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Carol's latest “Bookreporter Talks To” interview is with Stephanie Land, whose New York Times bestselling memoir, MAID: Hard Work, Low Pay, and a Mother's Will to Survive, was a Bets On pick and is now a brilliant 10-episode series on Netflix. Before its publication, Stephanie wrote a piece for Vox that went viral, which led literary agents to ask for a book on the topic. She discusses her meetings with the producers and writers of the Netflix series, where she shared both memories and photos, and points to scenes that still resonate with her. She also talks about elements that enhanced the show that weren't in the book, and Carol asks her where she is now in life and what she's writing next. 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 31 books releasing between now and November 2nd, along with a couple from December, that we 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" afternoon event will take place on Wednesday, November 10th at 2pm ET. Carol will talk about titles releasing between November 9th through the end of the year, along with a few from January and February, 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, October 20th at 6pm ET: Harper’s Magazine and The Mark Twain House & Museum: A powerhouse lineup will discuss legendary spy novelist John le Carré’s new posthumous release, SILVERVIEW. Bestselling novelist Walter Mosley, NPR White House Correspondent Scott Detrow, and le Carré’s son John Cornwell (who writes novels under the pen name Nick Harkaway) join Harper’s Editor Christopher Beha for a conversation on le Carré’s career, legacy and what it took to publish his final work.
Wednesday, October 20th 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 Alice Hoffman about her latest novel, THE BOOK OF MAGIC, the conclusion of her Practical Magic series.
Wednesday, October 20th at 7:15pm ET: Parnassus Books: Parnassus Books, in partnership with Nashville Public Library, Nashville Public Library Foundation, Humanities TN and BookPage, is thrilled to welcome Susan Orlean and Elizabeth Strout, in conversation with Ann Patchett, as a special edition of their Salon@615 speaker series. These three authors will discuss Orlean's ON ANIMALS and Strout's OH WILLIAM!
Thursday, October 21st at 12pm ET: Doubleday: Join America's favorite storyteller, John Grisham, for a live virtual event to benefit Graves Memorial Public Library in Kennebunkport, Maine. Grisham will talk about his new legal thriller, THE JUDGE'S LIST.
Thursday, October 21st at 7pm ET: Barnes & Noble: Join Barnes & Noble as they welcome Amor Towles to discuss his new novel, THE LINCOLN HIGHWAY. Towles will talk about how he created the idea for the book and will share visuals from his writing process and research that will be shown exclusively for this program.
Sunday, October 24th at 1pm ET: Warwick's: Warwick's will host Anthony Horowitz as he discusses his new book, A LINE TO KILL --- his third literary whodunit featuring intrepid detectives Hawthorne and Horowitz --- with Peter Swanson.
Monday, October 25th at 9pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Lee Child and Andrew Child will discuss their new Jack Reacher thriller, BETTER OFF DEAD.
Tuesday, October 26th at 7pm ET: Harvard Book Store: Harvard Book Store's virtual event series and Mass Humanities welcome Susan Orlean for a discussion of her latest book, ON ANIMALS. She will be joined in conversation by acclaimed author Mary Roach.
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 ROCK PAPER SCISSORS
by Alice Feeney 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 ROCK PAPER SCISSORS, a new domestic thriller from the queen of the killer twist, Alice Feeney. Here's the intriguing tagline for this instant New York Times bestseller and Bookreporter.com Bets On selection: Ten years of marriage. Ten years of secrets. And an anniversary they will never forget. To enter, please fill out the form on this page by Wednesday, November 10th at noon ET.
ROCK PAPER SCISSORS by Alice Feeney (Psychological Thriller)
Things have been wrong with Mr. and Mrs. Wright for a long time. When Adam and Amelia win a weekend away to Scotland, it might be just what their marriage needs. Self-confessed workaholic and screenwriter Adam Wright has lived with face blindness his whole life. He can’t recognize friends or family, or even his own wife. Every anniversary the couple exchange traditional gifts --- paper, cotton, pottery, tin --- and each year Adam’s wife writes him a letter that she never lets him read. Until now. They both know this weekend will make or break their marriage, but they didn’t randomly win this trip. One of them is lying, and someone doesn’t want them to live happily ever after.
- Click here to read more about the book.
- Click here for the discussion guide.
- Click here to read our review.
- Click here to read an excerpt.
- Click here to read Carol's Bookreporter.com Bets On commentary.
Click here to enter the contest.
On Sale the Week of October 18th in Hardcover
October 19th
THE BALLAD OF LAUREL SPRINGS by Janet Beard (Fiction)
Ten-year-old Grace is in search of a subject for her fifth-grade history project when she learns that her four times-great grandfather once stabbed his lover to death. His grisly act was memorialized in a murder ballad, her aunt tells her, so it must be true. But the lessons of that revelation --- to be careful of men, and desire --- are not just Grace’s to learn. Her family’s tangled past is part of a dark legacy in which the lives of generations of women are affected by the violence immortalized in folksongs like “Knoxville Girl” and “Pretty Polly,” reminding them always to know their place --- or risk the wages of sin.
Gallery Books | 9781982151560
BEST IN SNOW: An Andy Carpenter Mystery by David Rosenfelt (Mystery)
Christmas has come early to the town of Paterson, New Jersey, in the form of a snowstorm that dumps two feet of snow on the ground. Lawyer Andy Carpenter likes snow, but it can cause problems for the walks he takes his dogs on every day. When Andy’s golden retriever, Tara, goes to play in the snow and instead discovers a body, Andy ends up on the phone with the local newspaper editor. The murder victim is Mayor Alex Oliva, who had an infamous relationship with the newspaper. Last year a young reporter published an expose, and Oliva had him fired for libel. Now, the young reporter --- and prime suspect --- is in need of a lawyer. Andy agrees to take the case, though it’s not looking good this holiday season.
Minotaur Books | 9781250257178
CHILD OF LIGHT by Terry Brooks (Fantasy)
At 19, Auris Afton Grieg has led an…unusual life. Since the age of 15, she has been trapped in a sinister prison. Why? She does not know. She has no memories of her past beyond the vaguest of impressions. All she knows is that she is about to age out of the children’s prison, and rumors say that the adult version is far, far worse. So she and some friends stage a desperate escape into the surrounding wastelands. And it is here that Auris’ journey of discovery begins, for she is rescued by an unusual stranger who claims to be Fae --- a member of a magical race that Auris had thought to be no more than legend.
Del Rey | 9780593357385
DEAR SANTA by Debbie Macomber (Romance)
Lindy Carmichael isn’t feeling particularly joyful when she returns home to Wenatchee, Washington, for Christmas. The man she thought was “the one” has cheated on her with her best friend, and she feels completely devoid of creativity in her graphic-design job. Reading through a box of childhood letters to Santa and reminiscing about what she'd wished for as a young girl may be just the inspiration Lindy needs. With her mother’s encouragement, she decides to write a new letter to Santa, one that will encourage her to have faith and believe just as she’d done all those years ago. Little does Lindy know that this exercise in gratitude will cause her wishes to unfold before her in miraculous ways.
Ballantine Books | 9781984818812
DIAMOND AND THE EYE: A Peter Diamond Investigation by Peter Lovesey (Mystery)
If there's one thing Bath detective Peter Diamond has no patience for, it's a dumb git trying to get involved in one of his investigations --- for example, a Philip Marlowe-wannabe private investigator like the self-styled Johnny Getz (his card claims he Getz results). But fate has saddled Diamond with this trial. A Bath antiques dealer, Septimus "Seppy" Hubbard, has disappeared without a trace, and his daughter, Ruby, has hired Johnny Getz to find him. When a dead body is discovered in Seppy's locked-up store, the missing persons case becomes a murder investigation, and now Diamond has to collaborate with the insufferable private eye.
