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Carol had so much fun catching up with Lisa Scottoline, whose first work of historical fiction, ETERNAL, is a New York Times bestseller and a Bets On selection. Lisa talked about her inspiration for the book, which was four decades in the making. The seeds of it were sown during a class she took at the University of Pennsylvania that was taught by Philip Roth, and the fictional works of Primo Levi were part of the curriculum. She was drawn to write about the rise of Fascism and Mussolini in Italy and how the invasion of the Nazis put the lives of Italian Jews in jeopardy. Lisa also discussed her research for the novel, including a trip to Italy where she created the videos that she has shared with readers on her website. Click here to watch the interview and here to listen to the podcast.
This is your last newsletter reminder to sign up for our third “Bookaccino Live” Book Group event, which will take place this Thursday, April 22nd at 8pm ET. Kim Michele Richardson will be our special guest, and Carol will talk to her about THE BOOK WOMAN OF TROUBLESOME CREEK, which has been a book club favorite for the past two years. She also will be answering questions from those in attendance, including a select few who will join us “on stage.” Click here to register.
Next month's "Bookaccino Live" afternoon event will take place on Wednesday, May 12th at 2pm ET. Carol will present titles releasing between May 11th and June 1st, along with a few from July, that she thinks will be of interest to our readers. Click here to sign up. Those attending the live event will be asked to answer a survey about the books from the presentation that they are most interested in reading and will be eligible to win prizes.
If you missed our April 14th event, where Carol talked about 29 titles coming out from April 13th to May 4th, along with seven June releases, you can watch it here and see a list of the featured titles here.
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, April 21st at 7pm ET: "Friends and Fiction": The "Friends and Fiction" authors --- Mary Kay Andrews, Kristin Harmel, Kristy Woodson Harvey, Patti Callahan Henry and Mary Alice Monroe --- will throw a launch party for Kristy's new book, UNDER THE SOUTHERN SKY.
Thursday, April 22nd at 8pm ET: "Bookaccino Live" Book Group Event: Carol Fitzgerald will talk to Kim Michele Richardson about THE BOOK WOMAN OF TROUBLESOME CREEK. Kim Michele also will answer questions from guests who will be "on stage," as well as from other members of the audience. Click here to register.
Thursday, April 22nd at 8pm ET: Powell's Books: Patrick Radden Keefe will talk about his new book, EMPIRE OF PAIN, with journalist Lydia Polgreen, the head of content for Gimlet Media.
Thursday, April 22nd at 9pm ET: Poisoned Pen Bookstore: D.J. Palmer will discuss his new thriller, THE PERFECT DAUGHTER, with special guest host Lee Child.
Saturday, April 24th at 10:30am ET: Buxton Books: Buxton Books is excited to host New York Times bestselling author Karen White on Independent Bookstore Day about her latest novel, THE LAST NIGHT IN LONDON.
Sunday, April 25th at 6pm ET: Live Talks Los Angeles: Malcolm Gladwell will be in conversation with Walter Isaacson discussing his latest book, THE BOMBER MAFIA: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War.
Sunday, April 25th at 7pm ET: "Friends and Fiction": For this special bonus episode, the "Friends and Fiction" authors will talk to Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai, whose international bestseller THE MOUNTAINS SING is now in paperback.
Monday, April 26th at 1pm ET: Square Books: Preorder a signed first edition of SOOLEY to guarantee a courtside seat to this one-on-one exhibition talk featuring John Grisham and ESPN's Wright Thompson and a chance to win a basketball autographed by John.
Monday, April 26th at 2pm ET: Lemuria Bookstore: John Grisham will talk to John Evans, owner of Lemuria Bookstore, about his new book, SOOLEY, via Facebook Live.
Monday, April 26th at 7pm ET: RJ Julia Booksellers: Join RJ Julia Booksellers for a night of love and betrayal in the London Blitz and the present day, as Karen White will be in conversation with Beatriz Williams about her new novel, THE LAST NIGHT IN LONDON.
Tuesday, April 27th at 5pm ET: The Strand Book Store: Join The Strand for a virtual event with Lorenzo Carcaterra for the launch of his new book, THREE DREAMERS: A Memoir of Family. He will be in conversation with New York Times bestselling author Adriana Trigiani.
Tuesday, April 27th at 7pm ET: Freeport Memorial Library: Carol Fitzgerald has her pulse on amazing books and authors. Come hear her recommendations for what to read in 2021!
This Week's Bonus News: Our Latest
"What's Your Book Group Reading This Month?"
Contest on ReadingGroupGuides.com
Enter to Win 12 Copies of WE BEGIN AT THE END
by Chris Whitaker for Your Group
Each month, we ask book groups to share the titles they are reading that month and rate them. From all entries, three winners will be selected, and each will win 12 copies of that month’s prize book for their group. Note: To be eligible to win, let us know the title of the book that YOUR book group is CURRENTLY reading, NOT the title we are giving away.
Our latest prize book is WE BEGIN AT THE END by Chris Whitaker, a Barnes & Noble Book Club pick and a Bookreporter.com Bets On selection. An instant New York Times bestseller, this genre-defying novel is about people who deserve so much more than life serves them. At times devastating, with flashes of humor and hope throughout, it is ultimately an inspiring tale of how the human spirit prevails and how, in the end, love --- in all its different guises --- wins. To enter, please fill out the form on this page by Wednesday, May 5th at noon ET.
WE BEGIN AT THE END by Chris Whitaker (Mystery/Thriller)
Walk has never left the coastal California town where he grew up. He may have become the chief of police, but he’s still trying to heal the old wound of having given the testimony that sent his best friend, Vincent King, to prison decades before. Now, 30 years later, Vincent is being released. Duchess is a 13-year-old self-proclaimed outlaw. Her mother, Star, grew up with Walk and Vincent. Walk is in overdrive trying to protect them, but Vincent and Star seem bent on sliding deeper into self-destruction. Star always burned bright, but recently that light has dimmed, leaving Duchess to parent not only her mother but her five-year-old brother. When trouble arrives with Vincent King, Walk and Duchess find they will be unable to do anything but usher it in, arms wide closed.
- Click here to read more about the book.
- Click here to read our review.
- Click here to read an excerpt.
- Click here for the discussion guide.
- Click here to read Carol's Bookreporter.com Bets On commentary.
- Click here to watch Carol's "Bookreporter Talks To" interview with Chris Whitaker.
- Click here to listen to a podcast of the interview.
Click here to enter the contest.
On Sale the Week of April 19th in Hardcover
April 20th
BLOOD AND TREASURE: Daniel Boone and the Fight for America's First Frontier by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin (Biography)
It is the mid-18th century, and in the 13 colonies founded by Great Britain, anxious colonists desperate to conquer and settle North America’s “First Frontier” beyond the Appalachian Mountains commence a series of bloody battles. These violent conflicts are waged against the Native American tribes whose lands they covet, the French, and finally against the mother country itself in an American Revolution destined to reverberate around the world. This is the setting of BLOOD AND TREASURE, and the guide to this epic narrative is America’s first and arguably greatest pathfinder, Daniel Boone --- the Revolutionary War hero whose explorations into the forested frontier beyond the great mountains would become the stuff of legend.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250247131
THE CAPTAIN & ME: On and Off the Field with Thurman Munson by Ron Blomberg and Dan Epstein (Sports/Memoir)
As back-to-back No. 1 draft picks for the New York Yankees, Ron Blomberg and Thurman Munson made for an odd couple. One was a good-looking, gregarious kid from Atlanta who cheerfully talked anyone’s ear off at the slightest provocation; the other was a dumpy, grumpy dude from the Midwest rust belt who was about as fond of making idle chit-chat as he was of shaving. Despite the surface differences, the two men would form a close attachment as they ignited a youth movement with the 1970s Yankees. Now, over 40 years after Munson's shocking death in a plane crash at age 32, Blomberg opens up to author Dan Epstein about the beloved Yankees captain in an extraordinary memoir that reaches far beyond baseball.
