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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of April 8th and April 15th 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 interview with Martha Hall Kelly, whose latest novel, LOST ROSES, is our current Women's Fiction Author Spotlight title. It was just announced that this much-anticipated prequel to LILAC GIRLS is this month's Barnes & Noble Book Club selection, and it also will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick. You can read our review of the book in the April 12th Bookreporter.com Weekly Update newsletter and Carol Fitzgerald's Bets On commentary in the April 19th edition.
Also, we are spotlighting our review of Lisa Scottoline's newly released domestic thriller, SOMEONE KNOWS, a deeply emotional examination of family, marriage and the true nature of justice.
And be sure to enter our "What's Your Book Group Reading This Month?" contest on ReadingGroupGuides.com. Each month, we ask book groups to share the titles they are reading that month and rate them. From all entries, three winners will be selected, and each will win 12 copies of that month’s prize book for their group. Our current prize book is ALL WE EVER WANTED by Emily Giffin, which releases in paperback on April 23rd. In this riveting novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author, three very different people must choose between their families and their most deeply held values. Enter here by Wednesday, May 8th at noon ET.
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 Interview with
Martha Hall Kelly, Author of LOST ROSES
Our Latest Women's Fiction Author Spotlight Title
and a Bookreporter.com Bets On Pick
Martha Hall Kelly’s runaway bestseller, LILAC GIRLS, introduced real-life heroine Caroline Ferriday. LOST ROSES, set a generation earlier and also inspired by true events, features Caroline's mother, Eliza, and follows three equally indomitable women from St. Petersburg to Paris under the shadow of World War I. In this interview, conducted by Bookreporter.com reviewer Rebecca Munro, Kelly talks about her decision to write a prequel; the most interesting fact she learned about pre-WWII Russia; her references to the fashion and etiquette of 1914, which she sprinkles throughout the story; and her current project --- the final book in the trilogy, which will be based on Caroline's great-grandmother, Jane Eliza, and will take place during the Civil War.
LOST ROSES by Martha Hall Kelly (Historical Fiction)
It is 1914, and the world has been on the brink of war so many times, many New Yorkers treat the subject with only passing interest. Eliza Ferriday is thrilled to be traveling to St. Petersburg with Sofya Streshnayva, a cousin of the Romanovs. The two met years ago one summer in Paris and became close confidantes. Now Eliza embarks on the trip of a lifetime, home with Sofya to see the splendors of Russia.
But when Austria declares war on Serbia and Russia's imperial dynasty begins to fall, Eliza escapes back to America, while Sofya and her family flee to their country estate. In need of domestic help, they hire the local fortuneteller's daughter, Varinka, unknowingly bringing intense danger into their household.
On the other side of the Atlantic, Eliza is doing her part to help the White Russian families find safety as they escape the revolution. But when Sofya's letters suddenly stop coming, she fears the worst for her best friend.
From the turbulent streets of St. Petersburg to the avenues of Paris and the society of fallen Russian émigrés who live there, the lives of Eliza, Sofya and Varinka will intersect in profound ways, taking readers on a breathtaking ride through a momentous time in history.
- Click here to read an excerpt.
- Click here for the discussion guide.
Click here to read the interview.
Don't miss our review of LOST ROSES in the April 12th
Bookreporter.com Weekly Update newsletter and Carol Fitzgerald's
Bets On commentary in the April 19th edition.
On Sale the Week of April 8th in Hardcover
April 8th
MIRACLE AT ST. ANDREWS by James Patterson and Peter de Jonge (Fiction)
Though nobody has ever identified a single secret --- no universally accepted truth --- to the sport, every real player searches for one. Travis McKinley is one such seeker. A former professional golfer who feels like he's an amateur at the rest of life, he makes a pilgrimage to the mythical greens at St. Andrews. On the course where golf was born, every link, hole, fairway --- even the gorse --- feels like sacred ground. Ground that can help an ordinary player, an ordinary man, achieve a higher plane.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316519106
April 9th
AFTERNOON OF A FAUN by James Lasdun (Fiction)
When an old flame accuses him of sexual assault in her memoir, expat English journalist Marco Rosedale is brought rapidly and inexorably to the brink of ruin. His reputation and livelihood at stake, Marco confides in a close friend, who finds himself caught between the obligations of friendship and an increasingly urgent desire to uncover the truth. This unnamed friend is drawn, magnetized, into the orbit of the woman at the center of the accusation --- and finds his position as the safely detached narrator turning into something more dangerous. Soon, the question of his own complicity becomes impossible to avoid.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324001942
THE ASH FAMILY by Molly Dektar (Fiction)
At 19, Berie encounters a seductive and mysterious man at a bus station near her home in North Carolina. Shut off from the people around her, she finds herself compelled by his promise of a new life. He ferries her into a place of order and chaos: the Ash Family farm. There, she joins an intentional community living off the fertile land of the mountains, bound together by high ideals and through relationships she can’t untangle. Berie --- now renamed Harmony --- renounces her old life and settles into her new one on the farm. She begins to make friends. And then they start to disappear.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501144868
THE BOOK OF DREAMS by Nina George (Fiction)
Henri Skinner is a hardened ex-war reporter on the run from his past. On his way to see his son, Sam, for the first time in years, Henri collides with oncoming traffic. He is rushed to a nearby hospital where he floats, comatose, between dreams. After the accident, Sam --- a 13-year-old synesthete with an IQ of 144 and an appetite for science fiction --- waits by his father’s bedside every day. There he meets Eddie Tomlin, a woman forced to confront her love for Henri after all these years, and 12-year-old Madelyn Zeidler, a coma patient like Henri and the sole survivor of a traffic accident that killed her family. As these four very different individuals fight --- for hope, for patience, for life --- they are bound together inextricably, facing the ravages of loss and first love side by side.
Crown | 9780525572534
THE BOOKSHOP OF THE BROKEN HEARTED by Robert Hillman (Historical Fiction)
It is 1968 in rural Australia, and lonely Tom Hope can't make heads or tails of Hannah Babel. Newly arrived from Hungary, Hannah is unlike anyone he's ever met --- she's passionate, brilliant and fiercely determined to open sleepy Hometown's first bookshop. Despite the fact that Tom has read only one book in his life, when Hannah hires him to install shelving for the shop, the two discover an astonishing spark. Recently abandoned by an unfaithful wife --- and still missing her sweet son, Peter --- Tom dares to believe that he might make Hannah happy. But Hannah is a haunted woman. Twenty-four years earlier, she had been marched to the gates of Auschwitz.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780525535928
CONFESSIONS OF AN INNOCENT MAN by David R. Dow (Legal Thriller)
Rafael Zhettah relishes the simplicity and freedom of his life. He is the owner and head chef of a promising Houston restaurant. A pilot with open access to the boundless Texas horizon. A bachelor, content with having few personal or material attachments that ground him. Then lightning strikes. When he finds Tieresse --- billionaire, philanthropist, sophisticate, bombshell --- sitting at one of his tables, he also finds his soul mate and his life starts again. And just as fast --- when she is brutally murdered in their home, when he is convicted of the crime, when he is sentenced to die --- it is all ripped away. But for Rafael Zhettah, death row is not the end; it is only the beginning. Now, he will stop at nothing to deliver justice to those who stole everything from him.
