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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of July 30th and August 6th 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 Fiction Author Spotlight of MAKE ME EVEN AND I'LL NEVER GAMBLE AGAIN, hedge fund pioneer Jerrold Fine's debut novel, which releases on August 14th and will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick. In May, a select group of readers won advance copies of the book in our Sneak Peek contest. We received some wonderful feedback from them about their reading experiences, which you can take a look at here.
We also are sharing reviews of three big books releasing today that will be featured in Friday's Bookreporter.com Weekly Update newsletter: THE INCENDIARIES by R. O. Kwon, BLOODY SUNDAY by Ben Coes, and A MEASURE OF DARKNESS by Jonathan Kellerman and Jesse Kellerman.
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This Week's Bonus News: Our Fiction Author Spotlight of
MAKE ME EVEN AND I'LL NEVER GAMBLE AGAIN
by Jerrold Fine
MAKE ME EVEN AND I'LL NEVER GAMBLE AGAIN by Jerrold Fine (Fiction)
Drawing from his own experiences in the turbulent '70s and '80s, hedge fund pioneer Jerrold Fine blends a heartfelt story of a young man fiercely intent on achieving independence with a fascinating insider’s look at the perks and pitfalls of a high-stakes life in the world of financial markets in his debut novel.
Rogers Stout has the gambler’s gifts --- a titanic brain, an uncanny ability to read people, and a risk-taker’s daring. As an apathetic high school student who loves baseball but lacks a 90-mph fastball, he knows that the game does not begin until the ball leaves the pitcher’s hand. But his life needs direction.
Everything changes the summer he is invited into the boisterous environment of an investment bank’s trading room, and to a gambling hall dive where he immediately wins big at poker, capturing the attention of his co-workers with his card-playing skills. Intrigued by trading markets, Rogers’ intellectual curiosity takes him to Wharton and then Wall Street, where he faces challenges as an outsider who thinks and acts differently from the white-shoe establishment. With his intuition and prowess, he’s ready to rewrite the rules and tackle markets with a flair that leaves his employers flabbergasted.
Rogers senses opportunity and willingly accepts the challenge that awaits him. He leans heavily on his gut instincts and the unusual cadre of friendships he cultivates, but learns the hard way to be alert to the perils that await him. He longs to prove himself and achieve his goals, yet is torn between the thrill of trading and investing, and pursuing a higher purpose in life. And through it all, he still feels the loss of his mother, who died when he was too young to remember her --- an open wound that refuses to heal.
As Rogers plays his career hand, life plays another. Should he follow the temptress Elsbeth and her ravishing beauty, or Charlotte, his high-spirited first love?
Don't miss our review, author interview and discussion guide in the August 17th Bookreporter.com Weekly Update newsletter, followed by Carol Fitzgerald's Bets On commentary in the August 24th newsletter.
- Click here to read an excerpt.
- Click here to see advance readers' comments.
Click here to read more in our Fiction Author Spotlight.
On Sale the Week of July 30th in Hardcover
July 31st
BLOODY SUNDAY by Ben Coes (Thriller)
Dewey Andreas, still reeling from recent revelations about his own past, is ready to retire from the CIA. But he's the only available agent with the skills to carry out the CIA's plan to stop North Korea from launching a nuclear attack on the United States. The plan is to inject a singular designer poison into the head of the North Korean military and, in exchange for the nuclear plans, provide him with the one existing dose of the antidote. But it goes awry when Dewey manages to inject a small amount of the poison into himself. Now, to survive, Dewey must get into North Korea and access the antidote and, while there, thwart the nuclear ambitions of both North Korea and Iran. And he has less than 24 hours to do so.
St. Martin’s Press | 9781250140760
BROTHER by David Chariandy (Fiction)
One sweltering summer in the Park, a housing complex outside of Toronto, Michael and Francis are coming of age and learning to stomach the careless prejudices and low expectations that confront them as young men of black and brown ancestry. Propelled by the beats and styles of hip hop, Francis dreams of a future in music. Michael's dreams are of Aisha, the smartest girl in their high school whose own eyes are firmly set on a life elsewhere. But the bright hopes of all three are violently, irrevocably thwarted by a tragic shooting, and the police crackdown and suffocating suspicion that follow.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781635572049
A DOUBLE LIFE by Flynn Berry (Psychological Thriller)
Claire’s father is one of the most notorious murder suspects in the country, though no one knows it. Nearly 30 years ago, while Claire and her brother slept upstairs, a brutal crime was committed in her family's townhouse. The next morning, her father's car was found abandoned near the English Channel, with bloodstains on the front seat. Her mother insisted she'd seen him in the house that night, but his powerful, privileged friends maintained his innocence. The first lord accused of murder in more than a century, he has been missing ever since. When the police tell Claire they've found him, her carefully calibrated existence begins to fracture.
Viking | 9780735224964
FREEFALL by Adam Hamdy (Thriller)
Eight months after confronting Pendulum, John Wallace is losing himself in a dangerous warzone in a misguided attempt at penance for what he has done. But an assassination attempt makes Wallace realize that he has been targeted for death once again. This time, Wallace is prepared; tracking down his would-be assassin, he discovers a link to his nemesis, Pendulum. The link is the missing piece of a puzzle that has tormented FBI Agent Christine Ash ever since they confronted Pendulum, but with no Bureau support she has been unable to pursue her case. Wallace's proof breaks it, but also exposes them both to terrible danger.
Quercus | 9781635060003
FRUIT OF THE DRUNKEN TREE by Ingrid Rojas Contreras (Fiction)
Seven-year-old Chula and her older sister, Cassandra, enjoy carefree lives thanks to their gated community in Bogotá. But the threat of kidnappings, car bombs and assassinations hover just outside the neighborhood walls, where the godlike drug lord Pablo Escobar continues to elude authorities and capture the attention of the nation. When their mother hires Petrona, a live-in-maid from the city's guerrilla-occupied slum, Chula makes it her mission to understand Petrona's mysterious ways. As both girls' families scramble to maintain stability amidst the rapidly escalating conflict, Petrona and Chula find themselves entangled in a web of secrecy that will force them both to choose between sacrifice and betrayal.
Doubleday | 9780385542722
IMMIGRANT, MONTANA by Amitava Kumar (Fiction)
The young man is Kailash, from India. His new American friends call him Kalashnikov, AK-47, AK. He takes it all in his stride: he wants to fit in --- and, more than that, to shine. In the narrative of his years at a university in New York, AK describes the joys and disappointments of his immigrant experience; the unfamiliar political and social textures of campus life; the indelible influence of a charismatic professor --- also an immigrant, his personal history as dramatic as AK's is decidedly not; the very different natures of the women he loved, and of himself in and out of love with each of them. Telling his own story, AK is both meditative and the embodiment of the enthusiasm of youth in all its idealism and chaotic desires.
Knopf | 9780525520757
THE INCENDIARIES by R.O. Kwon (Fiction)
Phoebe Lin and Will Kendall meet during their first month at prestigious Edwards University. A grieving Phoebe, who blames herself for her mother’s recent death, is increasingly drawn into a religious group --- a secretive extremist cult --- founded by a charismatic former student who has an enigmatic past that involves North Korea and Phoebe's Korean American family. Meanwhile, Will struggles to confront the fundamentalism he's tried to escape, and the obsession consuming the one he loves. When the group bombs several buildings in the name of faith, killing five people, Phoebe disappears. Will devotes himself to finding her, seeking answers to what happened to Phoebe and if she could have been responsible for this violent act.
Riverhead Books | 9780735213890
A MEASURE OF DARKNESS by Jonathan Kellerman and Jesse Kellerman (Mystery/Thriller)
A wild party in a gentrifying East Bay neighborhood. A heated argument that spills into the street. Gunshots. Chaos. For Clay Edison and his fellow coroners, it’s the start of a long night and the first of many to come. The victims keep piling up. Then the smoke clears and the real mystery emerges --- one victim’s death doesn’t match the others. And it falls to Clay to give her a name and a voice. Haunted by the cruelty of her death, he embarks upon a journey into the bizarre, entering a hidden world where innocence and perversity meet and mingle. There, his relentless pursuit of the truth opens the gateway to a dark and baffling past --- and brings him right into the line of fire.
Ballantine Books | 9780399594632
PARADOX by Catherine Coulter (Thriller)
Chief Ty Christie of Willicott, Maryland, witnesses a murder at dawn from the deck of her cottage on Lake Massey. When dragging the lake, not only do the divers find the murder victim, they also discover dozens of bones. Even more shocking is the identification of a unique belt buckle found among the bones. Working together with Chief Christie, Savich and Sherlock soon discover a frightening connection between the bones and the escaped psychopath.
Gallery Books | 9781501138126
THE QUIET SIDE OF PASSION: An Isabel Dalhousie Novel by Alexander McCall Smith (Mystery)
Isabel Dalhousie and her husband, Jamie, hire a new au pair, and Isabel brings on an intelligent assistant editor to share her workload. Both women, though, have romantic entanglements that threaten to interfere with their work, and Isabel must decide how best to navigate this tricky domestic situation. Meanwhile, Isabel makes the acquaintance of Patricia, the mother of her son Charlie’s friend Basil. She tries to be supportive, especially given that Patricia is raising her son on her own, without the help of his father, a well-known Edinburgh organist also named Basil. But when Isabel sees Patricia in the company of an unscrupulous man, she begins to rethink her assumptions.
