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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of December 11th and December 18th that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers, along with Bonus News, where we call out a contest, feature or review that we want to let you know about so you have it on your radar.
This week, we are calling attention to our End-of-the-Year contest featuring Carol Fitzgerald’s Bookreporter.com Bets On picks from 2017. One Grand Prize winner will be awarded all 40 books, while eight other winners will receive a selection of five of these titles. The deadline for your entries is Monday, January 8th at noon ET.
And for those of you who are doing online holiday shopping, if you use the store links above, Bookreporter.com gets a small affiliate fee on your purchases. We would appreciate your considering this!
This Week's Bonus News:
Enter to Win Our End-of-the-Year Celebration,
Featuring All 40 "Bets On" Titles from 2017
We are thrilled to announce a very special contest featuring Carol Fitzgerald’s Bookreporter.com Bets On picks from 2017. One Grand Prize winner will be awarded all 40 books, while eight other winners will receive a selection of five of these titles. To enter, please fill out this form by Monday, January 8th at noon ET.
Here are this year's Bookreporter.com Bets On titles:
Click here to enter the contest.
On Sale the Week of December 11th in Hardcover
December 12th
A-LIST: A Jake Longly Thriller by D.P. Lyle (Mystery/Thriller)
PI Jake Longly and Nicole Jemison head to New Orleans at the behest of Nicole's uncle, movie producer Charles Balfour, when his megastar, A-list actor Kirk Ford, awakens in his hotel bed with the body of Kristi Guidry, a local college coed. Ford, in the Big Easy for a location shoot, remembers little of the evening and nothing of the murder. And, to make matters worse, Kristi is the niece of a local mafioso-type who will do whatever is necessary to avenge her death. Surrounded by glitzy Hollywood stars and intimidated by seedy underworld characters, Jake and Nicole encounter nothing but obstacles. The clock is ticking as they struggle to decipher who's lying, who's telling the truth, and exactly who schemed to murder Kristi.
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608092703
A CASE OF SYRAH, SYRAH: A Wine Country Mystery by Nancy J. Parra (Cozy Mystery)
Taylor O’Brian, the founder of “Taylor’s Off The Beaten Path Wine Tours,” lives on a small winery with her Aunt Jemma. She plans to take small groups around romantic Sonoma county to discover some of the county’s outdoor gardens. It’s all running as smooth as can be until Laura, the leader of the group of yoga instructors she’s leading, is found dead. And it’s Taylor’s corkscrew that’s found buried in Laura’s neck. Only two weeks after the murder, her very own administrative assistant, Amy, marries Laura’s husband, Dan, and the three yoga masters who were also out on the tour begin to seem shady. Just as Taylor gets her investigation underway, another dead body surfaces. This time, it’s Dan’s sister. And the killer is coming for Taylor next.
Crooked Lane Books | 9781683314332
CHARLES DARWIN: Victorian Mythmaker by A. N. Wilson (Biography)
With the publication of ON THE ORIGIN OF SPECIES, Charles Darwin --- hailed as the man who "discovered evolution" --- was propelled into the pantheon of great scientific thinkers, alongside Galileo, Copernicus and Newton. A. N. Wilson challenges this long-held assumption. He argues that Darwin was not an original scientific thinker, but a ruthless and determined self-promoter who did not credit the many great sages whose ideas he advanced in his book. Furthermore, Wilson contends that religion and Darwinism have much more in common than it would seem, for the acceptance of Darwin's theory involves a pretty significant leap of faith.
Harper | 9780062433497
IN THE FALL THEY COME BACK by Robert Bausch (Fiction)
Ben Jameson begins his teaching career in a small private school in Northern Virginia. He is idealistic, happy to have his first job after graduate school, and hoping someday to figure out what he really wants out of life. And in his two years teaching English at Glenn Acres Preparatory School, he comes to believe this really is his life's work, his calling. He wants to change lives. But his desire to "save" his students leads him into complicated territory, as he becomes more and more deeply involved with three students in particular: an abused boy, a mute and damaged girl, and a dangerous 18-year-old who has come back to school for one more chance to graduate.
Bloomsbury USA | 9781632864000
A MURDER FOR THE BOOKS: A Blue Ridge Library Mystery by Victoria Gilbert (Cozy Mystery)
Fleeing a disastrous love affair, university librarian Amy Webber moves in with her aunt in a quiet, historic mountain town in Virginia. She quickly busies herself with managing a charming public library that requires all her attention. Dancer-turned-teacher and choreographer Richard Muir inherited the farmhouse next door from his great-uncle, Paul Dassin. But town folklore claims the house’s original owner was poisoned by his wife, who vanished after her sensational 1925 murder trial. Determined to clear the name of the woman his great-uncle loved, Richard implores Amy to help him investigate the case. Amy is skeptical until their research raises questions about the culpability of the town’s leading families...including her own.
