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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of April 16th and April 23rd 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 Women's Fiction Author Spotlight of LOVE AND RUIN by Paula McLain, which releases on May 1st and will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On selection. Twenty-five readers will win an advance copy of the book and share their comments on it. The deadline for your entries is Thursday, April 26th at noon ET.
Also, we encourage you to enter our Word of Mouth and Sounding Off on Audio contests for an opportunity to win some fabulous hardcovers and audiobooks. And please be sure to vote in our latest poll about which of 20 April paperbacks that we've listed you are planning to read.
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Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound
This Week's Bonus News:
Our Women's Fiction Author Spotlight & Contest for
LOVE AND RUIN by Paula McLain
Paula McLain's latest novel, LOVE AND RUIN, is the story of Ernest Hemingway's passionate, stormy marriage to Martha Gellhorn --- a fiercely independent, ambitious young woman who would become one of the greatest war correspondents of the 20th century. We have 25 advance copies to give away to readers who would like to read the book, which releases on May 1st, and share their comments on it. To enter, please fill out this form by Thursday, April 26th at noon ET.
LOVE AND RUIN by Paula McLain (Historical Fiction)
In 1937, 28-year-old Martha Gellhorn travels alone to Madrid to report on the atrocities of the Spanish Civil War and becomes drawn to the stories of ordinary people caught in the devastating conflict. It’s the adventure she’s been looking for and her chance to prove herself a worthy journalist in a field dominated by men. But she also finds herself unexpectedly --- and uncontrollably --- falling in love with Hemingway, a man on his way to becoming a legend.
In the shadow of the impending Second World War, and set against the turbulent backdrops of Madrid and Cuba, Martha and Ernest’s relationship and their professional careers ignite. But when Ernest publishes the biggest literary success of his career, FOR WHOM THE BELL TOLLS, they are no longer equals, and Martha must make a choice: surrender to the confining demands of being a famous man’s wife, or risk losing Ernest by forging a path as her own woman and writer. It is a dilemma that could force her to break his heart, and hers.
Heralded by Ann Patchett as “the new star of historical fiction,” Paula McLain brings Gellhorn’s story richly to life and captures her as a heroine for the ages: a woman who will risk absolutely everything to find her own voice.
LOVE AND RUIN will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick. Don’t miss Carol Fitzgerald's commentary in the May 11th edition of the Bookreporter.com Weekly Update newsletter.
Click here to read more in our Women's Fiction Author Spotlight
and enter the contest.
On Sale the Week of April 16th in Hardcover
April 17th
BAD MEN AND WICKED WOMEN by Eric Jerome Dickey (Romantic Suspense)
As a low-level enforcer in Los Angeles, Ken Swift knows danger, but nowhere does he feel it more than in his tangled romances. Divorced from one woman, in love with another, and wrestling with a strong desire to get to know a third, his life is far from perfect, and it becomes all the more complicated when his troubled daughter resurfaces on the same day as a major job. Margaux needs $50,000 immediately, and she isn't above blackmailing Ken to get it. Yet even as the tension-filled father/daughter reunion escalates into a clashing of wills and desires that spread far beyond their family, Ken's latest contract spirals quickly out of control, and he finds it is not only his daughter looking to seek revenge.
Dutton | 9781524742195
BIG GUNS by Steve Israel (Fiction/Satire)
Chicago’s Mayor Michael Rodriguez starts a national campaign to ban handguns from America’s cities, towns and villages. In response, Otis Cogsworth, the wealthy chairman and CEO of Cogsworth International Arms, and lobbyist Sunny McCarthy convince an Arkansas congressman to introduce federal legislation mandating that every American must own a firearm. Events soon escalate. Asabogue’s Mayor Lois Leibowitz passes an ordinance to ban guns in the town --- right in Otis Cogsworth’s backyard. Otis retaliates by orchestrating a recall election against Lois, and Jack Steele, a rich town resident, runs against her. Even though the election is for the mayor of a village on Long Island, Steele brings in the big guns of American politics to defeat Lois.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501118029
BLACKFISH CITY by Sam J. Miller (Dystopian Fantasy/Thriller)
After the climate wars, a floating city is constructed in the Arctic Circle. Its denizens have become accustomed to a roughshod new way of living, but crime and corruption have set in, the contradictions of incredible wealth alongside direst poverty are spawning unrest, and a new disease called “the breaks” is ravaging the population. When a strange new visitor arrives --- a woman riding an orca, with a polar bear at her side --- the city is entranced. The “orcamancer,” as she’s known, very subtly brings together four people to stage unprecedented acts of resistance. By banding together to save their city before it crumbles under the weight of its own decay, they will learn shocking truths about themselves.
Ecco | 9780062684820
BROADWAY: A History of New York City in Thirteen Miles by Fran Leadon (History)
In the early 17th century, in a backwater Dutch colony, there was a wide, muddy cow path that the settlers called the Brede Wegh. As the street grew longer, houses and taverns began to spring up alongside it. What was once New Amsterdam became New York, and farmlands gradually gave way to department stores, theaters, hotels and, finally, the perpetual traffic of the 20th century’s Great White Way. From Bowling Green all the way up to Marble Hill, BROADWAY takes us on a mile-by-mile journey up America’s most vibrant and complex thoroughfare, through the history at the heart of Manhattan.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393240108
THE CITY OF LOST FORTUNES: A Crescent City Novel by Bryan Camp (Supernatural Fantasy/Mystery)
The post–Katrina New Orleans of THE CITY OF LOST FORTUNES is a place haunted by its history and by the hurricane’s destruction. Street magician Jude Dubuisson is likewise burdened by his past and by the consequences of the storm, because he has a secret: the magical ability to find lost things, a gift passed down to him by the father he has never known --- a father who just happens to be more than human. Jude has been lying low since the storm; he is hiding from his own power, his divine former employer, and a debt owed to the Fortune god of New Orleans. But his six-year retirement ends abruptly when the Fortune god is murdered, and Jude is drawn back into the world he tried so desperately to leave behind.
John Joseph Adams/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9781328810793
THE ELIZAS by Sara Shepard (Psychological Thriller)
When debut novelist Eliza Fontaine is found at the bottom of a hotel pool, her family at first assumes that it’s just another failed suicide attempt. But Eliza swears she was pushed, and her rescuer is the only witness. Desperate to find out who attacked her, Eliza takes it upon herself to investigate. But as the publication date for her novel draws closer, Eliza finds more questions than answers. Why are her editor, agent and family mixing up events from her novel with events from her life? The deeper Eliza goes into her investigation while struggling with memory loss, the closer her life starts to resemble her novel --- until the line between reality and fiction starts to blur and she can no longer tell where her protagonist’s life ends and hers begins.
