Contemporary Thriller

“LOTS OF CHARACTERS GET COMPARED TO MY OWN JACK REACHER, BUT PETRIE'S PETER ASH IS THE REAL DEAL.”—Lee Child *An Entertainment Weekly Must List Pick In the new novel featuring war veteran Peter Ash, “an action hero of the likes of Jack Reacher or Jason Bourne” (Lincoln Journal-Star)...

Every man who meets Rainey wants her. Having lived a life of sex, drugs, and manipulation, she is a temptation with far too many secrets. When psychologist, Justin Redding, is assigned to Rainey's case, he has no way of knowing the tale of debauchery he will encounter. On a twisted path of love, loss, and murder, Rainey leads Justin through the events of her life. Death follows Rainey.... Justin fights to discover her secrets....

Sugar arrives in the small town of Bigelow, Arkansas, like an ominous storm. She saunters down the street in a blonde wig and spiked heels, cigarette dangling between red-painted lips. Without even speaking to her, the women in town hate her. But when she moves in next door to Pearl, a woman who tragically lost her daughter 15 years earlier, the two women bond over tragic pasts.

Tom Pasmore, ten years old, survives a near-fatal accident. During his long recovery, he becomes obsessed with an unsolved murder and finds he has clues to solving it that he shouldn’t. Lamont von Heilitz has spent his life dealing with mysteries, until he wanted to know nothing more of the terror of life and the horror of death. When a new murder disrupts their world of wealth, power, and pleasure, the two must form an unlikely partnership to confront demons from the past and the dark secrets that still haunt the present.

I'd never even kissed a boy the night I met Stone. The night I saw him kill. The night he spared my life. That was only the beginning. He turns up in my car again and again, dangerous and full of raw power. "Drive," he tells me, and I have no choice. He's a criminal with burning green eyes, invading my life and my dreams. The police say he's dangerously obsessed with me, but I'm the one who can't stop thinking about him.

For Sophie Ducel, her honeymoon in French Polynesia was intended as a celebration of life. For Barry Bleecker, the same trip was meant to mark a new beginning - turning away from his dreary existence in Manhattan finance to seek creative inspiration. But when their small plane is downed in the middle of the South Pacific, the sole survivors of the wreck are left with one common goal: survival.

Some people call me a monster. A psychopath. As if I care what others think. So what if I relish in the mayhem of slaughter or enjoy feeling the life blink out of someone? I am who I am. It was Malik who eventually brought me to his home and trained me to hone my skills to work under him as an assassin. Malik Amin is my equal, and he will be mine in all ways as soon as I can chip away at his ridiculous and completely unnecessary self-loathing.

The Movie Town Theater is holding its first ever Film Noir Festival, with Pen handling book sales for the guest speakers, including screen actress Hedda Geist. The legendary femme fatale has been out of the spotlight for decades. Unfortunately, the moment she steps back into it, she's nearly killed. Then other guests start to die, and Penelope wants to know why her little town's Film Noir weekend has taken a truly dark turn.

When John Hunter finds out he can get paid $5,000 for trapping a rogue chimera, it's game on. Now, he'll have a crash course on the goings-on of the secret underworld and more than a few bruises to prove his mettle. But not all is as straightforward as it may seem. There are those closest to Jonny who are more than they're letting on. And the humans in his life turn out to be the worst kind of monsters. Jonny may be able to save himself, if he wants to save the city from an unspeakable, ancient evil lurking in the shadows, he'll have to catch up fast.

I was a good girl once, but now I’ve got bloody hands and a broken heart. When Julian Maduro and his wretched sister breathed their last, I thought that would be the end of it. But I should’ve remembered the brutal truth that’s been beaten into me over and over again…people like me don’t get happily ever afters. Alec Beckham forced me to do the unthinkable, shredding my heart with the squeeze of a trigger. And he’s not done with me yet.

With marriage, there are things you can and can't live with. Harry, my abusive husband, made that clear enough when he beat me like a dog, forced a miscarriage on me, and tried posing me as a hostage to my father's notorious biker gang, The Reapers. I was lucky enough to get out of my marriage in one piece but it's only a matter of time before he picks up my trail and hunts me down. Blackjack swears he'll kill him the second he steps foot in town. I know he means well but there's something about his stare when he tells me I deserve better.

