A Cotswold mystery
Rebecca Tope
"Despite the catastrophic outcomes of her three previous house-sitting commissions, Thea Osborne, along with her trusty spaniel, Hepzie, is truly convinced nothing can go wrong on her next assignment. The Montgomerys have asked her to look after their house in Blockley while they take a much needed holiday. Their elderly mother, Granny Gardner, will also be in the house and although she is slightly forgetful, she shouldn't be any trouble." "Thea settles in easily enough. The arrival of Jessica, Thea's daughter, is a welcome surprise, although she come with a career crisis regarding her job as a trainee policewoman. Granny's behaviour is peculiar but so too are the Montgomery's instructions to keep her trapped in the house." "But frustrating as Granny's erratic conduct is, Thea's got far more to worry about when a body is discovered in the house next door. The victim turns out to have had more than his fair share of enemies and it isn't long before Thea and Jessica find themselves involved in trying to solve the murder." "Slowly the secrets of Blockley start unravelling. From mystical local legends to celebrity sightings, the erstwhile quiet village turns out to be a place of mysterious contradictions - with very sinister undertones."--BOOK JACKET.

All for love : the scandalous life and times of royal mistress Mary Robinson
Amanda Elyot

Atonement : a novel
Ian McEwan
In this rich novel by the author of the Booker Prize-winning novel "Amsterdam, " a young girl unwittingly tells a tale that turns her family upside down. Brilliant and utterly enthralling in its depiction of childhood, love and war, England and class, "Atonement" is at its center a profound--and profoundly moving--exploration of shame and forgiveness, of atonement and the difficulty of absolution. Copyright #169; Libri GmbH. All rights reserved.

Black magic woman
Justin Gustainis
Occult investigator Quincey Morris and his "consultant," white witch Libby Chastain, are hired to free a family from a deadly curse that appears to date back to the Salem witch trials. Fraught with danger, the trail finds them stalking the mysterious occult underworlds of Boston, San Francisco, New Orleans and New York, searching out the root of the curse. After surviving a series of terrifying attempts on their lives, the two find themselves drawn inexorably towards Salem itself - the very heart of darkness.

Bright of the sky
Kay Kenyon
Kenyon has in this new series created her most vivid and compelling society, the Universe Entire. In a landlocked galaxy that tunnels through our own, the Entire is a bizarre mix of long-lived quasi-human and alien beings gathered under a sky of fire. Over all, the elegant and cruel Tarig rule supreme.

Captain's fury
Jim Butcher
"In his Codex Alera novels, author Jim Butcher has created a world in which the powerful forces of nature take physical form. For millennia, the people of Alera have used their unique bond with these elementals for protection. Now, as enemies become allies and friends become foes, a danger beyond reckoning looms..." "After two years of bitter conflict with the hordes of invading Canim warriors, Tavi of Calderon, now captain of the First Aleran Legion, realizes that a peril far greater than the Canim exists - the terrifying Vord, who drove the savage Canim from their homeland. In a desperate attempt to marshal their forces against their mutual enemy, he proposes attempting an alliance with the Canim." "But his warnings go unheeded. The Senate's newly appointed military commander, Senator Amos, has long desired to wipe out the Canim "scourge," as well as the Aleran slaves who have chosen to throw their lot in with the wild warriors who freed them rather than return to bondage." "Now, Tavi must find a way to overcome the centuries-old animosities between Aleran and Cane, slavemaster and slave, Citizen and Proletarian, if an alliance is to be forged. And he must lead his Legion in defiance of the law, against friend and foe - before the hammer stroke of the Vord descends on them all."--BOOK JACKET.

Choosing Sophie
Leslie Carroll

Confessions of a falling woman: and other stories
Debra Dean

Courting Kathleen Hannigan
Mary Hutchings Reed

Dark roots
Cate Kennedy
"Following her American debut in The New Yorker, Australian Cate Kennedy delivers a collection of award-winning stories that travel to the deepest depths of the human psyche. In this collection, Kennedy opens up worlds of finely observed detail to explore the collision between simmering inner lives and the cold outside world, and the hidden motivations that propel us all to act. Evocative and richly comic, Dark Roots deftly unveils the traumas that incite us to desperate measures and the coincidences that drive our lives."--BOOK JACKET.

