Skip to main content

Week of August 11, 2025

New in Paperback

Week of August 11, 2025

Paperback releases for the week of August 11th include TELL ME EVERYTHING by Elizabeth Strout, a hopeful, healing novel about new friendships, old loves, and the very human desire to leave a mark on the world; THE BIG EMPTY, a twisty, satisfying thriller from Robert Crais in which private investigator Elvis Cole and his enigmatic partner, Joe Pike, face a cryptic case and a terrifying, unpredictable killer; Louis Bayard's THE WILDESa vivid and poignant story of secrets, loss and love that brings Oscar Wilde’s wife, Constance, and two sons out from the shadows of history; MEN HAVE CALLED HER CRAZY by Anna Marie Tendler, a powerful memoir that reckons with mental health as well as the insidious ways that men impact the lives of women; and the paperback original THE HARVEY GIRLS, Juliette Fay's big-hearted tale of two very different women who must learn to trust each other as one tries to save her family and the other to save herself.

The Big Empty: An Elvis Cole and Joe Pike Novel by Robert Crais - Thriller

August 12, 2025

Traci Beller was 13 when her father disappeared in the sleepy town of Rancha, not far from Los Angeles. The evidence says Tommy Beller abandoned his family, but Traci never believed it. The police couldn't find her dad and neither could the detectives her mother hired. But now, 10 years later, Traci is a super-popular influencer with millions of followers and the money to hire a new detective: Elvis Cole. Elvis heads to Rancha where he learns that an ex-con named Sadie Givens and her daughter, Anya, might have a line on the missing man. But when Elvis finds himself shadowed by a deadly gang of vicious criminals, the simple missing persons case becomes far more sinister and dangerous. Elvis calls in his ex-Marine friend, Joe Pike, to help, but even Pike might not be able to help.

The Dancing Face by Mike Phillips - Thriller

August 12, 2025

University lecturer Gus knows that stealing the priceless Benin mask, the Dancing Face, from a museum at the heart of the British establishment will gain an avalanche of attention. Which is exactly what he wants. But such a risky theft also will inevitably capture the attention of characters with more money, more power and fewer morals. Naively entangling his loved ones in his increasingly dangerous pursuit of righteous reparation, is Gus prepared for what it will cost him?

A Death in Diamonds by SJ Bennett - Historical Mystery

August 12, 2025

1957, England. Young Queen Elizabeth II is finding her way in postwar Europe, trying to repair friendships with foreign governments. Advised by her father's old courtiers, the Queen suspects that they may not have her best interests at heart. One of them is trying to sabotage her public appearances. That much she is sure of. When two bodies turn up in Chelsea, the Queen finds herself unwillingly used as the alibi for somebody very close to her. With the reputation of the monarchy at stake, Elizabeth knows she can't face these challenges alone. She needs support from someone she can trust. Therefore, she enlists the help of an ex-code breaker, Joan McGraw, to uncover the truth. But as Elizabeth and Joan are uncovering secrets from the past, the clock is ticking, and they are in more danger than they know.

The Divorce written by Moa Herngren, translated by Alice Menzies - Fiction

August 12, 2025

Bea couldn't be more excited to trade the stifling Stockholm summer heat for vacation on Gotland Island. She’s looking forward to spending quality time with her beloved husband, Niklas, and their two moody teenage daughters. One night shortly before their departure, Bea and Niklas have a seemingly mundane argument over a trivial issue, and Niklas goes out with a friend to blow off steam. As the hours pass, Niklas doesn’t come home, and Bea’s irritation soon gives way to panic as she imagines what kind of disaster might have happened to delay his return. What she soon learns will change her life forever. While her husband is fine, their marriage is not. Her kind, gentle pediatrician husband wants to leave her. But while this might seem like sudden insanity to Bea, for Niklas, it’s anything but.

