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A Stoneybrook Mystery Collection: A Cozy Mystery Box Set Books 1-3 (affiliate link)
Even close-knit towns have secrets …
Hadley James is finally living the life she’s always wanted: making jam and selling it at the local farmers market. When the local knitting store owner asks her to cat-sit, Hadley doesn’t give it a second thought. What could go wrong? A lot, apparently. Suddenly, her simple cat-sitting job has turned into a murder investigation and life no longer seems so perfect.
Her twin brother, a deputy sheriff, is on the case but they’ve always done everything together and she can’t help but get involved. Plus, it’s much easier for Hadley to infiltrate the local knitting club than it is for her brother.
Following a trail of crafty clues, the James twins learn that their sleepy town might be harboring more darkness than they could’ve imagined.
Dogs and Love – Stories of Fidelity (Dog Stories Book 1) (affiliate link)
Do you remember your first dog …the way it somehow knew you alone were its person?
There’s something about a dog’s companionship, and utter devotion, that eases the hard days and brings more joy to the good days.
Entertaining, heartwarming and insightful, each of these true stories will trigger memories about the dogs you have loved, and no doubt, you will recognize your own dog in these stories.
There’s a special bond between humans and their dogs, and as you read these stories, hopefully with a dog curled up on your lap or at your feet, you’ll appreciate the special connection dogs have with their humans. And us with them.
Aroma Holiday: A Novel (A Nora Black Midlife Psychic Mystery Book 7) (affiliate link)
My name is Nora Black, and I’m having a very merry messy midlife Christmas!
50’s are the new 40’s and I’m living my best life ever. I may have a few more aches and pains, graying roots, and couple extra pounds, but I also have two quirky best friends who always have my back, business is booming, and my love life has never been better or hotter.
That is until my sweetie Ezra Holden invites me home for Christmas to meet his family.
The season is full of surprises in Ezra’s hometown, like a missing cousin, a case of mistaken identity, and a slew of painful memories—none of them my own.
This Holden Family Holiday should be filled with scents of peppermint, gingerbread, and pine, but all I smell is danger. It turns out my psychic nose really is the gift that keeps on giving.
The Box (Derek Reed Series Book 1) (affiliate link)
A cold case, a serial killer, and a dead girl that won’t go away.
Profiler FBI Agent Derek Reed is dealing with a costly mistake. A mistake leaving him with horrible physical injuries, plagued by nightmares, and the harsh reality a girl is dead because of him.
Forced into a sixty-day medical leave, he heads from Arizona to Tennessee to see his family. Using his love of photography, he decides taking photos of old abandoned buildings will help distract him from the mess he’s made.
When he finds an old tin box at a farmhouse, he’s sure his luck is about to change. But instead of a treasure, he finds the trophies of a serial killer. Four photos of four girls. Murdered over the course of one year, beginning in 1985.
Current cases are hard enough, but tracking a killer from over thirty years ago is almost impossible. Knowing he can’t ask for help from his unit, he questions if he should bury the box and walk away. Not being able to leave a puzzle unsolved, Derek decides to hunt for a killer.
A Troublesome Woman (The Inspector Lazarus Mysteries Book 1) (affiliate link)
Pandora’s Clock (affiliate link)
On a snowy road in a German forest, Ernest Helms sees a man trying to break into his car. After a scuffle, Helms escapes with only a cut on his hand. Hours later, he collapses aboard a flight from Frankfurt to New York. The pilot, Capt. James Holland, radios London to plan an emergency landing to save Helms—and then the nightmare begins.
Heathrow denies Holland permission to land: Helms has been stricken with an ultracontagious pathogen that threatens the entire planet. When Germany also refuses to let him land, Holland and his passengers are prisoners of the sky, caught between a deadly disease and a world that would rather shoot them down than risk contamination.
Brunetti’s Cookbook (Commissario Brunetti) (affiliate link)
Aside from their puzzling mysteries, Donna Leon’s novels featuring Commissario Guido Brunetti have long been celebrated for their mouth-watering descriptions of food: multicourse lunches at home with Paola and the children, snacks grabbed at a bar with a glass of wine or two, a quick sandwich during a busy day, or a working lunch at a neighborhood trattoria in the course of an investigation have all delighted Brunetti, as well as Leon’s readers and reviewers.
