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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of September 20th and September 27th that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers, along with Bonus News, where we call out a contest, feature or review that we want to let you know about so you have it on your radar.
This week, we are calling attention to our "What's Your Book Group Reading This Month?" contest on ReadingGroupGuides.com, where three book groups will win up to 12 copies of THE LAST MONA LISA by Jonathan Santlofer. This Bookreporter.com Bets On selection is a suspenseful and seductive tale, perfect for fans of the Netflix documentaries "This Is a Robbery" and "Made You Look" and readers obsessed with the world of art heists and forgeries. The deadline for your entries is Wednesday, October 6th at noon ET.
Carol's latest “Bookreporter Talks To” interview is with Lolá Ákínmádé Åkerström, whose debut novel, IN EVERY MIRROR SHE’S BLACK, is our current Fiction Author Spotlight title and a Bets On pick. Lolá was born in Nigeria and lived in the States for a long time before moving to Sweden. She is an award-winning author, speaker and photographer who has traveled the globe for her work.
The book is told through the perspectives of three women. Kemi Adeyemi is a marketing executive living in the United States. She is hired by a major Swedish marketing company to help them with their diversity efforts with respect to branding; they are recovering from a brutal faux pas. Brittany-Rae Johnson is a former model who is now working as a flight attendant, and she is charmed by the owner of the marketing company. The third woman, Muna Saheed, is a refugee who is seeking residency in Sweden. She is working at a cleaning company, and one of their clients is the marketing company. Each woman is Black, and that is what people see first. But from there, each is perceived differently according to her station in life.
In the interview, Lolá talks about how Swedish racism differs from the racism commonly experienced in America. She explains how she decided to use her characters to show this through their actions and reactions in ways that are both believable and realistic. She also discusses some of the challenges that Sweden still has left to overcome, and what we all can take away from them. This is the kind of book that can spur a terrific book club discussion. Click here to watch the video and here to listen to the podcast.
We hosted this month's “Bookaccino Live” event last week. Carol presented 30 books releasing between now and October 5th, along with nine from November, that she wanted to get on your radar. You can watch it here and see a list of the featured titles here.
Next month’s "Bookaccino Live" event will take place on Wednesday, October 13th at 2pm ET. Carol will talk about titles releasing between October 12th and November 2nd, along with a few from December, that she thinks will appeal to you. 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 a prize.
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, September 22nd 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 talk to Wiley Cash, whose latest novel is WHEN GHOSTS COME HOME.
Wednesday, September 22nd at 7pm ET: The Mark Twain House & Museum: The Mark Twain House & Museum is delighted to welcome back THIS TENDER LAND author William Kent Krueger to discuss his newest novel, LIGHTNING STRIKE, with Kristin Hannah.
Thursday, September 23rd at 7pm ET: Warwick's: Warwick's, in partnership with Henry Holt & Company, will host a virtual conversation with New York Times bestselling author Liane Moriarty as she discusses her new novel, APPLES NEVER FALL, with Leigh Haber.
Thursday, September 23rd at 9pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: The bestselling father-and-son team of Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman will talk about their latest Clay Edison thriller, THE BURNING.
Friday, September 24th at 6pm ET: Books & Books: Anderson Cooper will be in conversation with Katherine Howe about their new book, VANDERBILT: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty.
Sunday, September 26th at 5pm ET: "Friends and Fiction": For this special bonus episode, the "Friends and Fiction" authors will talk to Karen Cleveland, whose latest thriller is YOU CAN RUN.
Sunday, September 26th at 7pm ET: The Back Room: Join authors Jeffery Deaver, Tess Gerritsen, Hank Phillippi Ryan and P.J. Vernon, along with Back Room host Karen Dionne, for an evening of great conversation.
Monday, September 27th at 7pm ET: Barnes & Noble: Barnes & Noble welcomes Pulitzer Prize-winning author Anthony Doerr in conversation with Janel Moloney to virtually discuss CLOUD CUCKOO LAND. There will be a special introduction by Mary-Louise Parker.
Monday, September 27th at 8pm ET: Boswell Book Company and Schlitz Audubon Nature Center: Mary Roach will be in conversation with Roman Mars, host and creator of "99% Invisible" and author of THE 99% INVISIBLE CITY, about her new book, FUZZ: When Nature Breaks the Law.
Monday, September 27th at 8pm ET: Inprint, Brazos and Watermark Books: Ruth Ozeki will give a brief reading from her new novel, THE BOOK OF FORM AND EMPTINESS, followed by a conversation with fiction writer Elizabeth McCracken.
This Week's Bonus News:
"What's Your Book Group Reading This Month?"
Contest on ReadingGroupGuides.com
Enter to Win Up to 12 Copies of THE LAST MONA LISA
by Jonathan Santlofer 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 up to 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 THE LAST MONA LISA by award-winning crime writer and celebrated artist Jonathan Santlofer. This enthralling tale, which is a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick, is about the 1911 theft of the Mona Lisa from the Louvre, the forgeries that appeared in its wake, and the present-day underbelly of the art world. To enter, please fill out the form on this page by Wednesday, October 6th at noon ET.
THE LAST MONA LISA by Jonathan Santlofer (Thriller)
August, 1911: The Mona Lisa is stolen by Vincent Peruggia. Exactly what happens in the two years before its recovery is a mystery. Many replicas of the Mona Lisa exist, and more than one historian has wondered if the painting now returned to the Louvre is a fake, switched in 1911. Present day: Art professor Luke Perrone digs for the truth behind his most famous ancestor: Peruggia. His search attracts an Interpol detective with something to prove and an unfamiliar but curiously helpful woman. Soon, Luke tumbles deep into the world of art and forgery, a land of obsession and danger.
- Click here to read more about the book.
- Click here for the discussion guide.
- Click here to read our review.
- Click here to read Carol's Bookreporter.com Bets On commentary.
- Click here to watch Carol's "Bookreporter Talks To" interview with Jonathan Santlofer.
- Click here to listen to a podcast of the interview.
Click here to enter the contest.
On Sale the Week of September 20th in Hardcover
September 20th
THE JAILHOUSE LAWYER by James Patterson and Nancy Allen (Legal Thriller)
In picture-perfect Erva, Alabama, the most serious crimes are misdemeanors. Speeding tickets. Shoplifting. Contempt of court. Then why is the jail so crowded? And why are so few prisoners released? There’s only one place to learn the truth behind these incriminating secrets. Sometimes the best education a lawyer can get is a short stretch of hard time.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316276627
September 21st
BEWILDERMENT by Richard Powers (Fiction)
The astrobiologist Theo Byrne searches for life throughout the cosmos while single-handedly raising his unusual nine-year-old, Robin, following the death of his wife. Robin is a warm, kind boy who spends hours painting elaborate pictures of endangered animals. He’s also about to be expelled from third grade for smashing his friend in the face. As his son grows more troubled, Theo hopes to keep him off psychoactive drugs. He learns of an experimental neurofeedback treatment to bolster Robin’s emotional control, one that involves training the boy on the recorded patterns of his mother’s brain.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393881141
THE BOOK OF FORM AND EMPTINESS by Ruth Ozeki (Fiction/Magical Realism)
One year after the death of his beloved musician father, 13-year-old Benny Oh begins to hear voices that belong to the things in his house. When his mother, Annabelle, develops a hoarding problem, the voices grow more clamorous. Benny tries to ignore them, but the voices follow him outside the house, driving him at last to seek refuge in the silence of a large public library. There, Benny discovers a strange new world. He falls in love with a mesmerizing street artist with a smug pet ferret. He meets a homeless philosopher-poet, who encourages him to ask important questions and find his own voice amongst the many. And he meets his very own Book --- a talking thing --- who narrates Benny’s life and teaches him to listen to the things that truly matter.
