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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of July 29th and August 5th that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers, along with Bonus News, where we call out a contest, feature or review that we want to let you know about so you have it on your radar.
This week, we are calling attention to our reviews of three books that we featured in last Friday's Bookreporter.com Weekly Update newsletter: David Baldacci’s latest thriller, ONE GOOD DEED, which introduces readers to Aloysius Archer, a straight-talking former World War II soldier fresh out of prison for a crime he didn't commit; LADY IN THE LAKE by Laura Lippman, in which a middle-aged housewife turned aspiring reporter pursues the murder of a forgotten young woman; and THE LAGER QUEEN OF MINNESOTA, J. Ryan Stradal’s novel of family, Midwestern values, hard work, fate and the secrets of making a world-class beer (his debut, KITCHENS OF THE GREAT MIDWEST, was a New York Times bestseller).
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 what you typically borrow from the library.
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Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound
Special Preview of Friday's Bookreporter Update
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This Week's Bonus News:
Our Reviews of ONE GOOD DEED, LADY IN THE LAKE
and THE LAGER QUEEN OF MINNESOTA
ONE GOOD DEED by David Baldacci (Historical Thriller)
Audiobook available, read by Edoardo Ballerini
When World War II veteran Aloysius Archer is released from Carderock Prison, he is sent to Poca City on parole. The small town quickly proves more complicated and dangerous than Archer's years serving in the war or his time in jail. Within a single night, his search for gainful employment --- and a stiff drink --- leads him to a local bar, where he is hired for what seems like a simple job: to collect a debt owed to a powerful local businessman, Hank Pittleman. Soon Archer discovers that recovering the debt won't be so easy. When a murder takes place right under Archer's nose, police suspicions rise against the ex-convict, and Archer realizes that the crime could send him right back to prison...if he doesn't use every skill in his arsenal to track down the real killer. Reviewed by Ray Palen.
- Click here to read more about the book.
Click here to read the review of ONE GOOD DEED.
LADY IN THE LAKE by Laura Lippman (Historical Mystery/Thriller)
Audiobook available, read by Susan Bennett
Drawing on her own secrets, Madeline “Maddie” Schwartz helps Baltimore police find a murdered girl --- assistance that leads to a job at the city’s afternoon newspaper, the Star. Working at the newspaper offers Maddie the opportunity to make her name, and she has found just the story to do it: a missing woman whose body was discovered in the fountain of a city park lake. Cleo Sherwood was a young African-American woman who liked to have a good time. No one seems to know or care why she was killed except Maddie --- and the dead woman herself. Maddie is going to find the truth about Cleo’s life and death. Cleo’s ghost, privy to Maddie’s poking and prying, wants to be left alone. Reviewed by Ray Palen.
- Click here to read more about the book.
Click here to read the review of LADY IN THE LAKE.
THE LAGER QUEEN OF MINNESOTA by J. Ryan Stradal (Fiction)
Audiobook available, read by Judith Ivey
Two sisters, one farm. A family is split when their father leaves their shared inheritance entirely to Helen, his younger daughter. Despite baking award-winning pies at the local nursing home, her older sister, Edith, struggles to make what most people would call a living. So she can't help wondering what her life would have been like with even a portion of the farm money her sister kept for herself. With the proceeds from the farm, Helen builds one of the most successful light breweries in the country. Yet one day, Helen will find that she needs some help herself, and she could find a potential savior close to home…if it's not too late. Reviewed by Norah Piehl.
- Click here to read more about the book.
Click here to read the review of THE LAGER QUEEN OF MINNESOTA.
On Sale the Week of July 29th in Hardcover
July 30th
THE ARRANGEMENT by Robyn Harding (Psychological Thriller)
Natalie, a young art student in New York City, is struggling to pay her bills when a friend makes a suggestion: Why not go online and find a sugar daddy? Though more than 30 years her senior, Gabe, a handsome corporate finance attorney, seems like the perfect candidate. Within a month, they are madly in love. At least Nat is. Gabe already has a family, whom he has no intention of leaving. So when he abruptly ends things, Nat can’t let go. She begins drinking heavily and stalking him. But Gabe is not about to let his sugar baby destroy his perfect life. What was supposed to be a mutually beneficial arrangement devolves into a nightmare of deception, obsession and, when a body is found near Gabe’s apartment, murder.
Gallery/Scout Press | 9781982110499
A CAPITOL DEATH: A Flavia Albia Novel by Lindsey Davis (Historical Mystery)
A man falls to his death from the Tarpeian Rock, which overlooks the Forum in the Capitoline Hill in Ancient Rome. While it looks like a suicide, one witness swears that she saw it happen and that he was pushed. This usually would attract very little official notice, but this man happened to be in charge of organizing the Imperial Triumphs demanded by the emperor. Normally, the investigation would be under the auspices of her new(ish) husband. But, worried about his stamina following a long recovery, private informer Flavia Albia steps in. With the date of the Triumphs fast approaching, Flavia must unravel a truly complex case of murder before danger shows up on her own doorstep.
Minotaur Books | 9781250152701
CHANCES ARE... by Richard Russo (Fiction)
One beautiful September day, three men convene on Martha's Vineyard, friends ever since meeting in college circa the '60s. They couldn't have been more different then, or even today --- Lincoln is a commercial real estate broker, Teddy a tiny-press publisher, and Mickey a musician beyond his rocking age. But each man holds his own secrets, in addition to the monumental mystery that none of them has ever stopped puzzling over since a Memorial Day weekend right here on the Vineyard in 1971: the disappearance of the woman each of them loved --- Jacy Rockafellow. Now, more than 40 years later, as this new weekend unfolds, three lives are displayed in their entirety while the distant past confounds the present like a relentless squall of surprise and discovery.
Knopf | 9781101947746
THE CHELSEA GIRLS by Fiona Davis (Historical Fiction)
The Chelsea Hotel has long been New York City's creative oasis for the many artists, writers, musicians, actors, filmmakers and poets who have called it home --- a scene playwright Hazel Riley and actress Maxine Mead are determined to use to their advantage. Yet they soon discover that the greatest obstacle to putting up a show on Broadway has nothing to do with their art, and everything to do with politics. A Red scare is sweeping across America, and Senator Joseph McCarthy has started a witch hunt for Communists. As the pressure builds to name names, it is more than Hazel and Maxine's Broadway dreams that may suffer as they grapple with the terrible consequences, but also their livelihood, their friendship and even their freedom.
Dutton | 9781524744588
THE ESCAPE ROOM by Megan Goldin (Psychological Thriller)
Invited to participate in an escape room as a team-building exercise, four ferociously competitive co-workers crowd into the elevator of a high-rise building, eager to prove themselves. But when the lights go off and the doors stay shut, it quickly becomes clear that this is no ordinary competition: they’re caught in a dangerous game of survival. Trapped in the dark, the colleagues must put aside their bitter rivalries and work together to solve cryptic clues to break free. But as the game begins to reveal the team’s darkest secrets, they realize there’s a price to be paid for the terrible deeds they committed in their ruthless climb up the corporate ladder.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250219657
GAME OF SNIPERS: A Bob Lee Swagger Novel by Stephen Hunter (Thriller/Adventure)
When Bob Lee Swagger is approached by a woman who lost a son to war and has spent the years since risking all that she has to find the sniper who pulled the trigger, he knows right away he'll do everything in his power to help her. But what begins as a favor becomes an obsession, and soon Swagger is back in the action, teaming up with the Mossad, the FBI and local American law enforcement as he tracks a sniper who is his own equal...and attempts to decipher that assassin's ultimate target before it's too late.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780399574573
GOODNIGHT STRANGER by Miciah Bay Gault (Fiction)
Lydia and Lucas Moore are in their late 20s when a stranger enters their small world on Wolf Island. Lydia, the responsible sister, has cared for her pathologically shy brother, Lucas, ever since their mom’s death a decade before. They live together in their family house by the sea, shadowed by events from their childhood. When Lydia sees the stranger step off the ferry, she feels an immediate connection to him. Lucas is convinced that the man, Cole Anthony, is the reincarnation of their baby brother, who died when they were young. To discover the truth about Cole, Lydia must finally face her anxiety about leaving the island and summon the strength to challenge Cole’s grip on her family’s past and her brother.
