Holiday closings

The library will be closed for the New Year's holiday on Dec. 31 and Jan. 1. We'll see you next year - have a happy New Year!

Best of 2010

It's that time of year when it seems everybody is publishing "Best of 2010" lists. Here's a few noteworthy ones:

Audiofile's Best Audiobooks of 2010
Entertainment Weekly's Best Books of 2010
The Seattle Times 27 Best Books of 2010
Barnes & Noble Editors' Picks for 2010
Kirkus Reviews Best Mysteries of 2010

Happy browsing!

As a former San Franciscan, I couldn't help but plug this new book: Golden Gate: The Life and Times of America's Greatest Bridge. The Washington Post wrote that the author "eloquently retraces this industrial achievement from planning and construction up to the present day with its $6-and-up tolls. He tells the story behind each of the bridge's masterminds -- the bankers, builders, egos and engineers -- and also devotes a whole chapter to a tragic side of the bridge's history as a frequent site of Bay area suicides." Well worth a read (and even better, a visit!). - Randy Decker

After tackling such topics as the fate of cadavers (Stiff), the existence of ghosts (Spook), and sex in scientific research (Bonk), Mary Roach settles her gaze on the not-so-glamorous lives of astronauts, their training, and the quirky experiments performed in the name of space science. Roach's research sends her into the archives and into zero-gee flight in order to find answers to such questions as what happens when an astronaut vomits in his/her helmet, and whether or not it is feasible, or even possible, to have sex in a gravity-free environment. As informative as it is funny, this book will appeal to space enthusiasts, trivia whizzes, and anyone out for a good laugh.

Holiday closings

The library will be closed for the holidays on Dec. 23, 24 and 25. We'll see you on Monday, Dec. 27. Happy holidays!

...come the Kirkus Reviews list of the best Zombie and Vampire books of 2010. The most unusual of the bunch (and that's saying something!) is Paul is Undead, a tale of the British (zombie) Invasion of the 1960s. Publishers Weekly called it a "humor-filled splatterfest in which the rise and fall of the zombie Beatles unfolds through eyewitness accounts, newspaper clippings, and interviews. Roughly paralleling the real-world career of the Beatles, this alternate history reimagines successes, failures, and rivalries with over-the-top bizarro charm." Check it out!

New from Tom Clancy!

For years, Jack Ryan, Jr. and his colleagues at the Campus have waged an unofficial and highly effective campaign against the terrorists who threaten western civilization. The most dangerous of these is the Emir. This sadistic killer has masterminded the most vicious attacks on the west and has eluded capture by the world's law enforcement agencies. Now the Campus is on his trail. Joined by their latest recruits, John Clark and Ding Chavez, Jack Ryan, Jr. and his cousins, Dominick and Brian Caruso, are determined to catch the Emir and they will bring him in . . . dead or alive.

Great book for teens you may have missed

From Publishers Weekly: "Beautiful, popular Samantha and her three best friends are the ruthless queen bees of their high school. But Samantha is living a nightmare: throughout the book, she relives the day of her death seven times, with some dramatic alterations and revelations depending on her choices. She faces the often tragic consequences of even the smallest acts, awakens to the casual cruelties all around her, and tries to get things right and maybe even redeem herself. If this sounds too much like a Groundhog Day-style plot, make no mistake: evocative of Jenny Downham's Before I Die, Oliver's debut novel is raw, emotional, and, at times, beautiful. Samantha's best friends are funny, likable, and maddening, but readers will love Samantha best as she hurtles toward an end as brave as it is heartbreaking."

Grand unveiling of new children's area mural

Come see the fantastic mezzanine mural completed by artist Greg Preslicka! On Monday, December 20 from 4-7 pm you'll be able to meet Greg, see the new mural and enjoy the cookies and juice provided by the Friends of the Library.

This project is funded in part or in whole with money from Minnesota's Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, sponsored by SELCO in cooperation with the Red Wing Public Library.

From Publishers Weekly: "Winchester, bestselling author of The Professor and the Madman, returns to the natural world with his epic new book, a "biography" of the Atlantic Ocean, from its origins 370 million years ago through the population of its shores by humanity and their interactions with it. He sees the Atlantic as the vital ingredient in the blooming of Western civilization. He scrutinizes the early explorations from the Vikings and Norsemen through Columbus, detailing the perils of the open sea. With his excellent research and engrossing anecdotes about the ocean as "a living thing," Winchester spotlights its inspiration on poets, painters, and writers in its majestic beauty. Winchester's sea saga is necessary reading for those who want to understand the planet better, even as, he notes, our waters are rapidly changing from pollution, overfishing, and climate change."

