Ruby Sisson Library

Susan Orlean re-opens the unsolved mystery of the most catastrophic library fire in American history, and delivers a dazzling love letter to the beloved insitution of libraries.

As police evacuate a fire-threatened Los Angeles neighborhood, they discover the corpse of an apparent suicide. More gruesome is what they find in his lap: a photo album of seven murdered women. The suicide is identified as a former suspect in one of the murders. Lionel Byrd had been tried for the murder of Yvonne Bennett. It was Elvis Cole's discovery of an exculpatory videotape that allowed Byrd to walk free. But the discovery of the album shows...

"A pair of desperate parents. A man on the run. A rookie cop. Four people with everything on the line. What will be left in the ashes of the next 24 hours? Following their daughter's mysterious disappearance, Ryan and Elsie Delaney have taken the LAPD forensic lab hostage, and have given law enforcement an ultimatum: Find their daughter, Tilly, or they will destroy all the evidence they can find to other cold cases. Detective Charlie Hoskins has...

Dana, a modern black woman, is celebrating her twenty-sixth birthday with her new husband when she is snatched abruptly from her home in California and transported to the antebellum South. Rufus, the white son of a plantation owner, is drowning, and Dana has been summoned across the years to save him. After this first summons, Dana is drawn back, again and again, to the plantation to protect Rufus and ensure that he will grow to manhood and father...

A detective investigating a murder is fired for his efforts because his probe disrupted an FBI sting operation. He is Hieronymous Bosch of the Los Angeles police department who was investigating the slaying of a movie producer. A tale of Hollywood films, crooked money and crooked cops.

"By the world-renowned seismologist, a surprising history of natural disasters, their impact on our culture, and new ways of thinking about the ones to come Earthquakes, tsunamis, hurricanes, volcanoes--these all stem from the same forces that give our planet life. It is only when they exceed our ability to withstand them that they become disasters. Viewed together, these events have shaped our cities and their architecture; elevated leaders and...

"Hell comes to Southern California every October. It rides in on searing Santa Ana winds that blast at near hurricane force, igniting voracious wildfires. Master thief Danny Cole longs for the flames. A tsunami of fire is exactly what he needs to pull off a daring crime and avenge a fallen friend. As the most devastating firestorms in Los Angeles' history scorch the hills of Malibu, relentless arson investigator Walter Sharpe and his wild card of...

" 'If you want to understand the massive anti-racist protests of 2020, put down the navel-gazing books about racial healing and read America on Fire.' -Robin D. G. Kelley, author of Freedom Dreams: The Black Radical Imagination. Library Journal "Books and Authors to Know: Titles to Watch 2021" From one of our top historians, a groundbreaking story of policing and "riots" that shatters our understanding of the post-civil rights era. What began in spring...

In this thrilling fourth season based on George R.R. Martin's bestselling books, the Lannisters' control over the Iron Throne remains intact, but can they survive their own egos as well as the ongoing threats around them? While an unshaken Stannis Baratheon continues to rebuild his army on Dragonstone, a more immediate danger comes from the south, as Oberyn Martell, the Lannister-loathing 'Red Viper of Dorne,' arrives at King's Landing to attend Joffrey's...

Jance's second Ali Reynolds thriller (after Edge of Evil), Ali's husband, Paul Grayson, is killed on the eve of their divorceby a train that hits the car where he's tied up in the trunk somewhere near Palm Springs, Calif. Ali, Paul's legal beneficiary, becomes the chief murder suspect. A popular blogger and former Los Angeles TV news anchor who's suing the station where she used to work for wrongful dismissal, Ali initiates her own investigation,...