May 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.

 

Circle of Quilters, by Jennifer Chiaverini
Dark Assassin, by Anne Perry
Gone, by Jonathan Kellerman
Challenger Park, by Stephen Harrigan
Don't Look Down, by Jennifier Crusie
Laura Bush, by Ronald Kessler
Two Little Girls in Blue, by Mary Higgins Clark
Fortunate Son, by Walter Mosley
Hey, Good Looking, by Fern Michaels



This Month's Great Escapes
by Bill McCleary




The Lighthouse, by P. D. James

A new P. D. James!  First things first—let’s check out the author’s photograph on the back cover.  Our gal turns 86 this year—86!—but she seems to be holding up well judging by her photo. That’s great to see.  Her latest book is an Adam Dalgliesh mystery.  Nathan Oliver, a famous author, has been found dead hanging from the top of a lighthouse on Combe Island, a small private island off the coast of England.  Once a family retreat, the island now serves as a haven for high government officials and other distinguished individuals to get away from their busy lives for short periods of rest.  Has the author committed suicide or was it murder?  Normally the local police would be called in to investigate but the island is due to host an important government conference and the matter of the writer’s death needs to be handled quickly and discreetly.  Adam is called in to take charge of the investigation and he brings along Detective Inspector Kate Miskin and Sergeant Francis Benton Smith.  In short order Nathan Oliver’s death is ruled to be murder and the island is sealed off.  With fewer than two dozen inhabitants on the island, Adam and his team should have an easy time of it—but none of the islanders seems to have had a motive to kill the writer.  Just as things seem to be at a standstill, another murder happens and Adam becomes incapacitated, leaving the investigation to Kate and Francis—who are warily just getting used to working with each other.  Will they soar or crash?   A new P. D. James mystery, especially at her age, is a wonderful, unexpected gift to be savored.  The Baroness has lost none of her superb powers.  I’m always looking forward to the next James mystery and I hope she lives to be 100. 


S is for Silence, by Sue Grafton

We’re up to the letter ‘S’ in the series and we’re also up to September 1987.  Kinsey Millhone, intrepid private eye, is still single—but dating—still driving her VW Bug, still typing her reports on a typewriter, and still living in the California beach community of Santa Teresa.  Way back in 1953, on July 4th to be exact, Violet Sullivan, living in the small California town of Serena Station, disappeared.  Violet had left her young daughter with a babysitter and she was on her way to watch the town’s fireworks.  Driving a brand new Chevrolet Bel Air, she and the car were never seen again.  Now, thirty-four years later, her daughter, Daisy, wants Kinsey to try to find out what happened to her mother.  As you can imagine, Kinsey isn’t too thrilled with the request and she tries to dissuade Daisy.  But, Daisy is determined—and she is a friend of a friend—so Kinsey agrees to give the case five days of her time.  Although it has been such a long time, some of the people involved are still alive and living in the area so Kinsey’s first task is to reconstruct the final days leading up to Violet’s disappearance—and get to know the missing Violet through the eyes of the people who knew her.  Is Violet still alive—or did she meet a violent death?  You’ll have an entertaining time finding out in this worthy addition to the popular Grafton series.


Sea Change, by Robert B. Parker

This is the fifth book in the Jesse Stone series.  Jesse is the former LA cop who is the police chief of the resort town of Paradise, somewhere near Boston.  He’s still battling his drinking problem—so far winning—and he and his ex-wife, Jenn, are still trying to work things out—progress there, too.   It’s Race Week in Paradise and a lot of rich people in expensive yachts have arrived to watch and participate in the boat races.  Spoiling the festivities, though, is the floating body of a dead woman who has surfaced near the docks.  She’s not a local woman—did she fall or was she pushed off of one of the visiting yachts?  The Medical Examiner can’t determine if her death was by accident or murder but Jesse suspects foul play—cops are always suspicious aren’t they?  With the help of a sassy Miami policewoman, Jesse zeroes in on one particular party boat filled with some of the most unsavory characters he’s met yet.  The rich are different—and not in a good way in this case.  But, Jesse is clever and not afraid to bend a few rules so the good guys have a fighting chance.   I adore this series—fun, light entertainment at its best.


Cell, by Stephen King

Seems like it’s been awhile since I’ve read a new King book so it was nice to see his latest on the Popular Collection shelf.  It’s October 1st of an indefinite year and we are in Boston.  Clayton Riddell, a comic book artist from Maine, is on top of the world.  He’s just signed a lucrative contract with a publisher and, after a number of lean years, he’s in the money.  As he’s walking back to his hotel, though, people start going crazy.  Fights break out everywhere, cars start crashing into other cars, and soon there is chaos.  Clay seizes on the fact that the crazed people had all been talking on their cell phones just before they went nuts.  Some sort of pulse went through all the cell phones and it caused the users to go wild.  Clay, luckily, doesn’t own a cell phone and he’s ok.  He soon meets up with two other sane people, a man and a teenage girl.  The three decide to leave Boston—which is burning and full of crazies--and head north.  Clay wants to try to get to Maine to see if his ex-wife and his young son are ok—his son’s latest toy is a new cell phone.   As a cell phone hater I had to love the storyline and the novel certainly starts out well but it sort of bogs down towards the finish and I didn’t care for the ambiguous ending.






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Revised Apr. 28, 2006

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