For the Record by Emma Lord - Romantic Comedy

August 12, 2025

Once the most notorious rivals in the music scene, pop princess Mackenzie Waters and punk rock star Sam Blaze electrified audiences as their bands clashed on stage. But behind the scenes, their simmering tension grew into something more --- until suddenly both bands fell apart, and the idea of Mackenzie and Sam did, too. Two years later, Sam has traded the rock star lifestyle for a quiet life raising the son he didn’t know about. Meanwhile, Mackenzie is dealing with a postoperative change in her voice by only singing under a pseudonym. The only way to revive their public careers? A joint comeback album. Sam and Mackenzie face their biggest challenge yet: giving up their old rivalry and learning to work together. But as old sparks fly and new secrets emerge, they set off a chain reaction neither of them could have anticipated.

The Harvey Girls by Juliette Fay - Historical Fiction

August 12, 2025

Charlotte Crowninshield was born into one of the finest Boston society families. Now she’s on the run from a brutal husband. Billie MacTavish is the oldest of nine children born to Scottish immigrants in Nebraska. She quit school in the sixth grade to help with her mother’s washing and mending business, but even that isn’t enough to keep the family afloat. Desperate, both women join the ranks of the Harvey Girls, waitresses who serve in America’s first hospitality chain on the Santa Fe railroad. Hired on the same day, they share three things: a room, a heartfelt dislike of each other…and each has a secret that certainly will get them fired. But when they’re sent to work at the luxurious El Tovar hotel at the Grand Canyon, Billie struggles to hide her young age from would-be suitors, and Charlotte discovers the little-known dark side of the national park’s history.

The Haunting of Hecate Cavendish by Paula Brackston - Historical Fantasy

August 12, 2025

England, 1881. Hereford Cathedral stands sentinel over the city, keeping its secrets, holding long-forgotten souls in its stony embrace. Hecate Cavendish speeds through the cobbled streets on her bicycle, heading for her new life as Assistant Librarian. But this is no ordinary collection of books. The cathedral houses an ancient chained library. The most prized artifact, however, is the medieval world map that hangs next to Hecate’s desk. Little does she know how much the curious people and mythical creatures depicted on it will come to mean to her. Nor does she suspect that there are lost souls waiting for her in the haunted cathedral. Some will become her dearest friends. Some will seek her help in finding peace. Others will put her in great peril and, as she quickly learns, threaten the lives of everyone she loves.

Hera by Jennifer Saint - Historical Fiction/Mythology

August 12, 2025

When the immortal goddess Hera and her brother, Zeus, overthrow their tyrannical father, she dreams of ruling at Zeus' side. But as they establish their reign on Mount Olympus, Hera begins to see that Zeus is just as ruthless and cruel as the father they betrayed. While Zeus ascends, Hera is relegated to the role of wife and mother, a role she never wanted. She was always born to rule, but must she lose herself in perpetuating this cycle of violence and cruelty? Or can she find a way to forge a better world?

Highway Thirteen: Stories by Fiona McFarlane - Fiction/Short Stories

August 12, 2025

In the small town of Barrow, Australia, people go about their ordinary lives. They drive to work through the dense state forest. They raise their families. They flirt and yearn. They lie and confess. Some of them leave home. Some of them return. Darkness thrums beneath the surface of these ordinary lives: the violence of one man, a serial killer whose murders made Barrow infamous. His 12 victims are long gone, but their deaths are felt --- beyond the forest where they were buried, beyond this country, beyond even this time. In the past, where a young woman on a school trip to Rome sees something she shouldn’t have. In the present, where a man confronts an ancient grief on the suburban streets of Texas. In the future, in the hands of journalists, podcast hosts and television actors whose livelihoods hinge on the twin spectacles of loss and violence.