Dutton | 9781524743888
DEATH OF A NEW AMERICAN by Mariah Fredericks (Historical Mystery)
In 1912, as New York reels from the news of the Titanic disaster, ladies’ maid Jane Prescott travels to Long Island with the Benchley family. Their daughter, Louise, is to marry William Tyler at their uncle and aunt’s mansion. Jane quickly befriends the Tyler children’s nanny, Sofia, a young Italian-American woman, who ends up being a murder victim. She is asked to help with the investigation by her friend, journalist Michael Behan, who knows that she is uniquely placed to see what other tensions may simmer just below the surface in this wealthy, secretive household. Was Sofia’s murder fallout from the social tensions rife in New York, or could it be a much more personal crime?
Minotaur Books | 9781250152992
EVERYTHING IS JUST FINE by Brett Paesel (Fiction/Humor)
Coach Randy is working mightily to keep it together, as this season's soccer parents are a demanding bunch. Diane's wine-fueled group emails are almost unintelligible; team mom Jacqui's enthusiasm for the league verges on manic; a divorced couple can barely conceal their murderous rage at each other; and another mom is laser-focused on schooling everyone on what constitutes a healthy snack option. All the secrets and lies bubbling below the surface of their membrane-thin civility threaten to combust when Alejandro, a young, foreign assistant coach, refuses to play by the Beverly Hills code, which is to mind your own business and don't look too deeply into anyone's soul. Especially your own.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538745649
THE FIVE: The Untold Lives of the Women Killed by Jack the Ripper by Hallie Rubenhold (History)
For more than a century, newspapers have been keen to tell us that Jack the Ripper preyed on prostitutes. Not only is this untrue, as historian Hallie Rubenhold has discovered, it has prevented the real stories of these fascinating women from being told. Now, in this devastating narrative of five lives, Rubenhold finally sets the record straight, revealing a world not just of Dickens and Queen Victoria, but of poverty, homelessness and rampant misogyny. They died because they were in the wrong place at the wrong time --- but their greatest misfortune was to be born a woman.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9781328663818
HENRY, HIMSELF by Stewart O'Nan (Fiction)
Soldier, son, lover, husband, breadwinner and churchgoer, Henry Maxwell has spent his whole life trying to live with honor. A native Pittsburgher and engineer, he's always believed in logic, sacrifice and hard work. Now, 75 and retired, he feels the world has passed him by. It's 1998, the American century is ending, and nothing is simple anymore. His children are distant, their unhappiness a mystery. Only his wife Emily and dog Rufus stand by him. Once so confident, as Henry's strength and memory desert him, he weighs his dreams against his regrets and is left with questions he can't answer: Is he a good man? Has he done right by the people he loves? And with time running out, what, realistically, can he hope for?
Viking | 9780735223042
THE LAST by Hanna Jameson (Dystopian Psychological Thriller)
Jon thought he had all the time in the world to respond to his wife’s text message: I miss you so much. I feel bad about how we left it. Love you. But as he’s waiting in the lobby of his hotel in Switzerland, he receives a string of horrifying push notifications. Washington, DC has been hit with a nuclear bomb, followed by New York, London and finally Berlin. Now, two months later, there are 20 survivors holed up at the hotel. When the body of a young girl is discovered, Jon becomes obsessed with investigating her death as a way to cling to his own humanity. Yet the real question remains: Can he afford to lose his mind in this hotel, or should he take his chances in the outside world?
Atria Books | 9781501198823
LOST ROSES by Martha Hall Kelly (Historical Fiction)
It is 1914, and Eliza Ferriday is thrilled to be traveling to St. Petersburg with Sofya Streshnayva, a cousin of the Romanovs. The two met years ago one summer in Paris and became close confidantes. But when Austria declares war on Serbia and Russia's imperial dynasty begins to fall, Eliza escapes back to America, while Sofya and her family flee to their country estate. In need of domestic help, they hire the local fortuneteller's daughter, Varinka, unknowingly bringing intense danger into their household. On the other side of the Atlantic, Eliza is doing her part to help the White Russian families find safety as they escape the revolution. But when Sofya's letters suddenly stop coming, she fears the worst for her best friend.
Ballantine Books | 9781524796372
METROPOLIS: A Bernie Gunther Novel by Philip Kerr (Historical Thriller)
In the night streets, political gangs wander, looking for fights. Daylight reveals a beleaguered populace barely recovering from the postwar inflation, often jobless, reeling from the reparations imposed by the victors. At central police HQ, the Murder Commission has its hands full. A killer is on the loose, and though he scatters many clues, each is a dead end. It's almost as if he is taunting the cops. Meanwhile, the press is having a field day. This is what Bernie Gunther finds on his first day with the Murder Commisson. He's been taken on because the people at the top have noticed him --- they think he has the makings of a first-rate detective. But not just yet. Right now, he has to listen and learn.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780735218895
MY CONEY ISLAND BABY by Billy O'Callaghan (Fiction)
On a bitterly cold winter’s afternoon, Michael and Caitlin, two middle-aged lovers, escape their unhappy marriages to keep an illicit date. Once a month for the past quarter of a century, Coney Island has been their haven, the place in which they have abandoned themselves to their love. But on this winter day, they will discover that their lives are on the brink of change. Michael’s wife is battling cancer, and Caitlin’s husband is about to receive a major promotion, which will involve relocating to the Midwest. After half a lifetime together in their most intimate moments, certain long-denied facts must be faced, decisions made, consequences weighed and --- maybe, just maybe --- chances finally taken.
Harper | 9780062856562
NOTES FROM A YOUNG BLACK CHEF: A Memoir by Kwame Onwuachi with Joshua David Stein (Memoir)
By the time he was 27 years old, Kwame Onwuachi had opened --- and closed --- one of the most talked-about restaurants in America. He had launched his own catering company with $20,000 that he made from selling candy on the subway, yet he’d been told he would never make it on television because his cooking wasn’t “Southern” enough. In this inspiring memoir about the intersection of race, fame and food, he shares the remarkable story of his culinary coming-of-age.
Knopf | 9781524732622
OUTSIDE LOOKING IN by T.C. Boyle (Historical Fiction)
In 1943, LSD is synthesized in Basel. Two decades later, a coterie of grad students at Harvard are gradually drawn into the inner circle of renowned psychologist and psychedelic drug enthusiast Timothy Leary. Fitzhugh Loney, a psychology Ph.D. student, and his wife, Joanie, become entranced by the drug’s possibilities such that their “research” becomes less a matter of clinical trials and academic papers and instead turns into a free-wheeling exploration of mind expansion, group dynamics and communal living. Is LSD a belief system? Does it allow you to see God? Can the Loneys’ marriage --- or any marriage, for that matter --- survive the chaotic and sometimes orgiastic use of psychedelic drugs?
