Books with category đź§© Mystery
Displaying books 913-960 of 1447 in total

Hold Tight

2008

by Harlan Coben

Tia and Mike Baye never imagined they'd become the type of overprotective parents who spy on their kids. But their sixteen-year-old son, Adam, has been unusually distant lately, and after the suicide of his classmate Spencer Hill—the latest in a string of issues at school—they can't help but worry.

They install a sophisticated spy program on Adam's computer, and within days they are jolted by a message from an unknown correspondent addressed to their son: 'Just stay quiet and all safe.'

Meanwhile, browsing through an online memorial for Spencer put together by his classmates, Betsy Hill is struck by a photo that appears to have been taken on the night of her son's death, and he wasn't alone. She thinks it is Adam Baye standing just outside the camera's range; but when Adam goes missing, it soon becomes clear that something deep and sinister has infected their community.

For Tia and Mike Baye, the question they must answer is this: when it comes to your kids, is it possible to know too much?

Small Favor

2008

by Jim Butcher

Harry Dresden's life finally seems to be calming down—until a shadow from the past returns. Mab, monarch of the Sidhe Winter Court, calls in an old favor from Harry—one small favor that will trap him between a nightmarish foe and an equally deadly ally, and that will strain his skills—and loyalties—to their very limits.

For once, the future looks fairly bright. But the past casts one hell of a long shadow. An old bargain has placed Harry in debt to Mab, the Queen of Air and Darkness—and she's calling in her marker. It's a small favor he can't refuse... one that will trap Harry Dresden between a nightmarish foe and an equally deadly ally, and one that will strain his skills—and loyalties—to their very limits.

And everything was going so well for once...

The Name of the Wind

The Name of the Wind, also known as The Kingkiller Chronicle: Day One, is a heroic fantasy novel by American author Patrick Rothfuss. It is the first book in the ongoing fantasy trilogy The Kingkiller Chronicle.

Told in the protagonist's own voice, this is the tale of the magically gifted young man who grows to be the most notorious wizard the world has ever seen. The intimate narrative of his childhood in a troupe of traveling players, his years as a near-feral orphan in a crime-ridden city, his daring bid to enter a legendary school of magic, and his life as a fugitive after the murder of a king form a gripping coming-of-age story unrivaled in recent literature.

A high-action story written with a poet's hand, The Name of the Wind is a masterpiece that transports readers into the body and mind of a wizard, and how his search for meaning in his universe gave birth to a legend.

The Disreputable History of Frankie Landau-Banks

2008

by E. Lockhart

Frankie Landau-Banks at age 14: Debate Club. Her father's "bunny rabbit." A mildly geeky girl attending a highly competitive boarding school.

Frankie Landau-Banks at age 15: A knockout figure. A sharp tongue. A chip on her shoulder. And a gorgeous new senior boyfriend: the supremely goofy, word-obsessed Matthew Livingston.

Frankie Landau-Banks, at age 16: No longer the kind of girl to take "no" for an answer and possibly a criminal mastermind. This is the story of how she got that way.

Frankie Landau-Banks. No longer the kind of girl to take "no" for an answer. Especially when "no" means she's excluded from her boyfriend's all-male secret society. Not when her ex-boyfriend shows up in the strangest of places. Not when she knows she's smarter than any of them. When she knows Matthew's lying to her. And when there are so many, many pranks to be done.

Tangled Webs

2008

by Anne Bishop

Anne Bishop's national bestselling and critically acclaimed Black Jewels series has enthralled readers with its lavish blend of the darkly macabre with spine-tingling emotional intensity, mesmerizing magic, lush sensuality, and exciting action.

The invitation is signed Jaenelle Angelline, she who had been both Witch and Queen. It summons her family to an entertainment she had specially prepared. Surreal SaDiablo, former courtesan and assassin, arrives first. But as she and her escort enter the house, the door disappears. Surreal finds herself trapped in a nightmare created by the tangled webs of Black Widow witches - a nightmare where the monsters are too real. And if she uses Craft to defend herself, she risks being sealed in the house forever.

But Jaenelle did not send the invitation. And now Jaenelle and her family must rescue Surreal and the others inside without becoming trapped themselves, and they must also discover who created such an evil place and why. Because there is one thing they all know about this house: No matter who planned it as a way to kill members of the SaDiablo family, only one of the Blood could have created the trap.

A Curse Dark as Gold

Charlotte Miller has always scoffed at talk of a curse on her family's woolen mill, which holds her beloved small town together. But after her father's death, the bad luck piles up: departing workers, impossible debts, an overbearing uncle. Then a stranger named Jack Spinner offers a tempting proposition: He can turn straw into gold thread, for the small price of her mother's ring. As Charlotte is drawn deeper into her bargains with Spinner-and a romance with the local banker-she must unravel the truth of the curse on the mill and save the community she's always called home.

Vampire, Interrupted

2008

by Lynsay Sands

It was a case she could sink her teeth into...

After seven hundred years of life, Marguerite Argeneau finally has a career. Well, the start of one, anyway. She's training to be a private investigator, and her first assignment is to find an immortal's mother. It seemed simple enough, until Marguerite wakes up one evening to find herself at the wrong end of a sword. Now she realizes she's in way over her head.

