She’s back each Tuesday, pimpin’ out notable new releases to place on your radar, so let the tempting plot descriptions begin!
MYSTERY by Jonathan Kellerman — The closing of their favorite romantic rendezvous, the Fauborg Hotel in Beverly Hills, is a sad occasion for longtime patrons Alex Delaware and Robin Castagna. Even more poignant is a striking young woman — alone and enigmatic among the Fauborg revelers — waiting in vain in elegant attire and dark glasses that do nothing to conceal her melancholy. Alex can’t help wondering what her story is, and whether she’s connected to the silent, black-suited bodyguard lingering outside the hotel. Two days later, Alex has even more to contemplate when the police seek his insights about a grisly homicide. To Alex’s shock, the brutalized victim is the same woman whose lonely hours sipping champagne may have been her last.
THE ROAD TO ROME by Ben Kane — In 48 B.C., having survived a disastrous campaign in Pythia as part of the Forgotten Legion and spent years fighting their way back to Rome, Romulus and Tarquinius have finally made it as far as Alexandria. On arrival, though, they find themselves in the midst of the Roman Civil War, are press-ganged into Caesar’s thinning legions and greatly outnumbered and fighting for their lives against the Egyptian army. Meanwhile in Rome, Romulus’ twin sister Fabiola, having caught only a glimpse of her long-missing twin before being forced to flee Egypt for Rome, lives in fear for her life, loved by Brutus, but wooed by Marcus Antonius, his deadly enemy.
THRESHOLD by Jeremy Robinson — After a terrorist attack on a reservation in Oregon leaves thousands dead, Jack Sigler, call sign King and his Chess Team — Queen, Rook, Bishop and Knight — must protect the only survivor, 13 year-old Fiona Lane. When a death in the family pulls King away, and the rest of the team is sent on a mission, Fort Bragg is attacked by a strange and overwhelming force. When the dust settles, Fiona is gone. But the attack is part of a larger offensive. Around the world the last speakers of ancient languages are being systematically exterminated. As they fight to find the mastermind behind the killings, and Fiona, the team is hunted by strange creatures that defy explanation sent by an enemy from their past.
CHILDREN OF SCARABAEUS by Sara Creasy — Edie Sha’nim believes she and her bodyguard lover, Finn, could find refuge from the tyranny of the Crib empire by fleeing to the Fringe worlds. But Edie’s extraordinary cypherteck ability to manipulate the ecology of evolving planets makes her far too valuable for the empire to lose. Recaptured and forced to cooperate — or else she will watch Finn die — Edie is shocked to discover the Crib’s new breed of cypherteck: children. She cannot stand by while the oppressors enslave the innocent, nor can she resist the lure of Scarabaeus, the first world she tried to save, when researchers discover what appears to be an evolving intelligence.
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Posted March 31, 2011 
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Editor/contributor Carlin Romano would have us believe that PHILADELPHIA NOIR — and basically all noir fiction based in the City of Brotherly Love — is a difficult concept to accept. It’s mostly to do with all the important history and culture associated with the city, he states in his introduction. That might be true for those who rarely read crime fiction, but the rest of us need no such convincing.
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