Hi everyone, here are our five suggested reads of the week!
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The Black Swan Mystery by Tetsuya Ayukawa
THE JAPANESE CRIME FICTION CLASSIC: A prize-winning railway murder mystery set in 1960s Japan—for fans of Agatha Christie and Seicho Matsumoto!
Full of devious twists and turns, this brilliant puzzle mystery is considered to be one of the greatest alibi deconstruction mysteries ever written
Early one morning, the owner of a local mill is found lying next to the railway tracks just outside of Kuki Station. Suspicion initially falls on the workers’ union, with whom the man had been embroiled in a labour dispute, then on a new religious sect that has been gaining followers recently.
Chief Inspector Onitsura and his assistant Tanna are called in to investigate, and soon set off in a journey across Japan, from Tokyo to Kyoto and Osaka, and finally to the island of Kyūshu, in a hunt for the killer.
But as they investigate, the killer strikes again, and again. Will they be able to catch the murderer before even more people are slain?
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Cry Havoc by Jack Carr
1968. A time of division. A time of civil unrest. A time of war.
Just before the Tet Offensive, before President Johnson announces he will not run for reelection, before the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, as riots and protests rage across the nation, a spy ship is captured by communist forces off the coast of North Korea.
The crew thought they had destroyed everything of intelligence value. They were wrong.
As a KGB “illegal” elicits information from a high-ranking NSA official, and teams of special operators infiltrating into Laos, Cambodia, and North Vietnam disappear without a trace, an ambitious Soviet advisor launches an ingenious plan that could forever alter the world balance of power.
Tom Reece, a SEAL operator attached to the highly classified and shadowy MACV-SOG is about to be thrust into a bloody battle to discover the truth.
From the Kremlin to the White House, from the streets of Saigon to the rugged A Shau Valley, along the paths of Ho Chi Minh Trail and into the secret war in Laos, Navy SEAL Tom Reece has an official mission assigned by Military Assistance Command, Vietnam-Studies and Observations Group, but it’s his unofficial mission that might get him killed.
From “master novelist” (Ballistic) Jack Carr comes a fast-paced and brutally realistic thriller, one that will make you question all you thought you knew about Vietnam, pressing “emotional buttons that other writers wouldn’t dare explore” (The Real Book Spy).
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Denied Access by Don Bentley
Don Bentley completes the trilogy begun with American Assassin by taking Mitch Rapp back to his fledgling assassin days, picking up where Kill Shot ended, on a mission to save the woman he loves amid a CIA showdown with the Russian intelligence services in a new thriller from the author of Vince Flynn’s #1 New York Times bestselling series.
The Central Intelligence Agency is in crisis.
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Congress is questioning the organization’s necessity. Interim CIA director Thomas Stansfield must fight for his agency’s survival while explaining why the previous candidate for his job was found murdered in a French hotel—surrounded by booze, cash, and dead men. Worst yet, a brilliantly run sting operation in Moscow has resulted in the arrest of America’s most prized Russian asset and the expulsion of his CIA handler.
With the CIA’s Moscow Station now paralyzed by the catastrophic intelligence failure, Stansfield seeks help from Mitch Rapp, a newly minted assassin in the secretive Orion program. But Rapp has problems of his own: when his Swiss girlfriend Greta’s grandfather receives a box containing the head of a former Cold War comrade along with a note promising that Greta’s head will be next, Rapp finds himself on the frontlines in a war between the American and Russian intelligence services. To protect the woman he loves and save the CIA from destruction, Rapp must be willing to risk everything.
Reader’s Note: Denied Access is the twenty-fourth novel in the Mitch Rapp series, initially written by Vince Flynn and taken over since his passing by Don Bentley. If you’d like to binge read from the beginning, check out book one: American Assassin by Vince Flynn.
