The Suspense is Killing Me!

     The titles for this week are new paperback fiction. Each one is contains a story full of mystery and suspense. They are perfect for reading while relaxing on the beach!

     “The Secrets of Lizzie Borden” is a novel by Brandy Purdy. This fictionalized account of the life of Lizzie Borden draws on the real events surrounding the murder of her father and step-mother. Lizzie and her sister Emma should have been fortunate young women. Their father was wealthy and could have easily afforded to give his daughters every modern convenience along with fashionable clothes, travel and a cultured life. However, the Fall River, Massachusetts businessman was haunted by his own childhood poverty and forced his daughters to live frugally, denying them modern conveniences like indoor plumbing and electric lighting. Suitors, too, were discouraged because Mr. Borden viewed all gentleman callers as fortune hunters. Lizzie is lonely and extremely unhappy, but she suppresses her frustrations while dreaming of the freedom and wealth she will have upon her father’s death. On a hot day in August 1892, Lizzie’s long simmering anger explodes.

     “Mermaid Moon” is a Sunset Cove Novel by Colleen Coble. Mallory Davis has stayed away from her home for the last fifteen years out of shame and confusion. When her dad mysteriously dies on his mail boat route, she has no choice but to return to Mermaid Point. Mallory comes to believe that her father was murdered and those suspicions are confirmed when Kevin O’Connor, game warden in Downeast Maine, comes to the same conclusion. Kevin is apprehensive about helping Mallory in her search for the truth; after all, she broke his heart and left without a word all those years ago. Mallory and her beloved daughter Haylie begin receiving death threats as they untangle the web surrounding the murder. Mallory must stay alive long enough to put all the pieces together. And maybe, just maybe, she can find herself again.

   “Angels Burning” is a psychological thriller by Tawni O’Dell. Dove Carnahan has lived all of her fifty years in same Pennsylvanian countryside. She is a trailblazer who, as the current police chief, is faced with investigating the most brutal crime in her career. A girl’s body has been found in a fiery sinkhole in an abandoned coal town. She is identified as a daughter of the Truly family—notorious antagonistic rednecks and petty criminals.  Chief Carnahan’s troubles are compounded when the man who was convicted of killing her mother years earlier is released from prison. He still proclaims his innocence and his accusations will force the Chief to examine the parallels between her own family’s trauma and that of the Trulys.