BOOKS – FEB 2, 2010

WORST CASE

By JAMES PATTERSON

FORMAT: HARDCOVER
PAGES: 416
PUBLISHER: LITTLE, BROWN AND COMPANY

One by one, children of New York’s wealthiest are taken hostage. But the criminal doesn’t crave money or power–he only wants to ask the elite if they know the price others pay for their luxurious lifestyles. And, if they don’t, he corrects their ignorance–by killing them.

To Detective Michael Bennett, it becomes clear that these murders are linked and must be part of a greater, more public demonstration. With the city thrown into chaos, he is forced to team up with FBI agent Emily Parker, and the two set out to capture the killer before he begins his most public lesson yet–a deadly message for the entire city to witness.

From the bestselling author who brought you the Alex Cross novels comes James Patterson’s most action-packed series yet. With the heart-pounding suspense that only Patterson delivers, WORST CASE will leave you gasping for breath until the very end.

THE BANDIDO MASSACRE

By PETER EDWARDS

FORMAT: HARDCOVER
PAGES: 496
PUBLISHER: HARPERCOLLINS

On the morning of April 8, 2006, residents of the hamlet of Shedden, Ontario, woke up to the news that the bloodied bodies of eight bikers from the Bandidos gang had been found dead on a local farm. The massacre made headlines around the world, and the shocking news brought a grim light to an otherwise quiet corner of the province. Six Bandidos would eventually be convicted of the first-degree murder of their biker brothers.

Like other outlaw bikers, Bandidos portray themselves as motorcycle enthusiasts who are systematically misunderstood and abused by the police, as well as feared by the public. We now know the Bandidos were anything but simple motorcycle enthusiasts. However, unlike such biker gangs as the Hell’s Angels, who run sophisticated operations, the Bandidos were highly disorganized, prone to petty infighting and even engaged in sabotaging fellow members. This is the story of how the Bandidos self-destructed over one dark night.

As gripping as any crime novel, The Bandido Massacre takes us inside a crumbling brotherhood bent on betrayal and self-obliteration.

SWEET LITTLE LIES
An L.A. Candy Novel

By LAUREN CONRAD

FORMAT: HARDCOVER
PAGES: 320
PUBLISHER: HARPERTEEN

How Sweet it is?

Jane Roberts was the average girl next door until she and her best friend, Scarlett Harp, landed their own reality show, L.A. Candy. Now the girls have an all-access pass to Hollywood’s hottest everything. But there’s more to life on camera than just parties and shopping. . . .

When racy photos of Jane are leaked to the press, she finds herself at the center of a tabloid scandal. She turns to her co-star Madison Parker for help, unaware that Madison is scheming behind the scenes. She might be Jane’s shoulder to cry on, but does Madison really have Jane’s back?

Of course, nothing stays secret for long for the stars of the newest hit TV series, and all this drama couldn’t be better for ratings. But can Jane survive another season in the spotlight?

In television star Lauren Conrad’s dishy, entertaining novel about young Hollywood, the lies are only as sweet as the people telling them.

THE MEMORY COLLECTOR

By MEG GARDINER

FORMAT: HARDCOVER
PAGES: 368
PUBLISHER: HARPERCOLLINS

Forensic psychiatrist Jo Beckett′s speciality is the psychological autopsy – an investigation into a person′s life to determine whether a death was natural, accidental, suicide, or homicide. When Jo is asked to do a psychological autopsy on a living person – one with a suspect memory who can′t be trusted to participate in his own medical care – she knows all her skills will be put to the test. Jo is called to the scene of an aircraft inbound from London to help deal with a passenger who is behaving erratically. She figures out that Ian Kanan has got anterograde amnesia, and can′t form new memories. Jo finds herself racing to save a patient who can walk and talk and yet can′t help Jo figure out just what happened to him. Suddenly a string of clues arises, something to do with a super deadly biological agent code-named “Slick”, a kidnapping, and a secret partnership gone horribly wrong. Jo realises Kanan′s addled mind may hold the key to preventing something terrible from happening in her beloved San Francisco. With time running out, she will have to get deeper into the life of a patient than she ever has before, hoping the truth emerges from the fog of his mind in time to save her city – and herself.

