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Week of November 13, 2023

New in Paperback

Week of November 13, 2023

Paperback releases for the week of November 13th include SAM by Allegra Goodman, an unforgettable portrait of coming-of-age that offers subtle yet powerful reflections on class, parenthood, addiction, lust and the irrepressible power of dreams; THE TWIST OF A KNIFE, the ingenious fourth literary whodunit from Anthony Horowitz, who becomes the prime suspect in a murder investigation --- and only one man can prove his innocence: his newly estranged partner in solving crime, Detective Hawthorne; MUSSOLINI'S DAUGHTER, Caroline Moorehead's thrilling biography of Edda Mussolini --- Benito Mussolini’s favorite daughter, one of the most influential women in 1930s Europe --- and a heart-stopping account of the unraveling of the Fascist dream in Italy; John Lancaster's THE GREAT AIR RACE, the untold, almost unbelievable story of the daring pilots who risked their lives in an unprecedented air race in 1919 --- and put American aviation on the map; and the paperback original GOOD GIRLS DON'T DIE by Christina Henry, a sharp-edged, supremely twisty thriller about three women who find themselves trapped inside stories they know aren’t their own. 

Bleeding Heart Yard by Elly Griffiths - Mystery

November 14, 2023

When Cassie Fitzgerald was at school in the late ’90s, she and her friends killed a fellow student. Almost 20 years later, Cassie is a happily married mother who loves her job --- as a police officer. She closely guards the secret she has all but erased from her memory. One day, her husband finally persuades her to go to a school reunion. But then, shockingly, one of her old friends, Garfield Rice, is found dead in the school bathroom, supposedly from a drug overdose. Garfield was an eminent --- and controversial --- MP, and the investigation is high profile. The trouble is, Cassie can’t shake the feeling that one of them has killed again. Is Cassie right, or was Garfield murdered by one of his political cronies?

Blowback by James Patterson and Brendan DuBois - Political Thriller

November 14, 2023

US President Keegan Barrett has swept into office on his success as Director of the CIA. Six months into his first term, he devises a clandestine power grab with deadly consequences. Barrett personally orders CIA agents Liam Grey and Noa Himel to execute his plan, but their loyalties are divided. The CIA serves at the pleasure of the president, yet they’ve sworn to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. When the threat comes directly from the Oval Office, that’s where the blowback begins.

Cruz written by Nicolás Ferraro, translated by Mallory N. Craig-Kuhn - Thriller

November 14, 2023

Tomás Cruz swore he would never be like his father, an abusive cocaine junkie whose gangland exploits are notorious throughout the underbelly of northern Argentina. When Samuel Cruz is sentenced to 13 years in prison, he leaves a laundry list of unfinished cartel business. Seba, Tomás’ revered older brother, has no choice but to abandon his straight life and take over his father’s underworld debt. Now 15 years has passed, Seba has been arrested, and the ruthless cartel boss is holding his wife and daughter as collateral --- just in time for the holidays. Tomás is forced to choose between protecting his family and his soul as he assumes the to-do list where Seba left off, plunging into the shocking depravity of the cartel to track a drug deal gone wrong.

End of the Hour: A Therapist's Memoir by Meghan Riordan Jarvis - Memoir

November 14, 2023

Esteemed trauma therapist Meghan Riordan Jarvis knew how to help her patients process grief. For nearly 20 years, Meghan expected that this clinical training would inoculate her against the effects of personal trauma. But when her father died after a year-long battle with cancer, followed by her mother’s unexpected passing while on their family vacation, she came undone. Thrown into a maelstrom of grief, with long-buried childhood tragedy rising to the surface, Meghan knew what she had to do --- check herself into the same trauma facility to which she often sent her clients. In treatment, trading the therapist’s chair for the patient’s couch, Meghan took her first steps toward healing.