Ecco | 9780062882981
THE PARISIAN by Isabella Hammad (Historical Fiction)
Midhat Kamal is the son of a wealthy textile merchant from Nablus, a town in Ottoman Palestine. A dreamer, a romantic, an aesthete, in 1914 he leaves to study medicine in France, and falls in love. When Midhat returns to Nablus to find it under British rule, and the entire region erupting with nationalist fervor, he must find a way to cope with his conflicting loyalties and the expectations of his community. The story of Midhat’s life develops alongside the idea of a nation, as he and those close to him confront what it means to strive for independence in a world that seems on the verge of falling apart.
Grove Press | 9780802129437
PHANTOMS by Christian Kiefer (Historical Fiction)
A Vietnam vet still reeling from war, John Frazier finds himself an unwitting witness to a confrontation, decades in the making, between two steely matriarchs: his aunt, Evelyn Wilson, and her former neighbor, Kimiko Takahashi. John comes to learn that in the onslaught of World War II, the Takahashis had been displaced as once-beloved tenants of the Wilson orchard and sent to an internment camp. One question has always plagued both families: What happened to the Takahashi son, Ray, when he returned from service and found that Placer County was no longer home --- that nowhere was home for a Japanese American? As layers of family secrets unravel, the harrowing truth forces John to examine his own guilt.
Liveright | 9780871404817
SAVAGE NEWS by Jessica Yellin (Fiction)
Natalie Savage, who spent her 20s missing out on life’s benchmarks, finally sees her efforts pay off when she’s assigned to cover the White House for her network, ATN. However, the position is only temporary, a test to see if she has what it takes. She has always relied on her grit, her principles and her news sense to gain success. But now her competition is a 26-year-old spoiled frat boy who got his big television break by eating raw animal parts on a reality show. Of course, he’s winning. Natalie has to navigate ratings wars, workplace sexual harassment and an international political crisis in order to prove herself. But the closer she gets to achieving her dream job, the more she wonders if it is worth all the compromise.
Mira | 9780778308423
SAVING MEGHAN by D.J. Palmer (Medical Thriller)
Fifteen-year-old Meghan has been in and out of hospitals with a plague of unexplained illnesses. But when the ailments take a sharp turn, clashing medical opinions begin to raise questions about the puzzling nature of her illness. Doctors suspect Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a rare behavioral disorder where the primary caretaker seeks medical help for made-up symptoms of a child. Is this what's going on? Or is there something even more sinister at hand? Meghan's mother, Becky, must race against time to prove that her daughter has a deadly disease. But she first must confront her darkest fears and family secrets that threaten not only to upend her once-ordered life, but to destroy it.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250107459
SOMEONE KNOWS by Lisa Scottoline (Psychological Thriller)
Allie Garvey is heading home to the funeral of a childhood friend, which means seeing the other two people with whom she shares an unbearable secret. Twenty years earlier, a horrific incident shattered the lives of five teenagers, including Allie. They kept what happened a secret, believing that getting caught would be the worst thing that could happen. But Allie has been haunted for two decades by what she and the others did, and by the fact that she never told a soul. The dark secret has eaten away at her, distancing her from everyone she loves, including her husband. Now, Allie stands on the precipice of losing everything. She digs to unearth the truth, but reaches a shocking conclusion that she never saw coming.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780525539643
SOON THE LIGHT WILL BE PERFECT by Dave Patterson (Fiction)
A 12-year-old boy lives with his family in a small, poverty-stricken town in Vermont. His father works at a manufacturing plant, his mother is a homemaker, and his 15-year-old brother is about to enter high school. His family has gained enough financial stability to move out of the nearby trailer park, and as conflict rages abroad, his father’s job at a weapons manufacturing plant appears safe. But then his mother is diagnosed with cancer, and everything changes. As the family clings to the traditions of their hard-line Catholicism, he meets Taylor, a perceptive, beguiling girl from the trailer park, who has been forced to grow up too fast. Taylor represents everything his life isn’t, and their fledgling connection develops as his mother’s health deteriorates.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335652904
THE TALE TELLER: A Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito Novel by Anne Hillerman (Mystery)
Joe Leaphorn has been hired to find a missing biil, a traditional dress that had been donated to the Navajo Nation. His investigation takes a sinister turn when the leading suspect dies under mysterious circumstances and Leaphorn himself receives anonymous warnings to beware --- witchcraft is afoot. While the veteran detective is busy working to untangle his strange case, his former colleague Jim Chee and Officer Bernie Manuelito are collecting evidence they hope will lead to a cunning criminal behind a rash of burglaries. Their case takes a complicated turn when Bernie finds a body near a popular running trail. The situation grows more complicated when the death is ruled a homicide, and the Tribal cops are thrust into a turf battle because the murder involves the FBI.
Harper | 9780062391957
THEY ALL FALL DOWN by Rachel Howzell Hall (Mystery/Thriller)
Delighted by a surprise invitation, Miriam Macy sails off to a luxurious private island off the coast of Mexico with six other strangers. Surrounded by miles of open water in the gloriously green Sea of Cortez, Miriam is soon shocked to discover that she and the rest of her companions have been brought to the remote island under false pretenses --- and all seven strangers harbor a secret. Danger lurks in the lush forest and in the halls and bedrooms of the lonely mansion. Sporadic cell-phone coverage and miles of ocean keep the group trapped in paradise. And strange accidents stir suspicions, as one by one, they all fall down.
Forge Books | 9780765398147
TRIPLE JEOPARDY: A Daniel Pitt Novel by Anne Perry (Historical Mystery)
Daniel Pitt, along with his parents, Charlotte and Thomas, is delighted that his sister, Jemima, and her family have returned to London from the States for a visit. But the Pitts soon learn of a harrowing incident: In Washington, D.C., one of Jemima’s good friends has been assaulted and her treasured necklace stolen. The perpetrator appears to be a man named Philip Sidney, a British diplomat stationed in America’s capital who, in a cowardly move, has fled to London, claiming diplomatic immunity. But that claim doesn’t cover his other crimes. When Sidney winds up in court on a separate charge of embezzlement, it falls to Daniel to defend him.
Ballantine Books | 9780525620952
TRUST EXERCISE by Susan Choi (Fiction)
In an American suburb in the early 1980s, students at a highly competitive performing arts high school struggle and thrive in a rarified bubble, ambitiously pursuing music, movement, Shakespeare and, particularly, their acting classes. When within this striving “Brotherhood of the Arts,” two freshmen, David and Sarah, fall headlong into love, their passion does not go unnoticed --- or untoyed with --- by anyone, especially not by their charismatic acting teacher, Mr. Kingsley. The outside world of family life and economic status, of academic pressure and of their future adult lives, fails to penetrate this school’s walls --- until it does, in a shocking spiral of events that catapults the action forward in time and flips the premise upside down.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250309884
UNWRITTEN: Bat Flips, the Fun Police, and Baseball's New Future by Danny Knobler (Sports)
Don't bunt in a blowout. Don't pimp your home runs. Act like you've been here before. In UNWRITTEN, national baseball writer Danny Knobler dives deep beyond the brushbacks and brawls to examine shifting attitudes towards Major League Baseball's once-sacred player codes. What emerges in the process is a much larger story, one of a more youthful, more exuberant, more diverse game in the midst of a fascinating culture clash. Featuring countless interviews with some of baseball's biggest names, including current and former major-league players, coaches, scouts and journalists, UNWRITTEN is a revealing, thoroughly of-the-moment portrait of a sport grappling with the loaded question of what it means to play the game the right way.
