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Week of January 7, 2019

New in Paperback

Week of January 7, 2019

Paperback releases for the week of January 7th include THE FLIGHT ATTENDANT by Chris Bohjalian, a spellbinding psychological thriller in which a flight attendant wakes up in the wrong hotel, in the wrong bed, with a dead man --- and no idea what happened; MACBETH, Jo Nesbø's retelling of Shakespeare’s dark and tragic play, which centers on a police force struggling to shed an incessant drug problem; THE LARGESSE OF THE SEA MAIDEN, a story collection from Denis Johnson finished shortly before his death that finds him contemplating the ghosts of the past and the elusive and unexpected ways the mysteries of the universe assert themselves; and Dave Eggers' THE MONK OF MOKHA, the exhilarating true story of a young Yemeni American man, raised in San Francisco, who dreams of resurrecting the ancient art of Yemeni coffee but finds himself trapped in Sana’a by civil war.

The Afterlives by Thomas Pierce - Fiction

January 8, 2019

Jim Byrd died. Technically. For a few minutes. The diagnosis: heart attack at age 30. Revived with no memory of any tunnels, lights or angels, Jim wonders what, if anything, awaits us on the other side. Then a ghost shows up. Maybe. Jim and his new wife, Annie, find themselves tangling with holograms, psychics, messages from the beyond, and a machine that connects the living and the dead. As Jim and Annie journey through history and fumble through faith, they confront the specter of loss that looms for anyone who dares to fall in love.

Anatomy of a Miracle by Jonathan Miles - Fiction

January 8, 2019

Rendered paraplegic after a traumatic event four years ago, Cameron Harris has been living his new existence alongside his sister, Tanya, in a neighborhood where only half the houses made it through Katrina. One hot afternoon, as Cameron sits waiting for Tanya during their daily run to a convenience store, he suddenly and inexplicably rises up and out of his wheelchair. In the aftermath of this “miracle,” Cameron finds himself a celebrity at the center of a contentious debate about what’s taken place. And when scientists, journalists and a Vatican investigator start digging, Cameron’s deepest secrets become increasingly endangered. Was Cameron’s recovery a genuine miracle, or a medical breakthrough?

The Au Pair by Emma Rous - Mystery

January 8, 2019

Seraphine Mayes and her twin brother, Danny, were born in the middle of summer at their family's estate on the Norfolk coast. Within hours of their birth, their mother threw herself from the cliffs, the au pair fled, and the village thrilled with whispers of dark cloaks, changelings, and the aloof couple who drew a young nanny into their inner circle. Now an adult, Seraphine mourns the recent death of her father. While going through his belongings, she uncovers a family photograph that raises dangerous questions. It was taken on the day the twins were born --- and in the photo, their mother, surrounded by her husband and her young son, is smiling serenely and holding just one baby. Who is the child, and what really happened that day?

The Black Painting by Neil Olson - Fiction

January 8, 2019

When Teresa’s grandfather summons her and her three cousins to his mansion at Owl’s Point, the invitation comes as a surprise. None of them have seen the old man since they were children, when a priceless Goya painting was stolen from the estate, a theft that split the family apart in a cloud of accusations and suspicion. But when Teresa arrives, she finds the old man dead, his gaze fixed on the wall where the painting once hung. As her family gathers to mourn, Teresa seeks an explanation for her grandfather’s death and the painting’s disappearance. But to do so, she must uncover her family’s secrets and face those who would keep them hidden.

The Bomb Maker by Thomas Perry - Thriller

January 8, 2019

A threat is called into the LAPD Bomb Squad, and when tragedy ensues, the fragmented unit turns to Dick Stahl, a former Bomb Squad commander who now operates his own private security company. Just returned from a tough job in Mexico, Stahl is at first reluctant to accept the offer, but his sense of duty to the technicians he trained is too strong to turn it down. On his first day back at the head of the squad, Stahl’s three-person team is dispatched to a suspected car bomb. And it quickly becomes clear to him that they are dealing with an unusual mastermind --- one whose intended target seems to be the Bomb Squad itself.