Soho Crime | 9781641293129
FEMLANDIA by Christina Dalcher (Dystopian Thriller)
Miranda Reynolds always thought she would rather die than live in Femlandia. But that was before the country sank into total economic collapse and her husband walked out, leaving her and her 16-year-old daughter with nothing. The streets are full of looting, robbing and killing, and Miranda and Emma no longer have much choice --- either starve and risk getting murdered, or find safety. And so they set off to Femlandia, the women-only colony that Miranda's mother established decades ago. There are no men allowed in the colony, but babies are being born --- and they're all girls. Miranda discovers just how the all-women community is capable of enduring, and it leads her to question how far her mother went to create this perfect, thriving, horrifying society.
Berkley | 9780593201107
HOLD ME DOWN by Clea Simon (Psychological Thriller)
Gal, a middle-aged musician, is back in Boston to play a memorial for her late drummer/best friend, when she finds herself freezing on stage at the sight of a face in the crowd. The next day, she learns that the man she saw has been killed --- beaten to death behind the venue --- and her friend's widower is being charged in connection with his death. When the friend refuses to defend himself, Gal wonders why and starts her own informal investigation. As she does so, she must reexamine her own wild life, her perception of the past, and an industry that monetizes dysfunction in a dark tale of love, music and murder.
Polis Books | 9781951709518
IT'S A WONDERFUL WOOF: A Chet & Bernie Mystery by Spencer Quinn (Mystery)
Bernie is in the holiday spirit and refers a potential client to Victor Klovsky, a fellow private eye. But when Victor doesn’t show up at his mom’s to light the Hanukkah candles, she hires Chet and Bernie to find him. They soon discover that Victor’s client has also vanished. The trail leads to the ruins of a mission called Nuestra Señora de los Saguaros, dating back to the earliest Spanish explorers. Some very dangerous people are interested in the old mission. Does some dusty archive hold the secret of a previously unknown art treasure, possibly buried for centuries? What does the Flight into Egypt --- when Mary, Joseph and the baby Jesus fled Herod --- have to do with saguaros, the Sonoran desert cactus?
Forge Books | 9781250770325
THE JUDGE'S LIST by John Grisham (Legal Thriller)
Lacy Stoltz meets a mysterious woman who is so frightened she uses a number of aliases. Jeri Crosby’s father was murdered 20 years earlier in a case that remains unsolved. But Jeri has a suspect whom she has become obsessed with and has stalked for two decades. Along the way, she has discovered other victims. He is the most cunning of all serial killers. He knows forensics, police procedure and, most important, the law. He is a judge who is under Lacy’s jurisdiction. He has a list, with the names of his victims and targets, all unsuspecting people unlucky enough to have crossed his path and wronged him in some way. How can Lacy pursue him without becoming the next name on his list?
Doubleday | 9780385546027
JUST THIEVES by Gregory Galloway (Thriller)
Rick and Frank are recovering addicts and accomplished house thieves. They do not steal randomly --- they steal according to order, hired by a mysterious handler. The jobs run routinely until they’re tasked with taking a seemingly worthless trophy: an object that generates interest and obsession out of proportion to its apparent value. Just as the robbery is completed, the two are involved in a freak car accident that sets off a chain of events, and Frank disappears with the trophy. As Rick tries to find Frank, he is forced to confront his past, upending both his livelihood and his sense of reality.
Melville House | 9781612199375
A LINE TO KILL by Anthony Horowitz (Mystery)
Ex-Detective Inspector Daniel Hawthorne and his sidekick, author Anthony Horowitz, are invited to an exclusive literary festival on Alderney, an idyllic island off the south coast of England. Upon arrival, they meet the festival’s other guests --- an eccentric gathering that includes a bestselling children’s author, a French poet, a TV chef turned cookbook author, a blind psychic and a war historian --- along with a group of ornery locals embroiled in an escalating feud over a disruptive power line. When a local grandee is found dead under mysterious circumstances, Hawthorne and Horowitz become embroiled in the case. The island is locked down, no one is allowed on or off, and it soon becomes horribly clear that a murderer lurks in their midst. But who?
Harper | 9780062938169
NOTHING BUT BLACKENED TEETH by Cassandra Khaw (Thriller/Horror)
A Heian-era mansion stands abandoned, its foundations resting on the bones of a bride and its walls packed with the remains of the girls sacrificed to keep her company. It’s the perfect venue for a group of thrill-seeking friends, brought back together to celebrate a wedding. A night of food, drinks and games quickly spirals into a nightmare as secrets get dragged out and relationships are tested. But the house has secrets too. Lurking in the shadows is the ghost bride with a black smile and a hungry heart. And she gets lonely down there in the dirt.
Tor Nightfire | 9781250759412
OH WILLIAM! by Elizabeth Strout (Fiction)
Lucy Barton is a writer, but her ex-husband, William, remains a hard man to read. William, she confesses, has always been a mystery to me. Another mystery is why the two have remained connected after all these years. They just are. So Lucy is both surprised and not surprised when William asks her to join him on a trip to investigate a recently uncovered family secret --- one of those secrets that rearrange everything we think we know about the people closest to us.
Random House | 9780812989434
ONCE UPON A WARDROBE by Patti Callahan (Historical Fiction)
Megs Devonshire is brilliant with numbers and equations, on a scholarship at Oxford, and dreams of solving the greatest mysteries of physics. She prefers the dependability of facts --- except for one: the younger brother she loves with all her heart doesn’t have long to live. When George becomes captivated by THE LION, THE WITCH AND THE WARDROBE and begs her to find out where Narnia came from, there’s no way she can refuse. Despite her timidity about approaching the famous author, Megs soon finds herself taking tea with the Oxford don and his own brother, imploring them for answers. Why won’t Mr. Lewis just tell her plainly what George wants to know? The answer will reveal to Meg many truths that science and math cannot.
Harper Muse | 9780785251729
ORWELL'S ROSES by Rebecca Solnit (Literary Criticism)
Rebecca Solnit’s new book is a reflection on George Orwell’s passionate gardening and the way that his involvement with plants, particularly flowers, and the natural world illuminates his other commitments as a writer and antifascist, and the intertwined politics of nature and power. Sparked by her unexpected encounter with the surviving roses he planted in 1936, Solnit’s account of this understudied aspect of Orwell’s life explores his writing and his actions --- from going deep into the coal mines of England, fighting in the Spanish Civil War, critiquing Stalin when much of the international left still supported him (and then critiquing that left), to his analysis of the relationship between lies and authoritarianism.
Viking | 9780593083369
OVER MY DEAD BODY by Jeffrey Archer (Mystery/Thriller)
In London, the Metropolitan Police set up a new Unsolved Murders Unit --- a cold case squad --- to catch the criminals nobody else can. In Geneva, millionaire art collector Miles Faulkner --- convicted of forgery and theft --- was pronounced dead two months ago. So why is his unscrupulous lawyer still representing a dead client? On a luxury liner en route to New York, the battle for power within a wealthy dynasty is about to turn to murder. And at the heart of all three investigations are Detective Chief Inspector William Warwick, rising star of the department, and ex-undercover agent Ross Hogan, brought in from the cold. But can they catch the killers before it’s too late?
HarperCollins | 9780008476373
SLEEPLESS by Romy Hausmann (Psychological Thriller)
It's been years since Nadja Kulka was convicted of a cruel crime. After being released from prison, she's wanted nothing more than to live a normal life: nice flat, steady job, even a few friends. But when one of those friends, Laura von Hoven --- free-spirited beauty and wife of Nadja's boss --- kills her lover and begs Nadja for her help, Nadja can't seem to refuse. The two women make for a remote house in the woods, the perfect place to bury a body. But their plan quickly falls apart, and Nadja finds herself outplayed, a pawn in a bizarre game in which she is both the perfect victim and the perfect murderer.
