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True North Stories
Jeff Houlahan - Boom Boom's Last Call
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Einstein Flint is an ex-rodeo rider, born in Brooklyn and raised in every other borough in the city. Now, he’s banged-up, burnt out and back in NYC, bouncing at Boom Boom’s. Dasha Bragin was smart, fearless and…remorseless as desert sun. But now she’s dead and the cops are pretty sure Flint is their guy. Flint and Dasha had been a couple before the cops found her body, damaged in ways that don’t allow the next breath. When word on the street gets out that Flint had brought somebody into town to kill her, the police are even more certain they have their man. Flint learns the street chatter is coming from people that Flint thought were his friends—he’s not sure who he can trust or why he’s being setup. Flint finds the first loose thread when Dasha’s roommate, Mya, shows up at his door looking for help. Dasha and Mya, had taken off a private, high stakes game for almost a million dollars and then left a trail of bread crumbs. But they had picked the wrong game—these boys would kill you for insulting their sister. Take their money? They would pull you apart, one thin layer at a time…until the only thing between you and dead was that wishes don’t come true. Einstein has to find a path to the real killers and take them down without becoming part of the body count.
Boom Boom’s Last Call is influenced by characters like James Sallis’ Lew Griffin, Robert Crais’s Elvis Cole and a young Dave Robicheaux—men who know that words like honor and duty have become a punch line…but they just don’t get the joke.
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Harper Carr - The Shadow Man
31:14|DARK FAMILY SECRETS. A HAUNTED LIGHTHOUSE. A GIRL WHO SEES THE DEAD. WELCOME TO FEROZ ISLAND.Seventeen-year-old Gracelyn Lassiter has been hiding in her aunt’s house for four years—since her mother plunged from the cliffs at Feroz Lighthouse, leaving her without her home, her best friend, or answers. Now, her father’s burned to death in his sailboat and left a confession:“Your mother didn’t jump, I pushed her.”The trauma triggers Gracelyn’s ability to see spirits so real she can’t tell who’s human and who’s a ghost—except for the gray-veiled Shadow Man who begs her to return to Feroz and find her mother's journal.When her cruel cousin posts his confession on social media, Feroz seems like a safe place to escape. And if Gracelyn can see ghosts, she can conjure her mother’s spirit and hear the truth from her own lips. But her lighthouse haven is awash with spirits, secrets, and lies—and the closer Gracelyn gets to the truth, the more she realizes the dead aren’t the only ones desperate to keep the past in the past.
J.M. Clarke & C.J. Thompson - Rune Seeker
32:10|The Everfail will rise. His enemies will fall.Hiral is the Everfail, the weakest person on the flying island of Fallen Reach. He trains harder than any warrior. Studies longer than any scholar.But all his people are born with magic powered by the sun, flowing through tattoos on their bodies. Despite having enormous energy within, Hiral is the only one who can’t channel it; his hard work is worth nothing.Until it isn’t.In a moment of danger, Hiral unlocks an achievement with a special instruction: Access a Dungeon to receive a Class-Specific Reward.It’s his first—and maybe last—chance for real power. Just one problem: all dungeons lay in the wilderness below the flying islands that humanity lives on, and there lay secrets and dangers that no one has survived.New powers await, but so do new challenges. If he survives? He could forge his own path to power.If he fails? Death will be the least of his problems.
Sebastien de Castell - Our Lady of Blades
38:43|'A spirited swashbuckling fantasy about family, revenge and the price of justice' - Silvia Moreno-Garcia, author of Mexican GothicTwo sisters: divided by tragedy, united by steel. The incredible new novel in the Court of Shadows series by the bestselling author of TRAITOR'S BLADE and THE MALEVOLENT SEVEN!Blood Week may have been banned in Rijou, but the streets still run red - and now murder is being sanctioned by the courts. Only a reckless fool would believe they can beat the system. But then, the Greatcoats have always been more than a little reckless . . .Rijou's notorious Court of Blades is as corrupt as it is cutthroat, destroying lives with impunity. Now the city's all-powerful Ascendant Houses have started buying and selling verdicts to enslave and even execute those who oppose them.Into this depraved world of licensed death comes a mysterious duellist who dares to foil the intrigues of the city's elite. They call her Lady Consequence, but years ago she had a different name, until her family was slaughtered and she was consigned to the hellish prison known as the House of Tears.Lady Consequence means to rescue her idealistic younger brother, restore their House and wreak vengeance upon those who betrayed them. But a far more dangerous game is unfolding in the shadows, one which threatens the freedom of the entire nation.
J.M. Shaw - The Ascension: First Novel in The Callum Walker Series
20:57|A hidden war is spilling into our world.Two realms. One veil. A conflict that won’t stay buried.Callum Walker never asked for power — and he certainly never asked for destiny.Born with arcane abilities he barely understands, Callum is drawn into a secret magical world of monsters, ancient factions, and uneasy alliances. As his uncontrolled power grows, it attracts the attention of two ruthless brothers locked in a centuries-old war — one a sorcerer, the other a necromancer.When an ancient prophecy names Callum as the one destined to end the bloodshed, he becomes both weapon and target. Hunted by enemies who want him dead and allies who want to use him, Callum must decide whether he can master his gifts — or be consumed by them.