Atria Books | 9781501162770
EVERY OTHER WEEKEND by Zulema Renee Summerfield (Fiction)
EVERY OTHER WEEKEND drops us into the sun-scorched suburbs of southern California, amid Bret Michaels mania and Cold War hysteria, with Nenny, a wildly precocious, nervous nelly of an eight-year-old, as our guide to the newly rearranged life she finds herself leading after her parents split. Nenny and her mother and two brothers have just moved in with her new stepfather and his two kids. Her old life replaced by this new configuration, Nenny's natural anxieties intensify, and both real and imagined dangers entwine. She is far too small for the thoughts that haunt her, yet her fears are not entirely unfounded. Indeed, tragedy does come, but it comes at her sideways, in a way she never had imagined.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316434775
THE FALLEN by David Baldacci (Thriller)
Something sinister is going on in Baronville. The rust belt town has seen four bizarre murders in the space of two weeks. Cryptic clues left at the scenes have the police stumped. Amos Decker and his FBI colleague, Alex Jamison, are in Baronville visiting Alex's sister and her family. Decker has only been there a few hours when he stumbles on a horrific double murder scene. Then the next killing hits sickeningly close to home. And with the lives of people he cares about suddenly hanging in the balance, Decker begins to realize that the recent string of deaths may be only one small piece of a much larger scheme --- with consequences that will reach far beyond Baronville.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538761397
THE FAMILY GATHERING: A Sullivan's Crossing Novel by Robyn Carr (Fiction)
Having left the military, Dakota Jones is at a crossroads in his life. With his elder brother and youngest sister happily settled in Sullivan’s Crossing, he shows up hoping to clear his head before moving on to his next adventure. But he’s drawn to the down-to-earth people and the seemingly simple way of life. Dakota is unprepared for how quickly things get complicated. As a newcomer, he’s on everyone’s radar, but he’s really only attracted to the one woman who isn’t interested. When all the Jones siblings gather for a family wedding, the true nature and strength of their bond is tested as they struggle to accept each other, warts and all.
Mira | 9780778330769
THE FIRST FAMILY by Michael Palmer and Daniel Palmer (Medical Thriller)
The White House is not an easy place to grow up, so when President Geoffrey Hilliard’s son Cam, a 16-year-old chess champion, experiences extreme fatigue, moodiness and an uncharacteristic violent outburst, doctors are quick to dismiss his troubles as teen angst. But Secret Service agent Karen Ray is convinced that Cam’s issues are serious --- serious enough to summon her physician ex-husband for a second opinion. Dr. Lee Blackwood’s concerns are dismissed by the president's team --- until Cam gets sicker. As Lee and Karen race for a cure to Cam’s mysterious and deadly disease, they begin to uncover betrayals that breach the highest levels of national security.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250107428
GOD SAVE TEXAS: A Journey into the Soul of the Lone Star State by Lawrence Wright (History)
Texas is a red state in the heart of Trumpland that hasn't elected a Democrat to a statewide office in more than 20 years, but it is also a state in which minorities already form a majority (including the largest number of Muslims). The cities are blue and among the most diverse in the nation. Oil is still king, but Texas now leads California in technology exports. The Texas economic model of low taxes and minimal regulation has produced extraordinary growth but also striking income disparities. Texas looks a lot like the America that Donald Trump wants to create. And Lawrence Wright's profound portrait of the state not only reflects our country back as it is, but as it was and as it might be.
Knopf | 9780525520108
HEAD ON: A Novel of the Near Future by John Scalzi (Science Fiction/Thriller)
Hilketa is a frenetic and violent pastime where players attack each other with swords and hammers. The main goal of the game: obtain your opponent’s head and carry it through the goalposts. With flesh-and-bone bodies, a sport like this would be impossible. But all the players are “threeps,” robot-like bodies controlled by people with Haden’s Syndrome, so anything goes. No one gets hurt, but the brutality is real and the crowds love it. Until a star athlete drops dead on the playing field. Is it an accident or murder? FBI agents and Haden-related crime investigators Chris Shane and Leslie Vann are called in to uncover the truth --- and in doing so travel to the darker side of the fast-growing sport of Hilketa.
Tor Books | 9780765388919
A HIGHER LOYALTY: Truth, Lies, and Leadership by James Comey (Memoir)
In A HIGHER LOYALTY, former FBI director James Comey shares his never-before-told experiences from some of the highest-stakes situations of his career in the past two decades of American government, exploring what good, ethical leadership looks like, and how it drives sound decisions. His journey provides an unprecedented entry into the corridors of power, and a remarkable lesson in what makes an effective leader.
Flatiron Books | 9781250192455
IF WE HAD KNOWN by Elise Juska (Fiction)
One afternoon, as Maggie Daley prepares to send her only child off to college, their world is shattered by news of a mass shooting at the local mall in rural Maine. As reports and updates about the tragedy begin to roll in, Maggie, an English professor, is further stunned to learn that the gunman had been a student of hers. Nathan Dugan was an awkward, complicated young man whose quiet presence in her classroom had faded from her memory --- but not, it seems, the memories of his classmates. When a viral blog post hints at the existence of a dark, violence-tinged essay Nathan had written during Maggie’s freshman comp seminar, Maggie soon finds herself at the center of a heated national controversy.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781455561773
KILLING TOWN: The Lost First Mike Hammer Thriller by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins (Hard-boiled Mystery/Thriller)
Mike Hammer steals a ride on a train upstate to Killington. But he is welcomed by a nasty surprise: he is accused by police of raping and murdering a young woman near the freight yards. Roughed up by the cops and facing a murder charge, Hammer's future looks bleak. Only a beautiful blonde, Melba Charles --- daughter of powerful Senator Charles --- might possibly save him...if he pays the price. But why would Melba help save a man she has never met? And, more to the point, where is the real murderer? This first Mike Hammer novel --- begun by Mickey Spillane in the mid-'40s and completed 70 years later by Max Allan Collins --- is a gift to mystery fans on the occasion of the noir master's 100th birthday.
Titan Books | 9781785655500
LIAR'S CANDLE by August Thomas (Thriller)
Penny Kessler, an intern at the US Embassy in Ankara, Turkey, wakes up in a hospital on the morning of July 5th to find herself at the center of an international crisis. The day before, the Embassy was the target of a devastating terrorist attack that killed hundreds of Penny’s friends and colleagues. Not only has a photograph of Penny as she emerged from the rubble become the event’s defining image, but for reasons she doesn’t understand, her bosses believe she’s a crucial witness. Suddenly, everyone is intensely interested in what Penny knows. But what does she know? And whom can she trust?
Scribner | 9781501172847
THE LIFE LIST OF ADRIAN MANDRICK by Chris White (Fiction)
Adrian Mandrick seems to have his life in perfect order with an excellent job in a Colorado hospital, a wife and two young children he loves deeply, and a serious passion for birding. His life list comprises 863 species correctly identified and cataloged. But Adrian holds dark secrets about his childhood --- secrets that threaten to consume him after he’s contacted by his estranged mother, and subsequently relapses into an addiction to painkillers. In the midst of his downward spiral, the legendary birder with the region’s second-longest life list dies suddenly, and Adrian receives an anonymous tip that could propel him to the very top.
