Book Whore

She’s back each Tuesday, pimpin’ out notable new releases to place on your radar, so let the tempting, publisher-provided plot descriptions begin!

LASSITER by Paul Levine — Jake Lassiter, second-string linebacker turned low-rent lawyer, is cynical about the law, but if you hire him, he’ll take a punch for you, and maybe a swing at the prosecutor, too. Amy Larkin — beautiful, angry, mysterious — accuses Lassiter of involvement in the disappearance of her sister 18 years earlier. What does Lassiter know about Krista Larkin, the runaway teen turned porn actress? More than he’s saying. Seeking to atone for his own past, Lassiter follows the cold trail of the missing Krista and butts head with the powerful men who also knew her: a porn king turned philanthropist, a Cuban prosecutor who’d love to be governor, and an aging mobster who once worked for Meyer Lansky.

SPELLBOUND by Blake Charlton — In a world where one’s magical prowess is determined by one’s skill with words and ability to spell, Nicodemus is a wizardly apprentice afflicted by a curse that causes him to misspell magical texts. Now, the demon who cursed him has hatched a conspiracy to force Nicodemus to change language and ultimately use it to destroy all human life. As Nico tries to thwart the demon’s plan, he faces challenges from all sides. But his biggest challenge is his own disability, which causes him to create chaos wherever he goes.

SANCTUS by Simon Toyne — A man climbs a cliff face in the oldest inhabited place on earth, a mountain known as the Citadel, a Vatican-like city-state that towers above the city of Ruin in modern-day Turkey. But this is no ordinary ascent. It is a dangerous, symbolic act. And thanks to the media, it is an event witnessed by the entire world. Few people understand its consequence. But for foundation worker Kathryn Mann and a handful of others, it’s evidence that a revolution is at hand.

THE SLEEPWALKERS by Paul Grossman — As Hitler and his National Socialist party angle to assume control of Germany, beautiful girls are seen sleepwalking through the streets. Then, a young woman of mysterious origin, with her legs bizarrely deformed, is pulled dead from the Havel River. Willi Kraus, a high-ranking detective in Berlin’s police force, begins a murder investigation. Despite his elite status in the criminal police, he is disturbed by the direction Germany is taking. Working urgently to solve the murder, the Jewish Willi finds his superiors diverting him at every turn. 

MURDER IN THE 11TH HOUSE by Mitchell Scott Lewis — Astrological detective David Lowell must use his astrologer’s charts and knowledge to solve the murder of a state judge in a New York City parking garage. Joined by his daughter, Melinda, a young defense attorney who believes the person arrested innocent; his hacker sidekick, Mort; patient assistant, Sarah; and bodyguard Andy, Lowell races against time to prove the innocence of Johnny Colbert, a mouthy bartender accused of the crime. Birth charts and street smarts help Lowell sort out the misdirections of a cast of characters, ranging from the judge’s clerk to the judge’s life itself, to trace the crime back to a surprising source.

ANGEL by Nicole “Coco” Marrow and Laura Hayden — A beautiful woman awakens on a plane and discovers that things are going terribly wrong. The plane is about to crash into the Hudson River, and she can’t even remember her own name. After she survives, the airline determines that her name is Angela Sands. But she has no idea who she really is. Reporter Dante Kearns is fascinated by the woman the media dubs “the Angel of the Hudson,” especially once he discovers her shocking secret: Angela can hear voices in her head — the thoughts of all men around her.

JUDY: A LEGENDARY FILM CAREER by John Fricke — JUDY tells the story of Garland’s movie work in unprecedented detail. Hundreds of never-before-published photos, newly assembled contemporary reviews, insight from her costars and co-workers, and production histories are provided for each film in which she appeared. Complimenting the films are a definitive biography, an examination of Judy’s short subjects, details of the movies she did not complete, and a compendium of film projects for which she was considered or rumored. The text is illustrated by more than 500 photos, encompassing poster art, costume tests, behind-the-scenes candids, onstage and backstage glimpses of her theatrical successes, and personal snapshots.

