Still Waters by Tami Hoag

STILL WATERS RUN DEEP...
When Elizabeth Stuart searched for a quiet, peaceful home for herself and her son, Still Creek seemed perfect. Nestled in the heart of lush Amish farmlands, this small, idyllic Minnesota town would allow her to put a shattering divorce behind her. But the locals were noticeably cool to the newcomer-who was rumored to be a gold digger-especially when she started stirring up controversy with her newspaper. And now when a murdered body literally falls at her feet, she has a slight credibility problem ...particularly with the arrogant sheriff whose blue eves seem to know her darkest secrets.

INTO A RISING TIDE OF DESIRE--
An ex-pro athlete who had returned to Still Creek a hero Sheriff Dane Jantzen doesn't have much use for the media-- especially not in the form of this glamorous, gutsy outsider who spells trouble with every word she prints. So when she becomes his suspect in a vicious crime, the last thing Dane expects is the jolt of attraction at their every encounter.

AND DANGER
Elizabeth would soon challenge Dane's every assumption, including the one that he's better off without love. But as they risk everything to uncover the truth, the current of evil that contaminates Still Creek threatens to pull them both under...

Celebutantes by Ruthanna Hopper & Amanda Goldberg

Take three friends living in Hollywood. Lola, who was born into Hollywood royalty on Oscar night, Kate, a hot-shot agent whose life is a hyper-efficient blur of army-style workouts at six am, Gucci suits and breakfast meetings, and Cricket, who longs to be the next Cameron Diaz, or the next anybody, but hasn't got any closer than valet parking Cameron's car.

Lola's life looks like a glamourous movie from the outside-so why does she feels like the most extras, playing jobless, boyfriendsless hopeful no. 310? To make matterss worse, Adrienne Hunt, evil incarnate in red lipsticks, seems determined to destroy Lola's budding career.

Both Kate and Cricket have always been there for Lola but they haven't reckoned on having to deal with problems of their own.....

Rome Burning by Sophia McDougall

Three years after the events of Romanitas, the Empire is on the brink of war with Nionia (Japan), and plagued by a sequence of mysterious wildfires. Marcus Novius, the young heir to the Roman throne is forced to take charge as Regent when the Emperor Faustus falls suddenly ill. Marcus attempts to recruit Varius as his advisor, but Varius, who is still haunted by the events of the first book (in which he lost his wife and was framed for murder and treason), refuses. While Marcus works to avoid a world war, his lover Una is intent on discovering the truth about his ambitious cousin Drusus's involvement in a conspiracy that almost claimed Marcus's life. Her brother Sulien finds himself caught up along with Varius in a disastrous attack on an arms factory at Veii, just outside Rome. After surviving this and saving Sulien's life, Varius decides to return to political life after all, but Sulien is left with many questions about what happened. Una exposes Drusus's involvement in the murders of Marcus's parents and Varius's wife, although not before he almost kills her.

Varius urges Marcus to have Drusus killed but Marcus is reluctant to begin his reign with an ex-judiciary killing, and is content to have Drusus tried for Una's attempted murder as there is no direct evidence for his other crimes. Drusus, however, has formed an alliance with a Roman general, Salvius, who releases Drusus from prison and urges the sickly Emperor Faustus to rethink his decision to allow Marcus so much power. Drusus, who has hitherto never felt much personal resentment of those who have stood in his way, has conceived a passionate hatred of Una, and tries to convince Faustus that she, Sulien, and Varius are a dangerous influence on Marcus.

Sulien's attempts to discover more about the explosion at Veii lead him to believe he was somehow targeted. Una accompanies Marcus to peace talks hosted by the Sinoan (Chinese) Empress in the Song capital of Bianjing (Kaifeng). Things go well at first although Una discovers the Nionians are developing a super-weapon. But someone seems intent on sabotaging the negotiations. One of the Nionian party is killed by a Roman assassin and Marcus is abruptly summoned home by Faustus, under effective arrest. This leaves the Nionian Prince Tadahito deeply suspicious about Rome's intentions. Before he is forced to leave, Marcus hands over Una and Varius as hostages to the Nionians, partly as a sign of good faith, but primarily in the hope of keeping them away from Drusus, who would almost certainly have them tortured or killed. From within Nionian custody, and with the help of the Sinoan Empress and the Nionian Princess, Una and Varius attempt to influence the global action to stop Drusus causing a war, but their efforts come at a personal cost, especially for Una.

Bangkok Tattoo by John Burdett

"Killing customers just isn't good for business."

