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Reviews

by Philippa Gregory - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Women's Fiction

1420. Eleanor Cobham arrives at the court of Henry V. Pretty but not highborn, she hopes for nothing more than to marry well. It is a golden age for England, its royal family’s dynasty stretching across Europe. But chaos waits in the shadows. Betrayals and shifts of power change the flourishing world Eleanor has stepped into. Working in the household of a Countess who commands her own army, Eleanor begins to see for the first time what a woman is capable of…what men’s promises are truly worth. As the safe, comfortable future she’d envisioned begins to shift, Eleanor changes with it. Now she must use her wits to survive --- and to rise. Her newfound ambition will carry her further than any woman before has dared. But if she is to rule England itself, she will need to turn to darker arts.

by Lee Child and Andrew Child - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Jack Reacher is hard to find. But General Susan Turner, based deep inside the Pentagon, has the means and the motive to track him down. She needs his help. A member of her team has been brutally murdered on covert duty. She can’t trust anyone she works with, not even her deputy. She needs someone from the outside. Someone who solves problems and disappears without a trace. Reacher heads to Summertown, Colorado. A town as remote and bizarre as it gets. One diner, one motel, five massive data centers, two giant solar farms humming away in the dust. Total population: four people. And one of them is watching him. But Reacher isn’t built to run. He’s built to finish things. General Turner knows that if they come for Reacher, they’ll regret it --- all the way to the top of the chain.

by James Patterson - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

Alex Cross is a brilliant psychologist --- and a relentless hunter of killers for the FBI and DC Metro Police. To his beloved Nana Mama, he’s still the boy she raised. And every morning, as he straps on his service weapon, she’s reminded just how dangerous his world has become. But in Washington, DC, there are places even the police don’t go --- an unseen underworld where violence thrives and rules don’t apply. And this time, Alex is stepping straight into it. Each move pulls him deeper into the dark --- and closer to a case that could shatter the promise he made to Nana…and cost him everything he holds most dear. 

by Michael Koryta - Fiction, Historical Fiction, Historical Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

On the day Savannah Cody spots her first gray hair, she decides it’s time to murder the father of her only child. Edward “Nickel” Terhune is the getaway driver for the Brady Gang, one of the FBI’s most wanted criminals. Dragging her son, Alford, and her father, Wendell, a retired railroad detective, along for the quest, Savannah embarks to find the man she once loved and the nation now fears, journeying across an America transformed by the Great Depression. But Alford --- and soon, the FBI --- notices that the closer the family gets to Nickel, the less clear Savannah’s motivations seem to be. As the Brady Gang races to escape the law (or get rich trying), Nickel realizes he might not be able to outrun his mistakes.

by Brian Freeman - Fiction, Mystery, Suspense, Thriller

Jonathan Stride's partner, Maggie Bei, is driving home after midnight when a call comes in: shots fired at the home of a Duluth judge. Moments later, she finds Gordon and Tracy Hartwick murdered in their bed. But someone is hiding in the judge's house, and as Maggie lays chase, she's forced to make a split-second decision that leaves the intruder dead. When Stride arrives at the scene, he has to give Maggie devastating news. The intruder had no gun. He wasn't the killer. She shot an innocent man. With Maggie facing a firestorm over her actions, Stride must discover who really killed Gordon and Tracy Hartwick --- and what secrets they were hiding that put them in the gunsights of a murderer.

by Lyndsay Faye - Fiction, Gothic, Historical Fiction, Historical Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

After an itinerant childhood spent first with her mother’s traveling theater troupe and then being passed around from relative to relative, Raven Helen Allan is relieved to finally settle down with Aunt Berenice in her Baltimore townhouse. But when the household is threatened with financial ruin, she must set out to earn her own living. Taking a job as a paid companion, Raven arrives at the crumbling Moldavia Manor. Her charge is a delicate young invalid named Lenore Legrand, who haunts the Gothic structure like a phantom. Living with them is Lenore’s devoted older cousin, Trevanion, who shares Raven’s interest in the occult and devotes his days to searching ancient texts for an Elixir of Life that might cure his cousin. Raven finds herself inexorably drawn to both cousins, as well as to the secrets hidden in the shadows of Moldavia Manor.

by J. W. Ocker - Cultural Studies, Nonfiction, Travel

This immersive travelogue investigates the town that inspired Washington Irving's famous short story, “The Legend of Sleepy Hollow,” and dives into the storied history of the Headless Horseman’s stomping grounds. Within the pages you'll visit the village’s graveyard where Irving himself is buried and explore all the present-day spookiness of one of the strangest towns in the country. Blending cultural criticism and behind-the-scenes reporting, J. W. Ocker uncovers the tensions between tourism and tradition, profit and preservation, fiction and fact. With wit and curiosity, CHASING THE HEADLESS HORSEMAN tells the story of how one small town reinvented itself as America’s Halloween capital, complete with statues, street signs and an 18-foot-tall Headless Horseman.

by S. A. Cosby - Fiction, Suspense, Thriller

With advanced cybernetics showing up in the possession of low-level criminals, Luke Cage is hired to investigate a factory manufacturing medical devices in rural Virginia. Leaving Jessica Jones during a delicate moment in their relationship, he makes plans to travel south but is devastated to learn that a cousin who scoped out the plant for him has been found dead. The police report states it was an accident. But Luke has long known that official words are just that: words. Fueled by guilt and vengeance, Luke arrives in Virginia and promises his aunt that he will get to the bottom of things. But danger lurks in every living room, barroom and country road of Majestic, and the local sheriff’s barely concealed prejudices are ready to boil to the surface.

by Freida McFadden - Fiction, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

When Julia Barlow loses her job and her apartment, she has nowhere left to go but Pemberton, her family's sprawling 17th-century estate in rural Massachusetts. Officially, she's there to check in on her aging grandmother. Unofficially, she's hoping the old house will give her a place to disappear. Instead, Pemberton begins to unravel her. Every night, the grandfather clock stops at exactly 3:41am. The lights flicker without warning. And a disembodied voice cries for help outside Julia's bedroom door. As Julia digs into the house's dark history, she uncovers the story of a woman executed for witchcraft in 1692 --- and realizes the past may not be finished with Pemberton yet. 

by Peter Swanson - Fiction, Mystery, Psychological Suspense, Psychological Thriller, Suspense, Thriller

When author Nicholas Child is dropped by his publisher, his agent sends him to spend the holidays at the Cape Cod mansion of her other client, Marco Tavares. Marco needs to finish the long-overdue follow-up to his bestselling novel, and Nicholas is going to help him. But when Nicholas arrives at Marco’s sprawling seaside estate, he finds himself in the middle of a gathering where holiday cheer is in short supply --- and every visitor seems to have a motive to kill their host. The most intriguing guest is James Beers, a writer who believes that Marco’s bestselling novel was based on one of his ideas. As Christmas Day approaches, a single boozy night culminates in two corpses, and Nicholas becomes convinced that the whole thing was a setup from the start.