Gilpin Library News & Events
Great books, film, friends, internet, coffee and fun
Veteran thriller-writer James Rollins has a newly published book, Altar of Eden, an adventure novel of suspense featuring a female veterinarian named Lorna Polk. (Rollins is a veterinarian himself and he always wanted to put a vet in the lead of one of his books.) On an island off the coast of Louisiana, Lorna stumbles on a shipwrecked fishing trawler. With the crew either missing or dead, she finds a frightening cargo:“a caged group of exotic animals, clearly part of a black market smuggling ring.” The beasts, however, have disturbing deformities that “make no sense.” Lorna finds herself teamed up with U.S. Border Partol agent Jack Menard to hunt for a beast that escaped the shipwreck, and to solve a mystery related to fractal science and genetic engineering, “all to expose a horrifying secret that traces back to humankind’s earliest roots.”
Juliet Marillier writes historical fantasies and none have been more enthralling than her new one, Heart’s Blood. The story takes place in a crumbling fortress built into a wooded hill called Whistling Tor, where resides a chieftain, Anluan, whose name “is spoken throughout the region in tones of revulsion and bitterness.” A long-time curse lies over Anluan’s family and his people. A young scribe, Caitrin, appears in Anluan’s garden, “admiring the rare plant known as heart’s blood.” Caitrin is retained to sort out family documents and, in doing so, begins to bring about desirable changes in the household. But the trick will be to unravel “the web of sorcery woven by Anluan’s ancestors before it claims his life.”
Historical mysteries have proven to be one of the most popular types of book to check out in our library. One such practicioner of this subgenre is Alan Gordon, whose new “Fools’ Guild Mystery” has just been published. The title is The Parisian Prodigal, set in Europe in the year 1215, and it features Theophilos – fool by trade, family man by choice, and spy by design – who is ensconsed as the “Chief Fool in Toulouse.” Theophilos has a foolish family too, and together they give the appearance of being the entertainers they claim to be. They are also members of the Fools’ Guild, and “working behind the scenes to stabilize as much as possible, a turbulent Europe.” Theophilos is thrown into a murder case, hired to prove the innocence of a newcomer to court, one Baudoin, who claims he is being framed for the murder. Theophilos must find out the truth, “and truth is something that only fools can be trusted to uncover.”
A Tennessee Williams Film Festival concludes on Saturday, February 27, with The Night of the Iguana, starring Richard Burton, Ava Gardner, Deborah Kerr, and Sue Lyon. Directed by John Huston. “A man has got just so much in his emotional bank balance. But mine has run out.” In a remote Mexican seacoast town, a fallen Episcopal priest struggles to pull his shattered life together. This Tennessee Williams play was adapted to the movies in 1964. The film begins at 1:00 p.m. Film critic Walter Chaw will be on hand. Admission is free while popcorn, cookies, and ideas are free-flowing, all courtesy of the Friends of the Library.