Angela van Breemen - Revenge is not Enough
34:24|Revenge can’t undo what was done.When young psychic Emma Jackson experiences a terrifying vision of a teenage girl being raped, she is shaken to the core. As her husband, David Harris, tries to comfort her, his worry increases when her shattered voice whispers, “Her name was Maggie.” David questions the wisdom of his team of investigators using the paranormal to solve cold cases.Emma and David, and Bryan, a retired police office and his wife, Laura, have been working together with New Elgan Police Service to solve cold cases.They learn that Maggie was a young woman who went missing twenty years ago and has moved on to the afterlife.During a powerful séance, she takes over Emma’s body and demands the investigative team take on her case to find her children.Except, at sixteen years of age at the time of her disappearance she had no children.When the team uncovers a sinister baby ring where young women are kidnapped and forced to breed made-to-order children for the elite, they are shocked to learn their nemesis, the Dark Hands of Anubis is behind the human trafficking.Emma insists on continuing the case, but isn’t Emma’s sanity and peace of mind worth more than solving a cold case from the beyond?Revenge may not be enough … when the cost is way too high.
Joel Nedecky - The Broken Detective
27:34|Sam Wiebe’s Invisible Dead meets John McMahon’s The Good Detective in this gritty detective novel that centers around a man’s struggle to solve a crime that will guarantee the safety of his loved ones, while he faces life changing consequences of his family’s alcoholic past. Private investigator Jake Joelsen is going to prison for assaulting his sick mom’s abusive boyfriend, but thanks to a suspended sentence, he has two weeks to earn as much money as possible so he can financially support his mom when he’s inside.Enter Nia Rowe, who hires Jake to find her troubled sister, Sadie, a member of a mega-church called Watershed Moments. Jake struggles to stay sober as he encounters old haunts he’s never come to terms with, while trying to rescue Sadie from the grip of powerful people willing to do anything to protect their place on the highest rungs of society.
Tara Hodgson - At Least I'm Trying
20:46|When the volleyball hits the floor mere inches from Reese’s hands, her dreams of playingcollege ball shatter.After consecutive failures on the court, in the classroom, and in her relationships, she’s doneplaying the part of perfect daughter, perfect student, and perfect athlete. It’s time for a new life.Enter Cassie Brentwood.Bold. Reckless. Free. Cassie is everything Reese isn’t yet longs to be. They quickly becomefriends and Cassie introduces her to Liam, a mysterious guy from Snapchat. Blinded by his lovebombing and the desperation to shed her perfect image, Reese plunges head first into their world.It feels instantly thrilling… until it’s not.Girls are disappearing from nearby towns, however no one in their quiet small town seemsconcerned.But when Liam’s behaviour grows darker, Reese’s new life begins to unravel. She ignores thewarnings. The red flags. The little voice screaming to her that something’s not right. Until she’sfar from home, trapped in a nightmare she can’t escape.With no one left to trust, Reese has to fight to reclaim the life she was so eager to leave behind.She wanted freedom. Now, she just wants to go home.At least she has to try.Told with searing honesty and lyrical depth, At Least I’m Trying is a poignant novel about mentalhealth, girlhood, and what happens when the version of yourself you’ve worked so hard tobecome starts to fall apart.
Lynda Williams - The Beauty and the Hell of It
17:18|A woman comes face to face with her rapist at his engagement party. A teen reluctantly celebrating the first Christmas after her mother’s death gets caught cutting her wrists by a stranger. A student hands in a box of Kraft Dinner as her final assignment, and a bipolar art teacher grieves her divorce by online shopping. The Beauty and the Hell of It & Other Stories is a collection of stories about women (and one man) who quietly resist and the resulting moments of transition, acceptance, and vindication. Whether they wrestle with grief, growth, trauma, or all three, these characters don’t give in to expectations about who or how they should be. These stories will appeal to readers who enjoyed the pivotal moments of ordinary life in Sophie Stocking’s Walking Leonard and Other Stories and those who want a slice of contemporary womanhood served up with dark humour as offered in Meghan Bell’s Erase and Rewind.
Thomas Mark McKinnon - In Spite of Thunder
32:31|FBI agent Frank Adler’s life is upended when his daughter vanishes on what should have been the trip of a lifetime. No witnesses. No demands. No trace.Refusing to wait for an investigation from the sidelines, Frank breaks protocol and follows a trail of clues that lead him into a shadowy underworld. As he digs deeper, he finds himself caught in an interconnected web of lies, cartels, cover-ups, corporate greed, and dangerous players who will stop at nothing to keep their secrets buried.With the body count rising and time running out, Frank must uncover the truth before he loses everything he loves.