Je n'avais aucune idée de ce qu'allait devenir ma vie... absolument aucune. J'allais avoir dix-neuf ans dans quelques jours et j'étais devenue ce que je n'aurais jamais dû être. Le destin m'avait surprise, j'étais magnifique, d'une allure renversante. J'aurais pu défier n'importe quelle reine de beauté, mais c'est bien tout ce qu'il me restait... toute une vie dans la peau de quelqu'un que je n'étais pas, que je détestais. Et si je me trompais ? Et si j'étais loin de la vérité et que tout pouvait redevenir comme avant ?

Paige Davies finds her world turned upside down as she becomes involved in her best friends' nightmare. The strong-willed Paige doesn't know which is worse: someone trying to kill her, or losing her dog to the man she loves to hate. FBI Agent Cole Parker can't decide whether he should strangle or kiss this infuriating woman of his dreams. As he works the case of his career, he finds that love can be tougher than bringing down some of the most powerful men in America.

Together, the seven fearless friends known as the Sisterhood have served sweet justice to villains who thought they were above the law. But payback has its price, and the Sisterhood's last assignment almost landed them in jail. Now the women are fugitives with a bounty on their heads, but they're not planning on hiding out for long - not when good friends need the kind of help only they can give.

Ace, a young card shark, has worked her entire life to achieve one goal. Bring Burlone Allegretti to his knees. As the head of a mafia family who dabbles in human trafficking, he’s far from innocent and Ace can't wait to exact her revenge. As her plan is set in motion, the alluring head of a rival family, Kingston Romano, approaches her with a proposition. One that she’s desperate enough to accept. Soon, she finds herself in the crosshairs of a war she isn’t prepared to fight.

On the streets of Venice, magic burns and wars wage, while powerful illusions and mind-bending magic keep the world of The Skilled hidden from ordinary people—or typics. The powerful Mardova Family rules with an iron fist, keeping their powers secret and their eyes on their enemies. Zan Mardova would rather use his magical Skills to do tricks on his motorcycle or fly over buildings than involve himself in Family politics, but when he discovers a rival Family has brainwashed a beautiful typic girl named Ellie, he begins to unravel a web of dangerous secrets with Ellie at the center.

A ghost has invaded Henry Fitzroy's home, beginning a dangerous nightly game in which Henry is allowed to ask a single question. If the answer is no, an innocent person is killed. Henry soon comes to the realization that this wraith is using him to wreak vengeance on the people it holds responsible for its death. Henry can’t find the source of these murders on his own, so he calls on the one person he trusts to help - private investigator Vicki Nelson - with the small hope that they can stop these otherworldly forces.

Tessa Hart's agoraphobia means she doesn't interact with many people - except for the online fandom of pop sensation Eric Thorn. She knows it sounds crazy, but he's the only one who seems to understand her, even though they've never met. Held prisoner by his contract and sick of his creepily obsessive fans, Eric creates a fake Twitter account to mess with one of his biggest followers, @TessaHeartsEric. Instead they form a bond via Twitter that neither could have imagined.

Emma Sharpe is suspicious when retired Special Agent Gordon Wheelock, a legend in FBI art crimes, drops by her Boston office for a visit. Gordy says he's heard rumors about stolen ancient mosaics. Emma, an art crimes specialist herself, won't discuss the rumors. Especially since they involve Oliver York, an unrepentant English art thief. Gordy and Emma's grandfather, a renowned private art detective, chased Oliver for a decade.

Ghost [gohst] noun: the soul of a dead person, a disembodied, vague, shadowy spirit wandering among or haunting living persons; a mere shadow or semblance; a trace. That noun sums up Ghost and what his life has become with painful precision. He is barely living, merely existing but never thriving. There wasn't much that could pull him from the darkness he willingly inhabits... except one thing. Her. She is the reason he's done what he's done, and his life has become what it has become.