My mother Nong's tone reflects the disappointment we all feel when a star employee starts to go wrong. Is there nothing to be done? Will we have to let dear Chanya go? The question can only be decided by Police Colonel Vikorn, who owns most of the shares in the Old Man's Club and who is on his way in his Bentley.

"No," I agree. Like my mother's, my eyes cannot stop flicking across the empty bar to the stool where Chanya's flimsy silver dress (just enough silk to cover nipples and butt) drapes and drips. Well, the dripping was slight and is more or less finished (a rusty stain on the floor turning black as it dries), but in more than a decade as a detective in the Royal Thai Police, I have never seen a garment so blood-soaked. Chanya's bra, also hideously splattered, lies halfway up the stairs, and her panties—her only other garment—lie abandoned on the floor outside the upstairs room where, eccentrically even for a Thai whore, she has taken refuge with an opium pipe.

"She didn't say anything at all? Like why?"

"No, I told you. She dashed in through the door in a bit of a state holding an opium pipe, glared at me, said, ‘I've done him in,' ripped off her dress, and disappeared upstairs. Fortunately, there were only a couple of farang in the bar at the time, and the girls were fantastic. They merely said, ‘Oh, Chanya, she goes like that sometimes,' and gently ushered them out. I had to play the whole thing down, of course, and by the time I got to her room, she was already stoned."

"What did she say again?"

"She was tripping on the opium, totally delirious. When she started talking to the Buddha, I left to call you and the Colonel. At that stage I didn't know if she'd really done him in or was freaking out on yaa baa or something."

But she'd snuffed him all right. I walked to the farang's hotel, which is just a couple of streets away from Soi Cowboy, and flashed my police ID to get the key to his room. There he was, a big muscular naked American farang in his early thirties, minus a penis and a lot of blood from a huge knife wound that began in his lower gut and finished just short of his rib cage. Chanya, a basically decent and very tidy Thai, had placed his penis on the bedside table. At the other end of the table, a single rose stood in a plastic mug of water.

There was nothing for it but to secure the room for the purposes of forensic investigation, leave a hefty bribe for the hotel receptionist—who is now more or less obliged to say whatever I tell him to say (standard procedure under my Colonel Vikorn in District 8)—and await further orders. Vikorn, of course, was in one of his clubs carousing, probably surrounded by naked young women who adored him, or knew how to look as if they did, and in no mood to be dragged to the scene of a crime until I penetrated his drunken skull enough to explain that the business at hand was not an investigation per se but the infinitely more challenging forensic task so lightly spoken of as a "cover-up." Even then he showed no inclination to shift himself until he realized it was Chanya (the perp, not the victim).

"Where the hell did she get the opium?" my mother wants to know. "There hasn't been opium in Krung Thep since I was a teenager."

Bangkok Eight by John Burdett

Surreal Bangkok, city of temples and brothels, where Buddhist monks in saffron robes walk the same streets as world-class gangsters, where bodies and souls are for sale or rent, and where the way you die may be more important than the way you live.

Inside a locked Mercedes an African-American Marine sergeant is killed by a maddened python and a swarm of cobras. Two cops - the only two in the city not on the take - arrive too late. Minutes later, only one is alive.

Sworn to avenge the death of his partner and soul brother, Sonchai Jitpleecheep, a fair-skinned Thai and a devout Buddhist who commutes daily between the sacred precepts of his religion and the profane delights the city has to offer, works his way through District 8. His tools are the forensic techniques of the modern police department; no less vital is his profound understanding of the mystical workings of the spirit world.

Soon he is in a realm he has never before encountered: the moneyed underbelly of Bangkok, where desire rules and the human body is as custom-designable as a raw hunk of jade - and where Sonchai eventually tracks the killer, a predator of an even more sinister variety.

A highly original story of gripping pace and reality, Bangkok 8 is a rare thing: a darkly atmospheric novel redolent with the authentic, hallucinogenic atmosphere of Bangkok. You've never read a thriller quite like this.

Power Play by Joseph Finder

It was the perfect retreat for a troubled company. No cell phones. No BlackBerrys. No cars. Just a luxurious, remote lodge surrounded by thousands of miles of wilderness.

All the top officers of the Hammond Aerospace Corporation are there. And one last-minute substitute — a junior executive named Jake Landry. He’s a steady, modest, and taciturn guy with a gift for keeping his head down and a turbulent past he’s trying to put behind him. 

Jake’s uncomfortable with all the power players he's surrounded by, with all their swaggering and posturing.The only person there he knows is the female CEO’s assistant—his ex-girlfriend, Ali.

