God Don’t Like Ugly (The God Don’t Like Ugly Series #1)

Author: Monroe, Mary
Format: Trade Paperback
Page Count: 352pp.
Pub. Date: October 2000
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corp.

In her richly drawn debut novel, Mary Monroe brings to life the bond between two girls from opposite sides of the track—and the shattering event that changes their lives forever.

At the heart of the story is Annette Goode, a shy, awkward, overweight child who keeps a terrible secret. Mr. Boatwright, the boarder her hardworking mother has taken in, abuses her daily. Frightened and ashamed, Annette withdraws into a world of books and food.

But the summer Annette turns thirteen, something incredible happens: Rhoda Nelson chooses her as a friend. Dazzling, generous Rhoda, who is everything Annette is not – gorgeous, slim, and worldly – welcomes Annette into the heart of her eccentric family, which includes her handsome and dignified father; her lovely, fragile, “Muh’Dear;” her brooding, dangerous brother Jock; and her colorful white relatives – half-crazy Uncle Johnny, sultry Aunt Lola, and scary, surly Granny Goose.

With Rhoda’s help, Annette survives adolescence and blossoms as a woman. But when her beautiful best friend makes a stunning confession about a horrific childhood crime, Annette’s world will never be the same.

Set on the streets, porches and parlors of 1960s and 1970 Ohio, God Don’t Like Ugly sparkles with clear-eyed wit and uncompromising honesty. Readers will find this remarkable new novel full of laughter, inspiration, and pure enjoyment.

God Still Don’t like Ugly (The God Don’t Like Ugly Series #2)

Author: Monroe, Mary
Format: Hardcover
Page Count: 320pp.
Pub. Date: September 2003
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corp.

Growing up, Annette Goode thought all men were as low-down as the father who abandoned her. There was Mr. Boatwright, the boarder who abused her for years – until her best friend Rhoda murdered him. And what about the men she slept with to earn the money she needed to run away from her life? None of them was exactly the picture of chivalry.

But now, after decades of soul searching and heartache, Annette has reunited with the father she never really knew. She’s severed all ties with the dangerously unstable Rhoda. And finally her real life has started to take shape. Or so she thinks . . .

Things start to fall apart at – of all places – Annette’s own pre-wedding celebration, where a guest reveals that the beautiful bride-to-be once turned tricks for a living. When her fiance pulls a disappearing act, Annette reunites with Pee Wee Davis – the man who has been her on-again, off-again sweetheart since childhood. It’s not a great life, but it’s a pretty good one.

Yet Annette still holds the secret of her ex-friend Rhoda’s murderous past deep in her heart. She knows it’s a burden that will torment her until she can put it to rest. So when Rhoda suddenly walks back into her life, Annette must decide what she should believe – and what she can forgive – as she tries to salvage the one relationship that she just can’t seem to let go . . .

God Don’t Play (The God Don’t Like Ugly Series #3)

Author: Monroe, Mary
Format: Hardcover
Page Count: 314pp.
Pub. Date: September 2006
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corp.

With a handsome husband, a beautiful daughter, and a lovely house to come home to every night, it looks like forty-five-year-old Annette Goode finally has it all. And heaven knows she paid her dues to get it – from a childhood filled with abuse to a rocky start as an adult. Annette’s friend Rhoda knows too, for Rhoda has been both her savior and her greatest fear. Their erratic relationship has survived some serious bumps in the road, and now things are good. But apparently someone thinks Annette has it a little too good . . .

When Annette receives an anonymous – and menacing – birthday gift, it is just the beginning of a slew of hostile letters, vicious phone calls, and vile packages from a female who is obviously disguising her voice. Soon nasty notes about Annette are also being circulated throughout her community. But despite the onslaught, Annette has no clue who the harasser is, or what is behind her contempt.

Gaining comfort from the support of Rhoda and Rhoda’s teenage daughter, Jade, Annette hopes that somehow the problem will just go away. But when the threats extend to her little daughter, Annette realizes the situation is dire. And she’s right, for soon her tormentor reveals exactly what she wants – and claims to have been playing a role in Annette’s life all along. To make matters worse, she provides evidence that may destroy everything Annette has built . . .

Just as Annette reaches the brink of what she can bear, her mysterious enemy challenges her to a face-to-face showdown. It is a meeting that will not only shock Annette, but will forever change the lives of those closest to her . . .

God Ain’t Blind (The God Don’t Like Ugly Series #4)

Author: Monroe, Mary
Format: Hardcover
Page Count: 304pp.
Pub. Date: September 01, 2009
Publisher: Kensington Publishing Corp.

In this gripping, unforgettable new novel by New York Times bestselling author Mary Monroe, forever friends Annette Goode Davis and Rhoda O’Toole are about to learn that even the rockiest relationships can survive just about anything – as long as you’re there for each other when it matters most . . .

Annette Goode Davis is a survivor, and while life’s obstacles have often knocked her down, she’s never let them keep her there for long. To Annette, life is all about family and old friends like Rhoda O’Toole. And right now, Annette needs all the friends she can get . . . because her marriage is in big trouble, and she has no idea why . . .

Lately, her husband Pee Wee barely has the time of day for Annette and she suspects he may have fallen for another woman. Desperate to regain his affections, Annette goes on a crash diet, gets a total makeover, and looks hotter than she has for a long, long time. Everyone notices – everyone except Pee Wee.

Annette is ripe for the picking when she meets Louis Baines, a handsome young caterer who showers her with attention. Soon, Annette is embroiled in a full blown affair and spending money on Louis like there’s no tomorrow. But when Annette learns a terrible secret about her new lover, she realizes she’s in way over her head. Her life crumbling down around her, Annette turns to the only person she knows she can trust: Rhoda.

With Rhoda by her side, Annette’s determined to find a way out of this mess. But when the truth finally comes out, Annette must face the fact that she may have destroyed the life she loved – and this time, not even Rhoda can help her make things right . . .