Crime Song by David Swinson - Mystery

January 8, 2019

Frank Marr’s home is burglarized, leaving a body on the kitchen floor: his cousin Jeffrey, who had been involved with a small-time drug operation. Frank’s .38 revolver --- the murder weapon --- is stolen, along with his cherished music collection, his only possessions of sentimental value. Clearly, Jeffrey was deeper in the underworld than anyone realized. With the weight of his family, his reputation and his own life on the line, Frank will have to find the culprit by following the stolen goods through a tangled network of petty thieves, desperate addicts, deceiving fences, good cops, bad cops, and one morally compromised taxi driver.

Dangerous Crossing by Rachel Rhys - Historical Mystery

January 8, 2019

In 1939, Europe is on the brink of war when young Lily Shepherd boards an ocean liner in Essex, bound for Australia. She is ready to start anew, leaving behind the shadows in her past. With stops at exotic locations along the way, the voyage shows Lily places she’d only ever dreamed of and enables her to make friends with those above her social station. She even allows herself to hope that a man she couldn’t possibly have a future with outside the cocoon of the ship might return her feelings. But Lily soon realizes that she’s not the only one hiding secrets. Her newfound friends are also running away from their pasts. By the time the ship docks, two passengers are dead, war has been declared, and Lily’s life will be changed irrevocably.

The Days When Birds Come Back by Deborah Reed - Fiction

January 8, 2019

June is in transition, reeling from her divorce and trying to stay sober. She returns to the Oregon coast where she grew up, and must decide what to do with her late and much-loved grandparents’ charming cedar-shingled home, a place haunted by memories of her childhood. Jameson comes highly recommended to renovate the old house to sell, and from their first contact, he senses a connection with June. He too is unmoored as he struggles to redefine his marriage in the aftermath of loss. But what can the future hold as long as they are gripped so firmly by the past?

Deadly Cure by Lawrence Goldstone - Historical Thriller

January 8, 2019

In 1899, in Brooklyn, New York, Dr. Noah Whitestone is called urgently to his wealthy neighbor’s house to treat a five-year-old boy with a shocking set of symptoms. When the child dies suddenly later that night, Noah is accused by the boy’s regular physician --- the powerful and politically connected Dr. Arnold Frias --- of prescribing a lethal dose of laudanum. To prove his innocence, Noah must investigate the murder --- for it must be murder --- and confront the man whom he is convinced is the real killer. His investigation leads him to a reporter for a muckraking magazine and a beautiful radical editor who are convinced that a secret, experimental drug from Germany has caused the death of at least five local children, and possibly many more.

Eternal Life by Dara Horn - Fiction

January 8, 2019

Rachel’s current troubles --- a middle-aged son mining digital currency in her basement, a scientist granddaughter trying to peek into her genes --- are only the latest in a litany spanning dozens of countries, scores of marriages, hundreds of children, and 2,000 years, going back to Roman-occupied Jerusalem. Only one person shares her immortality: an illicit lover who pursues her through the ages. But when her children develop technologies that could change her fate, Rachel must find a way out.

Fire and Fury: Inside the Trump White House by Michael Wolff - Politics

January 8, 2019

With extraordinary access to the West Wing, Michael Wolff reveals what happened behind the scenes in the first nine months of one of the most controversial presidencies. Since Donald Trump was sworn in as the 45th President of the United States, the country --- and the world --- has witnessed a stormy, outrageous and absolutely mesmerizing presidential term that reflects the volatility and fierceness of the man elected Commander-in-Chief. This riveting and explosive account of Trump’s administration provides a wealth of new details about the chaos in the Oval Office.

The Flight Attendant by Chris Bohjalian - Psychological Thriller

January 8, 2019

Cassandra Bowden, a flight attendant, is no stranger to hungover mornings. When she awakes in a Dubai hotel room, she tries to piece the previous night back together. She quietly slides out of bed and looks at the man she spent the night with. What she sees is blood, a slick, still wet pool on the crisp white sheets. Afraid to call the police, Cassie begins to lie. She lies as she joins the other flight attendants and pilots in the van. She lies on the way to Paris as she works the first class cabin. She lies to the FBI agents in New York who meet her at the gate. Soon it's too late to come clean --- or face the truth about what really happened back in Dubai. Could she have killed him? If not, who did?

