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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of September 30th and October 7th 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 Sounding Off on Audio contest for October. This month's prizes are the audio versions of Jojo Moyes' THE GIVER OF STARS, read by Julia Whelan, and Elizabeth Strout's OLIVE, AGAIN, read by Kimberly Farr. Submit your comments about the audiobooks you've listened to by Friday, November 1st at noon ET, and you'll be in the running to win both these audio titles.
Also, please click on the covers above for our reviews of three books that we featured in last Friday's Weekly Update newsletter: Oprah's latest Book Club selection, THE WATER DANCER, Ta-Nehisi Coates' debut novel about a magical gift, a devastating loss, and an underground war for freedom; THE DUTCH HOUSE by Ann Patchett, which explores the indelible bond between two siblings, the house of their childhood, and a past that will not let them go (this was just announced as October's Read with Jenna "Today" Show Book Club pick!); and THE WORLD THAT WE KNEW, a new stand-alone novel from Alice Hoffman, which takes place during humanity’s darkest hour in the 1940s and revolves around three young women who must act with courage and love to survive.
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Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound
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As you may know, as part of our expansion, Carol has been shooting videos each week to promote what you will see on the site on Friday. You can watch a video preview of the October 4th Weekly Update newsletter here. We hope you enjoy it!
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This Week's Bonus News:
October's Sounding Off on Audio Contest
Tell us about the audiobooks you’ve finished listening to with your comments and a rating of 1 to 5 stars for both the performance and the content. During the contest period from October 1st to November 1st at noon ET, two lucky readers each will be randomly chosen to win the audio versions of Jojo Moyes' THE GIVER OF STARS, read by Julia Whelan, and Elizabeth Strout's OLIVE, AGAIN, read by Kimberly Farr.
To make sure other readers will be able to find the audiobook, please include the full title and correct author names (your entry must include these to be eligible to win). For complete rules and guidelines, click here.
- To see reader comments from previous contest periods, click here.
Click here to enter the contest.
On Sale the Week of September 30th in Hardcover
October 1st
BLOODY GENIUS: A Virgil Flowers Novel by John Sandford (Mystery/Thriller)
At the local state university, two feuding departments have faced off on the battleground of science and medicine. Each carries their views to extremes that may seem absurd, but highly educated people of sound mind and good intentions can reasonably disagree, right? Then a renowned and confrontational scholar winds up dead, and Virgil Flowers is brought in to investigate. As he probes the recent ideological unrest, he soon comes to realize he's dealing with people who, on this one particular issue, are functionally crazy. Among this group of wildly impassioned, diametrically opposed zealots lurks a killer, and it will be up to Virgil to sort the murderer from the mere maniacs.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780525536611
BLOWOUT: Corrupted Democracy, Rogue State Russia, and the Richest, Most Destructive Industry on Earth by Rachel Maddow (Political Science/Geopolitics)
In 2010, the words “earthquake swarm” entered the lexicon in Oklahoma. That same year, a trove of Michael Jackson memorabilia --- including his iconic crystal-encrusted white glove --- was sold at auction for over $1 million to a guy who was, officially, just the lowly forestry minister of the tiny nation of Equatorial Guinea. And in 2014, Ukrainian revolutionaries raided the palace of their ousted president and found a zoo of peacocks, gilded toilets, and a floating restaurant modeled after a Spanish galleon. Unlikely as it might seem, there is a thread connecting these events, and Rachel Maddow follows it to its crooked source: the unimaginably lucrative and equally corrupting oil and gas industry.
Crown | 9780525575474
THE BUTTERFLY GIRL by Rene Denfeld (Thriller)
A year ago, Naomi, the investigator with an uncanny ability to find missing children, made a promise that she would not take another case until she finds the younger sister who has been missing for years. The search takes her to Portland, Oregon, where scores of homeless children wander the streets. Though she does not want to get involved, Naomi is unable to resist the pull of children in need --- and the fear she sees in the eyes of a 12-year-old girl named Celia. Running from an abusive stepfather and an addict mother, Celia has nothing but hope in the butterflies --- her guides and guardians on the dangerous streets. As danger creeps closer, Naomi and Celia are forced to consider the question: Can you still be lost even when you’ve been found?
Harper | 9780062698162
THE CHRISTMAS BOUTIQUE: An Elm Creek Quilts Novel by Jennifer Chiaverini (Fiction)
Just weeks before Christmas, severe wintry weather damages the church hall hosting the Christmas Boutique --- an annual sale of handcrafted gifts and baked goods that supports the county food pantry. Determined to save the fundraiser, Sylvia Bergstrom Compson offers to hold the event at Elm Creek Manor, her ancestral family estate and summertime home to Elm Creek Quilt Camp. In the spirit of the season, Sylvia and the Elm Creek Quilters begin setting up market booths in the ballroom and decking the halls with beautiful hand-made holiday quilts. Each of the quilters chooses a favorite quilt to display, a special creation evoking memories of holidays past and dreams of Christmases yet to come.
William Morrow | 9780062841131
CILKA'S JOURNEY by Heather Morris (Historical Fiction)
Cilka is just 16 years old when she is taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp in 1942, where the commandant immediately notices how beautiful she is. When the war is over and the camp is liberated, freedom is not granted to Cilka: She is charged as a collaborator for sleeping with the enemy and sent to a Siberian prison camp. But did she really have a choice? And where do the lines of morality lie for Cilka, who was sent to Auschwitz when she was still a child? In Siberia, Cilka faces challenges both new and horribly familiar, including the unwanted attention of the guards. But when she meets a kind female doctor, Cilka is taken under her wing and begins to tend to the ill in the camp, struggling to care for them under brutal conditions.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250265708
DACHSHUND THROUGH THE SNOW: An Andy Carpenter Mystery by David Rosenfelt (Mystery)
Lawyer Andy Carpenter and his wife, Laurie, have started a new Christmas tradition. Their local pet store has a Christmas tree, where instead of ornaments there are wishes from those in need. One poignant wish leads Andy to a child named Danny, whose selfless plea strikes a chord. Danny asked Santa for a coat for his mother, a sweater for his dachshund, Murphy, and the safe return of his missing father. It turns out Danny’s father doesn't want to be found; he’s on the run after just being arrested for a murder that took place 14 years ago --- a murder that Danny’s mother swears he didn’t commit.
Minotaur Books | 9781250237682
EMPIRE OF LIES by Raymond Khoury (Thriller)
Istanbul, 1683: Mehmed IV, sultan of the Ottoman Empire, is preparing to lay siege to Vienna, capital of the Holy Roman Empire, when a mysterious visitor arrives in his bedroom --- naked, covered in strange tattoos --- to deliver a dangerous, world-changing message. Paris, 2017: Ottoman flags have been flying over the great city for 300 years, ever since its fall --- along with all of Europe --- to the empire’s all-conquering army. When a mysterious stranger --- naked, covered in strange tattoos --- appears on the banks of the Seine, Kamal Arslan Agha, a feted officer in the sultan’s secret police, is called in to investigate. But what he discovers is a secret buried in the empire’s past, a secret the Sultan will do anything to silence.
Forge Books | 9781250210968
FRANKISSSTEIN: A Love Story by Jeanette Winterson (Horror/Romance)
Lake Geneva, 1816. Nineteen-year-old Mary Shelley is inspired to write a story about a scientist who creates a new life-form. In Brexit Britain, a young transgender doctor called Ry is falling in love with Victor Stein, a celebrated professor leading the public debate around AI and carrying out some experiments of his own in a vast underground network of tunnels. Meanwhile, Ron Lord, just divorced and living with his mom again, is set to make his fortune launching a new generation of sex dolls for lonely men everywhere. Across the Atlantic, in Phoenix, Arizona, a cryogenics facility houses dozens of bodies of men and women who are medically and legally dead… but waiting to return to life. What will happen when homo sapiens is no longer the smartest being on the planet?
Grove Press | 9780802129499
FULL THROTTLE: Stories by Joe Hill (Supernatural Thriller/Short Stories)
A little door that opens to a world of fairy tale wonders becomes the blood-drenched stomping ground for a gang of hunters in “Faun.” A grief-stricken librarian climbs behind the wheel of an antique Bookmobile to deliver fresh reads to the dead in “Late Returns.” And tension shimmers in the sweltering heat of the Nevada desert as a faceless trucker finds himself caught in a sinister dance with a tribe of motorcycle outlaws in “Throttle,” co-written with Stephen King. Replete with shocking chillers, including two previously unpublished stories written expressly for this volume (“Mums” and “Late Returns”) and another appearing in print for the first time (“Dark Carousel”), FULL THROTTLE is a darkly imagined odyssey through the complexities of the human psyche.
William Morrow | 9780062200679
HERE WE ARE: American Dreams, American Nightmares by Aarti Namdev Shahani (Memoir)
The Shahanis came to Queens --- from India, by way of Casablanca --- in the 1980s. They were undocumented for a few unsteady years, and then, with the arrival of their green cards, they thought they'd made it. This is the story of how they did, and didn't; the unforeseen obstacles that propelled them into years of disillusionment and heartbreak; and the strength of a family determined to stay together. HERE WE ARE follows the lives of Aarti, the precocious scholarship kid at one of Manhattan's most elite prep schools, and her dad, the shopkeeper who mistakenly sells watches and calculators to the notorious Cali drug cartel. Together, the two represent the extremes that coexist in our country, even within a single family, and a truth about immigrants that gets lost in the headlines.
