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Week of January 9, 2023

New in Paperback

Week of January 9, 2023

Paperback releases for the week of January 9th include ANTHEM by Noah Hawley, an epic literary thriller in which a band of unlikely heroes on a quest to save one innocent life may end up saving us all; THE STARLESS CROWN, a captivating, deeply visionary adventure from James Rollins about an alliance that embarks on a dangerous journey to uncover the secrets of the distant past and save their world; Julia Kelly's THE LAST DANCE OF THE DEBUTANTE, an unforgettable tale revolving around a group of young women who are swept up in a life-changing journey as they become three of the last debutantes to be presented to Queen Elizabeth II; and Bernardine Evaristo’s astonishing nonfiction debut, MANIFESTO, a vibrant and inspirational account of the Booker Prize winner's life and career as she rebelled against the mainstream and fought over several decades to bring her creative work into the world.

The Accomplice by Lisa Lutz - Psychological Thriller/Mystery

January 10, 2023

Owen Mann is charming, privileged and chronically dissatisfied. Luna Grey is secretive, cautious and pragmatic. Despite their differences, they form a bond the moment they meet in college. Their names soon become indivisible --- Owen and Luna, Luna and Owen --- and stay that way even after an unexplained death rocks their social circle. They’re still best friends years later, when Luna finds Owen’s wife brutally murdered. The police investigation sheds light on some long-hidden secrets, but it can’t penetrate the wall of mystery that surrounds Owen. To get to the heart of what happened and why, Luna has to dig up the one secret she’s spent her whole life burying.

All the White Spaces by Ally Wilkes - Historical Thriller/Supernatural Horror

January 10, 2023

In the wake of the First World War, Jonathan Morgan stows away on an Antarctic expedition, determined to find his rightful place in the world of men. But not all is smooth sailing: the war casts its long shadow over them all, and grief, guilt and mistrust skulk among the explorers. When disaster strikes in Antarctica’s frozen Weddell Sea, the men must take to the land. In the freezing darkness of the Polar night, where the aurora creeps across the sky, something terrible has been waiting to lure them out into its deadly landscape. As the harsh Antarctic winter descends, this supernatural force will prey on their deepest desires and deepest fears to pick them off one by one.

Anthem by Noah Hawley - Literary Thriller

January 10, 2023

Something is happening to teenagers across America, spreading through memes only they can parse. At the Float Anxiety Abatement Center, in a suburb of Chicago, Simon Oliver is trying to recover from his sister’s tragic passing. He breaks out to join a woman named Louise and a man called The Prophet on a quest as urgent as it is enigmatic. Who lies at the end of the road? A man known as The Wizard, whose past encounter with Louise sparked her own collapse. Their quest becomes a rescue mission when they join up with a man whose sister is being held captive by the Wizard, impregnated and imprisoned in a tower. 

The Club by Ellery Lloyd - Mystery/Thriller

January 10, 2023

The Home Group is a glamorous collection of celebrity members' clubs dotted across the globe, where the rich and famous can party hard and then crash out in its five-star suites. The most spectacular of all is Island Home, a closely guarded, ultraluxurious resort just off the English coast. But behind the scenes, tensions are at a breaking point: the ambitious and expensive project has pushed the Home Group's CEO and his long-suffering team to their absolute limits. All of them have something to hide --- and that's before the beautiful people with their own ugly secrets even set foot on the island. As tempers fray and behavior worsens, as things get more sinister by the hour and the body count piles up, some of Island Home’s members will begin to wish they’d never made the guest list.

Death of a Green-Eyed Monster: A Hamish Macbeth Murder Mystery by M. C. Beaton with R.W. Green - Mystery

January 10, 2023

Sergeant Hamish Macbeth's new constable, Dorothy McIver, may be the most beautiful woman he's ever seen. Completely bewitched by her sparkling blue eyes, Hamish spends the summer traveling with her up and down Sutherland until he finally can take it no longer. He gets down on one knee beside the Land Rover and begs her to marry him --- and to his amazement and delight, she says yes. But just as the town of Lochdubh gets ready to celebrate, Hamish finds himself with a new murder on his hands. If he doesn't find the killer fast, Hamish's dream wedding could become a nightmare.

