April 5, 2016 | madame librarian
Introducing new mysteries by new authors...
The year is 1843, the place, New York City. When reporter Walt Whitman's friend is hanged for the murder of her husband - a crime she did not commit - Walt vows to exonerate her. With the help of her estranged boyfriend, the two men uncover a link between body-snatching and the murder: a man called Samuel Clement. To get to Clement, Walt and Henry descend into a dangerous underworld where men steal the bodies of the recently deceased and sell them to medical colleges. A vibrant re-imagining of one of America's most beloved literary figures.
Ethan Holt won the decathlon at the Olympics and was jokingly nicknamed "Hercules"; now, in his late thirties, he's returned to his ivy-covered alma mater to teach, and to raise his young daughter Skip as a single father. After a hushed-up scandal over his Olympics win and the death of his wife in a car accident five years ago, Ethan wants nothing more than to forget his past. Skip is not only the light of Ethan's life--she is his life. Then, Skip is kidnapped. A series of bizarre ransom demands start coming in that stretch Ethan's athletic prowess to its limits, and he realizes with growing horror that they are modern versions of the Twelve Labors of Hercules, demanded in tricky, rhyming clues by someone who seems to have followed every step of Ethan's career.
