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Week of July 28, 2025

New in Paperback

Week of July 28, 2025

Paperback releases for the week of July 28th include THE HEAVEN & EARTH GROCERY STORE by James McBride, a novel as compassionate as DEACON KING KONG and as inventive as THE GOOD LORD BIRDwhich revolves around small-town secrets and the people who keep them; BAD LIARa riveting, emotionally powerful thriller that marks the long-awaited return of Tami Hoag, in which old jealousies and fresh deceits, family loyalties gone wrong and love turned sour all lay a twisting trail that leads deep into the Louisiana swamp, endangering all who follow that path; THE HORSEa poignant novel from Willy Vlautin that captures the life of a journeyman musician who is unable to escape the tragedies of his past; and A HUNGER TO KILL, a fascinating and profoundly chilling account of how Detective Kim Mager, a real-life version of Clarice Starling, closed in on --- and broke --- one of Ohio’s most infamous serial killers.

Bad Liar by Tami Hoag - Mystery/Thriller

July 29, 2025

A murder victim dumped at the dead end of a lonely country road is not the way sheriff’s detective Nick Fourcade wants to start his week. His only lead takes him to the family of a hometown hero suddenly gone missing. Marc Mercier left his home for a weekend hunting trip and hasn’t been seen since. Meanwhile, sheriff’s detective Annie Broussard begins her first day back on the job after suffering a brutal attack by taking on the case of B’Lynn Fontenot, a mother desperate to find her grown son, a recovering drug addict. Robbie Fontenot has been missing for eight days, but the local police have no interest in the case. As Annie searches for Robbie, and Nick investigates Marc’s disappearance, it quickly becomes apparent that nothing is as it seems in the lives of either man.

Cold Trail: A Garrett Kohl Novel by Taylor Moore - Thriller/Adventure

July 29, 2025

On leave from the DEA, Garrett Kohl is ready to settle down and build a stable foundation for his family. But in order to give his girlfriend, Lacey, and adopted son, Asadi, the life they deserve and get out from under crippling debt, some risks have to be taken. And shocking alliances have to be formed. First, Garrett partners with an old nemesis to form his new energy venture: Savage Exploration. Then his estranged, aloof sister, Grace, reemerges, keen on brokering a contract to connect the Kohl Ranch energy play to a pipeline on the Texas coast. But the company’s earlier success is endangered when an explosion at a nearby natural gas plant injures several workers. Garrett begins to suspect foul play and embarks on a winding investigation, teaming up with his old war buddy, Kai Stoddard, and reaching out to his CIA contacts, uncovering a sinister conspiracy overseas.

The Fourth Daughter by Lyn Liao Butler - Fiction

August 1, 2025

Chef Liv Kuo’s star is on the rise…until a traumatic incident leaves her emotionally unable to venture outside her Manhattan apartment. But an unexpected reason to break free comes from Ah-Ma, Liv’s beloved grandmother in Taiwan. Ah-Ma needs Liv’s help in finding her fourth daughter, taken from her when the girl was an infant. After all these years, it seems impossible. It’s also a mystery: Ah-Ma’s fourth daughter is an aunt Liv never even knew existed. After landing in Taiwan, Liv hears the heartbreaking story of her grandmother’s plight in a country once under martial law, of choices made for her, and of the hopeful search for a lost girl that has endured for more than 60 years. Their journey for answers turns up both a precious old cookbook and a tale of fatal betrayal that shakes everything Liv believed about her family.

The Heaven & Earth Grocery Store by James McBride - Historical Fiction

July 29, 2025

In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When the state came looking for a deaf boy to institutionalize him, it was Chona and Nate Timblin, the Black janitor at Moshe’s theater and the unofficial leader of the Black community on Chicken Hill, who worked together to keep the boy safe.

The Horse by Willy Vlautin - Fiction

July 29, 2025

Al Ward lives on an isolated mining claim in the high desert of central Nevada 50 miles from the nearest town. A grizzled man in his 60s, he survives on canned soup, instant coffee, and memories of his ex-wife, friends and family he’s lost, and his life as a touring musician. Al finds himself teetering on the edge of madness and running out of reasons to go on --- until a horse arrives on his doorstep: nameless, blind and utterly helpless. Is the animal real, or a phantom conjured from imagination? As Al contemplates the horse’s existence --- and what, if anything, he can do --- his thoughts are interspersed with memories, from the moment his mother’s part-time boyfriend gifts him a 1959 butterscotch blonde Telecaster, to the day his travels begin.

