Learning to Swim (2011)
By Sara J. Henry

Troy Chance rescues a six year old boy named Paul who was thrown into the frigid waters of Lake Champlain only to discover that his arms were bound when he was thrown in. After the initial shock is over, the boy tells Troy his experiences of witnessing his mother's murder, and being kidnapped and held prisoner for months. As Troy actively looks for the boy's father and the bizarre mystery unfolds, Troy discovers things about herself that she never knew existed.

MBTB mini-review of Learning to Swim

Eyes of the Innocent (2012)
By Brad Parks

A house burns. Two children die. A newspaper reporter finds the house documents have disappeared from the courthouse. The investigation begins, and Parks and his hero, Newark newsman Carter Ross, show us that police and newshound procedures have much in common: knocking on doors, working the phones, staring at dusty paper until the eyes burn. Ross must rout the villains without a badge to flash or the power of officialdom. The revelations involve the subprime mortgage swindle, a city councilman and his cookie, and a moneyman who knows which politicians are for sale. The novel reads like a bit of investigative journalism: told in reporter’s prose, with dollops of humor, suspense, and violence. (Modified review taken from Booklist)

Losing Nicola (2011)
By Susan Moody

A compelling tale of childhood trauma and sinister discoveries - Alice and her brother Orlando lived a quiet life growing up in post WWII Britain; that is until the arrival of the precocious, manipulative and sexually aware Nicola. But on Alice’s 12th birthday, Nicola disappears, only to be found days later, battered, bruised and dead. Twenty years go by until Alice becomes determined to dig up the past and solve the mystery of Nicola’s death. But will the truth be too much to handle when she starts to suspect her own quiet and bookish brother Orlando? (Book Description)

The October Killings (2011)
By Wessel Ebersohn

***Publisher Weekly's Starred Review***

South African author Ebersohn kicks off a promising new series pairing psychologist Yudel Gordon, last seen in 1992's Closed Circle, with Abigail Bukula, chief director of South Africa's justice department, who can more than hold her own with the brilliantly eccentric Gordon. As a 15-year-old girl, Bukula survived a raid on an African National Congress house in Lesotho on October 21, 1985, thanks to the intervention of a white soldier, Leon Lourens. In 2005, Lourens seeks Bukula's help after learning that almost all his colleagues on the raid have been murdered on the exact anniversary of the assault. To catch the killer, Bukula hooks up with Gordon, who lost his government position with apartheid's end, to get access to the imprisoned commander of the attack, Marinus van Jaarsveld. The complexities of South Africa a decade after the end of white rule help fuel a compelling plot that builds to several dramatic climaxes. (Taken from Publisher's Weekly)

Happy Reading!!

Posted by Shiela