Viking | 9780399563645
THE BURNING by Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman (Mystery/Thriller)
A raging wildfire. A massive blackout. A wealthy man shot to death in his palatial hilltop home. For Clay Edison, it’s all in a day’s work. As a deputy coroner, caring for the dead, he speaks for those who cannot speak for themselves. He prides himself on an unflinching commitment to the truth. Even when it gets him into trouble. Then, while working the murder scene, Clay is horrified to discover a link to his brother, Luke, who is fresh out of prison and struggling to stay on the straight and narrow. And now he’s gone AWOL. The race is on for Clay to find him before anyone else can. Confronted with Luke’s legacy of violence, he is forced to reckon with his own suspicions, resentments and loyalties.
Ballantine Books | 9780525620112
THE CAUSE: The American Revolution and Its Discontents, 1773-1783 by Joseph J. Ellis (History)
George Washington claimed that anyone who attempted to provide an accurate account of the war for independence would be accused of writing fiction. At the time, no one called it the “American Revolution”: former colonists still regarded themselves as Virginians or Pennsylvanians, not Americans, while John Adams insisted that the British were the real revolutionaries, for attempting to impose radical change without their colonists’ consent. With THE CAUSE, Joseph J. Ellis takes a fresh look at the events between 1773 and 1783, recovering a war more brutal than any in American history save the Civil War and discovering a strange breed of “prudent” revolutionaries, whose prudence proved wise yet tragic when it came to slavery.
Liveright | 9781631498985
A DARKER REALITY: An Elena Standish Novel by Anne Perry (Historical Mystery)
On her first trip to Washington, D.C., Elena Standish finally gets to visit her American mother’s wealthy parents and their magnificent home. Elena’s grandparents are marking a milestone anniversary by throwing an elaborate party with the influential friends of her grandfather, a prominent political industrialist. But the festivities come to a sudden and tragic end when one of the guests, Lila Worth, is run over by a car in the driveway outside. Soon an arrest is made in Lila’s murder, and to Elena’s horror, the accused is none other than her own grandfather, who claims his political enemies are trying to frame him. Who are these enemies, and how can Elena defend this man she barely knows?
Ballantine Books | 9780593159361
DAUGHTER OF THE MORNING STAR: A Longmire Mystery by Craig Johnson (Mystery)
When Lolo Long's niece Jaya begins receiving death threats, Tribal Police Chief Long calls on Absaroka County Sheriff Walt Longmire along with Henry Standing Bear as lethal backup. Jaya "Longshot" Long is the phenom of the Lame Deer Lady Stars High School basketball team and is following in the steps of her older sister, who disappeared a year previously, a victim of the scourge of missing Native Woman in Indian Country. Lolo hopes that having Longmire involved might draw some public attention to the girl's plight, but with this maneuver she also inadvertently places the good sheriff in a one-on-one with the deadliest adversary he has ever faced in both this world and the next.
Viking | 9780593297254
DUNE: THE LADY OF CALADAN by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson (Science Fiction/Space Opera)
Lady Jessica, mother of Paul and consort to Leto Atreides. The choices she made shaped an empire, but first the Lady of Caladan must reckon with her own betrayal of the Bene Gesserit. She has already betrayed her ancient order, but now she must decide if her loyalty to the Sisterhood is more important than the love of her own family. Meanwhile, events in the greater empire are accelerating beyond the control of even the Reverend Mother, and Lady Jessica's family is on a collision course with destiny.
Tor Books | 9781250765055
EIGHT DAYS IN MAY: The Final Collapse of the Third Reich written by Volker Ullrich, translated by Jefferson Chase (History)
In a bunker deep below Berlin’s Old Reich Chancellery, Adolf Hitler and his new bride, Eva Braun, took their own lives just after 3:00 p.m. on April 30, 1945 --- Hitler by gunshot to the temple, Braun by ingesting cyanide. But the Führer’s suicide did not instantly end either Nazism or the Second World War in Europe. Far from it: the eight days that followed were among the most traumatic in modern history, witnessing not only the final paroxysms of bloodshed and the frantic surrender of the Wehrmacht, but the total disintegration of the once-mighty Third Reich. In EIGHT DAYS IN MAY, Volker Ullrich draws on an astonishing variety of sources, including diaries and letters of ordinary Germans, to narrate a society’s descent into Hobbesian chaos.
Liveright | 9781631498275
IN THE SHADOW OF THE EMPRESS: The Defiant Lives of Maria Theresa, Mother of Marie Antoinette, and Her Daughters by Nancy Goldstone (History)
Out of the thrilling and tempestuous 18th century comes the sweeping family saga of beautiful Maria Theresa, a sovereign of uncommon strength and vision, the only woman ever to inherit and rule the vast Habsburg Empire in her own name, and three of her remarkable daughters: lovely, talented Maria Christina, governor-general of the Austrian Netherlands; spirited Maria Carolina, the resolute queen of Naples; and the youngest, Marie Antoinette, the glamorous, tragic queen of France, and perhaps the most famous princess in history. This epic history of Maria Theresa and her daughters is a tour de force of desire, adventure, ambition, treachery, sorrow and glory.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316449335
THE KILLING KIND by Jane Casey (Thriller)
As a barrister, Ingrid Lewis is used to dealing with tricky clients, but no one has ever come close to John Webster. After Ingrid defended Webster against a stalking charge, he then turned on her --- following her, ruining her relationship, even destroying her home. Now, Ingrid believes she has finally escaped his clutches. But when one of her colleagues is run down on a busy London road, Ingrid is sure she was the intended victim. And then Webster shows up at her door. Webster claims Ingrid is in danger --- and that only he can protect her. Stalker or savior? Murderer or protector? The clock is ticking for Ingrid to decide. Because the killer is ready to strike again.
HarperCollins | 9780008477929
OLGA written by Bernhard Schlink, translated by Charlotte Collins (Fiction)
Abandoned by her parents, young Olga is raised by her grandmother in a Prussian village in the early years of the 20th century. Smart and precocious, endearing but uncompromising, she fights against ingrained chauvinism to find her place in a world run by lesser men. When Olga falls in love with her neighbor, Herbert, the son of a local aristocrat, her life is irremediably changed. While Herbert indulges his thirst for exploration and adventure, Olga is limited by her gender and circumstance. Her love for Herbert goes against all odds and encounters many obstacles, but even when they are separated, it endures.
HarperVia | 9780063112926
SHADOW MUSIC by Helaine Mario (Mystery/Thriller)
Late in the Cold War, a young woman escapes from Communist Hungary, vanishing into the night with a priceless painting and a baby girl --- setting events in motion from a decades-old secret that will change lives for generations to come. Many years later, classical pianist Maggie O’Shea is drawn to Cornwall in search of a long-lost Van Gogh and the truth behind her husband’s death. A journal from World War II Paris holds many of the answers, but only two people know where the Van Gogh is hidden now --- a courageous nun and a man presumed dead. Maggie finds herself on a collision course with three dangerous Russians who threaten all she holds dear --- including her life and the life of the man she has come to love.
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608094509
THE SPECKLED BEAUTY: A Dog and His People by Rick Bragg (Memoir)
Speck is not a good boy. He is a terrible boy, a defiant, self-destructive, often malodorous boy, a grave robber and screen door moocher who spends his days playing chicken with the FedEx man, picking fights with thousand-pound livestock and rolling in donkey manure, and his nights howling at the moon. He has been that way since the moment he appeared on the ridgeline behind Rick Bragg's house, a starved and half-dead creature, 76 pounds of wet hair and poor decisions. Speck arrived in Rick's life at a moment of looming uncertainty. A cancer diagnosis, chemo, kidney failure and recurring pneumonia had left Rick lethargic and melancholy. Speck helped, and he is helping, still, when he is not peeing on the rose of Sharon.
