The Professionals E To M

E TO M

September 5, 2010

Freeman, Brian. THE BURYING PLACE. Minotaur Books. May '10. $24.99. Fifth in the series. "One cold night. Two shocking mysteries. In the quiet town of Grand Rapids, Minnesota, a baby vanishes from her bedroom in an opulent lakeside home. Was she abducted - or does her father have a terrible secret to hide? That same night, a young policewoman gets lost in the fog and stumbles into the middle of a horrific crime. Now a sadistic killer wants her to play his deadly game. Lieutenant Jonathan Stride and his team need to move fast to save a child and stop a vicious killing spree. As fear grips the frozen winter farm lands, Stride knows that every snow-covered field may be the next burying place. Each twist in the investigation takes Stride into an elaborate web of deceit and desire. But his biggest obstacles may be the very people he's trying to help. With everything at risk and time running out, Stride worries how far a desperate mother will go to rescue her baby - and how far a desperate cop will go to save herself." Simultaneous release on MP3 CD from Blackstone Audio.

Freeman, Brian. IN THE DARK. Minotaur Books. April '10. $7.99. "Two young lovers. A sultry summer night. One brutal, cold-blooded murder. In this stunning, atmospheric thriller, Brian Freeman takes you deep into Detective Jonathan Stride's complicated past, It's the case that has haunted Stride for thirty years. During the summer after his junior year of high school, he fell in love with beautiful Cindy Starr, the girl who would become his wife. But on the Fourth of July, the same night that Jonny and Cindy cemented their love, Cindy's older sister Laura was savagely murdered. The police suspected a vagrant of committing the crime, but no one was ever arrested, and the case was closed. Now, Laura's best friend Tish Verdure has returned to Duluth to write a book about Laura's death. Tish knows secrets that a lot of people would like to keep hidden, including information about Cindy that leave Stride questioning his entire past. When a young girl is found drowned in the St. Louis River and a witness to the original murder attempts suicide, Stride realizes that the violence of the past is spilling over into the present. As he unearths the explosive events that led to Laura's murder, Stride discovers that the ripples of her death changed everyone's lives, including his own. Can Stride put to rest the ghosts of his past, or will they devour him whole?"

Funaro, Gregory. THE SCULPTOR. Pinnacle Books. January '10. $6.99. "KILLING IS AN ART. In life, they were flawed. In death, they are perfect works of art - killed, preserved, and carefully molded into replicas of Michelangelo's most celebrated creations. Only The Sculptor can bring forth their true beauty and teach the world to appreciate his gift. HE IS THE MASTER. FBI Special Agent Sam Markham has a reputation for tracking serial killers, but this artful adversary is meticulous, disciplined, and more ruthless than any he's encountered. The only clue is a note dedicating the latest 'statue' to Cathy Hildebrant, an art historian who shares Sam's fear that the killing has just begun. AND SHE IS THE PERFECT SUBJECT. In a quiet Rhode Island town, The Sculptor shapes his latest macabre creation, waiting for Cathy to draw nearer so that his message can be understood at last. And the only way to save her is for Sam to unlock a psychopath's twisted mind before his final, terrifying masterpiece is revealed..."

Gericke, Shane. TORN APART. Pinnacle Books. July '10. $6.99. "A teenage girl, brutalized and discarded. A rural sheriff, gunned down and let to die. A beloved landmark, destroyed in an instant. A tidal wave of violence is rushing full-speed toward the quiet Chicago suburb of Naperville, Illinois. Detective Emily Thompson is locked and loaded - ready to stop the bloody crime spree in its tracks. But she's up against a deadly countdown that threatens everyone she knows and loves... Her partner. Her best friend. Her whole world. In these final desperate hours, Emily will bring down the most diabolical killer she has ever faced - or die trying."

Gerritsen, Tess. ICE COLD: A Rizzoli & Isles Novel. Ballantine Books. July '10. $26.00. "New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen's relentless, inventive novels take readers on pulse-racing thrill rides that are as satisfying as they are heart-stopping. Now, in this edge-of-your-seat suspense novel, a mysteriously isolated town stands abandoned as a silent watcher waits. In Wyoming for a medical conference, Boston medical examiner Maura Isles joins a group of friends on a spur-of-the-moment ski trip. But when their SUV stalls on a snow-choked mountain road, they're stranded with no help in sight. As night falls, the group seeks refuge from the blizzard in the remote village of Kingdom Come, where twelve eerily identical houses stand dark and abandoned. Something terrible has happened in Kingdom Come: Meals sit untouched on tables, cars are still parked in garages. The town's previous residents seem to have vanished into thin air, but footprints in the snow betray the presence of someone who still lurks in the cold darkness - someone who is watching Maura and her friends. Days later, Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli receives the grim news that Maura's charred body has been found in a mountain ravine. Shocked and grieving, Jane is determined to learn what happened to her friend. The investigation plunges Jane into the twisted history of Kingdom Come, where a gruesome discovery lies buried beneath the snow. As horrifying revelations come to light, Jane closes in on an enemy both powerful and merciless - and the chilling truth about Maura's fate."

