Mailbox Time! (Feb 21, 2011)

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!  My Mailbox was feeling the love last week. The storm delayed mail finally came through!

 Mailbox Monday's host for February is Library of Clean Reads. In My Mailbox is hosted Sundays at The Story Siren. Please visit these posts and take a look at what packages everybody else got this week! 

So Close the Hand of Death

by J.T. Ellison

It's a hideous echo of a violent past.  Across America, murders are being committed with all the twisted hallmarks of the Boston Strangler, the Zodiac Killer and Son of Sam.  The media frenzy explodes and Nashville homicide lieutenant Taylor Jackson knows instantly that the Pretender is back. . . and he's got helpers.

As the Pretender's disciples perpetrate their sick homages -- stretching police and the FBI dangerously thin -- Taylor tries desperately to prepare for their inevitable showdown.  And she must do it alone.  To be close to her is to be in mortal danger, and she won't risk losing anyone she loves.  But the isolation, the self-doubt and the rising body count are taking their toll -- she's tripwire tense and ready to snap.

The brilliant psychopath who both adores and despises her is drawing close.  Close enough to touch. . .

Radio Shangri-La

by Lisa Napoli

Lisa Napoli was in the grip of a midlife crisis, cynical about work and depressed about her love life, when a chance encounter with a handsome stranger led to the adventure of a lifetime.  Leaving behind her job in public radio and her cosmopolitan life in Los Angeles, she moved to Bhutan, the happiest place on earth, to volunteer at the country's first radio station for the youth of Bhutan.  In a country just beginning to open its doors to the modern world and that measures its success in Gross National Happiness rather than GDP, she finds that the world is a beautiful and complicated place and comes to appreciate her life for the adventure it is.

Mr. Chartwell

by Rebecca Hunt

July 1964. London. Esther Hammerhans, a young librarian in the House of Commons, goes to answer the door to her new lodger.  Through the windowpane she sees a vast silhouette.  Meanwhile, in Chartwell, Kent, on the eve of his retirement from Parliament, Sir Winston Churchill has just woken up.  There's someone in the room with him, someone he's known for a long time, but it's not a friend.  A dark, mute presence is watching him with rapt concentration.  Both the humble librarian and the eminent statesman have just been visited by Black Pat.  For the man who saved Western civilization, this "black dog" is all too familiar. For Esther, he's a weirdly charming, deeply unnerving stranger just come to rent a room.  Or is he here to stay?  In this completely original, inspiring debut, Rebecca Hunt illuminates the strange point of connection between two very different people -- and shows how the strength to persevere can pull a person from darkness to light.

The Revenge of the Radioactive Lady

by Elizabeth Stuckey-French

Seventy-seven-year-old Marylou Ahearn is going to kill Dr. Wilson Spriggs, come hell or high water.  In 1953, he gave her a radioactive cocktail without her consent as part of a secret government study that had horrible consequences.  Fifty years later, she is still ticked off, and now that she has recently discovered where he lives, she's on a mission.  Taking a cue from her favorite fifties flick Attack of the 50-Foot Woman, Marylou changes her name to Nancy Archer and moves to hot and humid Tallahassee, where she begins the tricky work of insinuating herself into the lives of the Spriggs family.  Little does she know what a nest of yellow jackets she is stumbling into.

Told from the varied perspectives of an incredible cast of endearing oddball characters, this lively, intricately plotted, laugh-out-loud funny novel beats with the heart of a genuinely affecting family drama.

Emily and Einstein

by Linda Francis Lee

Emily and her husband, Sandy Portman, seemed to live a gracious if busy life in an old-world, Upper West Side apartment in Manhattan's famous Dakota building.  Then one night on the way to meet Emily, Sandy dies in a tragic accident.  The funeral isn't even over before Emily learns she's on the verge of being evicted from their apartment.  Even worse than the possibility of losing her home, Emily is stunned when she discovers that her marriage was made up of lies.

Suddenly Emily is forced on a journey to find out who her husband really was. . . all the while feeling that somehow he isn't really gone.  Angry, hurt, and sometimes betrayed by loving memories of the man she lost, Emily finds comfort in a scruffy dog named Einstein.  But will Einstein's seemingly odd determination that Emily save herself be enough to make her confront her own past?  Can he help her find a future -- even after she meets a new man?

Murder on the Down Low

by Pamela Samuels Young

Savvy L.A. attorney Vernetta Henderson takes center stage in another fast-paced legal thriller that erupts into a scandalous tale of vengeance. 

Prominent African-American men are being gunned down on the streets of Los Angeles, leaving police completely baffled.  The victims are all quintessential family men.  Well-educated. Attractive. Successful.  But appearances can be deceiving.

At the same time, Vernetta and her outrageous sidekick, Special, lead the charge for revenge against a young lawyer whose deception caused his fiancee's death.  For Special, hauling the man into court and suing him for wrongful death just isn't good enough.  While she exacts her own brand of justice, a shocking revelation connects the contentious lawsuit and the puzzling murders.

Soon, Special's quest for payback goes way too far, and this time. . . it appears that not even Vernetta can save her.

Daddy's Little Squirrel

by Kayla Shurley Davidson

A young girl cherishes the time spent with her father.  Kallie is no exception.  Daddy's Little Squirrel, pays tribute to the special relationship between a father and daughter.  The duo's adventures are never dull, and are always made possible from the help of Kallie, her father's special helper.

Highland Master

by Amanda Scott

Known as the Mackintosh "Wildcat," Lady Catriona would do anything to defend her clan.  But when she discovers a wounded warrior on her family's land, Catriona's devotion is tested.  Igniting her passions with the softest touch, this powerful stranger tempts her in the most intimate way -- and keeps a dangerous secret. . .

In the midst of war, Sir Finlagh Cameron swore an oath of vengeance against the Mackintosh chieftain.  Now face-to-face with his enemy's daughter, Fin of the Battles falters.  Her wild beauty and spirit arouse a hunger the battle-weary warrior can't conquer and provoke a terrifying choice.  Surrendering to desire would break his vow.  Revenge would threaten Catriona's life.  For their love to triumph, the two must do the unthinkable: challenge the fierce loyalties that rule the knights and clans of Scotland.

A Lesson in Secrets

by Jacqueline Winspear

In the latest episode in the New York Times bestselling series, Maisie Dobbs's first assignment for the British Secret Service takes her undercover to Cambridge as a professor, and leads to the investigation of a murderous web of activities being conducted by the up-and-coming Nazi party.

The Hangman's Daughter

by Oliver Potzsch

Germany, 1659: When a dying boy is pulled from the river with a mark crudely tattooed on his shoulder, hangman Jakob Kuisl is called upon to investigate whether witchcraft is at play in his small Bavarian town.  Whispers and dark memories of witch trials and women burned at the stake just seventy years earlier still haunt the streets of Schongau.  When more children disappear and an orphan boy is found dead -- marked by the same tattoo -- the mounting hysteria threatens to erupt into chaos.

Before the unrest forces him to torture and execute the very woman who aided in the birth of his children, Jakob must unravel the truth.  With the help of his clever daughter, Magdalena, and Simon, the university-educated son of the town's physician, Jakob discovers that a devil is indeed loose in Schongau.  But it may be too late to prevent bloodshed.

What books came home to you this week?