Bulls Island, by Dorothy Benton Frank

Will romance triumph over the feud between the aristocratic Langleys and the slightly lower-in-social-pecking-order McGees in Frank’s latest Southern charm–filled romp? Though the answer is obvious from the get-go, the author fills this spirited tale with well-drawn characters, not the least of whom is formidable Charleston doyenne Louisa Langley. Betts McGee and J.D. Langley are uneasily headed to the altar—Louisa has a hard time with her son dating down. When Betts’s mother dies in a car wreck, a generations-old grudge—abetted by Louisa—flares up, and Betts flees to Manhattan. There, she raises her son (J.D. didn’t know she was pregnant when she left) solo and thrives in the distressed property turn-around business for a good 20 years until an assignment sends her back to Charleston to help develop a former wildlife refuge. The local partner in the venture is none other than J.D., who is now unhappily married and childless. Frank steers through several terrains with great aplomb as the story unfolds from both Betts’s and J.D.‘s points of view. Frank shines as Betts finds out if there’s really no place like home.

Burning Wire, by Jeffrey Deaver

An explosion at a Manhattan electrical power substation that destroys a bus—followed by threats of much worse violence unless Algonquin Consolidated Power and Light meets virtually impossible demands—sparks Deaver’s sterling ninth Lincoln Rhyme novel. Forensic expert Rhyme takes charge of looking into the fatal blast, aided by his partner and sometime lover, field agent Amelia Sachs, among others. Rhyme is able to glean many clues from the scant trace evidence left by the elusive killer at the crime scene. Meanwhile, Rhyme is also staying in close touch with Mexican army and police commander Rodolfo Luna, who’s tracking dangerous assassin Richard Logan (aka the Watchmaker) in Mexico City. The twin investigations take an increasingly dangerous toll on quadriplegic Rhyme’s precarious physical health. Not even the brilliant Rhyme can foresee the shocking twists the case will take in this electrically charged thriller.

The Cinderella Deal, by Jennifer Crusie

Jennifer Crusie brings humor and storytelling magic to this modern-day romance of a match made anywhere but in heaven—but destined for a fairy-tale ending…..Daisy Flattery is a free spirit with a soft spot for strays and a weakness for a good story. Why else would she agree to the outrageous charade offered by her buttoned-down workaholic neighbor, Linc Blaise? The history professor needs to have a fiancée in order to capture his dream job, and Daisy is game to play the role. But something funny happens on their way to the altar that changes everything. Now, with the midnight hour approaching, will Daisy lose her prince, or will opposites not only attract but live happily ever after?

Death Of A Trophy Wife, by Laura Levine

At the start of Levine’s zany eighth Jaine Austen mystery, the L.A. freelance writer and snoop extraordinaire accompanies her Neiman Marcus shoe salesman friend, Lance, to a party at the lavish Beverly Hills estate of Marvelous Marv, the Mattress King. Marv’s obnoxious trophy wife, Bunny, is one of Lance’s best customers. When Bunny dies after drinking a cyanide-laced martini, the LAPD’s discovery that Bunny left a $175,000 Maserati to Lance in her will makes him a primo suspect in her murder. Jaine’s search for the real killer turns up a host of suspects, including Ellen, Marv’s disgruntled first wife; Sarah, Marv’s brainy professor daughter, who totally hated her stepmother; and Sarah’s unfaithful husband, Owen (aka the Nerdy Son-in-Law). Whodunit indeed!

Deliver Us From Evil, by David Baldacci

Evan Waller, outwardly a respectable Canadian businessman but secretly a human trafficker who sells children into prostitution, has expanded into arranging nuclear weapons deals with Islamic fundamentalists. The enigmatic Shaw sets out to stop Evan, as does Regina Reggie Campion, a British femme fatale, who works for a clandestine group that tracks down and executes war criminals. Reggie and Shaw, both of whom intend to make their move while Evan is on vacation in Provence, cross paths while maintaining their cover stories. Shaw becomes attracted to Reggie, even as he fears that Evan, who’s in fact a sadistic Ukrainian who served the Soviets, will abduct her. The ultimate resolution will surprise you.

