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December 27, 2016

December 27, 2016
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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of December 26th and January 2nd 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 Reviewer Picks for 2016, where our reviewers reveal their favorite books of the year, and various "Best Of" lists that we've compiled from around the web. Let us know how many books YOU read in 2016 in our latest poll here.

Also, please keep in mind our very special End-of-the-Year contest featuring Carol Fitzgerald’s Bookreporter.com Bets On picks from 2016. One Grand Prize winner will be awarded all 40 books, while eight other winners will receive a selection of five of these titles.

And be sure to check out our Holiday Author Blogs. Eight authors have shared with us some wonderful holiday memories about giving or receiving books during the holidays. This year's contributors are Laurie Lico Albanese, Marie Benedict, Ann Hood, Martha Hall Kelly, Caroline Leavitt, Hank Phillippi Ryan, Will Schwalbe and Wendy Walker.

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This Week's Bonus News: Reviewer Picks for 2016, "Best Of" Lists from Around the Web, and Our Year-End Poll
Bookreporter.com Reviewers Choose Their Favorite Books of 2016
Recently we asked our reviewers to provide us with a list of some of their favorite books from 2016. Included is a mix of fiction and nonfiction titles, all published this year. Take a moment to read these varied lists of titles and see if you agree with their selections! Please note that due to personal and professional commitments, some reviewers were not able to participate in this feature.

2016 “Best Of” Lists from Around the Web
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. Although we at Bookreporter.com don’t have a “Best Of” list of our own, we’ve compiled a number of them for you. 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!

Bookreporter.com's Year-End Poll --- Click here to cast your vote!

How many books did you read in 2016?
  • 1-10
  • 11-20
  • 21-30
  • 31-40
  • 41-50
  • 51-75
  • 76-100
  • More than 100
  • None
  • I’m not sure.
On Sale the Week of December 26th in Hardcover

December 27th

BOOKS FOR LIVING by Will Schwalbe (Memoir/Literary Criticism)
Why is it that we read? Is it to pass time? To learn something new? To escape from reality? For Will Schwalbe, reading is a way to entertain himself but also to make sense of the world, to become a better person, and to find the answers to the big (and small) questions about how to live his life. In BOOKS FOR LIVING, Schwalbe invites us along on his quest for books that speak to the specific challenges of living in our modern world, with all its noise and distractions. In each chapter, he discusses a particular book --- what brought him to it (or vice versa), the people in his life he associates with it, and how it became a part of his understanding of himself in the world.
Knopf * 9780385353540

CIVILIANIZED: A Young Veteran's Memoir by Michael Anthony (Memoir)
After 12 months of military service in Iraq, Michael Anthony stepped off a plane, seemingly happy to be home --- or at least back on US soil. He was 21 years old, a bit of a nerd, and carrying a pack of cigarettes that he thought would be his last. Two weeks later, Michael was stoned on Vicodin, drinking way too much, and picking a fight with a very large Hell's Angel. At his wit's end, he came to an agreement with himself: If things didn't improve in three months, he was going to kill himself. CIVILIANIZED is a memoir chronicling Michael's search for meaning in a suddenly destabilized world.
Pulp/Zest Books * 9781936976881

CURTAIN OF DEATH: A Clandestine Operations Novel by W. E. B. Griffin and William E. Butterworth IV (Historical Thriller/Adventure)
January 1946: Two WACs leave an officers’ club in Munich, and four Soviet NKGB agents kidnap them at knifepoint in the parking lot and shove them in the back of an ambulance. That is the agents’ first mistake, and their last. One of the WACs, a blond woman improbably named Claudette Colbert, works for the new Directorate of Central Intelligence, and three of the men end up dead and the fourth wounded. The “incident,” however, will send shock waves rippling up and down the line and have major repercussions not only for her, but for her boss, James Cronley, Chief DCI-Europe, and for everybody involved in their still-evolving enterprise.
G.P. Putnam's Sons * 9780399176739

THE ICE BENEATH HER written by Camilla Grebe, translated by Elizabeth Clark Wessel (Psychological Thriller)
A young woman is found beheaded in the Stockholm home of business tycoon Jesper Orre. Investigator Peter Lindgren and psychological profiler Hanne Lagerlind-Schön are put on the case. Side-stepping their own dangerous relationship, Peter and Hanne find they can’t yet identify the woman --- and Orre is missing. In a separate thread, two months earlier, Emma Bohman, a timid beauty with a dark past, works in Orre’s company. A chance encounter between them leads to a love affair. Orre insists their relationship stay a secret, then leaves her without explanation --- and frightening things begin to happen to Emma. Why does Orre want to hurt her? And how far would he go to silence his secret lover?
Ballantine Books * 9780425284322

THE MIDNIGHT BELL by Jack Higgins (Thriller)
In Ulster, Northern Ireland, a petty criminal kills a woman in a drunken car crash. Her sons swear revenge. In London, Sean Dillon and his colleagues in the “Prime Minister’s private army,” fresh from defeating a deadly al-Qaeda operation, receive a warning: You may think you have weakened us, but you have only made us stronger. In Washington, D.C., a special projects director with the CIA, frustrated at not getting permission from the President for his daring anti-terrorism plan, decides to put it in motion anyway. Soon, the ripples from these events will meet and overlap, creating havoc in their wake. Desperate men will act, secrets will be revealed --- and the midnight bell will toll.
G.P. Putnam's Sons * 9780399185304

SMALL ADMISSIONS by Amy Poeppel (Fiction)
Kate Pearson finds herself dumped, out of luck, and out of steam. It seems as if her characteristic ambition and smarts have taken a break. Her friends are at a loss, while her practical sister, Angela, pushes every remedy she can think of. Miraculously Kate lands a job in the admissions department at the prestigious Hudson Day school, and learns there’s no time for self-pity or nonsense during the height of the admission season. Meanwhile, Kate’s sister and her closest friends find themselves keeping secrets, hiding boyfriends, dropping bombshells, and fighting each other on how to keep Kate on her feet --- and Kate’s oddly charming and irritatingly handsome neighbor is more than he seems.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books * 9781501122521

