The perils of wartime add special urgency to latest mysteries being investigated by Nuala Anne McGrail and her adoring husband, Dermot Coyne. More than a little fey, Nuala has a well-deserved reputation for getting to the bottom of even the most tangled intrigues, even when they may be taking place on the other side of the world. Desmond Doolin, an idealistic young man from their West Side Chicago neighborhood, has gone missing in Iraq. Having flown off to the Middle East in the name of peace, he hasn't been heard of since. The U.S. government denies any knowledge of his whereabouts, and his grieving family has all but written him off as dead, but Nuala is convinced that there's more to the story . . . and herself won't stop asking questions until she finds out what has really become of Desmond, one way or another. Meanwhile, a parallel investigation uncovers the story of another young man abroad in dangerous times. Poking around in the past, Dermot...

Fed up with the sarcastic, opinionated, and disrespectful women he comes across, Ellery Pierce decides his only choice is to build the perfect woman. A technician at an animatronics firm, Ellery has the experience and tools ready at his fingertips. After years of experiments and fine-tuning, Ellery feels he finally has created an artificial woman who can pass as real -- Phyllis. According to Ellery, Phyllis is the perfect wife, fulfilling his every wish, from gourmet meals to sexual pleasure. Unfortunately for Ellery, he may have made her too closely in his image for his own good: Phyllis leaves Ellery with dreams of Hollywood. Soon she's a bona fide box office sensation. But then Phyllis sets her sights on the ultimate goal -- presidency of the United States. It's no surprise when Phyllis wins the election, but Ellery rightly begins to wonder if this time she's gone too far.From Publishers WeeklyProlific novelist Berger (The Feud, Little Big Man) updates the Pygmalion myth with this witty, dark comedy: instead of a lovely Galatea, the protagonist's manufactured dream girl becomes a Frankenstein's monster through her ambition. Ellery Pierce, a twice-divorced animatronics technician, can't find a woman devoid of sarcasm and opinion, so he builds a companion from synthetic skin, batteries and bolts. But Phyllis, his near-perfect female replica, learns quickly and, absorbing the mass media ideal for beautiful young women, runs off to pursue a career in show business. Rising quickly above a stint as a stripper, a phone sex operator and a smalltown actress, Phyllis evolves into a cinema superstar. But when the action movieâ€"going public tires of Phyllis, and the depressed Ellery comes back into her life, she sets her sights on international fame through another venue: the presidency of the United States. With her alternately colloquial and overly formal diction, and her too-faithful adherence to society's ideals, Phyllis makes for an amusing critique of contemporary American society. In his 23rd novel, Berger skewers modern foibles from reality and daytime television to the cult of celebrity and presidents with voracious sexual appetites. But the brilliance of Berger's critique is in its levity, and his fanciful plot will keep readers laughing throughout. With few weaknesses, such as the unexplained existence of other robots, this book is the literary equivalent of cotton candy: not filling but fun to digest. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistIn his twenty-third novel, Berger (Little Big Man, 1964) crafts a satirical look at the American pursuit of perfection. Technician Ellery Pierce, unable to sustain a long-lasting relationship, puts his skills to use building a robot to be his perfect wife. However, Phyllis quickly outruns Ellery's limited ambitions, taking all of a day to become a gourmet cook. She leaves him for a job as a phone sex operator, where her literal-mindedness is her undoing. She then lands a starring role in a nude version of Macbeth, which launches her career in mainstream action films. Meanwhile, Ellery, bereft at her desertion, tracks her down, and the two engineer a plan for her to run for the White House. Berger is technically adept here and quite amusing, even scathing, in spots, about the hypocrisy of male-female relations and Hollywood avarice, but his story is overly familiar, echoing the plot of The Stepford Wives and both the real life and the film roles of Arnold Schwarzenegger. A hit-and-miss affair, but Berger's name will draw some interest. Joanne WilkinsonCopyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

When chic Parisian lawyer Catherine Lambert lands her dream job as intellectual property director for Christian Dior, she is on top of the world. She' s prepared to embark on the ride of her life in the world of fashion, fighting high-profile legal battles against international counterfeiters. She' ll also be reunited with colleague-turned-boyfriend Antoine in her beloved hometown.But Catherine' s visions of front-row seats at the couture shows and strolling the Champs-Élysées hand in hand with the love of her life are soon displaced by the realities of dingy police vans and threatening anonymous phone calls. The code of ethics that she knew from mergers and acquisitions does not seem to apply in the nefarious counterfeiting underworld, and Catherine finds her life turned upside-down by surprise meetings in dark alleys and an unexpected degree of notoriety among the criminal element. Will Catherine and her loyal assistant, Rikash, manage to outsmart even the most...