Fools and Mortals by Bernard Cornwell - Historical Fiction

January 8, 2019

In the heart of Elizabethan England, Richard Shakespeare dreams of a glittering career in one of the London playhouses, a world dominated by his older brother, William. But he is a penniless actor, making ends meet through a combination of a beautiful face, petty theft and a silver tongue. As William’s star rises, Richard’s onetime gratitude is souring and he is sorely tempted to abandon family loyalty. So when a priceless manuscript goes missing, suspicion falls upon Richard, forcing him onto a perilous path through a bawdy and frequently brutal London. Entangled in a high-stakes game of duplicity and betrayal, Richard has to call on all he has now learned from the brightest stages and the darkest alleyways of the city. To avoid the gallows, he must play the part of a lifetime.

For the Winner: A Novel of Jason and the Argonauts by Emily Hauser - Historical Fiction

January 8, 2019

When the king of Pagasae left his infant daughter on the slopes of a mountain to die, he believed he would never see her again. But Atalanta, against the will of the gods and the dictates of the Fates, survived --- and went on to bring to life one of the greatest legends of all of ancient Greece. Teaching herself to hunt and fight, Atalanta is determined to prove her worth to her father. Disguising herself as a man, she wins a place on the greatest voyage of that heroic age: the journey of Jason and the Argonauts to the very ends of the known world in search of the legendary Golden Fleece. But Atalanta is discovered, and abandoned in the mythical land of Colchis, where she is forced to make a choice that will determine her place in history.

Force of Nature by Jane Harper - Mystery

January 8, 2019

When five colleagues are forced to go on a corporate retreat in the wilderness, they reluctantly pick up their backpacks and start walking down the muddy path. But one of the women doesn’t come out of the woods. And each of her companions tells a slightly different story about what happened. Federal Police Agent Aaron Falk has a keen interest in the whereabouts of the missing hiker. In an investigation that takes him deep into isolated forest, Falk discovers secrets lurking in the mountains, and a tangled web of personal and professional friendship, suspicion and betrayal among the hikers. But did that lead to murder?

It Devours!: A Welcome to Night Vale Novel by Joseph Fink and Jeffrey Cranor - Mystery

January 8, 2019

Nilanjana Sikdar is an outsider to the town of Night Vale. Working for Carlos, the town’s top scientist, she relies on fact and logic as her guiding principles. But all of that is put into question when Carlos gives her a special assignment investigating a mysterious rumbling in the desert wasteland outside of town. This investigation leads her to the Joyous Congregation of the Smiling God, and to Darryl, one of its most committed members. Caught between her beliefs in the ultimate power of science and her growing attraction to Darryl, she begins to suspect the Congregation is planning a ritual that could threaten the lives of everyone in town.

The Largesse of the Sea Maiden: Stories by Denis Johnson - Fiction/Short Stories

January 8, 2019

THE LARGESSE OF THE SEA MAIDEN is the long-awaited new story collection from Denis Johnson. Written in the luminous prose that made him one of the most beloved and important writers of his generation, this collection finds Johnson in new territory, contemplating the ghosts of the past and the elusive and unexpected ways the mysteries of the universe assert themselves. Finished shortly before Johnson’s death, this collection is the last word from a writer whose work will live on for many years to come.

Macbeth by Jo Nesbø - Historical Thriller

January 8, 2019

Set in the 1970s in a run-down, rainy industrial town, Jo Nesbø's MACBETH centers on a police force struggling to shed an incessant drug problem. Duncan, chief of police, is idealistic and visionary, a dream to the townspeople but a nightmare for criminals. The drug trade is ruled by two drug lords, one of whom --- a master of manipulation named Hecate --- has connections with the highest in power, and plans to use them to get his way. Hecate’s plot hinges on steadily, insidiously manipulating Inspector Macbeth: the head of SWAT and a man already susceptible to violent and paranoid tendencies.

