fiction / mystery & detective / general

"...Sheriff Walt Longmire and his best friend Henry Standing Bear take on a case that pits them against a legend: The Highway..."--Front flap.

"College student Joe Talbert has the modest goal of completing a writing assignment for an English class. His task is to interview a stranger and write a brief biography of the person. With deadlines looming, Joe heads to a nearby nursing home to find a willing subject. There he meets Carl Iverson, and soon nothing in Joe's life is ever the same. Iverson is a dying Vietnam veteran--and a convicted murderer. With only a few months to live, he has been medically paroled to a nursing home, after spending thirty years in prison for the crimes of rape and murder. As Joe writes about Carl's life, especially Carl's valor in Vietnam, he cannot reconcile the heroism of the soldier with the despicable acts of the convict. Joe, along with his skeptical female neighbor, throws himself into uncovering the truth, but he is hamstrung in his efforts by having to deal with his dangerously dysfunctional mother, the guilt of leaving his autistic brother vulnerable, and a haunting childhood memory. Thread by thread, Joe unravels the tapestry of Carl's conviction. But by the time Joe discovers the truth, it is too late to escape the fallout"--.

"Nick Mason is out of prison. After five years inside, he has just been given the one thing a man facing 25-to-life never gets, a second chance. But it comes at a terrible price. Nick Mason is out of prison, but he's not free. Whenever his cell phone rings, day or night, he must answer it and follow whatever order he is given. It's the deal he made with Darius Cole, a criminal kingpin serving a double-life term who still runs an empire from his prison cell.Forced to commit increasingly more dangerous crimes, hunted by the relentless detective who put him behind bars, and desperate to go straight and rebuild his life with his daughter and ex-wife, Nick will ultimately have to risk everything--his family, his sanity, and even his life--to finally break free"--.

"After losing his starting position as a college quarterback to a shoulder injury, Nick Gallow has remade himself as a punter. Now in his fifth year in the pros with the Philadelphia Sentinels, Nick spends most of his time on the sidelines. He no longer makes winning plays, and when the team visits a hospital, the sick kids would rather talk to the players they've actually heard of. But Nick is unexpectedly thrust back into the spotlight when he witnesses the murder of the new all-star draft pick on the eve of the team's summer minicamp. Nick has no plans to get involved. Despite the murder, his focus is squarely on an uppity rookie player eyeing his roster spot. But after a second attack hits closer to home and the police go after the wrong man, Nick finds himself driven by the chance to be a hero again. In Hangman's Game, Syken offers a seasoned sportswriter's take on the contemporary culture of football and the will to play on despite the game's toll on the body and mind. Mixing humor and suspense, with strikingly observed characters, Syken writes his debut in the informed, fast-paced style of Michael Lewis and with the wit of Carl Hiaasen"--.

"Successful psychologist Cal Henderson has a busy practice in Washington, DC, good friends, and big plans for the future. But he can't escape a terrible secret. When he was a boy, his mother murdered his father and two brothers and severely wounded Cal's best friend, Scottie Glass. Desperate to keep the nightmare at bay, Cal has turned his back on everything that happened that night. Then on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the traumatic event, Scottie shows up at Cal's office--edgy, paranoid, but somehow still the loveable kid he once was. Though their lives have taken very different paths, they both believe Cal's mother couldn't have been a murderer. She loved them too much, no matter what dark place she found herself in. They set off to dig up the real story. In his search for answers he uncovers secrets about his mother's life involving a defense contractor's dark dealings, a nominee for U.S. Attorney with a questionable past, and a shady corporate billionaire whose sphere of influence seems to include everyone from the Pentagon on down. Meanwhile, as Cal gets closer to discovering the truth, recovered memories of his childhood push him into a psychological tailspin"--.

Rachel and Clara have been friends since high school, now in their late twenties Rachel has the television career, the apartment, and the boyfriend, while Clara's life is spiraling out of control. When Rachel's news editor assigns her to cover a police press conference, and she is shocked to learn that the subject is Clara, reported missing.

"Sheriff Walt Longmire is reading A Christmas Carol in his office on December 24th when he's interrupted by the ghost of Christmas past: a young woman with a hairline scar across her forehead and more than a few questions about Walt's predecessor, Lucian Connally. Walt doesn't recognize the mystery woman, but she seems to know him and claims to have something she must return to Connally. With his daughter, Cady, and his undersheriff Vic Moretti in Philadelphia for the holidays, Walt is at loose ends, and despite the woman's reticence to reveal her identity, he agrees to help her. At the Durant Home for Assisted Living Lucian Connally is several tumblers into his Pappy Van Winkle's and swears he's never clapped eyes on the woman before. Disappointed, she whispers "Steamboat" and begins a story that takes them all back to Christmas Eve 1988, when three people died in a terrible crash and a young girl had the slimmest chance of survival . . . back to a record- breaking blizzard, to Walt's first year as sheriff, with a young daughter at home and a wife praying for his safety . . . back to a whiskey-soaked World War II vet ready to fly a decommissioned plane and risk it all to save a life. Back to the Spirit of Steamboat"--.

Golden boy Nick Dunne, brings his wife, Amy, back to his hometown on the Mississippi River where she is miserable and on their fifth wedding anniversary she disappears, and soon Nick finds himself lying, being deceitful, and acting inappropriately but continues to claim his innocence with his twin sister at his side.