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Week of June 17, 2024

New in Paperback

Week of June 17, 2024

Paperback releases for the week of June 17th include EVERYONE HERE IS LYING, another thrilling domestic suspense novel from Shari Lapena, whose previous bestsellers include THE COUPLE NEXT DOOR and SOMEONE WE KNOW; ROMAN STORIES, Jhumpa Lahiri's first collection of short stories, in which Rome --- metropolis and monument, suspended between past and future, multifaceted and metaphysical --- is the protagonist, not the setting; Carolyn Mackler's debut adult novel, THE WIFE APP, a hilarious rollercoaster ride of revenge and redemption that is at once a send-up of modern marriage and a celebration of female friendship and love in all forms; THE SECOND MURDERER, a smart and atmospheric mystery from Denise Mina, the first woman to recreate Raymond Chandler’s infamous detective, Philip Marlowe; and GEORGE, poet and painter Frieda Hughes' intimate, charming and humorous memoir recounting her experience rescuing and raising an abandoned baby magpie in the Welsh countryside.

The Art of Catching Feelings by Alicia Thompson - Romantic Comedy

June 18, 2024

Daphne Brink doesn’t follow baseball, but watching “America’s Snoozefest” certainly beats sitting at home in the days after she signs her divorce papers. After one too many ballpark beers, she heckles Carolina Battery player Chris Kepler, who quickly proves there might actually be a little crying in baseball. Horrified, Daphne reaches out to Chris on social media to apologize…but forgets to identify herself as his heckler in her message. When a DM from “Duckie” catches his eye, he impulsively messages back. Duckie is sweet, funny and seems to understand him in a way no one else does. Daphne isn’t sure how much longer she can keep lying to Chris, especially as she starts working with the team in real life and their feelings for each other deepen.

August Blue by Deborah Levy - Fiction

June 18, 2024

At the height of her career, the piano virtuoso Elsa M. Anderson --- former child prodigy who is now in her 30s --- walks off the stage in Vienna, mid-performance. Now she is in Athens, watching an uncannily familiar woman purchase a pair of mechanical dancing horses at a flea market. Elsa wants the horses too, but there are no more for sale. She drifts to the ferry port, on the run from her talent and her history. So begins her journey across Europe, shadowed by the elusive woman who seems to be her double.

The Bedlam Cadaver: A Hunt & Hooke Novel by Robert J. Lloyd - Historical Mystery/Thriller

June 18, 2024

1681. London cooks in summer heat. Bonfires are lit in protest against the King’s brother, James, heir to the throne but openly Catholic. Rumors abound of a “Black Box” said to conceal proof that the King’s illegitimate son is really the rightful heir. When a wealthy merchant’s daughter is kidnapped and murdered --- even though a ransom was paid --- the King orders Harry Hunt of the Royal Society to help investigate. A second woman goes missing: Elizabeth Thynne, England’s richest heiress. Her husband has a ransom letter from the same kidnappers. Pressured by powerful men to find the killers and rescue Elizabeth, Harry uncovers a disturbing link to Bethlehem Hospital, better known as Bedlam. But he is falsely accused of the crimes. To prove his innocence, he must find the real culprits.

The Carnivale of Curiosities by Amiee Gibbs - Historical Fantasy

June 18, 2024

In Victorian London, there is no more coveted ticket than Ashe and Pretorius' Carnivale of Curiosities. However, rumors abound that the show’s proprietor, Aurelius Ashe, is more than an average magician. It's said that for the right price, he can make any wish come true. No one knows the truth of this claim better than Lucien the Lucifer, the Carnivale's star attraction. When Odilon Rose comes calling with a proposition regarding his young and beautiful charge, Charlotte, Ashe is tempted to refuse. But after revealing that Rose holds a secret that threatens the security of the troupe's most vulnerable members, Ashe has no choice but to sign an insidious contract. The stakes grow higher as Lucien finds himself drawn to Charlotte and her to him, an attraction that spurs a perilous course of events.

