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PLEASE NOTE: There will be no "On Sale This Week" newsletter on December 23rd or December 30th as we pause to celebrate the holidays, so we are covering releases from now through the week of January 5th in this edition. Our next newsletter will be sent on January 6th. Wishing you Happy Holidays and a wonderful New Year!
In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of December 15th, December 29th and January 5th that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers, along with Bonus News, where we call out a contest, feature or review that we want to let you know about so you have it on your radar.
This week, we are calling attention to our End-of-the-Year contest featuring Carol Fitzgerald’s Bookreporter.com Bets On picks from 2025. One Grand Prize winner will be awarded all 42 books, while seven other readers will receive six of these titles. The deadline for your entries is Monday, January 12th at noon ET.
In Friday's Bookreporter Weekly Update newsletter, we will share Carol's year-end Bets On video, where she talks about her 2025 Bets On selections and why she loved them so much. It also will be available as a podcast.
First row: Carol Fitzgerald, Tom Donadio, Rebecca Munro, Pamela Kramer
Second row: Bronwyn Miller, Stuart Shiffman, Harvey Freedenberg, Norah Piehl
Third row: Megan Elliott, Sarah Rachel Egelman
Last Wednesday evening, we hosted our year-end “Bookaccino Live” event featuring eight Bookreporter reviewers: Sarah Rachel Egelman, Megan Elliott, Harvey Freedenberg, Pamela Kramer, Bronwyn Miller, Rebecca Munro, Norah Piehl and Stuart Shiffman. Each talked about two of their favorite books of 2025.
Kate Ayers and Ray Palen, who have appeared on previous programs, were not able to join us live. But we showed Ray’s presentation on video, and we shared Kate’s picks, along with brief excerpts from her reviews of those books.
We loved hearing about the books that especially resonated with these reviewers. Their enthusiasm showed in their presentations, all of which were fabulous!
Pictured above are Carol; our Editorial Director, Tom Donadio; and our reviewers as we appeared on Zoom “Brady Bunch”-style.
We also asked all of our reviewers to provide us with a list of their favorite books from 2025. Included is a mix of fiction and nonfiction titles, all published for the first time this year.
Here are some of their top fiction and nonfiction picks (alphabetically by title):
Fiction
Nonfiction
See which of their selections you agree or disagree with --- and which titles you may want to add to your 2026 reading list.
This is the time of year when “Best Of” lists are everywhere. These annual roundups always seem to spark lively discussions among readers as they reflect on their favorite books of the year. We’ve compiled a number of them for you here.
See which of your top picks appear on these lists and which titles you feel should've been included but weren't. Perhaps you’ll even find some books to add to your reading list as we head into the new year!
Our final Holiday Cheer prize book is ORDER OF SWANS by Jude Deveraux, which is now available in paperback. In this spellbinding, fantasy-rich romance, a woman is swept into a world where she has the power to alter fairy tales and change a kingdom’s destiny.
The 24-hour contest is now up, so be sure to enter for your chance to win one of five copies. The deadline for your entries is TOMORROW, Wednesday, December 17th at noon ET.
Our first “Bookaccino Live” book preview event of 2026 will take place on Wednesday, January 14th at 2pm ET. Carol will present books releasing between January 13th and February 3rd, as well as some March titles, that we think will appeal to you. Those attending the live event will be asked to answer a survey about the books from the presentation that they are most interested in reading and will be eligible to win a prize.
P.S. For those of you who shop online, if you use the store links that appear on our site for shopping, Bookreporter.com gets a small affiliate fee on your purchases from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and IndieBound. As you read our reviews and features, we would appreciate your considering this as you buy!
This Week's Bonus News:
Enter to Win Our End-of-the-Year Celebration,
Featuring All 42 "Bets On" Titles from 2025
We are thrilled to announce our End-of-the-Year contest featuring Carol Fitzgerald's Bookreporter.com Bets On picks from 2025. One Grand Prize winner will be awarded all 42 books, while seven other readers will receive six of these titles.
To enter, all you have to do is fill out this form by Monday, January 12th at noon ET. Please enter only once. All duplicate entries will be deleted.
Here are this year's Bets On selections:
Click here to enter the contest.
Upcoming Virtual Book and Author Events
Here are seven upcoming virtual book and author events that you may be interested in attending. Click on the links for more info and to register.
Wednesday, December 17th at 7pm ET: “Friends & Fiction”: Join “Friends & Fiction” for a conversation with Jacquelyn Mitchard about her latest book, THE BIRDWATCHER. This page-turning drama explores the beauty of female friendship; the relationship between money, power and sex; and the very human desire to protect the ones we love most.
Wednesday, December 17th at 8pm ET: PBS Books Readers Club: PBS Books Readers Club celebrates the wrap of their second season with a highlight of their favorite author moments and books from 2025.
Sunday, January 4th at 6pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Brad Meltzer will talk about the third installment in his Zig & Nola series, THE VIPER, which unravels a shocking cold case with a personal --- and deadly --- twist.
Monday, January 5th at 9pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: S. J. Rozan will talk about the latest entry in her groundbreaking mystery series, FIRST DO NO HARM. Lydia Chin and Bill Smith face a dangerous task: they must unlock a hospital's many secrets in order to save an innocent man.
Tuesday, January 6th at 3pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Laura Dave will talk to special guest host Riley Sager about her new novel, THE FIRST TIME I SAW HIM, which continues Hannah Hall’s pulse-pounding journey in this riveting and deeply moving sequel to THE LAST THING HE TOLD ME.
Tuesday, January 6th at 8pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: In a special preview event before the book's official publication on January 27th, Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child will talk about PENDERGAST: THE BEGINNING, which is all about Agent Pendergast's origin story.
Tuesday, January 6th at 9pm ET: Killer Author Club: Kimberly Belle, Heather Gudenkauf and Kaira Rouda will talk to John Marrs about his latest thriller, DEAD IN THE WATER, a chilling tale about life flashing before your eyes --- including terrifying scenes you don’t remember.
On Sale the Week of December 15th in Hardcover
December 16th
THE RED SCARE MURDERS by Con Lehane (Historical/Noir Mystery)
July 1950: Mick Mulligan has just hung out his shingle as a private investigator in New York’s sweaty Hell’s Kitchen. A former Hollywood cartoonist who was blacklisted during a communist witch hunt, Mick is in need of a paying gig to make his child support payments. But maybe not this gig. Last year, universally reviled cab company owner Irwin Johnson was murdered. One of his drivers, an African American Communist Party member named Harold Williams, was arrested, tried and found guilty, despite scant evidence. Now his execution date is two weeks away. New York City labor leader Duke Rogowski asks Mick to find fresh evidence that might buy Harold a stay of execution. Lots of people might have wanted Irwin dead, but no one has any reason to help Mick exonerate Harold. Yet Mick can’t abandon a potentially innocent man to the electric chair. Can he pull off a miracle?