Crooked Lane Books | 9781683314394
THE ONLY GIRL IN THE WORLD: A Memoir written by Maude Julien, translated by Adriana Hunter (Memoir)
Maude Julien's parents were fanatics who believed it was their sacred duty to turn her into the ultimate survivor --- raising her in isolation, tyrannizing her childhood and subjecting her to endless drills designed to "eliminate weakness." But they could not rule her inner life. Befriending the animals on the lonely estate as well as the characters in the novels she read in secret, young Maude nurtured in herself the compassion and love that her parents forbid as weak. And when, after more than a decade, an outsider managed to penetrate her family's paranoid world, Maude seized her opportunity.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316466622
SIGNAL LOSS: A Hal Challis Investigation by Garry Disher (Mystery)
A pair of hit men working a job for a meth kingpin have a very bad day, and the resulting bushfire draws attention to a drug lab and two burned bodies in a Mercedes. Sergeant Ellen Destry --- newly minted head of her department’s sex crime unit --- and Inspector Hal Challis return in this seventh installment of Garry Disher’s Peninsula-based crimes series. With meth-related crime on the rise, interdepartmental tensions mount, and Challis soon finds himself fighting to keep control of his case. Meanwhile, Destry is hunting for a serial rapist who is extremely adept at not leaving clues.
Soho Crime | 9781616958596
AN UNCOMMON READER: A Life of Edward Garnett, Mentor and Editor of Literary Genius by Helen Smith (Biography)
During the course of a career spanning half a century, Edward Garnett --- editor, critic and reader for hire --- would become one of the most influential men in 20th-century English literature. Known for his incisive criticism and unwavering conviction in matters of taste, Garnett was responsible for identifying and nurturing the talents of a generation of the greatest writers in the English language, from Joseph Conrad to John Galsworthy, Henry Green to Edward Thomas, T. E. Lawrence to D. H. Lawrence. In AN UNCOMMON READER, Helen Smith brings to life Garnett’s intimate and at times stormy relationships with those writers.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374281120
UNNATURAL CAUSES: A Dr. Katie LeClair Mystery by Dawn Eastman (Mystery)
Dr. Katie LeClair quickly gets to work in building a life for herself in Baxter, MI, and beyond reviving her love life, she also finds a pair of business partners in a team of father and son family practitioners. But that idyllic dream is immediately shattered when one of her patients is found dead. The death is ruled a suicide, and was a result of the medication Katie had prescribed. But she doesn't remember writing it. When a closer investigation reveals it was murder, Katie is catapulted into an off-the-books investigation that leads her down a dark path of past secrets. But someone is willing to kill to keep part of the town's history in the shadows, and Katie must race to find out who before it's too late.
Crooked Lane Books | 9781683313137
WE'LL SLEEP WHEN WE'RE OLD by Pino Corrias (Psychological Thriller)
Oscar Martello, president of a film production company, is a self-made man. Despite his humble origins, he has managed to achieve unbelievable fame and success. Andrea Serrano, his best friend, is a scriptwriter who explores the themes of love and murder in his work. The beautiful actress Jacaranda Rizzi, Oscar’s muse, has a secret that has been tormenting her for many years. When a fire devastates Oscar’s villa in one of the city’s most fashionable neighborhoods and he goes missing, all of Rome is left to wonder about his fate. The evidence points to Jacaranda, but could she have orchestrated something so sinister? More important, could she have done it alone, or has Andrea played some role in the debacle?
Atria Books | 9781501144950
On Sale the Week of December 11th in Paperback
December 12th
16th SEDUCTION by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro (Thriller)
Fifteen months ago, Detective Lindsay Boxer's life was perfect --- she had a beautiful child and a doting husband, Joe, who helped her catch a criminal who'd brazenly detonated a bomb in downtown San Francisco. But Joe wasn't everything that Lindsay thought he was, and she's still reeling from his betrayal as a wave of mysterious heart attacks claims seemingly unrelated victims across San Francisco. As if that weren't enough, the bomber she and Joe captured is about to go on trial, and his defense raises damning questions about Lindsay and Joe's investigation. Lindsay must connect the dots of a deadly conspiracy before a brilliant criminal puts her on trial.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781455542666
CROWN OF BLOOD: The Deadly Inheritance of Lady Jane Grey by Nicola Tallis (History)
The beheading of 17-year-old Lady Jane Grey for high treason in the year 1554 sent shockwaves through the Tudor world, and served as a gruesome reminder to all who aspired to a crown that the axe could fall at any time. Set at the time of Jane’s downfall and following her journey through to her trial and execution, each chapter in CROWN OF BLOOD moves between the past and the “present,” using a rich abundance of primary source material (some of which has never been published) in order to paint a vivid picture of Jane’s short and turbulent life.
