Bone by Bone by Carol O'Connell

A batty old man of the cloth had once described the Hobbs boy as a joke of God's: an archangel of the warrior cast and a beacon for women with carnal intentions. An angel. Would that he had wings.

from page 1

Bone by Bone is a poetically written mystery suspense novel by Carol O'Connell who also writes the popular Kathy Mallory mysteries. Bone by Bone is a stand alone novel that focuses on a different set of characters from the Mallory series.

Twenty years ago 15 year old budding photographer Josh Hobbs walked into Coventry's woods with a green knapsack and his camera and never walked out. After an exhaustive search that turns up neither Josh nor any clues as to his fate, town life slowly moves on. He's never seen nor heard from again until his bones start showing up one by one on his father's front doorstep.

Josh's older brother Oren, a newly retired agent from the Army's Criminal Investigation Division, has not set foot in his hometown for twenty years, but he returns home to Coventry when the family's beloved housekeeper writes him a cryptic letter about buying coffins. In the course of looking into his brother's death, the townsfolk's secrets are dredged up from the dark past and a portrait is painted of Josh. It is one of a boy photographer who silently stalks his unwitting subjects capturing them and their secrets on film and revealing the secrets to the town in the name of art. What secrets led to Josh's disappearance and death? And how many secrets will be revealed before the mystery of his death is finally solved?

This page turner was hard to put down. The revealing and piecing together of secrets in this small town is like the piecing back together of the lives forever destroyed by the death of a son and a brother. Though O'Connell writes beautifully, her plot can be a little twisted around and convoluted at times confusing the reader with the myriad secrets and the connections between townsfolk and secrets alike.

This book is available at Matthews Public Library and upon request from Annville Free Library and Myerstown Community Library. I recommend you pick it up the next time you visit the library!

--Reviewed by Ms. Angie

Origin by Diana Abu-Jaber

I know what it means to be set loose in the world. Damaged children are all of the same tribe: I can look at any adult and recognize one instantly ... we're everywhere. Lost childhood lingers like tribal scars ... there's always some sign.


from page 59

Origin by Diana Abu-Jaber is a mystery thriller that follows two mysteries that in the end are so closely intertwined that one would not exist without the other; in fact, one mystery spawns the other and only by pursuing leads in both mysteries can either be resolved. The mysteries themselves really take a backseat to the character of the narrator, Lena, a young and expert fingerprint examiner for the crime lab in Syracuse, New York; the meat of the story focuses on the inner workings of Lena's thoughts as she struggles to come to terms with her past.

Lena was a foster child, she was raised by Pia and Henry who never tried to legally adopt her. Before she came to live with her foster parents at the age of three, she only remembers the dense green foliage of the rain forest where she believes she was raised by an ape mother until she was rescued by humans and brought to Syracuse where Pia and Henry took her in. Her foster mother is reluctant to share any details of the hospital or orphanage from which Lena came.

Recently several infants in Syracuse have died unexplained deaths. Ultimately SIDS is ruled as the cause of death, but when Lena begins taking a closer look at the evidence and the cribs brought into the lab, a much more sinister cause emerges. Spurred on by the intuition that these recent SIDS deaths are connected to the dark secrets of her past and her biological parentage, Lena pursues the mystery of her own origin in order to get at the true cause of the infants' deaths when it becomes clear the criminal investigation won't yeild any physical evidence to lead them to the answers.

Abu-Jaber is expert at vividly portraying the awkwardness of Lena's personality and social skills and her self-imposed isolation. This gripping story draws the reader in from the first page as the story of Lena and her past is unspooled.

This book will soon be available at the Matthews Public Library.

--Reviewed by Ms. Angie

The Lovers by John Connolly

I tell myself that this is not an investigation. It is for others to be investigated, but not for my family and not for me. I will delve into the lives of strangers, and I will expose their secrets and their lies ... but I do not want to pick and scratch in such a way at what I have always believed of my mother and father. They are gone. Let them sleep.