Don't Cry for Me by Daniel Black - Fiction

January 10, 2023

As Jacob lies dying, he begins to write a letter to his only son, Isaac. They have not met or spoken in many years, and there are things that Isaac must know. Stories about his ancestral legacy in rural Arkansas that extend back to slavery. Secrets from Jacob's tumultuous relationship with Isaac's mother and the shame he carries from the dissolution of their family. Tragedies that informed Jacob's role as a father and his reaction to Isaac's being gay. But most of all, Jacob must share with Isaac the unspoken truths that reside in his heart. He must give voice to the trauma that Isaac has inherited. And he must create a space for the two to find peace.

The Dream Builders by Oindrila Mukherjee - Fiction

January 10, 2023

After living in the US for years, Maneka Roy returns home to India to mourn the loss of her mother and finds herself in a new world. The booming city of Hrishipur where her father now lives is nothing like the part of the country where she grew up. The more she sees of this new, sparkling city, the more she learns that nothing --- and no one --- here is as it appears. Ultimately, it will take an unexpected tragic event for Maneka and those around her to finally understand just how fragile life is in this city built on aspirations. Written from the perspectives of 10 different characters, THE DREAM BUILDERS explores class divisions, gender roles and stories of survival within a society that is constantly changing and becoming increasingly Americanized.

Early Grave: A Jake Lassiter Thriller by Paul Levine - Legal Thriller

January 10, 2023

When his godson suffers a catastrophic injury in a high school football game, lawyer Jake Lassiter sues to abolish the sport and becomes Public Enemy Number One. The former NFL linebacker also battles CTE, the fatal brain disease. With his personal life in tatters, he's in couple's therapy with fiancée Dr. Melissa Gold and vows to live long enough to fix his relationship and achieve justice for his godson. EARLY GRAVE is the final novel of the series that began with the international bestseller TO SPEAK FOR THE DEAD in 1990.

A Face to Die For: An Eve Duncan Novel by Iris Johansen - Thriller

January 10, 2023

Archaeologist Riley Smith has been obsessed with Helen of Troy since she was a small girl, trailing her professor father all over the world in search of the tomb of the world’s most beautiful woman. Professor Smith put his life on the line to prove that, instead of a myth, Helen had been a living, breathing queen. Riley seeks the help of forensic sculptor Eve Duncan, who has the unusual skills necessary to recreate the face that launched a thousand ships --- revealing Helen’s true appearance for the first time in history. But convincing Eve to take on the challenge will be difficult because her efforts could come at great personal risk to her and her family.

Finlay Donovan Knocks 'Em Dead by Elle Cosimano - Mystery/Humor

January 10, 2023

Finlay Donovan is once again struggling to finish her next novel and keep her head above water as a single mother of two. On the bright side, she has her live-in nanny and confidant Vero to rely on, and the only dead body she's dealt with lately is that of her daughter's pet goldfish. On the not-so-bright side, someone out there wants her ex-husband, Steven, out of the picture. Permanently. Whatever else Steven may be, he's a good father, but saving him will send her down a rabbit hole of hit-women disguised as soccer moms, and a little bit more involvement with the Russian mob than she'd like. Meanwhile, Vero is keeping secrets, and Detective Nick Anthony seems determined to get back into her life.

A Flicker in the Dark by Stacy Willingham - Psychological Thriller

January 10, 2023

When Chloe Davis was 12, six teenage girls went missing in her small Louisiana town. By the end of the summer, her own father had confessed to the crimes and was put away for life, leaving Chloe and the rest of her family to grapple with the truth and try to move forward while dealing with the aftermath. Now, 20 years later, Chloe is a psychologist in Baton Rouge and getting ready for her wedding. While she finally has a fragile grasp on the happiness she’s worked so hard to achieve, she sometimes feels as out of control of her own life as the troubled teens who are her patients. So when a local teenage girl goes missing, and then another, that terrifying summer comes crashing back.

