Lots of really great books this month. Here’s some of them! If you see anything you want, email the library and they will save the book (or put it on reserve), for you.

Etta, by Gerald Kilpan.

The sketchy details of the life of Etta Place, outlaw and paramour of the Sundance Kid, are imaginatively filled in by first-time novelist Kolpan in this winning tale of the Wild West. After her wealthy father’s disgrace and demise, Etta departs Philadelphia society and heads west to become a Harvey Girl on the railroad in Colorado, where a series of misadventures leads her to the Hole-in-the-Wall gang. Romanced by Sundance and the fugitive lifestyle, Place earns an integral part in the gang through her shooting and riding skills as well as her beauty and sophistication. Pursued by the police, Pinkertons, the Black Hand and rival desperado Kid Curry, Etta and the Sundance Kid make their way across the country, diving from one daring adventure to another. The wide-screen drama of Etta’s life and Kolpan’s snappy storytelling makes it impossible not to want to ride along as the characters careen toward their tragic ends.

A Lie For A Lie, by Emile Richards.

Aggie Sloan-Wilcox is a minister’s wife with a mission, well in addition to the obvious. She solves murders and how she gets herself into and out of those situations will make you laugh out loud. Emilie Richards is a genius in her story telling and her characters.

Corsair, by Clive Cussler.

For five novels, Clive Cussler has brought readers into the world of the Oregon, a seemingly dilapidated ship packed with sophisticated equipment, and captained by the rakish, one-legged Juan Cabrillo. And now the Oregon and its crew face their biggest challenge yet. Corsairs are pirates, and pirates come in many different varieties. There are the pirates who fought off the Barbary Coast in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, the contemporary pirates who infest the waters of Africa and Asia, and the pirates . . . who look like something else. When the U.S. secretary of state’s plane crashes while bringing her to a summit meeting in Libya, the CIA, distrusting the Libyans, hire Juan Cabrillo to search for her, and their misgivings are well founded. The crew locates the plane, but the secretary of state has vanished. It turns out Libya’s new foreign minister has other plans for the conference, plans that Cabrillo cannot let happen. But what does it all have to do with a two- hundred- year-old naval battle and the centuries-old Islamic scrolls that the Libyans seem so determined to find? The answers will lead him full circle into history, and into another pitched battle on the sea, this time against Islamic terrorists, and with the fate of nations resting on its outcome.

One Day At A Time, by Danielle Steel

Coco Barrington was born into a legendary Hollywood family, her last name loaded with expectations. Her mother is a mega-bestselling author who writes under the name of Florence Flowers—and her sister, Jane, is one of Hollywood’s top producers. They’re not your typical family by any means.…Jane has lived with her partner, Liz, for ten years, in a solid, loving relationship. Florence, widowed but still radiant, has just begun a secret romance with a man twenty-four years her junior. And Coco, a law school dropout and the family black sheep, works as a dog walker, having fled life in the spotlight for the artsy northern California beach town of Bolinas. But when Coco reluctantly agrees to dog-sit in Jane’s luxurious home, she soon discovers how much things can change in just a matter of days.…It turns out Jane’s house comes complete with an unexpected houseguest: Leslie Baxter, a dashing but down-to-earth British actor who’s fleeing a psycho ex-girlfriend. Their worlds couldn’t be more different. The attraction couldn’t be more immediate. Suddenly Coco is seeing things differently: Leslie is not just a celebrity, he’s a single dad to an adorable six-year-old girl. Her mother is not just a self-centered walking advertisement for great cosmetic surgery, she’s a woman in love, with vulnerability and new insight. And Jane and Liz are about to take the bravest plunge of all—into parenthood. As Coco contemplates a future with one of Hollywood’s hottest stars, as her mother and sister settle into their lives, old wounds are healed and new familes are formed—some traditional, some not so traditional, but all bonded by love.

Pursuit, by Karen Robards.

