In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of February 26th and March 5th that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers, along with Bonus News, where we call out a contest, feature or review that we want to let you know about so you have it on your radar.
This week, we are calling attention to our ReadingGroupGuides.com contest for ISLAND OF SWEET PIES AND SOLDIERS by Sara Ackerman. Three readers will win 12 copies each for their book group. The deadline for your entries is Thursday, March 22nd at noon ET.
Also, please click on the covers above for our reviews of SUNBURN by Laura Lippman and EDUCATED: A Memoir by Tara Westover, the latter of which will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On selection, along with our New Release Spotlight of ROSIE COLORED GLASSES by Brianna Wolfson, which also will be a Bets On pick.
For those of you who are doing online shopping, if you use the store links below, Bookreporter.com gets a small affiliate fee on your purchases. We would appreciate your considering this.
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This Week's Bonus News: Our ReadingGroupGuides.com Contest for ISLAND OF SWEET PIES AND SOLDIERS
by Sara Ackerman
In ISLAND OF SWEET PIES AND SOLDIERS, the Pacific battles of World War II continue to threaten American soil, and on the home front, the bonds of friendship and the strength of love are tested. We are celebrating the release of Sara Ackerman's debut novel with a special contest that will give three readers the chance to win 12 copies of the book for their group. To enter, please fill out this form by Thursday, March 22nd at noon ET.
ISLAND OF SWEET PIES AND SOLDIERS by Sara Ackerman (Historical Fiction)
Hawaii, 1944. The Pacific battles of World War II continue to threaten American soil, and on the home front, the bonds of friendship and the strength of love are tested.
Violet Iverson and her young daughter, Ella, are piecing their lives together one year after the disappearance of her husband. As rumors swirl and questions about his loyalties surface, Violet believes Ella knows something. But Ella is stubbornly silent. Something --- or someone --- has scared her. And with the island overrun by troops training for a secret mission, tension and suspicion between neighbors is rising.
Violet bands together with her close friends to get through the difficult days. To support themselves, they open a pie stand near the military base, offering the soldiers a little homemade comfort. Try as she might, Violet can’t ignore her attraction to the brash marine who comes to her aid when the women are accused of spying. Desperate to discover the truth behind what happened to her husband, while keeping her friends and daughter safe, Violet is torn by guilt, fear and longing as she faces losing everything. Again.
- Click here for the discussion guide.
Click here to enter the contest.
On Sale the Week of February 26th in Hardcover
February 27th
THE BAD DAUGHTER by Joy Fielding (Mystery/Thriller)
A voice mail from her estranged sister, Melanie, sends Robin’s heart racing and her mind spiraling in a full-blown panic attack. Melanie’s message is dire: Their father, his second wife and his 12-year-old stepdaughter have been shot --- likely in a home invasion --- and lie in the hospital in critical condition. It’s been more than five years since Robin turned her back on her father when he married her best friend. Now she must return to the family she left behind. As she attempts to mend fences while her father clings to life, Robin begins to wonder if there is more to the tragedy than a botched burglary attempt.
Ballantine Books | 9780399181528
CHICAGO by David Mamet (Historical Thriller)
Mike Hodge --- veteran of the Great War, big shot of the Chicago Tribune, medium fry --- probably shouldn’t have fallen in love with Annie Walsh. Then again, maybe the man who killed Annie Walsh should have known better than to trifle with Mike Hodge. Mixing some of his most brilliant fictional creations with actual figures of the era and exploring questions of honor, deceit, revenge and devotion, CHICAGO --- David Mamet’s first novel in more than two decades --- is a book that combines spectacular elegance of craft with a kinetic wallop as fierce as the February wind gusting off Lake Michigan.
Custom House | 9780062797193
EAT THE APPLE: A Memoir by Matt Young (Memoir)
Matt Young joined the Marine Corps at age 18 after a drunken night culminating in wrapping his car around a fire hydrant. The teenage wasteland he fled followed him to the training bases charged with making him a Marine. Matt survived the training, and then not one, not two, but three deployments to Iraq, where the testosterone, danger and stakes for him and his fellow grunts were dialed up a dozen decibels. EAT THE APPLE drops us unarmed into Marine Corps culture and lays bare the absurdism of 21st-century war, the manned-up vulnerability of those on the front lines, and the true, if often misguided, motivations that drove a young man to a life at war.
Bloomsbury USA | 9781632869500
GREEN SUN by Kent Anderson (Mystery/Thriller)
Oakland in 1983 is a city churning with violent crime and racial conflict. Officer Hanson, a Vietnam veteran, has abandoned academia for the life-and-death clarity of police work, a way to live with the demons he brought home from the war. His sense of fairness and honor leads to a precarious friendship with Felix Maxwell, the drug king of East Oakland. He is befriended by Weegee, a streetwise 11-year-old who is primed to become a dope dealer. He falls in love with Libya the moment he sees her, a confident and outspoken black woman. When an off-duty shooting prompts an internal investigation, Hanson must finally face who he is, and which side of the law he really belongs on.
Mulholland Books | 9780316466806
THE HUSH by John Hart (Thriller)
It’s been 10 years since the events that changed Johnny Merrimon’s life and rocked his hometown to the core. Since then, Johnny has fought to maintain his privacy, but books have been written of his exploits. Living alone on 6,000 acres of once-sacred land, Johnny’s only connection to normal life is his old friend, Jack. But Jack sees danger in the wild places Johnny calls home; he senses darkness and hunger, an intractable intent. Johnny will discuss none of it, but there are the things he knows, the things he can do. A lesser friend might accept such abilities as a gift, but Jack has felt what moves in the swamp: the cold of it, the unspeakable fear.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250012302
I’LL BE GONE IN THE DARK: One Woman's Obsessive Search for the Golden State Killer by Michelle McNamara (True Crime/Memoir)
For more than 10 years, a mysterious and violent predator committed 50 sexual assaults in Northern California before moving south, where he perpetrated 10 sadistic murders. Then he disappeared, eluding capture by multiple police forces and some of the best detectives in the area. Three decades later, Michelle McNamara, a true crime journalist who created the popular website TrueCrimeDiary.com, was determined to find the violent psychopath she called "the Golden State Killer." Michelle pored over police reports, interviewed victims, and embedded herself in the online communities that were as obsessed with the case as she was.
Harper | 9780062319784
A LONG WAY FROM HOME by Peter Carey (Historical Fiction)
Irene Bobs loves fast driving. Her husband is the best car salesman in southeastern Australia. Together they enter the Redex Trial, a brutal race around the ancient continent, over roads no car will ever quite survive. With them is their lanky, fair-haired navigator, Willie Bachhuber, a quiz show champion and failed schoolteacher who calls the turns and creeks crossings on a map that will remove them --- without warning --- from the white Australia they all know so well.
Knopf | 9780525520177
MY NAME IS VENUS BLACK by Heather Lloyd (Fiction)
Venus Black is a straitlaced A-student fascinated by the study of astronomy --- until the night she commits a shocking crime that tears her family apart. Venus refuses to talk about what happened or why, except to blame her mother. Adding to the mystery, Venus’ developmentally challenged younger brother, Leo, goes missing. More than five years later, Venus is released from prison and determined to escape her painful past. Estranged from her mother, and with Leo still missing, she sets out to make a fresh start in Seattle. But as new people enter her orbit, old wounds resurface, and Venus realizes that she can’t find a future while she’s running from her past.
The Dial Press | 9780399592188
THE NEIGHBORHOOD written by Mario Vargas Llosa, translated by Edith Grossman (Thriller)
One day, Enrique, a high-profile businessman, receives a visit from Rolando Garro, the editor of a notorious magazine that specializes in salacious exposés. Garro presents Enrique with lewd pictures from an old business trip and demands that he invest in the magazine. Enrique refuses, and the next day the pictures are on the front page. Meanwhile, Enrique’s wife is in the midst of a passionate and secret affair with the wife of Enrique’s lawyer and best friend. When Garro shows up murdered, the two couples are thrown into a whirlwind of navigating Peru’s unspoken laws and customs, while the staff of the magazine embarks on their greatest exposé yet.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374155124
ONE GOAL: A Coach, a Team, and the Game That Brought a Divided Town Together by Amy Bass (Sports/Sociology)
When thousands of Somali refugees resettled in Lewiston, Maine, a struggling, overwhelmingly white town, longtime residents grew uneasy. Then the mayor wrote a letter asking Somalis to stop coming, which became a national story. While scandal threatened to subsume the town, its high school's soccer coach integrated Somali kids onto his team, and their passion began to heal old wounds. Taking readers behind the tumult of this controversial team --- and onto the pitch where the teammates vied to become state champions and achieved a vital sense of understanding --- ONE GOAL is a timely story about overcoming the prejudices that divide us.
Hachette Books | 9780316396547
RASPBERRY DANISH MURDER: A Hannah Swensen Mystery with Recipes! by Joanne Fluke (Mystery)
Hannah has felt as bitter as November in Minnesota since Ross vanished without a trace and left their marriage in limbo. Still, she throws herself into a baking frenzy for the sake of pumpkin pie and Thanksgiving-themed treats while endless holiday orders pour into The Cookie Jar. Hannah even introduces a raspberry Danish pastry to the menu, and P.K., her husband’s assistant at KCOW-TV, will be one of the first to sample it. But instead of taking a bite, P.K., who is driving Ross’ car and using his desk at work, is murdered. Was someone plotting against P.K. all along, or did Ross dodge a deadly dose of sweet revenge?
Kensington | 9781617732249
THE TANGLED LANDS by Paolo Bacigalupi and Tobias S. Buckell (Dystopian Fantasy)
Khaim, The Blue City, is the last remaining city in a crumbled empire that overly relied upon magic until it became toxic. It is run by a tyrant known as The Jolly Mayor and his devious right hand, the last archmage in the world. Together they try to collect all the magic for themselves so they can control the citizens of the city. But when their decadence reaches new heights and begins to destroy the environment, the people stage an uprising to stop them. In four interrelated parts, THE TANGLED LANDS is an evocative and epic story of resistance and heroic sacrifice in the twisted remains surrounding the last great city of Khaim.
Saga Press | 9781481497299
TIME PIECES: A Dublin Memoir written by John Banville, photographs by Paul Joyce (Memoir)
Born and bred in a small town a train ride away from Dublin, John Banville saw the city as a place of enchantment when he was a child, a birthday treat, the place where his beloved, eccentric aunt lived. And though, when he came of age and took up residence there, and the city became a frequent backdrop for his dissatisfactions, it remained in some part of his memory as fascinating as it had been to his seven-year-old self. And as he guides us around the city, delighting in its cultural, architectural, political and social history, he interweaves the memories that are attached to particular places and moments.
