Preview Shelf by Janice Clauser

Library News and Notable New Books

New at the Crawfordsville Library is “Saturday’s Daughter”, the autobiography of Audrey Lowery, who has lived here in town two separate times. As one of ten Richards children in a coal-mining family in Kentucky, she worked from the time she was 11 years old, enduring unbelievable hardships, yet meeting life’s many vicissitudes with hard work, honesty and love. At the age of 86, she maintains her indomitable spirit, while dealing with blindness and restricted movement. Her inspiring story has been edited by local writer Jean Williams and is well worth reading for amusement and amazement.

Diana Taylor's "Martha" is a researched portrayal of Martha of Bethany, sister of Mary and Lazarus, the Biblical character unveiling herself, her world, her trials, her triumphs, and her loves. A beautiful new, annotated edition of Jane Austen's "Pride and Prejudice" is edited by Patricia Spacks. A new historical novel "The Daughter's Walk" by Jane Kirkpatrick features a Norwegian American in 1896 who accepts a wager from the fashion industry to walk from Spokane to New York City within seven months for desperately needed money. In Rhys Bowen’s “Naughty in Nice”, A Royal Spyness mystery set in 1933, a Lady-in-Waiting is sent to Nice to recover a priceless snuffbox taken without permission. Next there’s "Dreams of Joy" by Lisa See, which stimulates both historical and literary interest by introducing a 19-year-old named Joy who is left reeling when family secrets are uncovered, sending her running away to Shanghai in early 1957, where she throws herself into the New Society of Red China,. Jojo Moyes' "The Last Letter from your Lover" takes us back to 1960 when an accident victim with amnesia finds a letter signed "B"; this plot is paired with another in 2003 bringing the story to an unexpected ending.

Fern Michaels' "Southern Comfort" begins by telling how an Atlanta homicide detective turned his back on the world the day his wife and children were murdered. "The Ideal Man" by Julie Garwood finds "love in the deadliest of circumstances" as a new doctor's life is turned upside down when she witnesses the shooting of an FBI agent. In Wilbur Smith's "Those In Peril" a rich heir's daughter is kidnapped from her yacht on the Indian Ocean, and the mother hires the oil company's security to help save this victim of twenty-first-century piracy. Two friends rent a beach house in Honduras, where, with a third, they've enjoyed swapping advice. This time one has died, and the other two have to adjust; the title is "The Summer We Came to Life" by Deborah Cloyed. "Silver Girl", by Elin Hilderbrand, tells of a Nantucket getaway as the wife of a man newly exposed as an investor-criminal escapes the world to seek guidance from an old friend. Barbara Delinsky's "Escape" finds a Manhattan lawyer taking off towards the mountains in New Hampshire to redesign her life.

Catherine Coulter's "Split Second" is an FBI thriller with an added domestic mystery to uncover from previous generations. A cold case investigator undertakes to earn the million-dollar award that is about to expire for returning an abduction victim in Janet Dailey's "Bannon Brothers: Trust". “To Have and To Hold” by Tracie Peterson is a Bridal Veil Island story where wealthy investors building a resort threaten the land of a family’s ancestral home; sabotage during construction brings a crisis.

As Douglas Preston’s “Cold Vengeance” begins, a Special Agent’s wife is murdered, and he stalks his wife’s betrayers from Scotland to New York City to the Louisiana bayous. ”Shock Wave” by John Sandford is a Virgil Flowers novel tackling contemporary arguments both for and against building a superstore in a Minnesota river town. Laurie King’s novel of suspense featuring Mary Russell and her husband Sherlock Holmes, “Pirate King”, sweeps readers into the world of silent films where pirates are real and shooting isn’t all done with cameras.