Triumph Books | 9781629376486
A WOMAN OF NO IMPORTANCE: The Untold Story of the American Spy Who Helped Win World War II by Sonia Purnell (Biography)
Virginia Hall was a Baltimore socialite who talked her way into Special Operations Executive, the spy organization dubbed Winston Churchill's "Ministry of Ungentlemanly Warfare." She became the first Allied woman deployed behind enemy lines and --- despite her prosthetic leg --- helped to light the flame of the French Resistance, revolutionizing secret warfare as we know it. Based on new and extensive research, Sonia Purnell has for the first time uncovered the full secret life of Virginia Hall --- an astounding and inspiring story of heroism, spycraft, resistance and personal triumph over shocking adversity.
Viking | 9780735225299
WORKING: Researching, Interviewing, Writing by Robert A. Caro (Memoir)
For the first time in book form, Robert Caro gives us a glimpse into his own life and work in these evocatively written, personal pieces. He describes what it was like to interview the mighty Robert Moses; the combination of discouragement and exhilaration he felt confronting the vast holdings of the Lyndon B. Johnson Library in Austin, Texas; his encounters with witnesses, including longtime residents wrenchingly displaced by the construction of Moses' Cross-Bronx Expressway and Lady Bird Johnson acknowledging the beauty and influence of one of LBJ's mistresses. He gratefully remembers how, after years of working in solitude, he found a writers' community at the New York Public Library, and details the ways he goes about planning and composing his books.
Knopf | 9780525656340
April 12th
THE LEGENDARY HARRY CARAY: Baseball's Greatest Salesman by Don Zminda (Sports/Biography)
Harry Caray is one of the most famous and beloved sports broadcasters of all time, with a career that lasted over 50 years. Always a baseball fan, Caray once vowed to become a broadcaster who was the true voice of the fans. His distinctive style soon resonated across St. Louis, then Chicago and eventually across the nation. In THE LEGENDARY HARRY CARAY, Don Zminda delivers the first full-length biography of Caray since his death in 1998. It includes details of Caray's orphaned childhood, his 25 years as the voice of the St. Louis Cardinals, his tempestuous 11 years broadcasting games for the Chicago White Sox, and the 16 years he broadcast for the Chicago Cubs while also becoming a nationally known celebrity.
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers | 9781538112946
On Sale the Week of April 8th in Paperback
April 9th
ECSTASY by Mary Sharratt (Historical Fiction)
Coming of age in the midst of a creative and cultural whirlwind in Vienna, young, beautiful Alma Schindler yearns to make her mark as a composer. A new era of possibility for women is dawning, and she is determined to make the most of it. But Alma loses her heart to the great composer Gustav Mahler, nearly 20 years her senior. He demands that she give up her music as a condition of their marriage. Torn by her love and in awe of his genius, how will she remain true to herself and her artistic passion?
Mariner Books | 9781328614209
THE EIGHTH SISTER by Robert Dugoni (Thriller)
Paperback Original
Former CIA case officer Charles Jenkins is a man at a crossroads: in his early 60s, he has a family, a new baby on the way, and a security consulting business on the brink of bankruptcy. Then his former bureau chief shows up at his house with a risky new assignment: travel undercover to Moscow and locate a Russian agent believed to be killing members of a clandestine US spy cell known as the seven sisters. Desperate for money, Jenkins agrees to the mission and heads to the Russian capital. But when he finds the mastermind agent behind the assassinations --- the so-called eighth sister --- she is not who or what he was led to believe. Then again, neither is anyone else in this deadly game of cat and mouse.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781503903319
HARRY AND MEGHAN: Life, Loss, and Love by Katie Nicholl (Biography)
From his earliest public appearances as a mischievous redheaded toddler, Prince Harry has captured the hearts of royal enthusiasts around the world, while his marriage to Meghan Markle has only endeared him further. In HARRY AND MEGHAN, Britain's leading expert on the young royals offers an in-depth look at the wayward prince turned national treasure. Katie Nicholl sheds new light on growing up royal, Harry's relationship with his mother, his troubled youth and early adulthood, and how his military service in Afghanistan inspired him to create his legacy, the Invictus Games. She uncovers new information about Harry's past relationships and reveals the true story of his romance with Meghan Markle, the smart and spirited American who captured his heart.
Hachette Books | 9781602865280
INHERITANCE FROM MOTHER written by Minae Mizumura, translated by Juliet Winters Carpenter (Fiction)
Mitsuki Katsura, a Japanese woman in her mid-50s, is a French-language instructor at a private university in Tokyo. Her husband, whom she met in Paris, is a professor at another private university. He is having an affair with a much younger woman. In addition to her husband's infidelity, Mitsuki must deal with her ailing 80-something mother, a demanding, self-absorbed woman who is far from the image of the patient, self-sacrificing Japanese matriarch. Mitsuki finds herself guiltily dreaming of the day when her mother will finally pass on. While doing everything she can to ensure her mother's happiness, she grows weary of the responsibilities of being a doting daughter and worries she is sacrificing her chance to find fulfillment in her middle age.
Other Press | 9781590519851
LOVE AND DEATH IN THE SUNSHINE STATE: The Story of a Murder by Cutter Wood (True Crime)
When a stolen car is recovered on the Gulf Coast of Florida, it sets off a search for a missing woman, local motel owner Sabine Musil-Buehler. Three men are named persons of interest --- her husband, her boyfriend, and the man who stole the car. Then the motel is set on fire; her boyfriend flees the county; and detectives begin digging on the beach of Anna Maria Island. Author Cutter Wood was a guest at Musil-Buehler’s motel as the search for her gained momentum, and he was drawn steadily deeper into the case. Driven by his own need to understand how a relationship could spin to pieces in such a fatal fashion, he began to talk with many of the people living on Anna Maria, and then with the detectives, and finally with the man presumed to be the murderer.
Algonquin Books | 9781616209339
THE MAGNIFICENT ESME WELLS by Adrienne Sharp (Historical Fiction)
Esme Silver has always taken care of her charming ne’er-do-well father, Ike Silver, a small-time crook with dreams of making it big with Bugsy Siegel. In awe of her mother, Dina Wells, Esme is more than happy to be the foil who gets the beautiful Dina into meetings and screen tests with some of Hollywood’s greats. When Ike gets an opportunity to move to Vegas --- and, in what could at last be his big break, to help the man she knows as "Benny" open the Flamingo Hotel --- life takes an unexpected turn for Esme. A stunner like her mother, the young girl catches the attention of Nate Stein, one of the Strip’s most powerful men.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062684806
THE NEIGHBORHOOD written by Mario Vargas Llosa, translated by Edith Grossman (Thriller)
One day, Enrique, a high-profile businessman, receives a visit from Rolando Garro, the editor of a notorious magazine that specializes in salacious exposés. Garro presents Enrique with lewd pictures from an old business trip and demands that he invest in the magazine. Enrique refuses, and the next day the pictures are on the front page. Meanwhile, Enrique’s wife is in the midst of a passionate and secret affair with the wife of Enrique’s lawyer and best friend. When Garro shows up murdered, the two couples are thrown into a whirlwind of navigating Peru’s unspoken laws and customs, while the staff of the magazine embarks on their greatest exposé yet.