The Girls Who Disappeared by Claire Douglas - Psychological Thriller

January 10, 2023

In a rural Wiltshire town lies the Devil’s Corridor, a haunted road that has witnessed eerie happenings, from unexplained deaths to the sounds of a child crying in the night. In this bucolic stretch of Southwest England famous for its otherworldly sites, nothing is more puzzling than the Olivia Rutherford case. Four girls were driving home. After their car crashed, only one --- Olivia --- was found. What happened to the girls who disappeared? On the 20th anniversary of the tragedy, journalist Jenna Halliday has arrived in Wiltshire to cover the case. The locals have made it clear she’s not welcome. But someone is going to make her leave one way or another. Jenna has been warned: she must get out of this town before she suffers a dark fate…and becomes another mystery attached to this place.

How High We Go in the Dark by Sequoia Nagamatsu - Science Fiction

January 10, 2023

In 2030, a grieving archaeologist arrives in the Arctic Circle to continue the work of his recently deceased daughter at the Batagaika Crater, where researchers are studying long-buried secrets now revealed in melting permafrost, including the perfectly preserved remains of a girl who appears to have died of an ancient virus. Once unleashed, the Arctic plague will reshape life on Earth for generations to come, quickly traversing the globe, forcing humanity to devise a myriad of moving and inventive ways to embrace possibility in the face of tragedy.

In the Middle of Hickory Lane by Heather Webber - Fiction

January 10, 2023

Emme Wynn has wanted nothing more her whole life than to feel like part of a family. Having grown up on the run with her con artist mother, she’s been shuffled from town to town, drawn into bad situations, and has learned some unsavory habits that she’s tried hard to overcome. When her estranged grandmother tracks her down out of the blue and extends a job offer --- helping to run her booth at an open-air marketplace in small-town Sweetgrass, Alabama --- Emme is hopeful that she’ll finally be able to plant the roots she’s always dreamed of. But some habits are hard to break, and she risks her newfound happiness by keeping one big truth to herself.

The Last Dance of the Debutante by Julia Kelly - Historical Fiction

January 10, 2023

When it’s announced that 1958 will be the last year debutantes are to be presented at court, thousands of eager mothers and hopeful daughters flood the palace with letters seeking the year’s most coveted invitation: a chance for their daughters to curtsey to the young Queen Elizabeth and officially come out into society. In an effort to appease her traditional mother, aspiring university student Lily Nichols agrees to become a debutante and do the Season, a glittering and grueling string of countless balls and cocktail parties. But the glorious effervescence of the Season evaporates once Lily learns a devastating secret that threatens to destroy her entire family.

Lunar Love by Lauren Kung Jessen - Romantic Comedy

January 10, 2023

Olivia Huang Christenson is excited-slash-terrified to be taking over her grandmother’s matchmaking business. But when she learns that a new dating app has made her Pó Po’s traditional Chinese zodiac approach all about “animal attraction,” her emotions skew more toward furious-slash-outraged. Especially when L.A.’s most eligible bachelor, Bennett O’Brien, is behind the app that could destroy her family’s legacy. As the two businesses go head to head, Bennett and Liv make a deal: they’ll find a match for each other --- and whoever falls in love loses. But Liv is dealing with someone who’s already adept at stealing business ideas. So what’s stopping him from stealing her heart too?

Manifesto: On Never Giving Up by Bernardine Evaristo - Memoir

January 10, 2023

Bernardine Evaristo’s nonfiction debut is a vibrant and inspirational account of her life and career as she rebelled against the mainstream and fought over several decades to bring her creative work into the world. With her characteristic humor, Evaristo describes her childhood as one of eight siblings, with a Nigerian father and white Catholic mother, tells the story of how she helped set up Britain’s first Black women’s theatre company, remembers the queer relationships of her 20s, and recounts her determination to write books that were absent in the literary world around her. She provides a hugely powerful perspective to contemporary conversations around race, class, feminism, sexuality and aging.

Nobody's Magic by Destiny O. Birdsong - Fiction

January 10, 2023

Suzette, Maple and Agnes --- three Black women with albinism --- call Shreveport, Louisiana home. At the bustling crossroads of the American South and Southwest, they find themselves at the crossroads of their own lives. Told in three parts, NOBODY’S MAGIC is a searing meditation on grief, female strength and self-discovery set against a backdrop of complicated social and racial histories. The book is a testament to the power of family --- the ones you're born in and the ones you choose. And in these three narratives, among the yearning and loss, each of these women may find a seed of hope for the future.