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My Beloved by Jan Karon
Father Tim’s wife, Cynthia, wants just one thing for Christmas: a letter. So he pours his heart out through his pen, declaring his love and baring his soul, sticking the letter in a book of Billy Collins poems. Only, the book, and the letter, go missing. It ends up in the hands of nonogenarian former mayor Esther Cunningham, who is sure her husband didn’t write it and who sets it out with the recycling. Then, through acts of thrift and generosity, piano teacher (and spinster) Helene Pringle finds it, reads it, and has to take to her bed. Surely Harley Welch, a simple mountain man if there ever was one, didn’t write it to her. As the holidays approach, Tim and Cynthia’s adopted son, Dooley, and his wife, Lace, deal with familial and financial pressures, not the least of which is where Harley and his partner-in-crime Willie will live when they “”retire.”” It’s been a while since Karon’s last novel set in western North Carolina, To Be Where You Are (2017), so her many readers will be eager for further dispatches from Mitford. They will not be disappointed with this tender, spiritual tale of family and the boundless love that exists in community. – Starred Booklist Review
Reader’s Note: My Beloved is the fifteenth book in the Mitford Series, if you’d like to binge read from the beginning, check out book one: At Home in Mitford.
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Sharp Force by Patricia Cornwell
Fans of the Kay Scarpetta series will enjoy this crime-laced Christmas installment (a sequel to Identity Unknown), in which the medical examiner teams up with her husband and other series regulars to track down another serial killer. The Phantom Slasher disables his victims’ internet before attacking them in their beds and exsanguinating their bodies with a mysterious sharp weapon. Cornwell is at her best when narrating moments in the mortuary and at the crime scenes rather than in some of the technology-forward subplots here. Still, her command of the form and her characters’ complexity, their relationships, and the multilayered story showcase the author and her investigator at the top of their games. There’s family tension and romance, but not so much that it bogs down the plot, and enough forensic science to keep crime junkies satisfied.
VERDICT With Cornwell’s expert pacing and psychologically nuanced and complex characters, this novel offers a reliable read for longtime fans of the forensic series, but it also includes enough backstory and detail to get newcomers up to speed. – Library Journal Review
Reader’s Note: Sharp Force is the twenty-ninth book in the Kay Scarpetta Series. If you’d like to binge read from the beginning, check out book one: Postmortem.
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Happy reading!
Linda Reimer, SSCL
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Note: Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.
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Information on the four library catalogs
The Digital Catalog aka Libby: https://stls.overdrive.com/
The Digital Catalog, is an online catalog containing eBooks, eAudiobooks, and digital magazines. You can use your library card and checkout content on a PC; you can also use the companion app, Libby, to access titles on your mobile devices; so you can enjoy eBooks and eAudiobooks on the go!
All card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can check out items from the Digital Catalog.
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Hoopla Catalog: https://www.hoopladigital.com/
The Hoopla Catalog features on demand checkouts of eBooks, eAudiobooks, comic books, albums, movies and TV shows. Patron check out limit is 10 items per month.
Hoopla is a Southeast Steuben County Library service available to all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders.
The Hoopla companion app, also called Hoopla is available for mobile devices, smart TVs & media streaming players.
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Kanopy Catalog: https://www.kanopy.com/en
The Kanopy Catalog features thousands of streaming videos available on demand.
The Kanopy Catalog is available for all Southern Tier Library System member library card holders, including all Southeast Steuben County Library card holders!
You can access the Kanopy Catalog through a web browser, or download the app to your phone, tablet or media streaming player (i.e. Roku, Google or Fire TV).
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StarCat: The catalog of physical/traditional library materials: https://starcat.stls.org
Card holders of all Southern Tier Library System member libraries can access StarCat to search for and request materials available at libraries through out the Southern Tier Library System.
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Have questions about how to access Internet based content (i.e. eBooks, eAudios)? Feel free to drop by the Reference Desk or call the library and we will assist you! The library’s telephone number is: 607-936-3713.
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Tech & Book Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.
Tech & Book Talk at SSCL 