Friday Finds #18

What great books did you hear about / discover this past week?

Share with us your Friday Finds!

 The Dervish House by Ian McDonald

It begins with an explosion. Another day, another bus bomb. Everyone it seems is after a piece of Turkey. But the shockwaves from this random act of 21st century pandemic terrorism will ripple further and resonate louder than just Enginsoy Square.
Welcome to the world of The Dervish House; the great, ancient, paradoxical city of Istanbul, divided like a human brain, in the great, ancient, equally paradoxical nation of Turkey. The year is 2027 and Turkey is about to celebrate the fifth anniversary of its accession to the European Union; a Europe that now runs from the Arran Islands to Ararat. Population pushing one hundred million, Istanbul swollen to fifteen million; Turkey is the largest, most populous and most diverse nation in the EU, but also one of the poorest and most socially divided. It's a boom economy, the sweatshop of Europe, the bazaar of central Asia, the key to the immense gas wealth of Russia and Central Asia.
Gas is power. But it's power at a price, and that price is emissions permits. This is the age of carbon consciousness: every individual in the EU has a card stipulating individual carbon allowance that must be produced at every CO2 generating transaction. For those who can master the game, who can make the trades between gas price and carbon trading permits, who can play the power factions against each other, there are fortunes to be made. The old Byzantine politics are back. They never went away.
The ancient power struggled between Sunni and Shia threatens like a storm: Ankara has watched the Middle East emerge from twenty-five years of sectarian conflict. So far it has stayed aloof. A populist Prime Minister has called a referendum on EU membership. Tensions run high. The army watches, hand on holster. And a Galatasary Champions' League football game against Arsenal stokes passions even higher.
The Dervish House is seven days, six characters, three interconnected story strands, one central common core--the eponymous dervish house, a character in itself--that pins all these players together in a weave of intrigue, conflict, drama and a ticking clock of a thriller.

Mr. Twilight by Maya Kaathryn Bohnhoff & Michael Reaves

In bookshop specializing in rare volumes, an avid fan of horror fiction seizes a tome too valuable and too incredible to fathom. In the end, the man was too curious to live. . . 

A few miles away, in a Manhattan brownstone, another man learns about the explosion that left a gaping hole in the fabric of reality. Colin - he has no other name - has been an unrelenting warrior against the dark, the demonic, and the damned. A man who has angels at his side and hell staring him in the face, he has devoted his life to solving magical crimes and tracking down - and neutralizing - the perpetrators of those crimes, human and nonhuman alike. Now Colin is about to team up with a beautiful Native American a long way from home and a tough NYPD detective who seems to be immune to magic. Together, in a funhouse of evidence and apparitions, they are chasing a killer and untangling a tale that leads from the infamous Vlad the Impaler to a dead twentieth-century occult author and his gorgeous daughter - who is as seductive as the devil himself.

Boneshaker by Cherie Priest

In the early days of the Civil War, rumors of gold in the frozen Klondike brought hordes of newcomers to the Pacific Northwest. Anxious to compete, Russian prospectors commissioned inventor Leviticus Blue to create a great machine that could mine through Alaska's ice. Thus was Dr. Blue's Incredible Bone-Shaking Drill Engine born.
But on its first test run the Boneshaker went terribly awry, destroying several blocks of downtown Seattle and unearthing a subterranean vein of blight gas that turned anyone who breathed it into the living dead.
Now it is sixteen years later, and a wall has been built to enclose the devastated and toxic city. Just beyond it lives Blue's widow, Briar Wilkes. Life is hard with a ruined reputation and a teenaged boy to support, but she and Ezekiel are managing. Until Ezekiel undertakes a secret crusade to rewrite history.
His quest will take him under the wall and into a city teeming with ravenous undead, air pirates, criminal overlords, and heavily armed refugees. And only Briar can bring him out alive. 

The Choir Boats by Daniel A. Rabuzzi

What would you give to make good on the sins of your past? For merchant Barnabas McDoon, the answer is: everything. When emissaries from a world called Yount offer Barnabas a chance to redeem himself, he accepts their price-to voyage to Yount with the key that only he can use to unlock the door to their prison. But bleak forces seek to stop him: Yount's jailer, a once-human wizard who craves his own salvation, kidnaps Barnabas's nephew. A fallen angel-a monstrous owl with eyes of fire-will unleash Hell if Yount is freed. And, meanwhile, Barnabas' niece, Sally, and a mysterious pauper named Maggie seek with dream-songs to wake the sleeping goddess who may be the only hope for Yount and Earth alike.