Pantheon | 9780307908964
SHE WAS THE QUIET ONE by Michele Campbell (Mystery)
For Rose Enright, enrolling in a prestigious New England boarding school is the opportunity of a lifetime. But for Rose’s vulnerable twin sister Bel, Odell Academy is a place of temptation and danger. When Bel falls in with a crowd of wild rich kids who pressure her into hazing Rose, the sisters’ relationship is shattered. Rose turns to her dorm mother, Sarah Donovan, for advice. But Bel turns to Sarah’s husband Heath, a charismatic and ambitious teacher. Is Heath trying to help Bel or take advantage of her? In a world of privilege, seduction and manipulation, only one sister will live to tell the truth.
St. Martin’s Press | 9781250081834
THE SHORTEST WAY HOME by Miriam Parker (Fiction)
Hannah is finally about to have everything she ever wanted. With a high-paying job, a Manhattan apartment, and a boyfriend about to propose, all she and Ethan have to do is make it through the last couple of weeks of grad school. But when, on a romantic weekend trip to Sonoma, Hannah is spontaneously offered a marketing job at a family-run winery and doesn't immediately refuse, their meticulously planned forever threatens to come crashing down. And then Hannah impulsively does the unthinkable --- she takes a leap of faith. Soon, the mission to rescue the failing winery becomes a mission to rescue Hannah from the life she thought she wanted.
Dutton | 9781524741860
August 1st
BEAUTIFUL EXILES by Meg Waite Clayton (Historical Fiction)
Key West, 1936. Headstrong, accomplished journalist Martha Gellhorn is confident with words but less so with men when she meets disheveled literary titan Ernest Hemingway in a dive bar. Their friendship flourishes into something undeniable in Madrid while they’re covering the Spanish Civil War. Martha reveres him. The very married Hemingway is taken with Martha. And as Hemingway tells her, the most powerful love stories are always set against the fury of war. With their romance unfolding as they travel the globe, Martha establishes herself as one of the world’s foremost war correspondents, and Hemingway begins the novel that will win him the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Lake Union Publishing | 9781503900837
A KILLER'S MIND by Mike Omer (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Three Chicago women have been found strangled, embalmed and posed as if still alive. Doubting the findings of the local PD’s profiler, the FBI calls on forensic psychologist Zoe Bentley to investigate. Zoe quickly gets off on the wrong foot with her new partner, Special Agent Tatum Gray. Zoe is a hunter, intense and focused; Tatum is a smug maverick with little respect for the rules. Together, they must descend into a serial killer’s psyche and untangle his twisted fantasies, or more women will die. But when the contents of three inconspicuous envelopes reveal a chilling connection to gruesome murders from Zoe’s childhood, suddenly the hunter becomes the hunted.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781503901902
THE KING TIDES by James Swain (Thriller)
Wherever she goes, Nicki Pearl is being watched. Each stalker is different from the last, except for one thing --- their alarming obsession with her. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and Nicki’s father is turning to someone who can protect her: retired private detective and ex–Navy SEAL Jon Lancaster. Teaming up with FBI agent and former abduction victim Beth Daniels, Lancaster can help --- his way. Unlicensed and unrestricted, he plays dirty. But this case is unusual. Why so many men? Why this one girl? Does Nicki have something to hide? Or do her parents? Trawling the darkest depths of southern Florida, Lancaster faces a growing tide of secrets and deception.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781503901698
On Sale the Week of July 30th in Paperback
July 31st
AMERICAN WOLF: A True Story of Survival and Obsession in the West by Nate Blakeslee (Science/Nature)
Once abundant in North America, wolves were hunted to near extinction in the lower 48 states by the 1920s. But in recent decades, conservationists have brought them back to the Rockies, igniting a battle over the very soul of the West. Nate Blakeslee tells the gripping story of one of these wolves: O-Six, who is a kind and merciful leader, a fiercely intelligent fighter and a doting mother. But as she raises her pups and protects her pack, O-Six is challenged on all fronts: by hunters, who compete with wolves for the elk they both prize; by cattle ranchers, who are losing livestock and have the ear of politicians; and by other Yellowstone wolves, who are vying for control of the park’s stunningly beautiful Lamar Valley.
Broadway Books | 9781101902806
AT THE STRANGERS’ GATE: Arrivals in New York by Adam Gopnik (Memoir)
When Adam Gopnik and his soon-to-be-wife, Martha, left the comforts of home in Montreal for New York, the city then, much like today, was a pilgrimage site for the young, the arty and the ambitious. But it was also becoming a city of greed, where both life's consolations and its necessities were increasingly going to the highest bidder. AT THE STRANGERS’ GATE builds a portrait of this particular moment in New York through the story of this couple's journey --- from their excited arrival as aspiring artists to their eventual growth into a New York family.
Vintage | 9781400075744
THE BLIND by A.F. Brady (Psychological Thriller)
Sam James has spent years carefully crafting her reputation as the best psychologist at Typhlos, Manhattan's most challenging psychiatric institution. She believes if she can't save herself, she'll save someone else. It's this savior complex that serves her well in helping patients battle their inner demons, though it leads Sam down some dark paths and opens her eyes to her own mental turmoil. When Richard, a mysterious patient no other therapist wants to treat, is admitted to Typhlos, Sam is determined to unlock his secrets and his psyche. But she can't figure out why Richard appears to be so normal in a hospital filled with madness. As Sam gets pulled into Richard's twisted past, she can't help but analyze her own life, and what she discovers terrifies her.
Park Row | 9780778369806
A CASUALTY OF WAR: A Bess Crawford Mystery by Charles Todd (Historical Mystery)
Though the Great War is nearing its end, the fighting rages on. While waiting for transport back to her post, Bess Crawford meets Captain Alan Travis from the island of Barbados. Later, when he’s brought into her forward aid station disoriented from a head wound, Bess is alarmed that he believes his distant English cousin, Lieutenant James Travis, shot him. Then the Captain is brought back to the aid station with a more severe wound, once more angrily denouncing the Lieutenant as a killer. But when it appears that James Travis couldn’t have shot him, the Captain’s sanity is questioned. Still, Bess wonders how such an experienced officer could be so wrong.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062678799
A COLUMN OF FIRE by Ken Follett (Historical Fiction)
In 1558, as power in England shifts precariously between Catholics and Protestants, royalty and commoners clash, testing friendship, loyalty and love. Ned Willard wants nothing more than to marry Margery Fitzgerald. But when the lovers find themselves on opposing sides of the religious conflict dividing the country, Ned goes to work for Princess Elizabeth. When she becomes queen, all Europe turns against England. Over a turbulent half century, the love between Ned and Margery seems doomed as extremism sparks violence from Edinburgh to Geneva. Elizabeth clings to her throne and her principles, protected by a small, dedicated group of resourceful spies and courageous secret agents.
Penguin Books | 9780451477996
THE CORE: Book Five of The Demon Cycle by Peter V. Brett (Fantasy/Adventure)
Arlen Bales became known as the Warded Man, tattooed head to toe with powerful magic symbols that enable him to fight demons in hand-to-hand combat. Jardir, armed with magically warded weapons, called himself the Deliverer, a figure prophesied to unite humanity and lead them to triumph in Sharak Ka --- the final war against demonkind. But in their efforts to bring the war to the demons, Arlen and Jardir have set something in motion that may prove the end of everything they hold dear --- a swarm. Now the war is at hand, and humanity cannot hope to win it unless Arlen and Jardir can bend a captured demon prince to their will and force the devious creature to lead them to the Core, where the Mother of Demons breeds an inexhaustible army.
Del Rey | 9780345531513
DARK IN DEATH by J. D. Robb (Mystery/Thriller)
On a chilly February night, during a screening of Psycho in midtown, someone sunk an ice pick into the back of Chanel Rylan’s neck. As Eve Dallas puzzles over a homicide that seems carefully planned and yet oddly personal, she receives a tip from an unexpected source: an author of police thrillers who recognizes the crime --- from the pages of her own book. The good news is that Eve and her billionaire husband, Roarke, have an excuse to curl up in front of the fireplace with their cat, Galahad, reading mystery stories for research. The bad news is that time is running out before the next victim plays an unwitting role in a murderer’s deranged private drama.
St. Martin’s Paperbacks | 9781250161543
DARK LIGHT: DAWN by Jon Land (Supernatural Thriller)
Since the dawn of time, good and evil have challenged the free will of man. Now the time has come for one man to choose for all human kind. With an uncanny ability to survive any combat situation, Max Younger has built a heroic life for himself as a Navy SEAL. That is, until a rogue rescue operation plunges him back into a past he thought he’d escaped forever. Waiting for him back home in New York are terrible, long-hidden truths rooted in the tragic death of his father. But the origin of those truths lie even further back than that, and Max finds himself ensnared in a sinister plot involving nothing less than the biblical apocalypse.