Celadon Books | 9781250204752
HITLER: A Global Biography by Brendan Simms (Biography)
HITLER offers a deeply learned and radically revisionist biography, arguing that the dictator's main strategic enemy, from the start of his political career in the 1920s, was not communism or the Soviet Union, but capitalism and the United States. Whereas most historians have argued that Hitler underestimated the American threat, Brendan Simms shows that Hitler embarked on a preemptive war with the United States precisely because he considered it such a potent adversary. The war against the Jews was driven both by his anxiety about combatting the supposed forces of international plutocracy and by a broader desire to maintain the domestic cohesion he thought necessary for survival on the international scene.
Basic Books | 9780465022373
IMAGINARY FRIEND by Stephen Chbosky (Horror)
Determined to improve life for her and her son, Christopher, single mother Kate Reese flees an abusive relationship in the middle of the night with her child. Together, they find themselves drawn to the tight-knit community of Mill Grove, Pennsylvania. It's as far off the beaten track as they can get. At first, it seems like the perfect place to finally settle down. Then Christopher vanishes. For six awful days, no one can find him. Until Christopher emerges from the woods at the edge of town, unharmed but not unchanged. He returns with a voice in his head only he can hear, with a mission only he can complete: Build a tree house in the woods by Christmas, or his mother and everyone in the town will never be the same again.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538731338
THE MAN WHO PLAYED WITH FIRE: Stieg Larsson's Lost Files and the Hunt for an Assassin written by Jan Stocklassa, translated by Tara F. Chace (True Crime)
When Stieg Larsson died, the author of THE GIRL WITH THE DRAGON TATTOO had been working on a true mystery: the assassination of Olof Palme, the Swedish prime minister. It was the first time in history that a head of state had been murdered without a clue who had done it --- and on a Stockholm street at point-blank range. Internationally known for his fictional villains, Larsson was well acquainted with their real-life counterparts and documented extremist activities throughout the world. For years he’d been amassing evidence that linked their terrorist acts to what he called “one of the most astounding murder cases” he’d ever covered. Larsson’s archive was forgotten until journalist Jan Stocklassa was given exclusive access to the author’s secret project.
Amazon Crossing | 9781542092937
A MRS. MIRACLE CHRISTMAS by Debbie Macomber (Fiction)
Laurel McCullough and her husband, Zach, have been praying for a baby that seems more and more like an impossible dream, and they’ve had to move in with her beloved grandmother, Helen, who’s having trouble taking care of herself. But when Laurel contacts a local home-care organization for help, there are no caregivers available. Then Mrs. Miracle appears at the door. No stranger to lending a helping hand to a family in need, Mrs. Miracle reveals herself to be nothing short of a godsend. Laurel can’t help but notice that with Mrs. Miracle’s companionship, Helen is noticeably happier and more engaged. In the meantime, Laurel and Zach encounter curious signs, all pointing toward the arrival of a special baby.
Ballantine Books | 9780399181399
NO WAY TO DIE: A Cal Claxton Oregon Mystery by Warren C. Easley (Mystery)
Attorney Cal Claxton, now well-established in his Oregon law practice after breaking off his career as a high-powered LA prosecutor, goes fishing with his daughter, Claire. But their vacation takes a dark turn with the discovery of a body in the river. As an investigation is launched into the suspicious death, Cal and Claire find themselves drawn into the life of the local bookshop owner and vocal environmental activist, whose grandson was convicted of murder at age 16. She believes he was wrongly accused and convinces Cal to reexamine the case. Together, Cal and Claire dig deep into the secrets and crumbling alliances that form the foundation of this small coastal community, and what they find could spell doom for them both.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781492699231
PURSUIT by Joyce Carol Oates (Supernatural Thriller)
As a child, Abby had the same recurring nightmare night after night, in which she wandered through a field ridden with human skulls and bones. Now an adult, Abby thinks she’s outgrown her demons, until, the evening before her wedding, the terrible dream returns and forces her to confront the dark secrets from her past she has kept from her new husband, Willem. The following day --- less than 24 hours after exchanging vows --- Abby steps out into traffic. As his wife lies in her hospital bed, sleeping in fits and starts, Willem tries to determine whether this was an absentminded accident or a premeditated plunge, and he quickly discovers a mysterious set of clues about what his wife might be hiding.
Mysterious Press | 9780802147912
QUANTUM: A Captain Chase Novel by Patricia Cornwell (Thriller)
On the eve of a top-secret space mission, Captain Calli Chase detects a tripped alarm in the tunnels deep below a NASA research center. A NASA pilot, quantum physicist and cybercrime investigator, Calli knows that a looming blizzard and government shutdown could provide the perfect cover for sabotage, with deadly consequences. As it turns out, the danger is worse than she thought. A spatter of dried blood, a missing security badge, a suspicious suicide --- a series of disturbing clues point to Calli’s twin sister, Carme, who’s been MIA for days. Desperate to halt the countdown to disaster and clear her sister’s name, Captain Chase digs deep into her vast cyber security knowledge and her painful past, probing for answers to her twin’s erratic conduct.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781542094061
RIGHT AFTER THE WEATHER by Carol Anshaw (Fiction)
It’s the fall of 2016. Cate, a set designer, lives and works in Chicago’s theater community. She has stayed too long at the fair and knows it’s time to get past her prolonged adolescence and stop taking handouts from her parents. Only a few blocks away, but in a parallel universe, we find Nathan and Irene --- casual sociopaths, drug addicts and small-time criminals. Their world and Cate’s intersect the day she finds these strangers assaulting her friend, Neale. Forced to take fast, spontaneous action, Cate does something she’s never even considered. She now also knows the violence she is capable of, as does everyone else in her life, and overnight, their world has changed.
Atria Books | 9781476747798
ROYAL HOLIDAY by Jasmine Guillory (Romantic Comedy)
Vivian Forest tags along on her daughter Maddie’s work trip to England to style a royal family member. She’s excited to spend the holidays taking in the magnificent British sights, but what she doesn’t expect is to become instantly attracted to a certain private secretary. Malcolm Hudson has worked for the Queen for years and has never given a personal, private tour --- until now. He is intrigued by Vivian the moment he meets her and finds himself making excuses just to spend time with her. When flirtatious banter turns into a kiss under the mistletoe, things snowball into a full-on fling. Despite a ticking timer on their holiday romance, they are completely fine with ending their short, steamy affair come New Year’s Day. Or are they?
Berkley | 9781984802217
SARAH JANE by James Sallis (Mystery)
Sarah Jane Pullman is a good cop with a complicated past. From her small-town chicken-farming roots through her runaway adolescence, court-ordered Army stint, ill-advised marriage, and years slinging scrambled eggs over greasy spoon griddles, Sarah Jane unfolds her life story, a parable about memory, atonement and finding shape in chaos. Her life takes an unexpected turn when she is named the de facto sheriff of a rural town, investigating the mysterious disappearance of the sheriff whose shoes she’s filling --- and the even more mysterious realities of the life he was hiding from his own colleagues and closest friends.
Soho Crime | 9781641290807
THE SHAPE OF NIGHT by Tess Gerritsen (Psychological Thriller/Romance)
After an unspeakable tragedy in Boston, Ava Collette flees to a remote village in Maine, where she rents an old house named Brodie’s Watch. In that isolated seaside mansion, Ava finally feels at peace…until she glimpses the long-dead sea captain who still resides there. Rumor has it that Captain Jeremiah Brodie has haunted the house for more than a century. One night, Ava confronts the apparition, who feels all too real and welcomes her into his world --- and into his arms. Even as Ava questions her own sanity, she eagerly looks forward to the captain’s ghostly visits. But she soon learns that the house she loves comes with a terrible secret, a secret that those in the village don’t want to reveal: Every woman who has ever lived in Brodie’s Watch has also died there.
Ballantine Books | 9781984820952
TAKES ONE TO KNOW ONE by Susan Isaacs (Fiction)
Just a few years ago, Corie Geller was busting terrorists as an agent for the FBI. But at 35, she traded in her badge for the stability of marriage and motherhood. Between cooking meals and playing chauffeur, Corie scouts Arabic fiction for a few literary agencies and, on Wednesdays, has lunch with her fellow Shorehaven freelancers at a so-so French restaurant. Pete Delaney, a milquetoast package designer, always shows up early, sits in the same spot (often with a different phone in hand), and keeps one eye on the Jeep he parks in the lot across the street. Corie intuitively feels that Pete is hiding something. But does Pete really have a shady alternate life, or is Corie just imagining things, desperate to add some spark to her humdrum suburban existence?
Atlantic Monthly Press | 9780802147554
THINGS WE DIDN'T TALK ABOUT WHEN I WAS A GIRL: A Memoir by Jeannie Vanasco (Memoir)
Jeannie Vanasco has had the same nightmare since she was a teenager. She startles awake, saying his name. It is always about him: one of her closest high school friends, a boy named Mark. A boy who raped her. When her nightmares worsen, Jeannie decides --- after 14 years of silence --- to reach out to Mark. He agrees to talk on the record and meet in person. Jeannie details her friendship with Mark before and after the assault, asking the brave and urgent question: Is it possible for a good person to commit a terrible act? Jeannie interviews Mark, exploring how rape has impacted his life as well as her own. She examines the language surrounding sexual assault and pushes against its confines, contributing to and deepening the #MeToo discussion.
