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December 15, 2015

December 15, 2015


The following are lists of books releasing the weeks of December 14th and December 21st that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers.

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On Sale the Week of December 14th in Hardcover

December 15th

THE BONE LABYRINTH: A Sigma Force Novel by James Rollins (Thriller/Adventure)
In the remote mountains of Croatia, an archaeologist makes a strange discovery: a subterranean Catholic chapel, hidden for centuries, holds the bones of a Neanderthal woman. In the same cavern system, elaborate primitive paintings tell the story of an immense battle between tribes of Neanderthals and monstrous shadowy figures. It isn’t long before the investigative team is attacked, while a bloody assault is made upon a primate research center outside of Atlanta. How are these events connected? Who is behind these attacks? The search for the truth will take Commander Gray Pierce of Sigma Force 50,000 years into the past.
William Morrow * 9780062381644

BRYANT & MAY AND THE BURNING MAN: A Peculiar Crimes Unit Mystery by Christopher Fowler (Mystery)
Enraged by a scandal involving a corrupt financier accused of insider trading, demonstrators are rioting outside the Findersbury Private Bank. But when someone hurls a Molotov cocktail at the bank’s front door, killing a homeless man on its steps, Bryant, May and the rest of the Peculiar Crimes Unit is called in. Is this an act of protest gone terribly wrong? Or a devious, premeditated murder? Their investigation heats up when a second victim is reported dead in similar fiery circumstances. May discovers the latest victim has ties to the troubled bank, and Bryant refuses to believe this is mere coincidence.
Bantam * 9780345547682

THE MAN ON THE WASHING MACHINE by Susan Cox (Mystery)
When former party girl and society photographer Theophania Bogart flees to San Francisco to escape a high-profile family tragedy, a series of murders drags her unwillingly out of hiding. In no time at all, she discovers she's been providing cover for a sophisticated smuggling operation, she starts to fall for an untrustworthy stranger, and she's knocked out, tied up and imprisoned. The police are sure she's lying. The smugglers are sure she knows too much. Her friends? They aren't sure what to believe. The body count is rising, and Theo struggles to find the killer before she's the next victim or her new life is exposed as an elaborate fraud.
Minotaur Books * 9781250065803

RICHARD III: A Ruler and His Reputation by David Horspool (Biography)
With the discovery of Richard III's bones under a parking lot in Leicester, England, interest in this divisive and enigmatic figure in British history is at an all-time high. RICHARD III dispassionately examines the legend as well as the man to uncover both what we know of the life of Richard, and the way that his reputation has been formed and re-formed over centuries. But beyond simply his reputation, there is no dispute that the last Plantagenet is a pivotal figure in English history --- and David Horspool's biography chronicles this tumultuous time with flair.
Bloomsbury Press * 9781620405093

THIS DIVIDED ISLAND: Life, Death, and the Sri Lankan War by Samanth Subramanian (History)
In the summer of 2009, the leader of the dreaded Tamil Tiger guerrillas was killed, bringing to an end the civil war in Sri Lanka. What happens to the texture of life in a country that endures such bitter conflict? What happens to the country's soul? Through travels and conversations, Samanth Subramanian examines how people reconcile themselves to violence, how the powerful become cruel, and how victory can be put to the task of reshaping memory and burying histories.
Thomas Dunne Books * 9781250069740

THE TREACHEROUS NET: An Inspector Irene Huss Investigation written by Helene Tursten, translated by Marlaine Delargy (Mystery)
The body of a teenage girl is found in the woods, followed by a mummified body bricked up in a chimney on a demolition site. Then a second young girl is found, wearing what appears to be the other half of the sexy lingerie set recovered near the first body. Fearing the two cases are linked and that the killer may strike again, Detective Inspector Irene Huss and her colleagues embark on a desperate hunt that takes them deep into a shadowy world of anonymous online predators and insecure teenage girls on a deadly quest for affirmation.
Soho Crime * 9781616954024

 

On Sale the Week of December 14th in Paperback

December 15th

I’LL BE BACK RIGHT AFTER THIS: My Memoir by Pat O'Brien (Memoir)
In I’LL BE BACK RIGHT AFTER THIS, Pat O'Brien reveals the highs and lows of the life of a radio and TV broadcaster, spent sharing the mic with the world’s rich and famous while battling an infamous public scandal and demons that nearly killed him. With laughter, tears and miracles, he reveals how he learned to accept his mistakes, find redemption and become the father he never had, proving there really are second and even third acts in life.
St. Martin’s Griffin * 9781250070289

A STRING OF BEADS: A Jane Whitefield Novel by Thomas Perry (Thriller)
One morning, Jane Whitefield is met by an unusual sight: all eight clan mothers, the female leaders of the Seneca clans, parked in her driveway in two black cars. A childhood friend of Jane’s from the reservation, Jimmy, is wanted by the police for the murder of a local white man. But instead of turning himself in, he has fled, and no one knows where he is hiding out. At the clan mothers’ request, Jane retraces a walking trip she and Jimmy took together when they were 14 in hopes that he has gone the same way again.
Mysterious Press * 9780802124449

