February 15, 2022

February 15, 2022

In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of February 14th and February 21st 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 special contest for THE BOOK WOMAN'S DAUGHTER. In this long-awaited follow-up to THE BOOK WOMAN OF TROUBLESOME CREEK, bestselling historical fiction author Kim Michele Richardson introduces readers to Honey Lovett, the daughter of the beloved Troublesome book woman. We are awarding 25 lucky readers an advance copy of the book, which will be in stores on May 3rd. The deadline for your entries is Friday, February 25th at noon ET.

Our latest "Bookreporter Talks To" interview is with Bonnie Kistler, whose new novel, THE CAGE, will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick. In this incredibly original psychological thriller, two colleagues from a fashion conglomerate enter an elevator together, but only one survives the trip down to the lobby. What happened behind those closed doors --- and why --- forms the backbone for the rest of the book.

Bonnie shares her process for writing thrillers, noting that she spends time making promises in the beginning so that the rest of the story works like dominoes. Also, she and Carol discuss how they feel about elevators. Bonnie wrote a piece about that very subject on her website, which you can read here. Click here to watch the video and here to listen to the podcast.

We hosted this month’s “Bookaccino Live” preview event last week. Carol talked about 23 books releasing between now and March 1st, along with eight from April, 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” preview event will take place on Wednesday, March 9th at 2pm ET. Carol will present titles releasing between March 8th and April 5th, along with a few from May, 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.

This Week's Bonus News:
Our Special Contest for THE BOOK WOMAN'S DAUGHTER
by Kim Michele Richardson, Releasing May 3rd
Enter to Win One of 25 Advance Copies

On Sale the Week of February 14th in Hardcover

February 15th

BEACH WEDDING by Michael Ledwidge (Thriller)
When Terry Rourke is invited to the spare-no-expense beach wedding of his hedge fund manager brother, he thinks that his biggest worry will be flubbing the champagne toast. But this isn’t the first time Terry has been to the Hamptons. As the designer tuxedos are laid out and the flowers arranged along the glittering surf, Terry can’t help but take another look at a decades-old murder trial that rocked the very foundations of the town --- and his family. He soon learns that digging up billion-dollar sand can be a very dangerous activity. The kind of danger that can very quickly turn even the most beautiful beach wedding into a wake.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335425751

THE CAGE by Bonnie Kistler (Psychological Thriller)
On a cold, misty Sunday night, two women are alone in the offices of fashion conglomerate Claudine de Martineau International. One is the company’s human resources director. Impeccably dressed and perfectly coiffed, she sits at her desk and stares somberly out the window. Down the hall, her colleague, one of the company’s lawyers, is buried under a pile of paperwork, frantically rushing to finish. Leaving at the same time, the two women, each preoccupied by her own thoughts, enter the elevator that will take them down from the 30th floor. When they arrive at the lobby, one of the women is dead. Was it murder or suicide?
Harper | 9780063089143

DAWNSHARD: From The Stormlight Archive by Brandon Sanderson (Fantasy/Adventure)
When a ghost ship is discovered, its crew presumed dead after trying to reach the storm-shrouded island Akinah, Navani Kholin must send an expedition to make sure the island hasn't fallen into enemy hands. Knights Radiant who fly too near find their Stormlight suddenly drained, so the voyage must be by sea. Shipowner Rysn Ftori lost the use of her legs but gained the companionship of Chiri-Chiri, a Stormlight-ingesting winged larkin, a species once thought extinct. Now Rysn's pet is ill, and any hope for Chiri-Chiri’s recovery can be found only at the ancestral home of the larkin: Akinah. With the help of Lopen, the formerly one-armed Windrunner, Rysn must accept Navani's quest and sail into the perilous storm from which no one has returned alive.
Tor Books | 9781250850553