Touchstone | 9781501174308
THE LITTLE CLAN by Iris Martin Cohen (Fiction)
Ava Gallanter is the librarian in residence at the Lazarus Club, an ancient, dwindling Manhattan arts club full of eccentric geriatric residents stuck in a long-gone era. Twenty-five-year-old Ava, however, feels right at home. She leads a quiet life, surrounded by her beloved books and sequestered away from her peers. When Ava’s enigmatic friend, Stephanie, returns after an unplanned year abroad, the intoxicating opportunist vows to rescue Ava from a life of obscurity. Stephanie promises to make Ava’s dream of becoming a writer come true, and together they start a Victorian-inspired literary salon at the Lazarus Club. However, Ava’s romanticized idea of the salon quickly erodes as Stephanie’s ambitions take the women in an unexpected --- and precarious --- direction.
Park Row | 9780778312826
LOVE AND DEATH IN THE SUNSHINE STATE: The Story of a Crime by Cutter Wood (True Crime)
When a stolen car is recovered on the Gulf Coast of Florida, it sets off a search for a missing woman, local motel owner Sabine Musil-Buehler. Three men are named persons of interest, and the residents of Anna Maria Island begin to fear the worst. Then, with the days passing quickly, her motel is set on fire, her boyfriend flees the county, and detectives begin digging on the beach. Cutter Wood was a guest at Musil-Buehler’s motel as the search for the missing woman gained momentum, and he found himself drawn steadily deeper into the case. So he began meeting with the eccentric inhabitants of the island, with the earnest but stymied detectives, and with the affable man soon presumed to be her murderer.
Algonquin Books | 9781616207304
NOIR by Christopher Moore (Historical Fiction/Satire)
It’s not every afternoon that an enigmatic, comely blonde named Stilton (like the cheese) walks into the scruffy gin joint where Sammy "Two Toes" Tiffin tends bar. It’s love at first sight, but before Sammy can make his move, an Air Force general named Remy arrives with some urgent business. Meanwhile, a suspicious flying object has been spotted, followed by a mysterious plane crash in a distant patch of desert in New Mexico that goes by the name Roswell. When one of Sammy’s schemes goes south and the Cheese mysteriously vanishes, Sammy is forced to contend with his own dark secrets --- and more than a few strange goings-on --- if he wants to find his girl.
William Morrow | 9780062433978
THE ONLY STORY by Julian Barnes (Fiction)
One summer in the ’60s, Paul comes home from university and is urged by his mother to join the tennis club. In the mixed-doubles tournament he's partnered with Susan Macleod, a fine player who is married and with whom he forms an immediate bond. Soon they are lovers. Clinging to each other as though their lives depend on it, they then set up house in London to escape his parents and the abusive Mr. Macleod. Decades later, Paul looks back at how they fell in love, how he freed Susan from a sterile marriage, and how --- gradually, relentlessly --- everything fell apart, and he found himself struggling to understand the intricacy and depth of the human heart.
Knopf | 9780525521211
OUR LITTLE SECRET by Roz Nay (Psychological Thriller)
The police have been interrogating Angela Petitjean for hours, asking about Saskia Parker. Saskia is the wife of Angela’s high school sweetheart, HP, and the mother of his child --- and she has vanished. Homicide Detective J. Novak believes Angela knows what happened to Saskia. But Angela has a different story to tell. It began more than a decade ago when she and HP met in high school. They became friends, fell in love and dated senior year. Everything changed when Angela went to college and Saskia entered the picture. Detective Novak needs to stop asking questions and listen to what Angela is telling him. And once he understands everything, he’ll have the truth he so desperately wants.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250160812
THE SAINT OF WOLVES AND BUTCHERS by Alex Grecian (Thriller)
Travis Roan and his dog, Bear, are hunters, traveling the world pursuing evildoers in order to bring them to justice. They have now come to Kansas on the trail of Rudolph Bormann, a Nazi doctor and concentration camp administrator who snuck into the U.S. under the name Rudy Goodman in the 1950s and has at last been identified. Travis quickly learns that Goodman has powerful friends who will go to any length to protect the Nazi. What he doesn't know is that Goodman has furtively continued his diabolical work, amassing a congregation of followers who believe he possesses Godlike powers.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780399176111
THEN SHE WAS GONE by Lisa Jewell (Psychological Thriller)
Laurel Mack is trying to put her life back together. It’s been 10 years since her daughter, Ellie, disappeared, seven years since her marriage ended, and only months since the last clue in Ellie’s case was unearthed. So when she meets an unexpectedly charming man in a café, no one is more surprised than Laurel at how quickly their flirtation develops into something deeper. Before she knows it, she’s meeting Floyd’s daughters --- and his youngest, Poppy, takes Laurel’s breath away. Because looking at Poppy is like looking at Ellie. And now, the unanswered questions about Ellie's disappearance that she has tried so hard to put to rest begin to haunt Laurel anew.
Atria Books | 9781501154645
WARNING LIGHT by David Ricciardi (Thriller)
When a commercial flight violates restricted airspace to make an emergency landing at a closed airport in Iran, the passengers are just happy to be alive and ready to transfer to a functional plane. All of them except one. Zac Miller is a CIA analyst. And after an agent's cover gets blown, Zac --- though never trained to be a field operative --- volunteers to take his place, to keep a surveillance mission from being scrubbed. Zac thinks it will be easy to photograph the earthquake-ravaged airport that is located near a hidden top-secret nuclear facility. But when everything that can go wrong does, he finds himself on the run from the Islamic Revolutionary Guards and abandoned by his own teammates, who think he has gone rogue.
Berkley | 9780399585739
April 20th
PINSTRIPE NATION: The New York Yankees in American Culture by Will Bishop (Sports/Popular Culture)
Whether loved or reviled, the New York Yankees have had an impact on American culture that extends well beyond baseball. Since the early 20th century, movies, novels, memoirs, pop songs and even TV sitcoms have either dealt directly with the Bronx club and its star players or incorporated key elements of Yankee iconography. In PINSTRIPE NATION, Will Bishop explores the myriad of ways in which the Yankees and their successes (or spectacular failures) became interwoven with the nation’s larger cultural narrative.
University of Tennessee Press | 9781621904014
On Sale the Week of April 16th in Paperback
April 17th
BEAUTIFUL ANIMALS by Lawrence Osborne (Psychological Suspense)
On a hike during a white-hot summer break on the Greek island of Hydra, Naomi and Samantha make a startling discovery: a man named Faoud, sleeping heavily, exposed to the elements but still alive. Naomi, the daughter of a wealthy British art collector, convinces Sam, a younger American girl on vacation with her family, to help this stranger. As the two women learn more about the man, a migrant from Syria and a casualty of the crisis raging across the Aegean sea, their own burgeoning friendship intensifies. When a simple plan of revenge goes horrifically wrong, Faoud must go on the run while the girls come to terms with the terrible consequences they have set in motion.
