Hilton, Matt. Judgement and Wrath. ($32 Hodder and Stoughton) Signed
'Some call me a vigilante. I think I've just got problems to fix.'
Joe
Hunter doesn't like bullies. So his latest job - saving a young woman
from her bully boyfriend - is a no-brainer. Hunter's only worry is that
the man who hired him is looking for more than protection for his
daughter. One thing Hunter has never been, and never will be, is a
killer-for-hire.
As it turns out, the vengeful father isn't the
only one who wants the boyfriend dead. Soon Hunter is face-to-face with
a contract killer who takes his work very seriously.
Dantalion
has a talent for killing and keeps a list of his victims in a book
chained to his waist. Each victim is numbered. And the body count is
about to start rising . . .
Kava, Alex. Black Friday ($25) Signed
On
the busiest shopping day of the year, some idealistic college students
believe they're about to carry out an elaborate media stunt at the
largest mall in America. They think the jamming devices in their
backpacks will disrupt stores' computer systems, causing delays and ch
aos.
What they don't realize is that instead of jamming devices, their
backpacks are stuffed with explosives, ready to be detonated by remote
control and turning them into suicide bombers.Caught up in a
political nightmare, battling a new interim director and still mourning
the death of her boss A. D. Cunningham, FBI profiler Maggie O'Dell must
put her own troubles aside and fly to Minnesota to help figure out
what's behind this terrorist attack—a massacre that is all the more
frightening because no group has claimed responsibility.
The
search becomes personal when a tip reveals that one of the college
students involved is Patrick, Maggie's brother. Afraid and on the run,
Patrick must decide if he can finally trust Maggie enough to help her
unravel this horrifying nightmare.
Sifting through the debris for
answers, Maggie is joined by Nick Morrelli, who has recently taken a
job with a national security company that oversees security for the
mall. Although Maggie and Nick have investigated several cases together
in the past, they've never investigated a relationship with each other.
Nick would like to change that.
When an informant confides in
Maggie that there are other attacks on the secret agenda, she knows
that she's running out of time. In less than twenty-four hours she'll
need to figure out exactly when and where the second attack will take
place, who to look for and how to keep her brother from becoming one of
the casualties.
Kellerman, Jonathan. Evidence ($30) Signed
#1 New York Times
bestselling author Jonathan Kellerman writes unforgettable tales of
crime and detection that expose the shadowy side of glittering Los
Angeles. And in Evidence, readers are once again in the dexterous grip of a master storyteller and stylist equally skilled at tea
sing your brain and taking your breath away.
In the half-built skeleton of a monstrously vulgar mansion in one of L.A.’s toniest neighborhoods,
a watchman stumbles on the bodies of a young couple–murdered in
flagrante and left in a gruesome postmortem embrace. Though he’s
cracked some of the city’s worst slayings, veteran homicide cop Milo
Sturgis is still shocked at the grisly sight: a twisted crime that only
Milo’s killer instincts–and psychologist Alex Delaware’s keen
insights–can hope to solve.
While the female victim’s identity
remains a question mark, her companion is ID’d as eco-friendly
architect Desmond Backer, who disdains the sort of grandiose
superstructure he’s found dead in. And the late Mr. Backer, it’s
revealed was also notorious for his power to seduce women.
The
rare exception is his ex-boss, Helga Gemein, who’s as indifferent to
Desmond’s death as she apparently was to his advances. Though Milo and
Alex place her on their short list of suspects, the deeper they dig for
clues the longer the list grows. An elusive prince who appears to
harbor decidedly American appetites, an eccentric blueblood with an ax
to grind, one of Desmond’s restless ex-lovers and her cuckolded
husband–all are in the homicidal mix spiced with eco-terrorism, arson,
blackmail, conspiracy, and a vendetta that runs deep. But when the
investigation veers suddenly in a startling direction, it’s the
investigators who may wind up on the wrong end of a cornered predator’s
final fury.
Muller, Marcia. Locked In ($27) Signed
Shot
in the head by an unknown assailant, San Francisco private eye Sharon
McCone finds herself trapped by locked-in syndrome: almost total
paralysis but an alert, conscious mind. Since the late-night attack
occurred at her agency's offices, the natural conclusion was that it
was connected to one of the firm's cases. As Sharon lies in her
hospital bed, furiously trying to break out of her body's prison and
discover her attacker's identity, all the members of her agency fan out
to find the reason why she was assaulted. Meanwhile, Sharon becomes a
locked-in detective, evaluating the clues from her staff's separate
investigations and discovering unsettling truths that could put her
life in jeopardy again. As the case draws to a surprising and
even shocking conclusion, Sharon's husband, Hy, must decide whether or
not to surrender to his own violent past and exact fatal vengeance when
the person responsible is identified.
Kirkus, starred review,
"Throughout her many McCone novels, Muller has displayed a knack both
for keeping the series fresh and for allowing her character to grow.
She accomplishes both goals this time by taking McCone out of the
spotlight but giving her fans a chance to root for her to recover.
After all these years, Muller's series remains a gold standard for
female detective stories."