THE HAT DIARIES(TM) Discover the Portal by award-winning author Nadine Haruni. This action-packed middle-grade fantasy second book in THE HAT DIARIES(TM) trilogy will resonate with readers of all ages, following the real and imaginary action happening in Ryan Rigbee's diary. Ryan's adrenaline-filled Adventures get taken to new heights through a magical portal, where Merlo teaches Ryan valuable life lessons. The excitement of being able to have others travel with him becomes overshadowed by a few near-miss Adventures, which shed light on how dangerous this portal might be. Get ready to hold onto your hats in THE HAT DIARIES(TM) Discover the Portal!

...THE HAT DIARIES Discover the Portal by Nadine Haruni is a fantastic sequel to the first book, with just as much action and adventure.... This is a fun book and although it is aimed at younger readers, it's the perfect way for adults to escape real life, too.... This is an action-packed story, much like the first one, and every page brings new adventures and delights. The book ends on another cliffhanger, which I hope means there's a third book coming. A thoroughly enjoyable story, and highly recommended to any reader, no matter their age. -Readers' Favorite 5-star review

Ryan Rigbee's Adventures are even more exciting and dangerous in Book Two of The Hat Diaries series. In this book, the second in a series of magical adventures Ryan experiences with his grandfather and then his new girlfriend, middle grade readers will be inspired by Ryan's problem-solving talents, bravery, and ability to support his friends during their hardest times.... -Stacey McMackin, Library Media Specialist (K to 12)

When thirteen-year-old Ricky Diaz discovers that his mother was murdered by drug dealers, he's desperate for revenge. But his father, a former drug enforcement agent, refuses the mission the DEA now offers: to steal an airplane with an American-made radar detector that the cartel uses to smuggle drugs from Mexico.

Angry with his father for throwing away to avenge his mother's death, Ricky decides to take matters into his own hands-he will steal the plane. He runs away to Mexico, disguising himself as one of the many rateros, or homeless children. Life on the streets proves extremely hard and dangerous, and he's barely surviving when he meets Soledad, a crafty but kindhearted ratera. With her help, he must find a way to get into the drug cartel's compound and take the plane-or end up as yet another casualty in the raging drug war.

In this thrilling novel, author Ben Mikaelsen sheds light on America's war on drugs and the grittiness of street life while exploring an unexpected friendship and the healing power of family.

Readers who require a fast-paced plot with lots of action, tension, and danger will find everything they want in Mikaelsen's latest novel....A dynamite story. -Booklist (starred review)

A California Young Readers' Medal Winner

A Pacific Northwest Library Association Readers' Choice

When we first meet Mary Kline in God Bless the Child, Book One of The Women of Paradise County series, she is sewing, her main obsession besides eating. It is hard to blame Mary for who she has become. She's been perpetually hungry since childhood, and as she becomes a woman, she craves something far more delicious-a child of her own.

When Pearl Davis turns up pregnant after a church-basement encounter with James Pullman, the pastor's son, Mary and her parents swoop in and adopt Pearl and her baby, Elizabeth. It's a disastrous move.

As a teen, Elizabeth rebuffs Mary's smothering affection and winds up pregnant. Mary insists on an abortion, which they both keep secret. When she later becomes a young mother, Elizabeth's depression leads to severe OCD. When her irrationally patient husband, David, learns about the abortion and the harrowing nights Elizabeth witnessed as a child when her birth mother was abused, more secrets are revealed that explain Mary Kline's insatiable appetite and her desire to be loved.

By the time Mary and Elizabeth confront the twisted truths that bind them, their entire family is sucked into grappling with layers of trauma spanning three generations.

Everyone in God Bless the Child must reckon with their past as they seek forgiveness and redemption.

The rich are buying the American West up and down the Rocky Mountains, and now a hedge fund billionaire, Leonard Hamm, has bought Lakota P.I. Howard Moon Deer's favorite ski area, San Geronimo Peak, pouring money into new hotels, condos, and a restaurant that will overlook Indian land. When a chairlift is sabotaged and the head of lift ops is murdered, Howie is hired to find who is trying to destroy the resort.

The most obvious suspects are a group of young activist Indians from the San Geronimo Pueblo who don't want to see their community turn into the next Vail, yet another scenic town where locals can no longer afford to live. But as the team of Howie, Jack, and Georgie continue to investigate, they uncover a deadly feud between two New Mexico billionaires who may be responsible for the increasing carnage, a war of egos where winning is everything, and there is no mercy for those who get in their way.

