Tuesday, June 29, 2010

Upcoming Releases - June 28 - July 4

There are many books being released next month, but I decided to focus on just a few this week.  It's so easy to get distracted by what's being released that you can easily forget that TBR pile and move on to something new and exciting.  But it's time to FOCUS!  Here are some of the books I am interested in reading this week:

Ice Cold (Jane Rizzoli and Maura Isles Series, Book 8)
by Tess Gerritsen
Release Date: June 29, 2010

In Wyoming for a medical conference, Boston medical examiner Maura Isles joins a group of friends on a spur-of-the-moment ski trip.  But when their SUV stalls on a snow-choked mountain road, they're stranded with no help in sight.

As night falls, the group seeks refuge from the blizzard in the remote village of Kingdom Come, where twelve eerily identical houses stand dark and abandoned.  Something terrible has happened in Kingdom Come:  Meals sit untouched on tables, cars are still parked in garages.  The town's previous residents seem to have vanished into thin air, but footprints in the snow betray the presence of someone who still lurks in the cold darkness - someone who is watching Maura and her friends.

Days later, Boston homicide detective Jane Rizzoli receives the grim news that Maura's charred body has been found in a mountain ravine.  Shocked and grieving, Jane is determined to learn what happened to her friend.  The investigation plunges Jane into the twisted history of Kingdom Come, where a gruesome discovery lies buried beneath the snow.  As horrifying revelations come to light, Jane closes in on an enemy both powerful and merciless - and the chilling truth about Maura's fate.

Kraken
by China Mieville
Release Date: June 29, 2010

The Natural History Museum's prize exhibit - a giant squid - suddenly disappears.  This audacious theft leads Clem, the research scientist who has recently finished preserving the exhibit, into a dark urban underworld of warring cults and surreal magic.  It seems that for some, the squid represents a god and should be worshipped as such.  Clem gradually begins to realize that someone may be attempting to use the squid to trigger and apocalypse. And so it is now up to him and a renegade squid-worshipper named Dean to find a way of stopping the destruction of the world as they know it whilst themselves surviving the all out-gang warfare that they have unwittingly been drawn into...




Running Dark
by Jamie Freveletti
Release Date: June 29, 2010

Emma Caldridge is on mile thirty-six of the fifty-five-mile Comrades Ultramarathon in South African when a roadside bomb explodes.  Dazed and disoriented, she regains consciousness after the blast to find a man standing over her with a white plastic injector.  She feels the prick on a need and the rush of medication, but before she can react the man is gone.

At the same time Somali Pirates in the Gulf of Aden have attacked a cruise ship, and the one person, Edward Banner of Darkview who could help Emma, is busy dealing with the cruise ship attack.

However, according to intelligence sources, the ship is carrying cargo far more valuable than wealthy passengers - something that could be a new weapon of unknown origin.  Banner asks Emma to infiltrate the ship and use her professional expertise to identify it.  When she learns that special agent Cameron Sumner - a man who has saved her life in the past - is among the hostages, nothing will stop her from getting onboard, no matter the cost.


Ghost Shadow (Bone Island Trilogy,
Book 1)
by Heather Graham
Release Date: June 29, 2010

Katie O'Hara finds herself drawn deeper and deeper into a gruesome years old murder, gruesome warnings from a spectral friend become more and more insistent.  But Katie is compelled to discover the truth.  Could David Beckett really be responsible for his fiancee's murder?

And worse.  Is David, the man she is compelled to turn to for help, responsible for the body count rising in the Island of Bones?  A place, where, as in the past, the dead are posed in macabre tableaux from the history.

Katie knows that the danger is increasing by the moment - especially as she finds herself irresistibly drawn to David.  His fiancee's murder wasn't the last and Katie's could be next.


Scorpion's Bite (Lily Sampson Series, Book 3)
by Aileen G. Baron
Release Date: July 1st, 2010

It is 1943 and the world is at war.  Archaeologist Lily Sampson has been sent to TransJordan, by the OSS, along with Gideon Weil, the famous director of the American School of Archaeology in Jerusalem.  As part of their survey, they roam the beautiful, silent, transJordanian desert where the indelible present of Lawrence of Arabia still lingers, and where the ancient Nabateans once rules an empire from their capital of Petra.  Soon Lily and Gideon are stranded in the Wadi Rum, and their Bedouin guide is murdered.  When Gideon is accused of the crime, Lily must clear him of the accusation.