DEATH OF A GREEN-EYED MONSTER: A Hamish Macbeth Murder Mystery by M. C. Beaton with R.W. Green (Mystery)
Sergeant Hamish Macbeth's new constable, Dorothy McIver, may be the most beautiful woman he's ever seen. Completely bewitched by her sparkling blue eyes, Hamish spends the summer traveling with her up and down Sutherland until he finally can take it no longer. He gets down on one knee beside the Land Rover and begs her to marry him --- and to his amazement and delight, she says yes. But just as the town of Lochdubh gets ready to celebrate, Hamish finds himself with a new murder on his hands. If he doesn't find the killer fast, Hamish's dream wedding could become a nightmare.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538746707

DIABLO MESA by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (Thriller)
Lucas Tappan, a wealthy and eccentric billionaire and founder of Icarus Space Systems, approaches the Santa Fe Archaeological Institute with an outlandish proposal --- to finance a careful, scientific excavation of the Roswell Incident site, where a UFO is alleged to have crashed in 1947. A skeptical Nora Kelly is tasked with the job. Nora's excavation immediately uncovers two murder victims buried at the site, faces and hands obliterated with acid to erase their identities. Special Agent Corrie Swanson is assigned to the case. As Nora’s excavation proceeds, uncovering things both bizarre and seemingly inexplicable, Corrie’s homicide investigation throws open a Pandora's box of espionage and violence.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538736753

THE GREAT WITCH OF BRITTANY by Louisa Morgan (Historical Fiction/Magical Realism)
Brittany, 1762. There hasn’t been a witch born in the Orchière clan for generations. Ursule Orchière has been raised on stories of the great witches of the past. But the only magic she knows is the false spells her mother weaves over the gullible women who visit their fortune-telling caravan. Everything changes when Ursule comes of age and a spark of power flares to life. Thrilled to be chosen, she has no idea how magic will twist and shape her future. Guided by an ancient grimoire and the whispers of her ancestors, Ursule is destined to walk the same path as the great witches of old. But first, the Orchière magical lineage must survive. And danger hovers over her, whether it’s the bloodlust of the mob or the flames of the pyre.
Redhook | 9780316628747

HEIRESSES: The Lives of the Million Dollar Babies by Laura Thompson (History)
Heiresses surely are among the luckiest women on earth. Are they not to be envied, with their private jets, Chanel wardrobes and endless funds? Yet all too often those gilded lives have been beset with trauma and despair. Before the 20th century, a wife’s inheritance was the property of her husband, making her vulnerable to kidnap, forced marriages, even confinement in an asylum. And in modern times, heiresses fell victim to fortune-hunters who squandered their millions. HEIRESSES tells the stories of these million dollar babies.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250202734

HOUSE OF SKY AND BREATH by Sarah J. Maas (Fantasy/Romance)
Bryce Quinlan and Hunt Athalar are trying to get back to normal. They may have saved Crescent City, but with so much upheaval in their lives lately, they mostly want a chance to relax, slow down and figure out what the future holds. The Asteri have kept their word so far, leaving Bryce and Hunt alone. But with the rebels chipping away at the Asteri’s power, the threat the rulers pose is growing. As Bryce, Hunt and their friends get pulled into the rebels’ plans, the choice becomes clear: stay silent while others are oppressed, or fight for what’s right. And they’ve never been very good at staying silent.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781635574074

AN IMPOSSIBLE IMPOSTER: A Veronica Speedwell Mystery by Deanna Raybourn (Historical Mystery)
Veronica Speedwell and her natural historian beau, Stoker, are summoned by Sir Hugo Montgomerie, head of Special Branch. He has a personal request on behalf of his goddaughter, Euphemia Hathaway. After years of traveling the world, her eldest brother, Jonathan, heir to Hathaway Hall, was believed to have been killed in the catastrophic eruption of Krakatoa a few years before. But now a man matching Jonathan’s description and carrying his possessions has arrived at Hathaway Hall with no memory of his identity or where he has been. Could this man truly be Jonathan, back from the dead? Or is he a devious impostor, determined to gain ownership over the family's most valuable possessions --- a legendary parure of priceless Rajasthani jewels?
Berkley | 9780593197295

