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Ammaniti, Niccolo, As God commands.
Winner of the Italian Strega Prize. Bank robbery.

Atwood, Margaret, The year of the flood. [Science Fiction]
Environmental disasters/Dystopia

Ballard, J. G. The complete stories of J.G. Ballard.
British short story writer

Baumbich, Charlene Ann, Stray affections.
Human-animal relationships

Bilston, Sarah. Sleepless nights.
Smart Funny Women

Black, Lisa, Evidence of murder. [SUSPENSE]
In this second of a series set in Cleveland, Jillian Perry has been found dead in the woods, leaving behind a husband of three weeks and a young daughter. The police can’t determine how she died–but forensic investigator Theresa MacLean suspects foul play. To complicate matters, a former boyfriend of Jillian’s unexpectedly petitions for custody of the daughter. Obsessed with Jillian, he also suspects that Jillian was murdered, and now he and Theresa believe Jillian’s daughter may be in danger of meeting a similar fate.

Brown, Dan, The lost symbol. [SUSPENSE]
He saved the Catholic Church from a fundamentalist radical in Angels & Demons and exposed the world’s greatest cover-up in The Da Vinci Code. Now, symbologist and Harvard professor Robert Langdon returns to uncover another mystery. Called to Washington D.C., Langdon must investigate the centuries-old secrets of the Freemasons. However, with treachery around every corner, will Langdon’s eidetic memory and insurmountable knowledge of history be able to guide him through another adventure?

Brown, Sandra, Smash cut. [SUSPENSE]
The murder of Paul Wheeler has all the elements of a blockbuster: family rivalries, incalculable wealth, and a prominent man dying in the arms of his beautiful mistress. It’s a case that could earn Derek Mitchell even greater star power. When the Wheeler family approaches him about defending Creighton for his uncle’s murder — even before he’s charged — he jumps at the chance. But the more Derek learns about Creighton and his darker side, the more he doubts the young man’s innocence.

Byrne, Kim. The Drowning River.
A graduate student’s arrival on campus causes quite a stir. Elise Moloney has chosen Wickman College over Harvard to spare her adoptive parents further expense. Elise and her flamboyant roommate Kat Herrera are surprised by the strange reaction so many people have to seeing Elise until fellow grad student Parker Reilly informs her she’s a dead ringer for Hannah McPhee, a student who was killed in a fall from a bridge. When Elise is told they even have the same birthday, she realizes Hannah must have been her twin and becomes obsessed with finding out more about Hannah, her life with their sluttish mother and her mysterious death. A debut with romance, thrills, chills, red herrings and a surprise ending. –Kirkus.

Cameron, Michelle. The fruit of her hands: the story of Shira of Ashkenaz. [Historical]
Jewish women

Carlson, Melody. The Christmas dog.

Charles, Janet Skeslien. Moonlight in Odessa.
Mail-order brides

Ciment, Jill, Heroic measures.
Missing persons

Conrad, Lauren. L.A. Candy.
When nineteen-year-old Jane Roberts is cast in a new reality show, she discovers that the fame and fortune of her new life come at a high price to herself and her friendships.

Conroy, Pat. South of Broad.
Leopold Bloom King, the narrator, is the son of an amiable, loving father who teaches science at the local high school. His mother, an ex-nun, is the high school principal and a well-known Joyce scholar. After Leo’s older brother commits suicide at the age of thirteen, the family struggles with the shattering effects of his death. Eventually he becomes part of a tightly knit group of high school seniors that includes friends Sheba and Trevor Poe, glamorous twins with an alcoholic mother and a prison-escapee father; hardscrabble mountain runaways Niles and Starla Whitehead; socialite Molly Huger and her boyfriend, Chadworth Rutledge X; and an ever-widening circle whose liaisons will ripple across two decades-from 1960s counterculture through the dawn of the AIDS crisis in the 1980s.

Craney, Glen. The fire and the light: a novel of the Cathars and the lost teachings of Christ. [Historical]

Day, Sallie. The palace of strange girls.
Family Holiday

Dexter, Pete, Spooner.
Fathers & Stepsons

Diamant, Anita. Day after night. [Historical]
Four young women haunted by unspeakable memories and losses, afraid to begin to hope, find salvation in the bonds of friendship and shared experience even as they confront the challenge of re-creating themselves in a strange new country. Based on the extraordinary true story of the October 1945 rescue of more than two hundred Jewish prisoners from the Atlit internment camp outside Haifa.

