The Barry Award 2010
The Last Child By John Hart-2010 Barry Award Shortlist Best Novel Category The Last Child
By John Hart
John Hart’s New York Times bestselling debut, The King of Lies, announced the arrival of a major talent. With Down River, he surpassed his earlier success, transcending the barrier between thriller and literature and winning the 2008 Edgar Award for best novel. Now, with The Last Child, he achieves his most significant work to date, an intricate, powerful story of loss, hope, and courage in the face of evil. Thirteen year-old Johnny Merrimon had the perfect life: a warm home and loving parents; a twin sister, Alyssa, with whom he shared an irreplaceable bond. He knew nothing of loss, until the day Alyssa vanished from the side of a lonely street. Now, a year later, Johnny finds himself isolated and alone, failed by the people he’d been taught since birth to trust. No one else believes that Alyssa is still alive, but Johnny is certain that she is---confident in a way that he can never fully explain. Determined to find his sister, Johnny risks everything to explore the dark side of his hometown. It is a desperate, terrifying search, but Johnny is not as alone as he might think. Detective Clyde Hunt has never stopped looking for Alyssa either, and he has a soft spot for Johnny. He watches over the boy and tries to keep him safe, but when Johnny uncovers a dangerous lead and vows to follow it, Hunt has no choice but to intervene. Then a second child goes missing . . . Undeterred by Hunt’s threats or his mother’s pleas, Johnny enlists the help of his last friend, and together they plunge into the wild, to a forgotten place with a history of violence that goes back more than a hundred years. There, they meet a giant of a man, an escaped convict on his own tragic quest. What they learn from him will shatter every notion Johnny had about the fate of his sister; it will lead them to another far place, to a truth that will test both boys to the limit. Traveling the wilderness between innocence and hard wisdom, between hopelessness and faith, The Last Child leaves all categories behind and establishes John Hart as a writer of unique power.
The Hidden Man By David Ellis-2010 Barry Award Shortlist Best Novel Category The Hidden Man
By David Ellis
Jason Kolarich is a midwestern everyman with a linebacker's build and an easy smart-ass remark. He's a young, intelligent, and successful attorney; but he's also struggling with a horrific tragedy that threatens to unravel his own life, and possibly the lives of everyone he holds dear.--From publisher's description.
Spade & Archer By Joe Gores 2010 Barry Award Shortlist Best Novel Category Spade & Archer
By Joe Gores
When Sam Spade gets drawn into the Maltese Falcon case, we know what to expect: straight talk, hard questions, no favors, and no way for anyone to get underneath the protective shell he wears like a second skin. We know that his late partner, Miles Archer, was a son of a bitch; that Spade is sleeping with Archer's wife, Iva; that his tomboyish secretary, Effie Perine, is the only innocent in his life. What we don't know is how Spade became who he is. "Spade & Archer" completes the picture. 1921: Spade sets up his own agency in San Francisco and clients quickly start coming through the door. swindlers, gold smugglers, bumbling cops, and the illegitimate daughter of Sun Yat-sen; with murder, other men's mistresses, and long-missing money. He'll bring in Archer as a partner, though it was Archer who stole his girl while he was fighting in World War I. He'll tangle with a villain who never loses his desire to make Spade pay big for ruining what should've been the perfect crime. And he'll fall in love--though it won't turn out for the best. It never does with dames . . . "Spade & Archer "is a gritty, pitch-perfect, hard-boiled novel--the work of a master mystery writer--destined to become a classic in its own right.
The Gates By John Connolly-2010 Barry Award Shortlist Best Novel Category The Gates
By John Connolly
Young Samuel Johnson and his dachshund, Boswell, are trying to show initiative by trick-or-treating a full three days before Halloween, which is how they come to witness strange goings-on at 666 Crowley Road. The Abernathys don't mean any harm by their flirtation with the underworld, but when they unknowingly call forth Satan himself, they create a gap in the universe, a gap through which a pair of enormous gates is visible. The gates to Hell. And there are some pretty terrifying beings just itching to get out.... Can one small boy defeat evil? Can he harness the power of science, faith, and love to save the world as we know it? Bursting with imagination and impossible to put down, The Gates is about the pull between good and evil, physics and fantasy. It is about a quirky and eccentric boy, who is impossible not to love, and the unlikely cast of characters who give him the strength to stand up to a demonic power. In this wonderfully strange and brilliant novel, John Connolly manages to re-create the magical and scary world of childhood that we've all left behind but so love to visit. And for those of you who thought you knew everything you could about particle physics and the universe, think again. This novel makes anything seem possible.
