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Latest Update on Our GoFundMe Campaign
Thank you to those of you who have donated to our GoFundMe campaign. So far, with online and snail mail donations, we have raised $34,265 of our $50,000 goal.
You can read about our plans and donate here. If you would prefer donating via check, please send to:
The Book Report, Inc.
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Thank you again for your consideration and your donation.
Carol Fitzgerald (Carol@bookreporter.com)
In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of July 20th and July 27th 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 a very special contest on ReadingGroupGuides.com for THREE WOMEN, a riveting true story about the sex lives of three real American women, which is based on nearly a decade of reporting. We are giving five groups the chance to win 12 copies of this instant New York Times bestseller --- which is now available in paperback --- plus the opportunity to chat with its author, Lisa Taddeo. Twenty-five additional readers will be awarded a copy of the book. Enter here by Wednesday, August 19th at noon ET.
Our latest "Bookreporter Talks To" interview is with Rachel Beanland, whose much-talked-about debut novel, FLORENCE ADLER SWIMS FOREVER, is this month’s Barnes & Noble Book Club pick and will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On selection. The book takes place during the summer of 1934 in Atlantic City and is inspired by a secret that was kept by Rachel’s own family. In the interview, Rachel shared more about her personal story, why she chose to write the book from the point of view of seven characters, and the challenge of bringing Florence Adler to life in just a few pages. Click here to watch the video and here to listen to the podcast.
If you are in a book group, we want to know how your group has been meeting since we all began social distancing back in March. So we put together this survey; it will be up for the next three weeks, but please jump on and answer as soon as you can. We are ruminating on a new idea for book groups, but we can use some intel from you about what your group has been doing these last few months before we finalize the next steps on this.
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
Upcoming Virtual Book and Author Events
As so many book and author events are happening online these days, we are highlighting a number of them that you may be interested in attending. Click on the links below for more info and to register.
Wednesday, July 22nd at 6pm ET: Union League Club Virtual Event: The Union League Club of Chicago presents a virtual event with Brad Thor, who will discuss the latest installment in his Scot Harvath series, NEAR DARK.
Wednesday, July 22nd at 7pm ET: "Friends and Fiction": Every Wednesday, Mary Kay Andrews, Kristin Harmel, Kristy Woodson Harvey, Patti Callahan Henry and Mary Alice Monroe talk books and writing on their "Friends and Fiction" Facebook group page.
Thursday, July 23rd at 4pm ET: Changing Hands Bookstore Digital Event: New York Times bestselling author Josh Malerman (BIRD BOX) discusses his new horror novel, MALORIE, in conversation with #1 bestselling author Joe Hill (THE FIREMAN, NOS4A2, HORNS).
Friday, July 24th at 5pm ET: Happy Hour with Kristin Harmel: Be a part of a live, interactive conversation with Kristin Harmel to discuss her latest novel, THE BOOK OF LOST NAMES, inspired by an astonishing true story from World War II, capturing the resilience of the human spirit and the power of bravery and love in the face of evil.
Sunday, July 26th at 7pm ET: Book Passage Virtual Event: Louise Erdrich (THE NIGHT WATCHMAN) will be in conversation with Ann Patchett (THE DUTCH HOUSE).
Monday, July 27th at 6:30pm ET: Chris Wallace: Countdown to Catastrophe: Join Temple Emanu-El’s Streicker Center and bestselling author and historian Jay Winik in conversation with New York Times bestselling author Chris Wallace as they discuss his new book, COUNTDOWN 1945.
Monday, July 27th at 8pm ET: Once Upon a Crime Virtual Event: Brian Freeman will be discussing his latest release, ROBERT LUDLUM'S BOURNE EVOLUTION, via Crowdcast.
Tuesday, July 28th at 6pm ET: Hickory Public Library Virtual Event: Join Katherine Center via Zoom as she talks about her new novel, WHAT YOU WISH FOR.
This Week's Bonus News:
Our ReadingGroupGuides.com Contest for
THREE WOMEN by Lisa Taddeo
Based on nearly a decade of reporting, THREE WOMEN is a riveting true story about the sex lives of three real American women. We are giving five groups the chance to win 12 copies of this instant New York Times bestseller --- which is now available in paperback --- plus the opportunity to chat with its author, Lisa Taddeo. Twenty-five additional readers will be awarded a copy of the book. To enter, please fill out this form by Wednesday, August 19th at noon ET.
THREE WOMEN by Lisa Taddeo (Women's Studies/Social Science)
Hailed as “a dazzling achievement” (Los Angeles Times) and “riveting page-turner that explores desire, heartbreak and infatuation in all its messy, complicated nuance” (The Washington Post), Lisa Taddeo’s THREE WOMEN has captivated readers, booksellers and critics --- and topped bestseller lists --- worldwide.
Declared “the best book of the year” by Elizabeth Gilbert and “a breathtaking and important book” by Cheryl Strayed, THREE WOMEN has won praise everywhere from Columbia Journalism Review (“deeply reported, elegantly written, almost uncomfortably intimate”) to Refinery29 (“the hype for THREE WOMEN is real; in fact, it’s insufficient”), from Esquire (“a heartbreaking, gripping, astonishing masterpiece”) to Time (“THREE WOMEN is a battle cry… For anyone who thinks they know what women want, this book is an alarm, and its volume is turned all the way up.”) In the words of The New Statesman, “This is an unusual, startling, and gripping debut. It feels to me like the kind of bold, timely, once-in-a-generation book that every house should have a copy of, and probably will before too long.”
In suburban Indiana we meet Lina, the homemaker and mother of two whose marriage, after a decade, has lost its passion. Starved for affection, Lina battles daily panic attacks and, after reconnecting with an old flame through social media, embarks on an affair that quickly becomes all-consuming. In North Dakota we meet Maggie, the 17-year-old high school student who allegedly has a clandestine physical relationship with her handsome, married English teacher; the ensuing criminal trial will turn their quiet community upside down. Finally, in the northeast we meet Sloane, the successful, refined restaurant owner whose husband enjoys watching her have sex with other men and women.
- Click here for the discussion guide.
- Click here to watch the book trailer.
- Click here to meet the three individuals who brought the book to life.
- Click here to watch Lisa Taddeo and Katie Couric talk about the book.
Click here to enter the contest.
On Sale the Week of July 20th in Hardcover
July 21st
THE ANSWER IS...: Reflections on My Life by Alex Trebek (Autobiography)
Since debuting as the host of "Jeopardy!" in 1984, Alex Trebek has been something like a family member to millions of television viewers, bringing entertainment and education into their homes five nights a week. Last year, he made the stunning announcement that he had been diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer. What followed was an incredible outpouring of love and kindness. For over three decades, Trebek had resisted countless appeals to write a book about his life. Yet he was moved so much by all the goodwill, he felt compelled to finally share his story. THE ANSWER IS... combines illuminating personal anecdotes with Trebek’s thoughts on a range of topics, including marriage, parenthood, education, success, spirituality and philanthropy.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982157999
AUSTEN YEARS: A Memoir in Five Novels by Rachel Cohen (Memoir)
In the turbulent period around the birth of her first child and the death of her father, Rachel Cohen turned to Jane Austen to make sense of her new reality. For Cohen, simultaneously grief-stricken and buoyed by the birth of her daughter, reading Austen became her refuge and her ballast. She was able to reckon with difficult questions about mourning, memorializing, living in a household, paying attention to the world, reading, writing and imagining through Austen’s novels. AUSTEN YEARS is a deeply felt and sensitive examination of a writer’s relationship to reading, and to her own family, winding together memoir, criticism and biographical and historical material about Austen herself.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374107031
THE BOOK OF LOST NAMES by Kristin Harmel (Historical Fiction)
Eva Traube Abrams, a semi-retired librarian in Florida, is shelving books one morning when her eyes lock on a photograph in a magazine lying open nearby. It’s an image of a book she hasn’t seen in 65 years: The Book of Lost Names. The accompanying article discusses the looting of libraries by the Nazis across Europe during World War II --- an experience Eva remembers well --- and the search to reunite people with the texts taken from them so long ago. The book in the photograph, an 18th-century religious text thought to have been taken from France in the waning days of the war, is one of the most fascinating cases. It appears to contain some sort of code, but researchers don’t know where it came from --- or what the code means. Only Eva holds the answer. But will she have the strength to revisit old memories and help reunite those lost during the war?