Park Row | 9780778308706
LABYRINTH by Catherine Coulter (Thriller)
Agent Sherlock is driving in downtown Washington when her Volvo is suddenly T-boned at an intersection. As her car spins out of control, a man’s body slams against her windshield. No one knows yet who he is or where he is because he ran away. From DNA, they discover his name is Justice Cummings and he’s a CIA analyst at Langley. Meanwhile, Special Agent Griffin Hammersmith rescues a kidnapped woman claiming her captor had probably murdered three missing teenage girls. However, the man she accuses is the local sheriff’s nephew and a member of a very powerful family. When the sheriff arrests Griffin and the rescued woman, he calls Savich for help. Together they have to weave their way through a labyrinth of lies to find the truth of a terrible secret.
Gallery Books | 9781501193651
NEVER HAVE I EVER by Joshilyn Jackson (Thriller)
Amy Whey's sweet, uncomplicated life begins to unravel when the mysterious and alluring Angelica Roux arrives on her doorstep one night. Amy knows that something wicked has come her way --- a she-devil in a pricey red sports car who seems to know the terrible truth about who she is and what she once did. Roux tells Amy that if she doesn’t give her what she asks for --- what she deserves --- she’s going to make Amy pay for her sins. To protect herself and her family, and save the life she’s built, Amy must beat the devil at her own clever game, matching wits with Roux in an escalating war of hidden pasts and unearthed secrets. Amy knows the consequences if she can’t beat Roux. What terrifies her is everything she could lose if she wins.
William Morrow | 9780062855312
THE RUSSIAN by Ben Coes (Political Thriller)
The Russian mafia has rapidly taken over the criminal underworld in the U.S. When a powerful Russian mob family declares war by publicly executing two high-profile American politicians, the message is unmistakable --- opposition will be met with overwhelming deadly force. With no other viable options, the President creates a clandestine assassinations team to find and eliminate the unreachable men running this deadly criminal operation. The CIA recruits two Tier 1 operators: former Navy SEALs Billy Cosgrove and Rob Tacoma. But before they can even get started, the Russians murder Cosgrove in his own home. Now Tacoma is on his own against an organization with endless resources and no boundaries.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250140791
SMOKESCREEN by Iris Johansen (Thriller)
A journalist shows up on Eve Duncan's doorstep with a plea for help. Jill Cassidy has just come from a small African village with a heartwrenching story: half the villagers --- many of them children --- have been killed in a horrific attack by guerilla soldiers, the bodies burned beyond recognition. Now, the families desperately need Eve's help to get closure and begin to heal. But when Eve arrives in the remote jungle, she begins to suspect that Jill's plea may have been a cover story for a deeper, more sinister plot. Isolated and unsure who she can trust, Eve finds herself stranded in an unstable country where violence threatens to break out again at any moment.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538713082
SOMEONE WE KNOW by Shari Lapena (Psychological Thriller)
In a quiet, leafy suburb in upstate New York, a teenager has been sneaking into houses --- and into the owners' computers as well --- learning their secrets, and maybe sharing some of them, too. Who is he, and what might he have uncovered? After two anonymous letters are received, whispers start to circulate, and suspicion mounts. And when a woman down the street is found murdered, the tension reaches the breaking point. Who killed her? Who knows more than they're telling? And how far will all these very nice people go to protect their own secrets? In this neighborhood, it's not just the husbands and wives who play games. Here, everyone in the family has something to hide.
Pamela Dorman Books | 9780525557654
THAT'S WHAT FRENEMIES ARE FOR by Sophie Littlefield and Lauren Gershell (Fiction)
Julia Summers is on the hunt for the next big thing that will make her the envy of her friends and put her back on top. Enter Flame, the new boutique gym in her neighborhood. Seductive and transformative, Flame’s spin classes are exactly what Julia needs --- and demure, naïve instructor Tatum is her ticket in. But rebranding Tatum as a trendy guru proves hard work, and Julia’s triumphant comeback at summer’s end doesn’t quite go as planned. Her life is already spiraling out of control when her husband is arrested for fraud and bribery. As her so-called friends turn their backs on her, and Tatum pursues her own agenda, Julia is forced to rethink everything she knew about her world to reclaim her perfect life. But does she even want it back?
Ballantine Books | 9781984817969
TRUE BELIEVER by Jack Carr (Political Thriller)
When a string of horrific terrorist attacks plagues the Western world during the holiday season, the broader markets fall into a tailspin. The attacks are being coordinated by a shadowy former Iraqi commando who has disappeared into Europe’s underground. The United States government has an asset who can turn the Iraqi against his masters: James Reece, the most-wanted domestic terrorist alive. When a series of events uncovers his whereabouts, the CIA recruits him. Now a reluctant tool of the United States government, Reece travels the globe, targeting terrorist leaders and unraveling a geopolitical conspiracy that exposes a traitorous CIA officer and uncovers a sinister assassination plot with worldwide repercussions.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781501180842
THE VEXATIONS by Caitlin Horrocks (Historical Fiction)
Erik Satie begins life with every possible advantage. But after the dual blows of his mother's early death and his father's breakdown upend his childhood, Erik and his younger siblings --- Louise and Conrad --- are scattered. Later, as an ambitious young composer, Erik flings himself into the Parisian art scene, aiming for greatness but achieving only notoriety. As the years, then decades, pass, he alienates those in his circle as often as he inspires them. Only Louise and Conrad are steadfast allies. But in a journey that will take her from Normandy to Paris to Argentina, Louise is rocked by a severe loss that ultimately forces her into a reckoning with how Erik --- obsessed with his art and hungry for fame --- will never be the brother she's wished for.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316316910
On Sale the Week of July 29th in Paperback
July 30th
AN ABSOLUTELY REMARKABLE THING by Hank Green (Science Fiction/Humor)
The Carls just appeared. Coming home from work at 3am, 23-year-old April May stumbles across a giant sculpture. Delighted by its appearance and craftsmanship, April and her friend Andy make a video with it, which Andy uploads to YouTube. The next day April wakes up to a viral video and a new life. News quickly spreads that there are Carls in dozens of cities around the world, and April, as their first documentarian, finds herself at the center of an intense international media spotlight. Now April has to deal with the pressure on her relationships, her identity and her safety that this new position brings, all while being on the front lines of the quest to find out not just what the Carls are, but what they want from us.
Dutton | 9781524743468
THE BETRAYED WIFE by Kevin O'Brien (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Sheila O’Rourke has always known her husband isn’t perfect. Who is? But things have been better since they moved to Seattle to make a fresh start. So much so that when 16-year-old Eden turns up, claiming to be Dylan’s child by another woman, Sheila tries to be welcoming. At first, Sheila feels sympathy for the girl. Eden’s mother recently fell to her death in an incident with unsettling parallels to Sheila’s past. Still, Eden is a difficult house guest, sowing discord among the family. Sheila has already been on edge for weeks, receiving anonymous texts, noticing odd noises coming from the house next door. And that’s just the start. No one can hurt you more easily than the ones closest to you --- the ones you keep believing until it’s too late.
Pinnacle | 9780786045075
THE BOOK CHARMER by Karen Hawkins (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Sarah Dove is no ordinary bookworm. To her, books have always been more than just objects: they live, breathe and sometimes even speak. When Sarah grows up to become the librarian in her quaint Southern town of Dove Pond, her gift helps place every book in the hands of the perfect reader. Recently, however, the books have been whispering about something out of the ordinary: the arrival of a displaced city girl named Grace Wheeler. If the books are right, Grace could be the savior that Dove Pond desperately needs. The problem is, Grace wants little to do with the town or its quirky residents --- Sarah chief among them.
Gallery Books | 9781982105549
BUTTON MAN by Andrew Gross (Historical Thriller)
New York, 1930s. Morris, Sol and Harry Rabishevsky grew up poor and rough on the Lower East Side, until the death of their father forced them to fend for themselves and support the family. Morris apprentices himself to a garment manufacturer; bookish Sol drops out of accounting school; and Harry believes he can help out by learning the ways and means of a charismatic local crime figure. Later, when Morris and Sol find career success and decide to create their own business, Harry can’t be lured away from the glamour and prestige that comes from being a “button man” --- a gun man --- for Louis Buchalter, now the most ruthless mobster in the city. When Buchalter sets his sights on the unions that control the garment factories, a fatal showdown becomes inevitable, pitting brother against brother.