Soho Crime | 9781641297202
W. E. B. GRIFFIN DIRECT ACTION: A Presidential Agent Novel by Jack Stewart (Thriller/Adventure)
Charley Castillo, the original Presidential Agent, is in Virginia Beach to visit his son when two gunmen appear. Charley is able to thwart a deadly mass shooting, but he is hit and badly injured. Meanwhile, Pick McCoy is at the Naval Academy catching up with some old friends. When news of the attack reaches him, he senses that this is no random event. While Charley clings to life, Pick searches for the men responsible and in the process uncovers a deadly plot that threatens to strike deep at the heart of American democracy.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9798217046386
On Sale the Week of December 15th in Paperback
December 16th
THE #1 LAWYER by James Patterson and Nancy Allen (Legal Thriller)
Stafford Lee Penney is a small-town lawyer with a big-time reputation for winning every case he tries. In his sharp suits and polished Oxford shoes, Penney is Biloxi, Mississippi’s #1 Lawyer and top local celebrity. Just as Penney notches his latest courtroom victory, his wife is scandalously killed. He spirals into a legal and personal losing streak, damaging his reputation and ruining his career. That’s when Penney makes a bold decision. He stops trading on his power-lawyer identity and creates a new one: lawyer lifeguard. Moonlighting at the beach, showing up to court in flip-flops, and mentoring a law student, the new Penney is at first unrecognizable. It’s said that a lawyer who represents himself has a fool for a client. But when Penney is accused of murder, the #1 Lawyer will find a way to triumph.
Little, Brown and Company | 9781538753125
BECOMING TED by Matt Cain (Fiction)
If Ted Ainsworth were to compare himself to one of the ice cream flavors made by his family’s company, it might be vanilla --- sweet, inoffensive and pleasantly predictable. At 43, Ted is convinced there’s nothing remotely remarkable about him, except perhaps his luck in having landed handsome, charismatic Giles as a husband. Then Giles suddenly leaves him for another man, filling his social media feed with posts about #newlove and adventure. And Ted, who has spent nearly 20 years living with, and often for, another person, must reimagine the future he has happily taken for granted. But perhaps there is another Ted slowly blossoming now that he’s no longer in Giles’ shadow --- one who is funny, sassy and more uninhibited. Someone willing to take chances on new friendships and even new love.
A John Scognamiglio Book | 9781496745958
A CURSE OF ASHES by Sariah Wilson (Fantasy/Romance)
Paperback Original
Princess Lia of Locris is the unlikeliest person to be Ilion’s defender. Once, she’d have gladly seen the entire adversarial nation burn. But much has changed. Ilion is home to too many innocents, including her sister. Besides, there is no escaping the goddess’s command. Lia is Ilion’s prophesied savior. With that mortal obligation come rules: She must never consummate her marriage to Xander, prince of Ilion, lest she lose her powers of divine magic when she needs them most. Physically bonded to share each other’s pain, these former enemies have grown from merely attracted to something more profound. But what future can they have when Lia’s destiny requires sacrificing her life? As enemies close in and war threatens everything they love, Lia and Xander must find a way to follow the goddess’s laws while also accepting the truth in their hearts.
Montlake | 9781662534195
THE FORGER’S REQUIEM by Bradford Morrow (Literary Thriller)
Assaulted and presumed dead by his longtime nemesis, Will, literary forger Henry Slader awakens in a shallow grave. He exhumes himself and sets out to exact revenge on his rival, orchestrate Will’s downfall, and make a fortune along the way --- armed with a devastating secret about Will’s past. Slader quickly draws in Will’s daughter, Nicole, wielding his threats against her father to blackmail her into forging inscriptions by such authors as Poe, Hemingway, James Joyce and Gertrude Stein. As Nicole’s skill grows, so does her devotion to --- and doubts about --- her father’s integrity, until she commits the ultimate betrayal for the sake of his freedom. She forges a suite of brilliantly convincing and surpassingly valuable letters by FRANKENSTEIN author Mary Shelley --- planting within them the seeds of Slader’s doom.
Atlantic Crime | 9780802166517
THE NEW INTERNATIONALS by David Wright Faladé (Historical Fiction)
Paris, 1947. Recovering from the Nazi occupation, the city suffers from an economy in shambles and an unraveled social fabric. Cecile Rosenbaum, from a bourgeois Jewish family that has lost everything, meets Minette Traoré, a feisty, French-born girl of Senegalese descent, on the bus to a Communist Youth Conference. There, she also meets Sebastien Danxomè, an aspiring architecture student from West Africa, and romance blooms. Back in Paris, Cecile and Sebastien find their budding love muddied by confused loyalties and unyielding cultural traditions. When Mack Gray, a charming African-American GI, sets his sights on Cecile, her complicated relationship with Sebastien, as well as her fierce dedication to her newfound political ideologies, are pushed to the brink.
Grove Press | 9780802166524
YOUR PRESENCE IS MANDATORY by Sasha Vasilyuk (Historical Fiction)
Ukraine, 2007. War veteran Yefim Shulman was beloved by his children, wife and coworkers. But in the days after his death, his widow, Nina, finds a letter to the KGB in his briefcase. Yefim had a lifelong secret, and his confession forces Nina and her children to reassess the husband, father and grandfather they thought they knew and the bonds they'd formed with him and each other. Following one family over the course of 70 years and three generations, Sasha Vasilyuk shines a light into the shadowy corners of a marriage marred by secrecy and the sacrifices people make to survive.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781639737253
On Sale the Week of December 29th in Hardcover
December 30th
AIN'T NOBODY'S FOOL: The Life and Times of Dolly Parton by Martha Ackmann (Biography)
From her impoverished childhood in the Smoky Mountains to international stardom as a singer, songwriter, actress, businesswoman and philanthropist, Dolly Parton has exceeded everyone's expectations except her own. AIN’T NOBODY’S FOOL is a deep dive into the social, historical and personal forces that made Dolly Parton one of the most beloved and unifying figures in public life and includes interviews with friends, family members, school mates, Nashville neighbors, members of her band, studio musicians, producers and many others. It also features never-before-seen photographs and unearthed documents shedding light on her family's hardscrabble life.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250286857
THE REST OF OUR LIVES by Ben Markovits (Fiction)
When Tom Layward’s wife had an affair 12 years ago, he resolved to leave her as soon as his youngest child left the nest. Now, while driving his college-bound daughter to Pittsburgh, he remembers his promise to himself. He is also on the run from his own health issues and a forced leave from work. So, rather than returning to his wife in Westchester, Tom keeps driving west, with the vague plan of visiting people from his past --- an old college friend, his ex-girlfriend, his brother, his son --- en route, maybe, to California. He’s moving towards a future he hasn’t even envisioned yet while he considers his past and the choices he’s made that have brought him to this particular present.
