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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of February 17th and February 24th 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 Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks feature for February, which includes Indie Next, LibraryReads, the Barnes & Noble Book Club, the Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club, the Jenna Bush Hager "Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club, and more.
We also are spotlighting Carol Fitzgerald's "Bookreporter Talks To" interview with Allison Pataki, whose new historical novel, THE QUEEN'S FORTUNE: A Novel of Desiree, Napoleon, and the Dynasty That Outlasted the Empire, is now in stores and will be a Bets On pick. In addition to talking in-depth about the book, Allison and Carol discuss women at the forefront of history, Allison's research in Paris, and the ways in which her personal life has affected her historical storytelling over the years. Click here to watch the interview and here to listen to the podcast.
For those of you who are doing online shopping, if you use the store links below, Bookreporter.com gets a small affiliate fee on your purchases. We would appreciate your considering this!
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound
Special Preview of Friday's Bookreporter Update
Carol Fitzgerald shares a video preview of what you will see in the February 21st Weekly Update newsletter here. We hope you enjoy it!
Click here to see all of our videos on
The Book Report Network YouTube channel,
including our "Bookreporter Talks To" author interviews.
Our most recent interview with Allison Pataki
is available on video and as a podcast.
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Click here to listen to our podcasts.
This Week's Bonus News:
Our Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks for February
Each month, we share top book picks from Indie Next and LibraryReads, as well as the Target Book Club title and Pennie's Pick for Costco. We also feature a number of other prominent picks, including Oprah’s Book Club, the Barnes & Noble Book Club, the Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club, Jenna Bush Hager's "Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club, the "Good Morning America" Book Club, the PBS NewsHour-New York Times “Now Read This” Book Club, and Simon & Schuster’s Book Club Favorites.
Below is a preview of February's "Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks." For the complete Indie Next and LibraryReads lists, as well as additional links pertaining to this month's selections, please click here.
Indie Next
#1 Pick: AMERICAN DIRT by Jeanine Cummins
WEATHER by Jenny Offill
AUTHOR IN CHIEF: The Untold Story of Our Presidents and the Books They Wrote, by Craig Fehrman
A LONG PETAL OF THE SEA by Isabel Allende
WHEN WE WERE VIKINGS by Andrew David MacDonald
LibraryReads
LibraryReads Top Pick: THE AUTHENTICITY PROJECT by Clare Pooley
THE BEAR by Andrew Krivak
THE GIRL IN WHITE GLOVES: A Novel of Grace Kelly by Kerri Maher
GOLDEN IN DEATH by J. D. Robb
MERCY HOUSE by Alena Dillon
Target Book Club
LIGHTS ALL NIGHT LONG by Lydia Fitzpatrick
Pennie's Pick (Costco)
THE BOOK WOMAN OF TROUBLESOME CREEK by Kim Michele Richardson
Barnes & Noble Book Club
AMERICAN DIRT by Jeanine Cummins
Reese Witherspoon x Hello Sunshine Book Club
THE SCENT KEEPER by Erica Bauermeister
Jenna Bush Hager's "Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club
THE GIRL WITH THE LOUDING VOICE by Abi Daré
PBS NewsHour-New York Times “Now Read This” Book Club
AMERICAN PRISON: A Reporter's Undercover Journey into the Business of Punishment, by Shane Bauer
Simon & Schuster's Book Club Favorites
THE STATIONERY SHOP by Marjan Kamali
On Sale the Week of February 17th in Hardcover
February 18th
AMNESTY by Aravind Adiga (Fiction)
Danny is an illegal immigrant in Sydney, Australia, denied refugee status after he fled from Sri Lanka. For three years he’s been trying to create a new identity for himself. And now, with his beloved vegan girlfriend, Sonja, he is as close as he has ever come to living a normal life. But then one morning, Danny learns a female client of his has been murdered. The deed was done with a knife, at a creek he’d been to with her before; and a jacket was left at the scene, which he believes belongs to another of his clients --- a doctor with whom Danny knows the woman was having an affair. Suddenly Danny is confronted with a choice: Come forward with his knowledge about the crime and risk being deported. Or say nothing, and let justice go undone.
Scribner | 9781982127244
THE ANTIDOTE FOR EVERYTHING by Kimmery Martin (Fiction)
Georgia Brown’s profession as a urologist requires her to interact with plenty of naked men, but her romantic prospects have fizzled. The most important person in her life is her friend Jonah Tsukada, a funny, empathetic family medicine doctor who works at the same hospital in Charleston, South Carolina, and who has become as close as family to her. Just after Georgia leaves the country for a medical conference, Jonah shares startling news. The hospital is instructing doctors to stop providing medical care for transgender patients. Jonah, a gay man, is the first to be fired when he refuses to abandon his patients. When Georgia's attempts to address the situation result in incalculable harm, both she and Jonah find themselves facing the loss of much more than their careers.
Berkley | 9781984802835
THE BOSTON MASSACRE: A Family History by Serena Zabin (History)
The story of the Boston Massacre --- when on a late winter evening in 1770, British soldiers shot five local men to death --- is familiar to generations. But from the very beginning, many accounts have obscured a fascinating truth: the Massacre arose from conflicts that were as personal as they were political. Professor Serena Zabin draws on original sources and lively stories to follow British troops as they are dispatched from Ireland to Boston in 1768 to subdue the increasingly rebellious colonists. And she reveals a forgotten world hidden in plain sight: the many regimental wives and children who accompanied these armies.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9780544911154
BROKEN FAITH: Inside the Word of Faith Fellowship, One of America's Most Dangerous Cults by Mitch Weiss and Holbrook Mohr (True Crime/Religion)
In 1979, a fiery preacher named Jane Whaley attracted a small group of followers with a promise that she could turn their lives around. In the years since, Whaley’s following has expanded to include thousands of congregants across three continents. In their eyes she’s a prophet. And to disobey her means eternal damnation. The control Whaley exerts is absolute: she decides what her followers study, where they work, whom they can marry --- even when they can have sex. Based on hundreds of interviews, secretly recorded conversations and thousands of pages of documents, BROKEN FAITH is a terrifying portrait of life inside the Word of Faith Fellowship, and the harrowing account of one family who escaped after two decades.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335145239
THE DARK CORNERS OF THE NIGHT: An UNSUB Novel by Meg Gardiner (Psychological Thriller)
He appears in the darkness like a ghost, made of shadows and fear --- the Midnight Man. He comes for the parents but leaves the children alive, tiny witnesses to unspeakable horror. The bedroom communities of Los Angeles are gripped with dread, and the attacks are escalating. Still reeling from her best friend’s close call in a bombing six months ago, FBI behavioral analyst Caitlin Hendrix has come to Los Angeles to assist in the Midnight Man investigation and do what she does best --- hunt a serial killer. Her work is what keeps her going, but something about this UNSUB --- unknown subject --- doesn’t sit right. She soon realizes that this case will test not only her skills but also her dedication, for within the heart of a killer lives a secret that mirrors Caitlin’s own past.
Blackstone Publishing | 9781982627515
DEATH IN THE FAMILY: A Shana Merchant Novel by Tessa Wegert (Mystery/Thriller)
Thirteen months ago, former NYPD detective Shana Merchant barely survived being abducted by a serial killer. Now hoping to leave grisly murder cases behind, she has taken a job in her fiancé's sleepy hometown in the Thousand Islands region of Upstate New York. But as a nor'easter bears down on her new territory, Shana and fellow investigator Tim Wellington receive a call about a man missing on a private island. Shana and Tim travel to the isolated island owned by the wealthy Sinclair family to question the witnesses. They arrive to find blood on the scene and a house full of Sinclair family and friends on edge. As the gale intensifies outside, Shana starts conducting interviews and discovers that the Sinclairs and their guests are crawling with dark and dangerous secrets.