St. Martin’s Paperbacks | 9781250214331
CONNECTIONS IN DEATH by J. D. Robb (Mystery/Thriller)
Homicide cop Eve Dallas and her billionaire husband, Roarke, are building a brand-new school and youth shelter. For expert help, they hire child psychologist Dr. Rochelle Pickering --- whose own brother pulled himself out of a spiral of addiction and crime with Rochelle’s support. Lyle is living with Rochelle while he gets his life together, and he’s thrilled to hear about his sister’s new job offer. But within hours, triumph is followed by tragedy. Returning from a celebratory dinner with her boyfriend, she finds Lyle dead with a syringe in his lap, and Eve’s investigation confirms that this wasn’t just another OD.
St. Martin’s Paperbacks | 9781250308153
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 | 9780062381798
AN EASY DEATH: A Gunnie Rose Novel by Charlaine Harris (Dark Fantasy/Thriller)
Battered by a run across the border to Mexico, Lizbeth Rose takes a job offer from a pair of Russian wizards to be their local guide and gunnie. They’re searching through the small border towns near Mexico, trying to locate a low-level magic practitioner, Oleg Karkarov. The wizards believe Oleg is a direct descendant of Grigori Rasputin, and that Oleg’s blood can save the young tsar’s life. As the trio journey through an altered America, shattered into several countries by the assassination of Franklin Roosevelt and the Great Depression, they’re set on by enemies. It’s clear that a powerful force does not want them to succeed in their mission. Lizbeth Rose is a gunnie who has never failed a client, but her oath will test all of her skills and resolve to get them all out alive.
Gallery/Saga Press | 9781481494939
HIPPIE by Paulo Coelho (Fiction)
Paulo is a young, skinny Brazilian man who wants to become a writer and sets off on a journey in search of a deeper meaning for his life: first on the famous “Death Train” to Bolivia, then on to Peru, later hitchhiking through Chile and Argentina. Paulo’s travels take him farther to the famous Dam Square in Amsterdam, where he meets Karla, a Dutch woman who has been waiting to find the ideal companion to accompany her on the fabled hippie trail to Nepal. As they travel together, Paulo and Karla explore their own relationship: a life-defining love story that awakens them on every level and leads to choices and decisions that will set the course for their lives thereafter.
Vintage | 9780525565185
THE INCENDIARIES by R. O. Kwon (Fiction)
Phoebe Lin and Will Kendall meet in their first month at prestigious Edwards University. Phoebe is a glamorous girl who doesn't tell anyone she blames herself for her mother's recent death. Will is a misfit scholarship boy who transfers to Edwards from Bible college, waiting tables to get by. What he knows for sure is that he loves Phoebe. Grieving and guilt-ridden, Phoebe is drawn into a secretive cult founded by a charismatic former student with an enigmatic past. When the group commits a violent act in the name of faith, Will finds himself struggling to confront a new version of the fanaticism he's worked so hard to escape.
Riverhead Books | 9780735213906
MY SISTER, THE SERIAL KILLER by Oyinkan Braithwaite (Fiction/Dark Humor)
Korede’s sister, Ayoola, is many things: the favorite child, the beautiful one, possibly sociopathic. And now Ayoola's third boyfriend in a row is dead. Korede's practicality is the sisters' saving grace. She knows the best solutions for cleaning blood, the trunk of her car is big enough for a body, and she keeps Ayoola from posting pictures of her dinner to Instagram when she should be mourning her "missing" boyfriend. Korede has long been in love with a kind, handsome doctor at the hospital where she works. She dreams of the day when he will realize that she's exactly what he needs. But when he asks Korede for Ayoola's phone number, she must reckon with what her sister has become and how far she's willing to go to protect her.
Anchor | 9780525564201
THE SHAKESPEARE REQUIREMENT by Julie Schumacher (Fiction/Satire)
Now is the fall of his discontent, as Jason Fitger, newly appointed chair of the English Department of Payne University, takes arms against a sea of troubles, personal and institutional. His ex-wife is sleeping with the dean who must approve whatever modest initiatives he undertakes. The fearsome department secretary Fran clearly runs the show (when not taking in rescue parrots and dogs) and holds plenty of secrets she's not sharing. The lavishly funded Econ Department keeps siphoning off English's meager resources and has taken aim at its remaining office space. And Fitger's attempt to get a mossbacked and antediluvian Shakespeare scholar to retire backfires spectacularly when the press concludes that the Bard is being kicked to the curricular curb.
Anchor | 9780525432616
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 | 9780525539742
WE THAT ARE YOUNG by Preti Taneja (Fiction)
When a billionaire hotelier and political operator attempts to pit his three daughters against one another, a brutal struggle for primacy begins in this modern-day take on Shakespeare’s "King Lear." Set in contemporary India, where rich men are gods while farmers starve and water is fast running out, WE THAT ARE YOUNG is a story about power status and the love of a megalomaniac father.
Vintage | 9780525563341
THE WITCH ELM by Tana French (Thriller)
Toby is a happy-go-lucky charmer who has dodged a scrape at work and is celebrating with friends when the night takes a turn that will change his life --- he surprises two burglars who beat him and leave him for dead. Struggling to recover from his injuries, beginning to understand that he might never be the same man again, he takes refuge at his family's ancestral home to care for his dying uncle Hugo. Then a skull is found in the trunk of an elm tree in the garden --- and as detectives close in, Toby is forced to face the possibility that his past may not be what he has always believed.
Penguin Books | 9780735224643
On Sale the Week of August 5th in Hardcover
August 5th
THE INN by James Patterson and Candice Fox (Thriller)
The Inn at Gloucester stands alone on the rocky shoreline. Its seclusion suits former Boston police detective Bill Robinson, novice owner and innkeeper. As long as the dozen residents pay their rent, Robinson doesn't ask any questions. Neither does Sheriff Clayton Spears, who lives on the second floor. Then Mitchell Cline arrives, with a deadly new way of doing business. His crew of local killers break laws, deal drugs and bring violence to the doors of the Inn. That's when Robinson realizes, with the help of journalist Susan Solie, that leaving the city is no escape from the reality of evil --- or the responsibility for action. Teaming up with Sheriff Spears and two fearless residents --- Army veteran Nick Jones and groundskeeper Effie Johnson --- Robinson begins a risky defense.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316527583
August 6th
ALL THE WATER IN THE WORLD by Karen Raney (Fiction)
Sixteen-year-old Maddy has loyal friends, a mother with whom she’s unusually close, a father she’s never met, devoted grandparents, and a crush on a boy named Jack. Maddy also has cancer. Told in the alternating voices of Maddy and her mother, Eve, ALL THE WATER IN THE WORLD moves between the family’s lake house in Pennsylvania; their home in Washington, DC; and London, where Maddy’s father, Antonio, lives. Hungry for experience, Maddy seeks out her first romantic relationship, finds solace in music and art, and tracks down Antonio. She continually tests the depths and limits of her closeness with her mother, while Eve has to come to terms with the daughter she only partly knows, in a world she can’t control.
Scribner | 9781982108694
BARNUM: An American Life by Robert Wilson (Biography)
Nearly 125 years after his death, the name P. T. Barnum still inspires wonder. Robert Wilson’s biography captures the full genius, infamy and allure of the ebullient showman. From birth to death, Phineas Taylor Barnum repeatedly reinvented himself. He learned as a young man how to wow crowds, and built a fortune that placed him among the first millionaires in the United States. He also suffered tragedy, bankruptcy and fires that destroyed his life’s work, yet willed himself to rebuild and succeed again. As an entertainer, Barnum courted controversy time and again throughout his life --- yet he was also a man of strong convictions, guided in his work not by a desire to deceive but an eagerness to thrill and bring joy to his audiences.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501118623
BERTA ISLA by Javier Marías (Fiction)
When Berta Isla was a schoolgirl, she decided she would marry Tomás Nevinson --- the dashing half-Spanish, half-English boy in her class with an extraordinary gift for languages. But when Tomás returns to Madrid from his studies at Oxford, he is a changed man. Unbeknownst to her, he has been approached by an agent from the British intelligence services, and he has unwittingly set in motion events that will derail forever the life they had planned.
