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What can be done to stop madness from sweeping the world when political indecision is the norm? When the nation’s leaders lack the backbone to stand up to them, what can stop an enemy that knows no rules? Charity.
Charity Styles is a former Olympian and U.S. Army helicopter pilot. Captured and tortured by terrorists in Afghanistan after the opening blows of the War on Terror, Charity has a score to settle. Now working for the Department of Homeland Security, she is offered the opportunity to make a real difference.
Critical memories of her ordeal are buried deep in Charity’s subconscious. When the director of Homeland Security’s vaunted Caribbean Counterterrorism Command, discovers the key to unlocking Charity’s past, he unleashes a tempest, the fury of which no enemy can prepare for.
Already a martial arts instructor and pilot, Director Stockwell guides her training in marksmanship and spycraft, making Charity the most dangerous asset in America’s covert arsenal. Charity then sets her sails, crossing the sea in an antique sloop. A single-minded, all-encompassing determination stays her course.
Baking Bad (A Beaufort Scales Mystery Book 1) (affiliate link)
A tranquil village.
A poisoned cupcake.
A murdered vicar.
A simple case – or it should be. But all clues point to the Toot Hansell Women’s Institute, and Detective Inspector Adams is about to discover there’s much more to the W.I. than just bake sales and jam making.
Alice Martin, RAF Wing Commander (Ret.), and current chair of the Women’s Institute, knows the ladies of the W.I. are not guilty. But she has a bigger problem. Toot Hansell has a large and dragonish secret, and she needs to keep the police well away from it. Plus she’d really rather not be arrested for murder. Again.
Meanwhile, Beaufort Scales, High Lord of the Cloverly dragons and survivor of the days of knights and dragon hunts, knows even better than Alice that the modern dragon only survives as long as no one knows they exist. But he also knows friends don’t let friends face murder inquiries alone. Beaufort fully intends to Get Involved.
Assault and Batting (The Taylor Quinn Quilt Shop Mysteries Book 1) (affiliate link)
A fatal accident. Sisters suspecting murder. Can they unravel a tangled thread of clues before the killer strikes again?
Taylor Quinn loves her goofy boyfriend and her job in the city. But when her mother is killed, she rushes home to take over the family’s small-town quilt shop. Discovering her young sister blames herself for their mom’s death, her whole world begins to unravel. Desperate to help her sister, Taylor vows to prove everyone’s innocence.
In way over her head, Taylor’s investigation pulls a thread of shifty suspects, a tight knot of envy, and a patchwork of gossip. But as she stitches the evidence together, she unwittingly reels in the killer’s attention…
Can Taylor sew up the case before everything comes apart at the seams?
The Friendly Cottage (Blue Moon Bay Book 4) (affiliate link)
A sweet story of friendship and finding love, with all the happy feels.
Megan dreams of making a living as an artist and a small town contest is the chance to make that happen. But insecurities about her unique style make her doubt she has what it takes. Will her best friend’s older brother inspire her to follow her inner voice that she is all she needs and the woman he’s always loved?
Fatal Intent (The Kate Downey Medical Mystery Series Book 1) (affiliate link)
End-of-life care— or assisted death
When her elderly patients start dying at home days after minor surgery, anesthesiologist Dr. Kate Downey wants to know why. The surgeon, not so much. “ Old people die, that’ s what they do,” is his response. When Kate presses, surgeon Charles Ricken places the blame squarely on her shoulders. Kate is currently on probation, and the chief of staff sides with the surgeon, leaving Kate to prove her innocence and save her own career. With her husband in a prolonged coma, it’ s all she has left.
Aided by her eccentric Great Aunt Irm, a precocious medical student, and the lawyer son of a victim, Kate launches her own unorthodox investigation of these unexpected deaths. As she comes closer to exposing the culprit’ s identity, she faces professional intimidation, threats to her life, a home invasion, and, tragically, the suspicious death of someone close to her. The stakes escalate to the breaking point when Kate, under violent duress, is forced to choose which of her loved ones to save— and which must be sacrificed.
Here it is, a collection of the funniest anecdotes, commentaries and timeless recollections you’ll ever read – well, maybe not “ever” – but, I digress.
We have garnered the best bits from the Simon Northouse, monthly, Discombobulated Newsletter and put them in one handy book, especially for you (and the author).
Pithy, wry, amusing, interesting, prescient – how many more adjectives do you need?