Gallery Books | 9781982131890
THE DAUGHTERS OF FOXCOTE MANOR by Eve Chase (Mystery)
England, 1970. On the one-year anniversary of the Harrington family's darkest night, their beautiful London home goes up in flames. Mrs. Harrington, the two children and live-in nanny Rita relocate to Foxcote Manor, ostensibly to recuperate. But when 13-year-old Hera discovers a baby girl abandoned just beyond their garden gate, this tiniest, most wondrous of secrets brings a much-needed sunlit peace, until a visitor detonates the family's tenuous happiness. All too soon a body lies dead in the woods. Forty years later, London-based Sylvie has buried her own origin story decades ago, never imagining her teenage daughter would have a shocking reason to dig up the past --- and to ask Sylvie to finally face the secrets that lead her back to Foxcote Manor.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780525542384
DRAGONFIRE: An Alex Hawke Novel by Ted Bell (Thriller/Adventure)
December 8, 1941, Washington, D.C.: The new Chinese ambassador to the United States, Tiger Tang, meets with President Roosevelt one day after the attack on Pearl Harbor. For the next four years, China and the U.S. will be wartime allies. Today, The Bahamas: Alex Hawke is recovering from serious injuries incurred during a battle with a malevolent enemy. His recuperation is interrupted by a desperate call from the Queen. Her favorite grandson has disappeared in the Bahamas. Lord Hawke is the only man she trusts with a mission this sensitive. All she knows is that the young prince was last seen at the exclusive Dragonfire nightclub owned by the nefarious Tang brothers, grandsons of Ambassador Tiger Tang.
Berkley | 9780593101209
HALF MOON BAY by Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman (Mystery/Thriller)
Clay Edison has his hands full. He has a new baby who won't sleep and is working the graveyard shift. Then comes the first call. Workers demolishing a local park have made a haunting discovery: the decades-old skeleton of a child. But whose? And how did it get there? No sooner has Clay begun to investigate than he receives a second call --- this one from a local businessman, wondering if the body could belong to his sister. She went missing fifty years ago, the man says. Or at least I think she did. It’s a little complicated. Clay’s relentless search for answers will unearth a history of violence and secrets, revolution and betrayal. Because in this town, the past isn’t dead. It’s very much alive. And it can be murderous.
Ballantine Books | 9780525620082
HAMNET: A Novel of the Plague by Maggie O'Farrell (Historical Fiction)
A young Latin tutor --- penniless and bullied by a violent father --- falls in love with an extraordinary, eccentric young woman. Agnes is a wild creature who walks her family’s land with a falcon on her glove and is known throughout the countryside for her unusual gifts as a healer, understanding plants and potions better than she does people. Once she settles with her husband on Henley Street in Stratford-upon-Avon, she becomes a fiercely protective mother and a steadfast, centrifugal force in the life of her young husband, whose career on the London stage is taking off when his beloved young son succumbs to sudden fever.
Knopf | 9780525657606
HE STARTED IT by Samantha Downing (Psychological Thriller)
Beth, Portia and Eddie Morgan haven't all been together in years. And for very good reasons --- we'll get to those later. But when their wealthy grandfather dies and leaves a cryptic final message in his wake, the siblings and their respective partners must come together for a cross-country road trip to fulfill his final wish and --- more importantly --- secure their inheritance. But time with your family can be tough. It is for everyone. It's even harder when you're all keeping secrets and trying to forget a memory, a missing person, an act of revenge, the man in the black truck who won't stop following your car --- and especially when at least one of you is a killer and there's a body in the trunk. Just to name a few reasons. But money is a powerful motivator. It is for everyone.
Berkley | 9780451491756
HEAVEN AND EARTH written by Paolo Giordano, translated by Anne Milano Appel (Fiction)
Every summer Teresa follows her father to his childhood home in Puglia, down in the heel of Italy, a land of relentless, shimmering heat, centuries-old olive groves, and taciturn, proud people. There Teresa spends long afternoons enveloped in a sun-struck stupor, reading her grandmother's paperbacks. Everything changes the summer she meets the three boys who live on the farm next door: Nicola, Tommaso and Bern --- the man Teresa will love for the rest of her life. Raised like brothers on a farm that feels to Teresa almost suspended in time, the three boys share a complex, intimate and seemingly unassailable bond. But no bond is unbreakable and no summer truly endless, as Teresa soon discovers.
Pamela Dorman Books | 9781984877314
THE LIVES OF EDIE PRITCHARD by Larry Watson (Fiction)
Smart, self assured and beautiful, Edie always worked hard. She worked as a teller at a bank, she worked to save her first marriage, and later, she worked to raise her daughter even as her second marriage came apart. Edie just wanted a good life, but everywhere she turned, her looks defined her. Two brothers fought over her. Her second husband became unreasonably possessive and jealous. Her daughter resented her. And now, as a grandmother, Edie finds herself harassed by a younger man. It’s been a lifetime of proving that she is allowed to exist in her own sphere. THE LIVES OF EDIE PRITCHARD tells the story of one woman just trying to be herself, even as multiple men attempt to categorize and own her.
Algonquin Books | 9781616209025
MALORIE: A Bird Box Novel by Josh Malerman (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
Twelve years after Malorie and her children rowed up the river to safety, a blindfold is still the only thing that stands between sanity and madness. One glimpse of the creatures that stalk the world will drive a person to unspeakable violence. All Malorie can do is survive --- and impart her fierce will to do so on her children. But then comes what feels like impossible news. And with it, the first time Malorie has allowed herself to hope. Someone very dear to her, someone she believed dead, may be alive. Malorie has a harrowing choice to make: to live by the rules of survival that have served her so well, or to venture into the darkness and reach for hope once more.
Del Rey | 9780593156858
MORE BETTER DEALS by Joe R. Lansdale (Hard-boiled Crime/Historical Fiction)
Ed Edwards is in the used car business. Burdened by an aging, alcoholic mother constantly on his case to do something worthier of his lighter skin tone and dreaming of a brighter future for himself and his plucky little sister, Ed is ready to get out of the game. When Dave, his lazy, grease-stained boss, sends him to repossess a Cadillac, Ed finally gets the chance to escape his miserable life. The Cadillac in question was purchased by Frank Craig and his beautiful wife Nancy, owners of a local drive-in and pet cemetery. Fed up with her deadbeat husband and with unfulfilled desires of her own, Nancy suggests to Ed that they kill Frank and claim his insurance policy. It is a tantalizing offer, but does Ed have what it takes to see the plan through?
Mulholland Books | 9780316479912
MUSICAL CHAIRS by Amy Poeppel (Fiction)
For three decades, Bridget and Will have nurtured their baby, the Forsyth Trio --- a chamber group they created as students with their Juilliard classmate, Gavin Glantz. In the intervening years, Gavin has gone on to become one of the classical music world’s reigning stars, while Bridget and Will have learned to embrace the warm reviews and smaller venues that accompany modest success. Bridget has been dreaming of spending the summer at her well-worn Connecticut country home with her boyfriend, Sterling. But her plans are upended when Sterling, dutifully following his ex-wife’s advice, breaks up with her over email and her twin twenty-somethings arrive unannounced, filling her empty nest with their big dogs, dirty laundry and respective crises.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781501176418
NEAR DARK by Brad Thor (Political Thriller)
The world’s largest bounty has just been placed upon America’s top spy. His only hope for survival is to outwit, outrun and outlast his enemies long enough to get to the truth. But for Scot Harvath to accomplish his most dangerous mission ever --- one that has already claimed the lives of the people closest to him, including his new wife --- he’s going to need a lot of help. Not knowing whom he can trust, Harvath finds an unlikely ally in Norwegian intelligence operative Sølvi Kolstad. Just as smart, just as deadly and just as determined, she not only has the skills, but also the broken, troubled past to match Harvath’s own.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781982104061
THE NEMESIS MANIFESTO by Eric Van Lustbader (Thriller/Adventure)
Evan Ryder is a lone wolf, a field agent for a black-ops arm of the DOD, who has survived unspeakable tragedy and dedicated her life to protecting her country. When her fellow agents begin to be systematically eliminated, Evan must unravel the thread that ties them all together...and before her name comes up on the kill list. The list belongs to a mysterious cabal known only as Nemesis, a hostile entity hell-bent on tearing the United States apart. As Evan tracks them from Washington, D.C. to the Caucasus Mountains, from Austria to a fortress in Germany where her own demons reside, she unearths a network of conspirators far more complex than anyone could have imagined. Can Evan uproot them before Nemesis forces bring democracy to its knees?
