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• New-to-me author: Yes
• Would I read more from this author: Yes

Title: Through the Cracks Author/website: Barbara Fister Publisher: Minotaur Publication date & page count: May ’10 & 305 pages

From page 152 of Through The Cracks

He laughed, astonished. “What, you have one of your cop friends look me up? I thought that was illegal, using police records for civilian purposes.” “I read about it in the newspaper.” “Ought to know better than to believe everything you read in the papers.” “How did you avoid doing time on a weapons charge?” “It wasn’t my gun.” “I thought maybe you had friends in high place.” “Enemies, more like. People in high places don’t want to hear what I have to say.”

When Chicago private investigator Anni Koskinen takes on a new client, she finds herself working on an impossible case. After spending twenty years in prison, a black man convicted in a notorious rape case has had his sentence overturned. The victim wants to know who was really responsible for the crime that scarred her life. But even if Anni can find out who committed the brutal crime decades ago, a conviction will be impossible – unless the rapist has struck again.

The resourceful victim has uncovered evidence that a serial rapist may still be at work, attacking women with ferocious anger. But as Anni digs deeper, the politically ambitious State’s Attorney who prosecuted the original rape case insists that the conviction was solid, He believes there was no miscarriage of justice—other than that a violent felon has been released on a technicality.

As Anni’s cold case heats up, her friend Dugan, a CPD detective, is involved in a heater case of his own. An undocumented Mexican gang member has been arrested for the murder of a missing woman whose uncertain fate has gripped the city and fueled anti-immigrant sentiment.

As both investigations unfold, the impact of racial prejudice radiates cracks through the criminal justice system. And it is through those cracks that Anni must try to glimpse the truth.

Title: Shadow of the Swords: An Epic Novel of the Crusades Author/website: Kamran Pasha Publisher: Washington Square Press Publication date & page count: June ’10 & 379 pages

From page 188 of Shadow of the Swords

Please God, end this! Richard desperately hoped that one of the multitudes of tortures he was being forced to endure would claim him as well, freeing his soul from his tormented body. But the torture continued as his armored boots sloshed of their own accord through a river of blood that ran through the main street of Jerusalem. He knew even as he stepped into the sea of death that it was neither the blood of martyred Christian soldiers nor that of the infidel warriors. It was the blood of women and children, of innocents whose cries for mercy had been ignored by the frenzy of battle.

Saladin, a Muslim sultan, finds himself pitted against King Richard the Lionheart as Islam and Christianity clash against each other, launching a conflict that still echoes today.

In the midst of a brutal and unforgiving war, Saladin finds forbidden love in the arms of Miriam, a beautiful Jewish girl with a tragic past. But when King Richard captures Miriam, the two most powerful men on Earth must face each other in a personal battle that will determine the future of the woman they both love—and of all civilization.

Hostage Zero by John Gilstrap

Hostage rescue expert Jonathan Grave is used to working alone, and this time he’ll have to go where even the government won’t. An innocent man has been shot and two young people are missing. But tracking them down is just the beginning. To keep them and his covert team alive, Jonathan must plunge into the heart of an ugly secret whose insidious path reaches from one of the world’s most remote places into the highest corridors of power–and he must defeat enemies who are willing to kill again and again to keep the truth from being revealed. . .

The Sixth Surrender by Hana Samek Norton

In the last years of her eventful life, queen-duchess Aliénor of Aquitaine launches a deadly dynastic chess game to safeguard the crowns of Normandy and England for John Plantagenet, her last surviving son.

To that end, Aliénor coerces into matrimony two pawns-Juliana de Charnais, a plain and pious novice determined to regain her inheritance, and Guérin de lasalle, a cynical, war-worn mercenary equally resolved to renounce his.

The womanizing Lasalle and the proud Juliana are perfectly matched for battle not love-until spies and assassins conspire to reverse their romantic fortunes.

Wicked Girls: A Novel of the Salem Witch Trials by Stephanie Hemphill

What started out as girls’ games became a witch hunt. Wicked Girls is a fictionalized account of the Salem witch trials told from the perspectives of three of the real young women living in Salem in 1692.

Ann Putnam Jr. plays the queen bee. When her father suggests that a spate of illnesses within the village is the result of witchcraft, Ann grasps her opportunity. She puts in motion a chain of events that will change the lives of the people around her forever.

Mercy Lewis, the beautiful servant in Ann’s house, inspires adulation in some and envy in others. With a troubled past, she seizes her only chance at safety.

Margaret Walcott, Ann’s cousin, is desperately in love and consumed with fiery jealousy. She is torn between staying loyal to her friends and pursuing the life she dreams of with her betrothed.

With new accusations mounting daily against the men and women of the community, the girls will have to decide: Is it too late to tell the truth?

