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Dave Robicheaux Returns to Investigate the Death of an Unidentified Woman

In THE HADACOL BOOGIE, the iconic detective is pulled into a vortex of corruption and violence in the Louisiana bayou.

An American Woman’s Vision in Post-WWII Germany Will Tie Together Three People

Sadeqa Johnson's new novel, KEEPER OF LOST CHILDREN, demonstrates that love in its myriad of forms can be transcendent.

THIS IS NOT ABOUT US is a Kaleidoscopic Portrait of a Modern American Family

Sharply observed and laced with humor, Allegra Goodman's new novel is a big-hearted book about the love that binds a family across generations.

Evan Smoak Takes On His Most Complex Mission Yet in Gregg Hurwitz's ANTIHERO

Orphan X must figure out a way to protect the innocent, avenge the victimized, and balance justice with a measure of mercy.

Sisters? Forever. Friends? NEVER. Who Knew a Reunion Weekend Could Be So Deadly?

Kaira Rouda's WE WERE NEVER FRIENDS is an unputdownable, riveting train wreck full of dark humor and bad behavior.

We're Giving Away a Different Winter Reading Title on Select Days Through Mid-February

Our final contest will be up on Tuesday, February 17th at noon ET. The prize book will be BEST BOY by Deborah Goodrich Royce.

Latest Features and Contests


Bookreporter.com Bets On: MY HUSBANDS'S WIFE by Alice Feeney

Alice Feeney is one of those authors who is known to spin me around. There are few times that I guess where she is headed. With MY HUSBAND’S WIFE, she had me questioning everything, starting with the title. I, like many others, think that this is her most brilliant book yet.

We begin with Eden Fox, who arrives at her home, Spyglass, to learn that her key will not open the door. Properly annoyed, she knocks loudly. Another woman answers, and she is clear that she is Eden Fox and the other woman must be mad. This claim is confirmed by her husband, Harrison, who says that he has no idea who this person is.

» Click here to read more of Carol's Bets On commentary.
» Click here to read our review.


Bookreporter.com's Word of Mouth Contest: Tell Us What You've Read --- and You Can Win Two Books!

Let us know by Friday, February 20th at noon ET what books you’ve read, and you’ll have a chance to win KEEPER OF LOST CHILDREN by Sadeqa Johnson and THIS IS NOT ABOUT US by Allegra Goodman in our Word of Mouth contest.

In KEEPER OF LOST CHILDREN, an upcoming Bookreporter.com Bets On pick, one American woman’s vision in post-WWII Germany will tie together three people in an unexpected way. THIS IS NOT ABOUT US is a kaleidoscopic portrait of a modern American family --- steadfast, complicated, begrudging and loving.

» Click here to enter the contest.


Bookreporter.com's 11th Annual Winter Reading Contests and Feature

Our Winter Reading contests have returned for an 11th year! On select days through mid-February, we are hosting a series of 24-hour contests spotlighting a book releasing this winter and giving five lucky readers the chance to win it.

We also are sending a special newsletter to announce the day's title, which you can sign up for here.

Our final contest will be up on Tuesday, February 17th at noon ET. The prize book will be BEST BOY by Deborah Goodrich Royce, a gripping psychological thriller that teeters on the knife-edge of memory and identity when the arrival of a shocking letter threatens the carefully constructed life of a woman desperate to outrun her past.

» Click here to read all the contest details and learn more about our featured titles.

Bookreporter Talks To...

As part of our mission to expand The Book Report Network, we have been shooting video interviews with authors and posting them on our YouTube channel. We also have been making them available as podcasts. Carol loves interviewing authors, so this feels like a natural.

Wendy Walker's new thriller, BLADE, is an upcoming Bets On selection that is set in the world of competitive figure skating. The novel, which draws from Wendy's personal experience as a competitive figure skater (she trained in Colorado from ages 13 to 16), features alternating timelines that follow attorney Ana Robbins, who returns to her former skating facility to defend a young skater accused of murder. Wendy talks about the book’s themes of isolation, the pressure on young athletes, and the psychological impact of competitive sports. The dual-timeline structure allows readers to see connections between past and present events. And with the Winter Olympics airing, she touches on the importance of nailing the triple axel. Watch the video or listen to the podcast.

