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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 $35,560 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 August 17th and August 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 Suspense/Thriller Author Spotlight of Caroline B. Cooney's BEFORE SHE WAS HELEN, a domestic thriller perfect for fans of mystery books by Laura Lippman and Alice Feeney. Thirty-five readers will win a copy of the book, which releases on September 8th. The deadline for your entries is Friday, August 28th at noon ET.
Also, we are sharing Carol's latest "Bookreporter Talks To" interview with Finola Austin, whose newly released debut novel, BRONTË’S MISTRESS, will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick. Set in 1843, the book tells the story of Lydia Robinson, who is best known for her secret affair with Branwell Brontë, the brother of the famous Brontë sisters. In the interview, Finola discusses her research via books and scholarly writing and her travels to delve more deeply into the lives of her characters. Click here to watch the video and here to listen to the podcast.
View Our Latest "Bookaccino Live" Event
Last week, we hosted our second “Bookaccino Live: A Lively Talk About Books” event, where we featured 26 books releasing between mid-August and early September, as well as five coming in October. We had 200 readers in attendance, and this time we taped it for those of you who missed it. You also can see a list of the featured titles here.
Upcoming "Bookaccino Live" Events
We have scheduled our next two "Bookaccino Live" events. The first will be on Thursday, August 27th at 8pm ET, which will be a celebration of Bookreporter's 24th anniversary. Our guests will be 10 longtime Bookreporter reviewers who each will share three of their favorite summer reads. If you would like to attend, click here to sign up. Then, on Wednesday, September 16th at 2pm ET, we will talk about books coming out between September 15th and October 6th, along with five titles from November. You can sign up for that event here. Our room holds up to 500, so feel free to invite friends!
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, August 19th at 5pm ET: Browseabout Books Presents: Happy Hour with Fiona Davis: Be a part of a live, interactive conversation with bestselling author Fiona Davis to discuss her latest historical novel, THE LIONS OF FIFTH AVENUE, about a series of book thefts that roils the iconic New York Public Library, leaving two generations of strong-willed women to pick up the pieces.
Wednesday, August 19th 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. This week's special guest will be Kristina McMorris, author of SOLD ON A MONDAY.
Wednesday, August 19th at 10pm ET: Mysterious Galaxy Virtual Event: Mysterious Galaxy presents two New York Times bestselling authors in conversation: Michael Koryta and James Lee Burke. The discussion will cover Burke’s newest book in the Dave Robicheaux series, A PRIVATE CATHEDRAL.
Thursday, August 20th at 6pm ET: Malaprop's Virtual Event: Jill McCorkle, whose latest novel is HIEROGLYPHICS, will be in conversation with Lee Smith, whose most recent book is BLUE MARLIN, a novella.
Thursday, August 20th at 8pm ET: Skylark Bookshop Virtual Event: Join award-winning author Raven Leilani for a virtual discussion of her debut novel of sexual manners and racial politics, LUSTER.
Sunday, August 23rd at 2pm ET: Boswell Book Company Virtual Event: Boswell hosts a virtual event with British author Emma Jane Unsworth for a chat about her latest book, GROWN UPS, one of Bustle’s Most Anticipated Books of Summer 2020 and a favorite of several Boswell booksellers.
Tuesday, August 25th at 1pm ET: Politics & Prose Live at Lunch!: Politics & Prose Live! presents a Literary Lunch Series event featuring Jacki Lyden in conversation with Eric Weiner, author of THE SOCRATES EXPRESS: In Search of Life Lessons from Dead Philosophers.
Tuesday, August 25th at 6pm ET: Writing Historical Fiction about Real People: Finola Austin, author of the debut novel BRONTË’S MISTRESS, will be in conversation with writer and actor Susan Wands for a Q&A on the joys and perils of writing fiction based on real historical figures.
This Week's Bonus News:
Our Suspense/Thriller Author Spotlight & Contest for BEFORE SHE WAS HELEN by Caroline B. Cooney
Enter to Win a Copy Before Its September 8th Release
Caroline B. Cooney's latest novel, BEFORE SHE WAS HELEN, is an absorbing mystery that brings decades-old secrets to life and explores what happens when the lie you've been living falls apart and you're forced to confront the truth. We have 35 copies to give away to those who would like to read the book, which releases on September 8th. To enter, please fill out this form by Friday, August 28th at noon ET.
BEFORE SHE WAS HELEN by Caroline B. Cooney (Domestic Thriller/Mystery)
When Clemmie goes next door to check on her difficult and unlikable neighbor, Dom, he isn't there. But something else is. Something stunning, beautiful and inexplicable. Clemmie photographs the wondrous object on her cell phone and makes the irrevocable error of forwarding it. As the picture swirls over the internet, Clemmie tries desperately to keep a grip on her own personal network of secrets. Can 50 years of careful hiding under names not her own be ruined by one careless picture?
And although what Clemmie finds is a work of art, what the police find is a body...and she was the last person at the crime scene, where she left her fingerprints. Suddenly thrown into the heart of a twisted investigation, Clemmie finds herself the uncomfortable subject of intense scrutiny. And the bland, quiet life Clemmie has built for herself in her sleepy South Carolina retirement community comes crashing down as her dark past surges into the present.
- Click here to read Caroline B. Cooney's bio.
- Click here to visit Caroline B. Cooney's website.
- Connect with Caroline B. Cooney on Facebook and Pinterest.
Click here to read more in our Suspense/Thriller Author Spotlight
and enter the contest.
On Sale the Week of August 17th in Hardcover
August 18th
ATOMIC LOVE by Jennie Fields (Historical Fiction)
Rosalind Porter has always defied expectations --- in her work as a physicist on the Manhattan Project and in her passionate love affair with colleague Thomas Weaver. Five years after the end of both, her guilt over the bomb and her heartbreak over Weaver are intertwined. Then Weaver gets back in touch --- and so does the FBI. Special Agent Charlie Szydlo wants Roz to spy on Weaver, whom the FBI suspects of passing nuclear secrets to Russia. Roz helped to develop these secrets and knows better than anyone the devastating power such knowledge holds. But can she spy on a man she still loves, despite her better instincts? At the same time, something about Charlie draws her in. As Rosalind's feelings for each man deepen, so too does the danger in which she finds herself.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593085332
BETTY by Tiffany McDaniel (Historical Fiction)
"A girl comes of age against the knife." So begins the story of Betty Carpenter. Born in a bathtub in 1954 to a white mother and a Cherokee father, Betty is the sixth of eight siblings. The world they inhabit in the rural town of Breathed, Ohio, is one of poverty and violence --- both from outside the family and, devastatingly, from within. The lush landscape becomes a kind of refuge for Betty, but when her family's darkest secrets are brought to light, she has no choice but to reckon with the brutal history hiding in the hills, as well as the heart-wrenching cruelties and incredible characters she encounters.
