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A year after she was dumped in her wedding dress, Rosie Lachlan is working at her parents’ bridal salon. The recipient of a life-saving heart transplant, Rosie knows that her health is precious and precarious. She suspects that her heart donor is Daphne Thorne, the wife of local celebrity author Morgan Thorne, who she begins messaging via an anonymous service called DonorConnect. But Rosie has a secret: She’s convinced that now that she has his wife’s heart, she and Morgan are meant to be together. As she and Morgan correspond, the pretense of avoiding personal details soon disappears. But as she digs deeper into Morgan’s previous marriage, she discovers disturbing rumors about the man she’s falling for. Could Morgan have had something to do with his late wife’s death?

Disabled, disinclined to marry, and more interested in writing than a lucrative career in medicine or law, Zelu has always felt like the outcast of her large Nigerian family. Then her life is upended when she’s unceremoniously fired from her university job and her novel is rejected by yet another publisher. With her career and dreams crushed in one fell swoop, she decides to write something just for herself. What comes out is nothing like the quiet, literary novels that have so far peppered her unremarkable career. It’s a far-future epic where androids and AI wage war in the grown-over ruins of human civilization. When Zelu finds the courage to share her strange novel, she does not realize she is about to embark on a life-altering journey --- one that will catapult her into literary stardom, but also perhaps obliterate everything her book was meant to be.

Thirty years old with a lifetime of dysphoria and irritating exes rattling around in her head, Max is plagued by a deep dissatisfaction. Shouldn't these be the best years of her life? Why doesn't it feel that way? After taking a spill down the stairs at a New Year’s Eve party, she decides to make some changes. First: a stab at good old-fashioned heteronormativity. Max thinks she’s found the answer in Vincent. While his corporate colleagues, trad friends and Chinese parents never pictured their son dating a trans woman, he cares for Max in a way she’d always dismissed as a foolish fantasy. But he is also carrying baggage of his own. When the fallout of a decades-old entanglement resurfaces, Max must decide what forgiveness really means.

Four decades ago, Joyce Carol Oates penned her first novel of psychological suspense under the name “Rosamond Smith.” In the Smith books, Oates explored themes of betrayal and deception, lust and murder, through stories involving twins, doubles and hidden second identities. Hard Case Crime is proud to bring these extraordinary works of crime fiction back into print in definitive double editions, each pairing two complete novels and two never-before-collected Oates short stories, all linked thematically, to weave a sinister web filled with dark reflections. In this volume, a female serial killer seeks refuge in her twin sister’s home in STARR BRIGHT WILL BE WITH YOU SOON, while a male serial killer murders for the woman he craves in SOUL/MATE --- and the echoes continue in the rare short stories “The Murderess” and “An Unsolved Crime.”

April Evans’ life is in shambles. She’s had to close her tattoo shop in Clover Lake, and she’s subletting her house to cover her mortgage. And her love life is nonexistent ever since her ex-fiancée, Elena, left her for a younger woman three years ago. When she is asked to teach a summer art class at the town’s new resort called Cloverwild, April jumps at the opportunity, especially since the job comes with boarding. She’s sure that this is the silver lining she needs…until she meets her cabinmate: Daphne Love, the woman who stole her ex-fiancée. And even worse, it’s clear Daphne has no idea who April is. Their already-tense relationship gets even shakier when April and Daphne find themselves competing for a rare opportunity to showcase their art in a London museum. But barriers slowly begin to fall, and an inexplicable allure keeps drawing them closer.

In 1919, high school teacher Jessie Redmon Fauset has been named the literary editor of The Crisis. The first Black woman to hold this position at a preeminent Negro magazine, Jessie is poised to achieve literary greatness. But she holds a secret that jeopardizes it all. W. E. B. Du Bois, the founder of The Crisis, is not only Jessie’s boss, he’s her lover. And neither his wife nor their 14-year age difference can keep the two apart. Amidst rumors of their tumultuous affair, Jessie is determined to prove herself. She attacks the challenge of discovering young writers with fervor. Under her leadership, The Crisis thrives. When her first novel is released to great acclaim, it’s clear that Jessie is at the heart of a renaissance in Black music, theater and the arts. But as she strives to preserve her legacy, she’ll discover the high cost of her unparalleled success.

