National Network for Equitable Library Service

DI Nikki Galena: A police detective with nothing left to lose, she's seen a girl die in her arms, and her daughter will never leave the hospital again. She's got tough on the criminals she believes did this to her. Too tough. And now she's been given one final warning: make it work with her new sergeant, DS Joseph Easter, or she's out. Her partner, DS Joseph Easter, is the handsome squeaky-clean new member of the team. But his nickname "Holy Joe" belies his former life as a soldier. He has an estranged daughter who blames him for everything that went wrong with their family.

A skeleton is found in a shallow grave in the churchyard. But this was not an official burial. The victim was murdered decades ago. At the same time, Detective Nikki Galena and her team are investigating the brutal slaying of local businesswoman Madeline Prospero. She was a member of an exclusive and secretive drinking club called The Briar Patch. But they've got no suspects and no one is telling them the truth. Meanwhile, the buried skeleton leads them on a trail to the village of Quintin Eaudyke. This is a troubled place.

Five years ago, Mira Bunting founded a guerrilla gardening group: Birnam Wood. An undeclared, unregulated, sometimes-criminal, sometimes-philanthropic gathering of friends, this activist collective plants crops wherever no one will notice: on the sides of roads, in forgotten parks, and neglected backyards. For years, the group has struggled to break even. Then Mira stumbles on an answer, a way to finally set the group up for the long term: a landslide has closed New Zealand's Korowai Pass, cutting off the town of Thorndike.

Nadine Walsh's summer garden party is in full swing. The neighbors all have cocktails, the catered food is exquisite--everything's going according to plan. But Nadine--devoted wife, loving mother, and doting daughter--finds herself standing over a dead body in her basement while her guests clink glasses upstairs. What happened? How did it come to this?

Charlie Wolfe vanishes from Tony Shepherd's high school graduation, leaving only a cryptic message asking for help. On his own, Tony must summon all the skills he's learned over the years to find his friend. He'll leave the safety of home and family to face off against old foes and uncover the truth of Charlie's disappearance. But things are more complicated and dangerous than he realizes, and he'll have to choose just how far he's willing to go to save his friend.

Fulvia, the Mafia Princess, must be a dutiful daughter or the family will be dishonoured. Though she eventually escapes and makes a new life in Canada, she is betrayed and then her husband is murdered on the Sicilian coast. The police Chief investigating the case is Marisa, who faces a station house of skeptical men as well as confronting Fulvia's uncle, the boss of bosses.

"Charles Pearson Brandt," Nina said, "was an independent financial advisor who ran a Ponzi scheme in Hudson and the West Island for fifteen years or so. About three years ago, though, he disappeared with his assistant-cum-accomplice-cum-girlfriend and fifty million or more of his clients' money, although he'd probably scammed half again that amount. Small potatoes, I suppose, compared to the hundreds of millions Bernie Madoff stole, but a whack of money none the less.

When a series of murders threatens the lives of an entire community in Vancouver, Inspector Coswell and RCMP Corporal Paul Blakemore team up once again to solve the case. What begins as an array of hate crimes suddenly culminates into a conspiracy against an American politician, and the lines between Canada and the United States are blurred as suspicions rise from both sides. To solve this case, both detectives must look beyond the powers of one culprit and instead focus on the ventures of an entire underground organization, all while protecting members of their own city.

We know how Simone met the man who will become, for a time, her fourth husband. We know what she does (artist), her age (older than she looks), her friends (a veritable menagerie), her habits (frustrated homebody). What remains to learn are the things she still doesn't fully understand herself, like her role in the affair of the Port Merveille diamond, also known as the Supreme Orchestra. The Supreme Orchestra is many things at once: a geopolitical thriller, an art-world exposé, a digressive social study, a mischievous parody.

Margaret Rudley has finally persuaded her husband Trevor to take a vacation, a week-long canoeing expedition in Northern Ontario. Rudley hates the idea of leaving the Pleasant, the beautiful old country inn they've run for over a quarter of a century, but he is reluctant to deny her a cherished dream. They set off, accompanied by long-time guests Elizabeth Miller, Edward Simpson, Norman and Geraldine Phipps-Walker, and a pair of neophytes, Vern Peters and Eric Turnbull.