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Week of April 27, 2020

New in Paperback

Week of April 27, 2020

Paperback releases for the week of April 27th include BLUE MOON by Lee Child, which finds Jack Reacher coming to the aid of an elderly couple…and confronting his most dangerous opponents yet; ELEVATOR PITCH, an edge-of-your-seat thriller from Linwood Barclay that does for elevators what Psycho did for showers and Jaws did for the beach --- a heart-pounding tale in which a series of disasters paralyzes New York City with fear; Joshilyn Jackson's NEVER HAVE I EVER, a twisting novel of domestic suspense in which a group of women play a harmless drinking game that escalates into a war of dark pasts; and THE FAMILY NEXT DOOR by true-crime writer John Glatt, which tells the devastating story of the Turpins --- a seemingly normal family whose dark secrets would shock and captivate the world.

American Spirit: Profiles in Resilience, Courage, and Faith by Taya Kyle and Jim DeFelice - Biography

April 28, 2020

After losing her husband, "American Sniper" Chris Kyle, Taya Kyle entered a period of deep grief. And yet the experience served as a catalyst for profound growth. Taya found her own reserve of strength with the help of the generous love and support of family and friends --- and also many strangers across America, who selflessly shared their own stories of suffering, survival and triumph. Inspired by her experience, Taya discovered her calling: spreading a message of how love, passion and service can combine to help us persevere over personal pain and heal our communities. Working with trusted collaborator Jim DeFelice, Taya tells her own story, as well as those of other Americans who have built extraordinary lives after traveling down life’s most difficult roads.

Backlash by Brad Thor - Political Thriller

April 28, 2020

In ancient texts, there are stories about men who struck from the shadows, seemingly beyond the reach of death itself. Their loyalty was to their families, friends and kings. You crossed these men at your peril. And once crossed, there was no crossing back. They were fearless --- men of honor who have been known throughout history by different names: Spartan, Viking, Samurai. Today, men like these still strike from the shadows. They are highly prized intelligence agents, military operatives and assassins. One man is all three. Two days ago, that man was crossed --- badly. Now, far from home and surrounded by his enemy, Scot Harvath must battle his way out. But survival isn’t enough. Harvath wants revenge.

The Bitterroots by C. J. Box - Mystery/Thriller

April 28, 2020

Former sheriff’s investigator Cassie Dewell is asked by a friend to help exonerate a man accused of assaulting a young woman from an influential family. Against her own better judgment, Cassie agrees. But out by the Bitterroot Mountains of Montana, twisted family loyalty runs as deep as the ties to the land, and there's always something more to the story. The Kleinsassers have ruled this part of Montana for decades, and the Iron Cross Ranch is their stronghold. They want to see Blake Kleinsasser, the black sheep of the family, put away forever for the assault. As Cassie attempts to uncover the truth, she must fight against a family whose roots are tangled and deadly --- as well as the ghosts of her own past that threaten to bring her down.

Blood Orange by Harriet Tyce - Psychological Thriller

April 28, 2020

Alison has it all: a doting husband, an adorable daughter and a career on the rise --- she's just been given her first murder case to defend. But Alison drinks too much. She's neglecting her family. And she's having an affair with a colleague whose taste for pushing boundaries may be more than she can handle. Alison's client doesn't deny that she stabbed her husband --- she wants to plead guilty. And yet something about her story is deeply amiss. Saving this woman may be the first step to Alison saving herself. But someone knows Alison's secrets. Someone who wants to make her pay for what she's done, and who won't stop until she's lost everything.

Blue Moon: A Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child - Thriller

April 28, 2020

Jack Reacher is on a Greyhound bus, minding his own business. He steps off the bus to help an old man who is obviously just a victim waiting to happen. But you know what they say about good deeds. Now Reacher wants to make it right. An elderly couple has made a few well-meaning mistakes, and now they owe big money to some very bad people. One brazen move leads to another, and suddenly Reacher finds himself a wanted man in the middle of a brutal turf war between rival Ukrainian and Albanian gangs. Reacher has to stay one step ahead of the loan sharks, the thugs and the assassins. He teams up with a fed-up waitress who knows a little more than she’s letting on, and sets out to take down the powerful and make the greedy pay.