Shadowbridge by Gregory Frost

Sprung from a timeless dream, Shadowbridge is a world of linked spans arching high above glittering seas. It is a world of parading ghosts, inscrutable gods, and dangerous magic. Most of all, it is a world of stories.
No one knows those stories better than Leodora, a young shadow-puppeteer who travels Shadowbridge collecting the intertwining tales and myths of each place she passes through, then retells them in performances whose genius has begun to attract fame . . . and less welcome attention.
For Leodora is fleeing a violent past, as are her two companions: her manager, Soter, an elderly drunkard who also served Ledora's father, the legendary puppeteer Bardsham; and Diverus, her musical accompanist, a young man who has been blessed, and perhaps cursed, by the touch of a nameless god.
Now, as the strands of a destiny she did not choose begin to tighten around her, Leodora is about to cross the most perilous bridge of all - the one leading from the past to the future.

Divine Misfortune by A. Lee Martinez

Like many people in this world, Phil and Terry are just looking for their personal slice of divine assistance. It's not their fault that they decide to settle on Lucky, a raccoon god of good fortune. At first, everything seems to be working fine. But they will soon learn that the world of divine powers is not to be entered into casually. Lucky, it seems, had a falling out with another ancient god long ago. And while Lucky has moved on with his life, the ancient twisted deity is still nursing a grudge. Add to this a scorned goddess looking for revenge and it starts to become clear that Phil and Terry may have taken on more than they ever bargained for.

The Trials of the Honorable F. Darcy by Sara Angelini

Judge Fitzwilliam Darcy, a legal expert on both sides of the Atlantic, is ready to hang up his black robe and return to the life of a country gentleman—until he meets Elizabeth Bennet, a fresh-faced attorney with a hectic schedule and no time for the sexy but haughty judge.

Tempers and sparks fly in Judge Darcy's courtroom— and outside, in a series of chance encounters that give each of them pause—as the two match wits and try to fight their overwhelming attraction. When they meet up in England at an international law conference, they embark on a hot, heavy affair. Back in the States, though, ethical considerations intrude, and each is subjected to a torturous period of soul-searching before they can find their way back to each other...

A Little Bit Psychic by Aimee Avery

If Jane Austen lived in the 21st Century, who knows how Mr. Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet would overcome their false impressions, mistaken pride and unfounded prejudices. Here is a possible answer. -- Take a humorous journey with post-graduate student Elizabeth Bennet as she travels to London to study for her PhD. Will her strange dreams of princesses and knights hold her back or will being just "A Little Bit Psychic" aid her in discovering that William Darcy is the love of her life?

A Date on Cloud Nine by Jenna McKnight

Once is never enough!
Lilly Marquette doesn't need angels to tell her it's not her time. After all, she's not even thirty. But while checking out the incredibly hot guy behind the counter of an adults-only toy shop, the furnace blows, and poof, Lilly is headed for the pearly gates! But instead of St. Peter, she's greeted by ... John and Elizabeth? These guardian angels are giving Lilly one last chance to get it right ... and to finally choose the right man.
Jake Murdoch is hot, sexy, and may even be the right man, but he wants nothing to do with Lilly. He believes she stole three million dollars from him in an insurance scam, and now she's talking to angels and giving away his money! His mind should be on revenge, but when she bats those long, sexy lashes at him, it suddenly doesn't seem so important anymore ... not when he gets one last chance to prove he is the right man.

Witch in the House by Jenna McKnight

Jade Delarue is determined to find the man of her dreams, so the sexy witch casts a spell that brings a gorgeous man to her door. But private detective Mason Kincaid isn't looking for love. Jilted by his last girlfriend, Mason's thrown himself into his work. He's visiting Jade on official business, and not even the blizzard raging outside her house—or her spellbinding beauty—can distract him.
Then Jade realizes the mistake she's made in her spell, and she wants him gone. But there are charms to spare in Mystic Manor, showing Mason that the witch in the house might be the woman he's been waiting for. Convincing her, though, means coming up with a little magic of his own.