Berkley | 9780593097892
FIGHTING FOR SPACE: Two Pilots and Their Historic Battle for Female Spaceflight by Amy Shira Teitel (Biography)
When the space age dawned in the late 1950s, Jackie Cochran held more propeller and jet flying records than any pilot of the 20th century --- man or woman. She had led the Women's Auxiliary Service Pilots during the Second World War and was the first woman to break the sound barrier. Yet it was Jerrie Cobb, a record-holding pilot in her own right, who finagled her way into taking the same medical tests as the Mercury astronauts. The prospect of flying in space quickly became her obsession. While the American and international media spun the shocking story of a "woman astronaut" program, Jackie and Jerrie struggled to gain control of the narrative, each hoping to turn the rumored program into their own ideal reality --- an issue that ultimately went all the way to Congress.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538716045
THE GENIUS OF WOMEN: From Overlooked to Changing the World by Janice Kaplan (Gender Studies/Personal Growth)
Even in this time of rethinking women’s roles, we define genius almost exclusively through male achievement. When asked to name a genius, people mention Albert Einstein, Leonardo da Vinci and Steve Jobs. As for great women? In one survey, the only female genius anyone listed was Marie Curie. Janice Kaplan set out to determine why the extraordinary work of so many women has been brushed aside. In THE GENIUS OF WOMEN, she makes surprising discoveries about women geniuses now and throughout history. Through interviews with neuroscientists, psychologists and dozens of women geniuses at work in the world today, she proves that genius isn't just about talent. It's about having that talent recognized, nurtured and celebrated.
Dutton | 9781524744212
THE HOLDOUT by Graham Moore (Legal Thriller)
Fifteen-year-old Jessica Silver, heiress to a billion-dollar real estate fortune, vanishes on her way home from school, and her teacher, Bobby Nock, a 25-year-old African American man, is the prime suspect. It’s an open-and-shut case for the prosecution, and a quick conviction seems all but guaranteed --- until Maya Seale, convinced of Nock’s innocence, persuades her fellow jurors to return the verdict of not guilty. Flash forward 10 years. A true-crime docuseries reassembles the jury, with particular focus on Maya, now a defense attorney herself. When one of the jurors is found dead in Maya’s hotel room, all evidence points to her as the killer. Now, she must prove her own innocence --- by getting to the bottom of a case that is far from closed.
Random House | 9780399591778
THE LAST PASSENGER: A Charles Lenox Mystery by Charles Finch (Historical Mystery)
London, 1855. A young and eager Charles Lenox faces his toughest case yet: a murder without a single clue. Slumped in a third-class car at Paddington Station is the body of a handsome young gentleman. He has no luggage, empty pockets and no sign of identification on his person. And putting together the clues to the mystery of the man’s identity only raises more questions, when Lenox discovers that the crime has a significant connection to America. As he seeks to solve this impossible case, the young Lenox must confront an equally troublesome problem in his personal life. Kitty Ashbrook, beautiful and cultured, appears to be his soulmate --- but love comes with obstacles of its own.
Minotaur Books | 9781250312204
THE LOST FUTURE OF PEPPERHARROW by Natasha Pulley (Historical Fantasy/Mystery)
1888. Five years after they met, Thaniel Steepleton, an unassuming translator, and Keita Mori, the watchmaker who remembers the future, are traveling to Japan. Thaniel has received an unexpected posting to the British legation in Tokyo, and Mori has business that is taking him to Yokohama. Thaniel's brief is odd: the legation staff have been seeing ghosts, and Thaniel's first task is to find out what's really going on. But while staying with Mori, he starts to experience ghostly happenings himself. For reasons Mori won't --- or can't --- share, he is frightened. Then he vanishes. Meanwhile, something strange is happening in a frozen labor camp in Northern Japan. Takiko Pepperharrow, an old friend of Mori's, must investigate.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781635573305
THE LUCKY STAR by William T. Vollmann (Fiction)
After being initiated into a coven of island witches, Neva begins to fulfill her fate in a Tenderloin dive bar. Her worshippers include Richard, the introverted, alcoholic, occasionally omniscient narrator; a profane, aggressive transgender sex worker named Shantelle; the brisk but motherly barmaid Francine; and the former Frank, who has renamed herself after her idol Judy Garland. When Judy starts to love Neva too much, Judy's retired policeman boyfriend embarks on a mission of exposure and destruction.
Viking | 9780399563522
THE MAN IN THE RED COAT by Julian Barnes (History)
In the summer of 1885, three Frenchmen arrived in London for a few days' intellectual shopping: a prince, a count and a commoner with an Italian name. In time, each of these men would achieve a certain level of renown, but who were they then and what was the significance of their sojourn to England? Answering these questions, Julian Barnes unfurls the stories of their lives, which play out against the backdrop of the Belle Époque in Paris. Our guide through this world is Samuel Pozzi, the society doctor, free-thinker and man of science with a famously complicated private life who was the subject of one of John Singer Sargent's greatest portraits.
Knopf | 9780525658771
NO BAD DEED by Heather Chavez (Domestic Thriller)
Driving home one rainy night, Cassie Larkin sees a man and woman fighting on the side of the road. Against all reason and advice, she gets out of her minivan and chases after the violent man, trying to help his victim. When Cassie physically tries to stop him, he suddenly turns on her and spits out an ominous threat: “Let her die, and I’ll let you live.” A veterinarian trained to heal, Cassie can’t let the woman die. But while she’s examining the unconscious victim, the attacker steals her car. Now he has her name and address, and knows about her children. The next day --- Halloween --- her husband disappears while trick-or-treating with their six-year-old daughter. Are these disturbing events a coincidence or the beginning of a horrifying nightmare?
William Morrow | 9780062936172
ONE MINUTE OUT: A Gray Man Novel by Mark Greaney (Thriller)
While on a mission to Croatia, Court Gentry uncovers a human trafficking operation. The trail leads from the Balkans all the way back to Hollywood. Court is determined to shut it down, but his CIA handlers have other plans. The criminal ringleader has actionable intelligence about a potentially devastating terrorist attack on the US. The CIA won't move until they have that intel. It's a moral balancing act with Court at the pivot point.
Berkley | 9780593098912
THE OTHER MRS. by Mary Kubica (Psychological Thriller)
Sadie and Will Foust have only just moved their family from bustling Chicago to small-town Maine when their neighbor, Morgan Baines, is found dead in her home. The murder rocks their tiny coastal island, but no one is more shaken than Sadie. But it’s not just Morgan’s death that has Sadie on edge. And as the eyes of suspicion turn toward the new family in town, Sadie is drawn deeper into the mystery of what really happened that dark and deadly night. But Sadie must be careful, for the more she discovers about Mrs. Baines, the more she begins to realize just how much she has to lose if the truth ever comes to light.
