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.

"'A Better Man, ' with its mix of meteorological suspense, psychological insight and criminal pursuit, is arguably the best book yet in an outstanding, original oeuvre." --Tom Nolan, The Wall Street Journal

"Enchanting... one of his most ennobling missions." --Marilyn Stasio, New York Times Book Review

Catastrophic spring flooding, blistering attacks in the media, and a mysterious disappearance greet Chief Inspector Armand Gamache as he returns to the Sûreté du Québec in the latest novel by #1 New York Times bestselling author Louise Penny.

It's Gamache's first day back as head of the homicide department, a job he temporarily shares with his previous second-in-command, Jean-Guy Beauvoir. Flood waters are rising across the province. In the middle of the turmoil a father approaches Gamache, pleading for help in finding his daughter.

As crisis piles upon crisis, Gamache tries to hold off the encroaching chaos, and realizes the search for Vivienne Godin should be abandoned. But with a daughter of his own, he finds himself developing a profound, and perhaps unwise, empathy for her distraught father.

Increasingly hounded by the question, how would you feel..., he resumes the search.

As the rivers rise, and the social media onslaught against Gamache becomes crueler, a body is discovered. And in the tumult, mistakes are made.

In the next novel in this "constantly surprising series that deepens and darkens as it evolves" (New York Times Book Review), Gamache must face a horrific possibility, and a burning question.

What would you do if your child's killer walked free?

Patricia Cornwell delivers the newest engrossing thriller in her high-stakes series starring medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta.

Depraved Heart: "Void of social duty and fatally bent on mischief."

--Mayes v. People, 806 III. 306 (1883)

Dr. Kay Scarpetta is working a suspicious death scene in Cambridge, Massachusetts when an emergency alert sounds on her phone. A video link lands in her text messages and seems to be from her computer genius niece Lucy. But how can it be? It's clearly a surveillance film of Lucy taken almost twenty years ago.

As Scarpetta watches she begins to learn frightening secrets about her niece, whom she has loved and raised like a daughter. That film clip and then others sent soon after raise dangerous legal implications that increasingly isolate Scarpetta and leave her confused, worried, and not knowing where to turn. She doesn't know whom she can tell--not her FBI husband Benton Wesley or her investigative partner Pete Marino. Not even Lucy.

In this new novel, Cornwell launches these unforgettable characters on an intensely psychological odyssey that includes the mysterious death of a Hollywood mogul's daughter, aircraft wreckage on the bottom of the sea in the Bermuda Triangle, a grisly gift left in the back of a crime scene truck, and videos from the past that threaten to destroy Scarpetta's entire world and everyone she loves. The diabolical presence behind what unfolds seems obvious--but strangely, not to the FBI. Certainly that's the message they send when they raid Lucy's estate and begin building a case that could send her to prison for the rest of her life.

In the latest novel in her bestselling series featuring chief medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta, Cornwell will captivate readers with the shocking twists, high-wire tension, and cutting-edge forensic detail that she is famous for, proving yet again why she's the world's #1 bestselling crime writer.

--Publishers Weekly

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.