Forge Books | 9781250751171
THE PERFECT FATHER: The True Story of Chris Watts, His All-American Family, and a Shocking Murder by John Glatt (True Crime)
In the early morning hours of August 13, 2018, Shanann Watts was dropped off at home by a colleague after returning from a business trip. It was the last time anyone would see her alive. By the next day, Shanann and her two young daughters, Bella and Celeste, had been reported missing, and her husband, Chris Watts, was pleading for his family’s safe return. But less than 24 hours later, Watts made a shocking confession to police: he had strangled his pregnant wife to death and smothered their daughters, dumping their bodies at a nearby oil site. In this first major account of the case, John Glatt reveals the truth behind the tragedy and constructs a chilling portrait of one of the most shocking family annihilator cases of the 21st century.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250231611
PEW by Catherine Lacey (Fiction)
In a small, unnamed town in the American South, a church congregation arrives for a service and finds a figure asleep on a pew. The person is genderless and racially ambiguous and refuses to speak. One family takes in the strange visitor and nicknames them Pew. As the town spends the week preparing for a mysterious Forgiveness Festival, Pew is shuttled from one household to the next. The earnest and seemingly well-meaning townspeople see conflicting identities in Pew, and many confess their fears and secrets to them in one-sided conversations. By the time Pew’s story reaches a shattering and unsettling climax at the Forgiveness Festival, the secret of who they really are --- a devil or an angel or something else entirely --- is dwarfed by even larger truths.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374230920
THE PULL OF THE STARS by Emma Donoghue (Historical Fiction)
In an Ireland doubly ravaged by war and disease in 1918, Nurse Julia Power works at an understaffed hospital in the city center, where expectant mothers who have come down with the terrible new Flu are quarantined together. Into Julia's regimented world step two outsiders: Doctor Kathleen Lynn, a rumoured Rebel on the run from the police, and a young volunteer helper, Bridie Sweeney. In the darkness and intensity of this tiny ward, over three days, these women change each other's lives in unexpected ways. They lose patients to this baffling pandemic, but they also shepherd new life into a fearful world. With tireless tenderness and humanity, carers and mothers alike somehow do their impossible work.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316499019
TROUBLE THE SAINTS by Alaya Dawn Johnson (Historical Fantasy)
Amid the whir of city life, a young woman from Harlem is drawn into the glittering underworld of Manhattan, where she’s hired to use her knives to strike fear among its most dangerous denizens. Ten years later, Phyllis LeBlanc has given up everything --- not just her own past, and Dev, the man she loved, but even her own dreams. Still, the ghosts from her past are always by her side --- and history has appeared on her doorstep to threaten the people she keeps in her heart. And so Phyllis will have to make a harrowing choice, before it’s too late. Is there ever enough blood in the world to wash clean generations of injustice?
Tor Books | 9781250175342
THE VACATION by T. M. Logan (Psychological Thriller)
Kate and her three best friends are spending a week with their families in a luxurious villa in the south of France. But soon after arriving, she discovers an incriminating text on her husband’s cell phone. A text revealing that he’s having an affair. And that the other woman is one of her best friends. But which one? Trapped in paradise with no one to trust, Kate is determined to find out who has put her marriage --- and a lifelong friendship --- in jeopardy. But as she closes in on the truth, she realizes that the stakes are higher than she ever imagined. Everyone on the trip has secrets…and someone may be prepared to kill to keep theirs hidden.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250270771
THE VANISHING SKY by L. Annette Binder (Historical Fiction)
In 1945, as the war in Germany nears its violent end, the Huber family is not yet free of its dangers or its insidious demands. Etta, a mother from a small, rural town, has two sons serving their home country: her elder, Max, on the Eastern front, and her younger, Georg, at a school for Hitler Youth. When Max returns from the front, Etta quickly realizes that something is not right --- he is thin, almost ghostly and behaving very strangely. She strives to protect him from the Nazi rule, even as her husband, Josef, becomes more nationalistic and impervious to Max's condition. Meanwhile, miles away, Georg has taken his fate into his own hands, deserting his young class of battle-bound soldiers to set off on a long and perilous journey home.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781635574678
WHO IS ALEX TREBEK?: A Biography by Lisa Rogak (Biography)
After a contestant wrote “We love you, Alex!” as his Final Jeopardy! answer, fans around the world quickly chimed in to proclaim their own love and support for beloved “Jeopardy!” host Alex Trebek. In the wake of his devastating cancer diagnosis, the moment provided the perfect opportunity to reflect on what the show --- and the man --- meant to them. It was no surprise, since millions of devoted viewers have long considered Alex Trebek to be a part of their daily lives ever since he began hosting the show in 1984. Now, Lisa Rogak gives readers a look at Trebek's early life, his career and his personal life throughout the years, drawing on many sources to tell his full story for the first time.
Thomas Dunne Books | 9781250773661
On Sale the Week of July 20th in Paperback
July 21st
29 SECONDS by T. M. Logan (Psychological Thriller)
Sarah is a young professor struggling to prove herself in a workplace controlled by Alan Hawthorne, whose inappropriate treatment of female colleagues behind closed doors has gone unchallenged for years. And Sarah is his newest target. When Hawthorne's advances become threatening, Sarah is left with nowhere to turn. Until the night she witnesses an attempted kidnapping of a young child on her drive home, and jumps in to intervene. The child’s father turns out to be a successful businessman with dangerous connections --- and her act of bravery has put this powerful man in her debt. He gives Sarah a burner phone and an unbelievable offer. A once-in-a-lifetime deal that can make all her problems disappear. All it takes is a 29-second phone call.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250182302
BERLIN 1936: Fascism, Fear, and Triumph Set Against Hitler's Olympic Games by Oliver Hilmes (History)
BERLIN 1936 takes the reader through the 16 days of the Olympiad, describing the events in the German capital through the eyes of a select cast of characters --- Nazi leaders and foreign diplomats, sportsmen and journalists, writers and socialites, nightclub owners and jazz musicians. While the events in the Olympic stadium, such as when an American tourist breaks through the security and manages to kiss Hitler, provide the focus and much of the drama, it also considers the lives of ordinary Berliners --- the woman with a dark secret who steps in front of a train, the transsexual waiting for the Gestapo's knock on the door, and the Jewish boy fearing for his future and hoping that Germany loses on the playing field.
Other Press | 9781635420418
DECEPTION COVE by Owen Laukkanen (Thriller/Adventure)
Former U.S. Marine Jess Winslow reenters civilian life a new widow, with little more to her name than a falling-down house, a medical discharge for PTSD, and a loyal dog named Lucy. After 15 years in state prison, Mason Burke owns one set of clothes, a wallet, and a photo of Lucy, the service dog he trained while behind bars. When Jess' late husband piloted his final "fishing" expedition, he stole and stashed a valuable package from his drug dealer associates. Now the package is gone, and the sheriff's department has seized Jess' dearest possession --- her dog. Unless Jess turns over the missing goods, Lucy will be destroyed. To rescue Lucy, Jesse and Mason will have to forge an uneasy alliance.
