Marcia over at The Printed Page is taking a break from Mailbox Monday, and Chick Loves Lit is hosting in August. I got quite a few more books in my mailbox this week! Here’s what I got:
The Venetian Betrayal by Steve Berry (PBS Box swap)
After narrowly escaping incineration in a devastatig fire that consumes a Danish museum, Cotton Malone – former Justic Department agent turned rare-book dealer – learns from his friend, the beguiling adventurer Cassiopeia Vitt, that the blaze was neither an accident nor an isolated incident. As part of a campaign of arson intended to mask a far more diabolical design, buildings across Europe are being devoured by infernos of unnatural strength. Born from the ashes is a new Eastern European nation whose ruthless leader will soon draw Cotton into an intense geopolitical chess game against a shadowy cabal of power brokers. The prize lies buried with the mummified remains of Alexander the Great – in a tomb lost to the ages for more than two thousand years. Trekking from Denmark to Venice to Central Asia, Cotton and Cassiopeia are determined to solve an ancient puzzle whose solution could destroy or save millions of people – depending on who finds the lost tomb first.
Secret of the Seventh Son by Glenn Cooper (PBS Box swap)
Nine people have been slain in New York City – nine strangers with nothing in common – the apparent victims of a frighteningly elusive serial killer. Only one thing links the dead: postcards they received, mailed from Las Vegas, announcing the day they would die. Assigned to the case is a legendary FBI profiler with a troubled past, a drinking problem, and nothing left to lose. Abandoned to a monastery is an unwanted son born under a curse on the seventh day of the seventh month of the year 777. Unprepared for a momentous discovery is a post-World War II expedition into the crypts of a clandestine medieval society. But all lead to a secret embroiled in destiny, history, evil, faith, and corruption … and one terrifying truth that no one must ever know…
The Letter of the Law by Time Green (PBS Box swap)
Casey Jordan is a young Texas attorney with the brains and the beauty to make it big. Now Casey has just been handed a case that can make her career: the defense of her brilliant former law professor against a horrific murder charge. But while the ambitious advocate does her job flawlessly, the aftermath of the trial blows up in her face. Suddenly, Casey is caught between two dangerous men: the grief-stricken father of a young murder victim and a cunning serial killer who plots to strike again. For Casey, following the letter of the law has put her career in jeopardy. Fulfilling the spirit of the law may cost her her life…
The Book of Fate by Brad Meltzer (PBS Box swap)
Six minutes from now, one of us would be dead. None of us knew it was coming. So says Wes Holloway, a young presidential aide, about the day he put Ron Boyle, the chief executive’s oldest friend, into the president’s limousine. By the trip’s end, a crazed assassin would permanently disfigure Wes and kill Boyle. Now, eight years later, Boyle has been spotted alive. Trying to figure out what really happened takes Wes back into disturbing secrets buried in Freemason history, a decade-old presidential crossword puzzle, and a two-hundred-year-old code invented by Thomas Jefferson that conceals secrets worth dying for.
The Tenth Justice by Brad Meltzer (PBS Box swap)
Ben Addison, fresh from Yale Law, is a new clerk for one of the Supreme Court’s most respected justices. But when he accidentally reveals the secret outcome of an upcoming decision, a blackmailer makes millions and Ben starts to sweat. Big time. He turns to his co-clerk, Lisa, and his housemates, Nathan, Eric, and Ober, for help. Washington’s best and brightest, they offer coveted insider access to the State Department, a major Washington newspaper, and the Senate. But before they know it, their careers – and their lives – are on the line.
The Brotherhood of the Rose by David Morrell (PBS – used a credit)
They were orphans, Chris and Saul – raised in a Philadelphia school for boys, bonded by friendship, and devoted to a mysterious man called Eliot. He visited them and brought them candy. He treated them like sons. He trained them to be assassins. Now he is trying desperately to have them killed.
Don’t Scream by Wendy Corsi Staub (PBS Box swap)
In a remote, heavily wooded area near the Berkshires of Massachusetts, Rachel Lorant died on her birthday. But she didn’t die alone. That night, her four sorority sisters make a solemn, trembling pledge. They will never reveal what has just happened in those woods – ever. Instead, they will take their terrible secret to their graves. Now, ten years later, their secret is coming back to haunt them as each receives a card in the mail from Rachel: “Happy Birthday to Me. xoxo R.” It’s clear that someone knows what happened that night. Someone is stalking them and sending mysterious, chilling gifts that only they can understand – deadly warnings of what is to come. For the sins of the past have come back with a vengeance, and a killer will see that they all pay in blood. Brynn Costello has never felt such pure fear. She didn’t want any part in what happened so long ago, but now, the mother of two will do anything to stay alive and protect her family – even if it means matching wits with a killer she can’t see … a twisted psychopath who is closer than she thinks and who is saving her death for last…
Tales of a Book Addict 