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Week of August 1, 2016

New in Paperback

Week of August 1, 2016

Paperback releases for the week of August 1st include X, Sue Grafton's 24th Kinsey Millhone mystery that features a remorseless serial killer who leaves no trace of his crimes; PURITY by Jonathan Franzen, a grand story of youthful idealism, extreme fidelity and murder; A MANUAL FOR CLEANING WOMEN, which compiles the best work of the legendary short-story writer Lucia Berlin; THE PINE TAR GAME, Filip Bondy's account of the infamous baseball game between the Yankees and Royals in which a game-winning home run was overturned and set off one of sports history’s most absurd and entertaining controversies; and KL, Nikolaus Wachsmann's unprecedented, integrated account of the Nazi concentration camps from their inception in 1933 through their demise in the spring of 1945.

The 3rd Woman by Jonathan Freedland - Thriller

August 2, 2016


Journalist Madison Webb is obsessed with exposing lies and corruption. But she never thought she’d be investigating her own sister’s murder. Madison refuses to accept the official line that Abigail’s death was an isolated crime. She uncovers evidence that suggests her sister was the third victim in a series of killings hushed up as part of a major conspiracy. In a United States that now bows before the People’s Republic of China, corruption is rife. She can’t trust the police, and the authorities dictate what the “truth” is. With her life on the line, Madison must give up her quest for justice --- or face the consequences.

The American Girl by Kate Horsley - Psychological Thriller/Mystery

August 2, 2016


Seventeen-year-old American exchange student Quinn Perkins stumbles out of the woods near the small French town of St. Roch. Barefoot, bloodied and unable to say what has happened to her, Quinn’s appearance creates quite a stir, especially since the Blavettes --- the French family with whom she’s been staying --- have mysteriously disappeared. Now the media, and everyone in the idyllic village, are wondering if the American girl had anything to do with her host family’s disappearance. When she is arrested for the murders of the Blavette family, she finds an unlikely ally in journalist Molly Swift, who must unravel the disturbing secrets of the town’s past in an effort to clear Quinn’s name.

And Again by Jessica Chiarella - Dystopian/Science Fiction

August 2, 2016


Four terminally ill patients have been selected for the SUBlife pilot program, which will grant them brand-new, genetically perfect bodies that are exact copies of their former selves --- without a single imperfection. But the fresh start they’ve been given is anything but perfect. Without their old bodies, their new physical identities have been lost. As each tries to re-enter their previous lives and relationships, they are faced with the question: How much of your identity rests not just in your mind, but in your heart?

Avenue of Spies: A True Story of Terror, Espionage, and One American Family's Heroic Resistance in Nazi-Occupied Paris by Alex Kershaw - History

August 2, 2016


The leafy Avenue Foch, one of the most exclusive residential streets in Nazi-occupied France, was Paris's hotbed of daring spies, murderous secret police, amoral informers and Vichy collaborators. So when American physician Sumner Jackson found himself drawn into the Liberation network of the French resistance, he knew the stakes were impossibly high. Drawing upon a wealth of primary source material and extensive interviews with Sumner’s son, Phillip, Alex Kershaw recreates the City of Light during its darkest days.

Badlands by C. J. Box - Thriller

August 2, 2016


In the small town of Grimstad, North Dakota, resides 12-year-old Kyle Westergaard, who wants to get out of town, take care of his mother and give them a better life. While delivering newspapers, he witnesses a car accident and takes a mysterious bundle from the scene. Now in possession of a lot of money and packets of white powder, Kyle wonders if his luck has changed. As detective Cassie Dewell is propelled on a collision course with a murderous enemy, she finds that the key to it all might come in the most unlikely form: an undersized boy on a bike who keeps showing up where he doesn't belong.

Barbara the Slut and Other People by Lauren Holmes - Fiction/Short Stories

August 2, 2016


In “Desert Hearts,” a woman takes a job selling sex toys in San Francisco rather than embark on the law career she pursued only for the sake of her father. In “Pearl and the Swiss Guy Fall in Love,” a woman realizes she much prefers the company of her pit bull to the neurotic foreign fling who won’t decamp from her apartment. And in “Barbara the Slut,” a young woman with an autistic brother, a Princeton acceptance letter, and a love of sex navigates her high school’s toxic, slut-shaming culture with open eyes. Lauren Holmes' debut collection is about family, friends and lovers, and the flaws that make us most human.

Brain Storm: Angela Richman, Death Investigator by Elaine Viets - Hard-boiled Mystery

August 2, 2016


The ultrawealthy families of Chouteau Forest may look down on a woman like death investigator Angela Richman, but they also rely on her. When a horrific car crash kills a Forest teenager, Angela is among the first on the scene. Her investigation is hardly underway, though, when she suffers a series of crippling strokes. Misdiagnosed by the resident neurologist, Dr. Gravois, and mended by gauche yet brilliant neurosurgeon Dr. Jeb Travis Tritt, Angela faces a harrowing recovery. It’s a drug-addled, hallucinating Angela who learns that Dr. Gravois has been murdered…and the chief suspect is the surgeon who saved her life.