From Publishers Weekly: "Veteran Forsyth (The Day of the Jackal) shows once again he's a master of the political thriller by taking a simple but completely original idea and turning it into a compelling story. The unnamed Obama-like U.S. president, disgusted by the horrors wrought by illegal drug trafficking, decides to bring the entire weight and resources of the federal government against the international cocaine trade. He first declares drug traders and their cartels to be terrorists, subjecting them to new and extensive legal procedures, then he brings in ex-CIA director Paul Devereaux to head the team that will implement the effort. Devereaux, known as the Cobra from his operations days, is old school-smart, ruthless, unrelenting, and bestowed by the president with free rein to call in any arm of the government. Forsyth lays out how it would all work, and readers will follow eagerly along, always thinking, yes, why don't they do this in real life? The answer to that question lies at the heart of this forceful, suspenseful, intelligent novel."

If you like mysteries featuring tough guy (and gal!) private eyes, then check out our list of 25 Great Private Eye/Tough Guy Books! Ranging from classics such as Raymond Chandler to the masters of modern noir such as Dennis Lehane, you are sure to find something you like.

A fantastical reimagining of the American West which draws its influence from steampunk, the American western tradition, and magical realism. The world is only half made. What exists has been carved out amidst a war between two rival factions: the Line, paving the world with industry and claiming its residents as slaves; and the Gun, a cult of terror and violence that cripples the population with fear. The only hope at stopping them has seemingly disappeared—the Red Republic that once battled the Gun and the Line, and almost won. Now they’re just a myth, a bedtime story parents tell their children, of hope. To the west lies a vast, uncharted world, inhabited only by the legends of the immortal and powerful Hill People, who live at one with the earth and its elements. Liv Alverhyusen, a doctor of the new science of psychology, travels to the edge of the made world to a spiritually protected mental institution in order to study the minds of those broken by the Gun and the Line. In its rooms lies an old general of the Red Republic, a man whose shattered mind just may hold the secret to stopping the Gun and the Line. And either side will do anything to understand how.

A sharp-witted knockdown of America's love affair with positive thinking and an urgent call for a new commitment to realism. In this utterly original take on the American frame of mind, Barbara Ehrenreich traces the strange career of our sunny outlook from its origins as a marginal nineteenth-century healing technique to its enshrinement as a dominant, almost mandatory, cultural attitude. This is Ehrenreich at her provocative best: poking holes in conventional wisdom and faux science, and ending with a call for existential clarity and courage.

Portia de Rossi weighed only 82 pounds when she collapsed on the set of the Hollywood film in which she was playing her first leading role. This should have been the culmination of all her years of hard work first as a child model in Australia, then as a cast member of one of the hottest shows on American television. On the outside she was thin and blond, glamorous and successful. On the inside, she was literally dying. In this searing, unflinchingly honest book, Portia de Rossi captures the complex emotional truth of what it is like when food, weight, and body image take priority over every other human impulse or action. Augusten Burroughs called Unbearable Lightness “possibly the best book on the subject ever written. De Rossi is the real deal, a fine writer with a sharp mind and substance. This rich, layered book of remarkable courage, power, and significance will serve as life-changing inspiration for many.”

Scandinavian crime fiction

Stieg Larsson, who died in 2004 at the age of 50, was a Swedish journalist and writer, best known for writing the Millennium Trilogy of crime novels (The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played With Fire and The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest), published after his death. His novels helped create a demand in the US for other Scandinavian crime fiction. If you liked his books and are looking for books with a similar setting and/or tone, check out our If You Like Stieg Larsson booklist (and come to the next meeting our our Read-A-Likes book club!)

New Christmas music at the library

40 Most Beautiful Christmas Classics (Chanticleer)




A Christmas Caroll from Westminster Abbey (The Choir of Westminster Abbey)



I Sing the Birth (New York Polyphony)

If you like Janet Evanovich...

...you should try Minnesota author Lois Greiman's Christina McMullen series, starting with Unzipped. When her most famous client, football star "Bomber" Bomstad, suddenly drops dead while making an unwanted pass, cocktail-waitress-turned-shrink Chrissy McMullen finds herself the target of Jack Rivera, a no-nonsense detective who is sure that the sexy psychotherapist has been up to some most unethical behavior. Reviewers called it "a snappy, funny whodunit." Check it out!

