Having Bad Thoughts?

If you are having Bad Thoughts, don't despair--Dave Zeltserman is here to help them survive! Bad Thoughts is Zeltserman's newest book and it is a real page turner. The premise of the mystery is this: Detective Bill Shannon works in Cambridge and has recurring blackouts, usually once a year around the anniversary date of a horrific psychological event. He has been trying desperately for years to manage the blackouts, but nothing seems to work, including drowning the darkness with alchohol. The real clencher is that when he was thirteen, he came home to discover his mother being assaulted and the criminal waiting for him. Shannon suffered unspeakable torture at the hands of this person, and his mother ended up being murdered. Now, Shannon must continue to heal himself, pick up the pieces of his marriage, and find the source of his blackouts as he tries to solve the case of a serial killer who is assaulting victims in a weirdly similar manner to the way Shannon's mother was assaulted. As the evidence grows, suspicion begins to point towards Shannon's involvement in the murders, and soon Shannon's partner, wife, fellow police officers and his therapist begin to believe that Shannon's blackouts have something to do with the crimes. If you want to know true evil, try reading this book--I suggest you do not read it alone!!! This fast-moving thriller is chock full of twists, and is a mix between a mystery and a horror story. It is gritty and gory but a real treat for readers who love their mysteries taut and with a taste of the occult.

Take a Sip from a Strange Brew

Strange Brew is a collection of tales of powerful witches and dark magic, from nine contemporary urban fantasy authors: Patricia Briggs, Jim Butcher, Rachel Caine, Karen Chance, P. N. Elrod, Charlaine Harris, Faith Hunter, Catilin Kittredge and Jenna Maclaine. If you like tales of revenge and magic, witches, vampires, werewolves and wizards, then this collection of stories is the perfect book for you. Edited by P. N. Elrod, each story is approximately 40 pages long and can be read quickly. If you do not currently read some of the above authors, this book is the perfect way to explore a "taste" of their writing, and perhaps be encouraged to read other stories they have written. Sit a spell, open this book and lose yourself in a different reality!

Chilly Reads for a Hot Night

With the weather hot and humid it’s the perfect time to read something that gives you the chills. Here are just a few of the new books that have come in recently.

“The Memory Collector” by Meg Gardiner takes us to the San Francisco of Jo Beckett. Her specialty is psychological autopsy—an investigation into a person’s life to determine whether a death was natural, accidental, suicide, or homicide. She has dubbed herself a deadshrinker instead of a headshrinker. The silence is a key part of the job’s attraction. Her next case is that of an airline passenger that is behaving erratically and she figures out he has anteretrograde amnesia and can’t form new memories. Jo finds herself racing to save a patient who can walk and talk yet can’t help her figure out just what happened to him. For every cryptic clue he is able to drag up from his memory, Jo has to sift through a dozen nonsensical statements. Suddenly a string of clues arises—something to do with a superdeadly biological agent codenamed “Slick,” missing people and a secret partnership gone horribly wrong. Jo realizes her patient’s addled mind may hold the key to prevent something from happening in her beloved San Francisco. In order to prevent it she will have to get deeper into the life of a patient than she ever has before, hoping the truth emerges from the fog of his mind in time to save her city and herself.

“Skeleton Justice” by Dr. Michael Baden & Linda K. Baden is set in New York City and features Dr. Jake Rosen and Manny Manfreda. A bizarre serial killer has emerged. He stalks his victims for the purpose of extracting a vial of blood, earning him the tabloid nickname the Vampire. As the attacks become more and more vicious and escalate to torture and then to murder, Jake and Manny begin t suspect there is a connection between the killer’s seemingly random victims. But what is the link between the Vampire and a case that Manny’s been working for a kid whose high school prank-gone-wrong has earned him the moniker the Preppy Terrorist and an FBI electronic bracelet? Jake’s careful forensic examinations, Manny’s courtroom tenaciousness, and an unusual clue suggesting that a high-ranking politician has risen from the grave take the pair from the bowels of the morgue to the worlds of international intrigue.

