In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of November 6th and November 13th 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 review of PARTING SHOT and our interview with its author, Linwood Barclay. This stand-alone thriller set in Promise Falls, NY is currently our New Release Spotlight title and will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick.
Also, we encourage you to enter our Word of Mouth and Sounding Off on Audio contests for an opportunity to win some fabulous hardcovers and audiobooks. And please be sure to vote in our latest poll, which asks how many books are on your to-be-read list right now.
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This Week's Bonus News: Our Review of PARTING SHOT, a New Release Spotlight Title,
and Our Interview with Linwood Barclay
PARTING SHOT by Linwood Barclay (Thriller)
When Cal Weaver left the force for refuge as a private investigator, he never intended to work as a bodyguard --- let alone, a babysitter. But that’s what Madeline Plimpton, a relic of old-stock wealth, wants for her 18-year-old grand-nephew, Jeremy Pilford --- aka The Big Baby. Thanks to his defense lawyer, Jeremy won his release on probation for being too coddled to understand that he was doing anything wrong when he got drunk at a party, got behind the wheel of another guest’s Porsche, and got a young woman killed. Fueled by social media outrage, lots of people want Jeremy to pay for his crime. Some are willing to take justice, along with rocks and bats, into their own hands. Reluctantly, Weaver agrees to protect Jeremy from vigilantes, especially fervent competitors for glory and cash prizes from Just Deserts, a website that advocates retribution through humiliation and violence.
Meanwhile, Cal’s former colleague, Detective Barry Duckworth, has stepped into a baffling case of abduction and mutilation. At first, the victim, a strikingly innocent young man named Brian Gaffney, believes he was snatched, drugged and probed by aliens. As Duckworth quickly uncovers, the evidence --- a crude tattoo covering Brian’s back --- indicates earthly perpetrators with a vendetta. Gradually, PARTING SHOT reveals the link between Brian’s disfiguring misfortune and Jeremy’s vulnerability to being “taught a lesson” by warped web followers --- or worse, a deeply deranged and fiercely determined devil of vengeance.
PARTING SHOT will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick. You can read Carol Fitzgerald’s commentary in the November 10th Bookreporter.com Weeky Update newsletter.
- Click here to read the review.
- Click here to read our interview with Linwood Barclay.
Click here to read more in our New Release Spotlight.
On Sale the Week of November 6th in Hardcover
November 7th
BONFIRE by Krysten Ritter (Psychological Thriller)
It has been 10 years since Abby Williams left home and scrubbed away all visible evidence of her small-town roots. Now working as an environmental lawyer in Chicago, she has a thriving career, a modern apartment, and her pick of meaningless one-night stands. But when a new case takes her back home to Barrens, Indiana, the life she painstakingly created starts to crack. Tasked with investigating Optimal Plastics, the town’s most high-profile company and economic heart, Abby begins to find strange connections to Barrens’s biggest scandal from more than a decade ago, involving the popular Kaycee Mitchell and her closest friends --- just before Kaycee disappeared for good.
Crown Archetype | 9781524759841
A CHRISTMAS RETURN by Anne Perry (Historical Mystery)
As Charlotte Pitt’s grandmother, Mariah Ellison, finds herself investigating a long-unsolved slaying, it becomes clear that grappling with intrigue and foul play runs in the family. A festive Christmas package left on Mariah’s doorstep contains an ominous present, sparking memories of a 20-year-old murder that shattered her friendship with the victim’s widow. Though the gift is a bitter reminder of that tragic time, in the spirit of the season Mariah travels to Surrey in hopes of reconciling with her estranged friend and solving the crime that drove them apart. But Surrey’s picturesque hills conceal dark doings and shocking revelations that could make the holiday anything but calm and bright.
Ballantine Books | 9780425285077
COME HOME by Patricia Gussin (Thriller)
Nicole Nelson and Ahmed Masud are partners in a thriving plastic surgery practice, are very much in love, and adore their young son, Alex. But cracks are beginning to appear in their fairy-tale life: most recently, pressure from Ahmed’s wealthy family in Cairo for him to return to Egypt --- permanently --- with his son. The Masud family pressure becomes a demand as the Hosni Mubarak regime is seriously threatened by protestors in Egypt. Ahmed’s family owes their control of the Egyptian cotton empire directly to Mubarak cronyism. If Mubarak goes down, the Masuds will surely lose their wealth, maybe even their lives. Ahmed must make a decision --- stay with Nicole in America or obey his father. And what about their son?
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608092598
DEAD OF WINTER: A Lily Dale Mystery by Wendy Corsi Staub (Mystery)
Just as a murderer dumps his corpse into the lake across Valley View in Lily Dale, Bella Jordan happens to be at her window. Unbeknownst to her, the killer spots her silhouette and prowls straight to her door. That is, until he’s interrupted by a black cat. A superstitious gambler, he takes off but vows to return. Jiffy Arden, a neighborhood kid looking for the black cat and stumbling across the killer, begins to have premonitions of being kidnapped during the season’s first snowstorm. Sure enough, when it strikes, he vanishes, never arriving home from the bus stop. While her son, Max, believes Jiffy has been kidnapped, Bella is convinced he has just wandered off as he typically does… until a body shows up in the lake.
Crooked Lane Books | 9781683313335
DEADLY CURE by Lawrence Goldstone (Historical Thriller)
In 1899, in Brooklyn, New York, Dr. Noah Whitestone is called urgently to his wealthy neighbor’s house to treat a five-year-old boy with a shocking set of symptoms. When the child dies suddenly later that night, Noah is accused by the boy’s regular physician --- the powerful and politically connected Dr. Arnold Frias --- of prescribing a lethal dose of laudanum. To prove his innocence, Noah must investigate the murder --- for it must be murder --- and confront the man whom he is convinced is the real killer. His investigation leads him to a reporter for a muckraking magazine and a beautiful radical editor who are convinced that a secret, experimental drug from Germany has caused the death of at least five local children, and possibly many more.
Pegasus Books | 9781681775524
DEATH AT THE EMERALD: A Frances Ffolkes Mystery by R. J. Koreto (Historical Mystery)
One-named stunning actress Helen mysteriously vanished 30 years ago. An elderly family friend is unable to bear not knowing any longer and commissions Lady Frances Ffolkes to track her down. Taking on the role of Lady Sherlock, with her loyal maid Mallow drafted as her Watson, Frances finds herself immersed in the glamorous world of Edwardian theater and London’s latest craze --- motion pictures. When one of Helen’s old suitors is suddenly murdered, Frances and Mallow work quickly to uncover a box of subtle clues to Helen’s whereabouts. But someone unexpected wants that box just as badly and is willing to kill to keep it shut.
Crooked Lane Books | 9781683313373
DISPLACED by Stephan Abarbanell (Historical Thriller)
Elderly writer Elias Lind isn’t convinced by reports that his scientist brother, Raphael, died in a concentration camp. Too frail to search for Raphael himself, Elias persuades a contact in the Jewish resistance to send someone in his place. Lilya joined the resistance movement to help form a new state, not to waste her time on a fruitless chase across a war-ravaged continent at the request of a most likely delusional old man. As her comrades make their final preparations for a major operation, a bitter Lilya must accept her orders and embark on her journey to Europe. But Lilya isn’t the only person pursuing the missing man. Someone has been mirroring her every move --- a dangerous adversary who will go to drastic lengths to find Raphael first.
Harper | 9780062484475
EASY ERRORS: The Posadas County Mysteries by Steven F. Havill (Mystery)
A violent crash has occurred. Not only is the vehicle totaled and the driver and a passenger crushed inside, a dead boy has been ejected. The first deputy to join Undersheriff Bill Gastner at the scene is rookie Robert Torrez, the department's newest hire. Before Gastner can head him off, Torrez sees that the boy is his spirited younger brother. And the girl crushed inside the SUV is a younger sister. The driver of the Suburban, also dead, is the assistant District Attorney's teenaged son. Were the three dead kids running from someone --- or something --- rather than speeding? Further investigation reveals that a fourth teen should have been in the vehicle, but is now missing. Where had the four kids been? And why?
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464209222
THE END WE START FROM by Megan Hunter (Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction)
As London is submerged below floodwaters, a woman gives birth to her first child, Z. Days later, she and her baby are forced to leave their home in search of safety. They head north through a newly dangerous country seeking refuge from place to place. The story traces fear and wonder as the baby grows, thriving and content against all the odds.