Knopf | 9780525521365
THE BIRTHDAY GIRL by Melissa de la Cruz (Psychological Thriller)
Before she became a glamorous fashion designer, Ellie de Florent-Stinson was a trailer-park teen about to turn 16. But a night of birthday celebration doesn’t go exactly as planned and descends into a night she’ll never be able to forget. Now, on the cusp of her 40th birthday, it appears Ellie has everything she ever wanted. Except everything is not quite as perfect as it looks on the outside, as Ellie is keeping many secrets. Hiding those skeletons has a cost, and it all comes to a head the night of her fabulous birthday party in the desert. Old and new friends and frenemies, stepdaughters and business partners, ex-wives and ex-husbands congregate, and the glittering facade of Ellie’s life begins to crumble.
Dutton | 9781524743772
CAREFUL WHAT YOU WISH FOR by Hallie Ephron (Psychological Thriller)
Emily Harlow, a professional organizer, is married to a man who can’t drive past a yard sale without stopping. He’s filled their basement, attic and garage with his finds. The larger his “collection” becomes, the deeper the distance grows between Emily and the man she married. Luckily, Emily has two new clients to distract herself: an elderly widow whose husband left behind a storage unit she didn’t know existed, and a young wife whose husband won’t allow her stuff into their house. Emily’s initial meeting with the young wife takes a detour when the women end up fantasizing about how much more pleasant life would be without their collecting spouses. But the next day, Emily finds herself in a mess that might be too big for her to clean up.
William Morrow | 9780062473653
CITY OF WINDOWS by Robert Pobi (Thriller)
During the worst blizzard in memory, an FBI agent in a moving SUV in New York City is killed by a nearly impossible sniper shot. Unable to pinpoint where the shot came from, the agent-in-charge, Brett Kehoe, turns to the one man who might be able to help them --- former FBI agent Lucas Page. A university professor and bestselling author, Page left the FBI years ago after a tragic event robbed him of a leg, an arm, an eye and the willingness to continue. With a new wife and family, Page has no interest in helping the FBI --- except for the fact that the victim was his former partner. Agreeing to help for his partner’s sake, Page finds himself hunting a killer with an unknown agenda and amazing sniper skills in the worst of conditions.
Minotaur Books | 9781250293947
A DANGEROUS MAN: An Elvis Cole and Joe Pike Novel by Robert Crais (Thriller)
Joe Pike didn't expect to rescue a woman during his trip to the bank. So when Isabel Roland, the young teller who helped him, steps out of the bank, Joe is on hand when two men abduct her. Joe chases them down, and the kidnappers are arrested. But instead of putting the drama to bed, the arrests are only the beginning of the trouble for Joe and Izzy. After posting bail, the two men are murdered and Izzy disappears. Pike calls on his friend, Elvis Cole, to help learn the truth. What Elvis uncovers is a twisted family story that involves corporate whistleblowing, huge amounts of cash, the Witness Relocation Program, and a long line of lies. Is Izzy a perpetrator or a victim? And how far will Joe go to find out?
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780525535683
ELLIE AND THE HARPMAKER by Hazel Prior (Romance)
Dan Hollis lives a happy, solitary life carving exquisite Celtic harps in his barn in the countryside of the English moors. Here he can be himself, away from social situations that he doesn’t always get right or completely understand. On the anniversary of her beloved father’s death, Ellie Jacobs takes a walk in the woods and comes across Dan’s barn. She is enchanted by his collection. Dan gives her a harp made of cherrywood to match her cherry socks. He stores it for her, ready for whenever she’d like to take lessons. Ellie begins visiting Dan almost daily and quickly learns that he isn’t like other people. She soon realizes that he isn’t just different; in many ways, his world is better, and he gives her a fresh perspective on her own life.
Berkley | 9781984803788
THE GHOSTS OF EDEN PARK: The Bootleg King, the Women Who Pursued Him, and the Murder That Shocked Jazz-Age America by Karen Abbott (True Crime)
In the early days of Prohibition, long before Al Capone became a household name, a German immigrant named George Remus quits practicing law and starts trafficking whiskey. Within two years he's a multi-millionaire. Pioneering prosecutor Mabel Walker Willebrandt is determined to bring him down. She dispatches her best investigator, Franklin Dodge, to look into his empire. It's a decision with deadly consequences. With the fledgling FBI on the case, Remus is quickly imprisoned for violating the Volstead Act. Her husband behind bars, Imogene begins an affair with Dodge. Together, they plot to ruin Remus, sparking a bitter feud that soon reaches the highest levels of government --- and that can only end in murder.
Crown | 9780451498625
GUMSHOE ROCK by Rob Leininger (Mystery)
Early in July, northern Nevada’s senior Internal Revenue Service agent, Ronald Soranden --- disliked by every agent in the Reno IRS office --- vanished without a trace. In September, his skull is dropped through the slashed top of a Mustang convertible. The vehicle belongs to Lucy Landry, PI Mortimer Angel’s gorgeous young assistant now working with him on a seemingly unrelated embezzlement case. But Mort is a former IRS field agent in Reno who had done his time during the tyrannical reign of Soranden. When the FBI is brought in to investigate the murder, Mort and Lucy realize shocking details about their own case --- primarily Soranden’s involvement. It becomes evident that events and suspects of the embezzlement case and Soranden’s murder are heavily entangled with those enmeshed in an ugly case of blackmail.
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608093304
HOLLOW KINGDOM by Kira Jane Buxton (Fiction/Humor)
S.T., a domesticated crow, is a bird of simple pleasures: hanging out with his owner Big Jim, trading insults with Seattle's wild crows, and enjoying the finest food humankind has to offer: Cheetos. Then Big Jim's eyeball falls out of his head, and S.T. starts to feel like something isn't quite right. He is left with no choice but to abandon his old life and venture out into a wild and frightening new world with his trusty steed Dennis, where he discovers that the neighbors are devouring each other and the local wildlife is abuzz with rumors of dangerous new predators roaming Seattle. Humanity's extinction has seemingly arrived, and the only one determined to save it is a foul-mouthed crow whose knowledge of the world around him comes from his TV-watching education.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538745823
HUNTER'S MOON: A Novel in Stories by Philip Caputo (Fiction/Short Stories)
HUNTER’S MOON is set in Michigan’s wild, starkly beautiful Upper Peninsula, where a cast of recurring characters move into and out of each other’s lives --- building friendships, facing loss, confronting violence, trying to bury the past or seeking to unearth it. Once-a-year lovers, old high-school buddies on a hunting trip, a college professor and his wayward son, a middle-aged man and his grief-stricken father, come together, break apart and, if they’re fortunate, find a way forward.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781627794763
I KNOW EVERYTHING by Matthew Farrell (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Police investigator Susan Adler is ready to close the book on a deadly car accident, but after the medical examiner discovers evidence of foul play, she knows she has a murder on her hands. The victim was the wealthy wife of Randall Brock, a renowned psychiatrist who treats patients with disturbing, brutal fantasies. Randall has a violent past but knows he didn’t kill his wife. In the midst of his crushing grief, he receives a visit from a stranger with information to share about his wife’s death. But there’s a catch: in exchange for the stranger’s information, Randall must reveal dark secrets he’s kept hidden for years. As this shady figure applies more pressure and Susan closes in, Randall begins to doubt himself, clinging desperately to the pieces of his sanity.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781542044974
IS THERE STILL SEX IN THE CITY? by Candace Bushnell (Fiction)
Set between the Upper East Side of Manhattan and a country enclave known as The Village, IS THERE STILL SEX IN THE CITY? follows a cohort of female friends --- Sassy, Kitty, Queenie, Tilda Tia, Marilyn and Candace --- as they navigate the ever-modernizing phenomena of midlife dating and relationships. There’s “Cubbing,” in which a sensible older woman suddenly becomes the love interest of a much younger man; the “Mona Lisa” Treatment, a vaginal restorative surgery often recommended to middle-aged women; and what it’s really like to go on Tinder dates as a fifty-something divorcée.
