Saturdays at the Café

Saturdays at the Café is a weekly feature hosted here to talk about and discuss the books I’ve discovered during the past week, added to my shelf and am excited about reading. They may be new/scheduled releases I’ve seen on NetGalley, at the library, or from publishers or they may be older titles my friends have reviewed and shared on Goodreads or blogs.

A riveting new thriller featuring an ambitious female investigative reporter in Austin, Texas by New York Times bestselling author Laura Griffin.

When a woman is found brutally murdered on Austin’s lakeside hike-and-bike trail, investigative reporter Bailey Rhoads turns up on the scene demanding access and answers. She tries to pry information out of the lead detective, Jacob Merritt. But this case is unlike any he’s ever seen, and nothing adds up.

Bailey has a hunch the victim wasn’t who she claimed to be and believes this mugging-turned-murder could have been a targeted hit. When she digs deeper, the trail leads her to a high-tech fortress on the outskirts of Austin where researchers are pushing the boundaries of a cutting-edge technology that could be deadly in the wrong hands.

As a ruthless hit man’s mission becomes clear, Bailey and Jacob must embark on a desperate search to locate the next target before the clock ticks down on this lethal game of hide and seek.

I’d decided to wait on making a decision about this book since I have a hit or miss experience with this author. But after several promising reviews by Goodreads friends and it showing up at my library, I decided to add the audiobook. I’m on hold for this first in a new series.

THINGS ARE ABOUT TO GET SERIOUS FOR HARRY DRESDEN, CHICAGO’S ONLY PROFESSIONAL WIZARD, in the next entry in the #1 New York Times bestselling Dresden Files.

Harry has faced terrible odds before. He has a long history of fighting enemies above his weight class. The Red Court of vampires. The fallen angels of the Order of the Blackened Denarius. The Outsiders.

But this time it’s different. A being more powerful and dangerous on an order of magnitude beyond what the world has seen in a millennium is coming. And she’s bringing an army. The Last Titan has declared war on the city of Chicago, and has come to subjugate humanity, obliterating any who stand in her way.

Harry’s mission is simple but impossible: Save the city by killing a Titan. And the attempt will change Harry’s life, Chicago, and the mortal world forever.

I really, really do intend to resume listening to this series one day. In the meantime, I’ll continue collecting the books!

Margot is having a thirtysomething crisis: She’s burning out at work, a public-health practice; she’s just left her longtime boyfriend after discovering he was cheating; and her mother recently died. The only silver lining to her mother’s death is that Margot, who was adopted, can finally go looking for her birth mother.

What she finds is an incomplete family–the only person left is Nikki, her mother’s older sister. Aunt Nikki brings upsetting news: Margot’s mother is dead, murdered many years ago, one of a series of sex workers killed in Glasgow. The killer–or killers?–has never been found, Aunt Nikki claims. They’re still at large… and sending her letters, gloating letters that the details of the crime. Now Margot must choose: take the side of the world against her dead mother, or investigate her murder and see that justice is done at last.

Darkly funny and sharply modern, Denise Mina’s latest novel is an indelible, surprisingly moving story of daughters and mothers, blood family and chosen family, and how the search for truth helps one woman to find herself.

I’ve heard so much about this author that I decided to jump in with this one when it showed up at my library.

What books did YOU add to your shelves this week?