Grove Press | 9780802126894
EVERY BREATH YOU TAKE by Mary Higgins Clark and Alafair Burke (Mystery/Thriller)
Laurie Moran’s television show “Under Suspicion” is a hit, both in the ratings and its record of solving cold cases. But her romantic break from former host Alex Buckley has left her with on-air talent she can’t stand --- Ryan Nichols --- and a sense of loneliness. Now Ryan has suggested a new case. Three years ago, Virginia Wakeling, a member of the Board of Trustees of the Metropolitan Museum of Art and one of the museum’s most generous donors, was found dead in the snow. The leading suspect then and now is her much younger boyfriend and personal trainer, Ivan Gray. Laurie’s skepticism about the case is upended by a tip from her father’s NYPD connection, and soon Laurie realizes there are a bevy of suspects --- including Virginia’s trusted inner circle.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501171642
FOOLS' RIVER: A Poke Rafferty Thriller by Timothy Hallinan (Thriller)
The two most difficult days in Bangkok writer Poke Rafferty’s life begin with an emergency visit from Edward Dell, the almost-boyfriend of Poke’s teenage daughter, Miaow. The boy’s father, Buddy, a late-middle-aged womanizer who has moved to Bangkok for happy hunting, has disappeared, and money is being siphoned out of his bank and credit card accounts. It soon becomes apparent that Buddy is in the hands of a pair of killers who prey on Bangkok’s “sexpats”; when his accounts are empty, he’ll be found, like a dozen others before him, floating facedown in a Bangkok canal. His money is almost gone. Over 48 frantic hours, Poke does everything he can to locate Buddy before it’s too late.
Soho Crime | 9781616957506
FRANKLIN D. ROOSEVELT: A Political Life by Robert Dallek (Biography)
In an era of such great national divisiveness, there could be no more timely biography of one of our greatest presidents than one that focuses on his unparalleled political ability as a uniter and consensus maker. Robert Dallek’s book takes a fresh look at the many compelling questions that have attracted all his biographers: How did a man who came from so privileged a background become the greatest presidential champion of the country’s needy? How did someone who never won recognition for his intellect foster revolutionary changes in the country’s economic and social institutions? How did he work such a profound change in the country’s foreign relations?
Viking | 9780525427902
GARDEN OF THE LOST AND ABANDONED: The Extraordinary Story of One Ordinary Woman and the Children She Saves by Jessica Yu (Biography)
At least 5,000 children live on the streets of Uganda’s capital city of Kampala. Some forget the names of their villages. The youngest may not know the names of their parents. But Gladys Kalibbala --- part journalist, part detective, part Good Samaritan --- does not hesitate to dive into difficult or even dangerous situations to aid a child. Author of a newspaper column called “Lost and Abandoned,” she is a resource that police and others turn to when they stumble across a stranded kid with a hidden history. Jessica Yu delivers an acutely observed story of this hardnosed and warmhearted woman, the children she helps, and the twists of fate they experience together.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9780544617063
THE GREAT HALIFAX EXPLOSION: A World War I Story of Treachery, Tragedy, and Extraordinary Heroism by John U. Bacon (History)
On Monday, December 3, 1917, the French freighter SS Mont-Blanc set sail from Brooklyn carrying the largest cache of explosives ever loaded onto a ship. The U.S. had just recently entered World War I, and the ordnance was bound for the battlefields of France, to help the Allies break the grueling stalemate that had protracted the fighting for nearly four demoralizing years. The explosives were so dangerous that Captain Aimé Le Medec took unprecedented safety measures. Sailing north, the Mont-Blanc faced deadly danger, enduring a terrifying snowstorm off the coast of Maine and evading stealthy enemy U-boats hunting the waters of the Atlantic. But it was in Nova Scotia that an extraordinary disaster awaited.
William Morrow | 9780062666536
HEATHER, THE TOTALITY by Matthew Weiner (Fiction)
Mark and Karen Breakstone have constructed the idyllic life of wealth and status they always wanted, made complete by their beautiful and extraordinary daughter, Heather. But they are still not quite at the top. When the new owners of the penthouse above them begin construction, an unstable stranger penetrates the security of their comfortable lives and threatens to destroy everything they've created.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316435314
HEAVEN'S CROOKED FINGER by Hank Early (Mystery)
Earl Marcus thought he had forever left behind the painful memories of a childhood spent under the fundamentalist rule of his father RJ’s church. But then an ominous photo of RJ is delivered to Earl’s home. The photograph is dated long after his father’s burial, and there’s no doubt that the man in the picture is very much alive. As Earl returns to Church of the Holy Flame searching for the truth, faithful followers insist that his father has risen to a holy place high in the mountains. Nobody will talk about the teenage girls who go missing, only to return with strange tattoo-like marks on their skin. Earl doesn’t know what to believe, but he has long been haunted by his father, forever lurking in the shadows of his life.
Crooked Lane Books | 9781683313915
HITLER, MY NEIGHBOR: Memories of a Jewish Childhood, 1929-1939 by Edgar Feuchtwanger with Bertil Scali, translated by Adriana Hunter (Memoir)
Edgar Feuchtwanger came from a prominent German-Jewish family. He was a carefree five-year-old when Adolf Hitler, the leader of the Nazi Party, moved into the building opposite theirs in Munich. In 1933, the joy of this untroubled life was shattered. Hitler had been named Chancellor. Edgar's parents, stripped of their rights as citizens, tried to protect him from increasingly degrading realities. In class, his teacher had him draw swastikas, and his schoolmates joined the Hitler Youth. In 1939, Edgar was sent on his own to England, where he would make a new life, a career, have a family, and strive to forget the nightmare of his past --- a past that came rushing back when he decided, at the age of 88, to tell the story of his buried childhood and his infamous neighbor.
Other Press | 9781590518649
THE HOUSE OF UNEXPECTED SISTERS: No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (18) by Alexander McCall Smith (Mystery)
Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi are approached by their part-time colleague, Mr. Polopetsi, with a troubling story: a woman, accused of being rude to a valued customer, has been wrongly dismissed from her job at an office furniture store. Never one to let an act of injustice go unanswered, Mma Ramotswe begins to investigate, but soon discovers unexpected information that causes her to reluctantly change her views about the case. Other surprises await our intrepid proprietress in the course of her inquiries. Mma Ramotswe is puzzled when she happens to hear of a local nurse named Mingie Ramotswe. She thought she knew everybody by the name of Ramotswe, and that they were all related. Who is this mystery lady?
Pantheon | 9781101871379
IT'S ALL RELATIVE: Adventures Up and Down the World’s Family Tree by A.J. Jacobs (Memoir/Humor)
A.J. Jacobs has received some strange emails over the years, but this note was perhaps the strangest: “You don’t know me, but I’m your eighth cousin. And we have over 80,000 relatives of yours in our database.” Who are these people, he wondered, and how do I find them? So began A.J.’s three-year adventure to help build the biggest family tree in history. His journey would take him to all seven continents. He drank beer with a US president, found himself singing with the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, and unearthed genetic links to Hollywood actresses and real-life scoundrels. After all, we can choose our friends, but not our family.
Simon & Schuster | 9781476734491
L'APPART: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home by David Lebovitz (Memoir)
When David Lebovitz began the project of updating his apartment in his adopted home city, he never imagined he would encounter so much inexplicable red tape while contending with the famously inconsistent European work ethic and hours. Lebovitz maintains his distinctive sense of humor with the help of his partner Romain, peppering this renovation story with recipes from his Paris kitchen. In the midst of it all, he reveals the adventure that accompanies carving out a place for yourself in a foreign country --- under baffling conditions --- while never losing sight of the magic that inspired him to move to the City of Light many years ago, and to truly make his home there.
Crown | 9780804188388
LENIN: The Man, the Dictator, and the Master of Terror by Victor Sebestyen (Biography)
Brought up in comfort and with a passion for hunting and fishing, chess and the English classics, Vladimir Ilyich Lenin was radicalized after the execution of his brother in 1887. Victor Sebestyen traces the story from Lenin's early years to his long exile in Europe and return to Petrograd in 1917 to lead the first Communist revolution in history. Uniquely, Sebestyen has discovered that throughout Lenin's life his closest relationships were with his mother, his sisters, his wife and his mistress. The long-suppressed story told here of the love triangle that Lenin had with his wife and his beautiful, married mistress and comrade reveals a more complicated character than that of the coldly one-dimensional leader of the Bolshevik Revolution.
Pantheon | 9781101871638
THE MAYFLOWER: The Families, the Voyage, and the Founding of America by Rebecca Fraser (History)
The voyage of the Mayflower and the founding of Plymouth Colony is one of the seminal events in world history. But the poorly equipped group of English Puritans who ventured across the Atlantic in the early autumn of 1620 had no sense they would pass into legend. They had 80 casks of butter and two dogs but no cattle for milk, meat or ploughing. They were ill-prepared for the brutal journey and the new land that few of them could comprehend. But the Mayflower story did not end with these Pilgrims’ arrival on the coast of New England or their first uncertain years as settlers. Rebecca Fraser traces two generations of one ordinary family and their extraordinary response to the challenges of life in America.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250108562
THE MIDNIGHT LINE: A Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child (Thriller)
Reacher takes a stroll through a small Wisconsin town and sees a class ring in a pawn shop window: West Point 2005. The ring is tiny, for a woman, and it has her initials engraved on the inside. Reacher wonders what unlucky circumstance made her give up something she earned over four hard years. He decides to find out. And find the woman. And return her ring. So begins a harrowing journey that takes Reacher through the upper Midwest, from a lowlife bar on the sad side of a small town to a dirt-blown crossroads in the middle of nowhere, encountering bikers, cops, crooks, muscle, and a missing persons PI who wears a suit and a tie in the Wyoming wilderness. The deeper Reacher digs, and the more he learns, the more dangerous the terrain becomes.