THE LAST WILD HORSES written by Maja Lunde, translated by Diane Oatley (Dystopian Fiction)
Mikhail lives in Russia in 1881. When a skeleton of a rare wild horse is brought to him, the zoologist plans an expedition to Mongolia to find the fabled Przewalski horse. In 1992, Karin, alongside her troubled son Mathias and several Przewalski horses, travels to Mongolia to reintroduce the magnificent horses to their native land. Europe’s future is uncertain in 2064, but Eva is willing to sacrifice nearly everything to hold onto her family’s farm. Her teenage daughter implores her to leave the farm and Norway, but a pregnant wild mare Eva is tending is about to foal. Then, a young woman named Louise unexpectedly arrives on the farm, with mysterious intentions that will either bring them all together or devastate them one by one.
HarperVia | 9780062951410

THE MAGNIFICENT LIVES OF MARJORIE POST by Allison Pataki (Historical Fiction)
Marjorie Merriweather Post’s journey began gluing cereal boxes in her father’s barn as a young girl. No one could have predicted that C. W. Post’s Cereal Company would grow into the General Foods empire, with Marjorie as its heiress and leading lady. Not content to stay in her prescribed roles of high-society wife, mother and hostess, Marjorie dared to demand more, making history in the process. Before turning 30, she amassed millions, becoming the wealthiest woman in the United States. But it was her life-force, advocacy, passion and adventurous spirit that led to her stunning legacy. And yet Marjorie’s story, though full of beauty and grandeur, set in the palatial homes she built such as Mar-a-Lago, was equally marked by challenge and tumult.
Ballantine Books | 9780593355688

MARGARET TRUMAN'S MURDER AT THE CDC: A Capital Crimes Novel by Jon Land (Political Thriller/Mystery)
2017: A military transport on a secret run to dispose of its deadly contents vanishes without a trace. The present: A mass shooting on the steps of the Capitol nearly claims the life of Robert Brixton’s grandson. No stranger to high-stakes investigations, Brixton embarks on a trail to uncover the motive behind the shooting. On the way, he finds himself probing the attempted murder of the daughter of his best friend, who works at the Washington offices of the CDC. The connection between the mass shooting and Alexandra’s poisoning lies in that long-lost military transport that has been recovered by forces determined to change America forever.
Forge Books | 9781250238894

MOON WITCH, SPIDER KING by Marlon James (Historical Fantasy)
In BLACK LEOPARD, RED WOLF, Sogolon the Moon Witch proved a worthy adversary to Tracker as they clashed across a mythical African landscape in search of a mysterious boy who disappeared. In MOON WITCH, SPIDER KING, Sogolon takes center stage and gives her own account of what happened to the boy, and how she plotted and fought, triumphed and failed as she looked for him. It’s also the story of a century-long feud --- seen through the eyes of a 177-year-old witch --- that Sogolon had with the Aesi, chancellor to the king. It is said that Aesi works so closely with the king that together they are like the eight limbs of one spider. It takes brains and courage to challenge him, which Sogolon does for reasons of her own.
Riverhead Books | 9780735220201

OUR AMERICAN FRIEND by Anna Pitoniak (Thriller)
First Lady Lara Caine asks White House correspondent Sofie Morse to write her official biography, and to finally fill in the gaps of her history. Sofie begins to spend more and more time in the White House, slowly developing a bond with Lara --- and eventually a deep and surprising friendship with her. Even more surprising to Sofie is the fact that Lara is entirely candid about her mysterious past, which includes her beloved father’s work as an undercover KGB officer in Paris. As Lara’s story unfolds, Sofie can’t help but wonder why Lara is rehashing such sensitive information. Why to her? And why now? Suddenly Sofie is in the middle of a game of cat and mouse that could have explosive ramifications.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982158804

PURE COLOUR by Sheila Heti (Fiction)
Here we are, just living in the first draft of Creation, which was made by some great artist, who is now getting ready to tear it apart. In this first draft of the world, a woman named Mira leaves home to study. There, she meets Annie, whose tremendous power opens Mira’s chest like a portal --- to what, she doesn’t know. When Mira is older, her beloved father dies, and his spirit passes into her. Together, they become a leaf on a tree. But photosynthesis gets boring, and being alive is a problem that cannot be solved, even by a leaf. Eventually, Mira must remember the human world she’s left behind, including Annie, and choose whether or not to return.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374603946

