Perfect Little World by Kevin Wilson

Pregnant by her high school art teacher, Izzy Poole decides to join the Infinite Family Project because of the stability it will provide her and her newborn son, Cap. The project is the idea of Dr. Preston Grind and billionaire Brenda Acklen. Basically, ten families with babies agree to live together for ten years and raise the children communally, with the kids not knowing who their real mothers and fathers are for the first several years. Izzy finds herself fitting in well with the rest of the parents, but starts to develop feelings for Dr. Grind. Not surprisingly, cracks begin to form in the relationships between other participants, too. Will Dr. Grind succeed in his vision of forming lifelong bonds, i.e. families made of people who aren't related? Perfect Little World is an intriguing story about an unusual community and the moral compromises that keep it together.

On Deadly Tides by Elizabeth J. Duncan

Penny Brannigan is on a painting holiday on the Welsh island of Anglesey when she discovers the body of Jessica Graham. Jessica was a reporter from New Zealand who was in Wales to write a story about actor Bill Ward and investigate the disappearance of a fellow Kiwi. Could Jessica's murder have something to do with the stories she was working on? On Deadly Tides is the latest book in Penny Brannigan mysteries series. It will be published in November.

500 Miles from You by Jenny Colgan

When Lissa, a nurse who lives in London, witnesses a deliberate hit and run, she can't move on from reliving it over and over in her mind. After it's proposed that Lissa do a job exchange with another nurse, Cormac, that resides in the village of Kirrinfief in Scotland, she agrees. Slowly, Lissa is able to heal and embrace the peacefulness and quirkiness of small town life. By phone and online, she finds herself confiding in Cormac--and he in her. As they develop feelings for each other, they start to look forward to meeting in person. Will their encounter live up to their expectations? 500 Miles from You is the third book in the Scottish Bookshop series.

Watching You by Lisa Jewell

Someone has been murdered in the well-to-do village of Melville Heights. Several people in the town are off-kilter or have something to hide. There's newlywed Joey, who is obsessing over her older neighbor Tom Fitzwilliam. Tom's teenage son, Freddie, has been documenting the activities of others, especially teenage girls Jenna and Bess. Jenna's mom spends all her time convinced that people are "gang stalking" her and peppers Jenna with questions about things having been moved in their home. In Watching You, Jewell details the lives of Joey, Freddie, Jenna, and Tom and their families as they collide in violence. Another novel by Jewell that's hard to put down...

The Second Home by Christina Clancy

The Gordon family has had a summer home on Cape Cod for generations. Ann and her younger sister, Poppy, look forward to travelling there each summer with their parents from their home in Milwaukee. When the girls are in their teens, the family adopts Michael, who is the same age as Ann. As the children near adulthood, the family becomes fractured and the vacation home is no longer a place of happiness and refuge, but rather of conflict and division. Will the Gordons eventually be able to all come together again? The Second Home is a great read-alike for the novels of Jamie Brenner and Ask Again, Yes by Mary Beth Keane.

Lying in Wait by J.A. Jance

Detective J.P. Beaumont and his new partner, Sue Danielson, are called to the scene where a boat was set ablaze with the owner inside. The dead man turns out to be Gunter Gebhardt, whose wife Else attended high school with Beau. Who tortured and killed Gunter? Beau and Sue both wonder if his death had something to do with his cheating on his wife or perhaps his ties to Nazi Germany. In Lying in Wait, Jance writes another enjoyable entry in her long-running J.P. Beaumont series. (This is book twelve of the series and was first published in 1994.)

The Silence by Susan Allott

In London, Isla Green gets a phone call from her father in Sydney. He tells her that the police have questioned him about a neighbor who went missing thirty years ago. She decides to return to Australia because she can sense that her father, with whom she's always been close, needs her. Isla remembers the neighbor, Mandy, because Mandy babysat Isla when Isla was young. The Silence tells the story of Isla's parents and Mandy and her husband, Steve, in the late 1960's when they lived next door to each other, along with the contemporary story of Isla trying to uncover what happened to Mandy three decades ago. A great choice for those who like books about family relationships with a suspenseful edge.

The Lantern Men by Elly Griffiths

For the past two years, after leaving her job at the University of North Norfolk, Ruth Galloway has been a professor at Cambridge University where she lives with her boyfriend, Frank, and daughter, Kate. She finds herself drawn back into helping the Norfolk police, especially DCI Harry Nelson, when convicted killer Ivor March tells Nelson he will divulge where two other women whom March is suspected of murdering are buried, but only if Ruth will do the excavation work. Ruth ends up finding two sets of remains at the site, as well as an older set of bones. In The Lantern Men the reader follows Nelson, his team, and Ruth in their journey to uncover who is responsible for the deaths. This latest book in the Ruth Galloway series will be published next month.