Locked In By Marcia Muller - 2010 Barry Award Shortlist Best Novel Category Locked In
By Marcia Muller
Shot in the head by an unknown assailant, Sharon McCone finds herself trapped by locked-in syndrome: almost total paralysis but an alert, conscious mind. Since the late-night attack occurred at her agency's offices, the natural conclusion was that it was connected to one of the firm's cases. As Sharon lies in her hospital bed, furiously trying to break out of her body's prison and discover her attacker's identity, all the members of her agency fan out to find the reason why she was assaulted. Meanwhile, Sharon becomes a locked-in detective, sorting through the clues her colleagues discover. As the case draws to a surprising and even shocking conclusion, Sharon's husband, Hy, must decide whether or not to surrender to his own violent past and exact fatal vengeance when the person responsible is identified.
Shanghai Moon By S.J. Rozan- 2010 Barry Award Shortlist Best Novel Category Shanghai Moon
By S.J. Rozan
With The Shanghai Moon, S. J. Rozan returns to her award-winning, critically acclaimed, and much-loved characters Lydia Chin and Bill Smith in the first new novel in the series in seven years. Estranged for months from fellow P.I. Bill Smith, Chinese-American private investigator Lydia Chin is brought in by colleague and former mentor Joel Pilarsky to help with a case that crosses continents, cultures, and decades. In Shanghai, excavation has unearthed a cache of European jewelry dating back to World War II, when Shanghai was an open city providing safe haven for thousands of Jewish refugees. The jewelry, identifed as having belonged to one such refugee - Rosalie Gilder - was immediately stolen by a Chinese official who fled to New York City. Hired by a lawyer specializing in the recovery of Holocaust assets, Chin and Pilarsky are to find any and all leads to the missing jewels.However, Lydia soon learns that there is much more to the story than they've been told: The Shanghai Moon, one of the world's most sought after missing jewels, reputed to be worth millions, is believed to have been part of the same stash. Before Lydia can act on this new information, Joel Pilarsky is murdered, Lydia is fired from the case, and Bill Smith finally reappears on the scene. Now Lydia and Bill must unravel the truth about the Shanghai Moon and the events that surrounded its disappearance sixty years ago during the chaos of war and revolution, if they are to stop more killings and uncover the truth of what is going on today.
Beat The Reaper By Josh Bazell- 2010 Barry Award Shortlist- First Novel Category Beat The Reaper
By Josh Bazell
Dr. Peter Brown is an intern at Manhattan's worst hospital, with a talent for medicine, a shift from hell, and a past he'd prefer to keep hidden. Whether it's a blocked circumflex artery or a plan to land a massive malpractice suit, he knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men. Pietro "Bearclaw" Brnwna is a hitman for the mob, with a genius for violence, a well-earned fear of sharks, and an overly close relationship with the Federal Witness Relocation Program. More likely to leave a trail of dead gangsters than a molecule of evidence, he's the last person you want to see in your hospital room. Nicholas LoBrutto, aka Eddy Squillante, is Dr. Brown's new patient, with three months to live and a very strange idea: that Peter Brown and Pietro Brnwa might-just might-be the same person ...Now, with the mob, the government, and death itself descending on the hospital, Peter has to buy time and do whatever it takes to keep his patients, himself, and his last shot at redemption alive. To get through the next eight hours-and somehow beat the reaper.
The Sweetness At The Bottom Of The Pie By Alan Bradley-2010 Barry Award Shortlist- First Novel Category The Sweetness At The Bottom Of The Pie
By Alan Bradley
In his wickedly brilliant first novel, Debut Dagger Award winner Alan Bradley introduces one of the most singular and engaging heroines in recent fiction: eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison. It is the summer of 1950--and a series of inexplicable events has struck Buckshaw, the decaying English mansion that Flavia's family calls home. A dead bird is found on the doorstep, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. Hours later, Flavia finds a man lying in the cucumber patch and watches him as he takes his dying breath. For Flavia, who is both appalled and delighted, life begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw. ""I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn't. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life." " To Flavia the investigation is the stuff of science: full of possibilities, contradictions, and connections. Soon her father, a man raising his three daughters alone, is seized, accused of murder. And in a police cell, during a violent thunderstorm, Colonel de Luce tells his daughter an astounding story--of a schoolboy friendship turned ugly, of a priceless object that vanished in a bizarre and brazen act of thievery, of a Latin teacher who flung himself to his death from the school's tower thirty years before. Now Flavia is armed with more than enough knowledge to tie two distant deaths together, to examine new suspects, and begin a search that will lead her all the way to the King of England himself. Of this much the girl is sure: her father is innocent of murder--but protecting her and her sisters from something even worse.... An enthralling mystery, a piercing depiction of class and society, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is a masterfully told tale of deceptions--and a rich literary delight.