On Sale the Week of December 26th in Paperback

December 27th

BREAKDOWN: An Alex Delaware Novel by Jonathan Kellerman (Psychological Thriller)
Psychologist Dr. Alex Delaware meets actress Zelda Chase when called upon to evaluate her five-year-old son, Ovid. Years later, he is unexpectedly reunited with Zelda when she is involuntarily committed after a bizarre psychotic episode. Shortly after her release, she is discovered dead on the grounds of a palatial Bel Air estate. Alex turns to his friend, LAPD Lieutenant Milo Sturgis, for help in finding out who ended Zelda’s broken life. At the same time, he is caught up in another quest: the search for her missing son. And when other victims vanish from the same upscale neighborhood, worry turns to terror.
Ballantine Books * 9780345541420

CLAWBACK: An Ali Reynolds Novel by J.A. Jance (Mystery/Thriller)
When Ali Reynolds’ parents lose their life savings to a Ponzi scheme, her father goes to confront his longtime friend and financial advisor, only to stumble into the scene of a bloody double homicide. With her father suddenly a prime suspect, Ali and her husband work to clear her father’s name, while at the same time seeking justice for her parents as well as the scheme’s other suddenly impoverished victims, one of whom is a stone cold killer.
Pocket Books * 9781501110795

COCONUT COWBOY by Tim Dorsey (Mystery/Humor)
Serge A. Storms devises his wildest plan yet: finish the journey begun by his freewheeling heroes, Captain America and Billy, tragically cut short by some shotgun-wielding rednecks. Setting a course for the Florida panhandle, Captain Serge --- with Coleman literally riding shotgun --- mounts his classic motorcycle and hits the highway in search of the real America. In a state where criminal politicians are more common than gators, Serge and Coleman discover one particular speed-trap locale so aggressively inept at corruption that investigators are baffled where to start.
William Morrow * 9780062656315

DARKNESS by Karen Robards (Romantic Suspense)
Dr. Gina Sullivan is a renowned ornithologist on a group research grant trip on the remote island of Attu, Alaska. When an everyday outing turns sinister at the onset of one of Attu’s infamous storms, Gina expects thunder and lightning. What she doesn’t see coming is the small jet plane that drops out of the sky and into the water mere feet from her boat. There’s a sole survivor from the crash, and he needs Gina’s help. But it turns out that rescuing the stranger and getting them both out of the oncoming storm is just the beginning. Because the more Gina learns about James “Cal” Callahan, the more she fears --- for herself, and for him.
Pocket Books * 9781476766614

THE FALL OF MOSCOW STATION by Mark Henshaw (Thriller/Adventure)
When a body with Russian military tattoos is found floating in a lake outside Berlin, the CIA immediately takes notice. The body is identified as the director of Russia’s Foundation for Advanced Nuclear Research, who is also a CIA asset. Alden Maines is jaded after years in the CIA cleaning up the messes of incompetent political appointees in dangerous foreign posts. When he is passed over for promotion, Maines crosses the Rubicon and decides to cash in as a double agent for Russia. But while Maines dreams of off-shore bank accounts and a new secret life, Arkady Lavrov of Russia’s intelligence service (GRU) has other plans.
Pocket Books * 9781501154584

FIELD OF FIRE: A Jericho Quinn Thriller by Marc Cameron (Thriller)
Paperback Original
The first target is Dallas, Texas. A deadly nerve gas called New Archangel is unleashed upon the City of Angels, claiming innocent lives, spreading nationwide panic, and fueling global fears of another attack. In the icy reaches of rural Alaska, special agent Jericho Quinn is enlisted to hunt down the man who created the bioweapon --- a brilliant Russian scientist who is trying to defect and hiding in the Alaskan wilderness. But time is running out. The scientist is beginning to lose his mind to dementia. If Quinn doesn’t find him before the Russians do, the entire western seaboard and beyond will feel the wrath of New Archangel --- and darkness will fall upon the earth.
Pinnacle * 9780786038923

GONE AGAIN: A Jack Swyteck Novel by James Grippando (Legal Thriller)
Jack Swyteck is called to action when teenager Sashi Burgette vanishes on her way to school. The night after Sashi’s disappearance, ex-con Dylan Kyle was stopped for drunk driving and a piece of her clothing was found in his truck. A police videotape of his drunken explanation under interrogation sealed his fate at trial. Now, just days from Kyle’s execution, Sashi’s mother visits Jack and delivers shocking news: “Sashi called me.” Unconvinced that the case is closed, Jack jumps into the investigation. But the deeper he digs, the more he discovers that nothing is what it appears to be.
Harper * 9780062368713

THE HANGING GIRL: A Department Q Novel by Jussi Adler-Olsen (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Carl Mørck has no choice but to lead Department Q into the tragic cold case of a vivacious 17-year-old girl who vanished from school, only to be found dead hanging high up in a tree. The investigation will take them from the remote island of Bornholm to a strange sun-worshipping cult, where Carl, Assad, Rose and newcomer Gordon attempt to stop a string of new murders and a skilled manipulator who refuses to let anything --- or anyone --- get in the way.
Dutton * 9781101984222

MARKED FOR LIFE by Emelie Schepp (Thriller)
When a high-ranking head of the migration board is found shot to death in his living room, there is no shortage of suspects. But no one expects to find mysterious, child-size fingerprints in this childless home. A few days later, the body of a derelict preteen is discovered, and with him, the murder weapon that killed the official. As she attends his autopsy, public prosecutor Jana Berzelius recognizes something familiar on his body. Cut deep into his flesh are initials that scream child trafficking and trigger in her a flash of memory from her own dark childhood. Now, to protect her own horrific but hidden past, she must find the real suspect behind these murders before the police do.
Mira * 9780778319726