Hogarth | 9780553447392
DARK CHAPTER by Winnie M. Li (Psychological Thriller)
Vivian is a cosmopolitan Taiwanese-American tourist who often escapes her busy life in London through adventure and travel. Johnny is a 15-year-old Irish teenager, living a neglected life on the margins of society. As Vivian looks to find her calling professionally, she delights in exploring foreign countries, rolling hillsides and new cultures. But all of that changes when Vivian's path collides with Johnny and culminates in a horrifying act of violence. In the aftermath of the incident, Vivian must struggle to recapture the woman she was and the woman she aspired to be. And when Johnny is finally brought to reckon for his crimes, Vivian learns that justice is not always as swift or as fair as she would hope.
Polis Books | 9781947993310
THE GOOD DAUGHTER by Karin Slaughter (Psychological Thriller)
Twenty-eight years ago, Charlotte and Samantha Quinn's happy small-town family life was torn apart by a terrifying attack on their family home. It left their mother dead and their father, Pikeville's notorious defense attorney, devastated. And it left the family fractured beyond repair, consumed by secrets from that terrible night. Twenty-eight years later, Charlie has followed in her father's footsteps to become a lawyer herself. But when violence comes to Pikeville again --- and a shocking tragedy leaves the whole town traumatized --- Charlie is plunged into a nightmare. The shocking truth about the crime that destroyed her family nearly 30 years ago won't stay buried forever.
William Morrow | 9780062430250
IF WE WERE VILLAINS by M. L. Rio (Literary Thriller)
On the day Oliver Marks is released from jail, the man who put him there is waiting at the door. Detective Colborne wants to know the truth, and after 10 years, Oliver is finally ready to tell it. A decade ago: Oliver is one of seven young Shakespearean actors at Dellecher Classical Conservatory, a place of keen ambition and fierce competition. Oliver and his friends play the same roles onstage and off: hero, villain, tyrant, temptress, ingénue, extras. But in their fourth and final year, good-natured rivalries turn ugly, and on opening night real violence invades the students’ world of make-believe. In the morning, the fourth-years find themselves facing their very own tragedy, and their greatest acting challenge yet: convincing the police, each other and themselves that they are innocent.
Flatiron Books | 9781250095299
THE LAST DAYS OF CAFÉ LEILA by Donia Bijan (Fiction)
When we first meet Noor, she is living in San Francisco, missing her beloved father, Zod, in Iran. Now, dragging her stubborn teenage daughter, Lily, with her, she returns to Tehran and to Café Leila, the restaurant her family has been running for three generations. Iran may have changed, but Café Leila, still run by Zod, has stayed blessedly the same; it is a refuge of laughter and solace for its makeshift family of staff and regulars. As Noor revisits her Persian childhood, she must rethink who she is --- a mother, a daughter, a woman estranged from her marriage and from her life in California. And together, she and Lily get swept up in the beauty and brutality of Tehran.
Algonquin Books | 9781616208035
THE LAST NEANDERTHAL by Claire Cameron (Fiction)
Forty-thousand years in the past, the last family of Neanderthals roams the earth. After a crushingly hard winter, their numbers are low, but Girl, the oldest daughter, is just coming of age. Her family is determined to travel to the annual meeting place and find her a mate. But the unforgiving landscape takes its toll, and Girl is left alone to care for Runt, a foundling of unknown origin. As Girl and Runt face the coming winter storms, Girl realizes she has one final chance to save her people. In the modern day, archaeologist Rosamund Gale works well into her pregnancy, racing to excavate newly found Neanderthal artifacts before her baby comes. Linked across the ages by the shared experience of early motherhood, both stories examine the often taboo corners of women's lives.
Back Bay Books | 9780316314466
LOVE AND TROUBLE: A Midlife Reckoning by Claire Dederer (Memoir)
Claire Dederer is a happily married mother of two when she suddenly finds herself totally despondent and, simultaneously, suffering through a kind of erotic reawakening. LOVE AND TROUBLE shifts between her present experience as a middle-aged mom in the grip of mysterious new hungers and herself as a teenager --- when she last experienced life with such heightened sensitivity and longing. She exposes herself utterly, and in doing so captures something universal about the experience of being a woman, a daughter, a wife.
Vintage | 9781101970034
THE MARSH KING’S DAUGHTER by Karen Dionne (Psychological Suspense)
Helena Pelletier has a loving husband, two beautiful daughters, and a business that fills her days. But she also has a secret: she is the product of an abduction. Her mother was kidnapped as a teenager by her father and kept in a remote cabin in the marshlands of Michigan's Upper Peninsula. Helena, born two years after the abduction, loved her home in nature, and despite her father's sometimes brutal behavior, she loved him, too...until she learned precisely how savage he could be. More than 20 years later, she has buried her past so soundly that even her husband doesn't know the truth. But now her father has killed two guards, escaped from prison, and disappeared into the marsh. The police begin a manhunt, but Helena knows they don't stand a chance.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780735213012
A PERFECT SHOT by Robin Yocum (Thriller)
Paperback Original
Nearly two decades after he made the winning shot in the state championship basketball game, Nicholas "Duke" Ducheski remains much adored and the focal point of community pride. Now approaching 40, Duke no longer wants to be defined solely by something he did when he was 18. So he decides to parlay his local popularity into a successful restaurant. One day, "Little Tony" DeMarco, his brother-in-law and a known mob enforcer, comes into the restaurant and murders Duke's oldest friend. DeMarco thinks he's untouchable, but Duke discovers a way to take him down, along with his mob superiors. To do so, however, means sacrificing his treasured identity as the town legend. And if he follows through, what will remain of his life?
Seventh Street Books | 9781633884175
THE RISE AND FALL OF D.O.D.O. by Neal Stephenson and Nicole Galland (Science Fiction/Thriller)
Military intelligence operator Tristan Lyons approaches Melisande Stokes, an expert in linguistics and languages, about translating some very old documents, which, if authentic, are earth-shattering. They prove that magic actually existed and was practiced for centuries. But the arrival of the scientific revolution and the Age of Enlightenment weakened its power and endangered its practitioners. And so the Department of Diachronic Operations --- D.O.D.O. --- gets cracking on its real mission: to develop a device that can bring magic back, and send Diachronic Operatives back in time to keep it alive…and meddle with a little history at the same time.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062409157
SECRETS OF THE TULIP SISTERS by Susan Mallery (Fiction)
Kelly Murphy's life as a tulip farmer is pretty routine, but everything changes one sun-washed summer with two dramatic homecomings: Griffith Burnett --- Tulpen Crossing's prodigal son, who has set his sights on Kelly --- and Olivia, her beautiful, wayward and unwelcome sister. Tempted by Griffith, annoyed by Olivia, Kelly is overwhelmed by the secrets that were so easy to keep when she was alone. But Olivia's return isn't as triumphant as she pretends, and she feels cut off from her past. She's determined to reclaim her man and her place in the family…whether her sister likes it or not. While Kelly and Olivia butt heads, their secrets tumble out in a big hot mess, revealing some truths that will change everything they thought they knew.