Hannah’s List, by Debbie Macomber

On the anniversary of his beloved wife’s death, Dr. Michael Everett receives a letter Hannah had written him. In it she reminds him of her love and makes one final request. An impossible request—I want you to marry again. She tells him he shouldn’t spend the years he has left grieving her. And to that end she’s chosen three women she asks him to consider. First on Hannah’s list is her cousin, Winter Adams, a trained chef who owns a café on Seattle’s Blossom Street. The second is Leanne Lancaster, Hannah’s oncology nurse. Michael knows them both. But the third name is one he’s not familiar with—Macy Roth. Each of these three women has her own heartache, her own private grief. More than a year earlier, Winter broke off her relationship with another chef. Leanne is divorced from a man who defrauded the hospital for which she works. And Macy lacks family of her own, the family she craves, but she’s a rescuer of strays, human and animal. Macy is energetic, artistic, eccentric—and couldn’t be more different from Michael. During the months that follow, he spends time with Winter, Leanne and Macy, learning more about each of them…and about himself. Learning what Hannah already knew. He’s a man who needs the completeness only love can offer. And Hannah’s list leads him to the woman who can help him find it.

Holly Blues, by Susan Wittig Albert

The arrival in Pecan Springs, Tex., of Sally Strahorn, the insecure ex-wife of China Bayles’s husband, PI Mike McQuaid, leads to trouble in Albert’s sprightly 18th China Bayles mystery (after 2009’s Wormwood). Against her better judgment, herbalist and tea-shop owner China takes pity on Sally, who’s just lost her home and suffers from split personality disorder, and offers her a place to stay. Soon enough, a stalker targeting Sally makes threatening calls to China, and the police suspect Sally of involvement in a murder. With Mike away on business, China again turns sleuth to determine what connection the stalker might have to the deaths of Sally’s parents almost 10 years earlier—and to prevent any harm to herself or her children. More than once China and her best friend, Ruby, dress up as Sesame Street characters to disarm suspicion. Series fans will enjoy catching up with old friends. And it’s up to China to weed out the truth behind whatever it is Sally’s running from before danger catches up to all of them….

Ice Cold, by Tess Gerritson

In Wyoming for a medical conference, Boston medical examiner Maura Isles joins a group of friends on a spur-of-the-moment ski trip. But when their SUV stalls on a snow-choked mountain road, they’re stranded with no help in sight. As night falls, the group seeks refuge from the blizzard in the remote village of Kingdom Come, where twelve eerily identical houses stand dark and abandoned. Something terrible has happened in Kingdom Come: Meals sit untouched on tables, cars are still parked in garages. The town’s previous residents seem to have vanished into thin air, but footprints in the snow betray the presence of someone who still lurks in the cold darkness—someone who is watching Maura and her friends. Days later, Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli receives the grim news that Maura’s charred body has been found in a mountain ravine. Shocked and grieving, Jane is determined to learn what happened to her friend. The investigation plunges Jane into the twisted history of Kingdom Come, where a gruesome discovery lies buried beneath the snow. As horrifying revelations come to light, Jane closes in on an enemy both powerful and merciless—and the chilling truth about Maura’s fate.

Innocent, by Scott Turow

Former lawyer Rusty Sabich, now a Kindle County, Ill., chief appellate judge, is again suspected of murdering a woman close to him. His wife, Barbara, has died in her bed of what appear to be natural causes, yet Rusty comes under scrutiny from his old nemesis, acting prosecuting attorney Tommy Molto, who unsuccessfully prosecuted him for killing his mistress decades earlier. Tommy’s chief deputy, Jim Brand, is suspicious because Rusty chose to keep Barbara’s death a secret, even from their son, Nat, for almost an entire day, which could have allowed traces of poison to disappear. Rusty’s candidacy for a higher court in an imminent election; his recent clandestine affair with his attractive law clerk, Anna Vostic; and a breach of judicial ethics complicate matters further. Once again, Turow displays an uncanny ability for making the passions and contradictions of his main characters accessible and understandable.

Men And Dogs, by Katie Crouch

20-odd years ago, Buzz Legare vanished while on a fishing trip. The fallout of his disappearance and presumed death appears in his 30-something children: Hannah drinks too much, her business is failing, and her husband has kicked her out after her repeated adultery. Hannah’s gay brother, Palmer, refuses to let anyone get too close—he’s ready to end his yearlong relationship when his partner brings up the idea of adopting a baby. After Hannah injures herself trying to break into her husband’s apartment, she heads home to Charleston, S.C., to get her life back on track, but instead finds herself pursuing the past. Damaged and vulnerable, she zigzags through her past—an old boyfriend, questions about her parents’ fidelity, and finally facing down where her unwillingness to accept love has gotten her. There’s nothing unique about the premise—woman in crisis goes home and discovers herself by exhuming the past—but Crouch handles it deftly; her dialogue is snappy, the situations darkly funny, Hannah and Palmer are unlikable but sympathetic, and there’s just enough mystery to keep the pages turning.

