Fayetteville Free Library Reading Room

Compulsion
By: Jonathan Kellerman

Suspense/Mystery Fiction

A tipsy young woman seeking aid on a desolate highway disappears into the inky black night. A retired schoolteacher is stabbed to death in broad daylight. Two women are butchered after closing time in a small-town beauty parlor. These and other bizarre acts of cruelty and psychopathology are linked only by the killer’s use of luxury vehicles and a baffling lack of motive. The ultimate whodunits, these crimes demand the attention of LAPD detective Milo Sturgis and his collaborator on the crime beat, psychologist Alex Delaware.

What begins with a solitary bloodstain in a stolen sedan quickly spirals outward in odd and unexpected directions, leading Delaware and Sturgis from the well-heeled center of L.A. society to its desperate edges; across the paths of commodities brokers and transvestite hookers; and as far away as New York City, where the search thaws out a long-cold case and exposes a grotesque homicidal crusade. The killer proves to be a fleeting shape-shifter, defying identification, leaving behind dazed witnesses and death–and compelling Alex and Milo to confront the true face of murderous madness.

Released on March 25, 2008

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The Kite Runner
Starring Khalid Abdalla and Homayoun Ershadi
Rated PG-13

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I Am Legend
Starring Will Smith
Rated PG-13

Sci-Fi

I Am Legend follows the last man on Earth as he struggles to survive while fending off the infected survivors of a devastating vampiric plague. A brilliant scientist who raced to discover a cure for the man-made virus as humanity came crumbling down all around him, Robert Neville (Will Smith) was inexplicably immune to the highly contagious superbug. Now the entire population of New York City — and perhaps the world — has been transformed into carnivorous bloodsuckers that fear the light and live solely to spread their contagion to any remaining living creature that crosses their path. It’s been three years since civilization came to an end, and the loneliness has taken a devastating toll on Neville. But time is running out for Neville as the legions of infected watch his every move from the safety of the shadows, waiting for the perfect moment to strike. They, too, long to learn the secret that lurks in Neville’s blood, though they will have to take caution while attempting to procure it because Neville will sooner die attempting to slay every last one of them than willingly giving up a single drop.

Released on March 18, 2008

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Atonement
*Academy Award Nominee
Starring Keira Knightley and James Mcavoy
Rated R

Drama

A mischievous girl accuses her older sister’s lover of a crime he did not commit, only to find that her words have irrevocably and permanently changed the lives of all involved. The year is 1935, and as the summer heat takes hold, 13-year-old fledgling writer Briony Tallis watches her older sister, Cecilia (Keira Knightley), get undressed and go frolicking in the garden fountain on her family’s country estate. The housekeeper’s son, Robbie (James McAvoy), a childhood friend and recent Cambridge graduate, also witnesses the innocent act. When Robbie and Cecilia subsequently cross a particularly sensitive boundary and the scheming Briony accuses Robbie of an unspeakable transgression for which the boy is wholly innocent, the repercussions of her unfounded claim threaten to affect all three for decades to come.

Released on March 18, 2008

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Killer Heat
By: Linda Fairstein

Fiction

Assistant District Attorney Alex Cooper confronts a serial killer whose deadly exploits lead her through the little-known islands surrounding Manhattan. It’s August in the city and just as she’s claiming victory in a rape trial, she gets the call: the body of a young woman has been found in an abandoned building. The brutality of the beating is disturbing enough, but when a second body is found off the Belt Parkway, the city’s top brass want the killer found fast, before the tabloids can start churning out ghoulish headlines.

Released on March 11, 2008

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No Country for Old Men
*Academy Award winner
Starring Tommy Lee Jones and Javier Bardem
Rated R

Drama

When a Vietnam veteran discovers two million dollars while wandering through the aftermath of a Texas drug deal gone horribly awry, his decision to abscond with the cash sets off a violent chain reaction in a stripped-down crime drama from Joel and Ethan Coen. Llewelyn Moss (Josh Brolin) has just stumbled into the find of a lifetime. Upon discovering a bullet-strewn pickup truck surrounded by the corpses of dead bodyguards, Moss uncovers two million dollars in cash and a substantial load of heroin stashed in the back of the vehicle. Later, as an enigmatic killer who determines the fate of his victims with the flip of a coin sets out in pursuit of Moss, the disillusioned Sheriff Bell (Tommy Lee Jones) struggles to contain the rapidly escalating violence that seems to be consuming his once-peaceful Lone Star State town. Woody Harrelson, Javier Bardem, and Kelly MacDonald co-star in a distinctly American crime story that explores timeless biblical themes in a contemporary Southwestern setting.

Released on March 11, 2008

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Dan in Real Life
Starring Steve Carell and Juliette Binoche
Rated PG-13

Comedy/Drama

A widower and father of three who also writes a parenting advice column for his local newspaper falls for the girlfriend of his younger brother during a family vacation in director Peter Hedges’ offbeat love triangle laugher. Steve Carell stars as the writer who finds his widely-known convictions put to the ultimate test, with Dane Cook and Juliette Binoche respectively assuming the roles of the younger sibling and his radiant girlfriend.

Released on March 11, 2008

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Change of Heart
By: Jodi Picoult

Fiction

The acclaimed #1 New York Times bestselling author presents a spellbinding tale of a mother’s tragic loss and one man’s last chance at gaining salvation.

One moment June Nealon was happily looking forward to years full of laughter and adventure with her family, and the next, she was staring into a future that was as empty as her heart. Now her life is a waiting game. Waiting for time to heal her wounds, waiting for justice. In short, waiting for a miracle to happen.

For Shay Bourne, life holds no more surprises. The world has given him nothing, and he has nothing to offer the world. In a heartbeat, though, something happens that changes everything for him. Now, he has one last chance for salvation, and it lies with June’s eleven-year-old daughter, Claire. But between Shay and Claire stretches an ocean of bitter regrets, past crimes, and the rage of a mother who has lost her child.

Once again, Jodi Picoult mesmerizes and enthralls readers with this story of redemption, justice, and love.

Released on March 4, 2008

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Into the Wild
Starring Emile Hirsch and Marcia Gay Hayden
Rated R

Biographical Drama

Into the Wild is writer/director Sean Penn’s adaptation of the popular book by Jon Krakauer, a nonfiction account of the post-collegiate wanderings of a young Virginia man, who divorces himself from his friends, family, and possessions in search of a greater spiritual knowledge and communion with nature. Upon his 1990 graduation from Emory University in Atlanta, Christopher McCandless walks away from a loving his dysfunctional family and sends his nearly 25,000-dollar life savings to Oxfam International. Instead of the normal life his parents planned for him, Chris rechristens himself “Alexander Supertramp” and heads west in his beaten-up automobile until it no longer runs, at which point he takes up hitchhiking. The goal on the horizon? Alaska. Meanwhile, his parents (William Hurt and Marcia Gay Harden) and sister (Jena Malone) haven’t received so much as a postcard from him, and begin to fear the worst

Released on March 4, 2008

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