THE MARRIAGE LIE by Kimberly Belle (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Paperback Original
Iris and Will have been married for seven years, and life is as close to perfect as it can be. But on the morning Will flies out for a business trip to Florida, Iris' happy world comes to an abrupt halt: Another plane headed for Seattle has crashed into a field, killing everyone on board --- and, according to the airline, Will was one of the passengers. Grief stricken and confused, Iris is convinced it all must be a huge misunderstanding. Why did Will lie about where he was going? And what else has he lied about? As Iris sets off on a desperate quest to uncover what her husband was keeping from her, the answers she finds shock her to her very core.
Mira * 9780778319764

THE RAILWAYMAN’S WIFE by Ashley Hay (Historical Fiction)
In 1948, in the strange, silent aftermath of war, Anikka Lachlan has all she ever wanted --- until a random act transforms her into another postwar widow. A local poet, Roy McKinnon, experiences a different type of loss. How could his most powerful work come out of the brutal chaos of war, and why is he now struggling to regain his words and his purpose in peacetime? His childhood friend, Dr. Frank Draper, also seeks to reclaim his pre-war life but is haunted by his failure to help those who needed him most. Then one day, Ani finds a poem. She knows neither where it came from nor who its author is. An unexpected and poignant love triangle emerges, between Ani, the poem and the poet --- whoever he may be.
Washington Square Press * 9781501128660

STALKED: The Profiler, Book 4 by Elizabeth Heiter (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Seventeen-year-old Haley Cooke disappears from inside her high school. FBI profiler Evelyn Baine is called in to figure out who had reason to hurt her. On the surface, the popular cheerleader has no enemies, but as Evelyn digs deeper, she discovers that everyone close to Haley has something to hide. One of those secrets may have gotten Haley killed. If she's still alive, Evelyn knows that the more the investigation ramps up, the more pressure they could be putting on Haley's kidnapper to make her disappear for good. It's also possible the teenager isn't in danger at all, but has skillfully manipulated everyone and staged her own disappearance. Only one thing is certain: uncovering Haley's fate could be dangerous --- even deadly --- to Evelyn herself.
Mira * 9780778319740

SWEET TOMORROWS: A Rose Harbor Novel by Debbie Macomber (Romance)
Recovering from a twice-broken heart, Emily Gaffney, a young teacher, is staying at the Rose Harbor Inn while she looks for a home of her own. Having given up on marriage, Emily dreams of adopting children someday. She has her eye on one house in particular --- with room for kids. Although Emily’s inquiries about the house are rudely rebuffed, her rocky start with the owner eventually blossoms into a friendship. But when the relationship verges on something more, Emily will have to rethink what she truly wants and the chances she’s willing to take. The inn seems to be working its magic again until innkeeper Jo Marie Rose receives shocking news.
Ballantine Books * 9780553391862

TROUBLEMAKER by Linda Howard (Romantic Suspense)
Due to worries that an unknown enemy will strike again, paramilitary operative and team leader Morgan Yancy is sent to a remote location and told to lay low and stay vigilant. He ends up in a small West Virginian mountain town where Isabeau “Bo” Maran is part-time police chief. Bo doesn’t need a mysterious man in her life. The harder they fight the intense heat between them, the closer Morgan and Bo become, even though she knows he’s hiding from something. But discovering the truth could cost Bo more than she’s willing to give. And when Morgan’s cover is blown, it might just cost her life.
Avon * 9780062418999

THE TWILIGHT WIFE by A. J. Banner (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Thirty-four-year-old marine biologist Kyra Winthrop remembers nothing about the diving accident that left her with a complex form of memory loss. With only brief flashes of the last few years of her life, her world has narrowed to a few close friendships on the island where she lives with her devoted husband, Jacob. But all is not what it seems. Kyra begins to have visions --- or are they memories? --- of a rocky marriage, broken promises and cryptic relationships with the island residents, whom she believes to be her friends. As Kyra races to uncover her past, the truth becomes a terrifying nightmare.
Touchstone * 9781501152115

WAR HAWK: A Tucker Wayne Novel by James Rollins and Grant Blackwood (Thriller/Adventure)
Tucker Wayne’s past and his present collide when a former army colleague comes to him for help. She’s on the run from brutal assassins hunting her and her son. To keep them safe, Tucker must discover who killed a brilliant young idealist --- a crime that leads back to the most powerful figures in the U.S. government. From the haunted ruins of a plantation in the deep South to the beachheads of a savage civil war in Trinidad, Tucker and Kane must discover the truth behind a mystery that leads back to World War II, to a true event that is even now changing the world…and will redefine what it means to be human.
William Morrow * 9780062135292
On Sale the Week of January 2nd in Hardcover

January 3rd

BELOW THE BELT: A Stone Barrington Novel by Stuart Woods (Thriller)
Newly ensconced in his Santa Fe abode with a lovely female companion, Stone Barrington receives a call from an old friend requesting a delicate favor. A situation has arisen that could escalate into an explosive quagmire, and only someone with Stone’s stealth and subtlety can contain the damage. At the center of these events is an impressive gentleman whose star is on the rise and who would like to get Stone in his corner. He is charming and ambitious and has friends in high places --- the kind of man who seems to be a sure bet. But in the fickle circles of power, fortunes rise and fall on the turn of a dime, and it may turn out that Stone holds the key not just to one man’s fate, but to the fate of the nation.
G.P. Putnam's Sons * 9780399573972