S&S/Summit Books | 9781668231562
On Sale the Week of December 29th in Paperback
December 30th
AN ARCANE INHERITANCE by Kamilah Cole (Dark Fantasy/Romance)
Paperback Original
Ellory Morgan is determined to prove that she belongs at Warren University, an ivy league school whose history is deeply linked to occult rumors and dark secrets. But as she settles into her freshman year, something about the ornate buildings and shadowy paths feels strangely…familiar. And, with every passing day, that sense of déjà vu grows increasingly sinister. Despite all logic, despite all reason, despite all the rules of reality, Ellory knows one thing to be true: she has been here before. And if she can't convince brooding legacy student Hudson Graves to help her remember a past that seems determined to slip through her fingers as if by some insidious magic…this time, she may lose herself for good.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464216909
BEAUTIFUL UGLY by Alice Feeney (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Author Grady Green is having the worst best day of his life. Grady calls his wife to share some exciting news as she is driving home. He hears Abby slam on the brakes, get out of the car, then nothing. When he eventually finds her car by the cliff edge, the headlights are on, the driver door is open, her phone is still there…but his wife has disappeared. A year later, Grady is still overcome with grief and desperate to know what happened to Abby. He can’t sleep, and he can’t write, so he travels to a tiny Scottish island to try to get his life back on track. Then he sees the impossible --- a woman who looks exactly like his missing wife.
Flatiron Books: Pine & Cedar | 9781250337801
FAR FROM HOME by Danielle Steel (Historical Fiction)
In July 1944, Arielle von Auspeck arrives at the glamorous Hotel Ritz in occupied Paris. Half French, half German, she is happy to be back in France, where her husband, Gregor, a retired colonel, will join her soon from Germany. But then she receives word that Gregor was part of Operation Valkyrie, a failed attempt to assassinate Hitler in Poland, and has been shot as a traitor. Now, she is whisked away from Paris under cover of darkness for her own safety. As the Allies storm the beaches, she goes into hiding in a small village in Normandy under an assumed name. There, she forms a friendship with Sebastien Renaud, whose wife and daughter were deported in 1941, and who eventually reveals himself as a forger in the Resistance. As war rages on, Arielle and Sebastien work for the Resistance and hold out for the time when they can search for their loved ones.
Dell | 9798217095650
THE INHERITANCE by Trisha Sakhlecha (Psychological Thriller)
The Agarwals have gathered on a private, luxury island for a much-anticipated family reunion. Raj, a business tycoon, is about to announce to his wife and three children the succession plan for his multimillion-dollar Delhi-based company. Shalini is ready to have her husband to herself after years of sacrifice to the family business. Myra, owner of the island and host of the reunion, is (unbeknownst to her family) on the brink of bankruptcy. Aseem, the supposed heir, is torn between his love for his wife and his duty to family. Aisha, a party girl whose antics are legendary, can’t pass up an opportunity to wreak havoc. And then there’s Zoe, Aseem’s wife, the outsider whose #InstaPerfect life is built on a foundation of lies. They all have secrets they would die to protect. Who will survive this high-stakes reunion, and who will become a victim of their own greed?
Penguin Books | 9780593832936
THE LIST OF SUSPICIOUS THINGS by Jennie Godfrey (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
It’s 1979 in Yorkshire, England, and 12-year-old Miv is panicking. Life has been complicated since her mom got sick, and now her dad is talking about wanting to move their family away from the town Miv has lived in her whole life --- because of the murders. Young women are dying, and no one knows who the culprit might be. But as far as Miv is concerned, leaving Yorkshire and her best friend, Sharon, simply isn't an option. Perhaps if she could solve the case of the disappearing women, they could stay after all. So Miv and Sharon decide to make a list: a list of all the suspicious people and things on their street. But their search for the truth reveals more secrets in their neighborhood, within their families --- and between each other --- than they ever thought possible.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781464249051
THE NIGHT GUEST written by Hildur Knútsdóttir, translated by Mary Robinette Kowal (Psychological Thriller/Horror)
Iðunn is in yet another doctor's office. She knows her constant fatigue is a sign that something is not right, but practitioners dismiss her symptoms and blood tests haven't revealed any cause. When she talks to friends and family about it, the refrain is the same: Have you tried eating better? Exercising more? Establishing a nighttime routine? She tries to follow their advice, buying everything from vitamins to sleeping pills to a step-counting watch. Nothing helps. Until one night Iðunn falls asleep with the watch on and wakes up to find she has walked over 40,000 steps in the night. What is happening when she’s asleep? Why is she waking up with increasingly disturbing injuries? And why won’t anyone believe her?
Tor Nightfire | 9781250876317
THE PLAYERS by Minette Walters (Historical Fiction)
England, 1685. Decades after the end of the English Civil War, the country is once again divided when Charles II's illegitimate son, the Protestant Duke of Monmouth, arrives in Dorset to incite rebellion against his Catholic uncle. Armed only with pitchforks, Monmouth's army is quickly defeated by King James II's superior forces and charged with high treason. Those found guilty will be hanged, drawn and quartered. As Dorset braces for carnage, the formidable Lady Jayne Harrier and her enigmatic son, assisted by the reclusive daughter of a local magistrate, contrive ways to save men from the gallows.
Blackstone Publishing | 9798228569355
RUN FOR YOUR LIFE, CALLIE KINGMAN by Alli Frank and Asha Youmans (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Two decades have passed since Callie Kingman begrudgingly followed her husband, Thomas, across the country in pursuit of his career at the expense of her own. Today, Callie is an empty nester with no job prospects, a declining mother, and a spouse who announces his intention to leave her --- in Sacramento, the dullest city in America. His parting potshot: “It’s not me, it’s you.” Taking to bed, Callie relies on delivery for food, her neighbor for booze, and her college best friend for commiseration. When an overdue annual exam leads to a health scare, Callie is forced to contend with her fractured and unfulfilled life by revisiting the vibrant, indomitable woman she used to be.
Montlake | 9781662514814
TILT by Emma Pattee (Fiction)
Annie is nine months pregnant and shopping for a crib at IKEA when a massive earthquake hits Portland, Oregon. With no way to reach her husband, no phone or money, and a city left in chaos, there’s nothing to do but walk. Making her way across the wreckage of Portland, Annie experiences human desperation and kindness: strangers offering help, a riot at a grocery store, and an unlikely friendship with a young mother. As she walks, Annie reflects on her struggling marriage, her disappointing career, and her anxiety about having a baby. If she can just make it home, she’s determined to change her life.