But there are too many questions left unanswered, too many inconsistencies in the narrative constructed of their lives, a tale told by them ... I can no longer allow them to remain unexamined.

from page 3

So John Connolly released the latest installment of the saga that is Charlie Parker's life earlier this month and I finally got my hands on a copy, read it, and was not disappointed. This new novel is narrated by Parker and focuses on his story; Connolly's previous novel, The Reapers, focused on Louis and Angel. The Lovers returns to the questions first raised about Parker's parentage and history by the Collector in the novel The Black Angel, which was two novels ago (not counting The Reapers) in the Parker series.

Parker, still deprived of his private investigator license and his permit to carry a concealed weapon, works as a bar manager in Maine. Forced to refrain from conducting any formal investigations, Parker is left with time on his hands and, thus, decides this is the perfect time to look into his past and his father's past. Specifically, Parker wishes to know more about the events surrounding the night that his father, an NYPD officer, shot and killed two seemingly innocent teenagers one night before killing himself hours later. Parker wants to know why: why did his father shoot the boy and the girl in cold blood and why did he then kill himself hours later after returning home? Why did his mother always seem emotionally distant from him at times throughout his childhood? Why are two lovers, a man and a woman, determined to see him dead? Parker quickly discovers there are inconsistencies in the very fabric of his own history and in the very essence of all that he once believed true about his own origins. He discovers there are inconsistencies in the account of events surrounding the deaths of the two teenagers and his father as related to Parker by his father's best friend and patrol partner years later. These are not the only problems Parker has to deal with in his life. There is also his relationship with his estranged girlfriend that continues to dissolve. And there is also the writer who has decided to dig into Parker's life and lay out his secrets past and present in a tell-all book about how Parker has made it his life's mission to destroy evil--whether or not Parker cooperates with him. And interwoven with Parker's tale is the story of a girl named Emily who has been running for years from something dark that finds her no matter where she hides. How is her story connected to Parker's?

This is a gripping, engrossing, lyrically written page turner; the story goes fast, and while many questions are answered about Parker's history, others are left unanswered and others are raised. For example, what exactly is Parker's purpose on this earth? Why is evil drawn to him and why does it want him destroyed? I highly recommend you check out this book the next time you visit the library--you won't regret it. And I know that, like me, you'll be looking forward to the next chapter in the Parker series after you finish this one. Parker's story is one you'll think about long after you've read the latest installment.

The Lovers is available at Matthews Public Library.

--Reviewed by Ms. Angie

The Likeness by Tana French

This much is mine, though: everything I did. Frank puts it all down to the others ... while as far as I can tell Sam thinks that, in some obscure and slightly bizarro way, it was Lexie's fault. When I say it wasn't like that, they give me careful sideways looks and change the subject ... But give me more credit than that. Someone else may have dealt the hand, but I picked it up off the table, I played every card, and I had my reasons.

from page 3

The Likeness is Tana French's follow up to her novel In The Woods. The previous novel focused on Rob Ryan as narrator; the follow up is narrated by Ryan's former partner Cassie Maddox and the action commences in the months following the conclusion of the events portrayed in In The Woods. A little tidbit for French fans: her next novel will have for its narrator Frank Mackey, Maddox's old undercover boss who was introduced to us in The Likeness. And while I anxiously awaited her second novel, I'm not sure about the third; Mackey was a character I detested.

In this new novel one of Maddox's aliases from her stint in undercover comes back to haunt her when the body of a woman who could be her twin is found murdered. The woman has slipped seamlessly and effortlessly into the identity of Lexie Madison; it's an alias Maddox used years ago in an undercover operation that ended badly. Maddox's boyfriend, who remains on the Murder Squad, Sam O'Neil has caught the case. Reluctantly he allows Maddox's former undercover boss, Frank Mackey, to engineer a crazy scheme in which Maddox re-assumes her old undercover identity and infiltrates the house that the woman they know only as Lexie shared with four other graduate students to ferret out more clues to the woman's true identity and that of her murderer. All three detectives soon realize that while the four roommates all have their own secrets to hide, Lexie may have had the most to hide.