A Hunger to Kill: A Serial Killer, a Detective, and the Confession That Shocked a Nation by Kim Mager with Lisa Pulitzer - True Crime

July 29, 2025

In the fall of 2016, authorities in Ashland, Ohio, arrested serial killer Shawn Grate on kidnapping charges. Grate immediately latched onto Detective Kim Mager, an experienced sex offenses specialist assigned to his case, and repeatedly demanded to speak with her, perhaps convinced that he could control her like he controlled his victims. But he was wrong. For eight days of brutal interviews, Detective Mager successfully elicited Grate's damning confessions to five murders. These recorded conversations would be key to his later conviction and death sentence. A HUNGER TO KILL reveals the psyche of one of the most brutal serial killers in American history from the woman who took him down in collaboration with New York Times bestselling author Lisa Pulitzer.

Last Seen by J.T. Ellison - Psychological Thriller

August 1, 2025

Halley James knows her marriage is over. But she’s not prepared for the rest of her life to fall apart too. She just lost her job at the forensics lab. Her dad needs emergency surgery. But the biggest blow comes back home in Marchburg, Virginia, where she discovers her mother didn’t actually die in a car crash. Her mom was murdered --- and her father lied about it all these years. Desperate for the truth, Halley chases down a lead in Brockville, Tennessee. But all there is not as it seems. Brockville’s utopian charm hides a chilling darkness. And Halley’s search for answers threatens to expose an unspeakable reality.

The Lies They Told by Ellen Marie Wiseman - Historical Fiction

July 29, 2025

When Lena Conti sees immigrant families being forcibly separated on Ellis Island, she vows not to let the officers take her two-year-old daughter. But the inspection process is more rigorous than she imagined, and she is separated from her mother and teenage brother, who are deported back to Germany. Silas Wolfe, a widowed family relative, reluctantly brings Lena and her daughter to his weathered cabin in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains to care for his home and children. After a social worker from the Eugenics Office accuses Lena of promiscuity and feeblemindedness, her own worst fears come true. Sent to the Virginia State Colony for the Feebleminded and Epileptics, Lena faces impossible choices in hopes of reuniting with her daughter --- and protecting the people, and the land, she has grown to love.

Likeness by Samsun Knight - Fiction

July 29, 2025

On a summer evening in the 1990s, Anne learns that one of her husband’s lovers is expecting his child, only a few weeks after learning that she too is pregnant. He tells her casually, as if it’s just another colorful story about his day. And the tenuous understanding between them --- the careful balance of privacy and flexibility that has sustained their open marriage to date --- is shattered. Meanwhile, Sandy, the lover, works to find her own path forward through her surprise pregnancy and all the million tiny miracles and catastrophes that she now must navigate, often entirely on her own. Searching through diaries, grocery lists and seances with the dead, Sandy tries to remember just enough of her original sense of direction to make her own way home.

Masquerade by O.O. Sangoyomi - Historical Fiction

July 29, 2025

Òdòdó’s hometown of Timbuktu has been conquered by the warrior king of Yorùbáland, and living conditions for the women in her blacksmith guild, who were already shunned as social pariahs, grow even worse. Then Òdòdó is abducted. She is whisked across the Sahara to the capital city of Ṣàngótẹ̀, where she is shocked to discover that her kidnapper is none other than the vagrant who had visited her guild just days prior. But now that he is swathed in riches rather than rags, Òdòdó realizes he is not a vagrant at all; he is the warrior king, and he has chosen her to be his wife. In a sudden change of fortune, Òdòdó soars to the very heights of society. But after a lifetime of subjugation, she finds the power that saturates this world of battle and political savvy too enticing to resist.

Off the Books by Soma Mei Sheng Frazier - Fiction

July 29, 2025

Recent Dartmouth dropout Mei drives a limo to make ends meet. Her grandfather convinces her to allow her customers to pay under the table, and before she knows it, she is working as a routine chauffeur for sex workers. Mei does her best to mind her own business, but her knack for discretion soon leads her on a life-changing trip with a new client. Henry piques Mei’s interest. Toting an enormous black suitcase with him everywhere he goes, he’s more concerned with taking frequent breaks than making good time on the road. When Mei discovers Henry's secret, she does away with her usual close-lipped demeanor and decides she has no choice but to confront him. What Henry reveals rocks her to her core and shifts this once casual, transactional road trip to one of moral stakes and dangerous consequences.

