Books-By-Mail BOOKLIST Dec 2012/Jan 2013 Large Print Best-sellers/Best-selling Authors — Fiction Balogh, Mary The Secret Mistress While Lady Angeline Dudley’s pedigree dictates that she must land a titled gentleman, the irrepressible beauty longs for a simple, ordinary suitor. So when Edward Ailsbury, the new Earl of Heyward, defends her honor with unmatched civility, Angeline thinks that she has found true love. Persuading the earl is another matter entirely. From her unconventional fashion sense to her hoydenish antics, Angeline is the last woman on earth for Edward. And yet a stolen kiss awakens something within him. Naturally, being a gentleman, he does the right thing after compromising a lady: He offers marriage. The proposal is born of duty, but will Angeline cause Edward to forget about decorum behind closed doors? Brown, Dale Tiger’s Claw When China increases its naval presence in the Pacific and develops advanced weapons technology that targets American ships with lethal accuracy, it imperils American military superiority. Can the United States, in the wake of an economic recession and decreased military spending, compete with its cash-rich Chinese enemy? This question can be answered only when U.S.-China tensions blow up in an epic battle for supreme dominion of the Pacific. Brown, Sandra Low Pressure In this romantic thriller, Bellamy Price hopes that her pseudonymous debut novel will be therapeutic. Instead, its publishing success reopens many old wounds in Austin, Texas, when Bellamy’s identity becomes known, and the public learns the novel is based on the murder of her sister, Susan, 18 years before. Among those most upset is Denton Carter, Susan’s one-time boyfriend and original prime suspect. Another is Ray Strickland, the brother of the man who was convicted of the crime and later killed in prison. When both Bellamy and Denton are targeted in attacks, digging further into Susan’s murder becomes imperative for both. As they re-examine the unsavory roles played by officials involved in the case, Bellamy must face new truths about Susan and other members of her family. Chabon, Michael Telegraph Avenue As the summer of 2004 draws to a close, African-American Archy Stallings and Jewish Nat Jaffe — longtime friends, band-mates, and co-owners of Brokeland Records, a funky, vintage used-vinyl store located in the borderlands of Berkeley and Oakland, are still hanging on to their dreams in a suppressed economy. Their wives, Gwen Shanks and Aviva Roth-Jaffe, are the Berkeley Birth Partners, two semi- legendary midwives who have welcomed more than a thousand newly minted citizens into the dented utopia at whose heart — half-tavern, half-temple — stands their husband’s music store. When ex–NFL quarterback Gibson Goode, the fifth-richest black man in America, announces plans to build his latest Dogpile megastore on a nearby stretch of Telegraph Avenue, Nat and Archy fear it means certain doom for their vulnerable little enterprise. Meanwhile, Aviva and Gwen find themselves caught up in a battle for their professional existence, one that tests the limits of their friendship. Adding another layer of complication to the couples' already tangled lives is the surprise appearance of Titus Joyner, the teenage son Archy has never acknowledged, who quickly becomes the love of 15-year-old Julius, the Jaffe's gay son’s, life. Cornwell, Patricia The Bone Bed A paleontologist has vanished while digging in the remote wilderness of Canada. Somehow, the only evidence has made its way to the inbox of Chief Medical Examiner Kay Scarpetta, over 2,000 miles away in Boston, and she has no idea why. As events unfold with alarming speed, Scarpetta begins to suspect that the woman’s disappearance is connected to a series of crimes much closer to home: a gruesome murder, inexplicable tortures, and trace evidence from the last living creatures of the dinosaur age. When she turns to those around her, Scarpetta finds that danger and suspicion have penetrated even her closest circles. Her niece Lucy speaks in riddles. Her lead investigator, Pete Marino, and FBI forensic psychologist and husband, Benton Wesley, have secrets of their own. Feeling alone and betrayed, Scarpetta is tempted toward indiscretion by someone from her past as she tracks a killer both cunning and cruel. Deaver, Jeffery XO Obsessive fan Edwin Sharp really likes singer/songwriter Kayleigh Towne. Since receiving the computer- generated email thanking him for his interest in her, he's written back 50 times, effortlessly dodging the attempts of her protective staff to throw him off her scent. He knows everything about her and her entourage — her father and mentor, Bishop Towne; assistant, Alicia Sessions; producer, Barry Zeigler; and her chief roadie Bobby Prescott — so when she returns to her hometown of Fresno