One to Watch Author Spotlight

One to Watch is our promotion where we look at authors whose books are making news, or making noise, but whose work does not fall in a specific genre like suspense/thriller or mystery. Typically the books here will be fiction, but if we spot a nonfiction title we love, we will be quick to feature it as well. Some of these books will be debuts, but not all. They all will be books we want to scream about and share.

Stephanie Clifford, author of Everybody Rise

EVERYBODY RISE is a keenly observed novel in which a young woman plunges headlong into a glittering world of wealth and social prestige. Evelyn Beegan, an irresistibly flawed heroine, relentlessly elbows her way up the social ladder. In order to be accepted, she must pass as upper class and be seen as someone with an established old money background. Her lies start slowly but quickly grow until the ground underneath her begins to give way.

Annabel Smith, author of Whiskey and Charlie

Whiskey is everything his twin brother, Charlie, is not --- bold, daring, carefree --- and Charlie blames his brother for always stealing the limelight. When they were just boys, the secret language they whispered back and forth over their crackly walkie-talkies connected them. As the brothers grew up, they grew apart, and in their adulthood, they are barely even speaking to each other. When Charlie hears that Whiskey has been in a terrible accident, he can’t make sense of it. Who is he without Whiskey?

Susan Crawford, author of The Pocket Wife

Dana Catrell is shocked when her neighbor, Celia, is brutally murdered. To Dana’s horror, she was the last person to see Celia alive. Suffering from mania, the result of her bipolar disorder, she has troubling holes in her memory, including what happened on the afternoon of Celia’s death. The closer she comes to piecing together the shards of her broken memory, the more she falls apart. Is there a murderer lurking inside of Dana...or is there one out there in the shadows of reality, waiting to strike again?

Greer Macallister, author of The Magician's Lie

The Amazing Arden is the most famous female illusionist of her day, renowned for her notorious trick of sawing a man in half on stage. One night in Waterloo, Iowa, with young policeman Virgil Holt watching from the audience, she swaps her trademark saw for a fire ax. Is it a new version of the illusion, or an all-too-real murder? When Arden's husband is found lifeless beneath the stage later that night, the answer seems clear, and she has only one night to convince a small-town policeman of her innocence.

Garth Stein, author of A Sudden Light

In the summer of 1990, 14-year-old Trevor Riddell gets his first glimpse of Riddell House. The legendary mansion is built of giant, whole trees, and Trevor’s father --- in a trial separation with his wife --- wants to sell it. Trevor soon discovers the ghost burdened by the final wishes of the Riddell patriarch, Elijah: that the mansion is returned to untamed forestland as penance for the trees harvested by the Riddell Timber Company. Trevor’s willingness to face the past holds the key to his family’s future.

Wayne Harrison, author of The Spark and the Drive

Justin Bailey is 17 when he arrives at the shop of legendary muscle car mechanic Nick Campbell. Anguished and out of place among the students at his rural Connecticut high school, Justin finds in Nick, his captivating wife Mary Ann, and their world of miraculous machines the sense of family he has struggled to find at home. But when Nick and Mary Ann’s lives are struck by tragedy, Justin’s own world is upended.

Rosie Thomas, author of The Illusionists

Over the course of a brilliant career, bestselling novelist Rosie Thomas has earned an untold number of awards and the devotion of millions of loyal readers. Her new novel, THE ILLUSIONISTS, set in London in 1870, is a thrilling step forward --- a captivating tale of passion and intrigue in the theater world.

Pia Padukone, author of Where Earth Meets Water

Karom Seth should have been in the Twin Towers on the morning of 9/11, and on the Indian shores in 2004, when the tsunami swept his entire family into the ocean. Karom can’t be sure if it’s a curse or a blessing, but his absence from these disasters has left him with crushing guilt --- and a belief that fate has singled him out for invincibility. Will he ever be able achieve the clarity he’s been looking for all these years?

Nickolas Butler, author of Shotgun Lovesongs

Hank, Leland, Kip and Ronny were all born and raised in the same Wisconsin town --- Little Wing --- and are now coming into their own (or not) as husbands and fathers. Seamlessly woven into their patchwork is Beth, whose presence among them --- both then and now --- fuels the kind of passion one comes to expect of lovesongs and rivalries. Now all four are home, in hopes of finding what could be real purchase in the world.

Rosie Thomas, author of The Kashmir Shawl

During World War II, Nerys Watkins accompanies her husband on a missionary posting to India. When he leaves her in the exotic lakeside city of Srinagar to take on a complicated mission, Nerys discovers a new world --- and by the time she is reunited with him, she is a different woman. Years later, when Mair Ellis clears out her dead father's house, she finds an exquisite shawl. Tracing her grandparents' roots back to Kashmir, Mair embarks on a quest that will change her life forever.

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