Park Row | 9780778369110
REAL LIFE by Brandon Taylor (Fiction)
Almost everything about Wallace is at odds with the Midwestern university town where he is working uneasily toward a biochem degree. An introverted young man from Alabama, black and queer, he has left behind his family without escaping the long shadows of his childhood. For reasons of self-preservation, Wallace has enforced a wary distance even within his own circle of friends --- some dating each other, some dating women, some feigning straightness. But over the course of a late-summer weekend, a series of confrontations with colleagues, and an unexpected encounter with an ostensibly straight, white classmate, conspire to fracture his defenses while exposing long-hidden currents of hostility and desire within their community.
Riverhead Books | 9780525538882
SAINT X by Alexis Schaitkin (Psychological Thriller)
Claire is only seven years old when her college-age sister, Alison, disappears on the last night of their family vacation at a resort on the Caribbean island of Saint X. Several days later, Alison’s body is found, and two local men --- employees at the resort --- are arrested. But the evidence is slim, and the men are soon released. Years later, Claire is living and working in New York City when a brief but fateful encounter brings her together with Clive Richardson, one of the men originally suspected of murdering her sister. It is a moment that sets Claire on an obsessive pursuit of the truth --- not only to find out what happened the night of Alison’s death but also to answer the elusive question: Who exactly was her sister?
Celadon Books | 9781250219596
THE SUN DOWN MOTEL by Simone St. James (Supernatural Thriller)
Upstate New York, 1982. Viv Delaney wants to move to New York City. To help pay for it, she takes a job as the night clerk at the Sun Down Motel in Fell, New York. But something isnʼt right at the motel, something haunting and scary. Upstate New York, 2017. Carly Kirk has never been able to let go of the story of her aunt Viv, who mysteriously disappeared from the Sun Down before she was born. She decides to move to Fell and visit the motel, where she quickly learns that nothing has changed since 1982. And she soon finds herself ensnared in the same mysteries that claimed her aunt.
Berkley | 9780440000174
On Sale the Week of February 17th in Paperback
February 18th
AMERICAN POP by Snowden Wright (Historical Fiction)
Founders of the world’s first major soft-drink company, Houghton and Annabelle Forster raise their four children with the expectation that they’ll one day become world leaders. The burden of greatness falls early on eldest son Montgomery, a handsome and successful politician who has never recovered from the horrors and heartbreak of the Great War. His younger siblings Ramsey and Lance are rivals not only in wit and beauty, but in their utter carelessness with the lives and hearts of others. Their brother Harold, as gentle and caring as the twins can be cruel, is slowed by a mental disability --- and later generations seem equally plagued by misfortune, forcing Houghton to seriously consider who should control the company after he’s gone.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062697752
BANGKOK WAKES TO RAIN by Pitchaya Sudbanthad (Fiction)
A missionary doctor pines for his native New England even as he succumbs to the vibrant chaos of 19th-century Siam. A post-WWII society woman marries, mothers and holds court, little suspecting her solitary future. A jazz pianist in the age of rock, haunted by his own ghosts, is summoned to appease the resident spirits. A young woman tries to outpace the long shadow of her political past. And in New Krungthep, savvy teenagers row tourists past landmarks of the drowned old city they themselves do not remember. Time collapses as these stories collide and converge, linked by the forces voraciously making and remaking the amphibious, ever-morphing capital itself.
Riverhead Books | 9780525534778
THE BIRD KING by G. Willow Wilson (Historical Fantasy)
THE BIRD KING tells the story of Fatima, a concubine in the royal court of Granada, the last emirate of Muslim Spain, and her dearest friend Hassan, the palace mapmaker. Hassan has a secret --- he can draw maps of places he’s never seen and bend the shape of reality. When representatives of the newly formed Spanish monarchy arrive to negotiate the sultan’s surrender, Fatima befriends one of the women, not realizing that she will see Hassan’s gift as sorcery and a threat to Christian Spanish rule. With their freedoms at stake, what will Fatima risk to save Hassan and escape the palace walls?
Grove Press | 9780802148292
CALL ME EVIE by J.P. Pomare (Psychological Thriller)
Seventeen-year-old Evie and her uncle Jim have just moved to an isolated cabin in a remote beach town --- a far cry from their hometown of Melbourne. But Evie isn't her real name. And Jim isn't really her uncle. Jim tells Evie she did something terrible back home, that he's hiding her for her own good. But Evie can't remember anything about that night --- for all she knows, he's lying. As fragments of her memory return, she starts to wonder if Jim is really her savior...or her jailer.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780525538165
CHEROKEE AMERICA by Margaret Verble (Historical Fiction)
It’s the early spring of 1875 in the Cherokee Nation West. A baby, a black hired hand, a bay horse, a gun, a gold stash and a preacher have all gone missing. Cherokee America Singer, known as “Check,” a wealthy farmer, mother of five boys and soon-to-be widow, is not amused. In CHEROKEE AMERICA, several plots intertwine around the heroic and resolute Check: her son is caught in a compromising position that results in murder; a neighbor disappears; another man is killed. The tension mounts and the violence escalates as Check’s mixed-race family, friends and neighbors come together to protect their community --- and painfully expel one of their own.
Mariner Books | 9780358116691
THE CLIFF HOUSE by RaeAnne Thayne (Romance)
After the death of their mother, sisters Daisy and Beatriz Davenport found a home with their aunt Stella in the beautiful and welcoming town of Cape Sanctuary. Now, with Daisy and Bea grown, it’s time for Stella to reveal the secret she’s been keeping from them --- a secret that will change their family forever. Bea thought she’d sown all her wild oats when she got pregnant far too young. The marriage that followed was rocky and not destined to last. Now, just as she’s beginning to pursue a new love with an old friend, Bea’s ex-husband resurfaces and turns her life completely upside down. Then there’s Daisy, who has never taken a risk --- until she meets a man who makes her question everything she thought she knew about life, love and the power of taking chances.
HQN | 9781335080455
DON’T LET ME DOWN: A Memoir by Erin Hosier (Memoir)
Erin Hosier’s coming-of-age was full of contradictions. Born into the turbulent 1970s, she was raised in rural Ohio by lapsed hippies who traded 1960s rock ‘n’ roll for 1950s-era Christian hymns. Her mother’s newfound faith was rooted in a desire to manage her husband’s mood swings, which could alternately fill the house with music or with violence. With the Beatles providing the soundtrack, Erin grew up adoring her larger-than-life father, Jack. Together, they bonded over their iconic songs, even as they inspired Erin to question authority --- both her father’s and others’.
Atria Books | 9781451644968
FEAST YOUR EYES by Myla Goldberg (Historical Fiction)
FEAST YOUR EYES, framed as the catalogue notes from a photography show at the Museum of Modern Art, tells the life story of Lillian Preston. After discovering photography as a teenager through her high school’s photo club, Lillian rejects her parents’ expectations of college and marriage and moves to New York City in 1955. When a small gallery exhibits partially nude photographs of Lillian and her daughter Samantha, Lillian is arrested, thrust into the national spotlight and targeted with an obscenity charge. Mother and daughter’s sudden notoriety changes the course of both of their lives, and especially Lillian’s career, as she continues a life-long quest for artistic legitimacy and recognition.
Scribner | 9781501197857
FINDING KATARINA M. by Elisabeth Elo (Thriller)
Natalie March is a respected surgeon whose deepest relationship is with her mother, Vera March, a Russian immigrant and MS patient confined to a rehabilitation center. Vera is still haunted by the fact that her Ukrainian parents were sent to the gulag, Stalin's notorious network of labor camps, when she was just a baby. All her life she has presumed that they perished there. Natalie would do anything to heal her mother's psychic pain: it's the one wound that she, a doctor, cannot mend. When a young Russian dancer comes to Natalie's office claiming to be her cousin, and providing details about her grandmother that no stranger could know, Natalie must face a surprising truth: her grandmother, Katarina Melnikova, is still very much alive.