The 9th Judgment (Women’s Murder club novel), by James Patterson

A young mother and her infant child are ruthlessly gunned down while returning to their car in the garage of a shopping mall. There are no witnesses, and Detective Lindsay Boxer is left with only one shred of evidence: a cryptic message scrawled across the windshield in bloodred lipstick. The same night, the wife of A-list actor Marcus Dowling is woken by a cat burglar who is about to steal millions of dollars’ worth of precious jewels. In just seconds there is a nearly empty safe, a lifeless body, and another mystery that throws San Francisco into hysteria. Lindsay spends every waking hour working with her partner, Rich—and her desire for him threatens to tear apart both her engagement and the Women’s Murder Club. Before Lindsay and her friends can piece together either case, one of the killers forces Lindsay to put her own life on the line—but is it enough to save the city?

The Rule Of Nine, by Steve Martini

In Martini’s nail-biting 11th Paul Madriani thriller, the California lawyer once again crosses paths with hired assassin Liquida Muerte (aka the Mexicutioner). Bent on revenge, Liquida makes a clumsy attempt to implicate Madriani in the death of Jimmie Snyder, a 23-year-old congressional gofer. Meanwhile, a terrorist mastermind known only as Thorn, backed by unlimited funds, is plotting a horrific attack on the U.S. Thorn’s use of Liquida as a tool draws Madriani’s attention. Against a fast-moving backdrop of technical wizardry, geopolitical maneuverings, and narrow escapes, Madriani and his firm’s investigator, Herman Diggs, pursue Thorn in order to locate Liquida. And Liquida, when not dispatching others for Thorn, is determined to eliminate Madriani; his daughter, Sarah; and his colleagues. Martini does a fine job of misdirecting the reader as to the intended terrorist target.

Sizzling Sixteen, by Janet Evanovich

In this new Stephanie Plum adventure a personal case distracts the Trenton, N.J., bondswoman from tracking the usual group of eccentric skips—the kidnapping of her cousin, Vinnie, who’s being held for ransom in the high six figures. As Stephanie, sidekick Lula, and office manager Connie soon realize, Vincent Plum Bail Bonds is seriously in the red due to Vinnie’s gambling. Vinnie’s also gotten caught up with local mobster Bobby Sunflower in a complicated scheme. Even though her sleazy cousin isn’t her favorite person and chasing oddball felons isn’t her ideal career, Stephanie knows family loyalty counts for something, plus she owes him for giving her a job all those years ago. So with Lula and Connie in tow—and romantic interests Morelli and Ranger lurking in the background— Stephanie must save the day once again.

Storm Prey, by John Sandford

It was an inside job, and it should have been easy. Rob the pharmacy at Minneapolis’ largest hospital: in, out, wait till things cool down, and then sell the drugs for a half million or so. But the old man had to be a hero. Who knew he’d be on blood thinners and die after he was kicked? A robbery turned murder means Lucas Davenport and his Bureau of Criminal Apprehension team are called in to assist the investigation. There’s another element to the case for Davenport: his wife, Weather, a surgeon at the hospital, may be able to identify one of the killers. The case starts to escalate. An attempt is made on Weather’s life. The bodies of two motorcycle gang members are found in a rural area. Davenport guesses the gang is imploding from the pressure and murdering its members. Weather, under 24-hour guard, is part of a surgical team working to separate conjoined twins in a procedure that’s captured the attention of the world’s media. Meanwhile, Davenport and his team keep finding bodies of likely robbers but can’t seem to isolate either the brains behind the theft or the hospital insider who pointed them at the pharmacy.

The Walk, by Richard Paul Evans

Evans’ latest inspirational novel is the first in a planned series about a man who sets out to walk across the country in the wake of a personal tragedy. At 28, Alan Christoffersen is the head of his own successful ad company, and madly in love with his wife, McKale. His life seems truly charmed, until McKale has an accident while horseback riding. She is left paralyzed, and to stay by her side, Alan leaves his business in the hands of his partner, Kyle, which proves to be a terrible misstep when Kyle cruelly betrays him. Then McKale dies. Bereft, Alan throws off the trappings of his old life and, with little more than a backpack and a tent, sets out to walk from his home in Bellevue, Washington, all the way to Key West, Florida. The idea of a man leaving on a soul-searching cross-country trek is an intriguing one, and the pages turn quickly. Future installments will prove whether Evans’ concept holds up, but this initial offering is definitely a journey worth taking.