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The Cat's Out of the Bag; Here's The Skinny on New Adult Fiction @ JCPL!

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Photo of cat sleeping on books.

Dog tired; I think I’ve wondered about this aloud in one of my articles before, and I still wonder how this phrase came to be, when my own dogs seem to be the exception to this idiom.

I’m not going to ‘beat around the bush.’ I can’t come close to ‘cutting the mustard’ where their “no energy shortage” is concerned, because, ‘at the drop of a hat,’ they put the ‘icing on the cake’ of an already long day, and have me ‘burning the midnight oil’ because of their antics.

I’ll ‘make a long story short’ and tell you that I’d be ‘barking up the wrong tree’ if I didn’t want to ‘call it a day’ long before they do. Are we ‘seeing eye to eye?’ If you think like I do, ‘jump on the bandwagon’ with me as I ‘let the cat out of the bag’ and ‘give you the skinny’ on these brand new fiction titles from JCPL!

When Private Detective, Jaycob Eklund vanishes without a trace, it is Charlie Parker’s job to find him. Because Eklund’s job entails more than just the ordinary homicide and missing persons investigation, Parker feels a little out of his element. Eklund, after all, dabbles in the paranormal in his work; hunting not only killers, but ghosts as well. Drawn into the world of the paranormal realm, Parker finds himself delving into a ghost of a time, where the innocent and guilty have become pawns in a game he can’t win in ‘A Game of Ghosts,’ book number 15 in the Charlie Parker series by John Connolly.

As he awaits execution for the murder of his master, ex-slave, Persimmon Wilson writes his autobiography, including all of his travels, from the brutality of his slavery to becoming a free man, searching for his one true love ,a light skinned slave named Chloe. When he finally finds her, Chloe is already taken, and has wed the master from their slave days. ‘The Life and Times of Persimmon Wilson’ by Nancy Peacock brings old-fashioned romance back into vogue, taking the reader back to the year 1875, and the adventure that can only be found in Drunken Bride, Texas.

Life takes an adventurous turn for Alissa Wells when she bids on and wins an abandoned storage unit, which comes with the unexpected bonus of a man, or at least, a man’s remains, or more accurately, his cremains. Roger Hart now belongs to Alissa, and as she takes to the road, along with her three legged dog and Blossom, a young waitress who has just graduated high school, the trio head west with the intention of returning Roger’s ashes to his home. The unplanned road trip takes on a life of its own as these three come upon one unexpected turn after another in ‘Traveling Light’ by Lynne Branard.

An environmental survey brings three very different women together in ‘The Crow Trap’ by Ann Cleeves. Rachael Lambert is the project leader, and hopes that the assignment will free her from the burden of a broken spirit after suffering a huge betrayal by her boss and lover, Peter Kemp. Grace Fulwell and Anne Preece also have an agenda besides just an environmental survey, but when they arrive at the isolated cottage in the North Pennines to begin their project, they discover the body of Rachael’s friend, Bella Furness. At first glance is appears as though Bella has committed suicide, but when another death occurs, and Detective Inspector Vera Stanhope enters the picture, it becomes clear that there is more to the truth than meets the eye in this thriller, book number one in the Vera Stanhope series by Ann Cleeves.

‘A penny for your thoughts’ as you read about these books, which, by the way, I think are the ‘best things since sliced bread.’ ‘I’m all ears’ if you care to tell me about them, and they won’t cost ‘an arm and a leg’ when you check them out from your local branch of the Jasper County Public Library, which is also ‘the best thing since sliced bread!’