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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of January 21st and January 28th 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 New Release Spotlight of Stephanie Land's memoir, MAID: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive, which is now in stores and will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick.
We also 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 January titles you are planning to read.
For those of you who are doing online shopping, if you use the store links below, Bookreporter.com gets a small affiliate fee on your purchases. We would appreciate your considering this!
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound
This Week's Bonus News:
Our New Release Spotlight of MAID by Stephanie Land
MAID: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive by Stephanie Land (Memoir)
At 28, Stephanie Land’s plans of breaking free from the roots of her hometown in the Pacific Northwest to chase her dreams of attending a university and becoming a writer were cut short when a summer fling turned into an unexpected pregnancy. She turned to housekeeping to make ends meet.
With a tenacious grip on her dream to provide her daughter the very best life possible, Stephanie worked days and took classes online to earn a college degree, and began to write relentlessly. She wrote the true stories that weren’t being told: the stories of overworked and underpaid Americans. Of living on food stamps and WIC (Women, Infants and Children) coupons to eat. Of the government programs that provided her housing, but that doubled as halfway houses. The aloof government employees who called her lucky for receiving assistance while she didn’t feel lucky at all. She wrote to remember the fight, to eventually cut through the deep-rooted stigmas of the working poor.
MAID explores the underbelly of upper-middle-class America and the reality of what it’s like to be in service to them. “I’d become a nameless ghost,” Stephanie writes about her relationship with her clients, many of whom do not know her from any other cleaner, but who she learns plenty about. As she begins to discover more about her clients’ lives --- their sadness and love, too --- she begins to find hope in her own path.
Her compassionate, unflinching writing as a journalist gives voice to the “servant” worker, and those pursuing the American Dream from below the poverty line. MAID is Stephanie’s story, but it’s not her alone. It is an inspiring testament to the strength, determination and ultimate triumph of the human spirit.
MAID will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick. Don't miss Carol Fitzgerald's commentary in the February 1st Bookreporter.com Weekly Update newsletter.
- Click here to read a review.
- Click here for the discussion guide.
- Click here to watch the book trailer.
- Click here to read Stephanie Land's bio.
- Click here to visit Stephanie Land's website.
- Connect with Stephanie Land on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Click here to read more in our New Release Spotlight.
On Sale the Week of January 21st in Hardcover
January 22nd
THE ALARMING PALSY OF JAMES ORR by Tom Lee (Fiction)
James Orr --- husband, father, reliable employee and all-around model citizen --- awakes one morning to find half his face paralyzed. Waiting for the affliction to pass, he stops going to work and wanders his idyllic estate, with its woodland, uniform streets and perfectly manicured lawns. But there are cracks in the veneer. And as his orderly existence begins to unravel, it appears that James himself may not be the man he thought he was.
Soho Press | 9781641290043
CAMELOT'S END: Kennedy vs. Carter and the Fight that Broke the Democratic Party by Jon Ward (Politics/History)
The Carter presidency was on life support. The Democrats, desperate to keep power and yearning to resurrect former glory, turned to Ted Kennedy. It was the last time an American president received a serious reelection challenge from inside his own party, the last contested convention, and the last all-out floor fight, where political combatants fought in real time to decide who would be the nominee. It was the last gasp of an outdated system, an insider's game that old Kennedy hands thought they had mastered, and the year that marked the unraveling of the Democratic Party as America had known it. CAMELOT'S END details the incredible drama of Kennedy's challenge --- what led to it, how it unfolded and its lasting effects.
Twelve | 9781455591381
CRUCIBLE by James Rollins (Thriller/Adventure)
Arriving home on Christmas Eve, Commander Gray Pierce discovers his house ransacked, his pregnant lover missing, and his best friend’s wife, Kat, unconscious on the kitchen floor. With no shred of evidence to follow, his one hope to find the woman he loves and his unborn child is Kat, the only witness to what happened. But the injured woman is in a semi-comatose state and cannot speak --- until a brilliant neurologist offers a radical approach to "unlock" her mind long enough to ask a few questions. What Pierce learns from Kat sets Sigma Force on a frantic quest for answers that are connected to mysteries reaching back to the Spanish Inquisition and to one of the most reviled and blood-soaked books in human history.
William Morrow | 9780062381781
THE CURRENT by Tim Johnston (Thriller)
In the dead of winter, state troopers pull two young women and their car from an icy river. One is found downriver, drowned, while the other is found at the scene --- half frozen but alive. What happened was no accident, and news of the crime awakens the community’s memories of another young woman who lost her life in the same river 10 years earlier, and whose killer may still live among them. Determined to find answers, the surviving young woman soon realizes that she’s connected to the earlier unsolved case by more than just a river. The deeper she plunges into her own investigation, the closer she comes to dangerous truths, and to the violence that simmers just below the surface of her hometown.
Algonquin Books | 9781616206772
GOLDEN STATE by Ben H. Winters (Dystopian Thriller)
In a strange alternate society that values law and truth above all else, Laszlo Ratesic is a 19-year veteran of the Speculative Service. He lives in the Golden State, a nation standing where California once did, a place where like-minded Americans retreated after the erosion of truth and the spread of lies made public life and governance impossible. In the Golden State, knowingly contradicting the truth is the greatest crime --- and stopping those crimes is Laz's job. In its service, he is one of the few individuals permitted to harbor untruths, to "speculate" on what might have happened. When those in control of the facts twist them for nefarious means, the Speculators are the only ones with the power to fight back.
