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The Pact

In this gripping new Kate Burkholder short mystery from New York Times bestselling author Linda Castillo, a terrifying disappearance in Amish country reveals the power of friendship.Three days before Thanksgiving, two boys disappear without a trace. Eleven-year-old Aaron Kuhns is Amish. Kevin Dennison is twelve and "English." They're adventurers, explorers, and inseparable best friends. When they don't return home from what was supposed to be a fun afternoon of fishing, Chief of Police Kate Burkholder must find the missing boys before the first winter storm of the season bears down on Painters Mill.
Views: 196

Independent Study

In the series debut The Testing, sixteen-year-old Cia Vale was chosen by the United Commonwealth government as one of the best and brightest graduates of all the colonies . . . a promising leader in the effort to revitalize postwar civilization. In Independent Study, Cia is a freshman at the University in Tosu City with her hometown sweetheart, Tomas—and though the government has tried to erase her memory of the brutal horrors of The Testing, Cia remembers. Her attempts to expose the ugly truth behind the government’s murderous programs put her—and her loved ones—in a world of danger. But the future of the Commonwealth depends on her.
Views: 196

The Dashing Dog Mystery

Nancy Wins A Holiday Party Raffle -- but Loses The Prize! Nancy and her Labrador puppy, Chocolate Chip, are enjoying the holiday party at the Dashing Dog salon. They even win the raffle prize -- a one-of-a-kind doggie collar with rhinestones shaped like bones. But then the collar vanishes! Now Nancy is digging up suspects. There's Petra, a girl from her school. She really, really wanted the collar for her dog, Prince Fabian. And what about Alice Cahill, who writes about pets for the local newspaper? She was crazy for the collar, too. Then there's Mrs. Vanderpool and her two yipping Yorkies -- the collar is just their style. To solve this case, Nancy has to be sure she's barking up the right tree!
Views: 196

The Lodger

A first-class, highly acclaimed thriller that was first published in 1914. It is based on the grisly Jack the Ripper murders that occurred in Whitechapel, London twenty years before.
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The Hellandback Kids: Be Careful What You Wish For

This book has won: The Pinnacle Book Achievement Award, Mom's Choice Award and The Royal Dragonfly Award. When the four Hellandback kids visit their great-grandmother in a strange Scottish hospital, they unknowingly fall into a series of bizarre adventures in an alternate reality. Once the reader is introduced to the four very different personalities of the Hellandback Kids the fun begins.Rating: 5.0 stars Reviewed by Anne B. for Readers FavoriteAfter realizing a Bundlebob was in Chris’ closet, the Hellandback parents decided it was time to send their 4 children to Scotland for the summer; they would be staying with their 83 year old great-grandmother in a large building that used to be a hospital. The kids were dreading the trip that seemed to offer only boredom. Unbeknownst to them it would be anything but dull for the house had a mystical quality. During their visit each of the Hellandback children were transported to a different realm where they learned a life lesson centering on their greatest weakness and strength. They quickly learned they had to take their scenario seriously. Chris ended up in the land of the Bundlebobs and had several interesting conversations with his great grandfather. Brittany was transported to the 14th century where the Black Plague was at its worse, Trisha was transported in the 18th century where she was about to be married and Jon’s scenario placed him in a corporate jungle complete with backstabbers and sharks, it was each man for himself. The Hellandback Kids: Be Careful What You Wish For is a great read. Laura L Helland has combined just the right amount of action, adventure, humor, paranormal characters and fantasy to keep readers not only interested but eager to continue reading. The author developed the characters personalities in the first few chapters allowing the reader to understand the importance of the scenario the character faces. Helland has included plenty twists and turns. The author has cleverly included ghosts, vampires, and some very original creatures that exist only in the mind of the author. There are several life lessons to be learned from this tale. This book is based on real people, the author’s children. I’d be remiss if I did not mention the marvelous cover; it fits in well with the plot and just begs to be read. Even the title of this book is well done and humorous. I hope the author is planning series of Hellandback books and I would love to see this tale on the silver screen. Well done MS Helland.
Views: 196

