Five Fiction Picks for a Snowy Day

Senior reference librarian, Rosemary Jerome, chooses five of her favorite fiction books that are on the shelves at Half Hollow Hills Library right now.

Stephen M. Irwin, The Dead Path (2010) 

Following a wicked accident and the tragic death of his wife, Nicholas Close has been cursed with the gift of second sight, condemned to watch the dying moments of ghosts over and over again. He flees London for his childhood home in an Australian suburb.  When a child from the neighborhood goes missing, Nicholas is the only one who knows that she has been murdered in the woods by unknown forces. He is compelled to uncover the evil stalking his hometown and his family. Australian author Irwin's debut novel, a supernatural thriller, evokes a world full of death and spirits to which we are oblivious. 

Beverly Jensen, The Sisters from Hardscrabble Bay  (2010) 

Jensen's posthumous debut spans the years 1916 to 1987 and offers 
vignettes from the lives of sisters Idella and Avis Hillock, opening with an account of their mother's death in childbirth and closing with Idella's husband, Eddie, now an old man reminiscing about his life with Idella. The Hillock girls spent their early years in New Brunswick, Canada where grief and hard living have damaged their widowed father. Idella escapes to New England where she finds a husband and her own domestic troubles.  Avis embarks on a series of damaging romantic entanglements. She ends up in the States too but never settles down. She spends time in prison for borderline prostitution and winds up becoming an alcoholic. 

Susan Fraser King, Queen Hereafter: A Novel of Margaret of Scotland (2010) 

King whisks readers back to eleventh-century Scotland in this historical novel that interweaves the stories of Margaret and Lady Macbeth. When Margaret, a Saxon princess and her party are shipwrecked on the Scottish coast, she becomes a pawn in an elaborate political game between her brother, Edgar of England and Malcolm Canmore, the Scottish warrior king.  King's follow up to Lady Macbeth. 

Tim Kring,  Shift  (2010) 

The brainchild of Kring, the creator of the TV series "Heroes," this offbeat novel offers up a fresh and twisted look at American political history.  It's the 1960s and Chandler Forrestral becomes an unwilling volunteer in a mind-control experiment involving LSD.  Now possessed with mental powers, Chandler is convinced there is a plot to assassinate President Kennedy.  Can one man save the president? 

Benjamin Percy, Wilding  (2010) 

Issues of fatherhood and manhood are at the center of this debut 
thriller.  Justin Caves hopes a hunting trip to Echo Canyon with is father and his son will help mend some fences.  Schoolteacher Justin has a strained relationship with his construction worker father and feels disconnected from his video game and music player obsessed son. They are tested by the challenge to survive in the wilderness and they must face their own demons.