Corrupted: A Rosato & DiNunzio Novel by Lisa Scottoline - Legal Thriller

August 2, 2016


Thirteen years ago, Bennie Rosato took on Jason Leftavick, a 12-year-old boy who was sent to a juvenile detention center after fighting a class bully. Bennie couldn't free Jason, and to this day it's the case that haunts her. Jason has grown up in and out of juvenile prison, and his adulthood hasn't been any easier. Bennie no longer represents those accused of murder, but when Jason is indicted for killing the same bully he fought with as a kid, she sees no choice but to represent him. Forced to relive the darkest period of her life, Bennie will do everything in her power to get the truth --- and justice.

Dragonfish by Vu Tran - Literary Thriller

August 2, 2016


Robert, an Oakland cop, still can't let go of Suzy, the enigmatic Vietnamese wife who left him two years ago. Now she's disappeared from her new husband, Sonny, a violent Vietnamese smuggler and gambler who's blackmailing Robert into finding her for him. As he pursues her through the sleek and seamy gambling dens of Las Vegas, shadowed by Sonny's sadistic son, "Junior," and assisted by unexpected and reluctant allies, Robert learns more about his ex-wife than he ever did during their marriage.

The First Wife by Erica Spindler - Thriller

August 2, 2016


Despite the 10-year difference in their ages, her working class upbringing and his of privilege, Logan Abbott and Bailey Browne fall deeply in love. Marriage quickly follows. But when Logan brings her home to his horse farm in Louisiana, her dreams of happily-ever-after begin to unravel. A tragic family history she knew nothing about surfaces, plus whisperings about the disappearance of his first wife and rumors about the women from the area who have gone missing.

Flood of Fire by Amitav Ghosh - Historical Fiction

August 2, 2016


It is 1839, and China has embargoed the trade of opium, yet too much is at stake in the lucrative business and the British Foreign Secretary has ordered the colonial government in India to assemble an expeditionary force for an attack to reinstate the trade. Among those consigned is Kesri Singh, a soldier in the army of the East India Company. He makes his way eastward on the Hind, a transport ship that will carry him from Bengal to Hong Kong. FLOOD OF FIRE is the final novel in Amitav Ghosh’s Ibis Trilogy.

The Gilded Razor: A Memoir by Sam Lansky - Memoir

August 2, 2016


By the age of 17, Sam Lansky was an all-star student with Ivy League aspirations in his final year at an elite New York City prep school. But a nasty addiction to prescription pills spiraled rapidly out of control, compounded by a string of reckless affairs with older men, leaving his bright future in jeopardy. After a terrifying overdose, he tried to straighten out. Yet as he journeyed from the glittering streets of Manhattan, to a wilderness boot camp in Utah, to a psych ward in New Orleans, he only found more opportunities to create chaos --- until finally, he began to face himself.

Give Us the Ballot: The Modern Struggle for Voting Rights in America by Ari Berman - History

August 2, 2016


Countless books have been written about the civil rights movement, but far less attention has been paid to what happened after the dramatic passage of the Voting Rights Act (VRA) in 1965 and the turbulent forces it unleashed. GIVE US THE BALLOT tells this story for the first time. In this groundbreaking narrative history, Ari Berman charts both the transformation of American democracy under the VRA and the counterrevolution that has sought to limit voting rights, from 1965 to the present day.

Home by Nightfall: A Charles Lenox Mystery by Charles Finch - Historical Mystery

August 2, 2016


It's London in 1876, and the whole city is abuzz with the enigmatic disappearance of a famous foreign pianist. Charles Lenox is ready to investigate, until his grieving brother asks him to come down to Sussex. Something strange is afoot in Markethouse: small thefts, books, blankets, animals and, more alarmingly, a break-in at the house of a local insurance agent. Lenox realizes that something very strange and serious indeed may be happening, more than just local mischief. Soon he's racing to solve two cases at once before either turns deadly.

House of Thieves by Charles Belfoure - Historical Fiction

August 2, 2016


In 1886 New York, a respectable architect shouldn't have any connection to the notorious gang of thieves and killers that rules the underbelly of the city. When John Cross' son racks up an unfathomable gambling debt to Kent's Gents, Cross must pay it back himself. All he has to do is use his inside knowledge of high society mansions and museums to craft a robbery even the smartest detectives won't solve. But Cross' entire life has become a balancing act, and it will only take one mistake for it all to come crashing down --- and for his family to go down too.