RAVEN MOON is a page-turning roller coaster adventure through the Land of Enchantment with a modern twist of an old evil - the new Conquistadores who arrive in private jets, rather than horses, in search of plunder.

Fans of Hillerman will love this unique and quirky detective duo.

-Leslie Glass, bestselling author of Tracking Time

Westbrook...possesses a masterful sense of narration.

-The Washington Post Book World

A racy and readable writer.

-The New York Times Book Review

Last Gleaming: Love and Death in the Age of Pandemic

The murder of Georgia Tech research engineer Garth Braithwaite sets off a flurry of speculation as to possible motives. The killer has taken Braithwaite's laptop and phone, leaving his stash of drugs and cash untouched. Atlanta Police Sergeant Beth Long must run a gauntlet of political interference as she pursues a possible connection to child trafficking and espionage.

Retired Senator Harmon Wakefield races to build a new biotech operation ahead of a rumored viral weapon under development in Wuhan. He will stop at nothing to recruit Garth Braithwaite's research partner, Dr. Sean O'Meara.

Harmon's grandson, William Wakefield, struggles to balance his university studies with a budding romantic relationship and a journalistic obsession fed by his other grandfather, Tom Williams. Drawn into the Braithwaite murder investigation, he encounters the dark side of the biotech industry.

Then the pandemic hits...

Free Will, Book Three, the final installment of A Day in the Life series, the tumultuous 24-hour story of Jack and Aria, two would-be lovers haunted by the guilt of past failures, real and perceived.

Having survived drunken pub crawls, a tumble off a bridge into a freezing river, relentless intrusions by police, and a long night lurking in the hospital, Free Will begins as our heroes emerge from the clutches of the medical system to a morning of brilliant sunshine and freshly fallen snow. As the day unfolds, the young couple's greatest desire is to hide from the world, drink mimosas and spiked coffee, and write to each other in a notebook. But outside forces-some comic, some heartbreaking-intervene as Jack waffles between self-recrimination and a shot at salvation. Liquor, letters and love may offer reprieve from the past's inexorable glare, but can they also lead to redemption, forgiveness, and reconciliation?

Jack and Aria may have saved each other but, like it or not, they must deal with the aftermath of their last sixteen hours. It's pounding on the door.

Suburban homemaker Allison Embry believes she has gotten away with killing her young boyfriend... until she gets a call from his drug supplier with a proposition that threatens to destroy her family and the comfortable life she has built.

Atlanta Police Lieutenant Paxton Davis, nearing retirement, must find the Midtown Murderer before he strikes again. For Davis, this case is all too reminiscent of the 1979-1980 child murders that marked the beginning of his career.

Widowed newspaper writer Tom Williams plans to pursue his lifelong dream, to travel the US and chronicle his experiences. Then Tom receives word that an unknown assailant has killed a third lawyer nearby. As he ponders what else can go wrong, his daughter, a criminal defense attorney, calls to say she's leaving her husband and moving home with her two sons.

For Parker, storytelling is all about the characters. Here we meet an assortment of eccentric people, from the affluent to the destitute, the good, the bad, the unforgettable.

Pronounced Ponce, Book Three in The Tom Williams Saga, takes us on a high-speed chase through some of Atlanta's most colorful neighborhoods.

I'd like to go back in time, to put hurtful wrongs to right. My advice: make time for the ones you love A donkey, a letter, and a bottle of clear liquid all combine to make 'The Secret'. But 'The Secret' has a rule - Nothing you can change will alter what was meant to happen. Let's unlock 'The Secret' shall we?

Daydreaming about pirate adventures transports 'Then' to 'Now' Sleepin' be one thing an' dreamin' be another. But when dreamin' walks into yer wakin' then that be something altogether diff'rent. The Grumblelows are Mr. and Mrs. Grumblelow, daughter Eleanor and their mischievous son Keypya. They live very close to the sea, near a sheltered cove. Whatever Keypya's real name is, it is never used. One night, Keypya is wide awake playing with his pet mice and collection of slimy things. Meanwhile, in the bedroom next door, Eleanor is dreaming about rubies and pearls and pieces of gold. Her dream brings greedy treasure-seeking pirates to their home, putting Keypya's life in danger...

L. Sydney Abel was born in Kingston upon Hull

Can wolves change colour? Do pixies exist?

According to Mr. Hedges they do.

Woods are magical places. However, there is one more magical than any other. Nearby, in a wild garden, a little wolf bravely hides two naughty pixies, Moonbeam and Lilybell, from Rob the Burglar. Mr. Hedges takes matters into his own hands when the little wolf attacks the burglar, with devastating results.