Forge Books | 9780765367143
THE LOCKSMITH’S DAUGHTER by Karen Brooks (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Mallory Bright is the only daughter of London's most ingenious locksmith, and has apprenticed with her father since childhood. After scandal destroys her reputation, Mallory has returned to her father's home and lives almost as a recluse. But Sir Francis Walsingham, Queen Elizabeth's spymaster and a frequent client of Mallory's father, draws her into his world of danger and deception. Mallory's loyalty wavers when she witnesses the brutal and bloody public execution of three Jesuit priests and realizes the human cost of her espionage. And later, when she discovers the identity of a Catholic spy and a conspiracy that threatens the kingdom, she is forced to choose between her country and her heart.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062686572
MAYHEM: A Memoir by Sigrid Rausing (Memoir)
In the summer of 2012, a woman named Eva was found dead in the London townhouse she shared with her husband, Hans K. Rausing. The couple had struggled with drug addiction for years, often under the glare of tabloid headlines. Now, Hans’ sister, the editor and publisher Sigrid Rausing, tries to make sense of what happened. In MAYHEM, she asks the difficult questions those close to the world of addiction must face. Who can help the addict, consumed by a shaming hunger, a need beyond control? And who can help their families, so implicated in the self-destruction of the addict?
Vintage | 9781101972618
NOTHING STAYS BURIED: A Monkeewrench Novel by P.J. Tracy (Mystery/Thriller)
When Minneapolis homicide detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth are called to a crime scene in a heavily wooded city park, everything about the setting is all too familiar. And when they discover a playing card on the victim's body, their worst fears are confirmed --- there’s a serial killer operating in the city for the first time in years. Weary of the darker side of their computer work for law enforcement, Grace MacBride and her unconventional partners at Monkeewrench Software agree to take on a private missing-persons case in a small farming community in southwestern Minnesota. As the violence accelerates in Minneapolis, Magozzi and Gino soon realize their killer is planning to complete the deck, and they enlist Monkeewrench to help stop the rampage.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780735212473
AN ODYSSEY: A Father, A Son, and an Epic by Daniel Mendelsohn (Memoir)
When 81-year-old Jay Mendelsohn decides to enroll in the undergraduate ODYSSEY seminar his son teaches at Bard College, the two find themselves on an adventure as profoundly emotional as it is intellectual. For Jay, this return to the classroom is his "one last chance" to learn the great literature he'd neglected in his youth --- and a final opportunity to more fully understand his son, a writer and classicist. But through the sometimes-uncomfortable months that the two men explore Homer's great work together, it becomes clear that Daniel has much to learn, too: Jay's responses to both the text and their travels gradually uncover long-buried secrets that allow the son to understand his difficult father at last.
Vintage | 9780345806215
RANGER GAMES: A Story of Soldiers, Family and an Inexplicable Crime by Ben Blum (True Crime/Memoir)
Alex Blum had one goal in life: endure a brutally difficult selection program, become a U.S. Army Ranger, and fight terrorists for his country. He poured everything into achieving his dream. In the first hours of his final leave before deployment to Iraq, Alex was supposed to fly home to see his family and girlfriend. Instead, he got into his car with two fellow soldiers and two strangers, drove to a local bank in Tacoma, and committed armed robbery. Why would he ruin his life in such a spectacularly foolish way? In the midst of his own personal crisis, and in the hopes of helping both Alex and his splintering family cope, Ben Blum, Alex’s first cousin, delved into these mysteries, growing closer to Alex in the process.
Anchor | 9780804169691
SHADOW OF THE LIONS by Christopher Swann (Literary Thriller/Mystery)
When Matthias Glass’ best friend, Fritz, vanishes without a trace in the middle of an argument during their senior year, Matthias tries to move on with his life, only to realize that until he discovers what happened to his missing friend, he will be stuck in the past, guilty, responsible, alone. Almost 10 years after Fritz’s disappearance, Matthias gets his chance. Offered a job teaching English at Blackburne, he gets swiftly drawn into the mystery. In the shadowy woods of his alma mater, he stumbles into a web of surveillance, dangerous lies and buried secrets --- and discovers the troubled underbelly of a school where the future had once always seemed bright.
Algonquin Books | 9781616208615
SLEEPING IN THE GROUND: An Inspector Banks Novel by Peter Robinson (Mystery/Thriller)
At the doors of a charming country church, an unspeakable act destroys a wedding party. A huge manhunt ensues. The culprit is captured. The story is over. Except it isn't. For Alan Banks, still struggling with a tragic loss of his own, there's something wrong about this case --- something unresolved. Reteaming with profiler Jenny Fuller, the relentless detective dives deeper into the crime...deep enough to unearth long-buried secrets that reshape everything Banks thought he knew about the events outside that chapel. And when at last the shocking truth becomes clear, it's almost too late.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062395085
SUNBURN by Laura Lippman (Psychological Thriller)
They meet at a local tavern in the small town of Belleville, Delaware. Polly is set on heading west. Adam says he’s also passing through. Yet she stays and he stays --- drawn to this mysterious redhead whose quiet stillness both unnerves and excites him. Over the course of a punishing summer, Polly and Adam abandon themselves to a steamy, inexorable affair. Still, each holds something back from the other --- dangerous, even lethal, secrets. Then someone dies. Was it an accident, or part of a plan? By now, Adam and Polly are so ensnared in each other’s lives and lies that neither one knows how to get away --- or even if they want to. Is their love strong enough to withstand the truth, or will it ultimately destroy them?
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062389985
THEY WON'T BE HURT by Kevin O'Brien (Thriller)
Paperback Original
Scott Singleton, former NFL star turned television evangelist, lies dead. The bodies of his wife and four of their five children are found on the second floor, bound, gagged and stabbed repeatedly. The oldest daughter was shot downstairs. And the police’s main suspect --- the property caretaker --- has disappeared. In her secluded vineyard home two hours away, Laura Gretchell is on edge. Her husband is out of town on business, and the children are understandably shaken. Laura tries to tell herself there’s no reason to fear. Then the door handle rattles, and the real terror begins. They’re in her house, holding her children hostage, and Laura has only one option: do exactly what the intruders say.
Pinnacle | 9780786038855
Y IS FOR YESTERDAY by Sue Grafton (Mystery)
Y IS FOR YESTERDAY begins in 1979, when four teenage boys from an elite private school sexually assault a 14-year-old classmate --- and film the attack. Not long after, the tape goes missing and the suspected thief, a fellow classmate, is murdered. In the investigation that follows, one boy turns state’s evidence, and two of his peers are convicted. But the ringleader escapes without a trace. Now it’s 1989, and one of the perpetrators, Fritz McCabe, has been released from prison. Moody, unrepentant and angry, he is a virtual prisoner of his ever-watchful parents --- until a copy of the missing tape arrives with a ransom demand. That’s when the McCabes call Kinsey Millhone for help.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780525536703
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 | 9781501125126
August 1st
DEATH ON BULL PATH: A Hamptons Murder Mystery by Carrie Doyle (Mystery)
Paperback Original
After the craziness of August, the end of summer is supposed to bring peace and tranquility to the posh seaside enclave of East Hampton, New York. Antonia Bingham, chef and proprietor of the town’s prestigious Windmill Inn, has been lining up new recipes to try in the quiet, golden days of September, and looks forward to putting murder and mayhem behind her so she can focus on herself and her business. But when a Labor Day visit by two slick Wall Streeters ends with their gruesome deaths in a summer rental house, Antonia is pulled back to the dark side. With mysterious guests (and possible suspects) popping in and out of the inn, Antonia has no choice but to put back on her sleuthing cap and try to decipher who butchered these men.
Dunemere Books | 9781947936027
On Sale the Week of August 6th in Hardcover
August 7th
BABY, YOU’RE GONNA BE MINE: Stories by Kevin Wilson (Fiction/Short Stories)
BABY, YOU’RE GONNA BE MINE is Kevin Wilson’s first story collection in nearly a decade. “Wildfire Johnny” is the story of a man who discovers a magic razor that allows him to travel back in time. “Scroll Through the Weapons” is about a couple taking care of their underfed and almost feral nieces and nephews. “Signal to the Faithful” follows a boy as he takes a tense road trip with his priest. And “Baby, You’re Gonna Be Mine,” the title story, is about a narcissistic rock star who moves back home during a rough patch. These stories all build on each other in strange and remarkable ways.
Ecco | 9780062450524
BAD MAN by Dathan Auerbach (Horror)
Eric disappeared when he was three years old. Ben looked away for only a second at the grocery store, but that was all it took. His brother was gone. Five years later, Ben still looks for Eric. Now 20 and desperate for work, he takes a night stock job at the only place that will have him: the store that blinked Eric out of existence. He can feel that there's something wrong there. With the people. With his boss. With the graffitied baler that shudders and moans and beckons. There's something wrong with the air itself. He knows he's in the right place now. That the store has much to tell him. So he keeps searching, but misses the most important message of all: That he should have stopped looking.
