Wilde Lake

An African-American man accused of rape by a humiliated girl. A vengeful father. A courageous attorney. A worshipful daughter. Think you know this story? Think again. Laura Lippman, the “extravagantly gifted” (Chicago Tribune) New York Times bestselling author, delivers “one of her best novels ” (Washington Post)—a modern twist on To Kill a Mockingbird. Scott Turow writes in the New York Times, “Wilde Lake is a real success.” Luisa “Lu” Brant is the newly elected state’s attorney representing suburban Maryland—including the famous planned community of Columbia, created to be a utopia of racial and economic equality. Prosecuting a controversial case involving a disturbed drifter accused of beating a woman to death, the fiercely ambitious Lu is determined to avoid the traps that have destroyed other competitive, successful women. She’s going to play it smart to win this case—and win big—cementing her political future. But her intensive preparation for trial unexpectedly dredges up painful recollections of another crime—the night when her brother, AJ, saved his best friend at the cost of another man’s life. Only eighteen, AJ was cleared by a grand jury. Justice was done. Or was it? Did the events of 1980 happen as she remembers them? She was only a child then. What details didn’t she know? As she plunges deeper into the past, Lu is forced to face a troubling reality. The legal system, the bedrock of her entire life, does not have all the answers. But what happens when she realizes that, for the first time, she doesn’t want to know the whole truth?

Luisa "Lu" Brant is the newly elected-- and first female-- state's attorney of Howard County, Maryland, a job in which her widower father famously served. Fiercely intelligent and ambitious, she sees an opportunity to make her name by trying a mentally disturbed drifter accused of beating a woman to death in her home. It's not the kind of case that makes headlines, but peaceful Howard County doesn't see many homicides. As Lu prepares for the trial, the case dredges up painful memories, reminding her small, but tight-knit, family of the night when her brother, AJ, saved his best friend at the cost of another man's life. Only eighteen, AJ was cleared by a grand jury. Now, Lu wonders if the events of 1980 happened as she remembers them. What details might have been withheld from her when she was a child?

A writer travels to a fabled estate and uncovers a mystery both sensational and deadly in master storyteller Jennifer Wilde’s novel of unparalleled romantic suspense Mystery novelist Susan Marlow visited Gordonwood only once, as an impressionable twelve-year-old girl, but she never forgot the stately Victorian mansion. When her aunt Agatha invites her for a second visit, she meets Craig Stanton, a devilishly attractive scholar who is writing a history book about Sir Robert Gordon, the legendary Victorian-era explorer. Lady Agatha has given Stanton exclusive access to her family’s papers. But some of those priceless documents are missing. A series of break-ins convince Susan—and the local police—that someone is desperate to get their hands on the Gordon manuscripts. The disappearance of a local girl, a suspicious death, and a body that washes up along the Thames make Susan realize that she might be the final obstacle in a killer’s cunningly orchestrated endgame.

When Felix Brewer meets nineteen-year-old Bernadette 'Bambi' Gottschalk at a Valentine's Dance in 1959, he charms her with wild promises, some of which he actually keeps. Thanks to his lucrative if not always legal businesses, she and their three little girls live in luxury. But on the Fourth of July, 1976, Bambi's world implodes when Felix, newly convicted and facing prison, mysteriously vanishes. Though Bambi has no idea where her husband - or his money - might be, she suspects one woman does: his devoted young mistress, Julie. When Julie herself disappears ten years to the day that Felix went on the lam, everyone assumes she's left to join her old lover - until her remains are found in a secluded wooded park. Now, twenty-six years after Julie went missing, Roberto 'Sandy' Sanchez, a retired Baltimore detective working cold cases for some extra cash, is investigating her murder. What he discovers is a tangled web of bitterness, jealously, resentment and greed stretching over the three decades and three generations that connect these five very different women. And at the center of every woman's story is the man who, though long gone, has never been forgotten: the enigmatic Felix Brewer. Somewhere between the secrets and lies connecting past and present, Sandy could find the explosive truth...

“Laura Lippman is among the select group of novelists who have invigorated the crime fiction arena with smart, innovative, and exciting work.” —George Pelecanos “Lippman’s taut, mesmerizing, and exceptionally smart drama of predator and prey is at once unusually sensitive and utterly compelling. —Booklist Laura Lippman, New York Times bestselling author of What the Dead Know, Life Sentences, and the acclaimed Tess Monaghan p.i. series, delivers a stunning stand-alone novel that explores the lasting effects on lives touched by crime. With I’d Know You Anywhere, Lippman—master of mystery and psychological suspense, winner of every major literary prize given for crime fiction, including the Edgar®, Agatha, and Nero Wolfe Awards—tells a gripping and richly textured tale of a young woman whose life dangerously entwines once again with a man on Death Row who had kidnapped her when she was a teenager. This is superior mystery writing in the vein of Kate Atkinson.

Columbia is a planned community that has influenced suburban development since its creation in the mid-1960s. This city of 100,000 grew out of rural farmland, patterned by the best thinkers of its time, including visionary developer James Rouse and a team of consultants such as sociologist Herbert Gans and transportation planner Alan Voorhees. World-famous architect Frank Gehry designed key buildings. Oakland Manor, featuring a barn that is a historical landmark, is one example of the structures preserved to give roots to the new town. Pulitzer Prize-winning novelist Michael Chabon grew up in Columbia and has said it altered the course of his life, making him into the writer he is today.

No one is quite who he or she seems. Hush Hush is the story of Melisandre - rich, beautiful, possibly insane - who has to live with the knowledge of a devastating event in her past. She has not seen her two daughters, now aged fifteen and seventeen, in the ten years since the notorious family tragedy. And her husband has moved on, married now to his personal trainer, and seemingly happy. As Melisandre returns to Baltimore from South Africa, however, there are suddenly more mysterious deaths. And quite what did happen all that time ago has never been clear - what role had each of the members of this unhappy family played? And is anyone telling the truth? Tess Monaghan, now the mother of a young girl herself, makes a return as the investigator who gets snared in the case. A hugely powerful and emotive novel about parents and children - about destructive parents who think they love their children and good parents whose children are the centre of their lives - it is also a superbly plotted mystery novel, one which will keep you hooked until the very final page.

Celebrate the American dream as author Rema Johnson shares her journey from poverty to motherhood to self education and more. Through the honest testimony of faith, hope resilience, life, and love, she tells how her difficulties enable her to be strong and successful. From Poverty to Ph.D. she has embodied the spirit of a woman who never lets anything stop her or put her down. She had a tough life but now she is Afraid no More.