Knopf | 9780525657071
BLOOD VICTORY: A Burning Girl Thriller by Christopher Rice (Thriller)
As the test subject of an experimental drug, Charlotte Rowe was infused with extraordinary powers. As the secret weapon of a mysterious consortium, she baits evil predators and stops them in their tracks. But it takes more than fear to trigger what’s coursing through Charlotte’s blood. She needs to be terrorized. Serial killer Cyrus Mattingly is up to the task. Cyrus is a long-haul truck driver, and his cargo bay is a gallery of horrors on wheels. To stop his bloodshed, Charlotte will become his next victim, reining in her powers so she can face each of his evils in turn. Before she can unleash vengeance on a scale this killer has never seen, Charlotte and her team will have to go the distance into hell.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781542014724
BLOOD WORLD by Chris Mooney (Science Fiction/Thriller)
The blood of “carriers” is the most valuable commodity on earth. When treated with a new wonder drug, it cures disease, increases power and makes the recipient a virtual superman. It also makes the carriers targets. Young people with the right genes are ripped from their families and stashed in “blood farms.” Ellie Batista became an LAPD officer specifically to fight this evil as a member of the Blood Squad, but her ambitions are thwarted --- until the day she and her partner are ambushed during a routine stop. The resulting events plunge her into an undercover world more dangerous than she ever could have imagined. A madman has found a way to increase the potency of the blood to levels previously unimagined, and Ellie is the only hope to stop him before the body count explodes.
Berkley | 9780593197639
THE GLASS KINGDOM by Lawrence Osborne (Literary Thriller)
Escaping New York for the anonymity of Bangkok, Sarah Mullins arrives in Thailand on the lam with nothing more than a suitcase of purloined money. Her plan is to lie low and map out her next move in a high-end apartment complex called the Kingdom. It is not long before she meets the alluring Mali, a fellow tenant determined to bring the quiet American out of her shell. But as political chaos erupts on the streets below and attempted uprisings wrack the city, tensions tighten within the gilded compound. When the violence outside begins to invade the Kingdom in a series of strange disappearances, the residents are thrown into suspicion. Under the constant surveillance of the building’s watchful inhabitants, Sarah’s safe haven begins to feel like a snare.
Hogarth | 9781984824301
GROWN UPS by Emma Jane Unsworth (Fiction)
Jenny McLaine’s life is falling apart. Her friendships are flagging. Her body has failed her. She’s just lost her column at The Foof because she isn’t the fierce voice new feminism needs. Her ex has gotten together with another woman. And worst of all: Jenny’s mother is about to move in. Having left home at 18 to remake herself as a self-sufficient millennial, Jenny is now in her 30s, and nothing is as she thought it would be. Least of all adulthood. Told in live-wire prose, texts, emails, script dialogue and social media messages, GROWN UPS is a neurotic dramedy of 21st-century manners for the digital age.
Gallery/Scout Press | 9781982141936
IMPERSONATION by Heidi Pitlor (Fiction)
Allie Lang is a professional ghostwriter and a perpetually broke single mother. Years of navigating her own and America’s cultural definitions of motherhood have left her a lapsed idealist. Lana Breban is a powerhouse lawyer, economist and advocate for women’s rights with designs on elected office. She and her staff have decided she needs help softening her public image and that a memoir about her life as a mother will help. When Allie lands the job as Lana’s ghostwriter, it seems as if things will finally go Allie’s way. But then childcare arrangements unravel, she falls behind on her rent, it turns out that Lana is better at critiquing than actually providing material, and Allie’s boyfriend decides to go on a road trip toward self-discovery.
Algonquin Books | 9781616207915
KILLER, COME BACK TO ME: The Crime Stories of Ray Bradbury by Ray Bradbury (Hard-boiled Crime Fiction/Short Stories)
Honoring the 100th birthday of Ray Bradbury, this definitive collection of the master's less well-known crime fiction, published in a high-grade premium collectible edition, features classic stories and rare gems. Is it murder to destroy a robot if it looks and speaks and thinks and feels like a human being? Can a ventriloquist be incriminated by the testimony of his own dummy? Can a time traveler prevent his younger self from killing the woman they both loved? And can the survivor of a pair of Siamese twins investigate his own brother's murder? No other writer has ever rivaled the imagination and narrative gifts of Ray Bradbury, and the 20 stories in KILLER, COME BACK TO ME demonstrate this singular writer's extraordinary range, influence and emotional power.
Hard Case Crime | 9781789095395
THE LESS DEAD by Denise Mina (Mystery/Thriller)
Dr. Margo Dunlop’s adoptive mom just passed away, and she can't begin to empty the house --- or, it seems, get her brother on the phone. Not to mention she's newly single, secretly pregnant and worried about her best friend's dangerous relationship. In an effort to cheer herself up, she goes in search of her birth mother. Instead she finds Nikki, her mother's sister. Aunt Nikki isn't what Margo expects, and she brings upsetting news: Margo's mother is dead. Worse, she was murdered years ago, and her killer is still at large --- and sending Nikki threatening letters. Then Margo receives a letter, too. Someone out there has been waiting and watching, and in Margo sees the spitting image of her mother.
Mulholland Books | 9780316528511
ORDINARY HAZARDS by Anna Bruno (Fiction)
It’s 5pm on a Wednesday when Emma settles into her hometown bar with a motley crew of locals, all unaware that a series of decisions over the course of a single night is about to change their lives forever. As the evening unfolds, key details about Emma’s history emerge, and the past comes bearing down on her like a freight train. Why has Emma, a powerhouse in the business world, ended up here? What is she running away from? And what is she willing to give up to recapture the love she once cherished?
Atria Books | 9781982126957
THE ORGAN THIEVES: The Shocking Story of the First Heart Transplant in the Segregated South by Chip Jones (History)
In 1968, Bruce Tucker, a black man, went into Virginia’s top research hospital with a head injury, only to have his heart taken out of his body and put into the chest of a white businessman. Now, in THE ORGAN THIEVES, Pulitzer Prize-nominated journalist Chip Jones exposes the horrifying inequality surrounding Tucker’s death and how he was used as a human guinea pig without his family’s permission or knowledge. The circumstances surrounding his death reflect the long legacy of mistreating African Americans that began more than a century before with cadaver harvesting and worse. It culminated in efforts to win the heart transplant race in the late 1960s.
Gallery/Jeter Publishing | 9781982107529
THE QUEEN OF TUESDAY: A Lucille Ball Story by Darin Strauss (Historical Fiction)
THE QUEEN OF TUESDAY begins with a daring conceit --- that the author’s grandfather may have had an affair with Lucille Ball. The most powerful woman in the history of Hollywood was part of America’s first high-profile interracial marriage. She owned more movie sets than did any movie studio. She more or less single-handedly created the modern TV business. And yet Lucille’s off-camera life was in disarray. While acting out a happy marriage for millions, she suffered in private. Her partner couldn’t stay faithful. She struggled to balance her fame with the demands of being a mother, a creative genius, an entrepreneur and, most of all, a symbol.