Scribner | 9781668055489
January 1st
HER BEAUTIFUL LIFE by Brianna Labuskes (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
When journalist Holland Tate is granted an interview with Catriona Bouchard, her former best friend turned mega-popular tradwife, she jumps at the chance to also possibly rewrite their bitter ending. But at the Bouchards’ gated compound, what she finds is not the independent woman she once knew. Cat may have six beautiful children and be married to the man she calls the love of her life, but she’s a ghost of her former self. With each passing hour behind those locked gates, Holland uncovers dark secrets, darker obsessions and hidden motives that shine a new light on the events that ended their friendship. Even as danger mounts, Cat sticks to the narrative she’s selling: She lives a perfect life with her perfect husband. Holland came to the compound to get the killer story behind that glossy image. Now all she cares about is getting out of there alive.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781662527456
THE WATER LIES by Amy Meyerson (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Heavily pregnant with her second child, Tessa Irons has enough on her mind without her toddler throwing tantrums at the local coffee shop. The boy is inconsolable, shouting “Gigi!” to a woman Tessa has never seen before --- and never will again. The next morning, the woman’s body is dredged up from the canal outside the Ironses’ posh Venice Beach home, and Tessa’s gut tells her it’s no coincidence. Barb Geller refuses to believe that her daughter’s death was just some drunken accident. She heads to California for answers, where she crosses paths with Tessa. Together they hunt for the truth, certain they’ll find a connection between their children. But the police don’t believe them. Tessa and Barb only have each other, their intuition, and the creeping sense of danger that grows with every shocking revelation.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781662531989
On Sale the Week of January 5th in Hardcover
January 5th
THE INVISIBLE WOMAN by James Patterson and Susan DiLallo (Psychological Thriller)
Elinor Gilbert was once a young woman with a thriving career at the FBI. Now decades past solving crimes with the bureau, she is personally and professionally forgettable. Which is exactly what her former FBI boss needs. He disguises Elinor as a middle-aged nanny, and casts her as an agent on the inside of his investigation into a New York art dealer suspected of ties to organized crime. But as Elinor pushes toward the truth, her superpower --- anonymity --- morphs into a fatal flaw. The more the invisible woman integrates into her “host” family, the more dangerously memorable she becomes.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316587075
January 6th
ADVANCE BRITANNIA: The Epic Story of the Second World War, 1942-1945 by Alan Allport (History)
By 1942, Winston Churchill found himself facing a vastly different war than the one he’d inherited from Neville Chamberlain back in 1940. In the East, the Soviets were now a co-belligerent (if not exactly a firm ally). And the aid he’d so longed for from across the Atlantic had finally arrived, when Pearl Harbor pushed America to end its “dithering and buggering about.” But with Parliament and the public losing faith in him, Churchill had to manage a war that now stretched into the Pacific and Indian Oceans, threatening Britain’s colonies, all the while negotiating a new relationship with Roosevelt and Stalin --- two jostling, unpredictable comrades-in-arms fully prepared to carve up the world to their own satisfaction. In this sequel to his prizewinning BRITAIN AT BAY, Alan Allport completes his superlative history of Britain’s role in World War II.
Knopf | 9780451494764
THE ARCHITECT OF NEW YORK written by Javier Moro, translated by Peter J. Hearn (Historical Fiction)
Architect Rafael Guastavino's signature vaulted tile ceilings revolutionized Gilded Age New York City. The Oyster Bar in Grand Central, the Prospect Park Boathouse, and the iconic Old City Hall subway station are among his masterpieces. But while his works continue to imbue the city with the glamour of a bygone era, the man himself has been largely forgotten. Told through the eyes of Guastavino's son and business partner, Rafael Jr., Javier Moro's magnetic prose brings to life the remarkable rags-to-riches journey of this influential immigrant family. Guastavino was a stubborn man, enamored of his own sense of destiny, but he also was a deeply compassionate father, as committed to his family as he was to his work, and equally defined by his successes in the latter realm as by his failures in the former.
Counterpoint | 9781640097469
FIRST DO NO HARM: A Lydia Chin/Bill Smith Mystery by S. J. Rozan (Mystery)
With River Valley Hospital in the midst of negotiations to avert a nurses' strike, a wealthy benefactor is set to give a large donation in honor of the Chief of Emergency Medicine: Dr. Elliott Chin, the brother of private investigator Lydia Chin. Before the donation can be finalized, a member of the nurses' negotiating committee is found murdered. A morgue assistant is arrested, and his father and brother, both doctors at the hospital, are quick to urge him to take a plea. Another negotiating committee member abruptly resigns, and a senior biomedical technician disappears. An officially off-limits section of the hospital basement turns out to be a hotbed of unauthorized --- and, in some cases, criminal --- activity. Hired by the arrested man's lawyer, Lydia Chin and her partner, Bill Smith, start to dig into the events and personnel at the hospital.
Pegasus Crime | 9798897100323
THE FIRST TIME I SAW HIM by Laura Dave (Domestic Thriller/Mystery)
Five years after her husband, Owen, disappeared, Hannah Hall and her stepdaughter, Bailey, have settled into a new life in Southern California. Together, they've forged a relationship with Bailey's grandfather, Nicholas, and are putting the past behind them. But when Owen shows up at Hannah's new exhibition, she knows that she and Bailey are in danger again. As a thrilling drama unfolds, Hannah and Bailey are forced to go on the run in a relentless race to keep their past from catching up with them. Hannah risks everything to get Bailey to safety --- and finds there just might be one way back to Owen.
Scribner | 9781668002964
HOMESCHOOLED: A Memoir by Stefan Merrill Block (Memoir)
Stefan Merrill Block was nine when his mother pulled him from school, certain that his teachers were “stifling his creativity.” Hungry for more time with her boy, she began to instruct Stefan in the family’s living room. Beyond his formal lessons in math, however, Stefan was largely left to his own devices and his mother’s erratic whims, such as her project to recapture her 12-year-old son's early years by bleaching his hair and putting him on a crawling regimen. Years before homeschooling would become a massive nationwide movement, at a time when it had just become legal in his home state of Texas, Stefan vanished into that unseen space and into his mother’s increasingly eccentric theories and projects. But when, after five years away from the outside world, Stefan reentered the public school system in Plano as a freshman, he was in for a jarring awakening.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335000989
JACKSON ALONE written by Jose Ando, translated by Kalau Almony (Thriller)
Nobody at the corporate offices of Athletius Japan knows much about the massage therapist Jackson. But rumors abound. He used to work as a model. He likes to party. He’s mixed race --- half-Japanese, half-somewhere-in-Africa-n. He might be gay. Fueling the gossip is the sudden appearance of a violent pornographic video featuring a man who looks a lot like Jackson. When Jackson serendipitously meets three other queer mixed-race guys, he learns he’s not the only one being targeted. Together they concoct a plan: find out who’s responsible and, in the meantime, switch identities and play tricks on people --- a boyfriend, a boss --- who’ve wronged them, exploiting the fact that nobody can seem to tell them apart.
Soho Crime | 9781641296366
MEET THE NEWMANS by Jennifer Niven (Historical Fiction)
For two decades, Del and Dinah Newman and their sons, Guy and Shep, have ruled television as America’s Favorite Family. Millions of viewers tune in every week to watch them play flawless, black-and-white versions of themselves. But now it’s 1964, and the Newmans’ idealized apple-pie perfection suddenly feels woefully out of touch. Ratings are in free fall, as are the Newmans themselves. Del is keeping an explosive secret from his wife, and Dinah is slowly going numb --- literally. Steady, stable Guy is hiding the truth about his love life, and the charmed luck of rock ‘n’ roll idol Shep may have finally run out. When Del is in a mysterious car accident, Dinah hires Juliet Dunne, an outspoken, impassioned young reporter, to help her write the final episode. But Dinah and Juliet have wildly different perspectives about what it means to be a woman, and a family, in 1964.
