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Week of April 20, 2020

New in Paperback

Week of April 20, 2020

Paperback releases for the week of April 20th include THE LAST HOUSE GUEST, Megan Miranda’s smart, twisty psychological thriller about an idyllic town in Maine dealing with the suspicious death of one of their own --- and her best “summer” friend, who is trying to uncover the truth...before fingers point her way; THE SISTERS OF SUMMIT AVENUE by Lynn Cullen, a powerful novel set in the Midwest during the Great Depression, about two sisters bound together by love, duty and pain; WHISKERS IN THE DARK, the 28th installment in Rita Mae Brown's Mrs. Murphy series, which finds death stalking the Blue Ridge Mountains as a centuries-old mystery resurfaces and murder mars the lead-up to an annual beagle competition; and BROADWAY, in which Fran Leadon takes us on a mile-by-mile journey up America’s most vibrant and complex thoroughfare, through the history at the heart of Manhattan.

Bad Trust: An Attorney Rachel Gold Mystery by Michael A. Kahn - Legal Thriller/Mystery

April 21, 2020

An ugly trust fund dispute among siblings turns deadly when Isaiah, CEO of the family firm he stole from their father, is murdered in his office. St. Louis attorney Rachel Gold, hired to bring suit against Isaiah on behalf of his sisters, must now defend one against the charge of fratricide. As Rachel and her team seek essential evidence, the widowed Rachel struggles with family issues of her own, including relationships with her young son Sam and her boyfriend Abe. The jury is still out on whether or not Rachel can create the work-life balance she is seeking.

The Binding by Bridget Collins - Historical Fantasy/Magical Realism

April 21, 2020

Young Emmett Farmer is working in the fields when a strange letter arrives summoning him away from his family. He is to begin an apprenticeship as a Bookbinder --- a vocation that arouses fear, superstition and prejudice amongst their small community. Bookbinding is a sacred calling, Seredith informs her new apprentice, and he is a binder born. Under the old woman’s watchful eye, Emmett learns to hand-craft the elegant leather-bound volumes. Within each one, they will capture something unique and extraordinary: a memory. But just as Emmett begins to settle into his new circumstances, he makes an astonishing discovery: one of the books has his name on it. Soon, everything he thought he understood about his life will be dramatically rewritten.

Broadway: A History of New York City in Thirteen Miles by Fran Leadon - History

April 21, 2020

From Bowling Green all the way to Marble Hill, Fran Leadon takes us on a mile-by-mile journey up America’s most vibrant and complex thoroughfare, through the history at the heart of Manhattan. BROADWAY traces the physical and social transformation of an avenue that has been both the “Path of Progress” and a “street of broken dreams,” home to both parades and riots, startling wealth and appalling destitution. Glamorous, complex and sometimes troubling, the evolution of an oft-flooded dead end to a canyon of steel and glass is the story of American progress.

Cheater's Game: A Jake Lassiter Thriller by Paul Levine - Legal Thriller

April 20, 2020

Kip Lassiter has been working with millionaire Max Ringle in a shady scheme to help rich, spoiled kids gain admission to elite universities. Ringle, the mastermind of the fraud, cops a plea and shifts the blame to Kip. Dr. Melissa Gold, Jake Lassiter's fiancée, tries to keep the ailing lawyer strong enough for a grueling trial, even as his symptoms of brain damage grow worse. As a fiery showdown with Ringle brings the courtroom to a fever pitch, Lassiter risks everything --- including his own life --- to fight for his nephew's freedom.

The Closer You Get by Mary Torjussen - Psychological Thriller

April 21, 2020

Coworkers Ruby and Harry are in love --- but they’re married to other people. They decide to tell their spouses that their marriages are over and to start a new life together. Ruby has wanted to leave her controlling husband for a while, so she tells him she’s leaving and waits at the hotel where she and Harry are to meet. But Harry never shows up. Suddenly, Ruby has lost everything. Harry won’t answer her calls, and she’s fired from her job. Just as Ruby thinks she’s hit rock bottom, strange and menacing things start to happen --- someone is sneaking into her apartment, and someone is following her home late at night --- and she is going to have to fight for her survival.

How We Disappeared by Jing-Jing Lee - Historical Fiction

April 21, 2020

Singapore, 1942. As Japanese troops sweep down Malaysia and into Singapore, a village is ransacked, leaving only two survivors and one tiny child. In a neighboring village, 17-year-old Wang Di is strapped into the back of a troop carrier and shipped off to a Japanese military brothel where she is forced into sexual slavery as a “comfort woman.” After 60 years of silence, what she saw and experienced still haunts her. In the year 2000, 12-year-old Kevin is sitting beside his ailing grandmother when he overhears a mumbled confession. He sets out to discover the truth, wherever it might lead, setting in motion a chain of events he never could have foreseen.