Julius Notte wants to protect Marguerite, and not because someone just tried to take her head off. She doesn't know it yet, but she's his lifemate and he's determined to woo her. It's been over five hundred years since he last courted a woman, but surely the techniques haven't changed. Now if only he can keep her alive—so to speak—so they can have that happily-ever-after.

Death Note, Vol. 13: How to Read

2008

by Tsugumi Ohba

The Ultimate Death Note Encyclopedia!

Here, in one authoritative volume: everything you need to know about Death Note, the best-selling manga series.

Featuring complete character biographies, detailed storyline summaries, production notes, and behind-the-scenes commentaries, Death Note 13: How to Read also includes exclusive interviews with creators Tsugumi Ohba and Takeshi Obata and a bonus manga chapter of never-before-translated material.

Unless you own your very own death note, it doesn't get any better than this!

Mine to Possess

2008

by Nalini Singh

Nalini Singh pulls away another dark layer of sheer desire, revealing passions unknown, in her latest novel about the world of the Psy. A ghost returns from a leopard changeling’s past, making him question everything—even his base animal instincts…

Clay Bennett is a powerful DarkRiver sentinel, but he grew up in the slums with his human mother, never knowing his changeling father. As a young boy without the bonds of Pack, he tried to stifle his animal nature. He failed…and committed the most extreme act of violence, killing a man and losing his best friend, Talin, in the bloody aftermath. Everything good in him died the day he was told that she, too, was dead.

Talin McKade barely survived a childhood drenched in bloodshed and terror. Now a new nightmare is stalking her life–the street children she works to protect are disappearing and turning up dead. Determined to keep them safe, she unlocks the darkest secret in her heart and returns to ask the help of the strongest man she knows…

Clay lost Talin once. He will not let her go again, his hunger to possess her, a clawing need born of the leopard within. As they race to save the innocent, Clay and Talin must face the violent truths of their past…or lose everything that ever mattered.

Jeremy Fink and the Meaning of Life

2008

by Wendy Mass

In one month, Jeremy Fink will turn thirteen. But does he have what it takes to be a teenager? He collects mutant candy, he won't venture more than four blocks from his apartment if he can help it, and he definitely doesn't like surprises. On the other hand, his best friend, Lizzy, isn't afraid of anything, even if that might get her into trouble now and then.

Jeremy's summer takes an unexpected turn when a mysterious wooden box arrives in the mail. According to the writing on the box, it holds the meaning of life! Jeremy is supposed to open it on his thirteenth birthday. The problem is, the keys are missing, and the box is made so that only the keys will open it without destroying what's inside.

Jeremy and Lizzy set off to find the keys, but when one of their efforts goes very wrong, Jeremy starts to lose hope that he'll ever be able to open the box. But he soon discovers that when you're meeting people named Oswald Oswald and using a private limo to deliver unusual objects to strangers all over the city, there might be other ways of finding out the meaning of life.

Lively characters, surprising twists, and thought-provoking ideas make Wendy Mass's latest novel an unforgettable read.

Company of Liars

2008

by Karen Maitland

In this extraordinary novel, Karen Maitland delivers a dazzling reinterpretation of Chaucer's Canterbury Tales, an ingenious alchemy of history, mystery, and powerful human drama.

The year is 1348. The Black Plague grips the country. In a world ruled by faith and fear, nine desperate strangers, brought together by chance, attempt to outrun the certain death that is running inexorably toward them.

Each member of this motley company has a story to tell. From Camelot, the relic-seller who will become the group's leader, to Cygnus, the one-armed storyteller. From the strange, silent child called Narigorm to a painter and his pregnant wife, each has a secret. None is what they seem. And one among them conceals the darkest secret of all—propelling these liars to a destiny they never saw coming.

Magical, heart-quickening, and raw, Company of Liars is a work of vaulting imagination from a powerful new voice in historical fiction.

The Bone Garden

2008

by Tess Gerritsen

Present day: Julia Hamill has made a horrifying discovery on the grounds of her new home in rural Massachusetts: a skull buried in the rocky soil—human, female, and, according to the trained eye of Boston medical examiner Maura Isles, scarred with the unmistakable marks of murder. But whoever this nameless woman was, and whatever befell her, is knowledge lost to another time.

Boston, 1830: In order to pay for his education, Norris Marshall, a talented but penniless student at Boston Medical College, has joined the ranks of local “resurrectionists”—those who plunder graveyards and harvest the dead for sale on the black market. Yet even this ghoulish commerce pales beside the shocking murder of a nurse found mutilated on the university hospital grounds. And when a distinguished doctor meets the same grisly fate, Norris finds that trafficking in the illicit cadaver trade has made him a prime suspect.

To prove his innocence, Norris must track down the only witness to have glimpsed the killer: Rose Connolly, a beautiful seamstress from the Boston slums who fears she may be the next victim. Joined by a sardonic, keenly intelligent young man named Oliver Wendell Holmes, Norris and Rose comb the city—from its grim cemeteries and autopsy suites to its glittering mansions and centers of Brahmin power—on the trail of a maniacal fiend who lurks where least expected...and who waits for his next lethal opportunity.

A Quiet Belief in Angels

2008

by R.J. Ellory

Joseph Vaughan's life has been dogged by tragedy. Growing up in the 1950s, he was at the center of a series of killings of young girls in his small rural community. These girls were taken, assaulted, and left horribly mutilated. Barely a teenager himself, Joseph becomes determined to try to protect his community and classmates from the predations of the killer.