The Monk of Mokha by Dave Eggers - Biography

January 8, 2019

Mokhtar Alkhanshali is 24 and working as a doorman when he discovers the astonishing history of coffee and Yemen’s central place in it. He leaves San Francisco and travels deep into his ancestral homeland to tour terraced farms high in the country’s rugged mountains and meet beleaguered but determined farmers. But when war engulfs the country and Saudi bombs rain down, Mokhtar has to find a way out of Yemen without sacrificing his dreams or abandoning his people.

The Night Market by Jonathan Moore - Psychological Thriller

January 8, 2019

It’s late Thursday, and Inspector Ross Carver is at a crime scene: a dead man covered in an unknown substance that’s eating through his skin. Suddenly, six FBI agents burst in and haul Carver outside and into a disinfectant trailer, where he’s shocked unconscious. On Sunday he wakes up in his own bed, his neighbor Mia --- to whom he’s barely spoken --- by his side. He can’t remember the past three days. Mia says police officers brought him home and told her he’d been poisoned. Carver can’t disprove her, but his gut says to keep her close.

Not That I Could Tell by Jessica Strawser - Mystery

January 8, 2019

When a group of neighborhood women gathers around a fire pit where their backyards meet one Saturday night, most of them are just ecstatic to have discovered that their baby monitors reach that far. It’s a rare kid-free night, and they’re giddy with it. They drink too much, and the conversation turns personal. By Monday morning, one of them is gone. Everyone knows something about everyone else in the quirky small Ohio town of Yellow Springs, but no one can make sense of the disappearance. As the police investigation goes from a media circus to a cold case, the neighbors are forced to reexamine what’s going on behind their own closed doors --- and to ask how well anyone really knows anyone else.

Peculiar Ground by Lucy Hughes-Hallett - Historical Fiction

January 8, 2019

It is the 17th century, and a wall is being raised around Wychwood, transforming the great house and its park into a private realm of ornamental lakes, grandiose gardens, and majestic avenues designed by Mr. Norris, a visionary landscaper. In this enclosed world everyone has something to hide after decades of civil war. Dissenters shelter in the woods, lovers rendezvous in secret enclaves, and outsiders --- migrants fleeing the plague --- find no mercy. Three centuries later, far away in Berlin, another wall is raised, while at Wychwood, an erotic entanglement over one sticky, languorous weekend in 1961 is overshadowed by news of historic change. In 1989, as the Cold War peters out, a threat from a different kind of conflict reaches Wychwood’s walls.

The Power by Naomi Alderman - Dystopian/Science Fiction

January 8, 2019

In THE POWER, the world is a recognizable place. There's a rich Nigerian boy who lounges around the family pool; a foster kid whose religious parents hide their true nature; an ambitious American politician; a tough London girl from a tricky family. But then a vital new force takes root and flourishes, causing their lives to converge with devastating effect. Teenage girls now have immense physical power --- they can cause agonizing pain and even death. And, with this small twist of nature, the world drastically resets.

Pretend I'm Dead by Jen Beagin - Fiction/Humor

January 8, 2019

Mona is almost 24, emotionally adrift and cleaning houses to get by. Handing out clean needles to drug addicts, she falls for a recipient she calls Mr. Disgusting, who proceeds to break her heart in unimaginable ways. Seeking a kind of healing, Mona decamps to Taos, New Mexico, where she finds a community of seekers and cast-offs, all of whom have one or two things to teach her --- the pajama-wearing, blissed-out New Agers, the slightly creepy client with peculiar tastes in controlled substances, the psychic who might really be psychic. But always lurking just beneath the surface are her memories of growing up in a chaotic, destructive family from which she’s trying to disentangle herself, and the larger legacy of the past she left behind.