Knopf | 9780525658818
TRUE RAIDERS: The Untold Story of the 1909 Expedition to Find the Legendary Ark of the Covenant by Brad Ricca (History)
TRUE RAIDERS tells the untold true story of Monty Parker, a British rogue nobleman who, after being dared to do so by Ava Astor, the so-called "most beautiful woman in the world," headed a secret 1909 expedition to find the fabled Ark of the Covenant. Like a real-life version of Raiders of the Lost Ark, this incredible story of adventure and mystery has almost been completely forgotten today. In 1908, Monty is approached by a strange Finnish scholar named Valter Juvelius, who claims to have discovered a secret code in the Bible that reveals the location of the Ark. Monty assembles a ragtag group of blueblood adventurers, psychics and a Dominican priest to engage in a secret excavation just outside the city walls of Jerusalem.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250273604
UNDER THE WHISPERING DOOR by TJ Klune (Fantasy)
When a reaper comes to collect Wallace from his own funeral, Wallace begins to suspect he might be dead. And when Hugo, the owner of a peculiar tea shop, promises to help him cross over, Wallace decides he’s definitely dead. But even in death, he’s not ready to abandon the life he barely lived. So when Wallace is given one week to cross over, he sets about living a lifetime in seven days.
Tor Books | 9781250217349
VANDERBILT: The Rise and Fall of an American Dynasty by Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe (History)
When 11-year-old Cornelius Vanderbilt began to work on his father’s small boat ferrying supplies in New York Harbor at the beginning of the 19th century, no one could have imagined that one day he would build two empires --- one in shipping and another in railroads --- that would make him the richest man in America. His staggering fortune was fought over by his heirs after his death in 1877, sowing familial discord that would never fully heal. Though his son Billy doubled the money left by “the Commodore,” subsequent generations competed to find new and ever more extraordinary ways of spending it. Now, the Commodore’s great-great-great-grandson, Anderson Cooper, joins with historian Katherine Howe to explore the story of his legendary family and their outsized influence.
Harper | 9780062964618
WHEN GHOSTS COME HOME by Wiley Cash (Mystery)
When the roar of a low-flying plane awakens him in the middle of the night, Sheriff Winston Barnes knows something strange is happening at the nearby airfield on the coast of North Carolina. But nothing can prepare him for what he finds: a large airplane has crash-landed and is now sitting sideways on the runway, and there are no signs of a pilot or cargo. When the body of a local man is discovered --- shot dead and lying on the grass near the crash site --- Winston begins a murder investigation that will change the course of his life and the fate of the community that he has sworn to protect.
William Morrow | 9780062312662
THE WRONG END OF THE TELESCOPE by Rabih Alameddine (Fiction)
Mina Simpson, a Lebanese doctor, arrives at the infamous Moria refugee camp on Lesbos, Greece, after being urgently summoned for help by her friend who runs an NGO there. Alienated from her family except for her beloved brother, Mina has avoided being so close to her homeland for decades. But with a week off work and apart from her wife of 30 years, Mina hopes to accomplish something meaningful. Soon, a boat crosses bringing Sumaiya, a fiercely resolute Syrian matriarch with terminal liver cancer. Determined to protect her children and husband at all costs, Sumaiya refuses to alert her family to her diagnosis. Bonded together by Sumaiya's secret, a deep connection sparks between the two women.
Grove Press | 9780802157805
On Sale the Week of September 20th in Paperback
September 21st
THE AWKWARD BLACK MAN: Stories by Walter Mosley (Fiction/Short Stories)
Bestselling author Walter Mosley has proven himself a master of narrative tension, with both his extraordinary fiction and gripping writing for television. THE AWKWARD BLACK MAN collects 17 of his most accomplished short stories to showcase the full range of his remarkable talent. Mosley presents distinct characters as they struggle to move through the world in each of these stories --- heroes who are awkward, nerdy, self-defeating, self-involved and, on the whole, odd. He overturns the stereotypes that corral black male characters and paints a subtle, powerful portrait of each of these unique individuals.
Grove Press | 9780802156853
CARRY: A Memoir of Survival on Stolen Land by Toni Jensen (Memoir)
Toni Jensen grew up around guns. As a girl, she learned to shoot birds in rural Iowa with her father, a card-carrying member of the NRA. As an adult, she’s had guns waved in her face near Standing Rock, and felt their silent threat on the concealed-carry campus where she teaches. And she has always known that in this she is not alone. As a Métis woman, she is no stranger to the violence enacted on the bodies of indigenous women, on indigenous land, and the ways it is hidden, ignored, forgotten. In CARRY, Jensen maps her personal experience onto the historical, exploring how history is lived in the body and redefining the language we use to speak about violence in America.
Ballantine Books | 9781984821201
CATCH US WHEN WE FALL by Juliette Fay (Fiction)
Paperback Original
On her own since the age of 18, Cass Macklin dated brilliant, troubled Ben McGreavy. They partied their way through their 20s, slowly descending into a bleak world of binge-drinking and broken promises. Now Ben is dead, and Cass is broke, homeless, scared…and pregnant. Determined to have a healthy pregnancy and raise Ben’s baby, Cass has to find a way to stop drinking and build a stable life for herself and her child. But with no money, skills, or sober friends or family, the task seems insurmountable. At wit’s end, Cass turns to the only person with the means to help her: Ben’s brother Scott, third baseman for the Boston Red Sox, a man with a temper and problems of his own. The two make a deal that neither one of them is sure they can live up to.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063079960
DOUBLE AGENT by Tom Bradby (Thriller)
Kidnapped in Venice by a Russian defector, Kate Henderson knows she's in trouble. But when he offers her conclusive evidence that the British Prime Minister is a live agent working for Moscow, Kate’s holiday quickly becomes the start of her next mission. The defector has proof of the PM involved in a sordid scandal --- a video supposedly used to blackmail him into Russian service decades prior --- and a financial paper trail that undeniably links him to the Russians, but his motives are anything but clear. Riddled with doubt that the evidence she is presented with may not in fact be as bulletproof as it seems, Kate reopens the investigation into the PM. As she works through the case, Kate runs up against key people at the heart of the British Establishment who refuse to acknowledge the reality in front of them.
Grove Press | 9780802157652
EARTHLINGS written by Sayaka Murata, translated by Ginny Tapley Takemori (Fiction)
As a child, Natsuki doesn't fit in with her family. Her parents favor her sister, and her best friend is a plush toy hedgehog named Piyyut, who talks to her. He tells her that he has come from the planet Popinpobopia on a special quest to help her save the Earth. One summer, on vacation with her family and her cousin Yuu in her grandparents' ramshackle wooden house in the mountains of Nagano, Natsuki decides that she must be an alien, which would explain why she can't seem to fit in like everyone else. Later, as a grown woman, living a quiet life with her asexual husband, Natsuki is still pursued by dark shadows from her childhood, and decides to flee the "baby factory" of society for good, searching for answers about the vast and frightening mysteries of the universe.
Grove Press | 9780802157010
THE FORGER’S DAUGHTER by Bradford Morrow (Literary Thriller)
When a scream shatters the summer night outside their country house in the Hudson Valley, reformed literary forger Will and his wife Meghan find their daughter Maisie shaken and bloodied, holding a parcel her attacker demanded she present to her father. Inside is a literary rarity the likes of which few have ever handled, and a letter laying out impossible demands regarding its future. After 20 years of living life on the straight and narrow, Will finds himself drawn back to forgery, ensnared in a plot to counterfeit the rarest book in American literature: Edgar Allan Poe’s first, TAMERLANE, of which only a dozen copies are known to have survived. Until now.