When a band of backwoods hunters crash the opening-night dinner, the executives suddenly find themselves held hostage by armed men who will do anything, to anyone, to get their hands on the largest ransom in history. Now, terrified and desperate and cut off from the rest of the world, the captives are at the mercy of hard men with guns who may not be what they seem.

The corporate big shots hadn’t wanted Jake there. But now he’s the only one who can save them.

The Race by Richard North Patterson

He’s a decorated Gulf War pilot. A fashion plate. A ladies’ man. An independent thinker who speaks his mind and never takes no for an answer. The only thing Americans can expect from Corey Grace is the unexpected...

Love him or hate him, the country can’t wait to see how this charismatic white senator from Ohio—who now has fallen in love with black movie star Lexie Hart—will perform in the most brutal of political contests. Will Grace endure in spite of his controversial lifestyle, and a tragic mistake buried deep in his past? Or will he perish under pressure—from players on both sides of the party line? Nothing and no one in Grace’s life is off-limits once the race begins. Now the only thing this candidate has to lose is…everything.

Hurricane by Karen Harper

With lashing rain and brutal winds bearing down on them, residents of southwest Florida prepare for evacuation. But Julie Minton cannot leave. Her fourteen-year-old daughter, Randi, left home earlier that morning to go out on a Jet Ski with Thad Brockman, a boy Julie barely knows. Now Randi and Thad are missing -- and the hurricane that hours ago was just another routine warning has turned toward shore.

With local law enforcement absorbed in emergency response measures, Julie has only the help of Zack Brockman, Thad's father. Together they begin a race against time to find their children -- but first they must battle not only Mother Nature, but an enemy willing to use the danger and devastation of the storm for their own evil ends.

Just A Whisper Away by Lauren Nichols

Fourteen years ago, Abbie Winslow and Jace Rogan were young lovers, but the brief relationship between the pampered princess and the son of the town tramp ended bitterly. Now L.A. lawyer Abbie is back in her Pennsylvania hometown, running from a deranged ex-client who wants her dead--and he's leaving a trail of bodies behind as he crosses the country to get to her.

The last thing Jace wants is Abbie back in his life. Her betrayal nearly destroyed him years ago. But it also lit a fire in his belly to succeed beyond their small town's wildest expectations. Now the owner of a lucrative logging and lumber business, he's risen to wealth and respectability--in everyone's eyes except Abbie's banker father. To Morgan Winslow, Jace will always be the trailer-trash outcast who stole his daughter's virginity.

Still, as Abbie's nemesis draws near, the sizzling attraction they'd once known burns hotter than ever. Especially when Jace offers his protection, and he and Abbie sleep under the same roof, just a whisper away from a killer...and JUST A WHISPER AWAY from emotions that will propel them back into each other's arms.

The Princess's Secret Scandal by Karen Whiddon

It seems royal PR man Chase Savage is involved in a scandal. Savage announced his engagement to Sydney Conner, the illegitimate princess from Naessa, who is pregnant with our late Prince Reginald's heir. Savage was reportedly sent to bribe the ravishing royal, only to find himself dodging bullets and fleeing the country with her.

There was no denying the white-hot passion between the pulchritudinous pair as they treated reporters to an ardent display of affection. With Sydney's life still endangered and tensions mounting, one wonders if the engagement is simply the greatest spin of Savage's career...or if the confirmed bachelor has truly met his match!

Flashback by Justine Davis

The women of Athena Academy were becoming known as a force for justice around the world. And when new clues surfaced about the decade-old murder of Athena Academy founder and U.S. senator Marion Gracelyn, FBI forensic scientist Alexandra Forsythe jumped to investigate the stone-cold case.


With fellow Athena alums and special agent Justin Cohen rallying to the cause, Alex uncovered an intricate web of deceit and murder. The evidence she uncovered could send shock waves around the nation: D.C.'s corridors of power and privilege were harboring a ruthless killer. And this time, all Alex's special skills couldn't protect those she loved from the killer's wrath....

Survival Instinct by Doranna Durgin

Dear Ellen,
I miss you terribly, and I'm sorry you're dead. I wish it weren't my fault.


Karin Sommers's sister had died while helping Karin escape from the con man who'd entrapped her. But Ellen wouldn't die in vain. Acting on instinct, Karin took over Ellen's identity and home -- and thought she'd found a safe haven.


Then P.I. Dave Hunter arrived, demanding "Ellen's" help, and Karin discovered that her sister had secrets of her own. With a missing boy's life at stake, could Karin fake her way one last time -- and expose the truth about a deadly predator in a world where only the best liars survived?