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Editorial Content for The Kill Room

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Joe Hartlaub

It is difficult to review or even talk about a Jeffery Deaver novel without presenting what are known as “spoilers.” I attempt to avoid those at all costs, especially in his case. I was privileged to attend a presentation that Deaver gave at Killer Nashville a few years ago in which he gave an overview of how he does what he does; it is a year-long process that he approaches in a disciplined and business-like manner. I don’t see my role as taking a few minutes to unravel plot points that took months to create. Read More

Teaser

The nation's most renowned investigator and forensics expert, Lincoln Rhyme, is drafted to investigate the murder of an American citizen who was targeted by the US government and assassinated in the Bahamas. While his partner, Amelia Sachs, traces the victim's steps in Manhattan, Rhyme leaves the city to pursue the sniper himself. As details of the case start to emerge, the pair discovers that not all is what it seems.

Promo

The nation's most renowned investigator and forensics expert, Lincoln Rhyme, is drafted to investigate the murder of an American citizen who was targeted by the US government and assassinated in the Bahamas. While his partner, Amelia Sachs, traces the victim's steps in Manhattan, Rhyme leaves the city to pursue the sniper himself. As details of the case start to emerge, the pair discovers that not all is what it seems.

About the Book

It was a "million-dollar bullet," a sniper shot delivered from over a mile away. Its victim was no ordinary mark: he was a United States citizen, targeted by the United States government, and assassinated in the Bahamas.

The nation's most renowned investigator and forensics expert, Lincoln Rhyme, is drafted to investigate. While his partner, Amelia Sachs, traces the victim's steps in Manhattan, Rhyme leaves the city to pursue the sniper himself. As details of the case start to emerge, the pair discovers that not all is what it seems.

When a deadly, knife-wielding assassin begins systematically eliminating all evidence --- including the witnesses --- Lincoln's investigation turns into a chilling battle of wits against a cold-blooded killer.

Editorial Content for Big Brother

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Norah Piehl

Although she's been publishing books since the 1980s, Lionel Shriver has gained a recent reputation for writing smart, literary novels that address social and cultural concerns, thanks to works like her 2003 breakout, WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN (about school violence and maternal ambivalence, and 2010’s SO MUCH FOR THAT (about failures in the American health care system). Now, in her latest work of fiction, BIG BROTHER, Shriver explores another current crisis and how it affects one ordinary family. Read More

Teaser

For Pandora, cooking is a form of love. But her husband, Fletcher, now spurns her “toxic” dishes and devotes hours each day to manic cycling. Then, when Pandora picks up her brother Edison at the airport, she doesn’t recognize him. In the years since they’ve seen one another, the once slim, hip New York jazz pianist has gained hundreds of pounds. After Edison has more than overstayed his welcome, Fletcher delivers his wife an ultimatum: It’s him or me.

Promo

For Pandora, cooking is a form of love. But her husband, Fletcher, now spurns her “toxic” dishes and devotes hours each day to manic cycling. Then, when Pandora picks up her brother Edison at the airport, she doesn’t recognize him. In the years since they’ve seen one another, the once slim, hip New York jazz pianist has gained hundreds of pounds. After Edison has more than overstayed his welcome, Fletcher delivers his wife an ultimatum: It’s him or me.

About the Book

From the acclaimed author of the National Book Award finalist SO MUCH FOR THAT and the international bestseller WE NEED TO TALK ABOUT KEVIN comes a striking new novel about siblings, marriage and obesity.

When Pandora picks up her older brother Edison at her local Iowa airport, she literally doesn't recognize him. In the four years since the siblings last saw each other, the once slim, hip New York jazz pianist has gained hundreds of pounds. What happened?

And it's not just the weight. Imposing himself on Pandora's world, Edison breaks her husband Fletcher's handcrafted furniture, makes overkill breakfasts for the family, and entices her stepson not only to forgo college but to drop out of high school.

After the brother-in-law has more than overstayed his welcome, Fletcher delivers his wife an ultimatum: It's him or me. Putting her marriage and adopted family on the line, Pandora chooses her brother --- who, without her support in losing weight, will surely eat himself into an early grave.

Rich with Shriver's distinctive wit and ferocious energy, BIG BROTHER is about fat --- an issue both social and excruciatingly personal. It asks just how much we'll sacrifice to rescue single members of our families, and whether it's ever possible to save loved ones from themselves.