“Between the Dark and the Daylight”

Author: Piccirilli, Tom
Format: Print Magazine
Type: Short Story
Pub. Date: September/October 2008
Published in: Ellery Queen Magazine

Nominated for the 2009 ITW Thriller Award for the Best Short Story

“Between the Dark and the Daylight” is a short story by Tom Piccirilli published in the Ellery Queen Magazine which the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library subscribes to.

“Last Island South”

Author: Boland, John C.
Format: Print Magazine
Type: Short Story
Pub. Date: September/October 2008
Published in: Ellery Queen Magazine

Nominated for the 2009 ITW Thriller Award for the Best Short Story

“Last Island South” is a short story by John C. Boland published in the Ellery Queen Magazine which the Cleveland Heights-University Heights Public Library subscribes to.

“The Edge of Seventeen”

Author: Sokoloff, Alexandra
Format: Print Anthology
Type: Short Story
Pub. Date: August 2008
Published in: The Darker Mask

Nominated for the 2009 ITW Thriller Award for the Best Short Story

“The Edge of Seventeen” is a short story by Alexandra Sokoloff published in the anthology called The Darker Mask edited by Gary Phillips and Christopher Chambers.

“The Point Guard”

Author: Pinter, Jason
Format: Print Anthology
Type: Short Story
Pub. Date: January 2008
Published in: Killer Year: A Criminal Anthology

Nominated for the 2009 ITW Thriller Award for the Best Short Story

“The Point Guard” is a short story by Jason Pinter published in the anthology called Killer Year: A Criminal Anthology edited by Lee Child.

“Time of the Green”

Author: Bruen, Ken
Format: Print Anthology
Type: Short Story
Pub. Date: January 2008
Published in: Killer Year: A Criminal Anthology

Nominated for the 2009 ITW Thriller Award for the Best Short Story

“Time of the Green” is a short story by Ken Bruen published in the anthology called Killer Year: A Criminal Anthology edited by Lee Child.

Calumet City

Author: Newton, Charlie
Format: Hardcover
Type: Novel
Page Count: 296pp.
Pub. Date: March 2008
Publisher: Simon and Schuster — Touchstone

Nominated for the 2009 ITW Thriller Award for the Best First Novel
Nominated for the 2009 Edgar Award for Best First Novel By An American Author

Meet Patti Black, the most decorated cop in Chicago. On her ghetto beat, Patti Black redefines the word badass. But her steel-plated exterior — solitary, stoic, loveless — belies the wrenching legacy of her orphan childhood. Haunted by the horrifying abuse she suffered at the hands of her foster parents, Patti Black sublimates past torments into a meticulously maintained tough-gal persona.

When a series of unrelated cases — a drug bust gone bad, a mayoral assassination attempt, the murder of a state attorney, the exhumation of a long-concealed body from a tenement basement wall — all point in Patti Black’s direction, she finds herself facing the dark truth: You can’t hide from your history, no matter how far into the fog you run. For Patti Black, that history didn’t die in the tenement wall; it’s alive — and riding her down.

In researching this electrifying thriller, Charlie Newton rode in the squad car with real-life street cop Patti Black. The result is a powerful fiction debut that captures the precise emotional landscape of one cop’s hard-bitten life in the trenches. This first-time author joins that rare breed whose fiction is suffused with profound authenticity.

Child 44

Author: Smith, Tom Rob
Format: Hardcover
Type: Novel
Page Count: 448pp.
Pub. Date: April 2008
Publisher: Grand Central Publishing

Nominated for the 2009 ITW Thriller Award for the Best First Novel

A propulsive, relentless page-turner.

A terrifying evocation of a paranoid world where no one can be trusted.

A surprising, unexpected story of love and family, of hope and resilience.

Child 44 is a thriller unlike any you have ever read.

“There is no crime.”

Stalin’s Soviet Union strives to be a paradise for its workers, providing for all of their needs. One of its fundamental pillars is that its citizens live free from the fear of ordinary crime and criminals.

But in this society, millions do live in fear . . . of the State. Death is a whisper away. The mere suspicion of ideological disloyalty — owning a book from the decadent West, the wrong word at the wrong time — sends millions of innocents into the Gulags or to their executions. Defending the system from its citizens is the MGB, the State Security Force. And no MGB officer is more courageous, conscientious, or idealistic than Leo Demidov.

A war hero with a beautiful wife, Leo lives in relative luxury in Moscow, even providing a decent apartment for his parents. His only ambition has been to serve his country. For this greater good, he has arrested and interrogated.

Then the impossible happens. A different kind of criminal — a murderer — is on the loose, killing at will. At the same time, Leo finds himself demoted and denounced by his enemies, his world turned upside down, and every belief he’s ever held shattered. The only way to save his life and the lives of his family is to uncover this criminal. But in a society that is officially paradise, it’s a crime against the State to suggest that a murderer — much less a serial killer — is in their midst. Exiled from his home, with only his wife, Raisa, remaining at his side, Leo must confront the vast resources and reach of the MBG to find and stop a criminal that the State won’t admit even exists.

Criminal Paradise

Author: Thomas, Steven
Format: Hardcover
Type: Novel
Page Count: 256pp.
Pub. Date: February 2008
Publisher: Random House

Nominated for the 2009 ITW Thriller Award for the Best First Novel

The literature of larceny welcomes a newcomer with some serious chops, as Steven M. Thomas muscles his way to a place at the table — elbow-to-elbow with Elmore Leonard and Carl Hiaasen — courtesy of a harrowing, hilarious, two-fisted, hard-boiled thriller that’s pure heaven for anyone who loves a hell of a crime novel.

Robert Rivers is a crook. No excuses, no apologies. Breaking the law is his calling, crime is his rush, capers his reason for getting up in the morning and staying up late at night. But he’s a thief with honor, plotting and pulling off carefully choreographed heists where no shots are fired, no blood is spilled, and nobody gets hurt . . . except in the wallet. After a brief stint behind bars back in the day, he’s managed to carve out a comfortable existence, cheerfully plundering the sunny Southern California community whose streets he tools in the tweaked-out Cadillac DeVille that’s his pride and joy.

