Books with category Page Turner
Displaying 38 books

She Didn’t See It Coming

2025

by Shari Lapena

She didn’t see it coming . . .
But one of us did.


Bryden and Sam have it all - thriving careers, a smart apartment in a luxury condominium, supportive friends, and a cherished daughter. The perfect life for the perfect couple.


Then Sam receives a call at his office. Bryden – working from home that day - has failed to collect their daughter from daycare.


Arriving home with their little girl, he finds his wife’s car in the underground garage. Upstairs in their apartment, her laptop is open on the table, her cell phone nearby, her keys in their usual place in the hall.


Except Bryden is nowhere to be seen. It’s as if she just walked out.


How can she have disappeared from her own home? And did she even leave the building at all?


With every minute that passes – and as questions swirl around their community – Bryden and Sam’s past seems a little less perfect, their condominium less safe, their friends, neighbors, and relatives no longer quite so reliable . . .

The Housemaid is Watching

2024

by Freida McFadden

A twisting, pulse-pounding thriller from Freida McFadden, the New York Times bestselling author of The Housemaid and The Coworker. "You must be our new neighbors!" Mrs. Lowell gushes and waves across the picket fence. I clutch my daughter's hand and smile back: but the second Mrs. Lowell sees my husband a strange expression crosses her face. In that moment I make a promise. We finally have a family home. My past is far, far behind us. And I'll do anything to keep it that way...

I used to clean other people's houses--now, I can't believe this home is actually mine. The charming kitchen, the quiet cul-de-sac, the huge yard where my kids can play. My husband and I saved for years to give our children the life they deserve. Even though I'm wary of our new neighbor Mrs. Lowell, when she invites us over for dinner it's our chance to make friends. Her maid opens the door wearing a white apron, her hair in a tight bun. I know exactly what it's like to be in her shoes. But her cold stare gives me chills...

The Lowells' maid isn't the only strange thing on our street. I'm sure I see a shadowy figure watching us. My husband leaves the house late at night. And when I meet a woman who lives across the way, her words chill me to the bone: Be careful of your neighbors. Did I make a terrible mistake moving my family here? I thought I'd left my darkest secrets behind. But could this quiet suburban street be the most dangerous place of all?

From New York Times, USA Today and Wall Street Journal bestselling author Freida McFadden comes the next instalment of the unbelievably twisty, tension-packed and globally bestselling Housemaid series. This book can be enjoyed as a standalone read: and once you start, it will have you up all night racing through the pages until the final explosive twist.

Silent Scream

2022

by Angela Marsons

Even the darkest secrets can’t stay buried forever…

Five figures gather around a shallow grave. They had all taken turns to dig. An adult-sized hole would have taken longer. An innocent life had been taken, but the pact had been made. Their secrets would be buried, bound in blood

Years later, a headmistress is found brutally strangled, the first in a spate of gruesome murders which shock the Black Country. But when human remains are discovered at a former children’s home, disturbing secrets are also unearthed.

D.I. Kim Stone quickly realizes she’s on the hunt for a twisted individual whose killing spree spans decades. As the body count rises, Kim needs to stop the murderer before they strike again. But to catch the killer, can Kim confront the demons of her own past before it’s too late?

Total Control

2019

by David Baldacci

Sidney Archer has the world. A husband she loves, a job at which she excels, and a cherished young daughter.

Then, as a plane plummets into the Virginia countryside, everything changes. And suddenly there is no one whom Sidney Archer can trust.

Jason Archer is a rising young executive at Triton Global, the world's leading technology conglomerate. Determined to give his family the best of everything, Archer has secretly entered into a deadly game of cat and mouse.

He is about to disappear - leaving behind a wife who must sort out his lies from his truths, an aircrash investigation team that wants to know why the plane he was ticketed on suddenly fell from the sky, and a veteran FBI agent who wants to know it all.

From Seattle to Washington, D.C., from New Orleans to Maine, the hunt for Jason Archer follows a trail as complex as the world he lived and worked in - a world of enormously powerful computers, a multimillion-dollar takeover deal, titanic financial standoffs, artificial intelligence, and the Internet.