Editorial Content for A Serpent's Tooth: A Walt Longmire Mystery

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Joe Hartlaub

I will acknowledge that I am a huge fan of the “Longmire” television series. I mention this because I watched the first two episodes of the second season before reading A SERPENT’S TOOTH, the latest literary entry in Craig Johnson’s Walt Longmire canon. The program and Johnson’s books complement each other perfectly. While the televised version does not rigidly adhere to the novels, the characters who form the strong backbone to which Johnson attaches his plots are wonderfully presented in both media. Read More

Teaser

A Mormon “lost boy,” Cord Lynear is searching for his missing mother, but clues are scarce. Walt Longmire and his companions, feisty deputy Victoria Moretti and longtime friend Henry Standing Bear, embark on a high plains scavenger hunt in hopes of reuniting mother and son. The trail leads them to an interstate polygamy group that’s presiding over a stockpile of weapons and harboring a vicious vendetta.

Promo

A Mormon “lost boy,” Cord Lynear is searching for his missing mother, but clues are scarce. Walt Longmire and his companions, feisty deputy Victoria Moretti and longtime friend Henry Standing Bear, embark on a high plains scavenger hunt in hopes of reuniting mother and son. The trail leads them to an interstate polygamy group that’s presiding over a stockpile of weapons and harboring a vicious vendetta.

About the Book

The inspiration for A&E's "Longmire" finds himself in the crosshairs in the ninth book of the New York Times bestselling series

The success of Craig Johnson’s Walt Longmire series that began with THE COLD DISH continues to grow after A&E’s hit show "Longmire" introduced new fans to the Wyoming sheriff. AS THE CROW FLIES marked the series’ highest debut on the New York Times bestseller list. Now, in his ninth Western mystery, Longmire stares down his most dangerous foes yet.

It’s homecoming in Absaroka County, but the football and festivities are interrupted when a homeless boy wanders into town. A Mormon “lost boy,” Cord Lynear is searching for his missing mother but clues are scarce. Longmire and his companions, feisty deputy Victoria Moretti and longtime friend Henry Standing Bear, embark on a high plains scavenger hunt in hopes of reuniting mother and son. The trail leads them to an interstate polygamy group that’s presiding over a stockpile of weapons and harboring a vicious vendetta.

Editorial Content for Double Double: A Dual Memoir of Alcoholism

Reviewer (text)

Barbara Bamberger Scott

“How much effort would you want to expend on solving a problem that you’re told in the end cannot be solved?” This is the dilemma of alcoholism: it is an obstacle that is always in the path. Author Martha Grimes and her son, Ken, have teamed up to provide their sometimes shared, sometimes divergent views on what it means to be an alcoholic. Both are looking backward at the issue, as they are now sober. Read More

Teaser

People who suffer from alcoholism as well as their families and friends know that while it is possible to get sober, there is no one “right” way to do this. Now, award-winning mystery writer Martha Grimes and her son, Ken Grimes, offer two points of view on their struggles with alcoholism. In alternating chapters, they share their stories --- stories of drinking, recovery, relapse, friendship, travel, work, success and failure.

Promo

People who suffer from alcoholism as well as their families and friends know that while it is possible to get sober, there is no one “right” way to do this. Now, award-winning mystery writer Martha Grimes and her son, Ken Grimes, offer two points of view on their struggles with alcoholism. In alternating chapters, they share their stories --- stories of drinking, recovery, relapse, friendship, travel, work, success and failure.

About the Book

“A thoughtful twist on the recovery memoir” (O, The Oprah Magazine) that explains the different ways bestselling author Martha Grimes and her son, Ken Grimes, recognized and overcame their addictions, now with two new chapters --- one from each author.

In this introspective and groundbreaking memoir of addiction, mystery writer Martha Grimes and her son, Ken Grimes, present two different, often intersecting points of view. Chapters alternate between Ken’s and Martha's voices and experiences in 12-step program and outpatient clinics.

Written with honesty, humor, a little self-deprecation and a lot of self-evaluation, DOUBLE DOUBLE is “an honest, moving, and readable account of the drinking life and the struggle for recovery. This brave and engaging memoir is a gift” (Kirkus Reviews).

Editorial Content for Zero Hour: A Kurt Austin Adventure

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Judy Gigstad

The release of ZERO HOUR celebrates Clive Cussler’s 40th year of exciting storytelling, and his plotting skills remain at the top of high-stakes adventure writing. The premise for his newest thriller (co-written with Graham Brown) is a machine that has harnessed and controlled a state of energy contained in all of nature and is unlimited in scope. Kurt Austin and his NUMA Special Assignments Team find themselves in a race against time with the brutal scientist who plans to unleash zero point energy with the destruction of a continent in mind. Read More

Teaser

Zero point energy is a state of energy contained in all matter everywhere. Nobody has ever found a way to tap into it --- until one scientist thinks he discovers a way. The problem is, his machines also cause great earthquakes, even fissures in tectonic plates. One machine is buried deep underground; the other is submerged in a vast ocean trench. If Kurt Austin, Joe Zavala and the rest of the NUMA team aren’t able to find and destroy them, the world will be on the threshold of a new era of earth tremors and unchecked volcanism.

