Fauna

By Alissa York

The wide ravine that bisects the city is home to countless species of urban wildlife, including human waifs and strays. When Edal Jones can't cope with the casual cruelty she encounters in her job as a federal wildlife officer, she finds herself drawn to a beacon of solace nestled in the valley under the unlikely banner of an auto-wrecker's yard. Guy Howell, the handsome proprietor, offers sanctuary to animals and people alike: a half-starved hawk and a brood of orphaned raccoon kits, a young soldier whose spirit failed him during his first tour of duty, a teenage runaway and her massive black dog. Guy is well versed in the delicate workings of damaged beings, and he might just stand a chance at mending Edal's heart.  But before love can bloom, the little community must come to terms with a different breed of lost soul; a young man whose brutal backwoods childhood is catching up with him, causing him to persecute the creatures that call the valley home.  TitlePeek

The day the falls stood still

By Cathy Marie Buchanan

1915. Niagara Falls. The dawn of the hydroelectric power era. Seventeen-year-old Bess Heath, who has led a sheltered existence as the younger daughter of the director of the Niagara Power Company, meets Tom Cole by chance on a trolley platform, and finds herself inexplicably drawn to him. He is not from her world. Rough-hewn and fearless, he lives off what the river provides and has an uncanny knack for reading the whims of the falls. His daring river rescues render him a local hero and cast him as a threat to the power companies that seek to harness the power of the falls for themselves. As the paths of Bess and Tom become entwined, Buchanan spins a capriciously imagined tale of love, loss, class and early environmentalism.  TitlePeek

The weed that strings the hangman's bag: a novel

By Alan Bradley

Eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce didn't intend to investigate another murder --- but then, Rupert Porson didn't intend to die. When the master puppeteer's van breaks down in the village of Bishop's Lacey, Flavia is front and centre to help Rupert and his charming assistant, Nialla, put together a performance in the local church to help pay the repair bill. But even as the newcomers set up camp and set the stage for Jack and the Beanstalk, there are signs that something just isn't right: Nialla's strange bruises and solitary cries in the churchyard, Rupert's unexplained disappearances and a violent argument with his BBC producer, the disturbing atmosphere at Culverhouse Farm, and the peculiar goings-on in nearby Gibbet Wood --- where young Robin Ingleby was found hanging just five years before. It's enough to set Flavia's detective instincts tingling and her chemistry lab humming. What are Rupert and Nialla trying to hide? Why are Grace and Gordon Ingleby, Robin's still-grieving parents, acting so strangely? And what does Mad Meg mean when she says the Devil has come back to Gibbet Wood? Then it's showtime for Porson's Puppets at St. Tancred's --- but as Nialla plays Mother Goose, Rupert's goose gets cooked as the victim of an electrocution that is too perfectly planned to be an accident. Someone had set the stage for murder. Putting down her sister-punishing experiments and picking up her trusty bicycle, Gladys, Flavia uncovers long-buried secrets of Bishop's Lacey, the seemingly idyllic village that is nevertheless home to a madwoman living in its woods, a prisoner-of-war with a soft spot for the English countryside, and two childless parents with a devastating secret. While the local police do their best to keep up with Flavia in solving Rupert's murder, his killer may pull Flavia in way over her head, to a startling discovery that reveals the chemical composition of vengeance.  TitlePeek

Waiting for Columbus: a novel

By Thomas Trofimuk

In a Spanish mental institution in 2004, a man who believes he is Christopher Columbus begins to tell his story. Nurse Consuela listens, hoping to discover what tragedy drove this educated, cultured man to retreat from reality. This Columbus is not heroic: he falls in love with every woman he meets, and, on land, he has absolutely no sense of direction. More troublingly, he is convinced a terrible tragedy is coming. Yet with each tale, Consuela draws closer to this lost navigator. Waiting for Columbusis richly imagined, cinematic, and often playful; a novel about truth, loss, love, and hope by a writer at the height of his powers.  TitlePeek

Crossing midnight: cut here

By Mike Carey, Jim Fern & Mark Pennington

A fantasy/horror series set in the heart of present-day Nagakaki, Japan, Crossing Midnight begins when a set of extraordinary twins are born -- one just before midnight and the other just after. They discover the huge impact this small difference has on their destinies when the after-midnight twin is inducted into a world of supernatural beings and events that intersects with our own world. Together, they will desperately try to stay one step ahead of their terrifying fates while they learn how far the curse afflicting them really stretches.  TitlePeek