New books at the library.

Devil Bones, by Kathy Reichs.

Dr. Temperance Brennan’s quest to identify two corpses pits her against citizen vigilantes intent on a witch-hunt in bestseller Reichs’s exciting 11th thriller to feature the forensic anthropologist. While working in Charlotte, N.C., Brennan investigates remains unearthed during a housing renovation and discovers disturbing clues possibly pointing to voodoo or Santeria. She must determine if the bones, including the skull of a teenage girl, are linked to an unidentified headless torso found in a nearby lake. Intent on using the deaths as the cornerstone of his crusade against immorality, fundamentalist preacher turned politician Boyce Lingo claims that the bodies bear the mark of devil worshippers. With the help of Det. Erskine Skinny Slidell, Brennan unearths a tangled web of dirty politics, religious persecution and male prostitution. Reichs, whose work inspired the hit TV series Bones, once again expertly blends science and complex character development.

Laughter of Dead Kings, by Elizabeth Peters.

In Munich, where Vicky Bliss is an assistant curator at the city’s National Museum, she and her longtime love, John Tregarth (formerly Sir John Smythe, notorious art thief), are shocked when their friend Feisal, the Inspector of Antiquities for all Upper Egypt, arrives unexpectedly and informs them that King Tut’s mummy has been stolen from its tomb in the Valley of the Kings and that John is the prime suspect. Vicky and company, including her inquisitive boss, set off on a whirlwind quest beginning in Europe and ending in the Egyptian desert to clear John’s name and recover the famous corpse. In compensation for a slower pace than in earlier books, Peters offers vivid descriptions of Egyptian landmarks, which will resonate with readers of the MWA Grand Master’s beloved Amelia Peabody historical series.

Boomers on the Edge, by Terry D. Hargrave.

Where can you go when you’ve been pushed to the edge? The baby boomer generation has found itself in a perfect storm of new and difficult challenges. Aging parents need care. Adult children are moving back home. And just when boomers thought they could retire, economic realities such as meager 401(k) plans and crushing medical expenses are forcing boomers by the thousands back into the workplace. As a boomer, you will have to face at least one of these situations and perhaps even juggle all three. Boomers on the Edge explores the unique challenges that lie ahead and shows how you can survive and even flourish. This book is filled with practical advice, and it is also rich in encouragement. Author Terry Hargrave helps you see the opportunities behind today’s changing circumstances. Now is a new chance to build a legacy of wisdom and connection with your parents, learn new responsibility as a parent to older children, and deepen your faith in the face of financial realities.

American Wife, by Curtis Sittenfield.

Sittenfeld tracks the life of bookish, naive Alice Lindgren and the trajectory that lands her in the White House as first lady. Charlie Blackwell, her boyishly charming rake of a husband, whose background of Ivy League privilege, penchant for booze and partying, contempt for the news and habit of making flubs when speaking off the cuff, bears more than a passing resemblance to a recent President. Sittenfeld shines early in her portrayal of Alice’s coming-of-age in Riley, Wis., living with her parents and her mildly eccentric grandmother. A car accident in her teens results in the death of her first crush, which haunts Alice even as she later falls for Charlie and becomes overwhelmed by his family’s private summer compound and exclusive country club membership, and later, to the first family being ostracized for an increasingly unpopular war.

The Brass Verdict, by Michael Connelly.

Things are finally looking up for defense attorney Mickey Haller. After two years of wrong turns, Haller is back in the courtroom. When Hollywood lawyer Jerry Vincent is murdered, Haller inherits his biggest case yet: the defense of Walter Elliott, a prominent studio executive accused of murdering his wife and her lover. But as Haller prepares for the case that could launch him into the big time, he learns that Vincent’s killer may be coming for him next. Enter Harry Bosch. Determined to find Vincent’s killer, he is not opposed to using Haller as bait. But as danger mounts and the stakes rise, these two loners realize their only choice is to work together.

A Cedar Cove Christmas, by Debbie Macomber.