Drake, Abby. Perfect little ladies.

DuBois, Brendan. Resurrection day.
Political adventure

Ellis, David, The hidden man. [SUSPENSE]
Legal trial in Chicago

Ellory, Roger Jon. A quiet belief in angels. [Mystery]
Serial murderer in Georgia

Ellroy, James, Blood’s a rover. [Mystery]
1960s California

Erickson, Carolly, The memoirs of Mary Queen of Scots. [Historical]
The courageous, spirited Mary Queen of Scots tells her own story–from her youth as a young girl married to the invalid young King of France to her short reign as Queen of Scotland and her tragic imprisonment by her ruthless, merciless cousin Queen Elizabeth.

Fellowes, Julian. Past imperfect.
Wishing to track down a past girlfriend who claims he had fathered her child, the rich and dying Damian Baxter contacts an old friend from his days at Cambridge. The search takes the narrator back to 1960s London, where everything is changing–just not always quite as expected.

Gabaldon, Diana. An echo in the bone. [Outlander series]
As battle-scarred Jamie Fraser and his twentieth-century time-travelling wife Claire Randall flee from North Carolina to the high seas during the American Revolution, they encounter privateers and ocean battles. Meanwhile in the relative safety of the 20th century Brianna (Claire and Jamie’s daughter) and Roger MacKenzie, Brianna’s husband, search for clues not only to Claire’s fate–but to their own fate in the Highlands.

Green, George Dawes. Ravens.
When Shaw and Romeo pull up at a convenience store off I-95 in Georgia, their only thought is to fix a leaky tire and be on their way again to Florida–away from their dull Ohio tech-support jobs. But this happens to be the store from which a $318,000,000-million jackpot ticket has been sold. When a pretty clerk accidentally reveals to Shaw the identity of the winning family, he hatches a ferociously audacious scheme: he and Romeo will squeeze the family for half their prize.–From publisher description.

Gudenkauf, Heather. The weight of silence.
“It happens quietly one August morning. As dawn’s shimmering light drenches the humid Iowa air, two families awaken to find their little girls have gone missing in the night. Seven-year-old Calli Clark is sweet, gentle, a dreamer who suffers from selective mutism brought on by tragedy that pulled her deep into silence as a toddler. Calli’s mother, Antonia, tried to be the best mother she could within the confines of marriage to a mostly absent, often angry husband. Now, though she denies that her husband could be involved in the
possible abductions, she fears her decision to stay in her marriage has cost her more than her daughter’s voice. Petra Gregory is Calli’s best friend, her soul mate and her voice. But neither Petra nor Calli has been heard from since their disappearance was discovered. Desperate to find his child, Martin Gregory is forced to confront a side of himself he did not know existed beneath his intellectual, professorial demeanor. Now these families are tied by the questions of what happened to their children. And the answer is trapped in the silence of unspoken family secrets.”–p. [4] of cover.

Hallinan, Timothy. Breathing water: a bangkok thriller.
Poke Rafferty; bk.2

Harmel, Kristin. Italian for beginners. [Romance]

Hicks, Robert, A separate country. [Historical]
In New Orleans after the Civil War, John Bell Hood, arguably one of the most controversial generals of the Confederate Army–and one of its most tragic figures–struggles with his inability to admit his failures until those who taught him to love, and to be loved, transformed him.

Hilderbrand, Elin. The castaways.
Known as “The Castaways,” the MacAvoys, the Drakes, the Kapenashes, and the Wheelers are a group of prominent, well-to-do Nantucket couples who appear to live charmed lives. But when Greg and Tess MacAvoy drown in a sailing accident on their 12th anniversary, their deaths unleash shocking secrets that affect the lives of their families and friends.

Huneven, Michelle, Blame.
Drunk driving accident

Indriason Arnaldur, Arctic chill. [Mystery]
Icelandic detecting– Erlendur; bk. 5

Ishiguro, Kazuo, Nocturnes: five stories of music and nightfall.
One of the most celebrated writers of our time gives us his first cycle of short fiction: five brilliantly etched, interconnected stories in which music is a vivid and essential character.