Triumph Books | 9781629378541
CRYING IN H MART: A Memoir by Michelle Zauner (Memoir)
With humor and heart, Michelle Zauner tells of growing up one of the few Asian American kids at her school in Eugene, Oregon; of struggling with her mother's particular, high expectations of her; of a painful adolescence; of treasured months spent in her grandmother's tiny apartment in Seoul, where she and her mother would bond, late at night, over heaping plates of food. As she grew up, moving to the East Coast for college, finding work in the restaurant industry, and performing gigs with her fledgling band --- and meeting the man who would become her husband --- her Koreanness began to feel ever more distant. It was her mother's diagnosis of terminal cancer that forced a reckoning with her identity and brought her to reclaim the gifts of taste, language and history that her mother had given her.
Knopf | 9780525657743
A GAMBLING MAN by David Baldacci (Historical Thriller)
In dire need of a fresh start, Aloysius Archer arrives in Bay Town, California. His first stop is a P.I. office where he is hoping to apprentice with a legendary private eye and former FBI agent named Willie Dash. He lands the job and immediately finds himself in the thick of a potential scandal: a blackmail case involving a wealthy well-connected politician running for mayor that soon spins into something even more sinister. As bodies begin falling, Archer and Dash must infiltrate the world of brothels, gambling dens, drug operations and long-hidden secrets, descending into the rotten bones of a corrupt town that is selling itself as the promised land --- but might actually be the road to perdition, and Archer’s final resting place.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538719671
GIRL, 11 by Amy Suiter Clarke (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Elle Castillo hosts a popular true crime podcast that focuses on cold cases of missing and abducted children. After four seasons of successfully solving these cases in Minnesota’s Twin Cities, Elle decides to tackle her white whale: The Countdown Killer. Twenty years ago, TCK was terrorizing the community, kidnapping and ritualistically murdering three girls over seven days, each a year younger than the last. Then, after he took his 11-year-old victim, the pattern --- and the murders --- abruptly stopped. When Elle follows up on a listener tip only to discover the man’s dead body, she feels at fault. Then, within days, a child is abducted --- a young girl who seems to fit suspiciously into the TCK sequence halted decades before.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9780358418931
HOT STEW by Fiona Mozley (Fiction)
In the middle of the bustle of Soho sits a building that young millionaire Agatha Howard wants to convert into luxury condos as soon as she can kick out all the tenants. However, the building in question houses a brothel, and Precious and Tabitha, two of the women who live and work there, are not going to go quietly. The fight over this piece of property also draws in the men who visit, including Robert, a one-time member of a far-right group and enforcer for Agatha’s father; Jackie, a policewoman intent on making London a safer place for all women; Bastian, a rich and dissatisfied party boy who pines for an ex-girlfriend; and a collection of vagabonds and strays who occupy the basement.
Algonquin Books | 9781643751559
I AM A GIRL FROM AFRICA: A Memoir by Elizabeth Nyamayaro (Memoir)
When a severe drought hit her village in Zimbabwe, Elizabeth, then eight, had no idea that this moment of utter devastation would come to define her life purpose. Unable to move from hunger, she encountered a United Nations aid worker who gave her a bowl of warm porridge and saved her life. This transformative moment inspired Elizabeth to become a humanitarian, and she vowed to dedicate her life to giving back to her community, her continent and the world. Grounded by the African concept of ubuntu --- “I am because we are” --- I AM A GIRL FROM AFRICA charts Elizabeth’s quest in pursuit of her dream from the small village of Goromonzi to Harare, London, New York and beyond.
Scribner | 9781982113018
THE LAST NIGHT IN LONDON by Karen White (Historical Fiction)
London, 1939. Eva Harlow and her best friend, Precious Dubose, are trying to make their way as fashion models. When Eva falls in love with Graham St. John, an aristocrat and Royal Air Force pilot, she can’t believe her luck. Then the Blitz devastates her world, and Eva finds herself slipping into a web of intrigue, spies and secrets. All it takes is one unwary moment to change their lives forever. London, 2019. American journalist Maddie Warner, whose life has been marked by the tragic loss of her mother, travels to London to interview Precious about her life in pre-WWII London. She finds herself drawn to both Precious and to Colin, her enigmatic surrogate nephew. As Maddie gets closer to her, she begins to unravel Precious’ haunting past.
Berkley | 9780451492012
MARGREETE'S HARBOR by Eleanor Morse (Historical Fiction)
Eleanor Morse's book begins with a fire. A fiercely independent, thrice-widowed woman living on her own in a rambling house near the Maine coast forgets a hot pan on the stovetop and nearly burns her place down. When Margreete Bright calls her daughter Liddie to confess, Liddie realizes that she can no longer live alone. Liddie, her husband Harry, and their children Eva and Bernie move from a settled life in Michigan across the country to Margreete’s isolated home, and begin a new life. MARGREETE'S HARBOR tells the story of 10 years in the history of a family: a novel of small moments, intimate betrayals, arrivals and disappearances that coincide with America during the late 1950s through the turbulent 1960s.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250271549
MIRRORLAND by Carole Johnstone (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Cat lives in Los Angeles, far away from 36 Westeryk Road, the imposing gothic house in Edinburgh where she and her estranged twin sister, El, grew up. As girls, they invented Mirrorland, a dark, imaginary place under the pantry stairs full of pirates, witches and clowns. These days Cat rarely thinks about their childhood home, or the fact that El now lives there with her husband, Ross. But when El mysteriously disappears after going out on her sailboat, Cat is forced to return to 36 Westeryk Road, which has scarcely changed in 20 years. The grand old house is still full of shadowy corners, and at every turn Cat finds herself stumbling on long-held secrets and terrifying ghosts from the past.
Scribner | 9781982136352
THE PERFECT DAUGHTER by D.J. Palmer (Psychological Thriller)
Sixteen-year-old Penny Francone is a murderer. Will she be found not guilty by reason of insanity? Or will she get a life sentence in a maximum-security prison? Already reeling after the sudden passing of her beloved husband, Grace is grateful that Massachusetts doesn't allow the death penalty. As Penny awaits trial in a state mental hospital, she is treated by Dr. Mitchell McHugh, a psychiatrist battling demons of his own. Grace’s determination to understand the why behind her daughter’s terrible crime fuels Mitch’s resolve to help the Francone family. Together, they set out in search of the truth about Penny, but discover instead a shocking hidden history of secrets, lies and betrayals that threatens to consume them all.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250267924
THE SON OF MR. SULEMAN by Eric Jerome Dickey (Romance)
Professor Pi Suleman is a Black man from Memphis with a lot to endure. He is constantly forced to bite his tongue in the face of one of his tenured colleague’s prejudices and microaggressions. At the same time, Pi is being blackmailed by a powerful white professor who threatens to claim he assaulted her, when in fact the truth is just the opposite. When he meets Gemma Buckingham, a sophisticated entrepreneur who has just moved to Memphis to escape a deep heartbreak, things begin to look up. But Pi’s whirlwind romance is interrupted when his absentee father passes away, and Pi is called to Los Angeles to both collect his inheritance and learn about the man who never acknowledged him.
