National Network for Equitable Library Service

Marriage is a double-edged sword for Nikki Heat. Betrayal by any man is not her style. Is her husband keeping secrets? What she finds puts her investigative skills--and marriage--to the test.

A crippled economy changes Lola Jones' silver spoon status to copper and threatens to rip her sheltered family from the upper echelons of society and drop them in the slums of East St. Louis. One thing can save Lola's children from the claws of poverty: a million-dollar life insurance policy. Lola vows to make the ultimate sacrifice and makes the arrangements. But a sudden full-blown love affair renews Lola's will to live, and now she and her man must make a desperate attempt to stop the hit man, or else they will die trying.

Honourable ex-con Jack Palace struggles to repay an unstable criminal who saved his life. What does a man do when he gets out of jail? Jack Palace hits the streets, plunging back into a violent world of crime and corruption. Jack wants out, but first he must repay his debt to Tommy, the man who saved his life in prison. Tommy’s dad, an old school mob boss, is on his deathbed, and Tommy wants to take over the old man’s rackets. Jack and his new girlfriend, Suzanne, are soon caught in the middle of a mob war.

Under the sway of a charismatic stranger, five friends at an isolated lakeside cottage find their idyll unravelling, leaving two of them -- Lydia Eadon and Dorian Grant -- trapped in an explosion of violence that shatters their young lives and propels them past the borders of conventional morality. Forty years later when a body is unearthed from the scene of their revels, Lydia -- a book editor in San Francisco -- and Dorian -- a vagabond actor -- are plunged into a terrible reckoning with the past.

Every day desperate people at the mercy of smugglers flee conflict zones, crossing the Mediterranean in rickety boats in the hopes of using Greece as the conduit to a better life elsewhere. Thousands perish in the attempt. Those who survive face yet more challenges, for the Greeks themselves, in an economic crisis worse than any in living memory, have neither the resources nor the will to play host to the constant influx of refugees. In The Brink of Freedom we see how worlds collide when a young boy goes missing from a refugee camp in Athens.

Tom is looking forward to spending spring break in Mexico with his girlfriend, Kat. Her father, an FBI agent, has invited Tom to join them at a fancy Cancun resort for some much-needed R&R. But when the daughter of a local law-enforcement officer goes missing, Kat's dad is pulled into the investigation. Soon after, Tom notices a yacht in the marina with a suspicious-looking crew and a kid matching the missing girl's description. Investigating further could lead Tom into the dangerous world of ruthless Mexican drug cartels.

When Emily, Tess, Cam and Dylan decide to ignore the new town curfew during their Friday-night game of hide-and-seek, they get more than they bargained for. Down by the river, they witness a shady deal go down involving some criminal types who recently moved into their neighborhood. When the teens are discovered, they are hunted through the dark streets and back alleys. They will have to use all their hide-and-seek skills to save each other. Ultimately, Emily, the youngest of the group and the best hider, discovers that sometimes staying hidden is the best way to escape.

Twenty-nine-year-old Natasha Bell went for an evening jog, just like any other night - except now no one knows where she is. Not her sister, Abby - eighteen, eight months pregnant, and without a game plan. Not her childhood sweetheart, now ex-boyfriend, Greg, an introverted academic who could never bring himself to commit. Not her best friend Josie, a newlywed, born-again Christian, with whom Natasha recently had a falling out. And not detective Reuben Blake, who thought this case would be open 'n shut - a quick way to prove himself and move up the ranks.

Rotten Peaches is a gripping epic filled with disturbing and unforgettable insights into the human condition. Love, lust, race and greed. How far will you go? Two women. Two men. One happy ending. It takes place in Canada, the U.S. and South Africa. Nature or nurture. South Africa, racism and old prejudices - these are hardly old topics but what happens when biological half-siblings meet with insidious intentions? Can their moral corruption be blamed on genetics - were they born rotten to begin with? And what happens when they meet up with more of their ilk?

Born to privilege and wed to her high school sweetheart Veer, a free spirited Maya feels trapped in a conventional upper class family with patriarchal expectations in India. Claustrophobic within the dark walls of the mansion she lives in with her spouse, Maya starts living precariously through the threads of her curiosity.