Carol enjoyed talking to Ashley Elston about her new book, ANATOMY OF AN ALIBI, which is a New York Times bestseller and a Bets On title. Ashley reveals that she rewrote the book three times, changing structure, timeline and point of view. She shares the character she began with, and how the others evolved, as well as what stayed the same from the very start. Ashley was thinking about the Murdaugh family murders and how technology can help with an alibi as much as it can hurt it. She confirms that she is under contract for a new book and updates us on what is happening with the film/TV development deal for her 2024 novel, FIRST LIE WINS. Watch the video or listen to the podcast.

SKYLARK is Paula McLain's latest novel and a “Good Morning America” Book Club pick. It features dual timelines set in Paris --- one in 1664 and the other in the 1940s during the Nazi occupation. The characters face parallel struggles across different time periods. Both storylines address how people find meaning and hope through connections with others. In SKYLARK, the underground tunnels beneath Paris serve as a space of refuge and resistance throughout history. Paula conducted extensive research, including physically exploring the city’s underground tunnel network. She wanted to create a "drilled-down view" of Paris rather than the glamorous cafés portrayed in her earlier work. Watch the video or listen to the podcast.

» Click here for a complete list of our "Bookreporter Talks To" videos and podcasts, along with upcoming interviews.

Latest Reviews

Cold Zero by Brad Thor with Ward Larsen - Political Thriller

Hemisphere Airlines Flight 777 --- the most advanced jetliner ever built --- disappears without a trace over the North Pole. Crippled by sabotage, it crash-lands on the ice, stranding the surviving passengers in a wasteland of frigid cold and chaos. The real storm, however, is still coming. Hidden inside the wreckage is the prototype for a revolutionary piece of technology that could upend the balance of world power. Now Washington, Moscow and Beijing are racing to be the first on scene to retrieve it --- at any cost. Trapped in the middle of the world’s most dangerous flashpoint are CIA operative Kasey Sheridan and former fighter pilot turned first officer Brett Sharpe. Hunted by enemy forces, they must spirit both the device and its creator across the ice to safety --- before rival superpowers turn the Arctic into a war zone.

The Exes by Leodora Darlington - Psychological Thriller

Natalie has only ever wanted to find “the one.” The perfect man, the happy family she never had. But each time she thinks she is finally getting somewhere, she’s bitterly disappointed. Another red line through a list of exes. And that was before the night of the Big Fallout that left her even more alone. Then along comes James, and Natalie thinks her luck has finally turned. Maybe he’s the one for her. Maybe he’s the one she’s been waiting for all along. Maybe he won’t wind up dead. But the harder Natalie tries to be a “normal” wife, the more world-upending truths are brought to her door, leaving her unsure of who she really is, and much less what she’ll do --- leaving her to question if there is a monster within her or if there is a villain toying with her from the outside.

In the summer of 1967, as the old Hollywood studio system was dying, an intense, uncompromising young film school graduate named George Lucas walked onto the Warner Bros. backlot for his first day working as an assistant to another up-and-coming, largely unknown filmmaker, Francis Ford Coppola. At the exact same time, across town on the Universal Studios lot, a film-obsessed 20-year-old, Steven Spielberg, longed to break free from his apprenticeship for the struggling studio and become a film director in his own right. Within a year, the three men would become friends. THE LAST KINGS OF HOLLYWOOD tells the thrilling, dramatic inside story of how the three filmmakers rivalled and supported each other, fell out and reconciled, and struggled to reinvent popular American cinema.

The Flynn family is coming undone. Catherine and Bud's open marriage has reached its breaking point as their daughters spiral in their own chaotic orbits: Abigail, the eldest, is dating a man in his 20s nicknamed War Crime Wes; Louise, the middle child, maintains a secret correspondence with an online terrorist; the brilliant youngest, Harper, is being sent to wilderness reform camp due to her insistence that someone --- or something --- is monitoring the town’s citizens. Casting a shadow across their lives, and their small coastal town, is Paul Alabaster, a billionaire shipping magnate. Rumors of corruption circulate, but no one dares to dig too deep. No one except Harper, whose obsession with a mysterious shipping container sends the family hurtling into a criminal conspiracy --- one that may just bring them closer together.

Santa Cruz is one of the country’s surf meccas and a favored getaway of the Silicon Valley elite. For decades, marijuana has been cultivated, consumed and trafficked in these mountains. And it’s where Silicon Valley entrepreneur Tushar Atre was found brutally murdered. Atre was the leader among a clutch of tech execs and venture capitalists with a voracious appetite for risk, work and money. When he met Rachael Lynch, a maverick cannabis grower and mover of product, he had a vision of how their lives could come together in business and in love. Atre sought to disrupt the newly legal cannabis trade by funding a start-up with black-market capital. This illegal pursuit would entangle him with an array of colorful and dangerous characters, many of whom had compelling reason to want him dead.