Reader, I Buried Them & Other Stories by Peter Lovesey - Mystery/Short Stories

January 10, 2023

More than 50 years ago, Peter Lovesey published a short story in an anthology. That short story caught the eye of the great Ruth Rendell, whose praise ignited Lovesey’s lifelong passion for short form crime fiction. On the occasion of his 100th short story, Lovesey has assembled this devilishly clever collection --- 18 yarns of mystery, melancholy and mischief, inhabiting such deadly settings as a theater, a monastery and the book publishing industry. The collection includes that first story that launched his story-writing career, as well as three exclusive new stories. In addition, Lovesey fans will delight in a personal essay by the author about the historical inspirations --- and in an appearance by the irascible Bath detective Peter Diamond.

Robert Ludlum's The Treadstone Transgression by Joshua Hood - Thriller/Adventure

January 10, 2023

The most pressing issue on Adam Hayes' mind is planning his son's upcoming fifth birthday party. After years of operating in the world's most dangerous spots for Treadstone, he's ready to call it quits, but the feeling isn't mutual. Levi Shaw, Treadstone's director, calls Hayes back for one more mission. "It's a walk in the park. You don't even have to go in with the strike team. I just need you to set up the safe house. You'll be home in time to pick up the birthday cake." But nothing is ever easy where Treadstone is concerned. When the mission is blown, only Hayes is left alive, and it seems that everyone is determined to correct that oversight.

The Sacred Bridge: A Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito Novel by Anne Hillerman - Mystery

January 10, 2023

Sergeant Jim Chee is on a quest to unravel a sacred mystery that his mentor, the Legendary Lieutenant Joe Leaphorn, stumbled across decades earlier. Chee’s journey takes a deadly turn when he spots a body floating in the lake. The dead man, a Navajo with a passion for the canyon’s ancient rock art, lived a life filled with many secrets. Discovering why he died and who was responsible involves Chee in an investigation that puts his own life at risk. Meanwhile, Officer Bernadette Manuelito is driving home when she witnesses an expensive sedan purposely kill a hitchhiker. The search to find the killer leads her to uncover a dangerous chain of interconnected revelations involving a Navajo Nation cannabis enterprise.

Small World by Jonathan Evison - Historical Fiction

January 10, 2023

Four modern families aboard a passenger train hurtle into the night. One hundred and seventy years earlier, their forebearers make their way in a young nation built on grand promises. Each family follows their own path, only to find that their destinies are linked inextricably, the culmination of five generations of shared history. Jonathan Evison’s SMALL WORLD is a novel that speaks to the present moment, a grand adventure that explores the American experiment in its most human and intimate aspects, a novel that asks if America has made good on those early promises.

Something to Hide: A Lynley Novel by Elizabeth George - Mystery

January 10, 2023

When a police detective is taken off life support after falling into a coma, only an autopsy reveals the murderous act that precipitated her death. She'd been working on a special task force within North London's Nigerian community, and Acting Detective Superintendent Thomas Lynley is assigned to the case, which has far-reaching cultural associations that have nothing to do with life as he knows it. In his pursuit of a killer determined to remain hidden, he's assisted by Detective Sergeants Barbara Havers and Winston Nkata. They must sort through the lies and the secret lives of people whose superficial cooperation masks the damage they do to one another.

Son of the Poison Rose: A Kagen the Damned Novel by Jonathan Maberry - Dark Fantasy

January 10, 2023

The Silver Empire is in ruins. War is in the wind. Kagen and his allies are on the run from the Witch-king. Wild magic is running rampant everywhere. Spies and secret cabals plot from the shadows of golden thrones. Kagen Vale is the most wanted man in the world, with a death sentence on his head and a reward for him --- dead or alive --- that would tempt a saint. The Witch-king has new allies who bring a terrible weapon --- a cursed disease that drives people into a murderous rage. If the disease is allowed to spread, the whole of the West will tear itself apart. Along with his reckless adventurer brothers, Kagen races against time to save more than the old empire. If he fails, the world will be drenched in a tsunami of bloodshed and horror.