“Dismantled” by Jennifer McMahon introduces us to Henry, Tess, Winnie, and Suz, who banded together in college to form a group called the Compassionate Dismantlers. Following the first rule of their manifesto—“To understand the nature of a thing it must be taken apart”—these daring misfits spend the summer after graduation in a remote cabin the Vermont woods committing acts of meaningful vandalism and plotting elaborate, often dangerous, pranks. But everything changes when one particularly twisted experiment ends in Suz’s death and the others decide to cover it up. Nearly a decade later, Henry and Tess are living just an hour’s drive from the old cabin. Each is desperate to move on from the summer of the Dismantlers but their guilt isn’t ready to let them go. When a victim of their past pranks commits suicide—apparently triggered by a mysterious Dismantler-style postcard—it sets off a chain of eerie events that threatens to engulf Henry, Tess, and their inquisitive nine-year-old daughter, Emma. Is there someone who wants to reveal their secrets? Is it possible that Suz did not really die—or has she somehow found a way back to seek revenge?

“Roadside Crosses” by Jeffrey Deaver is the third in the High-Tech Thriller Trilogy. The Monterey Peninsula is rocked when a killer begins to leave roadside crosses beside local highways—not in memoriam, but as announcements of his intention to kill, and to kill in particularly horrific and efficient ways: using the personal details about the victims that they’ve carelessly posted in blogs and on social networking websites. The case lands on the desk of Kathryn Dance, the California Bureau of Investigation’s foremost kinesics expert. She and Deputy Michael O’Neil follow the leads to Travis Brigham, a troubled teenager whose role in a fatal car accident has inspired vicious attacks against him on a popular blog, The Chilton Report. As the investigation progresses, Travis vanishes. Using techniques he learned as a brilliant participant in MMORPGs, he easily eludes his pursuers and continues to track his victims, some of whom Kathryn is able to save, some not. Among the obstacles Kathryn must hurdle are politicians, paranoid parents, and the blogger himself, James Chilton, whose belief in the importance of blogging and the new media threatens to derail the case and potentially Dance’s career. It is this threat that causes Dance to take desperate and risky measures.

"The Neighbor” by Lisa Gardner opens when a young, pretty mother disappears without a trace from her South Boston home, leaving behind her four-year-old daughter as the only witness and her handsome, secretive husband as her prime suspect. But from the moment Detective Sergeant D.D. Warren arrives at the Joneses’ snug little bungalow, she senses something off about the picture of wholesome normality the couple worked so hard to create. On the surface, Jason and Sandra Jones were like any other hardworking young couple raising a child. But just under the surface things grew murkier. With the clock ticking on the life of a missing woman and the media firestorm building, Jason Jones seems more intent on destroying evidence and isolating his daughter than searching for his “beloved” wife. Is the perfect husband trying to hide his guilt—or just trying to hide? And will the only witness to the crime be the killer’s next victim?

Visit the Tunnels

Michelle Gagnon's debut mystery novel, The Tunnels, is an edge-of-your-seat story of suspense and intrigue. The setting of the story is an old, abandoned tunnel system lying beneath a prestigious New England college, that becomes the gruesome stalking grounds of a serial killer. When the bodies of two female students are found mutilated and oddly positioned in the tunnel labyrinth, in a darkly ritual manner, FBI Special Agent Kelly Jones is called in to help. Jones has tracked serial killers for ten years, but the killings that have occured at her alma mater have left her feeling unhinged. All of the victims have at least one glaring thing in common--they are all the daughters of powerful men. Special Agent Jones follows the killer as he spirals further down his dark path. Soon, Kelly realizes that the killer is taunting her and that in order to track him down, she must commit to going down a path she is not sure she'll return from. Kelly Jones is a great heroine--tough, committed and likable, and her attitude helps move along the action of the book. This thriller is definitely a story that you will have a hard time putting down!