Doubleday | 9780385542920
BECOMING BELLE by Nuala O'Connor (Historical Fiction)
In 1887, Isabel Bilton is the eldest of three daughters of a middle-class military family, growing up in a small garrison town. By 1891 she is the Countess of Clancarty, dubbed "the peasant countess" by the press, and a member of the Irish aristocracy. BECOMING BELLE is the story of the four years in between, of Belle's rapid ascent and the people who tried to tear her down.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780735214408
BEYOND THE GRAVE: A Grim Reaper Mystery by Judy Clemens (Mystery)
Casey Maldonado is haunted by the deaths of her husband and young son. She hopes traveling through the vast reaches of Idaho will offer peace. Instead, she fights off three drunken locals before escaping to a quiet town where she wants to heal from her injuries and constant sorrow. Her traveling companion, invisible to all but Casey, is Death, wearing a series of disguises and offering expert commentary on her difficulties. Unfortunately, the village of Armstrong carries its own darkness. Casey finds a job and a comfortable guest room with the proprietor of the small general store, Vern, and his ill wife, Dottie. Death keeps a close watch on Casey. She's surrounded by trouble.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464211294
BIBLIOMYSTERIES: Volume Two: Stories of Crime in the World of Books and Bookstores edited by Otto Penzler (Mystery/Short Stories)
If you like mysteries and you like books, what could be better than combining both worlds, with mysteries set against a background involving books? This collection of crime for bibliophiles includes stories about rare books, bookshops, libraries, manuscripts, magical books, collectors --- in short, the wonderful universe that makes this precious object we all love so important and priceless. Whether your taste is for the traditional mystery, something a little more hard-boiled, or the bizarre and humorous tale, you will find exactly your cup of tea in this collection of 15 stories by the most distinguished mystery writers working today.
Pegasus Books | 9781681777849
THE BOUNCER by David Gordon (Thriller)
Joe Brody is a strip club bouncer who has a highly classified military history and whose best friend from Catholic school is head mafioso Gio Caprisi. FBI agent Donna Zamora is a single mother stuck at a desk manning the hotline. Their storylines intersect over a tip from a cokehead that leads to a crackdown on Gio’s strip joint in Queens and Joe’s arrest. Outside the jailhouse, the Fed and the bouncer lock eyes, as Gordon launches them both headlong into a nonstop plot that goes from back-road gun show intervention to high-stakes perfume heist and manages to touch everyone from the CIA to the Flushing Triads. Beneath it all lurks a sinister criminal mastermind whose manipulations could cause chaos on a massively violent scale.
Mysterious Press | 9780802128003
THE BUCKET LIST by Georgia Clark (Fiction)
Twenty-five-year-old Lacey Whitman is blindsided when she’s diagnosed with the BCRA1 gene mutation: the “breast cancer” gene. Her high hereditary risk forces a decision: increased surveillance or the more radical step of a preventative double mastectomy. Small-town Lacey is not so in touch with her sexuality: she doesn’t want to sacrifice her breasts before she’s had the chance to give them their heyday. To help her make her choice, she (and her friends) creates a “boob bucket list”: everything she wants do with and for her boobs before a possible surgery. This kicks off a year of sensual exploration and sexual entertainment for the quick-witted Lacey Whitman.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781501173028
CAPTIVE: A Mother's Crusade to Save Her Daughter from a Terrifying Cult by Catherine Oxenberg with Natasha Stoynoff (Memoir)
In 2011, Catherine Oxenberg joined her 20-year-old daughter, India, at a leadership seminar for a new organization called NXIVM. India was on the threshold of building a new company, and they both thought this program might help her achieve her dream. But quickly, Catherine saw a sinister side to what appeared to be a self-help organization designed to help its clients become the best versions of themselves. She watched in horror as her daughter fell further and further down the rabbit hole, becoming brainwashed by the organization’s charismatic leader. In CAPTIVE, Catherine shares every parent’s worst nightmare, and the lengths to which a mother will go to save her child.
Gallery Books | 9781982100650
CERTAIN AMERICAN STATES: Stories by Catherine Lacey (Fiction/Short Stories)
The characters in Catherine Lacey’s first collection of short stories are continually coming to terms with their place in the world, and how to adapt to that place, before change inevitably returns. A woman leaves her dead husband’s clothing on the street, only for it to reappear on the body of a stranger; a man reads his ex-wife’s short story and neurotically contemplates if it's about him; a young woman whose Texan mother insists on moving to New York City with her has her daily attempts to get over a family tragedy interrupted by a mute stranger showing her incoherent messages on his phone. These are stories of breakups, abandonment and strained family ties; dead brothers and distant surrogate fathers; loneliness, happenstance, starting over and learning to let go.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374265892
THE DISTANCE HOME by Paula Saunders (Historical Fiction)
René shares a home, a family and a passion for dance with her older brother, Leon. Yet for all they have in common, their lives are on remarkably different paths. In contrast to René, a born spitfire, Leon is a gentle soul. As the years pass, René and Leon’s parents fight with increasing frequency --- and ferocity. Their father spends more time on the road, his sporadic homecomings both yearned for and dreaded by the children. And as René and Leon grow up, they grow apart. They grasp whatever they can to stay afloat as René works to save herself, crossing the border into a larger, more hopeful world, while Leon embarks on a path of despair and self-destruction.
Random House | 9780525508748
DOPESICK: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America by Beth Macy (Psychology/Sociology)
In DOPESICK, Beth Macy takes us into the epicenter of America's 20-plus-year struggle with opioid addiction. Beginning with a single dealer who lands in a small Virginia town and sets about turning high school football stars into heroin overdose statistics, Macy endeavors to answer a grieving mother's question --- why her only son died --- and comes away with a harrowing story of greed and need. From the introduction of OxyContin in 1996, Macy parses how America embraced a medical culture where overtreatment with painkillers became the norm.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316551243
THE DRAMA TEACHER by Koren Zailckas (Psychological Thriller)
Gracie Mueller is a proud mother of two and a devoted wife. Her life is complicated by the usual tedium and stressors, and she’s settled down comfortably enough. But when her husband’s failing career as a real estate agent makes finances tight, their home goes into foreclosure, and Gracie feels she has no choice but to return to the creatively illegal and high-stakes lifestyle of her past in order to keep all that she’s worked so hard to have. Gracie has a lot to hide about where she’s from, who she is and who she’s been. And when things inevitably begin to spin out of her control, more questions about the truth of her past are raised, including all the ones she never meant to --- or even knew to --- ask.
Crown | 9780553448092
FLY GIRLS: How Five Daring Women Defied All Odds and Made Aviation History by Keith O'Brien (History)
Between the world wars, no sport was more popular, or more dangerous, than airplane racing. Thousands of fans flocked to multi-day events, and cities vied with one another to host them. The pilots themselves were hailed as dashing heroes who cheerfully stared death in the face. Well, the men were hailed. Female pilots were more often ridiculed than praised for what the press portrayed as silly efforts to horn in on a manly, and deadly, pursuit. FLY GIRLS recounts how a cadre of women banded together to break the original glass ceiling: the entrenched prejudice that conspired to keep them out of the sky.
Eamon Dolan/Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9781328876645
FOUR FUNERALS AND MAYBE A WEDDING: A Royal Spyness Mystery by Rhys Bowen (Historical Mystery)
In the days leading up to her wedding to Darcy O'Mara, Lady Georgiana Rannoch takes on the responsibilities of a grand estate, but proving she can run a household just may be the death of her in this new Royal Spyness Mystery from the New York Times bestselling author of ON HER MAJESTY’S FRIGHTFULLY SECRET SERVICE.
Berkley | 9780425283523
HORSE by Talley English (Fiction)
When Teagan's father abruptly abandons his family and his farm, Teagan finds herself wading through the wreckage of what was once an idyllic life, searching for something --- or someone --- to hold on to. What she finds is Ian, short for Obsidian: the magnificent but dangerously headstrong horse her father left behind. But even as she grows close to Ian, patiently training him and trying to overcome her fear of him, Teagan is learning that life and love are fragile.
Knopf | 9781101874332
IF YOU LEAVE ME by Crystal Hana Kim (Fiction)
When the communist-backed army from the north invades her home, 16-year-old Haemi Lee, along with her widowed mother and ailing brother, is forced to flee to a refugee camp along the coast. For a few hours each night, she escapes her family’s makeshift home and tragic circumstances with her childhood friend, Kyunghwan. Focused on finishing school, Kyunghwan doesn’t realize that his older and wealthier cousin, Jisoo, has his sights set on the beautiful and spirited Haemi --- and is determined to marry her before joining the fight. But as Haemi becomes a wife and then a mother, her decision to forsake the boy she always loved for the security of her family sets off a dramatic saga that will have profound effects for generations to come.
William Morrow | 9780062645173
THE LAST HOURS by Minette Walters (Historical Fiction)
When the Black Death enters England in June 1348, no one knows what manner of sickness it is --- or how it spreads and kills so quickly. The Church cites God as the cause, and fear grips the people as they come to believe that the plague is a punishment for wickedness. But Lady Anne of Develish has her own ideas. She decides to bring her serfs inside the safety of the moat that surrounds her manor house, then refuses entry to anyone else, even her husband. Lady Anne makes an enemy of her daughter and her husband’s steward by doing so, but her resolve is strengthened by the support of her leading serfs...until food stocks run low. The nerves of all are tested by continued confinement and ignorance of what is happening in the world outside.