With brilliant minds colliding, ruthless men waging battles of intimidation, rainmakers going toe-to-toe with killers, and security specialists making a fortune trying to plug the holes, the startling truth behind Jason Archer's disappearance explodes into a sinister plot with the murder of the country's single most powerful individual.

Soon Archer's wife, Sidney, aided by the relentless and sharp-eyed FBI agent Lee Sawyer, will plunge straight into the violence that is leaving behind a trail of dead bodies and shocking, exposed secrets...

Past Tense

2018

by Lee Child

Jack Reacher plans to follow the autumn sun on an epic road trip across America, from Maine to California. He doesn't get far. On a country road deep in the New England woods, he sees a sign to a place he has never been - the town where his father was born. He thinks, what's one extra day? He takes the detour.

At the very same moment, close by, a car breaks down. Two young Canadians are trying to get to New York City to sell a treasure. They are stranded at a lonely motel in the middle of nowhere. It's a strange place ... but it's all there is.

The next morning in the city clerk's office, Reacher asks about the old family home. He's told no one named Reacher ever lived in that town. He knows his father never went back. Now he wonders, was he ever there in the first place?

So begins another nail-biting, adrenaline-fuelled adventure for Reacher. The present can be tense, but the past can be worse. That's for damn sure.

The Wife Between Us

When you read this book, you will make many assumptions. You will assume you are reading about a jealous ex-wife. You will assume she is obsessed with her replacement – a beautiful, younger woman who is about to marry the man they both love. You will assume you know the anatomy of this tangled love triangle. Assume nothing.

Twisted and deliciously chilling, Greer Hendricks and Sarah Pekkanen's The Wife Between Us exposes the secret complexities of an enviable marriage - and the dangerous truths we ignore in the name of love. Read between the lies.

A Criminal Defense

Losing the trial of his life could mean losing everything.

When a young reporter is found dead and a prominent Philadelphia businessman is accused of her murder, Mick McFarland finds himself involved in the case of his life. The defendant, David Hanson, was Mick’s close friend in law school, and the victim, a TV news reporter, had reached out to Mick for legal help only hours before her death.

Mick’s played both sides of Philadelphia’s courtrooms. As a top-shelf defense attorney and former prosecutor, he knows all the tricks of the trade. And he’ll need every one of them to win.

But as the trial progresses, he’s disturbed by developments that confirm his deepest fears. This trial, one that already hits too close to home, may jeopardize his firm, his family—everything.

Now Mick’s only way out is to mastermind the most brilliant defense he’s ever spun, one that will cross every legal and moral boundary.

Disclaimer

2015

by Renée Knight

What if you realized the terrifying book you were reading was all about you?

Disclaimer is a brilliantly conceived, deeply disturbing psychological thriller about a woman haunted by secrets—and the price she will pay for concealing the truth.

When a mysterious novel appears at Catherine Ravenscroft's bedside, she is curious. She has no idea who might have sent her The Perfect Stranger—or how it ended up on her nightstand. At first, she is intrigued by the suspenseful story that unfolds.

And then she realizes. This isn't fiction. The Perfect Stranger recreates in vivid, unmistakable detail the day Catherine became hostage to a dark secret, a secret that only one other person knew—and that person is dead.

Now that the past Catherine so desperately wants to forget is catching up with her, her world is falling apart. Plunged into a living nightmare, she knows that her only hope is to confront what really happened on that terrible day... even if the shocking truth might destroy her.

Hot Blooded

2014

by Lisa Jackson

Hot Blooded by Lisa Jackson is a thrilling tale of suspense set in the vibrant city of New Orleans. Dr. Samantha Leeds, a popular late-night radio host, receives a threatening call that sets off a chilling chain of events.

As she navigates the sultry streets of New Orleans, Samantha becomes entangled in a web of intrigue and danger. A series of murders, each more gruesome than the last, leaves her wondering who she can trust. Detective Rick Bentz believes the serial killer is someone close to Samantha, someone who knows her deepest secrets.

Samantha's mysterious and seductive new neighbor, Ty Wheeler, adds another layer of complexity to the situation. Can she trust him, or is he part of the deadly game?

With lives hanging in the balance, Samantha must confront her past and uncover the truth before she becomes the next victim. Hot Blooded is a pulse-pounding novel filled with tension, intrigue, and unexpected twists.