Flatiron Books | 9781250824790
On Sale the Week of October 18th in Paperback
October 19th
AT THE EDGE OF THE HAIGHT by Katherine Seligman (Fiction)
Maddy Donaldo, homeless at 20, lives with her dog and makeshift family in the hidden spaces of San Francisco’s Golden Gate Park. She thinks she knows how to survive and whom to trust until she accidentally witnesses the murder of a young man. Her world is upended as she has to face not only the killer but also the police and then the victim’s parents. In a desire to save her since they could not save their own son, they are determined to have Maddy reunite with her own lost family. But what makes a family? Is it the people who raised you if they don’t have the skills to look after you? Is it the foster parents whose generosity only lasts until things become more difficult? Or is it the family that Maddy has met in the park, young people who also have nowhere else to go?
Algonquin Books | 9781643752082
BEHELD by TaraShea Nesbit (Historical Fiction)
Ten years after the Mayflower pilgrims arrived on rocky, unfamiliar soil, Plymouth is not the land its residents had imagined. Seemingly established on a dream of religious freedom, in reality the town is led by fervent puritans who prohibit the residents from living, trading and worshipping as they choose. By the time an unfamiliar ship, bearing new colonists, appears on the horizon one summer morning, Anglican outsiders have had enough. In BEHELD, TaraShea Nesbit reframes the story of the pilgrims in the previously unheard voices of two women of very different status and means.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781635576559
THE BOOK OF ATLANTIS BLACK: The Search for a Sister Gone Missing by Betsy Bonner (True Crime/Memoir)
A young woman is found dead on the floor of a Tijuana hotel room. An ID in a nearby purse reads “Atlantis Black.” The police report states that the body does not seem to match the identification, yet the body is quickly cremated and the case is considered closed. So begins Betsy Bonner’s search for her sister, Atlantis, and the unraveling of the mysterious final months before Atlantis’ disappearance, alleged overdose and death. With access to her sister’s email and social media accounts, she attempts to decipher and construct a narrative. Through a history only she and Atlantis shared, Bonner finds questions that lead only to more questions and possible clues that seem to point in no particular direction.
Tin House Books | 9781951142773
THE BRILLIANT LIFE OF EUDORA HONEYSETT by Annie Lyons (Fiction)
Eudora Honeysett is done with this noisy, moronic world. She has witnessed the indignities and suffering of old age and has lived a full life. At 85, she isn’t going to leave things to chance. Her end will be on her terms. With one call to a clinic in Switzerland, a plan is set in motion. Then she meets 10-year-old Rose Trewidney and is soon embarking on a series of adventures with her and their affable fellow neighbor, the recently widowed Stanley. While the trio of unlikely BFFs grow closer and await the arrival of Rose’s new baby sister, Eudora is reminded of her own childhood and realizes she must come to terms with what lies ahead. But now that her joy for life has been rekindled, how can she possibly say goodbye?
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063026070
CARDIFF, BY THE SEA: Four Novellas of Suspense by Joyce Carol Oates (Psychological Thriller/Horror)
In this collection of four previously unpublished novellas, Joyce Carol Oates writes about women facing threats past and present. In the titular novella, an academic discovers a terrifying trauma from her past after inheriting a house from someone she has never heard of. Mia, the protagonist of “Miao Dao,” is a pubescent girl who befriends a feral cat that becomes her protector. A college sophomore realizes that she is pregnant in “Phantomwise: 1972” and allows a distinguished visiting professor to take her under his wing. Lastly, “The Surviving Child” is Stefan, whose mother, a famous poet, killed his sister and herself. Stefan’s father remarries, but his young wife is haunted by a dead poet’s voice dancing in the wind.
Mysterious Press | 9780802158000
CONDITIONAL CITIZENS: On Belonging in America by Laila Lalami (Memoir/Essays)
Pulitzer Prize finalist Laila Lalami recounts her unlikely journey from Moroccan immigrant to U.S. citizen, using her own story as a starting point for an exploration of the rights, liberties and protections that are traditionally associated with American citizenship. Tapping into history, politics and literature, she elucidates how accidents of birth --- such as national origin, race and gender --- that once determined the boundaries of Americanness still cast their shadows today, poignantly illustrating how white supremacy survives through adaptation and legislation. Weaving together her experiences with an examination of the place of nonwhites in the broader American culture, Lalami illuminates how conditional citizens are all those whom America embraces with one arm and pushes away with the other.
Vintage | 9780525436041
THE DARK HEART OF FLORENCE: A Lady Emily Mystery by Tasha Alexander (Historical Mystery)
In Tasha Alexander’s 15th Lady Emily mystery, Colin Hargreaves’ focus is drawn to Italy by a series of burglaries at his daughter’s palazzo in Florence. He and his wife, Lady Emily, travel to Tuscany where a stranger is thrown to his death from the roof onto the marble palazzo floor. Colin’s trusted colleague and fellow agent, Darius Benton-Stone, arrives to assist Colin, who insists their mission must remain top secret. Finding herself excluded from the investigation, Emily secretly launches her own clandestine inquiry into the murder, aided by her spirited and witty friend, Cécile. They soon discover that the palazzo may contain a hidden treasure dating back to the days of the Medici and the violent reign of the fanatic monk, Savonarola.
Minotaur Books | 9781250622082
THE DAUGHTERS OF YALTA: The Churchills, Roosevelts, and Harrimans: A Story of Love and War by Catherine Grace Katz (History)
Tensions during the Yalta Conference in February 1945 threatened to tear apart the wartime alliance among Franklin Roosevelt, Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin just as victory was close at hand. Catherine Grace Katz uncovers the dramatic story of the three young women who were chosen by their fathers to travel with them to Yalta. Kathleen Harriman was a champion skier, war correspondent and daughter of U.S. ambassador to the Soviet Union Averell Harriman. Sarah Churchill, an actress-turned-RAF officer, was devoted to her brilliant father, who depended on her astute political mind. Roosevelt’s only daughter, Anna, chosen instead of her mother Eleanor to accompany the president to Yalta, arrived there as keeper of her father’s most damaging secrets.
Mariner Books | 9780358627944
ELEANOR by David Michaelis (Biography)
In the first single-volume cradle-to-grave portrait in six decades, acclaimed biographer David Michaelis delivers a stunning account of Eleanor Roosevelt’s remarkable life of transformation. An orphaned niece of President Theodore Roosevelt, she converted her Gilded Age childhood of denial and secrecy into an irreconcilable marriage with her ambitious fifth cousin Franklin. Despite their inability to make each other happy, Franklin Roosevelt transformed Eleanor from a settlement house volunteer on New York’s Lower East Side into a matching partner in New York’s most important power couple in a generation.
Simon & Schuster | 9781439192047
FALLEN ANGEL by Tracy Borman (Historical Fiction)
Life has never been quiet for Frances Gorges at the court of King James. But after finding herself at the center of plots and conspiracies for many years as both an accused witch and a secret Catholic, by 1614 Frances hopes to distance herself from the decadence and ruthlessness of the aging and venal monarch. However, when a handsome stranger appears at a courtier’s country estate, he immediately draws the wandering eyes of the King, throwing the established order of the court into upheaval. George Villiers is ambitious and violent, ready to take down whatever --- and whoever --- stands in his way, including Frances and her husband, Sir Thomas Tyringham.
Grove Press | 9780802157621
THE GARDEN OF PROMISES AND LIES by Paula Brackston (Historical Fantasy)
As the bustle of the winter holidays in the Little Shop of Found Things gives way to spring, Xanthe is left to reflect on the strange events of the past year. While she has tried to keep her time-traveling talents a secret from those close to her, she is forced to take responsibility for having inadvertently transported the dangerous Benedict Fairfax to her own time. It is then that a beautiful antique wedding dress sings to her. Realizing the dress and her adversary are connected in some way, she answers the call and finds herself in Bradford-on-Avon in 1815. Fairfax is threatening Xanthe into helping him with his evil doings, and demonstrates all too clearly how much damage he is capable of causing.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250804013
GI CONFIDENTIAL: A Sueño and Bascom Investigation Set in South Korea by Martin Limón (Historical Mystery)
A rash of armed robberies at local Korean banks doesn’t concern the American military --- until a fatality occurs, and proof surfaces that US soldiers are behind the crimes. Sergeants George Sueño and Ernie Bascom step in to investigate, though they have their own problems to worry about. Pesky reporter Katie Byrd Worthington has published a story that implicates Army higher-ups in both sex trafficking and treason, and the pressure is on for the CID to disprove her claims. But what if they aren’t false? As George and Ernie dig deeper into the case, they find themselves the targets of a very unflattering publicity campaign, but perhaps also something much more dangerous.