Mysterious Press | 9780802149558
HARROW THE NINTH by Tamsyn Muir (Science Fiction/Space Opera)
Harrowhark Nonagesimus, last necromancer of the Ninth House, has been drafted by her Emperor to fight an unwinnable war. Side by side with a detested rival, Harrow must perfect her skills and become an angel of undeath --- but her health is failing, her sword makes her nauseous, and even her mind is threatening to betray her. Sealed in the gothic gloom of the Emperor's Mithraeum with three unfriendly teachers, hunted by the mad ghost of a murdered planet, Harrow must confront two unwelcome questions: Is somebody trying to kill her? And if they succeeded, would the universe be better off?
Tordotcom | 9781250313218
AN IMPOSSIBLE PROMISE: A Providence Falls Novel by Jude Deveraux and Tara Sheets (Romance)
Paperback Original
Liam O’Connor unknowingly changed the course of destiny when he fell in love with Cora McLeod over a century ago. Their passion was intense, brief and tragic. And the angels have been trying to restore the balance of fate ever since. Now police officers in Providence Falls, North Carolina, Liam and Cora are partners on a murder investigation. The intensity of the case has drawn them closer together --- exactly what Liam is supposed to avoid. The angels have made it clear that Cora must be with Finley Walsh. But headstrong Cora makes her own decisions, and she’s starting to have feelings for Liam --- the only thing he’s ever really wanted. Liam knows this is the last chance to save his soul. But does he love Cora enough to let her go?
Mira | 9780778332084
THE LAND by Thomas Maltman (Fiction)
Recovering from a terrible auto accident just before the turn of the millennium, college dropout and hobbyist computer-game programmer Lucien Swenson becomes the caretaker of a house in northern Minnesota. Shortly after moving in, Lucien sets out to find a woman with whom he had an affair, who vanished along with money stolen from the bank where they had worked together. His search will take him to Rose of Sharon, a white supremacist church deep in the wilderness, where a cabal of outcasts await the end of the world at a place they call The Land. Lucien is visited at the house by a mysterious guest, who may not be who she claims, as well as a vast flock of violent ravens out of an apocalyptic vision.
Soho Press | 9781641293143
THE LAST DAYS OF JOHN LENNON by James Patterson, with Casey Sherman and Dave Wedge (True Crime)
With the Beatles, John Lennon surpasses his youthful dreams, achieving a level of superstardom that defies classification. Mark David Chapman once worshipped his idols from afar but now harbors grudges against those, like Lennon, whom he feels betrayed him. He is convinced that Lennon has misled fans with his message of hope and peace --- and he is not staying away any longer. Enriched by exclusive interviews with Lennon’s friends and associates, including Paul McCartney, THE LAST DAYS OF JOHN LENNON is the thrilling true story of two men who changed history: one whose indelible songs enliven our world to this day, and the other who ended the beautiful music with five pulls of a trigger.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538753033
THE LYING LIFE OF ADULTS written by Elena Ferrante, translated by Ann Goldstein (Fiction)
Giovanna’s pretty face is changing, turning ugly, at least so her father thinks. Giovanna, he says, looks more like her Aunt Vittoria every day. But can it be true? Is she really changing? Is she turning into her Aunt Vittoria, a woman she hardly knows but whom her mother and father clearly despise? Surely there is a mirror somewhere in which she can see herself as she truly is. Giovanna is searching for her reflection in two kindred cities that fear and detest one another: Naples of the heights, which assumes a mask of refinement, and Naples of the depths, a place of excess and vulgarity. She moves from one to the other in search of the truth, but neither city seems to offer answers or escape.
Europa Editions | 9781609457150
THE MOON, THE STARS, AND MADAME BUROVA by Ruth Hogan (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Madame Burova --- beloved Tarot reader, palmist and clairvoyant --- is retiring and leaving her booth on the Brighton seafront. After a lifetime of keeping other people’s secrets, she is ready to have a little piece of life for herself. But she still has one last thing to do --- to fulfill a promise made in the 1970s, when she and her girlfriends were carefree, with their whole lives still before them. In London, it is time for another woman to make a fresh start. Billie has lost her university job, her marriage and her place in the world when a sudden and unlikely discovery leaves her very identity in question. Determined to find answers, she must follow a trail…which leads to Brighton, the pier and directly to Madame Burova’s door.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063075436
NEXT TO LAST STAND: A Longmire Mystery by Craig Johnson (Mystery)
One of the most viewed paintings in American history, Custer's Last Fight, copied and distributed by Anheuser-Busch at a rate of over two million copies a year, was destroyed in a fire at the 7th Cavalry Headquarters in Fort Bliss, Texas, in 1946. Or was it? When Charley Lee Stillwater dies of an apparent heart attack at the Wyoming Home for Soldiers & Sailors, Walt Longmire is called in to try and make sense of a piece of a painting and a Florsheim shoebox containing a million dollars, sending the good sheriff on the trail of a dangerous art heist.
Penguin Books | 9780525522553
PANIC ATTACK: A Daniel Rinaldi Thriller by Dennis Palumbo (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
A survivor of two attempts on his life by a deranged killer, psychologist Daniel Rinaldi counsels trauma patients in his private practice, and contracts with the Pittsburgh Police to help victims of violent crime cope with their experience. When a sports mascot is gunned down by a sniper at a college football game he attends, Rinaldi becomes an accidental yet integral part of the investigation. To begin with, the victim in the costume is not the person who was supposed to be wearing it. When the actual "Teasdale Tiger" hears the news, he suffers a crippling panic attack and calls on Rinaldi to talk him through it. From there, Rinaldi seems to be in all the wrong places at all the wrong times, as the sniper continues his killing spree.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464213458
SNOWDRIFT: An Embla Nyström Investigation written by Helene Tursten, translated by Marlaine Delargy (Mystery)
It’s been 14 years since Detective Inspector Embla Nyström’s best friend disappeared from a nightclub in Gothenburg. So she is stunned when she recognizes her voice on the phone before the call abruptly disconnects. Then she learns that a man has been found shot dead in one of the guest houses that he and his wife manage in rural Sweden. When Embla arrives on the scene, she receives another shock. The dead man is Milo Stavic, a well-known gang member and one of the last people seen with Lollo. The same night that Milo was shot in the guest house, his brother Luca was also killed. Why, after all these years, is someone targeting the Stavic brothers, and where is the third brother?
Soho Crime | 9781641293082
A SONG OF FLIGHT: A Warrior Bards Novel by Juliet Marillier (Historical Fantasy/Mystery)
Paperback Original
Bard and fighter Liobhan is always ready for a challenge. So when news arrives at Swan Island that the prince of Dalriada has gone missing after an assault by both masked men and the sinister Crow Folk, she's eager to act. While Liobhan and her fellow Swan Island warriors seek answers to the prince's disappearance, the bard Brocc, Liobhan's brother, finds himself in dire trouble. His attempts to communicate with the Crow Folk have led him down a perilous path. When Liobhan and her comrades are sent to the rescue, it becomes clear that the two missions are connected --- and a great mystery unfolds. What brought the Crow Folk to Erin? And who seeks to use them in an unscrupulous bid for power?
Ace | 9780451492821
THE SPIRES by Kate Moretti (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Penelope Cox barely has her life together when the past comes knocking at her door. Willa Blaine, her old roommate, needs her help: refuge from an abusive husband. Twenty years earlier, Penelope, Willa and three friends lived together in a converted church and formed their own dysfunctional family; they called themselves “the Spires.” But nights of wild parties gave way to a darker undercurrent: jealousy, resentment, unrequited love and obsession. Tensions boiled over during a night of debauchery that ended in a deadly fire, leaving the Spires scattered and forever changed. Willa is the perfect houseguest, but Penelope can’t help but feel the cracks in her life widen as she begins to question Willa’s motives.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781542021715
THE VIRGINIA DYNASTY: Four Presidents and the Creation of the American Nation by Lynne Cheney (History)
From a small expanse of land on the North American continent came four of the nation's first five presidents --- a geographic dynasty whose members led a revolution, created a nation and ultimately changed the world. George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, James Madison and James Monroe were born, grew to manhood, and made their homes within a 60-mile circle east of the Blue Ridge Mountains. Friends and rivals, they led in securing independence, hammering out the United States Constitution and building a working republic. Acting together, they doubled the territory of the United States. From their disputes came American political parties and the weaponizing of newspapers, the media of the day.