An Evil Mind

2014

by Chris Carter

A freak accident in rural Wyoming leads the Sheriff's Department to arrest a man for a possible double homicide. However, further investigations suggest a much more horrifying discovery - a serial killer who has been kidnapping, torturing, and mutilating victims all over the United States for at least twenty-five years.

The suspect claims he is a pawn in a huge labyrinth of lies and deception. Can he be believed? The case is immediately handed over to the FBI, but this time they're forced to ask for outside help. Ex-criminal behavior psychologist and lead Detective with the Ultra Violent Crime Unit of the LAPD, Robert Hunter, is asked to run a series of interviews with the apprehended man.

These interviews begin to reveal terrifying secrets that no one could've foreseen, including the real identity of a killer so elusive that no one, not even the FBI, had any idea he existed... until now.

The Magpies

2013

by Mark Edwards

Fear lives next door...

When Jamie and Kirsty move into their first home together, they are full of optimism. The future, in which they plan to get married and start a family, is bright. The other residents of their building seem friendly too: the horror writer and the middle-aged herbalist who live upstairs, and the Newtons, a married couple who welcome them to the building with open arms.

At first, the two couples get on well. But then strange things start to happen. Dead rats are left on their doorstep. They hear disturbing noises, and much worse, in the night. After Jamie's best friend is injured in a horrific accident, Jamie and Kirsty find themselves targeted by a campaign of terror.

As Jamie and Kirsty are driven to the edge of despair, Jamie vows to fight back – but he has no idea what he is really up against…

The Magpies is a terrifying psychological thriller in which the monsters are not vampires or demons but the people we live next door to. It is a nightmare that could happen to anyone.

In Time

Don't miss this exciting short story that connects The Darkest Minds to its much-anticipated sequel, Never Fade.

Gabe's life has been devastated in the wake of the economic crash. The only option left for someone like him to escape his tragic past is to leave his small town behind and attempt to become a skiptracer. This already almost impossible task is made all the more difficult by his first score, a young girl who won't speak, but who changes his life in ways he could never imagine.

This short story is a thrilling bridge between the first two novels in the New York Times bestselling series The Darkest Minds.

Till The Last Breath

2013

by Durjoy Datta

On a lazy Sunday morning, two young people are wheeled into Room No. 509 of GKL super specialty hospital.

A brilliant nineteen-year-old medical student, suffering from an incurable, fatal disease, is hurtling towards a slow, painful, uncertain death.

A wasteful twenty-five-year-old drug addict, with no appreciation of life, finds every organ system of his body slowly shutting down.

Two prodigious doctors, fighting their own demons from the past, strive to keep these two patients alive, putting their medical licenses at risk. Death looms in the tiny 12x13-foot room as they fight for every breath of their lives, even as the doctors put them through unapproved experimental treatments to prolong their lives.

How will the last month of pain and struggle change their lives? How will it transform the doctors who work steadfastly to make them live a little longer?

The Innocent

2012

by David Baldacci

America has enemies - ruthless people that the police, the FBI, even the military can't stop. That's when the U.S. government calls on Will Robie, a stone cold hitman who never questions orders and always nails his target. But Will Robie may have just made the first - and last - mistake of his career...

It begins with a hit gone wrong. Robie is dispatched to eliminate a target unusually close to home in Washington, D.C. But something about this mission doesn't seem right to Robie, and he does the unthinkable. He refuses to kill. Now, Robie becomes a target himself and must escape from his own people.

Fleeing the scene, Robie crosses paths with a wayward teenage girl, a fourteen-year-old runaway from a foster home. But she isn't an ordinary runaway — her parents were murdered, and her own life is in danger. Against all of his professional habits, Robie rescues her and finds he can't walk away. He needs to help her.

Even worse, the more Robie learns about the girl, the more he's convinced she is at the center of a vast cover-up, one that may explain her parents' deaths and stretch to unimaginable levels of power.

Now, Robie may have to step out of the shadows in order to save this girl's life... and perhaps his own.