Social networking comes to books

Social networking (think Facebook) has arrived in a big way for book lovers! GoodReads, LibraryThing and Shelfari are all great ways to keep track of your books and reading. You can also see what other people are reading, get recommendations, read reviews, join online discussions and more!

Great mystery series you may have missed

For those who like hard boiled private investigator mysteries, it doesn't get much better than Dennis Lehane's Patrick Kenzie & Angela Gennaro series. You may be familiar with a movie made from one of his books - the 2007 film Gone Baby Gone directed by Ben Affleck. It was a critical and commerical smash - but the books are even better. Here's how BookList describes the first book in the series, A Drink Before the War: "Play-rough, talk-tough Patrick Kenzie and smart, feisty Angie Gennaro don't take no lip from nobody when they're on a hot case, and their latest is hot all right. When two well-known U.S. senators ask Patrick and Angie to recover some confidential documents they believe were stolen from their office by cleaning woman Jenna Angeline, the detectives think their job will be a piece of cake: find the woman, tell the senators where she is, and let them take it from there. But of course, the case isn't that easy, and before they're finished, Patrick and Angie tackle gang warfare, corruption, prostitution, blackmail, and murder. Lehane offers slick, hip, sparkling dialogue that's as good as it gets, a plot that rockets along at warp speed, and the wonderfully original, in-your-face crime-solving duo of Kenzie and Gennaro."

From Library Journal: "Expanded from an essay in The New England Journal of Medicine, this beautifully written, heartwarming memoir centers on Oscar, a seemingly ordinary house cat with the ability to sense when nursing home patients are within hours of dying. Most of the patients under geriatrician Dosa's care are in the final stages of Alzheimer's disease, and depictions of Oscar's interactions with them take us into the difficult world faced by their families, friends, and caregivers. Verdict Told with profound insight and great respect for all involved, this is more than just a cat story." Check it out!

New from Patricia Cornwell!

Port Mortuary, the title of Patricia Cornwell's 18th Scarpetta novel, is literally a port for the dead. In this fast-paced story, a treacherous path from Scarpetta's past merges with the high tech highway she now finds herself on. We travel back to the beginning of her professional career, when she enlisted in the Air Force to pay off her medical school debt. Now, more than twenty years and many career successes later, her secret military ties have drawn her to Dover Air Force Base, where she has been immersed in a training fellowship.

As the chief of the new Cambridge Forensic Center in Massachusetts, a joint venture of the state and federal governments and MIT, Scarpetta is confronted with a case that could shut down her new facility and ruin her personally and professionally.

Holiday Book Sale & Storytime

Today from 4-6 in the library's Foot Room, the Friends of the Library will hold their annual holiday book sale. Also today (at 4), the Miss Red Wing royalty will conduct a childrens' story time. Come by on your way to the Holiday Stroll!

Holiday closing

The library will be closed on Thursday, November 25 for Thanksgiving but will be open regular hours on Friday, November 26 (10-6) and Saturday, November 27 (9-3).

From BookList: "Sybilla may have been born to wealthy parents, but her home life was never easy, and she ran away at 17. Ever since, Sybilla has been homeless and living off the grid. Her peaceful existence comes to a sudden end when she is accused of murder and goes on the run, too scared to go to the police and clear herself but frantic to regain her carefully built life. Both a mystery (Who is really doing the murders?) and a psychological study (Why did Sybilla run from her family?), Missing heralds the arrival in the U.S. of another outstanding Scandinavian crime writer. Winner of the Glass Key Award in Sweden, this is a taut, riveting, and impossible-to-put-down story of a young woman caught up in a bad situation."

From Booklist: "In 2009, Laura Ling, a reporter with Current TV, traveled with a film crew to the region of China that bordered on North Korea to report on defections. The crew momentarily crossed into North Korea, and Ling and Euna Lee, her editor and translator, were captured. Given the hostilities between North Korea and China and a recent critical documentary on North Korea by Laura’s sister, journalist Lisa Ling, the women knew they were in for an ordeal. Laura was beaten during the capture, and the women were held in isolation and faced meager meals, cold, and little medical treatment. In the U.S., Lisa and her family prayed and called on powerful contacts, including Al Gore and Bill Richardson, to win the women’s release. The women were eventually tried for attempting to overthrow the government and sentenced to 12 years in a labor camp, but through behind-the-scenes maneuvering and negotiations with prickly North Korea, they were finally released after five months in captivity. This memoir alternates between the sisters, with Laura recalling the escalating peril of her capture and imprisonment and Lisa recalling heightened worries as weeks dragged into months. A riveting story of captivity and the enduring faith, determination, and love of two sisters."

