Mailbox Monday (August 15, 2011)

 Mailbox Monday's host for August is Staci at Life in the Thumb. 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! 

Darkness, My Old Friend

by Lisa Unger

After giving up his post at the Hollows Police Department, Jones Cooper is at loose ends.  He is having trouble facing a horrible event from his past and finding a second act.  Then, on a brisk October morning, he has a visitor.  Eloise Montgomery, the psychic who plays a key role in Fragile, comes to him with predictions about his future, some of them dire.

Meanwhile, Michael Holt, a young man who grew up in The Hollows, has returned, looking for answers about his mother, who went missing many years earlier.  He has hired local PI Ray Muldune and psychic Eloise Montgomery to help him solve the mystery that has haunted him.  What he finds might be his undoing.

Fifteen-year-old Willow Graves is exiled to The Hollows from Manhattan when six months earlier she moved to the quiet town with her novelist mother after a bitter divorce.  Willow is acting out, spending time with kids that bring out the worst in her.  And when things get hard, she has a tendency to run away -- a predilection that might lead her to dark places.

Set in The Hollows, the backdrop for Fragile, this is the riveting story of lives set on a collision course with devastating consequences.  The result is Lisa Unger's most compelling fiction to date.

Good Graces

by Lesley Kagen

National bestselling novel Whistling in the Dark won over readers with the story of ten-year-old Sally O'Malley and her sister, Troo, during Milwaukee's summer of 1959.  Now, in the captivating sequel, Good Graces, it's one year later. . .

A heat wave has everyone in the close-knit Milwaukee neighborhood on edge.  None more so than Sally, who remains deeply traumatized by the sudden death of her father and her near escape from a murderer and molester the previous summer.  Although outwardly she and her sister, Troo, are more secure, Sally's confidence in her own judgment and much of her faith have been whittled away.  When a series of disquieting events unfold in the neighborhood -- a string of home burglaries, the escape from reform school of a nemesis, the mysterious disappearance of an orphan, and crimes that may involve the increasingly rebellious Troo -- Sally is called upon to rise above her inner demons.  She made a deathbed promise to her father to keep Troo safe, a promise she can't break, even if her life depends on it.  But when events reach a crisis point, will Sally have the courage and discernment to make the right choices?  Or will her false assumptions lead her and those she loves into danger once again?

Skeleton Letters

by Laura Childs

Is nothing sacred? When a fellow scrapbooker is bludgeoned with a religious statue in historic St. Tristan's Church, it's a clear case of murder in the cathedral.  But a stolen relic may hold the key to catching the culprit. . .

The last thing Carmela Bertrand and her friend Ava expected to bear witness to in St. Tristan's Church was a crime.  But now a beloved member of their scrapbooking circle is lying lifeless next to a smashed statue of St. Sebastian -- and a mysterious hooded figure has absconded with an antique silver-and-gold crucifix.  With the church open to the public and a popular tourist attraction, it looks like the police don't have a prayer of finding the killer.

But if anyone can get to the bottom of the crime, it's Carmela's main squeeze, Detective Edgar Babcock -- with a little assistance from some scrappy sleuths.  As Carmela and Ava are drawn deeper into New Orlean's French Quarter in search of the missing crucifix, they  may need the help of more than a few patron saints.  Because this is one killer they don't want to cross. . .

The Year Everything Changed

by Georgia Bockoven

As Jessie Patrick Reed's attorney, I'm writing to you on behalf of your father, Jessie Patrick Reed.  I regret to inform you that Mr. Reed is dying.  He has expressed a desire to see you. . .

Elizabeth, even though sustained by a loving family, has suffered the most from her father's seeming abandonment and for years has protected herself with a deep-seated anger that she hides from everyone.

Ginger, in love with a married man, will be forced to reevaluate every relationship she's ever had and will reach stunning conclusions that will change her life forever.

Rachel learns of her father's existence the same day she finds out that her husband of ten years has had an affair.  She will receive the understanding and support she needs to survive from an unlikely and surprising source.

Christine is a young filmmaker, barely out of college, who now must decide if her few precious memories of a man she believed to be long dead are enough to give him a second chance.

Four sisters who never knew the others existed will find strength, love, and answers in the most unexpected places in . . . The Year That Changed Everything.

Little Black Dress

by Susan McBride

Two sisters whose lives seemed forever intertwined are torn apart when a magical little black dress gives each one a glimpse of an unavoidable future.

Antonia Ashton has worked hard to build a thriving career and a committed relationship, but she realizes her life has gone off track.  Forced to return home to Blue Hills when her mother, Evie, suffers a massive stroke, Toni finds the old Victorian where she grew up as crammed full of secrets as it is with clutter.  Now she must put her mother's house in order -- and uncover long-buried truths about Evie and her aunt, Anna, who vanished fifty years earlier on the eve of her wedding.  By shedding light on the past, Toni illuminates her own mistakes and learns the most unexpected things about love, magic, and a little black dress with the power to break hearts. . . and mend them.

Retribution

by Sherrilyn Kenyon

Harm no human. . .

A hired gunslinger, William Jessup Brady lived his life with one foot in the grave.  He believed that every life had a price, until the day when he finally found a reason to live.  In one single act of brutal betrayal, he lost everything, including his life.  Brought back by a Greek goddess to be one of her Dark-Hunters, Brady gave his immortal soul for vengeance and swore he'd spend eternity protecting the humans he'd once considered prey.