HQN | 9781335996978
A SISTER IN MY HOUSE by Linda Olsson (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Maria and Emma have not seen each other since their mother’s funeral two years ago. But now, Emma has come to visit Maria at her house in Spain, an unsettling intrusion on Maria’s quiet and solitary life. Over six days in the seaside town, the sisters cautiously recount the years of their separate adult lives. Their walks through the quiet town and evening talks on the terrace reveal almost more than Maria can deal with, until finally, the sisters confront their unspeakable family history.
Penguin Books | 9780143131694
WHAT TO DO ABOUT THE SOLOMONS by Bethany Ball (Fiction)
Meet Marc Solomon, an Israeli ex-Navy commando now living in L.A., who is falsely accused of money laundering through his asset management firm. As the Solomons’ Santa Monica home is raided, Marc’s American wife, Carolyn --- concealing her own dark past --- makes hopeless attempts to hold their family of five together. But news of the scandal makes its way from America to the rest of the Solomon clan on the kibbutz in the Jordan River Valley. As the secrets and rumors of the kibbutz are revealed through various memories and tales, we witness the things that keep the Solomons together, and those that tear them apart.
Grove Press | 9780802127853
On Sale the Week of April 23rd in Hardcover
April 24th
ACTS OF VANISHING by Fredrik T. Olsson (Thriller)
One winter evening, Stockholm is plunged into a sudden, citywide blackout. On the pitch-black streets, a young woman carries a message for her estranged father. It may be the key to reversing the blackout and preventing further attacks. But someone powerful is determined to stop her from delivering it. Journalist Christina Sandberg has a terrible feeling that her ex-husband William is somehow involved. Code breaker and cyber-security expert William Sandberg received an anonymous email, immediately before the blackout, with very specific directions to be followed. He is taken into custody --- just when he most needs to be in action to clear his name, find his daughter, and save the country from disaster.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316335027
BENEATH A RUTHLESS SUN: A True Story of Violence, Race, and Justice Lost and Found by Gilbert King (History)
In December 1957, the wife of a Florida citrus baron is raped in her home while her husband is away. She claims a "husky Negro" did it, and the sheriff, the infamous racist Willis McCall, does not hesitate to round up a herd of suspects. But within days, McCall turns his sights on Jesse Daniels, a gentle, mentally impaired white 19-year-old. Soon Jesse is railroaded up to the state hospital for the insane, and locked away without trial. But crusading journalist Mabel Norris Reese cannot stop fretting over the case and its baffling outcome. She pursues the story for years, chasing down leads, hitting dead ends, winning unlikely allies. Bit by bit, the unspeakable truths behind a conspiracy that shocked a community into silence begin to surface.
Riverhead Books | 9780399183386
THE BEST COOK IN THE WORLD: Tales from My Momma's Table by Rick Bragg (Cooking/Memoir)
Margaret Bragg does not own a single cookbook. She measures in "dabs" and "smidgens" and "tads" and "you know, hon, just some." Her notion of farm-to-table is a flatbed truck. But she can tell you the secrets to perfect mashed potatoes, corn pudding, redeye gravy, pinto beans and hambone, stewed cabbage, short ribs, chicken and dressing, biscuits and butter rolls. Many of her recipes, recorded here for the first time, pre-date the Civil War, handed down skillet by skillet, from one generation of Braggs to the next. In THE BEST COOK IN THE WORLD, Rick Bragg finally preserves his heritage by telling the stories that framed his mother's cooking and education, from childhood into old age.
Knopf | 9781400040414
CADDYSHACK: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story by Chris Nashawaty (Entertainment/History)
Caddyshack is one of the most beloved comedies of all time, a classic snobs vs. slobs story of working class kids and the white collar buffoons who make them haul their golf bags in the hot summer sun. It has sex, drugs and one very memorable candy bar, but the movie we all know and love didn’t start out that way. In CADDYSHACK: The Making of a Hollywood Cinderella Story, Chris Nashawaty goes behind the scenes of the iconic film, chronicling the rise of comedy’s greatest deranged minds as they form The National Lampoon, turn the entertainment industry on its head, and ultimately blow up both a golf course and popular culture as we know it.
Flatiron Books | 9781250105950
THE EXTRAORDINARY LIFE OF SAM HELL by Robert Dugoni (Fiction)
Sam Hill was born with red pupils, and was called “Devil Boy” or Sam “Hell” by his classmates. He believed it was God who sent Ernie Cantwell, the only African American kid in his class, to be the friend he so desperately needed. And that it was God’s idea for Mickie Kennedy to storm into Our Lady of Mercy, uprooting every rule Sam had been taught about boys and girls. Forty years later, Sam, a small-town eye doctor, is no longer certain anything was by design --- especially not the tragedy that caused him to turn his back on his friends, his hometown and the life he’d always known. Running from the pain served little purpose. Now, as he looks back on his life, Sam embarks on a journey that will take him halfway around the world.
Lake Union Publishing | 9781503949003
THE GIRL WHO SMILED BEADS: A Story of War and What Comes After by Clemantine Wamariya and Elizabeth Weil (Memoir)
In 1994, Clemantine Wamariya and her 15-year-old sister, Claire, fled the Rwandan massacre and spent the next six years migrating through seven African countries, searching for safety. They did not know if their parents were dead or alive. When Clemantine was 12, she and her sister were granted refugee status in the United States; there, in Chicago, their lives diverged. Claire, who for so long had protected and provided for Clemantine, was a single mother struggling to make ends meet, while Clemantine was taken in by a family who raised her as their own. She seemed to live the American dream. Yet the years of being treated as less than human, of going hungry and seeing death, could not be erased.
Crown | 9780451495327
THE HELLFIRE CLUB by Jake Tapper (Historical/Political Thriller)
Charlie Marder is an unlikely Congressman. Thrust into office by his family ties after his predecessor died mysteriously, Charlie is struggling to navigate the dangerous waters of 1950s Washington, DC, alongside his young wife Margaret, a zoologist with ambitions of her own. Amid the swirl of glamorous and powerful political leaders and deal makers, a mysterious fatal car accident thrusts Charlie and Margaret into an underworld of backroom deals, secret societies, and a plot that could change the course of history. When Charlie discovers a conspiracy that reaches the highest levels of governance, he has to fight not only for his principles and his newfound political career, but also for his life.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316472319
THE HUSBAND HOUR by Jamie Brenner (Fiction)
Lauren Adelman and her high school sweetheart, Rory Kincaid, are a golden couple. They marry just out of college as Rory, a star hockey player, earns a spot in the NHL. Their future could not look brighter when Rory shocks everyone by enlisting in the U.S. Army. When Rory dies in combat, Lauren is left devastated and under unbearable public scrutiny. Seeking peace and solitude, Lauren retreats to her family's old beach house on the Jersey Shore. But this summer she's forced to share the house with her overbearing mother and competitive sister. Worse, a stranger making a documentary about Rory tracks her down. One hour with filmmaker Matt Brio turns into a summer of revelations, surprises and upheaval.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316394901
NECESSITY by D.W. Buffa (Legal Thriller)
When renowned lawyer Joseph Antonelli --- the defense attorney who has never lost a case --- takes on the most shocking and controversial case of his storied career, he has no idea of the depths of trouble he’s about to get into. A man has murdered the President of the United States, but has invoked the “Law of Necessity,” which states that a crime is justified if it serves the greater good and thus prevents a greater harm from occurring. As the nation watches the trial of the century, Antonelli must try a case with all eyes on him...and his own life on the line.