Women's Fiction

Waiting for Daybreak by Kathryn Cushman

This was my first time to read a book by this author. I was captured from the very beginning. The setting takes place at a small town pharmacy.Clarissa Richardson is pharmacist at her grandfather’s pharmacy. She aims to please her grandfather so that he’ll allow her to open her own pharmacy in a building that her deceased grandmother worked in. Clarissa’s grandfather meets Paige Woodward and is impressed with her compassion for people and her customer service. He hires Paige to work for Clarissa at his pharmacy without asking Clarissa’s permission. Paige accepts his offer because this will allow her to move back home with her parents and help with the cost of her mother’s experimental cancer treatment. A battle of wills takes place because Clarissa doesn’t agree with her grandfather’s decision to hire Paige. Clarissa hires a private investigator and schemes against Paige. Paige realizes what Clarissa is doing but is determined to stand her ground because of her need to support her family. There are some very dramatic scenes and you’ll not be disappointed with the outcome of this novel. Check out the author’s website at http://www.kathryncushman.com/

Take a Vanilla Ride

Vanilla Ride is the new novel by Joe R. Lansdale, starring Hap Collins and Leonard Pine, best friends who are also trouble makers and guys with the best intentions. In this book, they once again stumble into a bad situation, this time with several members of the Dixie Mafia. Hap Collins is from East Texas and Leonard Collins is a gay, black, veteran who's heart is pining for his lost love. An old friend asks Leonard to rescue his daughter from an abusive drug dealer and he agrees, and invites Hap along to help him. The drug dealer is a member of the Dixie Mafia, and even though he is on the bottom rung of the organization's ladder, when Hap and Leonard rough him up, the mafia feels obligated to give back some revenge of their own. Hap and Leonard narrowly escape, but end up on the radar of Vanilla Ride, the legendary hit man who's goal is to eliminate them as a threat. Set in Texas, this page-turning, filled with humor novel will carry readers along for the ride throughout all of the pages of the book. The first novel in the Hap and Leonard series is Savage Season; this book gives great background on how Hap and Leonard became friends.

Find Yourself Neverwhere

Nail Gaiman is one of the most interesting and talented writers in the world of fantasy! A friend of mine insisted I read Neverwhere this past week, and I really enjoyed every moment of the book. The book is centered around the life of Richard Mayhew, who moves from Scotland to London for a new job, and is leading a perfectly average life until Lady Door comes crashing, literally, into his path. Rescuing Door from the people who are chasing her leads Richard into the dark, mysterious Underside world of London, where he encounters many strange and wondrous creatures and humans. Gaiman weaves a beautiful story, intermingled with wonderful descriptions of the encounters Richard makes. Richard ends up helping Door on her quest to discover and avenge the folks who killed her family, and along the way they gather a ragtag group of friends who are on their own quests. The book is magical and complex and intense, and I believe that once you start it, you won't be able to quit until you finish it! Neil Gaiman was born in Portchester, England, but now lives in Minnesota. Check out Neil Gaiman's website at http://www.neilgaiman.com/

Have a Date with a Demon Mistress

Yasmine Galenorn's latest book, Demon Mistress is the sixth novel in the series starring the D'Artigo sisters, three half-Fae/half-human women who work for the Otherworld Intelligence Agency and are stationed on Earth. Camille D'Artigo is a witch, Delilah is a changeling (she transforms into a cat) and Menolly is a vampire. Demon Mistress focuses on Menolly mainly, and is told from her point of view, although the reader does receive information about the lives of the other two sisters and all of the D'Artigo's assorted fae, demon and human friends. I am not a big fan of fantasy novels, but this series has hooked me from the beginning! The sisters take part in an on-going battle with demons from Otherworld, who keep coming Earthside through portals that have been opened between both worlds. The battles are ferocious and the day-to-day lives of the sisters are enjoyable, as is the interactions between the three of them. There are some detailed descriptions of intimate encounters, in this book, but they add to the book's appeal. This is another great entry in this series and I look forward to many more! Be sure to check out her web site at http://www.galenorn.com/