Dutton | 9781524745233
THREE-MARTINI AFTERNOONS AT THE RITZ: The Rebellion of Sylvia Plath & Anne Sexton by Gail Crowther (Biography)
Introduced at a workshop in Boston University led by the acclaimed and famous poet Robert Lowell, Sylvia Plath and Anne Sexton formed a friendship that would soon evolve into a fierce rivalry, colored by jealousy and respect in equal terms. In the years that followed, these two women would not only become iconic figures in literature, but also lead curiously parallel lives haunted by mental illness, suicide attempts, self-doubt and difficult personal relationships. With weekly martini meetings at the Ritz to discuss everything from sex to suicide, theirs was a relationship as complex and subversive as their poetry.
Gallery Books | 9781982138394
WHEN A STRANGER COMES TO TOWN edited by Michael Koryta (Mystery/Short Stories)
It’s been said that all great literature boils down to one of two stories --- a man takes a journey, or a stranger comes to town. While mystery writers have been successfully using both approaches for generations, there’s something undeniably alluring in the nature of a stranger: the uninvited guest, the unacquainted neighbor, the fish out of water. No matter how or where they appear, strangers are walking mysteries, complete unknowns in once-familiar territories who disrupt our lives with unease and wonder. In the newest collection of stories by the Mystery Writers of America, each author weaves a fresh tale surrounding the eerie feeling that comes when a stranger enters our midst, featuring stories by prolific mystery writers such as Michael Connelly, Dean Koontz and Joe Hill.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335141477
April 23rd
AMERICA'S GAME IN THE WILD-CARD ERA: From Strike to Pandemic by Bryan Soderholm-Difatte (Sports)
In AMERICA'S GAME IN THE WILD-CARD ERA, Bryan Soderholm-Difatte provides a compelling examination of Major League Baseball since the 1994 players’ strike. He reveals how the last quarter century has been the most dynamic in MLB history and argues that bringing wild-card teams and the division-series round into the postseason mix have fundamentally changed how dynasties should be perceived. Following the major storylines for all 30 teams, along with the division races and state of dynasties over the past 25 years, AMERICA'S GAME IN THE WILD-CARD ERA is a captivating look into a new age of baseball.
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers | 9781538145937
THE RESHAPING OF AMERICA'S GAME: Major League Baseball After the Players' Strike by Bryan Soderholm-Difatte (Sports)
In THE RESHAPING OF AMERICA'S GAME, Bryan Soderholm-Difatte reflects on the factors and challenges that have changed Major League Baseball since the 1994-1995 players’ strike. He examines the consolidation of power in the Commissioner’s Office, the influx of Latin and Asian players, the boom in new stadiums, the influence of analytics in reshaping how rosters are constructed, the relationship between managers and the front office, and the rise of the power-game between pitchers and batters that has led to unprecedented strikeout and home run totals.
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers | 9781538145951
On Sale the Week of April 19th in Paperback
April 20th
108 STITCHES: Loose Threads, Ripping Yarns, and the Darndest Characters from My Time in the Game by Ron Darling (Sports)
In 108 STITCHES, Ron Darling offers his own take on the "six degrees of separation" game and knits together a collection of wild, wise and wistful stories reflecting the full arc of a life in and around our national pastime. Darling has played with or reported on just about everybody who has put on a uniform since 1983, and they in turn have played with or reported on just about everybody who put on a uniform in a previous generation. Through relationships with baseball legends on and off the field, like Yale coach Smoky Joe Wood, Willie Mays, Bart Giamatti, Tom Seaver and Mickey Mantle, Darling's reminiscences reach all the way back to Babe Ruth and other turn-of-the-century greats.
St. Martin's Griffin | 9781250252913
BRAISED PORK by An Yu (Fiction)
One autumn morning, Jia Jia walks into the bathroom of her lavish Beijing apartment to find her husband dead. One minute she was breakfasting with him and packing for an upcoming trip, the next, she finds him motionless in their half-full bathtub. Like something out of a dream, next to the tub Jia Jia discovers a pencil sketch of a strange watery figure, an image that swims into her mind and won’t leave. The mysterious drawing launches Jia Jia on an odyssey across contemporary Beijing as her path crosses some of the people who call the city home. Unencumbered by a marriage that had constrained her, Jia Jia travels into her past to try to discover things that were left unsaid by the people closest to her.
Grove Press | 9780802148728
DIVER’S PARADISE: A Roscoe Conklin Mystery by Davin Goodwin (Mystery)
After 25 years on the job, Detective Roscoe Conklin moves to Bonaire, a small island nestled in the southern Caribbean. But when his longtime police buddy and friend back home is murdered, Conklin calls his old department, trolling for information. It’s slow going. No surprise, there. After all, it’s an active investigation, and his compadres back home aren’t saying a word. When a suspicious mishap lands his significant other, Arabella, in the hospital, the island police conduct, at best, a sluggish investigation, stonewalling progress. Conklin questions the evidence and challenges the department’s methods. Something isn’t right. Arabella wasn’t the intended target. He was.
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608094363
FURMIDABLE FOES: A Mrs. Murphy Mystery by Rita Mae Brown and Sneaky Pie Brown (Mystery)
Spring arrives in northern Virginia, and the women of St. Luke’s Lutheran Church prepare for a Homecoming celebration like no other. Mary Minor “Harry” Harristeen, Susan Tucker and their friends are busy planting flowers and trimming hedges to get the church grounds in shape for the big day. But a note of a menace mars the beautiful spring: The brewery owned by Janice Childs and Mags Nielsen, two members of the gardening committee, gets robbed, with hundreds of dollars in merchandise taken off their delivery trucks. When Jeannie Cordle drops dead at a charity auction, poisoned by a fatal weed, Harry’s worst suspicions are confirmed: a killer lurks in their midst, one with a keen understanding of poisonous plants.
