A Noise Downstairs/Linwood Barclay/356 pgs

One decision changes Paul Davis's life in an instant.  Curiosity killed
the cat and that night it nearly killed Paul Davis.  Suspecting his
coworker might be lost, Paul follows him and soon realizes that
something is amiss.  We soon learn that on that night Paul nearly
lost his life.  Now, months later, he is hearing strange noises coming
from a gift typewriter his wife gave him to help his recovery.  Things
get even crazier when typed "messages" appear written by the two
murdered women from the fateful night.  Worth the read!

Only a Promise / Mary Balogh 394 p.

Only a Promise / Mary Balogh 394 p.

Balogh presents the 5th in the Survivors' Club series.  Ralph Stockwood just barely survived the Napoleonic Wars.  His three friends did not.  This haunts him as he was a leader when they were in school.  As the only heir to his family's title, he must, however, find a wife so as to have a heir.  When his grandmother's guest, spinster Chloe Muirhead, makes him a marriage offer, he decides to accept.  They strike a bargain, he to get a wife and family and she gets a promise that he will never take her to London.  She had two seasons in London that ended in disaster.  Through no fault of her own, the ton has made her a social outcast.  So when circumstances change after their marriage, Ralph feels compelled to change his promise.

Something Like Normal/ Trish Doller/216 pages

Travis is returning home after a tour in Afghanistan, his parents are getting divorced, his brother has stolen his girlfriend and he is haunted with nightmares of his best friend's death. Everything looks pretty bleak until he runs into a girl from his past, Harper. Harper becomes his lifeline as Travis deals with PTSD and trying to return to a "normal" life. Sometime it's easy to forget our soldiers are young men and women trying to deal with emotional scars of war. Told from a male perspective but most guys won't read because cover leads readers to believe that it is a romance. Trish Doller has an impressive debut novel in "Something Like Normal".

The Impossible Knife of Memory / Laurie Halse Anderson / 391p.

Hayley has her hands full. Her father is an Iraq vet with severe PTSD. After several years on the road as a truck driver, with his teen age daughter in tow, Andy has decided to return to his childhood home so Hayley can attend a real high school for her senior year. As her father has struggled to suppress memories of battle and death, Hayley suppressed her own memories of good times before his illness overtook everything. She is suddenly being confronted by some of those memories. Along with being used to a freer life style, finding herself falling for handsome, quirky Finn and dealing with her father's free-fall into total depression, Hayley is herself losing the ability to cope. Can friendship and love prevail?

Suspect/Robert Crais/312 pages

Robert Crais is known for his crime novels featuring Elvis Cole and Joe Pike, which I have to admit I have never read. Someone recommended this stand alone work and I was quickly pulled into the story, not because of the mystery and the suspense but because of the friendship between Maggie and Scott. Maggie is a military dog that  survived three tours in Iraq before losing her handler to an IED explosion. Scott belongs to the LAPD and loses his partner in a brutal shootout, blaming himself for not being able to save her.  They have become each other's last chance and the relationship brings you to tears. The story goes into great detail about the training of police and military dogs and the bond they form with their partner. How can you not love a great dog story?