Mulholland Books | 9780316448680
GETTYSBURG by Kevin Morris (Fiction)
John Reynolds resides in a beautiful mansion with his wife and daughter, and his business is booming, but he remains despondent as his attempts to pivot into producing his own movie projects fail again and again. Depressed and at a creative dead-end, Reynolds has secretly signed up to participate in a weekend-long reenactment of the Battle of Gettysburg. Just before his departure, an ex-Playmate --- the very centerfold of his adolescent daydreams --- pitches him her idea for a reality TV show. When Reynolds impulsively invites the former Playmate and her best friend, a former Miss Universe, to accompany him to the reenactment, his plans for a solitary weekend of self-discovery run amok.
Grove Press | 9780802149046
GOING DUTCH by James Gregor (Fiction)
Exhausted by dead-end forays in the gay dating scene, surrounded constantly by friends but deeply lonely in New York City, and drifting into academic abyss, twenty-something graduate student Richard has plenty of sources of anxiety. But at the forefront is his crippling writer’s block. Enter Anne: his brilliant classmate who offers to “help” Richard write his papers in exchange for his company, despite Richard’s fairly obvious sexual orientation. What begins as an initially transactional relationship blooms gradually into something more complex. But then a one-swipe-stand with an attractive, successful lawyer becomes serious, and Richard suddenly finds himself unable to detach from Anne.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982103200
JUST ONE BITE by Jack Heath (Thriller)
Timothy Blake, ex-consultant for the FBI, now works in body disposal for a local crime lord. One night he stumbles across a body he wasn’t supposed to find and is forced to hide it. When the FBI calls Blake in to investigate a missing university professor, Blake recognizes him as the dead man in his freezer. Then another man goes missing. And another. There’s a serial killer in Houston, Texas, and Blake is running out of time to solve the case. His investigation takes him to a sex doll factory, a sprawling landfill in Louisiana and a secret cabin in the woods. As they hunt the killer together, FBI agent Reese Thistle starts to warm to Blake --- but she also gets closer and closer to discovering his terrible secret.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335081896
THE LIBERATION OF PARIS: How Eisenhower, de Gaulle, and von Choltitz Saved the City of Light by Jean Edward Smith (History)
Following their breakout from Normandy in late June 1944, the Allies swept across northern France in pursuit of the German army. As they advanced, local forces in Paris began their own liberation, defying the occupying German troops. Charles de Gaulle, the leading figure of the Free French government, urged General Dwight Eisenhower to divert forces to liberate Paris. Neither man knew that the German commandant, Dietrich von Choltitz, dissembled and schemed to surrender the city to the Allies intact, defying Hitler’s orders to leave it a burning ruin. In THE LIBERATION OF PARIS, Jean Edward Smith puts this dramatic event in context, showing how the decision to free the city came at a heavy price: it slowed the Allied momentum and allowed the Germans to regroup.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501164934
THE SPOTTED DOG: A Corinna Chapman Mystery by Kerry Greenwood (Cozy Mystery)
Rising at 4:00 every morning isn't Corinna Chapman's favorite part of running her Australian bakery, Earthly Delights, and the glowing light of dawn feels even harsher when a man collapses in her shop. When the man, a military veteran, comes around and reveals that his beloved ex-service dog is missing, Corinna and her longtime companion, Daniel, feel compelled to help. It soon becomes clear, though, that they have gotten involved in something much bigger and more complicated than they had bargained for...especially when threatening notes begin to appear in Corinna's apartment. And with recreational drugs rising in popularity, the sleuths suspect that a dangerous smuggling ring might be behind everything.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464211195
WHEN YOU SEE ME by Lisa Gardner (Mystery/Thriller)
FBI Special Agent Kimberly Quincy and Sergeant Detective D. D. Warren have built a task force to follow the digital bread crumbs left behind by deceased serial kidnapper Jacob Ness. When a disturbing piece of evidence is discovered in the hills of Georgia, they bring Flora Dane and true-crime savant Keith Edgar to a small town where something seems to be deeply wrong. What at first looks like a Gothic eeriness soon hardens into something much more sinister...and they discover that for all the evil Jacob committed while alive, his worst secret is still to be revealed. Quincy and DD must summon their considerable skills and experience to crack the most disturbing case of their careers --- and Flora must face her own past directly in the hope of saving others.
Dutton | 9781524745035
THE WOMAN BEFORE WALLIS: A Novel of Windsors, Vanderbilts, and Royal Scandal by Bryn Turnbull (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
In the summer of 1926, when Thelma Morgan marries Viscount Duke Furness after a whirlwind romance, she’s immersed in a gilded world of extraordinary wealth and privilege. For Thelma, the daughter of an American diplomat, her new life as a member of the British aristocracy is like a fairy tale --- even more so when her husband introduces her to Edward, Prince of Wales. In a twist of fate, her marriage to Duke leads her to fall headlong into a love affair with Edward. But happiness is fleeting, and their love is threatened when Thelma’s sister, Gloria Morgan Vanderbilt, becomes embroiled in a scandal with far-reaching implications. As Thelma sails to New York to support Gloria, she leaves Edward in the hands of her trusted friend Wallis, never imagining the consequences that will follow.
Mira | 9780778361022
On Sale the Week of July 27th in Hardcover
July 27th
1st CASE by James Patterson and Chris Tebbetts (Thriller)
Angela's graduate school days at MIT come to an abrupt end when she uses her hacking skills on another student's computer. Yet her mentor, Eve Abajian, arranges a new beginning for her --- as an intern in the FBI's Boston field office. Her new supervisor, Assistant Special Agent in Charge William Keats, sees in Angela a fellow prodigy. But Angela's skills come with a natural curiosity, which is also a dangerous liability. With little training, Angela is quickly plunged into a tough case: tracking murderous brothers who go by the Poet and the Engineer. When Keats tells her to "watch and listen," Angela's mind kicks into overdrive. The obsessive thinking that earned her A’s on campus can prove fatal in the field.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316418188
July 28th
AFTERLAND by Lauren Beukes (Dystopian Thriller/Science Fiction)
Twelve-year-old Miles is one of the last boys alive, and his mother, Cole, will protect him at all costs. On the run after a horrific act of violence --- and pursued by Cole's own ruthless sister, Billie --- all Cole wants is to raise her kid somewhere he won't be preyed on as a reproductive resource or a sex object or a stand-in son. Someplace like home. To get there, Cole and Miles must journey across a changed America in disguise as mother and daughter. From a military base in Seattle to a luxury bunker, from an anarchist commune in Salt Lake City to a roaming cult that's all too ready to see Miles as the answer to their prayers, the two race to stay ahead at every step…even as Billie and her sinister crew draw closer.
Mulholland Books | 9780316267830
THE BUTTERFLY LAMPSHADE by Aimee Bender (Fiction)
On the night her single mother is taken to a mental hospital after a psychotic episode, eight-year-old Francie is staying with her babysitter. There is a lovely lamp next to the couch on which she's sleeping, the shade adorned with butterflies. When she wakes, Francie spies a dead butterfly, exactly matching the ones on the lamp, floating in a glass of water. She drinks it before the babysitter can see. Twenty years later, Francie is compelled to make sense of that moment, and two other incidents --- her discovery of a desiccated beetle from a school paper, and a bouquet of dried roses from some curtains. As Francie conjures her past and reduces her engagement with the world to a bare minimum, she begins to question her relationship to reality.
Doubleday | 9780385534871
CROSSINGS by Alex Landragin (Fiction)
On the brink of the Nazi occupation of Paris, a German-Jewish bookbinder stumbles across a manuscript called Crossings. It has three narratives, each as unlikely as the next. And the narratives can be read one of two ways: either straight through or according to an alternate chapter sequence. The first piece is a never-before-seen ghost story by the poet Charles Baudelaire, penned for an illiterate girl. Next is a noir romance about an exiled man, modeled on Walter Benjamin, whose recurring nightmares are cured when he falls in love with a storyteller who draws him into a dangerous intrigue of rare manuscripts, police corruption and literary societies. Finally, there are the fantastical memoirs of a woman-turned-monarch whose singular life has spanned seven generations.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250259042
DEADLOCK by Catherine Coulter (Thriller)
A young wife is forced to confront a decades-old deadly secret when a medium connects her to her dead grandfather. A vicious psychopath wants ultimate revenge against Savich, but first, she wants to destroy what he loves most --- his family. A series of three red boxes are delivered personally to Savich at the Hoover Building, each one containing puzzle pieces of a town only FBI agent Pippa Cinelli recognizes. Savich sends in Cinelli to investigate undercover, but someone knows who she is. Can Savich and Sherlock figure out the red box puzzle and the young wife’s secret before it’s too late?