Tin House Books | 9781947793453
TOIL & TROUBLE: A Memoir by Augusten Burroughs (Memoir)
For as long as Augusten Burroughs could remember, he knew things he shouldn't have known. He manifested things that shouldn't have come to pass. And he told exactly no one about this, save one person: his mother. His mother reassured him that it was all perfectly normal, that he was descended from a long line of witches, going back to the days of the early American colonies. And that this family tree was filled with witches. It was a bond that he and his mother shared --- until the day she left him in the care of her psychiatrist to be raised in his family (but that's a whole other story). After that, Augusten was on his own. On his own to navigate the world of this tricky power; on his own to either use or misuse this gift.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250019950
THE TOPEKA SCHOOL by Ben Lerner (Fiction)
Adam Gordon is a senior at Topeka High School, class of ’97. His mother, Jane, is a famous feminist author; his father, Jonathan, is an expert at getting "lost boys" to open up. They both work at a psychiatric clinic that has attracted staff and patients from around the world. Adam is a renowned debater, expected to win a national championship before he heads to college. He is one of the cool kids, ready to fight or, better, freestyle about fighting if it keeps his peers from thinking of him as weak. Adam is also one of the seniors who bring the loner Darren Eberheart --- who is, unbeknownst to Adam, his father’s patient --- into the social scene, to disastrous effect.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374277789
TWENTY YEARS AFTER: A Sequel to The Three Musketeers written by Alexandre Dumas, translated by Lawrence Ellsworth (Historical Fiction/Adventure)
THE THREE MUSKETEERS completed its serial publication in the summer of 1844, and by the time of its release at the end of that year, readers were already demanding a sequel. They got it starting in January 1845, when the first chapters of TWENTY YEARS AFTER began to appear --- but it wasn’t quite what they were expecting. When the book opens, it is 1648: the Red Sphinx, Cardinal Richelieu, is dead, France is ruled by a regency in the grip of civil war, and across the English Channel the monarchy of King Charles I hangs by a thread. As d’Artagnan will find, these are problems that can’t be solved with a sword thrust. In TWENTY YEARS AFTER, the musketeers confront maturity and face its greatest challenge: sometimes you fail.
Pegasus Books | 9781643132020
WHEN LIFE GIVES YOU PEARS: The Healing Power of Family, Faith, and Funny People by Jeannie Gaffigan (Memoir)
In 2017, Jeannie Gaffigan's life came to a crashing halt when she was diagnosed with a life-threatening brain tumor. As the mother of five kids --- six if you include her husband, author/comedian Jim Gaffigan --- sat in the neurosurgery department, all she could think was "Am I going to die?" Thankfully, Jeannie and her family were able to survive their time of crisis, and now she is sharing her deeply personal journey through this miraculous story: the challenging conversations she had with her children; how she came to terms with feeling powerless and ferociously crabby while bedridden and unable to eat for a month; and how she ultimately learned, re-learned and re-re-learned to be more present in life.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538751046
On Sale the Week of September 30th in Paperback
September 30th
EARL SCRUGGS AND FOGGY MOUNTAIN BREAKDOWN: The Making of an American Classic by Thomas Goldsmith (Music/Biography)
Paperback Original
Recorded in 1949, "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" changed the face of American music. Earl Scruggs' instrumental essentially transformed the folk culture that came before it, while helping to energize bluegrass's entry into the mainstream in the 1960s. The song has become a gateway to bluegrass for musicians and fans alike, as well as a happily inescapable track in film and television. Thomas Goldsmith explores the origins and influence of "Foggy Mountain Breakdown" against the backdrop of Scruggs' legendary career. Interviews with Scruggs, his wife Louise, disciple Béla Fleck, and sidemen like Curly Seckler, Mac Wiseman and Jerry Douglas shed light on such topics as Scruggs' musical evolution and his working relationship with Bill Monroe.
University of Illinois Press | 9780252084782
October 1st
THE 18th ABDUCTION by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro (Thriller)
For a trio of colleagues, an innocent night out after class ends in a deadly torture session. They vanish without a clue --- until a body turns up. As the chief of police and the press clamor for an arrest in the "school night" case, Detective Lindsay Boxer turns to her best friend, investigative journalist Cindy Thomas. Lindsay and Cindy take a new approach to the case, and unexpected facts about the victims leave them stunned. While Lindsay is engrossed in her investigation, her husband, Joe Molinari, meets an Eastern European woman who claims to have seen a notorious war criminal --- long presumed dead --- from her home country. Before Lindsay can verify the woman's statement, Joe's mystery informant joins the ranks of the missing women.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538731598
THE BUCKET LIST by Georgia Clark (Fiction)
Twenty-five-year-old Lacey Whitman is blindsided when she’s diagnosed with the BCRA1 gene mutation: the “breast cancer” gene. Her high hereditary risk forces a decision: increased surveillance or the more radical step of a preventative double mastectomy. Small-town Lacey is not so in touch with her sexuality: she doesn’t want to sacrifice her breasts before she’s had the chance to give them their heyday. To help her make her choice, she (and her friends) creates a “boob bucket list”: everything she wants do with and for her boobs before a possible surgery. This kicks off a year of sensual exploration and sexual entertainment for the quick-witted Lacey Whitman.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781501173035
DRACUL by Dacre Stoker and J. D. Barker (Supernatural Thriller/Gothic Horror)
It is 1868, and a 21-year-old Bram Stoker waits in a desolate tower to face an indescribable evil. Armed only with crucifixes, holy water and a rifle, he prays to survive a single night. A sickly child, Bram spent his early days bedridden in his parents' Dublin home, tended to by his caretaker, a young woman named Ellen Crone. When a string of strange deaths occur in a nearby town, Bram and his sister Matilda detect a pattern of bizarre behavior by Ellen --- a mystery that deepens chillingly until Ellen vanishes suddenly from their lives. Years later, Matilda returns from studying in Paris to tell Bram the news that she has seen Ellen --- and that the nightmare they've thought long ended is only beginning.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780735219359
THE FAMILIARS by Stacey Halls (Historical Fiction)
Fleetwood Shuttleworth, the mistress of Pendle Hill’s Gawthorpe Hall, is with child. Anxious to produce an heir, she is distraught to find a letter from her physician that warns her husband she will not survive this pregnancy. Devastated, Fleetwood wanders the estate grounds, where she catches a young woman poaching. Alice Gray claims she is a local midwife and promises to help Fleetwood deliver a healthy baby. But a witch-obsessed frenzy sweeps the countryside. Even woodland creatures, or “familiars,” are thought to be dark companions of the unholy. And Alice soon stands accused of witchcraft. Time is running out. The witch trials are about to begin. With both their lives at stake, Fleetwood must prove Alice’s innocence. Only they know the truth.
Mira | 9780778309017
THE FIRST LADY AND THE REBEL by Susan Higginbotham (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
As the Civil War cracks the country in two, Mary Lincoln stands beside her husband praying for a swift Northern victory. But as the body count rises, Mary can't help but fear each bloody gain. Because her beloved sister Emily is across party lines, fighting for the South, and Mary is at risk of losing both her country and her family in the tides of a brutal war. Emily Todd Helm has married the love of her life. But when her husband's southern ties pull them into a war neither want to join, she must make a choice: abandon the family she has built in the South, or fight against the sister she has always loved best. With a country's legacy at stake, how will two sisters shape history?
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781492647089
THE FOX by Frederick Forsyth (Thriller)
Adrian Weston, former chief of the British Secret Intelligence Service, is awoken in the middle of the night by a phone call from the Prime Minister. The Pentagon, the NSA and the CIA have been hacked simultaneously, their seemingly impenetrable firewalls breached by an unknown enemy known only as "The Fox." Even more surprisingly, the culprit is revealed to be a young British teenager, Luke Jennings. Extradition to the U.S. seems likely --- until Weston has another idea: If Luke can do this to us, what can he do to our enemies? After conferring with both the American President and the Prime Minister, Weston is determined to use "The Fox" and his talents to the advantage of the two nations. But doing so places the boy on a geopolitical minefield.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780525538431
GONE SO LONG by Andre Dubus III (Fiction)
Daniel Ahearn lives a quiet, solitary existence in a seaside New England town. Forty years ago, following a shocking act of impulsive violence on his part, his daughter, Susan, was ripped from his arms by police. Now in her 40s, Susan still suffers from the trauma of a night she doesn’t remember, as she struggles to feel settled, to love a man and create something that lasts. Lois, her maternal grandmother who raised her, tries to find peace in her antique shop in a quaint Florida town but cannot escape her own anger, bitterness and fear.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393357370
HEIRS OF THE FOUNDERS: Henry Clay, John Calhoun and Daniel Webster, the Second Generation of American Giants by H. W. Brands (History)
In the early 1800s, three young men strode onto the national stage, elected to Congress at a moment when the Founding Fathers were beginning to retire to their farms. Daniel Webster of Massachusetts, a champion orator known for his eloquence, spoke for the North and its business class. Henry Clay of Kentucky, as dashing as he was ambitious, embodied the hopes of the rising West. South Carolina's John Calhoun, with piercing eyes and an even more piercing intellect, defended the South and slavery. Together these heirs of Washington, Jefferson and Adams took the country to war, battled one another for the presidency and set themselves the task of finishing the work the Founders had left undone.
Anchor | 9780525433903
I WILL NEVER SEE THE WORLD AGAIN: The Memoir of an Imprisoned Writer written by Ahmet Altan, translated by Yasemin Congar (Memoir)
Paperback Original
Confined in a cell four meters long, imprisoned on absurd, Kafkaesque charges, novelist Ahmet Altan is one of many writers persecuted by Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s oppressive regime. In I WILL NEVER SEE THE WORLD AGAIN, written from his prison cell, Altan reflects upon his sentence, on a life whittled down to a courtyard covered by bars, and on the hope and solace a writer’s mind can provide, even in the darkest places.
