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Week of July 4, 2022

New in Paperback

Week of July 4, 2022

Paperback releases for the week of July 4th include LIGHTNING STRIKE, a powerful prequel to William Kent Krueger's acclaimed Cork O’Connor series, which is about fathers and sons, long-simmering conflicts in a small Minnesota town, and the events that echo through youth and shape our lives forever; SILVERVIEW, the last completed novel by John le Carré, who turns his focus to the world that occupied his writing for the past 60 years --- the secret world itself; COUNT THE WAYS by Joyce Maynard, a mesmerizing story of a family, from the hopeful early days of young marriage to parenthood, divorce and the costly aftermath that ripples through all their lives; and Hayley Mills' fascinating memoir, FOREVER YOUNG, in which the iconic actress shares personal memories from her storied childhood, growing up in a famous acting family and becoming a Disney child star, trying to grow up in a world that wanted her to stay forever young.

Appleseed by Matt Bell - Speculative Science Fiction/Thriller

July 5, 2022

In 18th-century Ohio, two brothers travel into the wooded frontier, planting apple orchards from which they plan to profit in the years to come. The long-held bonds and secrets between the two will be tested, fractured and broken --- and possibly healed. Fifty years from now, climate change has ravaged the Earth. One company now owns all the world’s resources. But a growing resistance is working to redistribute both land and power --- and one of the company’s original founders intends to destroy what he helped build. A thousand years in the future, North America is covered by a massive sheet of ice. One lonely sentient being inhabits a tech station on top of the glacier --- and sets out to follow a homing beacon across the continent in the hopes of discovering the last remnant of civilization.

The Bloodless Boy by Robert J. Lloyd - Historical Thriller/Mystery

July 5, 2022

The City of London, 1678. When the body of a young boy drained of his blood is discovered on the snowy bank of the Fleet River, Robert Hooke, the Curator of Experiments at the just-formed Royal Society for Improving Natural Knowledge, and his assistant Harry Hunt are called in to explain such a ghastly finding. Meanwhile, that same morning, Henry Oldenburg, the Secretary of the Royal Society, blows his brains out, and a disgraced Earl is released from the Tower of London, bent on revenge against the King, Charles II. Wary of the political hornet’s nest they are walking into --- and using scientific evidence rather than paranoia in their pursuit of truth --- Hooke and Hunt must discover why the boy was murdered and why his blood was taken.

Breathe by Joyce Carol Oates - Fiction

July 5, 2022

A married couple from Cambridge, MA takes residency at a distinguished academic institute. When the husband is stricken with a mysterious illness, misdiagnosed at first, their lives are uprooted and husband and wife each embarks upon a nightmare journey. At 37, Michaela faces the terrifying prospect of widowhood --- and the loss of Gerard, whose identity has greatly shaped her own. She cares desperately for him in his final days as she comes to realize that her love for her husband, however fierce and selfless, is not enough to save him and that his death is beyond her comprehension. A love that refuses to be surrendered at death --- is this the blessing of a unique married love, or a curse that must be exorcized?

Build Your House Around My Body by Violet Kupersmith - Fiction/Magical Realism

July 5, 2022

1986: The teenage daughter of a wealthy Vietnamese family loses her way in an abandoned rubber plantation while fleeing her angry father and is forever changed. 2011: A young, unhappy Vietnamese American woman disappears from her new home in Saigon without a trace. The fates of these two women are inescapably linked, bound together by past generations, by ghosts and ancestors, by the history of possessed bodies and possessed lands. Each new character and timeline brings us one step closer to understanding what binds them all.

The Case of the Murderous Dr. Cream: The Hunt for a Victorian Era Serial Killer by Dean Jobb - True Crime

July 5, 2022

In the span of 15 years, Dr. Thomas Neill Cream murdered as many as 10 people in the United States, Britain and Canada, a death toll with almost no precedent. Poison was his weapon of choice. Largely forgotten today, this villain was as brazen as the notorious Jack the Ripper. Structured around the doctor’s London murder trial in 1892, when he was finally brought to justice, THE CASE OF THE MURDEROUS DR. CREAM exposes the blind trust given to medical practitioners, as well as the flawed detection methods, bungled investigations, corrupt officials and stifling morality of Victorian society that allowed Dr. Cream to prey on vulnerable and desperate women, many of whom had turned to him for medical help.