Polis Books | 9781947993945
THE GOOD LIE by Tom Rosenstiel (Political Thriller)
When a shadowy American diplomatic complex is attacked in North Africa, the White House is besieged by accusations of incompetence and wild conspiracy theories. Eager to learn the truth, the president and his staff turn to Peter Rena and his partner, Randi Brooks. The investigators dive headfirst into the furtive world of foreign intelligence and national security, hoping to do it quietly. That becomes impossible, though, when it blows up into an all-out public scandal: Congress opens hearings, and a tireless national security reporter publishes a bombshell exposé. Now, Rena and Brooks are caught in the middle.
Ecco | 9780062475428
THE LAST by Hanna Jameson (Dystopian Psychological Thriller)
Jon thought he had all the time in the world to respond to his wife’s text message: I miss you so much. I feel bad about how we left it. Love you. But as he’s waiting in the lobby of his hotel in Switzerland, he receives a string of horrifying push notifications. Washington, DC has been hit with a nuclear bomb, followed by New York, then London and finally Berlin. Two months later, there are 20 survivors holed up at the hotel, a place already tainted by its strange history of suicides and murders. Jon and the rest try to maintain some semblance of civilization. But when he goes up to the roof to investigate the hotel’s worsening water quality, he is shocked to discover the body of a young girl floating in one of the tanks. As supplies dwindle and tensions rise, Jon becomes obsessed with discovering the truth behind the girl’s death.
Atria Books | 9781501198830
LATE IN THE DAY by Tessa Hadley (Fiction)
Alexandr, Christine, Zachary and Lydia have been friends since they first met in their 20s. Thirty years later, Alex and Christine are spending a leisurely summer’s evening at home when they receive a call from a distraught Lydia: she is at the hospital. Zach is dead. In the wake of this profound loss, the three friends find themselves unmoored; all agree that Zach, with his generous, grounded spirit, was the irreplaceable one they couldn’t afford to lose. Inconsolable, Lydia moves in with Alex and Christine. But instead of loss bringing them closer, the three of them find over the following months that it warps their relationships, as old entanglements and grievances rise from the past, and love and sorrow give way to anger and bitterness.
Harper Perennial | 9780062476708
LITTLE CONSTRUCTIONS by Anna Burns (Fiction)
Paperback Original
In the small town of Tiptoe Floorboard, the Doe clan, a close-knit family of criminals and victims, has the run of the place. Yet there are signs that patriarch John Doe’s reign may be coming to an end. When Jetty Doe breaks into a gun store and makes off with a Kalashnikov, the stage is set for a violent confrontation. But while Jetty is making her way across town in a taxi, an elusive, chatty narrator takes us on a wild journey, zooming in and out on various members of the Doe clan with long, digressive riffs that chase down the causes and repercussions of Jetty’s act.
Graywolf Press | 9781644450130
LOOK HOW HAPPY I’M MAKING YOU: Stories by Polly Rosenwaike (Fiction/Short Stories)
The women in Polly Rosenwaike’s LOOK HOW HAPPY I'M MAKING YOU want to be mothers, or aren’t sure they want to be mothers, or --- having recently given birth --- are overwhelmed by what they’ve wrought. One woman struggling with infertility deals with the news that her sister is pregnant. Another, nervous about her biological clock, “forgets” to take her birth control while dating a younger man and must confront the possibility of becoming a single parent. Four motherless women who meet in a bar every Mother’s Day contend with their losses and what it would mean for one of them to have a child.
Anchor | 9780525563730
THE LUCKY ONE by Lori Rader-Day (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
As a child, Alice was stolen from her backyard in a tiny Indiana community, but against the odds, her policeman father tracked her down within 24 hours and rescued her from harm. In the aftermath of the crime, her family decided to move to Chicago and close the door on that horrible day. Yet Alice hasn’t forgotten. She devotes her spare time volunteering for a website called The Doe Pages, scrolling through pages upon pages of unidentified people, searching for clues that could help reunite families with their missing loved ones. When a face appears on Alice’s screen that she recognizes, she’s stunned to realize it’s the same man who kidnapped her decades ago. The post is deleted as quickly as it appeared, leaving Alice with more questions than answers.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062938077
NORMAL PEOPLE by Sally Rooney (Fiction)
Connell and Marianne grew up in the same small town, but the similarities end there. At school, Connell is popular and well-liked, while Marianne is a loner. But when the two strike up a conversation --- awkward but electrifying --- something life-changing begins. A year later, they’re both studying at Trinity College in Dublin. Marianne has found her feet in a new social world, while Connell hangs at the sidelines, shy and uncertain. Throughout their years at university, Marianne and Connell circle one another, straying toward other people and possibilities but always magnetically, irresistibly drawn back together. And as she veers into self-destruction and he begins to search for meaning elsewhere, each must confront how far they are willing to go to save the other.
Hogarth | 9781984822185
THE OPPOSITE OF FATE by Alison McGhee (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Twenty-one-year-old Mallie Williams has just landed on her feet following a tumultuous youth when the unthinkable happens: she is violently assaulted. The crime leaves her comatose, surrounded by friends and family who are hoping against hopes for a full recovery. But soon Mallie's small community finds themselves divided. The rape has left Mallie pregnant, and while some friends are convinced that she would never keep the pregnancy, others are sure that a baby would be the only good thing to come out of all of this pain. Mallie, her family and her town find themselves at the center of a media storm, confronting questions nobody should have to face. And when Mallie emerges from the fog, what will she think of the choices that were made on her behalf?
Mariner Books | 9780358172475
THE PERFECT GIRLFRIEND by Karen Hamilton (Psychological Thriller)
Juliette loves Nate. She will follow him anywhere. She’s even become a flight attendant for his airline so she can keep a closer eye on him. They are meant to be. The fact that Nate broke up with her six months ago means nothing. Because Juliette has a plan to win him back. She is the perfect girlfriend. And she’ll make sure no one stops her from getting exactly what she wants. True love hurts, but Juliette knows it’s worth all the pain.
Graydon House | 9781525812040
THE PRIORY OF THE ORANGE TREE by Samantha Shannon (Fantasy)
The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction --- but assassins are getting closer to her door. Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic. Across the dark sea, Tané has trained all her life to be a dragonrider, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel. Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781635570304
THE ROCK BLASTER written by Henning Mankell, translated by George Goulding (Fiction)
Paperback Original
The year is 1911. The young rock blaster Oskar Johansson has been killed in an accident. Or so it says in the local newspaper. In spite of serious injuries, however, Oskar survives. Decades later, Oskar looks back and reflects on his working life as an invalid, his marriage, his dreams and his hopes. Oskar's life is woven together out of fragments of voices, images and episodes that, taken together, provide a sharp and precise picture of life in Sweden for the working class.
