Adult Fiction
A Minute to midnight by David Baldacci
FBI
Agent Atlee Pine returns to her Georgia hometown to reopen the investigation of
her twin sister's abduction, only to encounter a serial killer beginning a
reign of terror, in this page-turning thriller from #1 New York Times
bestselling author David Baldacci.FBI Agent Atlee Pine's life was never the
same after her twin sister Mercy was kidnapped--and likely killed--thirty years
ago. After a lifetime of torturous uncertainty, Atlee's unresolved anger
finally gets the better of her on the job, and she finds she has to deal with
the demons of her past if she wants to remain with the FBI. Atlee and her
assistant Carol Blum head back to Atlee's rural hometown in Georgia to see what
they can uncover about the traumatic night Mercy was taken and Pine was almost
killed. But soon after Atlee begins her investigation, a local woman is found
ritualistically murdered, her face covered with a wedding veil--and the first
killing is quickly followed by a second bizarre murder. Atlee is determined to
continue her search for answers, but now she must also set her sights on
finding a potential serial killer before another victim is claimed. But in a
small town full of secrets--some of which could answer the questions that have
plagued Atlee her entire life--digging deeper into the past could be more
dangerous than she realizes. . .
Blue Moon by Lee Child
“This is
a random universe,” Reacher says. “Once in a blue moon things turn out just
right.”
This isn’t one of those times.
Reacher is on a Greyhound bus, minding his own business,
with no particular place to go, and all the time in the world to get there.
Then he steps off the bus to help an old man who is obviously just a victim
waiting to happen. But you know what they say about good deeds. Now Reacher
wants to make it right.
An elderly couple have made a few well-meaning mistakes, and
now they owe big money to some very bad people. One brazen move leads to
another, and suddenly Reacher finds himself a wanted man in the middle of a
brutal turf war between rival Ukrainian and Albanian gangs.
Reacher has to stay one step ahead of the loan sharks, the
thugs, and the assassins. He teams up with a fed-up waitress who knows a little
more than she’s letting on, and sets out to take down the powerful and make the
greedy pay. It’s a long shot. The odds are against him. But Reacher believes in
a certain kind of justice . . . the kind that comes along once in a blue moon.
Past tense by Lee Child
Jack
Reacher hits the pavement and sticks out his thumb. He plans to follow the sun
on an epic trip across America, from Maine to California. He doesn’t get far.
On a country road deep in the New England woods, he sees a sign to a place he has
never been: the town where his father was born. He thinks, What’s one extra
day? He takes the detour.
At the same moment, in the same isolated area, a car breaks
down. Two young Canadians had been on their way to New York City to sell a
treasure. Now they’re stranded at a lonely motel in the middle of nowhere. The
owners seem almost too friendly. It’s a strange place, but it’s all there is.
The next morning, in the city clerk’s office, Reacher asks
about the old family home. He’s told no one named Reacher ever lived in town.
He’s always known his father left and never returned, but now Reacher wonders,
Was he ever there in the first place?
As Reacher explores his father’s life, and as the Canadians
face lethal dangers, strands of different stories begin to merge. Then Reacher
makes a shocking discovery: The present can be tough, but the past can be tense
. . . and deadly.
The Guardians by John Grisham
In the
small north Florida town of Seabrook, a young lawyer named Keith Russo was shot
dead at his desk as he worked late one night. The killer left no clues behind.
There were no witnesses, no real suspects, no one with a motive. The police
soon settled on Quincy Miller, a young black man who was once a client of
Russo’s.
Quincy was framed, convicted, and sent to prison for life.
For twenty-two years he languished in prison with no lawyer, no advocate on the
outside. Then he wrote a letter to Guardian Ministries, a small innocence group
founded by a lawyer/minister named Cullen Post.
Guardian handles only a few innocence cases at a time, and
Post is its only investigator. He travels the South fighting wrongful
convictions and taking cases no one else will touch. With Quincy Miller,
though, he gets far more than he bargained for. Powerful, ruthless people
murdered Keith Russo, and they do not want Quincy exonerated.
They killed one lawyer twenty-two years ago, and they will
kill another one without a second thought.
11/22/63 by Stephen King
Life can
turn on a dime—or stumble into the extraordinary, as it does for Jake Epping, a
high school English teacher in Lisbon Falls, Maine. While grading essays by his
GED students, Jake reads a gruesome, enthralling piece penned by janitor Harry
Dunning: fifty years ago, Harry somehow survived his father’s sledgehammer
slaughter of his entire family. Jake is blown away...but an even more bizarre
secret comes to light when Jake’s friend Al, owner of the local diner, enlists
Jake to take over the mission that has become his obsession—to prevent the
Kennedy assassination. How? By stepping through a portal in the diner’s
storeroom, and into the era of Ike and Elvis, of big American cars, sock hops,
and cigarette smoke... Finding himself in warmhearted Jodie, Texas, Jake begins
a new life. But all turns in the road lead to a troubled loner named Lee Harvey
Oswald. The course of history is about to be rewritten...and become
heart-stoppingly suspenseful.
The Starless Sea by Erin Morgenstern
Far
beneath the surface of the earth, upon the shores of the Starless Sea, there is
a labyrinthine collection of tunnels and rooms filled with stories. The
entryways that lead to this sanctuary are often hidden, sometimes on forest
floors, sometimes in private homes, sometimes in plain sight. But those who
seek will find. Their doors have been waiting for them.