The Boatman and Other Stories by Billy O'Callaghan - Fiction/Short Stories

April 28, 2020

Spanning a century and two continents --- from the muddy fields of Ireland to a hotel room in Paris, a dingy bar in Segovia to an airplane bound for Taipei --- Billy O’Callaghan’s 12 stories explore the resiliency of the human heart and its ability to keep beating in the wake of bereavement, violence, lost love, and incomparable trauma and grief. Three gunshots on the Irish border define the course of a young man’s life; a writer clings fast to a star-crossed affair with a woman who has never been fully within his reach; a fisherman accustomed to hard labor rolls up his sleeves to dig a grave for his child; and a pair of newlyweds embark on their first adventure, living wild on the deserted Beginish Island.

Elevator Pitch by Linwood Barclay - Psychological Thriller

April 28, 2020

It all begins on a Monday, when four people board an elevator in a Manhattan office tower. Each presses a button for their floor, but the elevator proceeds, nonstop, to the top. Once there, the doors don’t open. Instead, the elevator begins to descend floor by floor. Then it plummets. Right to the bottom of the shaft. It appears to be a random accident. But on Tuesday, it happens again, in a different Manhattan skyscraper. And then Wednesday brings yet another tragic high-rise catastrophe. Clearly, this is a cold, calculated bid to terrorize the city. Fearing for their lives, thousands of people who work in high-rises across the city refuse to leave their homes. Who is behind this? Are these deadly acts of sabotage connected to a fingerless body found on the High Line?

The Family Next Door: The Heartbreaking Imprisonment of the Thirteen Turpin Siblings and Their Extraordinary Rescue by John Glatt - True Crime

April 28, 2020

On January 14, 2018, a 17-year-old girl climbed out of the window of her Perris, California home and dialed 911 on a borrowed cell phone. Struggling to stay calm, she told the operator that she and her 12 siblings were being abused by their parents. When the dispatcher asked for her address, the girl hesitated. “I’ve never been out,” she stammered. Louise and David Turpin presented themselves as loving, faithful parents. But what police discovered when they entered the Turpin home would eclipse the most shocking child abuse cases in history. For years, Louise and David had kept their children in increasing isolation, trapping them in a sinister world of torture, fear and near starvation. THE FAMILY NEXT DOOR is the definitive account of the Turpins: a family whose dark secrets would shock and captivate the world.

The Farm by Joanne Ramos - Fiction

April 28, 2020

Nestled in New York’s Hudson Valley is a luxury retreat boasting every amenity --- and all of it for free. In fact, you’re paid big money to stay here. The catch? For nine months, you cannot leave the grounds, your movements are monitored, and you are cut off from your former life while you dedicate yourself to the task of producing the perfect baby. For someone else. Jane, an immigrant from the Philippines, is in desperate search of a better future when she commits to being a “Host” at Golden Oaks --- or the Farm, as residents call it. But now pregnant, fragile and consumed with worry for her family, Jane is determined to reconnect with her life outside. Yet she cannot leave the Farm, or she will lose the life-changing fee she’ll receive on the delivery of her child.

Feels Like Falling by Kristy Woodson Harvey - Fiction

April 28, 2020

It’s summertime on the North Carolina coast, and the livin’ is easy. Unless, that is, you’ve just lost your mother to cancer, your sister to her extremist husband, and your husband to his executive assistant. Meet Gray Howard. Right when Gray could use a serious infusion of good karma in her life, she inadvertently gets a stranger, Diana Harrington, fired from her job at the local pharmacy. Diana Harrington’s summer isn’t off to the greatest start either: Hours before losing her job, she broke up with her boyfriend and moved out of their shared house with only a worn-out Impala for a bed. Lucky for her, Gray has an empty guest house and a very guilty conscience. With Gray’s kindness, Diana’s tide begins to turn. But when her first love returns, every secret from her past seems to resurface all at once.

Have You Seen Me? by Kate White - Psychological Thriller

April 28, 2020

On a cold, rainy morning, finance journalist Ally Linden arrives soaked to the bone at her Manhattan office, only to find that she’s forgotten her keycard. When her boss shows, he’s shocked to see her --- because she hasn’t worked there in five years. Ally knows her name, but is having trouble coming up with much beyond that. Diagnosed as having experienced a dissociative state, she starts to wonder if it may have been triggered by something she saw. It soon becomes clear that someone wants to prevent her from learning where the past 48 hours have gone. In order to uncover the truth, Ally must dig deep into the secrets of her past --- and outsmart the person who seems determined to silence her.

