You “MAY” enjoy these new fiction titles!

A Calamity of Souls by David Baldacci

Set in the tumultuous year of 1968 in southern Virginia, a racially-charged murder case sets a duo of white and Black lawyers against a deeply unfair system as they work to defend their wrongfully-accused Black defendants When two wealthy white landowners are found dead, the whole country immediately thinks it must be Jerome Washington, the hired help, who killed them. He was standing over the bodies when the police responded to an anonymous call and the only one on the property at the time of death. As far as the state is concerned, it’s an open and shut case. Jack Lee, born and raised in Freeman County, knows that every man deserves a solid defense and agrees to be Jerome’s lawyer, against everyone’s better judgement. But as the facts of the case unfold, it becomes more and more obvious to Jack that this trial isn’t about uncovering the truth and is instead a racially charged set up. And the whole town is calling for Jerome to receive the death penalty. Jack is soon ensnared in a system that’s doing everything it can to prevent him from saving Jerome’s life, and even he thinks all is lost. Then Desiree DuBose, a lawyer from up North with a social justice agenda, comes to town and quickly joins as co-council, blasting the case all over the news to gain support. But the citizens of Freeman County don’t want to wait for the final verdict and Jack and Desiree find themselves in the crosshairs. Jack will need to stop at nothing to prove that Jerome is innocent even at the risk of his own life… and his family’s.

Feline Fatale by Rita Mae Brown

Mary Minor “Harry” Harristeen investigates a murder in Albermarle County, Virginia with assistance from her beloved pets, including cats Mrs. Murphy and Pewter and dogs Pirate and Tucker.

It Had to Be You by Mary Higgins Clark

Years after their parents’ murder, identical twin brothers, determined to clear one name at the expense of the other, ask Laura Moran and her Under Suspicion crew to solve this brutal crime and as they get close to the truth, they find the danger from the past finding its way into the present.

Pay Dirt by Sara Paretsky

V .I. Warshawski is famous for her cool under fire, her intelligence, her humor, her unflinching courage, and her love of good coffee. But even the strongest people sometimes need a break to recharge, so her friends send her to Kansas for a weekend of college basketball where Angela, one of her protégées, is playing. And that’s where trouble finds V.I. Sabrina, one of Angela’s roommates, disappears and V.I. agrees to try to find her. Finding a missing person in a city where she knows few people and doesn’t have her trusted contacts is hard, but not as hard as the brutally negative reaction to the detective from some of the locals. When V.I. finds Sabrina close to death in a remote house, she lands herself in the FBI’s crosshairs and faces a violent online backlash. The men running the county’s opioid distribution are also not happy. Discovering a dead body in the same house a few days later, V.I. is pitched headlong into a local land-use battle with roots going back to the Civil War. She finds that today’s combatants are just as willing as opponents in the 1860s to kill to settle their differences. V.I.’s survival depends on keeping one step ahead of players in a game she never intended to play, before the clock runs down.

The #1 Lawyer by James Patterson

Stafford Lee Penney is a small-town lawyer with a big-time reputation for winning every case he tries. In his sharp suits and polished Oxford shoes, Penney is Biloxi, Mississippi’s #1 Lawyer and top local celebrity. Just as Penney notches his latest courtroom victory, his wife is scandalously killed. He spirals into a legal and personal losing streak, damaging his reputation and ruining his career. That’s when Penney makes a bold decision. He stops trading on his power-lawyer identity and creates a new one: lawyer lifeguard. Moonlighting at the beach, showing up to court in flip-flops, mentoring a law student, the new Penney is at first unrecognizable. It’s said that a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client. But when Penney is accused of murder, the #1 Lawyer will find a way to triumph.

A Grave Robbery by Deanna Raybourn

Lord Rosemorran has purchased a wax figure of a beautiful reclining woman and asks Stoker to incorporate a clockwork mechanism to give the Rosemorran Collection its own Sleeping Beauty in the style of Madame Tussaud’s. But when Stoker goes to cut the mannequin open to insert the mechanism, he makes a gruesome discovery: this is no wax figure. The mannequin is the beautifully preserved body of a young woman who was once very much alive. But who would do such a dreadful thing, and why? Sleuthing out the answer to this question sets Veronica and Stoker on their wildest adventure yet. From the underground laboratories of scientists experimenting with electricity to resurrect the dead in the vein of Frankenstein to the traveling show where Stoker once toured as an attraction, the gaslit atmosphere of London in October is the perfect setting for this investigation into the unknown. Through it all, the intrepid pair is always one step behind the latest villain–a man who has killed once and will stop at nothing to recover the body of the woman he loved. Will they unmask him in time to save his next victim? Or will they become the latest figures to be immortalized in his collection of horrors?

April showers bring May flowers – and new fiction!