SIERRA SIX: A Gray Man Novel by Mark Greaney (Thriller)
Before he was the Gray Man, Court Gentry was Sierra Six, the junior member of a CIA action team. In their first mission they took out a terrorist leader, at a terrible price. Years have passed. The Gray Man is on a simple mission when he sees a ghost: the long-dead terrorist, but he's remarkably energetic for a dead man. A decade of time hasn't changed the Gray Man. He isn't one to leave a job unfinished or a blood debt unpaid.
Berkley | 9780593098998

THE THOUSAND EYES by A. K. Larkwood (Fantasy/Adventure)
Two years after defying the wizard Belthandros Sethennai and escaping into the great unknown, Csorwe and Shuthmili have made a new life for themselves, hunting for secrets among the ruins of an ancient snake empire. Along for the ride is Tal Charossa, determined to leave the humiliation and heartbreak of his hometown far behind him, even if it means enduring the company of his old rival and her insufferable girlfriend. All three of them would be quite happy never to see Sethennai again. But when a routine expedition goes off the rails and a terrifying imperial relic awakens, they find that a common enemy may be all it takes to bring them back into his orbit.
Tor Books | 9781250238948

WALKING THE BOWL: A True Story of Murder and Survival Among the Street Children of Lusaka by Chris Lockhart and Daniel Mulilo Chama (True Crime/Biography)
Based on years of investigative reporting and unprecedented fieldwork, WALKING THE BOWL immerses readers in the daily lives of four unforgettable characters: Lusabilo, a determined waste picker; Kapula, a burned-out brothel worker; Moonga, a former rock crusher turned beggar; and Timo, an ambitious gang leader. These children navigate the violent and poverty-stricken underworld of Lusaka, one of Africa’s fastest growing cities. When the dead body of a 10-year-old boy is discovered under a heap of garbage in Lusaka’s largest landfill, a murder investigation quickly heats up. The children’s lives become more closely intertwined as each child engages in a desperate bid for survival against forces they never could have imagined.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335425744

WATERGATE: A New History by Garrett M. Graff (History/Politics)
In the early hours of June 17, 1972, a security guard named Frank Wills entered six words into the log book of the Watergate office complex that would change the course of history: 1:47 AM Found tape on doors; call police. In WATERGATE, Garrett M. Graff explores the full sweep of the scandal that would come to define all others, from the release of The Pentagon Papers in 1971 --- the first signs of trouble for the White House --- and the 1972 DNC break-in to the denials, trials, hearings and eventual downfall of the Nixon Administration three years later --- the implications of which we still feel today. Watergate, Graff shows, is a much bigger and much weirder story than America remembers.
Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster | 9781982139162

On Sale the Week of February 14th in Paperback

February 15th

AN AMBUSH OF WIDOWS by Jeff Abbott (Psychological Thriller)
Henry North is a down-on-his-luck cybersecurity expert from New Orleans. Adam Zhang is the cofounder of one of Austin’s most successful venture capitalist firms. These two men didn’t know each other. Yet they died together, violently, in a place neither had any business being. When Henry doesn’t return from a business trip, his wife, Kirsten, gets an anonymous phone call: “Your husband is dead in Austin.” Flora Zhang knew her husband was keeping secrets. She suspected an affair, but she had decided she could forgive him for his weakness --- until he ended up dead. And with no explanation for her husband’s murder, the police begin to suspect her. Together, these two widows will face a powerful foe determined to write a false narrative about the murders.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538719152