Lily discovers that two oil pipelines run from Iraq through the desert to the ports on Mediterranean, one through Trans-Jordan that supplies the Allies and one through Syria that supplies the Nazis.  Syrians and Vichy French are raiding across the border, threatening to destroy the Trans-Jordan pipeline.  Lily discovers their real mission is to help safeguard the Trans-Jordan pipeline and to prevent oil from reaching the Nazis through Syria.  At the same time, Lily learns of a Nazi plot to kidnap and kill the eight-year-old King Faisal of Iraq and take over Iraq.

Now, Lily and Gideon must act to protect the Trans-Jordan pipeline, sabotage the Syrian line, and rescue Faisal to help prevent the Nazi takeover of Iraq.

Life, After
by Sarah Darer Littman
Release Date: July 1st, 2010

Everything changes for Dani and her family when a truck loaded with explosives detonates outside the AMIA building in Buenos Aires, Argentina, killing her beloved aunt and unborn cousin.  Because of the ensuing political upheaval, economic hardship, and emotional toll, Dani's family moves to the U.S.  It is a terrifying place - new school, new language, new hardships - and Dani's angry father is turning into a stranger, more so everyday.  Just when she thinks she is about to lose it, she befriends Jessica, one of the girls who has been cruelly teasing her since she arrived.

It is the most unlikely of friendships.  Jessica is wealthy, groomed, spoiled.  But Jessica has a past that only Dani can understand.  She lost her father in 9/11.  It is a friendship that allows them to heal in unexpected and suprising ways, and changes them and their families forever.


The Ancient Curse
by Valerio Massimo Manfredi
Release Date: July 2, 2010

In the middle of the night at the Museum of Volterra, young archaeologist Fabrizio Castellani is immersed in his work - research in the famous Etruscan statue known as 'The Night Shadow'.  Completely engrossed, he is startled by the phone ringing.  An icy female voice warns him to abandon his work at once.  A series of gruesome shortly follow, throwing the people of Volterra into a panic.  The victims - all inovlved in the desecration of an unexplored tomb - have been torn to pieces by a beast of unimaginable size.  Fabrizio is in charge of excavating this Etruscan tomb.  Fabrizio is joined in his fearless investigation of the past by Francesca Dionisi, a vivacious young researcher, and foremost by Lieutenant Reggiani, a brilliant carabinieri officer assigned to the case.  Fabrizio is convinced that a single event set of the entire chain of events.  What is hiding inside the enigmatic statue? What lies behind the bloodthirsty rage that has lain in wait all these centuries?  What tragedy is hidden behind the inscription?  Will Fabrizio manage to unravel these secrets without being sucked into the spiral of violence himself?

Wicked Girls
by Stephanie Hemphill
Release Date: June 29, 2010

Ann Putnam Jr. plays the queen bee.  When her father suggests that a spate of illnesses within the village is the result of witchcraft, Ann grasps her opportunity.  She puts in motion a chain of events that will change the lives of the people around her.

Mercy Lewis, the beautiful servant in Ann's house, inspires adulation in some and envy in others.  With a troubled past, she seizes her only chance at safety.

Margart Walcott, Ann's cousin, is desperately in love and consumed with fiery jealousy.  She is torn betwen staying loyal to her friends and pursuing the life she dreams of with her betrothed.

With new accusations mounting daily against the men and women of the community, the girls will have to decide:  Is it too late to tell the truth?

2 comments:

  1. I'm really interested in your thoughts about the Tess Gerritsen book. I received it as an ARC from Goodreads and reviewed it, and felt kind of "eh" about it. I don't know if you've read other books in that series—I hadn't—but I didn't love it. Also, Running Dark sounds awesome! I'll have to check that out.

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  2. I've read the first few books in the Tess Gerritsen series and really enjoyed them, although less as the series went on. Maura's relationship angst kind of got on my nerves in the last book.

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