March 15, 2009 On the shelves
“Life Sentences” by Laura Lippman — By baring her life on the page, author Cassandra Fallows has achieved remarkable success. However, after an unsuccessful stab at fiction, Cassandra believes the she may have found the story that will enable her triumphant return to nonfiction. As a girl, Cassandra grew up in a racially diverse, middle-class neighborhood where all of her three best friends were black. A fifth girl, Calliope Jenkins, a shy, quiet and unobtrusive child, also orbited their world. Years later, Calliope would be accused of killing her infant son and because she refused to speak, she is jailed until seven years later, when the court is forced to let her go. Cassandra believes this unsolved real-life mystery could be her next bestseller. However, her homecoming and latest journey into the past will not be welcomed by everyone, especially by her former friends, who are insistent on sharing their own version of their history. While delving too deeply into Calliope’s dark secrets, Cassandra may inadvertently unearth a few of her own.
“The Birthday Present” by Barbara Vine — As a handsome, single, young member of Parliament, Ivor Tesham is a political star on the rise. In a chance encounter, he meets a beautiful, leggy, married woman named Hebe, and the two become lovers obsessed with their trysts. When Ivor creates a surprise birthday present that involves a curbside kidnapping for his beloved, suddenly a plan that was originally intended for fun takes a dark turn. After things go horribly wrong, anonymous letters that reveal specific details about the affair and its aftermath begin to arrive. Somehow, Ivor must keep his role undiscovered and his political future from being ruined by scandal. As hints, nuances and small revelations lay his darkest secrets hideously bare for all the world to see, Ivor is not to be spared the exquisitely slow and tortuous unfolding of events.
“Whisper to the Blood: A Kate Shugak Novel” by Dana Stabenow — A gold mining company has started buying up land inside Alaska’s biggest national park, around the town of Niniltna. The residents of the park are uneasy, but popular Alaskan skiing champ, Talia Macleod, has been hired to improve the company’s relations with the Alaskans and pave the way for the mine’s expansion. Before Talia can make her way to every village in the area to present her case, there are two brutal murders whose investigations fall to Trooper Jim Chopin. As usual, he needs Kate to help him get to the heart of the matter. Kate Shugak has her hands very full with the two new deaths, a series of attacks on snowmobilers, an open homicide from last year and her work as a part-time P.I. and newly elected chairman of the Niniltna Native Association.