Polis Books | 9781947993082
THE NEIGHBOR by Joseph Souza (Psychological Thriller)
When Leah and her husband, Clay, move from Seattle to Maine, she envisions a vibrant new neighborhood packed with families. But while Clay works long hours, Leah is left alone each day in a nearly deserted housing development. Bored and adrift, Leah finds herself watching Clarissa and Russell Gaines next door, envying their stylishly decorated home and their university careers. But Leah’s obsession with the intriguing, elegant Clarissa grows until she’s not just spying from afar but sneaking into their house, taking small objects and reading Clarissa’s diary. It contains clues to a hidden turmoil Leah never guessed at --- and a connection to a local college girl who’s disappeared.
Kensington | 9781496716200
PROPERTY: Stories Between Two Novellas by Lionel Shriver (Fiction/Short Stories)
Intermingling settings in America and Britain, Lionel Shriver’s first collection explores property in both senses of the word: real estate and stuff. These 10 short stories and two novellas illustrate how our possessions act as proxies for ourselves, and how tussles over ownership articulate the power dynamics of our relationships. In Shriver’s world, we may possess people and objects and places, but in turn they possess us.
Harper | 9780062697936
SHATTERED MIRROR: An Eve Duncan Novel by Iris Johansen (Thriller)
Forensic sculptor Eve Duncan is once again thrown into a deadly game of intrigue when she receives a cryptic package containing a skull and a two-sided mirror. Eve is determined to reconstruct the skull and uncover the mystery of the person’s identity, and when she does, the face of a beautiful woman begins to emerge. But who is she? As Eve gets closer and closer to finding the answer, she becomes swept up in a lethal chase that spans continents and threatens to destroy the family that she has worked so hard to bring together. Eve and her team must work quickly to discover who is behind the murder --- and maybe even prevent more loss of life.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250075864
TWISTED PREY: A Lucas Davenport Novel by John Sandford (Mystery/Thriller)
A rich psychopath, Taryn Grant had run successfully for the U.S. Senate, where Lucas Davenport had predicted she'd fit right in. He was also convinced that she'd been responsible for three murders, though he'd never been able to prove it. Once a psychopath had gotten that kind of rush, though, he or she often needed another fix, so he figured he might be seeing her again. He was right. A federal marshal now, with a very wide scope of investigation, he's heard rumors that Grant has found her seat on the Senate intelligence committee, and the contacts she's made from it, to be very...useful. Pinning those rumors down was likely to be just as difficult as before, and considerably more dangerous.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780735217355
WEST by Carys Davies (Historical Fiction)
When widowed mule breeder Cy Bellman reads in the newspaper that colossal ancient bones have been discovered in the salty Kentucky mud, he sets out to see for himself if the rumors are true: that the giant monsters are still alive and roam the uncharted wilderness beyond the Mississippi River. Promising to write and to return in two years, he leaves behind his only daughter, Bess, to the tender mercies of his taciturn sister and heads west. With only a barnyard full of miserable animals and her dead mother’s gold ring to call her own, Bess fills lonely days tracing her father’s route on maps and waiting for his letters to arrive. Bellman, meanwhile, wanders farther and farther from home, across harsh and alien landscapes, in reckless pursuit of the unknown.
Scribner | 9781501179341
YOU THINK IT, I'LL SAY IT: Stories by Curtis Sittenfeld (Fiction/Short Stories)
Throughout the 10 stories in her first collection of short fiction, Curtis Sittenfeld upends assumptions about class, relationships and gender roles in a nation that feels both adrift and viscerally divided. In “The World Has Many Butterflies,” married acquaintances play a strangely intimate game with devastating consequences. In “A Regular Couple,” a high-powered lawyer honeymooning with her husband is caught off guard by the appearance of the girl who tormented her in high school. And in “The Prairie Wife,” a suburban mother of two fantasizes about the downfall of an old friend whose wholesome lifestyle empire may or may not be built on a lie.
Random House | 9780399592867
On Sale the Week of April 23rd in Paperback
April 24th
THE BOY IN THE EARTH written by Fuminori Nakamura, translated by Allison Markin Powell (Psychological Thriller)
As an unnamed Tokyo taxi driver works a night shift, picking up fares that offer him glimpses into the lives of ordinary people, he can’t escape his own nihilistic thoughts. Almost without meaning to, he puts himself in harm’s way; he can’t stop daydreaming of suicide, envisioning himself returning to the earth in obsessive fantasies that soon become terrifying blackout episodes. The truth is, his long-estranged father has tried to reach out to him, triggering a cascade of traumatic memories. As the cab driver wrestles with the truth about his past and the history of violence in his childhood, he also must confront his present, which is no less complicated or grim.
Soho Crime | 9781616958954
THE COLOR OF FEAR: A Sharon McCone Mystery by Marcia Muller (Mystery)
Sharon McCone's father has been the victim of a vicious, racially motivated attack. A nationally recognized Shoshone artist, Elwood had been visiting Sharon for the holidays, browsing for gifts in San Francisco's exclusive Marina district when he was set upon by a mob of angry young men. Now he lies in a coma, hovering between life and death. With little progress on the investigation from the overworked, short-handed police, Sharon resolves to track down Elwood's attackers herself. But when Sharon begins receiving hate-filled, racist threats from a shadowy group, it becomes clear that her pursuit of justice may be putting her own life in jeopardy.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781455538904
COME SUNDOWN by Nora Roberts (Romantic Suspense)
The Bodine ranch and resort in western Montana is a family business that is kept running by Bodine Longbow with the help of a large staff, including new hire Callen Skinner. There was another member of the family once: Bodine’s aunt, Alice, who ran off before Bodine was born. She never returned, and the Longbows don’t talk about her much. The younger ones, who never met her, quietly presume she’s dead. So when Alice suddenly reappears, the Longbows are shocked. The twisted story she has to tell about the past --- and the threat that follows in her wake --- will test the bonds of this strong family, and thrust Bodine into a darkness she never could have imagined.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250123084
DEAD GIRL RUNNING by Christina Dodd (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Tough, capable Kellen Adams takes a job as assistant manager of a remote vacation resort on the North Pacific Coast. There, amid the towering storms and the lashing waves, she hopes to find sanctuary. But when she discovers a woman's dead and mutilated body, she's soon trying to keep her own secrets while investigating first one murder, and then another. Now every guest and employee is a suspect. Every friendly face a mask. Every kind word a lie. Kellen is driven to defend her job, her friends and the place she's come to call home. Yet she wonders --- with the scar of a gunshot on her forehead and amnesia that leaves her unsure of her own past --- if the killer could be staring her in the face.