The Comfort of Monsters by Willa C. Richards - Fiction

July 5, 2022

In the summer of 1991, a teenage girl named Dee McBride vanished in the city of Milwaukee. Nearly 30 years later, Dee’s sister, Peg, is still haunted by her disappearance. Their mother, on her deathbed, is desperate to find out what happened to Dee, so the family hires a psychic to help find Dee’s body and bring them some semblance of peace. The appearance of the psychic plunges Peg back to those final carefree months when she last saw Dee. Serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer’s heinous crimes dominated the headlines and overwhelmed local law enforcement. Peg’s hazy recollections are far from easy for her to interpret, assess or even keep clear in her mind. And now digging deep into her memory raises doubts and difficult --- even terrifying --- questions.

Count the Ways by Joyce Maynard - Fiction

July 5, 2022

Eleanor and Cam meet at a crafts fair in Vermont in the early 1970s. She’s an artist and writer, he makes wooden bowls. Within four years they are parents to three children, two daughters and a red-headed son who fills his pockets with rocks, plays the violin and talks to God. If Eleanor and Cam don’t make love as often as they used to, they have something that matters more. Their family. Then comes a terrible accident, caused by Cam’s negligence. Unable to forgive him, Eleanor is consumed by bitterness, losing herself in her life as a mother, while Cam finds solace with a new young partner. Over the decades that follow, the five members of this fractured family make surprising discoveries and decisions that occasionally bring them together, and often tear them apart.

Dark Roads by Chevy Stevens - Thriller

July 5, 2022

For decades, young women traveling the Cold Creek Highway have gone missing. And no killer or abductor who has stalked the highway has ever been brought to justice. One day, teenager Hailey McBride vanishes into the mountainous terrain, hoping everyone will believe she’s left town. Rumors spread that she was taken by the highway killer. One year later, Beth Chevalier arrives in Cold Creek, where her sister Amber lived --- and was murdered. Estranged from her parents and seeking closure, Beth takes a waitressing job at the local diner, desperate to understand what happened to her and why. But Beth’s search for answers puts a target on her back --- and threatens to reveal the truth behind Hailey’s disappearance.

Dog Eat Dog: An Andy Carpenter Mystery by David Rosenfelt - Mystery

July 5, 2022

Lawyer Andy Carpenter and his wife, Laurie, enjoy walking their dogs, Tara and Sebastian. When out for one of their strolls, their simple ritual isn’t so simple anymore. Across the street, a man is mistreating his dog. Three things happen at once: Andy yells, Laurie runs to stop the abuse, and so does a closer passerby, who so thoroughly beats the owner that both are arrested when the cops arrive. Andy scoops up the dog and takes him to the Tara Foundation, the dog rescue organization that’s always been his true passion. Meanwhile, at the police station, the passerby is identified as Matthew Jantzen, and he’s wanted for murder. Andy and Laurie are struck by the fact that Jantzen, a man on the run, would nevertheless intervene to help a dog, and decide to find out more.

Dream On by Angie Hockman - Romantic Comedy

July 5, 2022

When law grad Cass Walker wakes up after surviving a car accident, she is flooded with memories of a man named Devin. The only problem? Devin --- as confirmed by family, friends and doctors --- doesn’t exist. Everything about him is a figment of Cass’ coma-addled imagination. Still, she can’t get him out of her head. So when she happens upon the real Devin a year later in a Cleveland flower shop, she’s completely shocked. Even more surprising is that Devin actually believes her story, and despite his protective younger brother’s doubts, they soon embark on a real-life romance. With her dream man by her side and a new job at a prestigious law firm, Cass’ future seems perfect. But fate might have other plans.

