Great Reads: Fall reading, some of the best

When I worked for Walden Books my favorite time of year was the fall season. The days grew shorter, the cool temps took over and new books dotted the shelves. It was the one time of the year when publishers open up their treasure trove of goodies for one and all to share and purchase. It was the harbinger of what was to come — the holiday shopping season that brought out the best and worst of mankind for approximately six weeks each year.

With fall’s arrival, a new group of titles is dotting the shelves of our Maricopa Public Library and some of your favorite authors are back with exciting stories to tell.

Eighteenth century Russia comes to life in Debra Dean’s The Mirrored World. The author tells the story of Xenia, the patron saint of St. Petersburg who’s life is turned upside down when she lost her only child and then disappears only to reappear as a totally different woman.

Drew Silver turns down lifesaving heart surgery and tries to repair his life before he dies in Jonathan Tropper’s The Last Thing Before I Go.

Family secrets and other demons come to life when a murder victim is found in Tigers in Red Weather by Liza Klaussman. This story is set in Martha’s Vineyard in the period before and after the Second World War and as the ‘60s are about to begin. What makes this story even more compelling, it’s uniquely told from five different points of view.

Jennie Fields infuses her new novel The Age of Desire with real letters and diary entries from Edith Wharton. This is the story of Edith Wharton and her governess Anna Bahlmann who would eventually become her literary secretary and dearest friend. When Wharton falls in love and marries a much younger man, Bahlmann disapproves of the union and the long-standing friendship is threatened.

Sonnet Romano’s life is turned upside down when informed her mother is expecting a child but when an unexpected diagnosis threatens her mother’s life, Sonnet must re-evaluate her life in Susan Wigg’s Return to Willow Lake.

Boston PD detective Jane Rizzoli newest case involves a young man Teddy Clark whose family and foster family have both been brutally murdered in Tess Gerritsen’s Last to Die. When it’s discovered that two young people have met similar fates as Teddy, Rizzoli and her friend medical examiner Maura Isles set out to save all three children.

Zenia Gadney was the victim of a brutal murder and her body was found on a Limehouse Pier and it’s the latest case for police detective William Monk in Anne Perry’s A Sunless Sea. Set in Victorian England, detective Monk is aided by his wife Hester and barrister/friend Oliver Rathbone to find the murderer.