THE LEISURE SEEKER

By MICHAEL ZADOORIAN

FORMAT: HARDCOVER
PAGES: 288
PUBLISHER: HARPERCOLLINS

In Michael Zadoorian’s The Leisure Seeker the Robinas have shared a wonderful life for more than sixty years. Now in their eighties, Ella suffers from cancer and John has Alzheimer’s. Yearning for one last adventure, the self-proclaimed “down-on-their-luck geezers” kidnap themselves from the adult children and doctors who seem to run their lives and steal away from their home in suburban Detroit on a forbidden vacation of rediscovery. With Ella as his vigilant copilot, John steers their ‘78 Leisure Seeker RV along the forgotten roads of Route 66 toward Disneyland in search of a past they’re having a damned hard time remembering. Yet Ella is determined to prove that, when it comes to life, you can go back for seconds—even when everyone says you can’t.

THE POISON EATERS

By HOLLY BLACK

FORMAT: HARDCOVER
PAGES: 256
PUBLISHER: BIG MOUTH HOUSE

In her debut collection, New York Times best-selling author Holly Black returns to the world of Tithe in two darkly exquisite new tales. Then Black takes readers on a tour of a faerie market and introduces a girl poisonous to the touch and another who challenges the devil to a competitive eating match. These stories have been published in anthologies such as 21 Proms, The Faery Reel, and The Restless Dead, and have been reprinted in many “Best of ” anthologies. The Poison Eaters is Holly Black’s much-anticipated first collection, and her ability to stare into the void—and to find humanity and humor there—will speak to young adult and adult readers alike.

FLIRT
An Anita Blake, Vampire Hunter Novel

By LAURELL K. HAMILTON

FORMAT: HARDCOVER
PAGES: 192
PUBLISHER: BERKLEY

When Anita Blake meets with prospective client Tony Bennington, who is desperate to have her reanimate his recently deceased wife, she is full of sympathy for his loss. Anita knows something about love, and she knows everything there is to know about loss. But what she also knows, though Tony Bennington seems unwilling to be convinced, is that the thing she can do as a necromancer isn’t the miracle he thinks he needs. The creature that Anita could coerce to step out of the late Mrs. Bennington’s grave would not be the lovely Mrs. Bennington. Not really. And not for long.

MASTERS OF THE SEA: CAPTAIN OF ROME

By JOHN STACK

FORMAT: HARDCOVER
PAGES: 384
PUBLISHER: HARPERCOLLINS

The seas are the centre of the ever-increasing battles between the Romans and the Carthaginians, with this novel culminating in the largest naval battle of the ancient world.

Atticus, captain of the Aquila, has sailed his fleet into a Carthaginian trap, his uneasiness with the situation overborne by the confident young senator he has been made to have on board. On shore, the Nine Legion, which includes in its ranks his friend and colleague, the legionary Septimus, is having an equally difficult time as the Roman force is ambushed by an overwhelming strength of Carthaginian cavalry. Both of them escape with their lives but this bad reversal for the Roman fortunes has both political and military repercussions. The divisions in Rome are in fact paralleled by those in Carthage, but the battles intensify as both sides attempt to prevent supplies reaching each other and persuade smaller states to join their alliances.

BLACKOUT

By CONNIE WILLIS

FORMAT: HARDCOVER
PAGES: 512
PUBLISHER: SPECTRA

In her first novel since 2002, Nebula and Hugo award-winning author Connie Willis returns with a stunning, enormously entertaining novel of time travel, war, and the deeds—great and small—of ordinary people who shape history. In the hands of this acclaimed storyteller, the past and future collide—and the result is at once intriguing, elusive, and frightening.

From the people sheltering in the tube stations of London to the retired sailors who set off across the Channel to rescue the stranded British Army from Dunkirk, from shopgirls to ambulance drivers, from spies to hospital nurses to Shakespearean actors, Blackout reveals a side of World War II seldom seen before: a dangerous, desperate world in which there are no civilians and in which everybody—from the Queen down to the lowliest barmaid—is determined to do their bit to help a beleaguered nation survive.