From Publishers Weekly: "The three central questions of philosophy and science: Why is there something rather than nothing? Why do we exist? Why this particular set of laws and not some other? No one can make a discussion of such matters as compulsively readable as the celebrated University of Cambridge cosmologist Hawking. Along with Caltech physicist Mlodinow, Hawking deftly mixes cutting-edge physics to answer those key questions. For instance, why do we exist? Earth occupies a "Goldilocks Zone" in space: just the perfect distance from a not-too-hot star, with just the right elements to allow life to evolve. On a larger scale, in order to explain the universe, the authors write, "we need to know not only how the universe behaves, but why." While no single theory exists yet, scientists are approaching that goal with what is called "M-theory," a collection of overlapping theories (including string theory) that fill in many (but not all) the blank spots in quantum physics; this collection is known as the "Grand Unified Field Theories." This may all finally explain the mystery of the universe's creation without recourse to a divine creator. This is an amazingly concise, clear, and intriguing overview of where we stand when it comes to divining the secrets of the universe." Check it out!

Between iPods, music-blasting restaurants, ear-splitting sports stadiums, and endless air and road traffic, the place for quiet in our lives grows smaller by the day. In Pursuit of Silence gives context to our increasingly desperate sense that noise pollution is, in a very real way, an environmental catastrophe. Listening to doctors, neuroscientists, acoustical engineers, monks, activists, educators, marketers, and aggrieved citizens, George Prochnik examines why we began to be so loud as a society, and what it is that gets lost when we can no longer find quiet. He shows us the benefits of decluttering our sonic world. And don't forget that our library is a great place for quiet reflection & study!

Diary of a Wimpy kid book 5 is here!

From Publishers Weekly: ""See, when you're a little kid, nobody ever warns you that you've got an expiration date. One day you're hot stuff and the next day you're a dirt sandwich," Greg Heffley tells readers partway into this fifth installment of Kinney's bestselling Wimpy Kid series. There's a noticeable feeling of transition in this outing as Greg negotiates a sour patch with longtime best friend Rowley, his mother's decision to go back to school, the imminence of puberty (and dreaded accompanying discussions at home and at school), and the fact that one can't stay a child forever-despite evidence to the contrary provided by Greg's Uncle Gary, who's embarking on his fourth marriage." Check it out!

New from the author of Seabiscuit!

From Publishers Weekly: "From the 1936 Olympics to WWII Japan's most brutal POW camps, Hillenbrand's heart-wrenching new book is thousands of miles and a world away from the racing circuit of her bestselling Seabiscuit. But it's just as much a page-turner, and its hero, Louie Zamperini, is just as loveable: a disciplined champion racer who ran in the Berlin Olympics, he's a wit, a prankster, and a reformed juvenile delinquent who put his thieving skills to good use in the POW camps. In May 1943 his B-24 crashed into the Pacific. After a record-breaking 47 days adrift on a shark-encircled life raft with his pal and pilot, Russell Allen "Phil" Phillips, they were captured by the Japanese. In the "theater of cruelty" that was the Japanese POW camp network, Louie landed in the cruelest theaters of all: Omori and Naoetsu, under the control of Corp. Mutsuhiro Watanabe, a pathologically brutal sadist (called the Bird by camp inmates). By war's end, Louie was near death. Hillenbrand's triumph is that in telling Louie's story (he's now in his 90s), she tells the stories of thousands whose suffering has been mostly forgotten. She restores to our collective memory this tale of heroism, cruelty, life, death, joy, suffering, remorselessness, and redemption." Check it out!

Author visit

Speaking at the library this Saturday morning at 10am will be writer and Korean War veteran Paul Grassley. He is the author of The Grass: A Young Man's Journey to the Korean War. Refreshments will be served. Sponsored by the Friends of the Red Wing Public Library, this program is free and open to the public.

Artist at work

This Friday and Saturday, mural artist Greg Preslicka will be working at the library. He is creating a permanent mural for the library and will also be leading a hands-on experience for children (preschool and elementary grades welcome) at 10:30am. Kids will work with him to create a paper mural (so they may want to wear old clothes!).

From 1:00 - 2:00pm, you can watch Mr. Preslicka as he works on the mural he designed for the library. Learn about concept, design and creation. Questions are welcome! This event is free and open to the public.