Promo

Zero point energy is a state of energy contained in all matter everywhere. Nobody has ever found a way to tap into it --- until one scientist thinks he discovers a way. The problem is, his machines also cause great earthquakes, even fissures in tectonic plates. One machine is buried deep underground; the other is submerged in a vast ocean trench. If Kurt Austin, Joe Zavala and the rest of the NUMA team aren’t able to find and destroy them, the world will be on the threshold of a new era of earth tremors and unchecked volcanism.

About the Book

It is called zero point energy, and it really exists --- a state of energy contained in all matter everywhere, and thus all but unlimited. Nobody has ever found a way to tap into it, however --- until one scientist discovers a way.

Or at least he thinks he has. The problem is, his machines also cause great earthquakes, even fissures in tectonic plates. One machine is buried deep underground; the other is submerged in a vast ocean trench. If Kurt Austin and Joe Zavala and the rest of the NUMA team aren’t able to find and destroy them, and soon, the world will be on the threshold of a new era of earth tremors and unchecked volcanism.

Now, that can’t be good.

Editorial Content for If You Were Here

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Joe Hartlaub

Alafair Burke is constantly surprising. While her books --- series and stand-alone works alike --- are firmly ensconced in that netherworld where thriller, mystery and suspense novels meet and merge, with each new release she explores one of the many different facets that all of these genres collectively embrace. This is especially true of her latest, IF YOU WERE HERE, which contains strong elements found within the mystery and thriller genres yet also explores both the upside and downside of marriage and friendships. Read More

Teaser

Manhattan journalist McKenna Jordan is chasing the story of an unidentified woman who heroically pulled a teenage boy from the subway tracks. When she locates footage of part of the incident, she is shocked to discover that the woman in the video bears a strong resemblance to a close friend who disappeared a decade earlier. This sends McKenna on a dangerous search for the missing woman --- a search that will force her to unearth long-buried truths much closer to home.

Promo

Manhattan journalist McKenna Jordan is chasing the story of an unidentified woman who heroically pulled a teenage boy from the subway tracks. When she locates footage of part of the incident, she is shocked to discover that the woman in the video bears a strong resemblance to a close friend who disappeared a decade earlier. This sends McKenna on a dangerous search for the missing woman --- a search that will force her to unearth long-buried truths much closer to home.

About the Book

Magazine journalist McKenna Jordan is chasing the latest urban folktale --- the story of an unidentified woman who heroically pulled a teenage boy from the subway tracks seconds before the arrival of an oncoming train. When McKenna locates a video snippet that purportedly captures the incident, she thinks she has an edge on the competition scrambling to identify the mystery heroine.

McKenna is shocked to discover that the woman in the video bears a strong resemblance to Susan Hauptmann, a close friend --- and a classmate of her husband's at West Point --- who vanished without a trace 10 years earlier. The NYPD concluded that the nomadic Susan --- forced by her father into an early military life, floundering as an adult for a fixed identity --- simply started over again somewhere else.

But McKenna has always believed that the truth went deeper than the police investigation ever reached and sees Susan's resurfacing as a sign that she wants to be found. What might have been a short-lived Metro story sends the former prosecutor turned reporter on a twisting search that leads across New York City --- and to dark secrets buried dangerously close to home...

Editorial Content for The Last Train to Zona Verde: My Ultimate African Safari

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Roz Shea

In 2010, travel writer and novelist Paul Theroux sketched out a loosely planned itinerary for an overland trek along the west coast of Africa. He prefers to travel in the countryside by train, but this adventure would take him where trains no longer run. So he would take whatever was available --- a train if he could find one, or a bus, but most often it would be a hired car and local driver.  In one remote Botswana outpost, the only wheels to be found were on a rusted-out diesel van so decrepit that the door was held shut by a coat hanger. Read More

Teaser

“Happy again, back in the kingdom of light,” writes Paul Theroux as he sets out on a new journey through the continent he knows and loves best. Theroux first came to Africa as a 22-year-old Peace Corps volunteer, and the pull of the vast land never left him. Now he returns, after 50 years on the road, to explore the little-traveled territory of western Africa and to take stock both of the place and of himself.