Delacorte Press | 9780399593482
MONTAIGNE IN BARN BOOTS: An Amateur Ambles Through Philosophy by Michael Perry (Memoir/Humor)
Written in a spirit of exploration rather than declaration, MONTAIGNE IN BARN BOOTS is a down-to-earth (how do you pronounce that last name?) look into the ideas of a philosopher "ensconced in a castle tower overlooking his vineyard," channeled by a midwestern American writing "in a room above the garage overlooking a disused pig pen." Whether grabbing an electrified fence, fighting fires, failing to fix a truck, or feeding chickens, Michael Perry draws on each experience to explore subjects as diverse as faith, race, sex, aromatherapy and Prince. But he also champions academics and aesthetics, in a book that ultimately emerges as a sincere, unflinching look at the vital need to be a better person and citizen.
Harper | 9780062230560
MRS. OSMOND by John Banville (Historical Fiction)
Isabel Archer is a young American woman, swept off to Europe in the late 19th century by an aunt who hopes to round out the impetuous but naïve girl's experience of the world. When Isabel comes into a large, unexpected inheritance, she is finagled into a marriage with the charming, penniless, and --- as Isabel finds out too late --- cruel and deceitful Gilbert Osmond, whose connection to a certain Madame Merle is suspiciously intimate. On a trip to England to visit her cousin Ralph Touchett on his deathbed, Isabel is offered a chance to free herself from the marriage, but nonetheless chooses to return to Italy.
Knopf | 9780451493422
NANTUCKET RED TICKETS: A Henry Kennis Mystery by Steven Axelrod (Mystery)
It's Christmas Eve on Nantucket, and prominent businessman Jackson Blum is about to live out his own version of A CHRISTMAS CAROL. No visions, no ghosts --- just the past, represented by the exhumed skeleton of his old partner, Ted Coddington, with a bullet from Blum's Ruger pistol in its skull; the present, in the form of a horribly mistreated employee who reveals Blum as the Scrooge he is; and the future, invoked by a family crisis that threatens to ruin the rest of his life. Nantucket Police Chief Henry Kennis is investigating the so-cold Coddington case with Blum as the main suspect while he roots out a plot to rig the traditional $5,000 Red Tickets raffle and struggles to close down a local opioid dealer who's selling to high school kids.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464207136
THE NOEL DIARY by Richard Paul Evans (Fiction)
Bestselling romance author Jacob Churcher hasn't been home for almost 20 years --- not since his mentally ill mother kicked him out of the house when he was just 16. When a lawyer calls to inform him that his estranged mother has passed away and left her house to him, Jacob returns to try and reconcile with the past and the pain and abuse he experienced as a child. As he digs through two decades worth of clutter, he uncovers many puzzling items, including a diary left by someone named Noel, who stayed with Jacob’s family during her pregnancy. Jacob then has an unexpected visitor, Rachel, who is looking for the mother who put her up for adoption 30 years before. United by their quest to make sense of the past and rewrite their futures, Jacob and Rachel begin a search for Noel.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501172038
OBAMA: AN INTIMATE PORTRAIT by Pete Souza (Photography/History)
During Barack Obama's two terms, Pete Souza was with the President during more crucial moments than anyone else --- and he photographed them all. Souza captured nearly two million photographs of President Obama, in moments highly classified and disarmingly candid. OBAMA: AN INTIMATE PORTRAIT reproduces more than 300 of Souza's most iconic photographs with fine-art print quality in an oversize collectible format. Together they document the most consequential hours of the Presidency, alongside unguarded moments with the President's family, his encounters with children, interactions with world leaders and cultural figures, and more.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316512589
PLAYING WITH FIRE: The 1968 Election and the Transformation of American Politics by Lawrence O'Donnell (History/Politics)
The 1968 U.S. Presidential election was the young Lawrence O’Donnell’s political awakening, and in the decades since it has remained one of his abiding fascinations. For years he has deployed one of America’s shrewdest political minds to understanding its dynamics, not just because it is fascinating in itself, but because in it is contained the essence of what makes America different, and how we got to where we are now. PLAYING WITH FIRE represents O’Donnell’s master class in American electioneering, embedded in the epic human drama of a system --- and a country --- coming apart at the seams in real time.
Penguin Press | 9780399563140
THE QUANTUM SPY by David Ignatius (Thriller)
A hyper-fast quantum computer is the digital equivalent of a nuclear bomb; whoever possesses one will be able to shred any encryption and break any code in existence. The winner of the race to build the world’s first quantum machine will attain global dominance for generations to come. Who will cross the finish line first: the U.S. or China? In THE QUANTUM SPY, the United States’ top-secret quantum research labs are compromised by a suspected Chinese informant, inciting a mole hunt of history-altering proportions. CIA officer Harris Chang leads the charge. Do the leaks expose real secrets, or are they false trails meant to deceive the Chinese? The answer forces Chang to question everything he thought he knew about loyalty, morality and the primacy of truth.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393254150
THE REVOLUTION OF MARINA M. by Janet Fitch (Historical Fiction)
St. Petersburg, New Year's Eve, 1916. Marina Makarova is a young woman of privilege who aches to break free of the constraints of her genteel life, a life about to be violently upended by the vast forces of history. Swept up on these tides, Marina will join the marches for workers' rights, fall in love with a radical young poet, and betray everything she holds dear, before being betrayed in turn. As her country goes through almost unimaginable upheaval, Marina's own coming-of-age unfolds, marked by deep passion and devastating loss, and the private heroism of an ordinary woman living through extraordinary times.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316022064
REVOLUTION SONG: A Story of American Freedom by Russell Shorto (History)
Russell Shorto takes us back to the founding of the American nation, drawing on diaries, letters and autobiographies to flesh out six lives that cast the era in a fresh new light. They include an African man who freed himself and his family from slavery, a rebellious young woman who abandoned her abusive husband to chart her own course, and a certain Mr. Washington, who was admired for his social graces but harshly criticized for his often-disastrous military strategy. Through these lives, we understand that the revolution was fought over the meaning of individual freedom, a philosophical idea that became a force for violent change.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393245547
THE RUINED HOUSE by Ruby Namdar (Fiction)
Andrew P. Cohen, a professor of comparative culture at New York University, is at the zenith of his life. Adored by his classes and published in prestigious literary magazines, he is about to receive a coveted promotion. He is on excellent terms with Linda, his ex-wife, and his two grown children admire and adore him. His girlfriend, Ann Lee, a former student half his age, offers lively companionship. A man of elevated taste, education and culture, he is a model of urbanity and success. But the manicured surface of his world begins to crack when he is visited by a series of strange and inexplicable visions involving an ancient religious ritual that will upend his comfortable life.
Harper | 9780062467492
THE SHADOW DISTRICT by Arnaldur Indridason (Thriller)
In wartime Reykjavik, Iceland, a young woman is found strangled in “the shadow district,” a rough and dangerous area of the city. An Icelandic detective and a member of the American military police are on the trail of a brutal killer. A 90-year-old man is discovered dead on his bed, smothered with his own pillow. Konrad, a former detective now bored with retirement, finds newspaper cuttings reporting the WWII shadow district murder in the dead man’s home. It’s a crime that Konrad remembers, having grown up in the same neighborhood. Why, after all this time, would an old crime resurface? Did the police arrest the wrong man? Will Konrad's link to the past help him solve the case and finally lay the ghosts of WWII Reykjavik to rest?
Minotaur Books | 9781250124029
THREE DAYS AND A LIFE by Pierre Lemaitre (Psychological Thriller)
In 1999, 12-year-old Antoine Courtin accidentally kills a young neighbor boy. Panicked, he conceals the body and is never suspected of any connection to the child's disappearance. But the boy's death continues to haunt him, shaping his life in unseen ways. More than a decade later, Antoine is a young doctor with a fiancée and a promising future. On a rare trip home, Antoine thoughtlessly sleeps with a young woman from his past. She shows up pregnant at his doorstep a few months later, insisting that they marry, but Antoine refuses. Meanwhile, the newly discovered body of Antoine's childhood victim means that the case has been reopened. Then the young woman's father threatens Antoine with a paternity test --- which almost certainly would match the DNA found on the dead child's body.