Knopf | 9781524732837
WINTER SISTERS by Robin Oliveira (Historical Fiction)
After an epic snowstorm ravages the city of Albany, Dr. Mary Sutter, a former Civil War surgeon, begins a search for two little girls, the daughters of close friends killed by the storm who have vanished without a trace. Mary’s mother and niece Elizabeth, who has been studying violin in Paris, return to Albany upon learning of the girls’ disappearance --- but Elizabeth has another reason for wanting to come home, one she is not willing to reveal. Despite resistance from the community, who believe the girls to be dead, the family persists in their efforts to find the two sisters. When what happened to them is revealed, the uproar that ensues tears apart families, reputations and even the social fabric of the city.
Viking | 9780399564253
ZERO DAY by Ezekiel Boone (Apocalyptic Thriller/Horror)
The only thing more terrifying than millions of spiders is the realization that those spiders work as one. But among the government, there is dissent: Do we try to kill all of the spiders, or do we gamble on Professor Guyer’s theory that we need to kill only the queens? For President Stephanie Pilgrim, it’s an easy answer. She’s gone as far as she can --- more than two dozen American cities hit with tactical nukes --- and the only answer is to believe in Professor Guyer. Unfortunately, Ben Broussard and the military men who follow him don’t agree, and Pilgrim, Guyer and the loyal members of the government have to flee, leaving the question: What’s more dangerous, the spiders or ourselves?
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781501125102
March 1st
BONE MUSIC: A Burning Girl Thriller by Christopher Rice (Thriller)
Charlotte Rowe spent the first seven years of her life in the hands of the only parents she knew --- a pair of serial killers who murdered her mother and tried to shape Charlotte in their own twisted image. Her real father exploited her tabloid-ready story for fame and profit --- until Charlotte finally broke free from her ghoulish past and fled. Just when she thinks she has buried her personal hell forever, Charlotte is swept into a frightening new ordeal. Secretly dosed with an experimental drug, she’s endowed with a shocking new power --- but pursued by a treacherous corporation desperate to control her. Except from now on, if anybody is going to control Charlotte, it’s going to be Charlotte herself.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781542048309
On Sale the Week of February 26th in Paperback
February 27th
THE BLACK ELFSTONE: The Fall of Shannara by Terry Brooks (Fantasy)
The Four Lands has been at peace for generations, but now a mysterious army of invaders is cutting a bloody swathe across a remote region of the land. No one knows who they are, where they come from, or what they are after --- and most seem content to ignore these disturbing events. The only people who sense a greater, growing threat and wish to uncover the truth are society’s outcasts: an exiled high Druid, a conflicted warrior, a teenage girl struggling to master a prodigious magic…and a scrappy young orphan, improbably named Shea Ohmsford.
Del Rey | 9780553391503
THE BOOK OF POLLY by Kathy Hepinstall (Fiction)
Willow Havens is 10 years old and obsessed with the fear that her mother, Polly, a cantankerous, take-no-prisoners Southern woman, will die. Her father passed away before she was born, her much older brother and sister are long grown and gone, and failing elsewhere. It’s just her and bigger-than-life Polly. Willow is desperately hungry for clues to the family life that preceded her, and especially Polly’s life pre-Willow. Why did she leave her hometown of Bethel, Louisiana, 50 years ago and vow never to return? Who is Garland Jones, her long-ago suitor who possibly killed a man? And will Polly be able to outrun the Bear, the illness that finally puts her on a collision course with her past?
Penguin Books | 9780399562105
THE CUTTHROAT: An Isaac Bell Adventure by Clive Cussler and Justin Scott (Historical Thriller/Adventure)
Chief Investigator Isaac Bell of the Van Dorn Detective Agency has had many extraordinary cases before, but none quite like this. Hired to find a young woman named Anna Pape who ran away from home to become an actress, Bell gets a shock when her murdered body turns up instead. Vowing to bring the killer to justice, he begins a manhunt that leads him into increasingly more alarming territory. Petite young blond women like Anna are being murdered in cities across America, and the pattern goes beyond the physical resemblance of the victims. There are disturbing familiarities about the killings themselves that send a chill through even a man as experienced with evil as Bell.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780399575624
DEATH OF A GHOST: A Hamish Macbeth Mystery by M. C. Beaton (Mystery)
When Police Sergeant Hamish Macbeth hears reports of a haunted castle near Drim, he assumes the eerie noises and lights reported by the villagers are just local teenagers going there to smoke pot or, worse, inject themselves with drugs. Still, Hamish decides that he and his policeman, Charlie "Clumsy" Carson, will spend the night at the ruined castle to get to the bottom of the rumors once and for all. There's no sign of any ghost...but then Charlie disappears through the floor. It turns out he's fallen into the cellar. And what Hamish and Charlie find there is worse than a ghost: a dead body propped against the wall. Waiting for help to arrive, Hamish and Charlie leave the castle just for a moment, but when they return, the body is nowhere to be seen.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781455558292
DODGE CITY: Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and the Wickedest Town in the American West by Tom Clavin (History)
The town that started as a small military site exploded with the coming of the railroad, cattle drives, eager miners, settlers and various entrepreneurs passing through to populate the expanding West. Before long, Dodge City’s streets were lined with saloons and brothels, and its populace was thick with gunmen, horse thieves and desperadoes of every sort. Enter Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson. Young and largely self-trained men, the lawmen led the effort that established frontier justice and the rule of law in the American West, and did it in the wickedest place in the United States. Tom Clavin’s DODGE CITY tells the true story of their friendship, romances, gunfights and adventures.
St. Martin's Griffin | 9781250160560
DON’T CALL ME PRINCESS: Essays on Girls, Women, Sex, and Life by Peggy Orenstein (Social Science/Essays)
Paperback Original
Named one of the “40 women who changed the media business in the last 40 years” by Columbia Journalism Review, Peggy Orenstein is one of the most prominent, unflinching feminist voices of our time. In DON’T CALL ME PRINCESS, Orenstein’s most resonant and important essays are available for the first time in collected form, updated with both an original introduction and personal reflections on each piece. Her takes on reproductive justice, the infertility industry, tensions between working and stay-at-home moms, pink ribbon fear-mongering and the complications of girl culture are not merely timeless --- they have become more urgent in our contemporary political climate.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062688903
DON’T LET GO by Harlan Coben (Thriller)
Suburban New Jersey Detective Napoleon “Nap” Dumas hasn't been the same since senior year of high school, when his twin brother Leo and Leo’s girlfriend Diana were found dead on the railroad tracks --- and Maura, the girl Nap considered the love of his life, broke up with him and disappeared without explanation. For 15 years, Nap has been searching, both for Maura and for the real reason behind his brother's death. And now, it looks as though he may finally find what he's been looking for. When Maura's fingerprints turn up in the rental car of a suspected murderer, Nap embarks on a quest for answers that only leads to more questions --- mostly about Leo and Diana, whose deaths are darker and far more sinister than Nap ever dared imagine.
Dutton | 9781524742256
THE DUCHESS by Danielle Steel (Historical Fiction)
Angélique Latham has grown up at magnificent Belgrave Castle under the loving tutelage of her father, the Duke of Westerfield, after the death of her aristocratic French mother. At 18 she is her father’s closest, most trusted child, schooled in managing their grand estate. But when he dies, her half-brothers brutally turn her out, denying her very existence. Unable to secure employment without references or connections, Angélique desperately makes her way to Paris, where she rescues a young woman fleeing an abusive madam and suddenly sees a possibility: Open an elegant house of pleasure that will protect its women and serve only the best clients. But living on the edge of scandal, can she ever make a life of her own --- or regain her rightful place in the world?
Dell | 9780425285411
ENIGMA by Catherine Coulter (Thriller)
Kara Moody’s perfect pregnancy turns into a nightmare when her newborn son is nowhere to be found in her Georgetown hospital. FBI agents Savich and Sherlock think they’re investigating an abduction, but soon discover their case is tangled in a web of medical mystery that could make immortality possible. Liam Hennessy, notorious thief and one of the FBI’s most wanted, has escaped into the deep woods of the Appalachians --- and when he wants to be hidden, few can find the Manta Ray. Special agents Jack Cabot and Cam Wittier are sent to find him, but they find something else entirely. As each agent tirelessly pursues their prey, the clock is ticking. Savich and his team will have to go way beyond the ordinary if they are to solve the cases of a lifetime.
Gallery Books | 9781501189838
THE FAR EMPTY by J. Todd Scott (Thriller)
Seventeen-year-old Caleb Ross is adrift in the wake of the sudden disappearance of his mother more than a year ago, and is struggling to find his way out of the small Texas border town of Murfee. Chris Cherry is a newly minted sheriff’s deputy, a high school football hero who has reluctantly returned to his hometown. When skeletal remains are discovered in the surrounding badlands, the two are inexorably drawn together as their efforts to uncover Murfee’s darkest secrets lead them to the same terrifying suspect: Caleb’s father and Chris’ boss, the charismatic and feared Sheriff Standford “Judge” Ross.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780735218857
THE FOUR LEGENDARY KINGDOMS by Matthew Reilly (Thriller/Adventure)
Jack West, Jr. and his family are living happily on their remote farm when Jack is brutally kidnapped, and he awakes in an underground cell to find a masked attacker with a knife charging at him. Jack, it seems, has been chosen --- along with a dozen other elite soldiers --- to compete in a series of deadly challenges designed to fulfil an ancient ritual. With the fate of the Earth at stake, he will have to traverse diabolical mazes, fight cruel assassins, and face unimaginable horrors that will test him like he has never been tested before. In the process, he will discover the mysterious and powerful group of individuals behind it all: the four legendary kingdoms. He might also discover that he is not the only hero in this place.
Pocket Books | 9781501167171
HOUSE OF SPIES by Daniel Silva (Thriller/Adventure)
Four months after the deadliest attack on the American homeland since 9/11, terrorists leave a trail of carnage through London’s West End. The attack is a brilliant feat of planning and secrecy, but with one loose thread. The thread leads Gabriel Allon and his team of operatives to the south of France and to the gilded doorstep of Jean-Luc Martel and Olivia Watson. A beautiful former British fashion model, Olivia pretends not to know that the true source of Martel’s enormous wealth is drugs. And Martel turns a blind eye to the fact that he is doing business with a man whose objective is the very destruction of the West. Together, under Gabriel’s skilled hand, they will become an unlikely pair of heroes in the global war on terror.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062354372
IN THIS GRAVE HOUR: A Maisie Dobbs Novel by Jacqueline Winspear (Historical Mystery)
At the moment Prime Minister Neville Chamberlain broadcasts to the nation Britain’s declaration of war with Germany, a senior Secret Service agent breaks into Maisie Dobbs' flat to await her return. Dr. Francesca Thomas has an urgent assignment for Maisie: to find the killer of a man who escaped occupied Belgium as a boy, some 23 years earlier during the Great War. In a London shadowed by barrage balloons, bomb shelters and the threat of invasion, within days another former Belgian refugee is found murdered. As Maisie’s search for the killer escalates, the country braces for what is to come. Britain is approaching its gravest hour --- and Maisie could be nearing a crossroads of her own.