Orphaned as a toddler, Abigail Yager was taken in by a family of vampires and raised on one belief: Dark-Hunters are the evil who prey on both their people and mankind, and they must all be destroyed.  While protecting her adoptive race, she has spent her life eliminating the Dark-Hunters and training for the day when she meets the man who killed her family:  Jess Brady.

A gun in the hand is worth two in the holster. . . .

Jess has been charged with finding and terminating the creature who's assassinating Dark-Hunters.  The last thing he expects to find is a human face behind the killings, but when that face bears a striking resemblance to that of the one who murdered him centuries ago, he knows something evil is going on.  He also knows he's not the one who killed her parents.  But Abigail refuses to believe the truth and is determined to see him dead once and for all.

Brought together by an angry god and chased by ancient enemies out to kill them both, they must find a way to overcome their mutual hatred or watch as one of the darkest of powers rises and kills both the races they've sworn to protect.

The Bad Always Die Twice

by Cheryl Crane

In the first of a wildly entertaining mystery series set amid the bright lights, big egos, and Botoxed brows of Hollywood, Cheryl Crane—daughter of legendary movie star Lana Turner—introduces a smart, hilarious, and utterly loveable heroine in realtor-turned-amateur sleuth, Nikki Harper.

For Nikki Harper, realtor to the stars and daughter of 1950s screen goddess Victoria Bordeaux, Hollywood is home. A completely dysfunctional home populated by a cast of crazies, true, but home nonetheless. While Nikki's no stranger to scandal, she's shocked to receive a hysterical phone call from her business partner, Jessica Martin, saying that TV has-been Rex March has been found dead in Jessica's bed.

More shocking than Rex's death is the fact that, as far as anyone knew, Rex was already dead. Six months ago, the star of the seventies sitcom Shipwrecked Vacation was supposedly killed when his plane crashed in the Mojave Desert. Nikki and Jessica recently sold his mansion on behalf of his widow, Edith. It's obvious to Nikki that Jessica is being framed, but by whom? And why? And how on earth can Rex be dead a second time?

In search of answers, Nikki turns to the one person she can always count on. From her pink boudoir in her Beverly Hills mansion, the ever-glamorous Victoria suggests Nikki focus her sleuthing on Rex's not-so-grieving widow. And there's a veritable casting couch full of other candidates, including Edith's boy-toy lover, Rex's scheming lawyer (like there's any other kind), and the diner waitress with whom Rex was having one of his numerous affairs. But with the killer readying for a repeat performance, Nikki will have to act fast—before her own screen fades to black. .

Love At Absolute Zero

by Christopher Meeks

Love at Absolute Zero is the story of Gunnar Gunderson, a 32-year-old star physicist at the University of Wisconsin.  The moment he's given tenure at the university, he can think of only one thing: finding a wife.  His research falters into what happens to matter near absolute zero (-459.67 F), but he has an instant new plan.  To meet his soul mate within three days -- that's what he wants  and all time he can carve out -- he will use the Scientific Method.  His research team will help.  Can Gunnar survive his quest?  What happens if and when he goes to Denmark?

Oskaloosa Moon

by Gary Sutton

It's a farming village in Iowa, just before TV.

The boy's got no known father.  Worse yet, he's deformed.  Town elders are embarrassed by his existence.

The village promotes Korn Kastle Days with two billboards on the paved road that passes near their town.  The Nazarene, Methodist, Congregational and Lutheran service times are also posted.

Catholic signs stand next to the billboards, listing five weekly Masses.

He survives bullies and makes friends.  Under pressure the youth leaves town, gets educated and struggles, finally scratching out a career and marries.

But his eventual return goes rough.

The Queen of Last Hopes

by Susan Higginbotham

A man other than my husband sits on England's throne today.

What would happen if this king suddenly went mad?
What would his queen do?  Would she make the same mistakes I did, or would she learn from mine?

Margaret of Anjou, Queen of England, does not want immortality.  She does not need glory.  All she desires is what rightfully belongs to her family -- and that is the throne of England.  Her husband the king cannot rule, but the enemies who doubt her will and dispute her valor underestimate the force of a mother's love.  Her son is the House of Lancaster's heir and last hope, and her fight for him will shake the crown forever.


PURCHASED:

One Hundred Candles
by Mara Purnhagen

I've opened a door that cannot be closed.

It's taken a long time for me to feel like an normal teenager.  But now that I'm settled in a new school, where people know me as more than Charlotte Silver of the infamous Silver family paranormal investigators, it feels like everything is falling into place.  And what better way to be normal than to go on a date with a popular football star like Harris Abbott?  After all, it's not as if Noah is anything more than a friend. . .

But my new life takes a disturbing turn when Harris brings me to a party and we play a game called One Hundred Candles.  It seems like harmless, ghostly fun.  Until spirits unleashed by the game start showing up at school.  Now my friends and family are in very real danger, and the door that I've opened into another realm may yield deadly consequences.

I purchased the following at garage sales or our library used book store:

Marie, Dancing
The Vampire Book: The Encyclopedia of the Undead
The Devil's Labyrinth: A Novel
Bluegate Fields: A Charlotte and Thomas Pitt Novel (Book Six)
1st to Die: A Novel (Women's Murder Club, No 1)
3rd Degree (Patterson, James)
4th of July (Woman's Murder Club)
Deadly Night (The Flynn Brothers Trilogy)
Deadly Harvest (Flynn Brothers Trilogy)
Hornet's Nest (Andy Brazil)
Cruel and Unusual: A Kay Scarpetta Novel


What books came home to you last week?