Reeling from tragedy, a former jazz musician turned schoolteacher named Adi answers a job listing advertising a chance to save the world. The assignment: to spend five weeks alone on the tiny, isolated Pacific Island of Santa Flora righting an ecological balance that has gone severely out of whack, with the aim of preserving countless bird and plant species from certain extinction. What follows, however, is anything but balanced. The threats to the once-Edenic island, Adi soon learns, aren’t exactly what his employers said they were --- and, complicating things further, he discovers he’s not alone on the island. Fearful for his own life, and for the fate of the island's, Adi spends his sun-drenched days rooting out the true threat to Santa Flora, and, by extension, to the world it occupies --- and the desperate steps he must take to eradicate it.

Warning Signs by Tracy Sierra - Psychological Thriller/Horror

Twelve-year-old Zach is cautiously optimistic. His father Bram, whose business is in dire need of cash, has put together a father-son backcountry ski weekend to wine and dine his biggest investors. Schooled in outdoor survival by his mother, Zach is eager to prove himself to the hypercritical Bram. Maybe if Zach shows how useful he is, he can earn his father’s love. But Zach knows to be on high alert around Bram, and he sees the way the group ignores the increasingly threatening conditions. For the first time in his beloved mountains, he is faced with the unknown, convinced that something watches their cabin from the treeline. Something that leaves behind strange tracks and picks its prey clean. As the adults recklessly test the limits of the outdoors, Zach worries he might be in even more danger than he realized.

Shanghai, 1911. Lisan Liu is elated when she is hired as secretary to wealthy American Caroline Stanton, the new mistress of Lennox Manor on the outskirts of Shanghai’s International Settlement. However, the Manor has a dark past due to a previous owner’s suicide, and soon Lisan’s childhood nightmares resurface with more intensity. Adding to her unease is the young gardener, Yao, who both entices and disturbs her. Newly married Caroline looks forward to life in China with her husband, Thomas. But an unwelcome guest, Andrew Grey, attends her party and claims to know secrets she can’t afford to have exposed. As Caroline struggles with Grey’s extortion and Thomas’ mysterious illness, Lisan’s future is upended when she learns the truth about her past, and why her identity has been hidden all these years.

No one knows exactly how the Goblin War began, but folks will tell you that goblins are stinking, slinking, filthy, sheep-stealing, henhouse-raiding, obnoxious, rude and violent. Goblins would actually agree with all of this, and they might throw in “cowardly” and “lazy”  for good measure. But goblins don't go around killing people for fun, no matter what the propaganda posters say. And when a confrontation with an evil wizard lands a troop of nine goblins deep behind enemy lines, goblin sergeant Nessilka must figure out how to keep her hapless band together and get them home in one piece. Unfortunately, between them and safety lies a forest full of elves, trolls, monsters, and that most terrifying of creatures: a human being.

Maggie thinks she’s finally found the love of her life. Theo is charming, passionate and crazy about her. So when Theo mysteriously disappears, Maggie certainly doesn’t expect that he’s gone for good --- let alone stolen her life savings, heart and self-esteem. Now she’s living in a caravan in a muddy field in the middle of nowhere, left to pick up the pieces. When junior reporter Flick catches wind of the story, she decides that exposing the romance fraudster may be just the career break she needs. The pair embark on the road trip of their lives, where unexpected twists, hidden secrets and hard truths are revealed. And, as an unlikely friendship begins to blossom, they realize it’s not just about finding the guy, it’s about finding themselves.

When Poppy discovers unanswered messages from a charming stranger in her late sister's dating app, she makes an impulsive choice: She'll meet him, just once, on what would have been Dandelion's 40th birthday. Jake is ready to find something real --- and not least because his ex-wife's twentysomething boyfriend has moved into their old family home. When he meets the intriguing woman who calls herself Dandelion, their connection is undeniable, and he can think of little else. As their relationship deepens, Poppy finds herself trapped in a double life she never meant to create. Every moment with Jake feels genuine, electric and totally right --- despite the fact they're tangled in deceit. As the lines between grief and love blur, Poppy faces a choice: keep her sister's memory alive through her lies, or risk everything for a chance at her own happiness.