But now Rob (whose name has become ironic) is pushing forty, and — like his trusty partner, Switch, who’s got a pregnant girlfriend and a hefty stash of loot — he’s thinking about quitting the game. But then he and Switch, pulling their latest Butch and Sundance, score a payday that could end up costing them plenty. Inside a strongbox packed with greenbacks rests a disturbing black-and-white photo of a beautiful young girl, eyes full of fear as naked as she is. It’s an image that Rob can’t shake, and a wake-up call: There are rules even he won’t break. It’s also his one-way ticket into the underbelly of the underworld — a lethal landscape of sex slaves, sadistic psychopaths, and sawed-off shotguns, where honor is for fools, and trust is for suckers, where very bad people do even worse things and nice guys don’t finish at all. They just get finished off.

With its alluring setting, quirky characters, and restrained and subtle prose, Criminal Paradise has something for every thriller fan. And with sharp natural instincts and writing skills as serious as his humor is sly, Steven M. Thomas shows as much promise as any author on the suspense scene.

Sacrifice

Author: Bolton, S. J.
Format: Hardcover
Type: Novel
Page Count: 384pp.
Pub. Date: May 2008
Publisher: St. Martin’s/Minotaur

Nominated for the 2009 ITW Thriller Award for the Best First Novel
Nominated for the 2009 Mary Higgins Clark Award

In this masterful debut that starts off as a mystery and becomes much more, Tora Hamilton is an outsider at her new home on the rocky, windswept Shetland Islands, a hundred miles from the northeastern tip of Scotland. Though her husband grew up here, it’s the first time he’s been back in twenty years.

Digging in the peat on their new property, Tora unearths a human body, at first glance a centuries-old bog body, interesting but not uncommon. But realizing that the body is in fact much newer, that the woman’s heart has been cut out, and that she was killed within a few days of bearing a child, Tora, herself an obstetrician, becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to her — even when the police, her colleagues, and eventually her husband warn her against getting involved.

Sacrifice is a bone-chilling, spellbinding debut about secrets worth killing for that will grip readers from its beginning to its startling end.

The Killer’s Wife: A Novel

Author: Floyd, Bill
Format: Hardcover
Type: Novel
Page Count: 304pp.
Pub. Date: March 2008
Publisher: St. Martin’s/Minotaur

Nominated for the 2009 ITW Thriller Award for the Best First Novel
Winner of the 2009 Mary Higgins Clark Award

Six years after her courageous testimony helped put her husband on death row for a string of gruesome murders, Leigh Wren has almost succeeded in putting her past to rest. She has moved from the West Coast to North Carolina with her young son, adopting a new name and a new life. But the world that she has created for herself is shattered when the father of one of her ex-husband’s victims begins stalking her, then confronts her late one night. In the days that follow, he exposes Leigh, in newspapers and on television, to a startled North Carolina community. And just as her marriage to Randall Mosley, a man who became known to the world as a deviant serial killer, is brought back to light, a more deadly game of cat and mouse ensues.

A new killer has emerged, one whose methods are frighteningly similar to those used by Mosley, who is awaiting execution thousands of miles away. Leigh and her son appear to be in the assailant’s scope, and it becomes clear that he is more than a copycat killer — his targets are all tied to Leigh’s former life. With the clock ticking down and the victims of a new killer mounting, Leigh is forced to probe the darkest corridors of her past to protect her life and her son’s. She must also confront her own feelings of responsibility: Leigh has always professed her ignorance, but how complicit was she in her husband’s horrific murder spree, as it was taking place?

From a major new voice in suspense, The Killer’s Wife is a story driven by psychological insight and harrowing revelations, asking how well you can ever really know the person sleeping beside you.

Hold Tight

Author: Coben, Harlan
Format: Hardcover
Type: Novel
Page Count: 416pp.
Pub. Date: April 2008
Publisher: Penguin Group

Nominated for the 2009 ITW Thriller Award for the Best Thriller of the Year

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, they can’t help but worry. Within days of installing a sophisticated spy program on Adam’s computer, they are jolted by a message from an unknown correspondent addressed to their son: “Just stay quiet and all safe.”

As if Mike Baye isn’t dealing with enough, he also learns that Lucas Loriman, the sweet kid who grew up next door, is in urgent need of a kidney transplant. As the boy’s doctor, Mike suddenly finds himself in possession of an explosive secret that threatens to rip the Loriman family apart at the seams.

Nearby, while browsing through an online memorial for Spencer, Betsy Hill discovers a surprising detail about the night of her son’s death. Before she can find out more, Adam disappears, taking the truth with him and sending shock waves through the neighborhood.

As the lives of these families collide in tragic, unexpected, and violent ways, long-hidden connections in their small suburb begin to work their way to the surface. And when an unidentified Jane Doe is beaten to death not far away, those connections threaten to turn this quiet community upside down — and force these desperate parents to decide whether there is any line they won’t cross to protect those they love most in the world.

The Bodies Left Behind

Author: Deaver, Jeffery
Format: Hardcover
Type: Novel
Page Count: 368pp.
Pub. Date: November 2008
Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Nominated for the 2009 ITW Thriller Award for the Best Thriller of the Year

When a night-time call to 911 from a secluded Wisconsin vacation house is cut short, off-duty deputy Brynn McKenzie leaves her husband and son at the dinner table and drives up to Lake Mondac to investigate. Was it a misdial or an aborted crime report?

Brynn stumbles onto a scene of true horror and narrowly escapes from two professional criminals. She and a terrified visitor to the weekend house, Michelle, flee into the woods in a race for their lives. As different as night and day, and stripped of modern-day resources, Brynn, a tough deputy with a difficult past, and Michelle, a pampered city girl, must overcome their natural reluctance to trust each other and learn to use their wits and courage to survive the relentless pursuit.