In January 1965, the growing town of Ballycrea has four new residents. The O’Leary siblings arrive in their new village under suspicious circumstances. Desperate to make a new start and leave their troubled life behind, the O'Learys offer few, contradicting details about their past. As they slowly settle in to town, the siblings are taken under the wing of Betty and Bill Nevan, a wealthy couple in their 40s who have always wanted children. However, as one O’Leary sister grows close to Betty, lines are crossed and their intense relationship becomes difficult to define. All the while, the O’Learys' buried secrets keep bubbling up, threatening to ruin their new future.

When Jamie Prescott and her best friend, Laurie, attend a speed-dating event, Jamie expects to meet a roster of mediocre men. She doesn’t expect one of her dates to have his throat slit at their table during a blackout. The lights come back on, and there are more bodies on the floor. Armed with makeshift weapons and Jamie’s extensive knowledge of what NOT to do in a slasher, the remaining speed daters try to find an exit while the killer adds to their body count. As the night progresses and Jamie comes face-to-mask with the murderer, she begins to suspect they are committing the slayings to woo one of the daters and turn them into a real-life Final Girl. But Jamie has other plans, and as she fights for her life, she can’t help but find herself ensconced in a love triangle with two of the other survivors.

Dr. Alexander Gregory, a psychologist recovering from the collapse of a high-profile criminal profiling unit, wants nothing more than a quiet life to finally sit and think things through. But his rare ability to understand the minds of violent offenders makes him hard to ignore --- especially when a small town is shaken by a brutal murder. Reluctantly pulled into the case, Gregory finds himself confronting not only a cunning predator, but the darker corners of his own mind.

Jane is a mother of two who feels unneeded by her teenagers, and her writing career has screeched to an unsuccessful halt. Her one published novel sold under 500 copies. And she’s pretty sure that her husband, Dan, is cheating on her. When the couple goes to the renowned upscale restaurant La Fin du Monde to celebrate their 19th anniversary, Jane thinks it’s as good a place as any to tell Dan she wants a divorce. But before they even get to the second course, an underground climate activist group bursts into the dining room. Nearly everything the disorganized and bumbling activists say and do is right out of the pages of Jane’s failed book. Even Dan admits it’s eerily familiar. Which means they’re the only ones who know what’s going to happen next. And they’re the only ones who can stop it.

Sixteen years old and enslaved since she was born, Junie has spent her life on Bellereine Plantation in Alabama, cooking and cleaning alongside her family, and tending to the white master’s daughter, Violet. Her daydreams are filled with poetry and faraway worlds, while she spends her nights secretly roaming through the forest, consumed with grief over the sudden death of her older sister, Minnie. When wealthy guests arrive from New Orleans, hinting at marriage for Violet and upending Junie’s life, she commits a desperate act --- one that rouses Minnie’s spirit from the grave, tethered to this world unless Junie can free her. She enlists the aid of Caleb, the guests’ coachman, and their friendship soon becomes something more. Yet as long-held truths begin to crumble, she realizes Bellereine is harboring dark and horrifying secrets that no longer can be ignored.

After more than a year of laying low, Billie, Helen, Mary Alice and Natalie are called back into action. When they receive a summons from the head of the elite assassin organization known as the Museum, they are ready to tackle the greatest challenge of their careers. Someone on the inside has compiled a list of important kills committed by Museum agents, connected to a single, shadowy figure, an Eastern European gangster with an iron fist, some serious criminal ambition, and a tendency to kill first and ask questions later. This new nemesis is murdering agents who got in the way of their power-hungry plans, and the aging quartet of killers is next. Together the foursome embark on a wild ride across the globe on the double mission of rooting out the Museum’s mole and hunting down the gangster who seems to know their next move before they make it.