Bang Bang Run burglar run.

The pixies are determined to put their wrong to right.

But they need help from Ethelweard the wizard. They must all beware of the wolves, who love nothing more than eating pixies in a snap-bite second

Bang Bang Run wolves run.

L. Sydney Abel was born in Kingston upon Hull

On a nose-picking day, this came to mind!

It seemed like a normal Spring morning in the Gregory household. But what Mrs. Gregory found on the doorstep that morning was definitely not milk.

It was an enormous baby-rhinoceros-sized thing.

It had one gigantic eye and two horns, and only knew one word - 'GREAT'.

The family named this thing Gruvel.

How did Gruvel come to be on the Gregorys' doorstep? Where has Gruvel come from? And what on earth are they going to do with Gruvel? As the family try to answer these questions, Gruvel teaches them a wonderful lesson and makes a lot of mess in the process!

L. Sydney Abel was born in Kingston upon Hull

This story started as a rhyme for my daughter, many years ago. Mr. and Mrs. Butterworth live in Holly Cottage. The cottage is next to Butterworth Farm. As the Butterworth's welcome their baby daughter Leanne, another new arrival comes into the world. Mrs. Butterworth calls the new arrival Patrick after her grandfather. As Patrick grows, he begins to wonder what is beyond the fields.The story unfolds alongside a catchy rhyme and delightful illustrations as Patrick goes on a journey of discovery.

One morning, whilst getting out of bed, a voice whispered the name 'Kingsley Trunk' into my ear. I always pay attention to my whisperer, whoever that may be Children, as well as grown-ups, can be cruel; especially to living creatures. When a rolled-up comic is about to crash down upon a poor, defenceless spider, a flash of light takes the spider to a place where a special elephant teaches the rules of survival. But will the spider remember?

L. Sydney Abel was born in Kingston upon Hull

Witchy-poo faces and the words

'Ish-ish Ishbochernay' led to this story

An old lady known as Ish-ish Ishbochernay, lives alone in her ordinary house with her white cat. She paints the apples on her apple tree with sticky-bat glue to catch children.

Lucretia Crumb, a girl of unusual nature, knows

a thing or two and believes Ish-ish is a witch.

Ish-ish loves finger and fingernail stew.

Lucretia wants to keep all her fingers...

One evening, my whisperer said the name 'Arthur Runkin'. My imagination was alight Imagine knowing something about yourself. And all because of a suitcase. The suitcase Mr. Runkin owns comes with a big secret. Eric the tightrope walker knows the secret, as do the strongmen twins, Girin and Gorin, and the Whitaker family from London; Reuben, his brothers Winston, Harris and Hicks, arguably the best trapeze act in the whole world. Arthur's life alters when William, an unusual boy, watches his extraordinary circus. Do you want to know his secret?

AWARD-WINNING AUTHOR

Attorney Archie Krafter doesn't need anything else on his plate. He's happily tending to his lovely wife, Lora, talented musician and proprietor of a small repertory theater, while dodging his mafia in-laws. After many years representing high-profile clients, Archie is enjoying life away from the courtroom and penning The Naked Lawyer current events blog.

Then NBA superstar Radon Jaalaba goes AWOL from a nationally televised game on Christmas and Archie is handed the case of his career. On the way to the arena Radon fled the scene of a drug-related shooting that killed Russell Marchetti, his driver and intimate friend, in addition to a responding police officer. Once America's hero on the basketball court, Radon is now on trial for his life, battling addiction and the weight of a career-threatening secret.

This darkly humorous and suspenseful tale unfolds as Archie finds himself pulled deeper into Lora's notorious family. Lora's estranged father, Sal Dellacozzi, the aging Rapini King of Northern California calls on Lora to look after her younger brother, Dominic; he also wants Archie's legal help, having been unjustly accused in an international identity theft ring operating from inside a Dellacozzi Industries building. Along the harrowing ride to Radon and Dominic's days of reckoning, Archie and Lora's relationship is tested in ways for which they could never prepare.