Harper Perennial | 9780062436627
INDECENT EXPOSURE: A Stone Barrington Novel by Stuart Woods (Thriller/Adventure)
As an eligible bachelor, man-about-town, and mover in the highest social echelons, Stone Barrington has always been the subject of interest and gossip. But when he’s unwittingly thrust into the limelight, he finds himself scrambling to take cover. Before too long, Stone is fending off pesky nuisances left and right, and making personal arrangements so surreptitiously it would take a covert operative to unearth them. Unfortunately, Stone soon discovers that these efforts only increase the persistence of the most troublesome pests…and when he runs afoul of a particularly tenacious lady, he’ll be struggling to protect not just his reputation, but his life.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780735217126
THE LAST NIGHT AT TREMORE BEACH by Mikel Santiago (Psychological Thriller)
What starts out as an idyllic summer holiday on the Irish coast soon becomes a living nightmare with unpredictable consequences for a world-renowned composer and his family. Recently divorced and in the middle of a creative crisis, Peter Harper decides to take shelter on Ireland’s scenic and isolated Tremore Beach. But after he is struck by lightning one stormy night, he begins experiencing terrible headaches and strange dreams. As the line between his dreams and reality begins to blur, Peter realizes that his bizarre dreams may be a warning of horror still to come.
Atria Books | 9781501102257
THE LOST BOOK OF THE GRAIL by Charlie Lovett (Mystery)
Arthur Prescott is happiest when surrounded by the ancient books and manuscripts of the Barchester Cathedral library. But when a beautiful young American named Bethany Davis arrives in Barchester charged with the task of digitizing the library’s manuscripts, Arthur sets out to thwart Bethany, only to find in her a kindred spirit with a similar love for knowledge and books --- and a fellow Grail fanatic. Bethany soon joins Arthur in a quest to find the lost Book of Ewolda, the ancient manuscript telling the story of the cathedral’s founder. And when the future of the cathedral itself is threatened, their search takes on grave importance, leading the pair to discover secrets about the cathedral, the Grail --- and themselves.
Penguin Books | 9780399562532
MADAME PRESIDENT: The Extraordinary Journey of Ellen Johnson Sirleaf by Helene Cooper (Biography)
When Ellen Johnson Sirleaf won the 2005 Liberian presidential election, she demolished a barrier few thought possible, obliterating centuries of patriarchal rule to become the first female elected head of state in Africa’s history. MADAME PRESIDENT is the inspiring, often heartbreaking story of Sirleaf’s evolution from an ordinary Liberian mother of four boys to international banking executive, from a victim of domestic violence to a political icon, from a post-war president to a Nobel Peace Prize winner.
Simon & Schuster | 9781451697360
ONE PERFECT LIE by Lisa Scottoline (Thriller)
Chris Brennan is applying for a job as a high school government teacher, and he's ready to step in as an assistant baseball coach. But everything about him is a lie. Raz is a high school pitcher who may have a future in the major leagues. However, his father died only a few months ago, leaving him in a vulnerable place where any new father figure might influence him for good, or for evil. Justin is shy, and his mother fears he is being lured down a dark path by one of his teammates. Mindy doesn’t know that her husband and her son, Evan, are keeping secrets from her --- secrets that might destroy them all. At the center of all of them is Chris Brennan. Why is he there? What does he want? And what is he willing to do to get it?
St. Martin's Griffin | 9781250099570
TESTIMONY by Scott Turow (Legal Thriller)
When former prosecutor Bill ten Boom is tapped by the International Criminal Court --- an organization charged with prosecuting crimes against humanity --- he feels drawn to what will become the most elusive case of his career. Over 10 years ago, in the apocalyptic chaos following the Bosnian war, an entire Roma refugee camp vanished. Now for the first time, a witness has stepped forward: Ferko Rincic claims that armed men marched the camp's Gypsy residents to a cave in the middle of the night --- and then with a hand grenade set off an avalanche, burying 400 people alive. Only Ferko survived. Boom's task is to examine Ferko's claims and determine who might have massacred the Roma.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781455553532
THIS CLOSE TO HAPPY: A Reckoning with Depression by Daphne Merkin (Memoir)
Daphne Merkin has been hospitalized three times: first, in grade school, for childhood depression; years later, after her daughter was born, for severe postpartum depression; and later still, after her mother died, for obsessive suicidal thinking. Recounting this series of hospitalizations, as well as her visits to myriad therapists and psychopharmacologists, Merkin fearlessly offers what the child psychiatrist Harold Koplewicz calls “the inside view of navigating a chronic psychiatric illness to a realistic outcome.” In this dark yet vital memoir, Merkin describes not only the harrowing sorrow that she has known all her life, but also her early, redemptive love of reading and gradual emergence as a writer.
Picador | 9781250159298
WAKING LIONS by Ayelet Gundar-Goshen (Thriller)
Married to a beautiful police officer and father of two young boys, neurosurgeon Eitan Green has the perfect life. Then, speeding along a deserted moonlit road after an exhausting hospital shift, he hits someone. Seeing that the man, an African migrant, is beyond help, he flees the scene. When the victim's widow knocks at Eitan's door the next day, holding his wallet and divulging that she knows what happened, Eitan discovers that her price for silence is not money. It is something else entirely, something that will shatter Eitan's safe existence and take him into a world of secrets and lies he never could have anticipated.
Back Bay Books | 9780316395410
THE WHOLE WAY HOME by Sarah Creech (Fiction)
Country singer and fiddler Jo Lover is poised to become a one-name Nashville star like her idols, Loretta, Reba and Dolly. But the stage persona she’s built is threatened when her independent label merges with big-time Capitol Records, bringing Nashville heartthrob JD Gunn --- her first love --- back into her life. Long ago Jo played with JD’s band. But they parted ways and took their own crooked roads to stardom. When the label reunites them for a show, the old sparks fly, the duet they sing goes viral, and fans begin clamoring for more. All too soon, the painful secret Jo has been hiding is uncovered, a shocking revelation that threatens to destroy her reputation and her dreams.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062409300
THE WILL TO KILL: A Mike Hammer Mystery by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins (Hard-boiled Mystery)
Taking a midnight stroll along the Hudson River, Mike Hammer gets more than he bargained for: a partial corpse on an ice floe. The body is that of a butler who spent the last years of his life working for a millionaire --- also now deceased --- and his notoriously privileged children. Were both master and servant murdered? Captain Pat Chambers thinks so. But to prove it, Hammer must travel to upstate New York to investigate the dead man’s family, all of whom have a motive for murder --- and one of whom has a taste for it.
Titan Books | 9781783291434
WOMAN LAST SEEN IN HER THIRTIES by Camille Pagán (Fiction)
Paperback Original
At 53, Maggie Harris has a good marriage and two mostly happy children. Perpetually anxious, she’s also accumulated a list of semi-reasonable fears. But never once did she worry that her husband of nearly 30 years would leave her. On the day Adam walks out the door, everything that makes Maggie secure goes with him. Only then does she realize that while she’s been busy caring for everyone else, she’s become invisible to the world --- and to herself. Maggie cautiously begins to rebuild her life with a trip to Rome, a new career and even a rebound romance. But when a fresh crisis strikes and an uncertain future looms, she must decide: How much will she risk to remain the woman she’s just become?
Lake Union Publishing | 9781503936997
March 1st
ILLEGAL HOLDINGS: A Valentin Vemeulen Thriller by Michael Niemann (Thriller)
Paperback Original
UN fraud investigator Valentin Vermeulen is on assignment in Maputo, Mozambique. His ho-hum task is to see if Global Alternatives is spending UN money the way they promised. The nonprofit was set up by hedge fund mogul Vincent Portallis to revolutionize development aid. The only upside for Vermeulen is the prospect of seeing his lover Tessa Bishonga, who is reporting on foreign land acquisitions in Africa. When Vermeulen notices that a five-million-dollar transfer has gone missing, he is given the run-around. His dogged pursuit of the missing transfer makes him the target of some ruthless operators. And once he meets up with Tessa, she is inevitably sucked in to the story as well, which turns out to be far more nefarious than either of them imagined.
Coffeetown Press | 9781603815918
On Sale the Week of March 5th in Hardcover
March 6th
AGATHA CHRISTIE: A Mysterious Life by Laura Thompson (Biography)
It has been 100 years since Agatha Christie wrote her first novel and created the formidable Hercule Poirot. Arguably the greatest crime writer in the world, Christie's books still sell over four million copies each year --- more than 30 years after her death --- and it shows no signs of slowing. But who was the woman behind these mystifying, yet eternally pleasing, puzzlers? Biographer Laura Thompson reveals the Edwardian world in which Christie grew up, explores her relationships, including those with her two husbands and daughter, and investigates the many mysteries still surrounding Christie's life, most notably her 11-day disappearance in 1926.
Pegasus Books | 9781681776538
ALL THE BEAUTIFUL GIRLS by Elizabeth J. Church (Historical Fiction)
When she was eight years old, Lily Decker somehow survived the auto accident that killed her parents and sister, but neither her emotionally distant aunt nor her all-too-attentive uncle could ease her grief. Dancing proves to be Lily’s only solace, and eventually she receives a “scholarship” to a local dance academy --- courtesy of a mysterious benefactor. Grown and ready to leave home for good, Lily changes her name to Ruby Wilde and heads to Las Vegas to be a troupe dancer, but her sensual beauty and voluptuous figure land her work instead as a showgirl. Ruby may have all the looks of a Sin City success story, but she still must learn to navigate the world of men --- and figure out what real love looks like.
Ballantine Books | 9780399181061
AS YOU WISH by Jude Deveraux (Romance)
Sixty-year-old Olivia’s first marriage was long and unhappy, but now she is thrilled to be starting her life with the man she’s always truly loved. Kathy is in her 40s and married to a handsome, successful businessman…who happens to be passionately in love with someone else. Twentysomething Elise is also in a troubled marriage, stuck with the man her wealthy parents chose for her. Though each of them wound up at the summerhouse for separate reasons, it’s not long before they begin to open up about their regrets, their wishes and their dreams. And when they’re presented with the opportunity of a lifetime, all three discover what can happen when dreams really do come true.
Mira | 9780778307617
AUNTIE POLDI AND THE SICILIAN LIONS written by Mario Giordano, translated by John Brownjohn (Cozy Mystery)
On her 60th birthday, Auntie Poldi retires to Sicily, intending to while away the rest of her days with good wine, a view of the sea and few visitors. But Sicily isn’t quite the tranquil island she thought it would be, and something always seems to get in the way of her relaxation. When her handsome young handyman goes missing --- and is discovered murdered --- she can’t help but ask questions. Soon there’s an investigation, a smoldering police inspector, a romantic entanglement, one false lead after another, a rooftop showdown, and finally, of course, Poldi herself, slightly tousled but still perfectly poised.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9781328863577
AWAYLAND: Stories by Ramona Ausubel (Fiction/Short Stories)
Ramona Ausubel’s stories span the globe and beyond, from small-town America and sunny Caribbean islands to the Arctic Ocean and the very gates of Heaven itself. And though some of the stories are steeped in mythology, they remain grounded in universal experiences. Crisscrossing the pages of AWAYLAND are travelers and expats, shadows and ghosts. A girl watches as her homesick mother slowly dissolves into literal mist. The mayor of a small Midwestern town offers a strange prize, for stranger reasons, to the parents of any baby born on Lenin's birthday. A chef bound for Mars begins an even more treacherous journey much closer to home. And a lonely heart searches for love online --- never mind that he's a Cyclops.
