Death of a Maid : a Hamish Macbeth Mystery
Publishers Weekly: At the start of Beaton's enjoyable 22nd Hamish Macbeth mystery (after 2006's Death of a Dreamer), the lovable Scottish constable stumbles over the body of a gossipy housecleaner, Mrs. Mavis Gillespie. She's been bludgeoned to death with her own pail, and there are plenty of suspects to go around in the Highlands village […]
The Higher Power of Lucky
Publishers Weekly: Patron's poignant Newbery-winning story about a girl who fears being abandoned by her legal guardian?and her only semblance of a family?sails along with believable childlike rhythms and kid's-eye-view observations. Listeners will especially appreciate Campbell's subtlety and smooth, comforting delivery in a heartbreaking scene in which 10-year-old Lucky recalls, with gentle support from her […]
Forever In Blue : the Fourth Summer of the Sisterhood
Publishers Weekly Carmen, Lena, Bridget and Tibby may not be forever in blue jeans, but they do share the Traveling Pants for at least one more summer. Fans rejoin the foursome just after their freshman year in college. Carmen is attending a summer theater program in Vermont, where she unexpectedly lands a plum role and […]
Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix
The Washington Post Go read Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix for the other main reason to love the series: their sheer comic exuberance even in the midst of high drama. Kids, of course, would mention this first. Jokes, gags and memorable put-downs pop up on nearly every page ? Sometimes it seems […]
Holmes On the Range
Kirkus Reviews: Inspired by the Baker Street genius, a Montana cowboy solves some murders at the cattle ranch where he works. Redheaded cowpoke Gustav Amlingmeyer ("Old Red") has a hankering for the adventures of Sherlock Holmes. After reading Doyle's "The Red-Headed League," he feels that emulating the famous sleuth is his destiny. Gustav's younger brother […]
The Collaborator of Bethlehem
Library Journal: In this outstanding debut, Rees, formerly the Jerusalem bureau chief for Time magazine and author of Cain's Field: Faith, Fratricide, and Fear in the Middle East, presents modern-day Bethlehem, an ancient city of tremendous historical and religious significance, torn apart by constant attacks and reprisals between Israelis and Palestinians. Even the police chief […]
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Library Journal: In Gardner's latest thriller, Boston Police Sgt. D.D. Warren hooks up with Massachusetts State Police Det. Robert Dodge (from Alone) to investigate a long-abandoned underground cavern found on the grounds of the former Boston State Mental Hospital. The hospital had been shut down decades earlier, but the mummified bodies of six young girls […]
Paula Spencer
James Hynes – The Washington Post : Reading Paula Spencer is pure, undiluted pleasure, and it's not necessary to have read the first novel to thoroughly enjoy this one. Paula is still a very funny woman (and her sharp-tongued sister Carmel is even funnier), and Doyle himself is still the master of the extended set-piece. […]
The Dead Fathers Club
Kirkus Reviews: Literary influence is neatly reconfigured in the English author's second novel (after The Last Family in England, 2005), in which an 11-year-old schoolboy is commanded to seek revenge by the ghost of his murdered father. "Dad's ghost" appears to Philip Noble, not on the battlements at Elsinore, but at the family-operated Castle and […]
Knots
Publishers Weekly : Somalia-born Farah's ninth novel (after Links, first in a trilogy of which this is the second book) tells the spellbinding story of Cambara, a Somalian ?migr? to Canada. Cambara is mourning her only son's drowning death?in the Toronto pool of her abusive lawyer husband's mistress. In the aftermath, Cambara resolves to leave […]