Weekly Finds: 5/21/10

The Keening by A. LaFaye (netgalley ebook)

From the electronic description:  Born into the artistic and eccentric family, Lyza laments that her only talent is carving letters into wood.  That is, until the devastating loss of her mother to influenza during the pandemic of 1918.  The illness has settled on their small coastal town in Maine, and the funeral marches pass Lyza's house almost daily.  When her unconventional father begins to prepare for the return of his dead wife, Lyza is the only one to protect him from being committed to the work farm.  Awash with grief and longing for her mother, Lyza journeys into the thin territory that divides the living from the dead.

Relying on her courage, and an undiscovered talent, Lyza must save her father and find her own path.  From the celebrated author Worth, a powerful story of love that persists beyond the grave.

Executive Privilege Free with Bonus Material by Phillip Margolin (ebook)

From the electronic description:  When private detective Dana Cutler is hired to follow college student Charlotte Walsh, she never imagines the trail will lead to the White House.  But the morning after Walsh's clandestine meeting with Christopher Farrington, President of the United States, the pretty young coed is dead - the latest victim, apparently, of a fiend dubbed "the D.C. Ripper."

A junior associate in an Oregon law firm, Brad Miller is stunned by the death row revelations of convicted serial killer Clarence Little.  Though Little accepts responsibility for a string of gruesome murders, he swears he was framed for one of them:  the death of a teenaged babysitter who worked for the then-governor Farrington.

Suddenly nowhere in America is safe for a small-time private eye and a fledgling lawyer who possess terrifying evidence that suggests the unthinkable:  that someone at the very highest level of government, perhaps the president himself, is a cold and brutal killer.

The Scent of Shadows Free with Bonus Material: The First Sign of the Zodiac by Vicki Pettersson (ebook)

From the electronic overview:  When she was sixteenn, Joanna Archer was brutally assaulted and left to die in the Nevada desert.

By rights, she should be dead.

Now a photographer by day, she prowls a different Las Vegas after sunset - a grim, secret Sin City where Light battles Shadow - seeking answers to whom or what she really is ... and revenge for the horrors she was forced to endure.

But the nightmare is just beginning - for the demons are hunting Joanna, and the powerful shadows want her for their own...

The Writing Circle by Corinne Demas (B&N First Look ebook)

From the electronic description:  They call themselves the Leopardi Circle - six members of a writing group who share much more than their works in progress.

When Nancy, whose most recently published work is a medical newsletter, is asked to join a writing group made up of established writers, she accepts, warily.  She's not at all certain that her novel is good enough for the company she'll be keeping.  Her novel is a subject very close to her heart, and she isn't sure she wants to share it with others, let alone the world.  But Nancy soon finds herself caught up in the group's personal lives as she is with their writing.

She learns that nothing - love, family, loyalty - is sacred or certain.

In the circle there's Gillian, a beautiful, scheming, world-famous poet; Bernard, a pompous but lovable biographer; Virginia, a respected historian and the peacemaker of the group, who also happens to be Bernard's ex-wife; Chris, a divorced father and successful thriller writer; and Adam, the youngest of the group, as aspiring novelist who is infatuated with Gillian.  And there there's Nancy, an unassuming fiction writer embarking on a new chapter of her own life.  They meet to read their work aloud and offer feedback.  Over the course of a year, marriages are tested, affairs begin, and trust is broken.

Through their complicated relationships, these eccentric characters share their families, their beds, and their histories, and soon find that buried secrets have a way of coming to  light.  Hearts break and emotions are pushed to the limit in this richly engaging tale of love, betrayal, and literature.

Rage of Angels by Sidney Angels (ebook)

From the electronic description:  Beautiful Jennifer Parker, having risen from disaster to become a glamorously successful defense attorney, becomes the victim of two powerful men who determine to destroy one another.