Pegasus Books | 9781681775555
CULLODEN: Scotland's Last Battle and the Forging of the British Empire by Trevor Royle (History)
The Battle of Culloden in 1746 has gone down in history as the last major battle fought on British soil: a vicious confrontation between the English Royal Army and the Scottish forces supporting the Stuart claim to the throne. But this wasn't just a conflict between the Scots and the English; the battle was also part of a much larger campaign to protect the British Isles from the growing threat of a French invasion. In CULLODEN, we are drawn into the ranks, on both sides, alongside doomed Jacobites fighting fellow Scots dressed in the red coats of the Duke of Cumberland's Royal Army. And we meet the Duke himself, a skilled warrior who would gain notoriety because of the reprisals on Highland clans in the battle's aftermath.
Pegasus Books | 9781681775678
HEMINGWAY AT WAR: Ernest Hemingway's Adventures as a World War II Correspondent by Terry Mort (History)
In the spring of 1944, Ernest Hemingway traveled to London and then to France to cover World War II for Collier's magazine. Obviously he was a little late in arriving. Why did he go? He had resisted this kind of journalism for much of the early period of the war, but when he finally decided to go, he threw himself into the thick of events and so became a conduit to understanding some of the major events and characters of the war. HEMINGWAY AT WAR is also an investigation into Hemingway’s subsequent work --- much of it stemming from his wartime experience --- which shaped the latter stages of his career in dramatic fashion.
Pegasus Books | 9781681775623
IN THE LAND OF GIANTS: A Journey Through the Dark Ages by Max Adams (History)
The five centuries between the end of Roman Britain and the death of Alfred the Great have left few voices save a handful of chroniclers, but Britain's "Dark Ages" can still be explored through their material remnants: architecture, books, metalwork and, above all, landscapes. Max Adams explores Britain's lost early medieval past by walking its paths and exploring its lasting imprint on valley, hill and field. Each of his 10 walking narratives form free-standing chapters as well as parts of a wider portrait of a Britain of fort and fyrd, crypt and crannog, church and causeway, holy well and memorial stone.
Pegasus Books | 9781681775531
IN SUNLIGHT OR IN SHADOW: Stories Inspired by the Paintings of Edward Hopper edited by Lawrence Block (Mystery/Short Stories)
"Edward Hopper is surely the greatest American narrative painter. His work bears special resonance for writers and readers, and yet his paintings never tell a story so much as they invite viewers to find for themselves the untold stories within." So says Lawrence Block, who has invited 17 writers to join him in an unprecedented anthology of brand-new stories. Contributors include Stephen King, Joyce Carol Oates, Robert Olen Butler, Michael Connelly, Megan Abbott, Joe R. Lansdale, Jonathan Santlofer, Jeffery Deaver and Lee Child.
Pegasus Books | 9781681775593
MAD HATTERS AND MARCH HARES: All-New Stories from the World of Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland edited by Ellen Datlow (Fantasy/Short Stories)
Paperback Original
Between the hallucinogenic, weird, imaginative wordplay and the brilliant mathematical puzzles and social satire, ALICE IN WONDERLAND has been read, enjoyed and savored by every generation since its publication. Ellen Datlow asked 17 acclaimed writers to dream up stories inspired by all the strange events and surreal characters found in Wonderland. MAD HATTERS AND MARCH HARES features stories and poems from Seanan McGuire, Jane Yolen, Catherynne M. Valente, Delia Sherman, Genevieve Valentine, Priya Sharma, Stephen Graham Jones, Richard Bowes, Jeffrey Ford, Angela Slatter, Andy Duncan, C.S.E. Cooney, Matthew Kressel, Kris Dikeman, Kaaron Warren, Ysbeau Wilce and Katherine Vaz.
Tor Books | 9780765391070
THE MAN WHO SHOT OUT MY EYE IS DEAD: Stories by Chanelle Benz (Fiction/Short Stories)
A brother and sister turn outlaw in a wild and brutal landscape. The daughter of a diplomat disappears and resurfaces across the world as a deadly woman of many names. A young Philadelphia boy struggles with the contradictions of privilege, violence, and the sway of an incarcerated father. A monk in 16th-century England suffers the dissolution of his monastery and the loss of all that he held sacred. The characters in Chanelle Benz's debut share a thirst for adventure that sends them rushing full-tilt toward the moral crossroads, becoming victims and perpetrators along the way.