Darth Bane: rule of two : a novel of the Old Republic
Drew Karpyshyn
"In the New York Times bestseller Darth Bane: Path of Destruction, Drew Karpyshyn painted a gripping portrait of a young man's journey from innocence to evil. That man was Darth Bane, a twisted genius whose iron will, fierce ambition, and strength in the dark side of the Force made him a natural leader among the Sith - until his radical embrace of an all-but-forgotten wisdom drove him to destroy his own order . . . and create it anew from the ashes. As the last surviving Sith, Darth Bane promulgated a harsh new directive: the Rule of Two." "Two there should be; no more, no less. One to embody the power, the other to crave it." "Now Darth Bane is ready to put his policy into action, and he thinks he has found the key element that will make his triumph complete: a student to train in the ways of the dark side. Though she is young, Zannah possesses an instinctive link to the dark side that rivals his own. With his guidance, she will become essential in his quest to destroy the Jedi and dominate the galaxy." "But there is one who is determined to stop Darth Bane: Johun Othone, Padawan to Jedi Master Lord Hoth, who died at Bane's hands in the last great Sith War. Though the rest of the Jedi scoff at him, Joshua's belief that there are surviving Sith on the loose is unshakeable." "As Johun continues his dogged pursuit of the man who killed his master, Zannah, faced unexpectedly with a figure from her past, begins to question her embrace of the dark side. And Darth Bane is led by Force-induced visions to a moon where he will acquire astonishing new knowledge and power - power that will alter him in ways he could never have imagined."--BOOK JACKET.

Death was the other woman
Linda L. Richards
"As the lawlessness of Prohibition pushes against the desperation of the Depression, there are two ways to make a living in Los Angeles: join the criminals or collar them. Kitty Pangborn has chosen the crimefighters, becoming secretary to Dexter J. Theroux, one of the hard-drinking, rough-talking PIs who pepper the city's stew. But after Dex takes an assignment from Rita Heppelwaire, the mistress of Harrison Dempsey, one of L.A.'s shadiest - and richest - businessmen, Kitty isn't so sure what side of the law she's on." "Rita suspects Dempsey has been stepping out and asks Dex to tail him. It's an easy enough task, but Dex's morning stroll with Johnnie Walker would make it rough for him to trail his own shadow. Kitty insists she go along for the tide, keeping her boss - and hopefully her salary - safe. However, she's about to realize that there's something far more unpleasant than a three-timing husband at the end of this trail, and that there's more at risk than her paycheck."--BOOK JACKET.

Debatable space
Philip Palmer

Dragon mage
Andre Norton and Jean Rabe
"Sometimes magic runs in the family. This is what Shy discovers when she is transported from her dull, boring existence in Slades Corners, Wisconsin, to the exotic and magical realm of ancient Babylon." "It all started with an enchanted dragon puzzle that had belonged to her father. In solving the puzzle, she summoned the spell that her father had used so many years ago." "Now she is a part of the past and must accept her legacy as a servant of the dragon and savior of her world. She must become the Dragon Mage and defeat a dark wizard with a strange insight into the essence of dragon magic." "But to accomplish this feat she is going to need some help from someone who has wielded these powers before her... even if he doesn't know it, know her, or possess the maturity to grasp the seriousness of the situation." "This tale in Andre Norton's Magic series is based on an outline finished by the legendary grandmaster just prior to her death and completed by Jean Rabe according to Norton's wishes."--BOOK JACKET.

Duma Key
by Stephen King

Fighting Castro : a love story : based on a true story
Kay Abella
In this true story, the wife of a young Cuban doctor imprisoned by Castro as a resistance leader must choose between staying in Cuba to help her husband survive prison and taking their three young children to freedom in Miami.