If you are into books that will cheer you up and put a smile on your dial – then this is for you. If you prefer sombre tomes of angst and dysfunctional relationships, then, give this a miss.
Hogfather: A Novel of Discworld (affiliate link)
It’s the most wonderful time of the year, Hogswatchnight, when the Hogfather himself dons his red suit and climbs in his sleigh pulled by—of course—eight hogs, to shower gifts across Discworld. But when the fat man goes missing, someone has to sit in. It’s up to Death to take up the reigns—otherwise the sun won’t shine tomorrow . . . or ever again.
Who would want to harm Discworld’s most beloved icon? Very few things are held sacred in this twisted, corrupt, heartless—and oddly familiar—universe, but the Hogfather is one of them. Yet here it is, Hogswatchnight, that most joyous and acquisitive of times, and the jolly, old, red-suited gift-giver has vanished without a trace. And there’s something shady going on involving an uncommonly psychotic member of the Assassins’ Guild and certain representatives of Ankh-Morpork’s rather extensive criminal element.
The Como Falcon (Ali Falco Book 1) (affiliate link)
A shocking death along the shores of Lake Como rocks a police officer to her core, pulling her into a showdown with a past she’s been running from far too long.
Police officer Ali Falco has created a comfortable life in the beautiful Tuscan city of Siena, Italy patrolling the ancient streets. Behind the walls of the medieval town it’s easy to keep the past out of mind, but shocking news of her father’s death is impossible to ignore, forcing her to return north to her childhood home of Como, a stunning lakeside city tucked into the Italian Alps, and the site of a lot of bad memories.
She and her father were tightly bonded until the death of her mother thrust a divide between them. Hate him or not, though, something about his death doesn’t look right. In fact, it looks very wrong, and she soon finds herself caught up in a case that pulls all the demons out of the dark depths of her past, along with a few that may still be lurking around the picturesque valley she used to call home.
The Appeal: A Novel (affiliate link)
The Fairway Players, a local theatre group, is in the midst of rehearsals when tragedy strikes the family of director Martin Hayward and his wife Helen, the play’s star. Their young granddaughter has been diagnosed with a rare form of cancer, and with an experimental treatment costing a tremendous sum, their castmates rally to raise the money to give her a chance at survival.
But not everybody is convinced of the experimental treatment’s efficacy—nor of the good intentions of those involved. As tension grows within the community, things come to a shocking head at the explosive dress rehearsal. The next day, a dead body is found, and soon, an arrest is made. In the run-up to the trial, two young lawyers sift through the material—emails, messages, letters—with a growing suspicion that the killer may be hiding in plain sight. The evidence is all there, between the lines, waiting to be uncovered.
Daughter of the Drowned Empire (affiliate link)
Cleopatra meets Throne of Glass in this stunning fantasy debut.
19-year-old mage Lady Lyriana Batavia is third in line to the Seat of Power in Bamaria: a position of wealth and privilege, but not safety. Bamaria falls under the rule of the Lumerian Empire, survivors of a celestial war whose island sank in the Drowning. Now all Lumerians submit to the Emperor and his strict laws about magic. He decides what magic can be practiced and what powers remain forbidden. He decides who will die for possession of forbidden magic.
Lyr’s own cousin was executed for wielding the wrong kind. And for years, Lyr has sworn to protect her older sisters, helping them conceal their own illicit magic.
But when Lyr must participate in the ceremony that reveals her power, she uncovers something else entirely. Something that means banishment from the Empire.
The Accidental Empress: A Novel (affiliate link)
The year is 1853, and the Habsburgs are Europe’s most powerful ruling family. With his empire stretching from Austria to Russia, from Germany to Italy, Emperor Franz Joseph is young, rich, and ready to marry.
Fifteen-year-old Elisabeth, “Sisi,” Duchess of Bavaria, travels to the Habsburg Court with her older sister, who is betrothed to the young emperor. But shortly after her arrival at court, Sisi finds herself in an unexpected dilemma: she has inadvertently fallen for and won the heart of her sister’s groom. Franz Joseph reneges on his earlier proposal and declares his intention to marry Sisi instead.
Thrust onto the throne of Europe’s most treacherous imperial court, Sisi upsets political and familial loyalties in her quest to win, and keep, the love of her emperor, her people, and of the world.
… See the rest of today ‘s Book Picks here on page 2Page 2