HQN | 9781335144362
THE GIRL I USED TO BE by Mary Torjussen (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
The morning after real estate agent Gemma Brogan has dinner with a prospective client, she's furious at herself for drinking so much. But there will be more to regret than a nasty hangover. She starts receiving mementos from that night: A photo of a hallway kiss. A video of her complaining about her husband. And worse...much worse. The problem is she doesn't remember any of it. As the blackmailing and menace ramp up, Gemma fears for her already shaky marriage. The paranoia, the feeling that her life is spiraling out of control, will take her back to another night --- years ago --- that changed everything. And Gemma will realize just how far the shadows from her past can reach.
Berkley | 9780399585036
THE HALF WIVES by Stacia Pelletier (Historical Fiction)
Henry Plageman is a master secret-keeper. A former Lutheran minister, he lost his faith after losing his infant son, Jack, many years ago; his wife, Marilyn, remains consumed by grief. But Henry has another life --- another woman and another child --- unknown to Marilyn. His lover, Lucy, yearns for a man she can be with openly, while their eight-year-old daughter, Blue, tries to make sense of her parents’ fractured lives. THE HALF WIVES follows these interconnected characters through one momentous day, May 22, 1897, the 16th anniversary of Jack’s birth.
Mariner Books | 9781328915412
HE SAID/SHE SAID by Erin Kelly (Psychological Thriller)
In the summer of 1999, Kit and Laura travel to a festival in Cornwall to see a total eclipse of the sun. Young and in love, they are certain this will be the first of many they’ll share. But in the hushed moments after the shadow passes, Laura interrupts a man and a woman. She knows that she saw something terrible. The man denies it. The victim seems grateful. Months later, the woman turns up on their doorstep like a lonely stray. As her gratitude takes a twisted turn, Laura begins to wonder if she trusted the wrong person. Fifteen years later, Kit and Laura are living under new names and are completely off the digital grid. As the truth catches up to them, they realize they no longer can keep the past in the past.
Minotaur Books | 9781250160546
A HISS BEFORE DYING: A Mrs. Murphy Mystery by Rita Mae Brown (Mystery)
The clamorous barking of beagles signals the annual rabbit chase through the central Virginia hills. But the last thing the local beaglers and their hounds expect to flush out is a dead body. Disturbingly, it’s the second corpse to turn up, after that of a missing truck driver too disfigured to identify. The deaths seem unrelated --- until Mary Minor “Harry” Haristeen picks up a trail of clues dating back to the state’s post-Revolutionary past. The echoes of the Shot Heard Round the World pale in comparison to the dangerous shootout Harry narrowly escapes unscathed. Next time, it may be the killer who gets lucky. But not if Harry’s furry friends Mrs. Murphy, Pewter and Tucker can help it.
Bantam | 9780553392517
IN THE GREAT GREEN ROOM: The Brilliant and Bold Life of Margaret Wise Brown by Amy Gary (Biography)
The extraordinary life of the woman behind the beloved children’s classics GOODNIGHT MOON and THE RUNAWAY BUNNY comes alive in Amy Gary’s biography of Margaret Wise Brown. Margaret’s books have sold millions of copies all over the world, but few people know that she was at the center of a children’s book publishing revolution. Her whimsy and imagination fueled a steady stream of stories, book ideas, songs and poems, and she was renowned for her prolific writing and business savvy, as well as her stunning beauty and endless thirst for adventure.
Flatiron Books | 9781250160621
THE LEAVERS by Lisa Ko (Fiction)
One morning, Deming Guo’s mother, Polly, an undocumented Chinese immigrant, goes to her job at a nail salon --- and never comes home. No one can find any trace of her. With his mother gone, 11-year-old Deming is left mystified and bereft. Eventually adopted by a pair of well-meaning white professors, Deming is moved from the Bronx to a small town upstate and renamed Daniel Wilkinson. But far from all he’s ever known, Daniel struggles to reconcile his adoptive parents’ desire that he assimilate with his memories of his mother and the community he left behind.
Algonquin Books | 9781616208042
A LINE MADE BY WALKING by Sara Baume (Fiction)
Struggling to cope with urban life --- and life in general --- Frankie, a twenty-something artist, retreats to her family's rural house on "turbine hill," vacant since her grandmother's death three years earlier. It is in this space, surrounded by countryside and wild creatures, that she can finally grapple with the chain of events that led her here --- her shaky mental health, her difficult time in art school --- and maybe, just maybe, regain her footing in art and life. As Frankie picks up photography once more, closely examining the natural world around her, she reconsiders seminal works of art and their relevance.
Mariner Books | 9781328915818
MAP OF THE HEART by Susan Wiggs (Fiction)
Widowed by an unspeakable tragedy, Camille Palmer has made her peace with the past and settled into the quiet safety of life with her teenage daughter, Julie, in a sleepy coastal town. Then the arrival of a mysterious package breaks open the door to her family’s secret past. In uncovering a hidden history, Camille has no idea that she’s embarking on an adventure that will utterly transform her. Camille, Julie and Camille’s father return to the French town of his youth, sparking unexpected memories --- recollections that will lead them back to the dark days of the Second World War. And it is in the stunning Provençal countryside that they will uncover their family’s surprising history.
Avon | 9780062425492
THE MIDNIGHT LINE: A Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child (Thriller)
Reacher takes a stroll through a small Wisconsin town and sees a class ring in a pawn shop window: West Point 2005. The ring is tiny, for a woman, and it has her initials engraved on the inside. Reacher wonders what unlucky circumstance made her give up something she earned over four hard years. He decides to find out. And find the woman. And return her ring. So begins a harrowing journey that takes Reacher through the upper Midwest, from a lowlife bar on the sad side of a small town to a dirt-blown crossroads in the middle of nowhere, encountering bikers, cops, crooks, muscle, and a missing persons PI who wears a suit and a tie in the Wyoming wilderness. The deeper Reacher digs, and the more he learns, the more dangerous the terrain becomes.