How to Leave the House by Nathan Newman - Fiction/Humor

August 12, 2025

It's Natwest's last day before he leaves for university, and there's only one thing on his mind: the deeply embarrassing package he ordered to his house --- which still hasn't arrived. He won't leave town without it. This is the story of 24 hours in the life of Natwest and his small-town odyssey in pursuit of the missing package. Yet it's also the story of a middle-aged dentist who dreams of being a respected artist --- but the only thing he can seem to paint is the human mouth. And it's the story of a tortured imam involved in a quasi-romantic entanglement with the local vicar; an octogenerian mourning the death of her secretive husband; and a troubled teenager whose nudes have leaked on the internet. It's the story of Natwest's obnoxious ex-boyfriend; his class-traitor mother and her childhood boyfriend; and the life-changing secrets he knows about Natwest's past.

The Hypocrite by Jo Hamya - Fiction

August 12, 2025

August 2020. Sophia, a young playwright, awaits her father’s verdict on her new show. A famous author whose novels haven’t aged as gracefully into the modern era as he might have hoped, he is completely unaware that the play centers on a vacation the two took years earlier to an island off Sicily, where he dictated to her a new book. Sophia’s play has been met with rave reviews, but her father has studiously avoided reading any of them. When the house lights dim, however, he understands that his daughter has laid him bare and used the events of their summer to create an incisive, witty, skewering critique of the attitudes and sexual mores of the men of his generation.

Just Another Dead Author by Katarina Bivald - Mystery

August 12, 2025

When mystery author Berit Gardner agrees to attend a writer's conference in the idyllic French countryside, she dreams of basking in the sun and nurturing budding talent. But her vacation takes a dark turn when the keynote speaker --- a notorious literary titan known for his biting critiques --- drops dead at the end of her lecture. As whispers of foul play swirl, Berit quickly realizes she's stepped into a tangled web of jealousy, betrayal and long-held grudges. Enter the French commissaire, who is less than thrilled to have a curious author meddling in her investigation. But as the suspects pile up, she reluctantly recognizes that Berit's sharp instincts could crack the case wide open. With a colorful cast of authors, agents and aspiring writers all hiding secrets, the stakes rise higher with every clue uncovered.

Men Have Called Her Crazy: A Memoir by Anna Marie Tendler - Memoir

August 12, 2025

In early 2021, popular artist Anna Marie Tendler checked herself into a psychiatric hospital following a year of crippling anxiety, depression and self-harm. Over two weeks, she underwent myriad psychological tests, participated in numerous therapy sessions, connected with fellow patients and experienced profound breakthroughs. In MEN HAVE CALLED HER CRAZY, Tendler recounts her hospital experience, as well as pivotal moments in her life that preceded and followed. As the title suggests, many of these moments are impacted by men --- unrequited love in high school; the 28-year-old she lost her virginity to when she was 16; the frustrations and absurdities of dating in her mid-30s; and her decision to freeze her eggs as all her friends were starting families.

Midnight Black: A Gray Man Novel by Mark Greaney - Thriller

August 12, 2025

A winter sunrise over the great plains of Russia is no cause for celebration. The temperature barely rises above zero, and the guards at Penal Colony IK22 are determined to take their misery out on the prisoners --- chief among them, one Zoya Zakharova. Once a master spy for Russian foreign intelligence, then the partner and lover of the Gray Man, she has information the Kremlin wants, and they don't care what they have to do to get it. But if they think a thousand miles of frozen wasteland and the combined power of the Russian police state is enough to protect them, they don't know the Gray Man. He's coming, and no one's safe.

The Nature of Disappearing by Kimi Cunningham Grant - Thriller

August 12, 2025

Emlyn doesn't let herself think about the past. How she and her best friend, Janessa, barely speak anymore. How Tyler, the love of her life, left her half dead on the side of the road three years ago. She now lives alone in her Airstream trailer and works as a fishing and hunting guide in scenic Idaho. Her closest friends are the community's makeshift reverend and a handsome Forest Service ranger. But when Tyler shows up with the news that Janessa is missing, Emlyn is propelled back into the world she worked so hard to forget. As Emlyn and Tyler trace Janessa's path through miles of wild country, Emlyn can't deny the chemistry still crackling between them. But the deeper they press into the wilderness, the more she begins to suspect that a darker truth lies in the woods --- and that Janessa isn't the only one in danger.