Half the blood of Brooklyn : a novel
Charlie Huston
"There's only so much room on the Island, only so much blood, and Manhattan's Vampyre Clans aren't interested in sharing. So when the Vyrus-infected dregs of New York's outer boroughs start creeping across the bridges and through the tunnels, the Clans want to know why. Bad luck for PI and general hard case Joe Pitt." "See, Joe used to be a Rogue, used to work off his own dime, picked his own gigs, but tight times and a terminally ill girlfriend pushed him into the arms of the renegade Society Clan. Now he has all the cash and blood he needs, but at a steep price. The price tonight is crossing the bridge, rolling to Coney Island, finding the Freak Clan, and figuring out what's driving that bunch of savages to scratch at the Society's door. No need to look far. The answer lies around the corner in Gravesend. Convenient, all those graves." "From uptown to the boardwalk, war drums are beating. Murderous family feuds and personal grudges are being drawn and brandished, along with the long knives. Blood will spill and, big surprise, Joe's in the middle. But hey, why should this night be different from any other? Sunset to sunrise: Put off a war, keep your head attached to your neck, and save your girl. Check. Joe's on the case."--BOOK JACKET.

How the dead dream
Lydia Millet
"T. is a young Los Angeles real estate developer In Los Angeles with a reverence for money and the institutions of capital. Always restrained and solitary, he has just fallen in love for the first time when his orderly, upwardly mobile life is thrown into chaos by the appearance of his unbalanced mother, who is seeking comfort from her son after his father's sudden desertion." "Struggling to maintain a relationship with his girlfriend and keep his mother on an even keel, T. slowly begins to lose control. In the wake of a series of painful losses, he begins to nurture a curious obsession with rare and vanishing species. Soon he's living a double life, building sprawling subdivisions by day and breaking into zoos at night to be with animals that are the last of their kind - a journey that culminates in a Conradian trip deep into a hurricane-ravaged Caribbean jungle."--BOOK JACKET.

Night train to Lisbon
Pascal Mercier ; translated from the German by Barbara Harshav
"Raimund Gregorius teaches classical languages at a Swiss lycee, and lives a life governed by routine. One day, a chance encounter with an enigmatic Portuguese woman inspires him to question his life and leads him to an extraordinary book that will open the possibility of changing it. He takes the train to Lisbon that same night, and with him the words of Amadeu de Prado, a doctor whose practice and principles led him into confrontation with Salazar's dictatorship, and a man whose intelligence and magnetism left a mark on everyone who met him. As Gregorius becomes fascinated with unlocking the mystery of who Prado was, he tracks down some of the key figures in his life: Prado's eighty-year-old sister, Adriana, who keeps the house like a museum in tribute to the brother who once saved her life; Joao Eca, an elderly torture survivor, now confined to a nursing home; and Jorge O'Kelly, Prado's childhood best friend and eventual partner in the resistance movement, until they were divided by a beautiful woman. And in Prado's story, an extraordinary tale takes shape, centered on a group of people working in utmost secrecy to fight dictatorship and the betrayals that threatened to expose them." "A book that has sold two million copies worldwide, Night Train to Lisbon is a haunting tale of repression, resistance, love, and the universal human struggle to connect. An unqualified literary triumph that establishes Pascal Mercier as an important world voice, Night Train to Lisbon will be remembered for its soul and wit as well as its universality and resonant depth."--BOOK JACKET.

People of the book
Geraldine Brooks
"In 1996, a rare book expert is offered the job of a lifetime: analysis and conservation of a mysterious, beautifully illuminated Hebrew manuscript created in fifteenth-century Spain and recently saved from destruction during the shelling of Sarajevo's libraries. When Hanna Heath, a caustic Aussie loner with a passion for her work, discovers a series of tiny artifacts in the book's ancient binding - an insect-wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair - she begins to unlock the mysteries of the book's eventful past and to uncover the dramatic stories of those who created it and those who risked everything to protect it." "In Bosnia during World War II, a Muslim risks his life to protect it from the Nazis. In the hedonistic salons of fin-de-siecle Vienna, the book becomes a pawn in the struggle against the city's rising anti-Semitism. In Venice in 1609, a Catholic priest saves the book from the Inquisition's fires. In Taragona in 1492, the scribe who wrote the text sees his family destroyed by the agonies of forced exile. And in Seville in 1480, the reason for the manuscript's extraordinary illuminations is finally disclosed. Hanna's investigations unexpectedly plunge her into the intrigues of fine art forgers and ultranationalist fanatics. Her experiences will test her belief in herself and in the man she has come to love."--BOOK JACKET.

