Seagrass Pier: a Hope Beach Novel is by Colleen Coble. Elin Summerall is lucky. Not only has she received a heart transplant, but the donor was a perfect match. It’s nothing short of miraculous, but something strange happens to Elin. She begins having vivid and violent dreams of being strangled. They feel like more than dreams, actually; more like flashbacks. Elin starts to believe that she got more than the donor’s heart. She is remembering her donor’s murder. This strange affliction begins attracting a great deal of unwanted attention: from the press, from law enforcement agencies, and, from the killer himself. Elin lives alone with her young daughter and her aging mother and it appears that she is being stalked by a man she has only met in her nightmares. The police don’t really believe her story, but an off-duty FBI agent named Marc Everton agrees to help her. In a small cottage on the remote Hope Island, Elin and Marc must put together the clues in her flashbacks that will lead them to the killer.
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The Mountaintop School for Dogs and Other Second Chances is a novel by Ellen Cooney. High up on the mountain is a training school—a radical rescue center—called the Sanctuary. It is a place where humans save dogs, who, in turn, save humans. Here, the past is all but forgotten, the present is full of hope, and tomorrow has yet to be written. Evie has lied to gain entry into the Sanctuary. She pretended to know more about dogs than she does, but she is learning fast. Evie is convinced she can find her way, but she must first convince Mrs. Auberchon to let her pass. Like the rescued dogs who find their way to this mountain, Evie comes from a troubled past. Then, there are the dogs. First, there is the racing greyhound that refuses to move. There is a golden retriever who returns to his job as the Sanctuary’s butler every time he has been adopted. Finally, there is the Rottweiler who’s hopeless as a search-and-rescue dog. Both dogs and humans eventually learn that no one should stay a prisoner in a life they didn’t choose.
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The House of Small Shadows is a horror novel by Adam Nevill. Catherine is thankful to have a new job. Corporate back-biting at a top antiques magazine saw her fired from her last one. She was forced to leave London and to go into therapy to resolve some of the insecurities that arose from the whole awful ordeal. Now, she is excited to be starting a new project that has presented itself—to catalogue the works of Britain’s greatest taxidermist, the late M. H. Mason’s fantastic and strange cache of antique dolls and preserved animals posed in dioramas. Most importantly, she will get to examine the elaborate displays of animals posed and costumed to depict bloody scenes from World War I. Mason’s elderly niece is now curator of her uncle’s work and invites Catherine to stay at Red House itself. Catherine is thrilled at the chance to maintain the collection until the niece lets her in on the chilling message behind Mason’s “Art.” She tries hard to concentrate on the job she was sent to do, but the damaging vision Mason created has somehow raised dark shadows from her own past—shadows she thought she had dealt with. As the veil between reality and memory thins, Catherine will question her sanity and face truths that seem too terrible to be real.
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The Liar’s Wife is a collection of four novellas by Mary Gordon. The four tales collected here tell of Americans in Europe and Europeans in America. These stories are about relationships at home and abroad, both historical and contemporary. First, we meet the fierce and voracious Simone Weil. She is living her final days as an immigrant in New York City. Next we have the sensitive and naïve American grad student who flees to Italy after her first, embarrassing love affair. The third story features the liar of the title story. This charming Irishman gets a lot more out of life than most of us. Finally, there is Thomas Mann who opens the heart of a high-school student in the Midwest. The author uses the beautiful settings and deeply psychological stories to reveal how the characters’ interactions change their lives forever.
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The Sea Garden is by Marcia Willett. Jess Penhaligon is a botanical painter who is on her way to Devon to receive an award. Kate is hosting her on her visit and warmly welcomes her into her home. Jess is grateful for the hospitality and the warm reception from Kate’s family and friends. Her own family fell apart not too long ago and Jess is glad to be in the company of these loving and vibrant people. However, as the group begins reminiscing about the past and sharing their stories, Jess realizes that her own family history may be linked with theirs. Long-buried family secrets float to the surface, but at what cost were they kept hidden? Will the truth bring them all closer or will it destroy these happy lives?
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Visions is a Cainsville Novel by Kelley Armstrong. This sequel to the book, Omens, sees the return of Olivia Taylor-Jones and Gabriel Walsh. Olivia is the daughter of notorious serial killers and Gabriel is a pompous and morally ambiguous lawyer who became her ally. Together they tracked down a sinister serial murderer and partially cleared her parents’ names. After their short-lived success, Olivia has taken refuge in Cainsville—an old and secluded town. The pair have a falling out over some of Gabriel’s past mistakes that have recently come to light and a rift forms in their relationship. This is unfortunate because Olivia could really use her friend right about now. She has found the body of a missing woman in her car. The victim was dressed to look like Olivia, but the body vanishes before anyone else sees it. Taking it as a sign of impending danger, she sets out to find answers to why anyone would want this young woman dead and why would they use her as a warning to Olivia? What role did her new hometown in this murder? Olivia must try to survive the agenda of old and powerful forces that will stop at nothing to keep their secrets in the dark.
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Evangeline Cessna is a history librarian at the Warren County-Vicksburg Public Library.