40. Looking Good Dead by Peter James

London businessman Tom Bryce makes the mistake of a lifetime when he picks up a CD he found coming home on the train. When he pops it into his home computer, he realizes he is watching a web recording of a snuff film in which a young woman dies. He is soon contacted by Scarab Productions, the maker of the film, and is warned if he goes to the police he and his family will be killed. Meanwhile, Brighton Detective Chief Superintendent Roy Grace, last seen in 2006’s Dead Simple, has found the headless body of a young law student, Janie Stretton, who appeared on the web cast. When Tom decides to ignore the email warning him, Detective Grace becomes involved in the frantic search for the Bryce family - as they might be the next people to be filmed.

Full of non-stop suspense and action, this is a great summer read. Detective Grace is still coping with the nine year disappearance of his wife, and has begun to date pathologist Cleo Morey, also seen in the first book of this series. While the book may seem improbable at times, it is a quick, fun read for British mystery fans. For readers of Jeffery Deaver, Quentin Jardine, and Harlan Coben. For a review of Dead Simple, the first book in the Detective Grace series, check out: http://www.tcpl.org/sarah/2007/02/8-dead-simple-by-peter-james.html

39. The Mistress's Daughter: a Memoir by A.M. Homes

Homes’s autobiography started out as a piece in the New Yorker in 2004. While she always knew she was adopted, Homes is surprised to learn in her early thirties that her birth mother would like to be reunited with her. In 1993, she agrees to reunions with her birth mother, Ellen, and her birth father, Norman. Ellen, who got pregnant at 22 when she worked for Norman in his clothing shop, is instantly needy and tries to push her way into Homes’s life. Norman demands a DNA test to assure that Homes is actually his child, and distances himself from her almost immediately by only agreeing to meet in hotel bars and without his family. When Ellen dies a few years after the reunion, Homes packs her belongings up in a few boxes, and doesn’t open them for seven years. When she does unpack them, she realizes that she still does not understand this woman who was part of her life.

I listened to this on CD and it was a very haunting and moving account of how Homes tries to deal with her “new” parents. From Ellen stalking her at a book signing, to Norman refusing to hand over the DNA results so Homes can join the Daughters of the American Revolution, Homes does not gloss over her reunion with her birth parents. While the first part of the book deals with her struggle, the last part of the book wanders when she delves into genealogy to learn more about her distant birth relatives. In the end, the reader does not know if she ends up suing her birth father for her DNA information, or how their relationship ended up. This memoir is a very personal account of learning about one’s family.

38. A Brief Lunacy by Cynthia Thayer

Carl and Jessie Jensen are enjoying their secluded Maine house during their retirement years and spend their days painting the local forest scenery. Life is going well for the older couple, with the small exception of their daughter, Sylvie, who lives in a nearby nursing home due to psychiatric problems. The Jensens soon learn that Sylvie has fled the facility, possibly with a male resident, and although she calls her parents, they cannot determine where she is. When a male camper shows up at their door, claiming to have his camping gear stolen, Jessie invites him in for dinner and eventually offers to have Jonah spend the night. After a sleepless night, Jonah takes the couple hostage the next day and torments them both psychologically and physically for the next day. Who is this person, and does he know their daughter? The couple soon finds out secrets from him, and secrets Jessie and Carl have kept from each other over the years.

Told in an alternating fashion, with Jessie and Carl sharing their version of the home invasion, this is a chilling novel. The character Carl is especially well developed and how he was able to survive the Birkenau concentration camp is shocking. Everyone involved with the story has secrets, some that will change the way characters see each other for the rest of their lives. This novel has relentless suspense and takes a strong look at sanity and madness.