Jill

Daniel is a London solicitor assigned to the case of eleven-year-old Sebastian, a child from a well-to-do home who is accused of murdering his eight-year-old playmate.

The story is told by Daniel, both in the present tense and in the past, when he himself was a troubled and angry youth in the foster care system.

As the trial progresses, we learn that Daniel is guilty of alienating himself from the only adult who had loved him, and the two stories play off each other until we realize that no one in the book is free from blame, and the title, The Guilty One, could apply to any character in the novel.

I discovered Cathie Pelletier when I lived in Canada, and her folksy novels, which remind me of a northern Fannie Flagg, made her my favorite Canadian author.  

Little did I know that, while she was living in Canada then, she's actually a New Englander, and her new novel, One-Way Bridge, is set in Mattagash, Maine.  Peopled by quirky folks who are fiercely proud of the remote community, Mattagash is divided by a river and connected by, you guessed it, a one-way bridge.

This magical novel is about Meg, whose mother dipped her toes in coffee because she was so sweet, and chased runner bears around the kitchen, and got her forehead nipped my a crab cake. Meg knows all this because her mother told her so.

Meg used to love the fairytale-like stories she could repeat verbatim, but as she grows older, she decides that a life of strict rationality is for her.

When she goes home to be with her dying mother, determined to force the truth about her childhood from her mom while she can, Meg learns some important lessons about what it is that makes us who we are.

By turns quirky, funny, and poignant, The Kitchen of Half-Truth will remind you of what's really important.

The Runaway King is the second book in the Ascendance Trilogy. The first, The False Prince, was my favorite kids' book last year.

When an evil Regent plots to put an orphan on the throne and pass him off as the long lost prince, we meet Sage, an Oliver Twist-like orphan with the quick fingers of a pickpocket and the quick mouth of a smart alec.

The Runaway King continues the saga, with young King Jaron running from the throne and into the arms of pirates in an attempt to forestall war and avenge the murder of his family.

Gardner’s latest thriller is a kidnapping story – handsome, successful Justin Denbe, his wife Libby, and daughter Ashlyn, live the good life in Boston’s elite Back Bay.

But when investigator Tessa Leoni, hired by Justin’s mega-firm, Denbe Construction, arrives at their home, she finds scuff marks and Taser confetti in the foyer, and the entire family appears to have vanished without a trace.

Of course, the perfect little family has their secrets, and the principals at Denbe Construction have theirs. While the secrets slowly begin to surface, they don’t really shed light on the masterminds behind the crime.

A solid thriller from a long time master, Touch and Go gets two thumbs up for intrigue, suspense, and convincing twists and turns.

Three Graves Full is an astonishing debut in that the writing feels so sure-footed, so well-edited, and precisely planned that it’s hard to believe that this is Mason’s first book.

Three Graves Full is a thriller; mild-mannered Jason Getty has killed a man in a rage and buried him in the backyard. Daily he is so tormented by this one act that was so unlike him that he can’t even set foot out back. Eventually he’s reduced to hiring a landscaping crew to do the lawn work for him. Bizarrely, the workers stumble upon a body – just not the one Jason planted there.

This is a darkly humorous novel written with true literary aspirations. The book I finished before this one was a very commercial mystery and it’s almost as if the two books don’t belong in the same section.

This thriller has been a bestseller internationally, so I wanted to check it out before it hit the shelves in the U.S.

In a small village in Germany, a young man, Tobias, returns home after ten years in prison. He was convicted of killing two young girls whose bodies were never found. But more than just bodies are hidden in this town, and Tobias’ release sets off a chain reaction of violence and backstabbing that seemingly leaves no one safe.

This is a good, convoluted thriller with plenty of red herrings and plenty of real bad guys to keep you guessing right up to the very end. I think who-dun-it fans of Sophie Hannah will love this new entry into the U.S. mystery genre. Check out Snow White Must Die and you’ll be waiting with me to read more by Nele Neuhaus!

It’s time once again for an over-the-top, totally insane romp with Serge and his sidekick Coleman as they play tour guide to the Florida you hope you’ll never see.

Laid-off Wisconsin teachers Pat and Barbara McDougal think it’s time to treat themselves to a vacation in the Sunshine State. Of course their luggage is lost, but that’s just the beginning.

They’ve chosen their hotel unwisely, and unwillingly get themselves in the middle of a drug turf war, only to be “rescued” by our loveable psychopath Serge. Mayhem, needless violence and things that are just wrong have never been so funny.