I am the author of Cracked, Empty, and Ultimatum, three contemporary Young Adult novels that each focus on the hideous effects of bullying. I’ve presented to thousands of students, adults, teachers, and librarians from the elementary through university level on the topic of “The Power of Human Kindness”. I spent twelve years as a public-school teacher (ten of them in middle school), where I developed highly successful ways to stop bullying, resulting in me presenting to my entire faculty, school board, and eventually, my district. I was also the director/owner of Camp Kindness, a summer day camp, and have contributed to numerous news articles on bullying.
If you’ve never read an A.S. King book, well, all I can say is: fix that immediately. King’s brilliance shines through her witty dialogue and her ability to peel back the layers on the uncomfortable parts of life all while managing to use magical realism perfectly. Her books are that good. I’m not kidding. This book focuses on 15-year-old Lucky Linderman, who is the target of Nader McMillan’s relentless bullying. You’ll fall in love with Lucky. You’ll fall in love with this book.
Lucky Linderman didn't ask for his life. He didn't ask his grandfather not to come home from the Vietnam War. He didn't ask for a father who never got over it. He didn't ask for a mother who keeps pretending their family is fine. And he certainly didn't ask to be the recipient of Nader McMillan's relentless bullying, which has finally gone too far.
Lucky has a secret--one that helps him wade through the daily dysfunction of his life. Grandad Harry, trapped in the jungles of Laos, has been visiting Lucky in his dreams--and the dreams just might be real:…
My first books were set in and around San Francisco, an area I knew well and with plenty of opportunities for crime stories. When we moved to Montana twenty years ago, people asked when I’d write one there. I resisted setting dark stories in my own city, where my kids were growing up. Reading about the Bakken Oil Formation in North Dakota, a boom of wealth and expansion and a subsequent bust, offered a perfect storm—the kind that drives desperation, where locals conflict with newcomers, where money—new and old—drives people to make bad decisions. After a visit to the area, the fictional town of Hagen, North Dakota, and the Badlands Thriller Series was born.
Unspeakable Things is based on a true crime from Jess Lourey’s own small, Minnesota hometown.
Set in the 1980s, Cassie McDowell’s life on a farm with her sister and parents looks like a perfect childhood. She loves school, has a crush on the nicest boy… But when local boys start to go missing and the haunting crimes become a pall over this idyllic childhood and the more Cassie learns about what is happening, the more she realizes that the monster she feared under the bed may be real.
The point of view of 13-year-old Cassie draws you back to the age when we make that subtle but permanent shift from childhood into the brutal reality of the adult world. Fraught and tense, this is the kind of story that stayed with me long after I read the final page.
Inspired by a terrifying true story from the author's hometown, a heart-pounding novel of suspense about a small Minnesota community where nothing is as quiet-or as safe-as it seems.
Cassie McDowell's life in 1980s Minnesota seems perfectly wholesome. She lives on a farm, loves school, and has a crush on the nicest boy in class. Yes, there are her parents' strange parties and their parade of deviant guests, but she's grown accustomed to them.
All that changes when someone comes hunting in Lilydale.
One by one, local boys go missing. One by one, they return changed-violent, moody, and withdrawn. What…
I believe many writers suspect they are Strangers in a Strange Land. How ironic that I, a confirmed atheist, should use a biblical quote to describe the mindset of authors. Some discover where they belong through their writing. My book recommendations have a strong sense of place, whether it be the Old West, wartime Berlin, or modern-day Scotland. I was born into a 300-year-old N. Ireland Protestant Plantation family, yet many people saw us as interlopers: we weren’t quite Irish, and we weren’t quite British, yet we held dual passports. It was not until I left Ireland that I realized my Irish Heritage exerted a stronger pull than my British.
Like myself, Rankin didn’t start writing fiction until he left his native country. His books could only be set in a city like Edinburgh, with its blend of Puritan zeal, parsimony, and violence. His depiction of his hometown is so enthralling that it started a tourist boom, much like Oxford experienced with Colin Dexter.
I adore how he brings back Rebus after retirement as a detective and straight into conflict with former colleagues and criminals. Rankin realizes that a good detective must be closer to the dark side to be effective. I admire Rebus’s imperfections, even how he copes with his health problems. He’s no white hat, but he gets the job done—his way.
A series of seemingly random disappearances - stretching back to the millennium. A mother determined to find the truth. A retired cop desperate to get his old life back...
It's been some time since Rebus was forced to retire, and he now works as a civilian in a cold-case unit. So when a long-dead case bursts back to life, he can't resist the opportunity to get his feet under the CID desk once more. But Rebus is as stubborn and anarchic as ever, and he quickly finds himself in deep with pretty much everyone, including DI Siobhan Clarke.
Delve into this internationally best-selling series, now complete! A fast paced laugh-out-loud mix of Urban Fantasy and Mystery.