The Finalists by David Bell - Psychological Thriller

July 5, 2022

On a beautiful spring day, six college students with nothing in common besides a desperate inability to pay for school gather to compete for the prestigious Hyde Fellowship. They must surrender their devices when they enter Hyde House, an aging Victorian structure that sits in a secluded part of campus. Once inside, the doors lock behind them. The students are not allowed to leave until they spend eight hours with a college administrator who will do almost anything to keep the school afloat, and Nicholas Hyde, the privileged and notoriously irresponsible heir to the Hyde family fortune. If the students leave before time is up, they’ll be immediately disqualified. But when one of the six finalists drops dead, the other students fear they’re being picked off one by one.

Forever Young: A Memoir by Hayley Mills - Memoir

July 5, 2022

The daughter of acclaimed British actor Sir John Mills was still a preteen when she began her acting career and was quickly thrust into the spotlight. Under the wing of Walt Disney himself, Hayley Mills was transformed into one of the biggest child starlets of the 1960s. In her charming and forthright memoir, she provides a unique window into when Hollywood was still “Tinseltown” and the great Walt Disney was at his zenith. This behind-the-scenes look at the drama of having a sky-rocketing career as a young teen in an esteemed acting family will offer both her childhood impressions of the wild and glamorous world she was swept into, and the wisdom and broader knowledge that time has given her.

Ghosts by Dolly Alderton - Romantic Comedy

July 5, 2022

Nina Dean is about to publish her second book. She has a great relationship with her ex-boyfriend, and enough friends to keep her social calendar full. When she downloads a dating app, she does the seemingly impossible: She meets a great guy on her first date. Max is handsome and built like a lumberjack; he has floppy blond hair and a stable job. More surprising than anything else, Nina and Max have chemistry. But when Max ghosts her, Nina is forced to deal with everything she's been trying so hard to ignore: her father's Alzheimer's is getting worse, and so is her mother's denial of it; her editor hates her new book idea; and her best friend from childhood is icing her out.

Haven Point by Virginia Hume - Fiction

July 5, 2022

In 1944, Maren Larsen is determined to do her part to help the war effort. As a cadet nurse at Walter Reed Medical Center, she’s swept off her feet by Dr. Oliver Demarest, whose family spends summers in an insular community on the rocky coast of Maine. In 1970, as the nation grapples with the ongoing conflict in Vietnam, Oliver and Maren are grappling with their fiercely independent 17-year-old daughter, Annie, who has fallen for a young man they don’t approve of. Before the summer is over, a terrible tragedy will strike the Demarests --- and in the aftermath, Annie vows never to return to Haven Point. In 2008, Annie’s daughter, Skye, has arrived in Maine to help scatter her mother’s ashes. Maren knows that Annie never told Skye the whole truth about what happened during that fateful summer.

The Heart of Summer by Felicity Hayes-McCoy - Fiction

July 5, 2022

Summer has finally arrived on Ireland’s west coast. On the Finfarran Peninsula, Hanna Casey is looking forward to al fresco lunches with friends and balmy evenings with her boyfriend, Brian, in their stunning new home in beautiful Hag’s Glen. But life takes a turn when Brian's adult son suddenly moves in and Hanna unexpectedly runs into Amy, a former flatmate from Hanna’s 20s in London. When Amy suggests a reunion in London with old friends, Hanna accepts. When she’s offered a new opportunity --- the chance to be more than a local librarian in the little rural community where she grew up --- Hanna is faced with a difficult choice: to decide what her heart truly wants.

In Her Boots by KJ Dell’Antonia - Fiction

July 5, 2022

Rhett Gallagher’s adventurous life is imploding. Just as she turns the big 4-0, her long-term relationship collapses and her gran’s death draws her back to the family farm. The only silver lining is that Rhett’s inspirational book, The Modern Pioneer Girl’s Guide to Life --- written under a pseudonym --- has become a wild success, so much so that when her big publicity moment comes, self-doubting Rhett panics and persuades her best friend, Jasmine, to step into the limelight in her stead. But their prank turns into something more when the controlling mother Rhett hasn’t seen in two decades announces her intent to sell the farm Rhett loves and expected to make her own.