Zoo

A CBS-TV SERIES LAUNCHING JUNE 30, 2015!Once in a lifetime, a writer puts it all together. This is James Patterson's best book ever.TotalFor 36 years, James Patterson has written unputdownable, pulse-racing novels. Now, he has written a book that surpasses all of them. ZOO is the thriller he was born to write.WorldAll over the world, brutal attacks are crippling entire cities. Jackson Oz, a young biologist, watches the escalating events with an increasing sense of dread. When he witnesses a coordinated lion ambush in Africa, the enormity of the violence to come becomes terrifyingly clear.DestructionWith the help of ecologist Chloe Tousignant, Oz races to warn world leaders before it's too late. The attacks are growing in ferocity, cunning, and planning, and soon there will be no place left for humans to hide. With wildly inventive imagination and white-knuckle suspense that rivals Stephen King at his very best, James Patterson's ZOO is an epic, non-stop thrill-ride from "One of the best of the best." (TIME)

The Oaks

2012

by Jessica Loving

The Oaks is a captivating novel by Jessica Loving, set in the mysterious and enchanting world of Royal Oaks. This book is the first in the thrilling Royal Oaks series.

Join the adventure as secrets unfold and mysteries are unraveled in this gripping tale. With every page, you'll find yourself drawn deeper into the intricate web of intrigue and suspense that Loving masterfully weaves.

Prepare yourself for a journey filled with unexpected twists and turns, where nothing is as it seems, and every character has a story to tell.

The Midwife's Confession

Dear Anna,

What I have to tell you is difficult to write, but I know it will be far more difficult for you to hear, and I’m so sorry...

The unfinished letter is the only clue Tara and Emerson have to the reason behind their close friend Noelle’s suicide. Everything they knew about Noelle—her calling as a midwife, her passion for causes, her love for her friends and family—described a woman who embraced life. Yet there was so much they didn’t know.

With the discovery of the letter and its heartbreaking secret, Noelle’s friends begin to uncover the truth about this complex woman who touched each of their lives—and the life of a desperate stranger—with love and betrayal, compassion and deceit.

Told with sensitivity and insight, The Midwife’s Confession will have you turning pages late into the night.

The Ice Princess

Returning to her hometown of Fjällbacka after the funeral of her parents, writer Erica Falck finds a community on the brink of tragedy. The death of her childhood friend, Alex, is just the beginning. Her wrists slashed, her body frozen in an ice-cold bath, it seems that she has taken her own life.

Erica conceives a book about the beautiful but remote Alex, one that will answer questions about their own shared past. While her interest grows into an obsession, local detective Patrik Hedström is following his own suspicions about the case. But it is only when they start working together that the truth begins to emerge about a small town with a deeply disturbing past.

Maximum Ride Five-Book Set

2009

by James Patterson

Maximum Ride Five-Book Set features the first five thrilling adventures of the Maximum Ride series by James Patterson. Join Max and her flock, a group of extraordinary kids who can fly, as they embark on dangerous missions, escape from sinister forces, and discover their true identities.

In a world where they are constantly on the run, these young heroes must rely on their unique abilities, intelligence, and each other to survive. Action-packed and filled with suspense, each book takes you on a journey that is both heart-pounding and inspiring.

Dive into the world of genetic experiments, friendship, and the quest for freedom. Perfect for fans of fast-paced adventures and fantasy elements.

Extreme Measures

2008

by Vince Flynn

Extreme Measures is a gripping political thriller by the #1 New York Times bestselling author Vince Flynn. The story introduces a modern-day patriot and hero, Mitch Rapp, who loves his country even when it betrays itself.

Led by a dangerous mastermind obsessed with becoming the leader of al-Qaeda, a determined and terrifying terrorist group is about to descend on America. With Rapp away on assignment in Pakistan, CIA Director Irene Kennedy turns to his protégé, Mike Nash. Nash has served his government honorably for sixteen years, first in the Marine Corps and then as an operative in an elite counterterrorism team run by Rapp.

Together, they have made careers out of meeting violence with extreme violence and have never wavered in their fight against the jihads and their culture of death. Both have fought the war on terrorism in secret without accolades or acknowledgment of their personal sacrifices. But the political winds have changed in America, and certain leaders on Capitol Hill are pushing to have men like Rapp and Nash put back on a short leash.