Penguin Books | 9781101980057
THE WITCHES ARE COMING by Lindy West (Social Science)
From the moment powerful men started falling to the #MeToo movement, the lamentations began: this is feminism gone too far, this is injustice, this is a witch hunt. In THE WITCHES ARE COMING, Lindy West turns that refrain on its head. You think this is a witch hunt? Fine. You've got one. Here, she extolls the world-changing magic of truth, urging readers to reckon with dark lies in the heart of the American mythos, and unpacking the complicated, and sometimes tragic, politics of not being a white man in the 21st century. She tracks the misogyny and propaganda hidden (or not so hidden) in the media that she and her peers devoured growing up, a buffet of distortions, delusions and prejudice that has allowed white male mediocrity to maintain a death grip on American culture and politics.
Hachette Books | 9780316449861
On Sale the Week of September 27th in Hardcover
September 28th
BOURDAIN: The Definitive Oral Biography by Laurie Woolever (Biography)
When Anthony Bourdain died in June 2018, fans around the globe came together to celebrate the life of an inimitable man who had dedicated his life to traveling nearly everywhere (and eating nearly everything), shedding light on the lives and stories of others. Now, for the first time, we have been granted a look into Bourdain’s life through the stories and recollections of his closest friends and colleagues. Laurie Woolever, Bourdain’s longtime assistant and confidante, interviewed nearly a hundred of the people who shared his orbit --- from members of his kitchen crews to his daughter and his closest friends --- in order to piece together a remarkably full, vivid and nuanced vision of his life and work.
Ecco | 9780062909107
A CALLING FOR CHARLIE BARNES by Joshua Ferris (Fiction)
Someone is telling the story of the life of Charlie Barnes, and it doesn't appear to be going well. Too often divorced, discontent with life's compromises and in a house he hates, this lifelong schemer and eternal romantic would like out of his present circumstances and into the American dream. But when the twin calamities of the Great Recession and a cancer scare come along to compound his troubles, his dreams dwindle further, and an infinite past full of forking paths quickly tapers to a black dot. Then, against all odds, something goes right for a change: Charlie is granted a second act. With help from his storyteller son, he surveys the facts of his life and finds his true calling where he least expects it.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316333535
CLOUD CUCKOO LAND by Anthony Doerr (Fiction)
Set in Constantinople in the 15th century, in a small town in present-day Idaho, and on an interstellar ship decades from now, Anthony Doerr’s third novel is a triumph of imagination and compassion, a soaring story about children on the cusp of adulthood in worlds in peril, who find resilience, hope --- and a book. In CLOUD CUCKOO LAND, Doerr has created a magnificent tapestry of times and places that reflects our vast interconnectedness --- with other species, with each other, with those who lived before us, and with those who will be here after we’re gone.
Scribner | 9781982168438
INNOVATION: The History of England Volume VI by Peter Ackroyd (History)
INNOVATION brings Peter Ackroyd's History of England to a triumphant close. Ackroyd takes readers from the end of the Boer War and the accession of Edward VII to the end of the 20th century, when his great-granddaughter Elizabeth II had been on the throne for almost five decades. It was a century of enormous change, encompassing two world wars, four monarchs, the decline of the aristocracy and the rise of the Labour Party, women's suffrage, the birth of the NHS, the march of suburbia and the clearance of the slums. It was a period that saw the work of the Bloomsbury Group and T.S. Eliot, of Kingsley Amis and Philip Larkin, from the end of the post-war slump to the technicolor explosion of the 1960s, to free love and punk rock, and from Thatcher to Blair.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250003669
THE LAST GRADUATE by Naomi Novik (Fantasy)
At the Scholomance, El, Orion and the other students are faced with their final year…and the looming specter of graduation: a deadly ritual that barely half the students survive. El is determined that her group will make it out alive, but their prospects are dimming by the day as the savagery of the school ramps up. Until El realizes that sometimes winning the game means throwing out all the rules.
Del Rey | 9780593128862
THE LAST HOUSE ON NEEDLESS STREET by Catriona Ward (Psychological Thriller/Horror)
In a boarded-up house on a dead-end street at the edge of the wild Washington woods lives a family of three. A teenage girl who isn’t allowed outside, not after last time. A man who drinks alone in front of his TV, trying to ignore the gaps in his memory. And a house cat who loves napping and reading the Bible. An unspeakable secret binds them together, but when a new neighbor moves in next door, what is buried out among the birch trees may come back to haunt them all.
Tor Nightfire | 9781250812629
THE MAN WHO DIED TWICE: A Thursday Murder Club Mystery by Richard Osman (Mystery)
Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim --- the Thursday Murder Club --- are still riding high off their recent real-life murder case and are looking forward to a bit of peace and quiet at Cooper’s Chase, their posh retirement village. But they are out of luck. An unexpected visitor --- an old pal of Elizabeth’s (or perhaps more than just a pal?) --- arrives, desperate for her help. He has been accused of stealing diamonds worth millions from the wrong men, and he’s seriously on the lam. Then, as night follows day, the first body is found. But not the last. Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim are up against a ruthless murderer who wouldn’t bat an eyelid at knocking off four septuagenarians. Can our four friends catch the killer before the killer catches them?
Pamela Dorman Books | 9781984880994
THE MORNING STAR written by Karl Ove Knausgaard, translated by Martin Aitken (Fiction)
One long night in August, Arne and Tove are staying with their children in their summer house in southern Norway. Their friend, Egil, has his own place nearby. Kathrine, a priest, is flying home from a Bible seminar, questioning her marriage. Journalist Jostein is out drinking for the night, while his wife, Turid, a nurse at a psychiatric care unit, is on a night shift when one of her patients escapes. Above them all, a huge star suddenly appears blazing in the sky. It brings with it a mysterious sense of foreboding. Strange things start to happen as nine lives come together under the star.
Penguin Press | 9780399563423
NO CURE FOR BEING HUMAN: (And Other Truths I Need to Hear) by Kate Bowler (Memoir)
It’s hard to give up on the feeling that the life you really want is just out of reach. A beach body by summer. A trip to Disneyland around the corner. A promotion on the horizon. Everyone wants to believe that they are headed toward good, better, best. But what happens when the life you hoped for is put on hold indefinitely? Kate Bowler believed that life was a series of unlimited choices, until she discovered, at age 35, that her body was wracked with cancer. In NO CURE FOR BEING HUMAN, she searches for a way forward as she mines the wisdom (and absurdity) of today’s “best life now” advice industry, which insists on exhausting positivity and on trying to convince us that we can out-eat, out-learn and out-perform our humanness.
Random House | 9780593230770
ROBERT E. LEE: A Life by Allen C. Guelzo (Biography)
Robert E. Lee is one of the most confounding figures in American history. Lee betrayed his nation in order to defend his home state and uphold the slave system he claimed to oppose. He was a traitor to the country he swore to serve as an Army officer, and yet he was admired even by his enemies for his composure and leadership. He considered slavery immoral, but benefited from inherited slaves and fought to defend the institution. And behind his genteel demeanor and perfectionism lurked the insecurities of a man haunted by the legacy of a father who stained the family name by declaring bankruptcy and who disappeared when Lee was just six years old. Award-winning historian Allen Guelzo captures Robert E. Lee in all his complexity.