Epitaphs

"The bitterest of woes is to remember old happy days." At least that's what old man Pietro Lombardi thinks. He's got la miseria and can't even play a peaceful round of Sunday bocce with his friends at Aquatic Park. That is, until he sees the "Nameless Detective" at an opposite bench—another romantic taking in what's left of the Italian-American essence of the neighborhood. A shared burden being a lesser load, Pietro enlists his paesan's help with a troubling family matter. It seems his granddaughter, Gianna, is being harassed and needs some looking after. For old time's sake, Nameless agrees to check things out. Nameless quickly finds that Gianna is in hotter water than Pietro can imagine. The smarmy landlord who was hassling her is now black-and-blue and apologetic, her roommate is a little more than friendly in a very cheap sort of way, and Gianna is nowhere to be found. Even though his instincts tell him to leave well enough alone, Nameless searches for Pietro's "beauty of beauties" in the muck of a lascivious underworld full of loudmouthed liars, sleazy pornographers, and cold-blooded killers. After uncovering the horrific truth about Gianna, Nameless is far out of his depth. His investigative tracks have been spotted and leave him vulnerable to the wrath of Gianna's tormentors. Not only is Nameless a witness to the seedy behavior of the group, he has been reeled into a trap. In the end it's all Nameless can do to ensure that his epitaph will not be among those that are popping up around him.
Views: 195

Carson Ryder - 03 - A Garden of Vipers

From Publishers WeeklyCarson Ryder and Harry Nautilus, homicide detectives on the Mobile, Ala., police force, hit the ground running in Kerley's appealing third suspense novel (after The Hundredth Man and The Death Collectors). In a race against other cops, the pair take up the case of a young journalist, Taneesha Franklin, who's been slashed to death. The victim was close to Carson's girlfriend, TV reporter Dani Danbury, who was mentoring her. Almost every trail leads in some fashion to the Kincannons—a family with great wealth, skeletons in the closet and a matriarch with tenuous control over her fractious, unstable sons. Ryder and Nautilus make an effective team—until one of them is taken out of action and each has to fight for survival on his own. Kerley has a nice feel for the Gulf area, and his detectives are a couple of aces sharing competence, bravery and camaraderie. (June) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistStarred Review A young female reporter is tortured then murdered. A blind woman is kidnapped and brutalized but survives, and a high-priced call girl is burned alive. All the cases are connected, but Mobile, Alabama, detectives Carson Ryder and Harry Nautilus aren't sure how. Serial killers are almost compelled by their pathology to commit the same crime again and again, but these murders are dissimilar in forensically significant ways. Meanwhile, as Ryder and Nautilus head-butt various dead ends, Ryder learns that his television reporter girlfriend is being wooed by Lucas Kincannon, the owner of the station and leading son of Mobile's most prestigious, albeit nouveau riche, families. Ryder's distaste for the Kincannon clan, put with a few follow-the-money clues, lands the detectives on a collision course with the city's most powerful forces. Kerley's third Mobile mystery is as compelling as his first two, The Hundredth Man (2004) and The Death Collectors (2005). His plotting is cleverly believable, his protagonists realistically flawed, and his villains utterly but all-too-humanly evil. The Kincannon tribe will have readers casting suspicious glances at whatever powerful families are leading their local charities. Excellent. Wes LukowskyCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved
Views: 195

A Rockin' Mystery

In this Hardy Boys Secret Files mystery, a missing bass guitar causes a few wrong notes at the Battle of the Bands. Frank and Joe are thrilled to learn that the popular band, Crush, is scheduled to perform in Bayport's huge Battle of the Bands--and even more excited when they find out that their friend's brother, Dylan, is the bass guitarist. But on the day of the performance, Dylan's prized guitar has gone missing! Could someone from a rival band have taken it in hopes of gaining an advantage? Or could the culprit be someone closer to home? It's up to Frank and Joe to investigate this rocking mystery--or else Crush might be crushed in the competition!
Views: 195

