Tag Archives: Staff Favorites

Spotlight on Author Stuart Neville

If you like Irish crime fiction, or you just want to find a new author, you should give Stuart Neville a try. Neville is a staff favorite (especially for one particular staff member), and has a great backlist to choose from. His newest, THE HOUSE OF ASHES, is last on this list, but certainly not least. Here are a few titles you can find at the Fairfield Public Library.

THE GHOSTS OF BELFAST

“Stuart Neville’s tightly wound, emotionally resonant account of an ex-IRA hit man’s struggle to conquer his past, displays an acute understanding of the true state of Northern Ireland, still under the thumb of decades of violence and terrorism.”  ~Los Angeles Times

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

COLLUSION

“Neville’s deft style builds mounting tension, and his characters, all tragic figures, are skillfully developed. The collusion he describes sounds all too plausible; it’s devious and endemic enough to impress even descendants of the infamous Borgias. The violence, administered up close and personal—and the rage of those who commit it—is almost operatic. A feast for thriller fans.” ~Booklist

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

STOLEN SOULS

“Neville slowly ratchets up the tension—and the violence—until each page practically twangs with suspense.” ~Publishers Weekly

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

RATLINES

“Thrilling…. Readers will hope to see more of Ryan, a formidable yet damaged hero.”
~Publishers Weekly, STARRED REVIEW

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

THE HOUSE OF ASHES     Published September 7, 2021

“[A] gut-wrenching novel of psychological suspense with ghostly undertones . . . This unforgettable tale of servitude and subservience, domestic abuse, and toxic masculinity builds to a resolution offering redemption and heartfelt solace. Neville has outdone himself.”
~Publishers Weekly, Starred Review

“Spellbinding . . . Neville hooks his reader with the opening sequences of his story, mystery, and horror emerging prominently. The multi-narrative structure that plays out is effective and gripping. Impressive just begins to describe Neville’s latest offering.”
~Seattle Book Review

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

 

Spotlight on Author Belinda Bauer

Thriller writer Belinda Bauer is a Fairfield Public Library staff favorite. Here are a few of her books you can find or reserve at the library.

BLACKLANDS

“Blacklands is leading the pack of profound new mysteries. . . . Atmospheric . . . . bewitching . . . . a brilliant analysis of an exceedingly twisted mind.” ~Chicago Tribune

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

DARKSIDE

“Bauer joins such contemporary masters of psychological suspense as Ruth Rendell and Minette Walters with her twisted and tricky second novel . . . The shattering conclusion pulls no punches and will leave many readers stunned, even as they realize how everything fits together.” ~Publishers Weekly

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

FINDERS KEEPERS

“A remarkable achievement . . . The story rushes along on a tide of suspense.” ~Independent (UK)

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

RUBBERNECKER

“Breathtaking. I read this and wished I’d written it.” ~Val McDermid

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

THE BEAUTIFUL DEAD

“This is one exclusive that Eve Singer, an attractive iWitness News crime reporter, doesn’t want, in this taut thriller from British author Bauer . . . Readers will root for Bauer’s spunky heroine on this suspenseful slay ride through a snow-globe London.” ~Publishers Weekly

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

SNAP

“Bauer deftly interweaves a West Country cold-case murder, a teenage master burglar, some ill-assorted coppers and a pregnant wife, knowing exactly when the turn the dial to humor, pathos or something darker. Intelligent entertainment that keeps you guessing.” ~Sunday Times Crime Club (UK)

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

EXIT

“[Exit] not only unearths deception and greed, but also shows readers that kindness and yearning for good sometimes undergird everyday life . . . Readers who enjoy explorations of the underside of human nature are the perfect audience for this one.” ~Booklist

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

Staff Picks

Queenie Malone's Paradise Hotel - Audiobook

Queenie Malone’s Paradise Hotel
by Ruth Hogan

Tilda may be considered unusual by some. She can see ghosts and has particular ways of doing things. When she comes across her late mother’s diary, it’s content questions her entire childhood. Not everything is always as it appears to be. ~ Sharyn, Circulation