Vintage | 9780525566168
THE STUDY OF ANIMAL LANGUAGES by Lindsay Stern (Fiction)
Ivan is a tightly wound philosophy professor. His wife, Prue, is quite the opposite: a pioneer in the emerging field of biolinguistics, she is bold and vibrant, full of life and feeling. Thus far, they have managed to weather their differences. But lately, an odd distance has settled in between them. Might it have something to do with the arrival of the college's dashing but insufferable new writer-in-residence, whose novel Prue always seems to be reading? Into this delicate moment barrels Ivan's unstable father-in-law, Frank, in town to hear Prue deliver a lecture on birdsong that is set to cement her tenure application. But the talk doesn't go as planned, unleashing a series of crises that force Ivan to finally confront the problems in his marriage.
Penguin Books | 9780525557456
TIDELANDS by Philippa Gregory (Historical Fiction)
On Midsummer’s Eve, Alinor waits in the church graveyard, hoping to encounter the ghost of her missing husband and thus confirm his death. Instead she meets James, a young man on the run. She shows him the secret ways across the treacherous marshy landscape of the Tidelands, not knowing she is leading a spy and an enemy into her life. England is in the grip of a bloody civil war that reaches into the most remote parts of the kingdom. Alinor’s suspicious neighbors are watching each other for any sign that someone might be disloyal to the new parliament, and Alinor’s ambition and determination mark her as a woman who doesn’t follow the rules. They have always whispered about the sinister power of Alinor’s beauty, but the secrets they don’t know about her and James are far more damning.
Washington Square Press | 9781501187162
TRIGGER by David Swinson (Mystery)
Ostracized by his family after a botched case that led to the death of his baby cousin, Jeffrey, Frank was on a collision course with catastrophe. Now clean and clinging hard to sobriety, he's barely eking out a living as a private investigator for a defense attorney --- who also happens to be his ex-girlfriend. Frank passes the time --- and tests himself --- by robbing the houses of local dealers, taking their cash and flushing their drugs down the toilet. But when an old friend from his police days needs Frank's help to prove he didn't shoot an unarmed civilian, Frank is drawn back into the world of dirty cops and suspicious drug busts, running in the same circles that enabled his addiction those years ago.
Mulholland Books | 9780316264266
WHEN YOU READ THIS by Mary Adkins (Fiction)
For four years, Iris Massey worked side by side with PR maven Smith Simonyi, helping clients perfect their brands. But Iris has died, taken by terminal illness at only 33. Adrift without his friend and colleague, Smith is surprised to discover that in her last six months, Iris created a blog filled with sharp and often funny musings on the end of a life not quite fulfilled. She also made one final request: for Smith to get her posts published as a book. With the help of his charmingly eager, if overbearingly forthright, new intern Carl, Smith tackles the task of fulfilling Iris’ last wish. Before he can do so, though, he must get the approval of Iris’ big sister Jade, a haute cuisine chef who’s been knocked sideways by her loss.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062834683
On Sale the Week of February 24th in Hardcover
February 24th
BLINDSIDE: A Detective Michael Bennett Thriller by James Patterson and James O. Born (Thriller)
The mayor of New York has a daughter who's missing and in danger. Detective Michael Bennett has a son who's in prison. The two strike a deal. Bennett and the mayor have always had a tense relationship, but now the mayor sees in Bennett a discreet investigator with family worries of his own. Just one father helping another. The detective leaps into the case, and sources lead him to a homicide in the Bronx. The victim has ties to a sophisticated hacking operation --- and also to the mayor's missing daughter, Natalie, a 21-year-old computer prodigy. The murder is part of a serial killing spree, one with national security implications. And suddenly Bennett is at the center of a dangerous triangle anchored by the NYPD, the FBI and a transnational criminal organization.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316420334
February 25th
APARTMENT by Teddy Wayne (Fiction)
In 1996, the unnamed narrator of APARTMENT is attending the MFA writing program at Columbia on his father's dime and living in an illegal sublet of a rent-stabilized apartment. Feeling guilty about his good fortune, he offers his spare bedroom --- rent-free --- to Billy, a talented, charismatic classmate from the Midwest eking out a hand-to-mouth existence in Manhattan. The narrator's rapport with Billy develops into the friendship he's never had due to a lifetime of holding people at arm's length, hovering at the periphery, feeling “fundamentally defective.” But their living arrangement, not to mention their radically different upbringings, breeds tensions neither man could predict.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781635574005
APEIROGON by Colum McCann (Fiction)
Bassam Aramin is Palestinian. Rami Elhanan is Israeli. They inhabit a world of conflict that colors every aspect of their lives --- from the roads they are allowed to drive on, to the schools their children attend, to the checkpoints, both physical and emotional, they must negotiate. But their lives, however circumscribed, are upended one after the other: first, Rami’s 13-year-old daughter, Smadar, becomes the victim of suicide bombers; a decade later, Bassam’s 10-year-old daughter, Abir, is killed by a rubber bullet. Rami and Bassam had been raised to hate one another. And yet, when they learn of each other’s stories, they recognize the loss that connects them. Together they attempt to use their grief as a weapon for peace --- and, with their one small act, start to permeate what has for generations seemed an impermeable conflict.
Random House | 9781400069606
THE BIG LIE: A Jack Swyteck Novel by James Grippando (Legal Thriller)
For the sixth time in American history, the winner of the popular vote will not occupy the Oval Office. President Malcolm MacLeod appears to have secured a second term, thanks to a narrow victory in the Electoral College. His opponent, Florida Senator Evan Stahl, saw his campaign rocked by allegations of an extramarital affair --- with another man. But Stahl is refusing to concede. Gun lobbyist Charlotte Holmes is one of Florida’s 29 electors who is bound by law and by oath to cast her vote for MacLeod. When she announces that she intends to vote her conscience and throw the Electoral College to Stahl, the president and his Florida machine haul her into court on felony charges. Miami attorney Jack Swyteck is going to use every legal maneuver he can to keep his new client free --- and alive.
Harper | 9780062915047
COCONUT LAYER CAKE MURDER: A Hannah Swensen Mystery with Recipes! by Joanne Fluke (Mystery)
When Hannah Swensen learns that her sister Michelle’s boyfriend, Detective Lonnie Murphy, is the prime suspect in a murder case, she goes straight from a movie studio sound stage to the Los Angeles airport. Back in frigid Minnesota, she discovers that proving Lonnie’s innocence will be harder than figuring out what went wrong with a recipe. Lonnie remembers only parts of the night he went out to a local bar and ended up driving a very impaired woman home. He knows he helped her to her bedroom, but he doesn’t recall anything else until he woke up on her couch the following morning. When he went to the bedroom to check on her, he was shocked to discover she was dead. Hannah doesn’t know what to believe --- only that exonerating a suspect who can’t remember is almost impossible.
Kensington | 9781496718891
THE DARKEST KING: William's Story — Lords of the Underworld by Gena Showalter (Paranormal Romance)
Cursed by a vengeful witch, William of the Dark will die if he ever falls in love --- murdered by the woman who steals his heart. His lone shot at redemption is a book filled with indecipherable code. Break the code, break the curse. Now, centuries later, he’s condemned to a string of one-night stands…until he finds the only woman in the worlds able to set him free. One of the last living unicorn shifters, Sunday “Sunny” Lane works from the shadows as a cryptanalyst, on the run from assassins and poachers. Then the darkly seductive William abducts her, holding her captive in Hell. The closer they get, the more she hungers for his touch…and the stronger a mystical desire to kill him becomes.
