June 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.

 

The Innocent, by Harlan Coben
The Portrait, by Iain Pears
The 4th of July, by James Patterson
Broken Prey, by John Sandford
Countdown, by Iris Johansen
The Closers, by Michael Connelly
Marker, by Robin Cook
Sudden Death, by David Rosenfelt

This Month's Great Escapes
by Bill McCleary


 
Suspicion of Rage, by Barbara Parker

Miami lawyers Gail Connor and Anthony Quintana are now married after a very rocky courtship.  To celebrate their wedding, Anthony has invited Gail, her daughter Karen, and her mother to accompany him on a trip to Cuba.  Anthony was born in Cuba and still returns from time to time to visit his sister and his grandfather.  Before they leave, Anthony is approached by a CIA agent, who wants him to do a little sleuthing while he is in Cuba.  The CIA would like Anthony to try to get his sister’s husband, a high-ranking official in the government, to defect.  Anthony’s not too thrilled about the assignment but after a few veiled threats agrees to see what he can do.  The family has scarcely arrived when Gail and Anthony find themselves knee deep in problems.  Gail stumbles upon a murder, Cuban authorities seem to know about Anthony’s CIA assignment, and Karen disappears.  Maybe a return to Cuba wasn’t such a good idea!   This was not the best installment in Parker’s long-running series—too much family rigamarole and not enough suspense--but the Cuban locale was interesting and that helped.


Hour Game, By David Baldacci

Thinking of getting out of expensive, congested northern Virginia and relocating to a small town somewhere else in the state that’s cheaper and less hectic?  Well, I would avoid the town of Wrightsburg if I were you.  People are being murdered left and ‘wright’ there.   Looks like there is a serial killer loose.  Victims are being murdered with the unknown assailant imitating famous serial killers of the past.  Wrightsburg’s present day killer has added a touch of his own—he leaves a watch on each victim set to a certain hour.  Sean King and Michelle Maxwell, former Secret Service agents, live in Wrightsburg and they are partners in a private investigation firm.  When the local sheriff of Wrightsburg decides he is in need of help with the killings, he deputizes Sean and Michelle.  The sheriff’s happy to have them on board but the killer isn’t—and he’s decided they will be his next two victims.  Sean and Michelle, introduced in a previous Baldacci novel, are winning characters but the story line this time out was somewhat convoluted and lacked the suspense I’m used to in a Baldacci novel.


Conviction, by Richard North Patterson

“I didn’t do that little girl.”  So says Rendall Price.  So has Rendall Price always said.  Rendall is on death row in California, along with his brother, Payton, for the murder of a young Asian girl, Thuy Sen, fifteen years ago.  Now, he is scheduled to be executed in fifty-nine days.  Assigned to handle Rendall’s final appeal is San Francisco attorney Terri Paget, with help from her husband, Chris, and her son, Carlo, both also attorneys.  They have their work cut out for them because Thuy Sen was killed in the Price home and an eyewitness testified to seeing Rendall and Payton drag the girl into the house.  An acquaintance of the Price brothers, Eddie Fleet, admitted helping Rendall dispose of the body.  Rendall is poor, black, retarded and could scarcely understand what was happening during his trial, simply repeating, “I didn’t do that little girl.”  Looks like a cut and dried case but as Terri goes back through the events of the murder and the trial, she uncovers strong evidence of Rendall’s innocence and a more likely suspect.  But will it be enough to save Rendall’s life?  This was a difficult novel to read but one I highly recommend.  It will open your eyes to the state of capital punishment in America today.
 

With No One as Witness, by Elizabeth George

The past few months have brought great new books by Nelson DeMille, Martin Cruz Smith, Ken Follett, Tom Wolfe, and Dean Koontz.  Now, Elizabeth George weighs in with her latest Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley mystery.  Lynley is still the acting head of his detective group and Barbara Havers, his sometime partner, is still trying to redeem herself after being demoted for insubordination.  Winston Nkata, Lynley’s second most favored member, has just been promoted to Detective Sergeant—Barbara is trying to be happy about it but it rankles to be outranked by him.   Serial killers seem to be a mostly American thing but London has one on the loose.  Three young mixed race teenage boys have been found murdered in the same manner.  In a public relations nightmare for the police, the murders were largely ignored and not linked until a fourth boy, white, was also found dead in a like way.  Thomas Lynley is put in charge of the case and he is under intense pressure to show results.  Unfortunately, he has to deal with a maddening, meddling boss he despises and a press department that wants to manage the case.  With the investigation barely under way, the killer strikes several more times, ratcheting up the stakes.   Lynley, Havers, and Nkata must try to solve one of their most difficult cases while each must cope, one severely, with change in their personal lives.  Elizabeth George is one of my very favorite authors and her latest is terrific—but it will leave you wondering what happens next. 



 

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Revised May 27, 2005

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