Picador | 9781250310361
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 | 9780451489135
PATRIOT NUMBER ONE: A Chinese Rebel Comes to America by Lauren Hilgers (Biography)
In 2014, in a snow-covered house in Flushing, Queens, a village revolutionary from Southern China considered his options. Zhuang Liehong was the son of a fisherman, the former owner of a small tea shop, and the spark that had sent his village into an uproar --- pitting residents against a corrupt local government. Under the alias Patriot Number One, he had stoked a series of pro-democracy protests, hoping to change his home for the better. Instead, sensing an impending crackdown, Zhuang and his wife, Little Yan, left their infant son with relatives and traveled to America. With few contacts and only a shaky grasp of English, they had to start from scratch.
Broadway Books | 9780451496140
THE PEACOCK EMPORIUM by Jojo Moyes (Fiction)
Paperback Original
In the ’60s, Athene Forster was the most glamorous girl of her generation. Nicknamed the Last Deb, she was also beautiful, spoiled and out of control. When she agreed to marry the gorgeous young heir Douglas Fairley-Hulme, her parents breathed a sigh of relief. But within two years, rumors had begun to circulate about Athene's affair with a young salesman. Thirty-five years later, Suzanna Peacock is struggling with her notorious mother's legacy. The only place Suzanna finds comfort is in The Peacock Emporium, the beautiful coffee bar and shop she opens that soon enchants her little town. The specter of her mother still haunts Suzanna. But only by confronting both her family and her innermost self will she finally reckon with the past.
Penguin Books | 9780735222335
SIDE LIFE by Steve Toutonghi (Science Fiction/Thriller)
Vin, a down-on-his-luck young tech entrepreneur forced out of the software company he started, takes a job house-sitting an ultra-modern Seattle mansion whose owner has gone missing. There he discovers a secret basement lab with an array of computers and three large, smooth caskets. Inside one he finds a woman in a state of suspended animation. There is also a dog-eared notebook filled with circuit diagrams, beautiful and intricate drawings of body parts, and pages of code. When Vin decides to enter one of the caskets himself, his reality begins to unravel, and he finds himself on a terrifying journey that raises fundamental questions about reality, free will and the meaning of a human life.
Soho Press | 9781641290210
TIN MAN by Sarah Winman (Fiction)
Ellis and Michael are 12-year-old boys when they first become friends, and for a long time it is just the two of them --- cycling the streets of Oxford, teaching themselves how to swim, discovering poetry, and dodging the fists of overbearing fathers. And then one day this closest of friendships grows into something more. But then we fast-forward a decade or so, to find that Ellis is married to Annie, and Michael is nowhere in sight. Which leads to the question: What happened in the years between?
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780735218765
TWENTY-ONE DAYS: A Daniel Pitt Novel by Anne Perry (Historical Mystery)
1910: Twenty-five-year-old Daniel Pitt is a junior barrister in London and eager to prove himself, independent of his renowned parents’ influence. And the new case before him will be the test. When his client, arrogant biographer Russell Graves, is found guilty of murdering his wife, Daniel is dispatched to find the real killer before Graves faces the hangman’s noose --- in only 21 days. Could Mrs. Graves’ violent death have anything to do with her husband’s profession? Someone in power may be framing the biographer to keep damaging secrets from coming to light. It is a theory that leads Daniel’s investigation unexpectedly to London’s Special Branch --- and, disturbingly, to one of his father’s closest colleagues.
Ballantine Books | 9780399179907
WASHINGTON BLACK by Esi Edugyan (Historical Fiction)
George Washington Black, or "Wash," an 11-year-old field slave on a Barbados sugar plantation, is terrified to be chosen by his master's brother as his manservant. To his surprise, the eccentric Christopher Wilde turns out to be a naturalist, explorer, inventor and abolitionist. But when a man is killed and a bounty is placed on Wash's head, Christopher and Wash must abandon everything. What follows is their flight along the eastern coast of America, and, finally, to a remote outpost in the Arctic. What brings Christopher and Wash together will tear them apart, propelling Wash even further across the globe in search of his true self.
Vintage | 9780525563242
WHEN WE LEFT CUBA by Chanel Cleeton (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
The Cuban Revolution took everything from sugar heiress Beatriz Perez. Recruited by the CIA to infiltrate Fidel Castro's inner circle and pulled into the dangerous world of espionage, Beatriz is consumed by her quest for revenge and her desire to reclaim the life she lost. As the Cold War swells like a hurricane over the shores of the Florida Strait, Beatriz is caught between the clash of Cuban American politics and the perils of a forbidden affair with a powerful man driven by ambitions of his own. When the ever-changing tides of history threaten everything she has fought for, she must make a choice between her past and future. But the wrong move could cost Beatriz everything --- not just the island she loves, but also the man who has stolen her heart.
Berkley | 9780451490865
On Sale the Week of April 15th in Hardcover
April 16th
AUTUMN LIGHT: Season of Fire and Farewells by Pico Iyer (Memoir)
For years, Pico Iyer has split his time between California and Nara, Japan, where he and his Japanese wife, Hiroko, have a small home. But when his father-in-law dies suddenly, calling him back to Japan earlier than expected, Iyer begins to grapple with the question we all have to live with: how to hold on to the things we love, even though we know that we and they are dying. In a country whose calendar is marked with occasions honoring the dead, this question is more urgent than anywhere else. Iyer leads us through the year following his father-in-law's death, introducing us to the people who populate his days: his ailing mother-in-law, his absent brother-in-law, and the men and women in his ping-pong club.
Knopf | 9780451493934
BAKHITA: A Novel of the Saint of Sudan written by Veronique Olmi, translated by Adriana Hunter (Historical Fiction)
She recalls little of her childhood, not even her own name. She was barely seven years old when she was snatched by slave raiders from her village in the Darfur region of southern Sudan. In a cruel twist, they gave her the name that she will carry for the rest of her life: Bakhita, "the Lucky One" in Arabic. Sold and resold along the slave trade routes, Bakhita endures years of unspeakable abuse and terror. At age 13, at last, her life takes a turn when the Italian consul in Khartoum purchases her. A few years later, as chaos engulfs the capital, the consul returns to Italy, taking Bakhita with him. In this new land, another long and arduous journey begins --- one that leads her onto a spiritual path for which she is still revered today.
Other Press | 9781590519776
BEFORE WE WERE WICKED by Eric Jerome Dickey (Romance)
They say that the love of money is the root of all evil, but for Ken Swift, it's the love of a woman. Ken is 21, hurting people for cash to try to pay his way through college, when he lays eyes on Jimi Lee, the woman who will change the course of his entire life. What's meant to be a one-night stand with the Harvard-bound beauty turns into an explosion of sexual chemistry that neither can quit. And when Jimi Lee becomes pregnant, their two very different worlds collide in ways they never could have anticipated.