Ravenspur: Rise of the Tudors by Conn Iggulden - Historical Fiction

January 8, 2019

King Edward of York has been driven out of England. Queen Elizabeth and her children tremble in sanctuary at Westminster Abbey. The House of Lancaster has won the crown, but York will not go quietly. Desperate to reclaim his throne, Edward lands at Ravenspur with a half-drowned army and his brother Richard at his side. Every hand is against them, every city gate is shut, yet the brothers York go on the attack. But neither sees that their true enemy is Henry Tudor, now grown into a man. As the Red Dragon --- “the man of destiny” --- his claim to the throne leads to Bosworth Field and a battle that will bring an end to the Wars of the Roses.

The Sandman: A Joona Linna Novel by Lars Kepler - Mystery/Thriller

January 8, 2019

An emaciated young man named Mikael is found wandering outside Stockholm. Thirteen years earlier, he and his younger sister went missing, presumed to be victims of Sweden’s most notorious serial killer, Jurek Walter, who is now serving a life sentence in a maximum-security psychiatric hospital. But Mikael tells the police that his sister is still alive and being held by someone he calls the Sandman. Detective Joona Linna sacrificed everything to capture Jurek, but he always thought that Jurek had an accomplice. Any chance of rescuing Mikael’s sister depends on getting Jurek to talk, and the only agent capable of this is Saga Bauer, who will have to go deep undercover and find a way to get to the psychopath before it’s too late.

Tangerine by Christine Mangan - Psychological Thriller

January 8, 2019

The last person Alice Shipley expected to see since arriving in Tangier with her new husband was Lucy Mason. After the accident at Bennington, the two friends haven’t spoken in over a year. But there Lucy was, trying to make things right. Alice has not adjusted to life in Morocco, too afraid to venture out into the bustling medinas and oppressive heat. Lucy helps Alice emerge from her flat and explore the country. But soon a familiar feeling starts to overtake Alice --- she feels controlled and stifled by Lucy at every turn. Then Alice’s husband, John, goes missing, and Alice starts to question everything around her: her relationship with her enigmatic friend, her decision to ever come to Tangier, and her very own state of mind.

Two Girls Down by Louisa Luna - Thriller

January 8, 2019

When two young sisters disappear from a strip mall parking lot, their devastated mother hires an enigmatic bounty hunter, Alice Vega, to help find the girls. Immediately shut out by a local police department already stretched thin by budget cuts and the growing OxyContin and meth epidemic, Vega enlists the help of a disgraced former cop, Max Caplan. Cap is a man trying to put the scandal of his past behind him and move on, but Vega needs his help to find the girls, and she will not be denied. With little to go on, Vega and Cap will go to extraordinary lengths to untangle a dangerous web of lies, false leads and complex relationships to find the girls before time runs out, and they are gone forever.

The Vanishing Season by Joanna Schaffhausen - Mystery/Thriller

January 8, 2019

Ellery Hathaway knows about serial killers, but not through her police training. She's an officer in sleepy Woodbury, MA, where a bicycle theft still makes the newspapers. No one there knows she was once victim #17 in the grisly story of serial killer Francis Michael Coben --- the only one who lived. When three people disappear from her town in three years, all around her birthday, Ellery fears someone knows her secret --- someone very dangerous. Her superiors dismiss her concerns, but Ellery knows the vanishing season is coming and anyone could be next. She contacts the one man she knows will believe her: the FBI agent who saved her from a killer all those years ago.

Woman at 1,000 Degrees written by Hallgrímur Helgason, translated by Brian FitzGibbon - Fiction

January 8, 2019

From her childhood in the remote islands of Iceland, where she was born the granddaughter of Iceland’s first president, to teen years spent living by her wits alone in war-torn Europe while her father fought on the side of the Nazis, to love affairs on several continents, Herra Björnsson moved Zelig-like through the major events and locales of the 20th century. She wed and lost husbands, had children, fled a war, kissed a Beatle, weathered the Icelandic financial crash, and mastered the Internet. She has experienced luck and betrayal and upheaval and pain, and --- with a bawdy, uncompromising spirit --- she has survived it all. Now, as she awaits death in a garage in Reykjavík, she shows us a woman unbowed by the forces of history.