THE DANGEROUS LADIES AFFAIR: A Carpenter and Quincannon Mystery by Marcia Muller and Bill Pronzini (Historical Mystery)
When a pleasant afternoon’s bicycling through Golden Gate Park with a friend ends with the revelation of threatening letters, followed by a gunshot in a mansion garden, Sabina Carpenter knows this is a case that demands her immediate and undivided attention. The questions her partner John Quincannon has to unravel are not difficult: Wrixton, a wealthy banker, has met his extortionist's first demand, but the order to pay another $5,000 is too much to face. The banker’s real problem is something he doesn't want to reveal. Meanwhile, a courier has been murdered, creating a trail that will take Quincannon through most of San Francisco’s less savory places and end with a riverboat trip that is anything but a relaxing cruise.
Forge Books * 9780765381057

DIFFERENT CLASS by Joanne Harris (Psychological Thriller)
After 30 years at St. Oswald’s Grammar in North Yorkshire, England, Latin master Roy Straitley has seen all kinds of boys come and go. But every so often there’s a boy who doesn’t quite fit the mold. A troublemaker. A boy with darkness inside. With insolvency and academic failure looming, a new headmaster arrives at the venerable school, bringing with him new technology, sharp suits and even girls to the dusty corridors. But while Straitley does his sardonic best to resist these steps toward the future, a shadow from his past begins to stir again. A boy who still haunts Straitley’s dreams 20 years later. A boy capable of terrible things.
Touchstone * 9781501155512

DIFFICULT WOMEN by Roxane Gay (Fiction/Short Stories)
The women in Roxane Gay’s latest collection of stories live lives of privilege and of poverty, are in marriages both loving and haunted by past crimes or emotional blackmail. A pair of sisters have been inseparable ever since they were abducted together as children, and must negotiate the elder sister's marriage. A woman married to a twin pretends not to realize when her husband and his brother impersonate each other. A stripper putting herself through college fends off the advances of an overzealous customer. A black engineer moves to Upper Michigan for a job and faces the malign curiosity of her colleagues and the difficulty of leaving her past behind.
Grove Press * 9780802125392

EVERYTHING YOU WANT ME TO BE by Mindy Mejia (Psychological Thriller)
High school senior Hattie Hoffman has spent her whole life playing many parts: the good student, the good daughter, the good citizen. When she’s found brutally stabbed to death on the opening night of her high school play, the tragedy rips through the fabric of her small-town community. Local sheriff Del Goodman vows to find her killer, but trying to solve her murder yields more questions than answers. It seems that Hattie’s acting talents ran far beyond the stage. Told from three points of view --- Del, Hattie, and the new English teacher whose marriage is crumbling --- EVERYTHING YOU WANT ME TO BE weaves the story of Hattie’s last school year and the events that drew her ever closer to her death.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books * 9781501123429

THE GIRL IN GREEN by Derek B. Miller (Thriller)
1991. Near Checkpoint Zulu, 100 miles from the Kuwaiti border, British journalist Thomas Benton meets Arwood Hobbes, an American private. Desert Storm is over and peace has been declared, but as they argue about whether it makes sense to cross the nearest border in search of an ice cream, they become embroiled in a horrific attack in which a young local girl in a green dress is killed as they are trying to protect her. The two men walk away into their respective lives. But something has cracked for them both. Twenty-two years later, in another place, in another war, they meet again and are offered an unlikely opportunity to redeem themselves when that same girl in green is found alive and in need of salvation. Or is she?
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt * 9780544706255

HIS FATHER’S SON: The Life of General Ted Roosevelt, Jr. by Tim Brady (Biography)
General Omar Bradley said of him, “I have never known a braver man or a more devoted soldier.” But for much of his life, Theodore Roosevelt’s son Ted seemed born to live in his father’s shadow. In the First World War, Ted braved gunfire and gas attacks in France to lead his unit into battle. Yet even after returning home a hero, he was unable to meet the expectations of a public that wanted a man just like his father. Then, with World War II looming, Ted reenlisted. In his mid-50s, with a gimpy leg and a heart condition, he was well past his prime, but his insistence to be in the thick of combat proved a vital asset. HIS FATHER’S SON delves into the life of a man as courageous, colorful and unwavering as any of the Roosevelt clan.
NAL * 9781101988152

HISTORY OF WOLVES by Emily Fridlund (Fiction)
Isolated at home and an outlander at school, 14-year-old Linda is drawn to the enigmatic, attractive Lily and new history teacher Mr. Grierson. When Mr. Grierson is charged with possessing child pornography, the implications of his arrest deeply affect Linda as she wrestles with her own fledgling desires and craving to belong. And then the young Gardner family moves in across the lake, and Linda finds herself welcomed into their home as a babysitter for their little boy, Paul. It seems that her life finally has purpose, but with this new sense of belonging she is also drawn into secrets she doesn’t understand. Over the course of a few days, Linda makes a set of choices that reverberate throughout her life.
Grove Press * 9780802125873

IDAHO by Emily Ruskovich (Fiction)
Ann and Wade have carved out a life for themselves from a rugged landscape in northern Idaho, where they are bound together by more than love. With her husband’s memory fading, Ann attempts to piece together the truth of what happened to Wade’s first wife, Jenny, and to their daughters. In a story told from multiple perspectives --- including Ann, Wade, and Jenny, who is now in prison --- we gradually learn of the mysterious and shocking act that fractured Wade and Jenny's lives, of the love and compassion that brought Ann and Wade together, and of the memories that reverberate through the lives of every character in IDAHO.
Random House * 9780812994049