Peggy by Rebecca Godfrey with Leslie Jamison - Historical Fiction

August 12, 2025

Venice, 1958. Peggy Guggenheim, heiress and now legendary art collector, sits in the sun at her white marble palazzo on the Grand Canal. She’s in a reflective mood, thinking back on her thrilling, tragic, nearly impossible journey from her sheltered, old-fashioned family in New York to here: iconoclast and independent woman. Rebecca Godfrey’s PEGGY is a blazingly fresh interpretation of a woman who defies every expectation to become an original. The daughter of two Jewish dynasties, Peggy finds her cloistered life turned upside down at 14, when her beloved father perishes on the Titanic. His death prompts Peggy to seek a life of passion and personal freedom and, above all, to believe in the transformative power of art.

The Road to the Country by Chigozie Obioma - Historical Fiction

August 12, 2025

Set in Nigeria in the late 1960s, THE ROAD TO THE COUNTRY is the epic story of a shy, bookish student haunted by long-held guilt who must go to war to free himself. When his younger brother disappears as the country explodes in civil war, Kunle must set out on an impossible rescue mission. Kunle’s search for his brother becomes a journey of atonement that will see him conscripted into the breakaway Biafran army and forced to fight a war he hardly understands, all while navigating the prophecies of a local Seer, he who marks Kunle as an abami eda --- one who will die and return to life.

Sherlock Holmes and the Telegram from Hell: A World War I Adventure by Nicholas Meyer - Historical Mystery

August 12, 2025

June, 1916. With a world war raging on the continent, exhausted John H. Watson, M.D. is operating on the wounded full-time when his labors are interrupted by a knock on his door, revealing Sherlock Holmes, with a black eye, a missing tooth and a cracked rib. The story he has to tell will set in motion a series of world-changing events in the most consequential case of the detective’s career. Amid rebellion in Ireland and revolution in Russia, Germany has a secret plan to win the war, and Sir William Melville of the British Secret Service dispatches the two aging friends to learn what the scheme is before it can be put into effect. In pursuit of a mysterious coded telegram sent from Berlin to an unknown recipient in Mexico, Holmes and Watson seek to foil the schemes of Holmes’ nemesis, the escaped German spymaster Von Bork.

Someone in the Attic by Andrea Mara - Domestic Thriller

August 12, 2025

Anya is enjoying a relaxing bath when she hears a noise coming from the ceiling. Through the open bathroom door, she sees the attic hatch swing down, and a masked figure drops to the floor. Thirty seconds later, Anya is dead. Across town, Anya's old school friend, Julia, sees an online video of a masked figure climbing out of an attic. She suddenly realizes why the footage is eerily familiar: it was filmed inside her own house in a luxury gated community, designed to keep intruders out. Why would a stranger target Julia? Unless of course, it's not a stranger at all.

The Stranger at the Wedding by A. E. Gauntlett - Mystery/Thriller

August 12, 2025

Annie never much believed in love. That is, until meeting Mark. After crossing paths on morning commutes, they connect at a group counseling session for trauma survivors. Each recognizes something in the other, though both hide their own troubled pasts. It’s a whirlwind romance that propels Annie through their courtship, all the way to her wedding day. But as Annie stands at the altar, casting her eyes over the rows of well-wishers, she spots a stranger in the crowd, and she soon learns that her new life isn’t going to be the happily ever after that she had planned. Who is the stranger at the wedding? What really happened to Mark’s first wife? And was Annie and Mark’s meeting as random as it first appeared, or is something more sinister at work?