The Heirloom Garden by Viola Shipman - Fiction

April 28, 2020

Iris Maynard lost her husband in World War II, her daughter to illness and, finally, her reason to live. Walled off from the world for decades behind the towering fence surrounding her home, Iris has built a new family…of flowers. Iris propagates her own daylilies and roses while tending to a garden filled with the heirloom starts that keep the memories of her loved ones alive. When Abby Peterson moves next door with her family --- a husband traumatized by his service in the Iraq War and a young daughter searching for stability --- Iris is reluctantly yet inevitably drawn into her boisterous neighbor’s life, where, united by loss and a love of flowers, she and Abby tentatively unearth their secrets, and help each other discover how much life they have yet to live.

Murder, She Wrote: A Time for Murder by Jessica Fletcher and Jon Land - Mystery

April 28, 2020

Young Jessica Fletcher's life couldn't be more ordinary. She teaches at the local high school while she and her loving husband, Frank, are raising their nephew, Grady, together. But when the beloved principal dies under mysterious circumstances, Jessica knows something is off and, for the very first time, investigates a death. Present-day Jessica returns to high school for a colleague's retirement party and has fun seeing familiar faces. That is, until the colleague winds up dead --- and his death has mysterious links to Jessica's very first murder case. With nothing but her own instincts to guide her, Jessica embarks on a quest to find out what really happened all those years ago and who's behind these murders.

Never Have I Ever by Joshilyn Jackson - Thriller

April 28, 2020

Amy Whey's sweet, uncomplicated life begins to unravel when the mysterious and alluring Angelica Roux arrives on her doorstep one night. Amy knows that something wicked has come her way --- a she-devil in a pricey red sports car who seems to know the terrible truth about who she is and what she once did. Roux tells Amy that if she doesn’t give her what she asks for --- what she deserves --- she’s going to make Amy pay for her sins. To protect herself and her family, and save the life she’s built, Amy must beat the devil at her own clever game, matching wits with Roux in an escalating war of hidden pasts and unearthed secrets. Amy knows the consequences if she can’t beat Roux. What terrifies her is everything she could lose if she wins.

The Night Before by Wendy Walker - Psychological Thriller

April 28, 2020

Devastated by the end of her last relationship, Laura Lochner fled her Wall Street job and New York City apartment for her sister’s home in the Connecticut suburb where they both grew up. Though still haunted by the tragedy that’s defined her entire life, Laura is determined to take one more chance on love with a man she’s met on an Internet dating site. Rosie Ferro has spent most of her life worrying about her troubled sister. Fearless but fragile, Laura has always walked an emotional tightrope. So when Laura does not return home the following morning from her blind date, Rosie fears the worst. As she begins a desperate search to find her sister, she is not just worried about what this man might have done to Laura. She’s worried about what Laura may have done to him.

Queen Bee by Dorothea Benton Frank - Fiction

April 28, 2020

Beekeeper Holly McNee Jensen quietly lives in a world of her own on Sullivan’s Island, tending her hives and working at the local island library. Holly calls her mother The Queen Bee because she’s a demanding hulk of a woman. Her mother, a devoted hypochondriac, might be unaware that she’s quite ill, but that doesn’t stop her from tormenting Holly. To escape the drama, Holly’s sister Leslie married and moved away, wanting little to do with island life. Holly’s escape is to submerge herself in the lives of the two young boys next door and their widowed father, Archie. Her world is upended when the more flamboyant Leslie returns, and both sisters, polar opposites, fixate on what’s happening in their neighbor’s home.

Rules for Visiting by Jessica Francis Kane - Fiction

April 28, 2020

Dry, witty and unapologetic, May Attaway loves literature and her work as a botanist for the university in her hometown. More at home with plants than people, May begins to suspect that she isn’t very good at friendship and wonders if it’s possible to improve with practice. Granted some leave from her job, she sets out on a journey to spend time with four long-neglected friends. RULES FOR VISITING is the story of a search for friendship in the digital age, a singular look at the way we stay in touch. While May travels, she studies her friends’ lives and begins to confront the pain of her own.

Ruth Bader Ginsburg: A Life by Jane Sherron De Hart - Biography

April 28, 2020

In this comprehensive, revelatory biography --- 15 years of interviews and research in the making --- historian Jane Sherron De Hart explores the central experiences that crucially shaped Ruth Bader Ginsburg’s passion for justice, her advocacy for gender equality, and her meticulous jurisprudence. At the heart of her story and abiding beliefs is her Jewish background, specifically the concept of tikkun olam, the Hebrew injunction to “repair the world,” with its profound meaning for a young girl who grew up during the Holocaust and World War II.