As a teenager, Robert McKinnon left his native Scotland and moved to America. That was sixteen years ago, and Professor McKinnon has never quite settled in his new home or found his place this side of the pond. He might be prematurely old, but he has his cat, and his books, and that's all he needs. Then Chris Ford explodes into Robert's life with a crash of cymbals. The younger man is the polar opposite of Robert's calm civility. Bright tattoos cover his skin, and he wears his hair in a Mohawk and plays drums for a rock band. But he's a shot of color in Robert's black-and-white world, and Robert turns out to be the one thing Chris can count on. Despite all the reasons it shouldn't work, somehow it does. Even if Robert wasn't looking for love—especially not with someone nearly ten years his junior—he can't deny being with Chris is fun. But sometimes Chris's free-spirited nature leaves Robert feeling...

Product DescriptionIt was love at first sight. When Wolf Hayward and Molly Donivan gazed into each other’s eyes in a crowded train station during the Civil War, they knew they were meant to be—and sealed their commitment with a passionate kiss. He promised to find her after the war—until he realized she was the daughter of a Union General when he was a Southern spy behind enemy lines. But he’ll never forget her and Molly will pledge to wait for the man she only knows as “Benjamin.”Eight years later, Wolf—now a Texas ranger—is chasing down some outlaws when he is struck down by a falling signpost—and wakes up to see the beautiful woman he has never forgotten. Molly doesn’t recognize him as the handsome soldier who swept her away so long ago, but she can’t help being intrigued by his kindness and charm. And she can’t help imagining what it’s like to be in his arms after the sun goes down…        

suspense mystery

NOMINEE 2011 -- Scotiabank Giller PrizeTouch begins with Stephen, an Anglican priest, returning from Vancouver to the northern BC town of Sawgamet where he grew up, just in time for his mother's death. Sawgamet was founded by Stephen's grandfather Jeannot, when he heard a voice in the woods calling his name and his dog, Flaireur, refused to take another step. Back then, as Stephen remembers it from the stories passed down to him, men were giants, or even gods, striving to tame the land. The world of Sawgamet was enchanted, alive with qallupilluit and ijirait, sea-witches and shape-shifters; Jeannot saw caribou covered with gold dust and found gold nuggets the size of boulders. Sometimes winter refused to end, and blizzards buried the whole town in snow for months at a time. Sawgamet was a place where Jeannot had to kill a man twice and then carry the bones around with him, bound in cloth, to make sure he stayed dead.Years later, with...

Kylar Stern has rejected the assassin's life. The Godking's successful coup has left Kylar's master, Durzo, and his best friend, Logan, dead. He is starting over: new city, new friends, and new profession. But when he learns that Logan might actually be alive and in hiding, Kylar is faced with an agonizing choice: will he give up the way of shadows forever and live in peace with his new family, or will he risk everything by taking on the ultimate hit?

In this dark, atmospheric sequel to Robert Louis Stevenson's timeless classic, the strange case continues with the return of Dr. Jekyll . . . Seven years after the death of Edward Hyde, a stylish gentleman shows up in foggy London claiming to be Dr. Henry Jekyll. Only Mr. Utterson, Jekyll's faithful lawyer and confidant, knows that he must be an impostor—because Jekyll was Hyde. But as the man goes about charming Jekyll's friends and reclaiming the estate, and as the bodies of potential challengers start piling up, Utterson is left fearing for his life . . . and questioning his own sanity. This brilliantly imagined and beautifully written sequel to one of literature's greatest masterpieces perfectly complements, as well as subverts, Stevenson's gothic classic. And where the original was concerned with the duality of man, the sequel deals with the possibility of identity theft of the most audacious kind. Constantly threading on the blurred lines between...

Back in fifth grade, Micah Knight got an Amish pen pal, and over the years, they've exchanged many letters—and many secrets. At age seventeen, Micah finally has the chance to meet her pen pal face-to-face. The only problem is that because of confusion about her name when the pen pals were assigned, her pen pal was a boy, Zack Miller. And all this time, Micah's never told Zack that she's actually a girl! While she wants nothing more than to experience life on Zack's Amish farm, she's afraid he'll hate her for deceiving him all these years. But she makes up her mind to face the music—and that's where the fun really begins.Bestselling author Melody Carlson brings young adults another fascinating tale of worlds colliding, secrets being revealed, and friendships forming. Teens will love this story of miscommunication and mishaps along the way to the truth.