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Title: As the Crow Dies by Ken Casper Publisher: Bell Bridge Books 266 pages Genre: Mystery Synopsis: Vietnam took his legs. A murderer took his father. Somehow, Jason Crow has to take a stand. Jason Crow comes home to Texas on clumsy, prosthetic legs, struggling with his lost dreams and the pitying curiosity of friends and strangers. But there's no time for him to brood, because his father has just been shot to death. Unable to convince the police that his father was murdered, Jason begins his own investigation. In the process he uncovers family secrets that shake him to his core and make him question everyone and everything around him, including the love of Michiko, the beautiful Eurasian-American nurse he met in Japan. While fighting his own insecurity as a double amputee, Jason must challenge forces capable of destroying him and those he loves to pursue the person who robbed him of his greatest hero: His dad. Review: An interesting ride into the past.  I was only...

Title: Lord of the Vampires by Gena Showalter (Royal House of Shadows #1) Publisher: Harlequin Nocturne 288 pages Genre: Fantasy Romance I received this as an advanced electronic book from netgalley.com This title was released August 23, 2011 Synopsis: Nicolai the Vampire is renowned for his virility, but in a cruel twist of fate “The Dark Seducer” has become a sex slave in the kingdom of Delfina—stripped of his precious timepiece and his memory. All that remains is a primal need for freedom, revenge—and the only woman who can help him. When the wanton vampire summons Jane Parker, she is helpless to obey. She's drawn to his dark sexuality and into his magical realm. But for this human, all is not a fairy tale. For saving Nicolai could mean losing the only man she's ever craved. Review: I love Gena Showalter so I was excited to see this book - what I didn't realize is that it is the first in a series with each characters story being told by a different autho...

Title:  Tats by Layce Gardner Publisher: Bella Books 288 pages Genre: Lesbian Fiction Synopsis: Lee Hammond's girlfriend has moved on to other women. Deciding she's done the last of her now ex’s laundry, Lee hops on the Harley, ripe for adventure. One thunderstorm, a brief stint as a funeral crasher, two ruined shoes and several cheerleaders later, she's still planning to run away. Better yet, she's got one of the cheerleaders along for the ride. Not just any cheerleader, either. Vivian Baxter is that cheerleader, the one that made Lee certain back in high school that she was never going to be like all the other girls. Destination? Someplace not Oklahoma. Possibilities? As many as the wide open road can offer. Problems? None at all. Except perhaps Lee's ex, a hopping mad stripper who wants her Harley back. Vivian's feminine wiles prove invaluable in solving their transportation problem just as her own past catches up to them. And Vivian's past h...

Title: Don't Look Back by Karin Fossum Publisher: Harcourt 295 pages Genre: Mystery, Thriller Synopsis: English debut features older, widowed Inspector Konrad Sejer who is trying to solve a murder that took place in a small Norwegian village. Neighbors know neighbors and children play happily in the streets. But then the naked body of a teenage girl is found. Annie was strong, intelligent, and loved by everyone. What went wrong? Called in to investigate Inspector Sejer uncovers layer upon layer of distrust and lies beneath the town's seemingly perfect facade. Review: I bought this book because it is the first of the Inspector Sejer series that was published in English.  I received an e-galley from Netgalley of the latest Fossum book, but wanted to get a feel for the characters before I jumped to the end of the series. I loved it's slow methodological pace. The case wasn't solved overnight and the characters didn't have all the answers.  In fact wi...

Title: Breaking Silence by Linda Castillo Publisher: St. Martin's Minotaur 320 pages Genre: Mystery Synopsis: The Slabaugh family are model Amish farmers, prosperous and hardworking, with four children and a happy extended family. When the parents and an uncle are found dead in their barn, it appears to be a gruesome accident: methane gas asphyxiation caused by a poorly ventilated cesspit. But in the course of a routine autopsy, the coroner discovers that one of the victims suffered a head wound before death--clearly, foul play was involved. But who would want to make orphans of the Slabaughs' children? And is this murder somehow related to a recent string of shocking hate crimes against the Amish? Having grown up Amish, Kate is determined to bring the killer to justice. Because the other series of attacks are designated hate crimes, the state sends in agent John Tomasetti, with whom Kate has a long and complex relationship. Together, they search for the link between ...

