Just One Look

Just One Look

Harlan Coben

Mystery / Suspense / Young Adult

From Publishers Weekly Just one look at Coben's latest stand-alone thriller (after No Second Chance) highlights the author's customary strengths (swift pacing, strong lead characters) but also his weaknesses, including limited originality and, in this case, a plot so complicated that many final pages are devoted to sorting it out. The premise is simple enough: suburban housewife Grace Lawson collects some pictures at the local Photomat; inexplicably, one is an old print depicting her husband, Jack, with other college students; when Grace shows the photo to Jack, he drives away-and disappears. Grace's hunt for her missing husband, whom we learn has been kidnapped (but why? and Coben fans will note that the author's last novel also hinged on a kidnapped family member), sweeps her back into a nightmare she thought she'd escaped: the evening years ago when she survived a rock concert rampage, occasioned by a shooting that left many dead. Meanwhile, Eric Wu, a-dare we say?-inscrutable martial-arts killer who has snatched Jack for reasons unknown, menaces assorted folk. Eventually Grace, aided by a Gotti-like mobster whose child was killed in the rampage, gloms on to Wu, as well as on to Jack's sister, a high-powered attorney who, it turns out, is representing the guy who started the rampage by firing his gun. Only he didn't start the rampage after all, and then there's the rock star who vanished after the shooting and resultant mayhem-what's he now doing on Grace's doorstep? This is all as complicated as a thousand-piece jigsaw puzzle and about as hard to figure out, although in the midst of the murk there are some wonderful character touches. Coben can write thrillers that lift readers off their seats; this one, alas, will have them slumping. From Booklist If the trick of suspense writing is to get readers to identify so passionately with the beleaguered principal character that they disappear into the story, feeling the knife points of tension themselves, then Coben is the Houdini of the form. Coben, who has won the Trifecta of mystery writing-the Edgar, the Anthony, and the Shamus Awards-likes to burst the bubble of suburban security by having his characters' well-ordered, happy lives upended in ways that mirror readers' fears. In his four stand-alone thrillers, the past comes back to bite or haunt the protagonist, or the present vanishes in one fatal moment. In this latest excursion into the dark, a suburban mother finds one picture that does not belong in the pack of family outing photos she's just picked up. The picture, showing a group of college students, seems as if it was taken 20 years ago. One of the group looks like her husband. A girl in the group has an X drawn across her face. When Mrs. Happily Married shows the picture to her husband, he seems shaken, then leaves home. Coben ratchets up the suspense of the wife trying to find her husband with another drama, that of a serial killer in the neighborhood. A tragic accident from the woman's past intersects with her husband's secrets and the movements of the killer in ways that are satisfyingly creepy.
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Infamous

Infamous

Alyson Noel

Young Adult / Children's / Paranormal

Fans of One of Us Is Lying and Genuine Fraud will love this explosive and satisfying finale to the provocative and suspenseful Beautiful Idols series from #1 New York Times bestselling author Alyson Noël.Club promoters Layla, Aster, and Tommy never imagined that entering the Unrivaled competition would land them in the middle of a celebrity murder investigation, but sometimes fate can be as nasty as the anonymous comments on a Hollywood gossip blog. But Madison Brooks isn't dead. Layla, Aster, and Tommy have been set up, and as Madison's dirty little secrets creep closer to the light, they discover Madison will do anything to keep her past hidden—no matter who gets caught in the crossfire.
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The Book Without Words

The Book Without Words

Avi

Children's Books / Young Adult

In the dark of winter in the town of Dulwich, people are more desperate than ever. There's little food, little money, and even less hope. But what the people of Dulwich do have in abundance are secrets. And one man, Godric, has devoted his life to the illegal practice of alchemy in the quest to uncover the Great Secret: of making gold, and of immortality. Yet just as he is on the brink of a great discovery, he keels over, nearly dead.
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The Heart's Game (The Kelly Brothers, Book 4)

The Heart's Game (The Kelly Brothers, Book 4)

Crista McHugh

Romance / Fantasy / Young Adult

What happens at Comic-Con, stays at Comic-Con… Robotics engineer Jenny Nguyen has given up on finding Mr. Right. So when her brother and his husband approach her to act as surrogate for their child, she sees it as her only chance to have a child and accepts. One week after she initiates the process, however, she meets a man who gets her heart pumping for all the right reasons and gives into the temptation. When the test turns positive, she’s believes she can’t handle both the pregnancy and dating, but she underestimates how persistent a Daniel Kelly can be. When surgeon and gamer-geek Dan meets a pretty woman dressed as a Sailor Scout at Comic-Con, a roll of his lucky 20-sided die tells him he should take a gamble on her. One night of passion leaves him longing for more, but Jenny’s refusal to return his calls afterward leaves him wondering if the attraction was one-sided. An accidental discovery of her pregnancy has him convinced the baby is his, and he’ll stop at nothing to win her heart.
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The Preditorial Page

The Preditorial Page

Lee, Amanda M.

Chick Lit / Paranormal / Young Adult

Is speed-dating okay when you're in a relationship? It is when you're looking for a killer, especially in Avery Shaw's world. A naked body has been discovered in the nearby Clinton River, and while Sheriff Jake Farrell is keeping his cards close to his vest, Avery has another avenue of information: Eliot. It doesn't hurt that the medial examiner seems to have a crush on her - and verbal diarrhea - and she keeps stumbling on information that propels her ahead of the pack. Unfortunately for Avery, when she discovers information that no one else has - and she finds herself on top of the media game - she has to make a decision, and that decision is going to tick off everyone she knows. Between Jake's anger, Eliot's worry, and Grandpa's insistence that you can't force a handicap parking space on a business owner, Avery has her hands full. Lexie has a new place to live, Carly is adjusting to married life and Avery is trying to convince the men in her life that she's not in danger, despite all evidence to the contrary. It's a busy week - kind of. In actuality, it's just a normal week for this hard-headed reporter, until someone's eye focuses on Avery and she finds herself in real danger. Again. Jake is angry and Eliot is torn, but Avery has an idea on how to solve the case. The only problem is, when all is said and done, someone is going to be shot... and Avery is going to regret every move she's made on this case when it happens. Will someone survive to see another Avery Shaw catastrophe?
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