THE LOST CITY OF THE MONKEY GOD: A True Story by Douglas Preston (History/Adventure)
Since the days of conquistador Hernán Cortés, rumors have circulated about a lost city of immense wealth hidden somewhere in the Honduran interior. In 1940, swashbuckling journalist Theodore Morde returned from the rainforest with hundreds of artifacts and an electrifying story of having found the Lost City of the Monkey God --- but then committed suicide without revealing its location. Three quarters of a century later, Douglas Preston joined a team of scientists on a flight that revealed the unmistakable image of a sprawling metropolis, tantalizing evidence of not just an undiscovered city but an enigmatic, lost civilization. But it wasn't until they returned that tragedy struck: Preston and others found they had contracted a horrifying, sometimes lethal --- and incurable --- disease.
Grand Central Publishing * 9781455540006

THE MISTRESS by Danielle Steel (Romance)
Discovered on a freezing Moscow street by Russian billionaire Vladimir Stanislas, Natasha Leonova has lived for seven years under his protection, immersed in rarefied luxury, while he pursues his activities in a dark world that she guesses at but never sees. Theo Luca is the son of a brilliant, world famous and difficult artist, Lorenzo Luca, who left his wife and son with a fortune in artwork they refuse to sell. Lorenzo’s widow, Maylis, has transformed their home into a celebrated restaurant decorated with her late husband’s paintings. There, on a warm June evening, Theo first encounters Natasha, the most exquisite woman he has ever seen. And there, Vladimir lays eyes on Luca’s artwork. Two dangerous obsessions begin.
Delacorte Press * 9780345531117

MRS. SHERLOCK HOLMES: The True Story of New York City’s Greatest Female Detective and the 1917 Missing Girl Case That Captivated a Nation by Brad Ricca (Biography)
MRS. SHERLOCK HOLMES tells the true story of Mrs. Grace Humiston, the detective and lawyer who turned her back on New York society life to become one of the nation's greatest crime fighters during an era when women weren't even allowed to vote. After graduating from NYU law school, Grace opened a legal clinic in the city for low-income immigrant clients, and quickly established a reputation as a fierce but fair lawyer who was always on the side of the disenfranchised. But despite her many successes in social and criminal justice, Grace began to see chilling connections in the cases she had solved, leading to a final showdown with her most fearsome adversary of all and one of the most powerful men of the 20th century.
St. Martin's Press * 9781250072245

THE OLD MAN by Thomas Perry (Thriller)
To all appearances, Dan Chase is a harmless retiree in Vermont. But most 60-year-old widowers don’t have multiple driver’s licenses, savings stockpiled in banks across the country, and a bugout kit with two Beretta Nanos stashed in the spare bedroom closet. Most have not spent decades on the run. Thirty-five years ago, Chase was sent to Libya to covertly assist a rebel army. When the plan turned sour, he reacted according to his own ideas of right and wrong, triggering consequences he never could have anticipated. Just as he had begun to think himself finally safe, Chase must reawaken his survival instincts to contend with the history he has spent his adult life trying to escape.
Mysterious Press * 9780802125866

REBIRTH: A Fable of Love, Forgiveness, and Following Your Heart by Kamal Ravikant (Fiction)
After the death of his estranged father, Amit takes his parent's ashes to the Ganges to fulfill a deathbed promise. Almost broke, unsure about his direction in life, and running from memories, he is led by fate to the Camino de Santiago, an ancient 550-mile pilgrimage route across northern Spain. Amit meets a variety of travelers on his journey: some are lost and searching for answers, others are doing their best to leave the past behind, and there are a few who walk to celebrate life. Once a reluctant pilgrim, Amit realizes he cannot stop until he completes the journey. With each step, Amit is challenged to confront his fear of following in the footsteps of his father, the loss of a woman he may love after all, and the reality of an uncertain future.
Hachette Books * 9780316312288

THE RED SPHINX: A Sequel to The Three Musketeers written by Alexandre Dumas, translated by Lawrence Ellsworth (Historical Fiction/Adventure)
After publishing THE THREE MUSKETEERS, Alexandre Dumas wrote a sequel, TWENTY YEARS AFTER, that resumed the adventures of his swashbuckling heroes. Later he wrote THE RED SPHINX, another direct sequel to THE THREE MUSKETEERS that begins a mere 20 days afterward. He wrote 75 chapters of it, all for serial publication, but never quite finished it, and so the novel languished for almost a century before its first book publication in France in 1946. While Dumas never completed the book, he had earlier written a separate novella, THE DOVE, that recounted the final adventures of Moret and Cardinal Richelieu. Now for the first time, in one cohesive narrative, THE RED SPHINX and THE DOVE make a complete storyline.
Pegasus Books * 9781681772974

THE RETURN OF THE RAVEN MOCKER: An Alafair Tucker Mystery by Donis Casey (Historical Mystery)
Alafair Tucker’s daughter, Alice, and son-in-law, Walter Kelley, have both come down with the flu, and Alafair has moved into town to care for them. One autumn afternoon, Alice’s neighbor, Nola Thomason, and her son Lewis suddenly and unexpectedly succumb. Yet there is something about the way the pair died that causes Alafair to suspect their deaths were due to poison rather than to influenza. The epidemic is so overwhelming that it is many days before the only doctor left in town can confirm Alafair’s suspicions. The only witness to their deaths, 12-year-old Dorothy Thomason, a special friend of Alafair’s daughter, Sophronia, is so traumatized that she is rendered mute. Were Nola and her son murdered? If so, why?
Poisoned Pen Press * 9781464207549

SELECTION DAY by Aravind Adiga (Fiction)
Manjunath Kumar is 14 and living in a slum in Mumbai. He knows he is good at cricket --- if not as good as his older brother, Radha. He knows that he fears and resents his domineering and cricket-obsessed father, admires his brilliantly talented sibling, and is fascinated by curious scientific facts and the world of “CSI.” But there are many things, about himself and about the world, that he doesn’t know. When Manju meets Radha’s great rival, a mysterious Muslim boy privileged and confident in all the ways Manju is not, everything in Manju’s world begins to change, and he is faced with decisions that will challenge his understanding of it, as well as his own self.
Scribner * 9781501150838