Ecco | 9780062490780
RACING THE DEVIL: An Inspector Ian Rutledge Mystery by Charles Todd (Historical Mystery)
During a heavy rainstorm in England, a driver loses control on a twisting road and is killed in the crash. Was it an accident due to the hazardous conditions? Or premeditated murder? Investigating this perplexing case, Scotland Yard Inspector Ian Rutledge discovers that the truth is elusive --- and that the villages on the South Downs, where the accident happened, are adept at keeping secrets, frustrating his search. Determined to remain in the shadows, this faceless killer is willing to strike again to stop Rutledge from finding him. This time, the victim he chooses is a child, and it will take all of Rutledge’s skill to stop him before an innocent young life is sacrificed.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062386229
SAVAGE THEORIES written by Pola Oloixarac, translated by Roy Kesey (Fiction)
Rosa Ostreech, a pseudonym for the novel’s beautiful but self-conscious narrator, carries around a trilingual edition of Aristotle’s METAPHYSICS, struggles with her thesis on violence and culture, sleeps with a bourgeois former guerrilla, and pursues her elderly professor. Elsewhere on campus, Pabst and Kamtchowsky tour the underground scene of Buenos Aires, dabbling in ketamine, group sex, video games and hacking. And in Africa in 1917, a Dutch anthropologist named Johan van Vliet begins work on a theory that explains human consciousness and civilization by reference to our early primate ancestors --- animals, who, in the process of becoming human, spent thousands of years as prey.
Soho Press | 9781616958671
SIGNALS: New and Selected Stories by Tim Gautreaux (Fiction/Short Stories)
The people in Tim Gautreaux’s latest collection of short stories wrestle with affairs of the heart, matters of faith, and the pros and cons of tight-knit communities. They are primarily of the working class, proud and knowledgeable about the natural or mechanical world. Their lives are marked by a prized stereo or a magical sewing machine retrieved from a locked safe, boats and card games and casinos, grandparents and grandchildren and those in between, their experiences leading them to the ridiculous or the scarifying or the sublime. Most of them are striving for what's right and good, others tearing off in the opposite direction.
Vintage | 9781101972519
WHO KILLED PIET BAROL? by Richard Mason (Historical Fiction)
Piet Barol was a tutor before he came to South Africa, his wife, Stacey, an opera singer. In Cape Town they are living the high life, impersonating French aristocrats --- but their lies are catching up with them. The Barols’ furniture business is on the verge of collapse, and they need cheap, top-quality wood. Piet enlists two Xhosa men to lead him into a vast forest, in search of a fabled tree. He’s sure he’ll be able to buy what he needs for a few glass trinkets. But he’s underestimating the Xhosa, who believe the spirits of their ancestors live in this sacred forest. Battle lines are drawn. When Piet’s powers of persuasion fail him, he resorts to darker, more dangerous talents to get what he is determined to have.
Vintage | 9780804171991
A WOMAN LOOKING AT MEN LOOKING AT WOMEN: Essays on Art, Sex, and the Mind by Siri Hustvedt (Social Science/Essays)
Siri Hustvedt has always been fascinated by biology and how human perception works. She is a lover of art, the humanities and the sciences. She is a novelist and a feminist. Her lively, lucid essays in A WOMAN LOOKING AT MEN LOOKING AT WOMEN begin to make some sense of those plural perspectives. There has been much talk about building a beautiful bridge across the chasm that separates the sciences and the humanities. At the moment, we have only a wobbly walkway, but Hustvedt is encouraged by the travelers making their way across it in both directions.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501141102
On Sale the Week of December 18th in Hardcover
December 19th
MY BROTHER’S KEEPER by Donna Malane (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Diane Rowe is a missing persons expert. Ex-con Karen needs Diane's help to track down her 14-year-old daughter, Sunny, with whom she's lost contact while she's been in prison. To Diane, this appears at first glance to be a simple case of a mother wanting to reunite with a beloved daughter. Tracking the girl down is easy. However, convincing her to meet her mother is no easy task. And at the back of Diane's mind is a nagging thought --- that guilt and innocence aren't straightforward and nothing is quite what it seems. Does Karen really want to fix the wrongs of the past, or is there something darker at play here that will take all of Diane's skills to uncover?