Riverhead Books | 9781594634901
THE BABY BOMBERS: The Inside Story of the Next Yankees Dynasty by Bryan Hoch (Sports)
Derek Jeter and the “Core Four” have passed the torch to a new generation of Yankees superstars --- featuring Aaron Judge, Gary Sanchez, Luis Severino and Greg Bird --- who have powered through the minors to become stars on baseball’s biggest stage. Joined by reigning National League MVP Giancarlo Stanton, this thrilling group is poised to chase championship titles for years to come. THE BABY BOMBERS details the inside-baseball strategy of the Yankees’ pivot to a younger, more exciting roster, the players’ fascinating paths to Yankee Stadium, their memorable 2017 playoff run, their amazing assaults on the record books, and a unified mission to hoist the franchise’s 28th World Series trophy.
Diversion Books | 9781635764192
THE BAG OF TRICKS AFFAIR: A Carpenter and Quincannon Mystery by Bill Pronzini (Historical Mystery)
A conman always has a bag of tricks, ready to fool the unsuspecting, and almost everyone is unsuspecting until they get taken. When that happens, they turn to Carpenter and Quincannon, Professional Detective Services, to recover their money and what’s left of their dignity, and perhaps even to save their lives. When one such case leaves Sabina Carpenter the only witness to a murder, the family of the culprit vows to stop at nothing to keep her silent. The threat leaves John Quincannon deeply concerned for Sabina’s safety, but there’s no rest for the wicked. And when Sabina’s life is put in danger, John must rush to save her while grappling with the terrifying realization of exactly how much she means to him.
Forge Books | 9780765394354
BARBED WIRE HEART by Tess Sharpe (Thriller)
Duke McKenna has run more guns, cooked more meth and killed more men than anyone around. His daughter, Harley, has been working for him since she was 16 --- collecting debts, sweet-talking her way out of trouble, and dreading the day he'd deem her ready to rule the rural drug empire he's built. The Springfields, her family's biggest rivals, are moving in. Years ago, they were responsible for her mother's death, and now they're coming for her. Harley is forced to confront the truth: that her father's violent world will destroy her. If she wants to survive and protect the people she loves, she must take out Duke's operation and the Springfields.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538744093
BLOOD OF THE FOUR by Christopher Golden and Tim Lebbon (Dark Fantasy/Adventure)
In the great kingdom of Quandis, everyone is a slave. A young woman of stunning ambition, Princess Phela refuses to allow a few obstacles to stand in the way of claiming ultimate power and glory for herself. Far below the royals are the Bajuman. Poor and oppressed, members of this wretched caste have but two paths out of servitude: the priesthood or death. Because magic has been kept at bay in Quandis, royals and Bajuman have lived together in an uneasy peace for centuries. But Princess Phela’s desire for power will disrupt the realm’s order, setting into motion a series of events that will end with her becoming a goddess in her own right…or ultimately destroying Quandis and all its inhabitants.
Harper Voyager | 9780062641380
CENSUS by Jesse Ball (Dystopian Fiction)
When a widower receives notice from a doctor that he doesn’t have long left to live, he is struck by the question of who will care for his adult son, who has Down syndrome. With no recourse in mind, and with a desire to see the country on one last trip, the man signs up as a census taker for a mysterious governmental bureau and leaves town with his son. Traveling into the country, through towns named only by ascending letters of the alphabet, the man and his son encounter a wide range of human experience. As they approach “Z,” the man must confront a series of questions: What is the purpose of the census? Is he complicit in its mission? And just how will he learn to say goodbye to his son?
Ecco | 9780062676139
CLOSER THAN YOU KNOW by Brad Parks (Thriller)
One Tuesday evening, Melanie Barrick goes to pick up her son, Alex, from childcare only to discover he's been removed by Social Services. Her nightmare mushrooms when she arrives home to learn her house has been raided by sheriff's deputies, who have found enough cocaine to send Melanie to prison for years. Meanwhile, assistant commonwealth's attorney Amy Kaye --- who has been assigned Melanie's case --- has her own troubles. She's been dogged by a cold case no one wants her to pursue: a serial rapist who has avoided detection by wearing a mask and whispering his commands. Over the years, he has victimized dozens of women. Including Melanie. Yet now her attacker might be the key to her salvation…or her undoing.
Dutton | 9781101985625
THE COINCIDENCE MAKERS by Yoav Blum (Fiction)
What if the drink you just spilled, the train you just missed, or the lottery ticket you just found was not just a random occurrence? What if it’s all part of a bigger plan? What if there’s no such thing as a chance encounter? What if there are people we don’t know determining our destiny? And what if they are even planning the fate of the world? Enter the Coincidence Makers --- Guy, Emily and Eric --- three seemingly ordinary people who work for a secret organization devoted to creating and carrying out coincidences. When an assignment of the highest level is slipped under Guy’s door one night, he knows it will be the most difficult and dangerous coincidence he’s ever had to fulfill.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250146113
CRIMSON LAKE by Candice Fox (Thriller)
Six minutes in the wrong place at the wrong time --- that’s all it took to ruin Sydney detective Ted Conkaffey’s life. Accused but not convicted of a brutal abduction, Ted is now a free man --- and public enemy number one. Maintaining his innocence, he flees north to keep a low profile amidst the steamy, croc-infested wetlands of Crimson Lake. There, Ted’s lawyer introduces him to eccentric private investigator Amanda Pharrell, herself a convicted murderer. Not entirely convinced Amanda is a cold-blooded killer, Ted agrees to help with her investigation, a case full of deception and obsession, while secretly digging into her troubled past.
Forge Books | 9780765398482
THE DAY SHE DISAPPEARED by Christobel Kent (Psychological Thriller)
When Beth disappears, everyone says she’s run off with another man. But Natalie, her best friend, doesn’t believe it. She’s sure something more sinister is going on. Meanwhile, Victor, one of Beth’s and Nat’s favorite bar patrons, has fallen and ended up in the hospital. When he hears that Beth is gone, he doesn’t buy it either. And slowly, a hazy memory comes back to him. As Nat tries to piece together the events --- and people --- in Beth’s life, it becomes more difficult to discern who can and can’t be trusted. The little town in the English countryside takes on an ominous air, with a threat behind every corner, outside every window. And someone is always watching.
Sarah Crichton Books | 9780374279554
THE DEVIL AND THE RIVER by R.J. Ellory (Historical Mystery/Thriller)
One evening in 1954, 16-year-old Nancy Denton walked into the woods of her hometown of Whytesburg, Mississippi, and was never seen again. Two decades later, Sheriff John Gaines witnesses a harrowing discovery: A young woman has been unearthed from the riverbank, her body perfectly preserved, yet she bears evidence of a brutal ritualistic killing. Nancy has come home at last, but her return does not bring closure to her family, or to the citizens of Whytesburg. What really happened to the beautiful and vivacious Nancy? And why do her friends refuse to talk? As Gaines closes in on the truth, he is forced not only to confront his own demons, but to unearth secrets that have long remained hidden.
The Overlook Press | 9781468311297
THE ESCAPE ARTIST by Brad Meltzer (Thriller)
Her body was found on a plane that mysteriously fell from the sky as it left a secret military base in the Alaskan wilderness. Her commanding officer verifies she's dead. The US government confirms it. But Jim "Zig" Zigarowski has just found out the truth: Nola is still alive. And on the run. Zig works at Dover Air Force Base, helping put to rest the bodies of those who die on top-secret missions. Nola was a childhood friend of Zig's daughter and someone who once saved his daughter's life. So when Zig realizes Nola is still alive, he's determined to find her. Yet as Zig digs into Nola's past, he learns that trouble follows Nola everywhere she goes.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781455559527
THE FAMILY NEXT DOOR by Sally Hepworth (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
From the outside, Essie’s life looks idyllic: a loving husband, a beautiful house in a good neighborhood, and a nearby mother who dotes on her grandchildren. But few of Essie’s friends know her secret shame: that in a moment of maternal despair, she once walked away from her newborn, asleep in her carriage in a park. When a new woman named Isabelle moves in next door to Essie, she is an immediate object of curiosity in the neighborhood. As the two women grow closer and Essie’s friends voice their disapproval, it starts to become clear that Isabelle’s choice of neighborhood was no accident. And that her presence threatens to bring shocking secrets to light.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250120892
GIRLS BURN BRIGHTER by Shobha Rao (Fiction)
Poornima and Savitha have three strikes against them: they are poor, they are ambitious, and they are girls. After her mother’s death, Poornima has very little kindness in her life. She is left to care for her siblings until her father can find her a suitable match. So when Savitha enters their household, Poornima is intrigued by the joyful, independent-minded girl. Suddenly their Indian village doesn't feel quite so claustrophobic, and Poornima begins to imagine a life beyond arranged marriage. But when a devastating act of cruelty drives Savitha away, Poornima leaves behind everything she has ever known to find her friend.
Flatiron Books | 9781250074256
THE HOUSE OF BROKEN ANGELS by Luis Alberto Urrea (Fiction)
In his final days, beloved and ailing patriarch Miguel Angel de La Cruz, affectionately called Big Angel, has summoned his entire clan for one last legendary birthday party. But as the party approaches, his mother, nearly 100, passes away, leading to a farewell doubleheader in a single weekend. Among the guests is Big Angel's half brother, known as Little Angel, who must reckon with the truth that although he shares a father with his siblings, he has not, as a half gringo, shared a life. Across two bittersweet days, the revelers mingle among the palm trees and cacti, celebrating the lives of Big Angel and his mother, and recounting the many inspiring tales that have passed into family lore.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316154888
THE HUNGER by Alma Katsu (Supernatural/Historical Thriller)
Evil is invisible, and it is everywhere. That is the only way to explain the series of misfortunes that have plagued the wagon train known as the Donner Party. Depleted rations, bitter quarrels and the mysterious death of a little boy have driven the isolated travelers to the brink of madness. Though they dream of what awaits them in the West, long-buried secrets begin to emerge, and dissent among them escalates to the point of murder and chaos. They cannot seem to escape tragedy...or the feelings that someone --- or something --- is stalking them. As members of the group begin to disappear, the survivors start to wonder if there really is something disturbing, and hungry, waiting for them in the mountains.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780735212510
I'LL BE YOUR BLUE SKY by Marisa de los Santos (Fiction)
On the weekend of her wedding, Clare Hobbes meets an elderly woman named Edith Herron. During the course of a single conversation, Edith gives Clare the courage to break off her engagement to her overly possessive fiancé. Three weeks later, Clare learns that Edith has died and has given her another gift: Blue Sky House. Though the former guest house has been empty for years, Clare feels a deep connection to Edith inside its walls. As she peels back the layers of Edith’s life, Clare discovers a story of dark secrets, passionate love, heartbreaking sacrifice and incredible courage. She also makes startling discoveries about herself: where she’s come from, where she’s going, and what --- and who --- she loves.