Mulholland Books | 9780316505413
THE GOLDEN TRESSES OF THE DEAD: A Flavia de Luce Novel by Alan Bradley (Historical Mystery)
Although it is autumn in the small English town of Bishop’s Lacey, the chapel is decked with exotic flowers. Yes, Flavia de Luce’s sister, Ophelia, is at last getting hitched. An expert in the chemical nature of poisons, Flavia has solved many mysteries, sharpening her considerable detection skills to the point where she had little choice but to turn professional. So Flavia and dependable Dogger, estate gardener and sounding board extraordinaire, set up shop at the once-grand mansion of Buckshaw, eager to serve. Little does she know that their first case will be extremely close to home, beginning with an unwelcome discovery in Ophelia’s wedding cake: a human finger.
Delacorte Press | 9780345540027
THE INBETWEEN DAYS by Eva Woods (Fiction)
Rosie Cooke is “in between.” In between consciousness and oblivion. Life and death. And though some say that when you’re near death your entire life flashes before your eyes, Rosie can’t remember anything at all --- not even how she ended up in a coma. Then something strange starts to happen. Rosie finds herself revisiting scattered moments from her past: a beach vacation, a play rehearsal, the day her brother was born. But why these memories? And what do they mean? As each piece of the puzzle comes into focus, Rosie struggles to face the picture of her life that forms. But with every look backward comes a glimpse of what might be: A relationship with her sister. The opportunity to pursue her passion. A second chance at love.
Graydon House | 9781525830471
THE KINGDOM OF COPPER by S. A. Chakraborty (Historical Fantasy)
Nahri’s life changed forever the moment she accidentally summoned Dara, a formidable, mysterious djinn, during one of her schemes. Whisked from her home in Cairo, she was thrust into the dazzling royal court of Daevabad --- and quickly discovered she would need all her grifter instincts to survive there. Now, with Daevabad entrenched in the dark aftermath of a devastating battle, Nahri must forge a new path for herself. But even as she embraces her heritage and the power it holds, she knows she’s been trapped in a gilded cage, watched by a king who rules from the throne that once belonged to her family --- and one misstep will doom her tribe.
Harper Voyager | 9780062678133
A LABYRINTH OF SCIONS AND SORCERY: Book Two in the Risen Kingdoms by Curtis Craddock (Historical Fantasy)
Isabelle des Zephyrs has always been underestimated throughout her life, but after discovering the well of hidden magic within her, unveiling a centuries-long conspiracy, and stopping a war between rival nations, she has gained a newfound respect amongst the cutthroat court. All that is quickly taken away when Isabelle is unfairly convicted of breaking the treaty she helped write and has her political rank and status taken away. Now bereft, she nevertheless finds herself drawn into a mystery when her faithful musketeer Jean-Claude uncovers a series of gruesome murders by someone calling themselves the Harvest King.
Tor Books | 9780765389626
MAID: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive by Stephanie Land (Memoir)
At 28, Stephanie Land turned to housekeeping to make ends meet. With a tenacious grip on her dream to provide her daughter the very best life possible, Stephanie worked days and took classes online to earn a college degree, and began to write relentlessly. She wrote the true stories that weren't being told: the stories of overworked and underpaid Americans. Of living on food stamps to eat. Of the government programs that provided her housing, but that doubled as halfway houses. The aloof government employees who called her lucky for receiving assistance. She wrote to remember the fight, to eventually cut through the deep-rooted stigmas of the working poor. MAID explores the underbelly of upper-middle-class America and the reality of what it's like to be in service to them.
Hachette Books | 9780316505116
THE NOWHERE CHILD by Christian White (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Kimberly Leamy is a photography teacher in Melbourne, Australia. Twenty-six years earlier, Sammy Went, a two-year-old girl, vanished from her home in Manson, Kentucky. An American accountant who contacts Kim is convinced she was that child, kidnapped just after her birthday. On April 3, 1990, Jack and Molly Went’s daughter, Sammy, disappeared from their Kentucky home. Jack did his best to raise and protect his other daughter and son while Molly found solace in her faith. The Church of the Light Within, a Pentecostal fundamentalist group, provided that faith. Now, with proof that she and Sammy are in fact the same person, Kim travels to America to reunite with a family she never knew she had.
Minotaur Books | 9781250293718
RESTORATION HEIGHTS by Wil Medearis (Mystery)
Reddick, a young, white artist, lives in Bedford-Stuyvesant, a historically black Brooklyn neighborhood besieged by gentrification. He makes rent as an art handler in Manhattan and spends his free time playing basketball at the local Y. He is also the last person to see Hannah before she disappears. When Hannah’s fiancé, scion to a wealthy Upper East Side family, refuses to call the police, Reddick sets out to discover what happened to her. The search pulls him through a dramatic cross section of New York, taking him to the heart of a many-layered mystery that, in its unraveling, shakes Reddick’s convictions and lays bare the complex power dynamics of the city.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335218728
THE RULE OF LAW: A Dismas Hardy Novel by John Lescroart (Legal Thriller)
Dismas Hardy knows something is amiss with his trusted secretary, Phyllis. Her out-of-character behavior and sudden disappearances concern Hardy, especially when he learns that her convict brother --- a man who had served 25 years in prison for armed robbery and attempted murder --- has just been released. Things take a shocking turn when Phyllis is suddenly arrested at work for allegedly being an accessory to the murder of Hector Valdez, a coyote who’d been smuggling women into this country from El Salvador and Mexico. That is, until recently, when he was shot to death --- on the very same day that Phyllis first disappeared from work.
Atria Books | 9781501115738
RUPTURE: An Ari Thor Thriller by Ragnar Jonasson (Mystery/Thriller)
Young policeman Ari Thór tries to solve a 50-year-old murder when new evidence surfaces. But the case proves difficult in a town where no one wants to know the truth, where secrets are a way of life. He's assisted by Ísrún, a news reporter in Reykjavik who is investigating an increasingly chilling case of her own. Things take a sinister turn when a child goes missing in broad daylight. With a stalker on the loose, and the town in quarantine, the past just might come back to haunt them.