When rookie lawyer Jessica Ford gets the call from her boss, John Davenport, the senior partner at the illustrious law firm for which she works, she can tell he is well on his way to being drunk. He needs Jess to meet First Lady Annette Cooper, for whom Davenport is a personal lawyer, at a Washington, D.C., hotel. Jess is thrilled: this high- profile assignment must mean that she’s earned her boss’s trust and she’s on her way to bigger things. But unfortunately, bigger isn’t always better. Jess doesn’t remember much—only that in the course of the late-night meeting with Annette Cooper, she ended up in the backseat of a car, speeding off into the darkness. All Jess knows is that the car crashed en route, and the other three passengers were killed, including the First Lady. Badly injured, Jess is the only survivor of what is trumpeted around the world as a tragic accident. Although she has no memory about the events leading up to the accident, Jess is still bothered by one question: Was it really an accident? The Secret Service agent on the case, Mark Ryan, gets the feeling that Jess is hiding something. As his suspicions grow, Jess’s world starts falling apart. First, she is brutally attacked in the hospital, barely escaping with her life. Then her boss dies under questionable circumstances. In fact, everyone who might possibly know the details about the First Lady’s last few hours starts turning up dead. And then Jess understands: If she remembers that night, she’ll be dead too. Terrified and certain that the First Lady’s death was no accident, Jess has only Mark Ryan to turn to. . . .

True Detectives, by Jonathan Kellerman.

PI Aaron Fox and L.A. cop Moe Reed, interracial half-brothers who played minor roles in 2008’s Bones, take center stage in bestseller Kellerman’s routine 24th Alex Delaware novel. When Fox, who used to work for the LAPD, looks into the missing-persons case of 20-year-old Caitlin Frostig, he runs into conflict with Reed. The brothers end up pursuing some predictable lines of inquiry, checking out Rory Stoltz, Frostig’s college boyfriend, as well as links to a filmmaker, Lem Dement, who’s suspected of domestic abuse. More A-list connections surface after the investigators learn Stoltz was the personal assistant for actor Mason Book, whose rumored suicide attempt came shortly after Frostig’s disappearance.

Whisper To The Blood, by Dana Stabenow.

Aleut private detective Kate Shugak homesteads in the “Park” and though mentored by her grandmother to become the leader of their tribe and head of the Niniltna Native Association, she is more of a loner than a charismatic leader. Thus her personal issues are even more irritating to her as she struggles with the demands of her teenage foster son Johnny Morgan, and her State Trooper boyfriend Jim. However, their “bullying” her seems mild compared to the pleas of the four widow “Aunties” who are the ethical conscience of the residents of the “Park” and play on her scruples. She ignored their concerns before (see A DEEPER SLEEP) to her regret but still prefers to discount their latest apprehensions. Canadian mining firm, Global Harvest Resources Inc is planning a large operation in the national park that impacts all the homesteaders. The Park residents are angry and some forms of vigilant justice surface with vicious snow machine robberies harming victims. On top of that, two homicides have further divided the developers from the locals. Kate investigates the murders and the violent robberies. As always with the rugged regional Shugak mystery the investigation is excellent and the heroine’s personal problems with relationships enhance her as a person with flaws. The eccentric cast augments the prime story line by providing insight into living in the Alaskan wilderness.

Still Life, by Joy Fielding.

Beautiful, happily married, and the owner of a successful interior design business, Casey Marshall couldn’t be more content with her life, until a car slams into her at almost fifty miles an hour, breaking nearly every bone in her body and plunging her into a coma. Lying in her hospital bed, Casey realizes that although she is unable to see or communicate, she can hear everything. She quickly discovers that her friends aren’t necessarily the people she thought them to be — and that her accident might not have been an accident at all. As she struggles to break free from her living death, she begins to wonder if what lies ahead could be even worse.

Wild Sorrow, by Sandi Ault.