MacLehose Press | 9781681441788
TYPHOON FURY: A Novel of the Oregon Files by Clive Cussler and Boyd Morrison (Thriller/Adventure)
Hired to search for a collection of paintings worth half a billion dollars, Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the Oregon soon find themselves in much deeper waters. The vicious leader of a Filipino insurgency is not only using them to finance his attacks, he has stumbled upon one of the most lethal secrets of World War II: a Japanese-developed drug, designed, but never used, to turn soldiers into super-warriors. To stop him, the Oregon must take on not only the rebel commander, but also a South African mercenary intent on getting his own hands on the drug, a massive swarm of torpedo drones targeting the U.S. Navy, an approaching megastorm --- and, just possibly, a war that could envelop the entire Asian continent.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780399575570
UNHOLY CITY: A Claire Codella Mystery by Carrie Smith (Mystery)
Despite their rocky history, Detective Claire Codella and Precinct Detective Brian Haggerty come together when senior churchwarden Philip Graves’ bloody body is found lying in the herb garden of historic St. Paul’s Episcopal Church on Manhattan’s Upper West Side just two days before Good Friday. Upon first glance, it looks like a random act of big city violence, but it soon becomes clear that Philip’s death was the result of a meticulously calculated ploy by someone who knew him. There are five vestry members and a choir director in addition to the 10 homeless men asleep in the church basement. Any one of them could have done it, but what did Philip do to warrant such a merciless death?
Crooked Lane Books | 9781683313298
WHAT UNITES US: Reflections on Patriotism by Dan Rather and Elliot Kirschner (Political Science/Essays)
With this collection of original essays, venerated journalist Dan Rather reminds us of the principles upon which the United States was founded. Looking at the freedoms that define us --- from the vote to the press; the values that have transformed us, from empathy to inclusion to service; the institutions that sustain us, such as public education; and the traits that helped form our young country, such as the audacity to take on daunting challenges in science and medicine --- Rather brings to bear his decades of experience on the frontlines of the world’s biggest stories. As a living witness to historical change, he offers up an intimate view of history, tracing where we have been in order to help us chart a way forward and heal our bitter divisions.
Algonquin Books | 9781616207823
THE WINE LOVER'S DAUGHTER: A Memoir by Anne Fadiman (Memoir)
An appreciation of wine --- along with a plummy upper-crust accent, expensive suits, and an encyclopedic knowledge of Western literature --- was an essential element of Clifton Fadiman’s escape from lower-middle-class Brooklyn to swanky Manhattan. But wine was not just a class-vaulting accessory; it was an object of ardent desire. THE WINE LOVER’S DAUGHTER traces the arc of a man’s infatuation from the glass of cheap Graves he drank in Paris in 1927; through the Château Lafite-Rothschild 1904 he drank to celebrate his 80th birthday, when he and the bottle were exactly the same age; to the wines that sustained him in his last years, when he was blind but still buoyed, as always, by hedonism.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374228088
WOMEN'S LIBATION!: Cocktails to Celebrate a Woman's Right to Booze by Merrily Grashin (Humor)
The perfect mix of punny humor, feminist verve and practical instruction, WOMEN'S LIBATION! is a cocktail guide for the lady who likes to shake things up (and not just her martinis). In it, Brooklyn-based illustrator and long-time bartender Merrily Grashin toasts the feminist heroes who have come before us and the social movements that have helped shape us, honoring each with a delicious, imaginative cocktail. Beautifully appointed in a paper-over-board package with two-color interiors, each spread features an original illustration for every boozy beverage and a brief reflection on the historical figure, event or movement in women's history on which the drink is based.
Plume | 9780735216921
WONDER VALLEY by Ivy Pochoda (Fiction)
During a typically crowded morning commute, a naked runner is dodging between the stalled cars. The strange sight makes the local news and captures the imaginations of a stunning cast of misfits and lost souls. There's Ren, just out of juvie, who travels to LA in search of his mother. There's Owen and James, teenage twins who live in a desert commune, where their father, a self-proclaimed healer, holds a powerful sway over his disciples. There's Britt, who shows up at the commune harboring a dark secret. There's Tony, a bored and unhappy lawyer who is inspired by the runner. And there's Blake, a drifter hiding in the desert, doing his best to fight off his most violent instincts. Their lives will all intertwine and come crashing together in a shocking way.
Ecco | 9780062656353
On Sale the Week of November 6th in Paperback
November 7th
BEATLES '66: The Revolutionary Year by Steve Turner (Music History)
They started off as hysteria-inducing pop stars playing to audiences of screaming teenage fans and ended up as musical sages considered responsible for ushering in a new era. The year that changed everything for the Beatles was 1966. Music journalist and Beatles expert Steve Turner investigates the enormous changes that took place in the Beatles’ lives and work during 1966. He looks at the historical events that had an impact on the group, the music they made that in turn profoundly affected the culture around them, and the vision that allowed four young men from Liverpool to transform popular music and serve as pioneers for artists from Coldplay to David Bowie, Jay-Z to U2.
Ecco | 9780062475589
THE CITY BAKER’S GUIDE TO COUNTRY LIVING by Louise Miller (Fiction)
When Olivia Rawlings --- pastry chef extraordinaire for an exclusive Boston dinner club --- sets not just her flambéed dessert but the entire building alight, she escapes to the most comforting place she can think of: the idyllic town of Guthrie, Vermont. But the getaway turns into something more lasting when Margaret Hurley, the cantankerous owner of the Sugar Maple Inn, offers Livvy a job, which she accepts. Livvy soon uncovers the real reason she has been hired --- to help Margaret reclaim the inn’s blue ribbon status at the annual county fair apple pie contest. But when a new arrival takes the community by surprise, Livvy must decide whether to do what she does best and flee --- or stay and finally discover what it means to belong.
Penguin Books | 9781101981214
DARKEST HOUR: How Churchill Brought England Back from the Brink by Anthony McCarten (History)
Paperback Original
May 1940. Britain is at war. The horrors of blitzkrieg have seen one western European democracy after another fall in rapid succession to Nazi boot and shell. Invasion seems mere hours away. Just days after becoming Prime Minister, Winston Churchill must deal with this horror --- as well as a skeptical King, a party plotting against him, and an unprepared public. Pen in hand and typist-secretary at the ready, how could he change the mood and shore up the will of a nervous people? In this gripping day-by-day, often hour-by-hour account of how an often uncertain Churchill turned Britain around, Anthony McCarten exposes sides of the great man never seen before.
Harper Perennial | 9780062749529
DOWN TO NO GOOD by Earl Javorsky (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
Private investigator Charlie Miner, freshly revived from his own murder, gets a call from Homicide Detective Dave Putnam. Self-styled “psychic to the stars” Tamara Gale has given crucial information about three murders, and the brass thinks it makes the Department look bad. Dave wants Charlie to help figure out the angle, since he has first-hand experience with the inexplicable. Trouble is, Charlie, just weeks after his full-death experience, once again has severe cognitive problems and may get them both killed.
Story Plant | 9781611882537
THE EMERALD LIE: A Jack Taylor Novel by Ken Bruen (Mystery/Thriller)
The latest terror to be visited upon the dark Galway streets arrives in a most unusual form: a Cambridge graduate who becomes murderous over split infinitives, dangling modifiers, and any other sign of bad grammar. Meanwhile, ex-cop Jack Taylor is approached by a grieving father with a pocketful of cash on offer if Jack will help exact revenge on those responsible for his daughter’s brutal rape and murder. Though hesitant to get involved, Jack agrees to get a read on the likely perpetrators. But he is soon derailed by the reappearance of Emily, the chameleon-like young woman who joined forces with Jack to take down her pedophile father and who remains passionate, clever and utterly homicidal.
Mysterious Press | 9780802127235
THE EVENING ROAD by Laird Hunt (Historical Fiction)
Meet Ottie Lee Henshaw, a startling, challenging beauty in small-town Indiana. Quick of mind, she navigates a stifling marriage, a lecherous boss, and on one day in the summer of 1930 an odyssey across the countryside to witness a dark and fearful celebration. Meet Calla Destry, a determined young woman desperate to escape the violence of her town and to find the lover who has promised her a new life. On this day, the countryside of Jim Crow-era Indiana is no place for either. It is a world populated by frenzied demagogues and crazed revelers, by marauding vigilantes and grim fish suppers, by possessed bloodhounds and, finally, by the Ku Klux Klan itself.
Back Bay Books | 9780316391313
HANK: The Short Life and Long Country Road of Hank Williams by Mark Ribowsky (Biography)
Hank Williams, a frail, flawed man who had become country music’s first real star, instantly morphed into its first tragic martyr when he died in the backseat of a Cadillac at the age of 29. Six decades later, Mark Ribowsky traces the miraculous rise of this music legend --- from the dirt roads of rural Alabama to the now-immortal stage of the Grand Ole Opry, and, finally, to a lonely end on New Year’s Day in 1953. Examining Williams’ chart-topping hits while also recreating days and nights choked in booze and desperation, HANK uncovers the real man beneath the myths, reintroducing us to an American original whose legacy, like a good night at the honkytonk, promises to carry on and on.
Liveright | 9781631493379
HILLARY by D.W. Buffa (Political Thriller)
When Robert Constable, President of the United States, dies in bed with a woman in a New York hotel room, the public is told that he died suddenly and peacefully of natural causes --- and alone. The President’s wife, Hillary Constable, asks young senator Bobby Hart, who serves on the Senate Intelligence Committee, to find out who had her husband murdered and why. As Hart begins to learn more about the President’s shady dealings, he uncovers a massive global criminal and financial conspiracy, headed by a secret underground organization. Yet the closer Hart gets to the truth, the more shocking secrets are revealed that could threaten his life, American Democracy, and the future of the nation.