Despite banding together with his friends as 'The Guardians', he was powerless to prevent more murders—and no one was ever caught. Only after a full ten years did the nightmare end when one of his neighbors is found hanging from a rope, with articles from the dead girls around him. Thankfully, the killings finally ceased.

But the past won't stay buried—for it seems that the real murderer still lives and is killing again. And the secret of his identity lies in Joseph's own history...

Iron Kissed

2008

by Patricia Briggs

Mechanic Mercy Thompson can shift her shape - but not her loyalty. When her former boss and mentor is arrested for murder and left to rot behind bars by his own kind, it's up to Mercy to clear his name, whether he wants her to or not.

Mercy's loyalty is under pressure from other directions, too. Werewolves are not known for their patience, and if Mercy can't decide between the two she cares for, Sam and Adam may make the choice for her...

The Secret Hour

Strange things happen at midnight in the town of Bixby, Oklahoma. Time freezes. Nobody moves except dark creatures that haunt the shadows and the few people who are free to move at midnight, Midnighters. Their different powers strongest at midnight are: Seer, Mindcaster, Acrobat, Polymath. All changes when Jessica Day comes to Bixby High with a hidden power.

Touching Darkness

Bixby, Oklahoma, is full of secrets. Some come out at midnight. Some should stay hidden.

As the Midnighters search for the truth about the secret hour, they uncover terrifying mysteries woven into the very fabric of Bixby’s history, and a conspiracy that touches the world of daylight.

This time Jessica Day is not the only Midnighter in mortal danger, and if the group can’t find a way to come together, they could lose one of their own... forever.

Oath Breaker

2008

by Michelle Paver

A thrilling story about friendship, loyalty, and revenge.

When he was outcast, Torak was the hunted one. Nine moons later, he becomes the hunter when he vows to avenge the killing of one of his closest friends. Racked by guilt and grief, he follows the killer into the Deep Forest, where the World Spirit stalks the hidden valleys as a tall man with the antlers of a stag.

But there is a rottenness at the heart of the Forest, for its clans have succumbed to the lies of the Soul-Eaters. Here, Torak must face fire, war, and overwhelming evil.

Oath Breaker is a story about keeping promises and the true cost of vengeance.

Palace of Mirrors

Somewhere in the world I have a tiara in a little box. It is not safe for me to wear it... It is not safe for me even to tell anyone who I really am. But I know—I have always known.

Cecilia knows that she is not just another peasant girl; she is actually the true princess, in hiding until the evil forces that killed her parents are vanquished. A commoner named Desmia is on the throne as a decoy.

As she gets older, Cecilia finds it harder to study statesmanship and palace protocol secretly at night and then pretend that she has nothing on her mind other than scrubbing the gruel stains out of her best apron by day. Cecilia knows that it is time to take charge. Along with her best friend, Harper, she flees to the capital city, determined to reclaim her throne and face the danger head on.

When Harper and Cecilia reach the famed Palace of Mirrors, they discover complications: Princess Desmia believes an entirely different version of the story.

Acclaimed author Margaret Peterson Haddix returns to the charmed world of Just Ella, where a princess-in-hiding and a pretender to the throne discover that nothing is as it appears.

Thanks for the Memories

2008

by Cecelia Ahern

Joyce Conway remembers things she shouldn't. She knows about tiny cobbled streets in Paris, which she has never visited. And every night she dreams about an unknown little girl with blonde hair.

Justin Hitchcock is divorced, lonely, and restless. He arrives in Dublin to give a lecture on art and meets an attractive doctor, who persuades him to donate blood. It's the first thing to come straight from his heart in a long time.

When Joyce leaves hospital after a terrible accident, with her life and her marriage in pieces, she moves back in with her elderly father. All the while, a strong sense of déjà vu is overwhelming her and she can't figure out why …

The Riddle

2008

by Alison Croggon

Maerad is a girl with a tragic and bitter past, but her powers grow stronger by the day. Now she and her mentor, Cadvan, hunted by both the Light and the Dark, must unravel the Riddle of the Treesong before their fractured kingdom erupts in chaos.

The quest leads Maerad over terrifying seas and vast stretches of glacial wilderness, ever closer to the seductive Winterking — ally of her most powerful enemy, the Nameless One. Trapped in the Winterking's icy realm, Maerad must confront what she has suspected all along: that she is the greatest riddle of all.

This sequel to The Naming, the second book in a captivating quartet about the ancient world of Edil-Amarandh, is a sweeping epic readers won't soon forget.

The Savage Detectives

New Year’s Eve, 1975: Arturo Belano and Ulises Lima, founders of the visceral realist movement in poetry, leave Mexico City in a borrowed white Impala. Their quest: to track down the obscure, vanished poet Cesárea Tinajero. A violent showdown in the Sonora desert turns search to flight; twenty years later Belano and Lima are still on the run.

The explosive first long work by “the most exciting writer to come from south of the Rio Grande in a long time” (Ilan Stavans, Los Angeles Times), The Savage Detectives follows Belano and Lima through the eyes of the people whose paths they cross in Central America, Europe, Israel, and West Africa. This chorus includes the muses of visceral realism, the beautiful Font sisters; their father, an architect interned in a Mexico City asylum; a sensitive young follower of Octavio Paz; a foul-mouthed American graduate student; a French girl with a taste for the Marquis de Sade; the great-granddaughter of Leon Trotsky; a Chilean stowaway with a mystical gift for numbers; the anorexic heiress to a Mexican underwear empire; an Argentinian photojournalist in Angola; and assorted hangers-on, detractors, critics, lovers, employers, vagabonds, real-life literary figures, and random acquaintances.

