Alert Bay Public Library & Museum

It's almost Christmas in the small English village of Finch--and everyone is sick. Though many of the villagers regretfully decline their invitations to Emma and Derek Harris's annual Christmas bash, Lori Shepherd has no intention of missing it. When the winter weather takes a turn for the worse, it's agreed that none of the guests will leave until morning. There's general merriment as the Christmas party becomes a pajama party--until a car appears in the winding driveway and promptly slides off the slickpavement and into a tree. Matilda "Tilly" Trout--a lost and scatterbrained, middle-aged woman--is mercifully unhurt and invited to stay the night. The next morning, Emma asks her guests if they would like a tour of the Manor--including a secret room sherecently discovered. Several guests put forth guesses as to its purpose, but it's Tilly who correctly identifies the room as a chapel. Placing a palm on one of the ornately-carved panels, Tilly finds a hidden compartment concealing a pile of glittering treasure--including an exquisitely decorated heart made of solid gold. Where did it come from, and why does it look so different from everything else in the chapel? Why didn't Emma even know about this hidden compartment in her own home until now--and how did Tilly? With Aunt Dimity's otherworldly help, Tilly's bewildering store of knowledge, and the village's collective memory to guide her, Lori sets out to unravel the mystery behind the heart of gold. Lori and Tilly both discover they'll never spend another holiday alone--and Christmas finally comes to Finch!

"A ... thriller pitting special agents Nicholas Drummond and Michaela Caine against the head of a private space agency who has the power to end the world as we know it. It's Bastille Day in France, and the private French space agency Galactus--France's answer to Space X, owned by the eccentric treasure hunter Jean-Pierre Broussard--has just sent a satellite payload into orbit. Billed as a 'communications' satellite, it harbors a frightening reality: a nuclear electromagnetic pulse has been hidden aboard. In days, when the satellite is in position, Galactus's head and Broussard's second in command, Dr. Neveah Patil, will have the power to lay waste to the world with her EMP, and create her own immortality with the Holy Grail--the stones of the heavens and the very treasure Broussard has spent his life searching for. The countdown has begun, and Special Agents Nicholas Drummond and Michaela Caine will go down to the wire to stop this heinous attack."-- Provided by publisher.

You've lost your daughter. She's addicted to drugs and to an abusive boyfriend. And she's made it clear that she doesn't want to be found. Then, by chance, you see her playing guitar in Central Park. But she's not the girl you remember. This woman is living on the edge, frightened, and clearly in trouble. You don't stop to think. You approach her, beg her to come home. She runs. And you do the only thing a parent can do: you follow her into a dark and dangerous world you never knew existed. Before you know it, both your family and your life are on the line. And in order to protect your daughter from the evils of that world, you must face them head on.

When Catherine Saxon, an American correspondent reporting on the war in Europe, is found murdered in her London digs, news of her death is concealed by British authorities. Serving as a linchpin between Scotland Yard and the Secret Service, Robert MacFarlane pays a visit to Maisie Dobbs, seeking her help. He is accompanied by an agent from the US Department of Justice--Mark Scott, the American who helped Maisie get out of Hitler's Munich in 1938. MacFarlane asks Maisie to work with Scott to uncover the truth about Saxon's death. As the Germans unleash the full terror of their blitzkrieg upon the British Isles, raining death and destruction from the skies, Maisie must balance the demands of solving this dangerous case with her need to protect Anna, the young evacuee she has grown to love and wants to adopt. Entangled in an investigation linked to the power of wartime propaganda and American political intrigue being played out in Britain, Maisie will face losing her dearest friend--and the possibility that she might be falling in love again.

Cairo, 1888. A beautiful September day. Penrod Ballantyne and his fiancée, Amber Benbrook, stroll hand in hand. The future is theirs for the taking. But when Penrod's jealous former lover, Lady Agatha, plants doubt about his character, Amber leaves him and travels to the wilds of Abyssinia with her twin sister, Saffron, and her adventurer husband, Ryder Courtney. On a mission to establish a silver mine, they make the dangerous journey to the new capital of Addis Ababa, where they are welcomed by Menelik, the King of Kings. But Italy has designs on Abyssinia, and there are rumours of a plan to invade... Back in Cairo, a devastated Penrod seeks oblivion in the city's opium dens. When he is rescued by his old friend, Lorenzo De Fonseca, now in the Italian army, and offered the chance to assess the situation around the Abyssinian border, Penrod leaps at the chance of action. With storm clouds gathering, and on opposing sides of the invasion, can Penrod and Amber find their way back to one another -- against all the odds?

Ten years ago, when Ali Reynolds's high-profile newscaster life blew up on the West Coast, she went back home to Sedona, Arizona, to reinvent herself. Now while she's living her new life, someone from her past comes asking for help. But will revisiting the past jeopardize her future? 

