Page 5
Killing Kin by Chassie West - Though she's out on disability with a bum knee, Washington, D.C. cop Leigh Ann Warren has plenty of detective work to keep her busy. Her partner and former fiance, Dillon Upshur Kennedy, lovingly known as Duck, has gone missing, and everyone from shady criminals to fellow officers are on the streets looking for him.
Armed with a few seemingly unrelated clues, including a mysterious piggy bank and a dead body in her own apartment, the tenacious Liegh Ann sets off on an investigation that turns ever more dangerous the futher she probes. Following a deadly trail that leads her deep into the woods of western Maryland and into a killer's lair, Leigh Ann suddenly discovers it's Duck's career and life on the line, but hers too.
The Kidnapping of Rosie Dawn by Eric Wright - Joe Barley, a part-time lecturer in English Literature and part-time security guard, is alerted by his maid to the disappearance of another of her employers, Rosie Dawn, a student of classics who is working her way through school by being an exotic dancer and the mistress of a fast-food entrepreneur. The novel also involves campus politics--a student tries to exploit the nervous administration over its minority policies.
Pursuit and Persuasion by Sally S. Wright - The third installment in author Sally Wright's Ben Reese mystery series explores the issues of human possessiveness and self-obsession, highlighting how lust for what we want can lead us astray. Scottish professor Georgina Fletcher has died of "natural causes," but not before writing a letter asking for an investigation into her death. American archivist Ben Reese takes up the dangerous challenge that starts out with a sixteenth-century stabbing and incorporates elements of falconry, tire making, microbiology, and book collecting before Georgina's hidden poems eventually help him find the killer.
Best Young Adult
- Counterfeit Son by Elaine Marie - Some secrets are too dangerous to keep. Cameron Miller is pretending to be someone he isn't. When he began presenting himself as Neil Lacey, it was the only way he could think of to distance himself from what Pop had done, to finally climb out of his nightmarish existence. He thought it would be easy--playing the rich kid, sailing his boat--but he didn't count on Cougar. Now Cougar, his father's old accomplice, has tracked Cameron down and presented an ultimatum: share the wealth or be exposed. Will Cameron give up his new identity to protect Neil's family? Or will he let his search for a new life destroy those around him?