I Know Who You Are by Alice Feeney - Psychological Thriller

April 21, 2020

Meet Aimee Sinclair, the actress everyone thinks they know but can’t remember where from. Except one person. Someone knows Aimee very well. They know who she is and what she did. When Aimee comes home and discovers her husband is missing, she doesn’t seem to know what to do or how to act. The police think she’s hiding something, and they’re right, she is --- but perhaps not what they thought. Aimee has a secret she’s never shared, and yet she suspects that someone knows. As she struggles to keep her career and sanity intact, her past comes back to haunt her in ways more dangerous than she ever could have imagined.

The Last House Guest by Megan Miranda - Psychological Thriller/Mystery

April 21, 2020

Littleport, Maine, has always felt like two separate towns: an ideal vacation enclave for the wealthy, whose summer homes line the coastline, and a simple harbor community for the year-round residents whose livelihoods rely on service to the visitors. Typically, fierce friendships never develop between a local and a summer girl, but that’s just what happens with visitor Sadie Loman and resident Avery Greer. Each summer for almost a decade, the girls are inseparable --- until Sadie is found dead. While the police rule the death a suicide, Avery can’t help but feel there are those in the community, including a local detective and Sadie’s brother, Parker, who blame her. Someone knows more than they’re saying, and Avery is intent on clearing her name, before the facts get twisted against her.

Race the Sands by Sarah Beth Durst - Fantasy

April 21, 2020

In Becar, who you are in this life will determine your next life. Yet there is hope --- you can change your destiny with the choices you make. But for the darkest individuals, you come back as a kehok, a monster, and are doomed to be a kehok for the rest of time. Unless you can win the Races. After a celebrated career as an elite kehok rider, Tamra became a professional trainer. Then a tragic accident left her nearly broke. To prevent the local temple from taking her daughter away from her, once again she must find a winning kehok...and a rider willing to trust her. Raia is desperate to get away from her domineering family and cruel fiancé. As a kehok rider, she could earn enough to buy her freedom. But she needs a first-rate trainer. Tamra hires Raia and pairs her with a strange new kehok with the potential to win --- if he can be tamed.

The Sisters of Summit Avenue by Lynn Cullen - Historical Fiction

April 21, 2020

1934. Ruth has been single-handedly raising four young daughters and running her family’s Indiana farm for eight long years, ever since her husband, John, was infected by the infamous “sleeping sickness” devastating families across the country. If only Ruth could trade places with her older sister, June, who is the envy of everyone she meets. But these gilded trappings hide sorrows: June has borne no children. And the man she loves more than anything belongs to Ruth. When the two sisters reluctantly reunite after a long estrangement, June’s bitterness about her sister’s betrayal sets into motion a confrontation that’s been years in the making. And their mother, Dorothy, has her own dark secrets, which might blow up the fragile peace she hopes to restore between her daughters.

There's a Word for That by Sloane Tanen - Fiction/Humor

April 21, 2020

Introducing the Kesslers: Marty, a retired LA film producer whose self-worth has been eroded by age and a late-in-life passion for opioids; his daughter Janine, a former child star suffering the aftereffects of a life in the public eye; and granddaughter Hailey, the "less-than" twin sister, whose inferiority complex takes a most unexpected turn. Meanwhile, celebrated author Bunny Small, Marty's long-forgotten first wife, has her own problems: a "preposterous" case of writer's block, a monstrous drinking habit, and a son who has fled halfway around the world to escape her. When Marty's pill-popping gets out of hand and Bunny's boozing reaches crisis proportions, a perfect storm of dysfunction brings them all together at Directions, Malibu's most exclusive and absurd rehab center.

We Came Here to Forget by Andrea Dunlop - Fiction

April 21, 2020

Katie Cleary wants to be the best skier in the world. As a teenager, she leaves her home to live and train full time with her two best friends, all-American brothers Luke and Blair. But as the upward trajectory of Katie’s elite skiing career nears its zenith, a terrifying truth about her sister becomes impossible to ignore --- one that will lay ruin not only to Katie’s career but to her family and her relationship with Luke and Blair. With her life shattered and nothing left to lose, Katie flees the snowy mountainsides of home for Buenos Aires. There, she reinvents herself as Liz Sullivan, and meets a colorful group of ex-pats and the alluring, charismatic Gianluca Fortunado, a tango teacher with secrets of his own.

Whiskers in the Dark: A Mrs. Murphy Mystery by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown - Mystery

April 21, 2020

A massive nor’easter has hit northern Virginia, where Mary Minor “Harry” Harristeen joins groundskeeping efforts at the National Beagle Club at Aldie as the date for its springtime Hounds for Heroes veterans’ benefit approaches. Harry’s fellow volunteers, including her oldest friend, Susan Tucker, comprise a spirited group of hunting enthusiasts, some former service members themselves. But things take a sinister turn when, after a routine tree cleanup along the Club’s hunting trails, retired foreign services officer Jason Holzknect is found dead. Soon enough, another murder in their midst jolts the preparations, convincing Harry that the killer is familiar with the Club --- and must be close by, masked in plain sight.