Mother-to-be Mary Jo Wyse arrives in Cedar Cove on Christmas Eve, searching for her baby’s father. David Rhodes had said he’d be in town. But he isn’t. Which leaves Mary Jo stranded, pregnant and alone. And there’s no room at the local inn…. So Grace Harding brings Mary Jo home to her nearby ranch. She and her husband, Cliff, have a houseful of guests, but they offer her a room over their stable (currently sheltering the animals — including a donkey and a camel — for Cedar Cove’s Nativity pageant!). When Mary Jo goes into labor that night, a young man named Mack McAfee, a paramedic, comes to her rescue, just as her brothers — the three Wyse men — show up in town. The people of Cedar Cove join them in celebrating the birth of baby Noel. But no one has more to celebrate than Mack. Because this Christmas brings him faith, hope and love…

Extreme Measures, by Vince Flynn.

Mike Rapp and his protege, Mike Nash, may have met their match. The CIA has detected and intercepted two terrorist cells, but a third is feared to be on the loose. Led by a dangerous mastermind obsessed with becoming the leader of al-Qaeda, this determined and terrifying group is about to descend on America. Rapp needs the best on this assignment, and Nash, who has served his government honorably for 16 years first as an officer in the Marine Corps and then as an operative in an elite counterterrorism team run by Rapp, is his choice. Using his insider knowledge of intelligence agencies and the military, Flynn once again delivers an all-too-real portrayal of a war that is waged every day by a handful of brave, devoted souls. Smart, fast-paced, and jaw-droppingly realistic, Extreme Measures is the political thriller of our time.

The Gate House, by Nelson DeMille.

When John Sutter’s aristocratic wife killed her mafia don lover, John left America and set out in his sailboat on a three-year journey around the world, eventually settling in London. Now, 10 years later, he has come home to the Gold Coast, that stretch of land on the North Shore of Long Island that once held the greatest concentration of wealth and power in America, to attend the imminent funeral of an old family servant. Taking up temporary residence in the gatehouse of Stanhope Hall, John finds himself living only a quarter of a mile from Susan who has also returned to Long Island. But Susan isn’t the only person from John’s past who has reemerged: Though Frank Bellarosa, infamous Mafia don and Susan’s ex-lover, is long dead, his son, Anthony, is alive and well, and intent on two missions: Drawing John back into the violent world of the Bellarosa family, and exacting revenge on his father’s murderer — Susan Sutter. At the same time, John and Susan’s mutual attraction resurfaces and old passions begin to reignite, and John finds himself pulled deeper into a familiar web of seduction and betrayal.

Heat Lightning, by John Sandford.

It’s a hot, humid summer night in Minnesota, and Flowers is in bed with one of his ex-wives (the second one, if you’re keeping count), when the phone rings. It’s Lucas Davenport. There’s a body in Stillwater — two shots to the head, found near a veteran’s memorial. And the victim has a lemon in his mouth. Exactly like the body they found last week. The more Flowers works the murders, the more convinced he is that someone’s keeping a list, and that the list could have a lot more names on it. If he could only find out what connects them all … and then he does, and he’s almost sorry he did. Because if it’s true, then this whole thing leads down a lot more trails than he thought — and every one of them is booby-trapped.

Just Breathe, by Susan Wiggs.

Sarah Moon, a comic-strip writer, is happily married to Jack Daly — until she comes home to find him entwined with a business associate he had badmouthed to her just hours earlier. After five years of marriage, including months of infertility treatment, infidelity is the last straw, and Sarah pack ups and leaves Chicago for her hometown of Glenmuir, California. Sarah uses her comic strip, Just Breathe, to vent her frustration and relieve her stress. The character, Shirl, is undergoing fertility treatments, getting a divorce and moving back in with her mom. (Comic strips open each section of the novel). And in Glenmuir, lo and behold, Sarah’s dreams come true. She finds out she’s pregnant, and begins a friendship with her high school nemesis, Will Bonner, who’s now the town fire captain and a single dad whose lonely daughter reminds Sarah of herself as a young girl. Wiggs takes serious situations and weaves them into an emotionally wrought story that will have readers reaching for the Kleenex one moment and snickering out loud the next.

The Keepsake, by Tess Gerritsen.

When medical examiner Isles studies an X-ray scan of Madame X, which everyone assumes is a newly discovered Egyptian mummy, at Boston’s Crispin Museum, she realizes the mummy isn’t a priceless artifact but a recent murder victim, gruesomely preserved. Rizzoli focuses the police investigation on Dr. Josephine Pulcillo, a young archeologist recently hired by the museum who may have something to hide. More victims soon turn up, including a tsantsa (shrunken head) in a hidden museum chamber and a corpse resembling a well-preserved bog body in Pulcillo’s car. After Pulcillo disappears, Rizzoli and Isles must scramble to find her before she becomes another trophy in the killer’s growing collection. As usual, Gerritsen delivers an intricate plot that will keep readers guessing.

