The Distant Echo – Val McDermid
          This absorbing psychological novel of revenge shows British author McDermid (A Place of Execution) at the top of her form. In part one, set in 1978 in St. Andrews, Scotland, four drunken male students, friends since childhood, stumble over the raped and stabbed body of a dying woman, Rosie Duff, while staggering home through a snow storm. Though her violent brothers are convinced of their guilt, no one is charged with Rosie’s murder. 
          In part two, 25 years later, the police hope new forensic technologies will solve the crime, and suddenly someone is stalking the four men, whose lives have been haunted and their relationships changed by the murder. Two die, supposedly by accident, and the remaining pair, Alex Gilbey and Tom Mackie, must find out what happened before they’re killed, too. James Lawson, an assistant chief constable who was a junior cop in 1978, wants to close the case and avenge the death of his admired superior, DI Barney Maclennan, who fell from a cliff during the initial inquiry. When Graham Macfadyen, who claims he’s Rosie’s illegitimate son and also seeking revenge, contacts Lawson, the investigation takes a startling turn. Only the careful reader will anticipate the stunning conclusion, which makes perfect sense. Outstanding pacing, character and plot development, plus evocative place descriptions, make this another winner. 

Trojan Odyssey – Clive Cussler
          Long hailed as the grand master of adventure fiction, Clive Cussler has continued to astound with the intricate plotting and astonishing set pieces of his novels. Now, with a surprising twist, he gives us his most audacious work yet. 
          In the final pages of Valhalla Rising, Dirk Pitt discovered, to his shock, that he had two grown children he had never known-twenty-three-year-old fraternal twins born to a woman he thought had died in an underwater earthquake. Both have inherited his love of the sea: the girl, Summer, is a marine biologist; the boy, himself named Dirk, is a marine engineer. And now they are about to help their father in the adventure of a lifetime. 
          There is a brown tide infesting the ocean off the shore of Nicaragua. The twins are working in a NUMA(r) underwater enclosure, trying to determine its origin, when two startling things happen: Summer discovers an artifact, something strange and beautiful and ancient; and the worst storm in years boils up out of the sky, heading straight not only for them but also for a luxurious floating resort hotel square in its path. 
          The peril for everybody concerned is incalculable, and, desperately, Pitt, Al Giordino, and the rest of the NUMA(r) crew rush to the rescue, but what they find in the storm’s wake makes the furies of nature pale in comparison. For there is an all-too-human evil at work in that part of the world, and the brown tide is only a by-product of its plan. Soon, its work will be complete-and the world will be a very different place. 
          Though if Summer’s discovery is to be believed, the world is already a very different place… 
          Filled with breathtaking action andsuspense, Trojan Odyssey is Cussler at the height of his storytelling powers. 

The Lady and the Unicorn – Tracy Chevalier
          Two families, two cities, one rogue go-between, and a set of gorgeous tapestries, all in a late medieval setting. 
          Nicolas des Innocents, a handsome, lascivious artist, is summoned to the Paris home of Jean Le Viste, a nobleman who wants Nicolas to design a series of battle tapestries for his house. Jean’s wife, Geneviève, persuades Nicolas to talk her husband into a softer subject: the taming of a unicorn by a noblewoman. Nicolas shapes the tapestries with his own vision, dedicating five of the six to the senses and using the images of Geneviève and her daughter, Claude, with whom Nicolas is smitten, for two of the ladies in the tapestries. 
          Nicolas takes the finished designs to Brussels, where master weaver Georges de la Chapelle will make them. At first Nicolas is scornful of Georges, but gradually comes to respect him and his wife Christine, and to take an interest in his daughter Aliénor. Nicolas models two more of the ladies in the tapestries after Christine and Aliénor, but his heart lies with the unattainable Claude. 
          Several story strands are woven together through the design and making of these complex, seductive tapestries. 

Blood is the Sky – Steve Hamilton
          It is October in Paradise, Michigan, and Alex McKnight is rebuilding one of his cabins with help from Vinnie LeBlanc, his Ojibwa neighbor. They’re interrupted when Vinnie is called away to deal with a family emergency — his brother, Tom, has not returned from a hunting trip to Canada. He is already four days overdue. 
          Alex and Vinnie decide to retrace the steps of the hunting party, driving all the way up as far as the roads will go in northern Ontario. When they arrive at the lodge, they are told that the men had already been flown back from the outpost, and had promptly left to return to Michigan. 
          But something is not right. Aided by a young Cree Indian and his grandfather, they fly to the remote outpost. Left alone there, they discover a terrible secret. 
          Now Alex and Vinnie are miles away from civilization, with no food and no weapons. And there’s someone out there who definitely does not want them to make it back alive.