Using his insider knowledge of intelligence agencies and the military, Flynn delivers an all-too-real portrayal of a war that is waged every day by a handful of brave, devoted souls. Smart, fast-paced, and jaw-droppingly realistic, Extreme Measures is the political thriller of our time.

Nails

2008

by D.M. Samson

"Nails" is a compelling narrative capturing one day in the life of a car mechanic. Though the plot may seem simple, it is hard, raw, violent, sexy, sensitive, funny, poetic, and philosophical all at once. This page-turner grabs you and doesn't let go. If you're a fan of Charles Bukowski, you'll love this book.

Where Are You Now?

From America's Queen of Suspense comes a gripping tale of a young woman trying to unravel the mystery of a family tragedy — a quest with terrifying repercussions.

It has been ten years since twenty-one-year-old Charles MacKenzie Jr. ("Mack") went missing. A Columbia University senior, about to graduate and already accepted at Duke University Law School, he walked out of his apartment on Manhattan's Upper West Side without a word to his college roommates and has never been seen again. However, he does make one ritual phone call to his mother every year: on Mother's Day. Each time, he assures her he is fine, refuses to answer her frantic questions, then hangs up.

Mack's sister, Carolyn, is now twenty-six, a law school graduate, and has just finished her clerkship for a civil court judge in Manhattan. She has endured two family tragedies, yet she realizes that she will never be able to have closure and get on with her life until she finds her brother. She resolves to discover what happened to Mack and why he has found it necessary to hide from them.

So this year when Mack makes his annual Mother's Day call, Carolyn interrupts to announce her intention to track him down, no matter what it takes. The next morning after Mass, her uncle, Monsignor Devon MacKenzie, receives a scrawled message left in the collection basket: "Uncle Devon, tell Carolyn she must not look for me."

Mack's cryptic warning does nothing to deter his sister from taking up the search, despite the angry reaction of her mother, Olivia, and the polite disapproval of Elliott Wallace, Carolyn's honorary uncle, who is clearly in love with Olivia.

Carolyn's pursuit of the truth about Mack's disappearance swiftly plunges her into a world of unexpected danger and unanswered questions. What is the secret that Gus and Lil Kramer, the superintendents of the building in which Mack was living, have to hide? What do Mack's old roommates, the charismatic club owner Nick DeMarco and the cold and wealthy real estate tycoon Bruce Galbraith, know about Mack's disappearance?

Can the police possibly believe that Mack is not only alive, but a serial killer, a shadowy predator of young women? Was Mack also guilty of the brutal murder of his drama teacher and the theft of his taped sessions with her?

Carolyn's passionate search for the truth about her brother — and for her brother himself — leads her into a deadly confrontation with someone close to her whose secret he cannot allow her to reveal.

A Prisoner of Birth

2008

by Jeffrey Archer

International bestseller and master storyteller Jeffrey Archer is at the very top of his game in this story of fate and fortune, redemption and revenge.

If Danny Cartwright had proposed to Beth Wilson the day before, or the day after, he would not have been arrested and charged with the murder of his best friend. But when the four prosecution witnesses are a barrister, a popular actor, an aristocrat, and the youngest partner in an established firm's history, who is going to believe his side of the story?

Danny is sentenced to twenty-two years and sent to Belmarsh prison, the highest-security jail in the land, from where no inmate has ever escaped.

However, Spencer Craig, Lawrence Davenport, Gerald Payne, and Toby Mortimer all underestimate Danny's determination to seek revenge, and Beth's relentless quest to pursue justice, which ends up with all four fighting for their lives.

Thus begins Jeffrey Archer's most powerful novel since Kane and Abel, with a cast of characters that will remain with you long after you've turned the last page. And if that is not enough, prepare for an ending that will shock even the most ardent of Archer's fans.

Gone, Baby, Gone

2007

by Dennis Lehane

Boston private detectives Patrick Kenzie and Angela Gennaro are hired to find four-year-old Amanda McCready, abducted from her bed on a warm, summer night. They meet her stoned-out, strangely apathetic mother, her loving aunt and uncle, the mother's dangerous, drug-addled friends, and two cops who've found so many abused or dead children they may be too far over the edge to come back.

