Book Town's Summer Reading List 2014

After her husband dies, Lydia Krause sells her company and moves to an upscale retirement community on Long Island to start a new life. At her first Twin Lakes event, she meets the community’s financial advisor, whom she recognizes as the convicted embezzler who drove her sister to suicide. After exchanging heated words with the man's wife, Lydia flees the scene. When the woman is found dead the following morning, Detective Sol Molina considers Lydia Suspect Number One.

Click this link to watch the trailer for River bones and other trailers by award winning author Mary Deal

"A mystery surrounds the lush orchards and farmlands of California's Sacramento River Delta. As Sara Mason returns to her hometown in order to start a new life, she learns that a serial killer is terrorizing its residents.

Despite battling the memory of the drowning deaths of her younger sister and alcoholic parents, Sara is determined to make peace with her past. However, she soon learns that the elusive psychopath who strangles his victims, snaps their necks, and then buries each along with a dead animal, is now stalking her. Sara's attempt to rebuild her life is hindered even more by the discovery of skeletal remains both on and near her property. She must move out as the criminal investigation focuses on suspects like the gravedigger Crazy Ike, a cat-killing vagrant, a Peeping Tom, and several others who may be connected to the twenty-eight victims. After several attempts on her life, Sara discovers critical clues and bravely volunteers to be a decoy for the sheriff's department.

Sara Mason is a woman whose destiny has brought her back home, but her decision may lead her down a path lined with danger and straight into the arms of a madman in this captivating thriller."

The Memory Keeper is the story of Tomás Romero, a native of the Acjachemen band, whom the Spanish renamed Juaneño. Born in 1820 in San Juan Capistrano, Tomás attends the mission school where, in addition to the catechism, he learns to read, write, and cipher--uncommon for the Indians in San Juan at the time. Because Tomás assists the padres, he becomes aware of the world outside the small religious community.

During his lifetime, he experiences the rule of Spain, Mexico, and finally, the United States. He survives drought, floods, plagues, the secularization of the mission property, and its return to the church. He also marries, raises two children, makes many friends, and provides assistance to the priests. He becomes co-owner of a mercantile. Although his story is rich with local history, it is, in the end, an engaging family saga with characters who come alive on the pages.

Click this link to watch the trailer for The Howling Cliffs and other book trailer by award winning author Mary Deal

Sara Mason's dedication to solving missing person cold cases with love interest, Huxley Keane, includes accompanying him into the Vietnam jungle searching for his MIA brother's remains. Their friend, Esmerelda, accompanies them. Her daughter was abducted along with Huxley's brother. Scant remains are found and await identification.

Sara has purchased a home on the island of Kauai for use as an R&R stopover by the veterans who make frequent trips between the U.S. Mainland and Vietnam. Sara learns that a six-year-old neighborhood girl went missing ten years earlier and strangely, dogs howl when taken high on the forest cliffs. Accompanied by a neighbor's retired forensic dog, Sara wants to learn why dogs react in the forest.

Someone wants the missing child cold case to stay cold. Attempts are made on Sara's life and continue as she investigates the little girl's disappearance. Sara is gravely injured after being run off the road and later pushed over a cliff. She is dazed and alone at night on a narrow ledge over a thousand foot cliffside where she discovers a frightful scene. The forensic dog leads Sara and the police to a second disgusting site that explodes the case wide open and exposes an elusive murderer's motives, revenge and victims.

All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.

With two high tech start-ups going gangbusters, former cyber warrior Hank Rangar has finally “made” it. His lab, “Made By Man,” has revolutionized cardiac procedures, potentially saving millions of lives and billions of dollars. But, the most important person in his life is very sick and his technology is suddenly stolen. Hank discovers two things: This lifesaving procedure may be the only way to save his sister AND Big Washington will stop at nothing to bury it.

“Pendulum of Justice reads like a book on anti-gravity: impossible to put down! My main complaint is how come the next book in the series isn’t out already.”

Peter Cresswell
Publisher of NotPC

Award-winning author B. J. Robinson has penned a family saga, a fictional love story set in New Orleans and Vacherie, Louisiana. The Civil War ruins plantation life and the agricultural economy of the South.