The Heirloom Murders

Working for Old World Wisconsin, Chloe Ellefson delights in losing herself in antiques and folk traditions—and forgetting her messy love life. Then the ethnic outdoor museum becomes a murder scene. Does the missing Eagle diamond, a legendary gemstone unearthed in 1876, have anything to do with it? Could Simon Sabatola, a rich AgriFutures executive who possibly drove his wife to suicide, be responsible? Chloe learns that some things never change in this compelling mystery of oldfashioned greed, Swiss green cheese, and a nearly extinct heirloom flower.
Views: 195

Nightwing

Vampire bats: Evil. Clever. Deadly. Driven by blood-hunger across the American landscape, they bred and multiplied, unseen and unsuspected, each one a grisly messenger of death. No warm-blooded creature is safe from their thirst. Now, as darkness gathers, the sky is filled with the frantic motion, the maddening murmur of . . . Nightwing.
Views: 195

Rocco and the Snow Angel

A former village priest shot dead execution-style in a snow-covered field re-opens memories of a wartime scandal around the villages of Poissons-les-Marais and Fouillmont, when young infatuation led to a spate of coldly efficient assassinations. But who's responsible for this particular killing? And why so long after the event? For Inspector Lucas Rocco, it means pushing aside the veil surrounding old Resistance activities and fighting dangerous political connections to track down a deadly long-range killer with the ability to hide in open countryside.
Views: 195

ABDUCTION: The Minivan Murders: Killer Couple Michelle Michaud and James Daveggio

Fueled by methamphetamines and deviant motives, nothing was off limits for James Daveggio and Michelle Michaud. Not even their own children. Living out of a specially rigged minivan (a mobile torture chamber that included ropes, hooks, curling irons, duct tape, etc), this cold-blooded murdering duo kidnapped, tortured, raped and killed young girls from Reno, Nevada, to Sacramento, California. While the local and state police departments, and even the FBI, vigorously searched for the couple, they freely hunted for prey and carried out their months-long spree of abduction and murder. Warning: This true account is at times quite graphic which some may find disturbing. Recommended read... The Basement by RJ Parker On March 24, 1987, the Philadelphia Police Department received a phone call from a woman who stated that she had been held captive for the last four months. When police officers arrived at the pay phone from which the call was made, Josephina Rivera told them that she and three other women had been held captive in a basement by a man named Gary Heidnik. This is a shocking story of kidnapping, rape, torture, mutilation, dismemberment, decapitation, and murder. URL - rjpp.ca/THE-BASEMENT
Views: 195

Midnight Round-Up

An all-star gang of villains descends on peaceful Powder Valley On a tawdry street in the heart of Denver, men crowd into the saloon for two reasons: cheap whiskey and Connie Dawson. The loveliest singer in Colorado, Connie has a golden voice and a brassy personality, but along with a crooked preacher, a hotshot gambler, and the fastest gunman in town, she's about to find herself in a whole lot of trouble. All four owe the sinister Judge Prink a favor—and he's ready to collect. Prink has recently discovered the idyllic township of Powder Valley, home to Sheriff Pat Stevens and his faithful friends Sam and Ezra, and declared it ripe for the picking. With the help of his indentured gang of miscreants, he plans to strip the innocent little community bare. But when he meets Powder Valley's courageous trio, Prink comes face to face with the law of the gun.
Views: 195

Flight Risk

Inconsistent psychic Leda Foley and Seattle detective Grady Merritt return to solve the case of a missing couple in this sequel to the "delightful" (The New York Times Book Review) mystery Grave Reservations.When psychic travel agent Leda Foley is approached by a man searching for his sister, she quickly agrees to help. The missing woman disappeared with a vintage orange car, a fat sack of her employer's cash, and a grudge against her philandering husband—a man who never even reported her missing. Meanwhile, Seattle PD detective Grady Merritt has temporarily misplaced his dog. While he's passing out bright pink "Lost" flyers at the Mount Rainier visitor's center, the wayward pooch appears—with a human leg in his mouth. Thanks to DNA matching, Grady learns that the leg has something to do with Leda's new client, and soon the two cases are tangled. Theories abound, but law enforcement is low on leads. Lucky for...
Views: 195