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Holiday Cheer 2016

At Bookreporter.com, we've been celebrating the holiday season in style with our Holiday Cheer Contests and Feature. As our gift to you, we've been spotlighting a book and giving five lucky readers a chance to win it.

Although the contests have ended, we encourage you to take a look at this year's featured titles. These are books you'll want to read during the holidays --- and throughout the new year as well!

End-of-the-Year Contest 2016

Congratulations to the winners of our 2016 End-of-the-Year Contest! One Grand Prize winner received all 40 of Carol Fitzgerald's Bookreporter.com Bets On picks from 2016, while eight others won a selection of five of these titles. You can see all the winners below, along with 2016's Bets On selections.

Binge Read the Promise Falls Trilogy

BROKEN PROMISE
After his wife’s death and the collapse of his newspaper, David Harwood has no choice but to uproot his nine-year-old son and move back into his childhood home in Promise Falls, New York. David believes his life is in free fall, and he can’t find a way to stop his descent. Then he comes across a family secret of epic proportions that will affect not only his family, but the entire town.

FAR FROM TRUE
When private investigator Cal Weaver looks into a break-in at the home of a recently deceased man, he uncovers far more than he is prepared for after he finds a hidden room that was used for salacious activities. Detective Barry Duckworth is doggedly trying to solve two murders, one of which is three years old. He believes the killings are connected, since each featured a similar distinctive wound. And the key to his mystery may lie with Cal Weaver’s own case. As the lies begin to unravel, and another murder occurs, Cal and Barry find themselves headed straight into the heart of dark secrets as they uncover more startling truths about Promise Falls.

THE TWENTY-THREE
It’s May 23rd, and the small town of Promise Falls, New York, has found itself in the midst of a full-blown catastrophe. Hundreds of people are going to the hospital with similar flu-like symptoms, and dozens have died. Investigators quickly zero in on the water supply. But the question for many, including private investigator Cal Weaver, remains: Who would benefit from a mass poisoning of this town? Meanwhile, a college student has been murdered, and Detective Barry Duckworth has seen the killer’s handiwork before --- in the unsolved homicides of two other women in town. Suddenly, all the strange things that have happened in the last month start to add up.

Broken Promise and Far From True

BROKEN PROMISE: Book One of the Promise Falls Trilogy
After his wife’s death and the collapse of his newspaper, David Harwood has no choice but to uproot his nine-year-old son and move back into his childhood home in Promise Falls, New York. David believes his life is in free fall, and he can’t find a way to stop his descent. Then he comes across a family secret of epic proportions that will affect not only his family, but the entire town.

FAR FROM TRUE: A Promise Falls Novel
After the screen of a run-down drive-in movie theater collapses and kills four people, the daughter of one of the victims asks private investigator Cal Weaver to look into a recent break-in at her father’s house. Cal discovers a hidden basement room where it’s clear that salacious activities have taken place --- as well as evidence of missing DVDs. Meanwhile, Detective Barry Duckworth is still trying to solve two murders --- one of which is three years old --- he believes are connected, since each featured a similar distinctive wound. As the lies begin to unravel, Cal is headed straight into the heart of a dark secret as his search uncovers more startling truths about Promise Falls.

Far From True: Book Two of the Promise Falls Trilogy by Linwood Barclay

New York Times and #1 international bestselling author Linwood Barclay delivers the second spine-chilling thriller set in the troubled town of Promise Falls, following the electrifying cliffhanger ending of BROKEN PROMISE.

Far From True: Book Two of the Promise Falls Trilogy by Linwood Barclay

March 2016

FAR FROM TRUE
is the second book in Linwood Barclay’s Promise Falls trilogy. After reading BROKEN PROMISE, the first installment, there were a number of loose threads that I was looking forward to getting wrapped up. They were, except for the significance of the number 23, but not before a few new scenarios unfolded. The book opens with a scene at the local drive-in movie theater. It is supposed to be closed the following week but explodes ahead of schedule, killing four and injuring many more. Though all eyes point to the wrecking company, the kicker is that they had nothing to do with it. So you start to wonder if this was a random act, or who might’ve wanted who dead and why. With Linwood Barclay, it’s always the latter. And from there, the story rolls on.

Week of October 3, 2016

Paperback releases for the week of October 3rd include FAR FROM TRUE, the second spine-chilling thriller in Linwood Barclay's Promise Falls trilogy (the final installment of the series, THE TWENTY-THREE, will be available on November 1st); LAFAYETTE IN THE SOMEWHAT UNITED STATES by Sarah Vowell, an insightful and unconventional account of George Washington’s trusted officer and friend, that swashbuckling teenage French aristocrat, the Marquis de Lafayette; TWAIN & STANLEY ENTER PARADISE, a luminous work of fiction from Oscar Hijuelos inspired by the real-life, 37-year friendship between famed writer and humorist Mark Twain and legendary explorer Sir Henry Morton Stanley; and THE MISSING KENNEDY by Elizabeth Koehler-Pentacoff, the only full-length, first-person account of John F. Kennedy's sister, Rosemary, after her lobotomy (its paperback publication has been timed perfectly for October, which is National Disability Employment Awareness Month).