Grove Press | 9780802147264
KEEPING LUCY by T. Greenwood (Historical Fiction)
Ginny Richardson's heart was torn open when her baby girl, Lucy, born with Down Syndrome, was taken from her. Under pressure from his powerful family, her husband, Ab, sent Lucy away to Willowridge, a special school for the “feeble-minded." Ab tried to convince Ginny it was for the best. But two years later, when Ginny's best friend, Marsha, shows her a series of articles exposing Willowridge as a hell-on-earth, she knows she can't leave her daughter there. With Ginny's six-year-old son in tow, Ginny and Marsha drive to the school to see Lucy for themselves. What they find sets their course on a heart-racing journey across state lines --- turning Ginny into a fugitive.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250164223
THE LONG ACCOMPLISHMENT: A Memoir of Hope and Struggle in Matrimony by Rick Moody (Memoir)
At this story’s start, Rick Moody, a recovering alcoholic and sexual compulsive with a history of depression, is also the divorced father of a beloved little girl and a man in love. His answer to the question “Would you like to be in a committed relationship?” is, fully and for the first time in his life, “Yes.” And so his second marriage begins as he emerges from the wreckage of his past, only to be battered by a stormy sea of external troubles --- miscarriages, the deaths of friends and robberies, just for starters. To Moody’s astonishment, matrimony turns out to be the site of strength in hard times, a vessel infinitely tougher and more durable than any boat these two participants would have traveled by alone.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781627798440
LOST YOU by Haylen Beck (Psychological Thriller)
Libby and her son, Ethan, are on a much-needed vacation. But in a moment of inattention, Ethan wanders into an elevator before Libby can reach him. When the elevator stops and the doors open, Ethan is gone. Hotel security scours the building and finds no trace of him, but when CCTV footage is found of an adult finding the child wandering alone and leading him away by the hand, the police are called in. The search intensifies, a lost child case turning into a possible abduction. Hours later, a child is seen with a woman stepping through an emergency exit. Libby and the police track the woman down and corner her, but she refuses to release Ethan. Asked who she is, the woman replies: "I'm his mother."
Crown | 9781524759582
LOVE AND DEATH AMONG THE CHEETAHS: A Royal Spyness Mystery by Rhys Bowen (Historical Mystery)
Georgie is excited when Darcy announces out of the blue that they are flying to Kenya for their extended honeymoon. It is only after they arrive that she suspects he has actually been sent there on an assignment. Darcy finally confides that there have been some spectacular robberies in London and Paris, and it is suspected that the thief was a member of the aristocracy and may have fled to Kenya. One of the leading lights in the community, Lord Cheriton, makes a play for Georgie. She rebuffs him. Then he is found dead along a lonely stretch of road. At first it seems to be a lion attack. But why was he on that stretch of road, alone, late at night? As Georgie and Darcy investigate, almost everyone has a motive to want Lord Cheriton dead.
Berkley | 9780451492845
MOTHERLAND: A Memoir of Love, Loathing, and Longing by Elissa Altman (Memoir)
After surviving a traumatic childhood in 1970s New York and young adulthood living in the shadow of her flamboyant mother, Rita, a makeup-addicted former television singer, Elissa Altman has managed to build a very different life, settling in Connecticut with her wife of nearly 20 years. After much time, therapy and wine, Elissa is at last in a healthy place. Then she is confronted with the unthinkable: Rita suffers an incapacitating fall, leaving her completely dependent upon her daughter. Now Elissa is forced to finally confront their profound differences, Rita’s yearning for beauty and glamour, her view of the world through her days in the spotlight, and the money that has mysteriously disappeared in the name of preserving youth.
Ballantine Books | 9780399181580
OUTFOX by Sandra Brown (Psychological Thriller/Romantic Suspense)
FBI agent Drex Easton is relentlessly driven by a single goal: to outmaneuver the conman once known as Weston Graham. Over the past 30 years, Weston has assumed many names and countless disguises, enabling him to lure eight wealthy women out of their fortunes before they disappeared without a trace, their families left without answers and the authorities without clues. Drex is convinced that these women have been murdered, and that the man he knows as Weston Graham is the sociopath responsible. But each time Drex gets close to catching him, Weston trades one persona for another and disappears again. Now, for the first time in their long game of cat and mouse, Drex has a suspect in sight.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781455572199
THE PERFECT WIFE by JP Delaney (Psychological Thriller)
Abbie awakens in a daze with no memory of who she is or how she landed in this unsettling condition. The man by her side claims to be her husband. He’s a titan of the tech world, the founder of one of Silicon Valley’s most innovative start-ups. He tells Abbie that she is a gifted artist, an avid surfer, a loving mother to their young son, and the perfect wife. He says she had a terrible accident five years ago and that, through a huge technological breakthrough, she has been brought back from the abyss. But as Abbie pieces together memories of her marriage, she begins questioning her husband’s motives --- and his version of events. Can she trust him when he says he wants them to be together forever? And what really happened to Abbie half a decade ago?
Ballantine Books | 9781524796747
A PURE HEART by Rajia Hassib (Fiction)
Sisters Rose and Gameela Gubran could not have been more different. Rose, an Egyptologist, married an American journalist and immigrated to New York City. Gameela, a devout Muslim since her teenage years, stayed in Cairo. During the aftermath of Egypt's revolution, Gameela is killed in a suicide bombing. When Rose returns to Egypt, she sifts through the artifacts Gameela left behind, desperate to understand how her sister came to die. Soon, Rose realizes that Gameela has left many questions unanswered. Why had she quit her job just a few months before her death and not told her family? Who was she romantically involved with? And how did the religious Gameela manage to keep so many secrets?
Viking | 9780525560050
SO YOU WANT TO START A PODCAST: Finding Your Voice, Telling Your Story, and Building a Community That Will Listen by Kristen Meinzer (Business & Economics/Self-Help)
Though they are the fastest-growing form of media, podcasts can actually be tricky to create --- and even harder to sustain. Few know the secrets of successfully creating a knockout podcast better than Kristen Meinzer. An award-winning commentator, producer and former director of nonfiction programming for Slate’s sister company, Panoply, Meinzer has also hosted three successful podcasts, reaching more than 10 million listeners. Now, she shares her expertise, providing aspiring podcasters with crucial information and guidance to work smarter, not harder, as they start their own audio forum.
William Morrow | 9780062936677
SUMMERLINGS by Lisa Howorth (Historical Fiction)
It's the summer of 1959. For the families who live on Connors Lane in Washington, DC, life is still defined by what one did during WWII. Behind each door lives a possible spy or Nazi sympathizer, the family of a foreign diplomat, or someone who escaped the conflagration in Europe just in time. But it also is the summer of an inexplicable spider infestation --- surely evidence of "insect warfare" by the Russians, thinks our young narrator John, and his best friends, Ivan and Max. When a rare, scorpion-like vinegaroon is discovered and sequestered for museum study, the boys, along with their tomboy accomplice, Beatriz, hatch a risky midnight plan to steal the poisonous creature for their own devious purposes.
Doubleday | 9780385544641
TRAVEL LIGHT, MOVE FAST by Alexandra Fuller (Memoir)
After her father’s sudden death, Alexandra Fuller realizes that if she is going to weather his loss, she will need to become the parts of him she misses most. So begins TRAVEL LIGHT, MOVE FAST, the unforgettable story of Tim Fuller, a self-exiled black sheep who moved to Africa to fight in the Rhodesian Bush War before settling as a banana farmer in Zambia. A man who preferred chaos to predictability, to revel in promise rather than wallow in regret, and who was more afraid of becoming bored than of getting lost, he taught his daughters to live as if everything needed to happen all together, all at once --- or not at all. Now, in the wake of his death, Fuller internalizes his lessons with clear eyes and celebrates a man who swallowed life whole.