Mira | 9780778369318
THE MASTERPIECE by Fiona Davis (Historical Fiction)
For Clara Darden, Grand Central Terminal is the stepping stone to her future. It is 1928, and she is teaching at the lauded Grand Central School of Art. But Clara and her bohemian friends have no idea that they'll soon be blindsided by the looming Great Depression. Nearly 50 years later, the terminal has declined almost as sharply as Virginia Clay's life. Recently divorced, Virginia has just accepted a job in the information booth to support herself and her college-age daughter. But when Virginia discovers a striking watercolor hidden under the dust, she embarks on a quest to find the artist, drawing her deep into the mystery of Clara Darden, the famed 1920s illustrator who disappeared from history in 1931.
Dutton | 9781524742959
MEET ME AT THE MUSEUM by Anne Youngson (Fiction)
In Denmark, Professor Anders Larsen, an urbane man of facts, has lost his wife and his hopes for the future. On an isolated English farm, Tina Hopgood is trapped in a life she doesn’t remember choosing. Both believe their love stories are over. Brought together by a shared fascination with the Tollund Man, the subject of Seamus Heaney’s famous poem, they begin writing letters to one another. And from their vastly different worlds, they find they have more in common than they could have imagined. As they open up to one another about their lives, an unexpected friendship blooms. But then Tina’s letters stop coming, and Anders is thrown into despair. How far are they willing to go to write a new story for themselves?
Flatiron Books | 9781250295163
THE MIDDLEMAN by Olen Steinhauer (Thriller)
One day in the early summer of 2017, about 400 people disappear from their lives. Where have they gone, and why? The only answer, for weeks, is silence. Kevin Moore is one of them. He leaves behind his retail job in San Francisco, sends a good-bye text to his mother, dumps his phone and wallet into a trash can, and disappears. The movement calls itself the Massive Brigade, and they believe change isn't coming fast enough to America. But are they a protest organization, a political movement or a terrorist group? The FBI isn't taking any chances. What Special Agent Rachel Proulx uncovers will shock the entire nation, and the aftermath of her investigation will reverberate through the FBI to the highest levels of government.
Minotaur Books | 9781250036179
THE MONEY SHOT: A Teddy Fay Novel Featuring Stone Barrington by Stuart Woods and Parnell Hall (Thriller/Adventure)
Ever a man of mystery and intrigue, Teddy Fay has donned a new disguise --- that of Mark Weldon, a stuntman and actor starring in Centurion Studios' newest film. When the picture's leading lady begins receiving blackmail threats, Teddy is in the perfect position to investigate, and it soon becomes clear that the villains have more in their sights than just money. Money they have. What they need is prestige, the cache of a respected studio to lend authority and legitimacy to their artistic endeavors…and a little bit of vengeance in the bargain.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780735218598
ONE ON ONE: A Buddy Steel Mystery by Michael Brandman (Mystery)
The brutal murder of a prominent Freedom High School sports coach leads Buddy Steel into a clandestine universe of sexual deception, play parties, unwitting athletes, over-privileged youths, treacherous bullies and shocking malfeasance. At the same time, a sudden scourge of graffiti is disfiguring both public and private property, despoiling the beauty and serenity of Freedom's unassuming landscape. Outraged, and knowing he has few legal weapons to wield, Buddy is forced to find new and challenging ways to thwart the street artist, or artists, responsible. Buddy's plate is soon full and the stakes are enormous as he sets about bringing resolution to a glut of seemingly irresolute occurrences.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464210273
OPEN ME by Lisa Locascio (Fiction)
Roxana Olsen has always dreamed of going to Paris, and after high school graduation finally plans to travel there on a study abroad program. But a logistical mix-up brings Roxana to Copenhagen instead, where she is picked up at the airport by Søren, a 28-year-old guide who is meant to be her steward. Instantly drawn to one another, Roxana and Søren’s relationship turns romantic, and when he asks Roxana to accompany him to a small coastal town for the rest of the summer, she doesn’t hesitate to accept. But as their relationship deepens, Søren’s temperament darkens, and Roxana finds herself increasingly drawn to a local outsider, Zlatan, whom she learns is a Muslim refugee from the Bosnian War.
Grove Press | 9780802128072
OUR HOUSE by Louise Candlish (Psychological Thriller)
When Fiona Lawson comes home to find strangers moving into her house, she's sure there's been a mistake. She and her estranged husband, Bram, have a modern co-parenting arrangement: bird's nest custody, where each parent spends a few nights a week with their two sons at the prized family home to maintain stability for their children. But the system built to protect their family ends up putting them in terrible jeopardy. In a domino effect of crimes and misdemeanors, the nest comes tumbling down. Now Bram has disappeared and so have Fiona's children. As events spiral well beyond her control, Fiona will discover just how many lies her husband was weaving and how little they truly knew each other.
Berkley | 9780451489111
READ ME by Leo Benedictus (Psychological Thriller)
READ ME holds a sinister mirror up to the ways in which we observe, judge and influence people. Leo Benedictus' prose draws readers into the dark, manipulative mind of a serial stalker as he targets women across London, escalating his efforts until he settles on Frances --- a bright young professional whose career is set to take off --- whose life he proceeds to unravel from the inside, out.
Twelve | 9781538711477
RUST & STARDUST by T. Greenwood (Historical Fiction)
Camden, NJ, 1948. When 11-year-old Sally Horner steals a notebook from the local Woolworth's, she has no way of knowing that 52-year-old Frank LaSalle, fresh out of prison, is watching her, preparing to make his move. Accosting her outside the store, Frank convinces Sally that he’s an FBI agent who can have her arrested in a minute --- unless she does as he says. RUST & STARDUST traces the next two harrowing years as Frank mentally and physically assaults Sally while the two of them travel westward from Camden to San Jose, forever altering not only her life, but the lives of her family, friends and those she meets along the way.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250164193
SISTER OF MINE by Laurie Petrou (Psychological Thriller)
Penny and Hattie, orphaned sisters in a small town, are best friends. But Penny, at the mercy of her brutal husband, is desperate for a fresh start. Willing to do anything for her older sister, Hattie agrees to help. A match is struck, and a fire burns Penny’s marriage to the ground. With her husband gone, Penny is free, and it seems the sisters get away with murder. But freedom comes at a cost. More than a year after the fire, a charming young man comes to town. Hattie and Penny quickly bring him into the fold and into their hearts, but their love for him threatens the delicate balance. Soon long-held resentments, sibling rivalry and debts unpaid boil over, and the bonds of sisterhood begin to snap.
Crooked Lane Books | 9781683317173
SUMMER ON THE RIVER by Marcia Willett (Romance)
As summer beckons, Evie’s family gathers once more at the beautiful old riverside house they all adore. But when Evie discovers a secret that threatens their future, a shadow falls over them all: this summer by the river could be their last together. For Charlie, a visit home to see stepmother Evie is an escape from his unhappy marriage in London. Until a chance encounter changes everything: in the space of a moment, he meets a woman by the river, falls in love, and his two worlds collide. As Evie and Charlie struggle to keep their secrets safe, they long for the summer to never end. Can the happiness of one summer last forever?
Thomas Dunne Books | 9781250121059
TAILSPIN by Sandra Brown (Romantic Suspense)
Rye Mallett, a fearless "freight dog" pilot, is asked to fly into a completely fogbound northern Georgia town and deliver a mysterious black box to a Dr. Lambert. As Rye's plane nears the isolated landing strip, more trouble than inclement weather awaits him. He is greeted first by a sabotage attempt on his plane that causes him to crash land, and then by Dr. Brynn O'Neal, who claims she was sent for the box in Dr. Lambert's stead. Despite Rye's "no-involvement" policy when it comes to other people's problems, he finds himself irresistibly drawn to the intrigue surrounding his cargo…and to the mysterious and alluring Brynn. Soon Rye and Brynn are in a treacherous 48-hour race to deliver the box before time runs out.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781455572168
THE THIRD HOTEL by Laura van den Berg (Metaphysical Mystery)
Shortly after Clare arrives in Havana, Cuba, to attend the annual Festival of New Latin American Cinema, she finds her husband, Richard, standing outside a museum. He’s wearing a white linen suit she’s never seen before, and he’s supposed to be dead. Grief-stricken and baffled, Clare tails Richard, a horror film scholar, through the newly tourist-filled streets of Havana, clocking his every move. As the distinction between reality and fantasy blurs, Clare finds grounding in memories of her childhood in Florida and of her marriage to Richard, revealing her role in his death and reappearance along the way.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374168353
THREE THINGS ABOUT ELSIE by Joanna Cannon (Fiction)
There are three things you should know about Elsie. The first thing is that she’s my best friend. The second is that she always knows what to say to make me feel better. And the third thing…might take a bit more explaining. Eighty-four-year-old Florence has fallen in her flat at Cherry Tree Home for the Elderly. As she waits to be rescued, she thinks about her friend Elsie and wonders if a terrible secret from their past is about to come to light. If the charming new resident is who he claims to be, why does he look exactly like a man who died 60 years ago?
