Best Served Cold - 5 Tales of Revenge

The Red Diary (M)
by Toni Blake

"When Nick Armstrong finds the red diary, he's shocked... and aroused. Here, in intimate detail, prim and proper Lauren Ash records her most secret fantasies. He knows he should never read it again, but the temptation is too hard to resist. Never before has he come across anything so private-or so sensual. Never before has he found such a potent weapon for righting an old wrong. His strategy: seduce her, make her fall in love, then break her heart. He'll be her dream lover in the flesh, weaving an erotic spell to free the passionate woman inside her. But Lauren is casting her own tantalizing magic, forcing him to let go of the past and surrender to her, body and soul." - publisher

The Return: a novel (M)
by Michael Gruber

"The real Richard Marder would shock his acquaintances, if they ever met him. Even his wife, long dead, didn’t know the real man behind the calm, cultured mask he presents to the world. Only an old army buddy from Vietnam, Patrick Skelly, knows what Marder is capable of. Then a shattering piece of news awakens Marder’s buried desire for vengeance, and with nothing left to lose, he sets off to punish the people whose actions, years earlier, changed his life. Uninvited, Skelly shows up and together the two of them raise the stakes far beyond anything Marder could have envisioned.... Michael Gruber has once more proven that he is “a gifted and natural storyteller” (Chicago Tribune) and shows why he has been called “the Stephen King of crime writing” (The Denver Post).

Moon Underfoot (M)
by Bobby Cole

Eighteen months ago, stockbroker Jake Crosby and his daughter Katy narrowly survived a living nightmare at a remote Alabama hunting camp. To save Katy, Jake killed two men--men who were friends and business associates of notorious outlaw and drug-runner Ethan "Moon Pie" Daniels. That night, Moon Pie made a blood promise of revenge. And in Moon Pie's dark world of violence, such promises are always kept. Jake Crosby doesn't regret what he did that night; he knows it was kill or be killed. But he can't shake the feeling that the horror isn't over, that Katy and his wife, Morgan, aren't yet safe--and that retribution is coming. All he knows for sure is that he will do anything--everything--to protect his family. That's a vow the dangerous Moon Pie will put to the ultimate test on a cold, moonless night deep in the heart of a river swamp"

Vicious Circle (M)
by Wilbur Smith

"A heart-racing story of family secrets, greed, and revenge. Hector Cross left behind a career of high risks and warfare when he married his beloved Hazel Bannock. But after his new life is tragically upended, he recognizes the ruthless hand of an old enemy behind the attack. Determined to fight back, Hector draws together a team of his most loyal friends and fellow warriors to hunt down those who pursue him and his loved ones. For he and Hazel have a child, a precious daughter, whom he will go to the ends of the earth to protect... "- publisher.

Ancillary Justice (M)
by Ann Leckie

On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest. Breq is both more than she seems and less than she was. Years ago, she was the Justice of Toren--a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of corpse soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy. An act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with only one fragile human body. And only one purpose--to revenge herself on Anaander Mianaai, many-bodied, near-immortal Lord of the Radch.