French infuses a sense of foreboding from the very beginning of her book that can only foreshadow how very badly both the undercover operation and the book will end not just for the roommates, but for the detectives as well. French does this like no other author and this bleak sense of foreboding runs throughout every beautifully, exquisitely suspenseful chapter as she allows the reader to eavesdrop on the intimate thoughts of the narrator as each clue and detail is slowly revealed. And while the ending is sad for some characters, it is hopeful for others and in that way it differs from how In The Woods ended. Ultimately the overarching theme is how life events can destroy our relationships and lives if we allow them to spin wildly out of control, allowing them to beat us down and disillusion us. And while it seems that in the end some characters are broken by the shattering resolution of the mystery, others pull themselves up and are determined to survive it.

I highly recommend this book. This book is available in adult fiction at the Matthews Public Library and upon request from Annville Free Library and Lebanon Community Library.

--Reviewed by Ms. Angie

Blood and Ice by Robert Masello

In the suspense novel Blood and Ice by Robert Masello, the most thrilling and unique element is the unusual setting of Antarctica. Not many books or movies are set on that continent.

Blood and Ice tells the tale of the lovers, Eleanor and Sinclair, in mid-nineteenth century England; she is a nurse and he is a soldier who is preparing for deployment to the Crimean war front. These star crossed lovers eventually find each other again in the midst of the bloody business of war. Ultimately, a mysterious and cruel malady befalls them and as a result an even more horrifying fate awaits them. The tale of Eleanor and Sinclair alternates with the tale of freelance journalist, Michael, who is recovering from a brutal, personal tragedy of his own. Michael is offered an opportunity to spend a month at an antarctic research station and report on his experiences there. Little does he know what adventure and danger he will encounter once he arrives and how his story will intertwine with that of Eleanor and Sinclair.

Masello excels at revving up the suspense; unfortunately, the suspense doesn't really go anywhere and the reader waits for something to happen in the story that never really does. While Masello hints at how Sinclair and Eleanor contract their mysterious malady and hints at the origins, he never really fully addresses the origins to my satisfaction. In the end maybe the point of the story is Michael's journey and struggle to move past his own tragedy.

This book is available at Matthews Public Library and upon request from Palmyra Public Library.

--Reviewed by Ms. Angie

New Arrivals in AudioBooks!

The library has recently added an entire of new titles in the AudioBooks. This section is located downstairs along the wall right next to the copier.

New titles of books on CD include Bones of the Dragon by Ted Dekker, Eclipse by Richard North Patterson, and To Kill A Mockingbird by Harper Lee and several others! Come visit us at the library to check out these new titles.

New Arrivals in Juvenile Fiction!

The library is adding several new items to its juvenile fiction section located downstairs in the library. We are adding three titles from the American Girl series, and we also adding some graphic novels to juvenile fiction. These titles include Chrissa Stands Strong J/Fic/Cas; Bone #7: Ghost Circles J/Fic/Smi; Nancy Drew Graphic Novel #13: Doggone Town J/Fic/Pet; and The Hardy Boys Graphic Novel #14: Haley Danelle's Top Eight J/Fic/Lob.

We hope you'll check some of these new titles and others that we are adding all the time here at the Matthews Public Library!

The Life Before Her Eyes

The Life Before Her Eyes is adapted from a novel of the same title by Laura Kasischke and stars Uma Thurman, Evan Rachel Wood, and Eva Amurri.

Diana and Maureen are best friends coming of age in a small town when a fellow classmate comes to school with a gun and massacres untold numbers of students and teachers. What transpires leading up to that day, in the midst of the confrontation between the gunman and his victims, and in the aftermath of the tragedy is told from the perspective of one of the friends while she continues to deal with the effects of the tragedy during the fifteenth anniversary observance of the incident. Ultimately the viewer must question whether we are indeed witnessing one woman's long delayed emotional and mental breakdown in response to Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder as a result of an extremely traumatic tragedy or are we witnessing something else entirely?