Gallery Books | 9781501193699
DEMON IN WHITE: The Sun Eater, Book Three by Christopher Ruocchio (Space Opera/Fantasy)
For almost a hundred years, Hadrian Marlowe has served the Empire in its war against the Cielcin, a vicious alien race bent on humanity’s destruction. Rumors of a new king amongst the Cielcin have reached the Imperial throne. To make matters worse, a cult of personality has formed around Hadrian, spurred on by legends of his having defied death itself. Hadrian’s rise to prominence proves dangerous to himself and his team, as pressures within the Imperial government distrust or resent his new influence. And above it all, there is the mystery of the Quiet. Hadrian did defy death. He did return. But the keys to the only place in the universe where Hadrian might find the answers he seeks lie in the hands of the Emperor himself.
DAW | 9780756413064
THE END OF HER by Shari Lapena (Psychological Thriller)
Stephanie and Patrick are adjusting to life with their colicky twin girls. The babies are a handful, but even as Stephanie struggles with the disorientation of sleep deprivation, there's one thing she's sure of: she has all she ever wanted. Then Erica, a woman from Patrick's past, appears and makes a disturbing accusation. Patrick had always said his first wife's death was an accident, but now Erica claims it was murder. Patrick insists he's innocent, that this is nothing but a blackmail attempt. Still, Erica knows things about Patrick --- things that make Stephanie begin to question her husband. Stephanie isn't sure what, or who, to believe. As Stephanie's trust in Patrick begins to falter, Patrick stands to lose everything. Is Erica the persuasive liar Patrick says she is? Or has Stephanie made a terrible mistake?
Pamela Dorman Books | 9781984880512
FLYAWAY by Kathleen Jennings (Fantasy)
In a small Western Queensland town, a reserved young woman receives a note from one of her vanished brothers --- a note that makes her question memories of their disappearance and her father’s departure. A beguiling story that proves that gothic delights and uncanny family horror can live --- and even thrive --- under a burning sun, FLYAWAY introduces readers to Bettina Scott, whose search for the truth throws her into tales of eerie dogs, vanished schools, cursed monsters and enchanted bottles.
Tor.com | 9781250260499
THE GEOMETRY OF HOLDING HANDS: An Isabel Dalhousie Novel by Alexander McCall Smith (Mystery)
In Edinburgh, rumors and gossip abound. But Isabel Dalhousie well knows that such things can't be taken at face value. Still, the latest whispers hint at mysterious goings-on, and who but Isabel can be trusted to get to the bottom of them? At the same time, she must deal with the demands of her two small children, her husband, and her rather tempestuous niece, Cat, whose latest romantic entanglement comes --- to no one's surprise --- with complications. Still, even with so much going on, Isabel, through the application of good sense, logic and ethics, will, as ever, triumph.
Pantheon | 9781524748944
THE GROVE OF THE CAESARS: A Flavia Albia Novel by Lindsey Davis (Historical Mystery)
At the feet of her adoptive father, renowned private informer Marcus Didius Falco, Flavia Albia learned a number of important rules. First and foremost: always keep one's distance from the palace --- nothing good comes from that direction. But right behind it: murder is the business of the Vigiles, best to leave them to it. Having broken the first rule more often than she'd like, it's no surprise to anyone when she finds herself breaking the second one. The public gardens named after the Caesars is a place that nice girls are warned away from, and when a series of bodies are uncovered, it seems that a serial killer has been haunting the grove for years. The case is assigned to one Julius Karus, a cohort of the Vigiles, but Flavia Albia decides to work with this vile man and bring the serial killer to justice.
Minotaur Books | 9781250241566
HIEROGLYPHICS by Jill McCorkle (Fiction)
Lil and Frank married young, launched into courtship when they bonded over how they both lost a parent when they were children. Over time, their marriage grew and strengthened. Now they’ve retired to North Carolina, where Lil sifts through letters and notes and diary entries --- perhaps revealing more secrets than Frank wants their children to know. Meanwhile, Frank has become obsessed with what might have been left behind at the house he lived in as a boy on the outskirts of town, where a young single mother, Shelley, is just trying to raise her son with some sense of normalcy. Frank’s repeated visits to Shelley’s house begin to trigger memories of her own family, memories that she’d hoped to keep buried.
Algonquin Books | 9781616209728
HIS & HERS by Alice Feeney (Psychological Thriller)
When a woman is murdered in Blackdown, a quintessentially British village, newsreader Anna Andrews is reluctant to cover the case. Detective Jack Harper is suspicious of her involvement, until he becomes a suspect in his own murder investigation. Someone isn’t telling the truth, and some secrets are worth killing to keep.
Flatiron Books | 9781250266071
I HOLD A WOLF BY THE EARS: Stories by Laura van den Berg (Fiction/Short Stories)
Both timeless and urgent, the 11 stories in Laura van den Berg’s first story collection since her prize-winning book THE ISLE OF YOUTH confront misogyny, violence and the impossible economics of America. In “Lizards,” a man mutes his wife’s anxieties by giving her a LaCroix-like seltzer laced with sedatives. In the title story, a woman poses as her more successful sister during a botched Italian holiday, a choice that brings about strange and destructive consequences, while in “Karolina,” a woman discovers her prickly ex-sister-in-law in the aftermath of an earthquake and is forced to face the truth about her violent brother.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374102098
THE ISLAND CHILD by Molly Aitken (Fiction)
Oona grew up on the island of Inis: a wind-blasted rock off the coast of Ireland where the men went out on fishing boats and the women tended turf fires; where the only book was the Bible; and where girls stayed at home until they became mothers themselves. The island was a gift for some, a prison for others. Even as a child, Oona knew she wanted to leave, but she never could have anticipated the tumultuous turn of events that ultimately would compel her to flee. Now, after 20 years --- after Oona has forged a new, very different life for herself --- her daughter vanishes, forcing Oona to face her past in order, finally, to be free of it.
Knopf | 9780525658375
LET'S NEVER TALK ABOUT THIS AGAIN: A Memoir by Sara Faith Alterman (Memoir)
Twelve-year-old Sara enjoyed a G-rated existence in suburban New England, filled with over-the-top birthday cakes, Revolutionary War reenactments, and nerdy word games invented by her prudish father, Ira. But Sara's world changed for the icky when she discovered that Ira had been shielding her from the truth: that he was a campy sex writer who’d sold millions of books in multiple languages. For decades, these books remained an unspoken family secret, until Ira developed early onset Alzheimer's disease…and announced he'd be reviving his writing career. With Sara's help. In her memoir, Sara shares the profound experience of discovering new facets of her father --- once as a child, and again as an adult.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538748671
LOVE AND THEFT by Stan Parish (Thriller)
When Alex Cassidy and Diane Alison meet at a party in Princeton, New Jersey, the chemistry between them is instant and undeniable. She's a single mother, local fixture and owner of a successful catering company. He's a single father and weekend homeowner --- and leader of an armed-robbery crew that just pulled off a record-breaking, precision jewel heist in Las Vegas. Neither one realizes that their lives have overlapped before, and that the shared history they uncover will threaten everyone they love. Swept up in their burgeoning relationship, Diane joins Alex at his beach house in Tulum, where Alex decides to leave his life of crime behind. It begins as a postcard-perfect weekend until an entanglement with a powerful cartel forces Alex to mastermind one final and unthinkably dangerous job.