Minotaur Books | 9781250193346
THE SMILING MAN by Joseph Knox (Thriller)
Aidan Waits and his partner are called to investigate a break-in at The Palace, an immense, empty hotel in the center of the city. There they find the body of a man. He is dead. The tags have been cut from his clothes, his teeth have been filed down, and even his fingertips have been replaced. And he is smiling. But as Waits begins to unravel the mystery of the smiling man, he becomes a target. Someone wants very badly to make this case disappear, and as their threats escalate, Aidan realizes that the answers may lie not only with the wealthy families and organized criminals connected to the Palace, but with a far greater evil from his own past.
Crown | 9781524763190
THE SUSPECT by Fiona Barton (Psychological Thriller)
When two 18-year-old girls go missing in Thailand, their families are thrust into the international spotlight: desperate, bereft and frantic with worry. What were the girls up to before they disappeared? Journalist Kate Waters always does everything she can to be first to the story, first with the exclusive, first to discover the truth --- and this time is no exception. But she can’t help but think of her own son, whom she hasn’t seen in two years, since he left home to go travelling. As the case of the missing girls unfolds, they all will find that even this far away, danger can lie closer to home than you might think.
Berkley | 9781101990513
THE WARTIME SISTERS by Lynda Cohen Loigman (Historical Fiction)
Two estranged sisters, raised in Brooklyn and each burdened with her own shocking secret, are reunited at the Springfield Armory in the early days of WWII. While one sister lives in relative ease on the bucolic Armory campus as an officer’s wife, the other arrives as a war widow and takes a position in the Armory factories as a “soldier of production.” Resentment festers between the two, and secrets are shattered when a mysterious figure from the past reemerges in their lives.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250140708
THE WEIGHT OF A PIANO by Chris Cander (Fiction)
In 1962, in the Soviet Union, eight-year-old Katya is bequeathed what will become the love of her life: a Blüthner piano on which she discovers everything that she herself can do with music and what music, in turn, does for her. Yet after marrying, she emigrates with her young family from Russia to America, and her piano is lost in the shuffle. In 2012, in Bakersfield, California, 26-year-old Clara Lundy loses another boyfriend and again has to find a new apartment, which is complicated by the gift her father had given her for her 12th birthday: a Blüthner upright she has never learned to play. When her hand gets broken while the piano is being moved, Clara chooses to sell it. And what becomes crucial is who the most interested party turns out to be.
Knopf | 9780525654674
THE WOMAN INSIDE by E. G. Scott (Psychological Thriller)
Rebecca didn’t know that love was possible until she met Paul, a successful, charismatic, married man with a past as dark as her own. But 20 years later, they are drowning as the damage and secrets that ignited their love begin to consume their marriage. Paul is cheating on Rebecca, and his affair gets messy fast. His mistress is stalking them with growing audacity when Rebecca discovers Paul’s elaborate plan to build a new life without her. And though Rebecca is spiraling into an opiate addiction, it doesn’t stop her from coming up with a devious plot of her own, which could end absolutely everything.
Dutton | 9781524744526
On Sale the Week of January 21st in Paperback
January 22nd
AS BRIGHT AS HEAVEN by Susan Meissner (Historical Fiction)
In 1918, Philadelphia was a city teeming with promise. Even as its young men went off to fight in the Great War, there were opportunities for a fresh start. Into this bustling town came Pauline Bright and her husband, filled with hope that they could now give their three daughters a chance at a better life. But just months after they arrive, the Spanish Flu reaches the shores of America. As the pandemic claims more than 12,000 victims in their adopted city, they find their lives left with a world that looks nothing like the one they knew. But even as they lose loved ones, they take in a baby orphaned by the disease who becomes their single source of hope.
Berkley | 9780399585975
DAUGHTERS OF THE WINTER QUEEN: Four Remarkable Sisters, the Crown of Bohemia, and the Enduring Legacy of Mary, Queen of Scots by Nancy Goldstone (Biography/History)
Young Elizabeth Stuart was thrust into a life of wealth and splendor when her godmother, Queen Elizabeth I, died and her father, James I, ascended to the illustrious throne of England. At 16 she was married to a dashing German count far below her rank, with the understanding that James would help her husband achieve the crown of Bohemia. Her father's terrible betrayal of this promise would ruin "the Winter Queen," as Elizabeth would be forever known, imperil the lives of those she loved, and launch a war that would last for 30 years. Forced into exile, the Winter Queen and her growing family found refuge in Holland, where the glorious art and culture of the Dutch Golden Age formed the backdrop to her daughters' education.
Back Bay Books | 9780316387897
FREEDOM ROAD by William Lashner (Thriller)
Paperback Original
Oliver Cross is fresh out of jail. When he finds out that his granddaughter, a wild child who reminds him of his late wife, has vanished, Oliver jumps parole. With a sketchy teen and an abandoned dog, he hits the blacktop to find her. On the road and on the run from a vengeful Russian drug dealer, Oliver finds himself on a trip across America and into his own past, fueled by fumes from a Ford F-250 and a reason to live. But from an exclusive club in Chicago to a seedy commune in the Rockies, a series of disastrous choices sends Oliver spiraling further from his goal and deeper into danger. It’s a journey that could all end in redemption or a hail of bullets. And either is okay by him.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781503904460
THE GIRLS IN THE PICTURE by Melanie Benjamin (Historical Fiction)
It is 1914, and 25-year-old Frances Marion has left her (second) husband and her Northern California home for the lure of Los Angeles. But the word on everyone’s lips these days is “flickers,” the silent moving pictures enthralling theatergoers. In this fledgling industry, Frances finds her true calling: writing stories for this wondrous new medium. She also makes the acquaintance of actress Mary Pickford, and they hit it off instantly --- their kinship fomented by their mutual fever to create, move audiences to a frenzy and start a revolution. But their ambitions are challenged by both the men around them and the limitations imposed on their gender --- and their astronomical success could come at a price.