Random House | 9780812992762
ROYAL by Danielle Steel (Historical Romance)
As the war rages on in the summer of 1943, causing massive destruction and widespread fear, the King and Queen choose to quietly send their youngest daughter, Princess Charlotte, to live with a trusted noble family in the country. Despite her fiery, headstrong nature, the princess's fragile health poses far too great a risk for her to remain in war-torn London.Third in line for the throne, 17-year-old Charlotte reluctantly uses an alias upon her arrival in Yorkshire, her two guardians the only keepers of her true identity. In time, she settles comfortably into a life out of the spotlight, befriending a young evacuee and training with her cherished horse. But no one predicts that in the coming months, she will fall deeply in love with her protectors' son.
Delacorte Press | 9780399179655
SEVEN DAYS IN SUMMER by Marcia Willett (Fiction)
A busy mom of twins, Liv is looking forward to a week at the Beach Hut --- even if she feels that something is not right between her and Matt. She's sure he's just too busy at work to join them on their summer holiday, not that he wants time alone. Baz, her father-in-law, loves having his family stay by the sea. But when an unexpected guest arrives, he finds himself torn between the past and the future. Still reeling from a breakup, all Sofia wants is a quiet summer --- until she meets Baz, and her plans are turned upside down. And back home, Matt might be missing Liv and the children, but when an old friend appears, he finds himself distracted. What does she know about his family's past that she's not letting on?
Thomas Dunne Books | 9781250177438
SHOW THEM YOU'RE GOOD: A Portrait of Boys in the City of Angels the Year Before College by Jeff Hobbs (Social Sciences)
Four teenage boys are high school seniors at two very different schools within the city of Los Angeles, the second largest school district in the nation with nearly 700,000 students. Combining complex social issues with the compelling experience of the individual, Jeff Hobbs takes us deep inside these boys’ worlds. The foursome includes Carlos, the younger son of undocumented delivery workers, who aims to follow in his older brother’s footsteps and attend an Ivy League college; Tio harbors serious ambitions to become an engineer, despite a father who doesn’t believe in him; Jon struggles to put distance between himself and his mother, who is suffocating him with her own expectations; and Owen, raised in a wealthy family, can’t get serious about academics but knows he must.
Scribner | 9781982116330
THE SMALLEST LIGHTS IN THE UNIVERSE: A Memoir by Sara Seager (Science/Memoir)
Sara Seager has always been in love with the stars. Now a pioneering planetary scientist, she searches for exoplanets --- especially that distant, elusive world that sustains life. But with the unexpected death of Seager’s husband, the purpose of her own life becomes hard for her to see. Suddenly, at 40, she is a widow and the single mother of two young boys. For the first time, she feels alone in the universe. As she struggles to navigate her life after loss, Seager takes solace in the alien beauty of exoplanets and the technical challenges of exploration. At the same time, she discovers earthbound connections that feel every bit as wondrous, when strangers and loved ones alike reach out to her across the space of her grief.
Crown | 9780525576259
WHEN THESE MOUNTAINS BURN by David Joy (Thriller)
When his addict son gets in deep with his dealer, it takes everything Raymond Mathis has to bail him out of trouble one last time. Frustrated by the slow pace and limitations of the law, Raymond decides to take matters into his own hands. After a workplace accident left him out of a job and in pain, Denny Rattler has spent years chasing his next high. He supports his habit through careful theft, following strict rules that keep him under the radar and out of jail. But when faced with opportunities too easy to resist, Denny makes two choices that change everything. For months, the DEA has been chasing the drug supply in the mountains to no avail, when a lead sets one agent on a path to crack the case wide open. But he'll need help from the most unexpected quarter.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780525536888
On Sale the Week of August 17th in Paperback
August 18th
ANIMALIA written by Jean-Baptiste Del Amo, translated by Frank Wynne (Fiction)
The small village of Puy-Larroque, southwest France, 1898. Éléonore is a child living with her father, a pig farmer whose terminal illness leaves him unable to work, and her God-fearing mother, who runs both farm and family with an iron hand. When World War I breaks out and the village empties, Éléonore gets a taste of the changes that will transform her world as the 20th century rolls on. In the second part of the novel, which takes place in the 1980s, the untamed world of Puy-Larroque seems gone forever. Now, Éléonore has herself aged into the role of matriarch, and the family is running a large industrial pig farm, where thousands of pigs churn daily through cycles of birth, growth and death.
Grove Press | 9780802149404
THE DAZZLING TRUTH by Helen Cullen (Fiction)
Paperback Original
In the courtyards of Trinity College, Dublin, in 1978, aspiring actress Maeve meets pottery student Murtagh Moone. As their relationship progresses, marriage and motherhood come in quick succession, but for Maeve, with the joy of children also comes the struggle to hold on to the truest parts of herself. Decades later, on a small Irish island, the Moone family are poised for celebration but instead are struck by tragedy. Each family member must find solace in their own separate way, until one dazzling truth brings them back together. But as the Moone family confront the past, they also journey toward a future that none of them could have predicted. Except perhaps Maeve herself.
Graydon House | 9781525815829
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 | 9780593099469
THE EXPECTATIONS by Alexander Tilney (Fiction)
St. James is an exclusive New England boarding school known for grooming generations of leaders. Ben Weeks is a true insider --- his ancestors helped found St. James, his older brother taught him all the slang, and he's just won a national championship in squash. But after 14 long years of waiting, Ben arrives at school only to find that the reality of St. James doesn't quite match up with his imaginings. At the same time, his new roommate, Ahmed Al-Khaled, the son of a fabulously wealthy Emirati sheik, can't navigate the unspoken rules of New England blue bloods. Even as Ben and Ahmed struggle to prove themselves in the place they have revered for so long, each of them must face losing it forever.
Back Bay Books | 9780316450393
HONESTLY, WE MEANT WELL by Grant Ginder (Fiction)
Family vacation always comes with baggage. The Wright family is in ruins. Sue Ellen Wright has what she thinks is a close-to-perfect life. A terrific career as a Classics professor, a loving husband and a son who is just about to safely leave the nest. But then disaster strikes. She learns that her husband is cheating, and that her son has made a complete mess of his life. So when the opportunity to take her family to a Greek island for a month presents itself, she jumps at the chance. This sunlit Aegean paradise --- with its mountains and beaches --- is, after all, where she first fell in love with both a man and an ancient culture. Perhaps Sue Ellen’s past will provide the key to her and her family’s salvation.
Flatiron Books | 9781250143167
IS THERE STILL SEX IN THE CITY? by Candace Bushnell (Fiction)
Set between the Upper East Side of Manhattan and a country enclave known as The Village, IS THERE STILL SEX IN THE CITY? follows a cohort of female friends --- Sassy, Kitty, Queenie, Tilda Tia, Marilyn and Candace --- as they navigate the ever-modernizing phenomena of midlife dating and relationships. There’s “Cubbing,” in which a sensible older woman suddenly becomes the love interest of a much younger man; the “Mona Lisa” Treatment, a vaginal restorative surgery often recommended to middle-aged women; and what it’s really like to go on Tinder dates as a fifty-something divorcée.