Other Press | 9781590519929
KILLING COMMENDATORE written by Haruki Murakami, translated by Philip Gabriel and Ted Goossen (Fiction)
A thirty-something portrait painter in Tokyo is abandoned by his wife and finds himself holed up in the mountain home of a famous artist, Tomohiko Amada. When he discovers a previously unseen painting in the attic, he unintentionally opens a circle of mysterious circumstances. To close it, he must complete a journey that involves a mysterious ringing bell, a two-foot-high physical manifestation of an Idea, a dapper businessman who lives across the valley, a precocious 13-year-old girl, a Nazi assassination attempt during World War II in Vienna, a pit in the woods behind the artist’s home, and an underworld haunted by Double Metaphors.
Vintage | 9780525435761
THE LIBRARY BOOK by Susan Orlean (Social History)
On the morning of April 29, 1986, a fire alarm sounded in the Los Angeles Public Library. As the moments passed, the patrons and staff who had been cleared out of the building realized this was not the usual false alarm. The fire was disastrous: It reached 2,000 degrees and burned for more than seven hours. By the time it was extinguished, it had consumed 400,000 books and damaged 700,000 more. Investigators descended on the scene, but over 30 years later, the mystery remains: Did someone purposefully set fire to the library --- and if so, who? Award-winning journalist Susan Orlean investigates this legendary fire to showcase the larger, crucial role that libraries play in our lives.
Simon & Schuster | 9781476740195
THE LIBRARY OF THE UNWRITTEN: A Novel from Hell's Library by A. J. Hackwith (Fantasy)
Paperback Original
Many years ago, Claire was named Head Librarian of the Unwritten Wing --- a neutral space in Hell where all the stories unfinished by their authors reside. Her job consists mainly of repairing and organizing books, but also of keeping an eye on restless stories that risk materializing as characters and escaping the library. When a Hero escapes from his book and goes in search of his author, Claire must capture him with the help of former muse and current assistant Brevity and nervous demon courier Leto. But what should have been a simple retrieval goes horrifyingly wrong when the terrifyingly angelic Ramiel attacks them, convinced that they hold the Devil's Bible. So it falls to the librarians to find a book with the power to reshape the boundaries between Heaven, Hell...and Earth.
Ace | 9781984806376
THE LITTLE SHOP OF FOUND THINGS by Paula Brackston (Historical Fiction)
Xanthe and her mother, Flora, take over an antique shop in the historic town of Marlborough. Xanthe has always had an affinity with some of the antiques she finds. When she touches them, she can sense something of the past they come from and the stories they hold. It is while she’s examining a beautiful silver chatelainem that she’s transported back to the 17th century and discovers there is an injustice in its history. The spirit that inhabits her new home charges her with saving her daughter’s life, threatening to take Flora’s if she fails. While Xanthe fights to save the girl, she meets architect Samuel Appleby. He may be the person who can help her succeed. He may also be the reason she can’t bring herself to leave.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250229502
LOOKER by Laura Sims (Psychological Thriller)
Though the two women live just a few doors apart, a chasm lies between them. The actress, a celebrity with a charmed career, shares a gleaming brownstone with her handsome husband and three adorable children, while the recently separated narrator, unhappily childless and stuck in a dead-end job, lives in a run-down, three-story walk-up with her ex-husband’s cat. As her fascination grows, the narrator’s hold on reality begins to slip. Before long, she’s collecting cast-off items from the actress’s stoop and fantasizing about sleeping with the actress’s husband. After a disastrous interaction with the actress at the annual block party, what began as an innocent preoccupation turns into a stunning --- and irrevocable --- unraveling.
Scribner | 9781501199127
THE LYING ROOM by Nicci French (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
When Neve Connolly pays a morning-after visit to her lover, Saul, and finds him brutally murdered, all the lies she has so painstakingly stitched together threaten to unravel. After scrubbing clean every trace of her existence from Saul’s life --- and death --- Neve believes she can return to normal, shaken but intact. But she can’t get out of her head the one tormenting question: What was she forgetting? An investigation into the slaying could provide the answer. It’s brought Detective Chief Inspector Alastair Hitching, and Neve’s worst fears, to her door. But with every new lie, every new misdirection to save herself, Neve descends further into the darkness of her betrayal --- and into more danger than she ever imagined.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062676726
MELMOTH by Sarah Perry (Gothic Thriller)
It has been years since Helen Franklin left England. In Prague, working as a translator, she has found a home of sorts --- or, at least, refuge. That changes when her friend Karel discovers a mysterious letter in the library, a strange confession and a curious warning that speaks of Melmoth the Witness, a dark legend found in obscure fairy tales and antique village lore. As such superstition has it, Melmoth travels through the ages, dooming those she persuades to join her to a damnation of timeless, itinerant solitude. To Helen, it all seems the stuff of unenlightened fantasy. But, unaware, as she wanders the cobblestone streets, Helen is being watched. And then Karel disappears.
Custom House | 9780062856401
THE NEXT PERSON YOU MEET IN HEAVEN by Mitch Albom (Fiction)
The accident that killed Eddie in THE FIVE PEOPLE YOU MEET IN HEAVEN left an indelible mark on Annie, the young girl whose life he saved. Injured, scarred and unable to remember why, Annie’s life is forever changed by a guilt-ravaged mother who whisks her away from the world she knew. When, as a young woman, she reconnects with Paulo, her childhood love, she believes she has finally found happiness. As the novel opens, Annie is marrying Paulo. But when her wedding night ends in an unimaginable accident, Annie finds herself on her own heavenly journey --- and an inevitable reunion with Eddie, one of the five people who will show her how her life mattered in ways she could not have fathomed.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062294456
ONE FATAL MISTAKE by Tom Hunt (Thriller)
When 18-year-old Joshua Mayo takes a man's life in a terrible accident, he leaves the scene without reporting the crime to the police. He hopes to put the awful night behind him and move on with his life. But, of course, he ends up telling his mother, Karen, what happened. Karen has raised Joshua on her own in Cedar Rapids, Iowa --- and she'd thought they'd finally made it. He was doing well in school and was only months away from starting college at his dream school. After hearing his dark confession, she's forced to make a choice no parent should have to make. A choice that draws them both into a web of deceit that will change their lives forever --- if they can make it out alive.
Berkley | 9780399586453
ONE NIGHT GONE by Tara Laskowski (Mystery)
Paperback Original
One sultry summer, Maureen Haddaway arrives in the wealthy town of Opal Beach to start her life anew. There, she finds herself lured by the promise of friendship, love, starry skies and wild parties. But Maureen’s new life just might be too good to be true, and before the summer is up, she vanishes. Decades later, when Allison Simpson is offered the opportunity to house-sit in Opal Beach during the off-season, it seems like the perfect chance to begin fresh after a messy divorce. But when she becomes drawn into the mysterious disappearance of a girl 30 years before, Allison realizes the gorgeous homes of Opal Beach hide dark secrets. And the truth of that long-ago summer is not even the most shocking part of all.
Graydon House | 9781525832192
PARIS IN THE DARK: A Christopher Marlowe Cobb Thriller by Robert Olen Butler (Historical Thriller)
World War I is raging across Europe, but Woodrow Wilson has kept Americans out of the trenches --- though that hasn’t stopped young men and women from crossing the Atlantic to volunteer at the front. Christopher “Kit” Cobb, a Chicago reporter with a second job as undercover agent for the U.S. government, is officially in Paris doing a story on American ambulance drivers, but his intelligence handler, James Polk Trask, soon broadens his mission. City-dwelling civilians are meeting death by dynamite in a new string of bombings, and the German-speaking Kit seems just the man to figure out who is behind them. But there are elements in this pursuit that will test Kit to the very limits of his principles, wits and talents for survival.
Mysterious Press | 9780802147707
REAGAN: An American Journey by Bob Spitz (Biography)
Bob Spitz's REAGAN is a richly detailed chronicle of the full arc of Ronald Reagan's epic life --- giving full weight to the Hollywood years, his transition to politics, and his rocky but ultimately successful run as California governor. His iconic presidency, from Iran-Contra to "Tear down this wall!" to an assassination attempt, receives a balanced reckoning in the form of an absorbing, even revelatory narrative.
Penguin Books | 9780143110590
RIBBONS OF SCARLET: A Novel of the French Revolution's Women by Kate Quinn, Stephanie Dray, Laura Kamoie, Sophie Perinot, Heather Webb and E. Knight (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Six bestselling and award-winning authors --- Kate Quinn, Stephanie Dray, Laura Kamoie, Sophie Perinot, Heather Webb and E. Knight --- bring to life a breathtaking epic novel illuminating the hopes, desires and destinies of princesses and peasants, harlots and wives, fanatics and philosophers. Here are six unforgettable women whose paths cross during one of the most tumultuous and transformative events in history: the French Revolution.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062916075
SHE LIES IN WAIT by Gytha Lodge (Mystery/Thriller)
On a scorching July night in 1983, a group of teenagers goes camping in the forest. When they wake in the morning, the youngest of their group, Aurora Jackson, has disappeared. An exhaustive investigation is launched, but no trace of the teenager is ever found. Thirty years later, Aurora’s body is unearthed in a hideaway that only the six friends knew about, and Jonah Sheens is put in charge of solving the long-cold case. His investigation brings the members of the camping party back to the forest, where they will be confronted once again with the events that left one of them dead and all of them profoundly changed forever.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9781984818065
THE STRANGER DIARIES by Elly Griffiths (Gothic Mystery/Thriller)
Clare Cassidy is no stranger to murder. A high school English teacher specializing in the Gothic writer R. M. Holland, she teaches a course on it every year. But when one of Clare’s colleagues and closest friends is found dead, with a line from Holland’s most famous story, “The Stranger,” left by her body, Clare is horrified to see her life collide with the storylines of her favorite literature. To make matters worse, the police suspect the killer is someone Clare knows. Unsure whom to trust, she turns to her closest confidant: her diary. Then one day she notices writing that isn't hers, left on the page of an old diary: Hallo Clare. You don’t know me. “The Stranger” has come to terrifying life. But can the ending be rewritten in time?