Knopf | 9781101946220
THE SANTA SUIT by Mary Kay Andrews (Fiction)
When newly divorced Ivy Perkins buys an old farmhouse sight unseen, she is definitely looking for a change in her life. The Four Roses, as the farmhouse is called, is a labor of love, but Ivy didn't bargain on just how much labor. The previous family left so much furniture and so much junk that it's a full-time job sorting through all of it. At the top of a closet, Ivy finds an old Santa suit --- beautifully made and decades old. In the pocket of a suit she finds a note written in a childish hand: it's from a little girl who has one Christmas wish, and that is for her father to return home from the war. This discovery sets Ivy off on a mission. Who wrote the note? Did the man ever come home? What mysteries did the Rose family hold?
St. Martin's Press | 9781250279316
A SINGLE ROSE written by Muriel Barbery, translated by Alison Anderson (Fiction)
Rose has just turned 40 when she gets a call from a lawyer asking her to come to Kyoto for the reading of her estranged father’s will. And so for the first time in her life she finds herself in Japan, where Paul, her father’s assistant, is waiting to greet her. As Paul guides Rose along a mysterious itinerary designed by her deceased father, her bitterness and anger are soothed by the stones and the trees in the Zen gardens they move through. During their walks, Rose encounters acquaintances of her father --- including a potter and poet, an old lady friend, his housekeeper and chauffeur --- whose interactions help her to slowly begin to accept a part of herself that she has never before acknowledged.
Europa Editions | 9781609456771
UNREQUITED INFATUATIONS: A Memoir by Stevie Van Zandt (Memoir)
What story begins in a bedroom in suburban New Jersey in the early '60s, unfolds on some of the country's largest stages, and then ranges across the globe, demonstrating over and over again how rock and roll has the power to change the world for the better? This story. UNREQUITED INFATUATIONS chronicles the twists and turns of Stevie Van Zandt’s always surprising life. It is more than just the testimony of a globe-trotting nomad, more than the story of a groundbreaking activist, more than the odyssey of a spiritual seeker, and more than a master class in rock and roll (not to mention a dozen other crafts). It's the best book of its kind because it's the only book of its kind.
Hachette Books | 9780306925429
WE KNOW YOU REMEMBER by Tove Alsterdal (Mystery)
It’s been more than 20 years since Olof Hagström left home. Returning to his family’s house, he knows instantly that something is amiss. The front door key, hidden under a familiar stone, is still there. Inside, there’s a panicked dog, a terrible stench and water pooling on the floor: the father Olaf has not seen or spoken to in decades is dead in the bathroom shower. For police detective Eira Sjödin, the investigation of this suspicious death resurrects long-forgotten nightmares. She was only nine when Olof Hagström, then 14, was found guilty of raping and murdering a local girl. The case left a mark on the town’s collective memory and tinged Eira’s childhood with fear. Too young to be sentenced, Olof was sent to a youth home and exiled from his family. He was never seen in the town again. Until now.
Harper | 9780063115064
THE WISH by Nicholas Sparks (Romance)
1996 was the year that changed everything for Maggie Dawes. Sent away at 16 to live with an aunt she barely knew in Ocracoke, a remote village on North Carolina’s Outer Banks, she could think only of the friends and family she left behind…until she met Bryce Trickett, a teenager who introduced her to photography. By 2019, Maggie is a renowned travel photographer. But this year she is unexpectedly grounded over Christmas, struggling to come to terms with a sobering medical diagnosis. Increasingly dependent on a young assistant, she finds herself becoming close to him and tells him the story of another Christmas, decades earlier --- and the love that set her on a course she never could have imagined.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538728628
THE YARDS by A. F. Carter (Mystery)
A single mother, Git O’Rourke works hard to support her daughter Charlie, but still finds time to cut loose every once in a while and find a companion for the night. Which is exactly how she ends up in a hotel room with a strange man passed out on heroin, and how she comes to possess the bag of money and guns that he left open as he got his fix. When the dead body is discovered at the Skyview Motor Court, officer Delia Mariola recognizes the victim as the perpetrator in an earlier crime --- a domestic violence call. She knows he’s connected to the local mob, but the crime scene doesn’t exactly resemble their typical hit. Instead, all signs point to a pick-up gone wrong. Which means that all signs point to Git.
Mysterious Press | 9781613162354
October 1st
THE CHAOS KIND by Barry Eisler (Thriller)
Assistant US Attorney Alondra Diaz is determined to put one of America’s most powerful financiers, Andrew Schrader, in prison forever for his crimes against children. But Schrader has videos implicating some of the most powerful members of the US national security state. To eliminate Diaz, the powers that be bring in a contractor: Marvin Manus, an implacable assassin. Enter former Marine sniper Dox and black-ops veteran Daniel Larison with an unusual assignment: not to kill Diaz, but to keep her alive. A lot of players are determined to acquire the videos and the blackmail power they represent. But with Seattle sex-crimes detective Livia Lone, “natural causes” killer John Rain, and ex-Mossad honey-trap specialist Delilah, the good guys just might have a chance.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781542005616
On Sale the Week of September 27th in Paperback
September 28th
THE ARREST by Jonathan Lethem (Speculative Science Fiction)
Before the Arrest, Sandy Duplessis had a reasonably good life as a screenwriter in L.A. Peter Todbaum, an old college friend and writing partner, had become one of the most powerful men in Hollywood. Now, post-Arrest, nothing is what it was. Sandy, who calls himself Journeyman, has landed in rural Maine. There he assists the butcher and delivers the food grown by his sister, Maddy, at her organic farm. But then Todbaum shows up in an extraordinary vehicle: a retrofitted tunnel-digger powered by a nuclear reactor. Todbaum has spent the Arrest smashing his way across a fragmented and phantasmagorical United States, trailing enmities all the way. Plopping back into the siblings’ life with his usual odious panache, his motives are entirely unclear.
Ecco | 9780062938800
BLACK GIRLS MUST DIE EXHAUSTED by Jayne Allen (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Tabitha Walker, a 33-year-old Black woman, receives an unexpected diagnosis that brings her picture-perfect life crashing down, jeopardizing the keystone she took for granted: having children. With the help of her best friends, the irreverent and headstrong Laila and Alexis, the mom jeans-wearing former "Sexy Lexi," and the generational wisdom of her grandmother and the nonagenarian firebrand Ms. Gretchen, Tabby explores the reaches of modern medicine and tests the limits of her relationships. But the fight is all-consuming, demanding a steep price that forces an honest reckoning for nearly everyone in her life. As Tabby soon learns, her grandmother's age-old adage just might still be true: Black girls must die exhausted.
Harper Perennial | 9780063137905
CHRISTMAS CUPCAKE MURDER: A Hannah Swensen Mystery with Recipes! by Joanne Fluke (Mystery)
Hannah Swensen’s sister, Andrea, wants to stave off the blues by helping out at The Cookie Jar, Michele’s love life is becoming complicated, Lisa needs Hannah’s advice, and Delores has a Christmas secret she’s not willing to share. But nothing dampens the holiday mood more than the chilling mystery surrounding the man found near death in an abandoned storefront two doors down from Hannah’s bakery. The befuddled John Doe can’t recall a thing about himself --- except for his unusual knowledge of restoring antique furniture. With a smattering of clues and barely enough time to frost Christmas cookies, Hannah must solve a deadly puzzle that could leave her dashing through the snow for her life!
Kensington | 9781496729132
THE CHRISTMAS WEDDING GUEST by Susan Mallery (Romance)
Paperback Original
The Somerville sisters believe in love, but they’ve lost faith it will happen for them. Reggie hasn’t been home since the end of the world’s shortest engagement. When her parents decide to renew their vows, she buffs up her twinkle to help with the Christmas wedding. Unexpectedly, Toby, her first love, is back too, and the spark between them shines as brightly as ever. Will they let go of past hurts and greet the New Year together? Dena is pregnant and on her own. Then a gorgeous, sad-eyed songwriter checks into a room at her inn. Micah, unable to write since he lost his wife, finds inspiration in Dena’s determination to be a mom. But Dena is afraid to believe that a rock star could fall for a cookie-cutter small-town girl like her.