A polymathic descendant of Borges and Pynchon, Roberto Bolaño traces the hidden connection between literature and violence in a world where national boundaries are fluid and death lurks in the shadow of the avant-garde. The Savage Detectives is a dazzling original, the first great Latin American novel of the twenty-first century.

100 Cupboards

2007

by N.D. Wilson

Twelve-year-old Henry York is going to sleep one night when he hears a bump on the attic wall above his head. It's an unfamiliar house—Henry is staying with his aunt, uncle, and three cousins—so he tries to ignore it. But the next night he wakes up with bits of plaster in his hair. Two knobs have broken through the wall, and one of them is slowly turning...

Henry scrapes the plaster off the wall and discovers doors—ninety-nine cupboards of all different sizes and shapes. Through one he can hear the sound of falling rain. Through another he sees a glowing room—with a man strolling back and forth!

Henry and his cousin Henrietta soon understand that these are not just cupboards. They are, in fact, portals to other worlds.

100 Cupboards is the first book of a new fantasy adventure, written in the best world-hopping tradition and reinvented in N.D Wilson's own inimitable style.

The Secret Life of CeeCee Wilkes

In 1977, pregnant Genevieve Russell disappeared. Twenty years later, her remains are discovered, and Timothy Gleason is charged with murder. But there is no sign of the unborn child.

CeeCee Wilkes knows how Genevieve Russell died, because she was there. And she knows what happened to her missing infant, because two decades ago she made the devastating choice to raise the baby as her own.

Now, Timothy Gleason is facing the death penalty, and she has another choice to make. Tell the truth and destroy her family, or let an innocent man die in order to protect a lifetime of lies.

Eve Elliot is a successful therapist to troubled students, a loving wife, and a mother deeply invested in her family. But her happiness is built on a lie. When she was a lonely, vulnerable young woman, a single decision made in innocence led to a dark night of unimaginable consequences.

Now, forced to confront her past, she faces another terrible choice: reveal to her family that she is not who she seems, or allow a man to take the blame for a crime she knows he did not commit.

As the past explodes into the present, Corinne Elliot must confront the secrets she has always intuited and find answers from the one person who knows the truth of what happened over two decades ago—CeeCee Wilkes.

Night Train to Lisbon

2007

by Pascal Mercier

Night Train to Lisbon is a captivating novel that delves into the depths of our shared humanity, offering a breathtaking insight into life, love, and literature itself. This compelling exploration of consciousness examines the possibility of truly understanding another person and the ability of language to define our very selves.

Raimund Gregorius, a Latin teacher at a Swiss college, encounters a mysterious Portuguese woman and decides to abandon his old life to start anew. He takes the night train to Lisbon, carrying with him a book by Amadeu de Prado, a fictional Portuguese doctor and essayist whose writings explore loneliness, mortality, friendship, love, and loyalty.

Gregorius becomes obsessed with what he reads and restlessly struggles to comprehend the life of the author. His investigations lead him all over the city of Lisbon, as he speaks to those entangled in Prado’s life. Gradually, the picture of an extraordinary man emerges—a doctor and poet who rebelled against Salazar’s dictatorship.

Magic and Other Misdemeanors

2007

by Michael Buckley

Sabrina and Daphne Grimm are ready to tackle their own case: Who is stealing the magical possessions of the most powerful Everafters in town?

With Granny distracted by Mayor Heart's campaign against human residents, the girl detectives appear to be on their own.

In this latest adventure, the intrepid fairy-tale detectives investigate a sudden streak of magical thefts that might add up to a very grim future for their family, who are not so popular in Ferryport Landing these days.

With Granny Relda desperately scrambling to pay Mayor Heart’s outrageous taxes on humans, the Sisters Grimm tackle their first solo case—with a little help from Puck, of course. Meanwhile, their old friend Mr. Canis seems to be losing his grip on his human self, becoming more like the Big Bad Wolf every day.

Can Sabrina and Daphne solve the crime and change their family’s future for the better?

Snakehead

No sooner has Alex splashed down off the coast of Australia than he finds himself sucked into another adventure. This time he's working for ASIS - the Australian Secret Service - and his target is the criminal underworld of South-East Asia: the ruthless world of the Snakehead.

What goes up must come down, and when we last saw Alex Rider, he was as up as can be—in outer space. When he crash lands off the coast of Australia, the Australian Secret Service recruits him to infiltrate one of the ruthless gangs operating across South East Asia. Known as snakeheads, the gangs smuggle drugs, weapons, and worst of all, people.

Alex accepts the assignment, in part for the chance to work with his godfather and learn more about his parents. What he uncovers, however, is a secret that will make this his darkest and most dangerous mission yet... and that his old nemesis, Scorpia, is anything but out of his life.

From the slums of Bangkok to the Australian Outback to the middle of the Timor Sea, Snakehead is Alex Rider's most action-packed adventure yet.

