Sage Singer is a baker who likes to keep to herself, even more so since the accident that left her face severely scarred. In a grief support group she meets Josef, a man in his nineties who recently lost his wife. On the surface Sage and Josef have nothing in common, yet they become friends. When Josef reveals a secret about his past to Sage and asks for her help he puts her in the middle of a moral dilemma. As Sage struggles with Josef’s secret, she must also confront her own secrets and past. The Storyteller is an incredibly written novel that explores the issue of good and evil. What makes someone good or bad? Is it a choice or are we born one way or the other?

Reviewed by Jessica B., University City Regional

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Turse’s Kill Everything That Moves left your reviewer in no mood for anything that hinted at glorification of war; though he’s been known to enjoy a good Marine combat tale – true or fiction. This, however, is a great Marine action novel. It has everything such a work requires – and so very much more. It is set in Vietnam and pits a company of Marines against the regular North Vietnamese Army in merciless jungle terrain. It is as brutally real as the grueling struggle it describes. That the struggle is an ineptly-led, extremely costly exercise in futility is the tragedy at the book’s core.

Reviewed by Jim B., Main Library

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In Cherbourg, France, Brit Tess Collins abruptly leaves her dead-end domestic service position and hurries to the port where a large ship bound for America offers hope for a better life. Plucky Tess is an aspiring seamstress and she lucks out by being hired right there on the dock by a wealthy renowned designer who needs a maid. Lady Lucile Duff Gordon doubts Tess’s abilities as her maid but she is impressed by the stitches on her handmade outfit. And so, the Duff Gordons along with new maid board their “ship of dreams” to America -- the Titanic. Author Alcott, aka Patricia O’Brien, avoids the unsinkable hype by focusing on the survivors and the government inquiries. Survivor Tess must make a crucial decision in the grim aftermath.

Reviewed by Susanne W., Steele Creek Branch

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Before beginning Best Kept Secret I would strongly recommend reading Only Time Will Tell and Sins of the Father. With the will settled for the Barrington title and fortune and Emma and Harry Clifton married, thus begins the third Archer book about these families. Emma sets out to find the baby girl left in her father’s office when he was murdered. Giles Barrington thinks he has found the woman he loves while everyone else detests her. Elizabeth Barrington dies causing a rift between the siblings. Sebastian finds trouble when he thinks he’s lost his parent’s dream. When enemies from the past and present surface machinations develop on many levels. The plot moves swiftly with many unexpected twists and turns characteristic of Archer. The last sentence evokes a gasp and leaves a heart-wrenching cliffhanger that ensures a fourth in the series.

Reviewed by Sheila C., Steele Creek Branch

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Ursula Todd was born in February 1910, but she dies before she is able to take her first breath. On that same February night, Ursula is born again and lives. Thus begins Ursula’s life as she dies, but is born again and able to alter her life. Each death brings the reader back to the beginning wondering what will change during this current lifetime; subtle changes to Ursula’s life can make all the difference. What will happen to Ursula in the end? Read the book and find out! This novel is not something that can be easily forgotten. Atkinson’s book will stay with you as you realize that one small decision can alter the rest of your life.

Reviewed by Maeve C., University City Regional

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Police Commissar Bernie Gunther is a bit of Le Carre’s melancholy and world-wise Smiley. He’s a bigger bit, however, of Philip Marlowe. He’s a loner, a recognized expert in his field – and he’s not afraid to confront authority with truth. He has to be brave, as well: the authority he goes up against is Adolf Hitler and – more directly – Reinhard Heydrich, an admirer and client of Gunther’s detective skills, and the one Nazi whose evil matches – if not exceeds – Hitler’s. It isn’t an assignment an old-timer cop can appreciate: solving a murder among an opulent nest of proven mass killers.

Reviewed by Jim B., Main Library

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Elizabeth arrives in Aleppo, Syria to help with relief efforts during the Armenian genocide in 1915. No amount of training or good intentions can prepare her for what she witnesses – women and children on the verge of death. The novel focuses on Elizabeth’s relationship with Armen, an Armenian engineer she meets early on, while also highlighting the suffering of the Armenian people, particularly the women and children. It is all shown through the eyes of Laura, Elizabeth and Armen’s granddaughter, who wants to learn more about the past they never discussed with her. The author holds nothing back – the descriptions of the Armenians’ suffering are graphic and will stay with readers, but so will an awareness of this moment in history. Book club worthy.

Reviewed by Christine B., South County Regional

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The former head of MI6 has been murdered. To discover the truth, young detective John Trave must defy his Scotland Yard superior and match wits with a master spy, a double agent high in the ranks of Britain’s secret service. Set against the backdrop of London during the Blitz, this page turner is a detective story and a spy novel, but above all a psychological thriller with a search not for the killer’s identity but motivation, forcing Trave back to the horrific legacy of the First World War. Simon Tolkien is the grandson of J.R.R. Tolkien, but this fast paced and expertly detailed novel calls to mind a line from another literary giant, William Faulkner: “The past is never dead. It’s not even past.”

Reviewed by Rita L., Independence Regional

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Experience the underground railroad in 1850’s Ohio through the eyes of Honor Bright, a shy, clever Quaker quilt maker. Honor is a newly arrived immigrant, who lost her sister to yellow fever after a seasick crossing of the Atlantic Ocean. Hat maker, Belle, shelters Honor by giving her sewing work while she grieves for her sister. Here, she learns about slave hunters, those running the underground railroad, and the risks and potential consequences for those helping the slaves. Honor begins helping runaways, despite her husband’s warnings. Torn between her religious beliefs and the letter of the law, she finds living with her husband’s family nearly impossible. How does she live out her beliefs of opposing slavery and freedom for all God’s children?

Reviewed by Gay Ann L., Independence Regional

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Tom has returned a hero from the trenches of France. Positioned as a lightkeeper on deserted Janus Rock, he immerses himself in the meticulously recorded regimen of unchanging routine to forget the hell he lived through. During a shore leave on the mainland he meets and falls in love with Isabelle, a headstrong but sheltered young girl. Isabelle happily immerses herself in the island routine, but their perfect life together begins to fray after two miscarriages and a stillbirth. One day a boat drifts ashore with a baby and what they assume is its dead father. Isabelle convinces Tom, a stickler for reporting details, that they should keep this “gift from God”. When the mother is discovered on the mainland a gripping moral dilemma ensues.

Reviewed by Annette N., Main Library

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