HOT NEW FICTION
APRIL 2008

 

David Baldacci.  The Whole Truth.  While the head of the world's largest defense contractor and his minions secretly conspire to gain even more riches by instigating a war, a multi-national intelligence agent reluctantly travels to keep the world safe, and an ambitious journalist receives a mysterious offer to interview the sole survivor of a recent massacre.

 

Nevada Barr.  Winter Study.  Visiting an isolated Lake Superior isle to study wolf behavior in preparation for her own park's receipt of a pack, ranger Anna Pigeon joins an esteemed scientific group that subsequently discovers unusual DNA evidence suggesting that a giant and dangerous wolf hybrid has been introduced by an unknown source.

 

Elizabeth Berg.  The Day I Ate Whatever I Wanted: And Other Small Acts of Liberation.  A compelling anthology of short fiction, including eleven never-before-published pieces, explores the lives of women breaking free of the convention that controls their lives, in a collection that includes “Returns and Exchanges,” “Over the Hill and Into the Woods,” and the title story, about a woman who goes on a happiness binge after ditching Weight Watchers.

 

Jennifer Chiaverini.  The Winding Ways Quilt (Elm Creek Quilts).  A latest installment in the popular series brings newcomers into the Circle of Quilters who share the original members' struggles to balance their creative lives with their friendship and their work and family demands. By the author of The Quilter's Homecoming.

 

Mary Higgins Clark.  Where Are You Now.  Driven by a need to solve the mystery of an older sibling's disappearance ten years earlier, young lawyer Carolyn MacKenzie launches an investigation into a bizarre community of people who choose to disappear, embarking on a driven quest that poses life-threatening consequences.

 

Harlan Coben.  Hold Tight.  Worrying about their sixteen-year-old son Adam in the wake of a friend's suicide and a string of other traumatic school incidents, Tia and Mike Baye install an activity monitor on their son's computer and are alarmed to learn that the suicide victim's mother believes Adam may have been involved.

 

Barbara Delinsky.  Suddenly.  Her comfortable world shattered by the inexplicable suicide of her best friend and medical partner, Vermont pediatrician Paige Pfeiffer struggles to come to terms with her grief while caring for her friend's adopted baby, a circumstance that leads to an unexpected new relationship. By the author of A Woman Betrayed.

 

Jude Deveraux.  Secrets. Having harbored an unrequited love for a man she met in childhood, Cassandra impulsively breaks an engagement to become the now-widowed man's nanny, but realizes that her chance for winning his heart is threatened by dark secrets. By the author of Someone to Love.  

 

Eric Jerome Dickey.  Pleasure.  Having left a man who has failed to meet her intimate needs, a woman considers the morally challenging notion of pursuing relationships with more than one person and gives into fantasies in her subsequent affairs with a married man and an unmarried stranger.

 

Dorothea Benton Frank.  Bulls Island.  Twenty years after breaking her engagement to a prominent Southern blueblood in the wake of her mother's suspicious death, Betts Barrett returns to her home on Bulls Island to fight local developers and faces unexpected and dangerous challenges.

 

Joanne Harris.  The Girl With No Shadow.  A long-anticipated sequel to the best-selling Chocolat finds Vianne assuming a low-profile new identity in Paris, where she opens a chocolaterie and hopes to escape the ghosts of her past before a devious new friend threatens everything she has worked for.

 

Carolyn Hart.  Death Walked In: A Death on Demand Mystery.  In the aftermath of a million-dollar coin collection theft, bookstore owner Annie Darling and her private-investigator husband Max are further perplexed by a client's untimely murder in an antebellum home that the Darlings are restoring.

 

Alice Hoffman.  The Third Angel.  The best-selling author of Here on Earth explores the complex, ever-changing nature of love in a novel that follows the lives of three women in love with the wrong men--headstrong Madeleine Heller, attracted to her sister's fiancé; Frieda Lewis, a runaway doctor's daughter and the muse to an ill-fated rock star; and Bryn Evans, engaged to be married but secretly obsessed with her ex-husband.

