Books Read October 2013

Aiebuaer, James W.

• Port Townsend’s Victorian Homes

Non-fiction.  Photos and descriptions of the famous Victorian homes of Port Townsend, WA.

Ball, Donna

• Love Letters from Ladybug Farm 

Fiction.  The ladies’ first foray into celebrating weddings on their farm is fraught with problems as they battle a goat, freak storms, bridezillas and their mothers.  Will they be able to pull it off, or will they need a little help?

Daheim, Mary

• The Alpine Advocate

Fiction.  Emma Lord, newspaper owner, publisher and editor in Alpine, Washington is struggling to keep her newspaper afloat.  Her son calls from Hawai’i asking her to look after a friend of his who will be visiting Alpine.  A visit that sets in motion a series of events that open old wounds and unveils old secrets reaching into even the most influential family of the small town.

Dereske, Jo

• Cut and Dry 

Fiction.  Second in the Ruby Crane cozy mystery series of a single mother raising a daughter suffering from post-trauma brain injury on the banks of Blue Lake in a small Michigan town.  With the help of a retired police detective, Ruby attempts to solve the murder of the owner of a local beauty salon while keeping herself and her daughter out of harm’s way.

Fanick, Helen Haught

• Moon Signs 

Fiction.  Two elderly sisters take a short vacation to a ski lodge in the West Virginia hills and trip over a murder as they try to solve the mystery of hidden paintings.

Harris, Charlaine

• Shakespeare’s Champion

Fiction.  Second in the series set in the small town of Shakespeare, Arkansas.  Lily Bard, karate expert and housecleaner fights emotional battles with her past and emotional complications with her present while tensions in the small town erupt into racial hatred, and Lily is caught right in the middle.

Harrison, Jamie

• The Edge of The Crazies

Fiction.  Murder mystery taking place in the small town of Blue Deer, Montana.  The town is full of lies and coverups, and one day erupts as a bullet is shot through the window of a screenwriter’s office...and finds its mark.

Hart, Carolyn

• Ghost at Work

Fiction.  Wonderful first book in this paranormal cozy series.  Full of humor and fun, likable characters and a great mystery.  The protagonist will surprise you, and I can’t wait to read more about her.

Hillerman, Tony

• The Blessing Way

Fiction.  First in the series about Joe Leaphorn, a Navajo Tribal Police Lieutenant faced with the murder of a young man.  With Navajo witchcraft seemingly at work, Joe struggles to find out what’s really happening.

Klasky, Mindy

• Girl’s Guide to Witchcraft 

Fiction.  First in a series about a librarian down on her luck in the relationship department, and who finds out that her salary at the library is being cut by 25%, but her boss reimburses her by allowing her to stay in a small cottage on the library grounds free of rent.  While moving in, she finds a key that opens a whole new world for her.

Newman, W.D.

• The Thirteenth Unicorn

Fiction.  Exciting tale of two children and their grandma who find themselves in another world fighting off snake people and ogres, while making friends among the elves, dwarves, and a very special bear.

Parra, Nancy J.

• Gluten for Punishment

Fiction.  Toni is busy plying the good people of Oiltop, Kansas with the gluten-free pastries from her new bakery.  Some of the residents of the small town located in the heart of wheat-producing fields aren’t so happy about the types of goodies she sells.  When one of them ends up dead in front of her shop, Toni finds herself the number one suspect.

Pentermann, Meira

• Firefly Beach

Fiction.  Beth LaMonte wants to start a new life.  After a divorce and the death of her mother, she feels exhausted and emotionally drained.  She leaves her corporate job, finds a fishing small town in Maine that might fit the bill and plans to start painting for a living, something she had a passion for when she was young.  One evening while relaxing outside her small cottage, she sees a firefly approaching her.  She’s surprised to see one so close to the shore, but she has no idea what waits in store for her and she begins to follow it through the forest.

Rosenberg, Joel

• Home Front 

Fiction.  Ernest “Sparky” Hemingway, ex-Vietnam vet and current freelance copywriter, gets a call from a young girl who says that her father has been murdered and that she is next.  Once Sparky learns who her father was, he knows he has to help her.  

Rouse, Irving

• The Tainos: Rise and Decline of the People Who Greeted Columbus

Non-fiction.  Anthropological study of the history of the original and later inhabitants of the West Indies, their rise and fall, and the contributions they made to modern cultural and language.

Stabenow, Dana

• A Fatal Thaw 

Fiction.  Second in the Kate Shugak mystery series.  Kate, a tough Alaskan native, is used to living alone and likes it that way.  Her only companion is the half-husky, half-wolf Mutt.  She wakes up one early spring day to hear that a mass murderer is out and about in her area...and she goes hunting for him before he can get to her.

Toussaint, Maggie

• In for A Penny

Fiction.  First in a cozy series.  Cleopatra Jones is trying to get her life together after a divorce and enjoys spending time on the links at the local golf club.  One afternoon while golfing with her best friend, she hits the ball off the fairway and has to go retrieve.  She finds the ball...and a body, and she feels the need to find the murderer before someone in her family is harmed.

Wiltse, David

• Heartland

Fiction.  Recovering from post-traumatic syndrome, retired Secret Service agent, Billy Tree, returns to the small Nebraska farm town he grew up in and left twenty years ago.  Billy’s sister can’t stand knowing that he won’t leave his bedroom and only stares out at life passing down their road, she calls up an old family friend, and one-time mentor to Billy, to help her brother get back into life.  Billy resists, at first, but is slowly dragged into the middle of small-town crime and murder.