HQN | 9781335541901
FACEBOOK: The Inside Story by Steven Levy (Biography)
In his sophomore year of college, Mark Zuckerberg created a simple website to serve as a campus social network. The site caught on like wildfire, and soon students nationwide were on Facebook. Today, Facebook is nearly unrecognizable from Zuckerberg’s first, modest iteration. It has grown into a tech giant, the largest social media platform and one of the most gargantuan companies in the world, with a valuation of more than $576 billion and almost three billion users. Based on hundreds of interviews inside and outside the company, Steven Levy’s sweeping narrative digs deep into the whole story of the company that has changed the world and reaped the consequences.
Blue Rider Press | 9780735213159
FOLLOW ME by Kathleen Barber (Psychological Thriller)
Audrey Miller has an enviable new job at the Smithsonian, a body by reformer Pilates, an apartment door with a broken lock, and hundreds of thousands of Instagram followers to bear witness to it all. Having just moved to Washington, DC, Audrey busies herself impressing her new boss, interacting with her online fan base, and staving off a creepy upstairs neighbor. But Audrey’s faulty door may be the least of her security concerns. Unbeknownst to her, her move has brought her within striking distance of someone who’s obsessively followed her social media presence for years. No longer content to simply follow her carefully curated life from a distance, he consults the dark web for advice on how to make Audrey his and his alone.
Gallery Books | 9781982101985
THE GIRL IN WHITE GLOVES: A Novel of Grace Kelly by Kerri Maher (Historical Fiction)
Grace knows what people see. She’s the Cinderella story. An icon of glamour and elegance frozen in dazzling Technicolor. The picture of perfection. The girl in white gloves. But behind the lens, beyond the panoramic views of glistening Mediterranean azure, she knows the truth. The sacrifices it takes for an unappreciated girl from Philadelphia to defy her family and become the reigning queen of the screen. The heartbreaking reasons she trades Hollywood for a crown. The loneliness of being a princess in a fairy tale kingdom that is all too real. Hardest of all for her adoring fans and loyal subjects to comprehend is the harsh reality that to be the most envied woman in the world does not mean she is the happiest.
Berkley | 9780451492074
THE LOST DIARY OF M by Paul Wolfe (Historical Fiction)
She was a longtime lover of JFK. She was the ex-wife of a CIA chief. She was the sister-in-law of the Washington Post’s Ben Bradlee. She believed in mind expansion and took LSD with Timothy Leary. She was a painter, a socialite and a Bohemian in Georgetown during the Cold War. And she ended up dead in an unsolved murder a year after JFK’s assassination. The diary she kept was never found. Until now. THE LOST DIARY OF M reimagines the extraordinary life and mysterious death of Mary Pinchot Meyer.
Harper | 9780062910660
OONA OUT OF ORDER by Margarita Montimore (Fiction)
It’s New Year’s Eve 1982, and Oona Lockhart has her whole life before her. At the stroke of midnight she will turn 19, and the year ahead promises to be one of consequence. Should she go to London to study economics, or remain at home in Brooklyn to pursue her passion for music and be with her boyfriend? As the countdown to the New Year begins, Oona faints and awakens 32 years in the future in her 51-year-old body. Greeted by a friendly stranger in a beautiful house she’s told is her own, Oona learns that with each passing year she will leap to another age at random. Hopping through decades, pop culture fads and much-needed stock tips, Oona is still a young woman on the inside but ever changing on the outside.
Flatiron Books | 9781250236609
PRETTY AS A PICTURE by Elizabeth Little (Thriller)
Marissa Dahl, a successful film editor, travels to a small island off the coast of Delaware to work with director Tony Rees on a feature film. But she soon discovers that on this set, nothing is as it's supposed to be --- or as it seems. There are rumors of accidents and indiscretions, of burgeoning scandals and perilous schemes. Half the crew has been fired. The other half wants to quit. Even the actors have figured out something is wrong. And no one seems to know what happened to the editor she was hired to replace. Then Marissa meets the teenage girls who are determined to solve the real-life murder that is the movie's central subject, and before long, she is drawn into the investigation herself. The only problem is, the killer may still be on the loose. And he might not be finished.
Viking | 9780670016396
ROBERT LUDLUM'S THE TREADSTONE RESURRECTION by Joshua Hood (Thriller/Adventure)
Operation Treadstone has nearly ruined Adam Hayes. The top-secret CIA Black Ops program trained him to be an all but invincible assassin, but it also cost him his family and any chance at a normal life. Working as a carpenter in rural Washington state, Adam thinks he has left Treadstone in the past, until he receives a mysterious email from a former colleague, and soon after is attacked by an unknown hit team at his job site. Adam must regain the skills that Treadstone taught him --- lightning reflexes and a cold conscience --- in order to discover who the would-be killers are and why they have come after him now. His search will unearth secrets in the highest levels of government and pull him back into the shadowy world he worked so hard to forget.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780525542551
SABINA: In the Eye of the Storm by Bella Kuligowska Zucker (Memoir)
In September 1939, Bella was a carefree teenager living in Poland when the German army struck. She was rounded up with her friends and family and sent to a series of grim Jewish ghettos. After loved ones were separated and lost through the war years, Bella survived by changing her identity. Narrowly escaping death each time, she moved from place to place, odd job to odd job, new name to new name. After finding the birth certificate of a Catholic girl five years her senior, she became Sabina Mazurek. Then she went into the eye of the storm, Germany, where she believed she might be safest. SABINA is her story.
Grace Rapkin Associates LLC | 9781087806006
SCRATCHED: A Memoir of Perfectionism by Elizabeth Tallent (Memoir)
SCRATCHED is an intimate account of the uses a child, and the adult she becomes, will find for perfectionism and the role it will play in every part of her life. Elizabeth Tallent’s story begins in a hospital in mid-1950s suburban Washington, D.C., when her mother refuses to hold her newborn daughter, shocking behavior that baffles the nurses. Imagining her own mother’s perfectionist ideal at this critical moment, Elizabeth moves back and forth in time, juxtaposing moments in the past with the present. Elizabeth traces her journey from her early years in which she perceived herself as “the child whose flaws let disaster into an otherwise perfect family,” to her adulthood, when perfectionism came to affect everything.
Harper | 9780062410375
THE SPLENDID AND THE VILE: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson (History)
On Winston Churchill’s first day as prime minister, Adolf Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next 12 months, Hitler would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons. It was up to Churchill to hold his country together and persuade President Franklin Roosevelt that Britain was a worthy ally --- and willing to fight to the end. In THE SPLENDID AND THE VILE, Erik Larson shows, in cinematic detail, how Churchill taught the British people “the art of being fearless."
Crown | 9780385348713
STRUNG OUT: One Last Hit and Other Lies That Nearly Killed Me by Erin Khar (Memoir)
Growing up in LA, Erin Khar hid behind a picture-perfect childhood filled with excellent grades, a popular group of friends and horseback riding. After first experimenting with her grandmother’s expired painkillers, Khar started using heroin when she was 13. The drug allowed her to escape from pressures to be perfect and suppress all the heavy feelings she couldn’t understand. STRUNG OUT explores how heroin shaped every aspect of her life for the next 15 years and details the various lies she told herself, and others, about her drug use. With enormous heart and wisdom, she shows how the shame and stigma surrounding addiction, which fuels denial and deceit, is so often what keeps addicts from getting help.