The deputy’s disappearance spurs both her troubled son and her new husband to action, while the incident sets in motion Brynn’s loyal fellow deputies and elements from Milwaukee’s underside. These various forces race along inexorably toward the novel’s gritty and stunning conclusion.

The Bodies Left Behind is an epic cat-and-mouse chase, told nearly in real-time, and is filled with Deaver’s patented twists and turns, where nothing is what it seems, and death lingers just around the next curve on a deserted path deep in the midnight forest.

The Broken Window (Lincoln Rhyme Series #8)

Author: Deaver, Jeffery
Format: Hardcover
Type: Novel
Page Count: 416pp.
Pub. Date: June 2008
Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Nominated for the 2009 ITW Thriller Award for the Best Thriller of the Year

Lincoln Rhyme and partner/paramour Amelia Sachs return to face a criminal whose ingenious staging of crimes is enabled by a terrifying access to information. . . .

When Lincoln’s estranged cousin Arthur Rhyme is arrested on murder charges, the case is perfect — too perfect. Forensic evidence from Arthur’s home is found all over the scene of the crime, and it looks like the fate of Lincoln’s relative is sealed.

At the behest of Arthur’s wife, Judy, Lincoln grudgingly agrees to investigate the case. Soon Lincoln and Amelia uncover a string of similar murders and rapes with perpetrators claiming innocence and ignorance — despite ironclad evidence at the scenes of the crime. Rhyme’s team realizes this “perfect” evidence may actually be the result of masterful identity theft and manipulation.

An information service company — the huge data miner Strategic Systems Datacorp — seems to have all the answers but is reluctant to help the police. Still, Rhyme and Sachs and their assembled team begin uncovering a chilling pattern of vicious crimes and coverups, and their investigation points to one master criminal, whom they dub “522.”

When “522″ learns the identities of the crime-fighting team, the hunters become the hunted. Full of Deaver’s trademark plot twists, The Broken Window will put the partnership of Lincoln Rhyme and Amelia Sachs to the ultimate test.

The Dark Tide

Author: Gross, Andrew
Format: Hardcover
Type: Novel
Page Count: 448pp.
Pub. Date: March 2008
Publisher: HarperCollins

Nominated for the 2009 ITW Thriller Award for the Best Thriller of the Year

From the New York Times bestselling author of The Blue Zone comes this second mesmerizing thriller about a woman who must unravel the secrets from her dead husband’s past.

An explosion rips through New York City’s Grand Central Station, destroying the train Karen Friedman’s husband, a successful hedge fund manager, is riding in to work. On the same day, there’s a suspicious hit-and-run accident in Karen’s hometown of Greenwich, Connecticut, and Ty Hauck, a detective, finds a clue that shockingly connects the two seemingly unrelated events.

Months later, two men show up at Karen’s home digging into Charles’ business dealings. Hundreds of millions of dollars are missing — and the trail points squarely to Charles. Suddenly Karen, with Hauck, steps into a widening storm of hedge fund losses, international scams and murder.

And as the investigations converge, these two strangers are pulled into a twisted — and deadly — conspiracy. With its breakneck pacing, plentiful twists, compelling characters, and abundant heart, The Dark Tide confirms Andrew Gross’ place as a master storyteller at the top of his game.

The Last Patriot

Author: Thor, Brad
Format: Hardcover
Type: Novel
Page Count: 352pp.
Pub. Date: July 2008
Publisher: Simon and Schuster

Nominated for the 2009 ITW Thriller Award for the Best Thriller of the Year

Brad Thor, master of suspense and New York Times bestselling author of The First Commandment, returns with his highest-voltage thriller to date. In a pulse-pounding, adrenaline-charged tour de force, Navy SEAL turned covert Homeland Security operative Scot Harvath must race to locate an ancient secret that has the power to stop militant Islam dead in its tracks.

June 632 A.D.: Deep within the Uranah Valley of Mount Arafat in Mecca, the Prophet Mohammed shares with his closest companions a final and startling revelation. Within days, he is assassinated.

September 1789: U.S. Minister to France Thomas Jefferson, who is charged with forging a truce with the violent Muslim pirates of the Barbary Coast, makes a shocking discovery – one that could forever impact the world’s relationship with Islam.

Present day: When a car bomb explodes outside a Parisian cafe, Scot Harvath is thrust back into the life he has tried so desperately to leave behind.

Saving the intended victim of the attack, Harvath becomes party to an amazing and perilous race to uncover a secret so powerful that militant Islam could be defeated once and for all without firing another shot, dropping another bomb, or launching another covert action.

But as desperate as the American government is to have the information brought to light, there are powerful forces aligned against it — men who are just as determined that Mohammed’s mysterious final revelation continue to remain hidden forever.

What Jason Bourne was to the Cold War, Scot Harvath is to the War on Terror. Brad Thor has created “the perfect all-American hero for the post September 11 world”(Nelson DeMille) and will keep readers glued to the pages as he once again takes them across the globe on a heart-pounding chase where the stakes are higher than they have ever been before.

Blue Heaven

Author: Box, C.J.
Format: Hardcover
Type: Novel
Page Count: 296pp.
Pub. Date: January 2008
Publisher: St. Martin’s Minotaur

Winner of the 2009 Edgar Award for Best Novel

A twelve-year-old girl and her younger brother go on the run in the woods of northern Idaho, pursued by four men they have just watched commit murder — four men who know exactly who the children are, and where their desperate mother is waiting patiently by the phone for news of her children’s fate.

In a ranching community increasingly populated by L.A. transplants living in gaudy McMansions, the kids soon find they don’t know whom they can trust among the hundreds of retired Southern California cops who’ve given the area its nickname: “Blue Heaven.”

The Foreigner

Author: Lin, Francie
Format: Hardcover
Type: Novel
Page Count: 320pp.
Pub. Date: May 2008
Publisher: Picador

Winner of the 2009 Edgar Award for Best First Novel By An American Author

Set against the Taiwanese criminal underworld, The Foreigner is Francie Lin’s audacious debut novel. A noirish tale about family, fraternity, conscience, and the curious gulf between a man’s culture and his deepest self.