Soho Crime | 9781641292443
GOODNIGHT BEAUTIFUL by Aimee Molloy (Psychological Thriller)
Newlyweds Sam Statler and Annie Potter are excited to say goodbye to New York City and start a life together in Sam's sleepy hometown upstate. Or, it turns out, a life where Annie spends most of her time alone while Sam, her therapist husband, works long hours in his downstairs office, tending to the egos of his (mostly female) clientele. Little does Sam know that through a vent in his ceiling, every word of his sessions can be heard from the room upstairs. Who could resist listening? Everything is fine until the French girl in the green mini Cooper shows up, and Sam decides to go to work and not come home, throwing a wrench into Sam and Annie's happily ever after.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062881915
LITANI by Jess Lourey (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
In the summer of ’84, 14-year-old Frankie Jubilee is shuttled off to Litani, Minnesota, to live with her estranged mother, a county prosecutor she barely knows. From the start, Frankie senses something uneasy going on in the small town. The locals whisper about The Game, and her mother warns her to stay out of the woods and away from adults. When a bullying gang of girls invites Frankie to The Game, she accepts, determined to find out what’s really going on in Litani. She’s not the only one becoming paranoid. Hysteria burns through the community. Dark secrets emerge. And Frankie fears that, even in the bright light of day, she might be living among monsters.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781542027014
A LOVER’S DISCOURSE by Xiaolu Guo (Fiction)
A Chinese woman moves from Beijing to London for a doctoral program --- and to begin a new life --- just as the Brexit campaign reaches a fever pitch. Isolated and lonely in a Britain increasingly hostile to foreigners, she meets a landscape architect and the two begin to build a life together. A LOVER’S DISCOURSE is an exploration of romantic love told through fragments of conversations between the two lovers. Playing with language and the cultural differences that her narrator encounters as she settles into life in post-Brexit vote Britain, the lovers must navigate their differences and their romance, whether on their unmoored houseboat or in a cramped and stifling apartment in east London.
Grove Press | 9780802149534
THE MINISTRY FOR THE FUTURE by Kim Stanley Robinson (Science Fiction)
Kim Stanley Robinson’s THE MINISTRY FOR THE FUTURE uses fictional eyewitness accounts to tell the story of how climate change will affect us all. Its setting is not a desolate, post-apocalyptic world, but a future that is almost upon us --- and in which we might just overcome the extraordinary challenges we face.
Orbit | 9780316300148
MURDER, SHE WROTE: KILLING IN A KOI POND by Jessica Fletcher and Terrie Farley Moran (Mystery)
After traveling to Bethesda for a mystery writers’ conference, Jessica Fletcher decides she’s earned a vacation and takes a train to Columbia, South Carolina, to visit her old college friend Dolores, who has recently married her third husband, Willis Nickens, a wealthy and cutthroat businessman. They’ve moved into an opulent historic home with plenty of space for guests, and Jessica is ready for a week of shopping, gossiping and relaxing at the grand estate. But the morning after she arrives, Jessica discovers Willis face down in the koi pond, and despite what the police think, she’s sure foul play is involved. She hadn’t known Willis long, but it’s clear to her that he didn’t concern himself with making friends. The question isn’t if her friend’s husband was murdered but by whom.
Berkley | 9780593333617
OUT OF HOUNDS by Rita Mae Brown (Mystery)
Although the hunting season is coming to a close, the foxes seem determined to put the members of the Jefferson Hunt Club through their paces. “Sister” Jane Arnold and her friends are enjoying some of the best chases they’ve had all season when the fun is cut short by the theft of Crawford Howard’s treasured Sir Alfred Munnings painting of a woman in hunting attire riding sidesaddle. When another painting goes missing five days later, Sister Jane knows it’s no coincidence. Someone is stealing paintings of foxhunters from foxhunters. But why? Then Delores Buckingham, once a formidable foxhunter, is strangled to death after her own Munnings sidesaddle painting is stolen. Now Sister is not just up against a thief --- she’s on the hunt for a killer.
Ballantine Books | 9780593130087
SINGULAR SENSATION: The Triumph of Broadway by Michael Riedel (Performing Arts)
The 1990s was a decade of profound change on Broadway. At the dawn of the ’90s, the British invasion of Broadway was in full swing, as musical spectacles like "Les Miserables," "Cats" and "The Phantom of the Opera" dominated the box office. But Andrew Lloyd Webber’s "Sunset Boulevard" soon spelled the end of this era and ushered in a new wave of American musicals, beginning with the ascendance of an unlikely show by a struggling writer who reimagined Puccini’s opera La Bohème as the smash Broadway show "Rent." Michael Riedel presents the drama behind every mega-hit or shocking flop, bringing readers into high-stakes premieres, fraught rehearsals, tough contract negotiations, intense Tony Award battles and more.
Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster | 9781501166655
STILL LIFE: A Karen Pirie Novel by Val McDermid (Mystery/Thriller)
When a lobster fisherman discovers a dead body in Scotland’s Firth of Forth, DCI Karen Pirie is called in to investigate. She quickly discovers that the case will require untangling a complicated web --- including a historic disappearance, art forgery and secret identities --- that seems to orbit around a painting copyist who can mimic anyone from Holbein to Hockney. Meanwhile, a traffic crash leads to the discovery of a skeleton in a suburban garage. Needless to say, Karen has her plate full. Meanwhile, the man responsible for the death of the love of her life is being released from prison, reopening old wounds just as she was getting back on her feet.
Grove Press | 9780802157454
TO SLEEP IN A SEA OF STARS by Christopher Paolini (Science Fiction/Space Opera)
Kira Navárez dreamed of life on new worlds. Now she has awakened a nightmare. During a routine survey mission on an uncolonized planet, Kira finds an alien relic. At first she's delighted, but elation turns to terror when the ancient dust around her begins to move. As war erupts among the stars, Kira is launched into a galaxy-spanning odyssey of discovery and transformation. First contact isn't at all what she imagined, and events push her to the very limits of what it means to be human. While Kira faces her own horrors, Earth and its colonies stand upon the brink of annihilation. Now, Kira might be humanity's greatest and final hope.
Tor Books | 9781250762924
WIN by Harlan Coben (Mystery/Thriller)
Over 20 years ago, the heiress Patricia Lockwood was abducted during a robbery of her family's estate, then locked inside an isolated cabin for months. Patricia escaped, but so did her captors --- and the items stolen from her family were never recovered. Until now. On the Upper West Side, a recluse is found murdered in his penthouse apartment, alongside two objects of note: a stolen Vermeer painting and a leather suitcase bearing the initials WHL3. For the first time in years, the authorities have a lead --- not only on Patricia's kidnapping, but also on another FBI cold case --- with the suitcase and painting both pointing them toward one man: Windsor Horne Lockwood III…or Win, as his few friends call him.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538748237
On Sale the Week of October 25th in Hardcover
October 26th
AS THE WICKED WATCH: The First Jordan Manning Novel by Tamron Hall (Mystery/Thriller)
When crime reporter Jordan Manning leaves her hometown in Texas to take a job at a television station in Chicago, she’s one step closer to her dream: a coveted anchor chair on a national network. She is smart and aggressive, with unabashed star-power, and often the only woman of color in the newsroom. Again and again, she is called to cover the murders of Black women --- many of them sexually assaulted, most brutalized and all of them quickly forgotten. All until Masey James, a 15-year-old girl whose body was found in an abandoned lot. Putting the rest of her work and her (fraying) personal life aside, Jordan does everything she can to give the story the coverage it desperately requires, and that Black children rarely receive.