Despite enormous public attention, rabid news coverage, and dogged police work, the investigation repeatedly hits a brick wall. Led into a world of drug dealers, child molesters, and merciless executioners, Patrick and Angie are soon forced to face not only the horrors adults can perpetrate on innocents but also their own conflicted feelings about what is best, and worst, when it comes to raising children.

As the Indian summer fades and the autumn chill deepens, Amanda McCready stays gone, banished so completely that she seems never to have existed.

Then another child disappears...

Dennis Lehane takes you into a world of triple crosses, elaborate lies, and shrouded motives, where the villains may be more moral than the victims, the missing should possibly stay missing, and those who go looking for them may not come back alive.

Settle in and turn off the phone. From its haunting opening to its shocking climax, Gone, Baby, Gone is certain to be one of the most thrilling suspense novels you'll read.

Step on a Crack

Step on a Crack introduces a new hero in an exciting thriller set in the heart of Manhattan. NYPD detective Michael Bennett is concentrating on getting his family through a particularly difficult Christmas as he faces the loss of his brave wife, Maeve, to cancer. But a major crisis calls him away: the funeral of a former First Lady at St. Patrick's Cathedral goes horribly awry when men storm the church and take hundreds of attendees hostage.

Michael is asked to try to reason with a sinister man named Jack. Jack releases all but the most famous people, making his demands: several million dollars from each celebrity hostage, including the mayor, a popular comedic actor, a beloved talk show host, and a pop starlet. Once Jack starts killing, Michael realizes he's up against a truly diabolical foe.

Patterson has a knack for creating genuinely likable heroes, and Michael fits the bill. As readers rapidly turn the pages to learn how the tense hostage drama plays out, they will also be sympathizing with Michael as he faces the agonizing loss of his wife. Totally gripping and downright impossible to put down, this is a promising start to a potential new series.

Deal Breaker

2006

by Harlan Coben

Sports agent Myron Bolitar is poised on the edge of the big time. So is Christian Steele, a rookie quarterback and Myron's prized client. But when Christian gets a phone call from a former girlfriend, a woman who everyone, including the police, believes is dead, the deal starts to go sour. Trying to unravel the truth about a family's tragedy, a woman's secret, and a man's lies, Myron is up against the dark side of his business—where image and talent make you rich, but the truth can get you killed.

In novels that crackle with wit and suspense, Edgar Award winner Harlan Coben has created one of the most fascinating and complex heroes in suspense fiction—Myron Bolitar—a hotheaded, tenderhearted sports agent who grows more and more engaging and unpredictable with each page-turning appearance.

Velocity

2006

by Dean Koontz

Dean Koontz's unique talent for writing terrifying thrillers with a heart and soul is nowhere more evident than in this latest suspense masterpiece that pits one man against the ultimate deadline. If there were speed limits for the sheer pulse-racing excitement allowed in one novel, Velocity would break them all. Get ready for the ride of your life.

Bill Wiles is an easygoing, hardworking guy who leads a quiet, ordinary life. But that is about to change. One evening, after his usual eight-hour bartending shift, he finds a typewritten note under the windshield wiper of his car.

"If you don't take this note to the police and get them involved, I will kill a lovely blond schoolteacher. If you do take this note to the police, I will instead kill an elderly woman active in charity work. You have four hours to decide. The choice is yours."

It seems like a sick joke, and Bill's friend on the police force, Lanny Olson, thinks so too. His advice to Bill is to go home and forget about it. Besides, what could they do even if they took the note seriously? No crime has actually been committed.

But less than twenty-four hours later, a young blond schoolteacher is found murdered, and it's Bill's fault: he didn't convince the police to get involved. Now he's got another note, another deadline, another ultimatum...and two new lives hanging in the balance.

Suddenly Bill's average, seemingly innocuous life takes on the dimensions and speed of an accelerating nightmare. Because the notes are coming faster, the deadlines growing tighter, and the killer becoming bolder and crueler with every communication—until Bill is isolated with the terrifying knowledge that he alone has the power of life and death over a psychopath's innocent victims. Until the struggle between good and evil is intensely personal. Until the most chilling words of all are: "The choice is yours."