Emerson Chang is a mild mannered bachelor on the cusp of forty, a financial analyst in a neatly pressed suit, a child of Taiwanese immigrants who doesn’t speak a word of Chinese, and, well, a virgin. His only real family is his mother, whose subtle manipulations have kept him close — all in the name of preserving an obscure idea of family and culture.

But when his mother suddenly dies, Emerson sets out for Taipei to scatter her ashes, and to convey a surprising inheritance to his younger brother, Little P. Now enmeshed in the Taiwanese criminal underworld, Little P seems to be running some very shady business out of his uncle’s karaoke bar, and he conceals a secret — a crime that has not only severed him from his family, but may have annihilated his conscience. Hoping to appease both the living and the dead, Emerson isn’t about to give up the inheritance until he uncovers Little P’s past, and saves what is left of his family.

The Foreigner is a darkly comic tale of crime and contrition, and a riveting story about what it means to be a foreigner — even in one’s own family.

China Lake

Author: Gardiner, Meg
Format: Mass Market Paperback
Type: Novel
Page Count: 416pp.
Pub. Date: June 2008
Publisher: Penguin Group

Winner of the 2009 Edgar Award for Best Paperback Original

Evan Delaney learns that not only has her ex-sister-in-law joined a religious cult, but the unstable young mother plans to regain custody of her son and disappear with him into the fold of the fanatical group. But when murder raises the stakes, Evan is dragged even deeper into the nightmare.

Edgar Allan Poe: An Illustrated Companion to His Tell-Tale Stories

Author: Poe, Harry Lee
Format: Hardcover
Type: Non-Fiction
Page Count: 160pp.
Pub. Date: 2008
Publisher: Sterling Publishing/Metro Books

Winner of the 2009 Edgar Award for Best Critical/Biographical

Edgar Allan Poe has become so strongly associated with the dark nature of his work that, in some minds, it’s as if he’s the central character — rather than the author — of the many horror and mystery tales that bear his name. And yet, well over a century after his death, his story remains as fascinating as those he wove, largely because the shadow cast by Poe was not one of his own design.

In Edgar Allan Poe: An Illustrated Companion to His Tell-Tale Stories, Poe’s biography comes to life through images and fascinating memorabilia, including:

• A portion of his handwritten manuscript for the poem “A Dream Within a Dream.”
• Contentious letters he exchanged with his foster father, John Allan.
• The bon indicating his intention to marry his cousin Virginia.
• His controversial obituary as it appeared in the New York Daily Tribune.

After touring his visual, interactive biography, fans of Poe will read “The Raven” and countless other classics with new appreciation.

American Lightning: Terror, Mystery, the Birth of Hollywood, and the Crime of the Century

Author: Blum, Howard
Format: Hardcover
Type: Non-Fiction
Page Count: 352pp.
Pub. Date: September 2008
Publisher: Random House/Crown Publishers

Winner of the 2009 Edgar Award for Best Fact Crime

It was an explosion that reverberated across the country — and into the very heart of early-twentieth-century America. On the morning of October 1, 1910, the walls of the Los Angeles Times Building buckled as a thunderous detonation sent men, machinery, and mortar rocketing into the night air. When at last the wreckage had been sifted and the hospital triage units consulted, twenty-one people were declared dead and dozens more injured. But as it turned out, this was just a prelude to the devastation that was to come.

In American Lightning, acclaimed author Howard Blum masterfully evokes the incredible circumstances that led to the original “crime of the century” — and an aftermath more dramatic than even the crime itself.

With smoke still wafting up from the charred ruins, the city’s mayor reacts with undisguised excitement when he learns of the arrival, only that morning, of America’s greatest detective, William J. Burns, a former Secret Service man who has been likened to Sherlock Holmes. Surely Burns, already world famous for cracking unsolvable crimes and for his elaborate disguises, can run the perpetrators to ground.

Through the work of many months, snowbound stakeouts, and brilliant forensic sleuthing, the great investigator finally identifies the men he believes are responsible for so much destruction. Stunningly, Burns accuses the men — labor activists with an apparent grudge against the Los Angeles Times’s fiercely anti-union owner — of not just one heinous deed but of being part of a terror wave involving hundreds of bombings.

While preparation is laid for America’s highest profile trial ever — and the forces of labor and capital wage hand-to-hand combat in the streets — two other notable figures are swept into the drama: industry-shaping filmmaker D.W. Griffith, who perceives in these events the possibility of great art and who will go on to alchemize his observations into the landmark film The Birth of a Nation; and crusading lawyer Clarence Darrow, committed to lend his eloquence to the defendants, though he will be driven to thoughts of suicide before events have fully played out.

“Skinhead Central”

Author: Parker, T. Jefferson
Format: Print Anthology
Type: Short Story
Pub. Date: April 2008
Published in: The Blue Religion: New Stories about Cops, Criminals, and the Chase

Winner of the 2009 Edgar Award for Best Short Story

“Skinhead Central” is a short story by T. Jefferson Parker published in the anthology called Mystery Writers of America Presents — The Blue Religion: New Stories about Cops, Criminals, and the Chase edited by Michael Connelly.

Paper Towns

Author: Green, John
Format: Hardcover
Type: Novel
Page Count: 320pp.
Pub. Date: September 2008
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group/Dutton Children’s Books

Winner of the 2009 Edgar Award for Best Young Adult

When Margo Roth Spiegelman beckons Quentin Jacobsen in the middle of the night-dressed like a ninja and plotting an ingenious campaign of revenge — he follows her. Margo’s always planned extravagantly, and, until now, she’s always planned solo. After a lifetime of loving Margo from afar, things are finally looking up for Q . . . until day breaks and she has vanished. Always an enigma, Margo has now become a mystery. But there are clues. And they’re for Q.

Printz Medalist John Green returns with the trademark brilliant wit and heart-stopping emotional honesty that have inspired a new generation of readers.