This project is funded in part or in whole with money from Minnesota's Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund, sponsored by SELCO in cooperation with the Red Wing Public Library.

Closed for Veterans' Day

The Library will be closed on Thursday, November 11 in observance of Veterans Day.

After the Apocalypse

If you enjoy reading stories about the end of civilization (and the aftermath) check out our new booklist, After the Apocalypse. Something for everybody - nuclear war, environmental disasters and even zombies. Check it out!

Best picture books of 2010

The New York Times has come out with their list of the best childrens' picture books of 2010. Check it out and then check them out!

The Whale and the Supercomputer

Climate change isn't an abstraction in the far North. It is a reality that has already dramatically altered daily life, especially that of the native peoples who still live largely off the land and sea. Because nature shows her footprints so plainly here, the region is also a lure for scientists intent on comprehending the complexities of climate change. In this gripping account, Charles Wohlforth follows the two groups as they navigate a radically shifting landscape. The scientists attempt to decipher its smallest elements and to derive from them a set of abstract laws and models. The natives draw on uncannily accurate traditional knowledge, borne of long experience living close to the land. Even as they see the same things-a Native elder watches weather coming through too fast to predict; a climatologist notes an increased frequency of cyclonic systems-the two cultures struggle to reconcile their vastly different ways of comprehending the environment. With grace, clarity, and a sense of adventure, Wohlforth--a lifelong Alaskan--illuminates both ways of seeing a world in flux, and in the process, helps us to navigate a way forward as climate change reaches us all.

Great new fantasy series!

If you enjoy epic fantasy and have plenty of time on your hands (the first of a projected 10 volumes checks in at over 1,000 pages!) then you should read The Way of Kings by Brandon Sanderson. Widely acclaimed for his work completing Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time saga, Brandon Sanderson now begins a grand cycle of his own, one every bit as ambitious and immersive. Roshar is a world of stone and storms. Uncanny tempests of incredible power sweep across the rocky terrain so frequently that they have shaped ecology and civilization alike. Animals hide in shells, trees pull in branches, and grass retracts into the soilless ground. Cities are built only where the topography offers shelter. It has been centuries since the fall of the ten consecrated orders known as the Knights Radiant, but their Shardblades and Shardplate remain: mystical swords and suits of armor that transform ordinary men into near-invincible warriors. Men trade kingdoms for Shardblades. Wars were fought for them, and won by them. One such war rages on a ruined landscape called the Shattered Plains. There, Kaladin, who traded his medical apprenticeship for a spear to protect his little brother, has been reduced to slavery. In a war that makes no sense, where ten armies fight separately against a single foe, he struggles to save his men and to fathom the leaders who consider them expendable. Brightlord Dalinar Kholin commands one of those other armies. Like his brother, the late king, he is fascinated by an ancient text called The Way of Kings . Troubled by over-powering visions of ancient times and the Knights Radiant, he has begun to doubt his own sanity. Across the ocean, an untried young woman named Shallan seeks to train under an eminent scholar and notorious heretic, Dalinar's niece, Jasnah. Though she genuinely loves learning, Shallan's motives are less than pure. As she plans a daring theft, her research for Jasnah hints at secrets of the Knights Radiant and the true cause of the war. The result of over ten years of planning, writing, and world-building, The Way of Kings is but the opening movement of the Stormlight Archive, a bold masterpiece in the making.

From Library Journal: "Twelve travelers and three guides set off on a rafting trip down the Colorado River. Each comes to the trip expecting a life-altering experience, but none is prepared for the events as they unfold, least of all JT Maroney, their veteran guide. It is JT's 125th trip down the river, and he thinks he's seen it all; but a dog, a couple in their seventies, two dysfunctional marriages, and an overweight teenager provide him with challenges that have nothing to do with white-water rafting. Each traveler leaves the trip with much more than he or she expected."

Newly arrived at the library:



Super Size Me (Rotten Tomatoes rating 93%)








Iron Man 2 (Rotten Tomatoes rating 74%)







The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo (Rotten Tomatoes rating 87%)




Glee, the complete season 1

Spooktacular Story Time!

The Red Wing Public Library is offering a "Spooktacular Story Time" on Saturday, October 30 at 2:00 p.m. It's geared toward preschoolers through second graders with interactive stories, songs and rhymes. Wear your costumes if you like and then continue on to the Downtown Main Street Trunk or Treat costume parade at 2:45.