Flatiron Books | 9781250372444
ORDER OF ROYALS by Jude Deveraux (Fantasy/Romance)
Princess Aradella is trapped in the iron grip of her evil and powerful aunt, Queen Olina. Navigating the treacherous waters of political machinations and familial duties, Aradella discovers allies in unexpected places, including Tanek, a swansman with his own mysterious connections. Set in a world where royalty, magic and mythical beings coexist, Aradella’s path is intertwined with that of Kaley Arens, an Earthling who becomes deeply entangled in the planet’s intricate social hierarchy, as she is faced with a choice between her homeland and newfound love. As Aradella and her companions uncover dark secrets and hidden agendas, they embark on an adventure filled with loyalty, romance and courage, where the lines between magic and reality blur, but where love has the power to transform destinies.
Mira | 9780778305798
THE RECKONING: A Renata Drake Thriller by Kelli Stanley (Historical Thriller/Mystery)
California, Southern Humboldt County, 1985. Renata Drake steps off a Greyhound bus and into small-town Garberville, hoping to disappear. But she’s made a mistake. The FBI has the cannabis-producing “Emerald Triangle” town --- and its corrupt residents --- in their sights. Even worse, a teenage girl is missing. And when she turns up dead, the third in three years, it’s clear a serial killer is living among them. Renata knows about murdered girls and the burning desire for justice --- and for revenge. Her younger sister, Josie, is gone, and now so is the man who killed her. Renata didn’t stay in Washington, D.C. to be arrested for executing a murderer, and she shouldn’t stay here either. But Renata decides to investigate, and what she uncovers will trigger a final reckoning: for herself, for a killer, and for all of Southern Humboldt.
Severn House | 9781448317547
RETURN OF THE MALTESE FALCON by Max Allan Collins (Hard-boiled Historical Mystery)
Legendary mystery writer Dashiell Hammett only wrote one novel about detective Sam Spade: THE MALTESE FALCON, the most famous private-eye story ever told. But the case was never really solved. The priceless golden, bejeweled bird that men and women had been dying to possess turned out to be a fake. Now, Max Allan Collins brings closure to this crime classic, reuniting all the surviving members of the original cast alongside femme fatales, crooked collectors and greedy gangsters for one more thrilling, deadly chase through the streets, wharves, morgues, bars and back alleys of 1920s San Francisco --- and finally answers the question: Whatever became of the Maltese falcon?
Hard Case Crime | 9781835414873
THE RIGHT TO REMAIN: A Jack Swyteck Novel by James Grippando (Legal Thriller)
Miami criminal defense lawyer Jack Swyteck’s client, Elliott Stafford, has been indicted for murder but has gone silent. He won’t talk to the judge, his girlfriend, or even the attorney fighting for his life. There seems to be no medical or psychological reason for his silence. To some, it’s an act of protest against a broken criminal justice system. Jack doesn’t buy it. Undeterred by the hoopla and calls to walk away, he keeps his client and tries his best to save Elliott from himself. As he digs for facts, Jack discovers a much more disturbing reason for Elliott’s silence. Virtually everything Elliott told Jack before the indictment is proving false, including Elliot’s criminal history, family turmoil and secret past. As Jack plunges deeper, he comes to believe that Elliott isn’t trying to hide his own guilt. He may be protecting someone else --- and the stakes could not be higher.
Harper | 9780063358119
RINGS OF FATE: Curses and Crowns, Book 1 by Melissa de la Cruz
(Fantasy/Romance)
Aren Bellamore has no interest in being anyone’s princess. She’s too busy running the Raven’s Beak tavern, fending off unwanted marriage proposals, and dreaming of escape. But when a brush with death and a dangerously handsome stranger upend her life, Aren finds herself bound to a bargain that could change everything. Prince Dietan has carried the cursed Rings of Fate --- ancient weapons of devastating power --- since childhood. The magic is killing him, and the enemies are closing in. To make the journey to reverse his curse, he needs a bride to hide his secrets. Aren wants freedom. Pretending to be his fiancée should give them both what they want. But as their perilous journey pits them against political schemes, monstrous Kilandrar, and a growing attraction neither can deny, the line between make-believe and destiny begins to blur.
Entangled: Red Tower Books | 9781649376954
ROOTS OF DARKNESS: The Ashen Series, Book 2.5 by Demi Winters (Historical Fantasy/Romance)
The Bloodaxe Crew have arrived at the village of Istré --- beleaguered and missing three of their members. They might be down in numbers, but Hekla “Rib Smasher” is determined they’ll complete their job all the same: defeat the monstrous, sentient mist and keep the citizens of Istré safe. What she didn’t expect is for Istré’s bullheaded chieftain to block her every move. Exasperated, Hekla throws caution to the wind for a single passion-filled night. But to her horror, the mysterious red-cloaked warrior to whom she’s spilled her deepest secrets is the Bloodaxe Crew’s new temporary leader and ally --- Eyvind Hakonsson. Hekla must now learn to play by Eyvind’s rules while guarding her heart. But when it becomes clear that his plans align with the chieftain’s, Hekla takes matters into her own hands.
Delacorte Press | 9798217299836
THE SHOP ON HIDDEN LANE by Jayne Ann Krentz (Romantic Suspense)
The Harper and the Wells families have regarded each other with deep suspicion for four generations. The Harpers have been known to offer their psychic talents for less-than-legal purposes, and the powerful Wells clan has a reputation for playing both sides of the street. But for all the years of history and distrust between them, there is a mysterious pact binding the two. They share the responsibility for protecting a long-buried and very dangerous secret. Sophy Harper and Luke Wells are shocked to learn that her aunt and his uncle have been sleeping together --- and now they are both missing. Not only that, but the last traces of them are at the scene of a murder soaked in negative paranormal energy. Clearly, someone is willing to kill to obtain the secret their families have been charged with protecting.
Berkley | 9798217187348
SKYLARK by Paula McLain (Historical Fiction)
SKYLARK chronicles two parallel journeys of defiance and rescue that connect in ways both surprising and deeply moving. 1664: Alouette Voland is the daughter of a master dyer at the famed Gobelin Tapestry Works, who secretly dreams of escaping her circumstances and creating her own masterpiece. When her father is unjustly imprisoned, Alouette's efforts to save him lead to her own confinement in the notorious Salpêtrière asylum, where thousands of women are held captive and cruelly treated. But within its grim walls, she discovers a small group of brave allies and the possibility of a life bigger than she ever imagined. 1939: Kristof Larson is a medical student beginning his psychiatric residency in Paris, whose neighbors on the Rue de Gobelins are a Jewish family who have fled Poland. When Nazi forces descend on the city, Kristof becomes their only hope for survival.