for a concert, of course he's on hand, with both courtesy and insinuating smiles. Kayleigh's old friend, Kathryn Dance, kinesics specialist with the California Bureau of Investigation is also on hand, but she can't read Edwin's body language. He's either completely honest or completely delusional. When Sharp becomes the prime suspect in the murder of one of Towne’s road crew, Dance can't resist elbowing her way into the investigation that the bullheaded sheriff's deputy P.K. Madigan launches. In the absence of any hard evidence against Edwin, however, the sheriff has to let him go, and the violence escalates in this extra-twisty case. Dekker, Ted The Sanctuary Vigilante priest, Danny Hansen is serving a 50-year prison term in California for the murder of two abusive men. Filled with remorse, Danny is determined to live out his days by a code of non-violence and maneuvers deftly within a ruthless prison system. But when Renee Gilmore, the woman he loves, receives a box containing a bloody finger and demands from a mysterious enemy on the outside, Danny must find a way to escape. They are both drawn into a terrifying game of life and death. If Renee fails, the priest will die; if Danny fails, Renee will die. And the body count will not stop at two. This thriller relentlessly plumbs the depths of punishment and rehabilitation, both in a flawed corrections system and in the human heart. Dietrich, William The Emerald Storm In the fifth installment of Dietrich’s adventure series, the swashbuckling, battle-scarred hero Ethan Gage must race from the slopes of the Alps to the sultry tropics of the Caribbean to pursue a mysterious Spanish treasure as the fate of England — and of the world’s first successful slave revolt — hang in the balance. DeMille, Nelson The Panther After being baited by their boss, former NYPD detective John Corey and his FBI agent wife, Kate Mayfield volunteer for the dangerous mission of hunting Yemeni-American, al Numair, aka “The Panther,” one of the Al Qaeda masterminds behind the attack on the USS Cole that killed 17 American sailors in 2000. Once in Yemen, and they find themselves at the top of Al Qaeda's assassination list. A corrupt and ineffective government barely controls the cities, tribal chiefs rule the hinterlands, and U.S. operatives fear that Al Qaeda is growing stronger. Plus, Corey doesn't even trust other members of the U.S. team. Essentially chosen to serve as panther bait, Corey and Mayfield are equally dangerous predators. Tricks and twists abound in this fast-moving thriller where everyone has their own agenda and survival is the ultimate goal. Donoghue, Emma Astray The fascinating characters that roam across the pages of Donoghue's stories have all gone astray: they are emigrants, runaways, drifters, and lovers, old and new. They are gold miners and counterfeiters, attorneys and slaves. They cross other borders too: those of race, law, sex, and sanity. They travel for love or money, incognito, or under duress. With rich historical detail, the Booker Prize finalist’s short story collection explores the ways people’s lives can take unexpected and unprepared-for turns: A fallen woman in Victorian England supports herself and her child by the only means available to her until her younger brother comes up with another option. As the Civil War rages on, a slave and his mistress plot a daring escape. A bitter Puritan seeks revenge upon two women who spurned him. A woman sails toward Canada to join her husband, not knowing he’s fallen gravely ill with cholera. A lawyer sets his sights on a wealthy young widow who seeks his help. A young woman makes a startling discovery about her politically powerful father after his death in New York City at the dawn of the 20th Century. Lighting up four centuries of wanderings that have profound echoes in the present, Astray offers readers a surprising and moving history for restless times. Erdrich, Louise The Round House Set in 1988; on an on Ojibwa reservation in North Dakota, Erdrich’s latest pulses with urgency as she probes the moral and legal ramifications of a terrible act of violence. When tribal enrollment expert Geraldine Coutts is viciously attacked, her ordeal is made even more devastating by the legal ambiguities surrounding the location and perpetrator of the assault — did the attack occur on tribal, federal, or state land? Is the aggressor white or Indian? As Geraldine becomes enveloped by depression, her husband, Bazil (the tribal judge), and their 13-year-old son, Joe, try desperately to identify her assailant and bring him to justice. The teen quickly grows frustrated with the slow pace of the law, so Joe and three friends take matters into their own hands. But revenge exacts a tragic price, and Joe is jarringly ushered into an adult realm of anguished guilt and sadness.