William Morrow | 9780062431936
THE INNOCENT WIFE by Amy Lloyd (Psychological Thriller)
Twenty years ago, Dennis Danson was arrested and imprisoned for the brutal murder of a young girl. Now he’s the subject of a true-crime documentary that’s whipping up a frenzy online to uncover the truth and free a man who has been wrongly convicted. A thousand miles away in England, Samantha is obsessed with Dennis’ case. She exchanges letters with him, and is quickly won over by his apparent charm and kindness to her. Soon she has left her old life behind to marry him and campaign for his release. However, when the campaign is successful and Dennis is freed, Sam begins to discover new details that suggest he may not be quite so innocent after all.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335952400
THE KREMLIN CONSPIRACY by Joel C. Rosenberg (Political Thriller)
With an American president distracted by growing tensions in North Korea and Iran, an ominous new threat is emerging in Moscow. A czar is rising in the Kremlin, a Russian president feverishly consolidating power, silencing his opposition, and plotting a brazen and lightning-fast military strike that could rupture the NATO alliance and bring Washington and Moscow to the brink of nuclear war. But in his blind spot is the former U.S. Secret Service agent, Marcus Ryker, trained to protect but ready to kill to save his country.
Tyndale House Publishers, Inc. | 9781496406170
THE LAST EQUATION OF ISAAC SEVERY: A Novel in Clues by Nova Jacobs (Literary Mystery)
Just days after mathematician and family patriarch Isaac Severy dies of an apparent suicide, his adopted granddaughter Hazel, owner of a struggling bookstore, receives a letter from him by mail. In it, Isaac alludes to a secretive organization that is after his final bombshell equation, and he charges Hazel with safely delivering it to a trusted colleague. But first, she must find where the equation is hidden. While in Los Angeles for Isaac’s funeral, Hazel realizes she’s not the only one searching for his life’s work, and that the equation’s implications have potentially disastrous consequences for the extended Severy family, a group of dysfunctional geniuses unmoored by the sudden death of their patriarch.
Touchstone | 9781501175121
MEMENTO MORI: A Crime Novel of the Roman Empire by Ruth Downie (Historical Mystery)
A scandal is threatening to engulf the popular spa town of Aquae Sulis (modern-day Bath). The wife of Ruso's best friend, Valens, has been found dead in the sacred hot spring, stabbed through the heart. Fearing the wrath of the goddess and the ruin of the tourist trade, the temple officials are keen to cover up what's happened. But the dead woman's father is demanding justice, and he's accusing Valens of murder. If Valens turns up to face trial, he will risk execution. If he doesn't, he'll lose his children. Ruso and Tilla do their best to help, but it's difficult to get anyone --- even Valens himself --- to reveal what really happened. Could Ruso's friend really be guilty as charged?
Bloomsbury USA | 9781620409619
OUR BEST LIFE TOGETHER: A Daily Devotional for Couples by Joel and Victoria Osteen (Devotional)
In OUR BEST LIFE TOGETHER, Joel and Victoria Osteen want to encourage you in your marriage and remind you that God brought you together to help each other succeed and to become all He created you to be. There’s no better way to experience the fulfilling marriage God intends for you than to set aside a devotional time together each day and set your minds in the right direction for a positive, happy, faith-filled marriage. When you live together in unity, you honor God and open the door for His blessings to flow into every area of your life. If you will do your part, God will do His part, and you can live in love!
FaithWords | 9781455598649
PANORAMA by Steve Kistulentz (Fiction)
Richard MacMurray is a cable news talking head. On New Year's Day, he is scheduled to be a guest on a prominent morning talk show. As he awaits the broadcast, the network interrupts with news that a jet airliner has crashed in Dallas and that everyone aboard has perished. Within an hour, amateur videotape surfaces of the plane's last moments, transforming the crash into a living image. Richard learns that his sister, Mary Beth, was aboard the doomed flight, leaving behind her six-year-old son, Gabriel. Richard is the boy's only living relative. When he is given an opportunity to bring Gabriel home, it may be that the loss of his sister will provide him with the second chapter he never knew he wanted.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316551762
RAINBIRDS by Clarissa Goenawan (Literary Mystery)
After receiving news of his sister’s violent death, Ren Ishida heads to Akakawa to conclude her affairs. He is offered Keiko’s newly vacant teaching position at a prestigious local cram school and her bizarre former arrangement of free lodging at a wealthy politician’s mansion in exchange for reading to the man’s ailing wife. He accepts both, abandoning Tokyo and his crumbling relationship there in order to better understand his sister’s life and what took place the night of her death. Haunted in his dreams by a young girl who is desperately trying to tell him something, Ren realizes that Keiko Ishida kept many secrets, even from him.
Soho Press | 9781616958558
THE SANDMAN by Lars Kepler (Mystery/Thriller)
Late one night, Mikael Kohler-Frost is found wandering. Thirteen years earlier, he went missing along with his younger sister. They were long thought to have been victims of Sweden's most notorious serial killer, Jurek Walter. Now Mikael tells the police that his sister is still alive and being held by someone he knows only as the Sandman. Years ago, Detective Inspector Joona Linna made an excruciating personal sacrifice to ensure Jurek's capture. He is keenly aware of what this killer is capable of, and now he is certain that Jurek has an accomplice. He knows that any chance of rescuing Mikael's sister depends on getting Jurek to talk, and that the only agent capable of this is Inspector Saga Bauer, a 27-year-old prodigy.
Knopf | 9781524732240
THE SONS: Made in Sweden, Part II written by Anton Svensson, translated by Elizabeth Clark Wessel (Thriller)
After six years in prison, Leo Duvnjac is free. Prosecuted for numerous crimes, he was convicted of just two robberies in the end. Unreformed, Leo has spent his imprisonment plotting one final heist. The plan is to steal more than 100 million Swedish crowns from Sweden's largest police station --- and then disappear forever. It is a decision that will threaten what remains of his relationships with his father and brothers, who also went to prison for the earlier robberies, and set him on a collision course with the aggressive cop who sent them to jail. Detective John Broncks quickly figures out that the newly released Leo is up to something and vows to stop him, no matter what rules have to be broken.
Quercus | 9781681443423
SPEAK NO EVIL by Uzodinma Iweala (Fiction)
Raised by two attentive parents, Niru is a top student and a track star at his prestigious private high school. Bound for Harvard in the fall, his prospects are bright. But Niru has a painful secret: he is queer --- an abominable sin to his conservative Nigerian parents. No one knows except Meredith, his best friend and the one person who seems not to judge him. When his father accidentally discovers Niru is gay, the fallout is brutal and swift. As Niru and Meredith struggle to reconcile their desires against the expectations and institutions that seek to define them, they find themselves speeding toward a future more violent and senseless than they can imagine.
Harper | 9780061284922
THE STAKES by Ben Sanders (Thriller)
Rip-offs are a dangerous game, but heist man Miles Keller thinks he has found a good strategy: rob rich New York criminals and then retire early, before word is out about his true identity. The NYPD is investigating him for the shooting of a hitman named Jack Deen, who was targeting Lucy Gates, a former police informant and Miles’ ex-lover. He’s ready to go to ground, but then Nina Stone reappears in his life. Nina is a fellow heist professional and the estranged wife of LA crime boss Charles Stone. Her husband wants her back, and he’s dispatched his go-to gun thug to play repo man. Complicating matters is the fact that the gun thug in question is Bobby Deen, cousin of the dead Jack Deen --- and Bobby wants vengeance.
Minotaur Books | 9781250140111
THE TERMINAL LIST by Jack Carr (Thriller)
On his last combat deployment, Lieutenant Commander James Reece’s entire team was killed in a catastrophic ambush that also claimed the lives of the aircrew sent in to rescue them. But when those dearest to him are murdered on the day of his homecoming, Reece discovers that this was not an act of war by a foreign enemy but a conspiracy that runs to the highest levels of government. Now, with no family and free from the military’s command structure, Reece applies the lessons that he’s learned in over a decade of constant warfare toward avenging the deaths of his family and teammates.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781501180811
THEY ALL FALL DOWN by Tammy Cohen (Psychological Thriller)
Hannah had a perfect life in London until she did something shocking that landed her in a high-risk psychiatric unit. Since Hannah has been admitted, two women have died, including Charlie, one of her closest friends in the institution. She is convinced there’s a serial killer picking off the patients one by one, passing their deaths off as suicides. But why? And who will believe her? At first, Hannah’s mother Corinne assumes her outlandish claims about a killer in the unit are just another manifestation of her psychological condition, but as she starts to uncover strange inconsistencies surrounding the unit's charismatic director, Dr. Roberts, she begins to wonder if her daughter might have stumbled upon the truth.
Pegasus Books | 9781681776477
THE THIRD VICTIM by Phillip Margolin (Legal Thriller)
A battered and bound woman stumbles onto a dark road in rural Oregon, and tells a horrific story about being kidnapped, then tortured, until she finally managed to escape. She identifies the house where she was held captive, and the owner, Alex Mason --- a prominent local attorney --- is arrested. Although he loudly insists upon his innocence, his wife’s statements about his sexual sadism and the physical evidence found at the scene are damning. Regina Barrister, a legendary criminal defense attorney, has a secret, one that threatens her skill, her reputation and, most of all, her clients. And she’s agreed to take on the seemingly impossible task of defending Alex Mason.
Minotaur Books | 9781250117502
THIS MESSY MAGNIFICENT LIFE: A Field Guide by Geneen Roth (Self-Help/Motivational)
With humor, compassion and insight, THIS MESSY MAGNIFICENT LIFE explores the personal beliefs, hidden traumas and social pressures that shape not just women’s feelings about their bodies, but also their confidence, choices and relationships. This provocative, enchanting and sometimes laugh-out-loud look at the imperfect path women take to step into their own power, presence and ownership is based on Geneen Roth's personal journey and her decades of work with thousands of women around the country.
Scribner | 9781501182464
UNMASKED: A Memoir by Andrew Lloyd Webber (Memoir)
One of the most successful and distinguished artists of our time, Andrew Lloyd Webber has reigned over the musical theatre world for nearly five decades. The winner of numerous awards, including multiple Tonys and an Oscar, Lloyd Webber has enchanted millions worldwide with his music and numerous hit shows, including "Jesus Christ Superstar," "Evita," "Cats," "The Phantom of the Opera" --- Broadway’s longest running show --- and, most recently, "School of Rock." In UNMASKED, the revered, award-winning composer takes stock of his achievements, the twists of fate and circumstance that brought him both success and disappointment, and the passions that inspire and sustain him.
