April 28, 2023
New Fiction
The White Lady by Jacqueline Winspear – A reluctant ex-spy with demons of her own, Elinor finds herself facing down one of the most dangerous organized crime gangs in London, ultimately exposing corruption from Scotland Yard to the highest levels of government. The private, quiet “Miss White,” as Elinor is known, lives in a village in rural Kent, England, and to her fellow villagers is something of an enigma-well she might be, as Elinor occupies a “grace and favor” property, a rare privilege offered to faithful servants of the Crown for services to the nation. But the residents of Shacklehurst have no way of knowing how dangerous Elinor’s war work was, or that their mysterious neighbor is haunted by her past. It will take Susie, the child of a young farmworker, Jim Mackie, and his wife, Rose, to break through Miss White’s icy demeanor-but Jim has something in common with Elinor. He, too, is desperate to escape his past. When the powerful Mackie crime family demands a return of their prodigal son for an important job, Elinor assumes the task of protecting her neighbors, especially the bright-eyed Susie. In her quest to uncover the truth behind the family’s pursuit of Jim, Elinor unwittingly sets out on a treacherous path-yet it is one that leads to her own freedom.
Double or Nothing by Kim Sherwood – James Bond is missing…007 has been captured-and perhaps killed-by a sinister private military company. His whereabouts are unknown. Meet the new generation of spies…Johanna Harwood, 003. Joseph Dryden, 004. Sid Bashir, 009. They represent the very best and brightest of M16. Skilled, ruthless, and licensed to kill, they will do anything to protect their country. The fate of the world rests in their hands…Tech billionaire Sir Bertram Paradise claims he can reverse global warming and save the planet. But can he really? The new spies must uncover the truth because the future of humanity hands in the balance. Time is running out.
Two Wars and a Wedding by Lauren Willig – September 1896: An aspiring archaeologist, Smith College graduate Betsy Hayes travels to Athens, desperate to break into the very male-dominated field of excavation. Amid the heat and dust of Greece she finds an unlikely ally in Charles, Baron de Robecourt, one of the few men who takes her academic passion seriously. But when a simmering conflict between Greece and Turkey erupts into open warfare, Betsy throws herself into the struggle as a nurse, not knowing that the decision will change her life forever – and cause a deep and painful rift with her oldest friend, Ava. June 1898: Betsy has sworn off war nursing-but when she gets the word that Ava is headed to Cuba with Clara Barton and the Red Cross to patch up the wounded in the Spanish-American War. Betsy is determined to stop Ava the only war she knows how: by joining in her place. Battling heat, disease, and her own demons, Betsy follows Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders straight to the heart of the fighting, where she is forced to confront her greatest fears to save both old friends and new.
The Last Heir to Blackwood Library by Hester Fox – With the stroke of a pen, twenty-three-year-old Ivy Radcliffe becomes Lady Hayworth, owner of a sprawling estate on the Yorkshire moors. Ivy has never heard of Blackwood Abbey, or of the ancient bloodline from which she’s descended. With nothing to keep her in London since losing her brother in the Great War, she warily makes her way to her new home. The abbey is foreboding, the servants reserved and suspicious. But there is a treasure waiting behind locked doors: a magnificent library. Despite cryptic warnings from the staff, Ivy feels irresistibly drawn to its dusty shelves, where familiar works mingle with strange, esoteric texts. And she senses something else in the library too, a presence that seems to have a will of its own. Rumors swirl in the village about the abbey’s previous owners, about ghosts and curses, and an enigmatic manuscript at the center of it all. And as events grow more sinister, it will be up to Ivy to uncover the library’s mysteries in order to reclaim her own story – before it vanishes forever.