Bantam | 9780593130056
THE HAPPIEST GIRL IN THE WORLD by Alena Dillon (Fiction)
Paperback Original
For Sera Wheeler, the Olympics is the reason for everything. It’s why she trains 30 hours a week and starves herself to under 100 pounds. For her mother, Charlene --- hungry for glory she never had --- it’s why she rises before dawn to drive Sera to practice in a different state. It’s why, when Sera’s best friend reports the gymnastics doctor to the authority who selects the Olympic Team, Sera denies what she knows about his treatments, thus preserving favor. Their friendship shatters. Sera doubles down, taping broken toes, numbing torn muscles and pouring her family’s resources into the sport. Soon she isn’t training for the love of gymnastics. She’s training to make her disloyalty worthwhile. No matter the cost.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063019041
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 | 9780451491763
HER THREE LIVES by Cate Holahan (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Jade Thompson is an up-and-coming social media influencer whose fiancé, Greg, is a successful architect. To Greg’s children, his divorce from their mother and his new life can only mean a big mid-life crisis. To Jade, his suburban Connecticut upbringing isn’t an easy match with her Caribbean roots. A savage home invasion leaves Greg house-bound with a traumatic brain injury and glued to the live feeds from his ubiquitous security cameras. As the police investigate the crime, Jade begins to wonder what he may know about their attackers. And whether they are coming back. As Greg watches Jade’s comings and goings, he becomes convinced that her behavior is suspicious and that she’s hiding a big secret.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538736340
IN HER TRACKS by Robert Dugoni (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
Detective Tracy Crosswhite has been reassigned to the Seattle PD’s cold case unit and is immediately drawn to her first file: the abduction of a five-year-old girl whose parents, embattled in a poisonous divorce, were once prime suspects. While reconstructing the days leading up to the girl’s disappearance, Tracy is brought into an active investigation with former partner Kinsington Rowe. A young woman has vanished on an isolated jogging trail in North Seattle. To find two missing persons, Tracy will have to follow more than clues, which are both long cold and unsettlingly fresh. Given her own traumatic past, Tracy also must follow her instincts --- to whatever dark and dangerous places they may lead.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781542008372
THE KINDRED SPIRITS SUPPER CLUB by Amy E. Reichert (Romance)
Paperback Original
For Sabrina Monroe, moving back home to the Wisconsin Dells means returning to the Monroe family curse: the women in her family can see spirits who come to them for help with unfinished business. Molly, a bubbly rom-com-loving ghost, stuck by Sabrina's side all through her lonely childhood. Her personal life starts looking up when Ray, the new local restaurateur, invites Sabrina to his supper club, where he flirts with her over his famous Brandy Old-Fashioneds. He's charming and handsome, but Sabrina tells herself she doesn't have time for romance --- she needs to focus on finding a job. Except the longer she's in the Dells, the harder it is to resist her feelings for Ray.
Berkley | 9780593197776
THE LAST WATCH: A Novel of the Divide by J. S. Dewes (Science Fiction/Adventure)
Paperback Original
The Divide. It’s the edge of the universe. Now it’s collapsing --- and taking everyone and everything with it. The only ones who can stop it are the Sentinels --- the recruits, exiles and court-martialed dregs of the military. At the Divide, Adequin Rake commands the Argus. She has no resources, no comms --- nothing, except for the soldiers whom no one wanted. Her ace in the hole could be Cavalon Mercer --- genius and exiled prince who nuked his grandfather's genetic facility for “reasons.” She knows they’re humanity's last chance.
Tor Books | 9781250236340
LOST by James Patterson and James O. Born (Thriller)
The city of Miami is Detective Tom Moon's backyard. He's always kept it local, attending University of Miami on a football scholarship, and, as a Miami PD officer, protecting the city's most vulnerable. Now, as the new leader of an FBI task force called "Operation Guardian," it's his mission to combat international crime. Moon's investigative team discovers that the opportunistic "Blood Brothers" --- Russian nationals Roman and Emile Rostoff --- have evaded authorities while building a vast, powerful and deadly crime syndicate throughout Europe and metropolitan Miami. Moon played offense for U of M, but he's on the other side of the field this time. And as the Rostoffs zero in on a target dear to Tom, they're not playing by anyone's rules.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538750063
MAGGIE FINDS HER MUSE by Dee Ernst (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
All Maggie Bliss needs to do is write. Forty-eight years old and newly single (again!), she ventures to Paris in a last-ditch effort to finish her manuscript. With a marvelous apartment at her fingertips and an elegant housekeeper to meet her every need, a finished book --- and her dream of finally taking her career over the top --- is surely within her grasp. After all, how could she find anything except inspiration in Paris, with its sophistication, food and romance in the air? But the clock is running out, and between her charming ex-husband arriving in France for vacation and a handsome Frenchman appearing one morning in her bathtub, Maggie’s previously undisturbed peace goes by the wayside.
St. Martin's Griffin | 9781250768339
METROPOLITAN STORIES by Christine Coulson (Fiction)
Hidden behind the Picassos and Vermeers, the Temple of Dendur and the American Wing, exists another world: the hallways and offices, conservation studios, storerooms and cafeteria that are home to the museum's devoted and peculiar staff of 2,200 people --- along with a few ghosts. A surreal love letter to this private side of the Met, METROPOLITAN STORIES unfolds in a series of amusing and poignant vignettes in which we discover larger-than-life characters, the downside of survival, and the powerful voices of the art itself.
Other Press | 9781635420937
THE MOMENT OF TENDERNESS by Madeleine L'Engle (Fiction/Short Stories)
This powerful collection of short stories traces an emotional arc inspired by Madeleine L'Engle's early life and career, from her lonely childhood in New York to her life as a mother in small-town Connecticut. In a selection of 18 stories discovered by one of her granddaughters, we see how L'Engle's personal experiences and abiding faith informed the creation of her many cherished works. Some of these stories have never been published; others were refashioned into scenes for her novels and memoirs. Almost all were written in the 1940s and '50s, from L'Engle's college years until just before the publication of A WRINKLE IN TIME.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538717837
MY RIDE OR DIE by Leslie Cohen (Fiction/Humor)
Paperback Original
Fall in love. Get married. Turn to your female friends to be truly understood. Amanda and Sophie decide it’s time to flip the script. Why not spend their lives with each other and keep men on the side for fun, sex and occasionally fixing things around the house? They will rely on each other and give men the secondary role that they deserve. And much to their surprise, it actually works. They fix up a run-down brownstone and create the home they’ve always wanted. Soon, they have love and emotional support, as well as a wide variety of male “crushes” on the side. But when one of their crushes becomes something more, Amanda and Sophie must reconsider the life they’ve begun to build and how far they’re willing to go to keep it.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062966780
THE SILENT WIFE by Karin Slaughter (Mystery/Thriller)
Investigating the killing of a prisoner during a riot inside a state penitentiary, GBI investigator Will Trent is confronted with disturbing information. One of the inmates claims that he is innocent of a brutal attack for which he has always been the prime suspect. The man insists that he was framed by a corrupt law enforcement team led by Jeffrey Tolliver and that the real culprit is still out there. If Will reopens the investigation and implicates the dead police officer with a hero’s reputation of wrongdoing, the opportunistic convict is willing to provide the information GBI needs about the riot murder. Only days ago, another young woman was viciously murdered in a state park in northern Georgia. Is it a fluke, or could there be a serial killer on the loose?
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062858931
THE SOCIAL GRACES by Renée Rosen (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
1876. In the glittering world of Manhattan's upper crust, women are valued by their pedigree, dowry and, most importantly, connections. They have few rights and even less independence --- what they do have is society. The more celebrated the hostess, the more powerful the woman. And none is more powerful than Caroline Astor --- the Mrs. Astor. But times are changing. Alva Vanderbilt has recently married into one of America's richest families. But what good is dizzying wealth when society refuses to acknowledge you? Alva, who knows what it is to have nothing, will do whatever it takes to have everything.
Berkley | 9781984802811
SUCH A FUN AGE by Kiley Reid (Fiction)
Alix Chamberlain is shocked when her babysitter, Emira Tucker, is confronted while watching the Chamberlains' toddler one night, walking the aisles of their local high-end supermarket. The store's security guard, seeing a young Black woman out late with a white child, accuses Emira of kidnapping two-year-old Briar. A small crowd gathers, and a bystander films everything. At 25, Emira is about to lose her health insurance and has no idea what to do with her life. When the video of Emira unearths someone from Alix's past, both women find themselves on a crash course that will upend everything they think they know about themselves, and each other.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780525541912
THEY NEVER LEARN by Layne Fargo (Psychological Thriller)
Scarlett Clark is an exceptional English professor. But she’s even better at getting away with murder. Every year, she searches for the worst man at Gorman University and plots his well-deserved demise. Thanks to her meticulous planning, she’s avoided drawing attention to herself --- but as she’s preparing for her biggest kill yet, the school starts probing into the growing body count on campus. Determined to keep her enemies close, Scarlett insinuates herself into the investigation and charms the woman in charge, Dr. Mina Pierce. Everything is going according to her master plan…until she loses control with her latest victim, putting her secret life at risk of exposure.