Outcast

2007

by Michelle Paver

A thrilling story of friendship, survival, and the need to belong. For two moons, Torak has hidden a terrible secret—and now it is revealed. He bears the mark of the Soul-Eater, and must pay the price. Cast out from the clans, he is alone and on the run: cut off from his best friend, Renn, and his beloved pack-brother, Wolf.

He flees to the haunted reed-beds of Lake Axehead, where he is hunted by the Otter Clan, taunted by the Hidden People, and, as soul-sickness claims him, he falls prey to an even greater menace. Tormented by secrets and broken trust, he uncovers a deception that will turn his world upside down.

A Lick of Frost

I am Meredith Gentry, princess and heir apparent to the throne in the realm of faerie, onetime private investigator in the mortal world. To be crowned queen, I must first continue the royal bloodline and give birth to an heir of my own. If I fail, my aunt, Queen Andais, will be free to do what she most desires: install her twisted son, Cel, as monarch . . . and kill me.

My royal guards surround me, and my best loved–my Darkness and my Killing Frost–are always beside me, sworn to protect and make love to me. But still the threat grows greater. For despite all my carnal efforts, I remain childless, while the machinations of my sinister, sadistic Queen and her confederates remain tireless.

So my bodyguards and I have slipped back into Los Angeles, hoping to outrun the gathering shadows of court intrigue. But even exile isn’t enough to escape the grasp of those with dark designs. Now King Taranis, powerful and vainglorious ruler of faerie’s Seelie Court, has leveled accusations against my noble guards of a heinous crime–and has gone so far as to ask the mortal authorities to prosecute. If he succeeds, my men face extradition to faerie and the hideous penalties that await them there. But I know that Taranis’s charges are baseless, and I sense that his true target is me. He tried to kill me when I was a child. Now I fear his intentions are far more terrifying.

Bloodfever

I used to think my sister and I were just two nice southern girls who’d get married in a few years and settle down to a quiet life. Then I discovered that Alina and I descend, not from good wholesome southern stock, but from an ancient Celtic bloodline of powerful sidhe-seers, people who can see the Fae. Not only can I see the terrifying otherworldly race, but I can sense the sacred Fae relics that hold the deadliest of their magic.When my sister was found dead in a trash-filled alley in Dublin, I came over to get answers. Now all I want is revenge. And after everything I’ve learned about myself, I know I have the power to get it….MacKayla Lane’s ordinary life underwent a complete makeover when she landed on Ireland’s shores and was plunged into a world of deadly sorcery and ancient secrets. In her fight to stay alive, Mac must find the Sinsar Dubh–a million-year-old book of the blackest magic imaginable, which holds the key to power over both the worlds of the Fae and of Man. Pursued by Fae assassins, surrounded by mysterious figures she knows she cannot trust, Mac finds herself torn between two deadly and irresistible men: V’lane, the insatiable Fae who can turn sensual arousal into an obsession for any woman, and the ever-inscrutable Jericho Barrons, a man as alluring as he is mysterious. For centuries the shadowy realm of the Fae has coexisted with that of humans. Now the walls between the two are coming down, and Mac is the only thing that stands between them.…

The Empress's Tomb

2007

by Kirsten Miller

What's happening in New York City?

Giant Squirrels. A Haunted Mansion. Six fierce friends with fiercer secrets.

Ananka is in danger of being sent to a remote boarding school; Kiki's life (as always) is in danger, Betty seems to have found love in all the wrong places, and Oona... well, Oona's the one in the most serious trouble of all.

From Chinatown to Fifth Avenue, whether they are rescuing kidnapped children or resuscitating an ancient Empress at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, the Irregulars have a knack for finding trouble, and putting it out of its misery.

Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians

Alcatraz Versus the Evil Librarians is the first adventure in a fantasy series for young readers by the #1 New York Times bestselling author Brandon Sanderson. The fast-paced and funny series is now available in deluxe hardcover editions illustrated by Hayley Lazo.

On his thirteenth birthday, foster child Alcatraz Smedry gets a bag of sand in the mail - his only inheritance from his father and mother. He soon learns that this is no ordinary bag of sand. It is quickly stolen by the cult of evil Librarians who are taking over the world by spreading misinformation and suppressing truth. Alcatraz must stop them, using the only weapon he has: an incredible talent for breaking things.

The Name of This Book Is Secret

Warning: this description has not been authorized by Pseudonymous Bosch. As much as he'd love to sing the praises of his book (he is very vain), he wouldn't want you to hear about his brave 11-year old heroes, Cass and Max-Ernest. Or about how a mysterious box of vials, the Symphony of Smells, sends them on the trail of a magician who has vanished under strange (and stinky) circumstances. And he certainly wouldn't want you to know about the hair-raising adventures that follow and the nefarious villains they face. You see, not only is the name of this book secret, the story inside is, too. For it concerns a secret. A Big Secret.

A Great and Terrible Beauty

2007

by Libba Bray

In A Great and Terrible Beauty, set in the year 1895, 16-year-old Gemma Doyle's life is irrevocably changed by the suicide of her mother, leading her to leave her home in India for a boarding school in England. Spence Academy for Young Ladies is a stark contrast to her previous life, and Gemma finds herself grappling with loneliness and the burden of guilt.

Gemma is no ordinary girl; she is plagued by visions of the future that disturbingly tend to manifest into reality. Her arrival at Spence is met with coldness, and to complicate matters, she is tailed by a mysterious young man from India whose intentions are unclear. This enigmatic figure seems to have been sent to observe her, but the reasons behind this surveillance are shrouded in mystery.