A Trace of Smoke By Rebecca Cantrell -2010 Barry Award Shortlist- First Novel Category A Trace of Smoke
By Rebecca Cantrell
Even though hardened crime reporter Hannah Vogel knows all too well how tough it is to survive in 1931 Berlin, she is devastated when she sees a photograph of her brother’s body posted in the Hall of the Unnamed Dead. Ernst, a cross-dressing lounge singer at a seedy nightclub, had many secrets, a never-ending list of lovers, and plenty of opportunities to get into trouble. Hannah delves into the city’s dark underbelly to flush out his murderer, but the late night arrival of a five-year-old orphan on her doorstep complicates matters. The endearing Anton claims that Hannah is his mother… and that her dead brother Ernst is his father. As her investigations into Ernst’s murder and Anton's parentage uncover political intrigue and sex scandals in the top ranks of the rising Nazi party, Hannah fears not only for her own life, but for that of a small boy who has come to call her “mother.”
A Bad Day For Sorry By Sophie Littlefield - 2010 Barry Award Shortlist- First Novel Category A Bad Day For Sorry
By Sophie Littlefield
Stella Hardesty dispatched her abusive husband with a wrench shortly before her fiftieth birthday. A few years later, she’s so busy delivering home-style justice, helping other women deal with their own abusive husbands and boyfriends, that she’s barely got time to run her sewing shop. Since Stella works outside of the law, she’s free to do whatever it takes to be convincing—as long as she keeps her distance from the handsome devil of a local sheriff, Goat Jones. When young mother Chrissy Shaw asks Stella for help with her no-good, husband Roy Dean, it looks like just another standard job. But then Chrissy’s two-year-old son is taken, and Stella finds herself up against a much more formidable enemy. "A Bad Day for Sorry" is Littlefield's critically acclaimed debut, kicking off a bold and original new crime series. It was an Edgar Award finalist for Best First Novel and is shortlisted for Anthony, Barry, Crimespree, and Macavity Awards. It won an RT Book Award for Best First Mystery and has been named to lists of the year's best mystery debuts by the "Chicago Sun-Times "and "South Florida Sun-Sentinel."
Black Water Rising By Attica Locke -2010 Barry Award Shortlist- First Novel Category Black Water Rising
By Attica Locke
Writing in the tradition of Dennis Lehane and Greg Iles, Attica Locke, a powerful new voice in American fiction, delivers a brilliant debut thriller that readers will not soon forget. Jay Porter is hardly the lawyer he set out to be. His most promising client is a low-rent call girl and he runs his fledgling law practice out of a dingy strip mall. But he's long since made peace with not living the American Dream and carefully tucked away his darkest sins: the guns, the FBI file, the trial that nearly destroyed him. Houston, Texas, 1981. It is here that Jay believes he can make a fresh start. That is, until the night in a boat out on the bayou when he impulsively saves a woman from drowning--and opens a Pandora's box. Her secrets put Jay in danger, ensnaring him in a murder investigation that could cost him his practice, his family, and even his life. But before he can get to the bottom of a tangled mystery that reaches into the upper echelons of Houston's corporate power brokers, Jay must confront the demons of his past. With pacing that captures the reader from the first scene through an exhilarating climax, "Black Water Rising" marks the arrival of an electrifying new talent.
The Ghosts of Belfast By Stuart Neville -2010 Barry Award Shortlist- First Novel Category The Ghosts of Belfast
By Stuart Neville
Fegan had been a "hard man'" an IRA killer in Northern Ireland. Now that peace has come he is haunted' day and night' by twelve of his innocent victims. To appease them hers"s going to have to kill the men who gave him
Awakening By S. J. Bolton- 2010 Barry Award Shortlist- Best British Novel Category Awakening
By S. J. Bolton
An idyllic village is thrown into turmoil in the startling, heart-racing new thriller from the author of Sacrifice. How did it all begin? I suppose it would be the day I rescued a new-born baby from a poisonous snake, heard the news of my mother's death and encountered my first ghost . . . Veterinary surgeon Clara Benning is young and intelligent, but practically a recluse. Disfigured by a childhood accident, she lives alone and shies away from human contact whenever possible. But when a man dies following a supposed snake bite, the victim's post mortem shows a higher concentration of venom than could ever be found in a single snake. Assisted by her softly spoken neighbour, and an eccentric reptile expert, Clara unravels sinister links to a barbaric ancient ritual, an abandoned house and a fifty-year-old tragedy that left the survivors fiercely secretive. Then the village's inventive attacker strikes again, and Clara's own solitary existence is brutally invaded. For someone the truth must remain buried in the past even if they have to kill to keep it there. From the Trade Paperback edition.