ASTRID SEES ALL by Natalie Standiford (Fiction)
Phoebe Hayes is in search of excitement and adventure. But the recent death of her father has so devastated her that her mother wants her to remain home in Baltimore to recover. Phoebe wants to return to New York, not only to chase the glamorous life she so desperately craves but also to confront Ivan, the older man who wronged her. With her best friend Carmen, she escapes to the East Village, disappearing into an underworld haunted by artists, It Girls and lost souls. Carmen juggles her junkie-poet boyfriend and a sexy painter, while, as Astrid the Star Girl, Phoebe tells fortunes in a nightclub and plots her revenge on Ivan. When the intoxicating brew of sex, drugs and self-destruction leads Phoebe to betray her friend, Carmen disappears, and Phoebe begins an unstoppable descent into darkness.
Atria Books | 9781982153663

BE HERE TO LOVE ME AT THE END OF THE WORLD by Sasha Fletcher (Fiction/Humor)
Paperback Original
It’s Brooklyn. It’s winter. It’s so cold outside you could execute billionaires in the street about it. Sam lives with Eleanor, and they are in love. He has three or four outstanding invoices that would each cover rent for a month. At some point, the President is going to make some absolutely wild announcements that will only end in doom. In a surreal, funny and heartbreaking version of reality, Sasha Fletcher’s highly anticipated first novel occupies that rare register that manages to speak to an increasingly incomprehensible world.
Melville House | 9781612199474

THE BONE TRACK: An Alexa Glock Forensics Mystery by Sara E. Johnson (Mystery)
Paperback Original
New Zealand's remote Milford Track seems the perfect place for forensic investigator Alexa Glock to reconnect with her brother, Charlie. But their backpacking trip seems ill-fated from the start when she must stop on the way to examine nine skeletons --- most likely Mori tribespeople --- whose graves have been unearthed by highway construction. Before she opens the first casket, a Mori elder gives her a dire warning: "The viewing of bones can unleash misfortune to the living. Or worse." When a fellow hiker goes missing and is later found dead, Alexa has all she can do to focus on the science as she investigates two murders, while trying not to become the third victim.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464213977

THE BOUNTY: A Fox and O’Hare Novel by Janet Evanovich and Steve Hamilton (Mystery)
Directly descended from the Vatican Bank priests who served Hitler during World War II, the Brotherhood is on a frantic search for a lost train loaded with $30 billion in Nazi gold, untouched for over 75 years somewhere in the mountains of Eastern Europe. Straight-as-an-arrow special agent Kate O’Hare and international con man Nick Fox know that there is only one man who can find the fortune and bring down the Brotherhood --- the same man who taught Nick everything he knows --- his father, Quentin. As the stakes get higher, they also must rely on Kate’s own father, Jake, who shares his daughter’s grit and stubbornness. Too bad they can never agree on anything.
Atria Books | 9781982157142

DEATH OF A MESSENGER: A Koa Kane Hawaiian Mystery by Robert McCaw (Mystery/Thriller)
On Hawaii Island, an anonymous 911 caller reports a body at Pohakuloa, the Army’s live-fire training area. Hilo Chief Detective Koa Kane, a cop with his own secret criminal past, finds a mutilated corpse --- bearing all the hallmarks of ancient ritual sacrifice. He encounters a host of obstacles as he pursues the murderer --- an incompetent local medical examiner, hostility from both haoles (Westerners) and sovereignty advocates, and a myriad of lies. Koa races to discover whether the victim stumbled upon a gang of high-tech archaeological thieves, or learned a secret so shocking it cost him his life and put others in mortal danger.
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608094783

EVERY VOW YOU BREAK by Peter Swanson (Psychological Thriller)
Abigail Baskin never thought she’d fall in love with a millionaire. Then she met Bruce Lamb, a stable, level-headed, kind guy. But right before the wedding, Abigail has a drunken one-night stand on her bachelorette weekend. She puts the incident out of her mind and now believes she wants to be with Bruce for the rest of her life. Then the mysterious stranger suddenly appears --- and Abigail’s future life and happiness are turned upside down. He insists that their passionate night was the beginning of something much, much more --- and he’s tracked her down to prove it. To make the situation worse, Abigail sees a terrified woman in the night shadows, and no one at the resort seems to believe anything is amiss…including her perfect new husband.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062980045