Gallery/Scout Press | 9781982132033
A THOUSAND MOONS by Sebastian Barry (Fiction)
Winona Cole, an orphaned child of the Lakota Indians, finds herself growing up in an unconventional household on a farm in west Tennessee. Raised by her adoptive parents, John Cole and Thomas McNulty, whose story Sebastian Barry told in his acclaimed previous novel, DAYS WITHOUT END, she forges a life for herself beyond the violence and dispossession of her past. Tennessee is a state still riven by the bitter legacy of the Civil War, and the fragile harmony of her family is soon threatened by a further traumatic event --- one that Winona struggles to confront, let alone understand.
Penguin Books | 9780735223110
UNDER THE SOUTHERN SKY by Kristy Woodson Harvey (Fiction)
Paperback Original
When journalist Amelia Buxton discovers that a cluster of embryos belonging to her childhood friend Parker and his late wife Greer have been deemed “abandoned,” she’s put in the unenviable position of telling Parker --- and dredging up old wounds in the process. Parker has been unable to move forward since the loss of his beloved wife three years ago. He has all but forgotten about the frozen embryos. But once Amelia reveals her discovery, he knows that if he ever wants to get a part of Greer back, he’ll need to accept his fate as a single father and find a surrogate. Each dealing with their own private griefs, Parker and Amelia slowly begin to find solace in one another as they navigate an uncertain future against the backdrop of the pristine waters of their childhood home, Buxton Beach.
Gallery Books | 9781982117726
WARHOL by Blake Gopnik (Biography)
To this day, mention the name “Andy Warhol” to almost anyone, and you’ll hear about his famous images of soup cans and Marilyn Monroe. But though Pop Art became synonymous with Warhol’s name, his life and work are infinitely more complex and multi-faceted than that. In WARHOL, esteemed art critic Blake Gopnik takes on Andy Warhol in all his depth and dimensions. “The meanings of his art depend on the way he lived and who he was,” as Gopnik writes. “That’s why the details of his biography matter more than for almost any cultural figure,” from his working-class Pittsburgh upbringing as the child of immigrants to his early career in commercial art to his total immersion in the “performance” of being an artist, accompanied by global fame and stardom --- and his attempted assassination.
Ecco | 9780062298423
On Sale the Week of April 26th in Hardcover
April 27th
THE BOMBER MAFIA: A Dream, a Temptation, and the Longest Night of the Second World War by Malcolm Gladwell (History)
Malcolm Gladwell weaves together the stories of a Dutch genius and his homemade computer, a band of brothers in central Alabama, a British psychopath, and pyromaniacal chemists at Harvard to examine one of the greatest moral challenges in modern American history. Most military thinkers in the years leading up to World War II saw the airplane as an afterthought. But a small band of idealistic strategists, the “Bomber Mafia,” asked: What if precision bombing could cripple the enemy and make war far less lethal? In contrast, the bombing of Tokyo on the deadliest night of the war was the brainchild of General Curtis LeMay, whose brutal pragmatism and scorched-earth tactics in Japan cost thousands of civilian lives, but may have spared even more by averting a planned US invasion. Gladwell asks, “Was it worth it?”
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316296618
EVERYTHING IS FINE: A Memoir by Vince Granata (Memoir)
Vince Granata remembers standing in front of his home the day his mother and father returned from the hospital with his three new siblings in tow. He had just finished scrawling their names in orange chalk on the driveway: Christopher, Timothy and Elizabeth. Twenty-three years later, Vince was a thousand miles away when he received the news that would change his life --- his younger brother, Tim, propelled by unchecked schizophrenia, had killed their mother in their childhood home. Devastated by the grief of losing his mother, Vince is also consumed by an act so incomprehensible that it overshadows every happy memory of life growing up in his seemingly idyllic middle-class family. In EVERYTHING IS FINE, Vince examines the disease that irrevocably changed his family’s destiny.
Atria Books | 9781982133443
FINDING ASHLEY by Danielle Steel (Fiction)
Once a bestselling author, Melissa Henderson now pours all her energy into renovating a Victorian house nestled in the foothills of rural New England. Six years ago, she lost her young son to cancer, and her marriage dissolved. After a wildfire that threatens her home appears on the news, Melissa receives a call from her sister, Hattie. They were close once, but that was before Melissa withdrew from the world. Now Hattie, who became a nun at 25, is determined to help Melissa turn a new page. At 16, a pregnant Melissa was sent to a gloomy convent in Ireland to have --- and give up --- her baby. Hattie now feels compelled to embark on a journey that will change both their lives forever, and track down the child Melissa gave up.
Delacorte Press | 9781984821461
FUGITIVE TELEMETRY: The Murderbot Diaries by Martha Wells (Science Fiction/Adventure)
No, I didn't kill the dead human. If I had, I wouldn't dump the body in the station mall. When Murderbot discovers a dead body on Preservation Station, it knows it is going to have to assist station security to determine who the body is (was), how they were killed (that should be relatively straightforward, at least), and why (because apparently that matters to a lot of people --- who knew?) Yes, the unthinkable is about to happen: Murderbot must voluntarily speak to humans! Again!
Tordotcom | 9781250765376
GATHERING CROWDS: Catching Baseball Fever in the New Era of Free Agency by Paul Hensler (Sports)
In GATHERING CROWDS, Paul Hensler details how baseball grew and evolved from the late 1970s through the 1980s. Trepidation that without the reserve clause only wealthy teams would succeed diminished when small-market clubs in Minnesota, Kansas City and Boston found their way to pennants and World Series titles. The proliferation of games broadcast on cable and satellite systems seemed to create a thirst for more baseball rather than discourage fans from going to the ballpark. And as fans clicked the turnstiles and purchased more and more team-licensed products, the national pastime proved it could survive and thrive. By the end of the 1980s, baseball had positioned itself to progress into the future stronger and more popular than ever.
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers | 9781538132005
THE MUSIC OF BEES by Eileen Garvin (Fiction)
Forty-four-year-old Alice Holtzman is reeling from the unexpected death of her husband. Even the beloved honeybees she raises in her spare time aren't helping her feel better these days. In the grip of a panic attack, she nearly collides with Jake, a troubled, paraplegic teenager. Charmed by his sincere interest in her bees, Alice surprises herself by inviting Jake to her farm. And then there's Harry, a 24-year-old with debilitating social anxiety who is brought on to be Alice’s part-time farm help. As an unexpected friendship blossoms among Alice, Jake and Harry, a nefarious pesticide company moves to town, threatening the local honeybee population and illuminating deep-seated corruption in the community.
Dutton | 9780593183922
THE OTHERS by Sarah Blau (Psychological Thriller)
Dina Kaminer, one of Israel’s preeminent feminist scholars, has been found murdered, the word “mother” carved into her forehead and a baby doll fixed to her hands. For Sheila, her oldest friend, that word is a warning. Two decades before, she and Dina had joined a group of women who swore they would never have children. Instead, they would follow the example of “The Others,” women the Torah considered childless, but they saw as willingly child-free. Sheila has upheld her vow year after year, even as her friendship with Dina fell apart. But now, as more women turn up dead, each transformed into a mother against her will, Sheila must decide if she’s made the right choice…and who might want to make her pay the ultimate price.