On the Hunt by Iris Johansen - Thriller

July 29, 2025

Kira Drake has come to Paris with her highly trained Golden Retriever, Mack, to investigate the horrific bombing of a museum in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. What she doesn’t know is that one powerful man has a special reason to find the person responsible. Jack Harlan has all the money in the world, but it can’t bring his brother back. His sibling was murdered during the theft of a scientific discovery that could have made the world a better place. Now, after a four-year search, Harlan learns that this bombing was the work of the same twisted man. Kira and her dog are in demand from law enforcement agencies all over the world, but Harlan convinces her to continue the investigation for his own purposes, wherever it may lead. So against her better judgment, Kira finds herself on the hunt, placing her trust in Harlan.

One of Our Kind by Nicola Yoon - Psychological Thriller

July 29, 2025

Jasmyn and King Williams move their family to the planned Black utopia of Liberty, California, hoping to find a community of like-minded people. King settles in at once, embracing the Liberty ethos, including the luxe wellness center at the top of the hill. But Jasmyn struggles to find her place. She expected to find liberals and social justice activists striving for racial equality, but Liberty residents seem more focused on booking spa treatments and ignoring the world’s troubles. Jasmyn’s only friends in the community are equally perplexed and frustrated by most residents' outlook. Then Jasmyn discovers a terrible secret about Liberty and its founders. Frustration turns to dread as their loved ones start embracing the Liberty way of life. Will the truth destroy her world in ways she never could have imagined?

Out of the Woods: A Girl, a Killer, and a Lifelong Struggle to Find the Way Home by Gregg Olsen - True Crime

August 1, 2025

In May 2005, authorities discovered the Groene family murdered in their Idaho home. The family’s youngest members --- eight-year-old Shasta and her brother, nine-year-old Dylan --- were nowhere to be found. As a community prayed for their return, Shasta and Dylan were already miles away in the woods of Montana at the hands of serial killer Joseph Edward Duncan. After a harrowing 48-day ordeal, Shasta was rescued. In the following years, while Shasta struggled to outrun her trauma, a pattern of self-destructive behavior shadowed her like an ever-worsening thunderstorm. She still had hope buried deep inside. Every bit as much as the little girl who had been held captive in the woods. This would be an all-new battle for Shasta. And she was determined not to lose.

The Trail of Lost Hearts by Tracey Garvis Graves - Romance

July 29, 2025

Thirty-four-year-old Wren Waters believes that if you pay attention, the universe will send you exactly what you need. But her worldview shatters when the universe delivers two life-altering blows she didn’t see coming. No one is more surprised than Wren when she discovers that geocaching is the only thing getting her out of bed and out of her head. She decides that a weeklong solo quest geocaching in Oregon is exactly what she needs to take back control of her life. Enter Marshall Hendricks, a psychologist searching for distraction as he struggles with a life-altering blow of his own. Wren is beyond grateful when Marshall rescues her from a horrifying encounter farther down the trail. What begins as a platonic road trip gradually blossoms into something deeper, and the more Wren learns about Marshall, the more she wants to know.

Triangle by Danielle Steel - Romantic Suspense

July 29, 2025

As she approaches the milestone birthday of 40, delicate blond beauty Amanda Delanoe finds joy in running a chic contemporary art gallery in the City of Light, but so far the love of her life has eluded her. Then she meets Olivier Saint Albin, a dashing publisher. At the same time, she reconnects with Tom Quinlan, an old boyfriend from her days at NYU 20 years ago, now a lawyer on sabbatical who has come to Paris to devote himself to writing a thriller. Charming Olivier is a master at the art of flirtation, but as Amanda feels herself falling for him, she learns he is married. Providing counsel and support is her friend and co-owner of the gallery, fun-loving bachelor Pascal Leblanc. When Amanda begins to receive threatening phone calls late at night, it is Pascal she turns to. Then someone breaks into her apartment on the Left Bank, and it’s all too clear she's in real danger. But from whom?

An Unfinished Murder: A Medlar Mystery by Jude Deveraux - Mystery

July 29, 2025

Retired romance novelist Sara Medlar has been comfortably sharing her large home with her niece, Kate, and her “honorary grandson,” Jack. It’s a convenient arrangement given that the Medlar Three are often working closely together to solve mysteries. But when real estate agent Kate announces she’s been given the listing for the town’s storied Lachlan House, it sets off alarm bells for Sara and Jack. With little memory of her childhood, Kate doesn’t understand what the fuss is about --- until the trio visits the house and makes a grim discovery. Flooded by memories of the past, Kate realizes she spent time there as a child. But stumbling upon a skeleton dressed in a rotting tuxedo --- a murder victim with connections to her father --- causes Kate to wonder if the childhood she can’t remember might be one she’d rather forget.