Izner, Claude. The disappearance at Pere-Lachaise: a Victor Legris mystery.
Bookseller in France

Jacobson, Alan, Crush: a Karen Vail novel. [SUSPENSE]
Karen Vail, the memorable heroine of The 7th Victim, faces the most evil serial killer of her career.

Johnson, Shelton, Gloryland. [Historical]
African-American troops in Yosemite

Kane, Andrea. Drawn in blood.
Former FBI Special Agent Sloane Burbank has seen her share of danger, but she never expected that danger to invade the lives of her family. Then her mother is viciously attacked in the posh Manhattan apartment her parents share and it quickly becomes clear that this is no ordinary robbery. They were obviously after something of her father’s, and she soon realizes he’s in over his head. Determined to find out the truth, Sloan discovers a deadly secret buried in his past that has made him the target of a power-hungry mobster with a lethal agenda and nothing to lose.

Keillor, Garrison. Pilgrims: a Wobegon romance.
Wobegon goes abroad in this rousing and moving story of a group trip to Rome in which the warm circle of kinship invites stories of astonishing
frankness and self-revelation–and of course, humor.

Landis, James David. The last day.

Lange, Richard, This wicked world.
New Hampshire

Le Clezio, Jean-Marie G. Desert.
After being driven from their land by French colonial soldiers in 1909, Nour and his people, “the blue men” must search for a haven out of the desert that will shelter them. Interspersed with the story of Nour is the contemporary story of Lalla, a descendant of the blue men, who lives in Morocco and tries to stay true to the blood of her ancestors while experiencing life as a modern immigrant. Author won the 2008 Nobel Prize for Literature.

Leigh, Tamara. Leaving Carolina. [Romance]
N. Carolina

Lindsay, Jeffry P. Dexter by Design. [SUSPENSE]
“Back from his surprisingly glorious honeymoon in Paris, Miami blood spatter analyst Dexter Morgan is one step closer to perfecting his human disguise…But old habits die hard…and Dexter’s work for the Miami Police Department never fails to offer up new playmates–bad men who appeal to his offbeat and unshakable sense of justice.”–dust jacket.

Lodato, Victor. Mathilda Savitch.
Humorous Fiction

Loehfelm, Bill. Bloodroot. [SUSPENSE]
Brothers

Mackey, Mary. The widow’s war. [Historical]
Romance in Civil War Kansas

Mauro, Nancy. New world monkeys.
Duncan and Lily, young and adrift in a prickly marriage and lackluster careers, flee Manhattan for the peaceful allure of a recently inherited
crumbling Victorian home. But the two are left with little time to ponder the traditional “he said, she said” failings of a relationship: On an upstate road miles shy of their house, a wild boar leaps to his death in front of their Saab–an accident whose consequences will haunt them throughout the summer. That was no ordinary hog. Lily and Duncan arrive in the eccentric town of Osterhagen to discover the boar had a name: The Sovereign of the Deep Wood. That it was the town mascot. And, as the hapless urbanites are coerced into the vortex of tea socials, cannon fire, and communal history, they realize that the residents of the bizarre hamlet intend to seek justice for their fallen hero.

McCall Smith, Alexander, The lost art of gratitude.
Isabel Dalhousie series

McCorkle, Jill, Going away shoes: stories.

McDonell, Nick. An expensive education.
“Mike Teak has a classic Harvard profile. But only on the surface. He’s a twenty-five-year-old scholar/athlete from an upper-class family who was recruited by his godfather to work for a U.S. intelligence agency. On a covert mission in a Somali village, he delivers cash and cell phones to Hatashil, a legendary orphan warrior turned rebel leader. It’s a routine assignment until, minutes after they meet, the village is decimated by a missile attack, and although Mike escapes, his life is changed forever. Echoing across continents, the assault disrupts Professor Susan Lowell’s orderly existence. Beautiful, happily married, and the mother of two, she has just won a Pulitzer Prize for her book celebrating Hatashil. Also shaken is Lowell’s student, David Ayan, who was born in the targeted village a world away from Harvard’s most exclusive final club, The Porcellian, which is courting him; and Jane, the smart, risk-taking daughter of a wealthy East Coast family who’s sleeping with him. David Ayan struggles with his identity and Susan Lowell struggles against rumors about her relationship with Hatashil, who has been accused of ordering the village massacre. But it is Mike Teak who faces a deadly challenge–because when he discovers a horrific conspiracy he immediately realizes that he has become expendable, with nowhere to run and no one to trust. Until the very last minute.”–dust cover.