THE STRAYS by Emily Bitto (Historical Fiction)
On her first day at a new school, Lily befriends one of the daughters of infamous avant-garde painter Evan Trentham. Lily has never experienced anything like the Trenthams' home, where Evan and his wife have created a wild, makeshift family of like-minded artists, all living and working together to escape the stifling conservatism of 1930s Australia. Despite the Trenthams' glamorous allure, the artists' real lives are shaped by dire Faustian bargains and spectacular falls from grace. As the girls find themselves drawn closer to the white-hot flame of creativity, emotions and art collide with explosive consequences --- and Evan's own daughters may be forced to pay a dangerous price for his choices.
Twelve * 9781455537723
On Sale the Week of January 2nd in Paperback

January 3rd

1916: A Global History by Keith Jeffery (History)
The mud-filled, blood-soaked trenches of the Low Countries and North-Eastern Europe were essential battlegrounds during the First World War, but the war reached many other corners of the globe, and events elsewhere significantly affected its course. Covering the 12 months of 1916, eminent historian Keith Jeffery uses 12 moments from a range of locations and shows how they reverberated around the world.
Bloomsbury Paperbacks * 9781408834329

AFTER THE CRASH by Michel Bussi (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
A night flight from Istanbul bound for Paris, filled with 169 holiday travelers, plummets into the Swiss Alps. The sole survivor is a three-month-old girl who is thrown from the plane onto the snowy mountainside before fire rages through the aircraft. But two infants were on board. Is the miracle baby Lyse-Rose or Emilie? Both families step forward to claim the child --- one poor, one powerful, wealthy and dangerous.
Hachette Books * 9780316309691

ALIVE, ALIVE OH!: And Other Things That Matter by Diana Athill (Memoir/Essays)
Diana Athill charmed readers with her prize-winning memoir, SOMEWHERE TOWARDS THE END, which transformed her into an unexpected literary star. Now, on the eve of her 98th birthday, Athill has written a sequel every bit as unsentimental, candid and beguiling as her most beloved work. Writing from her cozy room in Highgate, London, Athill begins to reflect on the things that matter after a lifetime of remarkable experiences, and the memories that have risen to the surface and sustain her in her very old age.
W. W. Norton & Company * 9780393353563

APPRENTICE IN DEATH by J. D. Robb (Thriller)
A talented young skater, a doctor and a teacher have been shot dead at Central Park’s ice-skating rink. A review of the security videos reveals that the victims were killed with a tactical laser rifle fired by a sniper, who could have been miles away when the trigger was pulled. Though the list of locations where the shooter could have set up seems endless, the number of people with that particular skill set is finite. Eve Dallas’ husband, Roarke, has unlimited resources --- and genius --- at his disposal. When his computer program leads Eve to the location of the sniper, she learns a shocking fact: Someone is being trained by an expert in the science of killing, and they have an agenda.
Berkley * 9781101987995

BACK BLAST: A Gray Man Novel by Mark Greaney (Thriller)
Five years ago, Court Gentry was the CIA’s best covert asset. Then, without warning, the Agency put him at the top of its kill list. Court fled his country and became the enigmatic Gray Man. Now Court plans to find out what went wrong by getting his hands on the men who sent him on his last mission, Operation BACK BLAST. What he doesn’t realize is that questions from his time as an American assassin are still reverberating in the U.S. intelligence community, and he’s stumbled onto a secret that powerful people want kept under wraps. The result: everyone has Court in their crosshairs.
Berkley * 9780425282847

THE BANDS OF MOURNING: A Mistborn Novel by Brandon Sanderson (Fantasy)
The Bands of Mourning are the mythical metalminds owned by the Lord Ruler, said to grant anyone who wears them the powers that the Lord Ruler had at his command. Hardly anyone thinks they really exist. A kandra researcher has returned to Elendel with images that seem to depict the Bands, as well as writings in a language that no one can read. Waxillium Ladrian is recruited to travel south to the city of New Seran to investigate. Along the way, he discovers hints that point to the true goals of his uncle Edwarn and the shadowy organization known as The Set.
Tor Fantasy * 9780765378583

THE CAVENDON LUCK by Barbara Taylor Bradford (Historical Fiction)
It is 1938 in England, and Miles and Cecily Ingham have led the family in bringing the Cavendon estate back from the brink of disaster. But now, with the arrival of World War II, Cavendon Hall will face its biggest challenge yet --- one that is filled with intrigue and romance, sorrow and strife…and will push the Inghams and Swanns to protect each other and the villagers, and reveal their true capacity for survival.
St. Martin's Paperbacks * 9781250091284

A CERTAIN AGE by Beatriz Williams (Historical Fiction)
As the freedom of the Jazz Age transforms New York City, the iridescent Mrs. Theresa Marshall has done the unthinkable: she’s fallen in love with her young paramour, Captain Octavian Rofrano, a handsome aviator and hero of the Great War. While times are changing and she does adore the Boy, divorce for a woman of Theresa’s wealth and social standing is out of the question, and there is no need; she has an understanding with Sylvo, her generous and well-respected philanderer husband. But their relationship subtly shifts when her bachelor brother, Ox, decides to tie the knot with the sweet younger daughter of a newly wealthy inventor.
William Morrow Paperbacks * 9780062404961

THE CHARM BRACELET by Viola Shipman (Fiction)
On her birthday each year, Lolly’s mother gave her a charm, along with the advice that there is nothing more important than keeping family memories alive. Now 70 and starting to forget things, Lolly knows time is running out to reconnect with a daughter and granddaughter whose lives have become too busy for Lolly or her family stories. But when Arden, Lolly’s daughter, receives an unexpected phone call about her mother, she and granddaughter Lauren rush home. Over the course of their visit, Lolly reveals the story behind each charm on her bracelet. One by one the family stories help Lolly, Arden and Lauren reconnect in a way that brings each woman closer to finding joy, love and faith.
A Thomas Dunne Book for St. Martin's Griffin * 9781250071330

