New books available for checkout to begin the New Year at Ellinwood School/Community Library:

A Time for Mercy (Jake Brigance #3) by John Grisham

Brigance returned in 2013’s Sycamore Row, in which he once again found himself embroiled in a deeply divisive trial. Jake is the court-appointed lawyer for Drew Gamble, a young man accused of murdering a local deputy. Many in Clanton want a swift trial and the death penalty, but Brigance sees it another way. Once he learns the details of the case, he realizes he has to do everything he can to save Drew – who is 16. Jake’s commitment to the truth puts his career and the safety of his family at risk. There is a time to kill, a time for justice, and a time for mercy.

The Brothers of Auschwitz by Malka Adler, Noel Canin (Translation) 

Dov and Yitzhak live in a small village in the mountains of Hungary, isolated both from the world and from the horrors of the war. But one day in 1944, everything changes. The Nazis storm the homes of the Jewish villagers and inform them they have one hour. One hour before the train will take them to Auschwitz. Six decades later, from the safety of their living rooms at home in Israel, the brothers finally break their silence to a friend who will never let their stories be forgotten.

Mistress of the Ritz by Melanie Benjamin

Nothing bad can happen at the Ritz; inside its gilded walls every woman looks beautiful, every man appears witty. Favored guests like Ernest Hemingway, F. Scott Fitzgerald, Coco Chanel, and the Duke and Duchess of Windsor walk through its famous doors to be welcomed and pampered by Blanche Auzello and her husband, Claude, the hotel’s director. The Auzellos are the mistress and master of the Ritz, allowing the glamour and glitz to take their minds off their troubled marriage, and off the secrets that they keep from their guests – and each other. Until June 1940, when the German army sweeps into Paris, setting up headquarters at the Ritz. Suddenly, with the likes of Hermann Goring moving into suites once occupied by royalty, Blanche and Claude must navigate a terrifying new reality. One that entails even more secrets. One that may destroy the tempestuous marriage between this beautiful, reckless American and her very proper Frenchman. For the falsehoods they tell to survive, and to strike a blow against their Nazi “guests,” spin a web of deceit that ensnares everything and everyone they cherish. But one secret is shared between Blanche and Claude alone – the secret that, in the end, threatens to imperil both of their lives, and to bring down the legendary Ritz itself.

If I Were You by Lynn Austin

1950. In the wake of the war, Audrey Clarkson leaves her manor house in England for a fresh start in America with her young son. As a widowed war bride, Audrey needs the support of her American in-laws, whom she has never met. But she arrives to find that her longtime friend Eve Dawson has been impersonating her for the past four years. Unraveling this deception will force Audrey and Eve’s secrets – and the complicated history of their friendship – to the surface.

1940. Eve and Audrey have been as different as two friends can be since the day they met at Wellingford Hall, where Eve’s mother served as a lady’s maid for Audrey’s mother. As young women, those differences become a polarizing force ... until a greater threat – Nazi invasion – reunites them. With London facing relentless bombardment, Audrey and Eve join the fight as ambulance drivers, battling constant danger together. An American stationed in England brings dreams of a brighter future for Audrey, and the collapse of the class system gives Eve hope for a future with Audrey’s brother. But in the wake of devastating loss, both women must make life-altering decisions that will set in motion a web of lies and push them both to the breaking point long after the last bomb has fallen.

One Little Lie (Pelican Harbor #1) by Colleen Coble

When Jane Hardy is appointed interim sheriff in Pelican Harbor, Alabama, after her father retires, there’s no time for an adjustment period. He is arrested for theft and then implicated in a recent murder, and Jane quickly realizes she’s facing someone out to destroy her father. They escaped from a cult 15 years ago, and Jane has searched relentlessly for her mother – who refused to leave – ever since. Could someone from that horrible past have found them? Reid Bechtol is a well-known journalist who makes documentaries, and his sights are currently set on covering Jane’s career. Jane has little interest in the attention, but the committee who appointed her loves the idea of the publicity. Jane finds herself depending on Reid’s calm manner as he follows her around taping his documentary, and they begin working together to clear her father. But Reid has his own secrets from the past, and the gulf between them may be impossible to cross. It started with one little lie. But Jane Hardy will do everything in her power to uncover the truth.

Sheri Holmes is the director of library and media services for the Ellinwood School and Community Libraries. She can be reached by email at sholmes@usd355.org