Hall, M.R. THE DISAPPEARED. Simon & Schuster. December '09. $24.99. "In the bestselling tradition of Patricia Cornwell's Kay Scarpetta, M.R. Hall heroine Jenny Cooper makes her debut as a coroner with a detective's eye and a woman with a home life as complicated as her cases. In this brilliant debut, Jenny investigates the disappearance of two young Muslim students, who vanished without a trace seven years ago. The police had concluded that the boys, under surveillance for some time for suspicion of terrorism, had fled to Pakistan to traffic in the atrocities of Islamic fanaticism. Now, sufficient time has passed for the law to declare the boys legally dead. A final declaration is left up to a coroner, Jenny Cooper. As Jenny's official inquest progresses, the stench of corruption is unmistakable. Not only does it appear that British Security Services played a role, but the involvement of an American intelligence agent soon makes it clear that a vast conspiracy is in play. As Jenny builds an ever-strengthening case implicating a shocking collection of power and influence, she meets with a determined and increasingly menacing resistance. When she links the students' 'vanishing' to the unidentified corpse of a beautiful young woman and the fate of a missing nuclear scientist, Jenny is forced into an arena in which she is pushed to the breaking point and beyond. She must struggle with her own inner demons while fighting a lone and desperate battle to bring an unspeakable crime to justice." Available in paperback. Pan Books. October '10.

Hoag, Tami. DEEPER THAN THE DEAD. Dutton. January '10. $26.95. "California, 1984. Three children, running in the woods behind their school, stumble upon a partially buried female body, eyes and mouth glued shut. Close behind the children is their teacher, Anne Navarre, shocked by this discovery and heartbroken as she witnesses the end of their innocence. What she doesn't yet realize is that this will mark the end of innocence for an entire community, as the ties that bind families and friends are tested by secrets uncovered in the wake of a serial killer's escalating activity. Detective Tony Mendez, fresh from a law enforcement course at FBI headquarters, is charged with interpreting those now revealed secrets. He's using a new technique - profiling - to develop a theory of the case, a strategy that pushes him ever deeper into the lives of the three children, and closer to the young teacher whose interest in recent events becomes as intense as his own. As new victims are found and the media scrutiny of the investigation bears down on them, both Mendez and Navarre are unsure if those who suffer most are the victims themselves -or the family and friends of the killer, blissfully unaware that someone very close to them is a brutal, calculating psychopath." Simultaneous release on Audio CD from Random House Audio. Available in paperback. Signet Books. November '10. $9.99.

James, P.D. THE PRIVATE PATIENT. Seal Books. December '09. $15.00. "Cheverell Manor is a lovely old house in deepest Dorset, now a private clinic belonging to the famous plastic surgeon George Chandler-Powell. When investigative journalist Rhoda Gradwyn arrived there one late autumn afternoon, scheduled to have a disfiguring and long-standing facial scar removed, she had every expectation of a successful operation and a pleasant week recuperating. Two days later she was dead, the victim of murder. To Commander Adam Dalgliesh, who with his team is called in to investigate the case, the mystery at first seems absolute. Few things about it make sense. Yet as the detectives begin probing the lives and backgrounds of those connected with the dead woman - the surgeon, members of the manor staff, close acquaintances - suspects multiply all too rapidly. New confusions arise, including strange historical overtones of madness and a lynching 350 years in the past. Then there is a second murder, and Dalgliesh finds himself confronted by issues even more challenging than innocence or guilt."

Johnson, Craig. THE DARK HORSE: A Walt Longmire Mystery. Penguin Books. June '10. $14.00. Fifth in the series. "Wade Barsad, a man with a dubious past, locked his wife's horses in their barn and burned the animals alive. In return, Mary shot Wade in the head six times - or so the story goes. Walt doesn't believe Mary's confession, and he's determined to dig deeper. Posing as an insurance claims investigator, Walt soon discovers other people who might have wanted Wade dead, including a beautiful Guatemalan bartender and a rancher with a taste for liquor, but not for honesty. Interweaving classic noir sensibilities with contemporary themes of social justice, Craig Johnson's popular Walt Longmire mysteries transport readers to the sparse and rugged landscape of Wyoming. Featuring his signature sense of humor and his inimitable cast of characters, THE DARK HORSE will keep readers guessing, as Walt ventures into a town without pity to save a woman without hope. It's a unfriendly place - something that's fine with Longmire, who is looking for the truth, not friends."

