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Week of August 25, 2025

New in Paperback

Week of August 25, 2025

Paperback releases for the week of August 25th include FRAMED, John Grisham’s first work of nonfiction since THE INNOCENT MAN, in which he teams up with Jim McCloskey of Centurion Ministries to share 10 harrowing true stories of wrongful convictions; THE GREY WOLF, the 19th installment in Louise Penny's series starring Chief Inspector Armand Gamache, who must figure out who he can trust in a frantic hunt for clues in a terrifying case; OPEN SEASON, a riveting thriller featuring psychologist Alex Delaware and Homicide Detective Milo Sturgis, who race against time to track down a twisted killer; A GREAT MARRIAGE, a poignent novel from Frances Mayes that finds two people and their families reeling when a perfect wedding is called off just days before the big event; and the genre-defying QUESTION 7, a reckoning with Richard Flanagan's life and family, and the role of fiction in our times.

Beyond Midnight: An Ashe Cayne Novel by Ian K. Smith - Mystery

August 26, 2025

The death of immigrant Juaquin Escobar has been ruled an accidental drowning in Lake Michigan. The only problem is he never drinks and never swims. When the CPD informs his nephew, Ivan Ramirez, and closes the case, he refuses to believe it’s true. Convinced of foul play, Ivan is referred to Ashe Cayne by his friend and socialite, Penny Packer. After agreeing to take the case on pro bono, he quickly discovers that things are not always what they seem. As Ashe investigates, he learns that Juaquin was last seen getting into a white van belonging to a heating and cooling company before he disappeared. Retracing Juaquin’s steps leads Ashe straight into a web of secrets and lies that anyone would do anything to escape --- even murder.

Framed: Astonishing True Stories of Wrongful Convictions by John Grisham and Jim McCloskey - True Crime

August 26, 2025

John Grisham is known worldwide for his bestselling novels, but it’s his real-life passion for justice that led to his work with Jim McCloskey of Centurion Ministries, the first organization dedicated to exonerating innocent people who have been wrongly convicted. Together they offer an inside look at the many injustices in our criminal justice system. A fundamental principle of our legal system is a presumption of innocence, but once someone has been found guilty, there is very little room to prove doubt. These 10 true stories shed light on Americans who were innocent but found guilty and forced to sacrifice friends, families and decades of their lives to prison while the guilty parties remained free.

Gathering Mist: A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery by Margaret Mizushima - Mystery

August 26, 2025

Deputy Mattie Wray, formerly Mattie Cobb, is summoned to Washington’s Olympic peninsula for an urgent search-and-rescue mission to find a celebrity’s missing child. With only a week left before her wedding, Mattie is hesitant to leave Timber Creek, but her K-9 partner Robo’s tracking skills are needed. Dense forest, chilling rain and unfriendly locals hamper their efforts, and soon Mattie suspects something more sinister than a lost child is at play. When one of the SAR dogs becomes ill, her fiancé, Cole Walker, suspects poison. Fearing for Mattie’s and Robo’s safety, Cole joins the search-and-rescue team as veterinary support. Secrets that have lain hidden within the rugged terrain come to light, and when it is uncovered that the missing child was kidnapped, the search becomes a full-blown crime scene investigation.

A Great Marriage by Frances Mayes - Fiction

August 26, 2025

Dara Willcox, in New York for a weekend, meets Austin Clarke at an art gallery. If love at first sight can happen, it happens to them. These two vivid, ambitious people are on different courses, but they will make their lives together happen. At their April engagement dinner at Dara’s family home, her mother, Lee, sets a beautiful table, and the family and close friends gather to celebrate. Rich, Dara’s father, raises a toast. Suddenly, Lee spills the wine, a brilliant red stain splashing onto the tablecloth and onto Austin. Days later, Austin hears unsettling news from London that wrecks their plans. Dara abruptly cancels the wedding and refuses to reveal the reason. Austin faces a major tragedy, the consequences of which are life-altering. But it’s Lee’s impulsive visit to London that alters their fate.

The Grey Wolf by Louise Penny - Mystery

August 26, 2025

Relentless phone calls interrupt the peace of a warm August morning in Three Pines. Someone has managed to track down Armand Gamache, head of homicide at the Sûreté, as he sits with his wife in their back garden. Reine-Marie watches with increasing unease as her husband refuses to pick up, though he clearly knows who is on the other end. When he finally answers, his rage shatters the calm of their quiet Sunday morning. That's only the first in a sequence of strange events that begin THE GREY WOLF. A missing coat, an intruder alarm, a note for Gamache reading "this might interest you," a puzzling scrap of paper with a mysterious list --- and then a murder. All propel Chief Inspector Gamache and his team toward a terrible realization. Something much more sinister than any one murder or any one case is fast approaching.

The Legacy of Arniston House by T. L. Huchu - Supernatural Thriller/Fantasy

August 26, 2025

Ropa Moyo is a wannabe magician, can speak to the dead, and officially has given up being an intern. Leaving Scottish magic behind, she now works for the English Sorcerer Royal. But just as she adjusts to working for the English, an old enemy reveals a devastating secret about her Gran, and Ropa’s world falls apart. Outraged, she rushes home but finds her grandmother dead --- murdered --- with no killer in sight. What’s more, she’s the prime suspect. In her quest to find the true murderer, Ropa becomes caught in the dark tendrils of a cult, hell-bent on resurrecting an ancient power. She must use her wits and magic, and call in all favors, to stop the ritual and clear her name.