In Brunetti’s Cookbook, Leon’s best friend and favorite cook Roberta Pianaro brings to life these fabulous Venetian meals. Eggplant crostini, orrechiette with asparagus, pumpkin ravioli, roasted artichokes, baked branzino, pork ragu with porcini these are just a few of the over ninety recipes for antipasti, primi, secondi, and dolci.
The Silent Child (affiliate link)
1944
LEO STERN arrives at the Nazi camp at Borek with his wife Irena and his two daughters. The Sterns are spared from the gas chamber when they witness a murder. But in a place that humanity has deserted, Leo is forced to make unimaginable choices to try to keep his family alive.
1961
For seventeen years, Hanna has been unable to remember her identity and how she was separated from her family at the end of the war, until the discovery of a letter among her late uncle’s possessions reveals her real name – HANNA STERN – and leads her to Berlin in search of her lost past.
Helped by former lover Peter, Hanna begins to piece together the shocking final days of Borek. But Hanna isn’t the only one with an interest in the camp, and lurking in the shadows is someone who would prefer Hanna’s history to remain silent.
On Language: Chomsky’s Classic Works: Language and Responsibility and Reflections on Language (affiliate link)
The two most popular titles by the noted linguist and critic in one volume—an ideal introduction to his work.
On Language features some of Noam Chomsky’s most informal and highly accessible work. In Part I, Language and Responsibility, Chomsky presents a fascinating self-portrait of his political, moral, and linguistic thinking. In Part II, Reflections on Language, Chomsky explores the more general implications of the study of language and offers incisive analyses of the controversies among psychologists, philosophers, and linguists over fundamental questions of language.
Wild Wicked Scot (The Highland Grooms Book 1) (affiliate link)
Born into riches and groomed in English luxury, Margot Armstrong didn’t belong in a Scottish chieftain’s devil-may-care world. Three years ago, she fled their marriage of convenience and hasn’t looked back—except to relive the moments spent in wild, rugged Arran McKenzie’s passionate embrace. But as their respective countries’ fragile unity threatens to unravel, Margot must return to her husband to uncover his role in the treachery before her family can be accused of it.
Red-haired, green-eyed Margot was Arran’s beautiful bride. Her loss has haunted him, but her return threatens everything he has gained. As the Highland mists carry whispers of an English plot to seize McKenzie territory, he must outmaneuver her in games of espionage…and seduction. But even as their secrets tangle together, there’s nothing to prevent love from capturing them both and leading them straight into danger.
16 Souls (affiliate link)
On takeoff from Denver during a winter blizzard, an airliner piloted by veteran Captain Marty Mitchell overruns a commuter plane from behind. Bizarrely, the fuselage of the smaller aircraft is tenuously wedged onto the wing of his Boeing 757, leading Mitchell to an impossible life-or-death choice.
Mitchell’s decision will land the former military pilot in the crosshairs of a viciously ambitious district attorney determined to send him to prison for doing his job. Despondent and deeply wounded by what he sees as betrayal by the system, Mitchell at first refuses to defend himself or even assist the corporate lawyer forced to represent him.
Unforgettable (affiliate link)
Orphaned at a young age, street-savvy Ally Mills and her brother Toby agree on one thing: sticking together no matter what. When their daring escape from an evil man leads them to the dusty plains of Oklahoma, they see their chance to make a fortune. Disguised as husband and wife, they set out on a journey to claim their own land in a new town.
Eagle-eyed army scout Ethan Temple sees through the fiery redhead’s disguise. Suspicious of the duo and drawn to Ally’s tenacious spirit, the striking half-Cheyenne marksman can’t help but keep watch over her.
Ally made an unbreakable pact, but the longer Ethan stays at her side, the more terrifying her realization grows: She’s in love. And she must tell Ethan how she feels before he rides out of her life for good . . .
… See the rest of today ‘s Book Picks here on page 2Page 2