Fans of the late Tony Hillerman will embrace Ault’s outstanding third mystery to feature Jamaica Wild, a resource agent for the Bureau of Land Management in Taos, N.M. When Jamaica seeks shelter during a blizzard in Pueblo Peña at the abandoned San Pedro de Arbués Indian School for her injured horse, Rooster, and her wolf companion, Mountain, she stumbles on a terrifying sight-the frozen corpse of Cassie Morgan, a strangled Anglo woman from whose neck hangs a sign in red crayon that reads “I am not an Indian.” Though Jamaica is horrified to learn that Cassie was a former school matron “remembered for depriving, humiliating, and beating the Indian children,” she continues to help the FBI investigation into what is deemed a hate crime. Outraged by Jamaica’s interference, the twisted killer targets both Jamaica and Mountain. Ault’s wildlife expertise and knowledge of Tanoah culture enhance a poignant plot.

Cream Puff Murder, by Joanna Fluke.

Winter in Lake Eden, Minnesota, is the perfect time to curl up by a cosy fire with something – and someone – sweet. But while bakery owner Hannah Swensen can provide herself with the confections, cuddling will have to take a back seat to sleuthing when her sometime-squeeze becomes a murder suspect…With the launch party of her mother’s novel around the corner, Hannah has a dress to fit into and a date with her sister, Andrea, at Lake Eden’s new health club, Heavenly Bodies. Dragging herself out of bed on a frigid Minnesota morning for exercise, of all things, is bad enough. Discovering a dead body floating in the gym’s Jacuzzi? Okay, that’s worse. Nor does it help that there’s a plate of The Cookie Jar’s very own cream puffs garnishing the murder scene. The fact that they were purchased by none other than Hannah’s part-time flame, Detective Mike Kingston, is simply the icing on what’s shaping up to be one very messy cake…Mike may be the prime suspect in the murder of man-eating bombshell Ronni Ward, but he’s by no means the only one. Ronni, a fitness instructor at both the Sheriff’s department and Heavenly Bodies, made a nasty habit of throwing her own heavenly body at every man, eligible or not, who crossed her path. Plenty of Lake Eden’s ladies won’t miss Ronni, including her ex-fiance’s former girlfriend, the angry mother of one of her would-be conquests, and even the mayor’s wife. Could any of them have wanted her gone badly enough to make it happen? Mike’s recruited Hannah to find out, and, as any suspended, suspected detective would, he’s micromanaging her every step of the way…Between trying to narrow the list of Ronni’s enemies down to fewer than half the town’s female population and resisting the urge to remove Mike from the running by throttling him herself, Hannah has her plate full. Trouble is, when it comes to cookies – and to murder – there’s always room for one more.

The Mystery Of Grace, by Charles DeLint.

Prolific Canadian fantasist de Lint, recently focused on YA (Dingo), returns to adult fiction with a supernatural love story set in the American Southwest and an odd afterlife. Following her death, auto restorer Altagracia “Grace” Quintero awakens in a timeless realm inhabited by her recently deceased neighbors. Briefly returned to our world during Halloween night, Grace falls in love with John, a young artist, and he returns the feeling even when he discovers her condition. As the obvious pun in the title indicates, this tale of attachments formed and relinquished is also about belief and hope. De Lint doesn’t endorse any particular religious system, but he writes passionately about the individual’s ability to discover an effective personal magic. The story develops through comforting, warm compassion to reach the inevitable, mostly satisfying solution.

Scat, by Carl Hiaasen.

Hiaasen’s many adult novels have a particular form of insanity to them. No matter just how you think you’ve figured out what’s going on or about to happen, he throws a knuckle ball that threatens to become a bean ball, aimed right at your head. When he began writing YA books, he brought some of that with him, yet tempered for a younger audience. Scat is the story of Nick and Marta, whose biology teacher didn’t return from a class field trip to the Black Vine swamp. Not that Mrs. Starch is going to be missed; she was the most fearsome teacher at Truman School. But neither of them believe that she was called away on a “family emergency,” but instead was the victim of foul play, probably by Smoke, the class delinquent. Very quickly, and in typical Hiaasen fashion, the plot gets not only complicated, but ever-stranger players in this mystery come fast and furious. The story is appropriate for middle school and older, enjoyable to read, and reflects Hiaasen’s love of the Florida wild lands.

Happy Reading!