Penguin Press | 9781594206740
THE TURN OF THE KEY by Ruth Ware (Psychological Thriller)
When she stumbles across the ad, she’s looking for something else completely. But it seems like too good an opportunity to miss --- a live-in nannying post, with a staggeringly generous salary. And when Rowan Caine arrives at Heatherbrae House, she is smitten --- by the luxurious “smart” home fitted out with all modern conveniences, by the beautiful Scottish Highlands, and by this picture-perfect family. What she doesn’t know is that she’s stepping into a nightmare --- one that will end with a child dead and herself in prison awaiting trial for murder. Writing to her lawyer from prison, she struggles to explain the unraveling events that led to her incarceration.
Gallery/Scout Press | 9781501188770
THE TWICE-HANGED MAN: A Medieval Mystery by Priscilla Royal (Historical Mystery)
As Edward I wages a bloody conflict with Wales, Prioress Eleanor escorts her younger brother, Robert, and his wife, who is in labor, from their Marcher lands to greater safety at a Wynethorpe manor in a village just inside the English border. They are joined by Brother Thomas, the Prioress's trusted friend, and Sister Anne, who helps navigate the difficult birth and delivers a baby girl. The local abbot begs the Prioress’s help. The village priest has been found dead, and standing over him is the ghost of Hywel, the village stonemason who was recently hanged for slaying some sleeping English soldiers. What secrets are the mysterious locals keeping from the outsiders visiting their troubled home?
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464211034
VALERIE: OR, THE FACULTY OF DREAMS written by Sara Stridsberg, translated by Deborah Bragan-Turner (Fiction)
In April 1988, Valerie Solanas --- the writer, radical feminist, author of the SCUM Manifesto and would-be assassin of Andy Warhol --- was discovered dead at 52 in her hotel room, in a grimy corner of San Francisco, alone, penniless and surrounded by the typed pages of her last writings. In VALERIE, a nameless narrator revisits the room where Solanas died, the courtroom where she was tried and convicted of attempting to murder Andy Warhol, the Georgia wastelands where she spent her childhood, and was repeatedly raped by her father and beaten by her alcoholic grandfather, and the mental hospitals where she was shut away.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374151911
WE ARE ALL GOOD PEOPLE HERE by Susan Rebecca White (Fiction)
Eve Whalen, privileged child of an old-money Atlanta family, meets Daniella Gold in the fall of 1962, on their first day at Belmont College. Paired as roommates, the two become fast friends. Daniella, raised in Georgetown by a Jewish father and a Methodist mother, has always felt caught between two worlds. Their expanding awareness of the South’s systematic injustice forces them to question everything they thought they knew about the world and their places in it. Eve veers toward radicalism, a choice that pragmatic Daniella cannot fathom. After a tragedy, Eve returns to Daniella for help in beginning anew, hoping to shed her past. But the past isn’t so easily buried, as they discover when their daughters are endangered by secrets meant to stay hidden.
Atria Books | 9781451608915
THE WHISPERER: An Inspector Sejer Mystery by Karin Fossum (Mystery)
Ragna Riegel is a soft-spoken woman of routines. She must have order in her life, and she does, until one day she finds a letter in her mailbox with her name on the envelope and a clear threat written in block capitals on the sheet inside. With the arrival of the letter, and eventually others like it, Ragna’s carefully constructed life begins to unravel into a nightmare. Threatened by an unknown enemy, paranoid and unable to sleep, her isolation becomes all the more extreme. Ragna’s distress does culminate in a death, but she is the perpetrator rather than the victim. THE WHISPERER shifts between Inspector Sejer’s interrogation of Ragna and the shocking events that led up to her arrest. Sejer thinks it is an open-and-shut case. But is it?
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9781328614193
WITHOUT A PRAYER: The Death of Lucas Leonard and How One Church Became a Cult by Susan Ashline (True Crime)
Teenager Lucas Leonard made shocking admissions in front of the altar --- he'd practiced witchcraft, conspired to murder his parents, and committed unspeakable crimes. The confessions earned him a brutal beating by a gang of angry church members, including his parents and sister. Lucas was brought to the hospital dead, awakening the sleepy community of Chadwicks, New York, to the horror that had been lurking next door. Nine members of Lucas' church would eventually find themselves facing murder-related charges. But how did they get to that point? And what made Lucas confess? The full story has never been told --- until now.
Pegasus Books | 9781643130729
THE WOLF WANTS IN by Laura McHugh (Literary Thriller)
Sadie Keller is determined to find out how her brother died, even if no one else thinks it’s worth investigating. Untimely deaths are all too common in rural Blackwater, Kansas, where crime and overdoses are on the rise, and the small-town police force is consumed with the recent discovery of a child’s skull in the woods. Eighteen-year-old Henley Pettit knows more than she’d like to about the seedy side of Blackwater, and she’s desperate to escape before she’s irreparably entangled in her family’s crimes. As more bones are found in the woods, time is running out for Sadie to uncover the truth and for Henley to make her escape. Both women are torn between family loyalties and the weight of the secrets they carry.
Spiegel & Grau | 9780399590283
THE WOMEN OF THE COPPER COUNTRY by Mary Doria Russell (Historical Fiction)
In July 1913, 25-year-old Annie Clements had seen enough of the world to know that it was unfair. She’s spent her whole life in the copper-mining town of Calumet, Michigan, where men risk their lives for meager salaries --- and had barely enough to put food on the table and clothes on their backs. The women labor in the houses of the elite, and send their husbands and sons deep underground each day, dreading the fateful call of the company man telling them their loved ones aren’t coming home. When Annie decides to stand up for herself, and the entire town of Calumet, nearly everyone believes she may have taken on more than she is prepared to handle.
Atria Books | 9781982109585
On Sale the Week of August 5th in Paperback
August 6th
ALL THESE BEAUTIFUL STRANGERS by Elizabeth Klehfoth (Psychological Thriller)
Seventeen-year-old Charlie still struggles with the dark legacy of her family name and the mystery surrounding her mother’s disappearance 10 years earlier. Determined to finally let go of the past, she throws herself into life at Knollwood, the prestigious New England school she attends. Charlie has been tapped by the A’s, the school’s elite secret society well known for terrorizing the faculty, administration and their enemies. To become a member of the A’s, Charlie must play The Game, a semester-long, diabolical high-stakes scavenger hunt. As the dark events of past and present converge, Charlie begins to fear that she may not survive the terrible truth about her family, her school and her own life.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062796714
DOPESICK: Dealers, Doctors, and the Drug Company that Addicted America by Beth Macy (Psychology/Sociology)
In DOPESICK, Beth Macy takes us into the epicenter of America's 20-plus-year struggle with opioid addiction. Beginning with a single dealer who lands in a small Virginia town and sets about turning high school football stars into heroin overdose statistics, Macy endeavors to answer a grieving mother's question --- why her only son died --- and comes away with a harrowing story of greed and need. From the introduction of OxyContin in 1996, Macy parses how America embraced a medical culture where overtreatment with painkillers became the norm.
Back Bay Books | 9780316551304
FROM THE CORNER OF THE OVAL: A Memoir by Beck Dorey-Stein (Memoir)
In 2012, Beck Dorey-Stein was just scraping by in DC when a posting on Craigslist landed her, improbably, in the Oval Office as one of Barack Obama's stenographers. The ultimate DC outsider, she joined the elite team who accompanied the president wherever he went, recorder and mic in hand. On whirlwind trips across time zones, Beck forged friendships with a tight group of fellow travelers --- young men and women who, like her, left their real lives behind to hop aboard Air Force One in service of the president. But as she learned the ropes of protocol, Beck became romantically entangled with a consummate DC insider, and suddenly, the political became all too personal.
Spiegel & Grau | 9780525509141
HE by John Connolly (Historical Fiction)
When Stan Laurel is paired with Oliver Hardy, affectionately known as Babe, the history of comedy --- not to mention their personal and professional lives --- is altered forever. Yet Laurel's simple screen persona masks a complex human being, one who endures rejection and intense loss; who struggles to build a character from the dying stages of vaudeville to the seedy and often volatile movie studios of Los Angeles in the early years of cinema; and who is haunted by the figure of another comic genius --- the brilliant, driven and cruel Charlie Chaplin.