Cultured: A Jake Longly Thriller by D.P. Lyle - Mystery/Thriller

June 18, 2024

Jake Longly is back where he belongs: relaxing on the beach in front of his restaurant in Gulf Shores, Alabama. His peace is interrupted, however, when he receives a call from his private investigator father. April Wilkerson has gone missing from Lindemann Farms, the rustic yet posh resort built by self-help and financial guru Jonathon Lindemann. Lindemann, founder of The Lindemann Method (TLM), recruits wealthy people to join his program, charging a hefty entry fee but in return promising huge financial gains and self-enlightenment. Jake’s celebrity status makes him the best person for the case. When Jake and his girlfriend, Nicole, go on an undercover visit to Lindemann Farms, some suspicious activity makes them wonder about the legitimacy of TLM.

Do Tell by Lindsay Lynch - Historical Fiction

June 18, 2024

As character actress Edie O'Dare finishes the final year of her contract with FWM Studios, the clock is ticking for her to find a new gig after an undistinguished stint in the pictures. She's long supplemented her income moonlighting for Hollywood's reigning gossip columnist, providing salacious details of parties and premieres. When a young starlet approaches her after an assault by an A-list actor at a party, Edie helps get the story into print and sets off a chain of events that will alter the trajectories of everyone involved. Edie’s second act career in gossip grants her more control on the page than she ever commanded in front of the camera. But she learns that publishing the secrets of those former colleagues she considers friends has repercussions. And when she finds herself in the middle of the trial of the decade, Edie is forced to make an impossible choice.

Everyone Here Is Lying by Shari Lapena - Domestic Thriller

June 18, 2024

William Wooler is a family man, on the surface. But he’s been having an affair, an affair that ended horribly this afternoon at a motel up the road. So when he returns to his house, devastated and angry, to find his difficult nine-year-old daughter, Avery, unexpectedly home from school, William loses his temper. Hours later, Avery’s family declares her missing. Suddenly the neighborhood doesn’t feel so safe. And William isn’t the only one on his street who’s hiding a lie. As witnesses come forward with information that may or may not be true, Avery's neighbors become increasingly unhinged. Who took Avery Wooler?

George: A Magpie Memoir by Frieda Hughes - Memoir

June 18, 2024

When Frieda Hughes moved to the depths of the Welsh countryside, she was expecting to take on a few projects: planting a garden, painting, writing her poetry column for The Times (London), and possibly even breathing new life into her ailing marriage. But instead, she found herself rescuing a baby magpie, the sole survivor of a nest destroyed in a storm --- and embarking on an obsession that would change the course of her life. As the magpie, George, grows from a shrieking scrap of feathers and bones into an intelligent, unruly companion, Frieda finds herself captivated --- and apprehensive of what will happen when the time comes to finally set him free.

Hotel Laguna by Nicola Harrison - Historical Fiction

June 18, 2024

In 1942, Hazel Francis left Wichita, Kansas, for California, determined to do her part for the war effort. At Douglas Aircraft, she became one of many “Rosie the Riveters,” helping to construct bombers for the U.S. military. But now the war is over, men have returned to their factory jobs, and women like Hazel have been dismissed. Unwilling to be forced into a traditional woman’s role in the Midwest, Hazel finds herself in the bohemian town of Laguna Beach. Desperate for work, she accepts a job as an assistant to famous artist Hanson Radcliff. But Hazel still wants to work with airplanes and maybe even learn to fly one someday. Torn between pursuing her dream and the dream life she has been granted, she is unsure if giving herself over to Laguna is what her heart truly wants.

Judgment Prey: A Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers Novel by John Sandford - Mystery/Thriller

June 18, 2024

Alex Sand was playing basketball with his two young sons when all three were shot in cold blood. A wealthy federal judge, there’s no short list of people who could have a vendetta against Alex. But the gruesome murders, especially that of his children, turn their St. Paul community on its head. Alex was on the verge of a major donation to a local housing charity, Heart/Twin Cities. With the money in limbo, eyes suddenly turn to his grieving widow, Margaret Cooper, to see what she might do with the money. Margaret struggles to move forward and can’t imagine how or why anyone would target her husband. With public pressure mounting and both the local police force and the FBI hitting dead end after dead end, Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers are called in to do what others could not: find answers.

