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ALL THAT FOLLOWED by Gabriel Urza (Psychological Mystery)
It's 2004 in Muriga, a quiet town in Spain's northern Basque Country, a place with more secrets than inhabitants. Five years have passed since the kidnapping and murder of a young local politician, and the town's rhythms have almost returned to normal. But in the aftermath of the Atocha train bombings in Madrid, an act of terrorism that rocked a nation and a world, the townspeople want a reckoning of Muriga's own troubled past. Everyone knows who pulled the trigger five years ago, but is the young man now behind bars the only one to blame? Reviewed by Kate Ayers.
BAREFOOT TO AVALON: A Brother's Story by David Payne (Memoir)
In 2000, while moving his household from Vermont to North Carolina, author David Payne watched from his rearview mirror as his younger brother, George A., driving behind him in a two-man convoy of rental trucks, lost control of his vehicle. David’s life hit a downward spiral. He found himself haunted not only by George A.’s death, but also by his brother’s manic depression, an inherited past that now threatened David’s and his children’s futures. The only way out, he found, was to write about his brother. Reviewed by Jesse Kornbluth for HeadButler.com.
BEST BOY by Eli Gottlieb (Fiction)
Sent to a “therapeutic community” for autism at the age of 11, Todd Aaron, now in his 50s, is the “Old Fox” of Payton LivingCenter. A joyous man who rereads the encyclopedia compulsively, he is unnerved by the sudden arrivals of a menacing new staffer and a disruptive, brain-injured roommate. His equilibrium is further worsened by Martine, a one-eyed new resident who has romantic intentions and convinces him to go off his meds to feel “normal” again. Undone by these pressures, Todd attempts an escape to return “home” to his younger brother and to a childhood that now inhabits only his dreams. Reviewed by Rebecca Munro.
BILLION-DOLLAR BALL: A Journey Through the Big-Money Culture of College Football by Gilbert M. Gaul (Sports)
College football has doubled in size in the last decade, thanks to generous tax breaks, lavish TV deals, and corporate sponsors eager to slap their logos on everything from scoreboards to footballs and uniforms. In BILLION-DOLLAR BALL, Gilbert M. Gaul offers a surprising, incendiary examination of how college football has come to dominate some of our best, most prestigious universities, reframing campus values, distorting academic missions, and transforming athletic departments into astonishingly rich entertainment factories. Reviewed by Stuart Shiffman.
BLACK CHALK by Christopher J. Yates (Psychological Thriller)
It was only ever meant to be a game played by six best friends in their first year at Oxford University --- a game of consequences, silly forfeits and childish dares. But then the game changed: The stakes grew higher and the dares more personal and humiliating, finally evolving into a vicious struggle with unpredictable and tragic results. Now, 14 years later, the remaining players must meet again for the final round. Who knows better than your best friends what would break you? Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
DID YOU EVER HAVE A FAMILY by Bill Clegg (Fiction)
On the eve of her daughter’s wedding, June Reid’s life is completely devastated when a shocking disaster takes the lives of her daughter, her daughter’s fiancé, her ex-husband, and her boyfriend, Luke --- her entire family, all gone in a moment. And June is the only survivor. Alone and directionless, June drives across the country, away from her small Connecticut town. In her wake, a community emerges, weaving a beautiful and surprising web of connections through shared heartbreak. Reviewed by Norah Piehl.
THE DROWNED BOY: An Inspector Sejer Mystery by Karin Fossum (Mystery)
Carmen and Nicolai failed to resuscitate their son, Tommy, after finding him floating in their backyard pond. When Inspector Skarre arrives on the scene, Carmen reports that Tommy, a healthy toddler with Down’s syndrome, wandered into the garden while Nicolai was working in the basement and she was cleaning the house. Skarre senses something is off with Carmen’s story and consults his trusted colleague, the famed Inspector Sejer. An autopsy reveals Tommy’s lungs to be full of soap. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
EVERYBODY RISE by Stephanie Clifford (Fiction)
EVERYBODY RISE is a keenly observed novel in which a young woman plunges headlong into a glittering world of wealth and social prestige. Evelyn Beegan, an irresistibly flawed heroine, relentlessly elbows her way up the social ladder. In order to be accepted, she must pass as upper class and be seen as someone with an established old money background. Her lies start slowly but quickly grow until the ground underneath her begins to give way. Reviewed by Jamie Layton.
THE FALL OF PRINCES by Robert Goolrick (Fiction)
In THE FALL OF PRINCES, Robert Goolrick brings to vivid life a world of excess and self-indulgence, where limousines waited for hours outside Manhattan’s newest trendy club or the latest dining hot spot. Where drugs were bountiful and not refused. Where no price was too high and flesh was always on offer. Where a quick trip to Europe or a weekend on the coast or a fabulous Hamptons beach house were just part of what was expected. When the money just kept coming and coming and coming...until it didn’t. Reviewed by Norah Piehl.