Atria Books | 9781668028155
THE STORM by Rachel Hawkins (Gothic Thriller)
St. Medard’s Bay, Alabama, is famous for three things: the deadly hurricanes that regularly sweep into town; the Rosalie Inn, a century-old hotel that’s survived every one of those storms; and Lo Bailey, the local girl infamously accused of the murder of her lover, political scion Landon Fitzroy, during Hurricane Marie in 1984. When Geneva Corliss, the current owner of the Rosalie Inn, hears that a writer is coming to town to research the crime that put St. Medard’s Bay on the map, she’s less interested in solving a whodunit than in how a successful true-crime book might help the struggling inn’s bottom line. But August Fletcher is accompanied by none other than Lo Bailey herself. Lo says she’s returned to her hometown to clear her name once and for all. But the closer Geneva gets to both Lo and August, the more she wonders if Lo is actually back to settle old scores.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250341884
THROUGH GATES OF GARNET AND GOLD by Seanan McGuire (Fantasy)
After Nancy was cast out of the Halls of the Dead and forced to enroll at Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children, she never believed she'd find her door again, and when she did, she didn't look back. She disappeared from the school to resume her place in the Halls, never intending to return. Years have passed. A darkness has descended on the Halls, and the living statues who populate them are dying at the hands of the already dead. The Lord and Lady who rule the land are helpless to stop the slaughter, forcing Nancy to leave the Halls again, this time on purpose, as she attempts to seek much-needed help from her former schoolmates. But who would volunteer to quest in a world where the dead roam freely? And why are the dead so intent on adding to their number?
Tordotcom | 9781250339409
TOM PAINE'S WAR: The Words That Rallied a Nation and the Founder for Our Time by Jack Kelly (History)
Two hundred and fifty years ago, the Declaration of Independence marked the birth of the United States. But two essays of that era appealed even more directly to Americans’ feelings. In January 1776, Thomas Paine --- a recent immigrant to America --- published Common Sense. His straightforward argument upended the fraud of monarchy and dismantled the idea of aristocratic privilege that had dominated the world for centuries. He turned a rebellion over taxes and representation into a true Revolution. Having inspired patriots to declare their independence, Paine enlisted as a militia private. He saw Washington’s army suffer grievous defeats. He slogged through the mud with retreating troops to Pennsylvania. There, he wrote The American Crisis, the most stirring rallying cry in our history. It began: “These are the times that try men’s souls…”
St. Martin's Press | 9781250331939
THE VIPER: A Zig & Nola Novel by Brad Meltzer (Thriller)
Andrew Fechmeier is a master at hiding. He’s spent decades concealing a secret that could get him killed. So when he’s diagnosed with a terminal disease, he heads for the local funeral home carrying the blue suit he eventually wants to be buried in. But what no one knows is that Fechmeier secretly tucked something inside, turning the suit into a final, untraceable hiding spot. It's a perfect plan. Until Fetch is brutally murdered by a mysterious killer who will stop at nothing to find the priceless object hidden in the suit. Wasting no time, the cunning but unconventional Roddy LaPointe opens an investigation into Fetch’s murder, recruiting help from his friend, the brilliant “Zig” Zigarowski. But it doesn’t take long for Zig to discover the real reason Roddy cares so much about this case: Fetch’s death is tied to Roddy’s mother, who was murdered decades earlier.
William Morrow | 9780062892430
WHAT BOYS LEARN by Andromeda Romano-Lax (Psychological Thriller)
Over one terrible weekend, two teenage girls are found dead in a wealthy Chicago suburb. As the community mourns, Abby Rosso, the girls’ high school counselor, begins to suspect that her son was secretly involved in their lives --- and possibly their deaths. Abby doesn’t want to believe Benjamin hurt anyone. But she’s seen the warning signs before. Two decades ago, her brother was imprisoned for a disturbing crime --- he was only a little older than Benjamin is now. And Abby has more troubling memories from her own adolescence that confirm what boys and men are capable of. As Abby searches for the truth about what happened to her students, she’s forced to face the question: Has she been making excuses for Benjamin for years?
Soho Crime | 9781641296915
WILDWOOD by Amy Pease (Mystery/Thriller)
Deputy Sheriff Eli North has spent the last year getting his life back together. He hasn’t touched a drop of alcohol, he’s working through his PTSD from his military deployment, and he’s repairing his most important relationships. When an undercover informant disappears and all signs point to murder, Eli must expose the dark underbelly of his idyllic Wisconsin small town while safeguarding his newfound stability. Then, with the unexpected arrival of FBI Agent Alyssa Mason, Eli and his mother, the sheriff, are pulled deeper into a violent criminal network built on the backs of the lost and forgotten. As the case deepens, loyalties fracture and the line between justice and survival begins to blur. In a town where everyone has something to hide, exposing the truth may cost them everything.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781668078723
WRECK YOUR HEART by Lori Rader-Day (Mystery)
As part of Chicago’s country music scene, Dahlia “Doll” Devine is an up-and-coming singer of classic country tunes. That is, until her boyfriend up and went, taking the rent money with him. So Dahlia is relying on Alex McPhee --- again. Alex helped her out of a bad situation when she was a kid living rough with her mother. Now he’s part landlord, part band booster, all-around rescuer. Just as Dahlia suspects she’s scraped rock bottom, the mother she hasn’t spoken to in 20 years shows up with something to say. The next morning, a distraught young woman arrives at the bar, asking after her missing mother --- Dahlia's mother, too. When a body is discovered outside McPhee’s Tavern, the crime threatens not just the place Dahlia has made into a home, but everything she’s believed about her past and her dreams for the future.
Minotaur Books | 9781250393739
On Sale the Week of January 5th in Paperback
January 6th
BLOOD TIES written by Jo Nesbø, translated by Robert Ferguson (Noir Thriller)
By all accounts, Carl and Roy Opgard are doing quite well for themselves. Or at least they’re doing as well as can be expected in a small town like Os. Carl manages the area’s swanky and successful spa and hotel, while Roy runs a nearby gas station and harbors grand plans to build it out into an entire amusement park, complete with a rollercoaster. But when news breaks about a new highway to be built nearby, bypassing Os and leaving the town cut off and isolated, it’s clear that something has to be done…even if the methods are bound to be dirty. Fortunately, Carl and Roy have experience with just that kind of work. Meanwhile, the town sheriff has gotten his hands on new technology that will enable him to take a deeper look at a slate of unsolved murders from years past --- including that of his own father.
Vintage Crime/Black Lizard | 9780593689530
THE CASTAWAYS by Lucy Clarke (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Two years ago, a small plane disappeared over Fiji. For Erin, it’s been two years of obsessing over every detail, refusing to move forward even as life does. Her sister, Lori, was on that plane, and Erin was meant to be, too. But after a bitter argument, she failed to show. Everyone thinks Lori is dead, but Erin can’t let go. Just when Erin is on the verge of losing hope, the pilot of the missing plane turns up still in Fiji, seemingly with no memory of the crash. In a final bid to find her sister, Erin travels there herself. But what she discovers is beyond anything she could have predicted.