Jacques dreams of living the quiet plantation life, but Celina, the Creole beauty he fell in love with, loves New Orleans. She's a socialite, loves high society, the ritz and glamor of old New Orleans, adores grand balls, and loves being the belle of them. Jacques wants to give her the belle of the ball when it comes to plantation homes, and he buys a prime piece of real estate from her brother to build her the grand dame of them all on River Road in Vacherie, Louisiana. Nothing is too good for his little Creole beauty, his cher bebe. He hoped he wasn't building his plantation in the wrong place by choosing the banks of the Mississippi River, the hub of transportation with talk of a Civil War.

Click the link to watch the trailer for The Orange Moon Affair

Thomas Gunn (ex-Special Forces) and his partner Julie are running for their lives! Who are they running from? And why? It all starts when Thomas decides to investigate the mysterious murder of his billionaire father. Alarmed at what he discovers he goes on the attack, a moving target racing to outwit those who clearly want him dead. The danger escalates even more when he is reluctantly compelled back into working for British Military Intelligence to expose an international conspiracy that puts the freedom of the western world at grave risk.

But who is behind this sinister plot? And what dark secrets from the past will he uncover, in his relentless quest for the truth? This action packed thriller spans the UK, USA and Europe and keeps you guessing to the very last page!

As the son of an MI6 operative, a former officer in Britain's elite Parachute Regiment, yachstman, pilot, race car driver, and bestselling author of Contact, AFN Clarke brings his own unique and eye-opening experiences to this first book of the Thomas Gunn thriller series that's fast-paced, thought-provoking and frighteningly real.

A Vietnam vet turned P.I. ends up in the wrong place at the wrong time - at the Jewel Arms apartments in St. Louis, as he matches wits with a ruthless killer. Elvin Suggs already knew how to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Decades earlier, spending time as a Green Beret during The Siege of Khe Sanh taught him about the wrong side of 1968. Now with his life in a shambles after his wife demands a divorce-brokenhearted and broke but determined to salvage his pride and his dreams-Elvin turns to the only person he can count on, Dimond Redding, his best friend's widow. A fellow 'Nam vet and new tenant at the Jewel Arms apartment building in St. Louis, Missouri, Dimond is ready to move out before Elvin even arrives when a random murder occurs right outside her front door. She can't break her lease, but with a ruthless killer on the loose and corpses suddenly turning up everywhere, she wonders if she'll be the next victim. Homicide Detective Rick Valentino doesn't seem to be getting anywhere fast on the case, so experienced Private Investigator Elvin lends a hand, working to put the pieces of the puzzle together. The odd assortment of tenants and strange goings-on at the Jewel Arms provide more questions than answers, including connections with Elvin's past. When another car with Tennessee plates shows up at the apartment building is it a coincidence, or is someone following him? As Elvin inches closer to the truth he has to remind himself that he knows all about the wrong places and times. Only this time he's got nothing to lose-he's on the wrong side of Memphis

Behind the doors of Hull House lurk many shadowy secrets of love, anger, betrayal, and death that have haunted the Hull family for generations. Laura Hull thought she had escaped when she married a gentle poet and could pursue her love of music. Then the unthinkable happens and Laura returns to Hull House as a young widow with a child, to once again face a father who hates her. Set in the mid to late nineteenth century along the Delaware River north of Philadelphia, the novel spans forty years from the turbulent post-Civil War and the industrial revolution, to the fight for women’s rights. Laura Blake must unlock the secrets by solving the mystery behind her mother’s untimely death, while evading the evil Anton Walling who is dedicated to protecting her father by any means necessary. When Laura meets the wounded war hero, Dr. Samuel Martin, she arrives at a crossroad that may determine her destiny…life or death. Twenty years later, Laura’s daughter, Amanda Jane, a suffragist, budding writer and accomplished musician, meets a handsome Philadelphia lawyer and with his help finally learns the truth about her family, culminating in a climactic confrontation. These women defy the bonds of the Victorian era to resolve the decades of violence that haunts their family, and to fulfill their dreams of love and success.

