March 4, 2022

March 4, 2022

New Fiction

Circus of Wonders by Elizabeth Macneal – Step Up, Step Up!  In 1860s England, circus mania is sweeping the nation.  Crowds jostle for a glimpse of the lion tamers, the dazzling trapeze artists, and, most thrilling of all, the so-called “human wonders.”  When Jasper Jupiter’s Circus of Wonders pitches its tent in a poor coastal town, the life of one young girl changes forever.  Sold to the ringmaster as a “leopard girl” because of the birthmarks that cover her body, Nell is utterly devastated.  But as she grows close to the other performers, she finds herself enchanted by the glittering freedom of the circus, and by her own role as the Queen of the Moon and Stars.  As Nell’s fortune grows, Jasper begins to realize his dreams of world renown.  But what happens when her fame begins to eclipse his own, when even Jasper’s loyal brother, Toby, becomes captivated by Nell?  No longer the quiet flower-picker, Nell knows her own place in the world, and she will fight for it.

With Love from London by Sarah Jio – When Valentina Baker was only eleven years old, her mother, Eloise, unexpectedly fled to her native London, leaving Val and her father on their own in California.  Now a librarian in her thirties, fresh out of a failed marriage and still at odds with her mother’s abandonment, Val feels disenchanted with her life.  In a bittersweet twist of fate, she receives word that Eloise has died, leaving Val the deed to her mother’s Primrose Hill apartment and the Book Garden, the storied bookshop she opened almost two decades prior.  Though the news is devastating, Val jumps at the chance for a new beginning and jets across the Atlantic, hoping to learn who her mother truly was while mourning the relationship they never had.  As Val begins to piece together Eloise’s life in the U.K., she finds herself falling in love with the pastel-colored third-floor flat and the cozy, treasure-filled bookshop, soon realizing that her mother’s life was much more complicated than she ever imagined.  When Val stumbles across a series of intriguing notes left in a beloved novel, she sets out to locate the book’s mysterious former owner, though her efforts are challenged from the start, as is the Book Garden’s future.  In order to save the store from financial ruin and preserve her mother’s legacy, she must rally its eccentric staff and journey deep into her mother’s secerts.

Twenty Years Later by Charlie Donlea – Avery Mason, host of American Events, knows the subjects that grab a TV audience’s attention.  Her latest story – a murder mystery laced with kinky sex, tragedy, and betrayal – is guaranteed to be ratings gold.  New DNA technology has allowed the New York medical examiner’s office to make its first successful identification of a 9/11 victim in years.  The twist: the victim, Victoria Ford, had been accused of the gruesome murder of her married lover.  In a chilling last phone call to her sister, Victoria begged her to prove her innocence. Emma Kind has waited twenty years to put her sister to rest, but closure won’t be complete until she can clear Victoria’s name.  Alone she’s had no luck, but she’s convinced that Avery’s connections and fame will help.  Avery, hoping to negotiate a more lucrative network contract, goes into investigative overdrive.  Victoria had been having an affair with a successful novelist, found hanging from the balcony of his Catskills mansion.  The rope, the bedroom, and the entire crime scene was covered in Victoria’s DNA.  But the twisted puzzle of Victoria’s private life belies a much darker mystery.  And what Avery doesn’t realize is that there are other players in the game who are interested in Avery’s own secret past – one she kept hidden from both the network executives and her television audience.  A secret she thought was dead and buried…

Rabbit Hole by Mark Billingham - Alice Armitage is a police officer. Or she was.  Or perhaps she just imagines she was. Whatever the truth is, following a debilitating bout of PTSD, self-medication with drink and drugs, and a psychotic breakdown, Alice is now a long-term patient in an acute psychiatric ward.  When one of her fellow patients is murdered, Alice becomes convinced that she has identified the killer and that she can catch them. Ignored by the police, she begins her own investigation. But when her prime suspect becomes the second victim, Alice’s life begins to unravel still further as she realizes that she cannot trust anyone, least of all herself.