The Lovers By John Connolly-2010 Barry Award Shortlist- Best British Novel Category The Lovers
By John Connolly
Charlie Parker is a lost soul. Deprived of his private investigator's license and under scrutiny by the police, Parker takes a job in a Portland bar. But he uses his enforced retirement to begin a different kind of investigation: an examination of his own past and an inquiry into the death of his father, who took his own life after apparently shooting dead two unarmed teenagers. It's a search that will eventually lead Parker to question all that he believed about his beloved parents, and about himself. But there are other forces at work: a troubled young woman who is running from an unseen threat, one that has already taken the life of her boyfriend; and a journalist-turned-writer named Mickey Wallace, who is conducting an investigation of his own. And haunting the shadows, as they have done throughout Parker's life, are two figures: a man and a woman who seem driven to bring an end to Charlie Parker's existence. Haunting, lyrical, and impossible to put down, The Lovers is John Connolly at his best
Midnight Fugue By Reginald Hill-2010 Barry Award Shortlist- Best British Novel Category Midnight Fugue
By Reginald Hill
Still recovering from a near-fatal bomb blast, Superintendent Andy Dalziel is eager to get back up to speed—and loses an entire day in the process. Agreeing to help Gina Wolfe search for her missing husband—a policeman who vanished years earlier under a very dark cloud—"Fat Andy" doesn't realize that events set in motion decades ago will come to a violent head on this otherwise ordinary summer's day. Caught up in an intricate composition played up-tempo by a vicious gangster and his politician son; a tabloid journalist chasing the deadliest story of his career; and a desperate wife/widow/fiancÉe unaware of the target on her forehead, Dalziel has only twenty-four hours to pursue this twisting piece to its shocking, discordant conclusion—hoping that justice will not be among the ultimate victims.
If The Dead Not Rise By Philip Kerr- 2010 Barry Award Shortlist- Best British Novel Category If The Dead Not Rise
By Philip Kerr
Berlin, 1934: The Nazis have secured the 1936 Olympiad for the city but are facing foreign resistance. Hitler and Avery Brundage, the head of the U.S. Olympic Committee, have connived to soft-pedal Nazi anti- Semitism and convince America to participate. Bernie Gunther, now the house detective at an upscale Berlin hotel, is swept into this world of international corruption and dangerous double-dealing, caught between the warring factions of the Nazi apparatus. Havana, 1954: Batista, aided by the CIA, has just seized power; Castro is in prison; and the American Mafia is quickly gaining a stranglehold on the city's exploding gaming and prostitution industries. Bernie, who has been unceremoniously kicked out of Buenos Aires, has resurfaced in Cuba with a new life, seemingly one of routine and relative peace. But Bernie discovers that he truly cannot outrun the burden of his past: He soon collides with a vicious killer from his Berlin days, who is mysteriously murdered not long afterward-and an old lover, who may be the murderer. If the Dead Rise Not is everything fans have come to expect from Philip Kerr: twisted intrigue, tight plotting, quick-witted one-liners, a hang-by-your-thumbs ending, and, most significant, a richer, wiser Bernie Gunther.
Still Midnight By Denise Mina -2010 Barry Award Shortlist- Best British Novel Category Still Midnight
By Denise Mina
Alex Morrow is not new to the police force-or to crime-but there is nothing familiar about the call she has just received. On a still night in a quiet suburb of Glasgow, Scotland, three armed men have slipped from a van into a house, demanding a man who is not, and has never been, inside the front door. In the confusion that ensues, one family member is shot and another kidnapped, the assailants demanding an impossible ransom. Is this the amateur crime gone horribly wrong that it seems, or something much more unexpected?