Grove Press | 9780802148865
JACKIE AND MARIA: A Novel of Jackie Kennedy & Maria Callas by Gill Paul (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Jackie Kennedy was contemplating leaving her ambitious young senator husband. Life in the public eye with an overly ambitious --- and unfaithful --- man was breaking her spirit. So when she's offered a holiday on the luxurious yacht owned by billionaire Ari Onassis, she says yes. Maria Callas is at the height of her operatic career and widely considered to be the finest soprano in the world. And then she's introduced to Aristotle Onassis, the world’s richest man. Stuck in a childless, sexless marriage, she finds her life being turned upside down by this hyper-intelligent and impeccably charming man. Little by little, Maria’s and Jackie’s lives begin to overlap, and they come closer and closer until everything they know about the world changes on a dime.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062952493
THE LAST ODYSSEY by James Rollins (Thriller/Adventure)
In the frozen tundra of Greenland, a group of modern-day researchers stumble on a shocking find: a medieval ship buried a half-mile below the ice. Inside the captain’s cabin is a clockwork gold map embedded with an intricate silver astrolabe. Once activated, the moving map traces the path of Odysseus’ famous ship as it sailed away from Troy. But the route detours as the map opens to reveal a fiery river leading to a hidden realm underneath the Mediterranean Sea. It is the subterranean world of Tartarus, the Greek name for Hell. When word of Tartarus spreads, the phantasmagoric horrors found in Homer’s tales are all too real --- and whoever possesses them can use their awesome power to control the future of humanity. Now, Sigma Force must prevent a tyrant from igniting a global war and cross the very gates of Hell.
William Morrow | 9780062892928
LITTLE DISASTERS by Sarah Vaughan (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
She is a stay-at-home mother of three with boundless reserves of patience, energy and love. After being friends for a decade, this is how Liz sees Jess. Then one moment changes everything. Dark thoughts and carefully guarded secrets surface --- and Liz is left questioning everything she thought she knew about her friend, and about herself. The truth can’t come soon enough.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781501172229
THE SEARCH PARTY by Simon Lelic (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
The entire town thinks 16-year-old Sadie Saunders is dead. Missing now for a week, they say she was murdered. And they think they know who did it. Sadie's five best friends aren’t so sure, and they vow to find out the truth. So they pack their bags and head into the woods where Sadie was last seen. But they’re not just friends, they’re suspects. And each of them has a secret. As the landscape opens up, and the darkness closes in, the reality of their situation becomes clear. This was never really a search party. It’s a witch hunt. And not everyone will make it home alive.
Berkley | 9780593098332
THE SECOND MOTHER by Jenny Milchman (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Julie Weathers isn't sure if she's running away or starting over, but moving to a remote island off the coast of Maine feels right for someone with reasons to flee her old life. The sun-washed, sea-stormed speck of land seems welcoming, the lobster plentiful, and the community close and tightly knit. She finds friends in her nearest neighbor and Callum, a man who appears to be using the island for the same thing as she: escape. But as Julie takes on the challenge of teaching the island's children, she comes to suspect that she may have traded one place shrouded in trouble for another, and she begins to wonder if the greatest danger on Mercy Island is its lost location far out to sea, or the people who live there.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781492694441
A SINGLE LIGHT by Tosca Lee (Dystopian Thriller)
Six months after vanishing into an underground silo with 60 others, Wynter and Chase emerge to find the area abandoned. There is no sign of Noah and the rest of the group that was supposed to greet them when they emerged --- the same people Wynter was counting on to help her locate the IV antibiotics her gravely ill friend, Julie, needs in order to live. As the clock ticks down on Julie’s life, Wynter and Chase embark on a desperate search for medicine and answers. But what they find is not a nation on the cusp of recovery thanks to the promising new vaccine Wynter herself had a hand in creating, but one decimated by disease. What happened while they were underground?
Howard Books | 9781501169083
TAKES ONE TO KNOW ONE by Susan Isaacs (Fiction)
Just a few years ago, Corie Geller was busting terrorists as an agent for the FBI. But at 35, she traded in her badge for the stability of marriage and motherhood. Between cooking meals and playing chauffeur, Corie scouts Arabic fiction for a few literary agencies and, on Wednesdays, has lunch with her fellow Shorehaven freelancers at a so-so French restaurant. Pete Delaney, a milquetoast package designer, always shows up early, sits in the same spot (often with a different phone in hand), and keeps one eye on the Jeep he parks in the lot across the street. Corie intuitively feels that Pete is hiding something. But does Pete really have a shady alternate life, or is Corie just imagining things, desperate to add some spark to her humdrum suburban existence?
Grove Press | 9780802149411
THEIR LITTLE SECRET: A Tom Thorne Novel by Mark Billingham (Mystery/Thriller)
When DI Tom Thorne arrives at the metro station, where a woman named Philippa Goodwin threw herself in front of an underground train, he inexplicably senses something awry and feels compelled to dig deeper. He soon discovers that she was the victim of a callous conman who preys on vulnerable women, and whose deception plunged Philippa to her end. Thorne enlists DI Nicola Tanner to help him track down the swindler and bring him to justice. But the detective duo gets more than they bargained for when a young man’s bludgeoned body turns up on the shore of a nearby seaside town. The two cases come together in a way that neither of the detectives could have foreseen.
Grove Press | 9780802148957
On Sale the Week of August 24th in Hardcover
August 25th
AGAINST THE LOVELESS WORLD by Susan Abulhawa (Fiction)
As Nahr sits, locked away in solitary confinement, she spends her days reflecting on the dramatic events that landed her in prison in a country she barely knows. Born in Kuwait in the ’70s to Palestinian refugees, she dreamed of falling in love with the perfect man, raising children and possibly opening her own beauty salon. Instead, the man she thinks she loves jilts her after a brief marriage, her family teeters on the brink of poverty, she’s forced to prostitute herself, and the U.S. invasion of Iraq makes her a refugee, as her parents had been. After trekking through another temporary home in Jordan, she lands in Palestine, where she finally makes a home, falls in love and her destiny unfolds under Israeli occupation.
Atria Books | 9781982137038
BE BAD, BE BOLD, BE BILLIE: Live Life the Billie Eilish Way by Scarlett Russell (Self-Help/Personal Growth)
With her trademark neon hair, imaginative, fashion-forward outfits, and thought-provoking lyrics, Billie Eilish refuses to conform to others’ expectations of what a young, female pop star should look and sound like. Only 18 years old, she’s already won four Grammy awards, is the youngest artist to record a James Bond theme song, and has graced the cover of Vogue magazine. BE BAD, BE BOLD, BE BILLIE captures the essence of this extraordinary artist and influencer and the values she embodies: learning to be yourself, standing up for what you believe, and dealing with haters. Scarlett Russell explores Billie’s incredible journey to stardom and offers insights and tips on how to adopt her poise and laid-back attitude to get where you want to be.