Mariner Books | 9780358117865
THERE WILL BE NO MIRACLES HERE: A Memoir by Casey Gerald (Memoir)
Casey Gerald's story begins at the end of the world: Dallas, New Year's Eve 1999, when he gathers with the congregation of his grandfather's black evangelical church to see which of them will be carried off. His beautiful, fragile mother disappears frequently and mysteriously; for a brief idyll, he and his sister live like Boxcar Children on her disability checks. When Casey --- following in the footsteps of his father, a gridiron legend --- is recruited to play football at Yale, he enters a world he's never dreamed of. But even as he attains the inner sanctums of power, Casey sees how the world crushes those who live at its margins. He sees how the elite perpetuate the salvation stories that keep others from rising. And he sees, most painfully, how his own ascension is part of the scheme.
Riverhead Books | 9780735214224
THESE TRUTHS: A History of the United States by Jill Lepore (History)
The American experiment rests on three ideas --- "these truths," Jefferson called them --- political equality, natural rights and the sovereignty of the people. And it rests, too, on a fearless dedication to inquiry, Jill Lepore argues, because self-government depends on it. But has the nation, and democracy itself, delivered on that promise? THESE TRUTHS tells this uniquely American story, beginning in 1492, asking whether the course of events over more than five centuries has proven the nation’s truths, or belied them. To answer that question, Lepore traces the intertwined histories of American politics, law, journalism and technology.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393357424
THE VINE WITCH by Luanne G. Smith (Historical Fantasy)
Paperback Original
For centuries, the vineyards at Château Renard have depended on the talent of their vine witches, whose spells help create the world-renowned wine of the Chanceaux Valley. Then the skill of divining harvests fell into ruin when sorcière Elena Boureanu was blindsided by a curse. Now, after breaking the spell that confined her to the shallows of a marshland and weakened her magic, Elena is struggling to return to her former life. And the vineyard she was destined to inherit is now in the possession of a handsome stranger, vigneron Jean-Paul Martel. Elena won’t rest until she can defy the evil powers that are still a threat to herself, Jean-Paul, and the ancient vine-witch legacy in the rolling hills of the Chanceaux Valley.
47North | 9781542008389
WAR OF THE WOLF by Bernard Cornwell (Historical Fiction)
While Uhtred of Bebbanburg might have regained his family’s fortress, it seems that a peaceful life is not to be --- as he is under threat from both an old enemy and a new foe. The old enemy comes from Wessex, where a dynastic struggle will determine who will be the next king. And the new foe is Sköll, a Norseman, whose ambition is to be King of Northumbria and who leads a frightening army of wolf-warriors, men who fight half-crazed in the belief that they are indeed wolves. Uhtred, believing he is cursed, must fend off one enemy while he tries to destroy the other. In this new chapter of the Saxon Tales series, Uhtred returns to fight once again for the destiny of England.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062563187
A WELL-BEHAVED WOMEN: A Novel of the Vanderbilts by Therese Anne Fowler (Historical Fiction)
Alva Smith, her southern family destitute after the Civil War, married into one of America’s great Gilded Age dynasties: the newly wealthy but socially shunned Vanderbilts. Ignored by New York’s old-money circles and determined to win respect, she designed and built nine mansions, hosted grand balls and arranged for her daughter to marry a duke. But Alva also defied convention for women of her time, asserting power within her marriage and becoming a leader in the women's suffrage movement.
St. Martin's Griffin | 9781250095480
WHERE SHE WENT by Kelly Simmons (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Paperback Original
Her only daughter has just gone away to college, and Maggie O'Farrell knows she's turning into one of those helicopter parents she used to mock. Worrying constantly, texting more than she should, even occasionally dropping by the campus "just to say hi." But Maggie can't shake the feeling that something terrible is about to happen to Emma. And then, just as Maggie starts to relax, her daughter disappears. The clues are disturbing. An empty dorm room where Emma was supposedly living. A mysterious boy described as Future Husband in her phone. Dormmates who seem more sinister than friendly. As Maggie combs over the campus looking for signs of her daughter, she learns more about Emma's life than she ever thought possible.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781492687504
THE WINTER OF THE WITCH by Katherine Arden (Historical Fantasy)
Moscow has been struck by disaster. Its people are searching for answers --- and for someone to blame. Vasilisa Petrovna finds herself alone, beset on all sides. The Grand Prince is in a rage, choosing allies that will lead him on a path to war and ruin. A wicked demon returns, stronger than ever and determined to spread chaos. Caught at the center of the conflict is Vasya, who finds the fate of two worlds resting on her shoulders. Her destiny uncertain, Vasya will uncover surprising truths about herself and her history as she desperately tries to save Russia, the winter-king Morozko and the magical world she treasures. But she may not be able to save them all.
Del Rey | 9781101886014
THE WOLF AND THE WATCHMAN by Niklas Natt och Dag (Historical Thriller)
One morning in the autumn of 1793, watchman Mikel Cardell is awakened from his drunken slumber with reports of a body seen floating in the Larder, once a pristine lake on Stockholm’s Southern Isle, now a rancid bog. Efforts to identify the bizarrely mutilated corpse are entrusted to incorruptible lawyer Cecil Winge, who enlists Cardell’s help to solve the case. But time is short: Winge’s health is failing, the monarchy is in shambles, and whispered conspiracies and paranoia abound. Winge and Cardell become immersed in a brutal world of guttersnipes and thieves, mercenaries and madams.
Washington Square Press | 9781501196782
On Sale the Week of October 7th in Hardcover
October 7th
THE 19th CHRISTMAS by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro (Thriller)
As the holidays approach, Detective Lindsay Boxer and her friends in the Women's Murder Club have much to celebrate. Crime is down. The medical examiner's office is quiet. Even the courts are showing some Christmas spirit. And the news cycle is so slow that journalist Cindy Thomas is on assignment to tell a story about the true meaning of the season for San Francisco. Then a fearsome criminal known only as "Loman" seizes control of the headlines. He is planning a deadly surprise for Christmas morning. And he has commissioned dozens of criminal colleagues to take actions that will mask his plans. All that Lindsay and the SFPD can figure out is that Loman's greed --- for riches, for bloodshed, for attention --- is limitless.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316420273
October 8th
BARACK AND JOE: The Making of an Extraordinary Partnership by Steven Levingston (Biography/Politics)
The extraordinary partnership of Barack Obama and Joe Biden is unique in American history. The two men, their characters and styles sharply contrasting, formed a dynamic working relationship that evolved into a profound friendship. Their affinity was not predestined. Obama and Biden began wary of each other: Obama was an impatient freshman disdainful of the Senate's plodding ways, while Biden was a veteran of the chamber and proud of its traditions. Gradually they came to respect each other's values and strengths, and rode into the White House together in 2008. BARACK AND JOE is the first book to tell the full story of this historic relationship and its substantial impact on the Obama presidency and its legacy.
Hachette Books | 9780316487863
BEFORE THE DEVIL FELL by Neil Olson (Mystery/Thriller)
Will Connor returns to his hometown to care for his injured mother. He’s kept his distance from the town since high school, but once home he finds himself reexamining a horrific incident that took place during one of his mother’s “spirit circles.” She had embraced the hippie generation’s fascination with New Age and the arcane, but the unexpected death of a close friend put an end to the meetings of the modern-day coven. Or did it? As Will looks deeper into his family’s history, he discovers that her practices weren’t so much a passing fad but the latest link in a long tradition of New England witchcraft, which still seems to hold a strange power over the town.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335217554
BEST KEPT SECRETS by Tracey S. Phillips (Mystery)
Morgan Jewell and Fay Ramsey are enjoying their last summer together before college. But when Fay is found dead, Morgan's entire world crumbles. Years later, Morgan is still haunted by the abrupt end to her best friend's life. She knew Fay held a secret in those final days, but Morgan, now a homicide detective, has failed to make a picture out of the crooked puzzle pieces she left behind. Nothing makes sense, and the leads have run dry. Until she's called to the scene of a murder: a woman whose body is left mangled, too similar to Fay's to ignore. This is the case Morgan has been waiting for to set her back on the killer's trail. But the closer she gets, the harder it forces her to confront the memories of herself and her best friend.
Crooked Lane Books | 9781643852270
A BITTER FEAST by Deborah Crombie (Mystery)
Scotland Yard Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and his wife, Detective Inspector Gemma James, have been invited for a relaxing weekend in the Cotswolds, one of Britain’s most enchanting regions. Duncan, Gemma and their children are guests at Beck House, the family estate of Melody Talbot, Gemma’s detective sergeant. The centerpiece of this glorious fall getaway is a posh charity harvest luncheon catered by up-and-coming chef Viv Holland. But a tragic car accident and a series of mysterious deaths rock the estate and pull Duncan and Gemma into the investigation. It soon becomes clear that the killer has a connection with Viv’s pub --- or, perhaps, with Beck House itself.