The Inheritance of Orquídea Divina by Zoraida Córdova - Fiction/Magical Realism

July 5, 2022

The Montoyas are used to a life without explanations. They know better than to ask why the pantry never seems to run low or empty, or why their matriarch won’t ever leave their home in Four Rivers. But when Orquídea Divina invites them to her funeral and to collect their inheritance, they hope to learn the secrets that she has held onto so tightly their whole lives. Instead, Orquídea is transformed, leaving them with more questions than answers. Seven years later, her gifts have manifested in different ways for Marimar, Rey and Tatinelly’s daughter, Rhiannon, granting them unexpected blessings. But soon, a hidden figure begins to tear through their family tree, picking them off one by one as it seeks to destroy Orquídea’s line.

Lightning Strike by William Kent Krueger - Historical Mystery

July 5, 2022

Aurora is a small town nestled in the ancient forest alongside the shores of Minnesota’s Iron Lake. In the summer of 1963, it is the whole world to 12-year-old Cork O’Connor, its rhythms as familiar as his own heartbeat. But when Cork stumbles upon the body of a man he revered hanging from a tree in an abandoned logging camp, it is the first in a series of events that will cause him to question everything he took for granted about his hometown, his family and himself. Cork’s father, Liam O’Connor, is Aurora’s sheriff, and it is his job to confirm that the man’s death was the result of suicide, as all the evidence suggests. In the shadow of his father’s official investigation, Cork begins to look for answers on his own.

My Sweet Girl by Amanda Jayatissa - Psychological Thriller

July 5, 2022

Ever since she was adopted from a Sri Lankan orphanage, Paloma has had the best of everything. Now at 30 years old and recently cut off from her parents’ funds, she decides to sublet the second bedroom of her overpriced San Francisco apartment to Arun, who recently moved from India. Arun eventually discovers Paloma's darkest secret, one that could jeopardize her own fragile place in this country. Before Paloma can pay Arun off, she finds him face down in a pool of blood. She flees the apartment, but by the time the police arrive, there's no body --- and no evidence that Arun ever even existed in the first place. Paloma is terrified that this is all somehow tangled up in the desperate actions she took to escape Sri Lanka so many years ago.

Not a Happy Family by Shari Lapena - Psychological Thriller

July 5, 2022

Brecken Hill in upstate New York is an expensive place to live. You have to be rich to have a house there, and Fred and Sheila Merton certainly are rich. But even all their money can't protect them when a killer comes to call. The Mertons are brutally murdered after a fraught Easter dinner with their three adult kids. They each stand to inherit millions. They were never a happy family, thanks to their vindictive father and neglectful mother, but perhaps one of the siblings is more disturbed than anyone knew. Did someone snap after that dreadful evening? Or did another person appear later that night with the worst of intentions? That must be what happened. After all, if one of the family were capable of something as gruesome as this, you'd know. Wouldn't you?

The Ophelia Girls by Jane Healey - Fiction

July 5, 2022

In the summer of 1973, Ruth and her four friends were obsessed with pre-Raphaelite paintings. Drawn to the cold depths of the river by Ruth’s house, the girls pretend to be the drowning Ophelia, with increasingly elaborate tableaus. But by the end of that fateful summer, real tragedy finds them along the banks. Twenty-four years later, Ruth returns to the suffocating, once grand house she grew up in, the mother of young twins and 17-year-old Maeve. Joining the family in the country is Stuart, Ruth’s childhood friend, who is quietly insinuating himself into their lives and gives Maeve the attention she longs for. She is recently in remission, unsure of her place in the world now that she is cancer-free. Her parents just want her to be an ordinary teenage girl. But what teenage girl is ordinary?