Dutton | 9781524744038
THE BETTER SISTER by Alafair Burke (Psychological Thriller)
Though Chloe was the younger of the two Taylor sisters, she always seemed to be the one in charge. She was the honor roll student with big dreams and an even bigger work ethic. Nicky --- always restless and more than a little reckless --- was the opposite of her ambitious little sister. For a while, it seemed that both sisters had found happiness. But now, more than 15 years later, their lives are drastically different. When Chloe’s husband, Adam (who used to be married to Nicky), is murdered by an intruder, Chloe reluctantly allows her teenage stepson’s biological mother, Nicky, back into her life. But when the police begin to treat Ethan as a suspect in his father’s death, the two sisters are forced to confront the truth behind family secrets they have tried to bury in the past.
Harper | 9780062853370
THE BINDING by Bridget Collins (Historical Fantasy/Magical Realism)
Young Emmett Farmer is working in the fields when a strange letter arrives summoning him away from his family. He is to begin an apprenticeship as a Bookbinder --- a vocation that arouses fear, superstition and prejudice amongst their small community. Bookbinding is a sacred calling, Seredith informs her new apprentice, and he is a binder born. Under the old woman’s watchful eye, Emmett learns to hand-craft the elegant leather-bound volumes. Within each one, they will capture something unique and extraordinary: a memory. But just as Emmett begins to settle into his new circumstances, he makes an astonishing discovery: one of the books has his name on it. Soon, everything he thought he understood about his life will be dramatically rewritten.
William Morrow | 9780062838094
A BLOODY BUSINESS: The Rise of Organized Crime in America written by Dylan Struzan, illustrated by Drew Struzan (True Crime/History)
Called "one of the most significant organized crime figures in the United States" by the U.S. District Attorney, Vincent "Jimmy Blue Eyes" Alo was just 15 years old when Prohibition became law. Over the next decade, Alo would work side by side with Lucky Luciano and Meyer Lansky as they navigated the brutal underworld of bootlegging, thievery and murder. Introduced to the 91-year-old Alo living in retirement in Florida, Dylan Struzan based A BLOODY BUSINESS on more than 50 hours of recorded testimony --- stories Alo had never shared, and that he forbid her to publish until "after I'm gone." Alo died, peacefully, two months short of his 97th birthday. And now his stories --- bracing and violent, full of intrigue and betrayal, hunger and hubris --- can finally be told.
Hard Case Crime | 9781785657702
THE DEPARTMENT OF SENSITIVE CRIMES: A Detective Varg Novel by Alexander McCall Smith (Mystery/Humor)
In the Swedish criminal justice system, certain cases are considered especially strange and difficult. In Malmö, the dedicated detectives who investigate these crimes are members of an elite squad known as the Sensitive Crimes Division. These are their stories. The first case: the small matter of a man stabbed in the back of the knee. Who would perpetrate such a crime and why? Next: a young woman's imaginary boyfriend goes missing. But how on earth do you search for someone who doesn't exist? And in the final investigation: eerie secrets that are revealed under a full moon may not seem so supernatural in the light of day.
Pantheon | 9781524748210
FEAST YOUR EYES by Myla Goldberg (Historical Fiction)
FEAST YOUR EYES, framed as the catalogue notes from a photography show at the Museum of Modern Art, tells the life story of Lillian Preston. After discovering photography as a teenager through her high school’s photo club, Lillian rejects her parents’ expectations of college and marriage and moves to New York City in 1955. When a small gallery exhibits partially nude photographs of Lillian and her daughter Samantha, Lillian is arrested, thrust into the national spotlight and targeted with an obscenity charge. Mother and daughter’s sudden notoriety changes the course of both of their lives, and especially Lillian’s career, as she continues a life-long quest for artistic legitimacy and recognition.
Scribner | 9781501197840
FLOWERS OVER THE INFERNO: A Teresa Battaglia Novel written by Ilaria Tuti, translated by Ekin Oklap (Mystery/Thriller)
In a quiet village surrounded by ancient woods and the imposing Italian Alps, a man is found naked with his eyes gouged out. It is the first in a string of gruesome murders. Superintendent Teresa Battaglia, a detective with a background in criminal profiling, is called to investigate. Battaglia is in her mid-60s, her rank and expertise hard-won from decades of battling for respect in a male-dominated Italian police force. While she’s not sure she trusts the young city inspector assigned to assist her, she sees right away that this is no ordinary case: buried deep in these mountains is a dark history that may endanger a group of eight-year-old children toward whom the killer seems to gravitate.
Soho Crime | 9781641290685
MIRACLE CREEK by Angie Kim (Legal Thriller/Mystery)
In rural Virginia, Young and Pak Yoo run an experimental medical treatment device known as the Miracle Submarine --- a pressurized oxygen chamber that patients enter for therapeutic “dives” with the hopes of curing issues like autism or infertility. But when the Miracle Submarine mysteriously explodes, killing two people, a dramatic murder trial upends the Yoos’ small community. Who or what caused the explosion? The ensuing trial uncovers unimaginable secrets from that night --- trysts in the woods, mysterious notes, child-abuse charges --- as well as tense rivalries and alliances among a group of people driven to extraordinary degrees of desperation and sacrifice.
Sarah Crichton Books | 9780374156022
NORMAL PEOPLE by Sally Rooney (Fiction)
At school, Connell and Marianne pretend not to know each other. He is popular and well-adjusted, star of the school football team, while she is lonely, proud and intensely private. But when Connell comes to pick his mother up from her job at Marianne’s house, a strange and indelible connection grows between the two teenagers --- one they are determined to conceal. A year later, they’re both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found her feet in a new social world, while Connell hangs at the sidelines, shy and uncertain. As she veers into self-destruction and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must confront how far they are willing to go to save the other.
Hogarth | 9781984822178
REDEMPTION by David Baldacci (Thriller)
Amos Decker and his FBI partner Alex Jamison are visiting his hometown of Burlington, Ohio, when he's approached by an unfamiliar man. But he instantly recognizes the man's name: Meryl Hawkins. He's the first person Decker ever arrested for murder back when he was a young detective. Though a dozen years in prison have left Hawkins unrecognizably aged and terminally ill, one thing hasn't changed: He maintains he never committed the murders. Could it be possible that Decker made a mistake all those years ago? As he starts digging into the old case, Decker finds a startling connection to a new crime that he may be able to prevent, if only he can put the pieces together quickly enough.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538761410
ROAR by Cecelia Ahern (Fiction/Short Stories)
In ROAR, Cecelia Ahern explores the endless ways in which women blaze through adversity with wit, resourcefulness and compassion. She takes the familiar aspects of women's lives --- the routines, the embarrassments, the desires --- and elevates these moments to the outlandish and hilarious with her astute blend of magical realism and social insight. One woman is tortured by sinister bite marks that appear on her skin; another is swallowed up by the floor during a mortifying presentation; yet another resolves to return and exchange her boring husband at the store where she originally acquired him. The women at the center of this curious universe learn that their reality is shaped not only by how others perceive them, but also by how they perceive the power within themselves.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538730966
SOUTHERN LADY CODE: Essays by Helen Ellis (Humor/Essays)
Helen Ellis has a mantra: "If you don't have something nice to say, say something not-so-nice in a nice way." In these 23 raucous essays, Ellis transforms herself into a dominatrix Donna Reed to save her marriage, inadvertently steals a $795 Burberry trench coat, witnesses a man fake his own death at a party, avoids a neck lift, and finds a black-tie gown that gives her the confidence of a drag queen. While she may have left her home in Alabama, married a New Yorker, forgotten how to drive, and abandoned the puffy headbands of her youth, Helen Ellis is clinging to her Southern accent like mayonnaise to white bread, and offering readers a hilarious, completely singular view on womanhood for both sides of the Mason-Dixon.