FORTUNE SMILES: Stories by Adam Johnson (Fiction/Short Stories)
In six masterly stories, Adam Johnson delves deep into love and loss, natural disasters, the influence of technology, and how the political shapes the personal. He returns to his signature subject, North Korea, in the title story, which depicts two defectors from Pyongyang who are trying to adapt to their new lives in Seoul, while one cannot forget the woman he left behind. FORTUNE SMILES gives voice to the perspectives we don’t often hear, while offering a new way of looking at the world. Reviewed by Harvey Freedenberg.
THE GIRL IN THE SPIDER'S WEB: A Lisbeth Salander Novel by David Lagercrantz (Thriller)
Late one night, Mikael Blomkvist receives a phone call from a source claiming to have information vital to the United States. The source has been in contact with a young female superhacker --- a hacker resembling someone Blomkvist knows all too well. The implications are staggering. Blomkvist, in desperate need of a scoop for Millennium, turns to Lisbeth Salander for help. The secret they are both chasing is at the center of a tangled web of spies, cybercriminals and governments around the world, and someone is prepared to kill to protect it. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
THE HANGING GIRL: A Department Q Novel by Jussi Adler-Olsen (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Carl Mørck has no choice but to lead Department Q into the tragic cold case of a vivacious 17-year-old girl who vanished from school, only to be found dead hanging high up in a tree. The investigation will take them from the remote island of Bornholm to a strange sun-worshipping cult, where Carl, Assad, Rose and newcomer Gordon attempt to stop a string of new murders and a skilled manipulator who refuses to let anything --- or anyone --- get in the way. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
INFINITE HOME by Kathleen Alcott (Fiction)
Edith is a widowed landlady who rents apartments in her Brooklyn brownstone to an unlikely collection of humans, all deeply in need of shelter. Crippled in various ways --- in spirit, in mind, in body, in heart --- the renters struggle to navigate daily existence. They come to realize that Edith’s deteriorating mind, and the menacing presence of her estranged, unscrupulous son, Owen, is the greatest challenge they must confront together. Reviewed by Norah Piehl.
IS FAT BOB DEAD YET? by Stephen Dobyns (Comic Thriller)
In the seaport city of New London, Connecticut, newcomer Connor Raposo has just witnessed a gruesome motorcycle accident on Bank Street. At least he thinks it was an accident. But then he sees a familiar man --- who else would wear an Elvis pompadour in this day and age? --- lurking around the crime scene. Where does Connor know him from? And why does everyone he knows keep showing up dead? Reviewed by Kate Ayers.
THE LAST LOVE SONG: A Biography of Joan Didion by Tracy Daugherty (Biography)
Joan Didion lived a life in the public and private eye with her late husband, writer John Gregory Dunne. They became wildly successful writing partners and co-wrote screenplays and adaptations together. Didion is well-known for her literary journalistic style in both fiction and nonfiction. Tracy Daugherty takes readers on a journey back through time, following a young Didion in Sacramento, through to her adult life as a writer interviewing those who know and knew her personally, while maintaining a respectful distance from the reclusive literary great. Reviewed by Megan Elliott.
MAKE ME: A Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child (Thriller)
Mother’s Rest is a tiny place hidden in a thousand square miles of wheat fields, with a railroad stop, sullen and watchful people, and a worried woman named Michelle Chang, who mistakes Jack Reacher for someone else: her missing partner in a private investigation she thinks must have started small and then turned lethal. Before long, Reacher is plunged into a desperate race through LA, Chicago, Phoenix and San Francisco, and ultimately back to Mother’s Rest, where he must confront the worst nightmare he could imagine. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
MARRIED SEX: A Love Story by Jesse Kornbluth (Fiction)
As a divorce lawyer for Manhattan’s elite, David Greenfield is privy to the intimate, dirty details of failed marriages. He knows he’s lucky to be married to Blair, who he loves more today than he did when they tied the knot. Then seductive photographer Jean Coin asks David to be her lover for six weeks, until she leaves for Timbuktu. Tempted, David reasons that “it’s not cheating if your wife’s there.” A one-night threesome would relieve the pressure of monogamy without wrecking their marriage. What harm could come of fulfilling his longtime sexual fantasy? Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
THE NATURE OF THE BEAST: A Chief Inspector Gamache Novel by Louise Penny (Mystery)
Hardly a day goes by when nine-year-old Laurent Lepage doesn't cry wolf. His tales are so extraordinary that no one can possibly believe him, including Armand and Reine-Marie Gamache, who now live in the Quebec village of Three Pine. But when the boy disappears, the villagers are faced with the possibility that one of his tall tales might have been true. And so begins a frantic search for the boy and the truth. What they uncover deep in the forest sets off a sequence of events that leads to murder, an old crime, an old betrayal, and right to the door of an old poet. Reviewed by Roz Shea.
