Baking out in the bright summer sun must lead us to dark thoughts, because this month’s Best of BARD is nothing but the grittiest of the grit. Every one of these books features murder, abductions, chaos and mayhem, and I’m loving every minute of it. Patterson leads the pack, as he will do, but sniffing at his heels are some wonderful new names – welcome to the Top Five Gardner, Palmer, and Grant! Good to have you on board. Regular heavy hitter Cornwell will show you the ropes, as you all try to take down the King. We’ll see what’s in store next time on the Best of! Until then, keep those earbuds poppin’.
15th Affair
James Patterson
DB 84176 / CL 16017
Detective Lindsay Boxer’s life unravels when a mysterious blonde woman with links to the CIA disappears from the scene of a brutal hotel murder, a plane crash plunges San Francisco into chaos, and Lindsay’s husband Joe vanishes. Lindsay suspects that Joe and the blonde are linked. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2016.
Find Her
Lisa Gardner
DB 83828 / CL 15957
Kidnapped Flora Dane quickly escapes–by burning her abductor to death. Boston police detective D. D. Warren is alarmed to learn that Flora was also abducted seven years before, spent over a year in captivity, and has been learning survival skills and putting herself in danger ever since. Violence and strong language. Bestseller. 2016.
Depraved Heart
Patricia Cornwell
DB 83247 / CL 15881
As Dr. Kay Scarpetta is working a suspicious death scene, she is texted a video–set in her niece Lucy’s FBI dorm room years earlier. It is supposedly from Lucy, but Kay soon realizes she’s being dangerously toyed with once again by Lucy’s former lover Carrie. Violence and strong language. Bestseller. 2015.
Mercy
Michael Palmer
DB 84355
Soon after an accident leaves Dr. Julie Devereux’s fiance a quadriplegic, he dies. An autopsy reveals that he died of an unusual heart defect seen only in those under extreme stress–Sam had been literally scared to death. As Julie investigates similar cases, she finds a frightening pattern. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2016.
False Positive
Andrew Grant
DB 84370
Alabama detectives Cooper Devereaux and Jan Loflin investigate the disappearance of a seven-year-old boy from his home in the Birmingham suburbs. But the more Devereaux digs into the missing child’s background, the more he discovers about his own, eventually shaking loose a series of harrowing truths. Unrated. Commercial audiobook. 2015.