February New Popular Books
The following new books have been added this month to the Popular Reading Collection located next to the circulation desk.   These books and any other titles currently checked out can be placed on hold.
See a staff member at the circulation desk for assistance.

 

Citizen Girl, by Emma McLaughlin
The Final Solution, by Michael Chabon
The Godfather Returns, by Mark Winegardner
Whiteout, by Ken Follett
Wolves Eat Dogs, by Martin Cruz Smith
Life Expectancy, by Dean Koontz
The Motive, by John Lescroart
Demon Rumm, by Sandra Brown
The Memory of Running, by Ron McLarty
Unexpected Blessings, by Barbara Taylor Bradford
By Order of the President, by W. E. B. Griffin
The Cat Who Went Bananas, by Lilian J. Braun
Chainfire, by Terry Goodkind
Entombed, by Linda A. Fairstein
Puppet, by Joy Fielding


This Month's Great Escapes
by Bill McCleary


Trojan Odyssey, by Clive Cussler

Strange happenings in Central America, where an unusual tide of brown sludge has appeared off the coast of Nicaragua.  Our intrepid Dirk Pitt, along with his sidekick Al Giordino, both of the National Underwater and Marine Agency, will be sent to investigate.  But, first they must save a huge oceangoing hotel that has been moored in the Caribbean and is in the path of a tremendous hurricane.  Also in peril due to the hurricane are Pitt’s two grown children, who are doing research in an underwater lab.  While they are coping with both problems, Pitt and Giordino wonder to each other whether they are getting too old for these daredevil missions and both contemplate making some changes in their lives.  If this turns out to be their last mission, they have picked a real challenge.  The shadowy company known as Odyssey has secretly constructed four huge tunnels running from coast to coast through Central America.  Why four tunnels and to what purpose have they been built?  The answer holds dire consequences for North America and Europe.  This was an exciting and interesting adventure in this series and it has a surprise for Pitt at the end. 


Murder at Union Station, by Margaret Truman

Ms. Truman started her series years ago with a murder at the White House and ever since she has been knocking characters off at famous locations all over Washington.  Her latest takes place at Union Station.  Elderly Louis Russo has arrived at the train station after journeying from Tel Aviv, where he has lived for a number of years.  He is in the city to meet with Richard Marienthal, who has been writing a book about Russo’s life.  In his younger days Russo was a hit man for the mob.  Eventually, he made a deal and became a government informer and then went into the witness protection program—which stashed him in Tel Aviv.  Russo has provided Marienthal with a provocative claim that is the heart of his soon-to-be published book and together they plan to testify at a senate hearing.  Russo has no sooner arrived at the station, though, when he is murdered.  Somebody very powerful did not want him to testify about a murder contract he completed when he was still working as a hit man.  Coming full circle, could this powerful person be the current occupant of the White House?  Ms. Truman does a nice job as always of making Washington one of her main characters but I found her latest plot to be somewhat lacking in interest and suspense.


Sleeping Beauty, by Phillip Margolin

The sleeping beauty is Casey Van Meter, who has been in a coma ever since she was brutally attacked at the Oregon Academy, an exclusive private high school where she worked as the school dean. One of the students at the school, Ashley Spencer, witnessed the attack, which also killed her mother.  Ashley is certain that the killer is Joshua Maxfield, a best-selling author who is teaching at the school.  She is also sure that he is the same person, never apprehended, who killed her father and her best friend several years ago.  Ashley narrowly escaped that attack.  Joshua is arrested but he escapes.  Ashley is convinced that her life is in danger as long as Joshua is at large and she disappears in Europe, keeping in touch with only her lawyer.  Five years pass and Casey’s twin brother, Miles, has petitioned the court to allow him to remove his sister from life support.  Ashley’s lawyer gets in touch with her with this news—and a bombshell.  Casey is her biological mother and she needs to return to fight to keep her alive until an experimental drug can be tried to wake her from her coma.  Ashley decides to return—but so does Joshua.   This was pretty good but not quite as enjoyable as several other books by the author.


The Rule of Four, by Ian Caldwell and Dustin Thomason

The rule of four is an important clue in unlocking the secret of a Renaissance book that has remained a mystery for five hundred years.  It could also refer to the four Princeton friends who have lived and ruled together their four years at the college. Two of the roommates, Tom Sullivan and Paul Harris, have spent much of their time trying to decipher the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili; Paul is even using it as his thesis.  Now it is Good Friday weekend of 1999 and time is running out; senior theses are about due to be turned in.  Largely set over this one momentous weekend in their lives, with flashbacks highlighting events during their college years, Tom and Paul, with the help of their roommates Charlie and Gil, will find what they think is the key to the book’s mystery.  But that knowledge will lead to murder and treachery and put their four lives in danger.  This novel started a little slow for me and I was wondering what all the shouting was about in the rave reviews but it definitely builds and pulls you in clue by clue to the meaning of the mysterious Hypnertomachia Poliphili. 


 

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Revised Jan. 27, 2005

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