CHILD’S PLAY by Merry Jones (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Just before the first day of school, second-grade teacher Elle Harrison learns that a former student, Ty Evans, has been released from juvenile detention where he served time for killing his abusive father. Within days of his release, Elle’s school principal, who had tormented Ty as a child, is brutally murdered, along with a teacher at the school and Ty’s former girlfriend. Ty seeks Elle out, confiding that she’s the only adult he’s ever trusted. But when she’s assaulted in the night, she suspects that Ty is her attacker. Is he a serial killer? Is she his next intended victim? Before Elle discovers the truth, she’s caught in a deadly trap that challenges her deepest convictions about guilt and innocence, childhood and family.
Oceanview Publishing * 9781608091911

CITY OF THORNS: Nine Lives in the World’s Largest Refugee Camp by Ben Rawlence (Current Affairs/Ethnic Studies)
Situated hundreds of miles from any other settlement, deep within the inhospitable desert of northern Kenya, Dadaab is a city like no other. Over the course of four years, Ben Rawlence became a first-hand witness to a strange and desperate limbo-land, getting to know many of those who have come there seeking sanctuary. In CITY OF THORNS, Rawlence interweaves the stories of nine individuals to show what life is like in the camp and to sketch the wider political forces that keep the refugees trapped there.
Picador * 9781250118738

CROWNING DESIGN by Leila Meacham (Romance)
Paperback Original
When Deborah Standridge called off her wedding to the perfect man to pursue her passion as an architect, she didn't mean to hurt anyone. But she saw her chance to finally make her own dreams come and she took it, setting in motion a tragedy that has haunted her ever since. Now, as one of Denver's most successful architects, Deborah has avoided love at all costs...until Daniel Parker walks into her life. He commissions her to design his company's headquarters and soon makes her want to believe in love again. But Dan is keeping a shocking secret that could rip apart everything they've built --- and break Deborah's heart once and for all.
Grand Central Publishing * 9781455541393

DODGERS by Bill Beverly (Thriller)
Bill Beverly’s debut novel is the story of a young LA gang member named East, who is sent by his uncle along with some other teenage boys --- including East's hothead younger brother --- to kill a key witness hiding out in Wisconsin. The journey takes East out of a city he's never left and into an America that’s entirely alien to him, ultimately forcing him to grapple with his place in the world and decide what kind of man he wants to become.
Broadway Books * 9781101903759

DOMINION: The Chronicles of the Invaders, Book 3 by John Connolly and Jennifer Ridyard (Science Fiction/Adventure)
Syl Hellais and Paul Kerr have traveled through the mysterious wormhole known as Derith, from which no traveler has ever returned. Trapped in a dimension beyond their own, they emerge to discover a universe that has moved on without them. Years have passed, and Civil War rages among the Illyri. Earth is lost to alien parasites known as the Others, and the sinister Archmage Syrene of the Nairene Sisterhood has disappeared into the Sisterhood’s lair --- but not before choosing a new leader with her own plans for the future of her race. Syl and Paul must find a way to change the course of history and save the lives of billions.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books * 9781476757193

A DROP OF INK by Megan Chance (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Penniless and disgraced, Adelaide Wentworth is feeling rather desperate. With nothing left to lose, she and her sister, Louisa, flee to Lake Geneva with Adelaide’s lover, the infamous poet Julian Estes. There, Louisa hopes to persuade her former lover, celebrated writer Bayard Sonnier, to advance Julian’s career. At the Villa Diodati --- the place that inspired the writing of FRANKENSTEIN 60 years earlier --- Louisa plots to rekindle her affair with Bayard, while Adelaide hopes to restore her fading love for Julian by being the muse he needs. But soon, a confused Adelaide turns to Giovanni Calina --- Bayard’s assistant and a man with his own secrets and deep resentments --- and the two form a dangerous alliance.
Lake Union Publishing * 9781503940994

EVEN THE DEAD: A Quirke Novel by Benjamin Black (Historical Mystery)
A car crashes into a tree in central Dublin and bursts into flames. The police assume the driver’s death was either an accident or a suicide, but Quirke believes otherwise. Then his daughter, Phoebe, gets a mysterious visit from an acquaintance, who later disappears. Phoebe asks her father for help, and Quirke in turn seeks the assistance of his old friend, Inspector Hackett. Before long, the two men find themselves untangling a twisted string of events that takes them deep into a shadowy world where one of the city’s most powerful men uses the cover of politics and religion to make obscene profits.
Picador * 9781250117878

THE FIREMAN by Joe Hill (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
A terrifying new plague is spreading like wildfire across the country, striking cities one by one. The doctors call it Draco Incendia Trychophyton. To everyone else it’s Dragonscale, a highly contagious, deadly spore that marks its hosts with beautiful black and gold marks across their bodies --- before causing them to burst into flames. Millions are infected, and blazes erupt everywhere. A mysterious and compelling stranger straddles the abyss between insanity and death. Known as The Fireman, he strolls the ruins of New Hampshire, a madman afflicted with Dragonscale who has learned to control the fire within himself, using it as a shield to protect the hunted…and as a weapon to avenge the wronged.
William Morrow Paperbacks * 9780062200648

THE FORGOTTEN SOLDIER: A Pike Logan Thriller by Brad Taylor (Thriller/Adventure)
A Special Forces soldier is killed on an operation in Afghanistan, and complicit in the attack is a government official of an allied nation. While the US administration wants to forget the casualty, one Taskforce member will not. When he sets out to avenge his brother's death, his actions threaten to not only expose the Taskforce's activities, but also destroy a web of alliances against a greater evil. Pike Logan is now forced to choose between his friend and the administration he's sworn to protect, while unbeknownst to either of them, the soldier's death is only the beginning.
Dutton * 9780451477194