This movie is both haunting and disturbing; the cinematography captures beautiful imagery. It is also very mysterious and heavy with symbolism and metaphor. For long after you have viewed this film you will think about what really happened or didn't happen in that high school bathroom and what exactly the conclusion of the movie means. I know I had to puzzle it out for a couple hours before I figured out what happened and what the nature of the entire movie really is.

This movie is coming soon to the shelves of the DVD section in the Matthews Public Library, and I recommend you check it out the next time you visit the library.

--Reviewed by Ms. Angie

Can You See What I See? On A Scary Scary Night / Spot 7: Spooky

Can You See What I See? On A Scary Scary Night by Walter Wick is a fun children's book that's filled with picture puzzles. Take a journey from the bottom of the hill to the inside of the castle at the top of the hill. Search the pages for the items listed. Some items will be spotted right away while others will not be.

Spot 7: Spooky is a seek and find book. The pairs of photos in this book of picture riddles seem the same until the reader examines them closely. There are seven differences. Each page contains a riddle for you to solve. If you're up for a challenge, try to find all of the items listed in the front of the book.

Both books are sure to bring the reader hours of fun. Challenge a family member or friend to race to see who can spot the most items first!

These books are both available at the Matthews Public Library in juvenile fiction at the call number, J/793.73 with our other seek and find/picture puzzle books. Check them out the next time you visit the library!

--Reviewed by Ms. Kathy

When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson

... the field of wheat had closed around her like a golden blanket. [Jessica] was lying with her arms around the body of the dog and their blood had mingled and soaked into the dry earth, feeding the grain, like a sacrifice to the harvest.

from page 11

When Will There Be Good News? by Kate Atkinson is actually the third book to feature British private investigator Jackson Brodie. I haven't read the other two. But Atkinson does not write or present this novel like your stereotypical series novel; it is not even your stereotypical mystery novel setup. The story is much more intricate and complicated with several threads of story unspooling simultaneously that in time are revealed to be connected. Each chapter generally shifts from one of three main characters' viewpoints until later in the book when the fourth main character's viewpoint is introduced.

Reggie is a lonely, isolated sixteen year old orphan; she works for Dr. Hunter as a mother's helper caring for Hunter's baby boy. Reggie's tragic history is revealed in pieces of flashbacks throughout the first part of the book.

Jackson Brodie, former soldier, former policeman, former private investigator and newly minted millionaire, is on a mission to prove that his ex-girlfriend's son is indeed his own despite her claims otherwise; ultimately, a massive disaster literally forces his path to collide with Reggie's.

Dr. Hunter, a general surgeon, has survived and thrived in spite of a past devastating tragedy that altered her family forever. Now that the man who caused that tragedy has been set free, Dr. Hunter is missing with her infant son; her squirrely husband appears unconcerned, but Reggie, who knows how to recognize trouble when she sees it, is very worried.

Finally Detective Chief Inspector Louise Monroe is obsessed with a domestic abuse case that sparks its own bloody, violent tragedy, and she searches for the husband involved in that case; meanwhile, a new case involving Dr. Hunter's husband and the mysterious burning of one of his businesses sets Monroe on the trail of this new mystery.

Ultimately the various mysteries set forth involving different characters take a backseat to the focus and attention that Atkinson gives to developing and illuminating her characters' inner lives. These intricately intertwined stories' connections are slowly revealed. This is a beautifully written novel with surprising turns of phrases that illuminate the characters' personalities and brings them to life.

I highly recommend this novel; and perhaps you'll even enjoy the two Brodie novels preceding this one. It is available upstairs in adult fiction here at the Matthews Public Library and upon request from Annville Free Library, Myerstown Community Library and Palmyra Public Library.

--Reviewed by Ms. Angie