Lay Your Body Down by Amy Suiter Clarke - Psychological Thriller/Mystery

June 18, 2024

After Del Walker fled her small hometown and its cult-like church, she vowed never to return. The man she loved, Lars, left her to marry the local golden girl Eve, and their romance is now the focus of Eve’s viral blog espousing the pastor’s conservative philosophy about women and marriage. But six years later, Lars is suddenly killed, and she’s convinced it couldn’t have been an accident. When Del returns to her hometown for the funeral, she discovers that the now mega-church --- and the insidious, patriarchal teachings of Pastor Rick Franklin --- has grown not only in size but in influence. She is determined to cut through the church’s lies and corruption to find out who killed Lars, even if it means confronting the religious trauma she’s spent years trying to bury.

The Memory of Animals by Claire Fuller - Dystopian Fiction

June 18, 2024

In the face of a pandemic, an unprepared world scrambles to escape the mysterious disease causing sensory damage, nerve loss and, in most cases, death. Neffy, a disgraced and desperately indebted 27-year-old marine biologist, registers for an experimental vaccine trial in London --- perhaps humanity’s last hope for a cure. Though isolated from the chaos outside, she and the other volunteers cannot hide from the mistakes that led them there. As London descends into chaos outside the hospital windows, Neffy befriends Leon, who before the pandemic had been working on a controversial technology that allows users to revisit their memories. The lines between past, present and future begin to blur. Who can Neffy trust? Why can’t she forgive herself? How should she live, if she survives?

My Magnolia Summer by Victoria Benton Frank - Fiction

June 18, 2024

In New York City, winter never seems to loosen its hold. And for South Carolina transplant Maggie, the balmy beach weather of April back home on Sullivan’s Island feels like a distant memory. Until a phone call from her sister, Violet, changes everything. Gran, the treasured matriarch, has fallen into a coma after a car accident caused by Maggie’s troubled mother, Lily. But once Maggie returns, she finds that Sullivan’s Island holds even more secrets. The Magic Lantern, the restaurant owned and run by generations of women in her family, is now rudderless, and her sister seems headed for a savage breakup. When the three generations of South Carolina women join forces --- the family pillar Gran, troubled Lily, impulsive Violet and redoubtable Maggie --- anything is possible.

One-Star Romance by Laura Hankin - Romantic Comedy

June 18, 2024

Natalie and Rob couldn’t have less in common. Nat is a messy artist, and Rob is a rigid academic. The only thing they share is their devotion to their respective best friends, who just got engaged. Still, unexpected chemistry has Natalie cautiously optimistic about being maid of honor to Rob’s best man. Until, minutes before the ceremony, Nat learns that Rob wrote a one-star review of her new novel, which has them both reeling. When the reception ends, these two opposites hope they’ll never meet again. But they’re forced together whenever their fast-track best friends celebrate another milestone. Through housewarmings and christenings, life-changing triumphs and failures, Natalie and Rob grapple with their own choices --- and how your harshest critic can become your perfectly imperfect match.

Roman Stories written by Jhumpa Lahiri, translated by the author with Todd Portnowitz - Fiction/Short Stories

June 18, 2024

Rome is the protagonist, not the setting, of Jhumpa Lahiri's nine stories. In “The Boundary,” one family vacations in the Roman countryside, though we see their lives through the eyes of the caretaker’s daughter, who nurses a wound from her family’s immigrant past. In “P’s Parties,” a Roman couple, now empty nesters, finds comfort and community with foreigners at their friend’s yearly birthday gathering --- until the husband crosses a line. And in “The Steps,” on a public staircase that connects two neighborhoods and the residents who climb up and down it, we see Italy’s capital in all of its social and cultural variegations, filled with the tensions of a changing city: visibility and invisibility, random acts of aggression, the challenge of straddling worlds and cultures, and the meaning of home.