I can tell when you’re lying. Every. Single. Time. I’m Jinx, a PI hired to find a missing university student, I hope to find her propped up at a bar–yet my gut tells me there’s more to this case than a party girl gone wild. Firstly, she’s a bookish soul who’s as likely to go off the rails as Mother Theresa. Secondly, I’m not the only one on her trail; she’s also being tracked by the implacable and oh-so-sexy Inspector Stone. Stone…
I can tell when you’re lying. Every. Single. Time.
I’m Jinx. As a private investigator, being a walking, talking lie detector is a useful skill – but let’s face it, it’s not normal. You’d think it would make my job way too easy, but even with my weird skills, I still haven’t been able to track down my parent’s killers.
When I’m hired to find a missing university student, I hope to find her propped up at a bar – yet my gut tells me there’s more to this case than a party girl gone wild. Firstly, she’s a bookish…
Lawrence Osborne’s books lie somewhere between thrillers, memoirs, psychological investigations, and cross-cultural mysteries. He has been likened to Graham Greene, Paul Bowles, and Ian McEwen, but his stories are truly contemporary in feeling and could be called Expat Noir.
I loved this book for its depiction of the confusions experienced by a veteran British journalist as he attempted to unravel the disappearance of a student protestor amidst the pro-democracy demonstrations in Hong Kong in 2019-2020. His descriptions of the city, its texture and sensations, and the increasing difficulties arising from powerful political pressures as he follows tangled threads involving his own deep feelings for the missing student are brilliantly interwoven.
I can’t think of any other author treading this terrain so well: the white middle-class expatriate in Asia has become something of a taboo subject, but this book shows how much can be learnt from a still unravelling colonial…
A veteran British journalist living in Hong Kong investigates the disappearance of a student protestor amidst the pro-democracy demonstrations in this unsettling new novel from the acclaimed author of The Forgiven
After twenty years as an ex-pat reporter in Hong Kong, Adrian Gyle has almost nothing to show for it. But now the streets are choked with students demanding democratic freedoms, and the old world is beginning to fall apart.
Adrian's old friend Jimmy Tang, the scion of a wealthy Hong Kong family, has begun a reckless affair with Rebecca, a leading pro-democracy protestor. But when Rebecca disappears and Jimmy…
Already a huge
Lindsay Currie fan, I jumped at the chance to read It Found Us.
It lived up to
my already sky-high expectations. The wonderfully spooky cover and title are
matched by the story of amateur sleuth Hazel, her brother Den, and friend
Maggie solving the mystery of a fellow student who disappeared while playing
hide and seek in a graveyard.
Authentic and often humorous banter among the trio
brings a welcome lightness to balance the excellent atmospheric creep factor.
Currie excels at creating genuinely scary moments without resorting to gore or
violence. She does creeping dread so well. Fans of high-quality middle grade
fiction with a spooky bent will love this latest title from a truly gifted
author.
From the author of Scritch Scratch and The Girl in White comes a new spooky mystery about a girl detective who must decode a series of ominous clues tied to a century-old tragedy to find a missing teenager before it's too late…
Twelve-year-old Hazel Woods has always had an unusual knack for sleuthing. Some may call it snooping, but all she really wants is to solve mysteries around town. So, when she not-so-accidentally overhears her brother Den planning to sneak into the cemetery at night for an epic game of hide-and-seek, she decides to secretly tag along. This seems like…
I have read thrillers for as long as I can remember reading adult novels. I can chart my life of reading from Robert Parker to David Baldacci to Jeffery Deaver and today’s luminaries such as Sarah Pekkanen, Mary Kubica, and all the authors listed below. While I love a good beach or airport read, the novels that stick with you—that make you want to clear your schedule because you need to sit and think about what you’ve just read—are my favorites.
The one thing I appreciate above all else in a novel is emotional gravitas. That feeling transcends time and place; the only thing that matters is what happens to the character(s) you care about. You feel your heart beating, and when you finally put the book down, all you can say is ‘wow.’
Stacy Willingham’s debut lingers long in the memory after the book is read. Her talent at describing setting is any writer’s dream, and her characters snuck into my heart and made me care deeply, all the way to the pulse-pounding conclusion. It is the best thriller I have read in the past half-decade, only challenged by her subsequent novels.
She thought the murders had stopped. She was wrong.
'A smart, edge-of-your-seat story with plot twists you'll never see coming' Karin Slaughter
'Spectacular' Daily Mail
'Tense, twisty and threatening, A Flicker in the Dark will make you abandon your box sets' Val McDermid
The instant New York Times bestseller, soon to be a major TV series, developed by Emma Stone
Chloe Davis' father is a serial killer. He was convicted and jailed when she was twelve but the bodies of the girls were never found, seemingly lost in the surrounding Louisiana swamps. The case became notorious and Chloe's family was…
There
are times when I crave a book that makes me laugh. The Bandit Queens tells the
darkly funny, madcap adventures of a group of women in a small Indian village.