Mulholland Books | 9780316460873
REUNION BEACH: Stories Inspired by Dorothea Benton Frank by Elin Hilderbrand, Adriana Trigiani, Patti Callahan, Mary Alice Monroe, and more (Fiction/Short Stories)
Inspired by the title Dorothea Benton Frank planned for her next book --- REUNION BEACH --- Elin Hilderbrand, Adriana Trigiani, Patti Callahan, Mary Alice Monroe and other bestselling authors and writers channeled their creativity, admiration and grief into stories and poems that celebrate this remarkable woman and her abiding love for the Lowcountry of her native South Carolina --- a land of beauty, history, charm and Gullah magic she so brilliantly brought to life in her acclaimed novels.
William Morrow | 9780063048935
REVELATIONS by Mary Sharratt (Historical Fiction)
Bishop’s Lynn, England, 1413. At the age of 40, Margery Kempe has nearly died giving birth to her 14th child. Fearing that another pregnancy might kill her, she makes a vow of celibacy, but she can’t trust her husband to keep his end of the bargain. Desperate for counsel, she visits the famous anchoress Dame Julian of Norwich. Pouring out her heart, Margery confesses that she has been haunted by visceral religious visions. Julian then offers up a confession of her own: she has written a secret, radical book about her own visions, Revelations of Divine Love. Nearing the end of her life and fearing Church authorities, Julian entrusts her precious book to Margery, who sets off on the adventure of a lifetime to secretly spread Julian's words.
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt | 9781328518774
RISK FACTOR: A Buddy Steel Mystery by Michael Brandman (Mystery)
Buddy Steel, acting Sheriff of Freedom, California, is enjoying some well-deserved R&R at a friend's mountain hideaway when he's called home to investigate a home invasion --- at his father's address. The break-in is just one in a series, perpetrated by ingeniously inventive burglars. To complicate matters, Buddy also must investigate a spate of cyber crimes targeting local businesses and individuals --- an area well outside of his experience and comfort zone. Already on the trail of the cybercriminals is LAPD Gang Enforcement's foremost computer geek, Detective Quinn Anthony. Buddy teams up with the unconventional --- and much younger --- brainiac to trace the convoluted trail of the hackers.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464214295
SHOOT-OUT AT SUGAR CREEK: A Caleb York Western by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins (Western)
An abusive, drunken young scoundrel resists arrest, holds a barmaid hostage, and gets what he deserves from the blazing .44 of Sheriff Caleb York. The late youth's powerful mother, cattle baroness Victoria Hammond, takes the news with stoic resignation. All she asks of Caleb is a favor: help her convince Willa Cullen --- the love of Caleb's life --- to sell her the spread that Willa's late father had carved out of the wilderness. As Willa refuses to give up her land without a fight, the seductive cattle queen sends an army of hired guns to Sugar Creek, the sole source of water available for Willa's herd. Caleb finds himself caught in the crossfire of a savage shoot-out between Willa's cowboys and Victoria's gunfighters.
Kensington | 9781496730121
SOOLEY by John Grisham (Fiction)
In the summer of his 17th year, Samuel Sooleymon gets the chance of a lifetime: a trip to the United States with his South Sudanese teammates to play in a showcase basketball tournament. However, a civil war is raging across South Sudan; while he is away, rebel troops ransack his village. His father is dead, his sister is missing, and his mother and two younger brothers are in a refugee camp. Partly out of sympathy, the coach of North Carolina Central offers him a scholarship. He moves to Durham, enrolls in classes, joins the team, and prepares to sit out his freshman season. But Samuel has something no other player has: a fierce determination to succeed so he can bring his family to America.
Doubleday | 9780385547680
THREE DREAMERS: A Memoir of Family by Lorenzo Carcaterra (Memoir)
At 66, Lorenzo Carcaterra finds it easier to reflect on the past than ruminate on the future. “By the time you reach my age,” he writes, “you have witnessed too much loss to not be aware of what lies ahead.” This turn to the past inspired a poignant memoir about the women who made him the man he is today --- his Italian grandmother, Nonna Maria; his mother, Raffaela; and his wife, Susan, a gifted editor and his professional champion. Standing with his children near Nonna Maria’s grave on a recent trip to Ischia, an island off the coast of Naples, Lorenzo realized how much of his life has been shaped by the women who taught him how to look for joy and overcome sorrow. This book is his tribute to them.
Ballantine Books | 9780593156711
WHEREABOUTS by Jhumpa Lahiri (Fiction)
Jhumpa Lahiri’s narrator, a woman questioning her place in the world, wavers between stasis and movement, between the need to belong and the refusal to form lasting ties. The city she calls home acts as a companion and interlocutor. We follow her to the pool she frequents, and to the train station that leads to her mother, who is mired in her own solitude after her husband’s untimely death. Among those who appear on this woman’s path are colleagues with whom she feels ill at ease, casual acquaintances, and “him,” a shadow who both consoles and unsettles her. Until one day at the sea, both overwhelmed and replenished by the sun’s vital heat, her perspective will abruptly change.
Knopf | 9780593318317
On Sale the Week of April 26th in Paperback
April 27th
THE CHIFFON TRENCHES: A Memoir by André Leon Talley (Memoir)
THE CHIFFON TRENCHES offers a candid look at the who’s who of the last 50 years of fashion. At once ruthless and empathetic, this engaging memoir tells with raw honesty the story of how André Leon Talley not only survived the brutal style landscape but thrived --- despite racism, illicit rumors, and all the other challenges of this notoriously cutthroat industry --- to become one of the most renowned voices and faces in fashion. Also woven throughout the book are André’s own personal struggles that have impacted him over the decades, along with intimate stories of those he has turned to for inspiration (Diana Vreeland, Diane von Fürstenberg and Lee Radziwill, to name a few) and, of course, his Southern roots and ongoing faith, which have guided him since childhood.
Ballantine Books | 9780593129272
CHOPPY WATER: A Stone Barrington Novel by Stuart Woods (Thriller/Adventure)
Stone Barrington and his friends are vacationing in Maine when their leisure is suddenly disrupted by extreme weather. To make matters worse, the inclement conditions allow for a menacing adversary to sneak in unnoticed and deliver a chilling message. Soon it becomes clear that the target of the incident is one of Stone's closest companions, and that these enemies have a grander scheme in mind. From the bustling streets of New York City to the sun-drenched shores of Key West, Stone intends to nab the criminals that appear behind him at every step. But his search only leads him further down a trail of peril and corruption, and he'll soon find that at the end of the road is a more dangerous foe than he could have imagined.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780593188309
DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN: The 1948 Election and the Battle for America's Soul by A. J. Baime (History)
On the eve of the 1948 election, America was a fractured country. Racism was rampant, foreign relations were fraught, and political parties were more divided than ever. Americans were certain that President Harry S. Truman’s political career was over. The only man in the world confident that Truman would win was Mr. Truman himself. And win he did. The year 1948 was a fight for the soul of a nation. In DEWEY DEFEATS TRUMAN, A. J. Baime sheds light on one of the most action-packed six months in American history, as Truman not only triumphs, but oversees watershed events --- the passing of the Marshall plan, the acknowledgement of Israel as a new state, the careful attention to the origins of the Cold War, and the first desegregation of the military.