FRANCIS BACON IN YOUR BLOOD: A Memoir by Michael Peppiatt (Memoir)
In June 1963, when Michael Peppiatt first met Francis Bacon, the former was a college boy at Cambridge, the latter already a famous painter. And yet, Peppiatt was welcomed into the volatile artist's world; Bacon proved himself a devoted friend and father figure, even amidst the drinking and gambling. Though Peppiatt would later write perhaps the definitive biography of Bacon, his sharply drawn memoir has a different vigor, revealing the artist at his most intimate and indiscreet, and his London and Paris milieus in all their seediness and splendor.
Bloomsbury Paperbacks * 9781408856307

THE GAMES: A Private Novel by James Patterson and Mark Sullivan (Thriller)
Beautiful white-sand beaches, gorgeous women, and stunning natural beauty. It sounds like heaven on earth, but to Jack Morgan, head of the renowned international security firm Private, it's a place where threats are coming fast and furious. As summer reaches full swing, prominent clients he's supposed to protect are disappearing and bodies mysteriously start to litter the streets. The countdown to a deadly spectacle has begun. Jack must fight his way deep into the heart of a ruthless underworld and stop his most destructive enemies ever. Before their dark plan can reach its catastrophic end.
Grand Central Publishing * 9781455585335

GOOD AS GONE by Amy Gentry (Psychological Suspense)
Anna’s daughter, Julie, was kidnapped from her own bedroom when she was 13 years old, while Anna slept just downstairs, unaware that her daughter was being ripped away from her. For eight years, she has lived with the guilt and the void in her family, hoping against hope that Julie is still alive. And then one night, the doorbell rings. A young woman who appears to be Julie is finally, miraculously, home safe. Anna and the rest of the family are thrilled, but soon Anna begins to see holes in Julie’s story. When she is contacted by a former detective turned private eye, she is forced to wonder if this young woman is even her daughter at all. And if she isn’t Julie, what is it that she wants?
Mariner Books * 9781328745552

THE MAN WITHOUT A SHADOW by Joyce Carol Oates (Psychological Suspense)
In 1965, neuroscientist Margot Sharpe meets Elihu Hoopes --- the “man without a shadow” --- whose devastated memory, unable to store new experiences or to retrieve the old, will make him the most famous and studied amnesiac in history. Over the course of the next 30 years, Margot herself becomes famous for her experiments with E. H. --- and inadvertently falls in love with him, despite the ethical ambiguity of their affair. Though he remains forever elusive and mysterious to her, she is haunted by mysteries of the past.
Ecco * 9780062416100

RIVER ROAD by Carol Goodman (Psychological Thriller)
Nan Lewis, a creative writing professor, hits a deer while driving home from a faculty holiday party. But when she gets out of her car to look for it, the deer is nowhere to be found. The next morning, Nan is informed that one of her students was killed in a hit-and-run the night before. And because of the damage to her car, Nan is a suspect. In the days following the accident, Nan finds herself shunned by the same community that rallied around her when her own daughter was killed in an eerily similar accident. When she begins to find disturbing tokens that recall the death of her daughter, Nan suspects that the two accidents are connected.
Touchstone * 9781501109911

ROBERT B. PARKER’S BLACKJACK by Robert Knott (Historical Mystery/Western)
Appaloosa, the hometown of Territorial Marshals Virgil Cole and Everett Hitch, continues to prosper, but with prosperity comes a slew of new trouble: carpetbaggers, gamblers, migrants, peddlers, drifters, thieves and whores. And there’s a new menace in town: Boston Bill Black, the owner of Appaloosa’s new casino who is wanted for a series of murders. As they set out to track him down, Cole and Hitch find themselves back in Appaloosa --- where one woman in particular may, or may not, prove to be the apple of Boston Bill’s eye.
G.P. Putnam's Sons * 9781101982525

THIS CENSUS-TAKER by China Miéville (Paranormal/Urban Fantasy)
In a remote house on a hilltop, a lonely boy witnesses a profoundly traumatic event. He tries --- and fails --- to flee. Left alone with his increasingly deranged parent, he dreams of safety, of joining the other children in the town below, of escape. When at last a stranger knocks at his door, the boy senses that his days of isolation might be over. But by what authority does this man keep the meticulous records he carries? What is the purpose behind his questions? Is he friend, enemy…or something else altogether?
Del Rey * 9781101967348

A VOICE FROM THE FIELD by Neal Griffin (Thriller)
Gunther Kane and his white supremacist group are using forced prostitution to finance the purchase of automatic weapons. Kane snatches young women off the streets and sells them to hundreds of men. When a victim is used up, she's killed and dumped. Physically recovered from being shot but struggling with PTSD, Tia Suarez almost doesn't believe her eyes when she glimpses a Hispanic teenager bound and gagged in the back of Kane's van. The look of terror on the woman's face makes Tia desperate to rescue her, and nothing will stop her.
Tor Books * 9780765389497

WHERE IT HURTS by Reed Farrel Coleman (Hard-boiled Noir Mystery)
Following the loss of his family, Gus Murphy has settled into a mindless, soulless routine that barely keeps his grief at arm’s length. But his comfortable waking trance comes to an end when ex-con Tommy Delcamino asks him for help. Four months earlier, Tommy’s son T.J.’s battered body was discovered in a wooded lot, yet the Suffolk County PD doesn’t seem interested in pursuing the killers. It’s a dangerous favor Gus has taken on as he claws his way back to take a place among the living, while searching through the sewers for a killer.
G.P. Putnam's Sons * 9780425283271

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