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She’s back each Tuesday, pimpin’ out notable new releases to place on your radar, so let the tempting, publisher-provided plot descriptions begin!

THE POSTMORTAL by Drew Magary — John Farrell is about to get “The Cure.” Old age can never kill him now. The only problem is, everything else still can. Imagine a near future where a cure for aging is discovered and — after much political and moral debate — made available to people worldwide. Immortality, however, comes with its own unique problems, including evil green people, government euthanasia programs, a disturbing new religious cult and other horrors.

THE STRANGER YOU SEEK by Amanda Kyle Williams — In the sweltering heat of an Atlanta summer, a killer is pushing the city to its breaking point, preying on the unsuspecting, writing taunting letters to the media, promising more death. Desperate to stop the Wishbone Killer before another victim meets a shattering end, APD Lt. Aaron Rauser turns to the one person he knows can penetrate a deranged mind: ex–FBI profiler Keye Street. Keye was a rising young star at the Bureau until addiction derailed her career and her life. Now sober and fighting to stay so, Keye picks up jobs where she can get them: catching adulterers, serving subpoenas, chasing down bailjumpers and dodging the occasional bullet.

GRAVE EXPECTATIONS by Charles Dickens and Sherri Browning Erwin — Pip is a robust young whelp, an orphan born under a full moon. Between hunting escaped convicts alongside zombified soldiers, trying not to become one of the hunted himself, and hiding his hairy hands from the supernaturally beautiful and haughty Estella, whose devilish moods keep him chomping at the bit, Pip is sure he will die penniless or a convict like the rest of his commonly uncommon kind. But then a mysterious benefactor sends him to London for the finest werewolf education money can buy. In the company of other furry young gentlemen, Pip tempers his violent transformations and devours the secrets of his dark world.

JANE AND THE CANTERBURY TALE by Stephanie Barron — Three years after news of her scandalous husband’s death, Adelaide Fiske is at the altar again, her groom a soldier on the Marquis of Wellington’s staff. The prospects seem bright for one of the most notorious women in Kent, until Jane Austen discovers a corpse on the ancient Pilgrim’s Way that runs through her brother Edward’s estate. As First Magistrate for Canterbury, Edward is forced to investigate, with Jane as his reluctant assistant. But she rises to the challenge and leaves no stone unturned, discovering mysteries deeper than she could have anticipated.

DOWN TO THE BONE by Justina Robson — Lila Black is now a shape-shifting machine plugged into the Signal, the total dataset of all events in the known universe and all potential events: Zal, the elf rock star with a demon soul, is now a shadow form animated and given material actualization by firelight; Teazle the demon has taken up the swords of Death and is on the way to becoming an angel. To say this puts some pressure on their three-way marriage is an understatement. Meanwhile, the human world is seeing an inexplicable influx of the returning dead, and they’re not the only ones. Many old evils are returning to haunt the living following three harbingers of destruction created in the ancient past.

WHITE TIGER by Kylie Chan — Emma Donahoe has just started her new job as nanny to Simone, the daughter of John Chen, a very rich Hong Kong businessman. She understands that Simone may be a target for kidnappers but she does not expect to be drawn into a world of martial arts, magic and extreme danger, where both gods and demons can exist in the mortal domain. When John and his American bodyguard, Leo, teach Emma their particular style of martial arts, they begin to realize that Emma herself is more than she seems.

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She’s back each Tuesday, pimpin’ out notable new releases to place on your radar, so let the tempting, publisher-provided plot descriptions begin!

THE EDINBURGH DEAD by Brian Ruckley —Edinburgh: 1828. In the starkly-lit operating theaters of the city, grisly experiments are being carried out on corpses in the name of medical science. But elsewhere, there are those experimenting with more sinister forces. Among the crowded, sprawling tenements of the labyrinthine Old Town, a body is found, its neck torn to pieces. Charged with investigating the murder is Adam Quire, Officer of the newly formed Edinburgh Police. The trail will lead him into the deepest reaches of the city’s criminal underclass, and to the highest echelons of the filthy rich.

