June 6, 2025
New Fiction
The Last Ferry Out by Andrea Bartz – When Abby sets foot on Isla Colel, she isn’t sure what – if anything – she’ll find. She only knows that she needs to see the place where her fiancé, Eszter, died to try and make sense of the tragic accident. The island is nothing like Abby expected: Though it was once a bustling tourist hub, a hurricane has left it a shell of its former self, with only a handful of residents remaining. Even the once-daily ferry to the mainland now runs only every week or so. There, Abby befriends an alluring group of expats, but her sense of unease surges when one of them says he knows the truth about Eszter’s final days. Before he can tell her more, he vanishes from the island. Hours turn to days with no sign of him, and the others are chillingly cavalier about his disappearance. As her quest for the truth unearths dark secrets, shady pasts, and a web of lies, Abby grows more determined than ever to find out what happened to the love of her life. And the deeper she gets in the close-knit expat community, the more she suspects that one of them is Eszter’s killer – and will do anything to keep the truth buried. But will Abby discover who it is before she becomes the island’s next victim?
No One was Supposed to Die at this Wedding by Catherine Mack – Attending your best friend’s wedding should be a piece of (wedding) cake. But not for Eleanor Dash, bestselling author of the Vacation Mysteries series, because murder seems to follow her every time she goes on vacation and is definitely her uninvited plus-one to the special occasion. Emma Wood, Eleanor’s best friend since childhood, is starring in the movie adaptation of When in Rome, Eleanor’s first novel. Emma is also marrying Fred Winters, a major movie star and Emma’s co-star, who just happens to be playing Connor Smith, Eleanor’s ex and leading man of the series. Filming wraps and they invite the whole cast and crew to their wedding on nearby Catalina Island. There may be a storm headed their way – because of course there is – but nothing will stop their nuptials…that is, until Emma receives a note that says, “Someone is going to die at the wedding.” Eleanor is a professional at this point, and she’ll do everything she can to uncover the murderer so true love can prevail – before it’s too late for her and the rest of the storm trapped wedding party.
Nightshade by Michael Connelly – Los Angeles County sheriff’s detective Stilwell has been “exiled” to a low-key post policing rustic Catalina Island after department politics drove him off a homicide desk on the mainland. But while following up on the usual drunk-and-disorderlies and petty thefts that come with his new territory, Detective Stilwell gets a report of a body found weighed down at the bottom of the harbor – a Jane Doe identifiable at first only by a streak of purple dye in her hair. At the same time, a report of poaching on a protected reserve turns into a case fraught with violence and danger as Stilwell digs into the shady past of an island bigwig. Crossing all lines of protocol and jurisdiction, Stilwell doggedly works both cases. Though hampered by an old beef with an ex-colleague determined to thwart him at every turn, he is convinced he is the only one who can bring justice to the woman known as Nightshade. Soon his investigation uncovers closely guarded secrets and a dark heart to the serene island that was meant to be his escape from the evils of the big city.
Courtroom Drama by Neely Tubati Alexander – Sydney Parks thinks she might be the first person in the world to look forward to jury duty. When Margot Kitsch, an OG cast member of the hit reality show Authentic Moms of Malibu, is arrested after the untimely death of her cast member husband, Sydney knows being selected for the jury is the wildest thing that’s ever happened to her. However, it doesn’t take long for Sydney to realize being part of a sequestered jury in a high-profile trial is not at all what legal dramas suggest – especially when she learns her childhood best friend, Damon, whom she hasn’t seen in ten years, is also a jury member. As the trial wears on, Sydney realizes there’s a lot more to the case than she first thought. And there’s also a lot more to Damon – she soon finds herself falling under his spell despite the court’s instructions not to fraternize. His tendency to break the rules and find adventure is hard to resist in their otherwise carefully controlled jurors’ world. But getting close to Damon also means having to face the complicated reasons their friendship abruptly ended just when they were on the cusp of something more. With all the drama in and out of the courtroom, how is Sydney supposed to ignore the fraught history between them? How is she supposed to avoid Damon when he’s sitting next to her in the jury box every day with his broad shoulders and intoxicating scent? And how is she supposed to ensure Margot gets a fair trial if her unfinished business with Damon may just cause the mistrial of the century?