Recently received

Avalanche Pass (A Jesse Parker mystery) by John Flanagan (Berkley Prime Crime tp, 7 February 2012).
When guests and staff at a snowbound ski lodge in Utah are taken hostage by heavily armed men, Jesse Parker may be their only hope. Jesse has left Steamboat Springs to try to salvage his career after a horrific skiing accident-but finds his refuge has turned into a war zone.
One of the hostages is a U.S. senator, so FBI Agent Denton Colby is sent to Utah to negotiate a ransom. But the head of the hostage-takers is playing a dangerous game. As his demands become increasingly erratic-and half the hostages are mercilessly killed-Colby suspects that money may not be what he's really after.
Unbeknownst to Colby, they do have a man on the inside-Jesse has remained undetected, and with the help of a female security officer he may be able to stop these cold-blooded captors in their tracks...

The Union Quilters (An Elm Creek Quilts novel) by Jennifer Chiaverini (Plume tp, 7 February 2012).
n 1862, the men of Water's Ford, Pennsylvania, rally to President Lincoln's call while Dorothea Granger marshals her friends to "wield their needles for the Union." Meanwhile, Anneke Bergstrom hides the shame she feels for her husband's pacifism; gifted writer Gerda Bergstrom takes on local Southern sympathizers in the pages of the Water's Ford Register; and Constance Wright struggles to help her husband gain entry to the Union Army-despite the color of his skin. As the women work, hope, and pray, the men they love confront loneliness, boredom, and danger on the battlefield. But the women of the sewing circle also forge a new independence that will forever alter the patchwork of life in the Elm Creek Valley.

Lucifer's Tears (Insp. Kari Vaara #2) by James Thompson.
Inspector Kari Vaara has left the Arctic Circle and returned- reluctantly-to Helsinki, where headaches and sleeplessness plague him. But he must work through the pain. He has two cases on his plate: the brutal murder of a Russian businessman's wife, and-more secretively-an investigation into an elderly Finnish national hero who may have played a darker role in World War II than the public knows. Vaara's past has turned him into a haunted man. The questions he's asking now may turn him into a hunted man as well...

Death on Heels (A Crime of Fashion mystery) by Ellen Byerrum (Obsidian mm, 7 February 2012).
When Washington, D.C., fashion reporter Lacey Smithsonian's former boyfriend, cattle rancher Cole Tucker, is arrested for murder, she digs her cowboy boots out of her closet and flies to his defense. She is certain of his innocence-unil he abducts her during a daring courthouse escape...

One Book in the Grave (A Bibliophile mystery) by Kate Carlisle (Obsidian mm, 7 February 2012).
Brooklyn's chance to restore a rare first edition of Beauty and the Beast seems a fairy tale come true-until she realizes the book last belonged to an old friend of hers. Ten years ago, Max Adams fell in love with a stunning beauty, Emily, and gave her the copy of Beauty and the Beast as a symbol of their love. Soon afterward, he died in a car crash, and Brooklyn has always suspected his possessive ex-girlfriend and her jealous beau.
Now she decided to find out who sold the book and return it to its rightful owner-Emily. With the help of her handsome boyfriend, Derek Stone, Brooklyn must unravel a murder plot-before she ends up in a plot herself...

Old Haunts (Haunted Guesthouse #3) by E.J. Copperman (Berkley Prime Crime mm, 7 February 2012).
The ghosts haunting Alison Kerby's Jersey Shore guesthouse are sad. Maxie wants to know who murdered her ex-husband, and Paul pines for his still-living almost-fiancee. The only one who isn't missing her ex is Alison-because The Swine just arrived on her doorstep...

Town in a Wild Moose Chase (Candy Holliday #3) by B.B. Haywood (Berkley Prime Crime mm, 7 February 2012).
Cape Willington's annual Winter Moose Fest is in full swing when the sightings of a mysterious white moose-and rumors of a dead body found in the woods-send Candy scrambling to separate fact from fiction before she finds herself in the bullseye of a ruthless killer...

File M for Murder (Cat in the Stacks #3) by Miranda James (Berkley Prime Crime mm, 7 February 2012).
Athena College's new writer in residence is native son and playwright Connor Lawton, known for his sharp writing-and sharper tongue. After an unpleasant encounter, librarian Charlie Harris heads home to a nice surprise: his daughter Laura is subbing for another Athena professor. Unfortunately her old flame Connor Lawton got her the job.

But before Connor finishes his newest play, he's murdered-and Laura is the prime suspect. Charlie and his faithful cat, Diesel, follow Connor's cluttered trail to find the true killer before his daughter is forever catalogued under M...for murderer.

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