HQN | 9781335522450
THE COLD MILLIONS by Jess Walter (Fiction)
The Dolans live by their wits, jumping freight trains and lining up for day work at crooked job agencies. While 16-year-old Rye yearns for a steady job and a home, his older brother, Gig, dreams of a better world, fighting alongside other union men for fair pay and decent treatment. Enter Ursula the Great, a vaudeville singer who performs with a live cougar and introduces the brothers to a far more dangerous creature: a mining magnate determined to keep his wealth and his hold on Ursula. Dubious of Gig’s idealism, Rye finds himself drawn to a fearless 19-year-old activist and feminist named Elizabeth Gurley Flynn. But a storm is coming, threatening to overwhelm them all, and Rye will be forced to decide where he stands.
Harper Perennial | 9780062868091
THE CONSTANT RABBIT by Jasper Fforde (Fantasy)
England, 2022. There are 1.2 million human-size rabbits living in the UK. They can walk, talk, drive cars, and they like to read Voltaire, the result of an Inexplicable Anthropomorphizing Event 55 years before. A family of rabbits is about to move into Much Hemlock, a cozy little village in Middle England. No sooner have the rabbits arrived than the villagers decide they must depart, citing their propensity to burrow and breed, and their shameless levels of veganism. But Mrs Constance Rabbit and her family decide they are going to stay. Unusually, their neighbors --- longtime resident Peter Knox and his daughter, Pippa --- decide to stand with them…and soon discover that you can be a friend to rabbits or humans, but not both.
Penguin Books | 9780593296547
DEEP INTO THE DARK by P. J. Tracy (Mystery/Thriller)
Sam Easton --- a true survivor --- is home from Afghanistan, trying to rebuild a life in his hometown of LA. Separated from his wife, bartending and therapy sessions are what occupy his days and nights. When friend and colleague Melody Traeger is beaten by her boyfriend, she turns to Sam for help. When the boyfriend turns up dead the next day, a hard case like Sam is the perfect suspect. But LAPD Detective Margaret Nolan, whose brother recently died serving overseas, is sympathetic to Sam's troubles and can't quite see him as a killer. She's more interested in the secrets Melody might be keeping and the developments in another murder case on the other side of town.
Minotaur Books | 9781250813831
DON’T LOOK NOW by Mary Burton (Romantic Suspense)
Paperback Original
Austin homicide detective Jordan Poe is hunting a serial killer she fears is the same man who assaulted her sister, Avery, two years ago. Texas Ranger Carter Spencer isn’t one to poach on a detective’s territory. Yet no matter how resentful a capable lone wolf like Jordan is, when she is attacked at a third crime scene and suffers a trauma that leaves her with limited vision, it’s up to Carter to help Jordan navigate a world she no longer recognizes. He needs her instinct, her experience and her fearless resolve to crack this case. A case that’s about to get even darker. A stranger is watching. He’s closing in on his ultimate prey. And no one but the killer can see what’s coming.
Montlake | 9781542021456
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 | 9781538719688
THE GIRL WHO WASN’T THERE by Vincent Zandri (Thriller)
Sidney O’Keefe just wants to spend a peaceful weekend alone with his wife and daughter in the vacation paradise of Lake Placid, New York --- now that he’s been paroled after a 10-year stretch in a maximum-security prison. But any illusion of a peaceful future is destroyed when his 11-year-old daughter, Chloe, suddenly disappears from the iconic beach scene, leaving Sidney and his wife, Penny, stricken with fear and panic. When it’s determined that his old crime boss, Mickey Rabuffo, might be behind the abduction, it becomes apparent that the past has not only come back to haunt Sidney, it has come back to kill the entire family.
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608094677
THE GREATEST BEER RUN EVER: A Memoir of Friendship, Loyalty, and War by John "Chick" Donohue and J.T. Molloy (Memoir)
One night in 1967, 26-year-old John Donohue --- known as Chick --- was out with friends, drinking in a New York City bar. The friends gathered there had lost loved ones in Vietnam. Now, they watched as anti-war protesters turned on the troops themselves. One neighborhood patriot came up with an inspired idea. Someone should sneak into Vietnam, track down their buddies there, give them messages of support from back home, and share a few laughs over a can of beer. It would be the Greatest Beer Run Ever. But who’d be crazy enough to do it? One man was up for the challenge --- a U.S. Marine Corps veteran turned merchant mariner who wasn’t about to desert his buddies on the front lines when they needed him. Chick volunteered.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062995476
HUSH-HUSH: A Stone Barrington Novel by Stuart Woods (Thriller/Adventure)
Stone Barrington is settling in for some downtime in New York City when an anonymous enemy makes himself known. This nameless foe's threats hit close to home, and before Stone can retaliate, the fearsome messages turn into very real consequences. With the help of old friends --- and a lovely new tech-savvy acquaintance --- Stone sets out to unravel the fatal agenda. But as the web of adversaries expands, Stone realizes that no place is safe, and he'll have to flush out the mastermind before he and those closest to him are silenced for good.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593188361
THE ICE COVEN by Max Seeck (Mystery)
Paperback Original
Six months have passed since investigator Jessica Niemi’s encounter with the mysterious serial-killing coven of witches and the death of her mentor. Now her homicide squad has been given a murder case and a new series of disappearances to investigate. A young woman’s corpse has washed up on an icy beach, and two famous Instagram influencers have gone missing. The missing influencers and the murdered woman all have ties to a sinister cult. Jessica finds an eerie painting --- of a lighthouse on a remote island --- as she investigates, and under the picture is a gruesome poem detailing a murder. The nightmares about Jessica's mother and the witchcraft that undid her suddenly seem all too real, making Jessica wonder if the dead woman might be trying to tell her something about the killings.
Berkley | 9780593199695
JINGLE ALL THE WAY by Debbie Macomber (Romance)
A top real-estate executive, Everly Lancaster finds that her work is her life, leaving no space for anything (or anyone) else. Sensing her stress, Everly’s boss insists she take December off. But after her vengeful assistant books a guided cruise in the Amazon instead of the luxury beach vacation she expected, Everly is horrified to realize that she’s about to spend the next two weeks trapped in the rain forest. Not even Asher Adams, the ship’s charming naturalist, can convince Everly that the trip will be unforgettable. Slowly but surely, she realizes he is right: the sights are spectacular. And with each passing day, Everly’s relationship with Asher deepens, forcing her to take a long, hard look at her priorities.
Ballantine Books | 9781984818775
JUST LIKE YOU by Nick Hornby (Fiction)
Lucy used to handle her adult romantic life according to the script she'd been handed. She met a guy just like herself; they got married and started a family. Too bad he made her miserable. Now, two decades later, she's a nearly divorced 41-year-old teacher with two school-aged sons, and there is no script anymore. So when she meets Joseph, she isn't exactly looking for love --- she's more in the market for a babysitter. Joseph is 22, living at home with his mother and working several jobs. It's not a match anyone could have predicted. But sometimes it turns out that the person who can make you happiest is the one you least expect, though it can take some maneuvering to see it through.
