Monday in my Mailbox

What did you spend your time reading this week?  Here is what we will be reading soon.  All sent for review.
When the police do nothing to solve the murders of three prostitutes knifed to 
death in 1866 Sicily, a struggling widow unmasks the killer, but not before uncovering burdensome truths of her own.

It is six years after Unification and Sicily is in chaos. Bandits rule the hills. Waves of cholera kill thousands. The mafia begins its reign of organized terror, raping a population squeezed by conscription, crippling taxes, and corrupt officials.

At a high-class house near Palermo, three prostitutes have been knifed to death, their foreheads slashed with a strange mark, their bodies dumped on the madam’s doorstep. When the chief inspector does little to solve the case, the madam summons her lifelong friend and asks her to catch the killer.

A forty-something midwife with seven children and diminishing funds, Serafina decides she must help her friend. She plunges into the investigation, gathering evidence, following leads. She meets with relatives and friends of the deceased and discovers a thread common to all three victims.

But when a fourth victim is strangled, Serafina’s hopes for a quick resolution are dashed. Her emotional low is short-lived, however. In a defiant meeting with the don, she makes an important discovery. Convinced of the murderer’s identity, she conceives a daring plan and, with the help of her daughter, unmasks the killer.

Iranian terrorists plant a bomb in Paris, nearly killing millions, and one man must track them down before they strike again. CIA agent Grey Stark is back from two decades of retirement, searching for an elusive bomb that could level a city in seconds. As NATO amasses troops at Iran's border, Stark races across France with his ex-wife, digging through his own dark past in a desperate attempt to defuse the war. Hunted by a world-class gunman, a playboy terrorist, and half the world's intelligence agencies, he realizes that even his own boss will stop at nothing to protect the secrets of The Deadfall Project..
A sweeping and suspenseful tale of secrets, intrigue, and lovers separated by time, all connected through the mystical qualities of a perfume created in the days of Cleopatra—and lost for 2,000 years. 

Jac L’Etoile has always been haunted by the past, her memories infused with the exotic scents that she grew up surrounded by as the heir to a storied French perfume company. In order to flee the pain of those remembrances—and of her mother’s suicide—she moves to America, leaving the company in the hands of her brother Robbie. But when Robbie hints at an earth-shattering discovery in the family archives and then suddenly goes missing—leaving a dead body in his wake—Jac is plunged into a world she thought she’d left behind. 

Back in Paris to investigate her brother’s disappearance, Jac discovers a secret the House of L’Etoile has been hiding since 1799: a scent that unlocks the mysteries of reincarnation. The Book of Lost Fragrances fuses history, passion, and suspense, moving from Cleopatra’s Egypt and the terrors of revolutionary France to Tibet’s battle with China and the glamour of modern-day Paris. Jac’s quest for the ancient perfume someone is willing to kill for becomes the key to understanding her own troubled past.the ancient perfume someone is willing to kill for becomes the key to understanding her own troubled past.

The long awaited fifth installment in the New York Times bestselling, Edgar- and Macavity-nominated series about an eccentric sleuthing family. 

For the first time in Spellman history, Isabel Spellman, PI, might be the most normal member of her family. As always, the Spellman clan has yet to settle into any kind of status quo. Mom, Olivia, has taken on an outrageous assortment of extracurricular activities, seemingly without motive. Dad, Albert, has a secret. Her brother and sister, David and Rae, are at war, but neither will reveal the source of the conflict. And Izzy's niece, Sydney, keeps saying banana even though she hates bananas. That's not to say that Izzy isn't without her own troubles. Henry Stone keeps wanting "to talk," a prospect Isabel evades by going out with her new drinking buddy, none other than Gertrude Stone, Henry's mother. While domestic disturbances abound, there is one source of sanity in the Spellman household: Demetrius Merriweather, now employee of the month for 18 months straight (the entire tenure of his employment). 

Things aren't any simpler on the business side of Spellman Investigations. First, parents hire the firm to follow their daughter. Rae is assigned the case, only to fake the surveillance reports. Then a math professor hires Izzy to watch his immaculate apartment while he unravels like a bad formula. A socialite has Isabel follow her husband, despite a conspicuous lack of suspicion. A man in a sweater vest hires the firm to follow his sister, who turns out to be the socialite. Isabel wants to get to the bottom of all this, but her father erects a Chinese wall to protect the clients' wishes. As the questions pile up, Izzy won't stop hunting for the answers-even when they threaten to shatter both the business and the family. 

Once again, it's up to her to pull the Spellmans back from the brink.
From the author of "8: The Previously Untold Story of the Previously Unknown 8th Dwarf" comes an original fairy tale about a teenage princess who hires the witch from "The Frog Prince" to get revenge on a Mean Girl at school. (Intended for YA readers and up.)
Malcolm Gladwell's favorite food inventor offers a guide to the senses with advice on how to develop one's palate and to better enjoy the pleasures of eating. In "Taste What You're Missing," Stuckey shares her professional knowledge in an engaging style that's one part Mary Roach, two parts Oliver Sacks, and a dash of Anthony Bourdain for spice.