Month: December 2025

Hi everyone, here are our five suggested reads of the week!

–

Home of the American Circus: A Novel by Allison Larkin 

In Larkin’s charming latest (after The People We Keep), a 30-something woman forges an unexpected bond with her teenage niece. Freya, a bartender in coastal Maine, returns to her hometown in the Hudson Valley after her parents die in a car accident, having inherited the ramshackle house she grew up in. She’s surprised to find her troubled niece Aubrey, 15, secretly living in the house. The reason at first seems to be teenage rebellion, but the troubling truth is gradually revealed, along with Freya’s fraught history with her sister, Steena, who is Aubrey’s mother, and with Steena’s scummy husband, Charlie. Freya gets a job at a local inn and reconnects with old friends, who, along with Aubrey, help her repair the house. While the storytelling is simplistic—Steena, Charlie, and the sisters’ late mother are dastardly, while those on Freya and Aubrey’s side are correspondingly good-hearted—Larkin explores with tenderness and nuance the strong yet complicated relationship between her protagonists, and successfully uses the details of home repair as a metaphor for the rebuilding of Freya’s and Aubrey’s lives. It’s a cozy tale of new beginnings. – Publishers Weekly Review  

– 

Murder in Constantinople by A.E. Goldin 

DEBUT Ben Canaan, the son of a Jewish East End tailor in 1850s London, finds himself at the center of the international intrigue of the Crimean War in this first entry in a swashbuckling and highly entertaining series. Ben, dissatisfied with his lot in life and itching for more, runs afoul of the law, his family, and a local gangster. Discovering a recent photo of a lost love he believed was dead, Ben escapes to Constantinople to find her. Once there, he is pursued by the police and embroiled in a series of political murders called the White Death, plus a conspiracy that threatens the life of the sultan of the Ottoman Empire with potentially disastrous outcomes for Britain in the Crimean War. Although the book includes numerous plot contrivances and derring-do stereotypes, Goldin writes Ben with such verve and fun that he’s a natural companion to Agatha Christie’s Tommy and Tuppence and John Buchan’s Richard Hannay. VERDICT Goldin interweaves romance and vibrant local and historical color into this winning first novel. Readers willing to fully suspend their disbelief will be delighted by this boisterous and charming espionage mystery.-Library Journal Review  

– 

Murder at Holly House by Denzil Meyrick 

In Meyrick’s proposed trilogy starter, it’s December 1952 and Detective Inspector Frank Grasby has once again mishandled an investigation in York, England. As a reprimand, he is temporarily reassigned to the village of Elderby in the North Yorkshire moors to solve a string of thefts at several farms. Upon arrival, he discovers his staff consists of two constables, an American intern, and a sergeant prone to narcolepsy. While interviewing the local aristocratic family about the latest theft, Frank finds a body stuffed into a chimney. No one in the area claims to know the victim. After a second murder occurs, Frank realizes that Elderby is not just a sleepy country village; it conceals many secrets. When he is warned off investigating the deaths by his superiors, however, he is more curious than ever. Frank soon discovers he may be in over his head and that the people he has chosen to depend on may be his worst career mistake yet. VERDICT This is quite a departure from the author’s DCI Daley series. Meyrick, who died in February 2025, includes plenty of humorous asides and commentary from Grasby. That and the dialogue style add a lighthearted mood.-Library Journal Review  

– 

Never Rescue A Rogue: A Novel by Virginia Heath 

A duke teams up with a journalist to protect his tenants from his scheming uncle in Heath’s infectious second Merriwell Sisters historical romance (after Never Fall for Your Fiancée). Roguish Giles Sinclair, heir to the Duke of Harpenden, learned years ago that his real mother was the duke’s mistress, making him illegitimate. When his father dies suddenly, Giles fears it’s only a matter of time before the truth gets out and the law comes calling to seize his dukedom and hand it over to his greedy, philandering uncle Gervais. Brilliant Diana Merriwell also has a secret: she’s The Sentinel, an anonymous reporter with a reputation for using her pen to uncover dangerous secrets. Though no one in Diana’s family knows her real role at the paper, Giles suspects the truth. The quarrelsome pair have been forced to tolerate each other ever since Giles’s best friend married Diana’s sister—and now Giles turns to Diana for help. As they work together to protect each other’s secrets, their witty bickering becomes more like foreplay and trust and loyalty grow. Still, the threat of Gervais and Diana’s distrust for men threaten their budding romance. It’s the perfect mix of romance and intrigue, and the formidable central couple is sure to win hearts. This is a gem. – Starred Publishers Weekly Review  

– 

Return of the Spider by James Patterson 

Return of the Spider is the stunning companion novel to Along Came a Spider, the New York Times bestselling classic thriller from the world’s most popular storyteller. 

Enter the thrilling world of the #1 bestselling detective series that inspired the Prime Video show, Cross. 

Along Came a Spider introduced Detective Alex Cross to readers around the globe and delivered an unsurpassed rivalry: Cross—named the “human superhero” by The New York Times—versus Gary Soneji, who the Lexington-Herald Leader called the “most deliciously wicked character since Hannibal Lecter”. But that wasn’t their first meeting … 

Police discover that Soneji kept a murder book, Profiles in Homicidal Genius, detailing his transformation from substitute teacher to hardened serial killer—including clues that imply missteps that Alex Cross may have made a rookie homicide detective. 

Now, Alex must retrace the steps of that long-ago investigation and face … the Return of the Spider. 

Reader’s Note: Return of the Spider is the thirty-third book in the Alex Cross Series. If you’d like to binge read from the beginning, check out book one: Along Came A Spider. 

–

Happy reading!

Linda Reimer, SSCL

–

Note: Book summaries are from the respective publishers unless otherwise specified.

–

Weekly Suggested Reading Five postings are usually published on Wednesdays, unless Monday is a holiday, or the library is closed a day due to inclement weather, and then they are published later in the week.

–

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.

–

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.

–

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).

–

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.

–

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.

–

Tech & Book Talk is a Southeast Steuben County Library blog.