Tell Me Everything by Elizabeth Strout - Fiction

August 12, 2025

It’s autumn in Maine, and the town lawyer Bob Burgess has become enmeshed in an unfolding murder investigation, defending a lonely, isolated man accused of killing his mother. He also has fallen into a deep and abiding friendship with the acclaimed writer Lucy Barton, who lives down the road in a house by the sea with her ex-husband, William. Together, Lucy and Bob go on walks and talk about their lives, their fears and regrets, and what might have been. Lucy, meanwhile, is finally introduced to the iconic Olive Kitteridge, now living in a retirement community on the edge of town. They spend afternoons together in Olive’s apartment, telling each other stories. Stories about people they have known --- “unrecorded lives,” Olive calls them --- reanimating them, and, in the process, imbuing their lives with meaning.

Till Death Do Us Part by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn - Domestic Thriller

August 12, 2025

Ten years ago, June’s beloved husband, Josh, drowned on their honeymoon, and his body was never found. Now, a decade later, June is finally ready to move on. She owns a natural wine bar in Brooklyn and is engaged to a patient, supportive man named Kyle. But out of the blue, she sees Josh. Is this just a hallucination from the guilt June carries about finally moving on, or is it possible that he never died in the first place? Soon enough, she stumbles across a website for a winery in Napa, and the owner in the photo is identical to her dead husband. With her upcoming wedding looming, June secretly flies to Napa for answers. But she’s not prepared for all the secrets she’s about to unlock because everything she thought she knew about her first love is a lie.

The Unraveling by Vi Keeland - Psychological Thriller/Romantic Suspense

August 12, 2025

After experiencing a terrible loss, New York City psychiatrist Meredith McCall is painfully adrift. When she crosses paths with a man with whom she has a tragic connection, she follows him, sparking an unhealthy obsession with Gabriel Wright. But when Gabriel walks into her office as a patient, seemingly unaware of who she is, she knows it crosses all ethical and moral bounds to treat him. Yet Meredith can’t bring herself to turn him away and becomes further entangled. With her life and career continuing to unravel, it appears that things could not get any worse…until they do.

What Time the Sexton's Spade Doth Rust: A Flavia de Luce Novel by Alan Bradley - Historical Mystery

August 12, 2025

Flavia de Luce has taken on the mentorship of her odious moon-faced cousin Undine, who has come to live at Buckshaw following the death of her mother. When Major Greyleigh, a local recluse and former hangman, is found dead after a breakfast of poisonous mushrooms, suspicion falls on the de Luce family’s longtime cook, Mrs. Mullet. After all, wasn’t it she who’d picked the mushrooms, cooked the omelet and served it to Greyleigh moments before his death? But Flavia knows she is innocent. Together with Dogger, estate gardener and partner-in-crime, and the obnoxious Undine, Flavia sets out to find the real killer and clear Mrs. Mullet’s good name. Little does she know that following the case’s twists and turns will lead her to a most surprising discovery --- one with the power to upend her entire life.

The Wildes: A Novel in Five Acts by Louis Bayard - Historical Fiction

August 12, 2025

In September 1892, Oscar Wilde and his family have retreated to the idyllic Norfolk countryside for a holiday. His wife, Constance, has every reason to be happy: two beautiful sons, her own work as an advocate for feminist causes, and a delightfully charming and affectionate husband and father to her children, who also happens to be the most sought-after author in England. But with the arrival of an unexpected houseguest, the aristocratic young poet Lord Alfred Douglas, Constance gradually --- and then all at once --- comes to see that her husband’s heart is elsewhere and that the growing intensity between the two men threatens the whole foundation of their lives.

Wounds by Sara Blaedel and Mads Peder Nordbo - Thriller

August 12, 2025

When a body is discovered in an abandoned building, Denmark police investigators Liam Stark and Dea Torp are called to the scene to investigate. They learn that the victim has several shallow wounds all over his body that were inflicted over the span of several weeks. With a pile of open cases, including two missing teenage girls, Liam and Dea are staggering under the weight of their already heavy caseload. Tension in town heats up when two more bodies are discovered with the same shallow wounds as the first victim, and their suspects list has dried up. Liam and Dea come to the alarming conclusion that they have another serial killer on their hands. And it’s only a matter of time before they strike again. As the investigation continues, Liam and Dea worry that the missing teens might be connected to the murders.