Harper Design | 9780063055278
THE EXILES by Christina Baker Kline (Historical Fiction)
Seduced by her employer’s son, Evangeline, a naïve young governess in early 19th-century London, is discharged when her pregnancy is discovered and sent to the notorious Newgate Prison. Months later, she is sentenced to Van Diemen’s Land, a penal colony in Australia. During the journey on a repurposed slave ship, the Medea, Evangeline strikes up a friendship with Hazel, who was sentenced to seven years transport for stealing a silver spoon. Though Australia has been home to Aboriginal people for more than 50,000 years, the British government considers its fledgling colony uninhabited and unsettled. By the time the Medea arrives, many of them have been forcibly relocated, including Mathinna, who has been adopted by the new governor of Van Diemen’s Land.
Custom House | 9780062356345
FINAL CUT by S. J. Watson (Psychological Thriller)
Blackwood Bay. An ordinary place, home to ordinary people. It used to be a buzzing seaside destination. But now, ravaged by the effects of dwindling tourism and economic downturn, it’s a ghost town --- and the perfect place for filmmaker Alex to shoot her new documentary. But the community is deeply suspicious of her intentions. After all, nothing exciting ever happens in Blackwood Bay. Or does it?
Harper | 9780062382153
HIS TRUTH IS MARCHING ON: John Lewis and the Power of Hope by Jon Meacham (Biography)
John Lewis, who at age 25 marched in Selma, Alabama, and was beaten on the Edmund Pettus Bridge, was a visionary and a man of faith. Drawing on decades of wide-ranging interviews with Lewis, Jon Meacham writes of how this great-grandson of a slave and son of an Alabama tenant farmer was inspired by the Bible and his teachers in nonviolence, Reverend James Lawson and Martin Luther King, Jr., to put his life on the line in the service of what Abraham Lincoln called “the better angels of our nature.” A believer in the injunction that one should love one's neighbor as oneself, Lewis was arguably a saint in our time, risking limb and life to bear witness for the powerless in the face of the powerful.
Random House | 9781984855022
THE MEMORY OF SOULS by Jenn Lyons (Fantasy)
Now that Relos Var’s plans have been revealed and demons are free to rampage across the empire, the fulfillment of the ancient prophecies --- and the end of the world --- is closer than ever. To buy time for humanity, Kihrin needs to convince the king of the Manol vané to perform an ancient ritual that will strip the entire race of their immortality, but it’s a ritual that certain vané will do anything to prevent. Including assassinating the messengers. Worse, Kihrin must come to terms with the horrifying possibility that his connection to the king of demons, Vol Karoth, is growing steadily in strength. How can he hope to save anyone when he might turn out to be the greatest threat of them all?
Tor Books | 9781250175571
PAYBACK by Lorenzo Carcaterra (Thriller)
Detective Eddie Kenwood is a dirty cop. He has the highest signed-confession rate in the NYPD and a distinguished career built on putting men behind bars --- whether they’re guilty or not doesn’t matter much to him. When Tank Rizzo’s partner, Pearl, tells him about an old family friend Kenwood put in jail for a murder he didn’t commit, Tank and Pearl vow to take Kenwood down. Also in need of a takedown: the money-laundering accounting firm where Tank’s brother used to work --- before he mysteriously died, leaving Tank the sole guardian of his nephew, Chris. Chris smells a rat and enlists Tank’s help to bring the men who had his father killed to justice.
Ballantine Books | 9780399177590
THE SILENCE by Kendra Elliot (Thriller)
A man is savagely murdered outside Portland, and Detective Mason Callahan finds blood-spatter evidence that tells a troubling story. Files reveal that the murder victim, Reuben Braswell, was a radical conspiracist. In his home, investigators find pages of diatribes against law enforcement, as well as ties to Mason’s fiancée, FBI special agent Ava McLane. The victim was her informant --- and had strong reasons to be paranoid. To Ava, Braswell’s rants were those of a wearying and harmless man…until they collide with her investigation into the murders of police officers and finding the connection becomes urgent. Meanwhile, Braswell’s brother and Ava’s twin sister both disappear, and disturbing acts of sabotage target Ava’s personal life.
Montlake | 9781542006767
SISTERS by Daisy Johnson (Fiction)
Born just 10 months apart, July and September are thick as thieves, never needing anyone but each other. Now, following a case of school bullying, the teens have moved away with their single mother to a long-abandoned family home near the shore. In their new, isolated life, July finds that the deep bond she has always shared with September is shifting in ways she cannot entirely understand. A creeping sense of dread and unease descends inside the house. Meanwhile, outside, the sisters push boundaries of behavior --- until a series of shocking encounters tests the limits of their shared experience, and forces shocking revelations about the girls’ past and future.
Riverhead Books | 9780593188958
THE SOCRATES EXPRESS: In Search of Life Lessons from Dead Philosophers by Eric Weiner (Philosophy/Essays)
We turn to philosophy for the same reasons we travel: to see the world from a different perspective, to unearth hidden beauty, and to find new ways of being. We want to learn how to embrace wonder. Face regrets. Sustain hope. Eric Weiner combines his twin passions for philosophy and global travel in a pilgrimage that uncovers surprising life lessons from great thinkers around the world, from Rousseau to Nietzsche, Confucius to Simone Weil. Traveling by train (the most thoughtful mode of transport), he journeys thousands of miles, making stops in Athens, Delhi, Wyoming, Coney Island, Frankfurt and points in between to reconnect with philosophy’s original purpose: teaching us how to lead wiser, more meaningful lives.
Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster | 9781501129018
SQUEEZE ME by Carl Hiaasen (Mystery/Humor)
It's the height of the Palm Beach charity ball season. But when a prominent high-society dowager suddenly vanishes during a swank gala, and is later found dead in a concrete grave, panic and chaos erupt. Kiki Pew was notable not just for her wealth and her jewels, she was an ardent fan of the Winter White House resident just down the road, and a founding member of the POTUSSIES, a group of women dedicated to supporting their President. Never one to miss an opportunity to play to his base, the President immediately declares that Kiki was the victim of rampaging immigrant hordes. This, it turns out, is far from the truth. The truth might just lie in the middle of the highway, where a bizarre discovery brings the First Lady's motorcade to a grinding halt.
Knopf | 9781524733452
SUMMER by Ali Smith (Fiction)
In the present, Sacha knows the world is in trouble. Her brother, Robert, just is trouble. Their mother and father are having trouble. Meanwhile, the world is in meltdown --- and the real meltdown hasn’t even started yet. In the past, a lovely summer. A different brother and sister know they’re living on borrowed time. This is a story about people on the brink of change. They’re family, but they think they’re strangers. So: Where does family begin? And what do people who think they have nothing in common have in common? Summer.