William Morrow | 9780062271662
CHILD'S PLAY by Danielle Steel (Fiction)
A senior partner at a prestigious New York law firm, Kate Morgan couldn’t be prouder of her three grown children. A single mother for years after the death of her husband, Kate keeps a tight rein on her family, her career and even her own emotions, never once asking herself if she truly knows her children…or if her hopes for them are the right ones and what they want. She is about to find out. During one hectic summer in Manhattan, Kate’s world turns upside down. One child has been keeping an astonishing secret, while another confesses to an equally shocking truth. A wonderful match and picture-book wedding are traded for a relationship that shakes Kate to her core. A totally inappropriate love affair and an out-of-wedlock baby complete the chaos.
Delacorte Press | 9780399179501
ESCAPE FROM PARIS: A True Story of Love and Resistance in Wartime France by Stephen Harding (History)
ESCAPE FROM PARIS is the true story of a small group of U.S. aviators whose four B-17 Flying Fortresses were shot down over German-occupied France on a single, fateful day: July 14, 1943, Bastille Day. They were rescued by French civilians and taken to Paris for eventual escape out of France. In the French capital, where German troops walked on every street and Gestapo agents hid around every corner, the flyers met a brave Parisian resistance family living and working in the Hôtel des Invalides, a complex of buildings and military memorials, where Nazi officials had set up offices. The danger of discovery by the Nazis grew every day, as did an unlikely romance when one of the American airmen begins a star-crossed wartime romance with the 22-year-old daughter of the family sheltering him.
Da Capo Press | 9780306922169
THE FURIES by Katie Lowe (Thriller)
A new student, Violet, steps on the campus of Elm Hollow Academy, an all-girl’s boarding school on the outskirts of a sleepy coastal town. This is her fresh start, her chance to begin again in the wake of tragedy. She is soon invited to an advanced study group, led by her alluring and mysterious art teacher, Annabel. There, with three other girls, the five of them delve into the school’s long-buried grim history. Violet quickly finds herself wrapped up in this heady new world of lawless power --- except she is needled by the disappearance of a former member of the group, one with whom she shares an uncanny resemblance. As her friends’ actions take a turn for the darker and spiral out of control, she begins to wonder who she can trust, all the while becoming more deeply entangled.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250297891
THE GIVER OF STARS by Jojo Moyes (Historical Fiction)
Alice Wright marries handsome American Bennett Van Cleve hoping to escape her stifling life in England. But small-town Kentucky quickly proves equally claustrophobic, especially living alongside her overbearing father-in-law. So when a call goes out for a team of women to deliver books as part of Eleanor Roosevelt’s new traveling library, Alice signs on enthusiastically. The leader, and soon Alice's greatest ally, is Margery, a smart-talking, self-sufficient woman who's never asked a man's permission for anything. They will be joined by three other singular women who become known as the Horseback Librarians of Kentucky. What happens to them --- and to the men they love --- becomes a classic drama of loyalty, justice, humanity and passion.
Pamela Dorman Books | 9780399562488
GRAND UNION: Stories by Zadie Smith (Fiction/Short Stories)
In her first short story collection, Zadie Smith combines her power of observation and her inimitable voice to mine the fraught and complex experience of life in the modern world. Interweaving 11 completely new and unpublished stories with some of her best-loved pieces from The New Yorker and elsewhere, Smith presents a dizzyingly rich and varied collection of fiction. Moving exhilaratingly across genres and perspectives, from the historic to the vividly current to the slyly dystopian, GRAND UNION is a sharply alert and prescient collection about time and place, identity and rebirth, the persistent legacies that haunt our present selves, and the uncanny futures that rush up to meet us.
Penguin Press | 9780525558996
HOW WE FIGHT FOR OUR LIVES: A Memoir by Saeed Jones (Memoir)
Haunted and haunting, Saeed Jones’ memoir tells the story of a young, black, gay man from the South as he fights to carve out a place for himself, within his family, within his country, within his own hopes, desires and fears. Through a series of vignettes that chart a course across the American landscape, Jones draws readers into his boyhood and adolescence --- into tumultuous relationships with his mother and grandmother, into passing flings with lovers, friends and strangers. Each piece builds into a larger examination of race and queerness, power and vulnerability, love and grief: a portrait of what we all do for one another --- and to one another --- as we fight to become ourselves.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501132735
THE LAST STAND OF PAYNE STEWART: The Year Golf Changed Forever by Kevin Robbins (Sports/Biography)
Written off as a pompous showman past the prime of his career, Payne Stewart emerged from a long slump in the unforgettable season of 1999 to capture the U.S. Open and play on the victorious U.S. Ryder Cup team. He appeared to be a new man that summer: wiser, deeper and on the verge of a new level of greatness. Then his journey to redemption ended in October, when his chartered Learjet flew aimlessly for more than a thousand miles, ran out of fuel, and fell to earth in a prairie in South Dakota. With exclusive access to Stewart's friends, family and onetime colleagues, Kevin Robbins provides a long-overdue portrait of one of golf's greats in one of golf's greatest seasons.
Hachette Books | 9780316485302
MARLEY by Jon Clinch (Fiction)
“Marley was dead, to begin with,” Charles Dickens tells us at the beginning of A CHRISTMAS CAROL. But in Jon Clinch’s novel, Jacob Marley, business partner to Ebenezer Scrooge, is very much alive: a rapacious and cunning boy who grows up to be a forger, a scoundrel, and the man who will be both the making and the undoing of Scrooge. With their business interests inextricably bound together, and instincts for secrecy and greed bred in their very bones, the two men engage in a shadowy war of deception, false identities, forged documents, theft and cold-blooded murder. Marley and Scrooge are destined to clash in an unforgettable reckoning that will echo into the future and set the stage for Marley’s ghostly return.
Atria Books | 9781982129705
METROPOLITAN STORIES by Christine Coulson (Fiction)
Hidden behind the Picassos and Vermeers, the Temple of Dendur and the American Wing, exists another world: the hallways and offices, conservation studios, storerooms and cafeteria that are home to the museum's devoted and peculiar staff of 2,200 people --- along with a few ghosts. A surreal love letter to this private side of the Met, METROPOLITAN STORIES unfolds in a series of amusing and poignant vignettes in which we discover larger-than-life characters, the downside of survival, and the powerful voices of the art itself.
Other Press | 9781590510582
NINTH HOUSE by Leigh Bardugo (Supernatural Thriller/Fantasy)
Galaxy “Alex” Stern is the most unlikely member of Yale’s freshman class. Raised in the Los Angeles hinterlands by a hippie mom, Alex dropped out of school early and into a world of shady drug-dealer boyfriends, dead-end jobs and much, much worse. In fact, by age 20, she is the sole survivor of a horrific, unsolved multiple homicide. But at her hospital bed, Alex is offered a second chance: to attend one of the world’s most prestigious universities on a full ride. She arrives in New Haven tasked by her mysterious benefactors with monitoring the activities of Yale’s secret societies. Their eight windowless “tombs” are the well-known haunts of the rich and powerful, but their occult activities are more sinister and more extraordinary than any paranoid imagination might conceive.
Flatiron Books | 9781250313072
ON THE PLAIN OF SNAKES: A Mexican Journey by Paul Theroux (Travel/Memoir)
Paul Theroux has spent his life crisscrossing the globe in search of the histories and peoples that give life to the places they call home. Now, as immigration debates boil around the world, Theroux has set out to explore a country key to understanding our current discourse: Mexico. Just south of the Arizona border, in the desert region of Sonora, he finds a place brimming with vitality, yet visibly marked by both the US Border Patrol looming to the north and mounting discord from within. Theroux stops to talk with residents, visits Zapotec mill workers in the highlands, and attends a Zapatista party meeting, communing with people of all stripes who remain south of the border even as their families brave the journey north.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9780544866478
PASSING: A Memoir of Love and Death by Michael Korda (Memoir)
It was a warm April in Pleasant Valley when Margaret Korda dropped her horsewhip while she was riding. Such a mild slip was easy to ignore, but when other troubling symptoms accumulated, she confided to her husband, “Michael, I think something serious is wrong with me.” Within a few rapid weeks, the fiercely independent, former fashion model was diagnosed with brain cancer, while Michael became her caregiver, deciphering bewildering medical reports and packing her beloved toiletries for the hospital. An operation performed by a renowned surgeon allowed Margaret to ride her favorite competition horse, Logan go Bragh, a few more times, but Margaret’s tumors quickly returned --- leaving her to grapple with the reality of impending death.
Liveright | 9781631494642
SALT SLOW by Julia Armfield (Fiction/Short Stories)
In her debut, Julia Armfield explores women’s experiences in contemporary society, mapped through their bodies. As urban dwellers’ sleeps become disassociated from them, like Peter Pan’s shadow, a city turns insomniac. A teenager entering puberty finds her body transforming in ways very different than her classmates’. As a popular band gathers momentum, the fangirls following their tour turn into something monstrous. After their parents remarry, two step-sisters --- one a girl and one a wolf --- develop a dangerously close bond. And in an apocalyptic landscape, a pregnant woman begins to realize that the creature in her belly is not what she expected.