Bantam | 9781101886823
HAPPINESS by Aminatta Forna (Fiction)
Attila, a Ghanaian psychiatrist, has arrived in London with two tasks: to deliver a keynote speech on trauma, and to contact the daughter of friends, his “niece” who hasn’t called home in a while. Ama has been swept up in an immigration crackdown, and now her young son Tano is missing. When, by chance, Attila runs into Jean again, she mobilizes the network of rubbish men she uses as volunteer fox spotters. Security guards, hotel doormen, traffic wardens --- mainly West African immigrants who work the myriad streets of London --- come together to help. Meanwhile, a consulting case causes Attila to question the impact of his own ideas on trauma, the values of the society in which he finds himself, and a grief of his own.
Grove Press | 9780802129185
HEADS OF THE COLORED PEOPLE: Stories by Nafissa Thompson-Spires (Fiction/Short Stories)
In HEADS OF THE COLORED PEOPLE, Nafissa Thompson-Spires grapples with black identity and the contemporary middle class. Some stories in this collection are darkly humorous --- from two mothers exchanging snide remarks through notes in their kids’ backpacks, to the young girl contemplating how best to notify her Facebook friends of her impending suicide. Others are devastatingly poignant --- a new mother and funeral singer who is driven to madness with grief for the young black boys who have fallen victim to gun violence, or the teen who struggles between her upper middle class upbringing and her desire to fully connect with black culture.
Atria/37 INK | 9781501168000
LEARNING TO SEE: A Novel of Dorothea Lange, the Woman Who Revealed the Real America by Elise Hooper (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
In 1918, a fearless 22-year-old arrives in bohemian San Francisco. Renaming herself Dorothea Lange, she is soon the celebrated owner of the city’s most prestigious and stylish portrait studio. By the early 1930s, as America’s economy collapses, her marriage founders and Dorothea must find ways to support her two young sons single-handedly. Determined to expose the horrific conditions of the nation’s poor, she takes to the road with her camera. And when the United States enters World War II, Dorothea chooses to confront another injustice --- the incarceration of thousands of innocent Japanese Americans. At a time when women were supposed to keep the home fires burning, Dorothea Lange dares to be different. But her choices came at a steep price.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062686534
MARY VENTURA AND THE NINTH KINGDOM: A Story by Sylvia Plath (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Never before published, this newly discovered story by literary legend Sylvia Plath stands on its own and is remarkable for its symbolic, allegorical approach to a young woman’s rebellion against convention and forceful taking control of her own life. Written while Plath was a student at Smith College in 1952, MARY VENTURA AND THE NINTH KINGDOM tells the story of a young woman’s fateful train journey. Lips the color of blood, the sun an unprecedented orange, train wheels that sound like “guilt, and guilt, and guilt”: these are just some of the things Mary Ventura begins to notice on her journey to the ninth kingdom. “But what is the ninth kingdom?” she asks a kind-seeming lady in her carriage. “It is the kingdom of the frozen will,” comes the reply. “There is no going back.”
Harper Perennial | 9780062940834
THE MAZE AT WINDERMERE by Gregory Blake Smith (Historical Fiction)
A reckless wager between a tennis pro with a fading career and a drunken party guest --- the stakes are an antique motorcycle and an heiress’s diamond necklace --- launches a narrative odyssey that braids together three centuries of aspiration and adversity. A witty and urbane bachelor of the Gilded Age embarks on a high-risk scheme to marry into a fortune; a young writer soon to make his mark turns himself to his craft with harrowing social consequences; an aristocratic British officer during the American Revolution carries on a courtship that leads to murder; and, in Newport’s earliest days, a tragically orphaned Quaker girl imagines a way forward for herself and the slave girl she has inherited.
Penguin Books | 9780735221932
OUR LADY OF THE PRAIRIE by Thisbe Nissen (Fiction)
For Phillipa Maakestad --- theater professor and mother to a troubled, volatile daughter --- life is finally, miraculously calm. What better moment, then, to fall headlong into a passionate affair, fly off to France with her new lover, and effectively take a match to her life on the Iowa prairie? As she steps back to survey the damage and determine her way forward, Phillipa must contend with a wedding-day tornado, a menace of a mother-in-law who may or may not have been a Nazi collaborator, and the tragicomic revenge fantasies of her otherwise docile husband. Which is to say: the damage is not easily contained, and the path ahead is not clear.
Mariner Books | 9781328507983
THREE DAUGHTERS OF EVE by Elif Shafak (Fiction)
Peri, a married, wealthy, beautiful Turkish woman, is on her way to a dinner party at a seaside mansion in Istanbul when a beggar snatches her handbag. As she wrestles to get it back, a photograph falls to the ground --- an old polaroid of three young women and their university professor. Peri arrives at the party and navigates the tensions that simmer in this crossroads country between East and West, religious and secular, rich and poor. Over the course of the dinner, and amidst an opulence that is surely ill-begotten, terrorist attacks occur across the city. Competing in Peri's mind, however, are the memories invoked by her almost-lost polaroid, of the time years earlier when she was sent abroad for the first time, to attend Oxford University.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781632869968
On Sale the Week of January 28th in Hardcover
January 29th
AT THE WOLF'S TABLE by Rosella Postorino (Historical Fiction)
Twenty-six-year-old Rosa Sauer’s parents are gone, and her husband Gregor is far away, fighting on the front lines of WWII. Impoverished and alone, she makes the fateful decision to leave war-torn Berlin to live with her in-laws in the countryside. But one morning, the SS informs her that she has been conscripted to be one of Hitler’s tasters: twice a day, she and nine other women go to his secret headquarters to eat his meals before he does. Forced to eat what might kill them, the tasters begin to divide into The Fanatics, those loyal to Hitler, and the women like Rosa who insist they aren’t Nazis, even as they risk their lives every day for Hitler’s. As secrets and resentments grow, this unlikely sisterhood reaches its own dramatic climax.