The Postcard

Author: Abbott, Tony
Format: Hardcover
Type: Novel
Page Count: 368pp.
Pub. Date: April 2008
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Winner of the 2009 Edgar Award for Best Juvenile

“So how smart are you?” said a man’s voice abruptly. And loudly. “Because now . . . it’s starting.”

A creepy phone call. An old, yellowed postcard. A bizarre magazine story. And a strange group of funeral-goers who seem to follow their every move — all contain clues that will send Jason and Dia on an adventure to uncover extraordinary family secrets.

Award-winning author Tony Abbott weaves an intriguing and entertaining mystery of adventure, friendship and family.

“Buckner’s Error”

Author: Guglielmelli, Joseph
Format: Print Anthology
Type: Short Story
Pub. Date: June 2008
Published in: Queens Noir

Winner of the 2009 Robert L. Fish Memorial Award

“Buckner’s Error” is a short story by Joseph Guglielmelli published in the anthology called Queens Noir edited by Robert Knightly.

The Killer’s Wife: A Novel

Author: Floyd, Bill
Format: Hardcover
Type: Novel
Page Count: 304pp.
Pub. Date: March 2008
Publisher: St. Martin’s/Minotaur

Winner of the 2009 Mary Higgins Clark Award

Six years after her courageous testimony helped put her husband on death row for a string of gruesome murders, Leigh Wren has almost succeeded in putting her past to rest. She has moved from the West Coast to North Carolina with her young son, adopting a new name and a new life. But the world that she has created for herself is shattered when the father of one of her ex-husband’s victims begins stalking her, then confronts her late one night. In the days that follow, he exposes Leigh, in newspapers and on television, to a startled North Carolina community. And just as her marriage to Randall Mosley, a man who became known to the world as a deviant serial killer, is brought back to light, a more deadly game of cat and mouse ensues.

A new killer has emerged, one whose methods are frighteningly similar to those used by Mosley, who is awaiting execution thousands of miles away. Leigh and her son appear to be in the assailant’s scope, and it becomes clear that he is more than a copycat killer — his targets are all tied to Leigh’s former life. With the clock ticking down and the victims of a new killer mounting, Leigh is forced to probe the darkest corridors of her past to protect her life and her son’s. She must also confront her own feelings of responsibility: Leigh has always professed her ignorance, but how complicit was she in her husband’s horrific murder spree, as it was taking place?

From a major new voice in suspense, The Killer’s Wife is a story driven by psychological insight and harrowing revelations, asking how well you can ever really know the person sleeping beside you.

“Buckner’s Error”

Author: Guglielmelli, Joseph
Format: Print Anthology
Type: Short Story
Pub. Date: June 2008
Published in: Queens Noir

Nominated for the 2009 Robert L. Fish Memorial Award

“Buckner’s Error” is a short story by Joseph Guglielmelli published in the anthology called Queens Noir edited by Robert Knightly.

Sacrifice

Author: Bolton, S. J.
Format: Hardcover
Type: Novel
Page Count: 384pp.
Pub. Date: May 2008
Publisher: St. Martin’s/Minotaur

Nominated for the 2009 Mary Higgins Clark Award

In this masterful debut that starts off as a mystery and becomes much more, Tora Hamilton is an outsider at her new home on the rocky, windswept Shetland Islands, a hundred miles from the northeastern tip of Scotland. Though her husband grew up here, it’s the first time he’s been back in twenty years.

Digging in the peat on their new property, Tora unearths a human body, at first glance a centuries-old bog body, interesting but not uncommon. But realizing that the body is in fact much newer, that the woman’s heart has been cut out, and that she was killed within a few days of bearing a child, Tora, herself an obstetrician, becomes obsessed with finding out what happened to her — even when the police, her colleagues, and eventually her husband warn her against getting involved.

Sacrifice is a bone-chilling, spellbinding debut about secrets worth killing for that will grip readers from its beginning to its startling end.

The Killer’s Wife: A Novel

Author: Floyd, Bill
Format: Hardcover
Type: Novel
Page Count: 304pp.
Pub. Date: March 2008
Publisher: St. Martin’s/Minotaur

Nominated for the 2009 Mary Higgins Clark Award

Six years after her courageous testimony helped put her husband on death row for a string of gruesome murders, Leigh Wren has almost succeeded in putting her past to rest. She has moved from the West Coast to North Carolina with her young son, adopting a new name and a new life. But the world that she has created for herself is shattered when the father of one of her ex-husband’s victims begins stalking her, then confronts her late one night. In the days that follow, he exposes Leigh, in newspapers and on television, to a startled North Carolina community. And just as her marriage to Randall Mosley, a man who became known to the world as a deviant serial killer, is brought back to light, a more deadly game of cat and mouse ensues.

A new killer has emerged, one whose methods are frighteningly similar to those used by Mosley, who is awaiting execution thousands of miles away. Leigh and her son appear to be in the assailant’s scope, and it becomes clear that he is more than a copycat killer — his targets are all tied to Leigh’s former life. With the clock ticking down and the victims of a new killer mounting, Leigh is forced to probe the darkest corridors of her past to protect her life and her son’s. She must also confront her own feelings of responsibility: Leigh has always professed her ignorance, but how complicit was she in her husband’s horrific murder spree, as it was taking place?

From a major new voice in suspense, The Killer’s Wife is a story driven by psychological insight and harrowing revelations, asking how well you can ever really know the person sleeping beside you.

Stalking Susan: A Novel

Author: Julie Kramer, Julie Kramer
Format: Hardcover
Type: Novel
Page Count: 240pp.
Pub. Date: July 2008
Publisher: Random House/Doubleday

Nominated for the 2009 Mary Higgins Clark Award

Introducing Riley Spartz, a spunky, clever, and endearing investigative reporter on the trail of a serial killer targeting women named Susan, murdering one on the same day each year.

Riley Spartz, TV news reporter for Channel 3 in Minneapolis, is recovering from a heartbreaking, headline-making catastrophe of her own when a longtime police source drops two homicide files in her lap. Both cold cases involve women named Susan strangled on the same day, one year apart. Riley senses a pattern between those murders and others pulled from old death records. She must broadcast a warning soon, especially to viewers named Susan, because the deadly anniversary is fast approaching.

