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WE WERE NEVER FRIENDS by Kaira Rouda - Spotlight

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  Sisters? Forever. Friends? NEVER. Who knew a reunion weekend could be so deadly? Meet the sorority sisters of Theta Gamma Mu: Roxy Callahan Gentry, the ruthless former sorority president and current hostess, who has painstakingly choreographed every detail of this weekend—even matching the cocktails to her couture—to prove that she remains their undisputed queen Amelia Dell, the widow drenched in old money and alcohol, with her big pot-stirring spoon and uninvited boy-toy in tow Jamie Vale, the double-legacy pledge, straight-A student with no sparkle, now a top cardiologist with a picture-perfect family—and a well-guarded bad habit Beth Harrison, the scholarship student who never quite fit in and was only admitted because her best friend Sunny, insisted that the two were a package deal Sunny Spencer, the carefree and beloved friend to all, or so it seemed—until she wasn't They've been summoned to Roxy's luxurious Palm Springs vacation home to celebrate the engagement of h...

MONSTER IN THE MOONLIGHT by Annelise Ryan - Spotlight

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  Do werewolves exist? That’s the question skeptical cryptozoologist Morgan Carter has to answer in the latest entry in this USA Today bestselling mystery series. The discovery of a dead body along Bray Road in Wisconsin sparks rumors of The Beast of Bray Road, a werewolf-like creature that is said to inhabit the area. The dead woman has been mutilated by some kind of large animal. The community is convinced that the legendary beast is not only real but responsible for this brutal killing. In an effort to prove them wrong, the police bring in cryptozoologist Morgan Carter, who soon finds that the mystery runs considerably deeper than whether or not one mythical predator is on the prowl. Annelise Ryan is the USA Today bestselling author of the highly popular Monster Hunter Mysteries (Berkley), the hilarious Mattie Winston Mysteries (Kensington) and the Helping Hands Mysteries (Kensington). Annelise Ryan is a pseudonym for Beth Amos, who also writes the Mack's Bar Mysteries (Kensingt...

THE SHAPE of DREAMS by April Reynolds - Spotlight

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  A trio of women bond in friendship as a neighborhood tries to seek justice from a system that has forgotten them. It’s the mid-eighties in East Harlem: a twelve-year-old black boy's murdered body is found by Mathilda "Twin" Johnson, an unlikely hero who is both the neighborhood’s troublemaker and its conscience. When she breaks a cardinal rule—“don’t call the cops”—her decision ensnares a community and brings unmanageable grief to a mother. Anita, a postal worker and army widow is determined to solve her son Tyrone's murder, and her quest for justice galvanizes the neighborhood, which is itself a complex character in this teeming novel, with its Mets fans and gossips, immigrant shop owners and latch-key kids who are desperate to help a friend. The local dreamers include a charismatic man of the cloth, a teenage girl with a Whitney Houston voice and no prospects, and Anita’s opinionated friend Wanda, whose truant son the police harass and arrest on a regular basis. E...

THE MIDNIGHT TAXI by Yosha Gunasekera - Spotlight

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  When the last fare of the night turns up dead in her backseat, a Sri Lankan American taxi driver works off the clock to clear her name in this mystery novel by debut author Yosha Gunasekera. Siriwathi Perera doesn’t quite know where she’s going in life. She never expected to be a taxicab driver in New York City, struggling to make ends meet and still living with her parents at twenty-eight. The true-crime podcasts that keep Siri company as she drives don’t do much to make up for the legal career she imagined for herself, or the brother she’s grieving. When public defender Amaya Fernando gets into her cab, they make a quick connection through their shared Sri Lankan roots. Siri, whose social circle is limited to her grade-school best friend, Alex, thinks things might finally be looking up with this new potential friendship. But she’s suddenly dropped into her own true crime when she discovers her next passenger murdered in the backseat, and she has to call Amaya sooner than she’d ...

HER COLD JUSTICE by Robert Dugoni - Spotlight

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  Welcome to the third book in Robert Dugoni's, Keera Duggan series, HER COLD JUSTICE (Thomas&Mercer). Strap in. It's going to be a fast, wild ride. In a quiet South Seattle neighborhood, a suspected drug smuggler and his girlfriend are murdered in their home. When a young man named Michael Westbrook is accused of the brutal double homicide, his uncle JP Harrison turns to Keera Duggan to defend him. JP is Keera’s trusted investigator, and he desperately needs Keera to save his nephew against escalating odds. The evidence is circumstantial—Michael worked with one of the victims, drugs were found in his possession, and he bolted from authorities. Ruthless star prosecutor Anh Tran has gotten convictions on much less. With the testimony of two prison informants, the case looks grave. But Keera never concedes defeat. To free her client, she must dig deep before Tran crushes both of them. As the investigation gets more twisted with each new find, Keera is swept up in a mystery w...

IF ONLY LOVE : A Memoir of Second Chances by Shelley Saywell - Spotlight

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  An astonishing memoir of love's enduring power, resilience, and transformation,  If Only Love  is a celebration of the timeless connection between two souls—a real-life love story for the ages. In 1973, a seventeen-year-old Canadian girl meets an American boy on her first day of school in Japan and falls in love, not realizing that he is also a goner for her. When they finally connect, they only have two months together before school's out and she has to head home. Bad timing and swirling emotion botch their attempt to stay together, and they fall out of touch. Long after she loses him, she still thinks of him and even sets out on a journey to find him, one that fails in the most traumatic of ways. Thirty years later—after her award-winning documentary career has taken her to the most dangerous of places pursuing the toughest of stories—Daniel Peterson's name pops up in an email in Shelley Saywell's inbox, delivering them both a second chance at love. Soon, they are e...

GOOD GUYS by Sharon Bala - Spotlight

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  GOON GUYS McClellandandStewart) is a page-turning moral drama about money, the dark side of philanthropy, and what happens when you try to change the world for all the wrong reasons. "The easiest choices are the ones you make for other people." Claire Talbot is the publicist at Children of the World, an international aid charity. Morally burnt out after decades working in reputation management, Claire is relieved to finally use her PR skills for good. Too bad the organization is on the verge of bankruptcy. In a last-ditch effort to keep them afloat, Claire arranges for an A-list actress to volunteer at one of their overseas orphanages. When the actress decides to adopt a baby and promises a massive donation, it seems as if Claire has single-handedly saved the day. But after a journalist digs into their operations and reveals a shocking crime, Claire and her colleagues must reckon with their complicity and all the ways their work abroad has harmed the very people they set ou...