Mystery 0

Nicholas 'Nicky Nick' Wells truly believes he is a changed man. He is smarter. He is patient. And he is reverential to those in a position of authority. But is it all just a dangerous ruse? Only days after he is released from one of America's most infamous prisons, Wells-now a martial arts expert-begins to execute his life's new mission. Befriending a vulnerable woman to suit his needs, he begins to exact retribution against the most unlikely of targets-an elderly man afflicted with crippling terminal diseases. But is his target really a feeble old man? Or is it simply the beginning of a campaign aimed at those he thinks are responsible for the twelve-hundred and seventy-seven days he spent in a prison cell?In the third and final episode of a saga that began in 2010, R.M. Doyon returns his readers to upstate New York and the tragedy-stricken Schumacher family. This is where we meet many of the characters that Doyon richly introduced in Upcountry and Thou Torturest Me. They include the family patriarch, Hubie, a Vietnam veteran who doesn't believe he'll make it to his seventy-fifth birthday. Rejoining the narrative, too, are his devoted daughter, Joanne, herself the victim of an abusive husband but who has now created a happier life. Then there is the bruising county sheriff, Brian Boychuk, with decades-long links to the Schumacher clan, who at last begins to see that seemingly random acts of harassment are not so random after all. And, once again, we are drawn to the lives of a virtuous young man, who was born into an Amish life, and the 'English' girl he never stopped loving.In this gripping, page-turner of a novel, Doyon deftly brings to a conclusion the story of how one American family beset with cruelty, violence and heartbreak can ultimately experience closure and renewal.

As Europe buckles under Nazi occupation, Maisie Dobbs investigates a possible murder that threatens devastating repercussions for Britain's war efforts in this latest installment in the New York Times bestselling mystery series.

October 1941. While on a delivery, young Freddie Hackett, a message runner for a government office, witnesses an argument that ends in murder. Crouching in the doorway of a bombed-out house, Freddie waits until the coast is clear. But when he arrives at the delivery address, he's shocked to come face to face with the killer.

Dismissed by the police when he attempts to report the crime, Freddie goes in search of a woman he once met when delivering a message: Maisie Dobbs. While Maisie believes the boy and wants to help, she must maintain extreme caution: she's working secretly for the Special Operations Executive, assessing candidates for crucial work with the French resistance. Her two worlds collide when she spots the killer in a place she least expects. She soon realizes she's been pulled into the orbit of a man who has his own reasons to kill--reasons that go back to the last war.

As Maisie becomes entangled in a power struggle between Britain's intelligence efforts in France and the work of Free French agents operating across Europe, she must also contend with the lingering question of Freddie Hackett's state of mind. What she uncovers could hold disastrous consequences for all involved in this compelling chapter of the "series that seems to get better with every entry" (Wall Street Journal).

An instant New York Times Bestseller and August 2017 LibraryReads pick!

"Penny's absorbing, intricately plotted 13th Gamache novel proves she only gets better at pursuing dark truths with compassion and grace." --PEOPLE

"Louise Penny wrote the book on escapist mysteries." --The New York Times Book Review

"You won't want Louise Penny's latest to end....Any plot summary of Penny's novels inevitably falls short of conveying the dark magic of this series.... It takes nerve and skill -- as well as heart -- to write mysteries like this. 'Glass Houses, ' along with many of the other Gamache books, is so compelling that, for the space of reading it, you may well feel that much of what's going on in the world outside the novel is 'just noise.'" --Maureen Corrigan, The Washington Post

When a mysterious figure appears in Three Pines one cold November day, Armand Gamache and the rest of the villagers are at first curious. Then wary. Through rain and sleet, the figure stands unmoving, staring ahead.

From the moment its shadow falls over the village, Gamache, now Chief Superintendent of the Sûreté du Québec, suspects the creature has deep roots and a dark purpose. Yet he does nothing. What can he do? Only watch and wait. And hope his mounting fears are not realized.

But when the figure vanishes overnight and a body is discovered, it falls to Gamache to discover if a debt has been paid or levied.

Months later, on a steamy July day as the trial for the accused begins in Montréal, Chief Superintendent Gamache continues to struggle with actions he set in motion that bitter November, from which there is no going back. More than the accused is on trial. Gamache's own conscience is standing in judgment.

In Glass Houses, her latest utterly gripping book, number-one New York Times bestselling author Louise Penny shatters the conventions of the crime novel to explore what Gandhi called the court of conscience. A court that supersedes all others.