Pantheon | 9781101870792
THICK AS THIEVES by Sandra Brown (Thriller)
Twenty years ago in the dead of night, four seemingly random individuals pulled the ultimate heist and almost walked away with half a million dollars. But by daybreak, one of them was in the hospital, one was in jail, one was dead, and one got away with it. Arden Maxwell, the daughter of the man who disappeared all those years ago, has never reconciled with her father's abandonment of her and her sister. After countless personal setbacks, she decides to return to her family home near mysterious Caddo Lake and finally get answers to the many questions that torment her. Little does she know that two of her father's co-conspirators --- a war hero and a corrupt district attorney --- are watching her every move.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538751947
THIS IS THE NIGHT OUR HOUSE WILL CATCH FIRE: A Memoir by Nick Flynn (Memoir)
When Nick Flynn was seven years old, his mother set fire to their house. The event loomed large in his imagination for years, but it’s only after having a child of his own that he understands why. He returns with his young daughter to the landscape of his youth, reflecting on how his feral childhood has him still in its reins, and forms his memories into lyrical bedtime stories populated by the both sinister and wounded Mister Mann. THIS IS THE NIGHT OUR HOUSE WILL CATCH FIRE unravels the story of the fire that Flynn had to escape, and the ways in which, as an adult, he has carried that fire with him until it threatens to burn down his own house.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324005544
VESPER FLIGHTS by Helen Macdonald (Nature/Essays)
In VESPER FLIGHTS, Helen Macdonald brings together a collection of her best-loved essays, along with new pieces on topics ranging from nostalgia for a vanishing countryside to the tribulations of farming ostriches to her own private vespers while trying to fall asleep. Meditating on notions of captivity and freedom, immigration and flight, Helen invites us into her most intimate experiences: observing the massive migration of songbirds from the top of the Empire State Building, watching tens of thousands of cranes in Hungary, seeking the last golden orioles in Suffolk’s poplar forests. She writes with heart-tugging clarity about wild boar, swifts, mushroom hunting, migraines, the strangeness of birds’ nests, and the unexpected guidance and comfort we find when watching wildlife.
Grove Press | 9780802128812
WINTER COUNTS by David Heska Wanbli Weiden (Thriller)
Virgil Wounded Horse is the local enforcer on the Rosebud Indian Reservation in South Dakota. When justice is denied by the American legal system or the tribal council, Virgil is hired to deliver his own punishment. But when heroin makes its way into the reservation and finds Virgil’s nephew, his vigilantism suddenly becomes personal. He enlists the help of his ex-girlfriend and sets out to learn where the drugs are coming from, and how to make them stop. They follow a lead to Denver and find that drug cartels are rapidly expanding and forming new and terrifying alliances. And back on the reservation, a new tribal council initiative raises uncomfortable questions about money and power. As Virgil starts to link the pieces together, he must face his own demons and reclaim his Native identity.
Ecco | 9780062968944
On Sale the Week of August 24th in Paperback
August 25th
A BOOK OF BONES by John Connolly (Supernatural Thriller)
On a lonely moor in northern England, the body of a young woman is discovered. In the south, a girl lies buried beneath a Saxon mound. To the southeast, the ruins of a priory hide a human skull. Each is a sacrifice, a summons. And something in the darkness has heard the call. Charlie Parker has also heard it, and from the forests of Maine to the deserts of the Mexican border, from the canals of Amsterdam to the streets of London, he will track those who would cast the world into darkness. Parker fears no evil --- but evil fears him.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781982127527
THE BUTCHER’S DAUGHTER: A Foundlings Novel by Wendy Corsi Staub (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Investigative genealogist Amelia Crenshaw solves clients’ genetic puzzles, while hers remains shrouded in mystery. Now she suspects that the key to her birth parents’ identities lies in an unexpected connection to a stranger who’s hired her to find his long-lost daughter. Bracing herself for a shocking truth, Amelia is blindsided by a deadly one. NYPD Detective Stockton Barnes had walked away from his only child for her own good. He’ll lay down his life to protect her if he and Amelia can find out where --- and who --- she is. But someone has beat them to it, and she has a lethal score to settle. Amelia and Stockton’s entangled roots have unearthed a femme fatale whose family tree holds one of history’s most notorious killers.
William Morrow | 9780062742094
CHIMES OF A LOST CATHEDRAL by Janet Fitch (Historical Fiction)
After the loves and betrayals of THE REVOLUTION OF MARINA M., young poet Marina Makarova finds herself alone amid the devastation of the Russian Civil War --- pregnant and adrift, forced to rely on her own resourcefulness to find a place to wait out the birth of her child and eventually make her way back to her native city, Petrograd. After two years of revolution, the city that was once St. Petersburg is almost unrecognizable, the haunted, half-emptied, starving Capital of Once Had Been, its streets teeming with homeless children. Moved by their plight, though hardly better off herself, she takes on the challenge of caring for these orphans, until they become the tool of tragedy from an unexpected direction.
Back Bay Books | 9780316510080
THE CUTTING ROOM by Ashley Dyer (Mystery/Thriller)
Lured to a “crime scene” by a mysterious digital invitation, Ruth Lake is horrified by what she finds: a bizarre and gruesome tableau surrounded by a crowd of gawkers. The deadly work is the latest “art installation” designed by a diabolical criminal dubbed the Ferryman. Not only is this criminal cold-blooded, he’s a narcissistic exhibitionist desperate for an audience. He’s also clever at promoting his deadly handiwork. Exploiting England’s current true-crime craze, he uses social media to titillate and terrorize the public. Ruth is joined in the investigation by her partner Greg Carver, who is slowly regaining his strength after a run-in with another sadistic criminal. But Greg can’t seem to shake the bewildering effects of the head wound that nearly ended him.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062797728
DOMINICANA by Angie Cruz (Historical Fiction)
Fifteen-year-old Ana Cancion never dreamed of moving to America. But when Juan Ruiz proposes and promises to take her to New York City, she has to say yes. Their marriage is an opportunity for her entire close-knit family to eventually immigrate. So on New Year’s Day, 1965, Ana leaves behind everything she knows and becomes Ana Ruiz. Lonely and miserable, Ana hatches a reckless plan to escape. But at the bus terminal, she is stopped by Cesar, Juan’s free-spirited younger brother, who convinces her to stay. As the Dominican Republic slides into political turmoil, Juan comes back to protect his family’s assets, leaving Cesar to take care of Ana. When Juan returns, Ana must decide once again between her heart and her duty to her family.
Flatiron Books | 9781250205940
THE FIFTH COLUMN by Andrew Gross (Historical Thriller)
February, 1939. Europe is on the brink of war. In New York City, thousands of Nazi supporters pack Madison Square Garden for a hate-filled rally. Charles Mossman is in a bar, reeling from the loss of his job and the demise of his marriage when a group draped in Nazi flags barges in. A drunk Charles takes a swing at one --- with tragic results. Two years later, America wrestles with whether or not to enter the war. Charles, newly released from prison, is wary of his estranged wife and daughter’s neighbors in the city’s German-immigrant community of Yorkville, where support for Hitler is common. Trudi and Willi Bauer seem like a kindly Swiss couple. But as the threat of war grows, so do fears of a “fifth column,” a group of German spies embedded into everyday American life. Are the Bauers part of a sinister conspiracy?