Title: These Things Hidden by Heather Gudenkauf Publisher: Mira 352 Pages Genre: Mystery Synopsis: These Things Hidden opens with the release of 21-year-old Allison Glenn from prison, where she has served five years for an unspecified but particularly horrible crime. Allison is reluctant to enter a halfway house in her hometown of Linden Falls, Iowa, where "even a heroin-addicted prostitute arrested for armed robbery and murder would get more compassion than I ever will." Allison, her family's former golden girl, secures a job at a local bookstore, but her efforts to resume some sort of normal life are undermined by her well-to-do parents' indifference, her sister's hatred, and the stigma of her conviction. Meanwhile, one little boy holds the key to the tragedy that led to Allison's imprisonment. Review:  I find myself stuck when it comes to writing this review...maybe because of the information the author gives in the back of the book regarding Safe Ha...

Title: Agent X by Noah Boyd Publisher: Harper 480 Pages Genre: Mystery Synopsis: Steve Vail, once an ace FBI agent, now a bricklayer ( The Bricklayer ), arrives in Washington to take Kate Bannon, the bureau’s assistant director, to an embassy soiree. But his romantic mission is sidelined by an urgent summons from the bureau: a Russian embassy staffer, code-named Calculus, is offering to name Americans feeding sensitive information to Russian intelligence. But no sooner than the bureau accepts the Russian’s terms, he is spirited off to Moscow, presumably to be tortured into admitting what he has done. Steve and Kate must identify the moles and reel them in before the Russians snuff them. But before that can happen, Vail must solve the many puzzles that Calculus uses to conceal information. Review: While some of the dialogue in this book is hokey I liked it better than the first book The Bricklayer . Instead of non-stop action it was more of a chess game trying to figure out t...

Title: Gargoyle by Andrew Davidson Publisher: Doubleday 360 Pages Genre: Fiction Synopsis:  An extraordinary debut novel of love that survives the fires of hell and transcends the boundaries of time. On a burn ward, a man lies between living and dying, so disfigured that no one from his past life would even recognize him. His only comfort comes from imagining various inventive ways to end his misery. Then a woman named Marianne Engel walks into his hospital room, a wild-haired, schizophrenic sculptress on the lam from the psych ward upstairs, who insists that she knows him – that she has known him, in fact, for seven hundred years. She remembers vividly when they met, in another hospital ward at a convent in medieval Germany, when she was a nun and he was a wounded mercenary left to die. If he has forgotten this, he is not to worry: she will prove it to him. And so Marianne Engel begins to tell him their story, carving away his disbelief and slowly drawing him into the ...

Title: There are things I want you to know about Stieg Larsson and me by Eva Gabrielsson Publisher: Seven Stories Press 210 pages Genre : Memoir Synopsis: Here is the real inside story—not the one about the Stieg Larsson, but rather the love story of a man and a woman whose lives came to be guided by politics and love, coffee and activism, writing and friendship. Only one person in the world knows that story well enough to tell it with authority. Her name is Eva Gabrielsson. Eva Gabrielsson and Stieg Larsson shared everything, starting when they were both eighteen until his untimely death thirty-two years later at the age of fifty. In  There Are Things I Want You to Know about Stieg Larsson and Me , Eva Gabrielsson accepts the daunting challenge of telling the story of their shared life steeped in love and sharpened in the struggle for justice and human rights. She chooses to tell it in short, spare, lyrical chapters, like snapshots, regaling Larsson’s readers with the ins...

“What is the one ARC you would love to get your hands on right now?” The Night Eternal by Guillermo Del Toro and Chuck Hogan (I just picked up the 2nd book of this series and I've heard that you will be dying to know what happens so I would happily grab an ARC of this book! The Scottish Prisoner by Diana Gabaldon (4rd in the Lord John Series) (I really love the Outlander series and this new spin off the Lord John Series is equally good. It is fascinating to read about a gay man in a time when being homosexual was a capital offense.  If his private life is ever discovered, everything he cares about will be destroyed.)

Title: The Keeper of Lost Causes by Jussi Adler-Olsen Publisher: Dutton Adult 400 Pages Genre: Mystery I received an advanced reader copy of this book via netgalley.com This book is set to be released August 23, 2011. Synopsis:   The Keeper of Lost Causes , the first installment of Adler- Olsen's Department Q series, features the deeply flawed chief detective Carl MØrck, who used to be a good homicide detective-one of Copenhagen's best. Then a bullet almost took his life. Two of his colleagues weren't so lucky, and Carl, who didn't draw his weapon, blames himself. So a promotion is the last thing Carl expects. But it all becomes clear when he sees his new office in the basement. Carl's been selected to run Department Q, a new special investigations division that turns out to be a department of one. With a stack of Copenhagen's coldest cases to keep him company, Carl's been put out to pasture. So he's as surprised as anyone when a case actual...