As Gemma navigates the complex social hierarchy of Spence, she becomes entwined with the school's most influential girls. Together, they delve into the spiritual realm, but this foray could lead to perilous consequences. Gemma must uncover her destiny and understand the connection between her haunting visions and the dark secrets that seem to lurk behind the walls of Spence.

Bridge of Sighs

2007

by Richard Russo

Louis Charles Lynch (also known as Lucy) is sixty years old and has lived in Thomaston, New York, his entire life. He and Sarah, his wife of forty years, are about to embark on a vacation to Italy. Lucy's oldest friend, once a rival for his wife's affection, leads a life in Venice far removed from Thomaston.

Perhaps for this reason Lucy is writing the story of his town, his family, and his own life that makes up this rich and mesmerizing novel, interspersed with that of the native son who left so long ago and has never looked back.

Bridge of Sighs, from the beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Empire Falls, is a moving novel about small-town America that expands Russo's widely heralded achievement in ways both familiar and astonishing.

No Time for Goodbye

2007

by Linwood Barclay

Fourteen-year-old Cynthia Bigge woke one morning to discover that her entire family—mother, father, brother—had vanished. No note, no trace, no return. Ever.

Now, twenty-five years later, she'll learn the devastating truth. Sometimes it's better not to know...

Cynthia is happily married with a young daughter, a new family. But the story of her old family isn't over. A strange car in the neighborhood, untraceable phone calls, ominous gifts—someone has returned to her hometown to finish what was started twenty-five years ago.

And no one's innocence is guaranteed, not even her own. By the time Cynthia discovers her killer's shocking identity, it will again be too late... even for goodbye.

Written in Bone

2007

by Simon Beckett

I took the skull from its evidence bag and gently set it on the stainless steel table. 'Tell me who you are...'

Forensic anthropologist Dr. David Hunter should be at home in London with the woman he loves. Instead, as a favor to a beleaguered colleague, he's on the remote Hebridean island of Runa to inspect a grisly discovery.

Hunter has witnessed death in many guises, but even he is shocked by what he finds: a body almost totally incinerated except for the feet and a single hand. Could it be a textbook case of spontaneous human combustion? The local police are certain it's an accidental death, but Hunter is not convinced. Examining the scorched remains, he finds the evidence he feared. It's clear to him that this was no accident, this was murder.

But as the small, isolated community considers the enormity of Hunter's findings, a catastrophic storm hits the island. The power goes down, communication with the mainland ceases, and then the killing begins in earnest...

Exploding in a series of violent acts and shocking twists, this is the compelling new crime thriller from a brilliant British storyteller.

Memoirs of a Teenage Amnesiac

2007

by Gabrielle Zevin

If Naomi had picked tails, she would have won the coin toss. She wouldn't have had to go back for the yearbook camera, and she wouldn't have hit her head on the steps. She wouldn't have woken up in an ambulance with amnesia. She certainly would have remembered her boyfriend, Ace. She might even have remembered why she fell in love with him in the first place. She would understand why her best friend, Will, keeps calling her "Chief." She'd know about her mom's new family. She'd know about her dad's fiancée. She never would have met James, the boy with the questionable past and the even fuzzier future, who tells her he once wanted to kiss her. She wouldn't have wanted to kiss him back.


But Naomi picked heads.


After her remarkable debut, Gabrielle Zevin has crafted an imaginative second novel all about love and second chances.

Auralia's Colors

When thieves find an abandoned child lying in a monster’s footprint, they have no idea that their wilderness discovery will change the course of history. Cloaked in mystery, Auralia grows up among criminals outside the walls of House Abascar, where vicious beastmen lurk in shadow.

There, she discovers an unsettling–and forbidden–talent for crafting colors that enchant all who behold them, including Abascar’s hard-hearted king, an exiled wizard, and a prince who keeps dangerous secrets. Auralia’s gift opens doors from the palace to the dungeons, setting the stage for violent and miraculous change in the great houses of the Expanse.

Auralia’s Colors weaves literary fantasy together with poetic prose, a suspenseful plot, adrenaline-rush action, and unpredictable characters sure to enthrall ambitious imaginations.

Heartsick

2007

by Chelsea Cain

Damaged Portland detective Archie Sheridan spent ten years tracking Gretchen Lowell, a beautiful serial killer, but in the end she was the one who caught him. Two years ago, Gretchen kidnapped Archie and tortured him for ten days, but instead of killing him, she mysteriously decided to let him go.

She turned herself in, and now Gretchen has been locked away for the rest of her life, while Archie is in a prison of another kind—addicted to pain pills, unable to return to his old life, powerless to get those ten horrific days off his mind. Archie's a different person, his estranged wife says, and he knows she's right. He continues to visit Gretchen in prison once a week, saying that only he can get her to confess as to the whereabouts of more of her victims, but even he knows the truth—he can't stay away.

When another killer begins snatching teenage girls off the streets of Portland, Archie has to pull himself together enough to lead the new task force investigating the murders. A hungry young newspaper reporter, Susan Ward, begins profiling Archie and the investigation, which sparks a deadly game between Archie, Susan, the new killer, and even Gretchen.

They need to catch a killer, and maybe somehow then Archie can free himself from Gretchen, once and for all. Either way, Heartsick makes for one of the most extraordinary suspense debuts in recent memory.