Promo

“Happy again, back in the kingdom of light,” writes Paul Theroux as he sets out on a new journey through the continent he knows and loves best. Theroux first came to Africa as a 22-year-old Peace Corps volunteer, and the pull of the vast land never left him. Now he returns, after 50 years on the road, to explore the little-traveled territory of western Africa and to take stock both of the place and of himself.

About the Book

Following the success of the acclaimed GHOST TRAIN TO THE EASTERN STAR and THE GREAT RAILWAY BAZAAR, THE LAST TRAIN TO ZONA VERDE is an ode to the last African journey of the world's most celebrated travel writer.

“Happy again, back in the kingdom of light,” writes Paul Theroux as he sets out on a new journey through the continent he knows and loves best. Theroux first came to Africa as a 22-year-old Peace Corps volunteer, and the pull of the vast land never left him. Now he returns, after fifty years on the road, to explore the little-traveled territory of western Africa and to take stock both of the place and of himself.

His odyssey takes him northward from Cape Town, through South Africa and Namibia, then on into Angola, wishing to head farther still until he reaches the end of the line. Journeying alone through the greenest continent, Theroux encounters a world increasingly removed from both the itineraries of tourists and the hopes of postcolonial independence movements. Leaving the Cape Town townships, traversing the Namibian bush, passing the browsing cattle of the great sunbaked heartland of the savanna, Theroux crosses “the Red Line” into a different Africa: “the improvised, slapped-together Africa of tumbled fences and cooking fires, of mud and thatch,” of heat and poverty, and of roadblocks, mobs, and anarchy. After 2,500 arduous miles, he comes to the end of his journey in more ways than one, a decision he chronicles with typically unsparing honesty in a chapter called “What Am I Doing Here?”

Vivid, witty and beautifully evocative, THE LAST TRAIN TO ZONA VERDE is a fitting final African adventure from the writer whose gimlet eye and effortless prose have brought the world to generations of readers.

Editorial Content for A Dual Inheritance

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Norah Piehl

As the epigraph to Joanna Hershon's new novel explains, "dual inheritance theory…was developed in the late 1970s and early 1980s to explain how human behavior is a product of two different and interacting evolutionary processes: genetic evolution and cultural evolution." As the title suggests, the book is, in part, an illustration of that very phenomenon, as it strives to illustrate the character of a generation through two very different friends. Read More

Teaser

In 1962, two students meet one evening during their senior year at Harvard --- Ed, a Jewish kid on scholarship, and Hugh, a Boston Brahmin with the world at his feet. Ed is ambitious and girl-crazy, while Hugh pines for the one girl he's ever loved. An immediate, intense friendship is sparked that night between these two opposites, which ends just as abruptly, several years later, although only one of them understands why.

Promo

In 1962, two students meet one evening during their senior year at Harvard --- Ed, a Jewish kid on scholarship, and Hugh, a Boston Brahmin with the world at his feet. Ed is ambitious and girl-crazy, while Hugh pines for the one girl he's ever loved. An immediate, intense friendship is sparked that night between these two opposites, which ends just as abruptly, several years later, although only one of them understands why.

About the Book

For readers of RULES OF CIVILITY and THE MARRIAGE PLOT, Joanna Hershon’s A DUAL INHERITANCE is an engrossing novel of passion, friendship, betrayal and class --- and their reverberations across generations.
 
Autumn 1962: Ed Cantowitz and Hugh Shipley meet in their final year at Harvard. Ed is far removed from Hugh’s privileged upbringing as a Boston Brahmin, yet his drive and ambition outpace Hugh’s ambivalence about his own life. These two young men form an unlikely friendship, bolstered by a fierce shared desire to transcend their circumstances. But in just a few short years, not only do their paths diverge --- one rising on Wall Street, the other becoming a kind of global humanitarian --- but their friendship ends abruptly, with only one of them understanding why.
 
Can a friendship define your view of the world? Spanning from the Cuban Missile Crisis to the present-day stock market collapse, with locations as diverse as Dar es Salaam, Boston, Shenzhen and Fishers Island, A DUAL INHERITANCE asks this question, as it follows not only these two men, but the complicated women in their vastly different lives. And as Ed and Hugh grow farther and farther apart, they remain uniquely --- even surprisingly --- connected.