Pearl by Josh Malerman - Supernatural Thriller/Horror

July 5, 2022

There’s something strange about Walter Kopple’s farm. At first it seems to be his grandson, who cruelly murders one of Walter’s pigs in an act of seemingly senseless violence. But then people in town begin to whisper that Walter’s grandson heard a voice commanding him to kill. And that the voice belongs to a most peculiar creature: the pig named Pearl. Walter is not sure what to believe. He knows he’s always been afraid of the strangely malevolent Pearl. But as madness and paranoia grip the town and the townspeople descend on Walter’s farm with violent wrath, they begin to discover that true evil wears a human face.

The Perfume Thief by Timothy Schaffert - Historical Fiction

July 5, 2022

Clementine is a 72-year-old reformed con artist. Her life of crime has led her from the uber-wealthy perfume junkies of belle epoque Manhattan, to the scented butterflies of Costa Rica, to the spice markets of Marrakech, and finally to the bordellos of Paris, where she settles down in 1930 and opens a shop bottling her favorite extracts for the ladies of the cabarets. Now it's 1941, and Clem's favorite haunt, Madame Boulette's, is crawling with Nazis, while her people --- the outsiders, the artists and the hustlers who used to call it home --- are disappearing. Clem believes she's too old to put up a fight. But when the cabaret's prize songbird, Zoe St. Angel, recruits her to steal the recipe book of a now-missing famous Parisian perfumer, she can't say no.

Rabbit Hole by Mark Billingham - Thriller

July 5, 2022

Alice Armitage is a police officer. Or she was. Following a debilitating bout of PTSD, self-medication with drink and drugs, and a psychotic breakdown, Alice is now a long-term patient in an acute psychiatric ward. Though convinced that she doesn’t really belong there, she finds companionship with the other patients in the ward despite their challenging and often intimidating issues. So when one of her fellow patients is murdered, Alice feels personally compelled to launch an investigation from within the ward. Soon, she becomes convinced that she has identified the killer and that she can catch them. But Alice’s life begins to unravel as she realizes that she cannot trust anyone in the ward, least of all herself.

The Rehearsals by Annette Christie - Romantic Comedy

July 5, 2022

Megan Givens and Tom Prescott are heading into what is supposed to be their magical wedding weekend on beautiful San Juan Island. But with two difficult families, 10 years of history and all too many secrets, things quickly go wrong. After a disastrous rehearsal dinner, they vow to call the whole thing off --- only to wake up the next morning stuck together in a time loop. Are they really destined to relive the worst day of their lives, over and over? And what happens if their wedding day does arrive?

Rock the Boat by Beck Dorey-Stein - Fiction

July 5, 2022

When Kate Campbell’s life in Manhattan suddenly implodes, she is forced to return to Sea Point, the small town full of quirky locals, quaint bungalows and beautiful beaches where she grew up. Meanwhile, Miles Hoffman has also returned home to prove to his mother that he’s capable of taking over the family business, and he’s promised to help his childhood best friend, Ziggy Miller, with his own financial struggles at the same time. Kate, Miles and Ziggy converge in Sea Point as the town faces an identity crisis when a local developer tries to cash in on its potential. White lies and long-buried secrets threaten to forever erode not only the bonds between the three friends but also the landscape of the beachside community they call home.

Silverview by John le Carré - Mystery

July 5, 2022

Julian Lawndsley has renounced his high-flying job in the city for a simpler life running a bookshop in a small English seaside town. But only a couple of months into his new career, Julian’s evening is disrupted by a visitor. Edward, a Polish émigré living in Silverview, the big house on the edge of town, seems to know a lot about Julian’s family and is rather too interested in the inner workings of his modest new enterprise. When a letter turns up at the door of a spy chief in London warning him of a dangerous leak, the investigations lead him to this quiet town by the sea.