Good Girls Don't Die by Christina Henry - Dark Fantasy/Thriller & Horror

November 14, 2023

Celia wakes up in a house that’s supposed to be hers. There’s a little girl who claims to be her daughter and a man who claims to be her husband, but Celia knows this family --- and this life --- is not hers. Allie is supposed to be on a fun weekend trip --- but then her friend’s boyfriend unexpectedly invites the group to a remote cabin in the woods. No one else believes Allie, but she is sure that something about this trip is very, very wrong. Maggie just wants to be home with her daughter, but she’s in a dangerous situation and she doesn’t know who put her there or why. She’ll have to fight with everything she has to survive. Three women. Three stories. Only one way out.

The Great Air Race: Glory, Tragedy, and the Dawn of American Aviation by John Lancaster - History

November 14, 2023

Years before Charles Lindbergh’s flight from New York to Paris electrified the nation, a group of daredevil pilots, most of them veterans of World War I, brought aviation to the masses by competing in the sensational transcontinental air race of 1919. The contest awakened Americans to the practical possibilities of flight, yet despite its significance, it has until now been all but forgotten. In THE GREAT AIR RACE, journalist and amateur pilot John Lancaster finally reclaims this landmark event and the unheralded aviators who competed to be the fastest man in America.

Hanging the Devil: A Cape Weathers Mystery by Tim Maleeny - Mystery

November 14, 2023

When a helicopter crashes through the skylight of the Asian Art Museum, an audacious heist turns into a tragedy. The only witness to the crash is 11-year-old Grace, who watches in horror as her uncle is killed and a priceless statue stolen by two men…and a ghost? At least that's how the eerie, smoke-like figure with parchment skin and floating hair appears to Grace. Scared almost to death, she flees into the night and seeks refuge in the back alleys of San Francisco's Chinatown. Grace is found by Sally Mei, the self-appointed guardian of Chinatown. While Sally trains Grace in basic survival skills, her erstwhile partner Cape Weathers, private detective and public nuisance, searches for the mysterious crew behind the robbery before they strike the museum a second time.

Musical Tables: Poems by Billy Collins - Poetry

November 14, 2023

You can spot a Billy Collins poem immediately. The amiable voice, the light touch, the sudden turn at the end. In his own words, his poems tend to “begin in Kansas and end in Oz.” Now Collins has found a new form for his unique poetic style: the small poem. Here he writes about his trademark themes of nature, animals, poetry, mortality, absurdity and love --- all in a handful of lines. Neither haiku nor limerick, the small poem pushes to an extreme poetry’s famed power to condense emotional and conceptual meaning. The poems in MUSICAL TABLES are inspired by the small poetry of writers as diverse as William Carlos Williams, W.S. Merwin, Kay Ryan and Charles Simic, and written with Collins’ recognizable wit and wisdom.

Mussolini's Daughter: The Most Dangerous Woman in Europe by Caroline Moorehead - Biography

November 14, 2023

Edda Mussolini was the Italian dictator Benito Mussolini’s oldest and favorite child. At 19, she was married to Count Galleazzo Ciano, Il Duce’s Minister for Foreign Affairs during the 1930s, the most turbulent decade in Italy’s fascist history. In the years preceding World War II, Edda ruled over Italy’s aristocratic families and the cultured and middle classes while selling fascism on the international stage. How a young woman wielded such control is the heart of Caroline Moorehead’s fascinating history. The issues that emerge reveal not only a great deal about the power of fascism, but also the ease with which dictatorship so easily took hold in a country weakened by war and a continent mired in chaos and desperate for peace.

Play of Shadows by Barbara Nickless - Psychological Thriller/Mystery

November 14, 2023

On a stormy Chicago night, renowned semiotician Dr. Evan Wilding and his brother, River, reunite in a mystery. A package addressed to both of them contains a hand-drawn maze, an ancient Cretan coin and a cryptic greeting: Let the game begin. The opening move is murder. In a downtown alley, a man has been found nearly cleaved in two, a symbol drawn on his forehead and a savage rip in his throat. Given the clues, Evan sees a parallel to a fearsome Greek myth. Which means his friend, Detective Addie Bisset, is on the trail of a legendary flesh-eating monster --- one terrifyingly human and tumbling a panicked city toward chaos. Evan, Addie and River scramble to discover who’s behind the appalling crimes and decipher the baffling motives.