Editorial Content for The World's Strongest Librarian

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Pauline Finch

I can still remember that kid in the back row in grade three --- the one who seemed to be always moving, even when sitting still. We weren’t allowed to turn around when he uttered odd sounds or banged his hands and feet on the furniture; that would be considered rude. The teacher said he had something that sounded like “turkey sandman” and he couldn’t help it. That was good enough for us. As suburban 1950s Canadian school kids, we were a pretty obedient and accepting bunch; we played with him at recess and he with us. Read More

Teaser

Although he wouldn’t officially be diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome until his freshman year of high school, Josh Hanagarne was six years old when he first began exhibiting symptoms. By the time he was 20, the young Mormon had reached his towering adult height of 6’7” when his Tourette’s tics escalated to nightmarish levels. Despite undergoing treatments that failed miserably, Josh persevered to marry and earn a degree in Library Science.

Promo

Although he wouldn’t officially be diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome until his freshman year of high school, Josh Hanagarne was six years old when he first began exhibiting symptoms. By the time he was 20, the young Mormon had reached his towering adult height of 6’7” when his Tourette’s tics escalated to nightmarish levels. Despite undergoing treatments that failed miserably, Josh persevered to marry and earn a degree in Library Science.

About the Book

Josh Hanagarne couldn’t be invisible if he tried. Although he wouldn’t officially be diagnosed with Tourette Syndrome until his freshman year of high school, Josh was six years old and onstage in a school Thanksgiving play when he first began exhibiting symptoms. By the time he was 20, the young Mormon had reached his towering adult height of 6’7” when --- while serving on a mission for the Church of Latter Day Saints --- his Tourette’s tics escalated to nightmarish levels.

Determined to conquer his affliction, Josh underwent everything from quack remedies to lethargy-inducing drug regimes to Botox injections that paralyzed his vocal cords and left him voiceless for three years. Undeterred, Josh persevered to marry and earn a degree in Library Science. At last, an eccentric, autistic strongman --- and former Air Force Tech Sergeant and guard at an Iraqi prison --- taught Josh how to “throttle” his tics into submission through strength-training.

Today, Josh is a librarian in the main branch of Salt Lake City’s public library and founder of a popular blog about books and weight lifting --- and the proud father of four-year-old Max, who has already started to show his own symptoms of Tourette’s.

THE WORLD'S STRONGEST LIBRARIAN illuminates the mysteries of this little-understood disorder, as well as the very different worlds of strongman training and modern libraries. With humor and candor, this unlikely hero traces his journey to overcome his disability --- and navigate his wavering Mormon faith --- to find love and create a life worth living.

Editorial Content for A Certain Summer

Contributors

Reviewer (text)

Norah Piehl

Wauregan Island, just off the shore of Long Island, is the kind of exclusive, idyllic summer place those of us stuck in cities for the summer might dream about. The modest houses on Wauregan have been owned by the same wealthy families for generations, and the summer community is strong, with social gatherings for the adults and even a sports program for children. Read More

Teaser

 

Set in 1948 at an idyllic beach community called Wauregan, this debut novel introduces readers to Helen Wadsworth, whose husband has been declared missing since an OSS operation in France during World War II. She is currently vacationing with her 14-year-old son, Jack, as they always have done. While she waits for news about what happened to her husband and longs for his return, two other men fall for her, which brings drama to the summer.

Promo

Set in 1948 at an idyllic beach community called Wauregan, this debut novel introduces readers to Helen Wadsworth, whose husband has been declared missing since an OSS operation in France during World War II. She is currently vacationing with her 14-year-old son, Jack, as they always have done. While she waits for news about what happened to her husband and longs for his return, two other men fall for her, which brings drama to the summer.

About the Book

A richly evocative debut novel set in an exclusive summer colony along the east coast during the aftermath of World War II --- for fans of Kate Morton and Jamie Ford.

It is 1948 at Wauregan, an idyllic island summer community. Helen Wadsworth, whose husband has been declared mysteriously missing on an OSS operation in France, is seeking the truth about his disappearance. But while she waits and hopes, two other men fall in love with her, creating a complicated romantic triangle. In the background of this world of privilege are Helen’s 14-year-old son, Jack; Kathleen, the Irish housekeeper who has worked for the Wadsworths for two generations; and a heroic German Shepherd that served in the Pacific theater.

The mystique --- and the myth --- at Wauregan is that “nothing ever changes here,” but that is mined with the traumas of husbands returned from the war, and wives who cannot imagine the horrors they experienced in combat. Scarred by battle, these men longed for their families and their island refuge, only to find themselves emotionally distant, and struggling to reenter society. Part mystery, part love story, and part insider’s view of a rarified, private world, A CERTAIN SUMMER will resonate with every reader who has ever dreamt of a special summer place.