Steampunk

Wikipedia defines steampunk as involving "an era or world where steam power is still widely used—usually the 19th century and often Victorian era Britain—that incorporates prominent elements of either science fiction or fantasy." It's a very hot sub-genre now and one of its most popular authors for children and young adults is Philip Reeve. His latest, Fever Crumb, is set in a post-apocalyptic London. Critics call it "beautifully written, grippingly paced, and filled with eccentric characters and bizarre inventions." Check it out!

New from Seth Grahame-Smith!

Following up on his bestseller Pride and Prejudice and Zombies, Seth Grahame-Smith has written the hitherto untold story of president Abraham Lincoln and his battle against the undead:

Indiana, 1818. Moonlight falls through the dense woods that surround a one-room cabin where a nine-year-old Abraham Lincoln kneels at his dying mother's bedside. Only later will the grieving Abe learn that his mother's fatal affliction was actually the work of a vampire. Gifted with his legendary height, strength, and skill with an ax, Abe sets out on a path of vengeance that will lead him all the way to the White House. Check it out!

The future of libraries

A very interesting article from the Wall Street Journal on the future of libraries - with an interview of our very own library director, James Lund. Give it a read!

The Tiger: A True Story of Vengeance and Survival

It’s December 1997, and a man-eating tiger is on the prowl outside a remote village in Russia’s Far East. The tiger isn’t just killing people, it’s annihilating them, and a team of men and their dogs must hunt it on foot through the forest in the brutal cold. As the trackers sift through the gruesome remains of the victims, they discover that these attacks aren’t random: the tiger is apparently engaged in a vendetta. Injured, starving, and extremely dangerous, the tiger must be found before it strikes again. It is an absolutely gripping tale of man and nature that leads inexorably to a final showdown in a clearing deep in the taiga.

The new Jack Reacher novel is here!

There's deadly trouble in the corn country of Nebraska ... and Jack Reacher walks right into it. First he falls foul of a local clan that has terrified an entire county into submission. But it's the unsolved case of a missing child, already decades-old, that Reacher can't let go. The Duncans want Reacher gone-and it's not just past secrets they're trying to hide. They're awaiting a secret shipment that's already late - and they have the kind of customers no one can afford to annoy. For as dangerous as the Duncans are, they're right at the bottom of a criminal food chain stretching halfway around the world. For Reacher, it would have made much more sense to keep on going, to put some distance between himself and the hardcore trouble that's bearing down on him. For Reacher, that was also impossible.

From Publishers Weekly: "This stunning work showcases Krauss's consistent talent. The novel consists of four stories divided among eight chapters, all touching on themes of loss and recovery, and anchored to a massive writing desk that resurfaces among numerous households, much to the bewilderment and existential tension of those in its orbit, among them a lonely American novelist clinging to the memory of a poet who has mysteriously vanished in Chile, an old man in Israel facing the imminent death of his wife of 51 years, and an esteemed antiques dealer tracking down the things stolen from his father by the Nazis. Much like in Krauss's The History of Love, the sharply etched characters seem at first arbitrarily linked across time and space, but Krauss pulls together the disparate elements, settings, characters, and fragile connective tissue to form a formidable and haunting mosaic of loss and profound sorrow."

Longtime defense attorney Mickey Haller is recruited to change stripes and prosecute the high-profile retrial of a brutal child murder. After 24 years in prison, convicted killer Jason Jessup has been exonerated by new DNA evidence. Haller is convinced Jessup is guilty, and he takes the case on the condition that he gets to choose his investigator, LAPD Detective Harry Bosch. Together, Bosch and Haller set off on a case fraught with political and personal danger. Opposing them is Jessup, now out on bail, a defense attorney who excels at manipulating the media, and a runaway eyewitness reluctant to testify after so many years. With the odds and the evidence against them, Bosch and Haller must nail a sadistic killer once and for all. If Bosch is sure of anything, it is that Jason Jessup plans to kill again.

The unrivaled master of spy fiction returns with a taut and suspenseful of dirty money and dirtier politics. Perry and Gail are idealistic and very much in love when they splurge on a tennis vacation at a posh beach resort in Antigua. But the charm begins to pall when a big-time Russian money launderer enlists their help to defect. In exchange for amnesty, Dima is ready to rat out his vory(Russian criminal brotherhood) compatriots and expose corruption throughout the so-called legitimate financial and political worlds. Soon, the guileless couple find themselves pawns in a deadly endgame whose outcome will be determined by the victor of the British Secret Service's ruthless internecine battles.