Dead Girls Are Easy by Terri Garey

There's something about almost dying that makes a girl rethink her priorities. Take Nicki Styx—she was strictly goth and vintage, until a brush with the afterlife leaves her with the ability to see dead people.
Before you can say boo, Atlanta's ghosts are knocking at Nicki's door. Now her days consist of reluctantly cleaning up messes left by the dearly departed, leading ghouls to the Light . . . and one-on-one anatomy lessons with Dr. Joe Bascombe, the dreamy surgeon who saved her life. All this catering to the deceased is a real drag, especially for a girl who'd rather be playing hanky-panky with her hunky new boyfriend . . . who's beginning to think she's totally nuts.
But things get even more complicated when a friend foolishly sells her soul to the devil, and Nicki's new gift lands her in some deep voodoo.
As it turns out for Nicki Styx, death was just the beginning. 

Love in the Fast Lane by Jenna McKnight

Scott Templeton lives for the adrenaline rush, but when the ghost of a legendary race car driver suddenly appears in the passenger seat next to him, it sends Scott literally into a tailspin. Now he can't convince the guy to head toward the light and stop haunting him, not until Scott promises to make a special delivery.
Maggie Cooper has a five-year plan that involves making executive VP with a corner office and a salary that will cause a grown man to weep. What it doesn't involve is a high-speed hotshot who claims her dead father sent him. She doesn't care how charming Scott is, or how he seems to devour her with his eyes, or even how her shotgun-toting grandmother is playing matchmaker. Maggie is determined to resist, but Scott is just as determined to convince her that loving him is worth the risk. 

Don of the Dead by Casey Daniels

She sees dead people...  

Beautiful, smart, and chic, Pepper Martin never had to work a day in her life -- until her surgeon daddy was convicted of fraud, her wealthy fiancé took a powder, and the family fortune ran bone dry.
Suddenly desperate, the inexperienced ex-rich girl was forced to take the only job she could get: as a tour guide in a cemetery. But a grave situation took a turn for the worse when a head-on collision with a headstone left her with an unwanted ability to communicate with the disgruntled deceased . . . and now Pepper has a whacked Mafia don demanding that she hunt down his killers -- and threatening to haunt her until she does. 

Delicious and Suspicious by Riley Adams

Welcome to Aunt Pat's barbecue restaurant, which serves up Memphis fun with a side order of murder.
Recipes included.
Named in honor of Lulu Taylor's great aunt, Aunt Pat's family-run Memphis restaurant is known for its ribs and spicy cornbread. But now the Taylor family will be known for murder...
Rebecca Adrian came to Memphis to suss out the best local BBQ for a prominent Cooking Channel Show. Trouble is, a mystery ingredient has killed her-and now all fingers are pointing to Aunt Pat's restaurant. Horrified that her family is being accused of murder, Lulu fires up her investigative skills to solve the crime before someone else gets skewered.

The Long Quiche Goodbye by Avery Aames

Welcome to the grand opening of Fromagerie Bessette. Or as it's more commonly known by the residents of small-town Providence, Ohio-the Cheese Shop. Proprietor Charlotte Bessette has prepared a delightful sampling of bold Cabot Clothbound Cheddar, delicious tortes of Stilton and Mascarpone, and a taste of Sauvignon Blanc-but someone else has decided to make a little crime of passion the piece de resistance. Right outside the shop Charlotte finds a body, the victim stabbed to death with one of her prized olive-wood handled knives.

Defending Angels by Mary Stanton

With a long list of ethereal clients who need her help, Savannah lawyer Brianna Winston Beaufort's career choice is beginning to haunt her.
An already dead businessman needs Bree's help to find his murderer and prove his innocence against the charge of greed, which comes from the mightiest hand of the law, the Celestial Court. And the verdict in this case could put Bree's life on the line - as well as her client's afterlife.

Desolate Angel by Chaz McGee

He was once a second-rate cop, a mediocre husband, and an absent father. But ever since he was killed in a drug bust gone bad, Kevin Fahey's been a lost soul in limbo. Until he encounters a dead victim whose murder he thought he solved, a girl who points him to a fresh body. And Fahey realizes he imprisoned the wrong man - and the true killer is still on the loose.

A Tisket, a Tasket, a Fancy Stolen Casket by Fran Rizer

Mortuary cosmetologist Calamine Parrish stares death in the face every day. But when she finds a hypodermic needle in the neck of an "accidental" drowning victim, and the victim's fancy casket is stolen, Callie finds herself in over her head-and in the way of a killer.