EVERYTHING IS FINE: A Memoir by Vince Granata (Memoir)
Vince Granata remembers standing in front of his home the day his mother and father returned from the hospital with his three new siblings in tow. He had just finished scrawling their names in orange chalk on the driveway: Christopher, Timothy and Elizabeth. Twenty-three years later, Vince was a thousand miles away when he received the news that would change his life --- his younger brother, Tim, propelled by unchecked schizophrenia, had killed their mother in their childhood home. Devastated by the grief of losing his mother, Vince is also consumed by an act so incomprehensible that it overshadows every happy memory of life growing up in his seemingly idyllic middle-class family. In EVERYTHING IS FINE, Vince examines the disease that irrevocably changed his family’s destiny.
Atria Books | 9781982133450

FIRES OF EDO: A Hiro Hattori Novel by Susan Spann (Historical Mystery)
Paperback Original
Edo, February 1566: When a samurai’s corpse is discovered in the ruins of a burned-out bookshop, master ninja Hiro Hattori and Jesuit Father Mateo must determine whether the shopkeeper and his young apprentice are innocent victims or assassins in disguise. The investigation quickly reveals dangerous ties to Hiro’s past, which threaten not only Edo’s fledgling booksellers’ guild, but the very survival of Hiro’s ninja clan. With an arsonist on the loose and a murderer stalking the narrow streets, Hiro and Father Mateo must save the guild --- and themselves --- from a conflagration that could destroy them all.
Seventh Street Books | 9781645060444

THE GOOD AMERICAN: The Epic Life of Bob Gersony, the U.S. Government's Greatest Humanitarian by Robert D. Kaplan (Biography)
In his long career as an acclaimed journalist covering the “hot” moments of the Cold War and its aftermath, Robert D. Kaplan often found himself crossing paths with Bob Gersony, a consultant for the U.S. State Department whose quiet dedication and consequential work made a deep impression on Kaplan. Gersony, a high school dropout later awarded a Bronze Star for his service in Vietnam, conducted on-the-ground research for the U.S. government in virtually every war and natural-disaster zone in the world. Kaplan saw in Gersony a powerful example of how American diplomacy should be conducted. Set during the State Department’s golden age, THE GOOD AMERICAN is a story about the loneliness, sweat and tears, and the genuine courage, that characterized Gersony’s work in far-flung places.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780525512318

JUST AS I AM: A Memoir by Cicely Tyson, with Michelle Burford (Memoir)
"JUST AS I AM is my truth. It is me, plain and unvarnished, with the glitter and garland set aside. In these pages, I am indeed Cicely, the actress who has been blessed to grace the stage and screen for six decades. Yet I am also the church girl who once rarely spoke a word. I am the teenager who sought solace in the verses of the old hymn for which this book is named. I am a daughter and mother, a sister, and a friend. I am an observer of human nature and the dreamer of audacious dreams. I am a woman who has hurt as immeasurably as I have loved, a child of God divinely guided by His hand. And here in my ninth decade, I am a woman who, at long last, has something meaningful to say.” –Cicely Tyson
Amistad | 9780062931078

THE LAST NIGHT IN LONDON by Karen White (Historical Fiction)
London, 1939. Eva Harlow and her best friend, Precious Dubose, are trying to make their way as fashion models. When Eva falls in love with Graham St. John, an aristocrat and Royal Air Force pilot, she can’t believe her luck. Then the Blitz devastates her world, and Eva finds herself slipping into a web of intrigue, spies and secrets. All it takes is one unwary moment to change their lives forever. London, 2019. American journalist Maddie Warner, whose life has been marked by the tragic loss of her mother, travels to London to interview Precious about her life in pre-WWII London. She finds herself drawn to both Precious and Colin, her enigmatic surrogate nephew. As Maddie gets closer to her, she begins to unravel Precious’ haunting past.
Berkley | 9780451492036