Minotaur Books | 9781250111340
On Sale the Week of December 18th in Paperback
December 19th
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF PERSIMMON WILSON by Nancy Peacock (Historical Fiction)
Sitting in a jail cell on the eve of his hanging, freedman Persimmon “Persy” Wilson wants nothing more than to leave some record of the truth --- his truth. He may be guilty, but not of what he stands accused: the kidnapping and rape of his former master’s wife. Fifteen years earlier, Persy had been sold to a sugar plantation; his deep and instant connection with a house slave named Chloe fueled a love affair and inspired plans to escape their owner, Master Wilson. But on the eve of the Union Army’s attack on New Orleans, Wilson shot Persy, leaving him for dead, and fled with Chloe and his other slaves to Texas. So began Persy’s journey across the frontier, determined to reunite with his lost love.
Washington Square Press | 9781501116360
MAN OVERBOARD: An Ali Reynolds Novel by J.A. Jance (Mystery/Thriller)
Cybersecurity expert Roger McGeary finally has his life back on track after years of struggling with depression. But when he falls from the balcony of his suite on an all-expenses-paid cruise, the police quickly dismiss it as “death by misadventure,” a vague phrase leaving much to interpretation. Unsatisfied, Roger’s tough-as-nails aunt, Julia Miller, is determined to find answers and closure. By contacting Roger’s childhood friend, Stuart Ramey, to help her solve the mystery of his fate, Julia unwittingly sets up a collision course with a serial killer. Stuart, his sidekick Cami Lee, and journalist turned amateur sleuth Ali Reynolds put the full resources of cutting-edge online security firm High Noon Enterprises into learning the truth about Roger’s death.
Pocket Books | 9781501110825
NUMBER 11 by Jonathan Coe (Fiction)
Beginning in the early years of this century, NUMBER 11 follows two friends, Alison and Rachel, as they come of age. As the narrative progresses from the aftermath of the Iraq War to the present day, its scope broadens to include others who are variously connected to these two girls: Alison’s mother, a has-been singer, competes on a grisly reality TV show; Rachel’s university mentor finally confronts her late husband’s obsessive search for a German film he saw as a child; a young police constable investigates the seemingly unrelated deaths of two stand-up comedians; and a giant spider lurks in the darkness beneath one of London’s most staggeringly expensive neighborhoods.
Vintage | 9781101972809
OUR HEARTS WILL BURN US DOWN by Anne Valente (Fiction)
As members of the yearbook committee, Nick, Zola, Matt and Christina are eager to capture all the memorable moments of their junior year at Lewis and Clark High School. But how do you document a horrific tragedy --- a deadly school shooting by a classmate? Struggling to comprehend this cataclysmic event, these four survivors vow to honor the memories of those lost and the memories forgotten in the shadow of violence. But the shooting is only the first inexplicable trauma to rock their small suburban St. Louis town. A series of mysterious house fires have hit the families of the victims one by one, pushing the grieving town to the edge.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062429148
OUT OF BOUNDS: A Karen Pirie Novel by Val McDermid (Mystery/Thriller)
When a teenage joyrider crashes a stolen car and ends up in a coma, a routine DNA test reveals a connection to an unsolved murder from 22 years before. It’s a cold case that should be straightforward. But it’s as twisted as the DNA helix itself. Meanwhile, Karen, mired in grief after the death of her partner, finds herself irresistibly drawn to a mystery that has its roots in a terrorist bombing two decades ago. Karen’s intuition is telling her something doesn’t add up. But is she on to something? Or has she, as her boss has been waiting for, gone too far this time?
Grove Press | 9780802127266
RING OF FIRE: A Pike Logan Thriller by Brad Taylor (Thriller/Adventure)
A former Delta Force commander, author Brad Taylor has lived in the world about which he writes, and his novels have tackled very real and current threats ranging from ISIS to Chechen terrorists to Boko Haram. In his latest action-packed thriller, RING OF FIRE, a chilling terrorist plot is about to unfold in the United States --- one involving simultaneous attacks across multiple locations in America --- and it’ll be up to Pike Logan, Jennifer Cahill and the Taskforce to prevent the threat from becoming a terrifying reality.
Dutton | 9781101984789
TRANSIT by Rachel Cusk (Fiction)
In the wake of her family’s collapse, a writer and her two young sons move to London. The process of this upheaval is the catalyst for a number of transitions --- personal, moral, artistic and practical --- as she endeavors to construct a new reality for herself and her children. In the city, she is made to confront aspects of living that she has, until now, avoided, and to consider questions of vulnerability and power, death and renewal, in what becomes her struggle to reattach herself to, and believe in, life.
Picador | 9781250151797
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