Riverhead Books | 9780593191392
MAKE ME RAIN: Poems & Prose by Nikki Giovanni (Poetry)
For more than 50 years, Nikki Giovanni’s poetry has inspired, enlightened and dazzled readers. As sharp and outspoken as ever, this artist long hailed as a healer and a sage returns with this profound book of poetry in which she continues to call attention to injustice and give readers an unfiltered look into the most private parts of herself. In MAKE ME RAIN, she celebrates her loved ones and unapologetically declares her pride in her Black heritage, while exploring the enduring impact of the twin sins of racism and white nationalism.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062995292
THE MATZAH BALL by Jean Meltzer (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Rachel Rubenstein-Goldblatt loves Christmas. For a decade she’s hidden her career as a Christmas romance novelist from her Jewish family. Her talent has made her a bestseller even as her chronic illness has always kept the kind of love she writes about out of reach. But when her diversity-conscious publisher insists she write a Hanukkah romance, her well of inspiration suddenly runs dry. Desperate not to lose her contract, Rachel is determined to find her muse at the Matzah Ball, a Jewish music celebration on the last night of Hanukkah, even if it means working with her summer camp archenemy: Jacob Greenberg. But as they spend more time together, Rachel finds herself drawn to Hanukkah --- and Jacob --- in a way she never expected.
Mira | 9780778311584
THE ONCE AND FUTURE WITCHES by Alix E. Harrow (Alternate History/Fantasy)
In 1893, there's no such thing as witches. There used to be, in the wild, dark days before the burnings began, but now witching is nothing but tidy charms and nursery rhymes. If the modern woman wants any measure of power, she must find it at the ballot box. But when the Eastwood sisters join the suffragists of New Salem, they begin to pursue the forgotten words and ways that might turn the women's movement into the witch's movement. Stalked by shadows and sickness, hunted by forces who will not suffer a witch to vote --- and perhaps not even to live --- the sisters will need to delve into the oldest magics, draw new alliances, and heal the bond between them if they want to survive.
Redhook | 9780316422017
THE ORCHARD by David Hopen (Fiction)
Ari Eden’s life has always been governed by strict rules. In ultra-Orthodox Brooklyn, his days are dedicated to intense study and religious rituals. So when his family announces that they are moving to a glitzy Miami suburb, Ari seizes his unexpected chance for reinvention. Enrolling in an opulent Jewish academy, he is stunned by his peers’ dizzying wealth, ambition and shameless pursuit of life’s pleasures. When the academy’s golden boy, Noah, takes Ari under his wing, Ari finds himself entangled in the school’s most exclusive and wayward group. Soon he and his friends are pushing moral boundaries and careening toward a perilous future --- one in which the traditions of their faith are repurposed to mysterious, tragic ends.
Ecco | 9780062974754
THE OTHER EMILY by Dean Koontz (Psychological Thriller)
A decade ago, Emily Carlino vanished after her car broke down on a California highway. She was presumed to be one of serial killer Ronny Lee Jessup’s victims whose remains were never found. Writer David Thorne still hasn’t recovered from losing the love of his life, or from the guilt of not being there to save her. He then meets the beguiling and playful Maddison Sutton, who is keenly aware of all he has lost. But what really takes his breath away is that everything about Maddison is just like Emily. As the fantastic becomes credible, David’s obsession grows, Maddison’s mysterious past deepens --- and terror escalates. Is she Emily? Or an irresistible dead ringer? Either way, the ultimate question is the same: What game is she playing?
Thomas & Mercer | 9781542019941
PIECE OF MY HEART by Mary Higgins Clark and Alafair Burke (Mystery/Thriller)
Television producer Laurie Moran and her fiancée, Alex Buckley, the former host of her investigative television show, are just days away from their mid-summer wedding when things take a dark turn. Alex’s seven-year-old nephew, Johnny, vanishes from the beach. A search party begins, and witnesses recall Johnny playing in the water and collecting shells behind the beach shack, but no one remembers seeing him after the morning. As the sun sets, Johnny’s skim board washes up to shore, and everyone realizes that he could be anywhere, even under water.
Pocket Books | 9781982132552
RED COMET: The Short Life and Blazing Art of Sylvia Plath by Heather Clark (Biography)
With a wealth of never-before-accessed materials, Heather Clark brings to life the brilliant Sylvia Plath, who had precocious poetic ambition and was an accomplished published writer --- even before she became a star at Smith College. Refusing to read Plath’s work as if her every act was a harbinger of her tragic fate, Clark considers the sociopolitical context as she thoroughly explores Plath’s world: her early relationships and determination not to become a conventional woman and wife; her troubles with an unenlightened mental health industry; her Cambridge years and thunderclap meeting with Ted Hughes; and much more.
Vintage | 9780307951267
THE RESIDENCE by Andrew Pyper (Historical Fiction/Horror)
President-elect Franklin Pierce is traveling with his family to Washington, DC, when tragedy strikes. Their train runs off the rails, and the only casualty is his beloved son, Bennie. As Franklin moves into the White House, he begins to notice that something bizarre is happening. Strange sounds coming from the walls and ceiling, creepy voices that seem to echo out of time itself, and visions of spirits crushed under the weight of American history. But when First Lady Jane Pierce brings in the most noted Spiritualists of the day, the Fox sisters, for a séance, the barrier between this world and the next is torn asunder. Something horrible comes through and takes up residence alongside Franklin and Jane in the walls of the very mansion itself.
Gallery Books | 9781982149062
THE SHADOWS by Alex North (Thriller)
Twenty-five years ago, teenager Charlie Crabtree committed a murder so shocking that it inspired more than one copycat. Paul Adams remembers the case all too well: Crabtree and his victim were Paul’s friends. Paul has slowly put his life back together but comes back home after his mother, who is suffering from dementia, takes a turn for the worse. Meanwhile, Detective Amanda Beck is investigating another copycat that has struck in the nearby town of Featherbank. Paul’s mother is distressed, insistent that there's something in the house. And someone is following him. Which reminds him of the most unsettling thing about that awful day 25 years ago. It wasn't just the murder. It was the fact that Crabtree was never seen again.
Celadon Books | 9781250318046
A SOLITUDE OF WOLVERINES by Alice Henderson (Thriller)
While studying wolverines on a wildlife sanctuary in Montana, biologist Alex Carter is run off the road and threatened by locals determined to force her off the land. Undeterred in her mission to help save this threatened species, Alex tracks wolverines on foot and by cameras positioned in remote regions of the preserve. But when she reviews the photos, she discovers disturbing images of a severely injured man seemingly lost and wandering in the wilds. Then another invasive predator trespasses onto the preserve. The hunter turns out to be another human --- and the prey is the wildlife biologist herself. Alex realizes too late that she has stumbled onto a far-reaching illegal operation and now has become the biggest threat.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062982087
TALKING TO STRANGERS: What We Should Know about the People We Don't Know by Malcolm Gladwell (Psychology/Social Science)
TALKING TO STRANGERS is a challenging and controversial excursion through history, psychology and scandals taken straight from the news. Here, Malcolm Gladwell revisits the deceptions of Bernie Madoff, the trial of Amanda Knox, the suicide of Sylvia Plath, the Jerry Sandusky pedophilia scandal at Penn State University, and the death of Sandra Bland --- throwing our understanding of these and other stories into doubt. Something is very wrong, Gladwell argues, with the tools and strategies we use to make sense of people we don't know. And because we don't know how to talk to strangers, we are inviting conflict and misunderstanding in ways that have a profound effect on our lives and our world.
Back Bay Books | 9780316299220
THIS TIME NEXT YEAR WE’LL BE LAUGHING: A Memoir by Jacqueline Winspear (Memoir)
After 16 novels, Jacqueline Winspear has taken the bold step of turning to memoir, revealing the hardships and joys of her family history. Both shockingly frank and deftly restrained, her story tackles the difficult, poignant and fascinating family accounts of her paternal grandfather’s shellshock; her mother’s evacuation from London during the Blitz; her soft-spoken animal-loving father’s torturous assignment to an explosives team during WWII; her parents’ years living with Romany Gypsies; and Winspear’s own childhood picking hops and fruit on farms in rural Kent, capturing her ties to the land and her dream of being a writer at its very inception.
Soho Press | 9781641292948
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