Dell | 9780399593505
MY OXFORD YEAR by Julia Whelan (Romance)
Paperback Original
At 24, Ella Durran has finally made it to England on a Rhodes Scholarship when she’s offered an unbelievable position in a rising political star’s presidential campaign. With the promise that she’ll work remotely and return to DC at the end of her Oxford year, she’s free to enjoy her Once in a Lifetime Experience. That is, until a smart-mouthed local ruins her shirt and her first day. When Ella discovers that her English literature course will be taught by that same local, Jamie Davenport, she thinks that Oxford might not be all she’s envisioned. But a late-night drink reveals a connection she wasn’t anticipating finding, and what begins as a casual fling soon develops into something much more when Ella learns that Jamie has a life-changing secret.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062740649
NEVER GOODBYE by Adam Mitzner (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
After her sister was murdered, Ella Broden meted out her own punishment, then abandoned her career to pursue her passion as a singer. But another murder that hits close to home draws her back to seek justice. Dana Goodwin is the newly appointed deputy chief in the Special Victims Bureau, replacing Ella. For her, the case is also personal, but behind Dana’s relentless pursuit, her motives might be running deeper than anyone can see. Her secrets too. Connecting the two women is Ella’s boyfriend, Gabriel Velasquez, who has teamed up with Dana to investigate the murder. But the closer she works with Dana, the more she starts to believe that the most dangerous thing of all is what she doesn’t know.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781542048378
THE NIGHT SHE WON MISS AMERICA by Michael Callahan (Historical Fiction)
Betty Jane Welch reluctantly enters the Miss Delaware contest to make her mother happy, only to surprisingly find herself the judges' choice. Just like that, she's catapulted into the Miss America Pageant in Atlantic City. Luckily, her pageant-approved escort for the week is the dashing but mercurial Griffin McAllister, and she falls for him hard. But when the spirited Betty unexpectedly wins the crown and sash, she finds she may lose what she wants most: Griff's love. To keep him, she recklessly agrees to run away together. The chase is on as the cops and a scrappy reporter secretly in love with the beauty queen threaten to unravel everything --- and expose Griff's darkest secret.
Mariner Books | 9781328915832
OATH OF HONOR by Matthew Betley (Thriller/Adventure)
Roughly two years after the events of OVERWATCH, Logan West and John Quick are sent to Alaska to investigate the possible presence of a Russian black ops team on a mission to steal American next-generation technology. The resulting violent confrontation triggers a global search for the stolen technology and threatens to pit the United States against China in a looming shadow war and technology race. As Logan and John --- now joined by the chief of the CIA’s Special Operations Group, Cole Matthews --- battle their way through Spain, the Mediterranean and, ultimately, across Sudan, an imminent threat arises at home that FBI Deputy Director Mike Benson must face and determine if it is part of a deadly global conspiracy.
Pocket Books | 9781476799278
PART OF THE SILENCE by Debbie Howells (Psychological Thriller)
When they find Evie Sherman, battered and left for dead in a maize field, the young woman has no recollection of who she is. After three days in a hospital bed, the fog in her head begins to lift, and she remembers two names: her own, and that of her three-year-old daughter, Angel. Evie is convinced that Angel is in grave danger. But the police can find no evidence of the girl’s existence. It’s clear that she is having some kind of mental breakdown --- or is it? As Evie’s grasp on reality slips away, she finds herself haunted by the same three-word warning, which she hears over and over: Trust no one.
Kensington | 9781496714053
A PROMISE TO KILL: A Clyde Barr Novel by Erik Storey (Thriller)
Clyde Barr, the drifter with lethal skills, is alone again, wandering the highways of the American West in search of something to believe in. But when he runs across an elderly sick man --- a Ute Indian from a nearby reservation --- Clyde’s dream of solitude is quickly dashed. On the reservation, Clyde finds the old man’s daughter, Lawana, and grandson, Taylor, as well as a group of menacing bikers called Reapers running wild in the economically depressed, half-abandoned village. As tensions rise between the locals and the Reapers, Clyde’s efforts to protect the reservation become a fight for his, Lawana’s and Taylor’s lives. And then the stakes ratchet up even more.
Pocket Books | 9781501181856
SAME BEACH, NEXT YEAR by Dorothea Benton Frank (Fiction)
A chance meeting on the Isle of Palms brings former sweethearts Adam Stanley and Eve Landers together again. Their respective spouses, Eliza and Carl, fight sparks of jealousy flaring from their imagined rekindling of old flames. As Adam and Eve get caught up on their lives, their partners strike up a deep friendship of their own. Year after year, Adam, Eliza, Eve and Carl eagerly await their reunion at Wild Dunes, a condominium complex at the island’s tip end, where they grow closer with each passing day. The devotion and love they share will help them weather the vagaries of time and enrich their lives as circumstances change, their children grow up and leave home, and their twilight years approach.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062390790
SEA OF RUST by C. Robert Cargill (Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction)
It’s been 30 years since the apocalypse and 15 years since the murder of the last human being at the hands of robots. Most of the world is controlled by an OWI --- One World Intelligence --- the shared consciousness of millions of robots, uploaded into one huge mainframe brain. But not all robots are willing to cede their individuality for the sake of a greater, stronger, higher power. One of these resisters is Brittle, a scavenger robot trying to keep a deteriorating mind and body functional in a world that has lost all meaning. As Brittle roams the Sea of Rust, a large swath of territory that was once the Midwest, the loner robot slowly comes to terms with horrifyingly raw and vivid memories --- and nearly unbearable guilt.
Harper Voyager | 9780062405852
SHADOW MAN by Alan Drew (Psychological Suspense)
Detective Ben Wade has returned to his hometown of Rancho Santa Elena in search of a quieter life and to try to save his marriage. Suddenly the community, with its peaceful streets and excellent public schools, finds itself at the mercy of a serial killer who slips through windows and screen doors at night, shattering illusions of safety. As Ben and forensic specialist Natasha Betencourt struggle to stay one step ahead of the killer --- and deal with painful episodes in the past --- Ben’s own world is rocked again by violence. He must decide how far he is willing to go, and Natasha how much she is willing to risk, to protect their friendship and themselves to rescue the town from a psychotic murderer and a long-buried secret.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780812979664
SPOILS by Brian Van Reet (Fiction)
It is April 2003. American forces have taken Baghdad and are now charged with winning hearts and minds. But this vital tipping point is barely recognized for what it is, as a series of miscalculations and blunders fuels an already-smoldering insurgency intent on making Iraq the next graveyard of empires. Author Brian Van Reet explores the lives on both sides of the battle lines: Cassandra, a 19-year-old gunner who is captured during a deadly firefight and awakens in a prison cell; Abu al-Hool, a lifelong mujahedeen beset by a simmering crisis of conscience as he struggles against enemies from without and within; and Specialist Sleed, a tank crewman who goes along with a "victimless" crime, the consequences of which are more awful than any he could have imagined.
Back Bay Books | 9780316316170
TORNADO WEATHER by Deborah E. Kennedy (Fiction)
Five-year-old Daisy Gonzalez’s father is always waiting for her at the bus stop. But today, he isn’t, and Daisy disappears. When Daisy goes missing, nearly everyone in town suspects or knows something different about what happened. And they also know a lot about each other. The immigrants who work in the dairy farm know their employers’ secrets. The hairdresser knows everything except what’s happening in her own backyard. And the roadkill collector knows love and heartbreak more than anyone would ever expect. They are all connected, in ways small and profound, open and secret.
Flatiron Books | 9781250134523
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