Minotaur Books | 9781250756015
FKA USA by Reed King (Science Fiction/Humor)
It is 2085, and Truckee Wallace, a factory worker in Crunchtown 407 (formerly Little Rock, Arkansas, before the secessions), has no grand ambitions besides maybe, possibly, losing his virginity someday. But when Truckee is thrust unexpectedly into the spotlight, he is tapped by the President for a sensitive political mission: to deliver a talking goat across the continent. The fate of the world depends upon it. The problem is, Truckee’s not sure it’s worth it. Joined on the road by an android who wants to be human and a former convict lobotomized in Texas, Truckee will navigate an environmentally depleted and lawless continent with devastating --- and hilarious --- parallels to our own.
Flatiron Books | 9781250108913
HEAVEN, MY HOME: A Highway 59 Novel by Attica Locke (Mystery)
Nine-year-old Levi King knew he should have left for home sooner; now he's alone in the darkness of vast Caddo Lake. A sudden noise distracts him, and all goes dark. Darren Matthews is trying to emerge from another kind of darkness. After the events of his previous investigation, his marriage is in a precarious state of rebuilding, and his career and reputation lie in the hands of his mother. She now holds the key to his freedom, and is not above a little maternal blackmail to press her advantage. Levi's disappearance has links to Darren's last case, and to a wealthy businesswoman --- the boy's grandmother --- who seems more concerned about the fate of her business than that of her grandson.
Mulholland Books | 9780316363396
A KEEPER by Graham Norton (Mystery)
When Elizabeth Keane returns to Ireland after her mother’s death, she’s focused only on saying goodbye to that dark and dismal part of her life. Her childhood home is packed solid with useless junk, her mother’s presence already fading. But within this mess, she discovers a small stash of letters --- and, ultimately, the truth. Forty years earlier, a young woman stumbles from a remote stone house, the night quiet except for the constant wind that encircles her as she hurries deeper into the darkness away from the cliffs and the sea. She has no sense of where she is going, only that she must keep on.
Washington Square Press | 9781982117771
LETHAL AGENT: A Mitch Rapp Novel by Vince Flynn and Kyle Mills (Political Thriller)
ISIS kidnaps a brilliant French microbiologist and forces him to begin manufacturing anthrax. Slickly produced videos chronicling his progress and threatening an imminent attack are posted to the internet. ISIS recruits a Mexican drug cartel to smuggle the bioweapon across the border, but it’s really just a diversion. The terrorist organization needs to keep Mitch Rapp and Irene Kennedy distracted long enough to weaponize a deadly virus that they stumbled upon in Yemen. If they succeed, they’ll trigger a pandemic that could rewrite the world order. Rapp embarks on a mission to infiltrate the Mexican cartels and track down the ISIS leader who he failed to kill during their last confrontation.
Pocket Books | 9781501190636
A LITTLE HATRED by Joe Abercrombie (Historical Fantasy)
The chimneys of industry rise over Adua, and the world seethes with new opportunities. But old scores run deep as ever. On the blood-soaked borders of Angland, Leo dan Brock struggles to win fame on the battlefield and defeat the marauding armies of Stour Nightfall. He hopes for help from the crown. But King Jezal's son, the feckless Prince Orso, is a man who specializes in disappointments. Savine dan Glokta --- socialite, investor and daughter of the most feared man in the Union --- plans to claw her way to the top of the slag-heap of society by any means necessary. But the slums boil over with a rage that all the money in the world cannot control. With the help of the mad hillwoman Isern-i-Phail, Rikke struggles to control the blessing, or the curse, of the Long Eye.
Orbit | 9780316187176
LOVE SOLD SEPARATELY by Ellen Meister (Mystery/Romance)
Paperback Original
Dana Barry has nothing against rules. She just knows they’re meant to be bent. So it’s no wonder the single, twentysomething, aspiring actress loses her day job. Now her life is a mess…until she hears the Shopping Channel is auditioning. Relying on her knack for knowing what makes people tick, she lands a gig on air. But before she can say office politics, Dana is caught in the biggest drama of her life. The star host --- a diva who terrorized the entire staff --- is found dead. Dana knows the prime suspect is innocent. The heat is on, and Dana thinks she’s ready for it…until she tangles with the tall, dark and smoldering detective in charge.
Mira | 9780778309314
A MADNESS OF SUNSHINE by Nalini Singh (Mystery/Thriller)
On the rugged West Coast of New Zealand, Golden Cove is more than just a town where people live. The adults are more than neighbors, and the children are more than schoolmates. That is until one fateful summer --- and several vanished bodies --- shatters the trust holding Golden Cove together. All that’s left are whispers behind closed doors, broken friendships and a silent agreement not to look back. But they can’t run from the past forever. Eight years later, a beautiful young woman disappears without a trace, and the residents of Golden Cove wonder if their home shelters something far more dangerous than an unforgiving landscape. It’s not long before the dark past collides with the haunting present and deadly secrets come to light.
Berkley | 9780593099094
OFF THE GRID by Robert McCaw (Mystery/Thriller)
A scrap of cloth fluttering in the wind leads Hilo police Chief Detective Koa Kāne to the tortured remains of an unfortunate soul left to burn in the path of an advancing lava flow. For Koa, it’s the second gruesome homicide of the day, and he soon discovers the murders are linked. These grisly crimes on Hawaiʻi’s Big Island could rewrite history --- or cost Koa his career. The dead, a reclusive couple living off the grid, turn out to be mysterious fugitives. The CIA, the Chinese government and the Defense Intelligence Agency attempt to thwart Koa’s investigation and obscure the victims’ true identities. Undeterred by mounting political pressure, Koa pursues the truth only to find himself drawn into a web of international intrigue.
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608093908
OVERTHROW by Caleb Crain (Fiction)
One autumn night, as a grad student named Matthew is walking home from the subway, a handsome skateboarder catches his eye. Leif, a poet as well as a skater, invites Matthew to take part in an experiment with tarot cards. It's easier to know what's in other people's minds than most people realize, Leif and his friends claim. Do they believe in telepathy? Can they actually do it? Instead of writing his dissertation, Matthew soon finds himself falling for Leif and entangled with his friends, who are as idealistic as the Occupy encampment they like to visit. When the group runs afoul of a government contractor, an avalanche of news coverage, internet outrage and legal repercussions overwhelms them.
Penguin Books | 9780525560470
PRINCE ALBERT: The Man Who Saved the Monarchy by A. N. Wilson (Biography)
For more than six decades, Queen Victoria ruled a great Empire at the height of its power. Beside her for more than 20 of those years was the love of her life, her trusted husband and father of their nine children, Prince Albert. But while Victoria is seen as the embodiment of her time, its values and its paradoxes, it was Prince Albert, A. N. Wilson expertly argues, who was at the vanguard of Victorian Britain’s transformation as a vibrant and extraordinary center of political, technological, scientific and intellectual advancement. Far more than just the product of his age, Albert was one of its influencers and architects. It is impossible to understand 19th-century England without knowing the story of this gifted visionary leader, Wilson contends.