Scribner | 9781501187384
TRAVELERS IN THE THIRD REICH: The Rise of Fascism: 1919-1945 by Julia Boyd (History)
The events that took place in Germany between 1919 and 1945 were dramatic and terrible, but there were also moments of confusion, of doubt --- even of hope. How easy was it to know what was actually going on, to grasp the essence of National Socialism, to remain untouched by the propaganda, or predict the Holocaust? TRAVELERS IN THE THIRD REICH is an extraordinary history of the rise of the Nazis based on fascinating first-hand accounts, drawing together a multitude of voices and stories, including politicians, musicians, diplomats, schoolchildren, communists, scholars, athletes, poets, fascists, artists, tourists, and even celebrities like Charles Lindbergh and Samuel Beckett.
Pegasus Books | 9781681777825
AN UNWANTED GUEST by Shari Lapena (Psychological Thriller)
It's winter in the Catskills, and Mitchell's Inn, nestled deep in the woods, is the perfect setting for a relaxing weekend away. So when the weather takes a turn for the worse, and a blizzard cuts off the electricity --- and all contact with the outside world --- the guests settle in for the long haul. Soon, though, one of the guests turns up dead --- it looks like an accident. But when a second guest dies, they start to panic. Within the snowed-in paradise, something --- or someone --- is picking off the guests one by one. And there's nothing they can do but hunker down and hope they can survive the storm.
Pamela Dorman Books | 9780525557623
THE WASHINGTON DECREE by Jussi Adler-Olsen (Political Thriller)
Democratic Senator Bruce Jansen has been elected president of the United States. For 14-year-old Dorothy "Doggie" Rogers, Jansen's election is a personal victory: a job in the White House, proof to her Republican father that she was right to support Jansen, and the rise of an intelligent, clear-headed leader with her same ideals. But the triumph is short-lived: Jansen's pregnant wife is assassinated on election night, and the alleged mastermind behind the shooting is none other than Doggie's own father. When Jansen ascends to the White House, he is a changed man, determined to end gun violence by any means necessary. With the country in chaos, Doggie finds herself fighting for the life of her father, who just may be innocent.
Dutton | 9781524742522
On Sale the Week of August 6th in Paperback
August 7th
AN ACCIDENTAL CORPSE by Helen A. Harrison (Historical Mystery)
Paperback Original
On the night of August 11, 1956, in the East Hampton hamlet of Springs, NY, Jackson Pollock crashed his car into a tree, killing himself. Pollock, the world-renowned abstract painter and notorious alcoholic, also killed his 24-year-old passenger, Edith Metzger, in the crash. Or did he? Metzger’s autopsy reveals that she was already dead before the crash. Murdered? Perhaps. This shocking disclosure draws vacationing Detective Juanita Diaz and her husband, Captain Brian Fitzgerald of the NYPD, into a homicide investigation that implicates famous members of East Hampton’s art community, including Pollock himself.
Dunemere Books | 9781947936058
AFTER NIGHTFALL by A. J. Banner (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Imagine your closest friend utterly betraying you. Years later, when she seeks forgiveness, you invite her to your engagement party as a gesture of reconciliation. But seething hostilities rise to the surface, ruining everyone’s evening. After an awful night, your friend’s battered, lifeless body is found at the bottom of a rocky cliff. Newly engaged Marissa Parlette is living this nightmare. Desperate for answers, Marissa digs deep into the events of the party. But what she remembers happening after nightfall now carries sinister implications. The more she investigates, the more she questions everything she thought she knew about her friends, the man she once trusted, and even herself.
Lake Union Publishing | 9781503949249
AGENT IN PLACE: A Gray Man Novel by Mark Greaney (Thriller)
Fresh off his first mission back with the CIA, Court Gentry secures what seems like a cut-and-dried contract job: A group of expats in Paris hires him to kidnap the mistress of Syrian dictator Ahmed Azzam to get intel that could destabilize Azzam's regime. Court delivers Bianca Medina to the rebels, but his job doesn't end there. She soon reveals that she has given birth to a son, the only heir to Azzam's rule --- and a potent threat to the Syrian president's powerful wife. Now, to get Bianca's cooperation, Court must bring her son out of Syria alive.
Berkley | 9780451488930
BELLEWETHER by Susanna Kearsley (Magical Realism)
Paperback Original
It's late summer, war is raging, and families are torn apart by divided loyalties and deadly secrets. In this complex and dangerous time, a young French Canadian lieutenant is captured and billeted with a Long Island family, an unwilling and unwelcome guest. As he begins to pitch in with the never-ending household tasks and farm chores, Jean-Philippe de Sabran finds himself drawn to the daughter of the house. Slowly, Lydia Wilde comes to lean on Jean-Philippe, true soldier and gentleman, until their lives become inextricably intertwined. Legend has it that the forbidden love between Jean-Philippe and Lydia ended tragically, but centuries later, the clues they left behind slowly unveil the true story.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781492637134
BLOOD HIGHWAY by Gina Wohlsdorf (Thriller)
Paperback Original
Seventeen-year-old Rainy Cain’s life is upended by the sudden appearance of her father, Sam, who she thought was long dead, but instead had been in prison for his part in an armored truck robbery gone murderously wrong. Now escaped and on the run, he kidnaps Rainy, who he is convinced knows where the money from the robbery is hidden. Accompanied by a henchman with secret motives of his own, they set off on a cross-country dash to Big Sur, where Sam suspects his late wife stashed the cash. On their heels is a Minneapolis cop intent on bringing Rainy safely home. What does Rainy really know --- and what is she willing to sacrifice in order to live?
Algonquin Books | 9781616205638
CHARLATANS by Robin Cook (Medical Thriller)
Known for its medical advances, Boston Memorial Hospital has fitted several ORs as “hybrid operating rooms of the future” --- an improvement that seems positive until an anesthesia error during a routine procedure results in the death of an otherwise healthy man. Noah Rothauser, the newly minted chief resident, suspects Dr. William Mason, an egotistical, world-class surgeon, of an error during the operation and of tampering with the patient’s record afterward. But Mason is quick to blame anesthesiologist Dr. Ava London. When more anesthesia-related deaths start to occur, Noah is forced to question all of the residents on his staff, including Ava, and quickly realizes there’s more to her than what he sees.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780735212503
THE CHILD FINDER by Rene Denfeld (Thriller)
Three years ago, Madison Culver disappeared. Desperate to find their beloved daughter, the Culvers turn to Naomi, a private investigator with an uncanny talent for locating the lost and missing. Known to the police and a select group of parents as "the Child Finder," Naomi is their last hope. She understands children like Madison because once upon a time, she was a lost girl, too. As Naomi relentlessly pursues and slowly uncovers the truth behind Madison’s disappearance, shards of a dark dream pierce the defenses that have protected her, reminding her of a terrible loss she feels but cannot remember. If she finds Madison, will Naomi ultimately unlock the secrets of her own life?
Harper Perennial | 9780062659064
CONVERSATIONS WITH FRIENDS by Sally Rooney (Fiction)
Frances is vaguely pursuing a career in writing while studying in Dublin. At a local poetry performance one night, she and her best friend, Bobbi, catch the eye of Melissa, a well-known photographer. As the girls are gradually drawn into Melissa's world, Frances is reluctantly impressed by the older woman's sophisticated home and tall, handsome husband, Nick. However amusing and ironic Frances and Nick’s flirtation seems at first, it gives way to a strange intimacy, and Frances’ friendship with Bobbi begins to fracture. Desperate to reconcile her inner life to the desires and vulnerabilities of her body, Frances' intellectual certainties begin to yield to something new: a painful and disorienting way of living from moment to moment.
Hogarth | 9780451499066
THE DAISY CHILDREN by Sofia Grant (Fiction)
Paperback Original
When Katie Garrett gets the unexpected news that she’s received an inheritance from the grandmother she hardly knew, it couldn’t have come at a better time. She flees Boston --- and her increasingly estranged husband --- and travels to rural Texas. There, she’s greeted by her distant cousin, Scarlett. Friendly, flamboyant and eternally optimistic, Scarlett couldn’t be more different from sensible Katie. And as they begin the task of sorting through their grandmother’s possessions, they discover letters and photographs that uncover the hidden truths about their shared history, and the long-forgotten tragedy of the New London school explosion of 1937 that binds them.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062693440
DESPERATE GIRLS by Laura Griffin (Romantic Suspense)
Paperback Original
When a vicious murderer resurfaces and starts a killing spree to wipe out those who put him behind bars, one thing becomes clear: defense attorney Brynn Holloran, who helped prosecute him, needs to run for her life. When the police come up empty-handed, Brynn turns to a private security firm for protection. But when she defies advice and gets involved in the investigation, even the former Secret Service agent assigned to protect her may not be able to keep her safe. With every new clue she discovers, Brynn is pulled back into the vortex of a disturbing case from her past. As the clock ticks down on a manhunt, Brynn’s desperate search for the truth unearths long-buried secrets and reignites a killer’s fury.