There's no such thing as a perfect guy, but Xavier Rush comes disastrously close. A gorgeous veterinarian giving Greek god vibes --- all while cuddling a tiny kitten? Immediate yes. That is, until Xavier opens his mouth and proves that even sculpted gods can say the absolute wrong thing. Of course, there’s nothing Samantha loves more than proving someone like him wrong…unless, of course, he can admit he made a mistake. But after one incredible and seemingly endless date, Samantha is forced to admit the truth --- that her family is in crisis, and any kind of relationship would be impossible. Samantha begs Xavier to forget her. To remember their night together as a perfect moment, as crushing as that may be. Only no amount of distance or time is enough to forget what's between them.

SOURCE CODE is not about Microsoft or the Gates Foundation or the future of technology. It’s the human, personal story of how Bill Gates became who he is today: his childhood, his early passions and pursuits. It’s the story of his principled grandmother and ambitious parents, his first deep friendships and the sudden death of his best friend; of his struggles to fit in and his discovery of a world of coding and computers in the dawn of a new era; of embarking in his early teens on a path that took him from midnight escapades at a nearby computer center to his college dorm room, where he sparked a revolution that would change the world.

It’s 2024, and Tobey Harlan steals from the wall of his father’s house three paintings by the venerated and controversial artist Di Stiegl. Tobey has just lost everything he owns to a Northern California wildfire, and if he can sell the paintings (albeit in a shady way to a notorious tech bro), he can start life anew in a place no one will ever find him. A hundred years before, German-Jewish immigrant Klaus Aaronsohn inveigles his way into a film studio in Astoria, Queens. He will restyle himself Klaus von Stiegl, a mysterious aristocratic German film director, and end his career directing “Brackett,” a radical, notorious ’60s-era detective show. Weaving between Tobey and Klaus is the story of Diane “Di” Stiegl, Klaus’ granddaughter, raised in Palm Springs, who claws out a career as an artist in gritty 1980s NYC.

For the past 18 years, Ivy Gordon has been the most famous star at the Dollhouse Academy, the elite boarding school and talent incubator that every aspiring performer dreams of attending. But in secret diary entries, she begins to reveal the truth of her life at the Dollhouse: strange medical exams, mysterious supplements, and something unspeakable that has left her terrified and feeling like a prisoner. Ramona Halloway and her best friend, Grace Ludlow, grew up idolizing Ivy. Neither has made much headway in showbiz until a lucky break grants them entry to the Dollhouse. When Ramona begins to receive threatening anonymous messages, it’s easy to dismiss them as a prank from a rival. Her bigger concern is Grace’s skyrocketing success. But as the messages grow more unsettling, so does life at the Dollhouse.

On a warm summer evening in 1991, 17-year-old Julia Parker was murdered in the Brooklyn neighborhood of East New York. An area known for an exorbitant level of violence and crime, East New York had come to be known as the Killing Fields. In the six months after Julia Parker’s death, 62 more people were murdered in the same area. In the early 1990s, murder rates in the neighborhood climbed to the highest in NYPD history. East New York was dying. But how did this once thriving, diverse, family neighborhood fall into such ruin? The answer can be found two decades earlier. A compulsively readable hybrid of true crime and investigative journalism, THE KILLING FIELDS OF EAST NEW YORK reveals how white-collar crime reduced a prospering neighborhood to abandoned buildings and empty lots.

Professor Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld is the author of the highly regarded work of scholarship, Portuguese Irregular Verbs. His eminence in language studies is widely respected, albeit rarely acknowledged by his colleague, Professor Detlev-Amadeus Unterholzer, the writer of a far less important book on the subjunctive. Their rivalry bubbles under the surface, but is quick to come into the open if something unusual disturbs the calm waters of the institute in Regensburg where they both work. One such event is the arrival of two visiting scholars from New Orleans. These ladies, Professor Pom Pom Boisseau and her friend, Professor Alice Martinique, are experts in the Provençal language and avid bikers. When they choose to make a dramatic entrance, Unterholzer is shocked, but von Igelfeld is rather taken with Pom Pom. In fact, he is very taken with her.

Hana Babic is a quiet, middle-aged librarian in Minnesota who wants nothing more than to be left alone. But when a detective arrives with the news that her best friend has been murdered, Hana knows that something evil has come for her, a dark remnant of the past she and her friend had shared. Thirty years before, Hana was someone else: Nura Divjak, a teenager growing up in the mountains of war-torn Bosnia --- until Serbian soldiers arrived to slaughter her entire family before her eyes. The events of that day thrust Nura into the war, leading her to join a band of militia fighters, where she became not only a fierce warrior but a legend --- the deadly Night Mora. But a shattering final act forced Nura to flee to the United States with a bounty on her head. Now, someone is hunting Hana, and her friend has paid the price.