Harper | 9780062424204
THE WOMAN LEFT BEHIND by Linda Howard (Romantic Suspense)
Jina Modell, who works in Communications for a paramilitary organization, is reassigned to work as an on-site drone operator in the field with one of the GO-teams, an elite paramilitary unit. Team leader Levi doesn’t have much confidence in Jina making it through the rigors of training. In the following months, though, no one is more surprised than he when Jina begins to thrive in her new environment. What’s even more surprising is that the usually very disciplined GO-team leader can’t stop thinking about the building chemistry and tension between them. Meanwhile, a powerful Congresswoman is working behind the scenes to destroy the GO-teams, and a trap is set to ambush Levi’s squad in Syria.
William Morrow | 9780062419019
THE WOMAN'S HOUR: The Great Fight to Win the Vote by Elaine Weiss (History/Politics)
Nashville, August 1920. Thirty-five states have ratified the Nineteenth Amendment, 12 have rejected or refused to vote, and one last state is needed. It all comes down to Tennessee, the moment of truth for the suffragists, after a seven-decade crusade. The opposing forces include politicians with careers at stake, liquor companies, railroad magnates, and a lot of racists who don't want black women voting. And then there are the "Antis" --- women who oppose their own enfranchisement, fearing suffrage will bring about the moral collapse of the nation. They all converge in a boiling hot summer for a vicious face-off replete with dirty tricks, betrayals and bribes, bigotry, Jack Daniel's and the Bible.
Viking | 9780525429722
On Sale the Week of March 5th in Paperback
March 5th
DANGEROUS BOYS by Greg F. Gifune (Thriller)
Paperback Original
Summer, 1984. For Richie Lionetti and his gang of friends, their years as teenagers are coming to an end. At a crossroad in their lives as petty criminals and thugs on the mean streets of New Bedford, Massachusetts, they have one final summer, one last chance to fall in love, brawl for their turf, rob and pillage, and one last chance to make a move and pull a job that could change their lives forever. As a series of brutal heatwaves hit southeastern Massachusetts, the city boils, and everyone is on edge. In the hopes of finding something better, Richie desperately searches for meaning in all the violence, sex and degradation that is his daily life. But at what price?
Down & Out Books | 9781946502520
THE NIGHT OF THE FLOOD: A Novel in Stories edited by E.A. Aymar and Sarah M. Chen (Crime Fiction/Short Stories)
Paperback Original
It happened the night Maggie Wilbourne was to be put to death, the first woman executed by the state of Pennsylvania in modern times. That was when a group of women passionately protesting Maggie’s imprisonment struck. They blew up a local dam, flooding the town of Everton and indirectly inspiring a hellish night of crime and chaos. Fourteen of today’s new and most exciting contemporary crime writers will take you to the fictional town of Everton, with stories from criminals, cops and civilians that explore the thin line between the rich and the poor, the insider and the outsider, the innocent and the guilty.
Down & Out Books | 9781946502513
March 6th
ARE YOU SLEEPING by Kathleen Barber (Psychological Thriller)
Josie Buhrman has spent the last 10 years trying to escape her family’s reputation and with good reason. After her father's murder 13 years prior, her mother ran away to join a cult, and her twin sister Lanie, once Josie’s closest friend and confidant, betrayed her in an unimaginable way. Now, Josie has finally put down roots in New York, settling into domestic life with her partner Caleb, and that’s where she intends to stay. The only problem is that she has lied to Caleb about every detail of her past --- starting with her last name. When investigative reporter Poppy Parnell sets off a media firestorm with a mega-hit podcast that reopens the long-closed case of Josie’s father’s murder, Josie’s world begins to unravel.
Gallery Books | 9781501157684
BEHAVING BADLY: The New Morality in Politics, Sex, and Business by Eden Collinsworth (Philosophy/Psychology)
To call these unsettling times is an understatement. Our political leaders are less and less respectable; in business, cheating, lying and stealing are hazily defined; and in daily life, technology permits us to act in ways inconceivable without it. Yet somehow, people still draw lines between what is acceptable and what is not. In BEHAVING BADLY, Eden Collinsworth speaks with a wide range of figures --- from experts to everyday people --- to parse out the parameters of modern morality.
Anchor | 9781101970812
BEREN AND LÚTHIEN written by J.R.R. Tolkien, edited by Christopher Tolkien, with illustrations by Alan Lee (Fantasy)
The epic tale of Beren and Lúthien became an essential element in the evolution of The Silmarillion, the myths and legends of J.R.R. Tolkien’s First Age of the World. Always key to the story is the fate that shadowed their love: Beren was a mortal man, Lúthien an immortal Elf. Her father, a great Elvish lord, imposed on Beren an impossible task before he might wed Lúthien: to rob the greatest of all evil beings, Melkor, of a Silmaril. Painstakingly restored from Tolkien’s manuscripts and presented for the first time as a continuous and stand-alone story, BEREN AND LÚTHIEN reunites fans of THE HOBBIT and THE LORD OF THE RINGS with Elves and Men, along with the rich landscape and creatures unique to Tolkien’s Middle-earth.
Mariner Books | 9781328915337
BLACKOUT by Marc Elsberg (Thriller)
When the lights go out one night, no one panics. Not yet. The lights always come back on soon, don't they? Surely it's a glitch, a storm, a malfunction. But something seems strange about this night. Across Europe, controllers watch in disbelief as electrical grids collapse. There is no power, anywhere. A former hacker and activist, Piero investigates a possible cause of the disaster. The authorities don't believe him, and he soon becomes a prime suspect himself. With the United States now also at risk, Piero goes on the run with Lauren Shannon, a young American CNN reporter based in Paris, desperate to uncover who is behind the attacks. After all, the power doesn't just keep the lights on --- it keeps us alive.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781492654698
BLAME by Jeff Abbott (Psychological Thriller)
Two years ago, Jane Norton crashed her car on a lonely road, killing her friend David and leaving her with amnesia. At first, everyone was sympathetic. Then they found Jane's note: I wish we were dead together. From that day, the town turned against her. But even now, Jane is filled with questions: Why were they on that road? Why was she with David? Did she really want to die? Most of all, she must find out who has just written her an anonymous message: I know what really happened. I know what you don't remember...
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538744833
CAMINO ISLAND by John Grisham (Thriller)
A gang of thieves stage a daring heist from a secure vault deep below Princeton University’s Firestone Library. Bruce Cable owns a popular bookstore in the sleepy resort town of Santa Rosa on Camino Island in Florida. He makes his real money, though, as a prominent dealer in rare books. Very few people know that he occasionally dabbles in the black market of stolen books and manuscripts. Mercer Mann is a young novelist with a severe case of writer’s block. A generous offer of money convinces her to go undercover and infiltrate Cable’s circle of literary friends, ideally getting close enough to him to learn his secrets. But eventually Mercer learns far too much, and there’s trouble in paradise.
Dell | 9781524797157
THE CHANGELING by Victor LaValle (Supernatural Thriller/Fantasy)
When Apollo Kagwa’s father disappeared, all he left his son were strange recurring dreams and a box of books stamped with the word IMPROBABILIA. Now Apollo is a father himself --- and as he and his wife, Emma, are settling into their new lives as parents, exhaustion and anxiety start to take their toll. Irritable and disconnected from their new baby boy, at first Emma seems to be exhibiting signs of postpartum depression, but it quickly becomes clear that her troubles go even deeper. Before Apollo can do anything to help, Emma commits a horrific act and vanishes. Thus begins Apollo’s odyssey through a world he only thought he understood, to find a wife and child who are nothing like he had imagined.
Spiegel & Grau | 9780812985870
THE CHILD by Fiona Barton (Psychological Thriller)
As an old house is demolished in a gentrifying section of London, a workman discovers human remains, buried for years. For journalist Kate Waters, it’s a story that deserves attention. She cobbles together a piece for her newspaper, but she's at a loss for answers. As Kate investigates, she unearths connections to a crime that rocked the city decades earlier. A newborn baby was stolen from the maternity ward in a local hospital and was never found. But there is more to the story, and Kate is drawn into the pasts of the people who once lived in this neighborhood that has given up its greatest mystery. She soon finds herself the keeper of unexpected secrets that erupt in the lives of three women --- and torn between what she can and cannot tell.
Berkley | 9781101990490
CLOSE TO HOME by Cara Hunter (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
When eight-year-old Daisy Mason vanishes from her family’s Oxford home during a costume party, Detective Inspector Adam Fawley knows that nine times out of 10, the offender is someone close to home. And Daisy’s family is certainly strange --- her mother is obsessed with keeping up appearances, while her father is cold and defensive under questioning. And then there’s Daisy’s little brother, so withdrawn and uncommunicative. DI Fawley works against the clock to find any trace of the little girl, but it’s as if she disappeared into thin air --- no one saw anything; no one knows anything. But everyone has an opinion, and everyone, it seems, has a secret to conceal.
Penguin Books | 9780143131052
A COLONY IN A NATION by Chris Hayes (Current Affairs/Social Science)
In A COLONY IN A NATION, New York Times bestselling author and Emmy Award–winning news anchor Chris Hayes upends the national conversation on policing and democracy. Drawing on wide-ranging historical, social and political analysis, as well as deeply personal experiences with law enforcement, Hayes contends that our country has fractured in two: the Colony and the Nation. In the Nation, the law is venerated. In the Colony, fear and order undermine civil rights. Hayes seeks to understand this systemic divide, examining its ties to racial inequality, the omnipresent threat of guns, and the dangerous and unfortunate results of choices made by fear.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393355420
A DARK AND BROKEN HEART by R. J. Ellory (Thriller)
Detective Vincent Madigan is a good cop, but he’s up to his neck in debt to Sandia, a notorious East Harlem drug lord. When Madigan devises a scheme to eliminate his debt by robbing Sandia and then repaying him with his own money, he thinks his heist is foolproof. But things go horribly wrong when Madigan is forced to kill his co-conspirators and a child is shot in the crossfire. Now both sides of the law are hunting him down, and the cop assigned to lead the case is the very last person he could have expected. Employing every deception and ruse he can think of, Madigan must stay one step ahead in a battle of wits that will test him to his limits. Can he evade justice for his crimes, or will his own conscience be his final undoing?
The Overlook Press | 9781468316087
DEATH AT THE DURBAR: The Second Maharaja Mystery by Arjun Raj Gaind (Historical Mystery)
Paperback Original
A pair of British officers insist that Maharaja Sikander Singh of Rajpore accompany them to the British Encampment. To his surprise, they take him to the King Emperor's quarters where Sikander's old school friend, Malik Umar Hayat Khan, awaits. Malik Umar is serving Lord Hardinge, the Viceroy and the highest-ranked Englishman in the country. Lord Hardinge, overruling several subordinates, tells Sikander that his services as a sleuth are needed by King and country. Sworn to secrecy, Sikander is ushered into George V's personal chambers. And there he finds an exquisite nautch-girl, hanged until dead. Sikander examines the scene and demonstrates the girl was not a suicide, but murdered.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464209208
THE DELIGHT OF BEING ORDINARY: A Road Trip with the Pope and the Dalai Lama by Roland Merullo (Fiction/Humor)
What happens when the Pope and the Dalai Lama decide they need an undercover vacation? During a highly publicized official visit at the Vatican, the Pope suggests an adventure so unexpected and appealing that neither man can resist. Before dawn, two of the most beloved and famous people on the planet don disguises, slip into a waiting car, and experience the countryside as regular people. Along for the ride are the Pope's overwhelmed cousin Paolo and his estranged wife Rosa, an eccentric hairdresser with a lust for life who cannot resist the call to adventure --- or the fun.