The Seven or Eight Deaths of Stella Fortuna by Juliet Grames - Historical Fiction

April 28, 2020

For Stella Fortuna, death has always been a part of life. Stella’s childhood is full of strange, life-threatening incidents. Even Stella’s own mother is convinced that her daughter is cursed or haunted. Stella uses her peculiar toughness to protect her slower, plainer baby sister Tina from life’s harshest realities. But she also provokes the ire of her father, who demands subservience from women. When the Fortunas emigrate to America on the cusp of World War II, Stella and Tina must come of age side-by-side in a hostile new world with strict expectations for each of them. In present-day Connecticut, one family member tells this heartrending story, determined to understand the persisting rift between the now-elderly Stella and Tina.

Sins of the Fathers: A J.P. Beaumont Novel by J.A. Jance - Mystery/Thriller

April 28, 2020

Former Seattle homicide cop J. P. Beaumont is learning to enjoy the new realities of retirement: doing morning crossword puzzles by a roaring fireplace, playing frisbee with his new dog, having quiet lunches with his still-working wife. But then his past comes calling. When a long-ago acquaintance, Alan Dale, shows up on Beau’s doorstep with a newborn infant in hand and asking for help locating his missing daughter, Beau finds himself faced with an investigation that will turn his own life upside down by dragging his none-too-stellar past onto a roller-coaster ride that may well derail his serene present. It turns out that, even in retirement, murder is still the name of J. P. Beaumont’s game.

Southern Lady Code: Essays by Helen Ellis - Humor/Essays

April 28, 2020

Helen Ellis has a mantra: “If you don't have something nice to say, say something not-so-nice in a nice way.” Say “weathered” instead of “she looks like a cake left out in the rain” and “I’m not in charge” instead of “they’re doing it wrong.” In these 23 raucous essays, Ellis transforms herself into a dominatrix Donna Reed to save her marriage, inadvertently steals a Burberry trench coat, avoids a neck lift, and finds a black-tie gown that gives her the confidence of a drag queen. While she may have left Alabama for New York City, Ellis is clinging to her Southern accent like mayonnaise to white bread, and offering readers a hilarious, completely singular view on womanhood for both sides of the Mason-Dixon.

Stay Up with Hugo Best by Erin Somers - Fiction/Humor

April 28, 2020

When June Bloom, an assistant on the late-night comedy show "Stay Up with Hugo Best," runs into Hugo himself at an open mic following his unexpected retirement, she finds herself fielding a surprising invitation: Hugo asks June to come to his mansion in Greenwich for the long Memorial Day weekend. “No funny business,” he insists. June, in need of a job and money, but harboring the remains of a childhood crush on the charming older comedian and former role model, is confident she can handle herself. She accepts. As the weekend unfolds and the enigmatic Hugo gradually reveals appealingly vulnerable facets to his personality, their dynamic proves to be much more complicated and less predictable than June imagined.

Sunset Beach by Mary Kay Andrews - Fiction

April 28, 2020

Out of a job and down on her luck, Drue Campbell’s life doesn’t seem to be getting any better when her estranged father, a flamboyant personal injury attorney, shows up at her mother’s funeral after a 20-year absence. Worse, he’s remarried --- to Drue’s eighth grade frenemy, Wendy, now his office manager. And they’re offering her a job. It seems like the job from hell, but the offer is sweetened by the news of her inheritance: her grandparents’ beach bungalow in the sleepy town of Sunset Beach. With no other prospects, Drue begrudgingly joins the firm. But when a suspicious death at an exclusive beach resort nearby exposes possible corruption at her father’s firm, she is drawn into a case that may --- or may not --- involve her father.

Thirteen by Steve Cavanagh - Legal Thriller

April 28, 2020

It’s the murder trial of the century --- and Joshua Kane has killed to get the best seat in the house. He has done everything in his power to make sure the wrong man goes down for the crime. Because this time, the killer isn’t on trial. He’s on the jury. But there’s someone on his tail. Defense lawyer and former conman Eddie Flynn doesn’t believe that his movie-star client killed two people. He suspects that the real killer is closer than they think. But who would guess just how close?