Flatiron Books | 9781250179142
THE BREAK LINE: A Max McLean Novel by James Brabazon (Thriller)
When it comes to killing terrorists, British intelligence has always had one man they could rely on: Max McLean. As an assassin, he's never missed, but Max has made one miscalculation and now must pay the price. His handlers send him to Sierra Leone on a seemingly one-way mission. What he finds is a horror from beyond his nightmares. Rebel forces are loose in the jungle, and someone or something is slaughtering innocent villagers. It's his job to root out the monster behind these abominations, but he soon discovers that London may consider him the most disposable piece in this operation.
Berkley | 9780440001478
THE CROOKED STREET by Brian Freeman (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
San Francisco homicide detective Frost Easton hadn’t seen his estranged friend Denny in years. Not until he dies in Frost’s arms uttering a final inexplicable word: Lombard. Denny appears to be the latest victim in a string of murders linked by a distinctive clue: the painting of a spiraled snake near the crime scenes. Is it the work of a serial killer? Or is Denny’s death more twisted and personal? To find the answer, Frost reaches into a nest of vipers --- San Francisco’s shady elite --- where the whispered name of Lombard is just one secret. Now, drawn into a cat-and-mouse game with an enemy who knows his every move, Frost finds that there is no one he can trust.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781503900943
DEEP CREEK: Finding Hope in the High Country by Pam Houston (Memoir/Essays)
On her 120-acre homestead high in the Colorado Rockies, beloved writer Pam Houston learns what it means to care for a piece of land and the creatures on it. Elk calves and bluebirds mark the changing seasons, winter temperatures drop to 35 below, and lightning sparks a 110,000-acre wildfire, threatening her century-old barn and all its inhabitants. Through her travels from the Gulf of Mexico to Alaska, she explores what ties her to the earth, the ranch most of all. Alongside her devoted Irish wolfhounds and a spirited troupe of horses, donkeys and Icelandic sheep, the ranch becomes Houston’s sanctuary, a place where she discovers how the natural world has mothered and healed her after a childhood of horrific parental abuse and neglect.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393241020
THE FALCONER by Dana Czapnik (Fiction)
New York, 1993. Seventeen-year-old Lucy Adler, a street-smart, trash-talking baller, is often the only girl on the public courts. At turns quixotic and cynical, insecure and self-possessed, Lucy is in unrequited love with her best friend and pick-up teammate Percy, scion to a prominent New York family who insists he wishes to resist upper crust fate. As she navigates this complex relationship with all its youthful heartache, Lucy is seduced by a different kind of life --- one less consumed by conventional success and the approval of men. A pair of provocative female artists living in what remains of New York’s bohemia invite her into their world, but soon even their paradise begins to show cracks.
Atria Books | 9781501193224
GOLDEN CHILD by Claire Adam (Fiction)
Rural Trinidad: a brick house on stilts surrounded by bush; a family, quietly surviving, just trying to live a decent life. Clyde, the father, works long, exhausting shifts at the petroleum plant in southern Trinidad; Joy, his wife, looks after the home. Their 13-year-old sons wake early every morning to travel to the capital, Port of Spain, for school. They are twins but nothing alike: Paul has always been considered odd, while Peter is widely believed to be a genius, destined for greatness. When Paul goes walking in the bush one afternoon and doesn't come home, Clyde is forced to go looking for him. As the hours turn to days, and Clyde begins to understand Paul’s fate, his world shatters --- leaving him faced with a decision no parent should ever have to make.
SJP for Hogarth | 9780525572992
HERE AND NOW AND THEN by Mike Chen (Science Fiction/Adventure)
Kin Stewart is an everyday family man. But his current life is a far cry from his previous career…as a time-traveling secret agent from 2142. Stranded in suburban San Francisco since the 1990s after a botched mission, Kin has kept his past hidden from everyone around him, despite the increasing blackouts and memory loss affecting his time-traveler’s brain. Until one afternoon, his “rescue” team arrives --- 18 years too late. Their mission: return Kin to 2142, where another family is waiting for him. A family he can’t remember. Torn between two lives, Kin is desperate for a way to stay connected to both. But when his best efforts threaten to destroy the agency and even history itself, his daughter’s very existence is at risk.
Mira | 9780778369042
JUDGMENT by Joseph Finder (Legal Thriller)
Juliana Brody, a judge in the Superior Court of Massachusetts, is rumored to be in consideration for the federal circuit, maybe someday the highest court in the land. At a conference in a Chicago hotel, she meets a gentle, vulnerable man and has an unforgettable night with him. But back home in Boston, Juliana realizes that this was no random encounter. The man from Chicago proves to have an integral role in a sex-discrimination case she's presiding over. Juliana discovers that she's been entrapped, her night of infidelity captured on video. It soon becomes clear that personal humiliation, even the possible destruction of her career, are the least of her concerns, as her own life and the lives of her family are put in mortal jeopardy.
Dutton | 9781101985816
THE LINE BETWEEN by Tosca Lee (Dystopian Thriller)
When Wynter Roth is turned out of New Earth, a self-contained doomsday cult on the American prairie, she emerges into a world poised on the brink of madness as a mysterious outbreak of rapid early onset dementia spreads across the nation. As Wynter struggles to start over in a world she’s been taught to regard as evil, she finds herself face-to-face with the apocalypse she’s feared all her life --- until the night her sister shows up at her doorstep with a set of medical samples that are key to understanding the disease. Uncertain who to trust, she takes up with former military man Chase Miller, who has his own reasons for wanting to get close to the samples in her possession, and to Wynter herself.