Flatiron Books | 9781250224774
SUDDEN TRAVELER: Stories by Sarah Hall (Fiction/Short Stories)
The characters in SUDDEN TRAVELER walk, drive, dream and fly, trying to reconcile themselves with their journeys through life, death and love. Science fiction meets folktale and philosophy meets mortality. A woman with a new generation of pacemaker chooses to shut it down in the Lakeland, the site of her strongest memories. A man repatriated in the near east hears the name of an old love called and must unpack history’s dark suitcase. From the new world-waves of female anger and resistance, a mythical creature evolves. And in the woods on the border between warring countries, an old well facilitates a dictator’s downfall, before he gains power.
Custom House | 9780062959225
TUESDAY MOONEY TALKS TO GHOSTS by Kate Racculia (Mystery/Humor)
Tuesday Mooney is a loner who keeps to herself and begrudgingly socializes. But when Vincent Pryce, Boston’s most eccentric billionaire, dies --- leaving behind an epic treasure hunt through the city, with clues inspired by his hero, Edgar Allan Poe --- Tuesday’s adventure finally begins. Puzzle-loving Tuesday searches for clue after clue, joined by a ragtag crew. The hunt tests their mettle, and with other teams from around the city also vying for the promised prize --- a share of Pryce’s immense wealth --- they must move quickly. Pryce’s clues can't be cracked with sharp wit alone; the searchers must summon the courage to face painful ghosts from their pasts (some more vivid than others) and discover their most guarded desires and dreams.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9780358023937
UNFOLLOW: A Memoir of Loving and Leaving the Westboro Baptist Church by Megan Phelps-Roper (Memoir)
At the age of five, Megan Phelps-Roper began protesting homosexuality and other alleged vices alongside fellow members of the Westboro Baptist Church in Topeka, Kansas. Founded by her grandfather and consisting almost entirely of her extended family, the tiny group would gain worldwide notoriety for its pickets at military funerals and celebrations of death and tragedy. Soon, however, dialogue on Twitter caused her to begin doubting the church’s leaders and message: If humans were sinful and fallible, how could the church itself be so confident about its beliefs? As she digitally jousted with critics, she started to wonder if sometimes they had a point --- and then she began exchanging messages with a man who would help change her life.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374275839
WARRIOR OF THE ALTAII by Robert Jordan (Fantasy)
Draw near and listen, or else time is at an end. The watering holes of the Plain are drying up, the fearsome fanghorn grow more numerous, and bad omens abound. Wulfgar, a leader of the Altaii people, must contend with twin queens, warlords, prophets and magic in hopes of protecting his people and securing their future. Elspeth, a visitor from another world, holds the answers, but first Wulfgar must learn to ask the right questions. But what if the knowledge that saves the Altaii will also destroy them?
Tor Books | 9781250247650
WHAT HAPPENS IN PARADISE by Elin Hilderbrand (Fiction)
A year ago, Irene Steele had the shock of her life: her loving husband, father to their grown sons and successful businessman, was killed in a helicopter crash. But that wasn't Irene's only shattering news: he also had been leading a double life on the island of St. John, where another woman loved him, too. Now Irene and her sons are back on St. John, determined to learn the truth about the mysterious life --- and death --- of a man they thought they knew. Along the way, they're about to learn some surprising truths about their own lives, and their futures.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316435574
WHAT I LICK BEFORE YOUR FACE: And Other Haikus by Dogs by Jamie Coleman (Poetry/Humor)
From the perks of face licking to considering what constitutes a good boy, these charming and laugh-out-loud funny haikus take us into the minds of our beloved pets. Capturing the quirky personalities of our dogs and their unique bond with us, and illustrated throughout with adorable color photographs of dogs of all shapes and sizes, WHAT I LICK BEFORE YOUR FACE is a fun and loving celebration of the canine spirit.
Atria Books | 9781982127442
On Sale the Week of October 7th in Paperback
October 8th
THE ABBOT’S TALE by Conn Iggulden (Historical Fiction)
In the year 937, the new king of England, a grandson of Alfred the Great, readies himself to go to war in the north. His dream of a united kingdom of all England will stand or fall on one field --- on the passage of a single day. At his side is the priest Dunstan of Glastonbury, full of ambition and wit (perhaps enough to damn his soul). His talents will take him from the villages of Wessex to the royal court, to the hills of Rome --- from exile to exaltation. Through Dunstan's vision, by his guiding hand, England will either come together as one great country or fall back into anarchy and misrule.
Pegasus Books | 9781643132341
ALASKAN HOLIDAY by Debbie Macomber (Romance)
Before beginning her dream job as sous chef in one of Seattle’s hottest new restaurants, Josie Avery takes a summer position cooking at a lakeside lodge in the remote Alaskan town of Ponder. Josie falls for the rustic charms of the local community --- in particular, famed master swordsmith Palmer Saxon, who would like nothing more than to make Josie his wife. But Josie can’t imagine abandoning her mother and sacrificing her career to stay in this isolated town --- not even for a man she’s quickly coming to love. Fate has other plans, though. Josie misses the last boat out of town before winter sets in, stranding her in Ponder and putting her dream job at risk. As the holidays approach, Josie and Palmer must grapple with the complications that arise when dreams confront reality.
Ballantine Books | 9780399181306
BEAUCHAMP HALL by Danielle Steel (Fiction)
Winona Farmington once dreamed of graduating from college, moving to New York City and pursuing a career in publishing. Then real life got in the way when she left college and returned to her small Michigan hometown to care for her sick mother. Years later, stuck in a dead-end job and an unsatisfying relationship, Winnie has concluded that dreams were meant for others. She consoles herself by binge-watching the British television series “Beauchamp Hall,” enthralled by the sumptuous period drama set on a great Norfolk estate in the 1920s. On the day Winnie is passed over for a long-overdue promotion, she is also betrayed by her boyfriend and her best friend. Heartbroken, she makes the first impulsive decision of her conventional life --- which changes everything.
Dell | 9780399179310
BLOOD SUGAR by Daniel Kraus (Horror/Thriller)
Paperback Original
In a ruined house at the end of Yellow Street, an angry outcast hatches a scheme to take revenge for all the wrongs he has suffered. With the help of three alienated kids, he plans to hide razor blades, poison and broken glass in Halloween candy, maiming or killing dozens of innocent children. But as the clock ticks closer to sundown, will one of his helpers --- an innocent himself, in his own streetwise way --- carry out or defeat the plan?
Hard Case Crime | 9781789091939
THE COCKROACH by Ian McEwan (Political Satire)
Paperback Original
Jim Sams has undergone a metamorphosis. In his previous life, he was ignored or loathed, but in his new incarnation, he is the most powerful man in Britain --- and it is his mission to carry out the will of the people. Nothing must get in his way: not the opposition, nor the dissenters within his own party. Not even the rules of parliamentary democracy.
Anchor | 9780593082423
DEVIL’S DAY by Andrew Michael Hurley (Gothic Horror/Thriller)
Every autumn, John Pentecost returns to the farm where he grew up, to help gather the sheep down from the moors for the winter. Very little changes in the Endlands, but this year, his grandfather --- the Gaffer --- has died and John's new wife, Katherine, is accompanying him for the first time. Each year, the Gaffer would redraw the boundary lines of the village, with pen and paper but also through the remembrance of tales and timeless communal rituals, which keep the sheep safe from the Devil. But as the farmers of the Endlands bury the Gaffer and prepare to gather the sheep, they begin to wonder if they've let the Devil in after all.
Mariner Books | 9780358116707
DISTRICT VIII by Adam LeBor (Mystery/Thriller)
Life is tough for a Gypsy detective in Budapest. The cops don’t trust you because you’re a Gypsy. Your fellow Gypsies, even your own family, shun you because you’re a cop. The dead, however, don't care. So when Balthazar Kovacs, a detective in the city's murder squad, gets a mysterious text message on his phone, he goes to work. The message has two parts: a photograph and an address. The photograph shows a man, in his early 30s, lying on his back with his eyes open, half-covered by a blue plastic sheet. The address is 26 Republic Square, the former Communist Party headquarters, and once the most feared building in the country. But when Kovacs arrives at Republic Square, the body is gone.
Pegasus Books | 9781643132587
THE FALCONER by Dana Czapnik (Fiction)
New York, 1993. Street-smart 17-year-old Lucy Adler is often the only girl on the public basketball courts. Lucy’s inner life is a contradiction. She is by turns quixotic and cynical, insecure and self-possessed, and, despite herself, is in unrequited love with her best friend and pickup teammate, Percy, the rebellious son of a prominent New York family. As Lucy begins to question accepted notions of success, bristling against her own hunger for male approval, she is drawn into the world of a pair of provocative feminist artists living in what remains of New York’s bohemia.
Washington Square Press | 9781501193231
HAZARDS OF TIME TRAVEL by Joyce Carol Oates (Dystopian/Science Fiction)
“Time travel” --- and its hazards --- are made literal in Joyce Carol Oates’ novel, in which a recklessly idealistic girl dares to test the perimeters of her tightly controlled (future) world and is punished by being sent back in time to a region of North America --- “Wainscotia, Wisconsin”--- that existed 80 years before. Cast adrift in time in this idyllic Midwestern town, she is set upon a course of “rehabilitation” --- but cannot resist falling in love with a fellow exile and questioning the constraints of the Wainscotia world with results that are both devastating and liberating.
