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.

 

The Taste of Innocence, by Stephanie Laurens
Whitethorn Woods, by Maeve Binchy
Nineteen Minutes, by Jodi Picoult
Alone, by Sandra Brown
Canaan, by Donald McCaig
Sugar Daddy, by Lisa Kleypas
Burning Bright, by Tracy Chevalier
White Night, by Jim Butcher
I Heard that Song Before, by Mary Higgins Clark
Heartstopper, by Joy Fielding
Obsession, by Jonathan Kellerman
Christine Falls, by Benjamin Black
Alibi Man, by Tami Hoag
Boomsday, by Christopher Buckley
Daddy's Girl, by Lisa Scottoline
Sister Mine, by Tawni O'Dell

This Month's Great Escapes
by Bill McCleary  


Under Orders, by Dick Francis

After the death of his wife, Mary, it seemed that Dick Francis might not write another novel.  Mary had helped immensely with the research on his books and they had both enjoyed the preparation that went into his novels.  Happily, Mr. Francis has written another novel on his own and I hope it’s the first of many more to come.  With his latest outing, perhaps wisely, Mr. Francis brings back one of his favorite characters, Sid Halley.  Halley was a champion jockey before his left hand was severely injured in a racing accident.  After his retirement, he became a private eye and, on a particularly dangerous case, he lost his left hand completely and now wears a prosthetic.  Halley is at the Cheltenham Gold Cup when a jockey, Huw Walker, is shot and killed.  Halley is there investigating why Lord Enstone’s horses have been running so poorly in the races.  Walker was a rider for Enstone; is there some race fixing going on?   As Halley starts stirring things up, someone starts threatening his fiancée, Marina.  Sid Halley has a reputation for not quitting an investigation—even if it means losing a hand.  But, what will he do now with death threats on Marina?  This was a very welcome return for one of my favorite authors. 


The Perfect Fake, by Barbara Parker

Ms. Parker has had a long-running suspense series going with Miami lawyers Gail Connor and Anthony Quintana and I’ve enjoyed those novels.  But, sometimes it’s nice to have a change and Ms. Parker gives us one here.  Tom Fairchild, thirtysomething, is trying to get his life in order.  Growing up, he had a number of scrapes with the law and he is currently on parole for a burglary conviction.  He is a graphic artist and works part-time for his sister, who runs an antique map store in Miami.  While Tom is working a map fair, he is asked by a wealthy businessman, Stuart Barlowe, to duplicate a very valuable antique map that was damaged beyond repair during a murder.  Barlowe had promised the map to a major investor in a high-rise development of his.  Tom is reluctant to get involved in making a forgery but, since he is about broke, agrees to do the job for $50,000.  The assignment will take him to London and Italy—which would be nice if there wasn’t someone tracking his every move and leaving dead bodies in his wake.  This was a very enjoyable read and I liked the focus on antique maps and mapmaking.  A nice departure for Ms. Parker.


Exile, by Richard North Patterson

Mr. Patterson writes well-researched novels that often deal with a controversial topic.  In the past, his novels have dealt with, among others, gun control, abortion, and capital punishment as topics.  In his latest, Mr. Patterson has taken on one of the most heated of subjects, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.  Thirteen years ago, David Wolfe, a Jewish student, had a secret affair with Hana Arif, a Palestinian, while they were both law students at Harvard.  While David would have liked to marry Hana, for her, family obligations came first and she was pledged to marry Saeb Khalid, a fellow Palestinian student.  After graduation, David and Hana went their separate ways.  That was then.  Fast-forward to the present.  David is a successful San Francisco lawyer poised to make a run for Congress and engaged to be married.  During a visit to San Francisco, where he meets David at a dinner party hosted by his fiancée, the prime minister of Israel is assassinated by a suicide bomber.  Hana, her husband Saeb, and daughter Munira are in San Francisco at this time and Hana is arrested as the planner of the assassination—with strong evidence pointing to her guilt.  When David finds out she has been arrested, he agrees to defend her—even though this will ostracize him in the Jewish community and end his chance to run for Congress.  In order to defend Hana, David goes to Israel and the West Bank to try to gather information on the assassination conspiracy.  While he is there he sees first hand from both sides the enormity of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, but he also finds enough information for him to start to believe that Hana may be innocent.   This was a terrific novel—both as a legal thriller and as an insightful, fair look at the very thorny problems facing the Middle East. 


Breakpoint, by Richard A. Clarke

This is the first novel that I have read by Mr. Clarke but apparently he has a reputation for writing prescient novels that have anticipated global problems.  In his latest book, it’s 2012 and, you will be happy to know, the earth is still spinning.  However, as the book begins, a series of terrorist explosions sever all the major fiber optic cables linking the United States with Europe.  Then, an advanced scientific research facility in Boston is bombed and destroyed.  After several more incidents, Susan Connor and Jimmy Foley, of the Special Projects Office of the Intelligence Analysis Center, are assigned to find out what’s going on.  America, in 2012, is about to leave China in the dust technology-wise—could China be sabotaging the United States in an effort to slow it down until China can catch up?  Although the characters are too paper-thin to even be called cardboard, the novel was an entertaining look at what might be in store for us a few years down the road and it presents interesting questions regarding the use of advanced science and technology.



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Revised May 1, 2007

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