A Song for You: A Mystery

Author: Thornton, Betsy
Format: Hardcover
Type: Novel
Page Count: 304pp.
Pub. Date: September 2008
Publisher: St. Martin’s/Minotaur

Nominated for the 2009 Mary Higgins Clark Award

In A Song for You, Betsy Thornton returns to her dynamic character Chloe Newcombe, victim advocate at the Cochise County Attorney’s Office.

A heavy storm hits Dudley, Arizona, wreaking havoc. A local woman drowns in a flash flood. A heavy drinker falls into the draining system and is finally found a few days later. The Barnetts, who moved into town six months ago, are unhappy to learn that a retaining wall on their property will need immediate fixing. And they’re even more dismayed when the workers’ digging unearths a dead body.

The man’s body has obviously been there a long time. When Rachel Macabee reads about it in the local paper, she is convinced that the dead man was a member of the band that her mom sang with when Rachel was a little girl. He had disappeared just a few days before her mother was killed. The band members assumed that he had left in search of a better job, but Rachel had never believed that — and now she knows she was right.

She doesn’t trust the police — they were wrong the first time. So she approaches private detective Brian Flynn, a former police officer as well as Chloe Newcombe’s former lover. He agrees to try to discover what really happened. And after all these years, Rachel may finally find her mother’s killer.

Betsy Thornton pens the stories about the inhabitants of this very real-life mountain town with great style. A Song for You promises more atmosphere, likable characters, and another entertaining puzzle.

The Fault Tree

Author: Ure, Louise
Format: Hardcover
Type: Novel
Page Count: 352pp.
Pub. Date: January 2008
Publisher: St. Martin’s/Minotaur

Nominated for the 2009 Mary Higgins Clark Award

Arizona auto mechanic Cadence Moran is no stranger to darkness. She was blinded in a horrific car accident eight years ago that also took the life of her three-year old niece. She knows she was only partially to blame, but that doesn’t make the loss any easier to bear. She’s learned to get by, but there are still painful memories.

When she is almost run down by a speeding car on the way home from work, Cadence at first thinks that she is the victim of road rage or a bad driver. But that’s not the case. In fact, she is the only witness to the murder of her elderly neighbor, and now the killer believes that she’s seen the getaway car. Louise Ure paints the glare of a Southwestern summer with the brush of a blind woman’s darkness in this novel of jeopardy and courage . . . and the fine line between them — as Cadence fights to stop a killer she can’t see.

The Postcard

Author: Abbott, Tony
Format: Hardcover
Type: Novel
Page Count: 368pp.
Pub. Date: April 2008
Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Nominated for the 2009 Edgar Award for Best Juvenile

“So how smart are you?” said a man’s voice abruptly. And loudly. “Because now . . . it’s starting.”

A creepy phone call. An old, yellowed postcard. A bizarre magazine story. And a strange group of funeral-goers who seem to follow their every move — all contain clues that will send Jason and Dia on an adventure to uncover extraordinary family secrets.

Award-winning author Tony Abbott weaves an intriguing and entertaining mystery of adventure, friendship and family.

Enigma: A Magical Mystery

Author: Base, Graeme
Format: Hardcover
Type: Story
Page Count: 48pp.
Pub. Date: October 2008
Publisher: Abrams Books for Young Readers

Nominated for the 2009 Edgar Award for Best Juvenile

Enter a magical world in this warm, funny, and enduring story about the special relationship between a grandson and his grandpa — and their love for magic.

Bertie Badger loves to visit the Retirement Home for Elderly Magicians and watch his grandpa perform magic tricks. But one day all the magicians’ props go missing, so Bertie sets off to investigate. Can he solve the mystery in time to save the show? This clever book will engage readers as they are challenged to solve the mystery along with Bertie, discovering where the missing props have gone by using a decoder included with the book that reveals the mystery.

Graeme Base, creator of Animalia and many bestselling and beloved books for children, conjures up an inventive, irresistible tale.

Eleven

Author: Giff, Patricia Reilly
Format: Hardcover
Type: Novel
Page Count: 144pp.
Pub. Date: January 2008
Publisher: Random House Children’s Books/Wendy Lamb Books

Nominated for the 2009 Edgar Award for Best Juvenile

Sam is almost 11 when he discovers a locked box in the attic above his grandfather Mack’s room, and a piece of paper that says he was kidnapped. There are lots of other words, but Sam has always had trouble reading. He’s desperate to find out who he is, and if his beloved Mack is really his grandfather.

At night he’s haunted by dreams of a big castle and a terrifying escape on a boat. Who can he trust to help him read the documents that could unravel the mystery?

Then he and the new girl, Caroline, are paired up to work on a school project, building a castle in Mack’s woodworking shop. Caroline loves to read, and she can help. But she’s moving soon, and the two must hurry to discover the truth about Sam.

The Witches of Dredmoore Hollow

Author: McKenzie, Riford
Format: Hardcover
Type: Novel
Page Count: 264pp.
Pub. Date: September 2008
Publisher: Marshall Cavendish Children’s Books

Nominated for the 2009 Edgar Award for Best Juvenile

When his two strange aunts arrive at Dredmoore Hollow, eleven-year-old Elijah finds his life turned upside down. His parents suddenly leave town, and he’s whisked away to stay with Serena and Agnes on Moaning Marsh, where they run the world’s most mysterious beauty salon. Not to mention their creepy hired man, his beastly pet, and the three unusual girls who are their only customers. Elijah discovers that secrets and magic are part of the Dredmoore family legacy, and there’s no hiding from your roots no matter how deep, dark, and tangled they may be.

Cemetery Street

Author: Seabrooke, Brenda
Format: Hardcover
Type: Novel
Page Count: 188pp.
Pub. Date: October 2008
Publisher: Holiday House

Nominated for the 2009 Edgar Award for Best Juvenile

Fast paced and suspenseful, this new-kid-at-school story combines with a spooky mystery to offer an engaging and affecting story of fragile family bonds and fledgling friendships.