Plum lucky
Janet Evanovich
"Stephanie Plum has a way of attracting danger, lunatics, oddballs, bad luck... and mystery men. And no one is more mysterious than the unmentionable Diesel. He's back and hot on the trail of a little man in green pants who's lost a giant bag of money. Problem is, the money isn't exactly lost. Stephanie's Grandma Mazur has found it, and like any good Jersey senior citizen, she's hightailed it in a Winnebago to Atlantic City and hit the slots. With Lula and Connie in tow, Stephanie attempts to bring Grandma home, but the luck of the Irish is rubbing off on everyone: Lula's found a job modeling plus-size lingerie. Connie's found a guy. Diesel's found Stephanie. And Stephanie has found herself in over her head with a caper involving thrice-stolen money, a racehorse, a car chase, and a bad case of hives."--BOOK JACKET.

Shadow music
Julie Garwood

Shakespeare's kitchen : stories
Lore Segal
"The thirteen interrelated stories of Shakespeare's Kitchen, several of which appeared in The New Yorker, are about the longing for friendship, how we achieve new intimacies for ourselves, and how slowly, inexplicably, we can lose them." "Ilka Weisz has accepted a junior position at the Concordance Institute, a Connecticut think tank, but leaves her New York circle of friends reluctantly. After the comedy of her struggle to meet new people, Ilka comes to embrace, and be embraced by, a new set of acquaintances, including the institute's director, Leslie Shakespeare, and his wife, Eliza. Through a series of memorable dinner parties, afternoon picnics, and Sunday brunches, Segal evokes the subtle humor of the outsider's loneliness, the comfort and charm of familiar companionship, the bliss of being in love, and the strangeness of our behavior in the face of other people's deaths."--BOOK JACKET.

St. Barts Breakdown: a novel
Don Bruns

Standing still
Kelly Simmons

Steamed
by Jessica Conant-Park & Susan Conant
"Chloe Carter is forever on a quest for the perfect meal and the perfect man. Getting both in one shot is irresistible. That's why Chloe (known on the Internet as GourmetGirl) risks another burn when she accepts a date with DinnerDude online. Unfortunately, her fellow food lover turns out to be just another cheap, pompous, well-fed bore. Showing more promise is the honey-lavender creme brulee - a bit of culinary heaven Chloe's bland date never even has a chance to sample. Certainly there's an easier way to run out on a tab than being stabbed to death in the men's room." "Talk about a rocky love life. Chloe's first date of the week is a murder victim. Her second date is with a perfectly sweet chef who'd be ideal if he wasn't the prime suspect. As the investigation plunges the amateur sleuth into the gourmet restaurant scene, she discovers a cutthroat world rife with killer competition, stormy love affairs, and a recipe for Baby Bok Choy Slaw to die for."--BOOK JACKET.

Stranger in paradise
Robert B. Parker

Sword song : the battle for London
Bernard Cornwell

The appeal
John Grisham

The dragons of Babel
Michael Swanwick
"A war-dragon of Babel crashes in the idyllic fields of a postindustrialized Faerie and, dragging himself into the nearest village, declares himself king and makes young Will his lieutenant. Nightly, he crawls inside the young fey's brain to get a measure of what his subjects think." "Forced out of his village, Will travels with female centaur soldiers, witnesses the violent clash of giants, and acquires a surrogate daughter, Esme, who has no knowledge of the past and may be immortal." "Evacuated to the Tower of Babel - infinitely high, infinitely vulgar, very much like New York City - Will meets the confidence trickster Nat Whilk. Inside the Dread Tower, Will becomes a hero to the homeless living in the tunnels under the city, rises as an underling to a politician, and meets his one true love - a high-elven woman to whom he dare not aspire."--BOOK JACKET.

