Month: December 2023

1. The Amish Wife by Gregg Olsen (True Crime)

In 1977, in an Ohio Amish community, pregnant wife and mother Ida Stutzman perished during a barn fire.  The coroner’s natural causes.  Ida’s husband, Eli, was never considered a suspect.  But when he eventually rejected the faith and took his son, Danny, with him, murder followed. 

2. Split by Alida Bremer (Historical Fiction)

It’s 1936.  The seaside-resort village of Split on the Adriatic coast bustles.  The tourist spots are booming, passenger steamers dot the harbor, and Jewish emigres have found tenuous refuge from persecution.  But as war in Europe looms, Split is also a nest of spies, fascists, and smugglers — and now, a locale suspiciously scouted by a German Reich film crew.  Then one summer morning it becomes the scene of a murder investigation when a corpse is found entangled in fishing nets in the port.

3. The Lies You Wrote by Brianna Labuskes (Police Procedural)

The double murder of a married couple in a small Washington town draws FBI forensic linguist Raisa Susanto into an investigation that mirrors a decades-old crime.  Twenty-five years ago — to the day — Alex Parker murdered his parents, then took his own life, leaving behind a note admitting everything.

4. Olivia Strauss is Running Out of Time by Angela Brown (Women’s Fiction)

A woman has no choice left but to enjoy the adventure of life — and its surprises — in a funny and emotionally moving comedy of errors about the gifts of growing older.

5. Scorpio by Marko Kloos (Military Science Fiction)

On a distant Earth colony, an orphaned survivor of an alien invasion discovers that the greatest world-ending dangers aren’t behind her.

6. Sleeping with Friends by Emily Schultz (Psychological Thriller)

When Mia Sinclair-Kroner wakes from a coma, all she can remember are the movies she’s known and loved.  Her college friends quickly assemble for a weekend party, in an effort to help her remember.  But with old friends comes old wounds, and it soon becomes clear that Mia’s accident might not have been an accident at all.

7. The Last Phone Booth in Manhattan by Beth Merlin and Danielle Modafferi (Romance)

When a young woman hits rock bottom, she embarks on a positively Dickensian adventure in a witty and warmhearted novel about past regrets, old loves, new beginnings, and making up for lost time.

8. The Seventh Girl by Andy Maslen (Crime Thriller)

Fifteen years ago a serial killer was on a rampage murdering young women in Middlehampton.  Then the killings stopped, and the murderer evaded the police.  So when the body of another young woman is found bearing the twisted killer’s unique hallmark — the overpowering stench of lavender and an origami heart — DS Kat Ballantyne knows this can only mean one thing: the killer is back.

9. Two Women Walk into a Bar by Cheryl Strayed (Memoir)

Cheryl Strayed, the bestselling author of “Wild” and “Tiny Beautiful Things”, finds humor and connection in a poignant short memoir about love, family secrets, and reconciliation.