Geeta, our protagonist, is rumored to have murdered her husband – and now the
other unhappy wives in the village want her to do the same for them. Serious
issues of misogyny and violence against women, as well as caste and religion, are handled lightly.
Nothing goes as planned, but in the end, Geeta, along with
a lovable cast of lively women friends, somehow triumphs over the obstacles
stacked against them. I listened to this on audiobook, and the delightful
narrator really brought the characters to life.
'Not since Aravind Adiga's The White Tiger has the rotten core of modern India been exposed in quite such blackly antic fashion as Parini Shroff manages here in this intermittently absurd, feminist revenge caper about a group of snarky, much-abused, predominantly Hindu wives...sheer gutsy verve.' The Times
'A darkly funny revenge drama rooted in the reality of rural India . . . [A] vivid, unsentimental story that succeeds in being both satirical and moving.' Guardian
'A radically feel-good story about the murder of no-good…
I’m on a Jack Reacher binge right now, and Persuader is definitely one of the better ones in the series. It’s unputdownable. These books are my go-to for passing the time—whether I’m running errands or waiting for my son. Honestly, I actually look forward to the waiting because it means more Reacher. Some might not consider this genre high literature, but I don’t care—it’s pure entertainment with a few takeaways. Sure, Reacher’s adventures are wildly fictional and impossible in real life, but his relentless, never-give-up attitude is truly inspiring. Whenever I face challenges, I catch myself thinking, “Jack Reacher wouldn’t give up.” Silly, maybe, but it works for me. If you’re a fan of action-packed stories with a tough, principled hero, Persuader is a great choice. It’s escapism at its best.
"Ballsy, dynamic and not for the faint-hearted." (Daily Mail)
Never forgive, never forget.
Jack Reacher lives for the moment. Without a home. Without commitment. But he has a burning desire to right wrongs - and rewrite his own agonizing past.
Never apologize. Never explain.
When Reacher witnesses a brutal kidnap attempt, he takes the law into his own hands. But a cop dies. Has Reacher lost his sense of right and wrong?
_________
Although the Jack Reacher novels can be read in any order, Persuader is seventh in the series.
And be sure not to miss Reacher's newest adventure, no.27,…
I grew up during the civil rights movement in the US, and my ancestors—the lucky ones—escaped pogroms in eastern Europe at the turn of the 20th century and made it to North America. (The unlucky ones were slaughtered in the Holocaust.) So I suppose it is natural that I would be drawn to write stories about the struggle to overcome persecution, racism, and injustice. I love creating characters who, at the beginning of the story, don’t know that they have what it takes to fight for justice, but then slowly build the confidence and courage to make a difference. And writing about these triumphs is fun, too!
As both a reader and a writer, I seem to be drawn to books about characters experiencing oppression and persecution, and drawing on inner reserves of courage and compassion to combat it. This book fits that description perfectly. I was on the edge of my seat following Hanneke as she works for the Dutch Resistance during World War II. I was left wondering: How do you find the bravery and determination to risk your own life in order to save someone else’s?
The bestselling, "gripping" (Entertainment Weekly), "powerful" (Hypable), "utterly thrilling" (Paste.com) winner of the Edgar Award for Best Young Adult Mystery, perfect for readers of Kristin Hannah and Ruta Sepetys
Amsterdam, 1943. Hanneke spends her days procuring and delivering sought-after black market goods to paying customers, her nights hiding the true nature of her work from her concerned parents, and every waking moment mourning her boyfriend, who was killed on the Dutch front lines when the Germans invaded. She likes to think of her illegal work as a small act of rebellion.
I’m a sucker for complicated mother characters
(surprising, right?). The narrator’s mother in A Hand to Hold in Deep Water is
conspicuously absent, yet she infuses every page. As the book goes on, we learn more about her story, and it only gets more heartbreaking.
I love how unflinching
Nocher is in writing these mother-and-daughter characters, even in the face of
some of the most challenging subjects to put on the page.
I also love it when a
fictional story teaches me something new or takes me to an unfamiliar place.
This was the case with Ocracoke Island in North Carolina.
I thoroughly enjoyed
discovering it along with the narrator in this compelling mother-daughter
story.
*A PopSugar Pick of the Best Books of the Month *A Portland Book Review Pick of the Month “A rich and resonant family story, a meditative, lyrical, and deeply emotional exploration of heritage, loss, and the profundity of parental love.”-Claire Lombardo, New York Times bestselling author
Willy Cherrymill and his stepdaughter, Lacey, are deeply bruised by a past brimming with unanswered questions. It's been thirty years since May DuBerry, Willy's young wife and Lacey's mother, abandoned them both leaving Willy to raise Lacey alone.
Lacey Cherrymill is smart, stubborn, and focused. She's also single mother to a young daughter recently…
