February 26, 2021

Library Corner

New Fiction

A Thousand Ships by Natalie Haynes – In the middle of the night, a woman wakes to find her beloved city engulfed in flames.  Ten seemingly endless years of conflict between the Greeks and the Trojans are over.  Troy has fallen.  From the Trojan women whose fates now lie in the hands of the Greeks to the Amazon princess who fought Achilles on their behalf, from Penelope awaiting the return of Odysseus to the three goddesses whose feud started it all – these are the stories of the women whose lives, loves, and rivalries were forever altered by history’s most infamous war.

Before she Disappeared by Lisa Gardner – A recovering alcoholic with more regrets than belongings, Frankie Elkin has devoted her life to doing what no one else will – searching for the lost and forgotten.  When the police have moved on, when the public no longer remembers, when the media has never paid attention, Frankie starts looking.  A new case brings her to Mattapan, a Boston neighborhood with a rough reputation.  She is searching for Angelique Badeau, a Haitian teenager who vanished from her high school months earlier.  Resistance from the Boston PD and the victim’s wary family tells Frankie she’s on her own – and she soon learns she’s asking questions someone doesn’t want answered.  But Frankie will risk it all to discover the truth, even if it means the next person to go missing could be her.

The Last Garden in England by Julia Kelly - Present day: Emma Lovett, who has dedicated her career to breathing new life into long-neglected gardens, has just been given the opportunity of a lifetime: to restore the gardens of the famed Highbury House estate, designed in 1907 by her hero Venetia Smith. But as Emma dives deeper into the gardens’ past, she begins to uncover secrets that have long lain hidden.  1907: A talented artist with a growing reputation for her ambitious work, Venetia Smith has carved out a niche for herself as a garden designer to industrialists, solicitors, and bankers looking to show off their wealth with sumptuous country houses. When she is hired to design the gardens of Highbury House, she is determined to make them a triumph, but the gardens—and the people she meets—promise to change her life forever.  1944: When land girl Beth Pedley arrives at a farm on the outskirts of the village of Highbury, all she wants is to find a place she can call home. Cook Stella Adderton, on the other hand, is desperate to leave Highbury House to pursue her own dreams. And widow Diana Symonds, the mistress of the grand house, is anxiously trying to cling to her pre-war life now that her home has been requisitioned and transformed into a convalescent hospital for wounded soldiers. But when war threatens Highbury House’s treasured gardens, these three very different women are drawn together by a secret that will last for decades.

Someone to Watch Over Me by Robert B. Parker – Ten years ago, Spenser helped a teenage girl named Mattie Sullivan find her mother’s killer and take down an infamous Southie crime boss.  Now Mattie – a college student with a side job working for the tough but tender private eye – dreams of being an investigator herself.  Her first big case involves a fifteen-year-old girl assaulted by a much older man at one of Boston’s most prestigious private clubs.  The girl, Chloe Turner, only wants the safe return of her laptop and backpack.  But like her mentor and boss, Mattie has a knack for asking the right questions of the wrong people.  Soon Spenser and Mattie discover ties between the exploitation of dozens of other girls from working class families and an eccentric billionaire and his sadistic henchwoman with a mansion on Commonwealth Avenue.  The mystery man’s wealth, power, and connections extend well beyond Massachusetts – maybe even beyond the United States.  Spenser and trusted ally Hawk must again watch out for Mattie as she unravels a massive sex trafficking ring that will take them from Boston to Boca Raton to the Bahamas, crossing paths with local toughs, a highly trained security company, and an old enemy of Spenser’s – the Gray Man – for a final epic showdown.