Zachary Ezra Rawlins is searching for his door, though he
does not know it. He follows a silent siren song, an inexplicable knowledge
that he is meant for another place. When he discovers a mysterious book in the
stacks of his campus library he begins to read, entranced by tales of lovelorn
prisoners, lost cities, and nameless acolytes. Suddenly a turn of the page
brings Zachary to a story from his own childhood impossibly written in this
book that is older than he is.
A bee, a key, and a sword emblazoned on the book lead
Zachary to two people who will change the course of his life: Mirabel, a
fierce, pink-haired painter, and Dorian, a handsome, barefoot man with shifting
alliances. These strangers guide Zachary through masquerade party dances and
whispered back room stories to the headquarters of a secret society where
doorknobs hang from ribbons, and finally through a door conjured from paint to
the place he has always yearned for. Amid twisting tunnels filled with books,
gilded ballrooms, and wine-dark shores Zachary falls into an intoxicating world
soaked in romance and mystery. But a battle is raging over the fate of this
place and though there are those who would willingly sacrifice everything to
protect it, there are just as many intent on its destruction. As Zachary,
Mirabel, and Dorian venture deeper into the space and its histories and myths,
searching for answers and each other, a timeless love story unspools, casting a
spell of pirates, painters, lovers, liars, and ships that sail upon a Starless
Sea.
Winter Sisters by Robin Oliveira
New
York, 1879: An epic blizzard descends on Albany, devastating the city. When the
snow finally settles, two newly orphaned girls are missing. Determined not to
give up hope, Dr. Mary Sutter, a former Civil War surgeon, searches for the two
sisters. When what happened to them is finally revealed, Dr. Sutter must fight
the most powerful of Albany's citizens, risking personal and public danger as
she seeks to protect the fragile, putting at risk loves and lives in her quest
to right unimaginable wrongs.
As contemporary as it is historic, Winter Sisters is part
gripping thriller, part family saga, and ultimately a story of trauma and
resilience that explores the tremendous good and unspeakable evil of which
humans are capable.
Criss Cross by James Patterson
After
witnessing the execution of Michael Edgerton, a man he helped convict of several
murders, Alex Cross thought he could finally put the case behind him.
But when a body turns up with a note signed by 'M', Alex
knows that the nightmare is far from over.
Accused by Edgerton's family of framing him for murder,
Cross fights to clear his name as the case against him builds.
And as more notes - and more bodies - start appearing, Cross
is determined to put an end to this case once and for all.
Of Blood and Bone: Chronicles of the One, Book 2 by Nora
Roberts
Of Blood
and Bone, a new tale of terror and magic in a brand new world.They look like an
everyday family living an ordinary life. But beyond the edges of this peaceful
farm, unimaginable forces of light and dark have been unleashed. Fallon Swift,
approaching her thirteenth birthday, barely knows the world that existed
before--the city where her parents lived, now in ruins and reclaimed by nature
since the Doom sickened and killed billions. Traveling anywhere is a danger, as
vicious gangs of Raiders and fanatics called Purity Warriors search for their
next victim. Those like Fallon, in possession of gifts, are hunted--and the
time is coming when her true nature, her identity as The One, can no longer be
hidden.In a mysterious shelter in the forest, her training is about to begin
under the guidance of Mallick, whose skills have been honed over centuries. She
will learn the old ways of healing; study and spar; encounter faeries and elves
and shifters; and find powers within herself she never imagined. And when the
time is right, she will take up the sword, and fight. For until she grows into
the woman she was born to be, the world outside will never be whole again.
The Rise of Magicks: Chronicles of the One, Book 3 by
Nora Roberts
After
the sickness known as the Doom destroyed civilization, magick has become commonplace,
and Fallon Swift has spent her young years learning its ways. Fallon cannot
live in peace until she frees those who have been preyed upon by the government
or the fanatical Purity Warriors, endlessly hunted or locked up in
laboratories, brutalized for years on end. She is determined to save even those
who have been complicit with this evil out of fear or weakness―if, indeed, they
can be saved.
Strengthened by the bond she shares with her fellow warrior,
Duncan, Fallon has already succeeded in rescuing countless shifters and elves
and ordinary humans. Now she must help them heal―and rediscover the light and
faith within themselves. For although from the time of her birth, she has been
The One, she is still only one. And as she faces down an old nemesis, sets her
sights on the enemy’s stronghold, and pursues her destiny―to finally restore
the mystical shield that once protected them all―she will need an army behind
her…
Olive Kitteridge by Elizabeth Strout
At times
stern, at other times patient, at times perceptive, at other times in sad
denial, Olive Kitteridge, a retired schoolteacher, deplores the changes in her
little town of Crosby, Maine, and in the world at large, but she doesn’t always
recognize the changes in those around her: a lounge musician haunted by a past
romance; a former student who has lost the will to live; Olive’s own adult child,
who feels tyrannized by her irrational sensitivities; and her husband, Henry,
who finds his loyalty to his marriage both a blessing and a curse.
As the townspeople grapple with their problems, mild and
dire, Olive is brought to a deeper understanding of herself and her life –
sometimes painfully, but always with ruthless honesty.
Olive, again by Elizabeth Strout
The
iconic Olive struggles to understand not only herself and her own life but also
the lives of those around her in the town of Crosby, Maine. Whether with a
teenager coming to terms with the loss of her father, a young woman about to
give birth during a hilariously inopportune moment, a nurse who confesses a
secret high school crush, or a lawyer who struggles with an inheritance she
does not want to accept, the unforgettable Olive will continue to startle us,
to move us, and to inspire moments of transcendent grace.