Vintage | 9781101970799
THE FALL OF LISA BELLOW by Susan Perabo (Fiction)
A masked man with a gun enters a sandwich shop in broad daylight, and Meredith Oliver suddenly finds herself ordered to the filthy floor, where she cowers face to face with her nemesis, Lisa Bellow. The minutes tick by inexorably, and Meredith lurches between comforting the sobbing Lisa and imagining her own impending death. Then the man orders Lisa to stand and come with him, leaving Meredith the girl left behind. After Lisa’s abduction, Meredith spends most days in her room. As the community stages vigils and searches, Claire, Meredith’s mother, is torn between relief that her daughter is alive, and helplessness over her inability to protect or even comfort her child. Her daughter is here, but not.
Simon & Schuster | 9781476761480
FEVER DREAM written by Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell (Literary Thriller)
A young woman named Amanda lies dying in a rural hospital clinic. A boy named David sits beside her. She’s not his mother. He's not her child. Together, they tell a haunting story of broken souls, toxins, and the power and desperation of family. FEVER DREAM is a nightmare come to life, a ghost story for the real world, a love story and a cautionary tale.
Riverhead Books | 9780399184604
A FUNERAL IN MANTOVA: A Rick Montoya Italian Mystery by David P. Wagner (Mystery)
Paperback Original
Following the murder of Roberto Rondini, an elderly fisherman, Rick Montoya soon receives a call from the States. The US Embassy in Rome has recommended his services to wealthy Angelo Rondini, Roberto’s cousin. Angelo has been invited to the funeral by Roberto's daughter, Livia Guarino. Out of respect, Angelo has agreed to connect with the Italian family he hasn't seen since he was a very young boy. Rick hires on as interpreter. And soon he receives another assignment: a local cop, Inspector Crespi, leads the murder investigation and asks Rick to observe and report. Rick agrees, if Angelo accepts his working undercover. And so Rick once again puts his linguistic skills to use for the local law in solving a crime.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464209512
THE GARGOYLE HUNTERS by John Freeman Gill (Fiction)
Both his family and his city are crumbling when 13-year-old Griffin Watts stumbles headlong into his estranged father’s illicit architectural salvage business in 1970s Manhattan. Griffin clambers up the façades of tenements and skyscrapers to steal their 19th-century architectural sculptures. Desperate for money to help his artist mother keep their home, and yearning to connect with his father, Griffin fails to see that his father’s deepening obsession with preserving the treasures of Gilded Age New York endangers them all. As he struggles to hold his family together and build a first love with his girlfriend, Griffin must learn to develop himself into the man he wants to become, and discern which parts of his life may be salvaged --- and which parts must be let go.
Vintage | 9781101970904
GIRL IN DISGUISE by Greer Macallister (Historical Mystery/Adventure)
With no money and no husband, Kate Warne finds herself with few choices. The streets of 1856 Chicago offer a desperate widow mostly trouble and ruin --- unless that widow has a knack for manipulation and an unusually quick mind. In a bold move that no other woman has tried, Kate convinces the legendary Allan Pinkerton to hire her as a detective. Battling criminals and co-workers alike, Kate immerses herself in the dangerous life of an operative, winning the right to tackle some of the agency's toughest investigations. But is the woman she's becoming --- capable of any and all lies, swapping identities like dresses --- the true Kate? Or has the real disguise been the good girl she always thought she was?
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781492652731
THE GIRLFRIEND by Sarah J. Naughton (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Mags doesn't believe her brother's fall was an accident. In that 40-foot stairwell, he didn't just slip over the edge. But there is only one witness, Jody, the girlfriend grieving at his bedside. Which is another story Mags doesn't believe. Because Jody likes telling stories, and this may be her most twisted one yet. As Mags begins to unearth the secrets hidden in her brother's wake, she finds she isn't just looking for the truth. For Mags, this is more than a simple tragedy. This is an opportunity for revenge.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781492651246
HAVANA: A Subtropical Delirium by Mark Kurlansky (Travel/Essays)
Award-winning author Mark Kurlansky presents an insider's view of Havana: the elegant, tattered city he has come to know over more than 30 years. Part cultural history, part travelogue, with recipes, historic engravings, photographs, and Kurlansky's own pen-and-ink drawings throughout, HAVANA celebrates the city's singular music, literature, baseball and food; its five centuries of outstanding, neglected architecture; and its extraordinary blend of cultures.
Bloomsbury USA | 9781632863928
THE HEART’S INVISIBLE FURIES by John Boyne (Fiction)
Cyril Avery is not a real Avery --- or at least, that's what his adoptive parents tell him. And he never will be. But if he isn't a real Avery, then who is he? Born out of wedlock to a teenage girl cast out from her rural Irish community and adopted by a well-to-do if eccentric Dublin couple via the intervention of a hunchbacked Redemptorist nun, Cyril is adrift in the world, anchored only tenuously by his heartfelt friendship with the infinitely more glamourous and dangerous Julian Woodbead. At the mercy of fortune and coincidence, he will spend a lifetime coming to know himself and where he came from --- and over his many years will struggle to discover an identity, a home, a country and much more.
Hogarth | 9781524760793
HER EVERY FEAR by Peter Swanson (Psychological Thriller)
Growing up, Kate Priddy was always a bit neurotic, experiencing momentary bouts of anxiety that exploded into full-blown panic attacks after an ex-boyfriend kidnapped her and nearly ended her life. When Corbin Dell, a distant cousin in Boston, suggests the two temporarily swap apartments, Kate, an art student in London, agrees, hoping that time away in a new place will help her overcome the recent wreckage of her life. But soon after her arrival at Corbin’s grand apartment on Beacon Hill, Kate makes a shocking discovery: his next-door neighbor, a young woman named Audrey Marshall, has been murdered.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062427038
HOUSE OF NAMES by Colm Tóibín (Historical Fiction)
“I have been acquainted with the smell of death.” So begins Clytemnestra’s tale of her own life in ancient Mycenae, the legendary Greek city from which her husband King Agamemnon left when he set sail with his army for Troy. Clytemnestra rules Mycenae now, along with her new lover Aegisthus, and together they plot the bloody murder of Agamemnon on the day of his return after nine years at war. Judged, despised, cursed by gods she has long since lost faith in, Clytemnestra reveals the tragic saga that led to these bloody actions.
Scribner | 9781501140228
I BRING SORROW: And Other Stories of Transgression by Patricia Abbott (Mystery/Short Stories)
Paperback Original
I BRING SORROW is a collection of stories from Edgar and Anthony Award nominee Patricia Abbott that explores the dark side of human behavior. A daughter finds a way to save a mother who no longer knows her name. A father eases his grief through an act of kindness that few will judge kindly. A savvy realtor closes her deal in an unexpected way. A society of women fares little better than their forbearers. An uxorious husband finds the limits of his love. These and more stories will bring you into the deepest, darkest corridors of the heart.
Polis Books | 9781943818877
I FOUND YOU by Lisa Jewell (Psychological Suspense)
In a windswept British seaside town, single mom Alice Lake finds a man sitting on a beach outside her house. He has no name and no idea how he got there. Against her better judgment, she invites him inside. Meanwhile, newlywed Lily Monrose grows anxious when her husband fails to return home from work one night. Soon, she receives even worse news: the man she married never even existed. Twenty-three years earlier, Gray and Kirsty Ross are teenagers on a summer holiday with their parents. An enigmatic young man starts paying extra attention to Kirsty. Something about him makes Gray uncomfortable. Who is the man on the beach? Where is Lily’s missing husband? And what ever happened to the man who made such a lasting and disturbing impression on Gray?
Atria Books | 9781501154607
IF I DIE TONIGHT by Alison Gaylin (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Late one night in the quiet Hudson Valley town of Havenkill, a distraught woman stumbles into the police station --- and lives are changed forever. Aimee En, once a darling of the ’80s pop music scene, claims that a teenage boy stole her car, then ran over another young man who had rushed to help. As Liam Miller’s life hangs in the balance, the events of that fateful night begin to come into focus. But is everything as it seems? The case quickly consumes social media, transforming Liam, a local high school football star, into a folk hero, and the suspect, a high school outcast named Wade Reed, into a depraved would-be killer. But is Wade really guilty? And if he isn't, why won't he talk?
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062641090
IF I UNDERSTOOD YOU, WOULD I HAVE THIS LOOK ON MY FACE?: My Adventures in the Art and Science of Relating and Communicating by Alan Alda (Science/Personal Growth)
Alan Alda has been on a decades-long journey to discover new ways to help people communicate and relate to one another more effectively. IF I UNDERSTOOD YOU, WOULD I HAVE THIS LOOK ON MY FACE? is the warm, witty and informative chronicle of how Alda found inspiration in everything from cutting-edge science to classic acting methods. His search began when he was host of PBS’s "Scientific American Frontiers," where he interviewed thousands of scientists and developed a knack for helping them communicate complex ideas in ways a wide audience could understand --- and Alda wondered if those techniques held a clue to better communication for the rest of us.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780812989151
IN THE NAME OF THE FAMILY by Sarah Dunant (Historical Fiction)
It is 1502, and Rodrigo Borgia, a self-confessed womanizer and master of political corruption, is now on the papal throne as Alexander VI. His 22-year-old daughter, Lucrezia, is discovering her own power. And then there is his son Cesare Borgia, who is brilliant, ruthless and increasingly unstable; it is his relationship with Machiavelli that gives the Florentine diplomat a master class in the dark arts of power and politics. What Machiavelli learns will go on to inform his great work of modern politics, THE PRINCE. But while the pope rails against old age and his son’s increasingly erratic behavior, it is Lucrezia who must navigate the treacherous court of Urbino, her new home, and another challenging marriage to create her own place in history.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780812986877
IT'S NOT YET DARK: A Memoir by Simon Fitzmaurice (Memoir)
In 2008, Simon Fitzmaurice was diagnosed with Lou Gehrig’s disease. He was given four years to live. In 2010, in a state of lung-function collapse, Simon knew with crystal clarity he was not ready to die. Against all prevailing medical opinion, he chose life. Despite the loss of almost all motor function, thanks to miraculous technology, he continued to work, raise his five children and write this astonishing memoir. IT’S NOT YET DARK is a journey into a life that, though brutally compromised, was lived more fully than most, revealing the potent power of love, art and the human spirit.