Doubleday | 9780385545242
MEMORIAL DRIVE: A Daughter's Memoir by Natasha Trethewey (Memoir)
At age 19, Natasha Trethewey had her world turned upside down when her former stepfather shot and killed her mother. In MEMORIAL DRIVE, the Pulitzer Prize–winning poet explores this profound experience of pain, loss and grief as an entry point into understanding the tragic course of her mother’s life and the way her own life has been shaped by a legacy of fierce love and resilience. Moving through her mother’s history in the deeply segregated South and through her own girlhood as a “child of miscegenation” in Mississippi, Trethewey plumbs her sense of dislocation and displacement in the lead-up to the harrowing crime that took place on Memorial Drive in Atlanta in 1985.
Ecco | 9780062248572
MUST I GO by Yiyun Li (Fiction)
Lilia Liska has shrewdly outlived three husbands, raised five children and seen the arrival of 17 grandchildren. Now she has turned her keen attention to the diary of a long-forgotten man named Roland Bouley, with whom she once had a fleeting affair. Increasingly obsessed with Roland's intimate history, Lilia begins to annotate the diary with her own rather different version of events, revealing the surprising, long-held secrets of her past. She returns inexorably to the memory of her daughter, Lucy. This is a novel about life in all its messy glory, and of a life lived, by the extraordinary Lilia, absolutely on its own terms. Yiyun Li navigates the twin poles of grief and resilience, loss and rebirth, that compass a human heart.
Random House | 9780399589126
PLAYING NICE by JP Delaney (Psychological Thriller)
Miles Lambert breaks the devastating news that Pete Riley’s son, Theo, isn’t actually his son --- he is the Lamberts’, switched at birth by an understaffed hospital while their real son was sent home with Miles and his wife, Lucy. For Pete, his partner Maddie, and the little boy they’ve been raising for the past two years, life will never be the same again. The two families take comfort in shared good intentions, eagerly entwining their very different lives in the hope of becoming one unconventional modern family. But a plan to sue the hospital triggers an official investigation that unearths some disturbing questions about the night their children were switched. How much can they trust the other parents --- or even each other?
Ballantine Books | 9781984821348
ROBERT LUDLUM'S THE BOURNE EVOLUTION by Brian Freeman (Thriller/Adventure)
After the death of his lover in a mass shooting, secret agent Jason Bourne is convinced that there is more to her murder than it seems. Worse, he believes that Treadstone --- the agency that made him who he is, that trained him --- is behind the killing. Bourne goes rogue, leaving Treadstone behind and taking on a new mission to infiltrate and expose an anarchist group, Medusa. But when a congresswoman is assassinated in New York, Bourne is framed for the crime, and he finds himself alone and on the run. In his quest to stay one step ahead of his enemies, Bourne teams up with journalist Abbey Laurent to figure out who was behind the frame-up, and to learn as much as he can about the ever-growing threat of the mysterious Medusa group.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780525542599
A ROYAL AFFAIR: A Sparks & Bainbridge Mystery by Allison Montclair (Historical Mystery)
In 1946 London, Miss Iris Sparks and Mrs. Gwendolyn Bainbridge are the proprietors of The Right Sort Marriage Bureau. One day, Lady Matheson, a cousin of Gwen’s who works for the Queen in "some capacity," arrives in need of some discreet investigation. It seems that Princess Elizabeth has developed feelings for a dashing Greek prince, and a blackmail note has arrived, alluding to some potentially damaging information about said prince. Wanting to keep this out of the palace gossip circles, but also needing to find out what skeletons might lurk in the prince's closet, the palace has quietly turned to Gwen and Iris. Without causing a stir, the two of them must uncover any secrets in the prince's past before his engagement to the future Queen of England is announced.
Minotaur Books | 9781250178398
A STAR IS BORED by Byron Lane (Fiction/Humor)
Charlie Besson is tense and sweating as he prepares for an insane job interview. His car is idling, like his life, outside the Hollywood mansion of Kathi Kannon, star of stage and screen and People magazine’s worst-dressed list. She needs an assistant. He needs a hero. Kathi is an icon, bestselling author and an award-winning actress, most known for her role as Priestess Talara in a blockbuster sci-fi film. She’s also known in another role: crazy. Admittedly so. Famously so. Fabulously so, as Charlie quickly discovers. Their three-year odyssey is filled with late-night shopping sprees, last-minute trips to see the aurora borealis, and an initiation to that most sacred of Hollywood tribes: the personal assistant. But Kathi becomes much more than a boss, and as their friendship grows, Charlie must make a choice.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250266491
STRONG FROM THE HEART: A Caitlin Strong Novel by Jon Land (Thriller)
The drug crisis hits home for Texas Ranger Caitlin Strong when the son of her outlaw lover Cort Wesley Masters nearly dies from an opioid overdose. On top of that, she’s dealing with the inexplicable tragedy of a small Texas town where all the residents died in a single night. When Caitlin realizes that these two pursuits are intrinsically connected, she finds herself following a trail that will take her to the truth behind the crisis that claimed 75,000 lives last year. The same force that has taken over the opiate trade has even more deadly intentions in mind, specifically the murder of tens of millions in pursuit of their even more nefarious goals. At the root of the conspiracy lies a cabal nestled within the highest corridors of power that’s determined to destroy all threats posed to them.
Forge Books | 9780765384706
THE TWO MRS. CARLYLES by Suzanne Rindell (Historical Fiction)
San Francisco, 1906. Violet is one of three people grateful for the destruction of the big earthquake. It leaves her and her two best friends unexpectedly wealthy --- if the secret that binds them together stays buried beneath the rubble. Fearing discovery, the women strike out on their own, and orphaned, wallflower Violet reinvents herself. When a whirlwind romance with the city's most eligible widower, Harry Carlyle, lands her in a luxurious mansion as the second Mrs. Carlyle, it seems like her dreams of happiness and love have come true. But all is not right in the Carlyle home, and Violet soon finds herself trapped by the lingering specter of the first Mrs. Carlyle, and by the inescapable secrets of her own violent history.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780525539209
WHEN SHE WAS GOOD by Michael Robotham (Psychological Thriller)
Who is Evie Cormac, the girl with no past, running from? She was discovered hiding in a secret room in the aftermath of a terrible crime. Her ability to tell when someone is lying helped Cyrus crack an impenetrable case in GOOD GIRL, BAD GIRL. Now, the closer that criminal psychologist Cyrus Haven gets to uncovering answers about Evie’s dark history, the more he exposes Evie to danger, giving her no choice but to run. Ultimately, both will have to decide if some secrets are better left buried and some monsters should never be named.
Scribner | 9781982103637
THE WIFE WHO KNEW TOO MUCH by Michele Campbell (Psychological Thriller)
Meet the first Mrs. Ford. Beautiful. Accomplished. Wealthy beyond imagination. Married to a much younger man. And now, she’s dead. Meet the second Mrs. Ford. Waitress. Small-town girl. Married to a man she never forgot, from a summer romance 10 years before. And now, she’s wealthy beyond imagination. Who is Connor Ford? Two women loved him. And knew him as only wives can know. Set amongst the glittering mansions of the Hamptons, THE WIFE WHO KNEW TOO MUCH is about the lives of those who will do anything for love and money. Who is the victim? Who is the villain? And who will be next to die?
St. Martin's Press | 9781250202550
On Sale the Week of July 27th in Paperback
July 28th
THE BAD SISTER by Kevin O'Brien (Thriller)
Paperback Original
The site of the old campus bungalow where two girls were brutally slain is now a flower patch covered with chrysanthemums. It’s been 50 years since the Immaculate Conception Murders. Three more students and a teacher were killed in a sickening spree that many have forgotten. But there is one person who knows every twisted detail. Hannah O’Rourke and her volatile half-sister, Eden, have little in common except a parent. Yet they’ve ended up at the same small college outside Chicago, sharing a bungalow with another girl. When their arrival coincides with a spate of mysterious deaths, Hannah’s journalism professor, Ellie Goodwin, knows it’s more than a fluke. A copycat is recreating those long-ago murders.