Kaminsky, Stuart M. A WHISPER TO THE LIVING. Forge Books. February '10. $23.99. "A WHISPER TO THE LIVING continues the adventures (some would say trials and tribulations) of Inspector Porfiry Petrovich Rostnikov, an honest policeman in a very dishonest post-Soviet Union. Rostnikov is one of the most engaging and relevant characters in crime fiction, a sharp and caring policeman as well as the perfect tour guide to a changing Russia. Rostnikov and his team are searching for a serial killer who has claimed at least 40 victims. And then there is the problem of protecting a visiting British journalist who is working on a story about a Moscow prostitution ring...and in doing so Rostnikov and his team uncover a chain of murders that lead to a source too high to be held accountable if the police want to keep their jobs - or their lives." Available in trade paperback.February '11. $13.99.

Lawrence, C.E. SILENT SCREAMS. Pinnacle Books pbo. December '09. $6.99. "A Deranged Killer's Twisted Urges... In the streets of New York City, the Slasher chooses his victim - and makes his move. As he wraps his fingers around the girl's pretty throat, his power increases. As he carves into her skin, his words become flesh. As he arranges her lifeless body in a loving tableau, his fantasies demand new, more violent sacrifices... A Profiler's Cunning Plan... At first, NYPD detectives suspect a jealous boyfriend. But criminal profiler Lee Campbell senses something darker, even ritualistic, about the murder. More chilling, he's convinced he's witnessing the genesis of a full-blown serial killer. But time is running out. A new victim has been chosen. Campbell must search the most terrifying recesses of the human mind - and his own past - before the screaming starts again..."

Lovesey, Peter. SKELETON HILL: An Inspector Peter Diamond Investigation. Soho Crime. October '10. $14.00. "On Lansdown Hill, near Bath, a battle between Roundheads and Cavaliers that took place over 350 years ago is annually reenacted. Two of the re-enactors discover a skeleton that is female, headless, and only about twenty years old. One of them, a professor who played a Cavalier, is later found murdered. In the course of his investigation, Peter Diamond butts heads with the group of vigilantes who call themselves the Lansdown Society, discovering in the process that his boss Georgina is a member. She resolves to sideline Diamond, but matters don't pan out in accordance with her plans."

McCullough, Colleen. TOO MANY MURDERS: A Carmine Delmonico Novel. Simon & Schuster. December '09. $26.00. The sequel to ON, OFF. "The year is 1967, and the world teeters on the brink of nuclear holocaust as the Cold War goes relentlessly on. On a beautiful spring day in the little city of Holloman, Connecticut, home to prestigious Chubb University and armaments giant Cornucopia, chief of detectives Captain Carmine Delmonico has more pressing concerns than finding a name for his infant son: twelve murders have taken place in one day, and Delmonico is drawn into a gruesome web of secrets and lies. Supported by his detective sergeants Abe Goldberg and Corey Marshall and new team member the meticulous Delia Carstairs, Delmonico embarks on what looks like an unsolvable mystery. All the murders are different and they all seem unconnected. Are they dealing with one killer, or many? How is the murder of Dee-Dee Hall, a local prostitute, related to the deaths of a mother and her disabled child? How is Chubb student Evan Pugh connected to Desmond Skeps, head of Cornucopia? And as if twelve murders were not enough, Carmine soon finds himself pitted against the mysterious Ulysses, a spy giving Cornucopia's armaments secrets to the Russians. Are the murders and espionage different cases, or are they somehow linked? When FBI special agent Ted Kelly makes himself part of the investigation, it appears the stakes are far higher than anyone had imagined, and murder is only one part of the puzzle in the set of crimes that has sent Holloman into a panic. As the overtaxed police force contends with small town politics, academic rivalry and corporate greed, the death toll mounts, and Carmine and his team discover that the answers are not what they seem - but then, are they ever?" Available in trade paperback. November '10. $15.00.

McManus, Patrick F. THE HUCKLEBERRY MURDERS: A Sheriff Bo Tully Mystery. Simon & Schuster. November '10. $25.00. Fourth in the series. "When an elderly rancher disappears from Blight County, rumors of murder spread fast. But until Sheriff Bo Tully finds the body, he can't be sure foul play was involved. Accusations fly, checks are cashed, and when four bodies are discovered in a huckleberry patch, Tully has his hands full in this latest romp through the wilds of Idaho."

Morrell, David. THE SHIMMER. Vanguard. June '10. $7.99. "When police officer Dan Page's wife disappears, her trail leads to Rostov, a remote Texas town where unexplained phenomena draws hundreds of spectators each night. Not merely curious, these onlookers are compelled to reach this tiny community and gaze at the mysterious Rostov lights. But more than the faithful are drawn there. A gunman begins shooting at the lights, screaming 'Go back to hell where you came from!' then turns his rifle on the bystanders. As more and more people are drawn to the scene of the massacre, the stage is set for even greater bloodshed. To save his wife, Page must solve the mystery of the Rostov Lights. In the process, he uncovers a deadly government secret dating back to the First World War. The lights are more dangerous than anyone ever imagined, but even more deadly are those who try to exploit forces beyond their control."

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