The Lace Reader

2007

by Brunonia Barry

The Lace Reader is a novel set in the mysterious town of Salem, Massachusetts, a place steeped in history and intrigue. The story revolves around Towner Whitney, a woman descended from a long line of mind readers and fortune tellers who can read the future in the patterns of lace.

Returning to Salem for some rest and relaxation, Towner's life is thrown into turmoil when her beloved aunt drowns under mysterious circumstances. As Towner delves deeper into her family's secrets, she must confront her painful past and the shocking truth about the death of her twin sister.

Through unreliable narratives and a blend of reality and imagination, the novel explores themes of family, memory, and the supernatural. The Whitney women's ability to read lace serves as both a gift and a curse, revealing hidden truths and challenging their perceptions of reality.

As the story unfolds, readers are drawn into a suspenseful, fast-paced tale that questions the boundaries between what is real and what is imagined. The novel's rich, evocative prose casts an enthralling spell, making it a compelling read for those who enjoy a mix of mystery, psychological drama, and historical fiction.

Spook Country

2007

by William Gibson

Tito is in his early twenties. Born in Cuba, he speaks fluent Russian, lives in one room in a NoLita warehouse, and does delicate jobs involving information transfer.

Hollis Henry is an investigative journalist, on assignment from a magazine called Node. Node doesn't exist yet, which is fine; she's used to that. But it seems to be actively blocking the kind of buzz that magazines normally cultivate before they start up. Really actively blocking it. It's odd, even a little scary, if Hollis lets herself think about it much. Which she doesn't; she can't afford to.

Milgrim is a junkie. A high-end junkie, hooked on prescription antianxiety drugs. Milgrim figures he wouldn't survive twenty-four hours if Brown, the mystery man who saved him from a misunderstanding with his dealer, ever stopped supplying those little bubble packs. What exactly Brown is up to, Milgrim can't say, but it seems to be military in nature. At least, Milgrim's very nuanced Russian would seem to be a big part of it, as would breaking into locked rooms.

Bobby Chombo is a "producer," and an enigma. In his day job, Bobby is a troubleshooter for manufacturers of military navigation equipment. He refuses to sleep in the same place twice. He meets no one. Hollis Henry has been told to find him.

High Noon

2007

by Nora Roberts

Police Lieutenant Phoebe MacNamara found her calling at an early age when a violently unstable man broke into her family’s home, trapping and terrorizing them for hours. Now she’s Savannah’s top hostage negotiator, who puts her life on the line every day to diffuse powder-keg situations.

After watching her talk one of his employees off a roof ledge, Duncan Swift is committed to keeping this intriguing, take-charge woman in his life. Phoebe’s used to working solo, but she’s finding that no amount of negotiation can keep Duncan at arm’s length.

Especially when a man throws a hood over Phoebe’s head and brutally assaults her—in her own precinct house—and threatening messages begin appearing on her doorstep. Duncan backs her up every step of the way, as she establishes contact with the faceless tormentor who is determined to make her a hostage to fear—before she becomes the final showdown.

The Tenderness of Wolves

2007

by Stef Penney

The year is 1867. Winter has just tightened its grip on Dove River, a tiny isolated settlement in the Northern Territory, when a man is brutally murdered. Laurent Jammett had been a voyageur for the Hudson Bay Company before an accident lamed him four years earlier. The same accident afforded him the little parcel of land in Dove River, land that the locals called unlucky due to the untimely death of the previous owner.

A local woman, Mrs. Ross, stumbles upon the crime scene and sees the tracks leading from the dead man's cabin north toward the forest and the tundra beyond. It is Mrs. Ross's knock on the door of the largest house in Caulfield that launches the investigation. Within hours, she will regret that knock with a mother's love — for soon she makes another discovery: her seventeen-year-old son Francis has disappeared and is now considered a prime suspect.

In the wake of such violence, people are drawn to the crime and to the township — Andrew Knox, Dove River's elder statesman; Thomas Sturrock, a wily American itinerant trader; Donald Moody, the clumsy young Company representative; William Parker, a half-breed Native American and trapper who was briefly detained for Jammett's murder before becoming Mrs. Ross's guide. But the question remains: do these men want to solve the crime or exploit it?

One by one, the searchers set out from Dove River following the tracks across a desolate landscape — home to only wild animals, madmen, and fugitives — variously seeking a murderer, a son, two sisters missing for seventeen years, and a forgotten Native American culture before the snows settle and cover the tracks of the past for good.

In an astonishingly assured debut, Stef Penney deftly weaves adventure, suspense, revelation, and humor into an exhilarating thriller; a panoramic historical romance; a gripping murder mystery; and, ultimately, with the sheer scope and quality of her storytelling, an epic for the ages.

The Quickie

Lauren Stillwell is not your average damsel in distress. When the NYPD cop discovers her husband leaving a hotel with another woman, she decides to beat him at his own game. But her revenge goes dangerously awry, and she finds her world spiraling into a hell that becomes more terrifying by the hour.

In a further twist of fate, Lauren must take on a job that threatens everything she stands for. Now, she's paralyzed by a deadly secret that could tear her life apart. With her job and marriage on the line, Lauren's desire for retribution becomes a lethal inferno as she fights to save her livelihood—and her life.