Mariner Books | 9781328508270
LENIN’S ROLLER COASTER: A Jack McColl Novel by David Downing (Historical Thriller)
Winter 1917: As a generation of Europe’s young men perish on the Eastern and Western fronts, British spy Jack McColl is assigned a sabotage mission deep in Central Asia, where German influence is strong. Meanwhile, the woman he loves, Irish-American radical journalist Caitlin Hanley, is in Bolshevik Russia, thrilled to have the chance to cover the Revolution. But four years of bloody war have taken their toll on all of Europe. Up until now, Jack and Caitlin have managed to set aside their allegiances and stay faithful to each other, but the stakes of their affair have risen too high. Can a revolutionary love a spy? And if she does, will it cost one of them their life?
Soho Crime | 9781616958916
THE LITTLE FRENCH BISTRO by Nina George (Fiction)
Marianne is stuck in a loveless, unhappy marriage. After 41 years, she has reached her limit, and one evening in Paris she decides to take action. Following a dramatic moment on the banks of the Seine, Marianne leaves her life behind and sets out for the coast of Brittany, also known as “the end of the world.” Here she meets a cast of colorful and unforgettable locals who surprise her with their warm welcome and the natural ease they all seem to have, taking pleasure in life’s small moments. And, as the parts of herself she had long forgotten return to her in this new world, Marianne learns it’s never too late to begin the search for what life should have been all along.
Broadway Books | 9780451495594
THE LYING GAME by Ruth Ware (Psychological Thriller)
Three women in and around London --- Fatima, Thea and Isa --- receive the text they had always hoped would never come, from the fourth in their formerly inseparable clique, Kate, that says only, “I need you.” The four girls were best friends at Salten, a second-rate boarding school set near the cliffs of the English Channel. Each different in their own way, the four became inseparable and were notorious for playing the Lying Game, telling lies at every turn to both fellow boarders and faculty. But their little game had consequences, and as the four converge in present-day Salten, they realize their shared past was not as safely buried as they had once hoped.
Gallery/Scout Press | 9781501156205
MANGROVE LIGHTNING: A Doc Ford Novel by Randy Wayne White (Thriller/Adventure)
A legendary charter captain and guide named Tootsie Barlow has come to Doc Ford, muttering about a curse. The members of his extended family have suffered a bizarre series of attacks, and Barlow is convinced it has something to do with a multiple murder in 1925, in which his family had a shameful part. Ford doesn’t believe in curses, but as he and his friend Tomlinson begin to investigate, following the trail of the attacks from Key Largo to Tallahassee, they, too, suffer a series of near-fatal mishaps. Is it really a curse? Or just a crime spree? The answer lies in solving a near-hundred-year-old murder…and probing the mind of a madman.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780399576690
MY ITALIAN BULLDOZER by Alexander McCall Smith (Fiction)
Paul Stuart, a renowned food writer, finds himself at loose ends after his longtime girlfriend leaves him for her personal trainer. To cheer him up, Paul’s editor, Gloria, encourages him to finish his latest cookbook on-site in Tuscany, hoping that a change of scenery will offer a cure for both heartache and writer’s block. But upon Paul’s arrival, things don’t go quite as planned. A mishap with his rental-car reservation leaves him stranded, until a newfound friend leads him to an intriguing alternative: a bulldozer. With little choice in the matter, Paul accepts the offer, and as he journeys into the idyllic hillside town of Montalcino, he discovers that the bulldozer may be the least of the surprises that await him.
Anchor | 9781101972830
NEW YORK 2140 by Kim Stanley Robinson (Science Fiction)
As the sea levels rose, every street became a canal and every skyscraper an island. For the residents of one apartment building in Madison Square, however, New York in the year 2140 is far from a drowned city. There is the market trader, the detective, the beloved internet star and the building's manager. There also are two boys who don't live there, but have no other home --- and who are more important to its future than anyone might imagine. Lastly there are the coders, temporary residents on the roof, whose disappearance triggers a sequence of events that threatens the existence of all --- and even the long-hidden foundations on which the city rests.
Orbit | 9780316262316
ONE OF THE BOYS by Daniel Magariel (Fiction)
A 12-year-old boy, his older brother and their father have won the war: the father’s term for his bitter divorce and custody battle. They leave their Kansas home and drive through the night to Albuquerque, eager to begin again, united by the thrilling possibility of carving out a new life together. The boys go to school, join basketball teams and make friends. Meanwhile, their father works from home, smoking cheap cigars to hide another smell. But soon the little missteps --- the dead-eyed absentmindedness, the late night noises, the comings and goings of increasingly odd characters --- become worrisome, and the boys find themselves watching their father change, grow erratic, then dangerous.
Scribner | 9781501156175
PERSONS UNKNOWN by Susie Steiner (Mystery)
As dusk falls, a young man staggers through a park, far from home, bleeding from a stab wound. He dies where he falls, cradled by a stranger, a woman’s name on his lips in his last seconds of life. Detective Manon Bradshaw handles only cold cases, but the man died just yards from the police station where she works, so Manon can’t help taking an interest. And as she sidles in on the briefing, she learns that the victim, a banker from London worth millions, is more closely linked to her than she could have imagined. When the case begins to circle in on Manon’s home and her family, she finds herself pitted against the colleagues she once held dear: Davy Walker and Harriet Harper.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780812987751
PROVING GROUND by Peter Blauner (Thriller)
Nathaniel Dresden never really got along with his father, an infamous civil rights lawyer who defended criminals and spearheaded protest movements. As an act of rebellion, Natty joined the U.S. Army and served in Iraq, coming back with a chest full of commendations and a head full of disturbing memories. But when his father is found murdered near the peaceful confines of Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, Natty is forced to deal with the troubled legacy of their unresolved relationship. He also has to fend off the growing suspicions of NYPD Detective Lourdes Robles, a brash Latina cop with something to prove, who thinks Natty might bear some responsibility for his father’s death.
Minotaur Books | 9781250117465
THE RADIUM GIRLS: The Dark Story of America's Shining Women by Kate Moore (Biography/History)
The Curies’ newly discovered element of radium makes gleaming headlines across the nation as the fresh face of beauty, and wonder drug of the medical community. Meanwhile, hundreds of girls toil amidst the glowing dust of the radium-dial factories. With such a coveted job, these “shining girls” are the luckiest alive --- until they begin to fall mysteriously ill. But the factories that once offered golden opportunities are now ignoring all claims of the gruesome side effects, and the women’s cries of corruption. And as the fatal poison of the radium takes hold, the brave shining girls find themselves embroiled in one of the biggest scandals of America’s early 20th century, and in a groundbreaking battle for workers’ rights that will echo for centuries to come.
Sourcebooks | 9781492650959
THE RELUCTANT FORTUNE-TELLER by Keziah Frost (Fiction/Humor)
Paperback Original
At 73, Norbert Zelenka is broke and alone except for the company of a Chihuahua. But when “Carlotta’s Club” --- three strong-willed seniors --- decides to make Norbert their latest project, he reluctantly agrees to their scheme: establishing himself as the town’s fortune-teller. Soon his life begins changing in unexpected ways. It turns out that years of observing other people make Norbert an excellent card reader. As Norbert’s lonesome world expands with new friendships and a newfound self-confidence, he finally finds himself in a place where he belongs. But when a troubled young woman goes missing after a bad reading, Norbert must find a strength beyond the cards to bring her home safely.
Park Row | 9780778312819
SECOND WIND: A Sunfish Sailor, an Island, and the Voyage That Brought a Family Together by Nathaniel Philbrick (Sports/Memoir)
Paperback Original
In the spring of 1992, Nat Philbrick was in his late 30s, living with his family on Nantucket, feeling stranded and longing for that thrill of victory he once felt after winning a national sailing championship in his youth. Was it a midlife crisis? It was certainly a watershed for the journalist-turned-stay-at-home dad, who impulsively decided to throw his hat into the ring, or water, again. With the bemused approval of his wife and children, Philbrick used the off-season on the island as his solitary training ground. On ponds, bays, rivers, and finally at the championship on a lake in the heartland of America, he sailed through storms and memories, racing for the prize, but finding something unexpected about himself instead.
Penguin Books | 9780143132097
THE SILENT COMPANIONS by Laura Purcell (Gothic Horror)
Paperback Original
When Elsie married handsome young heir Rupert Bainbridge, she believed she was destined for a life of luxury. But with her husband dead just weeks after their marriage, her new servants resentful, and the local villagers actively hostile, Elsie has only her husband’s awkward cousin for company. Or so she thinks. Inside her new home lies a locked door, beyond which is a painted wooden figure --- a silent companion --- that bears a striking resemblance to Elsie herself. The residents of the estate are terrified of the figure, but Elsie tries to shrug this off as simple superstition --- that is, until she notices the figure’s eyes following her.
Penguin Books | 9780143131632
TWO GOOD DOGS by Susan Wilson (Fiction)
Single mom Skye Mitchell has sunk her last dime into a dream, owning the LakeView Hotel in the Berkshire Hills. It’s here where she believes she’ll give her 14-year-old daughter, Cody, a better life. But Cody is keeping an earth-shattering secret that she’s terrified to reveal. When Adam March and his pit bull Chance check into the hotel, it becomes the first of many visits, as he and the beleaguered innkeeper form a tentative friendship. And then there is Mingo, a street kid with a pit bull dog of his own. When Cody discovers an overdosed Mingo, Adam takes the boy’s dog not just for safekeeping, but to foster and then rehome. A makeshift family begins to form as four lost people learn to trust and rely on each other, with the help of two good dogs.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250078131
WHEN THE WORLD STOPPED TO LISTEN: Van Cliburn's Cold War Triumph, and Its Aftermath by Stuart Isacoff (Music/History)
April 1958: The Soviets were leading the space race, the Iron Curtain was at its heaviest, and the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow seemed certain to crown a hometown champion. But as the world’s finest young pianists descended on the Russian capital, an unlikely favorite emerged: Van Cliburn, a polite, lanky Texan whose passionate virtuosity captured the hearts of the Russian people --- and thawed Cold War tensions in a way no one would have thought possible. This is the story of what unfolded that spring --- for Cliburn and the other competitors, for jurors and party officials, and for the citizens of the world.
Vintage | 9780804170239
THE WHOLE ART OF DETECTION: Lost Mysteries of Sherlock Holmes by Lyndsay Faye (Historical Mystery/Short Stories)
Lyndsay Faye was introduced to the Sherlock Holmes mysteries when she was 10 years old and her dad suggested she read Sir Arthur Conan Doyle’s short story “The Adventure of the Speckled Band.” She immediately became enamored with tales of Holmes and his esteemed biographer, Dr. John Watson. Later, she began spinning these quintessential characters into her own works of fiction. Faye’s best Holmes tales, including two new works, are brought together in THE WHOLE ART OF DETECTION, which spans Holmes’ career --- from self-taught young upstart to publicly lauded detective --- both before and after his faked death over a Swiss waterfall in 1894.
Mysterious Press | 9780802127600
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