When the body of Maggie McFarland, an 86-year old widow, is found among the rubble of the once-famous, landmark Artemis Hotel, leveled by fire nearly seventy years ago, residents of Roscoe are shocked. However, it is not the location where Maggie is found, but rather the manner of her demise that has everyone puzzled. For it isn't a heart attack that has felled her; nor has she suffered a stroke, or taken a fatal fall from a porch. Her life has not ended so uneventfully. Maggie has been killed by a bullet to the heart, fired from a pistol at close range. Who would possibly want to kill this kind, gentle woman, known throughout the area as one of the best trout fly tiers within a hundred miles of the famed Beaverkill River? That is the mystery that confronts Matt Davis in Broken Promises, one of the most baffling cases of his career.

Click this link to watch the trailer for Wraith's Heart

When Gail Duncan finds herself in her hometown with no memory, it’s unfortunate she’s also dead and more than a little confused. Deciding to stay close to Ryan Davis, the hunky detective investigating her murder, Gail figures she might as well help out with the case.

Ryan has other problems beside the recent murder case he’s working. He earned his honorable discharge but the past is still with him. He's used to seeing things in black and white, so just what is it that’s helping him with his investigation and why does his apartment seem a little less lonely?

Together Gail and Ryan work on the case and learn about one another, and what they can accomplish, in ways neither had ever dreamed.

Gail Duncan believed her purpose for remaining on Earth is to help police detective Ryan Davis find her murderer. But that was before they got to know one another.

Maybe they did meet a little late, but that doesn’t seem to be too big an obstacle in supporting one another as he adjusts to civilian life and she… Well, she just adjusts.

From award-winning author B. J. Robinson comes a family saga amidst the backdrop of the Civil War and a deadly hurricane, rising floodwaters in the Big Easy, or Crescent City, as a plantation on River Road in Vacherie, Louisiana, is threatened. Will Hurricane Katrina destroy what the Civil War spared? Showcased in Southern Writers Magazine as a Must Read. Finalist in the Grace Awards. Amazon best-seller.

Margaret Jane Turnrow first laid eyes on River Oaks Plantation amid lush foliage and oak trees dripping with Spanish moss when she returned from her honeymoon as a petite hazel-eyed fifteen-year-old bride to the antebellum mansion. She immediately fell in love with the house and grounds and beautifying the garden with plants. Her first task involved lining the oak drive with azaleas. Determined to have the best plantation gardens, she soon recreated formal ones designed from precious memories of France, Italy, and England she'd toured on her honeymoon. Before the Civil War, she imported plants, and gardening became her passion. During the war, it was her only one. The fertile Louisiana soil loved and nursed her plants as much as she did, and they grew like the cotton and sugarcane.
Pale as a magnolia blossom, she sparkled like the sun reflecting off Lake Pontchartrain when she flashed pearly white teeth with her camellia red smile. The war would change the shy woman-child as it ravaged through her life and took its toll on the home and family life she came to know and love with all of her heart.

Welcome to Fairy Tale Fusion.
Where things get messy in the Riding Hood.

What if the characters in Fairy Tales were real? What if they lived in Fairyland, a place not too dissimilar to ours, next to Wonderland and down the street from Camelot?

Meet Detective Piper, member of the Fairyland Metro Police. His job, to ferret out the suspects and investigate crime on the streets and in the lanes of Fairyland. Along with Officer Simon, he’s hard at work, searching for a missing pumpkin, hunting for an arsonist, wondering what the future holds in a series of crystal ball robberies, and dealing with spells, curses and other strange happenings.

His cases, and others like them, are the headlines of the day, brought to you by FTN news anchors Spider Bramble and Aurora Gossamer, with entertainment correspondent Lucinda Lovedust and reporter Chip Charming. Keep up-to-date on the latest information out of Fairyland and its adjacent suburbs, and the recent hubbub with trolls, princesses, fairies and their ilk.

And when you are done dancing with Cinderella and her cronies, open the lid of a very scary toy box to find where children’s nightmares begin... and end, badly.

And remember, always be nice to your Fairy Godmother.

Book Town selection committee
Novels for this summers reading list were selected by