Howard Books | 9781476798622
OUT OF THE DARK: An Orphan X Novel by Gregg Hurwitz (Thriller)
Someone at the very highest level of government has been trying to eliminate every trace of the Orphan Program by killing all the remaining Orphans and their trainers. After Evan Smoak's mentor and the only father he ever knew was killed, he decided to strike back. His target is the man who started the Program and who is now the most heavily guarded person in the world: the President of the United States. But President Bennett knows that Orphan X is after him, and, using weapons of his own, he's decided to counter-attack. Bennett activates the one man who has the skills and experience to track down and take out Orphan X --- the first recruit of the Program, Orphan A.
Minotaur Books | 9781250120427
THE PLOTTERS by Un-su Kim (Thriller)
Reseng is an assassin. Raised by a cantankerous killer named Old Raccoon in the crime headquarters "The Library," Reseng never questioned anything: where to go, who to kill, or why his home was filled with books that no one ever read. But one day, Reseng steps out of line on a job, toppling a set of carefully calibrated plans. And when he uncovers an extraordinary scheme set into motion by an eccentric trio of young women --- a convenience store clerk, her wheelchair-bound sister and a cross-eyed librarian --- Reseng will have to decide if he will remain a pawn or finally take control of the plot.
Doubleday | 9780385544382
THAT CHURCHILL WOMAN by Stephanie Barron (Historical Fiction)
Wealthy, privileged and fiercely independent New Yorker Jennie Jerome took Victorian England by storm when she landed on its shores. As Lady Randolph Churchill, she gave birth to a man who defined the 20th century: her son Winston. But Jennie --- reared in the luxury of Gilded Age Newport and the Paris of the Second Empire --- lived an outrageously modern life all her own, filled with controversy, passion, tragedy and triumph. Breathing new life into Jennie’s legacy and the glittering world over which she reigned, Stephanie Barron's novel paints a portrait of the difficult --- and sometimes impossible --- balance among love, freedom and obligation, while capturing the spirit of an unforgettable woman, one who altered the course of history.
Ballantine Books | 9781524799564
February 1st
BLOOD FOR BLOOD by Victoria Selman (Psychological Thriller)
Rush hour, London. A packed commuter train is torn apart in a collision. Picking through the carnage, ex-special forces profiler Ziba MacKenzie helps a dying woman who passes on a cryptic message: He did it. You have to tell someone. When a corpse is found bearing the gruesome signature of a serial killer dormant for 25 years, Ziba is pulled into the hunt for the perpetrator. As the body count rises, it becomes clear he’s on a new spree. But what’s brought the London Lacerator back after such a long hiatus? And does his sudden return have anything to do with the woman on the train? Ziba scrambles to profile the killer in the hope of predicting his next move. But time is running out.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781542040525
THE KILLER COLLECTIVE by Barry Eisler (Thriller)
When a joint FBI–Seattle Police investigation of an international child pornography ring gets too close to certain powerful people, sex-crimes detective Livia Lone becomes the target of a hit that barely goes awry --- a hit that had been offered to John Rain, a retired specialist in “natural causes.” Suspecting the FBI itself was behind the attack, Livia reaches out to former Marine sniper Dox. Together, they assemble an ad hoc group to identify and neutralize the threat. Moving from Japan to Seattle to DC to Paris, they fight a series of interlocking conspiracies, each edging closer and closer to the highest levels of the US government.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781503904262
On Sale the Week of January 28th in Paperback
January 29th
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 | 9781503949270
BUILDING THE GREAT SOCIETY: Inside Lyndon Johnson's White House by Joshua Zeitz (History)
LBJ's towering political skills and his ambitious slate of liberal legislation are the stuff of legend: the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965, Medicare, Medicaid, Head Start and environmental reform. But what happened after the bills passed? One man could not and did not go it alone. Joshua Zeitz reanimates the creative and contentious atmosphere inside Johnson's White House as a talented and energetic group of advisers made LBJ's vision a reality. Bill Moyers, Jack Valenti, Joe Califano, Harry McPherson and the other staff members who comprised LBJ's inner circle were men as pragmatic and ambitious as Johnson, equally skilled in the art of accumulating power or throwing a sharp elbow.
Penguin Books | 9780143111436
THE CAST by Danielle Steel (Fiction)
Kait Whittier has built her magazine column into a hugely respected read. She loves her work and adores her grown children. But after two marriages, she prefers to avoid the complications and uncertainties of a new love. Then, after a chance meeting with television producer Zack Winter, everything changes. Inspired by the true story of her own indomitable grandmother, Kait creates the storyline for a TV series. And when she shares her work with Zack, he decides to make this his next big-budget project. Within weeks, Kait is plunged into a colorful world of actors and industry pros who will bring her vision to life. But in the midst of this charmed year, she is suddenly forced to confront the greatest challenge a mother could ever know.
Dell | 9781101884058
CRIMSON LAKE by Candice Fox (Thriller)
Six minutes in the wrong place at the wrong time --- that’s all it took to ruin Sydney detective Ted Conkaffey’s life. Accused but not convicted of a brutal abduction, Ted is now a free man --- and public enemy number one. Maintaining his innocence, he flees north to keep a low profile amidst the steamy, croc-infested wetlands of Crimson Lake. There, Ted’s lawyer introduces him to eccentric private investigator Amanda Pharrell, herself a convicted murderer. Not entirely convinced that Amanda is a cold-blooded killer, Ted agrees to help with her investigation, a case full of deception and obsession, while secretly digging into her troubled past.