William Morrow | 9780063037038
BAGGAGE: Tales from a Fully Packed Life by Alan Cumming (Memoir)
Much of BAGGAGE chronicles my life in Hollywood and how, since I recovered from a nervous breakdown at 28, work has repeatedly whisked me away from personal calamities to sets and stages around the world. It is also about marriage(s): starting with the break-up of my first (to a woman) and ending with the ascension to my second (to a man) with many kissed toads in between! But in everything, each failed relationship or encounter with a legend (Liza! X-Men! Gore Vidal! Kubrick! Spice Girls!), in every bad decision or moment of sensual joy I have endeavored to show what I have learned and how I’ve become who I am today: a happy, flawed, vulnerable, fearless middle-aged man, with a lot of baggage.
Dey Street Books | 9780062435781
BETTER OFF DEAD: A Jack Reacher Novel by Lee Child and Andrew Child (Thriller)
Reacher is heading west, walking under the merciless desert sun --- until he comes upon a curious scene. A Jeep has crashed into the only tree for miles around. A woman is slumped over the wheel. Dead? No, nothing is what it seems. The woman is Michaela Fenton, an army veteran turned FBI agent trying to find her twin brother, who might be mixed up with some dangerous people. Most of them would rather die than betray their terrifying leader, who has burrowed his influence deep into the nearby border town. The mysterious Dendoncker rules from the shadows, out of sight and under the radar, keeping his dealings in the dark. Bringing him down will be the riskiest job of Reacher's life.
Delacorte Press | 9781984818508
BURNING BOY: The Life and Work of Stephen Crane by Paul Auster (Biography)
With BURNING BOY, celebrated novelist Paul Auster tells the extraordinary story of Stephen Crane, best known as the author of THE RED BADGE OF COURAGE, who transformed American literature through an avalanche of original short stories, novellas, poems, journalism and war reportage before his life was cut short by tuberculosis at age 28. Auster’s probing account of this singular life tracks Crane as he rebounds from one perilous situation to the next.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250235831
THE CHANCELLOR: The Remarkable Odyssey of Angela Merkel by Kati Marton (Biography)
Famously private, the Angela Merkel who emerges in THE CHANCELLOR is a role model for anyone interested in gaining and keeping power while holding onto one’s moral convictions --- and for anyone looking to understand how to successfully bridge huge divisions within society. No modern leader has so ably confronted Russian aggression, provided homes to over a million refugees, and calmly unified Europe at a time when other countries are becoming more divided. But acclaimed biographer Kati Marton also describes Merkel’s many challenges, such as her complicated relationship with President Obama, who she refused to speak to at one point.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501192623
DOWN THE HATCH: An Agatha Raisin Mystery by M. C. Beaton with R.W. Green (Mystery)
Private detective Agatha Raisin, having recently taken up power-walking, is striding along a path in Mircester Park during her lunch break when she hears a cry for help. Rushing over, she finds an elderly couple, Mr. and Mrs. Swinburn, in the middle of the green --- with the body of an old man lying at their feet. The man, who the coroner determines died by poisoning, was known as "the Admiral," a gardener notorious for his heavy drinking, and Chief Inspector Wilkes writes the death off as an accident caused by the consumption of weedkiller stored in a rum bottle. Agatha is not convinced that anyone would mistake weedkiller for rum but carries on with her work at Raisin Investigations, until she receives an anonymous tip that the Admiral’s death was no accident.
Minotaur Books | 9781250816139
FIVE DECEMBERS by James Kestrel (Hard-boiled Historical Thriller)
December 1941. America teeters on the brink of war, and in Honolulu, Hawaii, police detective Joe McGrady is assigned to investigate a homicide that will change his life forever. Because the trail of murder he uncovers will lead him across the Pacific, far from home and the woman he loves. And though the U.S. doesn't know it yet, a Japanese fleet is already steaming toward Pearl Harbor.
Hard Case Crime | 9781789096118
GATED PREY by Lee Goldberg (Thriller)
Los Angeles County Sheriff’s detective Eve Ronin and her soon-to-retire partner, Duncan Pavone, are running a 24-7 sting in a guard-gated enclave of palatial homes in Calabasas. Their luxury McMansion is a honey trap, set to lure in the violent home invaders terrorizing the community. The trap works, leaving three intruders dead, a body count that nearly includes Eve and Duncan. Eve’s bosses are eager to declare the case closed, but there are too many unanswered questions for her to let go. Was the trap actually for her, bloody payback for Eve’s very public takedown of a clique of corrupt deputies? Or is there an even deadlier secret lurking behind those opulent gates?
Thomas & Mercer | 9781542029346
GOING THERE by Katie Couric (Memoir)
For more than 40 years, Katie Couric has been an iconic presence in the media world. In her brutally honest, hilarious and heartbreaking memoir, she reveals what was going on behind the scenes of her sometimes tumultuous personal and professional life --- a story she’s never shared, until now. Of the medium she loves, the one that made her a household name, she says, “Television can put you in a box; the flat-screen can flatten. On TV, you are larger than life but smaller, too. It is not the whole story, and it is not the whole me. This book is.”
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316535861
GRAVE RESERVATIONS by Cherie Priest (Mystery)
Meet Leda Foley: devoted friend, struggling travel agent and inconsistent psychic. When Leda, sole proprietor of Foley's Flights of Fancy, impulsively re-books Seattle PD detective Grady Merritt’s flight, her life changes in ways she couldn’t have predicted. After watching his original plane blow up from the safety of the airport, Grady realizes that Leda’s special abilities could help him with a cold case he just can’t crack. Despite her scattershot premonitions, she agrees for a secret reason: her fiancé’s murder remains unsolved. Leda and Grady set out to catch a killer --- and learn how the two cases that haunt them have more in common than they ever suspected.
Atria Books | 9781982168896
HER HONOR: My Life on the Bench...What Works, What's Broken, and How to Change It by LaDoris Hazzard Cordell (Memoir)
Judge LaDoris Hazzard Cordell, the first African American woman to sit on the Superior Court of Northern California, knows firsthand how prejudice has permeated our legal system. And yet, she believes in the system. From ending school segregation to legalizing same-sex marriage, its progress relies on legal professionals and jurors who strive to make the imperfect system as fair as possible. HER HONOR is an entertaining and provocative look into the hearts and minds of judges. Cordell takes you into her chambers where she haggles with prosecutors and defense attorneys, and into the courtroom during jury selection and sentencing hearings. She uses real cases to highlight how judges make
difficult decisions, all the while facing outside pressures.
Celadon Books | 9781250269607
THE MEMOIRS OF STOCKHOLM SVEN by Nathaniel Ian Miller (Historical Fiction)
In 1916, Sven Ormson leaves a restless life in Stockholm to seek adventure in Svalbard, an Arctic archipelago where darkness reigns four months of the year. He might witness the splendor of the Northern Lights one night and be attacked by a polar bear the next. But his time as a miner ends when an avalanche nearly kills him, leaving him disfigured, and Sven flees even further, to an uninhabited fjord. There, with the company of a loyal dog, he builds a hut and lives alone, testing himself against the elements. Years into his routine isolation, the arrival of an unlikely visitor salves his loneliness, sparking a chain of surprising events that will bring Sven into a family of fellow castoffs and determine the course of the rest of his life.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316592550
THE NAMELESS ONES by John Connolly (Supernatural Thriller)
In Amsterdam, four bodies, violently butchered, are discovered in a canal house, the remains of friends and confidantes of the assassin known only as Louis. The men responsible for the murders are Serbian war criminals. They believe they can escape retribution by retreating to their homeland. They are wrong. For Louis has come to Europe to hunt them down: five killers to be found and punished before they can vanish into thin air. There is just one problem. The sixth.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781982176976
ON GIRLHOOD: 15 Stories from the Well-Read Black Girl Library edited by Glory Edim (Fiction/Short Stories)
Since founding the beloved Well-Read Black Girl book club in 2015, Glory Edim has emerged as a literary tastemaker for a new generation. Continuing her life’s work to brighten and enrich American reading lives through the work of legendary Black authors, she now launches her Well-Read Black Girl Library Series with ON GIRLHOOD. This meticulously selected anthology features a wide range of unique voices, finally illuminating a distinctly robust sector of contemporary literature: groundbreaking short stories that explore the thin yet imperative line between Black girlhood and womanhood.