Mitchard, Jacquelyn. No time to wave goodbye.
Though eventually returned to his family nine years after being abducted at age three, Ben Cappadora has never felt entirely at ease with his birth family. Now that all three of the Cappadora children are grown and Ben is married with a baby girl, the whole Cappadora family is shaken to the core by Ben’s brother Vincent’s documentary that focuses on the families of abducted children.

Moran, Michelle. Cleopatra’s daughter. [Historical]

Neville, Stuart, The ghosts of Belfast. [SUSPENSE]
Irish ghost story

Nicoll, Andrew. The good mayor. [Romance]

Nunez, Elizabeth. Anna in-between.
West Indies

Oates, Joyce Carol, Little bird of heaven.
When a young wife and mother named Zoe Kruller is found brutally murdered, the Sparta police target two primary suspects, her estranged husband, Delray Kruller, and her longtime lover, Eddy Diehl. In turn, the Krullers’ son, Aaron, and Eddy Diehl’s daughter, Krista, become obsessed with each other, each believing the other’s father is guilty until they meet again as adults, ready to exorcise the ghosts of the past and come to terms with their legacy of guilt, misplaced love, and redemptive yearning.

Paretsky, Sara. Hardball. [Mystery]
When V. I. Warshawski is asked to find a man who’s been missing for four decades, a search that she figured would be futile becomes lethal. Afraid to learn that her adored father might have been a bent cop working for the Chicago P.D., V. I. takes the investigation all the way to its frightening end.

Patterson, James, Alex Cross’s trial.
Detective Alex Cross tells the story of an ancestor, Abraham Cross, and his experiences with lawyer Ben Corbett, recounting one man’s pursuit of justice in the face of the resurgence of Ku Klux Klan racism and violence in 1906 Eudora, Mississippi.

Pattison, Eliot. The lord of death. [Mystery]
Tibet is a land of beauty…and danger. Now living there, exiled Shan Tao Yun, a former Beijing police inspector, is ferrying a corpse across the slopes of Everest in order to keep a promise. But his perilous journey is made even more harrowing when he comes across a dead Chinese woman and a dying American. The 6th book in a fascinating series, The Lord of Death “engages, enlightens, and entertains” (Booklist).

Perez-Reverte, Arturo. The cavalier in the yellow doublet. [Historical]
In the cosmopolitan world of seventeenth-century Madrid, with its posh theaters and gleaming palaces, Captain Alatriste and his protege, Inigo, become unwilling participants in a court conspiracy that could lead them both to the gallows.

Potts, Sharon. In their blood. [Mystery]
Miami Beach

Pynchon, Thomas. Inherent vice.
PI in California; noir experimental fiction

Radish, Kris. The shortest distance between two women.
Family relationships

Russo, Richard, That old cape magic.
The lives of Jack and Joy Griffin always seem to come back to Cape Cod, where they honeymooned, as they experience the ups and downs of life, including the deaths of Jack’s parents, the marriage of their daughter, and Jack and Joy’s divorce.

Sabatini, Irene. The boy next door.
Zimbabwe love story

Schwartz, Stephen Jay. Boulevard.
California sex & drugs

Shreve, Anita. A change in altitude.
Newlyweds Margaret and Patrick join a climbing expedition to Mount Kenya, and during their harrowing ascent, a horrific accident occurs. In the aftermath of the tragedy, Margaret struggles to understand what happened on the African mountain and how these events have transformed her and her marriage, perhaps forever.

Smith, Haywood, Ladies of the lake.
Sisters in Georgia

Sohn, Amy, Prospect Park West.
Smart Funny Women in NYC

Sparks, Nicholas. The last song.
Seventeen year old Veronica “Ronnie” Miller’s life was turned upside-down when her parents divorced and her father, a former concert pianist and teacher, moved from New York City to Wilmington, North Carolina. Three years later, she remains angry and alientated from her parents, especially her father, until her mother decides it would be in everyone’s best interest if she and her younger brother spent the summer in Wilmington with him. However, when she arrives, she discovers that he has moved on with his life and is now engrossed in an important art project. Soon to be a Miley Cyrus film.