TOO CLOSE TO HOME by Susan Lewis (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Jenna Moore finally feels that she and her family are exactly where they should be. Leaving busy London behind, they’ve moved to the beautiful, serene Welsh coast. Jenna, her husband, Jack, and the couple’s four children have found a little slice of heaven there. But a fissure cracks open. The once open and honest Jack suddenly seems to be keeping secrets, and 15-year-old Paige has become withdrawn. A cruel disturbance has insinuated itself into Jenna’s home, threatening to take away everything she holds dear.
Ballantine * 9780345549532

THE VIOLINIST OF VENICE: A Story of Vivaldi by Alyssa Palombo (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Adriana d'Amato’s strict merchant father has forbidden her to cultivate her gift for the violin. But she begins sneaking out of her family's palazzo under the cover of night to take violin lessons from virtuoso violinist and composer Antonio Vivaldi, who is also a priest. What begins as secret lessons swiftly evolves into a passionate, consuming love affair. They both know their affair will end upon Adriana's expected marriage, but she cannot anticipate the events that will force Vivaldi to choose between her and his music.
St. Martin's Griffin * 9781250071491

 

On Sale the Week of December 21st in Hardcover

December 22nd

TIME AND TIME AGAIN by Ben Elton (Science Fiction/Thriller)
In June 1914, ex-soldier and celebrated adventurer Hugh Stanton is quite literally the loneliest man on earth. No one he has ever known or loved has been born yet. Perhaps now they never will be. Stanton knows that a great and terrible war is coming --- a collective suicidal madness that will destroy European civilization and bring misery to millions in the century to come. He knows this because, for him, that century is already history. Somehow he must change that history. He must prevent the war --- a war that will begin with a single bullet.
Thomas Dunne Books * 9781250077066

TRAGIC ENCOUNTERS: A People's History of Native Americans by Page Smith (History)
During the last years of his life, historian Page Smith concentrated on composing a history of Native Americans after the first European contact. This manuscript was discovered unpublished after his death. Using his wonderful technique of narrative, discovering in the events of each period the thematic overview of that period, Smith again turns to contemporaneous documents to provide the structure and substance of his story. From Jamestown to Wounded Knee, the story of these Native peoples from coast to coast is explored, granting these oppressed and nearly destroyed people a chance to tell their own broad story.
Counterpoint * 9781619025745

 

On Sale the Week of December 21st in Paperback

December 22nd

14th DEADLY SIN by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro (Thriller)
Detective Lindsay Boxer is called to a gruesome crime scene, where a woman has been murdered in broad daylight. As she investigates, shocking video footage of another crime surfaces. Their faces obscured by masks, the cold-blooded criminals on the tape could be anyone --- and now all of Lindsay's co-workers are suspects. As a rash of violence sweeps through San Francisco, Lindsay and her friends must risk their lives in the name of justice before it's too late.
Grand Central Publishing * 9781455584994

THE POCKET WIFE by Susan Crawford (Psychological Thriller)
Dana Catrell is shocked when her neighbor, Celia, is brutally murdered. To Dana’s horror, she was the last person to see Celia alive. Suffering from mania, the result of her bipolar disorder, she has troubling holes in her memory, including what happened on the afternoon of Celia’s death. The closer she comes to piecing together the shards of her broken memory, the more she falls apart. Is there a murderer lurking inside of Dana...or is there one out there in the shadows of reality, waiting to strike again?
William Morrow Paperbacks * 9780062362865

THE PRESIDENT’S SHADOW by Brad Meltzer (Thriller)
A young staffer with the National Archives in Washington, D.C., Beecher White is also a member of the Culper Ring, a 200-year-old secret society founded by George Washington and charged with protecting the Presidency. The alarming discovery of a buried arm has the President's team in a rightful panic. Who buried the arm? How did they get past White House security? And most important: What's the message hidden in the arm's closed fist? Indeed, the puzzle inside has a clear intended recipient, and it isn't the President. It's Beecher himself.
Grand Central Publishing * 9780446553964

THE RECKONING: Death and Intrigue in the Promised Land --- A True Detective Story by Patrick Bishop (True Crime)
As the ringleader of the infamous Stern Gang, also known as Lehi, militant zionist Avraham Stern masterminded a series of high-profile terrorist attacks in pursuit of his dream. On the run from British authorities, Stern was hiding in an attic in Tel Aviv when he was killed by Geoffrey Morton, a British colonial policeman assigned to capture him. Morton claimed Stern was trying to escape, but witnesses insisted he was executed in cold blood. THE RECKONING is the story of Patrick Bishop's quest to discover the truth.
Harper Paperbacks * 9780062267832

 

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