Polis Books | 9781943818808
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 Trade Paperbacks | 9780812984460
I LOVED HER IN THE MOVIES: Memories of Hollywood's Legendary Actresses by Robert Wagner with Scott Eyman (Memoir)
In a career that has spanned more than 60 years, Robert Wagner has witnessed the twilight of the Golden Age of Hollywood and the rise of television, becoming a beloved star in both media. During that time he became acquainted, both professionally and socially, with the remarkable women who were the greatest screen personalities of their day. I LOVED HER IN THE MOVIES is his intimate and revealing account of the charisma of these women on film, why they became stars, and how their specific emotional and dramatic chemistries affected the choices they made as actresses as well as the choices they made as women.
Penguin Books | 9780143107989
I SEE YOU by Clare Mackintosh (Psychological Thriller)
It all starts during her commute home one night. Zoe Walker glances through her local paper and sees her own face staring back at her in a classified ad. With the grainy photo is a phone number and a listing for a website called FindTheOne.com. In the following days, she sees other women in the same ad, a different one every day, and nearly all of them show up in the newspapers as victims of increasingly violent crimes --- including murder. With the help of a determined cop, Zoe uncovers the ad’s twisted purpose. And suddenly, the man on the train sitting across the car --- the one smiling at Zoe --- could be more than just a friendly stranger.
Berkley | 9781101988305
MADONNA IN A FUR COAT written by Sabahattin Ali, translated by Maureen Freely and Alexander Dawe (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
A shy young man leaves his home in rural Turkey to learn a trade and discover life in 1920s Berlin. There, amidst the city’s bustling streets, elegant museums, passionate politics and infamous cabarets, a chance meeting with a beautiful half-Jewish artist transforms him forever. Caught between his desire for freedom from tradition and his yearning to belong, he struggles to hold on to the new life he has found with the woman he loves.
Other Press | 9781590518809
A MIDSUMMER’S EQUATION by Keigo Higashino (Mystery)
Manabu Yukawa, the physicist known as "Detective Galileo," has traveled to Hari Cove, a once-popular summer resort town that has fallen on hard times. He is there to speak at a conference on a planned underwater mining operation, which has sharply divided the town. The night after the tense panel discussion, one of the resort's guests is found dead on the seashore at the base of the local cliffs. As the police try to uncover where Tsukahara was killed and why, Yukawa finds himself enmeshed in yet another confounding case of murder. In a series of twists, Galileo uncovers the hidden relationship behind the tragic events that led to this crime.
Minotaur Books | 9781250145420
THE MISSING by C. L. Taylor (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
When 15-year-old Billy Wilkinson goes missing in the middle of the night, his mother, Claire Wilkinson, blames herself. She’s not the only one. There isn’t a single member of Billy’s family that doesn’t feel guilty. But the Wilkinsons are so used to keeping secrets from one another that it isn’t until six months later, after an appeal for information goes horribly wrong, that the truth begins to surface. Claire is sure of two things --- that Billy is still alive and that her friends and family had nothing to do with his disappearance. A mother’s instinct is never wrong. Or is it?
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062673534
THE PRICE OF ILLUSION: A Memoir by Joan Juliet Buck (Memoir)
When Joan Juliet Buck became the first and only American woman ever to fill Paris Vogue's coveted position of Editor in Chief, she had the means to recreate for her aging father --- now a widower --- the life he’d enjoyed during his high-flying years, a splendid illusion of glamorous excess that could not be sustained indefinitely. Joan’s memoir tells the story of a life lived in the best places at the most interesting times: London and New York in the swinging 1960s, Rome and Milan in the dangerous 1970s, Paris in the heady 1980s and 1990s. But when her fantasy life at Vogue came to an end, she had to find out who she was after all those years of make-believe.
Washington Square Press | 9781476762951
RASPUTIN: Faith, Power, and the Twilight of the Romanovs by Douglas Smith (Biography)
A hundred years after his murder, Rasputin continues to excite the popular imagination as the personification of evil. Numerous biographies, novels and films recount his mysterious rise to power as Nicholas and Alexandra's confidant and the guardian of the sickly heir to the Russian throne. His debauchery and sinister political influence are the stuff of legend, and the downfall of the Romanov dynasty was laid at his feet. But as the prize-winning historian Douglas Smith shows, the true story of Rasputin's life and death has remained shrouded in myth. Combining probing scholarship and powerful storytelling, RASPUTIN separates fact from fiction to reveal the real life of one of history's most alluring figures.
Picador | 9781250141262
ROBERT LUDLUM’S THE BOURNE INITIATIVE by Eric Van Lustbader (Thriller/Adventure)
General Boris Karpov, head of the feared Russian FSB, is dead. But Karpov has reached out from the grave with an unstoppable cyber operation he conceived before his murder, aimed at the heart of the United States --- a way to steal the president's nuclear launch codes. Who has taken over the operation? Karpov trusted only one man: Jason Bourne. But can Bourne be working against his own country? The U.S. government is convinced of his treason and is doing everything in its power to kill him. Flushed from cover and gravely wounded, Bourne's only hope is to join forces with his most bitter enemy: a powerful Somali terrorist named Keyre, and his protégée, the Angelmaker.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781455597994
SKITTER by Ezekiel Boone (Apocalyptic Thriller/Horror)
First, there was the black swarm that swallowed a man whole, the suspicious seismic irregularities in India that confounded scientists, the nuclear bomb China dropped on its own territory without any explanation. Then, scientist Melanie Guyer's lab received a package containing a mysterious egg sac; little did Dr. Guyer know that, almost overnight, Earth would be consumed by previously dormant spiders that suddenly wanted out. Now, tens of millions of people around the world are dead. According to Dr. Guyer, the crisis may soon be over. But in Japan, a giant, glowing egg sac gives a shocking preview of what is to come, even as survivors in Los Angeles panic and break the quarantine zone.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781501125089
SNOWBLIND by Ragnar Jonasson (Mystery/Thriller)
Siglufjörður is an idyllically quiet fishing village in Northern Iceland, where no one locks their doors. Ari Thór Arason is a rookie policeman on his first posting, far from his girlfriend in Reykjavik --- with a past that he’s unable to leave behind. When a young woman is found lying half-naked in the snow, bleeding and unconscious, and a highly esteemed, elderly writer falls to his death in the local theater, Ari is dragged straight into the heart of a community where he can trust no one, and secrets and lies are a way of life. Past plays tag with the present and the claustrophobic tension mounts, while Ari is thrust ever deeper into his own darkness --- blinded by snow, and with a killer on the loose.
A Thomas Dunne Book for St. Martin's Griffin | 9781250144683
SOMEONE YOU LOVE IS GONE by Gurjinder Basran (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Simran’s mother has died but is not gone. Haunted by her mother’s spirit and memories of the past, she struggles to make sense of her world. Faced with disillusion in her marriage, growing distance from her daughter and sister, and the return of her long-estranged brother, she is troubled by questions to which she has no answers. As the life Simran has carefully constructed unravels, she must confront the truth of why her brother was separated from the family at a young age, and in doing so she uncovers an ancestral inheritance that changes everything.
Harper Perennial | 9780062674609
On Sale the Week of November 13th in Hardcover
November 14th
AMERICAN DRIFTER by Heather Graham and Chad Michael Murray (Thriller)
A young veteran of the US Army, River Roulet is struggling to shake the horrors of his past. War is behind him, but the memories remain. Desperate to distract himself from the images haunting him daily, River abandons the world he knows and flees to the country he’s always dreamed of visiting: Brazil. With a few friends at his side, River seems to be pulling his life together at last. Then he meets the enchanting Natal, an impassioned journalist and free spirit --- who lives with the gangster that rules much of Rio. As their romance blossoms, River and Natal flee together into the interior of Brazil, where they are pursued by the sadistic drug lord, Tio Amato, and his men. When River is forced to kill one of those men, the chase becomes even deadlier.
Forge Books | 9780765374875
ARTEMIS by Andy Weir (Science Fiction/Thriller)
Jazz Bashara is a criminal. Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you’re not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you have debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent. Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down. But pulling off the impossible is just the start of her problems, as she learns that she has stepped square into a conspiracy for control of Artemis itself --- and that now, her only chance at survival lies in a gambit even riskier than the first.
Crown | 9780553448122
BEASTS OF EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCE by Ruth Emmie Lang (Fantasy)
Orphaned, raised by wolves, and the proud owner of a horned pig named Merlin, Weylyn Grey knew he wasn’t like other people. But when he single-handedly stopped that tornado on a stormy Christmas day in Oklahoma, he realized just how different he actually was. As amazing as these powers may appear, though, they tend to manifest themselves at inopportune times and places. Since Weylyn saved Mary from an angry wolf on her 11th birthday, she’s known that a relationship with him isn’t without its risks, but she doesn’t care. BEASTS OF EXTRAORDINARY CIRCUMSTANCE tells the story of Weylyn Grey’s life from the perspectives of the people who knew him, loved him, and even a few who thought he was just plain weird.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250112040
BREAKING FREE: How I Escaped Polygamy, the FLDS Cult, and My Father, Warren Jeffs by Rachel Jeffs (Memoir)
Born into the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Rachel Jeffs was raised in a strict patriarchal culture defined by subordinate sister wives and men they must obey. No one in this radical splinter sect of the Mormon Church was more powerful or terrifying than its leader, Warren Jeffs --- Rachel’s father. Living outside mainstream Mormonism and federal law, Jeffs arranged marriages between underage girls and middle-aged and elderly members of his congregation. In BREAKING FREE, Rachel blows the lid off this taciturn community to offer a harrowing look at her life with Jeffs, and the years of physical and emotional abuse she suffered.
