Stan's Picks

Knife Creek by Paul Doiron

When Maine game warden, Mike Bowditch, is tasked with shooting invasive feral hogs that are tearing up the forest in his district, he makes a horrific discovery – a dead baby buried in a shallow grave.  Even more disturbing is evidence that suggests the infant was the child of a young woman who was presumed dead four years earlier, soon after she disappeared from a group rafting trip.  As Bowditch assists with the re-opened investigation, be begins to suspect that some of his neighbors aren’t who they seem to be.  When violence strikes close to home, he realizes that his unknown enemies will stop at nothing to keep their terrible secrets.  Mike Bowditch has beat the odds his entire career, but this time, the intrepid warden may have finally followed his hunches too far.

Corruption by Andrew Klavan

Nestled in the quiet hills of upstate New York, Auburn County was once the center of urban bliss. When a corpse is discovered in the murky waters of the Hudson River and the hunt for a murderer begins, that sleepy rural façade is about to unravel, revealing the web of corruption underneath.  At the head of the hunt are Cyrus Dolittle, the ailing county sheriff, and small-town journalist Sally Dawes, who has a penchant for discovering the facts behind a shady story.  For years, they’ve been embroiled in a vicious battle of wits and power, but nothing has prepared either of them for the ferocity of this confrontation.  While Dolittle scrambles to wrap up this case before the upcoming election, Dawes races to discover the truth.  As she becomes entangled in a love affair with a married man, she discovers the lies hidden beneath her most cherished beliefs – and the fact that no one, ever, is free from corruption.  Klaven constructs a compelling novel of mystery, romance, and suspense, loaded with eccentric characters and unexpected twists.  He creates an aura of nerve jangling tension, bringing together all the elements that have made him an award-winning author. 

The Second Life of Nick Mason by Steve Hamilton

Nick Mason has already spent five years inside a maximum security prison when he gets an offer that will grant his release twenty years early.  He accepts, but the deal comes with a terrible price.  Now back on the streets, Nick has a new house, a new car, money to burn, and a beautiful roommate.  He’s returning to society, but he’s still a prisoner.  Whenever his cell phone rings, day or night, Nick must answer it and follow whatever order he is given.  It’s the deal he made with Darius Cole, a criminal mastermind who runs an empire from his prison cell.  Forced to commit increasingly more dangerous crimes, hunted by the relentless detective who put him behind bars, and desperate to go straight and rebuild his life with his daughter and ex-wife, Nick will ultimately have to risk everything – his family, his sanity, and his life – to finally break free.

Keith Richards, the Biography by Victor Bockris

Here is the definitive biography of Keith Richards.  For thirty years, Keith Richards stood in the shadow of Mick Jagger.  Now, for the first time, Richards is put in the spotlight and emerges as the power behind the throne, the creator, the backbone of the Rolling Stones.  From his poverty-stricken roots in postwar England to his renewed fame on the 1989-90 world tour, Bockris chronicles Richard’s embattled rise to the top as the archetypical bad boy of the sixties, his epic struggle with heroin in the 1907’s, and his rebirth as the model musician of the 1980’s.  The author has gone beyond anything ever written about the Rolling Stones to explore the true story behind their music, including “Ruby Tuesday,” Gimmee Shelter,” and “Slipping Away.”  This unauthorized account of a life that mirrors the zeitgeist of the second half of the twentieth century, finally puts this primary rock artist, and rock itself, in political, cultural, and spiritual perspective, and establishes Richards as one of the most important guitar players and greatest songwriters in the history of rock and roll.

--Stan Peterson, Maintenance Department