The Search by Nora Roberts

Talented search and rescue dog trainer Fiona Bristow escaped the clutches of a serial killer several years before, but not before he murdered her fiance and her beloved dog. She has retreated to a cabin in the wilderness and is wary of forming bonds with anyone, but handsome newcomer and talented carpenter Simon has an unruly puppy to train and soon man and dog charm their way into Fiona’s life. But just when she starts to relax, it becomes clear a copycat murderer is on the loose, and making his way closer and closer towards her with unfinished business on his mind …

The King’s Mistress by Emma Campion

When had I choice to be other than I was? From childhood Alice Salisbury has learnt obedience in all things and at fourteen, dutifully marries the man her father has chosen for her – at the cost of losing the love of her mother forever and the family she holds dear. But merchant Janyn Perrers is a good and loving husband and Alice soon learns to enjoy her marriage. Until a messenger brings news of his disappearance and she discovers that her husband had many secrets, secrets he didn’t want her to know – but which have now put a price on her own head and that of her beloved daughter.Brought under the protection of King Edward III and Queen Philippa, she must dutifully embrace her fate once more – as a virtual prisoner at Court. And when the king singles her out for more than just royal patronage, she knows she has little choice but to accept his advances. But obeying the king brings with it many burdens as well as pleasures, as she forfeits her good name to keep her daughter free from hurt. Still a young woman and guided by her intellect and good business sense, she learns to use her gifts as wisely as she can. But as one of the king’s favourites, she brings jealousy and hatred in her wake and some will stop at nothing to see her fall from grace.

The Prophecy (Payne and Jones, book #5) by Chris Kuzneski

When the prophetic writings of sixteenth-century visionary Nostradamus begin to ring alarmingly true, Payne and Jones find themselves in a life-or-death race across the world to stop those who would use the French seer’s predictions for their own dark purposes.

For the King by Catherine Delors

The Reign of Terror has ended, and Napoléon Bonaparte has seized power, but shifting political loyalties still tear apart families and lovers. On Christmas Eve 1800, a bomb explodes along Bonaparte’s route, narrowly missing him but striking dozens of bystanders. Chief Inspector Roch Miquel, a young policeman with a bright future and a beautiful mistress, must arrest the assassins before they attack again. Complicating Miquel’s investigation are the maneuverings of his superior, the redoubtable Fouché, the indiscretions of his own father, a former Jacobin, and two intriguing women.

Based on real events and characters and rich with historical detail, For the King takes readers through the dark alleys and glittering salons of post-revolutionary Paris and is a timeless epic of love, betrayal, and redemption.

Damaged (Maggie O’Dell, book #8) by Alex Kava

On Pensacola Beach, the Coast Guard prepares for a Category 5 hurricane that has entered the Gulf of Mexico. When the air crew patrols the waterways, they spot a huge fishing cooler about a mile offshore. Drug traffickers have been known to dump coolers with smuggled product to avoid detection and pay fishermen to retrieve them. But when the crew open this cooler, they’re shocked by what they find: body parts tightly wrapped in plastic.

Though she is putting herself in the projected path of the hurricane, Special Agent Maggie O’Dell is sent to investigate. Eventually, she’s able to trace the torso in the cooler back to a man who mysteriously disappeared weeks earlier after a hurricane hit Port St. Lucie, Florida. Only Port St. Lucie is on the Atlantic side. How did his body end up six hundred miles away in the Gulf of Mexico?

Lady of the Butterflies by Fiona Mountain

On the ancient marshlands of Somerset – a place of mists and magic – a girl grows up in the shadow of the English Civil War, knowing that one day she will inherit the rich estate which belonged to her late mother. Her father, a stern but loving Puritan, once a distinguished soldier in Cromwell’s army, fears for his daughter in the poisonous aftermath of the war, and for her vulnerability as an heiress. But above all he fears and misunderstands her scientific passion for butterflies. The girl is Eleanor Glanville, destined to become one of the most famous entomologists in history, bequeathing her name to the rare butterfly which she discovered, the Glanville Fritillary. But not before she had endured a life of quite extraordinary vicissitude. Two marriages and an all-consuming love, which proved her undoing, a deep friendship with one of the great scientists of the day and finally, a trial for lunacy (on the grounds that no sane person would pursue butterflies). The dramatic events of her life are played out against the violent events of the Monmouth Rebellion and the vicious controversy over whether or not to drain the Somerset marshes (what is now the M5 motorway runs across Kings Sedgemoor Drain – one of the first great ditches which reclaimed the land for farming and destroyed this precious natural habitat).

Deceptions: A Jamestown Novel by Marilyn J. Clay

Deceptions takes place in Jamestown, Virginia in 1617 and tells the story of an English girl who travels from London to the New World to marry a man she had been betrothed to since childhood.

In the New World, as in the old, adherence to strict moral codes and polite manners rule the colonist’s lives, but beneath their proper facade, secret desires rule their hearts. Catherine’s beloved, Noah Colton, who has been in Jamestown for six years is now a successful trader who has an uncanny way with Jamestown’s closest neighbors, the Powhatan Indians. Noah has gained their trust, as well as that of the entire settlement.

However, nothing could have prepared Catherine for what she finds in the New World. The struggles and hardships become a test of her strength and courage. But when the lies and deceptions and an unsolved murder place her life in danger, she is desperate for help. But, to whom can she turn? Especially, when here in the New World, the only voice of reason is that of a woman…and a mighty Indian warrior named Phyrahawque.