Before You Know Kindness

2005

by Chris Bohjalian

Chris Bohjalian, bestselling author of Midwives, presents his most ambitious and multi-layered novel to date. This book examines wildly divisive issues in today’s America with his trademark emotional heft and spellbinding storytelling skill.

On a balmy July night in New Hampshire, a shot rings out in a garden, and a man falls to the ground, terribly wounded. The wounded man is Spencer McCullough, and the shot that hit him was fired—accidentally?—by his adolescent daughter, Charlotte.

With this shattering moment of violence, Chris Bohjalian launches the best kind of literate page-turner: suspenseful, wryly funny, and humane. For ten summers, the Seton family—all three generations—met at their country home in New England to spend a week together. They played tennis, badminton, and golf, savoring gin and tonics on the wraparound porch to celebrate the end of the season.

In the eleventh summer, everything changed. A hunting rifle with a single cartridge left in the chamber wound up in exactly the wrong hands at exactly the wrong time, leading to a nightmarish accident. This incident put to the test the values that unite the family—and the convictions that just may pull it apart.

The Big Bad Wolf

2004

by James Patterson

Alex Cross battles the most ruthless and powerful killer he has ever encountered - a predator known only as the Wolf.

Alex Cross's first case since joining the FBI has his new colleagues stymied. Across the country, men and women are being kidnapped in broad daylight and then disappearing completely. These people are not being taken for ransom, Alex realizes. They are being bought and sold. And it looks as if a shadowy figure called the Wolf - a master criminal who has brought a new reign of terror to organize crime - is behind this business in which ordinary men and women are sold as slaves.

Even as he admires the FBI's vast resources, Alex grows impatient with the Bureau's clumsiness and caution when it is time to move. A lone wolf himself, he has to go out on his own in order to track the Wolf and try to rescue some of the victims while they are still alive.

As the case boils over, Alex is in hot water at home too. His ex-fiancee, Christine Johnson, comes back into his life - and not for the reasons Alex might have hoped.

Red: The Heroic Rescue

2004

by Ted Dekker

"We have stepped off the cliff and are falling into madness."

The mind-bending pace of Black accelerates in Red, Book Two of Ted Dekker's groundbreaking Circle trilogy. Less than a month ago, Thomas Hunter was a failed writer selling coffee at the Java Hut in Denver. Now he finds himself in a desperate quest to rescue two worlds from collapse.

In one world, he's a battle-scarred general commanding an army of primitive warriors. In the other, he's racing to outwit sadistic terrorists intent on creating global chaos through an unstoppable virus.

Two worlds on the brink of destruction. One unthinkable solution.

Enter an adrenaline-laced epic where dreams and reality collide. Nothing is as it seems, as Black turns to Red.

A Faint Cold Fear

2003

by Karin Slaughter

The third pulse-pounding novel in the Grant County series from New York Times bestselling author Karin Slaughter.

Sara Linton, medical examiner in the small town of Heartsdale, Georgia, is called out to an apparent suicide on the local college campus. The mutilated body provides little in the way of clues, and the college authorities are eager to avoid a scandal. But for Sara and police chief Jeffrey Tolliver, things don't add up.

Two more suspicious suicides follow, and a young woman is brutally attacked. For Sara, the violence strikes far too close to home. And as Jeffrey pursues the sadistic killer, he discovers that ex-police detective Lena Adams, now a security guard on campus, may be in possession of crucial information. But, bruised and angered by her expulsion from the force, Lena seems to be barely capable of protecting herself, let alone saving the next victim...

The Third Option

2000

by Vince Flynn

Mitch Rapp, CIA's top counterterrorism operative, is sent on his final mission. His target is a German Industrialist who has been selling sensitive equipment to the world's most notorious sponsors of terrorism.

Unbeknownst to Rapp, he is being set up by forces in Washington who will do anything to see him fail. The stakes are high, and the mission is fraught with danger and deception at every turn.

Will Mitch succeed, or will the conspirators achieve their dark goals? This gripping thriller will keep you on the edge of your seat with its breathtaking action and clever twists.

The Eleventh Commandment

1999

by Jeffrey Archer

Connor Fitzgerald is a professional's professional. Holder of the Medal of Honor. Devoted family man. Servant of his country. But for the past twenty-eight years, Fitzgerald has been leading a double life as the CIA's most deadly assassin.