The Starless Crown by James Rollins - Fantasy/Adventure

January 10, 2023

A gifted student foretells an apocalypse. Her reward is a sentence of death. Fleeing into the unknown, she is drawn into a team of outcasts: A broken soldier, who once again takes up the weapons he’s forbidden to wield and carves a trail back home. A drunken prince, who steps out from his beloved brother's shadow and claims a purpose of his own. An imprisoned thief, who escapes the crushing dark and discovers a gleaming artifact --- one that will ignite a power struggle across the globe. On the run, hunted by enemies old and new, they must learn to trust each other in order to survive in a world evolved in strange, beautiful and deadly ways, and uncover ancient secrets that hold the key to their salvation. But with each passing moment, doom draws closer.

The Stars Are Not Yet Bells by Hannah Lillith Assadi - Gothic Fiction

January 10, 2023

Off the coast of Georgia, near Savannah, generations have been tempted by strange blue lights in the sky near an island called Lyra. At the height of WWII, impressionable young Elle Ranier leaves New York City to forge a new life together on the island with her new husband, Simon. There they will live for decades, raising a family while waging a quixotic campaign to find the source of the mysterious blue offshore light --- and the elusive minerals rumored to lurk beneath the surface. Fifty years later, Elle looks back at her life on the mysterious island --- and at a secret she herself has guarded for decades.

This Might Hurt by Stephanie Wrobel - Psychological Thriller

January 10, 2023

Natalie Collins hasn’t heard from her sister, Kit, in more than half a year. Not since Kit found Wisewood. On a private island off the coast of Maine, Wisewood’s guests commit to six-month stays and are prohibited from contact with the rest of the world so they can focus on achieving true fearlessness. Natalie thinks it’s a bad idea, but Kit has had enough of her sister’s cynicism and voluntarily disappears off the grid. Six months later, Natalie receives a menacing email from a Wisewood account threatening to reveal the secret she’s been keeping from Kit. Panicked, Natalie hurries north to come clean to her sister and bring her home. But she’s about to learn that Wisewood won’t let either of them go without a fight.

Treachery Times Two: A Koa Kane Hawaiian Mystery by Robert McCaw - Mystery

January 10, 2023

On Hawaii Island, a volcanic earthquake disrupts an abandoned cemetery --- unearthing the body of a woman mutilated by her killer to conceal her identity. The search for her identity leads Hilo Hawaii’s Chief Detective Koa Kane to a mysterious defense contractor with a politically connected board of directors. Defying his chief of police, Koa pursues the killer, only to become entangled in an FBI espionage investigation of Deimos, a powerful secret military weapon. Is the FBI telling all it knows --- or does it, too, have a duplicitous agenda? At the same time, Koa --- a cop who 30 years earlier killed his father’s nemesis and covered up the murder --- faces exposure by the dead man’s grandson.

We Are All Addicts: The Soul's Guide to Kicking Your Compulsions by Carder Stout, PhD - Spirituality/Self-Help

January 10, 2023

Expert therapist Dr. Carder Stout believes that the soul's authentic voice has the ability to heal addictive cycles and completely remove them from the psyche. The soul is pure consciousness untethered from human experience, and Dr. Stout has maintained sobriety for 17 years by utilizing this untapped resource. In turn, he has successfully treated numerous clients for addiction and other mental health conditions using the same technique. It is with this expertise that he breaks down his theory of "We Are All Addicts" in this compellingly readable guide, which presents a spiritual approach to ridding the mind of the complex problems created by addiction. These solutions to obsessive thinking and compulsive behaviors are unconventional, and previously have been shared exclusively with his patients in therapy...until now.

You Don't Know Us Negroes and Other Essays by Zora Neale Hurston, edited by Henry Louis Gates, Jr. and Genevieve West - Essays

January 10, 2023

YOU DON'T KNOW US NEGROES is the quintessential gathering of provocative essays from one of the world’s most celebrated writers, Zora Neale Hurston. Spanning more than three decades and penned during the backdrop of the birth of the Harlem Renaissance, Montgomery bus boycott, desegregation of the military and school integration, Hurston’s writing articulates the beauty and authenticity of Black life as only she could. Collectively, these essays showcase the roles that enslavement and Jim Crow have played in intensifying Black people’s inner lives and culture rather than destroying it.