Harper | 9780062670526
THE CITY OF BRASS by S. A. Chakraborty (Historical Fantasy)
On the streets of 18th-century Cairo, Nahri is a con woman of unsurpassed talent. But she knows better than anyone that the trades she uses to get by are all tricks, both the means to the delightful end of swindling Ottoman nobles and a reliable way to survive. However, when Nahri accidentally summons Dara, an equally sly, darkly mysterious djinn warrior, to her side during one of her cons, she is forced to reconsider her beliefs. For Dara tells Nahri an extraordinary tale: across hot, windswept sands teeming with creatures of fire and rivers where the mythical marid sleep, past ruins of once-magnificent human metropolises and mountains where the circling birds of prey are more than what they seem, lies Daevabad, the legendary city of brass --- a city to which Nahri is irrevocably bound.
Harper Voyager | 9780062678102
END GAME by David Baldacci (Thriller)
Will Robie and Jessica Reel are two of the most lethal people alive. They're the ones the government calls in when the utmost secrecy is required to take out those who plot violence and mass destruction against the United States. And through every mission, one man has always had their backs: their handler, code-named Blue Man. But now, Blue Man is missing. Sent to investigate, Robie and Reel arrive in the small town of Grand to discover that it has its own share of problems. A stagnant local economy and a woefully understaffed police force have made this small community a magnet for crime, drugs and a growing number of militant fringe groups. But lying in wait in Grand is an even more insidious and sweeping threat, one that may shake the very foundations of America.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781455586608
FUTURE HOME OF THE LIVING GOD by Louise Erdrich (Dystopian Thriller)
The world as we know it is ending. Evolution has reversed itself, affecting every living creature on earth. Science cannot stop the world from running backwards, as woman after woman gives birth to infants that appear to be primitive species of humans. Thirty-two-year-old Cedar Hawk Songmaker is four months pregnant. Though she wants to tell the adoptive parents who raised her from infancy, Cedar first feels compelled to find her birth mother, an Ojibwe living on the reservation, to understand both her and her baby’s origins. As she goes back to her own biological beginnings, society around her begins to disintegrate. It will take all Cedar has to avoid the prying eyes of potential informants and keep her baby safe.
Harper | 9780062694058
THE GHOST OF CHRISTMAS PAST: A Molly Murphy Mystery by Rhys Bowen (Historical Mystery)
Semi-retired private detective Molly Murphy Sullivan is suffering from depression after a miscarriage following her adventure in San Francisco during the earthquake of 1906. She and her husband, Daniel, are invited for Christmas at a mansion on the Hudson, and they gratefully accept. Not long after they arrive, however, they learn that the host couple's young daughter wandered out into the snow 10 years ago and was never seen again. Molly can identify with the mother's pain at never knowing what happened to her child, but she slowly begins to suspect that the occupants of the house know more than they are letting on. Then, on Christmas Eve, there is a knock at the door and a young girl stands there. "I'm Charlotte," she says. "I've come home."
Minotaur Books | 9781250125729
THE GHOSTS OF GALWAY: A Jack Taylor Novel by Ken Bruen (Mystery)
Jack Taylor is recovering from a mistaken medical diagnosis and a failed suicide attempt. In need of money, and with former cop on his resume, Jack has been hired as a night-shift security guard. But his Ukrainian boss has Jack in mind for a bit of off-the-books work. He wants Jack to find what some claim to be the first true book of heresy, The Red Book, currently in the possession of a rogue priest who is hiding out in Galway after fleeing a position at the Vatican. Em, the many-faced woman who has had a vise on Jack’s heart and mind for the past two years, reappears and turns out to be entangled with the story of The Red Book, too, leading Jack down ever more mysterious and lethal pathways.
Mysterious Press | 9780802127334
HARDCORE TWENTY-FOUR: A Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich (Mystery)
Trouble comes in bunches for Stephanie Plum. First, professional grave robber and semi-professional loon, Simon Diggery, won’t let her take him in until she agrees to care for his boa constrictor, Ethel. Events take a dark turn when headless bodies start appearing across town. At first, it’s just corpses from a funeral home and the morgue that have had the heads removed. But when a homeless man is murdered and dumped behind a church, Stephanie knows that she’s the only one with a prayer of catching this killer. If all that’s not enough, Diesel is back in town. Trenton’s hottest cop, Joe Morelli, isn’t pleased at this unexpected arrival nor is Ranger, the high-powered security consultant who has his own plans for Stephanie.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780399179198
INTO THE DROWNING DEEP by Mira Grant (Post-Apocalyptic Thriller)
Seven years ago, the Atargatis set off on a voyage to the Mariana Trench to film a mockumentary bringing to life ancient sea creatures of legend. It was lost at sea with all hands. Some have called it a hoax; others have called it a tragedy. Now a new crew has been assembled. But this time they're not out to entertain. Some seek to validate their life's work. Some seek the greatest hunt of all. Some seek the truth. But for the ambitious young scientist Victoria Stewart, this is a voyage to uncover the fate of the sister she lost. Whatever the truth may be, it will only be found below the waves. But the secrets of the deep come with a price.
Orbit | 9780316379403
OATHBRINGER: Book Three of the Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson (Fantasy/Adventure)
Dalinar Kholin’s Alethi armies won a fleeting victory at a terrible cost: The enemy Parshendi summoned the violent Everstorm, which now sweeps the world with destruction, and in its passing awakens the once peaceful and subservient parshmen to the horror of their millennia-long enslavement by humans. Nestled in the mountains high above the storms, in the tower city of Urithiru, Shallan Davar investigates the wonders of the ancient stronghold of the Knights Radiant and unearths dark secrets lurking in its depths. Unless all the nations of Roshar can put aside Dalinar’s blood-soaked past and stand together --- and unless Dalinar himself can confront that past --- even the restoration of the Knights Radiant will not prevent the end of civilization.
Tor Books | 9780765326379
PROMISE ME, DAD: A Year of Hope, Hardship, and Purpose by Joe Biden (Memoir)
In November 2014, 13 members of the Biden family gathered on Nantucket for Thanksgiving, a tradition they had been celebrating for the past 40 years. It was the one constant in what had become a hectic, scrutinized and overscheduled life. The Thanksgiving holiday was a much-needed respite, a time to connect, a time to reflect on what the year had brought, and what the future might hold. But this year felt different from all those that had come before. Joe and Jill Biden's eldest son, Beau, had been diagnosed with a malignant brain tumor 15 months earlier, and his survival was uncertain. PROMISE ME, DAD chronicles the year that followed, which would be the most momentous and challenging in Joe Biden’s life and career.
Flatiron Books | 9781250171672
SEVENTH DECIMATE: The Great God's War by Stephen R. Donaldson (Fantasy)
For centuries, the realms of Belleger and Amika have been at war, with sorcerers from both sides harnessing the Decimates to rain blood and pain upon their enemy. But somehow, in some way, the Amikans have discovered and invoked a seventh Decimate, one that strips all lesser sorcery of its power. And now the Bellegerins stand defenseless. Prince Bifalt, eldest son of the Bellegerin King, would like to see the world wiped free of sorcerers. It is he who is charged with finding the repository of all of their knowledge, to locate the book of the seventh Decimate --- and reverse the fate of his land. But the legendary library, which may or may not exist, lies beyond an unforgiving desert and treacherous mountains --- and beyond the borders of his own experience.
Berkley | 9780399586132
SLEEP NO MORE: Six Murderous Tales by P. D. James (Mystery/Short Stories)
It's not always a question of "whodunit?" Sometimes there's more mystery in the why or how. And although we usually know the unhealthy fates of both victim and perpetrator, what of those clever few who plan and carry out the perfect crime? The ones who aren't brought down even though they're found out? And what about those who do the finding out who witness a murder or who identify the murderer but keep the information to themselves? These are some of the mysteries that we follow through these six stories as we are drawn into the thinking, the memories, the emotional machinations, the rationalizations, the dreams and desires behind murderous cause and effect.
Knopf | 9780525520733
STRANGERS IN BUDAPEST by Jessica Keener (Psychological Thriller)
Eight months after their move from Boston to Budapest, Annie and Will’s efforts to assimilate are thrown into turmoil when they receive a message from friends in the US asking that they check up on an elderly man, a fiercely independent Jewish American WWII veteran who helped free Hungarian Jews from a Nazi prison camp. They soon learn that the man, Edward Weiss, has come to Hungary to exact revenge on someone he is convinced seduced, married and then murdered his daughter. What Annie does not anticipate is that in helping Edward she will become enmeshed in a dark and deadly conflict that will end in tragedy and a stunning loss of innocence.
