in history.
Stinking Rich by Rob Brunet
What could possibly go wrong when the backwoods Libidos Motorcycle Club hires a high school dropout to tend a barn full of high-grade marijuana? Plenty, it turns out. In a world where indoor plumbing's optional and each local wacko is more twisted than the last, drug money draws reprobates like moths to a lantern. From loveable losers to gnarly thugs and law-and- order wannabes, every last one of them has an angle-their best shot at being stinking rich. And with their own warped ideas about right, wrong, and retribution, the Libidos aren't far behind.
Dr. Watson's Casebook (in the Company of Sherlock Holmes) by Andrew Grant
Marc Bowman, a highly successful computer consultant and software designer, walks into his job at a major tech company one morning only to find himself fired on the spot, stonewalled by his boss, and ushered out of the building. Then things get worse: An explosive argument drives his wife away and a robbery threatens to yank a million-dollar idea-and his whole future-out from under him. In a matter of hours, Marc has gone from having it all to being sucker-punched by fate. But it's only Monday, and before the week is over, he'll be stalked, ambushed, wiretapped, arrested, duped, double- and triple-crossed-until he can't tell enemies from allies. Wolf Pack - Mystery on Isle Royale by Jeanne Meeks
(2nd in the Backcountry Mystery Series)
Can a backpacking trip to an island famous for its wolves mend the relationship between Amy and her grown daughter? Will murder and blackmail bring them together--or will they be buried on Isle Royale? Emboldened by her adventures in the Grand Canyon, Amy Warren again laces up her hiking boots. She ferries with her daughter, Meagan, to Isle Royal National Park. When volunteer ranger Sarah Rochon is accused by a co-worker of assault and theft, Amy is torn between spending precious time with Meagan and clearing her best friend's name.
When Amy rescues Remington, a pampered Havanese show dog, from the frigid waters of Lake Superior, he becomes her champion. Together they sniff out clues to the evil that threatens the natural tranquility of the magical island.