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

 

Title details for News of the World by Paulette Jiles - Available

News of the World
By Paulette Jiles

The American Civil War has ended, and Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd travels around Texas performing live readings from newspapers. Audiences are anxious for “news of the world” so his readings are always well attended. At one performance, Captain Kidd is offered $50 to transport a young orphan, who had been kidnapped by Kiowa Indians and since rescued, back to her relatives in San Antonio. Their journey back is an exercise in trust and hope. ~ Sue, Circulation

Tom Hanks will play Captain Kidd in the movie version due out in December 2020 from Universal Studios.

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

What Are We Reading? Popular Fiction-Digital Downloads.

Catch up on what your friends and neighbors (and librarians) have been reading, listening to, and loving by downloading one of these popular digital fiction titles while you’re staying home and staying safe. Here are a few suggestions that you can download from Overdrive with your Fairfield Public Library card.

Title details for Things in Jars by Jess Kidd - Available

THINGS IN JARS
By Jess Kidd

“Kidd is an expert at setting a supernatural mood perfect for ghosts and merrows, but her human villains make them seem mundane by comparison. With so much detail and so many clever, Dickensian characters, readers might petition Kidd to give Bridie her own series. Creepy, violent, and propulsive; a standout gothic mystery.” ~Kirkus

For more information, please click here.

Title details for Nothing to See Here by Kevin Wilson - Available

NOTHING TO SEE HERE
By Kevin Wilson

“Wilson turns a bizarre premise into a beguiling novel about unexpected motherhood…Wilson captures the wrenching emotions of caring for children in this exceptional, and exceptionally hilarious, novel.” Publisher’s Weekly
*Staff Favorite!

For more information, please click here.

Title details for Tuesday Mooney Talks to Ghosts by Kate Racculia - Available

TUESDAY MOONEY TALKS TO GHOSTS
By Kate Racculia

“A motley crew of Bostonians seeks an eccentric millionaire’s fortune in an epic, citywide treasure hunt that kicks off after his untimely death…The result is thrilling, romantic, and charming as all get out, a love letter to former witchy girls and compulsive dreamers that will make readers reassess what—and who—they value. Spooky, witty, and observant, Racculia’s novel of friendship and bigger-than-life aspirations is a treasure.” ~Kirkus
*Staff Favorite!

For more information, please click here.

Title details for The Saturday Night Ghost Club by Craig Davidson - Available

THE SATURDAY NIGHT GHOST CLUB
By Craig Davidson

A coming-of-age narrative about ghosts, friendship, and family secrets… Through the intensity of his characters’ experiences, Davidson reconnects us to our own memories of growing up.” ~Kirkus
*Staff Favorite!

For more information, please click here.

Title details for Red at the Bone by Jacqueline Woodson - Available

RED AT THE BONE
By Jacqueline Woodson

“Woodson’s beautifully imagined novel explores the ways an unplanned pregnancy changes two families…Woodson’s nuanced voice evokes the complexities of race, class, religion, and sexuality in fluid prose and a series of telling details. This is a wise, powerful, and compassionate novel.” ~Publisher’s Weekly
*Staff Favorite!

For more information, please click here.

Title details for The Nickel Boys by Colson Whitehead - Available

THE NICKEL BOYS
By Colson Whitehead

The acclaimed author of The Underground Railroad (2016) follows up with a leaner, meaner saga of Deep South captivity set in the mid-20th century and fraught with horrors more chilling for being based on true-life atrocities.” ~Kirkus

For more information, please click here.

Title details for The Beekeeper of Aleppo by Christy Lefteri - Available

THE BEEKEEPER OF ALEPPO
By Christy Lefteri

“Lefteri (A Watermelon, a Fish and a Bible) tells a haunting and resonant story of Syrian war refugees undertaking a treacherous journey to possible safety…Lefteri perceptively and powerfully documents the horrors of the Syrian civil war and the suffering of innocent civilians. Readers will find this deeply affecting for both its psychological intensity and emotional acuity.” ~Publisher’s Weekly
*Staff Favorite

For more information, please click here.