Doubleday | 9780385543897
WHITE by Bret Easton Ellis (Essays)
Bret Easton Ellis has wrestled with the double-edged sword of fame and notoriety for more than 30 years now. An enigmatic figure who has always gone against the grain and refused categorization, he captured the depravity of the ’80s with one of contemporary literature's most polarizing characters, AMERICAN PSYCHO's iconic, terrifying Patrick Bateman. In recent years, his candor and gallows humor on both Twitter and his podcast have continued his legacy as someone determined to speak the truth, however painful it might be. Now, in WHITE, Ellis pours himself out onto the page and, in doing so, eviscerates the perceived good that the social-media age has wrought, starting with the dangerous cult of likability.
Knopf | 9780525656302
On Sale the Week of April 15th in Paperback
April 15th
DURING-THE-EVENT by Roger Wall (Dystopian Fiction/Adventure)
Paperback Original
In the near future, climate change has ravaged the United States, leading the government to overcorrect through culls and relocation. Those who survive the mandated destruction are herded into “habitable production zones,” trading their freedom for illusions of security. The few who escape learn quickly that the key to survival is to stay hidden in the corners of the country. For 17 years, During-the-Event (D.E.) has lived free in a pastoral life with his grandfather in North Dakota. But when death reaches their outpost, D.E. is forced on a journey that will change his life --- and reveal surprises about his past. Once taught that strangers are only sources of pain, D.E. must learn to trust the people he meets on his journey.
University of Alaska Press | 9781602233829
April 16th
THE 13-MINUTE MURDER by James Patterson (Thriller)
Paperback Original
Psychiatrist Randall Beck specializes in PTSD cases --- and his time is limited. Especially when he uncovers a plot to kill a presidential candidate. Molly Rourke's son has been murdered --- and she knows who's responsible. Now she's taking the law into her own hands. He can kill anybody in just minutes --- from the first approach to the clean escape. His skills have served him well, and he has a grand plan: to get out alive and spend his earnings with his beloved wife, Maria. An anonymous client offers Ryan a rich payout to assassinate a target in Harvard Yard. The precision strike starts perfectly, then somehow explodes into a horrifying spectacle. Ryan has to run and Maria goes missing. Now the world's fastest hit man sets out for one last score: Revenge. And every minute counts.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538733035
THE BANKER’S WIFE by Cristina Alger (Thriller)
On an early morning in November, a couple boards a private plane bound for Geneva, flying into a storm. Soon after, it simply drops off the radar, and its wreckage is later uncovered in the Alps. Among the disappeared is Matthew Werner, a banking insider at Swiss United, a powerful offshore bank. His young widow, Annabel, is left grappling with the secrets he left behind. As she begins a desperate search for answers, she determines that Matthew's death was no accident. Ambitious society journalist Marina Tourneau uncovers information that implicates some of the most powerful men in the financial world. The story could also be the answer to Annabel's heartbreaking search --- if Marina chooses to publish it.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780735218475
BEARSKIN by James A. McLaughlin (Fiction)
Rice Moore is just beginning to think his troubles are behind him. He’s found a job protecting a remote forest preserve in Virginian Appalachia where his main responsibilities include tracking wildlife and refurbishing cabins. It’s hard work, and totally solitary --- perfect to hide away from the Mexican drug cartels he betrayed back in Arizona. But when Rice finds the carcass of a bear killed on the grounds, the quiet solitude he’s so desperately sought is suddenly at risk. More bears are killed on the preserve and Rice’s obsession with catching the poachers escalates, leading to hostile altercations with the locals and attention from both the law and Rice’s employers.
Ecco | 9780062742803
BEFORE SHE WAS FOUND by Heather Gudenkauf (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
For 12-year-old Cora Landry and her friends Violet and Jordyn, it was supposed to be an ordinary sleepover --- movies and Ouija and talking about boys. But when they decide to sneak out to go to the abandoned rail yard on the outskirts of town, little do they know that their innocent games will have dangerous consequences. Later that night, Cora is discovered on the tracks, bloody and clinging to life, her friends nowhere to be found. Soon their small rural town is thrust into a maelstrom. Who would want to hurt a young girl like Cora --- and why? In an investigation that leaves no stone unturned, everyone is a suspect and no one can be trusted --- not even those closest to Cora.
Park Row | 9780778307730
BEYOND THE TRUTH: A Hanne Wilhelmsen Novel by Anne Holt (Mystery)
Shortly before Christmas, four people are found shot dead at the home of the Stahlbergs, a wealthy family of shipping merchants notorious for their miserliness and infighting. Three of the victims are members of the family, and the fourth is an outsider, seemingly out of place. As Hanne Wilhelmsen investigates the case alongside her longtime police partner, Billy T., motives for the murders emerge in abundance; each surviving member of the Stahlberg family had good reason to want the victims dead. As she searches for the killer, Hanne will once again risk everything to find out the truth. But this time, will she go too far?
Scribner | 9781501123467
BLOOD MOON: An American Epic of War and Splendor in the Cherokee Nation by John Sedgwick (History)
BLOOD MOON is the story of the feud between two rival Cherokee chiefs from the early years of the United States through the infamous Trail of Tears and into the Civil War. Their enmity would lead to war, forced removal from their homeland, and the devastation of a once-proud nation. One of the men, known as The Ridge, is a fearsome warrior who speaks no English, but whose exploits on the battlefield are legendary. The other, John Ross, is a pale, unimposing half-pint who wears modern clothes and speaks not a word of Cherokee. At first, the two men are friends and allies who negotiate with almost every American president from Washington through Lincoln. But as the threat to their land and their people grows more dire, they break with each other on the subject of removal.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501128691
BLUFF by Michael Kardos (Thriller)
At 27, magician Natalie Webb is already a has-been. A card-trick prodigy, she took first place at the World of Magic competition at 18 and has never again reached such heights. Shunned by the magic world after a disastrous liaison with an older magician, she now lives alone in a New Jersey apartment. In a desperate ploy for extra cash, she follows up on an old offer to write for a glossy magazine and pitches the editor a seductive topic: the art of cheating at cards. But when Natalie meets the perfect subject for her piece --- a poker cheat who dazzles at sleight of hand --- what begins as a journalistic gamble soon becomes a test of everything she thinks she knows about her talent, and herself.
