Preview Shelf -- Lots of Readers Request Lots of Mysteries

T. S. Eliot's famous quote, "April is the cruelist month", might be applied to the many kinds of requested mysteries recently received at the Crawfordsville District Public Library. Here are some of them. Tess Gerritsen's "The Keepsake" finds the reader in the dusty basement of Boston's Crispin Museum where a perfectly preserved mummy has lain forgotten, but when found, "Madam X" is seen to have a macabre message hidden within the corpse (aha, it's a modern murder victim). Kate Atkinson's "When Will There Be Good News?" is told 30 years after an appalling crime, as the criminal is released from prison; then lives and histories intersect with surprise and suspense. "The Shack" by William Young asks where tragedy confronts eternity, reading like a prayer filled with sweat and wonder and surprise. "Dear to Me" by Wanda Brunstetter is the third installment of The Brides of Webster County; in this case she loves animals and her sweetheart loves to hunt. Harlan Coben's "Long Lost" unfolds a sinister plot dealt with by his character Myron Bolitar with shocking global implications."Snake Dreams" by James Doss finds Native American sleuth Charlie Moon dealing in romance and murder, "a tale best told under a full moon and beside a crackling fire." "Cut To the Quick" by Dianne Emley starts with the murder of a billboard tycoon in the Pasadena hills, and the solution develops in settings including ritzy estates and a rocky desert outpost. "Still Life" by Joy Fielding is told by a traffic accident's assumed comatose patient who can hear the shocking discussions by her visitors. "Bone by Bone" by Carol O'Connell involves a northern California town, where two teenage brothers go into the woods one day, but only one comes back; it takes 20 years for the surviving brother to uncover that a crucial secret belonged to his sibling. Dana Stabenow's "Whisper to the Blood", the 17th adventure of her character Kate Shugak, involves two brutal murders at a gold mining company inside one of the 15 Alaska National Parks. Three adventures begin with "In the Presence of My Enemies" Gracia Burnham's gripping account of the kidnapping of American missionaries and their year of terror in the Philippine jungle. Former U.S. Army Ranger and Sniper Team leader Joe LeBleu's "Long Rifle" is his story of being a sniper in Iraq and Afghanistan. Lincoln Hall's own tale of life after death climbing Mt. Everest is called "Dead Lucky". "American Farmer: The Heart of our Country" is a collection of photographs by Paul Mobley showing the faces and voices of the people who keep it alive, with interviews of agribusinesses from cattle ranchers to strawberry growers across the country. A special photographic retrospective is called "Annie Leibovitz at Work". "Shakespeare and Modern Culture" is Marjorie Garber's premise that "Shakespeare makes modern culture and .. modern culture makes Shakespeare"; she delves into ten plays to show the meeting place between the playwright and the 20th century. "The Art Instinct" by Denis Dutton unites art and evolutionary science to change the way we think about arts, from music to literature to pottery. He say's our love of beauty is inborn and our tastes come from our own past (evolution). Dagoberto Gilb takes on the voice of a Chicano teenager in "Gritos: Essays" that explore becoming a man during urban unrest and racial turbulence. "Cringe" is editor Sarah Brown's collection of teenagers' diaries, journals, notes, letters, poems, and abandoned rock operas offering "a voyeuristic glimpse at the roller coaster of youth in all of its naval-gazing, soul-searching, social-skewering glory."