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longing surrounding an artificial world. tongue-in-cheek humor will enjoy this songwriting career and moved home so
In the heart-wrenching “The Blue tricky whodunit. (May) her teen son, David, can get to know his
Afternoon That Lasted Forever,” a single biological father, Hunt. An injury and
father and physicist must brace himself What Are You Afraid Of? subsequent painkiller addiction ended
and his little girl for a cataclysmic event. Alexandra Ivy. Zebra, $7.99 mass market Hunt’s baseball dreams, and now he’s
In the tragic, disturbing “Special (364p) ISBN 978-1-4201-4381-2 trying to make up for the years he spent
Automatic,” a bullied and abused teen Ivy’s newest contemporary romantic ignoring David and hoping to make
boy uses the implant that controls his sei- thriller (following Pretend You’re Safe) things right with Summer. Talley reveals
zures to link his mind to a robot he built, begins ominously in an isolated cabin in detailed backstory by interweaving nar-
giving himself more power than he ever the Rocky Mountains, where Carmen ratives from past and present. Themes of
could have dreamed. Also included are Jacobs has escaped for the Christmas holi- self-worth are examined through the
stories from the worlds of Robopocalypse days. It’s supposed to be a place to relax lives of these complex characters as they
and The Clockwork Dynasty. Wilson dis- and unwind from the year of interviews reflect on their life experiences. Except
plays an aching humanity and literary and appearances following the launch of for a few instances when the dialogue
sensibility that will satisfy his fans and her bestselling book profiling serial sounds a little too much like an authorial
win him plenty of new ones. This killers. Carmen isn’t expecting any intru- lecture, the prose is powerful in its under-
thoughtful, affecting collection will sions, so when an express envelope lands statedness, adding to the appeal of this
linger in the thoughts of readers long after on her doorstep she hesitates, but opens it alluring story. Agent: Michelle Grajkowski,
the last page is turned. (Mar.) anyway. The disturbing photos that fall 3 Seas Literary. (Apr.)
out suggest that someone is copying the
Romance/Erotica work of a killer she profiled. She runs to The Rancher:
Last Chance Cowboys, Book 4
the police, only to be rebuffed. That’s
when she turns to Griffin Archer—tech Anna Schmidt. Sourcebooks Casablanca,
Lock Nut whiz, part $7.99 mass market (352p) ISBN 978-1-4926-
JL Merrow. Riptide, $18.99 trade paper owner of a com- 1305-3
(330p) ISBN 978-1-62649-728-3 pany special- Schmidt’s enjoyable fourth Last Chance
Merrow gifts readers with a witty, izing in law Cowboys historical (after The Outlaw)
absorbing fifth Plumber’s Mate mystery enforcement has the unusual backdrop of tensions
(after Blow Down), which newcomers to software, and between cattle ranchers and sheep herders
the series will find easy to follow. Tom serious hottie— in the late-19th-century Arizona
Paretski’s psychic ability to locate missing hoping that he Territory. Beautiful and resilient Nell
objects frequently draws him away from will take her Stokes is doing her best to survive after
his day job as a plumber in present-day theory of a unknown assailants killed her husband
London. In this installment, porn pro- copycat killer and left her to take care of their young
ducer Lilah Parrot hires him to find her seriously. Ivy son, Joshua, and run their sheep ranch
runaway husband, Jonny, and Tom ropes deftly charts a course between gruesome alone. When nearby cattle rancher Trey
his private investigator fiancé, Phil, into suspense and sudden romance as Carmen Porterfield tries to befriend the young
the case, assuming less mystical skills will and Griff race to solve the whodunit widow, she’s wary of him, but Trey is
be more useful. When the missing man before the predator kills again. Agent: unlike the other cattle ranchers Nell has
turns up dead, Lilah, who’s suspiciously Evan Marshall, Evan Marshall Agency. met. Soon she is attracted to the hand-
calm, is certain Jonny’s lover Kelvin mur- (Apr.) some rancher, whose kindness is as seduc-
dered him. Tom and Phil set out to find tive as his powerful physique. Unable to
the killer, but a crowd of secretive charac- Come Home to Me resist Nell’s allure and hoping to help
ters, including Lilah’s first husband, Liz Talley. Montlake Romance, $12.95 trade end the feud between the ranchers and
sister, and two children, shatter any hope paper (368p) ISBN 978-1-5039-0099-8 herders, Trey asks Nell to marry him.
of a straightforward solution. In between Talley (the Morning Glory series) packs After a too-brief period of relationship
their investigations, the couple struggles her latest Southern romantic drama with development, they make mutual declara-
to adjust to living together and cope with a satisfying plot and appealing characters. tions of love, and then Schmidt dives
the stress of wedding planning. Their Fifteen years after their high school into nonstop action as Nell and Trey
squabbling but tender dynamic provides prom, Summer Valentine, Rhett Bryan, try to stop the fighting and maintain a
counterbalance to the messy entangle- and Hunt McCroy return to Moonlight, solid marriage. Strong, well-developed
ments of Lilah’s clan, and the final revela- S.C., for very different reasons, and dis- characters fill the pages of this novel,
tions are genuinely surprising. The cover that they must confront the conse- which highlights both sizzling romance
British slang is smooth and charming, quences of their youthful imprudence. and the trials of the Old West. Agent:
though some Americans may find it chal- Rhett’s gleaming Hollywood life was Natasha Kern, Natasha Kern Literary.
lenging to follow. Fans of mysteries with a disrupted when he accidentally ran over (Mar.)
minor supernatural tinge and plenty of a young child. Summer has given up on a

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