Harper Perennial | 9780062749567
THE RECKLESS OATH WE MADE by Bryn Greenwood (Fiction)
Zee has never admitted to needing anybody. But she needs Gentry. Her tough exterior shelters a heart that’s loyal to the point of self-destruction, while autistic Gentry wears his heart on his sleeve, including his desire to protect Zee at all costs. When an abduction tears Zee’s family apart, she turns to Gentry --- and sets in motion a journey and a love that will change their lives forever.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780525541851
THE SECOND SLEEP by Robert Harris (Historical Thriller)
1468. A young priest, Christopher Fairfax, arrives in a remote Exmoor village to conduct the funeral of his predecessor. The land around is strewn with ancient artifacts --- coins, fragments of glass, human bones --- which the old parson used to collect. Did his obsession with the past lead to his death? Fairfax becomes determined to discover the truth. Over the course of the next six days, everything he believes --- about himself, his faith and the history of his world --- will be tested to destruction.
Vintage | 9780525567080
THE STRANGER INSIDE by Lisa Unger (Psychological Thriller)
Twelve-year-old Rain Winter narrowly escaped an abduction while walking to a friend’s house. Her two best friends, Tess and Hank, were not as lucky. Tess never came home, and Hank was held in captivity before managing to escape. Their abductor was sent to prison but years later was released. Then someone delivered real justice --- and killed him in cold blood. Now Rain is living the perfect suburban life, her dark childhood buried deep. But when another brutal murderer who escaped justice is found dead, Rain is unexpectedly drawn into the case. Eerie similarities to the murder of her friends’ abductor force Rain to revisit memories she’s worked hard to leave behind.
Park Row | 9780778389286
TOO CLOSE TO HOME by Andrew Grant (Mystery/Thriller)
An intelligence agent-turned-courthouse janitor, Paul McGrath notices everything and everyone --- but no one notices him. It’s the perfect cover for the justice he seeks for both his father and the people who’ve been wronged by a corrupt system. At the courthouse, he stumbles on the case of Len Hendrie, a small businessman who’s been accused of torching a venture capitalist’s mansion. Though Hendrie admits starting the fire, McGrath learns how the VC has preyed on average Joes to benefit himself --- and his extensive wine collection. He can’t resist looking deeper into this financial predator and soon finds himself in a gray area between his avenging moral compass and the limits of the law.
Ballantine Books | 9780525619642
THE VENTRILOQUISTS by E.R. Ramzipoor (Historical Thriller)
Brussels, 1943. Twelve-year-old street orphan Helene survives by living as a boy and selling copies of the country’s most popular newspaper, Le Soir, now turned into Nazi propaganda. Helene’s world changes when she befriends a rogue journalist, Marc Aubrion, who draws her into a secret network that publishes dissident underground newspapers. The Nazis track down Aubrion’s team and give them an impossible choice: turn the resistance newspapers into a Nazi propaganda bomb that will sway public opinion against the Allies, or be killed. While pretending to do the Nazis’ bidding, they will instead publish a fake edition of Le Soir that pokes fun at Hitler and Stalin. The ventriloquists have agreed to die for a joke, and they have only 18 days to tell it.
Park Row | 9780778310167
THE WAREHOUSE by Rob Hart (Science Fiction/Thriller)
Paxton never thought he’d be working for Cloud, the giant tech company that’s eaten much of the American economy. Much less that he’d be moving into one of the company’s sprawling live-work facilities. But compared to what’s left outside, Cloud’s bland chainstore life of gleaming entertainment halls, open-plan offices and vast warehouses…well, it doesn’t seem so bad. It’s more than anyone else is offering. Zinnia never thought she’d be infiltrating Cloud. But now she’s undercover, inside the walls, risking it all to ferret out the company’s darkest secrets. And Paxton, with his ordinary little hopes and fears? He just might make the perfect pawn. If she can bear to sacrifice him.
Ballantine Books | 9781984823809
WHEN I WAS YOU by Amber Garza (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Kelly Medina gets a call from her son’s pediatrician to confirm her upcoming “well-baby” appointment. It’s a cruel mistake; her son left for college a year ago, and Kelly has never felt so alone. The receptionist quickly apologizes: there’s another mother in town named Kelly Medina, and she must have gotten their numbers switched. When Kelly just happens to bump into the single mother outside that pediatrician’s office, it’s simple curiosity getting the better of her. Their unlikely friendship brings Kelly a renewed sense of purpose --- taking care of this young woman and her adorable baby boy. But that friendship quickly turns to obsession, and when one Kelly disappears, the other one may know why.
Mira | 9780778361046
WHEN WE WERE VIKINGS by Andrew David MacDonald (Fiction)
For Zelda, a 21-year-old Viking enthusiast who lives with her older brother, Gert, life is best lived with some basic rules: 1) A smile means “thank you for doing something small that I liked.” 2) Fist bumps and dabs = respect. 3) Strange people are not appreciated in her home. 4) Tomatoes must go in the middle of the sandwich and not get the bread wet. 5) Sometimes the most important things don’t fit on lists. But when Zelda finds out that Gert has resorted to some questionable --- and dangerous --- methods to make enough money to keep them afloat, Zelda decides to launch her own quest. Her mission: to be legendary. It isn’t long before Zelda finds herself in a battle that tests the reach of her heroism, her love for her brother, and the depth of her Viking strength.
Gallery/Scout Press | 9781982126773
THE WOODS by Vanessa Savage (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
There's a lot from Tess' childhood that she would rather forget. The family who moved next door and brought chaos to their quiet lives. The two girls who were murdered, their killer never found. But the only thing she can't remember is the one thing she wishes she could. Ten years ago, Tess' older sister died. Ruled a tragic accident, the only witness was Tess herself, but she has never been able to remember what happened that night in the woods. Now living in London, Tess has resolved to put the trauma behind her. But an emergency call from her father forces her back to the family home, back to where her sister's body was found, and to the memories she thought were lost forever.
Mulholland Books | 9781538730126
THE WORLD DOESN’T REQUIRE YOU: Stories by Rion Amilcar Scott (Fiction/Short Stories)
Established by the leaders of America’s only successful slave revolt in the mid-19th century, the mythical town of Cross River, Maryland, still evokes the rhythms of its founding. Among its residents --- wildly spanning decades, perspectives and species --- are David Sherman, a struggling musician who just happens to be God’s last son; Tyrone, a ruthless yet charismatic PhD candidate, whose dissertation about a childhood game ignites mayhem in the neighboring, once-segregated town of Port Yooga; and Jim, an all-too-obedient robot who obeys his Master.
Liveright | 9781631497889
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