Title details for The Bookshop of the Broken Hearted by Robert Hillman - Available

THE BOOKSHOP OF THE BROKEN HEARTED
By Robert Hillman

“Hillman’s novel is an impressive, riveting tale of how two disparate and well-drawn people recover from soul-wrenching grief and allow themselves to truly love again.” ~Publisher’s Weekly

For more information, please click here.

Title details for Hollow Kingdom by Kira Jane Buxton - Available

HOLLOW KINGDOM
By Kira Jane Buxton

“A foul-mouthed, Cheetos-loving crow named S.T. goes on an adventure to save humanity from doom.” ~BookPage
“Buxton spins a fresh, alarming apocalypse from the perspectives of intelligent, communicative animals in her hilarious debut.” ~Publisher’s Weekly

For more information, please click here.

Title details for Good Girl, Bad Girl by Michael Robotham - Available

GOOD GIRL, BAD GIRL
By Michael Robotham

“Two major cases preoccupy forensic psychologist Cyrus Haven, the hero of this haunting psychological thriller from Edgar finalist Robotham. First, the Nottingham, England, police have enlisted him in their effort to catch the killer of 15-year-old Jodie Sheehan, British junior figure skating champion. Second, Cyrus has to assess the fitness of a troubled but achingly vulnerable teenage girl for release from a high-security children’s home… Robotham expertly raises the tension as the action hurtles toward the devastating climax. Readers will hope the complex Cyrus will return for an encore.” ~Publisher’s Weekly

For more information, please click here.

Title details for The Chelsea Girls by Fiona Davis - Available

THE CHELSEA GIRLS
By Fiona Davis

“Davis brings to life another New York City landmark through the story of two midcentury women…This novel in three acts brings to vivid life the McCarthy era and its impact on the entertainment industry in a heartbreaking tale of the friendship of two brave women.” ~Library Journal

For more information, please click here.

Title details for The Gifted School by Bruce Holsinger - Available

THE GIFTED SCHOOL
By Bruce Holsinger

“In this sharply entertaining novel from Holsinger, Crystal, Colo., is an affluent community where a new gifted magnet school for grades six through 12 will soon open. With limited spaces available, the competition among parents to get their offspring into the school, called the “Stuyvesant of the Rockies,” turns ruthless.” ~Publisher’s Weekly

For more information, please click here.

Title details for Disappearing Earth by Julia Phillips - Available

DISAPPEARING EARTH
Julia Phillips

“In the opening chapter of Phillips’s exceptional and suspenseful debut, two sisters—Sofia, 8, and Alyona, 11—vanish from a beach on the Kamchatka Peninsula in northeastern Russia, and their disappearance sends ripples throughout the close-knit community. The subsequent 12 chapters, taking place during the months over the following year, chart the impact of the potential kidnapping—and the destructive effect of longing and loss—and play out in a series of interconnected and equally riveting stories about others in the surrounding area.” ~Publisher’s Weekly
*Staff Favorite

For more information, please click here.

Title details for The Editor by Steven Rowley - Available

THE EDITOR
By Steven Rowley

“Rowley’s second novel (after Lily and the Octopus) is an insightful look into the world of publishing and the relationships we forge at work and at home. His imagining of the everyday life of the very private Jacqueline Onassis will appeal to readers who admire the former First Lady.” ~Library Journal
*Staff Favorite

For more information, please click here.