Tender Is the Bite: A Chet & Bernie Mystery by Spencer Quinn - Mystery

July 5, 2022

Chet and Bernie are contacted by a terribly scared young woman who seems to want their help. Before she can even tell them her name, she flees in panic. But in that brief meeting Chet sniffs out an important secret about her, a secret at the heart of the mystery he and Bernie set out to solve. It's a case with no client and no crime and yet great danger, with the duo facing a powerful politician who has a lot to lose. Their only hope lies with a ferret named Griffie who adores Bernie. Is there room for a ferret in the Chet and Bernie relationship? That's the challenge Chet faces, the biggest of his career. Hanging in the balance are the lives of two mistreated young women and the future of the whole state.

The True Love Bookshop by Annie Rains - Romance

July 5, 2022

For Tess Lane, owning Lakeside Books is a dream come true, but it’s the weekly book club she hosts for the women in town that Tess enjoys the most. The gatherings have been her lifeline over the past three years since her husband’s mysterious death. Tess has tried to move on, but when River Harrison shows up on her doorstep, all her lingering questions come rushing back. River, a former marine turned private investigator, was her husband’s best friend. At first, she tries to ignore him, but Tess comes to realize that this is her chance, once and for all, to find the answers that have troubled her for years. However, when secrets surrounding her husband’s death are finally revealed, can Tess find it in her heart to forgive the mistakes of the past...and maybe even open herself up to love again?

Twilight in Hazard: An Appalachian Reckoning by Alan Maimon - Sociology

July 5, 2022

When Alan Maimon got the assignment in 2000 to report on life in rural Eastern Kentucky, his editor at the Louisville Courier-Journal told him to cover the region “like a foreign correspondent would.” Maimon had landed in a place in the vice grip of ecological devastation and a corporate-made opioid epidemic. While reporting on the intense religious allegiances, the bitter, bare-knuckled political rivalries, and the faltering attempts to emerge from a century-long coal-based economy, Maimon learns that everything --- and nothing --- you have heard about the region is true. And far from being a foreign place, it is a region whose generations-long struggles are driven by quintessentially American forces.

We Were Never Here by Andrea Bartz - Psychological Thriller

July 5, 2022

Emily is in the mountains of Chile with her best friend, Kristen, on their annual reunion trip, and the women are feeling closer than ever. But on the last night of the trip, Emily enters their hotel suite to find blood and broken glass on the floor. Kristen says the cute backpacker she brought back to their room attacked her, and she had no choice but to kill him in self-defense. The scene is horrifyingly similar to last year’s trip, when another backpacker wound up dead. Back home in Wisconsin, Emily struggles to bury her trauma. But when Kristen shows up for a surprise visit, Emily is forced to confront their violent past. The more Kristen tries to keep Emily close, the more Emily questions her motives. As Emily feels the walls closing in on their cover-ups, she must reckon with the truth about her closest friend.

When Stars Collide: A Chicago Stars Novel by Susan Elizabeth Phillips - Mystery/Romance

July 5, 2022

Thaddeus Walker Bowman Owens is a team player, a talented sideline coach, an occasional male underwear model, and a man with a low tolerance for Divas. International opera superstar Olivia Shore is a driven diva with a passion for perfection, a craving for justice, too many secrets --- and a monumental grudge against the egotistical, lowbrow jock she’s been stuck with. It’s Mozart meets "Monday Night Football" as the temperamental soprano and stubborn jock embark on a nationwide tour promoting a luxury watch brand. Threatening letters, haunting photographs and a series of dangerous encounters complicate their lives. Is it the work of an overzealous fan or something more sinister?

Yours Cheerfully by AJ Pearce - Historical Fiction

July 5, 2022

Following the departure of the formidable Henrietta Bird from Woman’s Friend magazine, things are looking up for Emmeline Lake as she takes on the challenge of becoming a young wartime advice columnist. Her relationship with boyfriend Charles (now stationed back in the UK) is blossoming, while Emmy’s best friend Bunty, still reeling from the very worst of the Blitz, is bravely looking to the future. The Ministry of Information calls on Britain’s women’s magazines to help recruit desperately needed female workers to the war effort. But when Emmy and Bunty meet a young woman who shows them the very real challenges that women war workers face, Emmy must tackle a life-changing dilemma between doing her duty and standing by her friends.