Ecco | 9780062319609
HOMEWARD HOUND by Rita Mae Brown (Mystery)
As winter deepens over the Blue Ridge Mountains, even the threat of snowstorms cannot derail this year’s Christmas run, not as long as Sister Jane has a say in it. With spirits high and traditions strong, a glorious parade of hunters in full holiday regalia gathers on the grounds of Tattenhall Station. But a blinding blizzard brings an early end to the sport. More disturbing: A horse soon returns without its rider. Gregory Luckham, the president of a powerful energy company pushing for a pipeline through central Virginia, is the missing hunter. A search is organized for what is presumed will be a dead, frozen body. What is discovered, however, chills everyone to the bone --- and points toward murder.
Ballantine Books | 9780399178399
IN THE HOUSE IN THE DARK OF THE WOODS by Laird Hunt (Historical Fiction/Horror)
In this horror story set in colonial New England, a law-abiding Puritan woman goes missing. Or perhaps she has fled or abandoned her family. Or perhaps she has been kidnapped, and set loose to wander in the dense woods of the north. Alone and possibly lost, she meets another woman in the forest. Then everything changes. On a journey that will take her through dark woods full of almost-human wolves, through a deep well wet with the screams of men, and on a living ship made of human bones, our heroine may find that the evil she flees has been inside her all along.
Back Bay Books | 9780316515801
INVISIBLE: The Forgotten Story of the Black Woman Lawyer Who Took Down America's Most Powerful Mobster by Stephen L. Carter (Biography)
Eunice Hunton Carter, Stephen Carter’s grandmother, was raised in a world of stultifying expectations about race and gender, yet by the 1940s, her professional and political successes had made her one of the most famous black women in America. But her triumphs were shadowed by prejudice and tragedy. Greatly complicating her rise was her difficult relationship with her younger brother, Alphaeus, an avowed Communist who --- together with his friend Dashiell Hammett --- would go to prison during the McCarthy era. Yet she remained unbowed. INVISIBLE tells the true story of a woman who often found her path blocked by the social and political expectations of her time. But Eunice Carter never accepted defeat.
Picador | 9781250230669
LISTEN TO THE MARRIAGE by John Jay Osborn (Fiction)
Gretchen and Steve have been married for a long time. Living in San Francisco, recently separated, with two children and demanding jobs, they’ve started going to a marriage counselor. Unfolding over the course of 10 months and taking place entirely in the marriage counselor’s office, John Jay Osborn’s LISTEN TO THE MARRIAGE is the story of a fractured couple in a moment of crisis, and of the person who tries to get them to see each other again.
Picador | 9781250234766
MARILLA OF GREEN GABLES by Sarah McCoy (Historical Fiction)
Marilla Cuthbert is 13 years old when her beloved mother dies in childbirth, and she suddenly must bear the responsibilities of a farm wife. Her one connection to the wider world is Aunt Elizabeth "Izzy" Johnson, her mother’s sister, who managed to escape to the bustling city of St. Catharines. Aunt Izzy’s talent as a seamstress has allowed her to build a thriving business and make her own way in the world. Emboldened by her aunt, Marilla dares to venture beyond the safety of Green Gables and discovers new friends and new opportunities. However, she soon finds herself caught up in the dangerous work of politics, and abolition --- jeopardizing all she cherishes, including her bond with her dearest John Blythe.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062697721
THE MISTLETOE MATCHMAKER by Felicity Hayes-McCoy (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Preparations are underway for the Winter Fest, and everyone is hoping for a little holiday magic on the Finfarran peninsula. As Cassie Fitzgerald, fresh from Toronto, is about to discover, there’s more to the holidays on the west coast of Ireland than mistletoe and mince pies. Enchanted by the small town where her dad was born, Cassie makes friends and joins local librarian Hanna Casey’s writing group in Lissbeg Library. But the more she’s drawn into the festivities leading up to her first Irish Christmas, the more questions she wants to ask. As Christmas Eve approaches, it’s Cassie, the outsider, who reminds Lissbeg’s locals that love, family and friendship bring true magic to the season. But will her own, fractured family rediscover the joys of coming home?
Harper Perennial | 9780062799067
NAPOLEON: The Spirit of the Age: 1805-1810 by Michael Broers (Biography)
This second volume of Michael Broers’ three-volume life of Napoleon covers the tumultuous years of 1805 to 1810, a period that marks the zenith of Napoleon’s power and military success. Like volume one, SOLDIER OF DESTINY, it is based on the new version of Napoleon’s correspondence, made available by the Fondation Napoléon in Paris. It is the story of Napoleon’s conquest of Europe --- and that of his magnificent Grande Armée --- as they sweep through the length and breadth of Europe.
Pegasus Books | 9781643132334
NIGHTTOWN: A Junior Bender Mystery by Timothy Hallinan (Mystery/Thriller)
Los Angeles burglar Junior Bender and his girlfriend, Ronnie, are in desperate need of cash to hire a kidnapper to snatch Ronnie’s two-year-old son back from her ex. A nameless woman in an orange wig has offered Junior 50 grand to break into the abandoned house of a recently deceased 97-year-old recluse, Daisy Horton, and steal a doll from her collection. Junior figures there must be something hidden inside the doll that can get him in a heap of trouble. It doesn’t take long for him to realize that he’s not the only one looking for the doll. When an old friend ends up murdered, Junior decides he will stop at nothing to figure out who the woman in the orange wig is, and why she wants the doll badly enough to leave a trail of bodies in her wake.
Soho Crime | 9781641290913
AN ORCHESTRA OF MINORITIES by Chigozie Obioma (Fiction)
Set on the outskirts of Umuahia, Nigeria, and narrated by a chi, or guardian spirit, AN ORCHESTRA OF MINORITIES tells the story of Chinonso, a young poultry farmer who falls in love with a woman named Ndali after saving her life. But when Ndali’s wealthy family objects to the union because he is uneducated, Chinonso sells most of his possessions to attend a college in Cyprus. Upon his arrival, he discovers that he has been utterly duped by the young Nigerian who has made the arrangements. Penniless, homeless and furious at a world that continues to relegate him to the sidelines, Chinonso gets further away from his dream, from Ndali and the farm he called home.
Back Bay Books | 9780316412407
REDEMPTION by David Baldacci (Thriller)
Detective Amos Decker is visiting his hometown of Burlington, Ohio, when he's approached by convicted murderer Meryl Hawkins, the very first killer Decker ever put behind bars. But Hawkins claims he’s innocent. Now suffering from terminal cancer, it's his dying wish that Decker clear his name. It's unthinkable. The case was open and shut, with rock solid forensic evidence. But then Hawkins later turns up dead with a bullet in his head, and even Decker begins to have doubts. Is it possible that he really did get it wrong, all those years ago? Decker is determined to uncover the truth, no matter the personal cost. But solving a case this cold may be impossible, especially when it becomes clear that someone doesn't want the old case reopened.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538761458
THE SPLENDOR BEFORE THE DARK: A Novel of the Emperor Nero by Margaret George (Historical Fiction)
Nero Augustus commands the Roman empire, ushering in an unprecedented era of artistic and cultural splendor. But in the 10th year of his reign, a terrifying prophecy comes to pass and a fire engulfs Rome, reducing entire swaths of the city to rubble. Rumors of Nero's complicity in the blaze start to sow unrest among the populace --- and the politicians. For better or worse, Nero knows that his fate is now tied to Rome's --- and he vows to rebuild it as a city that will stun the world. But there are those who find his rampant quest for glory dangerous. Throughout the empire, false friends and spies conspire against him, not understanding what drives him to undertake the impossible.
Berkley | 9780399584626
A SPY IN EXILE by Jonathan de Shalit (Political Thriller)
After Ya’ara Stein is forced out of her job at the Mossad --- the secret intelligence service of Israel --- she is called upon by the Prime Minister for a classified job. Known for her aptitude, beauty and deadliness, Stein is asked to set up a secret unit that will act independently, answerable only to the Prime Minister. This streamlined and deadly unit, filled with bright young men and women recruited and trained by Stein, quickly faces threats both old and new. Descendants of the lethal militant Red Army Faction have returned to terrorize Europe, and fears of a radical Islam splinter group force the unit to distinguish between facts and smoke screens.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781501170577
SUGAR RUN by Mesha Maren (Fiction)
In 1989, Jodi McCarty is 17 years old when she’s sentenced to life in prison. When she’s released 18 years later, she finds herself at a Greyhound bus stop, reeling from the shock of unexpected freedom but determined to chart a better course for herself. Not yet able to return to her lost home in the Appalachian Mountains, she heads south in search of someone she left behind, as a way of finally making amends. There, she meets and falls in love with Miranda, a troubled young mother living in a motel room with her children. Together they head toward what they hope will be a fresh start. But what do you do with your past --- and with a town and a family that refuses to forget, or to change?
Algonquin Books | 9781616209810
THE WINTER SISTER by Megan Collins (Thriller)
Sylvie’s sister, Persephone, was killed 16 years ago, yet her murder remains unsolved. In the present day, Sylvie returns home to care for her estranged mother, Annie, as she undergoes treatment for cancer. Their once-close bond dissolved in the weeks after their loss, making for an uncomfortable reunion all these years later. Worse, Persephone’s former boyfriend, Ben, is now a nurse at the cancer center where Annie is being treated. Sylvie has always believed Ben was responsible for the murder, though she also carries her own guilt about that night. As she navigates the complicated relationship with her mother, Sylvie begins to uncover the secrets that fill their house --- and what really happened the night Persephone died.
Atria Books | 9781982100155
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