Liveright | 9781631497698
RENEGADES: Born in the USA by Barack Obama and Bruce Springsteen (Social Science/Popular Culture)
RENEGADES is a candid, revealing and entertaining dialogue between President Barack Obama and legendary musician Bruce Springsteen that explores everything from their origin stories and career-defining moments to our country’s polarized politics and the growing distance between the American Dream and the American reality. Filled with full-color photographs and rare archival material, it is a compelling and beautifully illustrated portrait of two outsiders --- one Black and one white --- looking for a way to connect their unconventional searches for meaning, identity and community with the American story itself.
Crown | 9780593236314
SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE THREE WINTER TERRORS by James Lovegrove (Historical Mystery)
1889. The First Terror. At a boys’ prep school in the Kent marshes, a pupil is found drowned in a pond. Could this be the fulfilment of a witch’s curse from over 200 years earlier? 1890. The Second Terror. A wealthy man dies of a heart attack at his London townhouse. Was he really frightened to death by ghosts? 1894. The Third Terror. A body is discovered in the dark woods near a Surrey country manor, hideously ravaged. Is the culprit a cannibal, as the evidence suggests? These three chilling and strangely linked crimes test Sherlock Holmes’ deductive powers, and his scepticism about the supernatural, to the limit.
Titan Books | 9781789096712
THE WANDERING EARTH by Cixin Liu (Science Fiction/Short Stories)
The 10 stories in THE WANDERING EARTH, including five Chinese Galaxy Award winners, are a blazingly original ode to planet Earth, its pasts and its futures. Cixin Liu's fiction takes the reader to the edge of the universe and the end of time, to meet stranger fates than we ever could have imagined. With a melancholic and keen understanding of human nature, Liu's stories show humanity's attempts to reason, navigate and, above all, survive in a desolate cosmos.
Tor Books | 9781250796837
WHAT THE AMISH TEACH US: Plain Living in a Busy World by Donald B. Kraybill (Cultural Studies/History)
It sounds audacious, but it's true: the Amish have much to teach us. It may seem surreal to turn to one of America's most traditional groups for lessons about living in a hyper-tech world --- especially a horse-driving people who resist "progress" by snubbing cars, public grid power and high school education. Still, their wisdom confirms that even when they seem so far behind, they're out ahead of the rest of us. Having spent four decades researching Amish communities, Donald B. Kraybill is in a unique position to share important lessons from these fascinating Plain people. In this inspiring book, we learn intriguing truths about community, family, education, faith, forgiveness, aging and death from real Amish men and women.
Johns Hopkins University Press | 9781421442174
WHERE THEY WAIT by Scott Carson (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
Recently laid-off from his newspaper and desperate for work, war correspondent Nick Bishop takes a humbling job: writing a profile of a new mindfulness app called Clarity. It’s easy money, and a chance to return to his hometown for his first visit in years. The app itself seems like a retread of old ideas, but then there are the “Sleep Songs.” A woman’s hauntingly beautiful voice sings a ballad that is anything but soothing --- it’s disturbing, more of a warning than a relaxation --- but it works. Deep, refreshing sleep follows. So do nightmares. Vivid and chilling, they feature a dead woman who calls Nick by name and whispers guidance --- or are they threats? And soon her voice follows him long after the song is done.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781982104627
On Sale the Week of October 25th in Paperback
October 26th
ALL THAT GLITTERS by Danielle Steel (Fiction)
Nicole “Coco” Martin has been given every opportunity in life. Having inherited her mother’s stunning beauty and creativity, along with her father’s work ethic and diligence, she has the world at her feet. Her graduation from Columbia is fast approaching, and with it the summer job of her dreams working at a magazine. Between work, leisurely weekends at her family’s home in Southampton, and spending as much time as possible with her best friend, Sam, life couldn’t be better --- until tragedy strikes. Coco’s beloved parents are killed in a terrorist attack while on vacation in France. Now devastated and alone, Coco must find a way to move forward and make her way in the world without the family she loved.
Dell | 9780399179709
BATTLE GROUND: A Novel of the Dresden Files by Jim Butcher (Urban Fantasy)
Harry Dresden has faced terrible odds before. He has a long history of fighting enemies above his weight class. The Red Court of vampires. The fallen angels of the Order of the Blackened Denarius. The Outsiders. But this time it’s different. A being more powerful and dangerous on an order of magnitude beyond what the world has seen in a millennium is coming. And she’s bringing an army. The Last Titan has declared war on the city of Chicago, and has come to subjugate humanity, obliterating any who stand in her way. Harry’s mission is simple but impossible: Save the city by killing a Titan. And the attempt will change Harry’s life, Chicago and the mortal world forever.
Ace | 9780593199312
BLINK OF AN EYE by Iris Johansen and Roy Johansen (Mystery/Thriller)
Delilah Winter is one of the hottest pop stars on the planet, so how in the world was she kidnapped right in the middle of a show at the famous Hollywood Bowl? If anyone can figure it out, it's Dr. Kendra Michaels, who works with local and federal authorities on only the most impossible cases. She agrees to lead the race to rescue the young singer before time runs out. Joined by Jessie Mercado, the singer's former bodyguard and a military hero, Kendra closes in on the hideout location but not before casualties mount up. Desperate for leads, Kendra must set aside her personal feelings when agent-for-hire Adam Lynch also volunteers his special skills to aid in the search. But as the abductor's true purpose becomes clear, the trio uncover a plot they never could have imagined --- leading to a showdown they won't soon forget.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538762851
BLOOD RUNS COAL: The Yablonski Murders and the Battle for the United Mine Workers of America by Mark A. Bradley (True Crime/History)
In the early hours of New Year’s Eve 1969, in the small soft coal mining borough of Clarksville, Pennsylvania, longtime trade union insider Joseph “Jock” Yablonski and his wife and daughter were brutally murdered in their old stone farmhouse. Behind the assassination was the corrupt president of the United Mine Workers of America (UMWA), Tony Boyle, who had long embezzled UMWA funds, silenced intra-union dissent, and served the interests of Big Coal companies --- and would do anything to maintain power. The most infamous crimes in the history of American labor unions, the Yablonski murders catalyzed the first successful rank-and-file takeover of a major labor union in modern US history.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393868395
BRITAIN AT BAY: The Epic Story of the Second World War, 1938-1941 by Alan Allport (History)
Here is the many-faceted, world-historically significant story of Britain at war. In looking closely at the military and political dimensions of the first crucial years of World War II, Alan Allport tackles pressing questions such as whether the war could have been avoided, how it could have been lost, how well the British lived up to their own values, and ultimately, what difference the war made to the fate of the nation. In answering these questions, he reexamines our assumptions and paints a vivid portrait of the ways in which the Second World War transformed British culture and society. BRITAIN AT BAY gives us a fresh look at the opening years of the war, and illuminates the integral moments that, for better or for worse, made Britain what it is today.