Suffocating in a dead-end marriage, Midwesterner Zoey Sullivan fled to New York and moved in with her older sister Ruth, a carefree, vivacious beauty with a string of eligible bachelors at her beck and call. Giving herself three months in the city to clear her head and find a direction, Zoey dodges calls from her ex Derek, and distracts herself by cooking and catering a few private dinners and parties. Pursuing her passion for cooking was never an option when she was with Derek, and now Zoey relishes her independence. When Zoey's meets reclusive millionaire Tristan Malloy, she's blown away by his kitchen--a marble and stainless steel temple worthy of the culinary gods--and charmed by his impeccable gentlemanly manners. But despite his firm body, handsome looks, and piles of cash, Tristan--a computer programmer--is shy and more than a little socially awkward. Zoey is sure that Tristan has all the right raw ingredients--and she's the right person to spice them up turn him into a delectable dish. But Zoey's unprepared for just how well her makeover works. Tristan turns out to be even sexier once he's gained a little confidence and the right wardrobe. Beneath the gorgeous package, Tristan is a great guy who deserves a woman who really appreciates him. Slowly but surely, Zoey realizes she may have found her perfect match--but does Tristan even know how her feelings have changed? Is that warm look in his eyes gratitude for the new and exciting world she's ushered him into, or something more? And what will happen when Zoey's ex comes to town, looking to win her back?

"Young lawyer Daniel Pitt must defend a British diplomat who's accused of a theft that may hide a deadly crime in this compelling novel from the New York Times bestselling author of Twenty-one Days. Daniel Pitt, along with his parents, Charlotte and Thomas, is delighted that his sister Jemima has returned to London from the States for a visit. But it's not on the happiest of terms, since a violent theft just before her departure has left Jemima's good friend frightened and missing a treasured family heirloom. The thief appears to be a man named Sydney--a British diplomat stationed in America who, in a cowardly move, has fled to London, claiming diplomatic immunity. But when Daniel is forced to defend Sydney in court, he grows suspicious that he's not getting the whole story; so the lawyer puts on his detective hat to search out what information may be missing. With the help of plucky scientist Miriam Blackwood, Daniel parses through the evidence, and what begins as a stolen necklace turns out to have implications in crimes far greater--including a possible murder"

Lucas Davenport pursues a prolific serial killer who has gone undetected for years in the newest nail-biter by best selling author John Sandford. It was a relatively minor criminal matter, but enough that the U.S. Marshals obtained a warrant to enter the home. They didn't expect to unearth trophies from a score of killings. Now Davenport is on the trail of a serial murderer, one who was able to operate for years without notice or suspicion. But there's even more to this killer than meets the eye.

Confronted by the first murder suspect of his early career while visiting his hometown, FBI detective Amos Decker reexamines startling connections to another crime that make him question if he arrested the wrong man years earlier.

Straight arrow FBI Agent Kate O'Hare always plays by the rules. Charming con man Nicholas Fox makes them up as he goes along. She thinks he's nothing but a scoundrel. He thinks she just needs to lighten up. They're working together to tackle the out-of-bounds cases ordinary FBI agents can't touch. And, their relationship? Well, there hasn't been so much explosive chemistry since Nitro was introduced to Glycerin. Next on the docket: The mysterious disappearance of the Silicon Valley billionaire, known as the Big Kahuna. Kate's been assigned to find him but no one seems particularly keen on helping. His twenty-six year old adult actress wife-turned Instagram model wife and his shady Czech business partner are more interested in gaining control of his company. For that they need a dead body not a living Kahuna. The only lead they have is the Kahuna's drop-out son, who's living the dream in Hawaii - if your dream is starting your day with the perfect wave and ending it with a big bowl of weed. To get close to the Kahuna's son, Kate and Nick go undercover as a married couple in the big wave, bohemian, surfer community of Paia, Maui. Living a laid back, hippy-dippy lifestyle isn't exactly in Kate's wheelhouse, but the only thing more horrifying is setting up house with Nick Fox, even if he does look pretty gnarly on a longboard. If they don't catch a break soon, waves aren't the only thing she's going to be shredding (or bedding).

California, 1930s. An ex-trapeze artist walks the tightrope between desire and danger as she is caught up in the mysterious circumstances surrounding the onstage death of an inventor. The race is on to find his missing invention before others, who are willing to kill for it, find it first.

In Danielle Steel's remarkable new novel, one of her most memorable characters comes to terms with unfinished business and long-buried truths as the mother of three very different daughters with three singular fathers. As a young intern at an art gallery in Paris, Isabelle McAvoy meets Putnam Armstrong, wealthy, gentle, older, and secluded from the world. Isabelle's relationship with Putnam, and her time at his château on the Normandy coast, are the stuff of dreams. But it turns real when she becomes pregnant, for she knows that marriage is out of the question. Then one final turn of fate brings a past secret to light.