In the eye of the storm . . .
Living on the streets with her destitute mother, selling knickknacks and trinkets just to survive, Sasha Porter dreams of someday having a normal life, with a real house and family. But she never dreamed a devastating tragedy would bring her those very things: on a stormy night by a rainspattered highway, a speeding car veers out o...more
Cloudburst (Storms #2)
By V.C. Andrews
The follow-up to Family Storms from New York Times bestselling author V.C. Andrews features high school senior Sasha Porter in search of her sister—but instead she learns secrets that could tear her family apart.
Sasha is a popular senior in high school, with excellent grades and no more secrets to hide. She finds herself more and more interested in one boy, Duane Banks, who stands out not because he flaunts his good looks and his achievements at the school like so many, but because he is shy and somewhat withdrawn.
When auditions for the new school play begin, she and Duane both get parts and with the rehearsals, Duane seems to be coming out of his shell, permitting himself to hope and succeed at something. Sasha and Duane become a couple, and their relationships continues to grow.
When the play opens, Sasha’s foster parents attend, but neither of Duane’s parents show up. Duane goes into a depression, and he begins to ignore not only his schoolwork, but also his appearance. She tries to warn his mother to be more concerned, but she resents Sasha’s inserting herself into their private lives and does nothing. Meanwhile, things take a bizarre turn at home for Sasha and then a sudden tragedy makes her wonder whether there’s anybody she can truly trust.

As the Pig Turns
by M.C. Beaton
Winter Parva is a “picturesque” (touristy) Cotswold village with gift shops, a medieval market hall, and thatched cottages. After a disappointing Christmas season, the parish council has decided to hold a special event in January, complete with old-fashioned costumes, morris dancing, and a pig roast on the village green.
Always one for a good roasting, Agatha Raisin organizes an outing to enjoy the merriment. The rotary spit turning over a bed of blazing charcoals is sure to please on this foggy and blistery evening. But as the fog lifts slightly, the sharp-eyed Agatha notices something peculiar about the pig: a tattoo of a heart with an arrow through it and the name Amy.
“Stop!” she screams suddenly. “Pigs don’t have tattoos.”
The “pig,” in fact, is Gary Beech, a policeman not exactly beloved by the locals, including Agatha herself. Although Agatha has every intention of leaving matters to the police, everything changes when the Gary’s ex-wife, Amy, hires Agatha’s detective agency to investigate—and another murder ensues. With that provocation, how could any sleuth as vain and competitive (and secretly insecure) as Agatha do anything other than solve the case herself?
The Sleepwalkers
by Paul Grossman
In the final weeks of the Weimar Republic, as Hitler and his National Socialist party angle to assume control of Germany, beautiful girls are seen sleepwalking through the streets. Then, a young woman of mysterious origin, with her legs bizarrely deformed, is pulled dead from the Havel River. Willi Kraus, a high ranking detective in Berlin's police force, begins a murder investigation. A decorated World War I hero and the nation's most famous detective, Willi also is a Jew. Despite his elite status in the criminal police, he is disturbed by the direction Germany is taking. Working urgently to solve the murder, Willi finds his superiors diverting him at every turn. As he moves through darkness closer to the truth, Willi begins to understand that much more than the solution to a murder is at stake. What he discovers will mean that his life, the lives of his friends and family, and Germany itself will never be the same.
What books came home to you this week?