DANGEROUS TO KNOW by Margaret Yorke

FIC/MYS

YORKE

Now that her daughters have grown, Hermione Brown is slowly beginning to excape from husband Walter's abusive hold over her life. Walter, however, is becoming increasingly "dangerous to know."

Something of a departure from Yorke's usual mysteries, this novel still retains the suspense and sharp characterizations her fans have come to expect.

THE SPELLMAN FILES by Lisa Lutz

FIC
LUTZ

In the hilarious tradition of Stephanie Plum, Isabel "Izzy" Spellman's adventures are laugh-out-loud-funny, but she has her own unique situation and voice, Izzy works for her own unique situation and voice, Izzy works for her dysfunctional family's PI business, and the Spellman family relationships are all too similar to their business transactions.

When Izzy's twelve-year -old sister Rae disappears, the family wonders if her obsession with "recreational" surveillance has gotten her into trouble and must use all its collective professional expertise to find her before it's too late.

BLACK and WHITE by Dani Shapiro

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SHAPIRO

Clara Brodeur is an adult now but has spent most of her life rebelling against her famous mother, photographer Ruth Dunne. She has been estranged from Ruth for 14 years, living in Maine with her husband and daughter.

One day she receives a phone call from her sister informing her of her mother's imminent death. Clara reluctantly returns to Manhattan to find her mother surrounded protectively by adoring interns and assistants. She realizes that she must come to terms with the past for the sake of her daughter and her own sanity.

The emotional scars of Ruth's questionable photographs of Clara, taken throughout her childhood, are slowly healed with the help of her family and the maturity that comes with age.

POSSESSIONS by Judith Michaels

FIC

MICHAELS

When Craig Fraser doesn't return from his business trip, his plain wife Katherine, a stay-at-home mom, cannot believe he has fled from embezzlement charges, as his boss claims. Then Ross Hayward, who claims to be Craig's cousin, comes to Vancouver to tell her that Craig, who said he was an orphan, has a wealthy family in San Francisco from whom he also fled. A college friend of Katherine's offers her a job in San Francisco. As Katherine tries to make a new and independent life, she comes to know the Haywards and the missing Craig far better. Always pulled between her new life and the possibility of rebuilding what she had with Craig, Katherine must eventually make several painful choices. Possessions is for readers for enjoy novels about the rich and famous by such authors as Danielle Steel.

THE LIGHTKEEPER'S DAUGHTER by Iain Lawrence

FIC

LAWRENCE

When seventeen-year-old Squid returns from a four-year absence to visit her parents on their isolated island off the coast of British Columbia, she brings her three-year-old daughter. The account of her visit is interspersed with the story of what happened during the last year Squid lived on the island, leading to death of her brother and her own departure.

Though there are hints that incest might have been involved, it was not. The true story is nonetheless heartbreaking, involving family dysfunction, statutory rape, and suicide. The writing is beautiful; the story is not, though is is certainly memorable.

BURDEN OF PROOF by Scott Turow

FIC

TUROW. S.

Sandy Stem, a leading defense attorney, comes home from a business trip to find that Clara, his wife of many years has committed suicide. Clara's death takes him completely by surprise. Her death forces him to examine all of his close relationships, especially his connection to his children.

Woven throughout the book is Stem's defense of his brother-in-law, Dixon Hartnell. Dixon owns a commodities brokerage and has employed Stem to keep him one step ahead of the law. Dixon's freewheeling style frustrates Stem.

The story offers suspenseful twists, and devastating revelations as Stern seeks to unravel the puzzle of Clara's death and maze of Dixon's complicated financial dealings.

AND GIVE YOU PEACE by Jessica Treadway

FIC

TRE

This is a stunning and moving novel about a family's devastating loss and its aftermath. One summer morning Tom Dolan goes into the bedroom of his sleeping 15-year old daughter, shoots her in the head, and then shoots himself. His estranged wife Margaret, and younger daughter, Justine, respond with stupefied disbelief. The oldest daughter, Anastasia, is the only one who struggles above her own grief and shock to find the truth at the heart of the tragedy.

The author is masterful at depicting small-town life, familiar neighborhoods, the rhymes of family interplay. Especially genuine are the small ordinary words and actions that form the backdrop of earth-shattering events-cheerleaders' shouts ringing through a cemetery where the loved one's grave is newly dug. The author does not tie up all the loose ends or bestow redemption and resolution upon her characters. She leaves them damaged, but functioning and whole.

THE CURIOUS INCIDENT OF THE DOG IN THE NIGHT-TIME by Mark Haddon

FIC

HADDON

Christopher Boone is an exceptional 15-year. He is blessed with a genius for math and an exceptionally logical mind, but is autistic and has no understanding of human emotions. As the narrator of this story his world begins to fall apart after finding the neighbor's dog impaled by a garden fork. He makes it his mission to find the murderer, modeling his investigation after his favorite character, Sherlock Holmes. Christopher embarks upon a journey that forces him to deal with his parents' divorce and his father's lies. The novel, told in the format of a murder mystery, is the honest and sometimes funny account of what might go on in the mind of an autistic child.

ELLEN FOSTER by Kaye Gibbons

FIC
GIBBONS
Ellen's heart-wrenching descriptions of life in her very dysfunctional family would make unbearably depressing reading if they were not interspersed with revelations of her present life with her delightful new foster family.
Until she arrived at her "new mother's" home, Ellen had suffered the suicide of her mother, threats of murder, sexual abuse, and a variety of dreadful homes.
Her only respite was a brief stint living with her art teacher and visits to her African American friend's family. Fortunately, Ellen's sturdy good sense and strong spirit carry her through to a decent life.