Quercus | 9781635060584
THE HOTEL NEVERSINK by Adam O'Fallon Price (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Thirty-one years after workers first broke ground, the magnificent Hotel Neversink in the Catskills finally opens to the public. Then a young boy disappears. This mysterious vanishing --- and the ones that follow --- will brand the lives of three generations. At the root of it all is Asher Sikorsky, the ambitious and ruthless patriarch whose purchase of the hotel in 1931 set a haunting legacy into motion. His daughter Jeanie sees the Hotel Neversink into its most lucrative era, but also its darkest. Decades later, Asher's grandchildren grapple with the family’s heritage in their own ways: Len fights to keep the failing, dilapidated hotel alive, and Alice sets out to finally uncover the murderer’s identity.
Tin House Books | 9781947793347
HOW HARD CAN IT BE? by Allison Pearson (Fiction/Humor)
Kate Reddy had it all: a nice home, two adorable kids and a good husband. Then her kids became teenagers (read: monsters). Richard, her husband, quit his job, taking up bicycling and therapeutic counseling. Since he no longer sees a regular income as part of the path to enlightenment, it’s left to Kate to go back to work. When she manages to secure a job at the very hedge fund she helped create, she must prove herself (again) at work, deal with teen drama, and try to look after increasingly frail parents as the clock keeps ticking toward her 50th birthday. Then an old flame shows up out of the blue, and Kate finds herself facing off with everyone from Russian mobsters to a literal stallion.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250086099
I SPY by Claire Kendal (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Holly Lawrence always wanted to be a spy, but the experience proved more dangerous than anything she imagined. Now, Holly lives under an assumed name, hiding from the man who nearly destroyed her life. She avoids relationships and trusts no one. But Holly’s new life begins to unravel when she encounters a young mother and her two-year-old child --- a child who reminds her of a past she has tried hard to forget. This time, someone is spying on her, and Holly will need to decide how far she is willing to go to survive.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062834690
JAR OF HEARTS by Jennifer Hillier (Mystery/Thriller)
When she was 16 years old, Angela Wong disappeared without a trace. Nobody ever suspected that her best friend, Georgina Shaw, was involved in any way. But 14 years later, Angela's remains are discovered in the woods near Geo's childhood home. Angela was a victim of Calvin James, who murdered at least three other women. Back in high school, Calvin was Geo's first love. Their relationship bordered on obsession from the moment they met right up until the night Angela was killed. What happened that fateful night is more complex and more chilling than anyone really knows. Now the obsessive past catches up with the deadly present when new bodies begin to turn up, killed in the exact same manner as Angela Wong.
Minotaur Books | 9781250209023
A LADDER TO THE SKY by John Boyne (Fiction)
Maurice Swift is handsome, charming and hungry for fame. Working as a waiter in a West Berlin hotel in 1988, he has a chance encounter with celebrated novelist Erich Ackermann. Maurice quickly ingratiates himself with the powerful --- but desperately lonely --- older man, teasing out of Erich a terrible, long-held secret about his activities during the war. Perfect material for Maurice’s first novel. Moving from the Amalfi Coast, where he matches wits with Gore Vidal, to Manhattan and London, Maurice hones his talent for deceit and manipulation, preying on the talented and vulnerable in his cold-blooded climb to the top. But the higher he climbs, the further he has to fall.
Hogarth | 9781984823021
LIFE AND OTHER INCONVENIENCES by Kristan Higgins (Fiction)
Paperback Original
When Emma London's mother died, her father abandoned her on his mother's doorstep. Genevieve took Emma in and reluctantly raised her --- until Emma got pregnant her senior year of high school. Genevieve kicked her out with nothing but the clothes on her back...but Emma took with her the most important London possession: the strength not just to survive but to thrive. And indeed, Emma has built a wonderful life for herself and her teenage daughter, Riley. So what is Emma to do when Genevieve does the one thing Emma never expected of her and, after not speaking to her for nearly two decades, calls and asks for help?
Berkley | 9780451489425
THE LITTLE CLAN by Iris Martin Cohen (Fiction)
Ava Gallanter is the librarian in residence at the Lazarus Club, an ancient, dwindling Manhattan arts club full of eccentric geriatric residents stuck in a long-gone era. Twenty-five-year-old Ava, however, feels right at home. She leads a quiet life, surrounded by her beloved books and sequestered away from her peers. When Ava’s enigmatic friend, Stephanie, returns after an unplanned year abroad, the intoxicating opportunist vows to rescue Ava from a life of obscurity. Stephanie promises to make Ava’s dream of becoming a writer come true, and together they start a Victorian-inspired literary salon at the Lazarus Club. However, Ava’s romanticized idea of the salon quickly erodes as Stephanie’s ambitions take the women in an unexpected --- and precarious --- direction.
Park Row | 9780778369066
THE LOST VINTAGE by Ann Mah (Fiction)
Kate travels to Burgundy to spend the fall at the vineyard estate that has belonged to her family for generations. There, she is eager to help her cousin clean out the enormous basement that is filled with generations of discarded and forgotten belongings. Deep inside the cellar, she discovers a hidden room containing a cot, some Resistance pamphlets, and an enormous cache of valuable wine. Piqued by the secret space, Kate begins to dig into her family’s history, driving her to find the answers to two crucial questions: Who, exactly, did her family aid during the difficult years of the war? And what happened to six valuable bottles of wine that seem to be missing from the cellar’s collection?
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062823328
MEET ME AT THE MUSEUM by Anne Youngson (Fiction)
In Denmark, Professor Anders Larsen, an urbane man of facts, has lost his wife and his hopes for the future. On an isolated English farm, Tina Hopgood is trapped in a life she doesn’t remember choosing. Both believe their love stories are over. Brought together by a shared fascination with the Tollund Man, the subject of Seamus Heaney’s famous poem, they begin writing letters to one another. And from their vastly different worlds, they find they have more in common than they could have imagined. As they open up to one another about their lives, an unexpected friendship blooms. But then Tina’s letters stop coming, and Anders is thrown into despair. How far are they willing to go to write a new story for themselves?
Flatiron Books | 9781250295170
MISSION CRITICAL: A Gray Man Novel by Mark Greaney (Thriller)
Court Gentry's flight on a CIA transport plane is interrupted when a security team brings a hooded man aboard. They want to kick Gentry off the flight but are overruled by CIA headquarters. The mystery man is being transported to England where a joint CIA/MI6 team will interrogate him about a mole in Langley. When they land in an isolated airbase in the U.K., they are attacked by a hostile force who kidnaps the prisoner. Only Gentry escapes. His handlers send him after the attackers, but what can one operative do against a trained team of assassins? A lot, when that operative is the Gray Man.
Berkley | 9780451488978
THE MYSTERY OF THREE QUARTERS: A Hercule Poirot Mystery by Sophie Hannah (Historical Mystery)
Hercule Poirot returns home to find an angry woman waiting to berate him outside his front door. Her name is Sylvia Rule, and she demands to know why Poirot has accused her of the murder of Barnabas Pandy. Poirot has no idea what she’s talking about and has never even heard of this man. Shaken, Poirot goes inside, only to find that he has a visitor waiting for him --- a man called John McCrodden, who also claims to have received a letter from Poirot that morning, accusing him of the murder of Barnabas Pandy. Poirot wonders how many more letters of this sort have been sent in his name. Who sent them, and why? More importantly, who is Barnabas Pandy, is he dead, and, if so, was he murdered?
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062792358
NEVER TELL by Lisa Gardner (Mystery/Thriller)
A man is dead, shot three times in his home office. When the cops arrive, his pregnant wife is holding the gun. D.D. Warren arrives on the scene and recognizes the woman --- Evie Carter --- from a case many years back. Evie's father was killed in a shooting that was ruled an accident. But for D.D., two coincidental murders is too many. Flora Dane sees the murder of Conrad Carter on the TV news and immediately knows his face. She remembers a night when she was still a victim --- a hostage --- and her captor knew this man. Overcome with guilt that she never tracked him down, Flora is now determined to learn the truth of Conrad's murder. But D.D. and Flora are about to discover that in this case the truth is a devilishly elusive thing.