The Lucky One, by Nicolas Sparks.

Is there really such a thing as a lucky charm? The hero of Nicholas Sparks’s new novel believes he’s found one in the form of a photograph of a smiling woman he’s never met, but who he comes to believe holds the key to his destiny. The chain of events that leads to him possessing the photograph and finding the woman pictured in it is the stuff of love stories only a master such as Sparks can write.

Silks, by Dick Francis.

When defense lawyer Geoffrey Mason hears the judge’s ruling at London’s Old Bailey, he quietly hopes that a substantial sentence will be handed down to his arrogant young client. That Julian Trent only receives eight years seems all too lenient. Little does Mason realize that he’ll be looking Trent in the eyes again much sooner than that. Setting aside his barrister’s gown and wig, Mason heads to Sandown racetrack to don his colorful racing silks. As an amateur jockey, he fulfills his true passion by pounding the turf in the heat of a steeplechase. Yet when a fellow rider is brutally murdered — a pitchfork driven through his chest — Mason’s racing hobby soon becomes too close to his work. The prime suspect is one of their brethren, champion jockey Steve Mitchell, and the evidence against him seems overwhelming. Mason is reluctant to heed Mitchell’s plea for legal help — but he soon finds himself at the center of a sinister web of violence, threats and intimidation. Mason is left fighting a battle of right and wrong, and more immediately, a battle of life and death…his own.

A Spoonful Of Poison, by M.C. Beaton.

When elderly Mrs. Andrews blithely jumps to her death off the tower of Saint Odo the Severe during a church charity event in the Cotswolds village of Comfrey Magna, LSD-laced jam proves to be the cause in bestseller Beaton’s saucy 19th Agatha Raisin mystery Agatha joins the local authorities in the investigation, which focuses on the six women who contributed jam to the church fete, including wealthy Sybilla Triast-Perkins. Agatha and Toni Gilmour, her young detective-in-training, soon find unmasking the lethal jam poisoner complicated by Sybilla’s sudden suicide and a murder connected to the theft of the fete’s proceeds. Beaton’s sly humor enhances the cozy-style plotting, while updates on Agatha’s and Toni’s respective romantic travails are delightful as ever. The open-ended resolution points to more madcap mayhem to come.

Wedding Belles, by Hayward Smith.

Georgia, Linda, Diane, Teeny, and Pru have been best friends since high school, and never have they needed one another more. Georgia’s precious twenty-eight-year-old daughter, Callie, has gone and gotten engaged. Usually this would be cause for celebration. After all, this is the South, where dreams of white dresses and wedding bells are as important as finding the perfect hat. But Callie’s intended groom just happens to be a man they went to high school and college with: Wild Man Wade! These women know more about the groom than the bride does. His drunken shenanigans. His wild oats. And all of his conquests as well as his mistakes. They can imagine him in the most inappropriate of circumstances, but not as a son-in-law! With dead-on wit about mothers, daughters, marriage, and families, Wedding Belles will have you laughing and crying whether you’re from above or below the Mason-Dixon line.

Wesley The Owl, by Stacey O’Brian.

Owls permeate literature and mythology, an ancient animal that has fascinated for centuries; still, few people have had as intimate an encounter with the mysterious night birds as biologist O’Brien. As a student researcher at Caltech, she fell in love with an injured four-day-old barn owl and seized the opportunity to adopt him permanently. She named him Wesley, and for 19 years kept, cared for and studied him, forging a tremendous relationship with the still-wild animal, as well as a vast understanding of his abilities, instincts and habits: “He was my teacher, my companion, my child, my playmate, my reminder of God.” Her heartwarming story is buttressed by lessons on owl folklore, temperament “playful and inquisitive”, skills, and the brain structure that gives them some amazing abilities, like spotting a mouse “under three feet of snow by homing in on just the heartbeat.” It also details her working life among fellow scientists, a serious personal health crisis, and the general ins and outs of working with animals. This memoir will captivate animal lovers and, though not necessarily for kids, should hold special appeal for Harry Potter fans who’ve always envied the boy wizard his Hedwig.