July 2011 On Sale: July 12, 2011 Featuring: Charlie Erlich; Jay Erlich 352 pages ISBN: 0061655961 EAN: 9780061655968 Hardcover $25.99  Add to Wish List Thriller, Suspense Buy at Amazon.com Family secrets can kill Eyes Wide Open by Andrew Gross A family’s long-buried past resurfaces with deadly consequences in this electrifying new thriller Years ago, Jay Erlich’s older brother Charlie, a wayward child of the sixties, set out for California, where he fell under the sway of a charismatic, but deeply disturbed, cult-like figure. Tragedy ensued and lives were destroyed, but as the decades passed, Charlie married and raised a family, and lived a quiet, secluded life under the radar. Yet the demons that nearly destroyed him never really disappeared. No one knows this better than Jay, whose life could not have been more different than his brother’s. He has a successful medical practice and a wife and kids whom he deeply loves. But when disaster strikes Charlie, Jay is pulled back into his brother’s past–into a labyrinth of secrets, terror, and lies, where a family was brought to the edge. With eyes wide open, Jay is determined to uncover the truth, a dangerous quest that leads beyond the brink of…

My daughter and I are manga fans, and the series Fruits Basket by Natsuki Takaya is one of our favorites. The premise behind the series is that members of the Sohma family have been possessed by the Chinese Zodiac animals. One of the characters, Kyo, is possessed by the Cat, and he’s something of an outcast because as everyone knows, the cat is not a zodiac animal. In fact, one zodiac legend claims that Cat and Rat were friends until Rat tricked Cat out of his chance to be a zodiac animal. To this day, they are sworn enemies, so it’s little wonder that Kyo clashes with Yuki (the Rat), and is always trying to fight him for his position on the Zodiac. The characters of Kyo (Cat) and Yuki (Rat) sparked an idea for a hero and heroine. And then I got to thinking about cat-burglars. When my kids were small, their favorite story was Lynley Dodd’s Slinky Malinki, about a feline cat-burglar that stole anything from socks to clothes pegs: “What was he up to? At night to be brief; Slinky Malinki turned into a thief!” Hmmm. Cat vs Rat, and a cat-burglar of the feline persuasion? Voila!…