Plot Twist by Erin La Rosa - Romantic Comedy

November 14, 2023

Romance author Sophie Lyon’s ironic secret just went viral: she’s never been in love --- and it’s ruining her reputation. With a manuscript deadline looming, Sophie makes an ambitious plan to overcome her writer’s block: reunite with her exes to learn why she’s never fallen in love, and document it all for her millions of new online followers. Luckily, Sophie’s reclusive landlord, Dash Montrose --- a former teen heartthrob --- is willing to help. What he doesn’t mention is that he’s an anonymous online crafter, a hobby that helps him maintain his sobriety. As Sophie and Dash grow closer, they discover a heat between them that rivals Dash’s pottery kiln. But Sophie needs to figure out who she is outside her relationships, and Dash isn’t sure he’s stable enough for the commitment she deserves.

Sam by Allegra Goodman - Fiction

November 14, 2023

Sam is seven years old and living in Beverley, Massachusetts. She adores her father, though he isn’t around much, and her mother struggles to make ends meet. Sam doesn’t fit in at school, where the other girls have the right shade of blue jeans and don’t question the rules. All she wants is to climb. Hanging from the highest limbs of the tallest trees, scaling the side of a building, Sam feels free. As a teenager, Sam begins to doubt herself. She yearns to be noticed, even as she wants to disappear. When her climbing coach takes an interest in her, his attention is more complicated than she anticipated. She resents her father’s erratic behavior, but she grieves after he’s gone. And she resists her mother’s attempts to plan for her future, even as that future draws closer.

Showstopper: A Peter Diamond Investigation by Peter Lovesey - Mystery

November 14, 2023

In the six years since the start of the hit British TV show “Swift,” its cast and crew have been plagued by misfortune, beginning with the star actress’s pulling out of the show before it began. By now there have been multiple injuries by fall, fire or drowning; two deaths; and two missing persons cases. The media quickly decides it’s a curse, but who’s to say there isn’t a criminal conspiracy afoot? Now that the filming has moved to Bath, Peter Diamond, Chief of the Avon and Somerset Murder Squad, is on the case. While the investigation into one fatal accident is underway, a cameraman goes missing, challenging even the most credulous to wonder if he might have been the victim of foul play rather than a jinx. How can so many things go wrong on one set in such a short time?

Storm Rising: A Hayley Chill Thriller by Chris Hauty - Political Thriller

November 14, 2023

Intelligence operative Hayley Chill is pursing the truth about her father’s mysterious fate, which government officials seem determined to hide from her. But when she stumbles upon a ciphered document under the floorboards of her father’s house, it becomes impossible to ignore the questions about his death. Was it suicide, or was it murder, designed to protect a deeper secret? She fears that what she has discovered may be connected to current rumors of a dark conspiracy, one that no one will substantiate. With permission from her handler to probe deeper, Hayley is led into a terrifying subculture of white supremacy within the United States military. As her investigation intensifies, she uncovers an expansive conspiracy to bring about the secession of several states from the country.

The Twist of a Knife by Anthony Horowitz - Mystery

November 14, 2023

Reluctant author Anthony Horowitz tells ex-detective Daniel Hawthorne that after three books, he’s splitting and their deal is over. Anthony’s new play, a thriller called "Mindgame," is about to open at the Vaudeville Theater in London’s West End. Not surprisingly, Hawthorne declines a ticket to the opening night. The play is panned by the critics. In particular, Sunday Times critic Margaret Throsby gives it a savage review, focusing particularly on the writing. The next day, Throsby is stabbed in the heart with an ornamental dagger, which turns out to belong to Anthony and has his fingerprints all over it. Anthony is arrested by an old enemy, Detective Inspector Cara Grunshaw, who is out for revenge. When a second theater critic is found to have died under mysterious circumstances, the net closes in.