Gallery Books | 9781501162411
EMMA IN THE NIGHT by Wendy Walker (Psychological Thriller)
One night three years ago, the Tanner sisters disappeared: 15-year-old Cass and 17-year-old Emma. Three years later, Cass returns, without her sister Emma. Her story is one of kidnapping and betrayal, of a mysterious island where the two were held. But to forensic psychiatrist Dr. Abby Winter, something doesn't add up. Looking deep within this dysfunctional family, Dr. Winter uncovers a life where boundaries were violated and a narcissistic parent held sway. And where one sister's return might just be the beginning of the crime.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250141422
FIFTY FIFTY by James Patterson and Candice Fox (Thriller)
What are the chances that convicted killer Sam Blue is innocent of the serial murders of three young women? Determined to clear his name, no matter the cost to her career, Detective Harriet Blue accepts a risky reassignment to a remote town where a diary found on the roadside reveals a murderous plan. And the first killing, shortly after her arrival, suggests that the clock is already ticking. Meanwhile, back in the city, a young woman holds the key to crack Harriet's brother's case wide open. If only she could escape the madmen holding her hostage.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538760659
FOREST DARK by Nicole Krauss (Fiction)
In the wake of his parents’ deaths, his divorce from his wife of more than 30 years, and his retirement from the New York legal firm where he was a partner, Jules Epstein has felt an irresistible need to give away his possessions. With the last of his wealth, he travels to Israel, with a nebulous plan to do something to honor his parents. In Tel Aviv, he is sidetracked by a charismatic American rabbi planning a reunion for the descendants of King David, who insists that Epstein is part of that storied dynastic line. He also meets the rabbi’s beautiful daughter, who convinces Epstein to become involved in her own project --- a film about the life of David being shot in the desert --- with life-changing consequences.
Harper Perennial | 9780062431004
GOOD LUCK WITH THAT by Kristan Higgins (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Emerson, Georgia and Marley have been best friends ever since they met at a weight-loss camp as teens. When Emerson tragically passes away, she leaves one final wish for her best friends: to conquer the fears they still carry as adults. For Marley, it's coming to terms with the survivor's guilt she's carried around since her twin sister's death, which has left her blind to the real chance for romance in her life. For Georgia, it's about learning to stop trying to live up to her mother's and brother's ridiculous standards, and learning to accept the love her ex-husband has tried to give her. But as Marley and Georgia grow stronger, the real meaning of Emerson's dying wish becomes truly clear.
Berkley | 9780451489395
THE GREAT QUAKE: How the Biggest Earthquake in North America Changed Our Understanding of the Planet by Henry Fountain (History)
At 5:36pm on March 27, 1964, a magnitude 9.2. earthquake --- the second most powerful in world history --- struck the young state of Alaska. The violent shaking, followed by massive tsunamis, devastated the southern half of the state and killed more than 130 people. A day later, George Plafker, a geologist with the U.S. Geological Survey, arrived to investigate. His fascinating scientific detective work in the months that followed helped confirm the then-controversial theory of plate tectonics. With deep, on-the-ground reporting from Alaska, often in the company of George Plafker, Fountain shows how the earthquake left its mark on the land and its people --- and on science.
Broadway Books | 9781101904084
THE KREMLIN’S CANDIDATE by Jason Matthews (Thriller)
In this final installment of the Red Sparrow trilogy, Russian president Vladimir Putin is planning the covert assassination of a high-ranking US official with the intention of replacing him with a mole whom Russian intelligence has cultivated for more than 15 years. Catching wind of this plot, Dominika, Nate and their CIA colleagues must unmask the traitor before he or she is able to reveal that Dominika has been spying for years on behalf of the CIA. Ultimately, the lines of danger converge on the spectacular billion-dollar presidential palace on the Black Sea during a power weekend with Putin’s inner circle. Does Nate sacrifice himself to save Dominika? Does she forfeit herself to protect Nate? Do they go down together?
Scribner | 9781501140099
LIGHT IT UP: A Peter Ash Novel by Nick Petrie (Thriller)
Combat veteran Peter Ash leaves a simple life rebuilding hiking trails in Oregon to help his good friend Henry Nygaard, whose daughter runs a Denver security company that protects cash-rich cannabis entrepreneurs from modern-day highwaymen. Henry’s son-in-law and the company’s operations manager were carrying a large sum of client money when their vehicle vanished without a trace, leaving Henry’s daughter and her company vulnerable. When Peter is riding shotgun on another cash run, the cargo he’s guarding comes under attack and he narrowly escapes with his life. As the assaults escalate, Peter has to wonder: for criminals this sophisticated, is it really just about the cash?
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780399575655
A LIGHT SO LOVELY: The Spiritual Legacy of Madeleine L'Engle, Author of A Wrinkle in Time by Sarah Arthur (Biography)
Paperback Original
Bestselling and beloved author Madeleine L'Engle, the Newbery winner for A WRINKLE IN TIME, was known the world round for her imaginative spirit and stories. She was also known to spark controversy --- too Christian for some, too unorthodox for others. Somewhere in the middle was a complex woman whose embrace of paradox has much to say to a new generation of readers today. A LIGHT SO LOVELY paints a vivid portrait of this enigmatic icon's spiritual legacy, starting with her inner world and expanding into fresh reflections of her writing for readers today.
Zondervan | 9780310353409
MAEVE IN AMERICA: Essays by a Girl from Somewhere Else by Maeve Higgins (Humor/Essays)
Paperback Original
Maeve Higgins was a bestselling memoirist and comedian in her native Ireland when, at the grand old age of 31, she left the only home she’d ever known in search of something more. Like many women in their early 30s, she both was and was not the adult she wanted to be. At once smart, curious and humane, MAEVE IN AMERICA is the story of how Maeve found herself --- literally and figuratively --- in New York City.
Penguin Books | 9780143130161
MORNINGSTAR: Growing Up with Books by Ann Hood (Memoir/Essays)
Growing up in a mill town in Rhode Island, in a household that didn’t foster a love of literature, Ann Hood discovered nonetheless the transformative power of books. She learned to channel her imagination, ambitions and curiosity by devouring ever-growing stacks. In MORNINGSTAR, Hood recollects how THE BELL JAR, MARJORIE MORNINGSTAR, THE HARRAD EXPERIMENT and THE OUTSIDERS influenced her teen psyche and introduced her to topics that could not be discussed at home. Later, JOHNNY GOT HIS GUN and THE GRAPES OF WRATH dramatically influenced her political thinking, while the Vietnam War and the Kent State shootings became headline news.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393355567
MY OWN WORDS by Ruth Bader Ginsburg, with Mary Hartnett and Wendy W. Williams (Political Science)
In MY OWN WORDS, Ruth Bader Ginsburg discusses gender equality, the workings of the Supreme Court, being Jewish, law and lawyers in opera, and the value of looking beyond US shores when interpreting the US Constitution. Throughout her life, Justice Ginsburg has been (and continues to be) a prolific writer and public speaker. This book’s sampling is selected by Justice Ginsburg and her authorized biographers, Mary Hartnett and Wendy W. Williams, who introduce each chapter and provide biographical context and quotes gleaned from hundreds of interviews they have conducted.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501145254
PAST PERFECT by Danielle Steel (Fiction)
Sybil and Blake Gregory have established a predictable, well-ordered Manhattan life --- she as a cutting-edge design authority and museum consultant, he in high-tech investments --- raising their teenagers Andrew and Caroline and six-year-old Charlie. But everything changes when Blake is offered a dream job he can’t resist as CEO of a start-up in San Francisco. He accepts it without consulting his wife and buys a magnificent, irresistibly underpriced historic Pacific Heights mansion as their new home. The past and present suddenly collide for them in the elegant mansion filled with tender memories and haunting portraits when an earthquake shocks them the night they arrive.
Dell | 9781101883990
PRAIRIE FIRES: The American Dreams of Laura Ingalls Wilder by Caroline Fraser (Biography)
Millions of readers of Little House on the Prairie believe they know Laura Ingalls --- the pioneer girl who survived blizzards and near-starvation on the Great Plains, and the woman who wrote the famous autobiographical books. But the true saga of her life has never been fully told. Now, drawing on unpublished manuscripts, letters, diaries, and land and financial records, Caroline Fraser fills in the gaps in Wilder’s biography. Revealing the grown-up story behind the most influential childhood epic of pioneer life, she also chronicles Wilder's tumultuous relationship with her journalist daughter, Rose Wilder Lane, setting the record straight regarding charges of ghostwriting that have swirled around the books.
Picador | 9781250182487
QUICKSAND written by Malin Persson Giolito, translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles (Legal Thriller)
A mass shooting has taken place at a prep school in Stockholm’s wealthiest suburb. Eighteen-year-old Maja Norberg is charged for her involvement in the massacre that left her boyfriend and her best friend dead. She has spent nine months in jail awaiting trial. Now the time has come for her to enter the courtroom. How did Maja --- popular, privileged and a top student --- become a cold-blooded killer in the eyes of the public? What did Maja do? Or is it what she failed to do that brought her here?
Other Press | 9781590519479
THE READYMADE THIEF by Augustus Rose (Thriller)
Betrayed by her family after taking the fall for a friend, Lee finds refuge in a cooperative of runaways holed up in an abandoned building they call the Crystal Castle. But the façade of the Castle conceals a far more sinister agenda, one hatched by a society of fanatical men set on decoding a series of powerful secrets hidden in plain sight. And they believe Lee holds the key to it all. Aided by Tomi, a young hacker and artist with whom she has struck a wary alliance, Lee escapes into the unmapped corners of the city. But the deeper she goes underground, the more tightly she finds herself bound in the strange web she’s trying to elude. Desperate and out of options, Lee steps from the shadows to face who is after her --- and why.