Lucy awakens from a dream to find her hands around her ex-lover’s throat. Horrified, she flees to her older sister’s house on the Australian coast, hoping she can help explain the strangely vivid nightmare that preceded the attack. But Jess is nowhere to be found. As Lucy awaits her return, the rumors surrounding Jess’ strange small town start to emerge. Numerous men have gone missing at sea, spread over decades. A tiny baby was found hidden in a cave. And sailors tell of hearing women’s voices on the waves. Desperate for answers, Lucy finds and begins to read her sister’s adolescent diary. A breathtaking tale of female resilience and the bonds of sisterhood across time and space, THE SIRENS captures the power of dreams, and the mystery and magic of the sea.

When wildlife biologist Alex Carter is tasked with locating jaguars on a vast desert preserve in New Mexico, she is ecstatic. While jaguars once roamed throughout the Southwest, they are now endangered, and Alex hopes that some of the sleek and elusive creatures have found their way to the protected sanctuary. Meanwhile, an archaeological team is excavating the gravesite of a 16th-century Spanish conquistador on a neighboring piece of land. While learning about their discoveries, Alex encounters a dangerous group of anti-immigrant vigilantes roaming the area, threatening the team and demanding they leave. And when the militants learn of Alex’s mission, they become bent on stopping her. And then there are the strange holes that keep appearing on the preserve. Who is digging them, and what are they looking for?

The Great War may be over, but brilliant scientist Billie McKennan continues the fight to be taken seriously. When a deliberate omission wins her a marine biologist position aboard an expedition funded by a wealthy eccentric, she quickly discovers she’s not the only one keeping secrets. The opulent Eurybia sets sail for the Gulf of California with a handful of well-to-do passengers and talented scientists on board. To Billie’s surprise, her ex-husband counts among them. The true mission of the voyage comes into question when a mysterious specimen is captured. And then science unexpectedly gives way to wild rumors and superstition. Soon, a sinister force takes hold of the vessel --- and everyone on it. Billie must reconcile her beliefs with the reality of what she encounters in the vermilion sea.

The sorority sisters of Theta Gamma Mu --- Roxy, Amelia, Jamie, Beth and Sunny --- have been summoned to Roxy's luxurious Palm Springs vacation home to celebrate the engagement of her son to Beth's daughter. But the refurbished 1920s estate is eerily reminiscent of the hotel where tragedy struck during Spring Break 25 years ago. Long-simmering tensions and shocking secrets begin bubbling to the surface like bodies --- because while the weekend was supposed to be about celebrating the future, it's not so easy to bury the past.

No one appears more surprised than Hailey Gelman when she comes under suspicion for the murder of her soon-to-be ex-husband, Jonah. The months leading up to Jonah’s death have been fraught, including a bitter separation and a messy custody battle over their young daughter, Maya. When Hailey files a motion to relocate to Florida, Jonah retaliates, and the divorce begins to spiral dangerously out of control. Sherry, Hailey’s mother, will stop at almost nothing to keep Jonah from getting what he wants. Nate, Hailey’s impetuous and protective older brother, can’t stand to see his little sister suffer. And Solomon, the patriarch, is keeping a secret that threatens the stability and security Sherry has worked so hard to maintain. Soon, they are forced to reckon with who they are as individuals and as a family, and just how far they will go for each other.

We read to escape, to learn, to find love, to feel seen. We read to encounter new worlds, to discover new recipes, to find connection across difference, or simply to pass a rainy afternoon. No matter the reason, books have the power to keep us safe, to challenge us, and, perhaps most importantly, to make us more fully human. Shannon Reed, a longtime teacher, lifelong reader and New Yorker contributor, gets it. With one simple goal in mind, she makes the case that we should read for pleasure above all else. In WHY WE READ, Reed shares surprising stories from her life as a reader and the poignant ways in which books have impacted her students.