The Suspect jo-1

The Suspect jo-1

Michael Robotham

Michael Robotham

Joseph O'Loughlin appears to have the perfect life - a beautiful wife, a loving daughter and a successful career as a clinical psychologist. But nothing can be taken for granted. Even the most flawless existence is only a loose thread away from unravelling. All it takes is a murdered girl, a troubled young patient and the biggest lie of his life. Caught in a complex web of deceit and haunted by images of the slain girl, he embarks upon a search that will take him from London to Liverpool and into the darkest recesses of the human mind. Ultimately, he will risk everything to unmask the killer and save his family. From Publishers Weekly Joe O'Loughlin, a London psychologist, loves his job and loves his family—wife Julianne and eight-year-old daughter Charlie—even more in Australian author Robotham's well-written, if somewhat convoluted, debut suspense novel. O'Loughlin's life takes two disastrous turns: first, he's diagnosed with Parkinson's disease; second, while helping Det. Insp. Vincent Ruiz on the case of a murdered nurse, Catherine Mary McBride, he becomes the primary suspect in the killing. The crime occurred close to O'Loughlin's London home, giving him opportunity, and it turns out that McBride had been his patient and had accused him of harassment, giving him plenty of motive. Vivid characters mostly avoid stereotype, while a fast and furious last section makes up for a wealth of asides and anecdotes that, however effectively done, slow the narrative. More seriously, the book can't decide whether it's a psychological mystery or a conspiracy thriller and strains credibility well past the breaking point. Still, Robotham shows real promise, putting a fresh spin on the familiar crime fiction trope of the falsely accused man.
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Polaris

Polaris

Todd Tucker

Todd Tucker

One day in the not-too-distant future, Pete Hamlin regains consciousness deep inside the nuclear submarine Polaris. He's got a gun in his hand, a fire raging outside his door, and a dead man at his feet. Soon Pete discovers that the ship is in the middle of a mutiny - and he has no idea what side he's on. He finds the ship is now commanded by the beautiful but volatile Hana Moody. She's locked the former captain, Finn McCallister, inside a steel trunk, accusing him of treason. Frank Holmes is Moody's loyalist, an imposing physical presence who shares Moody's unquestioning devotion to the cause of the Alliance. The ship's feckless doctor hovers in the background, unable to help Pete find out the truth about the Polaris. And outside the ship's steel hull lurks another submarine, yet another presence that might be either friend or deadly foe.To save himself and discover the truth, Pete must journey with Polaris back to a forlorn piece of rock in the middle of a...
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And the Bride Wore Black

And the Bride Wore Black

Helen Brooks

Helen Brooks

The opening of this lovestory has our hero enchanted with our heroine's beauty and when he attempts to make his move, our heroine shocks him by presenting a crude personality sure to repulse him. Fabia has great fun fooling Alex, only she later learns that when he discovers her prank that he's not amused. Fabia allows a very painful experience with a rich playboy to paint her opinions of Alex in the same colour. Slowing through his persistence she begins to doubt her preconceived impressions. Fabia is torn by her attraction to Alex and by the voice in her heart that warns her that he's just like the one who hurt her. Alex hates that Fabia has stereotyped him because of his wealth and the press that comes with that wealth. Although we are not given his POV, it's clear that Alex cares deeply for Fabia even though she fails to see it until it's almost too late.
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The Lovers of Pound Hill

The Lovers of Pound Hill

Mavis Cheek

Mavis Cheek

When city girl Molly Bonner arrives in the village of Lufferton Boney, she creates quite a stir. With her non-country-style boots, determined manner and alluring looks, she sets off a wave of intrigue that ripples through the lives of everyone there, from Julie the barmaid at the Holly Bush to antiques dealer Dryden Fellows and Montmorency the cat. For Molly is a girl on a mission: to discover the truth behind Lufferton Boney's most notorious resident, the giant (and slightly obscene) Gnome etched into the face of Pound Hill. And along the way, she has some personal demons to settle...
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Header 2

Header 2

Edward Lee

Horror / Literature & Fiction / Mystery & Thrillers

“What’s a header?” Fifteen years ago, Travis Clyde Tuckton asked that self-same question to his ancient grandfather, and the answer came in a rampage of twisted bloodlust, missing persons, and the most macabre and indescribable act of vengeance that human consciousness has ever devised… Now, in those same desolate woods, amongst dilapidated shacks behind whose rickety doors no one dare look, something even worse has come to curse the land of simple folk, a jubilee of murderous perversity and sexual abomination too hideous to describe. Only the courage of Travis Tuckton could ever begin to set things back to rights but, lo, Travis and his grandfather are long dead…  Ah, but their relatives aren’t! And it will be these stout-hearted men who shall rise to the occasion of the most horrific revenge in the history of the backwoods—an eye for an eye, a head for a head! Not even unearthed graves, molested corpses, abducted tots, and an unspeakable human monstrosity can thwart the might of right. Join steadfast hayseeds Helton, Dumar, and Micky-Mack as they venture forth into a wretched mire of unadulterated horror, where the symbol of ultimate evil is not a psycho-killer, nor a demon, but the full-tilt rev of power tools screaming through the endless night… HEADER 2 Where revenge is all in the mind.
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Main event

Main event

James D. Long

James D. Long

SUMMARY: Eager to strike back at the Clans who destroyed his 'Mech and his career, former Com Guard soldier Jeremiah Rose recruits other soldiers from the arenas to create a new mercenary unit. Original.
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New York Dead

New York Dead

Stuart Woods

Stuart Woods

From Publishers Weekly Woods's latest (after Palindrome) is a slick thriller set in Manhattan's Upper East Side, the stomping ground of Stone Barrington, a well-bred but unpretentious detective who, in a city of several million people, always ends up in the right place at the right time. Late one evening, as Stone trudges home from Elaine's Restaurant, popular TV newscaster Sasha Nijinsky plummets 12 stories from her terrace and lands on a heap of dirt 20 yards away from him-remarkably, still alive. Stone fails to apprehend the person who flees Sasha's penthouse and, after the ambulance carrying her collides with a fire truck, Sasha herself disappears. Despite the fact that no corpse is in evidence, the baffled NYPD eagerly pins a murder rap on Sasha's distraught lesbian lover. Stone refuses to accept his colleagues' pat solution and even maintains that Sasha might have survived thanks to skydiving training and her billowing, parachute-like robe. Bed-hopping TV newspeople, a sexy blonde judge sporting a red dress beneath her robes, a serial killer targeting cabbies and a creepy med-school dropout turned mortician who idolizes Sasha romp through this calculatedly melodramatic crime story all the way to its grisly B-movie finale. 75,000 first printing; $125,000 ad/promo; author tour.
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