Park Row | 9780778309734
TROUBLE IS WHAT I DO by Walter Mosley (Mystery)
Leonid McGill has spent a lifetime building up his reputation in the New York investigative scene. His seemingly infallible instinct and inside knowledge of the crime world make him the ideal man to help when Phillip Worry comes knocking. Phillip "Catfish" Worry is a 92-year-old Mississippi bluesman who needs Leonid's help with a simple task: deliver a letter revealing the black lineage of a wealthy heiress and her corrupt father. But when a famed and feared assassin puts a hit on Catfish, Leonid has no choice but to confront the ghost of his own felonious past. Working to protect his client and his own family, Leonid must reach the heiress on the eve of her wedding before her powerful father kills those who hold their family's secret.
Mulholland Books | 9780316491136
UNKNOWN VALOR: A Story of Family, Courage, and Sacrifice from Pearl Harbor to Iwo Jima by Martha MacCallum with Ronald J. Drez (History)
Admiral Chester Nimitz spoke of the “uncommon valor” of the men who fought on Iwo Jima, one of the bloodiest and most brutal battles of World War II. In 36 grueling days, nearly 7,000 Marines were killed and 22,000 were wounded. Martha MacCallum takes us from Pearl Harbor to Iwo Jima through the lives of these men of valor, among them Harry Gray, a member of her own family. In UNKNOWN VALOR, she weaves their stories --- from Boston, Massachusetts, to Gulfport, Mississippi, as told through letters and recollections --- into the larger history of what American military leaders rightly saw as an eventual showdown in the Pacific with Japan.
Harper | 9780062853851
THE WARSAW PROTOCOL by Steve Berry (Thriller)
One by one, the seven precious relics of the Arma Christi, the weapons of Christ, are disappearing from sanctuaries across the world. After Cotton Malone witnesses the theft of one of them, he learns from his old boss, Stephanie Nelle, that a private auction is about to be held where incriminating information on the president of Poland will be offered to the highest bidder. The price of admission to that auction is one of the relics, so Malone is first sent to a castle in Poland to steal the Holy Lance, a thousand-year-old spear sacred not only to Christians but to the Polish people, and then on to the auction itself. But nothing goes as planned, and Malone is thrust into a bloody battle among three nations over information that, if exposed, could change the balance of power in Europe.
Minotaur Books | 9781250140302
WATCHING FROM THE DARK by Gytha Lodge (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Aidan Poole logs on to his laptop late at night to Skype his girlfriend, Zoe. To his horror, he realizes that there is someone else in her flat. Aidan can only listen to the sounds of a violent struggle taking place in the bathroom --- and then the sound of silence. When Aidan’s cryptic messages finally reach the police, Detective Chief Inspector Jonah Sheens and his team take the case --- and discover the body. They soon find that no one has a bad word to say about Zoe, a bighearted young artist at the center of a curious web of waifs and strays, each relying on her for support, each hiding dark secrets and buried resentments. Has one of her so-called “friends” been driven to murder? Or does Aidan have the biggest secret of them all?
Random House | 9781984818072
On Sale the Week of February 24th in Paperback
February 25th
BEFORE SHE KNEW HIM by Peter Swanson (Psychological Thriller)
Hen and her husband, Lloyd, have settled into a quiet life in a new house outside of Boston, Massachusetts. Hen has found the right meds to control her bipolar disorder, and finally has some stability and peace. But when they meet the neighbors next door, that calm begins to erode as she spots a familiar object displayed on the husband’s office shelf. The sports trophy looks exactly like one that went missing from the home of a young man who was killed two years ago. Could her neighbor, Matthew, be a killer? Or is this the beginning of another psychotic episode like the one she suffered back in college? When she comes face to face with Matthew in a dark parking lot one night, she realizes that this is the beginning of a horrifying nightmare she may not live to escape.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062838162
THE BIG KAHUNA: A Fox and O'Hare Novel by Janet Evanovich and Peter Evanovich (Mystery)
FBI Agent Kate O'Hare has been assigned to find a Silicon Valley billionaire, known as the Big Kahuna, who has mysteriously disappeared. But no one seems particularly keen on helping. His 26-year-old adult actress wife-turned Instagram model wife and his shady Czech business partner are more interested in gaining control of his company. The only lead Kate and her partner, Nicholas Fox, have is the Kahuna's drop-out son, who's living the dream in Hawaii. To get close to him, Kate and Nick go undercover as a married couple in the big wave, bohemian, surfer community of Paia, Maui. If they don't catch a break soon, waves aren't the only thing Kate is going to be shredding (or bedding).
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780525535645
DANNEMORA: Two Escaped Killers, Three Weeks of Terror, and the Largest Manhunt Ever in New York State by Charles A. Gardner (True Crime)
In June 2015, two convicted murderers broke out of the Clinton Correctional Facility in Dannemora, in New York’s North Country --- launching the most extensive manhunt in state history and dominating the news cycle. Double murderer Richard Matt and cop-killer David Sweat slipped out of their cells, followed a network of tunnels and pipes under the 30-foot prison wall, and climbed out of a manhole to freedom. For three weeks, residents of local communities were prisoners in their own homes as law enforcement swept the wilderness near the Canadian border. DANNEMORA is a gripping account of the bold breakout and the search that ended with one man dead, one man back in custody --- and lingering questions about those who set the deadly drama in motion.
Citadel | 9780806539256
IRISH ABOVE ALL by Mary Pat Kelly (Historical Fiction)
After 10 years in Paris, where she learned photography and became part of the movement that invented modern art, Chicago-born, Irish-American Nora Kelly is at last returning home. Her skill as a photographer will help her cousin Ed Kelly in his rise to Mayor of Chicago. But when she captures the moment that an assassin’s bullet narrowly misses President-elect Franklin Roosevelt and strikes Anton Cermak, she enters a world of international intrigue and danger. Now, Nora must balance family obligations against her encounters with larger-than-life historical characters. She moves through the Roaring Twenties, the Great Depression and World War II, but it’s her unexpected trip to Ireland that transforms her life.
Forge Books | 9780765380890
THE NEW GIRL by Daniel Silva (Thriller/Adventure)
Gabriel Allon, the legendary chief of Israeli intelligence, has spent most of his life fighting terrorists, including the murderous jihadists financed by Saudi Arabia. Prince Khalid --- or KBM, as he is known --- has pledged to finally break the bond between the Kingdom and radical Islam. For that reason alone, Gabriel regards him as a valuable if flawed partner. Together they will become unlikely allies in a deadly secret war for control of the Middle East. The life of a child, and the throne of Saudi Arabia, hang in the balance. Both men have made their share of enemies. And both have everything to lose.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062834959
THE NIGHT WINDOW: A Jane Hawk Novel by Dean Koontz (Thriller)
A visionary young filmmaker hunted for sport across a vast Colorado ranch by the celebrated billionaire at the heart of a monstrous cabal. A brilliant computer hacker slipping through top-secret databases a whisper ahead of security trackers, gathering the facts to fight the all-powerful perpetrators of mass murder. A Vegas mob boss teamed with a homicidal sociopath, circling a beloved boy and his protectors, aiming to secure him as leverage against his fugitive mother. And that fugitive mother herself, ex-agent Jane Hawk, closing in on the malevolent architects of ruin she has stalked as they stalk her. These are some of the people and circumstances of THE NIGHT WINDOW, the stunning conclusion to Dean Koontz’s acclaimed Jane Hawk series.