Raise Your Other Right Hand is funny, wry, and so thrilling you can't stop turning the pages. -Frances Dinkelspiel: Award-winning Author of Tangled Vines: Greed, Murder, Obsession, and an Arsonist in the Vineyards of California

Enemies Domestic, Book Six in the Lark Chadwick Mystery series: On her first day as White House Press Secretary, Lark Chadwick is confronted on live television by a reporter with an agenda: Are you, or are you not, planning to abort your unborn child? His question puts Lark in the crosshairs of extremists on both sides of the highly fraught abortion issue. Ambivalent about becoming a single mother in the post-Roe era, and grieving the death of her boyfriend, Lark is now forced to make her abort-or-not-to-abort decision in a highly toxic, politicized, and polarized fishbowl. At stake: her sanity-and her life. In the political thriller Enemies Domestic, his most important and controversial book to date, former CNN editor John DeDakis dramatically and thoughtfully tackles the hot topics of abortion, QAnon, White Christian Nationalism, and mental illness at a time when America itself is teetering between democracy and authoritarianism.

The astonishing White House thriller Enemies Domestic rockets readers through the life-defining politics and crimes that will define all our lives for years to come. Author John DeDakis reveals that world with the authority and insight he learned and brought to us as a CNN journalist who's watched the thrilling moments he fictionalizes unfold in real life. Enemies Domestic is a vital contribution to the thriller literature of our times. -James Grady, author of Six Days of the Condor and 2024's The Smoke in Our Eyes

Written with what the New York Times has called, Mr. Bull's spirited, sensuous, hotblooded evocation of a rich and eventful historical world, Bartle Bull's We'll Meet Again is a powerful romantic novel set in Egypt and Jugoslavia during World War II.

It is 1942, and the American and British armies are landing in North Africa to fight the German army led by General Erwin Rommel. Underground resistance to German occupation is rising across Europe. In Jugoslavia, Communist and royalist resistance movements are fighting both the Germans and each other. American and British agents are parachuting into Jugoslavia from Egypt to assist them.

Anton Rider, the safari hunter featured in Bull's celebrated novels The White Rhino Hotel, A Café on the Nile and The Devil's Oasis, is dispatched to Jugoslavia to kill a brutal fascist commander and attack a Nazi concentration camp where Gypsies and others are being murdered. Raised as a boy by Gypsies in England, Anton is injured while parachuting into the mountains of Jugoslavia with an American agent who becomes his mortal enemy.

Meanwhile, Rider's son is wounded fighting Rommel's forces in North Africa, and Anton's beloved wife Gwenn, from whom he is separated, is having an affair in Cairo with a treacherous English officer. There the mysterious dwarf, Olivio Alavedo, is at the center of intrigue and fights to protect his absent friend, Anton Rider.

After romantic and military adventures in Jugoslavia, Anton returns to Egypt, where he confronts his enemies and seeks to recover the lady he loves.

As Forbes magazine wrote about The White Rhino Hotel, A genuine epic centered in Africa by a writer who knows how to write, who knows his terrain intimately, who knows his characters and who knows how to spin a good yarn.

CALIFORNIA YOUNG READERS' MEDAL WINNER

A DARING RESCUE

-or a deadly risk?

Ever since Josh's older brother died, his father has been drinking too much and taking his anger out on Josh. But when he orphans a bear cub, it's more than Josh can stand. Josh insists on rescuing the bear cub-only to find that he must surrender it to game officials.

Knowing the cub will be sent to a research labo-ratory, Josh makes a defiant choice. Taking only his brother's motorcycle, the cub, and his dog, Josh runs away to the mountains, vowing to stay until the hunting laws are changed. But the mountains hold unexpected menace, and Josh's bid for justice soon becomes a battle to survive.

A fast and suspenseful survival story.-Bulletin, Center for Children's Books

- International Reading Association Award Winner

- Western Writers of America Spur Award Winner

- California Young Readers' Medal Winner

- Wyoming Indian Paintbrush Book Award Winner

- CBC/IRA Favorite Paperback for 1994

Caught in a web of illicit drug dealing and murder, Frank Silver Shore embarks on a quest to find who killed his friend Gene Darveaux and track down a satchel of drug payment money hidden by Darveaux at a place called Rainbow Rock.

In a deadly cat-and-mouse game with Gene's killers, Frank joins forces with grizzled Lakota lawman Al Twocrow and intrepid Hot Springs Star reporter Maria Tager in a race to find the hidden cash and solve Gene's murder.

But just where is this mysterious Rainbow Rock? Is it in the Fairburn Agate fields that Frank and Gene explored when they were kids, or is it somewhere in the Sacred Black Hills?

Over a taut 3-day period in the Winter of 1955, the story behind the missing drug money and why Gene was killed come into focus for Frank, Maria and Twocrow as they deal with both the killers and the rugged Black Hills terrain to solve the mystery of Rainbow Rock.