Studies at the School by the Sea by Jenny Colgan

Beloved literature teacher Maggie Adair loves her life at the prestigious Downey House boarding school on the gloriously sunny, windy English coast. It was there that she found her footing as a teacher and fell in love with her colleague David—the two great anchors of her life. But these days Maggie’s feeling restless, lured by the promise of a different life back in her Scottish hometown. How can you follow your heart when it seems to be taking you in two directions at once?

Meanwhile, Maggie’s favorite students are abuzz at the thought of graduation and set to fly the nest to their next adventure. What will life hold for mercurial Fliss, glamorous Alice, and shy, hard-working Simone when they finally finish their studies at the school by the sea? Will Maggie stay to welcome the next class of girls, or will she too graduate to new adventures?

Sharpe’s Command by Bernard Cornwell

If any man can do the impossible it’s Richard Sharpe.

And the impossible is exactly what the formidable Captain Sharpe is asked to do when he’s sent on an undercover mission to a small village in the Spanish countryside, far behind enemy lines.

For the quiet, remote village, sitting high above the Almaraz bridge, is about to become the center of a battle for the future of Europe. Two French armies march towards the bridge, one from the North and one from the South. If they meet, the British are lost.

Only Sharpe’s small group of men—with their cunning and courage to rely on—stand in their way. But they’re rapidly outnumbered, enemies are hiding in plain sight, and as the French edge ever closer to the frontline, time is running out. . . .

The Reaper Follows by Heather Graham

Deep in the Florida Everglades, the body of a woman is discovered in pieces, presumably ravaged by an alligator. Upon closer inspection, it’s determined no animal could make such perfectly precise cuts. Only a blade could do that. Wielded by a human. Soon, dozens of oil drums emerge amid the river of grass. Each one packed to the brim with body parts.

FDLE special agent Amy Larson and her partner, FBI special agent Hunter Forrest, share a bad feeling that extends beyond the horrifying nature of the grim discovery. They’ve seen this kind of sadistic killing before, and when a small beige horse is discovered at the bottom of one of the barrels, they know exactly what it means. The fourth horseman of the apocalypse rides a pale horse—and his name is Death.

With so many bodies to identify, connecting one victim to the next is easier said than done. But finding a pattern in the chaos might be the only way Amy and Hunter can zero in on the killer, testing their skills as agents—and their relationship—like never before. And when the disturbing trail of clues signals these slayings are just the beginning, the agents will have to return to where it all started before it’s too late. The apocalypse is coming, and Hunter and Amy have only one chance to stop it, even if it means sacrificing each other.

Everyone is Watching by Heather Gudenkauf

Five contestants have been chosen to compete for ten million dollars on the game show One Lucky Winner. The catch? None of them knows what (or who) to expect, and it will be live streamed all over the world. Completely secluded in an estate in Northern California, with strict instructions not to leave the property and zero contact with the outside world, the competitors start to feel a little too isolated.

When long-kept secrets begin to rise to the surface, the contestants realize this is no longer just a reality show—someone is out for blood. And the game can’t end until the world knows who the contestants really are…

Sandcastle Inn by Irene Hannon

Vienna Price never intended to return for more than a passing visit to Oregon and all the bad memories she’d left behind. But when your career tanks, home is where you go to nurse your wounds and chart a new course. Only temporarily, of course–because as much as she loves her quirky mom, anything more than a short stay would drive them both crazy.

A trip to Oregon isn’t in Matt Quinn’s plans, either, until a perfectly timed appeal for help arrives from his sister. What better place to decompress after a shattering loss than a quiet, seaside town named Hope Harbor? But R&R isn’t on the agenda when he arrives to find his sister’s new enterprise on life support.

Vienna, however, may have just the skills needed to resuscitate the foundering B&B–if Matt can convince her to hang around long enough to mend an inn . . . and his heart.

The Wild Side by Fern Michaels

For Melanie Drake, school guidance counselor in a small Virginia town, the day’s challenges typically involve a playground scuffle or a student skipping school. It’s worlds away from her previous career as a vital part of the Office of Special Investigations. There, she devoted herself heart and soul to covert operations, the riskier the better.

Since leaving, Melanie has cherished her peaceful, calm existence, with her two beloved retired service dogs for company. Then a call comes from her former supervisor, Rich Patterson. He needs her back for a highly specialized assignment. An international group of billionaires is known to meet regularly for decadent dinners, and they always hire high-class escorts for the occasion. Only the most elegant, well-educated, and sophisticated women will do. Infiltrating those meetings could yield information vital to national security.

Melanie’s loyalty is indisputable. She’s willing to pose as an escort and glean every scrap of intel that she can. But these men aren’t just wealthy and powerful, they’re also exceptionally ruthless. One slip, and they won’t hesitate to eliminate Melanie, by any means necessary. . .

Matterhorn by Christopher Reich

Robbie Steinhardt lives a peaceful life. A fixture of his small alpine village, he tends cattle, minds his own business, and doesn’t dwell on his former life and the family and lover he left behind—back when he was Mac Dekker, CIA.

