National Network for Equitable Library Service

Public defender Julia Geary's star is rising, and now she's got her first murder case defending local denizen Ray Belmar in the death of a homeless man. But Julia's professional and personal challenges are mounting. First, she's assigned an intern whose arrogance is insufferable. Then, her widowed mother-in-law, whose home Julia and her son Calvin share, announces her plans to re-marry, meaning they'll have to find a new place to live.

Known for its cheerful staff and elaborate annual Easter Bonnet Contest, the Heritage House senior center regularly attracts new residents and positive press. But once the town's retired librarian, Miss Julia Tilley, checks in to recover from an illness, Lucy sees a side of the facility that isn't quite so perfect and pristine. And the place may soon be making headlines for different reasons following an unexplained disappearance ...

A suspenseful, truthful look into the lives of women who drink to survive or just to cope, with a provocative narrator who carries readers along an emotional journey to acceptance. Tragedy and Victor Powell have moved to the desirable but dark Grayson Glens enclave of dream homes just outside of Chicago. Stressed urbanites, they've got to live large in real life to stay large online. With only a few blacks in their elite gated community, they settle in but never quite feel at home. Then, a missing young black woman floats up in the Grayson River.

"Mrs. Parks was often paid in gold dust, but she paid her girls in dollars ..." From the beloved Pulitzer Prize-winning and best-selling author: a rollicking murder mystery set in Gold Rush California, as two young prostitutes follow a trail of missing girls Monterey, 1851. Ever since her husband was killed in a bar fight, Eliza Ripple has been working in a brothel. It seems like a better life, at least at first. The madam, Mrs. Parks, is kind, the men are (relatively) well behaved, and Eliza has attained what few women have: financial security.

"Listeners who appreciate Morrissey's description and attention to detail will be drawn into this dark, multilayered saga."- AudioFile A wealthy family shrouded in scandal; a detective tasked with solving an impossible cold case; and a woman with a dark past collide in Hannah Morrissey's stunning new Black Harbor mystery, The Widowmaker.

A murder she doesn't remember committing. A killer she doesn't remember meeting. Megan Goldin's Stay Awake is an electrifying novel that proves memory can be deadly. Liv Reese wakes up in the back of a taxi with no idea where she is or how she got there. When she's dropped off at the door of her brownstone, a stranger answers--a stranger who claims to live in her apartment. She reaches for her phone to call for help, only to discover it's missing. In its place is a bloodstained knife. Her hands are covered in scribbled messages, like graffiti on her skin: STAY AWAKE.

A sweet tooth for murder . . . Bailey King's in New York wrapping up a six-week shoot on her first cable TV show, Bailey's Amish Sweets, when she gets a call from her Ohio town's resident busybody. With Easter around the corner, Bailey's been recruited to create a giant toffee bunny for the weeklong springtime festival that will also feature live white rabbits. But back home in Harvest, death becomes the main attraction when Stephen Raber keels over from an apparent heart attack-with Bailey and Raber's pet bunny as witnesses.

After a successful party at Bodie Island's Lighthouse Library, librarian Lucy Richardson is ready to curl up with her cat, Charles, and a good book. But her R and R is cut short when she notices some mysterious lights leading a small boat to crash into the coast. The two shipwrecked seafarers survive the ordeal-but one of them shows up dead ashore a few days later. Lucy finds herself again roped into a murder investigation and navigating a sea of suspects, all of whom had motives to deep-six the deceased.

Christmas is Bailey King's favorite time of year. For her first Yuletide in Harvest, Ohio, the former big-city chocolatier is recreating a cherished holiday treat: peppermint combined with molten white chocolate. But her sugar high plummets when her former boyfriend walks into the candy shop she now runs with her Amish grandmother. New York celebrity chef Eric Sharp and his TV crew have arrived to film an authentic Amish Christmas. Bailey's not about to let her beloved town-and Swissmen Sweets-be turned into a sound bite.

Dead by dessert . . . Thanksgiving is Bailey King's busiest holiday weekend. This year promises to be even more hectic, since Bailey's candy shop, Swissmen Sweets, is providing desserts for Harvest, Ohio's first village-wide Thanksgiving celebration. Yet, even with a guest list close to seven hundred people-Amish and English alike-the event's organizer, Margot Rawlings, is unfazed . . . until she discovers her mother, former judge Zara Bevan, will be in attendance.