THE UNINCORPORATED WOMAN by Dani Kollin and Eytan Kollin — Justin Cord, the unincorporated man, is dead, betrayed, and his legacy of rebellion and individual freedom is in danger. General Black is the great hope of the military, but she cannot wage war from behind the President’s desk. So there must be a new president, anointed by Black, to hold the desk job, and who better than the only woman resurrected from Justin Cord’s past era, the scientist who created his resurrection device, the only born unincorporated woman. The perfect figurehead. Except that she has ideas of her own, and secrets of her own, and the talent to run the government her way. She is a force that no one anticipated, and no one can control.

THE MOON MAZE GAME by Larry Niven and Steven Barnes — The Year: 2085. Live-action role-playing attracts a very special sort of individual: brilliant, unpredictable, resourceful, and addicted to problem-solving. By kidnapping a dozen gamers in the middle of the ultimate game, watched by more people than any other sporting event in history, they have thrown down an irresistible gauntlet: to “win” the first game that ever became “real.” Pursued by armed and murderous terrorists, forced to solve gaming puzzles to stay a jump ahead, forced to juggle multiple psychological realities as they do … this is the game for which  they’ve prepared their entire lives, and they are going to play it for all it’s worth.

THE FALL OF THE HOUSE OF WALWORTH: A TALE OF MADNESS AND MURDER IN GILDED AGE AMERICA by Geoffrey O’Brien — The Walworth family was the very symbol of virtue and distinction for decades, rising to prominence as part of the splendor of New York’s aristocracy. When Frank Walworth travels to New York to “settle a family difficulty” by shooting his father at point blank range, his family must reveal their inner demons in a spectacular trial to save him from execution. The resulting testimony exposes a legacy of mania and abuse, and the stately reputation of the family crumbles in a Gothic drama “sensational to the last degree.”

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She’s back each Tuesday, pimpin’ out notable new releases to place on your radar, so let the tempting, publisher-provided plot descriptions begin!

STAR WARS: FATE OF THE JEDI: ASCENSION by Christie Golden — As Luke and Ben Skywalker pursue the formidable dark-side being Abeloth, the Lost Tribe of the Sith is about to be sundered by an even greater power — which will thrust one Dark Lord into mortal conflict with his own flesh and blood. On Coruscant, a political vacuum has left tensions at the boiling point, with factions racing to claim control of the Galactic Alliance. Suddenly surrounded by hidden agendas, treacherous conspiracies, and covert Sith agents, the Jedi Order must struggle to keep the GA government from collapsing into anarchy.

DARKNESS, MY OLD FRIEND by Lisa Unger — After giving up his post at the Hollows Police Department, Jones Cooper is at loose ends. He is having trouble facing a horrible event from his past. Then, on a brisk October morning, he has a visitor. Eloise Montgomery, a psychic, comes to him with predictions about his future, some of them dire. Michael Holt, a young man who grew up in The Hollows, has returned looking for answers about his mother, who went missing many years earlier. He has hired local P.I. Ray Muldune and Eloise to help him solve the mystery that has haunted him. What he finds might be his undoing.

THE NEIGHBORS ARE WATCHING by Debra Ginsberg — Aside from their annual block party, the neighbors on Fuller Court tend to keep to themselves, which doesn’t mean that they aren’t all watching and judging each other on the sly. So when pregnant teenager Diana Jones shows up, literally, on her biological father’s doorstep, the neighbors can’t stop talking. Joe Montana is a handsome restaurant manager who failed to tell his wife Allison that he fathered a baby with an ex-girlfriend 17 years ago. Allison, already harboring her own inner resentments, takes the news very badly. She isn’t the only one. Diana’s bombshell arrival in their quiet cul-de-sac sets off a chain reaction of secrets and lies that threaten to engulf the neighborhood along with the approaching flames from two huge wildfires fanned by the Santa Ana winds.

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