Pinnacle | 9780786045082
THE BIRTHDAY GIRL by Melissa de la Cruz (Psychological Thriller)
Before she became a glamorous fashion designer, Ellie de Florent-Stinson was a trailer-park teen about to turn 16. But a night of birthday celebration doesn’t go exactly as planned and descends into a night she’ll never be able to forget. Now, on the cusp of her 40th birthday, it appears Ellie has everything she ever wanted. Except everything is not quite as perfect as it looks on the outside, as Ellie is keeping many secrets. Hiding those skeletons has a cost, and it all comes to a head the night of her fabulous birthday party in the desert. Old and new friends and frenemies, stepdaughters and business partners, ex-wives and ex-husbands congregate, and the glittering facade of Ellie’s life begins to crumble.
Dutton | 9781524743789
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.
Dell | 9780399179525
COLD STORAGE by David Koepp (Science Fiction/Thriller)
When Pentagon bioterror operative Roberto Diaz was sent to investigate a suspected biochemical attack, he found something far worse: a highly mutative organism capable of extinction-level destruction. He contained it and buried it in cold storage deep beneath a little-used military repository. Now, after decades of festering in a forgotten sub-basement, the specimen has found its way out and is on a lethal feeding frenzy. Only Diaz knows how to stop it. He races across the country to help two unwitting security guards --- one an ex-con, the other a single mother. Over one harrowing night, the unlikely trio must figure out how to quarantine this horror again. All they have is luck, fearlessness and a mordant sense of humor. Will that be enough to save all of humanity?
Ecco | 9780063023345
DARK SITE: A Sam Dryden Novel by Patrick Lee (Thriller)
Former Special Forces operative Sam Dryden is the target of an unsuccessful attempted abduction. Using his attacker's cell phone, he learns that another person, a woman named Danica Ellis, is also being targeted. Dryden arrives just in time to save Danica from the assault team sent after her. But neither of them recognize the other, or have any idea why they are being targeted. The only clue is a heavily redacted, official-looking document given to Danica by her stepfather before he was killed. It refers to witnesses to a secret military site in Ashland, Iowa, in 1989. Dryden and Danica lived in Ashland in 1989, when they were both 12 years old, though neither of them has any memory of the other. Now it’s up to them to piece together the details of their past --- and elude the forces that are after them in the present-day.
Minotaur Books | 9781250030801
GIRL IN THE REARVIEW MIRROR by Kelsey Rae Dimberg (Psychological/Political Thriller)
They are Phoenix’s First Family: Philip Martin, son of the sitting Senator and an ex-football player; his wife Marina, the stylish and elegant director of Phoenix’s fine arts museum; and their four-year-old daughter Amabel. Finn Hunt is working a dull office job to pay off her college debt when she meets Philip and charms Amabel. She eagerly agrees to nanny, thinking she’s lucked into the job of a lifetime. But when a young woman approaches Finn, claiming a connection with Philip and asking Finn to pass on a message, Finn becomes caught up in a web of deceit with the Senate seat at its center. And Finn isn’t exactly innocent herself: she too has a background she has kept hidden, and everything is about to be laid bare.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062867940
GOLDEN IN DEATH by J. D. Robb (Mystery/Thriller)
Pediatrician Kent Abner received the package on a beautiful April morning. Inside was a cheap trinket, a golden egg that could be opened into two halves. When he pried it apart, highly toxic airborne fumes entered his body --- and killed him. After Eve Dallas calls the hazmat team --- and undergoes testing to reassure both her and her husband that she hasn’t been exposed --- it’s time to look into Dr. Abner’s past and relationships. While the lab tries to identify the deadly toxin, Eve hunts for the sender. But when someone else dies in the same grisly manner, it becomes clear that she’s dealing with either a madman --- or someone who has a hidden and elusive connection to both victims.
St. Martin’s Paperbacks | 9781250207227
THE GOLDEN WOLF by Linnea Hartsuyker (Historical Fantasy)
A growing rebellion pits Ragnvald and his sons against enemies old and new, and a looming tragedy threatens to divide the hardened warrior from Harald and all who care for him. Across the sea, Svanhild, too, wrestles with a painful decision, risking the dissolution of her fragile new family as she desperately tries to save it. Yet as old heroes fall, new heroes arise. For years, Ragnvald and Svanhild pursued the destinies bestowed by their ancient gods. Though the journey has cost them much, their sacrifices and dreams will be honored by the generations that follow, beginning with Freydis and Einar. Emerging from their parents’ long shadows, they have begun to carry on the family’s legacy while pursuing their own glorious fates.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062563767
GOODNIGHT STRANGER by Miciah Bay Gault (Literary Thriller)
Lydia and Lucas Moore are in their late 20s when a stranger enters their small world on Wolf Island. Lydia, the responsible sister, has cared for her pathologically shy brother, Lucas, ever since their mom’s death a decade before. They live together in their family house by the sea, shadowed by events from their childhood. When Lydia sees the stranger step off the ferry, she feels an immediate connection to him. Lucas is convinced that the man, Cole Anthony, is the reincarnation of their baby brother, who died when they were young. Cole knows their mannerisms, their home, the topography of the island. What else could that mean? To find out, Lydia must finally face her anxiety about leaving the island and challenge Cole’s grip on her family’s past and her brother.
Park Row | 9780778309802
HOUSE ON FIRE by Joseph Finder (Thriller)
Nick Heller is at the top of his game when he receives some devastating news: his old army buddy, Sean, has died of an overdose. Sean, who once saved Nick’s life, got addicted to opioids after returning home wounded from war. Then at Sean’s funeral, a stranger approaches Nick with a job. The woman is the daughter of a pharmaceutical kingpin worth billions. Now she wants to become a whistleblower, exposing her father and his company for burying evidence that its biggest money-maker was dangerously addictive. It was a lie that killed hundreds of thousands of people, including Sean. All Nick has to do is find the document that proves the family knew the drug’s dangers. But Nick soon realizes that the sins of the patriarch are just the beginning.
Dutton | 9781101985861
INTIMATIONS: Six Essays by Zadie Smith (Essays)
Paperback Original
Written during the early months of lockdown, INTIMATIONS explores ideas and questions prompted by an unprecedented situation. What does it mean to submit to a new reality --- or to resist it? How do we compare relative sufferings? What is the relationship between time and work? In our isolation, what do other people mean to us? How do we think about them? What is the ratio of contempt to compassion in a crisis? When an unfamiliar world arrives, what does it reveal about the world that came before it? Zadie Smith clears a generous space for thought, open enough for each reader to reflect on what has happened --- and what should come next.
Penguin Books | 9780593297612
THE KIDS ARE GONNA ASK by Gretchen Anthony (Fiction/Humor)
Paperback Original
The death of Thomas and Savannah McClair’s mother turns their world upside down. Raised to be fiercely curious by their grandmother Maggie, the twins become determined to learn the identity of their biological father. And when their mission goes viral, an eccentric producer offers them a dream platform: a fully sponsored podcast called “The Kids Are Gonna Ask.” To discover the truth, Thomas and Savannah begin interviewing people from their mother’s past and are shocked when the podcast ignites in popularity. As the attention mounts, they get caught in a national debate they never asked for --- but nothing compares to the mayhem that ensues when they find him.
Park Row | 9780778308744
THE LONG CALL by Ann Cleeves (Mystery)
In North Devon, where two rivers converge and run into the sea, Detective Matthew Venn stands outside the church as his estranged father’s funeral takes place. On the day Matthew left the strict evangelical community he grew up in, he lost his family too. Now, as he turns and walks away again, he receives a call from one of his team. A body has been found on the beach nearby: a man with a tattoo of an albatross on his neck, stabbed to death. The case calls Matthew back to the people and places of his past, as deadly secrets hidden at their hearts are revealed, and his new life is forced into a collision course with the world he thought he’d left behind.