Penguin Books | 9780735221840
ROUGHNECK by Jeff Lemire (Graphic Novel)
Derek Ouelette’s glory days are behind him. His hockey career ended a decade earlier in a violent incident on ice, and since then he’s been living off his reputation in the remote northern community where he grew up, drinking too much and fighting anyone who crosses him. But he never counts on his long-lost sister, Beth, showing up one day out of the blue, back in town and on the run from an abusive boyfriend. Looking to hide out for a while, the two siblings hunker down in a secluded hunting camp deep in the local woods. It is there that they attempt to find a way to reconnect with each other and the painful secrets of their past...even as Beth’s ex draws closer.
Gallery 13 | 9781476773995
SEVEN STONES TO STAND OR FALL: A Collection of Outlander Fiction by Diana Gabaldon (Historical Fantasy/Short Stories)
“The Custom of the Army” begins with Lord John Grey being shocked by an electric eel and ends at the Battle of Quebec. Then comes “The Space Between,” where it is revealed that the Comte St. Germain is not dead, Master Raymond appears, and a widowed young wine dealer escorts a would-be novice to a convent in Paris. In “A Plague of Zombies,” Lord John unexpectedly becomes military governor of Jamaica when the original governor is gnawed by what probably wasn’t a giant rat. SEVEN STONES TO STAND OR FALL is a magnificent collection of Outlander short fiction --- including two never-before-published novellas --- featuring Jamie Fraser, Lord John Grey, Master Raymond and many more.
Bantam | 9780399593437
THE SHIMMERING ROAD by Hester Young (Gothic Mystery)
When soon-to-be mother Charlotte “Charlie” Cates begins to have recurring dreams about harm coming to her unborn daughter, she knows these are not the nightmares of an anxious mom-to-be. They are the result of her mysterious gift. But before she can decipher what these dreams might mean, Charlie learns that the mother who abandoned her when she was a toddler is the victim of a double murder in Arizona. The other victim --- Jasmine, a half-sister Charlie never knew she had --- has left behind a child, a little girl who speaks to Charlie in her dreams and was present on the night of the murders. Convinced that she must help her orphaned niece, Charlie travels to Tucson, Arizona, where she has to confront her painful ties to her mother and delve into her sister’s shadowy past.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780399574788
SOLAR BONES by Mike McCormack (Fiction)
It is All Souls Day, and the spirit of Marcus Conway sits at his kitchen table and remembers. Conway recalls his life in rural Ireland. His ruminations move from childhood memories of his father’s deftness with machines to his own work as a civil engineer, from transformations in the local economy to the tidal wave of global financial collapse. Conway’s thoughts go still further, outward to the vast systems of time and history that hold us all. He stares down through the “vortex of his being,” surveying all the linked circumstances that combined to bring him into this single moment, and he makes us feel --- if only for an instant --- all the terror and gratitude that existence inspires.
Soho Press | 9781616959531
THE TALENTED RIBKINS by Ladee Hubbard (Fiction)
Johnny Ribkins has just one week to come up with the money he stole from his mobster boss or it’s curtains. What may or may not be useful to him as he flees is that he comes from an African-American family that has been gifted with very odd superpowers. In the old days, the Ribkins family tried to apply their gifts to the civil rights effort, calling themselves The Justice Committee. But when their superpowers proved insufficient, the group fell apart. Out of frustration, Johnny and his brother used their talents to stage a series of burglaries. Now Johnny is on a race against the clock to dig up loot he's stashed all over Florida, and he has an unexpected sidekick: his brother's daughter, Eloise, who has a special superpower of her own.
Melville House | 9781612197289
TARNISHED CITY by Vic James (Dystopian Fantasy)
In a modern Britain where magic users control wealth, politics --- and you --- an uprising has been crushed. In its aftermath, two families will determine the country’s fate. The ruthless Jardines make a play for ultimate power. And the Hadleys, once an ordinary family, must find the extraordinary strength to fight back. Abi Hadley is a fugitive. Her brother, Luke, a prisoner. Both will discover that in the darkest places, the human spirit shines brightest. Meanwhile, amid his family’s intrigues, Silyen Jardine dreams of forgotten powers from an earlier age. As blood runs in the streets of London, all three will discover if love and courage can ever be stronger than tyranny.
Del Rey | 9780425284148
TO BE WHERE YOU ARE: A Mitford Novel by Jan Karon (Fiction)
A beloved town character lands a front-page obituary. But who was it, exactly, who died? And what about the former mayor who’s still running for office? All this, of course, is but a feather on the wind compared to Muse editor J.C. Hogan’s desperate attempts to find a cure for his marital woes. Twenty minutes from Mitford at Meadowgate Farm, newlyweds Dooley and Lace Kavanagh face a crisis that devastates their bank account and impacts their family vet practice. But there is still a lot to celebrate, as their adopted son, Jack, looks forward to the most important day of his life. Happily, it also will be a day when the terrible wound in Dooley’s biological family begins to heal because of a game --- let’s just call it a miracle --- that breaks all the rules.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780399183744
TO SIRI WITH LOVE: A Mother, Her Autistic Son, and the Kindness of Machines by Judith Newman (Memoir)
When Judith Newman shared the story of how Apple’s electronic personal assistant, Siri, helped Gus, her son who has autism, she received widespread media attention and an outpouring of affection from readers around the world. While many worry that our electronic gadgets are dumbing us down, Judith revealed how they can give voice to others, including children with autism like Gus --- a boy who has trouble looking people in the eye, hops when he’s happy, and connects with inanimate objects on an empathetic level. TO SIRI WITH LOVE is a collection of funny, poignant and uplifting stories about living with an extraordinary child who has helped a parent see and experience the world differently.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062413635
TOUCH by Courtney Maum (Fiction)
Estranged from her family, best friends with her driverless car, partnered with a Frenchman who believes in post-sexual sex, international trend forecaster Sloane Jacobsen is the perfect candidate to lead tech giant Mammoth's conference for affluent consumers who prefer virtual relationships to the real things. But early in her contract, Sloane starts picking up on cues that physical intimacy is going to make a major comeback, leaving many --- Sloane included --- to question if the 40-year-old's intuitions are as dependable as they once were. And if Sloane goes rogue against her all-powerful employer, will she be able to let in the love and connectedness she's long been denying herself?
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780735212145
UNDER A DARK SKY by Lori Rader-Day (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Paperback Original
When Eden Wallace finds paperwork in her late husband's effects indicating that he reserved a week at a dark sky park, she goes. She's ready to shed her fear and return to the living, even if it means facing her paralyzing phobia of the dark. But when she arrives at the park, the guest suite she thought was a private retreat is teeming with a group of twenty-somethings, all stuck in the orbit of their old college friendships. Horrified that her getaway has been taken over, Eden decides to head home the next day. But then a scream wakes the house in the middle of the night. One of the friends has been murdered. Now everyone --- including Eden --- is a suspect. Everyone is keeping secrets, but only one is a murderer.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062560308
THE UNFORGOTTEN by Laura Powell (Mystery/Thriller)
Fifteen-year-old Betty Broadbent’s world is upended in the summer of 1956 when a string of brutal murders brings London’s press corps flooding into the village, many of whom find lodging at the Hotel Eden, a boarding house run by her mother. She is instantly transfixed by one of the reporters, Mr. Gallagher --- and he, fully twice her age, seems equally transfixed by her. The unlikely relationship that blooms between them is as overlaid with longing and desire as it is with impropriety and even menace. And as the shocking death toll rises, both Betty and Mr. Gallagher are forced to make a devastating choice, one that will shape their own lives --- and the life of an innocent man --- forever.
Gallery Books | 9781501184253
THE WESTERN STAR: A Longmire Mystery by Craig Johnson (Mystery)
A younger sheriff confronts Walt Longmire with a photograph of 25 armed men standing in front of a Challenger steam locomotive. It takes him back to when, fresh from the battlefields of Vietnam, then-deputy Walt accompanied his mentor Lucian to the annual Wyoming Sheriff's Association junket. The young Walt was ill-prepared for the machinations of 24 veteran sheriffs, let alone the cavalcade of curious characters who accompanied them. The photograph --- along with an upcoming parole hearing for one of the most dangerous men Walt has encountered in a lifetime of law enforcement --- hurtles the sheriff into a head-on collision of past and present, placing him and everyone he cares about squarely on the tracks of runaway revenge.
Penguin Books | 9780143109136
WITH YOU ALWAYS by Rena Olsen (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
In the wake of a painful breakup and struggling to prove herself at work, Julia feels adrift. When Bryce blows into her life, he seems like the perfect anchor. Bryce brings out the best in Julia, sweeping her off her feet with attention and affection while grounding her with his certainty and faith. Together they embark on a path guided by the principles of his family and their church, each step a paving stone leading to happily ever after. But this is no fairy tale. Step by step, one small concession leading to another, Julia is slowly isolated from her job, her friends and her family, until she comes to find that her dream come true is a cage. Then one day everything changes...and Julia is faced with no choice but to find a way out.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9781101982396
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