 

Lisa Jackson.  Lost Souls.  True crime writer Kristi Benz, searching for the one case that will take her to the top, gets her wish when she enrolls at All Saints College to investigate the brutal murders of three troubled girls, all of whom were found with the blood drained from their bodies, and comes face-to-face with a sadistic killer.

 

Iris Johansen.  Quicksand.  Obsessed with finding her daughter, Bonnie, forensic sculptor Eve Duncan enlists the aid of Dr. Megan Blair to help bring Bonnie's killer to justice, embarking on a perilous quest, accompanied by Joe Quinn, that will either bring her ultimate closure and revenge or destroy everything--and everyone--she cares about.

 

Jhumpa Lahiri.  Unaccustomed Earth.  Exploring the secrets and complexities lying at the heart of family life and relationships, a collection of eight stories includes the title work, about a young mother in a new city whose father tends her garden while hiding a secret love affair, as well as “Hema and Kaushik,” “Only Goodness,” and “A Choice of Accommodations,” among others.

 

Debbie Macomber.  Twenty Wishes.  Thirty-eight-year-old widow Anne Marie Roche, the owner of a successful bookstore on Seattle's Blossom Street, creates a list of twenty wishes, along with several other widows, and, while acting upon her wishes, becomes involved with an eight-year-old girl named Ellen who helps her complete her list--with unexpected results.

 

Alexander McCall Smith.  The Miracle at Speedy Motors: The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency.  Mma Precious Ramotswe heads to a Botswana game preserve to investigate the death of an elderly American tourist, while at the No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, Mma Makutsi institutes the Complaint Half Hour to air her personal grievances, and at Tlokweng Road Speedy Motors, Mma Ramotswe's husband suddenly decides to mortgage the garage.

 

Amanda Quick.  The Third Circle: An Arcane Society Novel.  Attempting to claim a crystal of mysterious power that has been stolen from her family, gifted crystal worker Leona Hewitt unknowingly captures the heart of psychic Thaddeus Ware, an Arcane Society member who is out to protect Leona from the murderous Lord Delbridge, his dangerous associates, and a preternatural hunter.

 

Karen Robards.  Guilty.  Sixteen years after participating in a robbery that had left a police officer dead, Kate, a Philadelphia prosecutor and single mom, is shocked when she learns that she is to prosecute one of her co-conspirators, a man who threatens to expose her if she does not prevent his conviction.

 

Joseph Wambaugh.  Hollywood Crows.  Encountering a seemingly harmless socialite in Margot Aziz, LAPD cops Hollywood Nate and Bix Rumstead are unaware that the woman's ugly divorce from a nefarious nightclub owner is part of a murderous ruse in which both Nate and Rumstead are being set up.

 

Stuart Woods.  Santa Fe Dead.  When the wife who had hired an assassin to kill him escapes from police custody, attorney Ed Eagle struggles to survive and protect the life of his new girlfriend, a situation that is further challenged by the questionable credibility of a new client. By the author of Short Straw.

 

 

 

HOT NEW NON-FICTION AND BIOGRAPHY

 

 

Julie Andrews.  Home: A Memoir of My Early Years.

 

Jimmy Carter.  A Remarkable Mother.

 

Steve Coll.  The Bin Ladens: An Arabian Family in the American Century.

 

Germaine Greer.  Shakespeare’s Wife.

 

Daoud Hari.  The Translator: A Tribesman’s Memoir of Darfur.

 

Joyce Meyer.  The Secret to True Happiness: Enjoy Today, Embrace Tomorrow.

 

Joe Nick Patoski.  Willie Nelson: An Epic Life.

 

Cokie Roberts.  Ladies of Liberty: The Women Who Shaped Our Nation.

 

Rose Rock & Valerie Graham.  Mama Rock’s Rules: Ten Lessons For Raising Ten (Or Less) Successful Children.

 

 

 

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