New Releases by Hester Velmans

The "true" history a poor orphaned stepchild whose life turns out to be the inspiration for the world''s most famous tale. Her search for one true love or another takes her all over 17thC England, France and the Low Countries, until she befriends Charles Perrault, the original author of the fairy tales, and tells him her life story.

An award-winning, internationally bestselling author makes her American debut with this taut, riveting domestic drama with the compulsive intensity of The Good Girl, The Pocket Wife, and The Stranger, about a long-lost brother convicted of a horrifying crime and a sister’s fight to clear his name. A single mother and lawyer, Iris has a colorful caseload, a young son with behavior issues, and a judgmental mother. She also has a brother—shocking news she uncovers by accident. Why did her mother lie to her for her entire life? Why did she hide the existence of Ray Boelens from her? Curious about this sibling she has never known, Iris begins to search for long-buried truths. What she discovers surprises—and horrifies—her. Her older brother is autistic—and in prison for brutally murdering his neighbor and her daughter. Visiting Ray, she meets a man who looks heartbreakingly like her own son. A man who is devoted to his tropical fish and who loves baking bread. A man whose naiveté unnerves her. There is no question that Ray is odd and obsessive, unable to communicate like the rest of us. But is he really a killer? Told in the alternative voices of Ray and Iris, Girl in the Dark is a compulsive, page-turning thriller about lies, murder, and the tenacity of a family determined to stay together even as they are pulled apart at the most vulnerable seams.

Hendrik Groen is 83 years old and he has decided that it is time to make something of his life. He may be rich in years, but he refuses to give in to all the trappings of old age just yet. Hendrik''s hilarious and touching diary documents his life as an OAP living in a care home. When he recruits some similarly young-at-heart friends to join his ''Old But Not Dead Club'', Hendrik proves that love can blossom, rules can be broken and fun is within reach, even at their age. So begins a charming, poignant and moving novel that reminds us not to underestimate the oldest amongst us.

"What if the whales had knowledge of an upcoming disaster, and we didn''t? What if the whales decided they had to warn us? What if there was just one human being in the world the whales could turn to who would know what to do? A tsunami is coming to the East Coast of America--and it''s up to two brave teens to find a way to sound the alarm, so that a catastrophic disaster can be averted in time. Along the way, Isabel and Jessaloup must learn to understand, and accept, the differences between their two opposite worlds - the ocean and dry land - in order to discover the deep, essential bonds that connect them"--Page 4 of cover.

Eleven-year-old Isabel is a “plain old” girl living in Provincetown, Massachusetts, who believes that she is destined to accomplish something special. When her fifth-grade class goes on a whale-watch field trip, something amazing happens: Dozens of different species of whales surround the boat, bumping the deck and sending Isabel flying into the ocean. Isabel is shocked to hear the whales speaking to her—she is a mermaid, they tell her, a “Chosen One” who has the ability to turn from a human into a whale and back again. She is destined to live among the whales long enough to learn their ways, and teach them about the human world. Living among her pod is fun, at first, but Isabel has an important mission. She will change the whales’ future forever, and learn a lot about herself in the process.