The Visitant by Kathleen O’Neal Gear & W. Michael Gear

by Rebekah Layton | Jul 1, 2016 | 0 comments

The Visitant

by Kathleen O'Neal Gear & W. Michael Gear

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At the Dawn of the Age of the Katsinas…

A woman runs away in search of a Spirit Helper and never returns…

An ancient village is swept into a shattering crime beyond reason, beyond belief…

An old man must learn to walk the dark labyrinth of a murderer’s mind to find him before he can strike again…

A young war chief must enter the mesmerizing word of the insane if he to save everything and everyone he loves…

And, a scant moment ahead in geologic time, world-renowned Canadian physical anthropologist Dr. Maureen Coles finds herself excavating a mass grave in New Mexico filled with the brutalized bodies of women and children.

From the internationally bestselling authors of People of the Masks comes a novel of terrifying power about madness and murder eight hundred years ago.

book 1 of the Anasazi Mysteries series

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anthropologymysteryhistoricalfiction

Gloryland by Shelton Johnson

by Rebekah Layton | Jul 1, 2016 | 0 comments

Gloryland

Shelton Johnson

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Born on Emancipation Day, 1863, to a sharecropping family of black and Indian blood, Elijah Yancy never lived as a slave—but his self-image as a free person is at war with his surroundings: Spartanburg, South Carolina, in the Reconstructed South. Exiled for his own survival as a teenager, Elijah walks west to the Nebraska plains—and, like other rootless young African-American men of that era, joins up with the U.S. cavalry.

The trajectory of Elijah’s army career parallels the nation’s imperial adventures in the late 19th century: subduing Native Americans in the West, quelling rebellion in the Philippines. Haunted by the terrors endured by black Americans and by his part in persecuting other people of color, Elijah is sustained only by visions, memories, prayers, and his questing spirit—which ultimately finds a home when his troop is posted to the newly created Yosemite National Park in 1903. Here, living with little beyond mountain light, running water, campfires, and stars, he becomes a man who owns himself completely, while knowing he’s left pieces of himself scattered along his life’s path like pebbles on a creek bed.

Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians

Cathy rated it ★★★★★.

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historicalfiction

Spider Mountain by P. T. Deutermann

by Rebekah Layton | Jul 1, 2016 | 0 comments

Spider Mountain

by P. T. Deutermann

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A huge dog came out of the woods from our right and lunged at my face. I ducked the snapping jaws by throwing myself backward hard enough to crack my head on the ground. The dog went over my head, landing in a heap, but then whirled around…

Summoned by a friend, ex-cop Cam Richter agrees to do a favor: investigate the assault of a young woman in a remote area of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park. Cam knows the misty hills and shadowed hollers of the park, and his outdoor skills might break a case that local cops can’t—or maybe don’t want to—solve.

Cam has no idea how dangerous his search will become, because in this part of Appalachia, matriarch Grinny Creigh and her extended family destroy those who intrude into their web. The Creighs control the crystal meth trade and own just about everything and everyone in their neck of the woods. But they also operate a much worse enterprise, a dark secret that terrifies any children unfortunate enough to come within their grasp.

Blocked by a menacing sheriff with ties to the family, Cam is shut down and sent away, no wiser about why the young woman was attacked and what she saw. He returns, stealthily stalking the Creighs and their secrets, moving ever closer to Grinny’s mountain house and what it might conceal…not knowing that his presence on her web has been detected, and that the Creighs are hunting him with creatures bred for that purpose and starved into relentless fury.

Spider Mountain features nonstop action, frightening night pursuits through deep wilderness, and a shocking finale—a masterful novel of suspense by the author of The Cat Dancers.

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thrillermysteryfiction

Blind Descent by Nevada Barr

by Rebekah Layton | Jul 1, 2016 | 0 comments

Blind Descent

by Nevada Barr

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Lechuguilla Cavern is a man-eating cave discovered in New Mexico’s Carlsbad Caverns National Park in the mid-1980s. Estimated to extend for more than three hundred miles, only ninety of them mapped, the cave was formed by acid burning away the limestone; corridors, pits, cramped wormholes, cliffs, and splendid rooms the size of football fields tangle together in a maze shrouded in the utter darkness of the underground. When a fellow ranger is injured in a caving accident, Anna swallows her paralyzing fear of small spaces and descends into Lechuguilla to help a friend in need. Worse than the claustrophobia that haunts her are the signs—some natural and some, more ominously, manmade—that not everyone is destined to emerge from this wondrous living tomb. The terrain is alien and hostile; the greed and destructive powers of mankind all too familiar. In this place of internal terrors, Anna must learn who it is she can trust and, in the end, decide who is to live and who is to die.

book 6 of the Anna Pigeon series

Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians

Cathy rated it ★★★★.

