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Editorial Content for A Bitter Truth

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Reviewer (text)

Terry Miller Shannon

In this third installment of Charles Todd’s mystery series, the story opens in December 1917. World War I battlefield nurse Bess Crawford has returned home to England from caring for patients in France. This is a well-deserved break from constant hard work and the horrendous emotional toll of caring for injured soldiers, and Bess is looking forward to spending Christmas with her parents. As her train pulls into the London railway station, she looks for her father or for her father's right-hand man, Simon Brandon. Read More

Teaser

 

When World War I battlefield nurse Bess Crawford takes leave, returning home to England from France, she stumbles upon a stranger needing her help --- a situation that leads her into a murder mystery in which she becomes a major suspect.

Promo

When World War I battlefield nurse Bess Crawford takes leave, returning home to England from France, she stumbles upon a stranger needing her help --- a situation that leads her into a murder mystery in which she becomes a major suspect.

About the Book

When battlefield nurse Bess Crawford returns from France for a well-earned Christmas leave, she finds a bruised and shivering woman huddled in the doorway of her London residence. The woman has nowhere to turn, and propelled by a firm sense of duty, Bess takes her in.

Once inside Bess’s flat, the woman reveals that a quarrel with her husband erupted into violence, yet she wants to return home --- if Bess will go with her to Sussex. Realizing that the woman is suffering from a concussion, Bess gives up a few precious days of leave to travel with her. But she soon discovers that this is a good deed with unforeseeable consequences.

What Bess finds at Vixen Hill is a house of mourning. The woman’s family has gathered for a memorial service for the elder son, who died of war wounds. Her husband, home on compassionate leave, is tense, tormented by jealousy and his own guilty conscience.

Then, when a troubled houseguest is found dead, Bess herself becomes a prime suspect in the case. This murder will lead her to a dangerous quest in war-torn France, an unexpected ally, and a startling revelation that puts her in jeopardy before a vicious killer can be exposed.

Editorial Content for Serial

Book

Reviewer (text)

Joe Hartlaub

I have to hand it to John Lutz. When you pick up one of his novels, you better plan on giving it your undivided attention. He begins with a horrific crime visited upon an innocent, the specifics of which are revealed as the police investigation gradually unfolds.

"If Lutz’s novels were simply gore fests and nothing else, there would be little to recommend repeated returns to his work. But Lutz uses the graphic descriptions of the murders as an initial draw, something to get the clock ticking very loudly and quickly."

Teaser

In SERIAL, the latest Frank Quinn thriller, Quinn and his quirky, prickly team are brought in as consultants almost immediately when a fiend who quickly becomes known as the Skinner begins preying on seemingly random people in Manhattan.

Promo

In SERIAL, the latest Frank Quinn thriller, Quinn and his quirky, prickly team are brought in as consultants almost immediately when a fiend who quickly becomes known as the Skinner begins preying on seemingly random people in Manhattan.

About the Book

Frank Quinn is sure he is hunting for a madman: someone who is shooting young women in the heart, defiling their bodies, leaving only the torsos to be found. Quinn, a former NYPD detective, is called into the case by an ambitious chief of police and mobilizes his team of brilliant law-enforcement misfits. But in the concrete canyons of New York, this shocking serial murder case is turning into something very different...

Jill Clark came to the city with too many hopes and too little cash. Now a seemingly deranged woman is telling her an extraordinary story. New to an exclusive dating service, Jill is warned that other women have died on their dates-and that she could be next. Struggling against a death trap closing in around her, Jill has a powerful ally in Frank Quinn. But no one knows the true motives behind a rampage of cold-blooded murder --- or how much more terrifying this is going to get...

Do you have time for pleasure reading during the school year?

September 28, 2011, 309 voters

Do you have time for pleasure reading during the school year?

September 28, 2011, 106 voters

September 27, 2011

The following are lists of books releasing the weeks of September 26th and October 3rd that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers.

September 27, 2011

Karen Healy: What's in a Genre?

Posted by Anonymous
 

Interview: Hilary Knight, author of Nina in That Makes Me Mad

Sep 27, 2011

Legendary artist Hilary Knight created the look of the cantankerous Eloise half a century ago. Now he’s giving the world a new version of the hilarious (and opinionated) Nina, who can’t wait to tell us all about how That Makes Me Mad! Here, Hilary Knight discusses both of these amazing girls and the impact of comics on his life.

Week of September 26, 2011

In Marcia Muller's LOCKED IN, San Francisco private eye Sharon McCone was shot in the head and suffered from locked-in syndrome: almost total paralysis but with an alert, conscious mind. Now, in COMING BACK, Sharon's friend from physical therapy goes missing, causing Sharon to call upon those closest to her to find out the truth behind the disappearance.

Jonathan Frazen's first novel in nine years, FREEDOM is an epic novel of contemporary love and marriage. Comically and tragically, Frazen captures the temptations and burdens of liberty: the thrills of teenage lust, the shaken compromises of middle age, the wages of suburban sprawl, and the heavy weight of empire.

September 23, 2011

Just when I was getting into the groove of summer, along comes fall. Right now is my least favorite time of year for figuring out what to wear. Mornings and evenings can be cool and crisp, but the days can be muggy and warm. After my Conde Nast fashionette years, I know better than to wear white or light-colored clothes, but I am just not ready for a sea of gray, brown and black. It’s what we called a “transition season,” but somehow we used to make that sound exciting, which it is not.