I Was a Revolutionary: Stories by Andrew Malan Milward - Fiction/Short Stories

August 2, 2016


Grounded in place, spanning the Civil War to the present day, the stories in I WAS A REVOLUTIONARY capture the roil of history through the eyes of an unforgettable cast of characters: the visionaries and dreamers, radical farmers and socialist journalists, quack doctors and protestors who haunt the past and present landscape of the state of Kansas. In the collection’s haunting title piece, a professor of Kansas history surveys his decades-long slide from radicalism to complacency, a shift that parallels the landscape around him.

KL: A History of the Nazi Concentration Camps by Nikolaus Wachsmann - History

August 2, 2016


In a landmark work of history, Nikolaus Wachsmann offers an unprecedented, integrated account of the Nazi concentration camps from their inception in 1933 through their demise, 70 years ago, in the spring of 1945. He not only synthesizes a new generation of scholarly work, much of it untranslated and unknown outside of Germany, but also presents startling revelations, based on many years of archival research, about the functioning and scope of the camp system.

The Love Killings: A Detective Matt Jones Thriller by Robert Ellis - Hard-boiled Mystery/Thriller

August 2, 2016


Dr. George Baylor, the serial killer who escaped after murdering three coeds in LA, resurfaces on the East Coast. This time, an entire family has been slaughtered in their home outside Philadelphia, and the doctor’s fingerprints are all over the crime scene. With panic rising, the FBI seeks LAPD detective Matt Jones’ help, and the hunt for this brutal mass killer is on. But so is the hunt for the man who paid to have Jones shot. When a second family is found murdered, the search for the killer becomes frantic, and Jones’ shocking personal history explodes before his eyes.

The Man Who Fell from the Sky: A Wind River Mystery by Margaret Coel - Mystery

August 2, 2016


Robert Walking Bear died while hunting for Butch Cassidy’s buried loot in the Wind River mountains with a map believed to have been drawn by the Hole in the Wall Gang leader himself. Rumors circulate that Robert was murdered by his own cousins to get the map and find the treasure themselves. But when one of Robert’s cousins falls prey to another deadly accident, Arapaho attorney Vicky Holden and Father John O’Malley engage in a hunt for the killer before more die in search of Cassidy’s cache.

A Manual for Cleaning Women: Selected Stories by Lucia Berlin - Fiction/Short Stories

August 2, 2016


A MANUAL FOR CLEANING WOMEN compiles the best work of the legendary short-story writer Lucia Berlin. With the grit of Raymond Carver, the humor of Grace Paley, and a blend of wit and melancholy all her own, Berlin crafts miracles from the everyday, uncovering moments of grace in the Laundromats and halfway houses of the American Southwest, in the homes of the Bay Area upper class, and among switchboard operators, struggling mothers, hitchhikers and bad Christians.

The Map of Chaos by Felix J. Palma - Historical Fantasy/Mystery

August 2, 2016


When the person he loves most dies in tragic circumstances, the mysterious protagonist of THE MAP OF CHAOS does all he can to speak to her one last time. A session with a renowned medium seems to offer the only solution, but the experience unleashes terrible forces that bring the world to the brink of disaster. Salvation can only be found in The Map of Chaos, an obscure book that he is desperate to uncover. In his search, he is given invaluable help by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Lewis Carroll, and, of course, H. G. Wells, whose Invisible Man seems to have escaped from the pages of his famous novel to sow terror among mankind.

Mess: One Man's Struggle to Clean Up His House and His Act by Barry Yourgrau - Memoir

August 2, 2016


Millions of Americans struggle with severe clutter and hoarding. New York writer and bohemian Barry Yourgrau is one of them. Behind the door of his Queens apartment, Yourgrau’s life is, quite literally, chaos. Confronted by his exasperated girlfriend, a globe-trotting food critic, he embarks on a heartfelt, wide-ranging, and too often uproarious project to take control of his crammed, disorderly apartment and life, and to explore the wider world of collecting, clutter and extreme hoarding.

The Pine Tar Game: The Kansas City Royals, the New York Yankees, and Baseball's Most Absurd and Entertaining Controversy by Filip Bondy - Sports

August 2, 2016


On July 24, 1983, during the finale of a heated four-game series between the dynastic New York Yankees and small-town Kansas City Royals, umpires nullified a go-ahead home run based on an obscure rule, when Yankees manager Billy Martin pointed out an illegal amount of pine tar on Royals third baseman George Brett’s bat. The call temporarily cost the Royals the game, but the decision was eventually overturned, resulting in a resumption of the game several weeks later that created its own hysteria. THE PINE TAR GAME chronicles this watershed moment.

