Central Kansas Library System

Tracking down a killer who is murdering tourist women in their sleep for no apparent motive, the sheriff of Justice, Illinois, is discouraged by the arrival of new detective Rae Gabriella, who is also investigating the killings on behalf of one victim's family.

No one knows us quite the same way as the men and women who sit beside us in department meetings and crowd the office refrigerator with their labeled yogurts. Every office is a family of sorts, and the ad agency Joshua Ferris brilliantly depicts in his debut novel is family at its strangest and best, coping with a business downturn in the time-honored way : through gossip, pranks, and increasingly frequent coffee breaks. Among coworkers fighting for...

Being a cop runs in Billy Harney's family. The son of Chicago's Chief of Detectives whose twin sister, Patty, also followed in their father's footsteps, there's nothing Billy won't give up for the job, including his life. Left for dead alongside his tempestuous former partner and a hard-charging assistant district attorney out for blood, Billy miraculously survives. But he remembers nothing about the events leading up to the shootout. Charged with...

"Piper Dove is a woman with a dream--to become the best detective in the city of Chicago. First job? Trail former Chicago Stars quarterback Cooper Graham. The problem? Graham's spotted her, and he's not happy. Piper soon finds herself working for Graham, although not as the bodyguard he refuses to admit he needs. Instead, he's hired her to keep an eye on the employees at his exclusive new nightclub. But Coop's life might be in danger, and Piper's...

The daughter of notorious, high-profile thief Bobby Rose, journalist Sophie Rose leaves her job at a major Chicago newspaper for a small local paper, but when she stumbles into the middle of a bizarre story, she follows the trail of the mystery north to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, accompanied by a bodyguard, Jack Prescott, a sexy FBI agent.

"1860: As the clash between the states rolls slowly to a boil, Elizabeth Packard, housewife and mother of six, is facing her own battle. The enemy sits across the table and sleeps in the next room. Threatened by Elizabeth's intellect, independence, and outspokenness, her husband of twenty-one years is plotting against her and makes a plan to put her back in her place. One summer morning, he has her committed to an insane asylum. The horrific conditions...

A car wreck and a suspicious death offer a lead on a hired shooter FBI agent Paul Falcon is tracking. Midwest homicide investigator Ann Silver has his attention when she passes the case to him. Is he prepared for both the case's and her secrets?

Claudia Morgan is overwhelmed. She's a single parent trying the best that she can, but her four-year-old son, Henry, is a handful--for her and for his preschool. When Claudia hears about a school with an atypical teaching style near her Chicagoland home, she has to visit. The Hawthorne School is beautiful and has everything she dreams of for Henry: time to play outside, music, and art. The head of the school, Zelma, will even let Claudia volunteer...

This book tells the story of Esperanza Cordero, a young girl growing up in the Hispanic quarter of Chicago, whose neighborhood is one of harsh realities and harsh beauty. Esperanza doesn't want to belong, not to her run-down neighborhood, and not to the low expectations the world has for her. Capturing her thoughts and emotions in poems and stories, she is able to rise above hopelessness and create a quiet space for herself in the midst of her oppressive...

"A highly ambitious and stylish literary debut set against the 1960's Chicago jazz scene about a talented but troubled singer's heartbreaking relationship with her precocious ten-year-old daughter"--