Mariner Books | 9780358522492
DIAL A FOR AUNTIES by Jesse Q. Sutanto (Fiction/Humor)
Paperback Original
When Meddelin Chan ends up accidentally killing her blind date, her meddlesome mother calls for her even more meddlesome aunties to help get rid of the body. Unfortunately, a dead body proves to be a lot more challenging to dispose of than one might anticipate, especially when it is inadvertently shipped in a cake cooler to the over-the-top billionaire wedding that Meddy, her Ma and aunties are working. It's the biggest job yet for the family wedding business, and not even an unsavory corpse will get in the way of her auntie's perfect buttercream flowers. But things go from inconvenient to downright torturous when Meddy's great college love --- and biggest heartbreak --- makes a surprise appearance amid the wedding chaos.
Berkley | 9780593333037
THE END OF MEN by Christina Sweeney-Baird (Dystopian Thriller)
Paperback Original
The year is 2025, and a mysterious virus has broken out in Scotland --- a lethal illness that seems to affect only men. When Dr. Amanda MacLean reports this phenomenon, she is dismissed as hysterical. By the time her warning is heeded, it is too late. The virus becomes a global pandemic --- and a political one. The victims are all men. The world becomes alien --- a women's world. What follows is the immersive account of the women who have been left to deal with the virus's consequences, told through first-person narratives. Through these women and others, we see the uncountable ways that the absence of men has changed society.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593328132
FRIENDS AND STRANGERS by J. Courtney Sullivan (Fiction)
Elisabeth, an accomplished journalist and new mother, is struggling to adjust to life in a small town after nearly 20 years in New York City. She neglects her work, losing untold hours to her Brooklyn moms' Facebook group, her "influencer" sister's Instagram feed, and text messages with the best friend she never sees anymore. Enter Sam, a senior at the local women's college, whom Elisabeth hires to babysit. Sam is struggling to decide between the path she's always planned on and a romantic entanglement that threatens her ambition. In short order, they grow close. But when Sam finds an unlikely kindred spirit in Elisabeth's father-in-law, the true differences between the women's lives become starkly revealed and a betrayal has devastating consequences.
Vintage | 9780525436478
HARD CASH VALLEY by Brian Panowich (Thriller)
As a lifelong resident and ex-arson investigator for McFalls County, Dane Kirby has lived his life in one of the most chaotic and crime-ridden regions of the south. When he gets called in to consult on the brutal murder of Arnie Blackwell in a Jacksonville, Florida, motel room, he and his FBI counterpart, Special Agent Roselita Velasquez, begin an investigation that leads them back to the criminal circles of his own backyard. Someone is hacking a bloody trail throughout the Southeast looking for Arnie’s younger brother, a boy with Asperger’s Syndrome who possesses an unusual skill with numbers that could make a lot of money and that has already gotten a lot of people killed --- and has even more of the deadliest people alive willing to do anything it takes to exploit him.
Minotaur Books | 9781250779632
HELLO, SUMMER by Mary Kay Andrews (Fiction)
Conley Hawkins left her family’s small-town newspaper, The Silver Bay Beacon, in the rearview mirror years ago. Now a star reporter for a big-city paper, Conley is exactly where she wants to be and is about to take a fancy new position in Washington, D.C. Or so she thinks. When the new job goes up in smoke, Conley finds herself right back where she started, working for her sister, who is trying to keep The Silver Bay Beacon afloat --- and she doesn’t exactly have warm feelings for Conley. Soon she is given the unenviable task of overseeing the local gossip column, “Hello, Summer.” Then Conley witnesses an accident that ends in the death of a local congressman --- a beloved war hero with a shady past. The more she digs into the story, the more dangerous it gets.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250256911
HOT LEAD, COLD JUSTICE: A Caleb York Western by Mickey Spillane and Max Allan Collins (Western)
When Sheriff Caleb York's deputy is shot down in cold blood, York has no doubt the bullets were meant for him. It's the first nasty step in a plan rustled up by Luke "Burn 'Em" Burnham --- eliminate the law, corral a team to rob a bank in booming Las Vegas, New Mexico, then lay low. With a treacherous local merchant for cover, and York out of the picture, all they'll have to do is wait for the calm. Then they get wind of one little hitch: not only is York still alive, but he's gunning for justice --- and revenge. As the winter weather bears down, a chilling cat-and-mouse begins. York isn't about to let Burnham and his gang of miscreants get away. It'd be a cold day in hell if he did.
Pinnacle | 9780786042876
HOW TO PRONOUNCE KNIFE: Stories by Souvankham Thammavongsa (Fiction/Short Stories)
A failed boxer painting nails at the local salon. A woman plucking feathers at a chicken processing plant. A housewife learning English from daytime soap operas. A mother teaching her daughter the art of worm harvesting. In her debut story collection, O. Henry Award winner Souvankham Thammavongsa focuses on characters struggling to make a living, illuminating their hopes, disappointments, love affairs, acts of defiance and, above all, their pursuit of a place to belong. In spare, intimate prose charged with emotional power and a sly wit, she paints an indelible portrait of watchful children, wounded men and restless women caught between cultures, languages and values.
Back Bay Books | 9780316422123
THE LAW OF INNOCENCE: A Lincoln Lawyer Novel by Michael Connelly (Legal Thriller)
On the night he celebrates a big win, defense attorney Mickey Haller is pulled over by police, who find the body of a former client in the trunk of his Lincoln. He is immediately charged with murder but can’t post the exorbitant $5 million bail slapped on him by a vindictive judge. Haller elects to represent himself and is forced to mount his defense from his jail cell in the Twin Towers Correctional Center in downtown Los Angeles. He knows he’s been framed, whether by a new enemy or an old one. As his trusted team, including his half-brother, Harry Bosch, investigates, Haller must use all his skills in the courtroom to counter the damning evidence against him.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538752548
LITTLE FAMILY by Ishmael Beah (Fiction)
Hidden away from a harsh outside world, five young people have improvised a home in an abandoned airplane, a relic of their country’s tumultuous past. Elimane, the bookworm, is as street-smart as he is wise. Clever Khoudiemata maneuvers to keep the younger kids --- athletic, pragmatic Ndevui, thoughtful Kpindi, and especially their newest member, Namsa --- safe and fed. When Elimane makes himself of service to the shadowy William Handkerchief, it seems as if the little family may be able to keep the world at bay and their household intact. But when Khoudi comes under the spell of the “beautiful people” --- the fortunate sons and daughters of the elite --- the desire to resume an interrupted coming of age and follow her own destiny proves impossible to resist.
Riverhead Books | 9780735211780
MAN OF MY TIME by Dalia Sofer (Fiction)
Set in Iran and New York City, MAN OF MY TIME tells the story of Hamid Mozaffarian, who is as alienated from himself as he is from the world around him. After decades of ambivalent work as an interrogator with the Iranian regime, Hamid travels on a diplomatic mission to New York, where he encounters his estranged family and retrieves the ashes of his father, whose dying wish was to be buried in Iran. As he reconnects with his brother and others living in exile, Hamid is forced to reckon with his past, with the insidious nature of violence, and with his entrenchment in a system that for decades ensnared him.
Picador | 9781250787422
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 has not only the skills, but also the broken, troubled past to match Harvath’s own.
Pocket Books | 9781982104078
PEACE TALKS: A Novel of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher (Urban Fantasy)
When the Supernatural nations of the world meet up to negotiate an end to ongoing hostilities, Harry Dresden, Chicago's only professional wizard, joins the White Council's security team to make sure the talks stay civil. But can he succeed, when dark political manipulations threaten the very existence of Chicago --- and all he holds dear?