Open Season: An Alex Delaware Novel by Jonathan Kellerman - Psychological Thriller

August 26, 2025

The body of an aspiring actress is found dumped near a hospital emergency room. She’s been drugged and murdered, and the motive for the callous crime remains maddeningly out of reach. Until a prime suspect materializes. Another Hollywood hopeful. Only to be shot dead by a sniper using a weapon that turns out to have been catalogued in a previous murder. And another before that. It’s not long before more bodies begin piling up. What makes the murderous spree baffling is the apparent lack of connection among the victims. Is this the work of a random thrill killer, the toughest of all cases to unravel? But as psychologist Alex Delaware and homicide detective Milo Sturgis dig deeper, they’re faced with an even knottier scenario: a highly complex killer with deep-seated motivation that will require all of their highly honed skills to decipher.

Question 7 by Richard Flanagan - Memoir/History

August 26, 2025

By way of H. G. Wells and Rebecca West’s affair through 1930s nuclear physics to Richard Flanagan's father working as a slave laborer near Hiroshima when the atom bomb is dropped, this daisy chain of events reaches fission when Flanagan as a young man finds himself trapped in a rapid on a wild river not knowing if he is to live or to die. At once a love song to his island home and to his parents, this hypnotic melding of dream, history, place and memory is about how our lives so often arise out of the stories of others and the stories we invent about ourselves.

The Secret Book Society by Madeline Martin - Historical Fiction

August 26, 2025

London, 1895: Trapped by oppressive marriages and societal expectations, three women receive a mysterious invitation to an afternoon tea at the home of the reclusive Lady Duxbury. Beneath the genteel facade of the gathering lies a secret book club --- a sanctuary where they can discover freedom, sisterhood and the courage to rewrite their stories. All are drawn to the enigmatic Lady Duxbury, a thrice-widowed countess whose husbands’ untimely deaths have sparked whispers of murder. As the women form deep, heartwarming friendships, they uncover secrets about their marriages, their pasts and the risks they face. Their courage is their only weapon in the oppressive world that has kept them silent. But when secrets are deadly, one misstep could cost them everything.

Servant of Earth: The Shards of Magic by Sarah Hawley - Fantasy/Romance

August 26, 2025

Trapped as a servant in the faeries’ underground kingdom of Mistei, Kenna Heron must help her new mistress undertake six deadly trials, one for each branch of magic: Fire, Earth, Light, Void, Illusion and Blood. If she succeeds, her mistress will gain immortality and become the heir to Earth House. If she doesn’t, the punishment is death --- for both mistress and servant. With no ally but a sentient dagger of mysterious origins, Kenna must face monsters, magic and grueling physical tests. But worse dangers wait underground, and soon Kenna gets caught up in a secret rebellion against the inventively sadistic faerie king. When her feelings for the rebellion’s leader turn passionate, Kenna must decide if she’s willing to risk her life for a better world and a chance at happiness.

Trial by Fire by Danielle Steel - Fiction

August 26, 2025

Dahlia de Beaumont has been the sole owner and CEO of the venerable family perfume business based in Paris since her early 20s, following the death of her parents. For 25 years, after losing her young skier husband in an avalanche, her life has centered on running Lambert Perfumes and being a devoted single mother to her four now-adult children. Now 56, she has an “arrangement” with a married French man but has been questioning that relationship. Dahlia comes to San Francisco on a routine business trip to check on her stores in the States. But shortly after her arrival, brush fires ignite in Napa Valley. Dahlia is moved to help, but doing so will bring unforeseen consequences. Forced to remain in San Francisco in the aftermath, she will make unexpected connections while also fighting to protect all she has worked for.

Under the Midnight Sun by Keigo Higashino - Mystery

August 26, 2025

In Osaka in 1973, the body of a murdered man is found in an abandoned building. Investigating the crime, Detective Sasagaki is unable to find the killer. Over the next 20 years, through the lens of a succession of characters, Keigo Higashino tells the story of two teens, Ryo and Yukiho, whose lives are most affected by the crime, and the obsessed detective who continues to investigate the murder, looking for the elusive truth.

We Rip the World Apart by Charlene Carr - Fiction

August 26, 2025

When 24-year-old Kareela discovers she's pregnant with a child she isn't sure she wants, her struggle to understand her place in the world as a person who is half-Black and half-white --- yet feels neither --- is amplified. Her mother, Evelyn, fled to Canada with her husband and their first-born child during the politically charged Jamaican exodus in the 1980s, only to realize they'd come to a place where Black men are viewed with suspicion. Years later, in the aftermath of her son's murder by the police, Evelyn's mother-in-law, Violet, moves in, offering young Kareela a link to the Jamaican heritage she had never fully known. In the present day, Kareela must come to terms with the mysteries surrounding her family's past and the need to make sense of both her identity and her future.