2010: #46 – A Reliable Wife (Robert Goolrick)

He placed a notice in a Chicago paper, an advertisement for “a reliable wife.” She responded, saying that she was “a simple, honest woman.” She was, of course, anything but honest, and the only simple thing about her was her single-minded determination to marry this man and then kill him, slowly and carefully, leaving her a wealthy widow, able to take care of the one she truly loved.

What Catherine Land did not realize was that the enigmatic and lonely Ralph Truitt had a plan of his own. And what neither anticipated was that they would fall so completely in love.

Filled with unforgettable characters, and shimmering with color and atmosphere, A Reliable Wife is an enthralling tale of love and madness, of longing and murder.

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2010: #45 – Shelter Mountain (Robyn Carr)

John “Preacher” Middleton is about to close the bar when a young woman and her three-year-old son come in out of the wet October night. A marine who has seen his share of pain, Preacher knows a crisis when he sees one—the woman is covered in bruises. He wants to protect them, and he wants to punish whoever did this to her, but he knows immediately that this inclination to protect is something much more. Paige Lassiter has stirred up emotions in this gentle giant of a man-emotions that he has never allowed himself to feel.

But when Paige’s ex-husband turns up in Virgin River, Preacher knows his own future hangs in the balance. And if there’s one thing the marines’ motto of Semper Fidelis—always faithful—has taught him, it’s that some things are worth fighting for.

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2010: #44 – Chasing the Dime (Michael Connelly)

The phone messages waiting for Henry Pierce clearly aren’t for him: “Where is Lilly? This is her number. It’s on the site.” Pierce has just moved into a new apartment, and he’s been “chasing the dime”–doing all it takes so his company comes out first with a scientific breakthrough worth millions. But he can’t get the messages for Lilly out of his head. As Pierce tries to help a woman he has never met, he steps into a world of escorts, websites, sex, and secret passions. A world where his success and expertise mean nothing…and where he becomes the chief suspect in a murder case, trapped in the fight of his life.

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2010: #43 – Stalking the Angel (Robert Crais)

Bradley Warren had lost something very valuable, something that belonged to someone else: a rare thirteenth century Japanese manuscript called the Hagakure. Everything PI Elvis Cole knew about Japanese culture he’d learned from reading Shogun, but he knew a lot of crooks and what he didn’t know, his sociopathic sidekick Joe Pike did. Together their search begins in LA’s Little Tokyo and the nest of the notorious Japanese mafia, the yakuza, and leads to a white knuckled adventure filled with madness, murder and sexual obsession just another day’s work for Elvis Cole.

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