Ace | 9781101991060
PURRFECTLY DEAD: A Whiskey, Tango & Foxtrot Mystery by Dixie Lyle (Cozy Mystery)
Paperback Original
When zillionairess Zelda Zoransky throws a party, she means business. Assistant extraordinaire Deidre “Foxtrot” Lancaster knows she’s in for a night when anything can --- and will --- happen. The evening’s festivities include a high-stakes game between two escape artists locked in a bitter rivalry. The magic turns tragic when one of the escape artists ends up dead. This is no disappearing act --- it’s murder. The suspects include a scientist with a 3D printer, a psychedelically impaired rock star, and a serpent-tongued ghost with ties to the Garden of Eden. Now it’s up to Foxtrot, Tango and Whiskey to figure out which guest committed the crime before they reach the end of this deadly game of Clue.
St. Martin's Paperbacks | 9781250078445
QUEEN OF STORMS: Book Two of The Firemane Saga by Raymond E. Feist (Fantasy)
Hatushaly and his young wife, Hava, have arrived in the prosperous trading town of Beran’s Hill to restore and reopen the fire-damaged Inn of the Three Stars. They are also preparing for the popular midsummer festival, where their friends Declan and Gwen will be wed. But Hatu and Hava are only posing as inkeepers; in fact, they are assassins from the mysterious island of Coaltachin, home to the powerful and lethal Nocusara, the fearsome “Hidden Warriors.” Hatu conceals an even more dangerous secret. He is the last remaining member of the legendary Firemanes, the ruling family of Ithrace. Hatu works hard to hide his true identity from all who would seek to use or to destroy him, as fate has other plans for the noble warrior.
Harper Voyager | 9780062315939
RED DRESS IN BLACK AND WHITE by Elliot Ackerman (Fiction)
Catherine has been married for many years to Murat, an influential Turkish real estate developer, and they have a young son, William. But when she decides to return home to the United States with William and her lover, Peter, Murat takes a stand. He enlists the help of an American diplomat to prevent them from going --- and, in so doing, becomes further enmeshed in a web of deception and corruption. As the hidden architecture of these relationships is gradually exposed, we move to the heart of intersecting worlds populated by struggling artists, wealthy businessmen, expats and spies. And, at the center, a child torn between his parents.
Vintage | 9780525563471
THE SEAT FILLER by Sariah Wilson (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
The meet-cute award goes to dog groomer Juliet Nolan. It’s one of Hollywood’s biggest nights when she volunteers as a seat filler and winds up next to movie heartthrob Noah freaking Douglas. Juliet is pretty and unpretentious, loves his dog, and is not a worshipping fan. No way Noah is giving up on her, even if his affectionate pursuit comes with a bump: Juliet has a pathological fear of kissing and the disappointments that follow. Patient, empathetic and carrying personal burdens of his own, Noah suggests a remedy: they rehearse. The lessons begin. The guards come down. But there’s another hitch they weren’t betting on. As for that cue-the-orchestra-and-roll-credits happy ending? It might take more than practice to make it perfect.
Montlake | 9781542025713
THE SENTINEL: A Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child and Andrew Child (Thriller)
In broad daylight, in a town near Pleasantville, Tennessee, Jack Reacher spots a hapless soul walking into an ambush. He intervenes, with his own trademark brand of conflict resolution. The man he saves is Rusty Rutherford, an unassuming IT manager, recently fired after a cyberattack locked up the town’s data, records, information…and secrets. Rutherford wants to stay put, look innocent and clear his name. Reacher is intrigued; there’s more to the story. The bad guys who jumped Rutherford are part of something serious and deadly, involving a conspiracy, a cover-up and murder --- all centered on a mousy little guy in a coffee-stained shirt who has no idea what he’s up against.
Bantam | 9781984818492
THE SON OF GOOD FORTUNE by Lysley Tenorio (Fiction)
Excel knows that his family is far from normal. His mother, Maxima, was once a Filipina B-movie action star who now makes her living scamming men online. The old man they live with is Maxima’s lifelong martial arts trainer. And years ago, on Excel’s 10th birthday, Maxima revealed a secret that he must keep forever: he is undocumented, and one accidental slip could uproot his entire life. Excel joins his girlfriend, Sab, on a journey south to a ramshackle desert town called Hello City, which offers him a chance to forge his own path for the first time. But after so many years of trying to be invisible, who does he want to become? And is it possible to put down roots in a country that has always considered you an outsider?
Ecco | 9780062059598
STRAY: A Memoir by Stephanie Danler (Memoir)
After selling her first novel --- a dream she'd worked long and hard for --- Stephanie Danler knew she should be happy. Instead, she found herself driven to face the difficult past she'd left behind a decade ago: a mother disabled by years of alcoholism, further handicapped by a tragic brain aneurysm; a father who abandoned the family when she was three, now a meth addict in and out of recovery. After years in New York City, she's pulled home to Southern California by forces she doesn't totally understand, haunted by questions of legacy and trauma. Here, she works toward answers, uncovering hard truths about her parents and herself as she explores whether it's possible to change the course of her history.
Vintage | 9781101911877
SUMMER DARLINGS by Brooke Lea Foster (Historical Fiction)
In 1962, coed Heddy Winsome leaves her hardscrabble Irish Brooklyn neighborhood behind and ferries to glamorous Martha’s Vineyard to nanny for one of the wealthiest families on the island. But as she grows enamored with the alluring and seemingly perfect young couple and chases after their two mischievous children, Heddy discovers that her academic scholarship at Wellesley has been revoked, putting her entire future at risk. Determined to find her place in the couple's wealthy social circles, Heddy nurtures a romance with the hip surfer down the beach while wondering if the better man for her might be a quiet, studious college boy instead. But no one she meets on the summer island is as picture-perfect as they seem.
Gallery Books | 9781982115036
WORSE ANGELS: An Isaiah Coleridge Novel by Laird Barron (Mystery/Thriller)
Ex-majordomo and bodyguard to an industrial tycoon-cum-U.S. senator, Badja Adeyemi is in hiding and shortly on his way to either a jail cell or a grave, depending on who finds him first. In his final days as a free man, he hires Isaiah Coleridge to tie up a loose end: the suspicious death of his nephew four years earlier. At the time police declared it an accident, and Adeyemi isn't sure it wasn't, but one final look may bring his sister peace. So it is that Coleridge and his investigative partner, Lionel Robard, find themselves in a tiny town in New York State that is home to outsized secrets and an unnerving cabal of locals who are protecting them. At the epicenter of it all is the site of a stalled supercollider project, an immense subterranean construction that may have an even deeper, more insidious purpose.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780593085011
May 1st
THE NEXT WIFE by Kaira Rouda (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Kate Nelson had it all --- a flourishing company founded with her husband, John; a happy marriage; and a daughter, Ashlyn. Until John left for another woman. Half his age, Tish Nelson has cultivated a friendship with Ashlyn and believes she’s won. Despite her youth, influence, a life of luxury and a new husband, there’s a lot of baggage: namely, his first wife --- and suspicions of his infidelity. Maybe it’s time for a romantic getaway, far from his vindictive ex. If Kate plans on getting John back, Tish is one step ahead of her. But what happens next is something neither Kate nor Tish saw coming. As best-laid plans come undone, there’s no telling what a woman will do in the name of love --- and revenge.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781542025942
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