It’s bad enough that Courtney’s mom, recently divorced from her latest husband, has moved the family all the way from Vermont to Florida; but when she rents a rattletrap house on Cemetery Street, it’s just too much! Fifteen-year-old Courtney is used to being uprooted — but living on Cemetery Street proves to be more of a challenge than even Courtney can handle. Still, although the creepy cemetery and surrounding jungle next to her house are a bit spooky, Courtney doesn’t really believe in ghosts.

Then strange things start happening. Lights flicker in the graveyard; tombs are desecrated with satanic markings; an innocent puppy is mysteriously killed. Suspense builds as Courtney and Josh, a handsome classmate, investigate rumors of devil worship in town, culminating in a terrifying Halloween night kidnapping and entombment. Solid detective work leads the young investigative reporters to uncover a diabolical publicity stunt by a celebrated author and his henchman.

Bog Child

Author: Dowd, Siobhan
Format: Hardcover
Type: Novel
Page Count: 320pp.
Pub. Date: September 2008
Publisher: Random House Children’s Books/David Fickling Books

Nominated for the 2009 Edgar Award for Best Young Adult

Digging for peat in the mountain with his Uncle Tally, Fergus finds the body of a child, and it looks like she’s been murdered. As Fergus tries to make sense of the mad world around him — his brother on hunger — strike in prison, his growing feelings for Cora, his parents arguing over the Troubles, and him in it up to the neck, blackmailed into acting as courier to God knows what — a little voice comes to him in his dreams, and the mystery of the bog child unfurls.

Bog Child is an astonishing novel exploring the sacrifices made in the name of peace, and the unflinching strength of the human spirit.

The Big Splash

Author: Ferraiolo, Jack D.
Format: Hardcover
Type: Novel
Page Count: 288pp.
Pub. Date: September 2008
Publisher: Harry N. Abrams Books/Amulet Books

Nominated for the 2009 Edgar Award for Best Young Adult

The treacherous, hormone-soaked hallways of Franklin Middle School are the setting for this sharp, funny noir novel about tough guys and even tougher girls. “The Frank” is in the clutches of a crime syndicate run by seventh-grader Vinny “Mr. Biggs” Biggio, who deals in forged hall passes and black-market candy. Double-cross him and your number is punched by one of his deadly water-gun-toting assassins. One hit in the pants and you are in “the Outs” forever.

Matt Stevens is a proud loner with his own code of justice. He’s avoided being pulled into Vinny’s organization until now: Mr. Biggs has offered him a job he can’t resist, one that leads to the surprising downfall of Vinny’s top assassin, the beautiful and deadly Nikki “Fingers” Finnegan, at the hands of an unknown assailant. Matt thinks he was used, and he becomes determined to find the trigger-guy or -girl, even if it means bringing down one of his oldest friends.

Paper Towns

Author: Green, John
Format: Hardcover
Type: Novel
Page Count: 320pp.
Pub. Date: September 2008
Publisher: Penguin Young Readers Group/Dutton Children’s Books

Nominated for the 2009 Edgar Award for Best Young Adult

When Margo Roth Spiegelman beckons Quentin Jacobsen in the middle of the night-dressed like a ninja and plotting an ingenious campaign of revenge — he follows her. Margo’s always planned extravagantly, and, until now, she’s always planned solo. After a lifetime of loving Margo from afar, things are finally looking up for Q . . . until day breaks and she has vanished. Always an enigma, Margo has now become a mystery. But there are clues. And they’re for Q.

Printz Medalist John Green returns with the trademark brilliant wit and heart-stopping emotional honesty that have inspired a new generation of readers.

Getting the Girl: A Guide to Private Investigation, Surveillance, and Cookery

Author: Susan Juby, Susan Juby
Format: Hardcover
Type: Novel
Page Count: 320pp.
Pub. Date: September 2008
Publisher: HarperCollins Children’s Books/HarperTeen

Nominated for the 2009 Edgar Award for Best Young Adult

Meet Sherman Mack. Short. Nerdy. Amateur P.I. and prepared to do anything for Dini Trioli.

Nobody knows who began it or when it became a tradition, but every girl at Harewood Tech fears being D-listed, a ritual that wipes her off the social map forever. When Sherman believes Dini is in danger of being D-listed, he snatches up his surveillance gear and launches a full-scale investigation to uncover who is responsible.

Could it be the captain of the lacrosse team?

The hottest girls in school, the Trophy Wives?

Or maybe their boyfriends?

One thing is for sure: Sherman Mack is on the case. And he’s not giving up.

Part comedy, part mystery, and with all of Juby’s trademark tongue-in-cheek humor, Getting the Girl takes on one of the cruelest aspects of high school: how easy it is for an entire school to turn on someone, and how hard it can be to be the only one willing to fight back.

Torn to Pieces

Author: McDonnell, Margot
Format: Hardcover
Type: Novel
Page Count: 272pp.
Pub. Date: September 2008
Publisher: Random House Children’s Books/Delacorte Books for Young Readers

Nominated for the 2009 Edgar Award for Best Young Adult

Seventeen-year-old Anne always thought her mother was kind of quirky. In fact, her mom’s taste in 70s-esque furniture and mysterious frequent business trips were just the tip of the quirky iceberg. When her
mom doesn’t come home on time from one of her long jaunts, Anne isn’t too surprised. But when a day late turns into a few days late, Anne knows something is very wrong.

She tries the hotel number that her mother left her, but it has been disconnected. Then a strange man keeps leaving messages on their answering machine, looking for a woman who doesn’t even live there. However, when Anne discovers a lengthy letter from her mother explaining why she has disappeared, the fabric of Anne’s relatively normal life is torn to pieces. Despite her shock, Anne must pull herself together and protect herself — from people who want to find and hurt her mother, and the strange new boy who may change everything.