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The Moonspinners by Mary Stewart

by Rebekah Layton | Jun 30, 2016 | 0 comments

The Moonspinners

by Mary Stewart

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Young, beautiful, and adventurous Nicola Ferris loves her life as a secretary at the British Embassy on the lush island of Crete. Then on her day off, she links up with two hiking companions who have inadvertently stumbled upon a scene of blood vengeance. And suddenly the life Nicola adores is in danger of coming to an abrupt, brutal, and terrifying end…

Ratings and Reviews from the Librarians

Vivian rated it ★★★ and said, “A vacation to a remote village in Crete turns suddenly to adventure for young Nicola, a British Embassy employee, when she encounters a man who has been shot. She becomes embroiled in an international theft conspiracy through her efforts to assist in a search for the injured man’s younger brother who has been abducted. The writing is evocatively descriptive and the story’s suspense builds to a white knuckle climax. Intermixed with all this is a hint of romance and a sense of “being there” that will be most satisfying to the ‘armchair traveler.’ This was made into a film starring Hayley Mills in 1964.”

Cathy rated it ★★★ and said, “My first reaction after completing Stewart’s novel was, ‘How on earth could anyone at Disney think this was a good story for children?’ The answer of course was that it isn’t, so they made up another one in the same general setting and kept the title, made up different characters, but kept some of the names. Oh my… That being said, I really enjoyed my first taste of Mary Stewart. There was a good balance between humor and suspense. What I liked most was her sense of place. She’s really able to create a world and make you feel a part of it.”

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book-to-screenromancemysteryfiction

Windfall by Nora Roberts

by Rebekah Layton | Jun 30, 2016 | 0 comments

Windfall

by Nora Roberts

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Impulse

For once in her life, Rebecca Malone decided to follow her impulses, jettison the familiar and head to Greece to find adventure! So when a sexy stranger began to romance her, she couldn’t resist playing the sophisticated, well-traveled woman. However, falling in love with Stephen Nickodemus was not part of the plan! How on earth could she explain to the man she’d given her heart to that she wasn’t the woman he’d believed her to be? And then convince him that she was still the woman he loved…

Temptation

Socialite Eden Carlborough didn’t expect running a girls’ camp to be easy, but she never thought she’d literally be run up an apple tree by the little monsters. She was equally surprised to come crashing down into the capable arms of orchard owner Chase Elliot. While her handsome neighbor’s overbearing ways were highly irritating, his touch ignited feelings she’d never known. She never imagined she’d be so very…tempted!

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romancefiction

Ruby’s Secret by Heather B. Moore

by Rebekah Layton | Jun 30, 2016 | 0 comments

Ruby's Secret

by Heather B. Moore

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At age sixty-two, life is finally beginning for newly widowed Ruby Crenshaw. Her son is grown and gone, and after long years spent as a loyal wife to her charming but unfaithful husband, she’s ready to live the life she’s always dreamed of. Her resolve is firm: she’ll never make the mistake of giving her heart to another man.

The first step in Ruby’s quest for a carefree lifestyle was to create the Newport Ladies Book Club, an unlikely gathering of women who have been her haven. Now she’s ready to take her newfound independence a step further—along with her friends from the local senior center, Ruby is jetting off to a much-needed Greece adventure. What she isn’t prepared for is Gabriel—the group’s tour guide—a native Greek and a true gentleman. His unquestionable charm is hard to resist. But resist she must—because no matter their growing attraction, Ruby is not about to fall for charming again!

part of the Newport Ladies Book Club series

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romancefiction

Separate Lives by Sara Hylton

by Rebekah Layton | Jun 30, 2016 | 0 comments

Separate Lives

by Sara Hylton

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Mervyn Corwen has always felt particularly drawn to Greece. Orphaned at an early age, he spent every summer of his youth with his Uncle Bertram on a beautiful Greek island. And when Mervyn meets and falls in love with Moira, it seems all of his dreams are coming true as they move to Greece permanently. His wife is less sure—she loves her husband but misses her family, friends, and home back in England. Can their marriage last with each of them unhappy in the other’s world?

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romancefiction

The Mediterranean Caper by Clive Cussler

by Rebekah Layton | Jun 30, 2016 | 0 comments

The Mediterranean Caper

by Clive Cussler

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Dirk Pitt rides a tidal wave of intrigue in this classic Cussler.

On an isolated Greek island, a World War I fighter plane attacks a modern U.S. Air Force base—a mysterious saboteur preys on an American scientific expedition—and Dirk Pitt plays a deadly game of hunter and hunted with the elusive head of an international smuggling ring.

book 2 of the Dirk Pitt series

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spiesthrillermysteryadventurefiction