Only days before his retirement from the CIA, he comes across an enemy who, for the first time, even he cannot handle. The enemy is his own boss - Helen Dexter - the Director of the CIA. Dexter's stranglehold on the agency is threatened by one decision, and her only hope of survival is to destroy Fitzgerald.

Meanwhile, on the other side of the world, a formidable new foe is threatening the United States: a ruthless hard-line Russian president, determined to force a new military confrontation between the two superpowers.

From emergency meetings in the Oval Office to a Russian mafya boss's luxurious hideaway outside St. Petersburg, The Eleventh Commandment sweeps readers off their feet from the first paragraph.

In his latest novel, Jeffrey Archer is at the peak of his page-turning powers, offering enough plot-twisting ingenuity, exotic characterization, and narrative surprise to take the art of thriller writing to a new level.

The Firm

1992

by John Grisham

The Firm is a 1991 legal thriller by American writer John Grisham. It was his second book and the first which gained wide popularity. In this riveting novel, Mitch McDeere, a Harvard Law graduate, becomes suspicious of his Memphis tax firm when mysterious deaths, obsessive office security, and the Chicago mob figure into its operations.

The Sum of All Fears

1991

by Tom Clancy

How do you save the United States President from himself? What if the President is incompetent to deal with the greatest crisis of all? Jack Ryan never thought he would have to ask those questions as he prepares the ground for a Middle Eastern peace plan that, at last, might be the one to work.

But too many groups have invested too much blood. Shunned by their erstwhile Soviet sponsors and increasingly isolated by the realignment of the Mideast, these terrorists have one more desperate card to play, requiring a degree of ruthlessness never before seen. With one terrible act, the world is plunged into an instant nuclear crisis, and the floundering President is plunged into the ultimate nightmare.

Forces collide. Shots are exchanged. What had seemed to be an isolated and horrible incident appears to each side as the incendiary mischief of the other. With the world poised on the brink of nuclear war, Ryan and his FBI counterpart, Dan Murray, frantically seek a solution before the chiefs of state lose control of themselves—and the world.

Beyond the Pale: (Amelia Sharpe 1)

Wildly stylish and terrifically entertaining. It ticks all the psychosexual boxes.

When Forensic Pathologist Amelia Sharpe moves to Washington, D.C., she introduces herself to the successful and enigmatic man that moves in next door: Guy Davidson. But terrors from her past resurface, and she finds herself seeking answers.

Tormented by her inner demons and Guy’s need to control, their lives take an unexpected turn, posing challenges neither of them anticipate. When a step too far is taken, Guy takes the law into his own hands. Just when Amelia feels that she really does have it all, both Guy and Amelia find out just how far they are willing to go in the name of love.

Stormbreaker

They told him his uncle died in an accident. He wasn't wearing his seatbelt, they said. But when fourteen-year-old Alex finds his uncle's windshield riddled with bullet holes, he knows it was no accident. What he doesn't know yet is that his uncle was killed while on a top-secret mission. But he is about to, and once he does, there is no turning back. Finding himself in the middle of terrorists, Alex must outsmart the people who want him dead. The government has given him the technology, but only he can provide the courage. Should he fail, every child in England will be murdered in cold blood.

The Miserable Mill

Dear Reader,

I hope, for your sake, that you have not chosen to read this book because you are in the mood for a pleasant experience. If this is the case, I advise you to put this book down instantaneously because of all the books describing the unhappy lives of the Baudelaire orphans, The Miserable Mill might be the unhappiest yet. Violet, Klaus, and Sunny Baudelaire are sent to Paltryville to work in a lumber mill, and they find disaster and misfortune lurking behind every log.

The pages of this book, I'm sorry to inform you, contain such unpleasantries as a giant pincher machine, a bad casserole, a man with a cloud of smoke where his head should be, a hypnotist, a terrible accident resulting in injury, and coupons.

I have promised to write down the entire history of these three poor children, but you haven't, so if you prefer stories that are more heartwarming, please feel free to make another selection.

With all due respect,

Lemony Snicket

Are you sure you want to delete this?