Ignorance Of Blood by Robert Wilson-2010 Barry Award Shortlist- Best British Novel Category Ignorance Of Blood
By Robert Wilson
As a sweltering Seville recovers from the shock of a terrorist attack, Inspector Jefe Javier Falcón is struggling to find the bombers. The death of a gangster in a spectacular car crash offers vital evidence implicating the Russian mafia in his investigation, but pitches Falcón into the heart of a turf war over prostitution and drugs. Now the target of vicious hoods, Falcón finds those closest to him are also coming under intolerable pressure: his best friend, who’s spying for the Spanish government, reveals that he is being blackmailed by Islamist extremists; and Falcón’s own lover suffers a mother’s worst nightmare. He might be able to bring the perpetrators of the bombing to justice, but there will be a devastating price to pay.
No Survivors By Tom Cain- 2010 Barry Award Shortlist- Best Thriller Category No Survivors
By Tom Cain
The Accident Man returns in a heart-stopping race to prevent a global holy war Tom Cain's The Accident Man introduced Samuel Carver-a man hired to make bad things happen-to rave reviews from critics and readers alike. Now, Carver is back in a new adventure that takes him from the war rooms of Washington, D.C., and the palaces of the French Riviera to the Arctic peaks of Norway and the war-torn Serbian countryside. Carver finds himself lying broken and damaged in a Swiss sanitarium after rescuing his lover, Alix Petrova, from her Russian spymaster. But when Alix's former employers force her to leave him and seduce an American military official, Carver emerges, shockingly and violently, as his former self-just in time to discover a Texas billionaire's messianic plot to destroy the world.
Running From The Devil By Jamie Freveletti-2010 Barry Award Shortlist- Best Thriller Category Running From The Devil
By Jamie Freveletti
Emma Caldridge, a chemist for a cosmetics company, is en route from Miami to Bogotá when her plane is hijacked and spins out of control into the mountains near the Venezuelan border. Thrown unhurt from the wreckage, she can do nothing but watch as guerrillas take the other passengers hostage. An endurance marathon runner, Emma silently trails the guerrillas and their captives, using her athletic prowess and scientific knowledge to stay alive. Those skills become essential when she discovers an injured passenger, secret government agent Cameron Sumner, separated from the group. Together they follow the hostages, staying one step ahead by staying one step behind. Meanwhile, as news of the hijacking breaks in Washington, the Department of Defense turns to Edward Banner, former military officer and current CEO of a security consulting firm, for help. Banner quickly sends a special task force to the crash site, intent on locating the survivors before it’s too late. But finding Emma and Sumner is only the beginning, as Banner starts to realize that Emma was on a personal mission when the plane went down. There is more to the beautiful, talented biochemist than anyone ever imagined, for in her possession is a volatile biological weapon in an ingenious disguise, one that her enemies have set for auction to the highest bidder. Combining the action-packed plotting of Lee Child and Daniel Silva, and the rich scientific detail of Kathy Reichs and Tess Gerritsen, Running from the Devil is a breathtaking debut from a bold and daring new author.
The Gray Man By Mark Greaney-2010 Barry Award Shortlist- Best Thriller Category The Gray Man
By Mark Greaney
"Courtland Gentry is a good man. But he's a great assassin...To those who lurk in the shadows, he's known as the Gray Man. He is a legend in the covert realm, moving silently from job to job, accomplishing the impossible and then fading away. And he always hits his target. Always. But there are forces more lethal than Gentry in the world. Forces like money. And power. And there are men who hold these as the only currency worth fighting for. And in their eyes, Gentry has just outlived his usefulness. But Court Gentry is going to prove that, for him, there's no gray area between killing for a living and killing to stay alive...."--p.[4] of cover.
Columbus:A Silver Bear Thriller By Derek Haas- 2010 Barry Award Shortlist- Best Thriller Category Columbus:A Silver Bear Thriller
By Derek Haas
He told you not to like him. To get close to Columbus, the Silver Bear, means death. Exactly whose death remains to be determined. Recouping in Europe after losing his fence and best friend during his mission to assassinate his father, Columbus now finds his reverie interrupted by multiple assassins searching for the elusive Silver Bear. As Columbus eliminates each killer, more and more appear-a hydra effect he can only eliminate by finding the origin of the hit, a source connected to his own past. Racing across the globe, as both hunter and hunted, Columbus' travels take him to Italy, where he meets a mysterious woman named Risina. A woman with her own secret past, she may be Columbus' only hope of salvation.
