Her Fear, by Shelley Shepard Gray

The fifth book of The Amish of Hart County Series.

Sadie Detweiler of Ohio finds herself pregnant and unmarried when her boyfriend claims the baby wasn't his. Forced to leave her parents' home, she goes to Kentucky to live with relatives she doesn't know. A bit strange, they are, due to a dark illegal secret.

When her elderly aunt become mysteriously ill, 911 is called, and Sadie meets, Noah, an Amish EMT. Noah can't understand how a sweet girl like Sadie ended up sleeping on a cot in the kitchen.

Sadie seems terrified of something. Concerned, he decides to check up on her, and they become friends. When her aunt later dies at the hospital, and two more mysterious deaths follow, Noah's boss asks him to dig around the Amish community for clues. He agrees, for Sadie's sake. Many secrets begin to pop out of the walls at the home in which Sadie is staying, plus a few others.

I enjoyed the characters and the roles they played. Always a happy ending. Looking forward to the next book in this series. 

Orbiting Jupiter by Gary Schmidt

I have loved all of Gary Schmidt's previous works and was thrilled to see that he wrote a new teen novel. Orbiting Jupiter held up to my expectations and is a beautiful, well-written story of a 14 year old boy, Joseph, as told by 12 year old Jack.

Jack and his parents are a very happy, close family that live on a farm. One day they are asked to take in a troubled young man that has recently been released from a juvenile detention center after the attempted murder of his teacher.

Jack is told by everyone, except his parents, to stay away from Joseph, as they can't see beyond his past mistakes. Immediately upon entering the home, Jack and his parents treat Joseph as part of the family and never judge him for the heinous crime that he committed. Slowly, Joseph begins to open up to the family and they learn his incredible and sad story.

When Joseph was 13, he fell in love with a young girl and they ended up having a daughter named Jupiter. He is desperate to find and meet his infant daughter despite the girl's parents being insistent on Joseph never finding his her.

After spending time with Jack and his parents, Joseph begins to believe he can have a happy future. When he finally gains confidence in himself, he is confronted by his terrible history which leads to an emotional and intense ending.

-Lauren

The Cellar by Minette Walters

Young Muna has lived as a slave to the Songoli family (mother, father, and two sons) for six years, after being removed from a West African orphanage at age 8.  When the family immigrates to England, Muna accompanies them. With her nights filled with horrible abuse at the hands of Mr. Songoli, locked in an unlit basement, and her days filled with manual labor and beatings by the rod-wielding Yetunda (Mrs. Songoli), Muna has led a bleak life, devoid of affection and care. This all changes when the Songolis’ youngest son, overweight and spoiled, fails arrive home after school.  In order to explain Muna’s presence to the investigators, the family “adopts” her, claiming that she is their mentally disabled daughter who can neither, read, write nor speak English (an underestimation that will have surprising consequences for all concerned).  They dispose of her basement mattress, dress her in “Princess’s” cast-off clothing (Yetunda has always forced Muna use this endearment to address her…in the few times she is permitted to speak), and prop her up in a neatly furnished bedroom.  Having never been allowed to leave the house since the family’s immigration, and beaten if she is caught looking out, Muna at first views these white interlopers with a mixture of fear and superstitious awe (she believes the lead officer can see into her soul with her piercing blue eyes). Despite her misgivings, it soon becomes apparent that while suspicion for the boy’s disappearance looms over the family, Muna’s quality of life is significantly improved.  Upon this rise in station, Muna begins to engineer her own reversal of fortune.  Fast-paced, surprising, and short, Minette Walter’s newest novella is highly readable!

Jennifer Wilson

Mr. Mercedes

Stephen King’s latest novel, “Mr. Mercedes”, invites readers to join protagonist, Retired Detective Kermit Hodges, on a hunt for damaged mass murderer, dubbed by the press as Mr. Mercedes.  The novel opens outside of a large auditorium, set the next morning to host a job fair. The promise of a thousand jobs attracts large numbers of the impoverished city’s unemployed.  Desperate, they begin lining up long before midnight.  After weathering cold temperatures and damp fog, potential applicants are heartened by the slow creep of dawn, until a silver Mercedes emerges from the mist.  It is only at the last moment that members of the queue realize the driver’s intent: to run them down. Having murdered several and injured more, the killer disappears into the fog from which he emerged. Enter detective Kermit Hodges, who began his retirement sometime after the case had gone cold.  Bored and depressed, Hodges spends his time watching cheap television and developing a suicidal fondness for his dead father’s gun.  This spell is broken when Hodges receives a bizarre letter from the killer, the self-titled “perk” of the Mercedes massacre.  Told from the perspective of both detective and “perk,” the novel also provides the reader with an all-access pass into mind of Brady Hartsfield, murderer and secret keeper.  Intelligent, twisted, and at times sympathetic, Brady is baffled and enraged when his plans for Hodges begin to go awry.  A departure from King’s tried-and-true supernatural vein, “Mr. Mercedes” is both fast-paced and engrossing.  This novel should prove to be a favorite amongst old fans and new readers alike.