Crossfire - Dick Francis and Felix Francis
An exhilarating new novel from The New York Times best-selling authors.
 
Shell-shocked and missing a foot-lost to an IED during his tour of duty in Afghanistan, Captain Tom Forsyth has been sent "home" by the army and, at loose ends, returns to his estranged mother's house for the first time since he joined up at 17. But Josephine Kauri, the "first lady of British racing", has always put the horses she trains first and her family last. Tom soon finds himself strained to the breaking point with his mother and stepfather.
 
But there's another reason for the stifling tension at Kauri House Stables: Josephine is being blackmailed for a hefty sum every week - and forced to make her horses lose. Retirement is not an option, as she has been warned that it will result in the thing she most fears: exposure and ridicule...and prison, when the government finds out what she's been hiding.
 
Tom sets out to discover and defeat this hidden enemy using his finely honed military skills. But can he save his mother's reputation and career, or will he find himself caught in the cross fire?
 
Sweet Misfortune - Kevin Alan Milne
Sophie owns a chocolate shop where she sells Misfortune Cookies-dipped in bitter chocolate they contain messages she handwrites each day such as "Your car seems fine now, but just wait...it will eventually be a source of frustration and unexpected delay." What starts as a gimmick, turns into a surprise hit with customers. But when her ex-fianc�e moves back to their small Washington town, he is surprised at how bitter and unhappy Sophie has become.
 
He proposes a bet--she must place an ad in the paper that simply states "Wanted: Happiness." If at least 100 people respond, proving happiness isn't a myth, she agrees to a date with him. If not, he'll leave her alone forever. Sophie is convinced she'll win, but fate has other ideas when a reporter at the paper is intrigued by the ad as a story and posts it in newspapers across the country.
 
Outwitting Trolls - William G. Tapply
The Brady Coyne Mysteries, Book 25 of 25
 
Brady Coyne is a Boston attorney who focuses on a few private clients and the legal drudgery of their everyday life, which leads to a generally unexciting life. Brady, however, gets a call from an old friend and former neighbor�a man from his past as a happily married man. When Brady was married and living in suburbia, Ken Nichols was his happily married neighbor. Both marriages fell apart years ago and Brady moved to Boston while Ken Nichols moved to Baltimore. Now a decade later and in Boston for a conference, Ken contacts Brady for a get-together and a drink. It�s an uneventful evening but the next day Brady gets a call from Nichols� ex-wife. She�s standing in her ex�s hotel room, Nichols is lying dead on the floor of his room and she needs Brady�s help.
 
But this savage murder is only the first and Brady is soon trying to find the connection between these long ago friends and the savage murders dogging their family.
 
Letters from Home - Kristina McMorris
Chicago, 1944. Liz Stephens has little interest in attending a USO club dance with her friends Betty and Julia. She doesn't need a flirtation with a lonely serviceman when she's set to marry her childhood sweetheart. Yet something happens the moment Liz glimpses Morgan McClain. They share only a brief exchange - cut short by the soldier's evident interest in Betty - but Liz can't forget him. Thus, when Betty asks her to ghostwrite a letter to Morgan, stationed overseas, Liz reluctantly agrees.
 
Thousands of miles away, Morgan struggles to adjust to the brutality of war. His letters from "Betty" are a comfort, their soul-baring correspondence a revelation to them both. While Liz is torn by her feelings for a man who doesn't know her true identity, Betty and Julia each become immersed in their own romantic entanglements. And as the war draws to a close, all three will face heart-wrenching choices, painful losses, and the bittersweet joy of new beginnings.
 
Beautifully rendered and deeply moving, Letters from Home is a story of hope and connection, of sacrifices made in love and war - and the chance encounters that change us forever.
 
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