22. Live to Tell by Lisa Gardner

Boston police officer D. D. Warren is back in Gardner’s latest heart-pounding thriller.  A family is found brutally murdered in their Boston-area home, and all clues point to the barely alive father.  But why would he kill his family?  When another family is found dead, and the police end up at a locked-down psychiatric center for young children during their search for the possible killers, new theories begin to trouble Officer Warren.  Could young children, in the grips of severe mental anguish, be the killers?

Gardner tackles a disturbing plot that raises the uncomfortable subject of children capable of extreme acts of violence against their own families.  Yet the subject is never sensationalized, and fits into the overall story she is trying to tell.  Readers will be kept guessing almost to the end in this psychological page-turner.  For fans of Harlan Coben and James Patterson.

21. The Postcard Killers by James Patterson

Young couples are disappearing in cities around Europe, including Paris, Rome, Copenhagen,  Frankfurt, and Stockholm.  When their bodies are found, they are staged in elaborate displays of famous works of art that correspond to museums in that city.  NYPD Detective Jacob Kanon knows this only too well, since his daughter was one of the victims in Rome.  Kanon travels to Europe hunting the only clue he has about the killings, a postcard is send to a city newspaper shortly before a murder.  When Swedish reporter Dessie Larsson receives a postcard, Kanon knows they have little time before a new couple is found.

This new thriller from Patterson has him co-writing with Liza Marklund, a popular Swedish journalist and crime writer who is set to have her first English-translated book appear in the US in February 2011.  The story has a great premise, and short chapters hook readers into reading just one more chapter before stopping for the night, but the writing is stiff and clumsy.  In other hands, this could have been a great mystery.  Here’s hoping Marklund’s new mystery on her own is better.

20. Audrey Wait by Robin Benway

What if you were the inspiration of a popular song?  When 16-year-old Audrey decides to break up with her boyfriend, Evan, she has no idea he is going to write a song about it and perform it with his band.  When record executives happen to hear it at a show, the song becomes an overnight sensation, and Audrey is suddenly famous – for the wrong reason in her opinion.  Instead of normal high school stuff and her boring job at an ice cream shop, she is now fighting off paparazzi, finds herself in gossip magazines, and dealing with jealous classmates.

While written for teens, this is a light, fun read that works well for adults also.  Audrey is a likeable character trying her hardest to have a normal life in not very normal circumstances, and the characters of her best friend and her parents are very realistic too.  A fun, charming look at fame.

19. Faithful Place by Tana French

French has a habit of writing books about characters she has introduced in her previous books.  Her latest offering, Faithful Place, showcases this talent the best.  Frank Mackey grew up in a violent, alcohol-fueled house in Faithful Place.  He and his childhood girlfriend, Rosie, knew that the only way they could escape to a better life would be to take the ferry to England and not look back.  When Rosie doesn’t meet him on the planned night, he assumes she has left him, so moves on with his life and becomes a policeman.  Now an undercover police who still stays away from Faithful Place, Frank finds himself back in his childhood territory when Rosie’s suitcase, and then remains, are found in the house where they were supposed to meet that fateful night.

More of a psychological exploration than a mystery, French continues to gain strength as a writer with each book.  From bitter sibling rivalry that has never disappeared, to the long but never forgotten memories of a first love, French uses classic themes to draw her characters out.  My review for French's first book, In the Woods, can be read at http://tcpl.org/sarah/2007/07/36-in-woods-by-tana-french.html

18. This Must be the Place by Kate Racculia

When Arthur Rook’s wife, Amy, dies in a freak accident on the movie set she is working on, he suddenly realizes how little he knew about his mysterious wife.  Searching through her belongings, he stumbles across a shoebox full of childhood memorabilia and a cryptic postcard to her best friend, Mona, which Amy never sent.  Arthur flees Hollywood and his confusion about losing his young wife, to the quaint upstate New York town of Ruby Falls, where Amy grew up.  Hoping to learn more about his wife, he moves into the boarding house run by Amy’s childhood best friend, Mona, and her teenage daughter, Oneida, who are themselves mysteries in their hometown because Mona has never disclosed who Oneida’s father was after she and Amy ran away as teenagers and Mona came back to town with an infant. Arthur soon realizes that maybe childhood secrets aren’t meant to be exposed.

In this debut novel by Racculia, a writer who grew up in Syracuse and uses the area in her book, Amy’s world is slowly uncovered by everyone who knew her.  The truth about who Oneida’s parents are is easy to guess, but doesn’t distract from the story.  Through vivid characters that you grow attached to you, this quirky yet complex novel perfectly explores grief, love, humor, and hope and makes readers wish Racculia would write more in the years to come.

17. Dead Like You by Peter James

Detective Superintendent Roy Grace is finally moving on with his life.  His wife, Sandy, disappeared ten years ago, and he has fallen in love again and is about to be a father for the first time.  Life is suddenly going smoothly, until a series of brutal rapes take place in Brighton that are very similar to rape cases he was working on right before his wife went missing.  In 1997, one of the victims was never found, and Roy always thought that the rapist accidently committed murder, but could never prove it.  Could the new cases help him finally solve the decade old case?

As with James’s other novels, Dead Like You is full of fast pacing, action, and intrigue.  The thriller moves easily between the past cases and the present cases, effectively building up drama.  Although a long book, readers easily get caught up with the cases and the pages fly by.  An international bestselling author from England, Peter James deserved to be better known to US mystery readers.

16. Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? by Philp K. Dick

An influential post-apocalyptic novel, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep? was written in 1968 and was the basis for the cult classic 1982 movie Blade Runner, by Ridley Scott.  Set in San Francisco in 2021, World War Terminus has left the planet devoid of almost all life except for humans and some pets.  The ownership of pets is highly coveted by the remaining humans, and extremely expensive, so many turn to owning electric animals.  Richard Deckard owns one of those electric animals, and is also a bounty hunter called to “retire” androids that have escaped from Mars and have returned to Earth.  Since the androids have become increasingly like humans, Deckard must use skillful questioning to determine if they have empathy, one of the last traits that distinguishes humans from androids.  The novel offers readers a reflection on the meaning of human life, the role of artificial intelligence, our responsibility for the environment, and what is real or artificial.