GIST
True love, not marriage, is the tie that binds in this Pilcher book. There's one interesting twist on a typical Pilcher plot: A recent widower, a church organist by trade, struggles with his faith in God. She finds a sentimental rather than a biblical way to bring about reconciliation.

WORLDVIEW
Sentimental.

CAUTION
Implied adultery.

GIST
Burke masterfully depicts New Orleans' seedy underbelly and the wages of sin and corruption. Robicheaux, the reformed alcoholic, who wanders these mean streets, often treads close to the ethical line.

WORLDVIEW
Existentialist moralism.

CAUTION
Language, sexual situations.

GIST
Instability in China and a mysterious missile attack in Russia that might have been an assassination attempt, plus the discovery of vast quantities of oil and gold in that country, lead the two nations to war and the world to the brink of nuclear destruction.

WORLDVIEW
Conservative materialism.

CAUTION
Language, sexual situations.

GIST
Kellerman usually writes about Peter Decker and his wife Rina Lazarus. This book focuses on daughter Cynthia, a snob who believes she is above her fellow cops. When strange things happen, she thinks they are hazing her. By the time she realizes she's being stalked, it's almost too late.

WORLDVIEW
Moralism.

CAUTION
Language.

GIST
A hardboiled thriller where the women talk like men, the pols are dirty, and so are the cops. Kovac is convinced the death of a young Internal Affairs cop is not a suicide, as it first appears. But figuring out who did it means the good guys have to walk close to the line.

WORLDVIEW
Existential moralism.

CAUTION
Language and sexual situations.