Minotaur Books | 9781250204455
MAGGIE BROWN & OTHERS: Stories by Peter Orner (Fiction/Short Stories)
In MAGGIE BROWN & OTHERS, Peter Orner chronicles people whose lives are at inflection points. Whether it's a first date that turns into a late-night road trip to a séance in an abandoned airplane hangar, or a family's memories of the painful mystery surrounding a forgotten uncle's demise, Orner reveals how our fleeting decisions between kindness and abandonment chase us across time. These stories are anchored by a poignant novella that delivers not only the joys and travails of a 40-year marriage, but an entire era in a working-class New England city.
Back Bay Books | 9780316516129
NOTES OF LOVE AND WAR by Betty Bolté (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Audrey Harper needs more than home and hearth to satisfy her self-worth, despite being raised with the idea that a woman's place is in the home. Working as a music critic for the city newspaper in Baltimore, Maryland, during the Second World War, she has enjoyed both financial freedom and personal satisfaction in a job well done. When Audrey uncovers evidence of German spies working to sabotage a secret bomber plane being manufactured in her beloved city, she must choose between her sense of duty to protect her city and the urgings of her boss, her family and her fiancé to turn over her evidence to the authorities. But when her choices lead her and her sister into danger, she is forced to risk life and limb to save her sister and bring the spies to justice.
Mystic Owl Publishing | 9781733973656
THE RUSSIAN by Ben Coes (Political Thriller)
The Russian mafia has virtually taken over the criminal underworld in the U.S., and law enforcement, at every level, has been unable to stem the tide. When a powerful Russian mob family declares war by publicly executing two high-profile American politicians, the message is unmistakable: Opposition will be met with deadly force. With no other viable options, the president creates a clandestine assassination team to take the fight back to the criminals. The CIA recruits two Tier 1 operators --- former Navy SEALs Billy Cosgrove and Rob Tacoma --- but before the team can even begin its mission, Cosgrove is targeted in a fatal attack. Now it’s up to Tacoma to do the impossible: find and kill the hidden mob boss behind Cosgrove’s death, and take on a ruthless enemy with endless resources, zero boundaries and no mercy.
St. Martin’s Paperbacks | 9781250140807
SOMETHING TO LIVE FOR by Richard Roper (Fiction)
All Andrew wants is to be normal. That's why his coworkers believe he has the perfect wife and two children waiting at home for him after a long day. But the truth is, his life isn't exactly as people think...and his little white lie is about to catch up with him. Because in all of Andrew's efforts to fit in, he's forgotten one important thing: how to really live. And maybe, it's finally time for him to start.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780525539896
STONE COLD HEART by Caz Frear (Mystery)
A young Australian woman turns up dead after a party thrown by her new boss. The initial investigation of Naomi Lockhart's murder points to Joseph Madden, the owner of a coffee shop. Madden insists he’s innocent, that he was home with his wife Rachel at the time of the murder. When police question her, Rachel contradicts his alibi, swearing that she was home alone. Detective Constable Cat Kinsella knows that one of them is lying --- but the question of which one, and why, is far more complicated than she could have expected. As she tries to balance the demands of the investigation with a budding romance and unresolved family drama, Cat has to decide how far she’ll go to keep her own past mistakes buried.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062849908
A STRANGER ON THE BEACH by Michele Campbell (Psychological Thriller)
After a very public fight with her husband, Caroline Stark realizes that her life may not be as perfect as it seems: her husband is lying to her, money is disappearing, and there’s a stranger on the beach outside her house. As Caroline’s marriage and her carefully constructed lifestyle begin to collapse around her, she turns to the stranger, Aidan, for comfort…and revenge. After a brief and desperate fling, Aidan’s infatuation with Caroline, her family and her house becomes more and more destructive. But who is manipulating whom in this deadly game of obsession and control? Who will take the blame when someone ends up dead…and what is Caroline hiding?
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250313324
THEY ALL FALL DOWN by Rachel Howzell Hall (Mystery/Thriller)
Delighted by a surprise invitation, Miriam Macy sails off to a luxurious private island off the coast of Mexico with six other strangers. Surrounded by miles of open water in the gloriously green Sea of Cortez, Miriam is soon shocked to discover that she and the rest of her companions have been brought to the remote island under false pretenses --- and all seven strangers harbor a secret. Danger lurks in the lush forest and in the halls and bedrooms of the lonely mansion. Sporadic cell-phone coverage and miles of ocean keep the group trapped in paradise. And strange accidents stir suspicions, as one by one, they all fall down.
Forge Books | 9781250224613
TIN BADGES by Lorenzo Carcaterra (Thriller)
As one of the NYPD’s most trusted “tin badges” --- retired detectives brought in to solve cases that are beyond the reach of the everyday force --- Tank Rizzo has faced off against some of the city’s toughest criminals without breaking a sweat. To tackle a case involving a dangerous kingpin known as Gonzo, Tank turns to his best friend and ex-partner, Pearl; a former mobster living out a seemingly quiet retirement as the owner of Tank’s favorite Italian restaurant; and a team of expert misfits he would trust with his life. But Gonzo will stop at nothing to defend the empire he's built, and he won't hesitate to make it personal.
Ballantine Books | 9780345483935
UNSPEAKABLE ACTS: True Tales of Crime, Murder, Deceit, and Obsession edited by Sarah Weinman (True Crime Anthology)
Paperback Original
Sarah Weinman --- the acclaimed author of THE REAL LOLITA, and editor of WOMEN CRIME WRITERS and TROUBLED DAUGHTERS, TWISTED WIVES --- brings together an exemplary collection of recent true-crime tales. She culls together some of the most refreshing and exciting contemporary journalists and chroniclers of crime working today. There are 13 pieces in all, and as a collection, they showcase writing about true crime across the broadest possible spectrum, while also reflecting what makes crime stories so transfixing and irresistible to the modern reader.
Ecco | 9780062839886
WHAT ROSE FORGOT by Nevada Barr (Mystery/Thriller)
Rose Dennis wakes up in a hospital gown, her brain in a fog. With no memory of how she ended up at this unknown medical facility, Rose is sure that something is very wrong. When she overhears one of the administrators saying about her that she's "not making it through the week," Rose is convinced that if she's to survive, she has to stop taking her medication. How does she convince anyone that what she’s experienced is true? With her memory shaky, how can she even trust herself? Enlisting the help of her computer-hacker sister and her teenage granddaughter, Rose begins to piece together fragments of her life. But any lingering doubt that she’s in real danger is erased when a stranger starts showing up at her now-abandoned house, determined to get rid of Rose once and for all.
Minotaur Books | 9781250208026
YOUR HOUSE WILL PAY by Steph Cha (Thriller)
In the wake of the police shooting of a black teenager, Los Angeles is as tense as it’s been since the unrest of the early 1990s. But Grace Park and Shawn Matthews have their own problems. Grace is sheltered and largely oblivious, living in the Valley with her Korean-immigrant parents, working long hours at the family pharmacy. She’s distraught that her sister hasn’t spoken to their mother in two years. Shawn has already had enough of politics and protest after an act of violence shattered his family years ago. He just wants to be left alone to enjoy his quiet life in Palmdale. But when another shocking crime hits L.A., both the Park and Matthews families are forced to face down their history while navigating the tumult of a city on the brink of more violence.
Ecco | 9780062868848
July 29th
SINISTER SISTERHOOD by Jane Badrock (Thriller/Dark Humor)
Paperback Original
Elle's dreams of domestic bliss are devastated by David's deceiving dalliances. Abandoned and alone, she needs a new life plan, and it's thrust upon her by her tiger-loving aunt in India. She must conserve the creatures and hunt the hunters. Converted to the cause, Elle is committed to combating cruel animal exploitation, but she can't do it on her own. She needs money and a terrific team beneath her, and it takes time to find the right people to bring in money and carry out the campaign. What she gets is an assortment of wicked women with their own attributes and agendas. But the battle gets bigger. There's a mysterious mastermind building an execrable empire on the back of coveted creatures' carcases. The Sinister Sisterhood are devious, deadly and dedicated --- but not necessarily to Elle's cause.
BAD PRESS iNK | 9781916084520
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