Forge Books | 9780765398499
THE DIME by Kathleen Kent (Mystery/Thriller)
Dallas, Texas is not for the faint of heart. Good thing for Betty Rhyzyk she's from a family of take-no-prisoners Brooklyn police detectives. But her Big Apple wisdom will only get her so far when she relocates to The Big D, where Mexican drug cartels and cult leaders, deadbeat skells and society wives all battle for sunbaked turf. Betty is as tough as the best of them, but she's deeply shaken when her first investigation goes sideways. Battling a group of unruly subordinates, a persistent stalker, a formidable criminal organization and an unsupportive girlfriend, the unbreakable Detective Betty Rhyzyk may be reaching her limit.
Mulholland Books | 9780316489287
THE DISAPPEARED: A Joe Pickett Novel by C. J. Box (Mystery/Thriller)
A prominent female British executive never came home from the high-end guest ranch she was visiting, and the British Embassy is pressing hard. Joe Pickett knows that happens sometimes. But no sign of her months after she vanished? That suggests something else. At the same time, Joe's friend Nate Romanowski has asked him to intervene with the feds on behalf of falconers who can no longer hunt with eagles, even though their permits are in order. Who is blocking the falconers and why? The more Joe investigates both cases, the more someone wants him to go away. Is it because of the missing woman or because he's become Nate's advocate? Or are they somehow connected?
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780399573590
DROPS OF CERULEAN by Dawn Adams Cole (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Spanning the years 1930 to 2014, DROPS OF CERULEAN chronicles the lives of Ilona, the daughter of a Greek restaurateur, who marries into a prominent Houston family; her son, Cadmus, who becomes a professor and then moves into a retirement home after his husband passes away; and Delphina, an anxiety-ridden woman with a mysterious recurring dream. Ilona and Cadmus have a falling out when Cadmus is a young man, and before they are able to reconcile, Ilona dies. Cadmus is plagued with guilt and feels responsible for the death of his mother. Two worlds collide when, years later, Delphina comes to understand that she had been Ilona, Cadmus' mother, in her previous life.
Greenleaf Book Group Press | 9781626345553
THE END OF LONELINESS written by Benedict Wells, translated by Charlotte Collins (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Jules Moreau’s childhood is shattered after the sudden death of his parents. Enrolled in boarding school where he and his siblings, Marty and Liz, are forced to live apart, the once vivacious and fearless Jules retreats inward, preferring to live within his memories --- until he meets Alva, a kindred soul caught in her own grief. Fifteen years pass, and the siblings remain strangers to one another, bound by tragedy and struggling to recover the family they once were. Jules, still adrift, is anchored only by his desires to be a writer and to reunite with Alva, who turned her back on their friendship on the precipice of it becoming more. But, just as it seems they can make amends for time wasted, invisible forces --- whether fate or chance --- intervene.
Penguin Books | 9780143134008
EVERY NOTE PLAYED by Lisa Genova (Fiction)
An accomplished concert pianist, Richard now has ALS, and his entire right arm is paralyzed. Three years ago, Karina removed their framed wedding picture from the living room wall and hung a mirror there instead. But she still hasn’t moved on. Karina is paralyzed by excuses and fear, stuck in an unfulfilling life as a piano teacher, afraid to pursue the path she abandoned as a young woman, blaming Richard and their failed marriage for all of it. When Richard becomes increasingly paralyzed and is no longer able to live on his own, Karina becomes his reluctant caretaker. As Richard’s muscles, voice and breath fade, both he and Karina try to reconcile their past before it’s too late.
Gallery/Scout Press | 9781476717814
FADE TO BLACK: A Doug Brock Thriller by David Rosenfelt (Thriller)
After getting shot in the line of duty, New Jersey state police officer Doug Brock has been busy trying to rebuild his life. His greatest hope is to continue his recovery with the help of an amnesia support group. But it isn’t until fellow support-group member Sean Connor approaches him that Doug realizes the trouble is just beginning. Sean has found in his attic what can only be called a scrapbook of a murder victim --- even though he has no recollection of the girl’s identity, or his role in her life, whatsoever. Doug agrees to help Sean, and convinces the authorities to open what was believed to be a cold case...only to discover his own personal connection to the victim. Now Doug is suddenly questioning everything he thought he knew about Sean, the girl and himself.
Minotaur Books | 9781250308115
THE HAVANA GAME: A Thomas Laker Thriller by John Lutz (Thriller)
Paperback Original
With the U.S. seemingly linked to a terrorist bombing in a Baltic nation and a Russian troop buildup just over the border, the covert Gray Outfit sends Thomas Laker to untangle the mess. But after a second attack leaves him out in the cold, Laker is on his own. Five thousand miles away in Miami, Laker’s partner and NSA codebreaker Ava North is investigating the murder of a fellow agent. When tracks lead to a Cuban-American billionaire in bed with the Jersey Mob, Ava’s superiors want her to lay off. Not a chance. Though oceans apart, Laker and Ava discover that their separate missions are tied to one explosive plot. The only way out is to breach all protocol and play by their own rules.
Pinnacle | 9780786040957
HOW IT HAPPENED by Michael Koryta (Thriller)
Kimberly Crepeaux is a notorious jailhouse snitch, teen mother and heroin addict whose petty crimes are well-known to the rural Maine community where she lives. So when she confesses to her role in the brutal murders of Jackie Pelletier and Ian Kelly, the daughter of a well-known local family and her sweetheart, the locals have little reason to believe her story. However, FBI investigator and interrogator Rob Barrett knows that Kimberly’s story --- a grisly, harrowing story of a hit and run fueled by dope and cheap beer that becomes a brutal stabbing in cold blood --- is how it happened. But one thing remains elusive: Where are Jackie and Ian’s bodies?