Algonquin Books | 9781616204976
THE VANITY FAIR DIARIES: 1983-1992 by Tina Brown (Memoir)
THE VANITY FAIR DIARIES is the story of an Englishwoman barely out of her 20s who arrives in New York City with a dream. Summoned from London in hopes that she can save Condé Nast's troubled new flagship Vanity Fair, Tina Brown is immediately plunged into the maelstrom of the competitive New York media world and the backstabbing rivalries at the court of the planet's slickest, most glamour-focused magazine company. She survives the politics, the intrigue and the attempts to derail her by a simple stratagem: succeeding. In the face of rampant skepticism, she triumphantly reinvents a failing magazine.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781627791366
On Sale the Week of November 13th in Paperback
November 14th
CHRISTMAS DAYS: 12 Stories and 12 Feasts for 12 Days by Jeanette Winterson (Fiction/Short Stories)
Jeanette Winterson brings together 12 of her brilliantly imaginative, funny and bold Christmas stories, linked by personal memories and 12 delicious recipes for the Twelve Days of Christmas. From jovial spirits to a donkey with a golden nose, a haunted house to a SnowMama, Winterson’s innovative stories encompass the childlike and spooky wonder of Christmas. Enjoy the season of peace and goodwill, mystery and a little bit of magic courtesy of one of our most fearless and accomplished writers.
Grove Press | 9780802127228
COUNT TO TEN: A Private Novel by James Patterson and Ashwin Sanghi (Thriller)
Paperback Original
Santosh Wagh quit his job as head of Private India after harrowing events in Mumbai almost got him killed. But Jack Morgan, global head of the world's finest investigation agency, needs him back. Jack is setting up a new office in Delhi, and Santosh is the only person he can trust. Still battling his demons, Santosh accepts, and it's not long before the agency takes on a case that could make or break them. Plastic barrels containing dissolved human remains have been found in the basement of a house in an upmarket area of South Delhi. But this isn't just any house --- this property belongs to the state government. With the crime scene in lockdown and information suppressed by the authorities, delving too deep could make Santosh a target to be eliminated.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538759639
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 | 9780802127372
DYING FOR CHRISTMAS by Tammy Cohen (Psychological Thriller)
Out Christmas shopping one December afternoon, Jessica Gould meets the charming Dominic Lacey and impulsively agrees to go home with him for a drink. What follows is a Twelve Days of Christmas from hell as Lacey holds Jessica captive, forcing her to wear his missing wife’s gowns and eat lavish holiday meals. Each day he gifts her with one item from his twisted past --- his dead sister’s favorite toy, disturbing family photos, a box of teeth. As the days pass and the “gifts” become darker and darker, Jessica realizes that Lacey has a plan for her, and he never intends to let her go. But Jessica has a secret of her own --- a secret that may just mean she has a chance to make it out alive.
Pegasus Books | 9781681775579
ECHOES OF SHERLOCK HOLMES: Stories Inspired by the Holmes Canon edited by Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger (Mystery Anthology)
In this follow-up to the acclaimed IN THE COMPANY OF SHERLOCK HOLMES, expert Sherlockians Laurie R. King and Leslie S. Klinger put forth the question: What happens when great writers/creators who are not known as Sherlock Holmes devotees admit to being inspired by Conan Doyle stories? While some are highly regarded mystery writers, others are best known for their work in the fields of fantasy or science fiction. All of these talented authors, however, share a great admiration for Arthur Conan Doyle and his greatest creations, Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson.
Pegasus Books | 9781681775463
EIGHT FLAVORS: The Untold Story of American Cuisine by Sarah Lohman (Cooking/History)
The United States boasts a culturally and ethnically diverse population that makes for a continually changing culinary landscape. But a young historical gastronomist named Sarah Lohman discovered that American food is united by eight flavors: black pepper, vanilla, curry powder, chili powder, soy sauce, garlic, MSG and Sriracha. In EIGHT FLAVORS, Lohman sets out to explore how these influential ingredients made their way to the American table.
Simon & Schuster | 9781476753966
THE FALL GUY by James Lasdun (Psychological Thriller)
Charlie, a wealthy banker with an uneasy conscience, invites his troubled cousin Matthew to visit him and his wife in their idyllic mountaintop house. As the days grow hotter, the friendship between the three begins to reveal its fault lines, and with the arrival of a fourth character, the household finds itself suddenly in the grip of uncontrollable passions. THE FALL GUY is a complex moral tale as well as a gripping suspense story, probing questions of guilt and betrayal with ruthless incisiveness. Who is the real victim here? Who is the perpetrator? And who, ultimately, is the fall guy?
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393354942
FATES AND TRAITORS: A Novel of John Wilkes Booth and the Women Who Loved Him by Jennifer Chiaverini (Historical Fiction)
The subject of more than a century of scholarship, speculation and even obsession, John Wilkes Booth is often portrayed as a shadowy figure: a violent loner whose single murderous act made him the most hated man in America. Lost to history until now is the story of the four women whom he loved and who loved him in return: Mary Ann, the steadfast matriarch of the Booth family; Asia, his loyal sister and confidante; Lucy Lambert Hale, the senator’s daughter who adored Booth yet tragically misunderstood the intensity of his wrath; and Mary Surratt, the Confederate widow entrusted with the secrets of his vengeful plot.
Dutton | 9781101983843
THE FLEET AT FLOOD TIDE: America at Total War in the Pacific, 1944-1945 by James D. Hornfischer (History)
Drawing on new primary sources and personal accounts by Americans and Japanese alike, THE FLEET AT FLOOD TIDE is a thrilling narrative of the climactic end stage of the Pacific War, focusing on the U.S. invasion of the Mariana Islands in June 1944 and the momentous events that it produced. With its thunderous assault into Japan's inner defensive perimeter, America crossed the threshold of total war. From the seaborne invasion of Saipan to the stunning aerial battles of the Great Marianas Turkey Shoot, from the largest banzai attack of the war to the first mass suicides of Japanese civilians to the strategic bombing effort that culminated at Hiroshima and Nagasaki, the Marianas became the fulcrum of the drive to compel Tokyo to surrender --- with consequences that forever changed modern war.
Bantam | 9780345548726
GARDEN OF LAMENTATIONS by Deborah Crombie (Mystery)
A young woman named Reagan Keating has been murdered in one of Notting Hill’s private gardens, and the lead detective, DI Kerry Boatman, turns to Gemma James for help. Gemma soon discovers that Reagan’s death is the second tragedy in this exclusive London park; a few months before, a young boy died in a tragic accident. But when still another of the garden residents meets a violent end, it becomes clear that there are more sinister forces at play. While his wife is consumed with her new case, Duncan Kincaid finds himself plagued by disturbing questions about several previous --- and seemingly unrelated --- cases involving members of the force. If his suspicions are correct and the crimes are linked, are his family and friends in mortal danger as well?
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062271648
THE HONEYMOON by Dinitia Smith (Historical Fiction)
Dinitia Smith’s novel recounts George Eliot’s honeymoon in Venice following her marriage to a handsome young man 20 years her junior. When she agreed to marry John Walter Cross, Eliot was recovering from the death of George Henry Lewes, her beloved companion of 26 years. Eliot was bereft: left at the age of 60 to contemplate profound questions about her physical decline, her fading appeal and the prospect of loneliness. In her youth, Mary Ann Evans --- who would later be known as George Eliot --- was a country girl, considered too plain to marry, so she educated herself in order to secure a livelihood.
Other Press | 9781590518885
JUST GETTING STARTED by Tony Bennett with Scott Simon (Memoir)
At 91, musician and singer Tony Bennett is as vibrant and productive as ever. In addition to his prodigious musical output, including albums, concerts and personal appearances, this beloved and enduring artist has written his next book. In 2012’s LIFE IS A GIFT, Tony reflected on the lessons he has learned over the years. Now, in JUST GETTING STARTED, he pays homage to the remarkable people who inspired those lessons.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062476784
THE LIBRARY AT THE EDGE OF THE WORLD by Felicity Hayes-McCoy (Fiction)
Paperback Original
As she drives her mobile library van between villages of Ireland’s West Coast, Hanna Casey tries not to think about a lot of things. Like the sophisticated lifestyle she abandoned after finding her English barrister husband in bed with another woman. Or her nagging fear that, as the local librarian and a prominent figure in the community, her failed marriage and ignominious return have made her a focus of gossip. Hanna is determined to reclaim her independence by restoring a derelict cottage left to her by her great-aunt. But when the threatened closure of the Lissbeg Library puts her personal plans in jeopardy, Hanna finds herself leading a battle to restore the heart and soul of the Finfarran Peninsula’s fragmented community.