THE NIGHT SISTER by Jennifer McMahon (Psychological Suspense)
Once the thriving attraction of rural Vermont, the Tower Motel now stands in disrepair, alive only in the memories of Amy, Piper, and Piper's kid sister, Margot. The three played there as girls until the day their games uncovered something dark and twisted in the motel's past, something that ruined their friendship forever. Now adults, Piper and Margot have tried to forget what they found that fateful summer, but their lives are upended when Piper receives a panicked midnight call from Margot, with news of a horrific crime for which Amy stands accused. Reviewed by Norah Piehl.
OUT ON THE WIRE: The Storytelling Secrets of the New Masters of Radio by Jessica Abel (Graphic Novel)
Every week, millions of devoted fans tune in to or download "This American Life," "The Moth," "Radiolab," "Planet Money," "Snap Judgment," "Serial," "Invisibilia" and other narrative radio shows. Using personal stories to breathe life into complex ideas and issues, these beloved programs help us to understand ourselves and our world a little bit better. Each has a distinct style, but every one delivers stories that are brilliantly told and produced. OUT ON THE WIRE offers an unexpected window into this new kind of storytelling --- one that literally illustrates the making of a purely auditory medium. Reviewed by John Maher.
ROBERT B. PARKER'S THE DEVIL WINS: A Jesse Stone Novel by Reed Farrel Coleman (Mystery)
Three bodies are discovered in the rubble of an abandoned factory building in an industrial part of Paradise known as The Swap. Found within feet of a man’s body are the skeletal remains of two teenage girls who had gone missing 25 years earlier. Not only does that crime predate Jesse Stone’s arrival in Paradise, but the dead girls were close friends of Jesse’s right hand, Officer Molly Crane. And things become even more complicated when one of the dead girls’ mothers returns to Paradise to bury her daughter and is promptly murdered. Reviewed by Joe Hartlaub.
SECONDHAND SOULS by Christopher Moore (Mystery/Humor)
Something really strange is happening in the City by the Bay. People are dying, but their souls are not being collected. Someone --- or something --- is stealing them, and no one knows where they are going, or why, but it has something to do with that big orange bridge. Death Merchant Charlie Asher is just as flummoxed as everyone else. He’s trapped in the body of a 14-inch-tall “meat puppet” waiting for his Buddhist nun girlfriend, Audrey, to find him a suitable new body to play host. To get to the bottom of this abomination, a motley crew of heroes will band together. Reviewed by Sarah Rachel Egelman.
THE STORY OF THE LOST CHILD: The Fourth and Final Neapolitan Novel written by Elena Ferrante, translated from the Italian by Ann Goldstein (Fiction)
Here is the dazzling saga of two women: the brilliant, bookish Elena and the fiery uncontainable Lila. In the fourth and final Neapolitan novel, both are adults; life’s great discoveries have been made, its vagaries and losses have been suffered. Through it all, the women’s friendship, examined in its every detail over the course of four books, remains the gravitational center of their lives. Reviewed by Frederick Lloyd.
WE NEVER ASKED FOR WINGS by Vanessa Diffenbaugh (Fiction)
For 14 years, Letty Espinosa has worked three jobs around San Francisco to make ends meet while her mother raised her children in their tiny apartment on a forgotten spit of wetlands near the bay. But now Letty’s parents are returning to Mexico, and Letty must step up and become a mother for the first time in her life. She comes up with a plan to help the family escape the dangerous neighborhood and heartbreaking injustice that have marked their lives. But one wrong move could jeopardize everything she’s worked for and her family’s fragile hopes for the future. Reviewed by Rebecca Munro.
A WINDOW OPENS by Elisabeth Egan (Fiction)
Alice Pearse is a mostly happily married mother of three, an attentive daughter, an ambivalent dog-owner, a part-time editor, a loyal neighbor and a Zen commuter. When her husband makes a radical career change, Alice is ready to lean in --- and she knows exactly how lucky she is to land a job at Scroll, a hip young start-up that promises to be the future of reading. She is proud of her new “balancing act” until her dad gets sick, her marriage flounders, her babysitter gets fed up, her kids start to grow up, and her work takes an unexpected turn. Reviewed by Katherine B. Weissman.
X by Sue Grafton (Mystery)
Perhaps her darkest and most chilling novel, Sue Grafton’s X features a remorseless serial killer who leaves no trace of his crimes. Once again breaking the rules and establishing new paths, Grafton wastes little time identifying this sociopath. The test is whether Kinsey Millhone can prove her case against him before she becomes his next victim. Reviewed by Roz Shea.
ZERO WORLD by Jason M. Hough (Science Fiction/Adventure)
Technologically enhanced superspy Peter Caswell has been dispatched on a top-secret assignment unlike any he’s ever faced. A spaceship that vanished years ago has been found, along with the bodies of its murdered crew --- save one. Peter’s mission is to find the missing crew member, who fled through what appears to be a tear in the fabric of space. Beyond this mysterious doorway lies an even more confounding reality: a world that seems to be Earth’s twin. Reviewed by Stephen Hubbard.
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