Back Bay Books | 9780316293891
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 | 9781503900745
KING OF ASHES: Book One of The Firemane Saga by Raymond E. Feist (Fantasy)
For centuries, the five greatest kingdoms of North and South Tembria, twin continents on the world of Garn, have coexisted in peace. But the balance of power is destroyed when four of the kingdoms violate an ancient covenant and betray the fifth: Ithrace, the Kingdom of Flames, ruled by Steveren Langene, known as "the Firemane" for his brilliant red hair. As war engulfs the world, Ithrace is destroyed and the Greater Realms of Tembria are thrust into a dangerous struggle for supremacy. As a Free Lord, Baron Daylon Dumarch owes allegiance to no king. When an abandoned infant is found hidden in Daylon’s pavilion, he realizes that the child must be the missing heir of the slain Steveren.
Harper Voyager | 9780061468469
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 | 9781503901681
THE LOST GIRLS OF PARIS by Pam Jenoff (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
One morning while passing through Grand Central Terminal, Grace Healey finds an abandoned suitcase tucked beneath a bench. Unable to resist her own curiosity, Grace opens the suitcase, where she discovers a dozen photographs --- each of a different woman. She soon learns that the suitcase belonged to Eleanor Trigg, leader of a network of female secret agents who were deployed out of London during the war. Twelve of these women were sent to Occupied Europe as couriers and radio operators to aid the resistance, but they never returned home. Setting out to learn the truth behind these women, Grace finds herself drawn to a young mother turned agent whose daring mission overseas reveals a remarkable story of friendship, valor and betrayal.
Park Row | 9780778330271
MY NAME IS NATHAN LUCIUS by Mark Winkler (Noir Thriller)
Thirty-one-year-old Nathan Lucius is an ad salesman at a Cape Town newspaper. Disaffected, hard-drinking and plagued by blackouts, Nathan lives alone and has only one true friend, a woman named Madge. But Madge is dying slowly of cancer, and when she asks Nathan to end her pain, she sets off a shocking string of events.
Soho Crime | 9781616959784
ONCE A LIAR by A.F. Brady (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Peter Caine, a cutthroat Manhattan defense attorney, worked ruthlessly to become the best at his job. On the surface, he is charming and handsome, but inside he is cold and heartless. He fights without remorse to acquit murderers, pedophiles and rapists. When Charlie Doyle, the daughter of the Manhattan DA --- and Peter’s former lover --- is murdered, Peter’s world is quickly sent into a tailspin. He becomes the prime suspect as the DA, a professional enemy of Peter’s, embarks on a witch hunt to avenge his daughter’s death, stopping at nothing to ensure Peter is found guilty of the murder. But the truth of who killed Charlie is more twisted and sinister than anyone could have imagined.
Park Row | 9780778369974
OVERKILL: An Alex Hawke Novel by Ted Bell (Thriller/Adventure)
On a ski vacation in the Swiss Alps, Alex Hawke and his young son, Alexei, are thrust into danger when the tram carrying them to the top of the mountain bursts into flames. Before he can reach Alexei, the boy is snatched from the burning cable car by unknown assailants in a helicopter. Meanwhile, high above the skies of France, Vladimir Putin is aboard his presidential jet after escaping a bloodless coup in the Kremlin. When two flight attendants collapse and slip into unconsciousness, the Russian leader realizes the danger isn’t over. Killing the pilots, he grabs a parachute, steps out of the plane…and disappears. Hawke has led his share of dangerous assignments, but none with stakes this high.
William Morrow | 9780062684530
RASPBERRY DANISH MURDER: A Hannah Swensen Mystery with Recipes! by Joanne Fluke (Mystery)
Hannah has felt as bitter as November in Minnesota since Ross vanished without a trace and left their marriage in limbo. Still, she throws herself into a baking frenzy for the sake of pumpkin pie and Thanksgiving-themed treats while endless holiday orders pour into The Cookie Jar. Hannah even introduces a raspberry Danish pastry to the menu, and P.K., her husband’s assistant at KCOW-TV, will be one of the first to sample it. But instead of taking a bite, P.K., who is driving Ross’ car and using his desk at work, is murdered. Was someone plotting against P.K. all along, or did Ross dodge a deadly dose of sweet revenge?
Kensington | 9781617732263
THE TAKE: A Simon Riske Novel by Christopher Reich (Thriller)
Simon Riske is a freelance industrial spy who, despite his job title, lives a mostly quiet life above his auto garage in central London. He is hired to perform the odd job for a bank, an insurance company or the British Secret Service, when he isn't expertly stealing a million-dollar watch off the wrist of a crooked Russian oligarch. Riske has maintained his quiet life by avoiding big, messy jobs --- until now. A gangster by the name of Tino Coluzzi has orchestrated the greatest street heist in the history of Paris: a visiting Saudi prince had his pockets lightened of millions in cash, and something else. Hidden within a stolen briefcase is a secret letter that could upend the balance of power in the Western world.
Mulholland Books | 9780316342346
WHAT DOESN’T KILL HER by Christina Dodd (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Kellen Adams suffers from a yearlong gap in her memory. A bullet to the brain will cause that. But she's discovering the truth, and what she learns changes her life, her confidence, her very self. She finds herself in the wilderness, on the run, unprepared, her enemies unknown --- and she is carrying a priceless burden she must protect at all costs. The consequences of failure would break her. And Kellen Adams does not break.
HQN | 9781335507532
THE WOLF IN THE WHALE by Jordanna Max Brodsky (Historical Fantasy)
Paperback Original
Born with the soul of a hunter and the spirit of the Wolf, Omat is destined to follow in her grandfather's footsteps --- invoking the spirits of the land, sea and sky to protect her people. But the gods have stopped listening, and Omat's family is starving. Alone at the edge of the world, hope is all they have left. Desperate to save them, Omat journeys across the icy wastes, fighting for survival with every step. When she meets a Viking warrior and his strange new gods, they set in motion a conflict that could shatter her world...or save it.
Redhook | 9780316417150
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