Harper Perennial | 9780062663726
LIVING OUT LOUD: Sports, Cancer, and the Things Worth Fighting For by Craig Sager, with Craig Sager II and Brian Curtis (Memoir)
Thanks to an eccentric wardrobe and a love of sports that knew no bounds, Craig Sager was one of the most beloved and recognizable broadcasters on television. So when the sports world learned that he was diagnosed with acute myeloid leukemia (AML), there was an outpouring of love and support from everyone who was inspired by his colorful life and his fearless decision to continue doing the job he loved --- despite being told that he would have only 3-6 months to live. In LIVING OUT LOUD, Sager shares incredible stories from his remarkable career and chronicles his heroic battle.
Flatiron Books | 9781250125644
A MATTER OF HONOR: Pearl Harbor: Betrayal, Blame, and a Family's Quest for Justice by Anthony Summers and Robbyn Swan (History)
In the aftermath of the Japanese onslaught on Pearl Harbor, Admiral Husband Kimmel, Commander-in-Chief of the Pacific Fleet, was relieved of command, accused of negligence and dereliction of duty. But the Admiral defended his actions through eight investigations and for the rest of his long life. Following the Admiral’s death, his sons fought on to clear his name. Now that they in turn are dead, Kimmel’s grandsons continue the struggle. With unprecedented access to documents, diaries and letters, and the family’s cooperation, Summers’ and Swan’s search for the truth has taken them far beyond the Kimmel story --- to explore claims of duplicity and betrayal in high places in Washington.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062405524
THE MOUNTAIN OF KEPT MEMORY by Rachel Neumeier (Fantasy/Adventure)
Long ago, the Kieba, last goddess in the world, raised up her mountain in the drylands of Carastind. Ever since then, she has dwelled and protected the world from unending plagues and danger. Gulien Madalin, heir to the throne of Carastind, suspects that his father has offended the Kieba so seriously that she has withdrawn her protection from the kingdom. Worse, he fears that Carastind’s enemies suspect this as well. Then he learns that he is right. And invasion is imminent. When Gulien’s sister, Oressa, overhears news about the threatened invasion, she is shocked to discover what her father plans to give away in order to buy peace. But Carastind’s enemies intend to not only conquer the kingdom, but also cast down the Kieba and steal her power.
Saga Press | 9781481448956
THE PARIS SECRET by Karen Swan (Fiction)
Paperback Original
When high-powered fine art agent Flora Sykes is called in to assess objets d’art in a Paris apartment that has been abandoned since WWII, she is skeptical at first --- until she discovers that the treasure trove of paintings is myriad…and priceless. The powerful Vermeil family to whom they belong is eager to learn more and asks Flora to trace the history of each painting. Despite a shocking announcement that has left her own family reeling, Flora finds herself thrown into the glamorous world of the Vermeils. But she soon realizes there is more to this project than first appears. As she researches the provenance of their prize Renoir, she uncovers a scandal surrounding the painting --- and a secret that goes to the very heart of the family.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062672827
THE SECOND MRS. HOCKADAY by Susan Rivers (Historical Fiction)
When Major Gryffth Hockaday is called to the front lines of the Civil War, his new bride is left to care for her husband’s 300-acre farm and infant son. Placidia, a mere teenager herself living far from her family and completely unprepared to run a farm or raise a child, must endure the darkest days of the war on her own. By the time Major Hockaday returns two years later, Placidia is bound for jail, accused of having borne a child in his absence and murdering it. What really transpired in the two years he was away?
Algonquin Books | 9781616207366
THE SECRET LIFE OF SOULS by Jack Ketchum and Lucky McKee (Psychological Suspense)
Eleven-year-old actress Delia Cross is beautiful, talented and charismatic. A true star in the making, her days are a blur of hard work on set, auditions and tutors. Her family --- driven, pill-popping stage mother Pat, wastrel dad Bart, and introverted twin brother Robbie --- depends on her for their upscale lifestyle. Delia, in turn, depends on Caity, her beloved ginger Queensland Heeler --- and loyal friend --- for the calming private space they share. Delia is on the verge of a professional breakthrough. But just as the contracts are about to be signed, there is a freak accident that puts Delia in the danger zone with only Caity to protect her.
Pegasus Books | 9781681775449
SHAKEDOWN by Martin Bodenham (Thriller)
Paperback Original
Damon Traynor leaves a glittering career on Wall Street to set up his own private equity business. When it is the winning bidder in the multi-billion-dollar auction for a government-owned defense company, his firm’s future success looks certain. But soon after the deal closes, Damon makes an alarming discovery --- something that makes the recent acquisition worthless. Then he learns he was duped by the financially strapped federal administration and that there are many others in the same position. Facing financial ruin, he investigates the US treasury officials behind the transaction. What Damon uncovers is a terrifying web of organized crime involving blackmail and assassination on an industrial scale.
Down & Out Books | 9781946502131
SHINING CITY by Tom Rosenstiel (Thriller)
Peter Rena is a “fixer.” He and his partner, Randi Brooks, earn their living making the problems of the powerful disappear. They get their biggest job yet when the White House hires them to vet the president’s nominee for the Supreme Court. Judge Roland Madison is a legal giant, but he’s a political maverick, with views that might make the already tricky confirmation process even more difficult. Rena and his team go full-bore to cover every inch of the judge’s past, while the competing factions of Washington, D.C. mobilize with frightening intensity. All of that becomes background when a string of seemingly random killings overlaps with Rena’s investigation, with Judge Madison a possible target.
Ecco | 9780062475374
STOLEN BEAUTY by Laurie Lico Albanese (Historical Fiction)
In the dazzling glitter of 1900 Vienna, Adele Bloch-Bauer meets painter Gustav Klimt. Though they enjoy a life where sex and art are just beginning to break through the façade of conventional society, the city is also exhibiting a disturbing increase in anti-Semitism, as political hatred foments in the shadows of Adele’s coffee house afternoons and cultural salons. Nearly 40 years later, Adele’s niece Maria Altmann is a newlywed when the Nazis invade Austria. When her husband is arrested and her family is forced out of their home, Maria must summon the courage and resilience that is her aunt’s legacy if she is to survive and keep her family --- and their history --- alive.
Washington Square Press | 9781501131998
THEY’RE PLAYING OUR SONG: A Memoir by Carole Bayer Sager (Memoir)
For five decades, Carole Bayer Sager has been among the most admired and successful songwriters at work, responsible for her lyrical contributions to some of the most popular songs in the English language. But while her professional life was filled with success and fascinating people, her personal life was far more difficult and dramatic. In this memoir, Sager tells the surprisingly frank and darkly humorous story of a woman whose sometimes crippling fears and devastating relationships inspired many of the songs she would ultimately write.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501153273
THUS BAD BEGINS written by Javier Marias, translated by Margaret Jull Costa (Psychological Thriller)
In Madrid, 1980, five years after dictator Francisco Franco's death, Juan de Vere takes a job assisting Eduardo Muriel, a film director in the twilight of his career. Muriel is eccentric but charming, an irresistible idol for Juan. But certain people --- and forces --- loom, among them Beatriz, Muriel's difficult wife; and Dr. Jorge Van Vechten, a mysterious figure implicated in unsavory rumors involving Muriel. As Juan digs deeper into all three of their lives, the deceptions and loyalties he begins to uncover will change the course of his young life.
Vintage | 9781101911914
TIPPI: A Memoir by Tippi Hedren (Memoir)
For decades, Tippi Hedren’s luminous beauty radiated from the silver screen, enchanting moviegoers and cementing her position among Hollywood’s elite. For too long Hedren’s story has been told by others through whispered gossip and tabloid headlines. Now, Hedren sets the record straight, recalling how a young and virtuous Lutheran girl from small-town Minnesota became a worldwide legend --- as one of the most famous Hitchcock girls, as an unwavering animal activist, and as the matriarch of a powerful Hollywood dynasty that includes her movie star daughter Melanie Griffith, and rising star Dakota Johnson, her granddaughter.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062469045
TURN ON THE HEAT: A Cool & Lam Mystery by Erle Stanley Gardner, writing as A. A. Fair (Hard-boiled Mystery)
Paperback Original
Hired by a mysterious “Mr. Smith” to find a woman who vanished 21 years earlier, Donald Lam finds himself facing a sadistic cop, a desperate showgirl, a duplicitous client, and one very dogged (and beautiful) newspaper reporter --- while Bertha Cool’s attempts to cut herself in on this lucrative opportunity land them both hip-deep in murder.
Hard Case Crime | 9781785656170
WHO WATCHETH: An Inspector Irene Huss Investigation written by Helene Tursten, translated by Marlaine Delargy (Mystery)
A woman is found dead in a cemetery. Just a few days before her death, the victim had received a flower, an unintelligible note, and a photograph of herself. Detective Inspector Irene Huss and her colleagues on the Violent Crimes Unit have neither clue nor motive to pursue, and when similar murders follow, their search for the killer becomes increasingly desperate. Meanwhile, strange things have been going on at home for Irene: first the rose bush in her garden is mangled, then she receives a threatening package with no return address. Is Irene being paranoid, or is she next on the killer’s list?
Soho Crime | 9781616958657
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