Atlantic Crime | 9780802167170
FIRST IN THE FAMILY: A Story of Survival, Recovery, and the American Dream by Jessica Hoppe (Memoir)
During the first year of the pandemic and the ensuing isolation, fatal drug overdoses spiked to numbers previously unseen. Jessica Hoppe’s cousin was one of them. “I never learned the true history of substance use disorder in my family,” Hoppe writes. “People just disappeared.” At the time of her cousin’s death, Hoppe had been in recovery for nearly four years, but she hadn’t told anyone. In FIRST IN THE FAMILY, Hoppe shares her journey as the first in her family to recover from addiction and takes the reader on a remarkable investigation of her family’s history, the American Dream, and the erasure of BIPOC from recovery institutions and narratives.
Flatiron Books | 9781250865236
FRAMED IN DEATH by J. D. Robb (Mystery/Thriller)
Manhattan is filled with galleries and deep-pocketed collectors who can make an artist's career with a wave of a hand. But one man toils in obscurity, his brilliance unrecognized while lesser talents bask in the glory he believes should be his. Come tomorrow, he vows, the city will be buzzing about his work. Indeed, before dawn, Lt. Eve Dallas is speeding toward the home of the two gallery owners whose doorway has been turned into a horrifying crime scene overnight. A lifeless young woman has been elaborately costumed and precisely posed to resemble the model of a long-ago Dutch master, and Dallas plunges into her investigation.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250370846
THE GRANDDAUGHTER written by Bernhard Schlink, translated by Charlotte Collins (Fiction)
It is only after the sudden death of his wife, Birgit, that Kaspar discovers the price she paid years earlier when she fled East Germany to join him: she had to abandon her baby. Shattered by grief yet animated by a new hope, Kaspar closes up his bookshop in present-day Berlin and sets off to find her lost child in the east. His search leads him to a rural community of neo-Nazis, intent on reclaiming and settling ancestral lands to the East. Among them, Kaspar encounters Svenja, a woman whose eyes, hair and even voice remind him of Birgit. Beside her is a red-haired, slouching 15-year-old girl. His granddaughter? Their worlds could not be more different --- an ideological gulf of mistrust yawns between them --- but he is determined to accept her as his own.
HarperVia | 9780063295247
I’LL COME TO YOU by Rebecca Kauffman (Fiction)
In I'LL COME TO YOU, beloved author Rebecca Kauffman explores overlapping narratives involving a couple whose struggle to become pregnant has both softened and hardened them; a woman whose husband of 40 years has left her for reasons he's unwilling to share and the man who is now disastrously attempting to woo her; a couple in denial about a looming health crisis; and their son, who is fumbling toward middle age and can't stop lying. Ultimately, these storylines crescendo and converge into a dramatic and harrowing turn of events. With heart, wit and courage, and through pain, these characters traverse territory that both challenges and defines the bonds of family.
Counterpoint | 9781640097353
THE IN-BETWEEN BOOKSTORE by Edward Underhill (Fiction/Magical Realism)
When Darby finds himself unemployed and in need of a fresh start, he moves back to the small Illinois town he left behind. But Oak Falls has changed almost as much as he has since he left. One thing is familiar: In Between Books, Darby’s refuge growing up and eventual high school job. When he walks into the bookstore now, Darby feels an eerie sense of déjà vu --- everything is exactly the same. Even the newspapers are dated 2009. And behind the register is a teen who looks a lot like Darby did at 16…who just might give Darby the opportunity to change his own present for the better --- if he can figure out how before his connection to the past vanishes forever.
Avon | 9780063357648
KISS HER GOODBYE by Lisa Gardner (Mystery/Thriller)
Recent Afghan refugee Sabera Ahmadi was last seen exiting her place of work three weeks ago. The local police have yet to open a case, while her older, domineering husband, Isaad, seems unconcerned. Sabera's closest friend, however, is convinced Sabera would never willingly leave her three-year-old daughter, Zahra. At her insistence, missing persons expert Frankie Elkin agrees to take up the search. Just in time for a video of the young mother to surface --- showing her walking away from the scene of a brutal double murder. Frankie quickly realizes there's much more to the Ahmadi family than meets the eye. When Isaad also disappears under mysterious circumstances and an attempt is made on Zahra's life, Frankie realizes that she quickly must crack the code of this family's horrific past.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538765128
LAST TWILIGHT IN PARIS by Pam Jenoff (Historical Fiction)
London, 1953. Louise is still adjusting to her postwar role as a housewife when she discovers a necklace in a box at a secondhand shop. The box is marked with the name of a store in Paris. She is certain that she has seen the necklace before --- when she worked with the Red Cross in Nazi-occupied Europe --- and that it holds the key to the mysterious death of her friend, Franny, during the war. Following the trail of clues to Paris, Louise discovers the dark history of Lévitan --- a once-glamorous department store that served as a Nazi prison --- and Helaine, a woman who was imprisoned there. Louise races to find the connection between the necklace, the store and Franny’s death. But nothing is as it seems, and there are forces determined to keep the truth buried forever.
Park Row | 9780778307990
THE LIFE CYCLE OF THE COMMON OCTOPUS by Emma Knight (Fiction)
Arriving at the University of Edinburgh for her first term, Pen knows that her divorced parents back in Canada are hiding something from her. She believes she’ll find the answer here in Scotland, where an old friend of her father’s --- now a famous writer known as Lord Lennox --- lives. When she is invited to spend the weekend at Lord Lennox’s centuries-old estate with his enveloping, fascinating family, Pen begins to unravel her parents’ secret, just as she’s falling in love for the first time. As Pen experiences the sharp shock of adulthood, she comes to rely on herself for the first time in her life.
Penguin Books | 9780593830475
THE LIFE OF HEROD THE GREAT written by Zora Neale Hurston, edited by Deborah G. Plant (Historical Fiction)
In the 1950s, as a continuation of MOSES, MAN OF THE MOUNTAIN, Zora Neale Hurston penned a historical novel about one of the most infamous figures in the Bible, Herod the Great. In Hurston’s retelling, Herod is not the wicked ruler of the New Testament who is charged with the “slaughter of the innocents,” but a forerunner of Christ --- a beloved king who enriched Jewish culture and brought prosperity and peace to Judea. An intimate of both Marc Antony and Julius Caesar, the Judean king lived during the first-century BCE, in a time of war and imperial expansion that was rife with political assassinations and bribery, as the old world gave way to the new. Portraying Herod within this vivid and dynamic world of antiquity, little known to modern readers, Hurston’s unfinished manuscript brings this complex, compelling and misunderstood leader fully into focus.