The Running Grave: A Cormoran Strike Novel by Robert Galbraith - Mystery

June 18, 2024

Private Detective Cormoran Strike is contacted by a worried father whose son, Will, has gone to join a religious cult in the depths of the Norfolk countryside. The Universal Humanitarian Church is, on the surface, a peaceable organization that campaigns for a better world. Yet Strike discovers that beneath the surface there are deeply sinister undertones, and unexplained deaths. In order to try to rescue Will, Strike's business partner, Robin Ellacott, decides to infiltrate the cult, and she travels to Norfolk to live incognito among its members. But in doing so, she is unprepared for the dangers that await her there or for the toll it will take on her.

The Second Murderer: A Philip Marlowe Novel by Denise Mina - Hard-boiled Mystery

June 18, 2024

Private Detective Philip Marlowe is called to the Montgomery estate, an almost mythic place sitting high on top of Beverly Hills. Wealthy socialite Chrissie Montgomery is missing. Young, naïve and set to inherit an enormous fortune, she’s a walking target. Her dying father and his sultry bottle-blonde girlfriend want her found before that happens. To make sure, they have Anne Riordan --- now head of her own all-female detective agency --- on the case, too. The search for Chrissie takes the two investigators from the Montgomery mansion to the roughest neighborhoods of LA, through dive bars and boarding houses and out to Skid Row. And that’s all before they find the body at The Brody Hotel. Who will get to Chrissie first? And what happens when a woman doesn’t want to be found?

Sunshine Nails by Mai Nguyen - Fiction/Humor

June 18, 2024

Vietnamese refugees Debbie and Phil Tran have built a comfortable life for themselves in Toronto with their family nail salon. But when an ultra-glam chain salon opens across the street, their world is rocked. Complicating matters further, their landlord has jacked up the rent, and it seems only a matter of time before they lose their business and everything they’ve built. They enlist the help of their daughter, Jessica, who has just returned home after a messy breakup and a messier firing. Together with their son, Dustin, and niece, Thuy, they devise some good old-fashioned sabotage. Relationships are put to the test as the line between right and wrong gets blurred. Debbie and Phil must choose: Do they keep their family intact or fight for their salon?

Watch Us Dance written by Leila Slimani, translated by Sam Taylor - Historical Fiction

June 18, 2024

It’s the 1960s, and the air is electric. On the cusp of adulthood, two biracial siblings --- one strong-willed and strait-laced, the other free-spirited and self-destructive --- search for their place in a newly independent Morocco. But soon they find the ideals of their youth colliding with the realities of racism and corruption, as Moroccans once united against their colonizer make a grab for wealth and influence, and the national spirit of communal celebration gives way to elites telling everyone else to “watch us dance.”

What You Leave Behind by Wanda M. Morris - Mystery/Thriller

June 18, 2024

Deena Wood’s life has fallen apart in the aftermath of losing her beloved mother, her marriage and her prestigious job at an Atlanta law firm. So she returns to her childhood home in Brunswick, Georgia, to heal. One day, while driving through the city, she unwittingly finds herself on the oceanfront property of a loner widower who is fighting to keep land that has been in his family since the end of the Civil War. He threatens her and warns her to never return. But shortly after, he disappears, and his very expensive property is quickly put up for sale. Curious about what has happened to the man, Deena digs into his disappearance and finds a family legacy at risk. What starts out as a bit of curious snooping turns into a deadly game of illegal land grabs and property redevelopment in poor and rural communities with dark and powerful forces at work.

The Wife App by Carolyn Mackler - Fiction/Humor

June 18, 2024

Lauren, the mother of twins, stumbles on a dirty secret that explodes her marriage. When Madeline learns that she might lose her child to her ex in England, it stirs up a decades-old personal tragedy. Sophie obsesses over her ex-husband’s Family 2.0 --- all while keeping her true desires hidden, even from herself. It starts as a joke during a tipsy night out, as Lauren, Madeline and Sophie rail against everything wives do for free. Let’s build an app that monetizes the mental load. And maybe get revenge on our exes in the process? Soon the Wife App is born, and before long, it’s the fastest growing start-up in New York City. But then life intervenes. Love intervenes. Ex-husbands intervene. And the consequences are bigger than anything Lauren, Madeline or Sophie could have expected.