“Adversity is like a strong wind. It…tears away from us all but the things that cannot be torn, so that afterward we see ourselves as we really are, and not merely as we might like to be.”
~Arthur Golden, Memoirs of a Geisha

Staff Picks for November

We Are the Weather: Saving the Planet Begins at Breakfast by Jonathan Safran Foer
Foer picks apart, step by step, our planet’s bleak outlook, and how out of control population, human excess, individual and political ignorance, pollution, and consumption of factory-farmed animals have contributed to the problems of climate change. His major focus is on what we as individuals and the world can do to save itself for generations to come. (Foer was selected for One Book One Town in Fairfield in 2011 with his book Eating Animals.) ~KC

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

This Tender Land by William Kent Krueger
During the summer of 1932 circumstances force four orphans to flee Minnesota and journey in search of a better life. This is an adventure story wrapped within a novel of historical fiction. As the lead character advises, this narrative contains: killing and kidnapping, courage and cowardice, love and betrayal, but most of all hope. Recommended for fans of Before We Were Yours and Where the Crawdads Sing. ~HM

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

Time After Time by Lisa Grunwald
If Grand Central Station is one of your favorite landmarks, you might enjoy this story of romance between a working man and an uncommon society girl. Joe, a worker in Grand Central, meets a beautiful young woman who seems somehow out of place. As he tries to help her, he is pulled into a mystery that is inseparable from the station itself. ~BJS

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

Psychological Thrillers and the Adult Summer Reading Code!

The Adult Summer Reading Code is: Penny
For more information about our Summer Reading Programs for all ages, please click here.

MY LOVELY WIFE
By Samantha Downing
“Happily married to the love of your life but, yeah, after 15 years getting a little bored? Here’s a solution from the couple at the heart of Downing’s debut: getting away with murder.” ~Library Journal
A Staff Favorite!

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

GONE TOO LONG
By Lori Roy
“Seven years after ten-year-old Beth vanishes from her Georgia home, Imogene Coulter is burying the Klan leader father she has tried to deny. On the day of the funeral, she finds a child locked in the basement of his hideout, a discovery that links her to the long-gone Beth.” ~Library Journal
Another Staff Favorite!

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

BEFORE SHE KNEW HIM
By Peter Swanson
“Her bipolar disorder under control, illustrator Henrietta and her husband enjoy a new house outside Boston with a nice little studio for her out back. But she’s a bit obsessed with unsolved crimes, and she can’t help but notice that a sports trophy perched on a shelf at the neighbors’ house looks just like one that vanished from the home of a young man killed two years earlier…” ~Library Journal

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

IF SHE WAKES
By Michael Koryta
“Slowly emerging from the coma she’s been in since a black cargo van rammed the car she was using to transport a visiting professor, killing him, Maine college senior Tara Beckley is targeted by a ruthless young hit man.” ~Kirkus

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

Pop Fiction and the Adult Summer Reading Code!

The Adult Summer Reading Code is: Penny
For more information about our Summer Reading Programs for all ages, please click here.

DISAPPEARING EARTH
By Julia Phillips
“Phillips’s exquisite descriptions of the desolate landscape and the “empty, rolling earth” are masterful throughout, as is her skill at crafting a complex and genuinely addictive whodunit. This novel signals the arrival of a mighty talent.” PW
A Staff Favorite!

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

MRS. EVERYTHING
By Jennifer Weiner
“Weiner’s talent for characterization, tight pacing, and detail will thrill her fans and easily draw new ones into her orbit. Her expert handling of difficult subjects—abortion, rape, and racism among them—will force readers to examine their own beliefs and consider unexpected nuances. Weiner tugs every heartstring with this vivid tale.” PW

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

THE HOMECOMING
By Andrew Pyper
“Brilliantly constructed and absolutely mesmerizing, this could very well be the best book yet by the author of such acclaimed novels as The Demonologist (2013) and The Damned (2015).”~Booklist
Another Staff favorite!

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

CITY OF GIRLS
By Elizabeth Gilbert
“Gilbert’s beguiling blend of comedy and gravitas brings to mind other smart, funny, nimble, and vital novels about early- or mid-twentieth-century women swimming against the tide.” ~Booklist

For more information, or to place a hold, please click here.

Staff Favorites (2013)

As the year 2013 comes to a close, we’d like to reflect on the books that we loved that were released this year.  See something you like?  Find a similar book by clicking on the tag!

Our big winner, with the most recommendations, was “Light Between Oceans“.  We can’t wait until the 2014 books come out!