House Secrets By Mike Lawson-2010 Barry Award Shortlist- Best Thriller Category House Secrets
By Mike Lawson
Mike Lawson’s previous novels starring Joe DeMarco, fixed for the Speaker of the House have earned him a loyal following from thriller aficionados and a place among the most talented and captivating thriller writers focusing on the dangerous games of our nation’s capital. In House Secrets, DeMarco is sent to investigate the death of a reporter, the son of one of his boss’s old colleagues, even though it appears to be nothing more than an unfortunate accident. He soon learns that the reporter was on the trail of Senator Paul Morelli, a rising star considered a shoe-in for his party’s presidential nomination. Some politicians are lucky, and Morelli has been luckier than most, but his past has already been thoroughly scrutinized and he looks clean. But then, why is DeMarco being followed by a pair of rogue agents who freelance for the CIA? Dirty secrets, beltway politics, and divided loyalties threaten as DeMarco’s investigation spirals dangerously out of control. Filled with surprising twists, a captivating plot, and excellent characters both old and new, House Secrets is Lawson’s best book yet.
Walking Dead By Greg Rucka-2010 Barry Award Shortlist- Best Thriller Category Walking Dead
By Greg Rucka
Atticus Kodiak knows where people go to hide. That’s why he and Alena Cizkova have come to a secluded Georgian town in the former U.S.S.R. What he doesn’t know is what his friend and neighbor Bakhar Lagidze was hiding from. Bakhar and his entire family have been viciously murdered-all except for Lagidzers"s fourteen-year-old daughter, whose nightmare is just beginning. To rescue her, Atticus must enter a lethal web that stretches from Russia to Istanbul, from Dubai to Las Vegas, and into the very heart of evil. But what troubles Atticus the most is that Alena, once one of the worldrs"s most fearless assassins, is clearly terrified of what Atticus will uncover-and what hers become when he does.
Bury Me Deep By Megan Abbott - 2010 Barry Award Shortlist- Best Paperback Original Category Bury Me Deep
By Megan Abbott
In October 1931, a station agent found two large trunks abandoned in Los Angeles's Southern Pacific Station. What he found inside ignited one of the most scandalous tabloid sensations of the decade. Inspired by this notorious true crime, Edgar(R)-winning author Megan Abbott's novel "Bury Me Deep" is the story of Marion Seeley, a young woman abandoned in Phoenix by her doctor husband. At the medical clinic where she finds a job, Marion becomes fast friends with Louise, a vivacious nurse, and her roommate, Ginny, a tubercular blonde. Before long, the demure Marion is swept up in the exuberant life of the girls, who supplement their scant income by entertaining the town's most powerful men with wild parties. At one of these events, Marion meets -- and falls hard for -- the charming Joe Lanigan, a local rogue and politician on the rise, whose ties to all three women bring events to a dangerous collision. A story born of Jazz Age decadence and Depression-era desperation, "Bury Me Deep" -- with its hothouse of jealousy, illicit sex and shifting loyalties -- is a timeless portrait of the dark side of desire and the glimmer of redemption.
Quarry In The Middle By Max Allan Collins  -2010 Barry Award Shortlist- Best Paperback Original Category Quarry In The Middle
By Max Allan Collins
The sequel to "The First Quarry" and "The Last Quarry." When a pair of warring crime families each hires the same hit man to knock off the other, the man in the middle finds himself in a very dangerous spot. Original.
Starvation Lake By Bryan Gruley-2010 Barry Award Shortlist- Best Paperback Original Category Starvation Lake
By Bryan Gruley
In the dead of a Michigan winter, pieces of a snowmobile wash up near the crumbling, small town of Starvation Lake -- the same snowmobile that went down with Starvation's legendary hockey coach years earlier. But everybody knows Coach Blackburn's accident happened five miles away on a different lake. As rumors buzz about mysterious underground tunnels, the evidence from the snowmobile says one thing: murder. Gus Carpenter, editor of the local newspaper, has recently returned to Starvation after a failed attempt to make it big at the Detroit Times. In his youth, Gus was the goalie who let a state championship get away, crushing Coach's dreams and earning the town's enmity. Now he's investigating the murder of his former coach. But even more unsettling to Gus are the holes in the town's past and the gnawing suspicion that those holes may conceal some dark and disturbing secrets, secrets that some of the people closest to him may have killed to keep.