Amistad | 9780063161016
THE LIST by Steve Berry (Legal Thriller)
After a 10-year self-imposed exile, Brent Walker is returning home to Concord, a quaint town in central Georgia. His father died two years ago, and now Brent --- hired by Southern Republic Pulp and Paper Company as its assistant general counsel --- is returning to care for his ailing mother. Southern Republic’s success is based largely on a highly unorthodox and deadly system to control costs, known only to the three owners of the company. Now, one of them, Christopher Bozin, has had a change of heart. Brent’s return to Concord, a move Bozin personally orchestrated, provides his conscience with a chance at redemption. So a plan is set into motion, one that not only will criminally implicate Bozin’s two partners but also will place Brent square in the crosshairs of men who want him dead --- with only one course left available.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538770887
A MONSOON RISING: A Hurricane Wars Novel by Thea Guanzon (Fantasy/Romance)
After a lifetime of war, Alaric and Talasyn were thrust into an alliance between their homelands that was supposed to end the fighting. However, being married to their sworn foe feels far from peaceful. Now Talasyn must play the part of Alaric’s willing empress while her allies secretly plot to overthrow his reign. But the longer the couple are forced together, the harder it becomes to deny the feelings crackling like lightning between them. As the master of the Shadowforged Legion, Alaric has trained for battle all his life, but marrying a Lightweaver might be his most dangerous challenge yet. With tensions between nations churning, he needs to focus on the greater threat --- the Moonless Dark, a cataclysmic magical event that could devour everything. Only he and Talasyn can stop it. But saving their world from this disaster is a mere preface to his father’s more sinister schemes.
Harper Voyager | 9780063277311
MORE OR LESS MADDY by Lisa Genova (Fiction)
Maddy Banks is just like any other stressed-out freshman at NYU. Between schoolwork, exams, navigating life in the city, and a recent breakup, it’s normal to be feeling overwhelmed. It doesn’t help that she’s always felt like the odd one out in her picture-perfect Connecticut family. But Maddy’s latest low is devastatingly low, and she goes on an antidepressant. She begins to feel good, dazzling in fact, and she soon spirals high into a wild and terrifying mania that culminates in a diagnosis of bipolar disorder. As she struggles to find her way in this new reality, navigating the complex effects that bipolar has on her identity, her relationships and her life dreams, Maddy will have to figure out how to manage being both too much and not enough.
Gallery/Scout Press | 9781668026106
NO ONE KNEW by Kendra Elliot (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
In the crisp mountain air of central Oregon, a teenage girl’s search for discarded cans leads to a horrifying discovery: a body, brutally murdered and abandoned in the woods. The case falls to Deschutes County Detective Noelle Marshall, who finds herself navigating a community steeped in secrets, suspicion and distrust of outsiders --- especially law enforcement. Miles away, FBI Special Agent Max Rhodes investigates a different kind of darkness --- chatter about a violent uprising from a shadowy militia group preparing for war. The two cases seem worlds apart. But as Noelle digs into the murdered man’s past and Max closes in on the source of the terror plot, their paths begin to converge in a terrifying way. This was no random killing. It was a message.
Montlake | 9781662525803
PLAYING FOR KEEPS by Alexandria Bellefleur (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Poppy Peterson is thriving as the publicist of the NFL’s most promising quarterback (and her childhood best friend), Cash Curran. So she doesn’t appreciate when he makes an impulsive and public pass at America’s popstar darling, Lyric Adair. When Lyric’s notorious publicist, Rosaline Sinclair, reaches out, Poppy is ready to face her wrath but instead learns that Lyric is equally interested. As Cash and Lyric embark on their ill-advised whirlwind romance, Poppy and Rosaline are forced together, each determined to protect their own client from the other. Poppy is frustrated by Rosaline’s cool demeanor yet is determined to impress her. But no matter what she does, she can’t shake the feeling that Rosaline doesn’t like her. That is until one steamy night, when the two women contend with their unexpected feelings and begin a messy romance of their own.
Avon | 9780063258570
SAINT OF THE NARROWS STREET by William Boyle (Crime Fiction)
Gravesend, Brooklyn, 1986: Risa Franzone lives in a ground-floor apartment on Saint of the Narrows Street with her bad-seed husband, Saverio, and their eight-month-old baby, Fabrizio. On the night Risa's younger sister, Giulia, moves in to recover from a bad breakup, a fateful accident occurs: Risa strikes a drunk, erratic Sav with a cast-iron pan, killing him on the spot. The sisters are left with a choice: notify the authorities and make a case for self-defense, or bury the man's body and go on with their lives as best they can. In a moment of panic, they call upon Sav's childhood friend, Christopher "Chooch" Gardini, to help them. Over the vast expanse of the next 18 years, life goes on in the working-class Italian neighborhood of Gravesend as Risa, Giulia, Chooch and eventually Fabrizio grapple with what happened that night.
Soho Crime | 9781641297417
SAVE OUR SOULS: The True Story of a Castaway Family, Treachery, and Murder by Matthew Pearl (True Crime/History)
On December 10, 1887, a shark fishing boat disappeared. On board the doomed vessel were the Walkers --- the ship’s captain Frederick, his wife Elizabeth, their three teenage sons, and their dog --- along with the ship’s crew. The family had spotted a promising fishing location when a terrible storm arose, splitting their vessel in two and leaving those onboard adrift on the perilous sea. When the castaways awoke the next morning, they discovered they had been washed ashore --- on an island inhabited by a large but ragged and emaciated man who introduced himself as Hans. It turned out that Hans had a secret. And as the Walker family gradually came to learn more, what seemed like a stroke of luck to have the mysterious man’s assistance became something ominous, something darker.
Harper Perennial | 9780063338074
WOMEN OF GOOD FORTUNE by Sophie Wan (Fiction)
Bride-to-be Lulu is set to marry Shanghai’s most eligible bachelor, but her two best friends know the truth: she’s only marrying him to fix her family’s financial issues. The wedding will be the social event of the season, but the three women will be focused on one thing: the red envelopes filled with cash gifts, stored in an elaborate safe at the center of the ballroom. It's more than enough money to get Lulu out of the marriage and transform all their lives. With the help of a mysterious luxury goods counterfeiter and a snarky getaway driver, the women set in motion a brilliant scheme to lift all the red envelopes on the big day. But as their plot grows increasingly complicated and relationships are caught in the crossfire, they're forced to decide what they're willing to give up to get their way.
Park Row | 9781525830365
THE WOMEN ON PLATFORM TWO by Laura Anthony (Historical Fiction)
Dublin, 1969: Maura has just married Dr. Christy Davenport, and they look forward to growing their family. But as her husband’s vicious temper emerges, Maura worries that her home might never be safe for a child. Meanwhile, her close friend Bernie, a mother of three, learns the devastating news that if she conceives again, her health complications could prove fatal. Dublin, 2023: A close call makes Saoirse realize that she may never want to be a mother. Little does she know that only a few decades ago, a group of women made this option possible for her. And she’s about to meet one of them.
Gallery Books | 9781668047392
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