Playing with Fire by Tess Gerritsen - Thriller

August 2, 2016


In a shadowy antiques shop in Rome, violinist Julia Ansdell happens upon a curious piece of music --- the Incendio waltz --- and is immediately entranced by its unusual composition. Back home in Boston, from the moment Julia’s bow moves across the strings, drawing the waltz’s fiery notes into the air, something strange is stirred. The music has a terrifying and inexplicable effect on her young daughter, who seems violently transformed. Convinced that the hypnotic strains of Incendio are weaving a malevolent spell, Julia sets out to discover the man and the meaning behind the score.

Purity by Jonathan Franzen - Fiction

August 2, 2016


A glancing encounter with a German peace activist leads young Pip Tyler to an internship in South America with The Sunlight Project, an organization that traffics in all the secrets of the world --- including, Pip hopes, the secret of her origins. TSP is the brainchild of Andreas Wolf, a charismatic provocateur who rose to fame in the chaos following the fall of the Berlin Wall. Now on the lam in Bolivia, Andreas is drawn to Pip for reasons she doesn't understand, and the intensity of her response to him upends her conventional ideas of right and wrong.

Secrets of Nanreath Hall by Alix Rickloff - Historical Fiction

August 2, 2016


Back in England after the harrowing evacuation at Dunkirk, WWII Red Cross nurse Anna Trenowyth is shocked to learn that her adoptive parents have been killed in an air raid. She desperately needs their advice as she’s been assigned to the military hospital that has set up camp inside her biological mother’s childhood home --- Nanreath Hall. Anna was just six years old when her mother, Lady Katherine Trenowyth, died. All she has left are vague memories that tease her with clues she can’t unravel. Anna’s assignment to Nanreath Hall could be the chance for her to finally become acquainted with the family she’s never known --- and to unbury the truth and secrets surrounding her past.

See Me by Nicholas Sparks - Romance

August 2, 2016


With a history of violence and bad decisions behind him, and the threat of prison dogging his every step, Colin Hancock is determined to walk a straight line. Maria Sanchez, the hardworking daughter of Mexican immigrants, is the picture of conventional success. Yet she has a traumatic history of her own, one that compelled her to return to her hometown and left her questioning so much of what she once believed. A chance encounter on a rain-swept road will alter the course of both Colin and Maria's lives, challenging deeply held assumptions about each other and, ultimately, themselves.

The Solomon Curse: A Sam and Remi Fargo Adventure by Clive Cussler and Russell Blake - Thriller/Adventure

August 2, 2016


There are many rumors about the bay off Guadalcanal in the Solomon Islands. Some say it was the site of the lost empire of the Solomon king and that great treasure lies beneath the waters. Others say terrible things happened here, atrocities and disappearances at the hands of cannibal giants, and those who venture there do not return. It is cursed. Which is exactly what attracts the attention of husband-and-wife treasure-hunting team Sam and Remi Fargo. What they find at the end of the trail is both wonderful and monstrous --- and like nothing they have ever seen before.

Strong Light of Day: A Caitlin Strong Novel by Jon Land - Thriller

August 2, 2016


Over the years, Caitlin Strong has taken on all manner of criminals and miscreants, thwarting the plans of villains to do vast damage to the country and state she loves. But none of that has prepared Caitlin for an investigation that pits her against ruthless billionaire oilman Calum Dane, whose genetically engineered pesticide may have poisoned a large swath of the state. How that poisoning is connected to the disappearance of 30 high school students presents Caitlin with the greatest and most desperate challenge of her career.

Those We Left Behind by Stuart Neville - Mystery/Thriller

August 2, 2016


Ciaran Devine, who made Belfast headlines seven years ago as the “schoolboy killer,” is about to walk free. At the age of 12, he confessed to the brutal murder of his foster father; his testimony mitigated the sentence of his older brother, Thomas, who was also found at the crime scene, covered in blood. But DCI Serena Flanagan, the only officer who could convince a frightened Ciaran to speak, has silently harbored doubts about his confession all this time. She will soon discover that even closed cases can unleash terror on the streets of Belfast.

The Woman Who Stole My Life by Marian Keyes - Fiction

August 2, 2016


After recovering from a serious illness, Stella Sweeney finds out that her neurologist, Dr. Mannix Taylor, has compiled and self-published a memoir about her illness. Her discovery comes when she spots a photo of the finished copy in an American tabloid --- and it’s in the hands of the vice president’s wife! As her relationship with Dr. Taylor gets more complicated, Stella struggles to figure out who she was before her illness, who she is now, and who she wants to be while relocating to New York City to pursue a career as a newly minted self-help memoirist.

X by Sue Grafton - Mystery

August 2, 2016


Perhaps her darkest and most chilling novel, Sue Grafton’s X features a remorseless serial killer who leaves no trace of his crimes. Once again breaking the rules and establishing new paths, Grafton wastes little time identifying this sociopath. The test is whether Kinsey Millhone can prove her case against him before she becomes his next victim.