Patterson takes us on a twisting roller-coaster ride of thrills in his most gripping novel yet. This story of love, lust, and dangerous secrets will have readers' hearts pounding to the very last page.

The Vampire Queen's Servant

2007

by Joey W. Hill

Lady Elyssa Yamato Amaterasu Wentworth is a seven-hundred-year-old vampire in need of a new servant—now more than ever as she's suffering the signs of a mysterious ailment that threatens to consume her.


As a gift, she's been given Jacob, an extraordinary physical specimen, but all wrong when it comes to being... used. A total alpha male, he's not accustomed to submitting to any woman's wishes.


Elyssa soon learns that what really binds Jacob to her are not her sensual midnight hungers, but something far more provocative. It stirs her blood, renews her life, and awakens her soul like only true love can. And the passion between Elyssa and Jacob is about to yield something else unexpected—a shared history that reaches back through the centuries and is fated to challenge their destiny like nothing ever will again...

The Judas Strain

2007

by James Rollins

New York Times bestselling author James Rollins returns with a terrifying story of an ancient menace reborn to plague the modern world... and of an impossible hope that lies hidden in the most shocking place imaginable: within the language of angels.

ju·das strain, n. A scientific term for an organism that drives an entire species to extinction.

From the depths of the Indian Ocean, a horrific plague has arisen to devastate humankind—a disease that's unknown, unstoppable... and deadly. But it is merely a harbinger of the doom that is to follow. Aboard a cruise liner transformed into a makeshift hospital, Dr. Lisa Cummings and Monk Kokkalis—operatives of SIGMA Force—search for answers to the bizarre affliction. But there are others with far less altruistic intentions.

In a savage and sudden coup, terrorists hijack the vessel, turning a mercy ship into a floating bio-weapons lab. A world away, SIGMA's Commander Gray Pierce thwarts the murderous schemes of a beautiful would-be killer who holds the first clue to the discovery of a possible cure.

Pierce joins forces with the woman who wanted him dead, and together they embark upon an astonishing quest following the trail of the most fabled explorer in history: Marco Polo. But time is an enemy as a worldwide pandemic grows rapidly out of control. As a relentless madman dogs their every step, Gray and his unlikely ally are being pulled into an astonishing mystery buried deep in antiquity and in humanity's genetic code.

And as the seconds tick closer to doomsday, Gray Pierce will realize he can truly trust no one, for any one of them could be... a Judas.

Lean Mean Thirteen

2007

by Janet Evanovich

New secrets, old flames, and hidden agendas are about to send bounty hunter Stephanie Plum on her most outrageous adventure yet!


MISTAKE #1: Dickie Orr. Stephanie was married to him for about fifteen minutes before she caught him cheating on her with her arch-nemesis, Joyce Barnhardt. Another fifteen minutes after that, Stephanie filed for divorce, hoping to never see either one of them again.


MISTAKE #2: Doing favors for super bounty hunter Carlos Manoso (a.k.a. Ranger). Ranger needs her to meet with Dickie and find out if he's doing something shady. Turns out, he is. Turns out, he's also back to doing Joyce Barnhardt. And it turns out Ranger's favors always come with a price...


MISTAKE #3: Going completely nutso while doing the favor for Ranger, and trying to apply bodily injury to Dickie in front of the entire office. Now Dickie has disappeared, and Stephanie is the natural suspect in his disappearance. Is Dickie dead? Can he be found? And can Stephanie Plum stay one step ahead in this new, dangerous game?


Joe Morelli, the hottest cop in Trenton, NJ, is also keeping Stephanie on her toes—and he may know more than he's saying about many things in Stephanie's life. It's a cat-and-mouse game for Stephanie Plum, where the ultimate prize might be her life.


With Janet Evanovich's flair for hilarious situations, breathtaking action, and unforgettable characters, LEAN MEAN THIRTEEN shows why no one can beat Evanovich for blockbuster entertainment.

The Face of Death

2007

by Cody McFadyen

In Shadow Man, Cody McFadyen took the suspense thriller where other writers have feared to tread. He introduced readers to a heroine every bit as dark and edgy as the serial killers she hunts: Special Agent Smoky Barrett.

Now, in his latest novel, McFadyen brings Agent Barrett back to track down a killer who breaks all the rules. Get ready for a shattering confrontation with the very essence of human evil.

I want to talk to Smoky Barrett or I'll kill myself. The girl is sixteen, at the scene of a grisly triple homicide, and has a gun to her head. She claims The Stranger killed her adoptive family, that he's been following her all her life, killing everyone she ever loved, and that no one believes her. No one has. Until now.

Special Agent Smoky Barrett is head of the violent crimes unit in Los Angeles, the part of the FBI reserved for tracking down the worst of the worst. Her team has been handpicked from among the nation's elite law enforcement specialists and they are as obsessed and relentless as the psychos they hunt; they'll have to be to deal with this case.

For another vicious double homicide reveals a killer embarked on a dark crusade of trauma and death: an "artist" who's molding sixteen-year-old Sarah into the perfect victim—and the ultimate weapon. But Smoky Barrett has another, more personal reason for catching The Stranger—an adopted daughter and a new life that are worth protecting at any cost.

This time Smoky is going to have to put it all on the line. Because The Stranger is all too real, all too close, and all too relentless. And when he finally shows his face, if she's not ready to confront her worst fear, Smoky won't have time to do anything but die.

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