Vintage | 9781101974698
CHRISTMAS IN PEACHTREE BLUFF by Kristy Woodson Harvey (Fiction)
Paperback Original
When the Murphy women are in trouble, they always know they can turn to their mother, Ansley. So when eldest daughter Caroline and her husband, James, announce they are divorcing --- and 15-year-old daughter Vivi acts out in response --- Caroline, at her wit's end, can’t think of anything to do besides leave her with Ansley in Peachtree Bluff for the holidays. After all, how much trouble can one teenager get into on a tiny island? Quite a lot, as it turns out. As the “storm of the century” heads toward Peachtree Bluff, Ansley and her husband, Jack, with Vivi in tow, are grateful they’re planning to leave for the trip of a lifetime. But Vivi’s recklessness forces the trio to shelter in place during the worst hurricane Peachtree has ever seen.
Gallery Books | 9781982185206
CROSSINGS by Alex Landragin (Fiction)
On the brink of the Nazi occupation of Paris, a German-Jewish bookbinder stumbles across a manuscript called Crossings. It has three narratives, each as unlikely as the next. And the narratives can be read one of two ways: either straight through or according to an alternate chapter sequence. The first piece is a never-before-seen ghost story by the poet Charles Baudelaire, penned for an illiterate girl. Next is a noir romance about an exiled man, modeled on Walter Benjamin, whose recurring nightmares are cured when he falls in love with a storyteller who draws him into a dangerous intrigue of rare manuscripts, police corruption and literary societies. Finally, there are the fantastical memoirs of a woman-turned-monarch whose singular life has spanned seven generations.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250796721
D (A TALE OF TWO WORLDS) by Michel Faber (Fantasy)
It all starts on the morning the letter D disappears from language. First, it vanishes from Dhikilo’s parents’ conversation at breakfast, then from the road signs outside and from her school dinners. Soon the local dentist and the neighbor’s dalmatian are missing, and even the Donkey Derby has been called off. Though she doesn’t know why, Dhikilo is summoned to the home of her old history teacher Professor Dodderfield and his faithful Labrador, Nelly Robinson. And this is where our story begins.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335474797
FIND YOU FIRST by Linwood Barclay (Psychological Thriller)
Tech millionaire Miles Cookson recently has been diagnosed with a terminal illness, and there is a 50 percent chance that it can be passed on to the next generation. Two decades ago, a young, struggling Miles was a sperm donor. Somewhere out there, he has nine kids, and they might be about to inherit both the good and the bad from him. Aspiring film documentarian Chloe Swanson embarks on a quest to find her biological father, armed with the knowledge that 22 years ago, her mother used a New York sperm bank to become pregnant. When Miles and Chloe eventually connect, their excitement at finding each other is overshadowed by a series of mysterious and terrifying events. One by one, Miles’ other potential heirs are vanishing --- every trace of them wiped, like they never existed at all.
William Morrow | 9780062993878
GOLEM GIRL: A Memoir by Riva Lehrer (Memoir)
In 1958, amongst the children born with spina bifida is Riva Lehrer. At the time, most such children are not expected to survive. Her parents and doctors are determined to "fix" her, sending the message over and over again that she is broken. Enduring countless medical interventions, Riva tries her best to be a good girl and a good patient in the quest to be cured. Everything changes when, as an adult, Riva is invited to join a group of artists, writers and performers who are building Disability Culture. They insist that disability is an opportunity for creativity and resistance. Emboldened, Riva asks if she can paint their portraits --- inventing an intimate and collaborative process that will transform the way she sees herself, others and the world.
One World | 9781984820327
HENCH by Natalie Zina Walschots (Science Fiction/Adventure)
Anna does boring things for terrible people because even criminals need office help and she needs a job. Working for a monster lurking beneath the surface of the world isn’t glamorous. But is it really worse than working for an oil conglomerate or an insurance company? In this economy? As a temp, she’s just a cog in the machine. But when she finally gets a promising assignment, everything goes very wrong, and an encounter with the so-called “hero” leaves her badly injured. So, of course, then she gets laid off. When people start listening to the story that her data tells, she realizes she might not be as powerless as she thinks. It’s not too long before she’s employed once more, this time by one of the worst villains on earth. As she becomes an increasingly valuable lieutenant, she might just save the world.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062978585
I’LL BE SEEING YOU: A Memoir by Elizabeth Berg (Memoir)
Elizabeth Berg’s father was an Army veteran who was a tough man in every way but one: He showed a great deal of love and tenderness to his wife. Berg describes her parents’ marriage as a romance that lasted for nearly 70 years. But then her father developed Alzheimer’s disease, and her parents were forced to leave the home they loved and move into a facility that could offer them help. It was time for their children to offer practical advice, emotional support and direction, to the best of their abilities. The mix of emotions on everyone’s part could make every day feel like walking through a minefield. Then came redemption.
Ballantine Books | 9780593134689
MAD AT THE WORLD: A Life of John Steinbeck by William Souder (Biography)
The first full-length biography of the Nobel laureate to appear in a quarter century, MAD AT THE WORLD illuminates what has made the work of John Steinbeck an enduring part of the literary canon: his capacity for empathy. Pulitzer Prize finalist William Souder explores Steinbeck’s long apprenticeship as a writer struggling through the depths of the Great Depression, and his rise to greatness with masterpieces such as THE RED PONY, OF MICE AND MEN and THE GRAPES OF WRATH.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393868326
A MATTER OF LIFE AND DEATH: A Robin Lockwood Novel by Phillip Margolin (Legal Thriller)
Joe Lattimore, homeless and trying desperately to provide for his young family, agrees to fight in a no-holds-barred illegal bout, only to have his opponent die. Lattimore now finds himself at the mercy of the fight's organizers, who blackmail him into burglarizing a house. However, when he breaks in, he finds a murdered woman on the floor, and the police have received an anonymous tip naming him the murderer. Robin Lockwood, an increasingly prominent young attorney and former MMA fighter, agrees to take on his defense. The murdered woman's husband, Judge Anthony Carasco, has an alibi, and Lattimore's fingerprints are discovered at the scene. But Lockwood is convinced that her client has been framed.
Minotaur Books | 9781250802163
MEMORIAL by Bryan Washington (Fiction)
Benson and Mike have been together for a few years, but now they're not sure why they're still a couple. When Mike finds out that his estranged father is dying in Osaka just as his acerbic Japanese mother, Mitsuko, arrives in Texas for a visit, Mike picks up and flies across the world to say goodbye. In Japan, he undergoes an extraordinary transformation, discovering the truth about his family and his past. Back home, Mitsuko and Benson are stuck living together as unconventional roommates, an absurd domestic situation that ends up meaning more to each of them than they ever could have predicted. Without Mike's immediate pull, Benson begins to push outwards, realizing he might just know what he wants out of life and have the goods to get it.
Riverhead Books | 9780593087282
A NEW WORLD BEGINS: The History of the French Revolution by Jeremy Popkin (History)
The French Revolution’s principles of liberty and equality still shape our ideas of a just society --- even if, after more than 200 years, their meaning is more contested than ever before. In A NEW WORLD BEGINS, Jeremy D. Popkin offers a riveting account of the revolution that puts the reader in the thick of the debates and the violence that led to the overthrow of the monarchy and the establishment of a new society. We meet Mirabeau, Robespierre and Danton in all their brilliance and vengefulness; we witness the failed escape and execution of Louis XVI; we see women demanding equal rights and Black slaves wresting freedom from revolutionaries who hesitated to act on their own principles; and we follow the rise of Napoleon out of the ashes of the Reign of Terror.
Basic Books | 9781541620179
NIGHT IN TEHRAN by Philip Kaplan (Thriller)
Based on real events, NIGHT IN TEHRAN places an idealistic American diplomat in a turbulent, US-hating Tehran in the days leading up to the Iranian Revolution. Backed by the CIA, and trailed by a beautiful and engaging French journalist he suspects is a spy, David Weiseman's mission is to ease the Shah of Iran out of power and find the best alternative between the military, religious extremists and the political ruling class --- many of whom are simultaneously trying to kill him.