The last cavalier: being the adventures of Count Sainte-Hermine in the age of Napoleon
Alexandre Dumas; translated by Lauren Yoder
"Rousing, big, spirited, its action sweeping across oceans and continents, its hero gloriously indomitable, the last novel of Alexandre Dumas - lost for 125 years in the archives of the National Library in Paris - completes the oeuvre that Dumas imagined at the outset of his literary career. Indeed, the story of France from the Renaissance to his own era in the nineteenth century, as Dumas vibrantly retold it in his numerous enormously popular novels, has long-been absent one vital, richly historical era: the Age of Napoleon. But no longer. Now, dynamically, in a tale of family honor and undying vengeance, of high adventure and heroic derring-do, The Last Cavalier fills that gap." "The last cavalier is also Count de Sainte-Hermine - Hector - whose elder brothers and father have fought and died for the Royalist cause during the French Revolution. For three years Hector has been languishing in prison when, in 1804, on the eve of Napoleon's coronation as emperor of France, he learns what's to be his due. Stripped of his title, denied the honor of his family name as well as the hand of the woman he loves, he is freed by Napoleon on the condition that he serve as a common soldier or ordinary seaman in the imperial forces. So it is in profound despair that Hector embarks on a succession of daring escapades as fearlessly he courts death. Yet again and again he wins glory - against brigands, bandits, the British; boa constrictors, sharks, tigers, crocodiles. And at the battle of Trafalgar it is his marksman's bullet that fells the famed English admiral Lord Nelson."--BOOK JACKET.

The leper compound
Paula Nangle
"The Leper Compound will . . . remain with the reader long after the book has been closed."-Stuart Dybek, author of I Sailed with Magellan For Colleen, motherless at seven, isolated from her schizophrenic younger sister, illness unleashes the uncanny and essential of human identity. Growing into womanhood in Rhodesia's final conflict-ridden years, she transgresses social, racial, and political boundaries in her search for connection. This masterly novel is a searing evocation of late-twentieth-century African life.

The secret between us
Barbara Delinsky

The senator's wife
by Sue Miller
"Meri is newly married, pregnant, and standing on the cusp of her life as a wife and mother, recognizing with some terror the gap between reality and expectation. Delia Naughton - wife of the two-term liberal senator Tom Naughton - is Meri's new neighbor in the adjacent New England town house. Delia's husband's chronic infidelity has been an open secret in Washington circles, but despite the complexity of their relationship, the bond between them remains strong. What keeps people together, even in the midst of profound betrayal? How can a journey imperiled by, and sometimes indistinguishable from, compromise and disappointment culminate in healing and grace? Delia and Meri find themselves leading strangely parallel lives, both reckoning with the contours and mysteries of marriage, one refined and abraded by years of complicated intimacy, the other barely begun."--BOOK JACKET.

The spare wife
by Alex Witchel

Thugs and kisses
Sue Ann Jaffarian

Wash this blood clean from my hand
Fred Vargas ; translated from the French by Sian Reynolds
In this remarkable addition to the Commissaire Adamsberg series, a serial killer has followed Adamsberg to Canada on his training mission in a novel that will keep readers spellbound until the very end.

Yalo
by Elias Khoury ; translated from the Arabic by Peter Theroux
"Yalo propels us into a skewed universe of brutal misunderstanding, of love and alienation, of self-discovery and luminous transcendence. At the center of the vortex stands Yalo, a young man drifting between worlds like a stray dog on the streets of Beirut during the Lebanese civil war. Living with his mother who "lost her face in the mirror," he falls in with a dangerous circle whose violent escapades he treats as a game. The game becomes a horrifying reality, however, when Yalo is accused of rape and armed robbery, and is imprisoned. Tortured and interrogated at length, he is forced to confess to crimes of which he has little or no recollection. As he writes, and rewrites his testimony, he begins to grasp his family's past, and the true Yalo begins to emerge."--BOOK JACKET.