Mysterious Press | 9780802129659
CITY OF FLICKERING LIGHT by Juliette Fay (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
It’s July 1921, “flickers” are all the rage, and Irene Van Beck has just declared her own independence by jumping off a moving train to escape her fate in a traveling burlesque show. When her friends, fellow dancer Millie Martin and comedian Henry Weiss, leap after her, the trio finds their way to the bright lights of Hollywood with hopes of making it big in the burgeoning silent film industry. But success doesn’t come easy, and nothing can prepare Irene, Millie and Henry for the poverty, temptation and heartbreak that lie ahead. With their ambitions challenged by both the men above them and the prejudice surrounding them, their friendship is the only constant through desperate times, as each struggles to find their true calling in an uncertain world.
Gallery Books | 9781501192937
CULT X written by Fuminori Nakamura, translated by Kalau Almony (Mystery/Thriller)
When Toru Narazaki’s girlfriend, Ryoko Tachibana, disappears, he tries to track her down, despite the warnings of the private detective he’s hired to find her. Ryoko’s past is shrouded in mystery, but the one concrete clue to her whereabouts is a previous address in the heart of Tokyo. She lived in a compound with a group that seems to be a cult led by a charismatic guru with a revisionist Buddhist scheme of life, death and society. Narazaki plunges into the secretive world of the cult, ready to expose himself to any of the guru’s brainwashing tactics if it means he can learn the truth about Ryoko. But the cult isn’t what he expected, and he has no idea of the bubbling violence he is stepping into.
Soho Crime | 9781641290234
DREAMS OF FALLING by Karen White (Mystery)
Nine years ago, a humiliated Larkin Lanier fled Georgetown, South Carolina, knowing she could never go back. But when she finds out that her mother has disappeared, she realizes she has no choice but to return to the place she both loves and dreads --- and to the family and friends who never stopped wishing for her to come home. Ivy, Larkin's mother, is discovered badly injured and unconscious in the burned-out wreckage of her ancestral plantation home. No one knows why Ivy was there, but as Larkin digs for answers, she uncovers secrets kept for nearly 50 years --- whispers of love, sacrifice and betrayal --- that lead back to three girls on the brink of womanhood who found their friendship tested in the most heartbreaking ways.
Berkley | 9780451488435
GUMSHOE ON THE LOOSE by Rob Leininger (Mystery)
IRS agent-turned-PI Mortimer Angel is relaxing in a hole-in-the-wall bar in a Reno casino when an attractive young girl hires him to find out who left her a cryptic message demanding a million dollars. At the girl’s house, Mort finds the body of missing rapper Jonnie Xenon --- Jo-X to his legions of fans --- hanging from the rafters with two bullet holes in him. Mort is shocked when he learns the identity of the girl’s father --- and even more shocked when the father hires him to investigate the murder. Mort, being Mort, accumulates a few felonies as he follows the clues to Las Vegas. And along the way, he picks up an alluring young assistant who changes his life --- in every conceivable way.
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608093496
THE MERCY SEAT by Elizabeth H. Winthrop (Historical Fiction)
On the eve of his execution, 18-year-old Willie Jones sits in his cell in New Iberia awaiting his end. Across the state, a truck driven by a convict and his keeper carries the executioner’s chair closer. On a nearby highway, Willie’s father Frank lugs a gravestone on the back of his fading, old mule. In his office, the DA who prosecuted Willie reckons with his sentencing, while at their gas station at the crossroads outside of town, married couple Ora and Dale grapple with their grief and their secrets.
Grove Press | 9780802129611
THE MISTER by E L James (Romance)
Paperback Original
London, 2019. Life has been easy for Maxim Trevelyan. With his good looks, aristocratic connections and money, he’s never had to work and he’s rarely slept alone. But all that changes when tragedy strikes and Maxim inherits his family’s noble title, wealth and estates, and all the responsibility that entails. It’s a role he’s not prepared for and one that he struggles to face. But his biggest challenge is fighting his desire for an unexpected, enigmatic young woman who’s recently arrived in England, possessing little more than a dangerous and troublesome past. Reticent, beautiful and musically gifted, she’s an alluring mystery, and Maxim’s longing for her deepens into a passion that he’s never experienced and dares not name.
Vintage | 9781984898326
A NANTUCKET WEDDING by Nancy Thayer (Fiction)
A few years after losing her beloved husband, Alison is doing something she never thought she would do again: getting married. While placing the finishing touches on her summer nuptials, Alison is anxious to introduce her fiancé, David, to her grown daughters: Felicity, a worried married mother of two, and Jane, also married but focused on her career. The sisters have a somewhat distant relationship, and Alison hopes that the wedding and the weeks leading up to the ceremony will give the siblings a chance to reconnect, as well as meet and get to know David’s grown children. As the summer progresses, it is anything but smooth sailing.
Ballantine Books | 9781101967119
THE ONE by John Marrs (Science Fiction/Thriller)
A simple DNA test is all it takes. Just a quick mouth swab and soon you’ll be matched with your perfect partner --- the one you’re genetically made for. That’s the promise made by Match Your DNA. A decade ago, the company announced that they had found the gene that pairs each of us with our soul mate. Since then, millions of people around the world have been matched. But the discovery has its downsides: test results have led to the breakup of countless relationships and upended the traditional ideas of dating, romance and love. Now five very different people have received the notification that they’ve been “Matched.” They’re each about to meet their one true love. But “happily ever after” isn’t guaranteed for everyone.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335998859
A QUESTION OF BELIEF: A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery by Donna Leon (Mystery)
With his hometown beset by hordes of tourists and baking under a glaring sun, Venetian Commissario Guido Brunetti's greatest wish is to go to the mountains with his family, where he can sleep under a down comforter and catch up on his reading. But before he can go on vacation, a folder with court records has landed on his desk, brought by an old friend. It appears that cases at the local court --- hardly known as a model of efficiency --- are being delayed to the benefit of one of the parties, a creative new trick for corrupting the system. And just when it looks like Brunetti will be able to get away, a shocking, violent crime forces him to stay in Venice.
Grove Press | 9780802129550
RUTHLESS TIDE: The Heroes and Villains of the Johnstown Flood, America’s Astonishing Gilded Age Disaster by Al Roker (History)
Central Pennsylvania, May 31, 1889: After a deluge of rain swelled the Little Conemaugh River, panicked engineers watched helplessly as swiftly rising waters threatened to breach the South Fork dam. At 3:10pm the dam gave way, releasing 20 million tons of water. The deluge wiped out nearly everything in its path before reaching Johnstown, a vibrant steel town 14 miles downstream. Traveling 40 miles an hour, the deadly floodwaters razed the mill town in minutes. The Great Flood remains the deadliest in US history, killing more than 2,200 people and causing $17 million in damage. In RUTHLESS TIDE, Al Roker follows an unforgettable cast of characters whose fates converged because of that tragic day.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062445537
VARINA by Charles Frazier (Historical Fiction)
Her marriage prospects limited, teenage Varina Howell agrees to wed the much-older widower Jefferson Davis, with whom she expects the secure life of a Mississippi landowner. Davis instead pursues a career in politics and is eventually appointed president of the Confederacy, placing Varina at the white-hot center of one of the darkest moments in American history --- culpable regardless of her intentions. The Confederacy falling, her marriage in tatters and the country divided, Varina and her children escape Richmond and travel south on their own, now fugitives with “bounties on their heads, an entire nation in pursuit.”
Ecco | 9780062405999
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