But when he learns his son Will died following in his footsteps, he needs answers. What mission took Will up into the alpine heights, and why is Ilya Ivashka on the same trail? Ilya—his close friend, his rival in love. Ilya, who framed Mac for treason and sent him into hiding.

Wiping away the years, Mac returns to the field to find the secrets Will hid and finds himself facing the Herculean task of stopping a terrorist plot that threatens thousands. But in a field of double agents, who can he trust?

Toxic Prey by John Sandford

Gaia is dying.

That, at least, is what Dr. Lionel Scott believes. A renowned expert in tropical and infectious diseases, Scott has witnessed the devastating impact of illness and turmoil at critical scale. Society as it exists is untenable, and the direct link to Earth’s death spiral; population levels are out of control and people have allowed disarray and disorder to run rampant. While most are concerned about deadly disease, Scott knows that it is truly humanity itself that will destroy Gaia. It’s only by removing the threat that the planet can continue to prosper, and luckily, Scott is just the right man for the job…

When Scott then disappears without a trace, Letty Davenport is tasked with tracking down any and all leads. Scott’s connections to sensitive research into virus and pathogen spread has multiple national and international organizations on high alert, and his shockingly high clearance levels at various institutions, including the Los Alamos National Laboratory, make him the last person they’d like to go missing. As the web around Scott becomes more tangled, Letty calls in her father, Lucas, help her lead a group of specialists to find Scott as soon as possible. But as Letty and Lucas begin to uncover startling and disturbing connections between Scott and Gaia conspiracists, their worst fears are confirmed, and it quickly becomes a race to find him before the virus he created becomes the perfect weapon.

The Truth About the Devlins
by Lisa Scottoline

TJ Devlin is the charming disappointment in the prominent Devlin family, all of whom are lawyers at their highly successful firm—except him. After a stint in prison and rehab for alcoholism, TJ can’t get hired anywhere except at the firm, in a make-work job with the title of investigator.

But one night, TJ’s world turns upside down after his older brother John confesses that he murdered one of their clients, an accountant he’d confronted with proof of embezzlement. It seems impossible coming from John, the firstborn son and Most Valuable Devlin.

TJ plunges into the investigation, seizing the chance to prove his worth and save his brother. But in no time, TJ and John find themselves entangled in a lethal web of deception and murder. TJ will fight to save his family, but what he learns might break them first.

The Beloved by J.R. Ward

Nalla, the blooded daughter of Zsadist, has led a sheltered life. Protected by her father and the Brotherhood, kept away from the deadly war with the Lessening Society, she is chafing against the walls of the very safety that has ensured her survival. One night, she gives in to her restlessness…and finds herself face-to-face with a male whose inner darkness rivals even that of her sire’s horrific origins.

Nate is a fighter with nothing to lose—and nothing to live for. Tortured in a human lab as a young, then cursed with immortality, he is all vengeance and no purpose because he cares for no one—not even himself. The Brotherhood knows this all too well and following Nate’s deliberate violation of the cardinal rule in the war, they declare him a dangerous liability that must be dealt with.

When Nalla and Nate find themselves fighting side by side, daggers aren’t the only things that fly. A sizzling attraction is ignited, though Nalla knows her sire will never accept him—and on his side, Nate has made a secret bargain to end his own immortality. As the enemy closes in, and Nalla realizes she must choose between her mate and her sire, what starts with such passion may well end with eternal sorrow and no chance of a reunion—even in the Fade.

The Honey Bus: A Memoir of Loss, Courage and a Girl Saved by Bees by Meredith May

Reviewed By: Rebecca Cox, Business Manager

Genre: Non-Fiction

Suggested Age:  Adults

What is This Book About?  The Honey Bus is the story of Meredith May’s childhood and how after her parents divorce she found herself in California with her grandparents and forging a connection with her grandfather, who kept bees and made honey in the back of a converted old military bus in his yard. Meredith’s tough childhood is paralleled by the lessons she learns from helping her grandfather to keep bees and learning about the magic of the hive.

My Review: I am currently part of a beekeeping mentorship with Hilary Kearney (author of Queenspotting, the book I reviewed earlier this year) and this book popped up on the syllabus. I love hearing and reading about other people’s experiences with bees so I was quick to pick this book up but…very slow to finish it. This book is incredible and Meredith May’s gift for telling a story is just extraordinary, but the story itself is somewhat hard to digest at times. After her parents’ divorce, May’s mother takes her and her brother to live with her parents in California and then recedes into despair, re-emerging only to inflict pain on May in some horrifying ways. I would definitely add a trigger warning to this book for those who have dealt with emotional abuse because there is a fair share doled out, but May’s relationship with her grandfather and what he teaches her about bees is the biggest takeaway. Their bond and how he helped her to overcome an agonizing childhood is nothing short of beautiful.

Three Words that Describe this Book: Inspiring, Informative, Beautiful

Give this a try if you like… Loving Edie by Meredith May, Wild by Cheryl Strayed, The Mistress’s Daughter by A.M. Homes

Rating: 5/5

Find it at the library!