Dutton | 9781524745134
THE ONLY WOMAN IN THE ROOM by Marie Benedict (Historical Fiction)
She possessed a stunning beauty. She also possessed a stunning mind. Could the world handle both? Her beauty almost certainly saved her from the rising Nazi party and led to marriage with an Austrian arms dealer. Underestimated in everything else, she overheard the Third Reich's plans while at her husband's side, understanding more than anyone would guess. She devised a plan to flee in disguise from their castle, and the whirlwind escape landed her in Hollywood. She became Hedy Lamarr, screen star. But she kept a secret more shocking than her heritage or her marriage: she was a scientist. And she knew a few secrets about the enemy. She had an idea that might help the country fight the Nazis...if anyone would listen to her.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781492666899
THE PATCHWORK BRIDE by Sandra Dallas (Historical Fiction)
Ellen is putting the finishing touches on a wedding quilt made from scraps of old dresses when the bride-to-be --- her granddaughter June --- unexpectedly arrives and announces she’s calling off the marriage. With the tending of June’s uncertain heart in mind, Ellen tells her the story of Nell, a Kansas-born woman who goes to the High Plains of New Mexico Territory in 1898 in search of a husband. Working as a biscuit-shooter, Nell falls for a cowboy named Buddy. She sees a future together, but she can’t help wondering if his feelings for her are true. When Buddy breaks her heart, she runs away. In her search for a soul mate, Nell will run away from marriage twice more before finding the love of her life.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250174048
THE RIGHT SWIPE by Alisha Rai (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Rhiannon Hunter may have revolutionized romance in the digital world, but in real life she only swipes right on her career --- and the occasional hookup. The cynical dating app creator controls her love life with a few key rules: 1) Nude pics are by invitation only; 2) If someone stands you up, block them with extreme prejudice; 3) Protect your heart. Only there aren't any rules to govern her attraction to her newest match, former pro-football player Samson Lima. The sexy and seemingly sweet hunk woos her one magical night...and disappears. Rhi thought she'd buried her hurt over Samson ghosting her, until he suddenly surfaces months later --- in league with a business rival. He says he won't fumble their second chance, but she's wary.
Avon | 9780062878090
A RIVER OF STARS by Vanessa Hua (Fiction)
Holed up with other mothers-to-be in a secret maternity home in Los Angeles, Scarlett Chen is far from her native China, where she worked in a factory and fell in love with the owner, Boss Yeung. Now she’s carrying his baby. Already married with three daughters, Boss Yeung is overjoyed because the doctors have confirmed that he will finally have the son he has always wanted. To ensure that his child has every advantage, Boss Yeung has shipped Scarlett off to give birth on American soil. Then a new sonogram of Scarlett’s baby reveals the unexpected. Panicked, she escapes by hijacking a van --- only to discover that she has a stowaway: her housemate Daisy, who intends to track down the father of her child.
Ballantine Books | 9780399178795
THE RUNAWAY by Hollie Overton (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
When LAPD forensic psychologist Becca Ortiz agrees to foster teenage runaway Ash, she knows she will love and protect her as her own daughter. Ash may have turned her back on her old life on the streets, but there is still one person who she can't bear to lose. Now he is about to drag her back into a dark world where nothing and no one is safe. How far will Becca go to save her daughter? And can she find her before it's too late?
Redhook | 9780316482257
RUSH by Lisa Patton (Fiction)
It’s move-in day for college freshmen on the Ole Miss campus. Nobody wants to fit in more than Cali, a bright, small town girl with family secrets too scandalous for the well-to-do to imagine. Sorority rush is weeks away, and without a pedigree, Cali doesn’t have much of a chance at membership. Wilda, Alpha Delta Beta alum and rush advisor, has a daughter rushing in the fall, but Lilith, the well-heeled House Corp President, sees Wilda as a pushover. Miss Pearl has been housekeeper and second mother to the girls for years. When a chance for promotion arises, Lilith crushes Miss Pearl’s hopes of a better future. But once Wilda and the girls find out, they devise a plan destined to change Alpha Delta Beta --- and maybe the entire Greek system --- forever.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250020680
THE SHADOW KILLER by Arnaldur Indridason (Historical Mystery/Thriller)
A man is found murdered in a small apartment in Reykjavík, shot in the head with a pistol. The police’s attention is immediately drawn to the foreign soldiers who are on every street corner in the summer of 1941. So begins officers Flóvent and Thorson’s investigation, which will lead them down a path darker than either of them expected, and force them to reckon with their own demons.
Picador | 9781250138163
THE SPY AND THE TRAITOR: The Greatest Espionage Story of the Cold War by Ben Macintyre (History)
The son of two KGB agents and the product of the best Soviet institutions, the savvy, sophisticated Oleg Gordievsky grew to see his nation's communism as both criminal and philistine. He took his first posting for Russian intelligence in 1968 and eventually became the Soviet Union's top man in London, but from 1973 on he was secretly working for MI6. For nearly a decade, as the Cold War reached its twilight, Gordievsky helped the West turn the tables on the KGB, exposing Russian spies and helping to foil countless intelligence plots, as the Soviet leadership grew increasingly paranoid at the United States's nuclear first-strike capabilities and brought the world closer to the brink of war.
Broadway Books | 9781101904213
SUNRISE HIGHWAY by Peter Blauner (Thriller)
In the summer of Star Wars and Son of Sam, a Long Island schoolgirl is found gruesomely murdered. A local prosecutor turns a troubled teenager known as JT from a suspect to a star witness in the case, putting away a high school football star who claimed to be innocent. Forty years later, JT has risen to chief of police, but there's a trail of a dozen dead women that reaches from Brooklyn across Long Island, along the Sunrise Highway, and it's possible that his actions actually enabled a killer. That's when Lourdes Robles, a relentless young Latina detective for the NYPD, steps in to track the serial killer. She discovers a deep and sinister web of connections between the victims and some of the most powerful political figures in the region, including JT himself.
Minotaur Books | 9781250117427
THE VICTIM by Max Manning (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Gem Golding only has two choices. A stranger holds a knife to her skin, his demands terrifying in the deserted parking garage. Should she surrender? Or should she fight back? This attacker is no ordinary criminal. This night, like so many of them, is all a game to him. He makes the rules, the rules that determine whether his victims live or die. Rules that will set Gem's fate in motion. He's waiting for her to decide. But how can you win the game when you don't know how to play? What if surrendering is the worst thing you can do? What if fighting back will kill you?
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781492667018
THE WASHINGTON DECREE by Jussi Adler-Olsen (Political Thriller)
Democratic Senator Bruce Jansen has been elected president of the United States. For 14-year-old Dorothy "Doggie" Rogers, Jansen's election is a personal victory: a job in the White House, proof to her Republican father that she was right to support Jansen, and the rise of an intelligent, clear-headed leader with her same ideals. But the triumph is short-lived: Jansen's pregnant wife is assassinated on election night, and the alleged mastermind behind the shooting is none other than Doggie's own father. When Jansen ascends to the White House, he is a changed man, determined to end gun violence by any means necessary. With the country in chaos, Doggie finds herself fighting for the life of her father, who just may be innocent.
Dutton | 9781524742539
WATCHING YOU by Lisa Jewell (Psychological Thriller)
You’re back home after four years working abroad, new husband in tow. You’re keen to find a place of your own. But for now, you’re crashing in your big brother’s spare room. That’s when you meet the man next door. He’s the head teacher at the local school. Twice your age. Extraordinarily attractive. You find yourself watching him. All the time. But you never dreamed that your innocent crush might become a deadly obsession. Or that someone is watching you.
Atria Books | 9781501190087
WHAT WE WERE PROMISED by Lucy Tan (Fiction)
After years of chasing the American dream, the Zhen family has moved back to China. Wei, Lina and their daughter, Karen, join an elite community of Chinese-born, Western-educated professionals who have returned to a radically transformed city. One morning, in the eighth tower of Lanson Suites, Lina discovers that a treasured ivory bracelet has gone missing. This incident sets off a wave of unease that ripples throughout the Zhen household. Lina is haunted by the circumstances surrounding her arranged marriage to Wei and her lingering feelings for his brother, Qiang. When Qiang reappears in Shanghai after decades on the run with a local gang, the family must finally come to terms with the past and its indelible mark on their futures.
Back Bay Books | 9780316437196
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