Melville House | 9781612199443
THE NIGHT OF THE FIRE by Kjell Eriksson (Mystery)
Police inspector Ann Lindell has left the Uppsala police and is living a quiet life, producing local cheese in a small town in Uppland. But life in the country is not as idyllic as it seems. On New Year’s Eve, someone sets fire to the former village school that is now a home for asylum seekers, and three people are killed. Ann Lindell’s investigative instincts come back to life, and soon she takes on the case. She is contacted by a person who has been involved in a previous investigation and wants to warn her. His message is short and clear: Many will die. A few weeks later, a bomb explodes in a suburb of Stockholm.
Minotaur Books | 9781250804174
ROBERT B. PARKER’S SOMEONE TO WATCH OVER ME: A Spenser Novel by Ace Atkins (Mystery)
Ten years ago, Spenser helped a teenage girl named Mattie Sullivan find her mother's killer and take down an infamous Southie crime boss. Now Mattie is a college student with a side job working for the tough but tender private eye. Her first big case involves a 15-year-old girl assaulted by a much older man at one of Boston's most prestigious private clubs. The girl, Chloe Turner, only wants the safe return of her laptop and backpack. But like her mentor and boss, Mattie has a knack for asking the right questions of the wrong people. Soon Spenser and Mattie find ties between the exploitation of dozens of other girls from working class families to an eccentric billionaire and his sadistic henchwoman.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780525536864
RHYTHM OF WAR: Book Four of The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson (Fantasy)
After forming a coalition of human resistance against the enemy invasion, Dalinar Kholin and his Knights Radiant have spent a year fighting a protracted, brutal war. Neither side has gained an advantage, and the threat of a betrayal by Dalinar’s crafty ally Taravangian looms over every strategic move. Now, as new technological discoveries by Navani Kholin’s scholars begin to change the face of the war, the enemy prepares a bold and dangerous operation. The arms race that follows will challenge the very core of the Radiant ideals, and potentially reveal the secrets of the ancient tower that was once the heart of their strength.
Tor Books | 9781250757302
SAVAGE ROAD: A Hayley Chill Thriller by Chris Hauty (Political Thriller)
When a series of devastating cyber attacks rock the United States, Hayley Chill is tasked by the “deeper state” to track down their source. NSA analysts insist that Moscow is the culprit, but that accusation brings plenty of complications with Hayley directing the president as a double agent against the Russians. With increasing pressure on the president to steer him towards a devastating war, it’s up to Hayley to stop the mysterious computer hacker and prevent World War III --- while also uncovering some shocking truths about her own life.
Pocket Books | 9781982126629
THE SECRET OF SNOW by Viola Shipman (Fiction)
Paperback Original
When Sonny Dunes, a SoCal meteorologist, is replaced by a virtual meteorologist that will never age, gain weight or renegotiate its contract, the only station willing to give the 50-year-old another shot is the very place she has been avoiding since the day she left for college --- her northern Michigan hometown. Sonny grudgingly returns and finds her past blindsiding her everywhere. She throws herself headfirst into covering every small-town winter event to woo a new audience, made more bearable by a handsome widower with optimism to spare. But with someone trying to undermine her efforts to rebuild her career, Sonny must make peace with who she used to be and allow her heart to thaw if she’s ever going to find a place she can truly call home.
Graydon House | 9781525899812
SERPENTINE: An Alex Delaware Novel by Jonathan Kellerman (Psychological Thriller)
The LAPD pressures homicide lieutenant Milo Sturgis to cater to the demands of a mogul: a hard-to-fathom, megarich young woman who is obsessed with reopening the coldest of cases --- the decades-old death of the mother she never knew. A mysterious woman was found with a bullet in her head in a torched Cadillac that has overturned on infamously treacherous Mulholland Drive. No physical evidence, no witnesses, no apparent motive. And a slew of detectives have already worked the case and failed. But as Sturgis and psychologist Alex Delaware begin digging, the mist begins to lift. Too many coincidences. Facts turn out to be anything but. And, as they soon discover, very real threats lurking in the present.
Ballantine Books | 9780525618577
SURVIVAL INSTINCTS by Jen Waite (Psychological Thriller)
Twenty-something Anne meets the man of her dreams right out of college, but after they get married, Anne notices that her husband begins acting differently. Why is Ethan suddenly so moody? And will their marriage endure? Ten years later, Anne and her 12-year-old daughter, Thea, are safely living in Vermont. When Thea takes to brooding and showing classic signs of teen angst, a trip to the White Mountains of New Hampshire --- accompanied by Anne’s mother, Rose --- seems like the perfect chance to bond. But a man follows the three women on a hike at a nature reserve and drags them at gunpoint to an abandoned cabin in the woods. Just like that, their peaceful weekend away turns into a fight for survival.
Dutton | 9781524745844
THE UNHEARD by Nicci French (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Maybe Tess is overprotective, but passing her daughter off to her ex and his new young wife fills her with a sense of dread. It hurts to see him enjoying married life with someone else. Still, she owes it to her daughter Poppy to make this arrangement work. But Poppy returns from the weekend tired and withdrawn. And when she shows Tess a crayon drawing --- an image so simple and violent that Tess can hardly make sense of it --- Poppy can only explain with the words, “He did kill her.” Jason insists the weekend went off without a hitch. Doctors advise that Poppy may be reacting to her parents’ separation. And as the days go on, even Poppy’s disturbing memory seems to fade. But a mother knows her daughter, and Tess is determined to discover the truth.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063137745
THE USUAL SANTAS: A Collection of Soho Crime Christmas Capers foreword by Peter Lovesey (Mystery/Short Stories)
Nine mall Santas must find the imposter among them. An elderly lady seeks peace from her murderously loud neighbors at Christmastime. A young woman receives a mysterious invitation to Christmas dinner with a stranger. Sherlock Holmes' one-time nemesis, Irene Adler, finds herself in an unexpected tangle in Paris while on a routine espionage assignment. Jane Austen searches for the Dowager Duchess of Wilborough’s stolen diamonds. These and other adventures in this collection of 18 holiday stories will whisk readers away to Christmases around the globe --- from a Korean War POW camp to a Copenhagen refugee squat, from a palatial hotel in 1920s Bombay to a crumbling mansion in Havana.
Soho Crime | 9781641293181
VERITY by Colleen Hoover (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Jeremy Crawford, the husband of bestselling author Verity Crawford, has hired struggling writer Lowen Ashleigh to complete the remaining books in a successful series that his injured wife is unable to finish. Lowen arrives at the Crawford home, ready to sort through years of Verity’s notes and outlines. What Lowen doesn’t expect to uncover in the chaotic office is an unfinished autobiography Verity never intended for anyone to read --- page after page of bone-chilling admissions, including Verity's recollection of the night her family was forever altered. Lowen decides to keep the manuscript hidden from Jeremy, knowing its contents could devastate the already grieving father. But as Lowen’s feelings for Jeremy begin to intensify, she recognizes all the ways she could benefit if he were to read his wife’s words.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538724736
THE WICKED WIDOW: A Wicked City Novel by Beatriz Williams (Historical Romance)
Paperback Original
June 1925: Audacious Appalachian flapper Geneva “Gin” Kelly prepares to trade her high-flying ways for respectable marriage to Oliver Anson Marshall. But just as wedding bells chime, the head of the notorious East Coast rum-running racket turns up murdered at a society funeral, and their short-lived honeymoon bliss goes up in a spectacular blaze. June 1998: When Ella Dommerich’s ninetysomething society queen aunt Julie ropes her into digging up dirt on Senator (and Presidential candidate) Franklin Hardcastle, she couldn’t be less enthusiastic. But then the Hardcastle secrets lead to a web of shady dealings Ella has uncovered in her job as a financial analyst, and the bodies start to tumble out of the venerable woodwork.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063142442
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