Cactus View Book Club is set in an active adult community in beautiful Surprise, Arizona. After a new member joins the ladies' book club, members soon become entangled in a murder investigation that continues to escalate. As the bodies pile up in this gripping novel, Detectives Baxter and Begay are charged with unraveling the secrets and mysteries hidden within the club. Multiple deaths and suspects emerge as club members create a web of lies and betrayals. With its intriguing plot, secrets, hidden agendas, action, and desert setting, Cactus View Book Club (Murder in Surprise) will keep readers engaged to the end. Excerpt: After the club members had finished discussing John Grisham's novel "The Reckoning," the conversation drifted into the happenings of their personal lives and the surrounding community. The Cactus View Book Club was as much about socializing as it was about books. Several members refilled wine glasses and sampled the snacks from the kitchen counter. Katy Cullen drifted over to the newest member, Emily Settlemire. "Judy is having a tough time," Katy whispered. "You mean about the affair?" asked Emily. "Yes." "That's sad. Judy is such a beautiful woman, and she seems nice enough." "I've met her husband, and he comes across as a jackass if you ask me." "Judy said they were trying to work things out," Emily reminded her. "She tries to hide it, but I believe he is having another affair." "Has Judy told you that?" asked Emily. "You can see the signs. Judy has gotten more sullen over the last couple of weeks. She mentioned something about him not being able to control himself." "Well, there's a simple fix to that. She should kick his ass out." "Judy won't do that," insisted Katy. "Why not?" "She needs the money. She was a stay-at-home mom for most of their marriage. When she finally found a job, it was in retail. I believe she worked at Kohl's." "And her husband is a surgeon," replied Emily. "They must have a lot of money. She is entitled to at least half of it." "Well, Judy worries he would fight her and tie up the money for years. She's also afraid he would get the main house in Washington because that's where his primary practice is. That would leave her the house in Cactus View. She's not sure she would enjoy living here full time." "If Judy needs advice on getting out of an awful marriage, send her to me," said Emily. "What can you do?" asked Katy. Before Emily could answer, Linda Riggs walked over. "We are delighted to have you in our club, Emily." This is Mark Beckner's fifth book in a line of thrilling murder dramas. Previous titles are Behind the Lies; Death From Desire; Naked Evidence; and Silent Waters.

“Fans of Eleanor Oliphant Is Completely Fine will love The Cactus.” —Red magazine In this charming and poignant debut, one woman’s unconventional journey to finding love means learning to embrace the unexpected. For Susan Green, messy emotions don’t fit into the equation of her perfectly ordered life. She has a flat that is ideal for one, a job that suits her passion for logic, and an “interpersonal arrangement” that provides cultural and other, more intimate, benefits. But suddenly confronted with the loss of her mother and the news that she is about to become a mother herself, Susan’s greatest fear is realized. She is losing control. Enter Rob, the dubious but well-meaning friend of her indolent brother. As Susan’s due date draws near and her dismantled world falls further into a tailspin, Susan finds an unlikely ally in Rob. She might have a chance at finding real love and learning to love herself, if only she can figure out how to let go.

This summer, during these strange strange times, immerse yourself in words that have touched all of us and will always get to the core of all of us, of every single person. Books that have made us think, change, relate, cry and laugh: Leaves of Grass (Walt Whitman) Siddhartha (Herman Hesse) Middlemarch (George Eliot) The Madman (Kahlil Gibran) Ward No. 6 (Anton Chekhov) Moby-Dick (Herman Melville) The Picture of Dorian Gray (Oscar Wilde) Crime and Punishment (Dostoevsky) The Overcoat (Gogol) Ulysses (James Joyce) Walden (Henry David Thoreau) Hamlet (Shakespeare) Romeo and Juliet (Shakespeare) Macbeth (Shakespeare) The Waste Land (T. S. Eliot) Odes (John Keats) The Flowers of Evil (Charles Baudelaire) Pride and Prejudice (Jane Austen) Jane Eyre (Charlotte Brontë) Wuthering Heights (Emily Brontë) Anna Karenina (Leo Tolstoy) Vanity Fair (Thackeray) Swann's Way (Marcel Proust) Sons and Lovers (D. H. Lawrence) Great Expectations (Charles Dickens) Little Women (Louisa May Alcott) Jude the Obscure (Thomas Hardy) Two Years in the Forbidden City (Princess Der Ling) Les Misérables (Victor Hugo) The Count of Monte Cristo (Alexandre Dumas) Pepita Jimenez (Juan Valera) The Red Badge of Courage (Stephen Crane) A Room with a View (E. M. Forster) Sister Carrie (Theodore Dreiser) The Jungle (Upton Sinclair) The Republic (Plato) Meditations (Marcus Aurelius) Art of War (Sun Tzu) Candide (Voltaire) Don Quixote (Cervantes) Decameron (Boccaccio) Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglass Dream Psychology (Sigmund Freud) The Einstein Theory of Relativity The Mysterious Affair at Styles (Agatha Christie) A Study in Scarlet (Arthur Conan Doyle) Heart of Darkness (Joseph Conrad) The Call of Cthulhu (H. P. Lovecraft) Frankenstein (Mary Shelley) The War of the Worlds (H. G. Wells) The Raven (Edgar Allan Poe) The Sun Also Rises (Ernest Hemingway) The Wonderful Wizard of Oz The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn The Call of the Wild Alice in Wonderland The Fairytales of Brothers Grimm The Fairytales of Hans Christian Andersen