Bantam | 9780525484899
NO BEAST SO FIERCE: The Terrifying True Story of the Champawat Tiger, the Deadliest Animal in History by Dane Huckelbridge (Nature/History)
One part pulse-pounding thriller, one part soulful natural history of the endangered Royal Bengal tiger, NO BEAST SO FIERCE is the gripping, true account of the Champawat Tiger, which terrified northern India and Nepal from 1900 to 1907, and Jim Corbett, the legendary hunter who pursued it. Dane Huckelbridge’s masterful telling also reveals that the tiger, Corbett and the forces that brought them together are far more complex and fascinating than a simple man-versus-beast tale. Drawing upon on-the-ground research in the Indian Himalayan region where he retraced Corbett’s footsteps, Huckelbridge brings to life one of the great adventure stories of the 20th century.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062678867
THE POSSESSION by Michael Rutger (Thriller)
Still recovering from the shocking revelations they uncovered deep in uncharted territory in the Grand Canyon, American myth and legend investigator Nolan Moore and his team take on a new mission, investigating a rumored case of witchcraft and possession. Nolan hopes their new case, in a quaint village in the middle of the woods, will prove much more like those he and his team investigated prior to their trip to Kincaid's cavern. But as the residents’ accounts of strange phenomena add up, Nolan and company begin to suspect something all too real and dangerous may be at play. A force that may not be willing to let them escape the village unscathed.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538761885
PRAY FOR THE GIRL by Joseph Souza (Psychological Thriller)
Lucy Abbott never pictured herself coming back to Fawn Grove, Maine. Yet after serving time in Afghanistan, then years spent as a sous chef in New York, she’s realized her only hope of moving on from the past involves facing it again. But when a 15-year-old Muslim girl is found murdered along the banks of the river, difficult memories of Lucy’s time overseas come flooding back and she feels an automatic connection. At first glance, the tragedy looks like an honor killing. But the more Lucy learns about her old hometown, the less certain that seems. When another teen is found dead in a cornfield, his throat slit, Lucy must confront a truth more brutal than she could have imagined, in the last place she expected it.
Kensington | 9781496725530
SAY NOTHING: A True Story of Murder and Memory in Northern Ireland by Patrick Radden Keefe (True Crime/History)
In December 1972, Jean McConville, a 38-year-old mother of 10, was dragged from her Belfast home by masked intruders. Everyone in the neighborhood knew the I.R.A. was responsible, but no one would speak of it. In 2003, five years after an accord brought an uneasy peace to Northern Ireland, a set of human bones was discovered on a beach. McConville's children knew it was their mother when they were told a blue safety pin was attached to the dress. Patrick Radden Keefe's book on the bitter conflict in Northern Ireland and its aftermath uses the McConville case as a starting point for the tale of a society wracked by a violent guerrilla war, the consequences of which have never been reckoned with.
Anchor | 9780307279286
THE STRANGER INSIDE by Laura Benedict (Psychological Thriller)
There's a stranger living in Kimber Hannon's house. He tells the police that he has every right to be there, and he has the paperwork to prove it. But Kimber definitely didn't invite this man to move in. He tells her that he knows something about her, and he wants everyone else to know it too. "I was there. I saw what you did." These words reveal a connection to Kimber's distant past, and dark secrets she'd long ago left buried. This trespasser isn't after anything as simple as her money or her charming Craftsman bungalow. He wants to move into her carefully orchestrated life --- and destroy it.
Mulholland Books | 9780316444934
THE SUSPECT by Fiona Barton (Psychological Thriller)
When two 18-year-old girls go missing in Thailand, their families are thrust into the international spotlight: desperate, bereft and frantic with worry. What were the girls up to before they disappeared? Journalist Kate Waters always does everything she can to be first to the story, first with the exclusive, first to discover the truth --- and this time is no exception. But she can’t help but think of her own son, whom she hasn’t seen in two years, since he left home to go travelling. As the case of the missing girls unfolds, they all will find that even this far away, danger can lie closer to home than you might think.
Berkley | 9781101990520
THIS WON’T END WELL by Camille Pagán (Fiction)
Paperback Original
It’s bad enough that Annie Mercer’s boss sabotaged her chemistry career, and her best friend tried to cure her with crystals. But after her fiancé, Jon, asks for space while he’s gallivanting around Paris, Annie decides she needs space too --- from everyone. Yet when Harper moves in next door, she can’t help but train a watchful eye on the glamorous but fragile young woman. And if keeping Harper safe requires teaming up with Mo, a maddeningly optimistic amateur detective, who is she to mind her own business? Soon Annie has let not one but two new people into her life. Then Jon reappears --- and he wants her to join him in France. So she must decide: Is another shot at happiness worth the risk?
Lake Union Publishing | 9781542014823
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.
Pocket Books | 9781501180859
WINDOW ON THE BAY by Debbie Macomber (Fiction)
After a messy divorce from her surgeon husband nearly 20 years ago, Jenna Boltz raised her two children on her own, juggling motherhood with her beloved job as a Seattle intensive-care nurse. Now that Paul and Allie have gone to college and moved out, Jenna can’t help but wonder what her future holds. Her best friend, Maureen, is excited for Jenna’s newfound independence. Now is the perfect time to finally book the trip to Paris they’ve been dreaming of since their college days. But when it comes to life’s other great adventure --- dating --- Jenna still isn’t sure she’s ready to let love in…until an unexpected encounter begins to change her mind.
Ballantine Books | 9780399181351
THE WOMAN IN THE DARK by Vanessa Savage (Psychological Thriller)
After her mother's death, Sarah spirals into depression and overdoses on sleeping pills. She insists it was an accident, but neither her husband, Patrick, nor their teenage children believe her. Determined to give their family a fresh start, Patrick convinces her to move back to the idyllic beachside home where he grew up. But the once-beautiful old house is now known as the Murder House. It has been standing empty for 15 years, ever since another family was brutally slaughtered within its walls. As locals hint that the house is haunted, the children begin having nightmares, strange writing appears on the walls, and creepy "gifts" suddenly arrive on the doorstep at odd hours. With the news that the murderer has been paroled, Sarah can't shake the feeling that something just isn't right.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538714300
WUNDERLAND by Jennifer Cody Epstein (Historical Fiction)
Things had never been easy between Ava Fisher and her estranged mother, Ilse. Too many questions hovered between them: Who was Ava's father? Where had Ilse been during the war? Why had she left her only child in a German orphanage during the war’s final months? But now Ilse’s ashes have arrived from Germany, and, with them, a trove of unsent letters addressed to someone else unknown to Ava: Renate Bauer, a childhood friend. As her mother’s letters unfurl a dark past, Ava spirals deep into the shocking history of a woman she never truly knew.
Ballantine Books | 9780525576914
February 26th
HILLBILLY MAIDENS, OKIES, AND COWGIRLS: Women’s Country Music, 1930-1960 by Stephanie Vander Wel (Music/History)
Paperback Original
From the 1930s to the 1960s, the booming popularity of country music threw a spotlight on a new generation of innovative female artists. These individuals blazed trails as singers, musicians and performers even as the industry hemmed in their potential popularity with labels like woman hillbilly, singing cowgirl and honky-tonk angel. Stephanie Vander Wel looks at the careers of artists like Patsy Montana, Rose Maddox and Kitty Wells against the backdrop of country music's golden age. Analyzing recordings and appearances on radio, film and television, she connects performances to real and imagined places and examines how the music sparked new ways for women listeners to imagine the open range, the honky-tonk and the home.
University of Illinois Press | 9780252084959
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