Starr, Jason, Panic attack. [SUSPENSE]
His secure life with his wife and daughter shattered by a break-in that destroys the family’s feelings of safety, Dr. Adam Bloom resists moving away from his long-time home and becomes suspicious of his daughter’s new boyfriend.

Stott, Rebecca. The coral thief. [Historical]
Not long after Napoleon’s defeat at Waterloo, medical student Daniel Connor is en route to a prestigious research fellowship in Paris when he encounters the beautiful Lucienne Bernard. Upon reaching his destination, he discovers that she’s stolen his papers as well as some valuable coral specimens. Daniel’s pursuit of Lucienne leads him to a den of “philosopher-thieves,” and he’s soon involved in their secret plans.

Stuart, Kimberly. Stretch marks.
“Mia is a granola-eating, sensible shoe-wearing, carbon-footprint- conscious twenty-something living in a multicultural neighborhood in Chicago. Her mother, Babs, is a stiletto-wearing Zsa Zsa Gabor type who works as an activities hostess on a Caribbean cruise line…and if you guessed there’s some tension there, you’d be right. Factor in an unexpected pregnancy and Mia’s idealistic boyfriend, and the mother-daughter relationships is, well, stretched very thin. As is Mia’s sanity when Babs shows up to…help…”–p.[4] of cover.

Sussman, Paul. The hidden oasis.
With the help of her sister’s friend, Flin Brodie, Freya Hannen sets out in search of the legendary lost oasis of Zerzura in Egypt, which supposedly houses a mythic stone, and could help Freya find out the truth behind her sister Alex’s mysterious death.

Swain, James. The night monster: a novel of suspense.
Abduction in FL

Tropper, Jonathan. This is where I leave you.
Lad Lit

Tucker, Lisa. The promised world.
Brothers & Sisters

Twelve Hawks, John. The golden city. [FANTASY]
Struggling to protect the legacy of his Traveler father, Gabriel faces troubling new questions and relentless threats. His brother Michael, now firmly allied with the enemy, pursues his ambition to wrest power from Nathan Boone, the calculating leader of the Brethren. And Maya, the Harlequin warrior pledged to protect Gabriel at all costs, is forced to make a choice that will change her life forever. The fourth realm trilogy; bk. 3

Vonnegut, Norb. Top producer: a novel of dark money, greed, and friendship.
Hedge fund operator Charlie Keleman’s gruesome murder took place in front of hundreds of shocked party-goers. The victim’s best friend, investment expert Grove O’Rourke, is trying to help Charlie’s widow figure out Charlie’s financial dealings. But the more Grove digs in, and the more he uncovers, the more he realizes that Charlie had a lot of dark and dangerous secrets. And the consequences of those secrets are starting to taint Grove himself, which is just the beginning of a desperate fight to save his name–and his life.

Walker, Wendy, Social lives.
Rich people in CT

Walsh, Dan, The unfinished gift.
Christian Christmas Story

Wilson, F. Paul, Ground zero: a Repairman Jack novel. [SUSPENSE]
911 attacks

Wiseman, Beth, Plain promise: a Daughters of the promise novel.
Sadie Fisher wonders if she’ll ever find true love again after the death of her husband. When wealthy Englischer Kade Saunders rents her guest cottage for a month, Sadie’s world is turned upside-down. Kade has a five-year old autistic son who is unexpectedly left in his permanent care. As Sadie’s feelings for the child grow, so do her feelings for Kade. But is this man suitable for anything more than friendship?

Woods, Stuart. Hothouse orchid.
Special Agent Holly Barker returns to her hometown of Orchid Beach, Florida, and faces off against an old nemesis–the man she brought charges against for sexual harassment, attempted rape, and rape. The army officer in question was acquitted of all charges, and is now Orchid Beach’s new police chief. Will Holly return to the CIA? Or will she challenge her old nemesis for control of the Orchid Beach Police Department?

Young, Elizabeth. Asking for trouble. [Romance]

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