The Weight Of Silence By Heather Gutenkauf- 2010 Barry Award Shortlist- Best Paperback Original Category The Weight Of Silence
By Heather Gutenkauf
It happens quietly one August morning. As dawn's shimmering light drenches the humid Iowa air, two families awaken to find their little girls have gone missing in the night. Seven-year-old Calli Clark is sweet, gentle, a dreamer who suffers from selective mutism brought on by tragedy that pulled her deep into silence as a toddler. Calli's mother, Antonia, tried to be the best mother she could within the confines of marriage to a mostly absent, often angry husband. Now, though she denies that her husband could be involved in the possible abductions, she fears her decision to stay in her marriage has cost her more than her daughter's voice. Petra Gregory is Calli's best friend, her soul mate and her voice. But neither Petra nor Calli has been heard from since their disappearance was discovered. Desperate to find his child, Martin Gregory is forced to confront a side of himself he did not know existed beneath his intellectual, professorial demeanor. Now these families are tied by the question of what happened to their children. And the answer is trapped in the silence of unspoken family secrets.
Fatal Lies By Frank Tallis -2010 Barry Award Shortlist- Best Paperback Original Category Fatal Lies
By Frank Tallis
A dogged police inspector and an insightful young psychiatrist match wits with depraved criminal minds in this acclaimed mystery series set in Freud’s Vienna. In glittering turn-of-the-century Vienna, brutal instinct and refined intellect fight for supremacy. The latest, most disturbing example: the mysterious and savage death of a young cadet in the most elite of military academies, St. Florian’s. Even using his cutting-edge investigative techniques, Detective Inspector Oskar Rheinhardt cannot crack the school’s closed and sadistic world. He must again enlist the aid of his frequent ally, Dr. Max Liebermann, an expert in Freudian psychology. But how can Liebermann help when he a crisis of his own: handling his conflicted and forbidden feelings for two different women, one a former patient? As the case unfolds, powerful forces will stop at nothing to keep a dark secret
The Herring-Seller's Apprentice By  L. C. Tyler-2010 Barry Award Shortlist- Best Paperback Original Category The Herring-Seller's Apprentice
By L. C. Tyler
Ethelred Tressider is a crime writer with problems. His latest novel is going nowhere, mid-life crisis is looming and he's burdened by the literary agent he probably deserves: Elsie Thirkettle, a diminutive but determined individual who claims to enjoy neither the company of writers nor literature of any sort. But however bad things look they can always get worse, as Ethelred discovers when his ex-wife, Geraldine, vanishes close to his Sussex home. When the disappearance becomes a murder enquiry, the police quickly decide that Geraldine Tressider has been the victim of a local serial killer. Elsie begs to differ, on the grounds that the killer's other victims had been Sad Cows, whereas Geraldine was a Scheming Bitch - another species entirely - and no serious serial killer would murder one in mistake for the other . . . Soon the indefatigable Elsie has bullied Ethelred into embarking upon his own investigation, but as their enquiries proceed, she begins to suspect that her client's own alibi is not as solid as he claims. " The Herring Seller's Apprentice" is an appallingly funny murder mystery, packed with dizzying plot twists and peopled by a memorable cast of eccentrics.
The Guards By Ken Bruen - 2010 Barry Award Shortlist- Mystery/Crime Novel of the Decade The Guards
By Ken Bruen
Still stinging from his unceremonious ouster from the Garda Siochana-The Guards, Ireland's police force-and staring at the world through the smoky bottom of his beer mug, Jack Taylor is stuck in Galway with nothing to look forward to. In his sober moments Jack aspires to become Ireland's best private investigator, not to mention it's first-Irish history, full of betrayal and espionage, discourages any profession so closely related to informing. But in truth Jack is teetering on the brink of his life's sharpest edges, his memories of the past cutting deep into his soul and his prospects for the future non-existent. Non-existent, that is, until a dazzling woman walks into the bar with a strange request and a rumor about Jack's talent for finding things. Odds are he won't be able to climb off his barstool long enough to get involved with his radiant new client, but when he surprises himself by getting hired, Jack has little idea of what he's getting into.
The Lincoln Lawyer By Michael Connelly  -2010 Barry Award Shortlist- Mystery/Crime Novel of the Decade The Lincoln Lawyer
By Michael Connelly
Representing the system's most unsavory characters in his work as a criminal defense lawyer, jaded attorney Mickey Haller takes on his first high-paying and possibly innocent client in years, but finds the case complicated by sinister events that suggest the workings of a particularly evil perpetrator. 500,000 first printing. Stark, violent, sharp, and funny, The Guards is an exceptional novel, one that leaves you stunned and breathless, flipping back to the beginning in a mad dash to find Jack Taylor and enter his world all over again. It's an unforgettable story that's gritty, absorbing, and saturated with the rough-edged rhythms of the Galway streets. Praised by authors and critics around the globe, The Guards heralds the arrival of an essential new novelist in contemporary crime fiction.
The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo By Stieg Larsson-2010 Barry Award Shortlist- Mystery/Crime Novel of the Decade The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
By Stieg Larsson
A sensation across Europe millions of copies sold A spellbinding amalgam of murder mystery, family saga, love story, and financial intrigue. It's about the disappearance forty years ago of Harriet Vanger, a young scion of one of the wealthiest families in Sweden . . . and about her octogenarian uncle, determined to know the truth about what he believes was her murder. It's about Mikael Blomkvist, a crusading journalist recently at the wrong end of a libel case, hired to get to the bottom of Harriet's disappearance . . . and about Lisbeth Salander, a twenty-four-year-old pierced and tattooed genius hacker possessed of the hard-earned wisdom of someone twice her age and a terrifying capacity for ruthlessness to go with itwho assists Blomkvist with the investigation. This unlikely team discovers a vein of nearly unfathomable iniquity running through the Vanger family, astonishing corruption in the highest echelons of Swedish industrialism and an unexpected connection between themselves. It's a contagiously exciting, stunningly intelligent novel about society at its most hidden, and about the intimate lives of a brilliantly realized cast of characters, all of them forced to face the darker aspects of their world and of their own lives.
Mystic River By Dennis Lehane- 2010 Barry Award Shortlist- Mystery/Crime Novel of the Decade Mystic River
By Dennis Lehane
When they were children, Sean Devine, Jimmy Marcus, and Dave Boyle were friends. But then a strange car pulled up to their street. One boy got into the car, two did not, and something terrible happened -- something that ended their friendship and changed all three boys forever. Twenty-five years later, Sean is a homicide detective. Jimmy is an ex-con who owns a corner store. And Dave is trying to hold his marriage together and keep his demons at bay -- demons that urge him to do terrible things. When Jimmy's daughter is found murdered, Sean is assigned to the case. His investigation brings him into conflict with Jimmy, who finds his old criminal impulses tempt him to solve the crime with brutal justice. And then there is Dave, who came home the night Jimmy's daughter died covered in someone else's blood. A tense and unnerving psychological thriller, Mystic River is also an epic novel of love and loyalty, faith and family, in which people irrevocably marked by the past find themselves on a collision course with the darkest truths of their own hidden selves
Still Life By Louise Penny-2010 Barry Award Shortlist- Mystery/Crime Novel of the Decade Still Life
By Louise Penny
Chief Inspector Armand Gamache of the Surêté du Québec and his team of investigators are called in to the scene of a suspicious death in a rural village south of Montreal. Jane Neal, a local fixture in the tiny hamlet of Three Pines, just north of the U.S. border, has been found dead in the woods. The locals are certain it’s a tragic hunting accident and nothing more, but Gamache smells something foul in these remote woods, and is soon certain that Jane Neal died at the hands of someone much more sinister than a careless bowhunter. Still Life introduces not only an engaging series hero in Inspector Gamache, who commands his forces--and this series--with integrity and quiet courage, but also a winning and talented new writer of traditional mysteries in the person of Louise Penny
The Shadow Of The Wind By  Carlos Ruiz Zafon-2010 Barry Award Shortlist- Mystery/Crime Novel of the Decade The Shadow Of The Wind
By Carlos Ruiz Zafon
The Sopranos are back: out of school and out in the world, gathered in Gatwick to plan a super-cheap last-minute holiday to celebrate their reunion. Kay, Kylah, Manda, Rachel and Finn are joined by Finn's equally gorgeous friend Ava - a half-French philosophy student - and are ready to go on the rampage. Just into their twenties and as wild as ever, they've added acrylic nails, pedicures, mobile phones and credit cards to their arsenal, but are still the same thirsty girls: their holiday bags packed with skimpy clothes and condoms, their hormones rampant. Will it be Benidorm or Magaluf, Paris or Las Vegas? One thing is certain: a great deal of fast-food will be eaten and gallons of Guinness will be drunk by the alpha-female Manda, and she will be matched by the others' enthusiastic intake of Bacardi Breezers, vodkas and Red Bull. With Alan Warner's pitch-perfect ear for dialogue, pinpoint characterisation and glorious set-pieces, this is a novel propelled by conversation through scenes of excess and debauchery, hilarity and sadness. Like the six young women at its centre, The Stars in the Bright Sky is vivid and brimming with life - in all its squalor, rage, tears and laughter - and presents an unforgettable story of female friendship.