THE LOVE PROOF by Madeleine Henry (Romance)
Sophie Jones is a physics prodigy on track to unlock the secrets of the universe. But when she meets Jake Kristopher during their first week at Yale, they instantly feel a deep connection, as if they’ve known each other before. Quickly, they become a couple. Slowly, their love lures Sophie away from school. When a shocking development forces Sophie into a new reality, she returns to physics to make sense of her world. She grapples with life’s big questions, including how to cope with unexpected change and loss. Inspired by her connection with Jake, Sophie throws herself into her studies, determined to prove that true loves belong together in all realities.
Atria Books | 9781982142971

LURKERS by Sandi Tan (Fiction)
The residents of Santa Claus Lane do their best to stay out of each other’s way, but desire, fury and mischief too often propel these suburban neighbors to collide. Precocious Korean American sisters Mira and Rosemary find their world rocked by a suicide, and they must fight to keep their home; a charismatic and creepy drama teacher grooms his students; a sardonic gay horror novelist finds that aging is more terrifying than any monster; and a white hippie mom and her adopted Vietnamese daughter realize that their anger binds them rather than pushes them apart.
Soho Press | 9781641293518

NO ONE IS TALKING ABOUT THIS by Patricia Lockwood (Fiction)
A woman who has recently been elevated to prominence for her social media posts travels around the world. She must navigate the new language and etiquette of what she terms "the portal," where she grapples with an unshakable conviction that a vast chorus of voices is now dictating her thoughts. When existential threats --- from climate change and economic precariousness to the rise of an unnamed dictator and an epidemic of loneliness --- begin to loom, she posts her way deeper into the portal's void. An avalanche of images, details and references accumulate to form a landscape that is post-sense, post-irony, post-everything. Suddenly, two texts from her mother pierce the fray: "Something has gone wrong" and "How soon can you get here?"
Riverhead Books | 9780593189597

ONE NIGHT ON THE ISLAND by Josie Silver (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Spending her 30th birthday alone is not what dating columnist Cleo Wilder wanted, but she plans a solo retreat to a remote Irish island in the name of re-energizing herself and adding a new perspective to her column. With his life in Boston deteriorating in ways he can’t bring himself to acknowledge, Mack Sullivan’s soul-searching has brought him to the same Irish island to explore his roots and find some clarity. Unfortunately, a mix-up with the bookings means that both have reserved the same one-room hideaway on exactly the same dates. Cleo and Mack are instantly at odds. But as the days go by, they no longer seem to mind each other’s company quite as much as they thought they would.
Ballantine Books | 9781984820631

OUTLAWED by Anna North (Western/Adventure)
The day of her wedding, 17-year-old Ada's life looks good. But after a year of marriage and no pregnancy, in a town where barren women are routinely hanged as witches, her survival depends on leaving behind everything she knows. She joins up with the notorious Hole in the Wall Gang, a band of outlaws led by a preacher-turned-robber known to all as the Kid. Charismatic, grandiose and mercurial, the Kid is determined to create a safe haven for outcast women. But to make this dream a reality, the Gang hatches a treacherous plan that may get them all killed. And Ada must decide if she's willing to risk her life for the possibility of a new kind of future for them all.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781635578249

THE SECRET IN THE WALL by Ann Parker (Historical Mystery)
Paperback Original
Fleeing the comfort and wealth of her East Coast upbringing, Inez Stannert became a saloon owner and card sharp in the rough silver boomtown of Leadville, Colorado. Then the teenaged daughter of a local prostitute is orphaned by her mother's murder, and Inez steps up to raise the troubled girl as her own. When a skeleton tumbles from the wall of her latest business investment, the police only seem interested in the bag of Civil War-era gold coins that fell out with it. With her trusty derringer tucked in the folds of her gown, Inez uses her street smarts and sheer will to unearth a secret that someone has already killed to keep buried. The more she digs, the muddier and more dangerous things become.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464214943

THE SPLENDID AND THE VILE: A Saga of Churchill, Family, and Defiance During the Blitz by Erik Larson (History)
On Winston Churchill’s first day as prime minister, Adolf Hitler invaded Holland and Belgium. Poland and Czechoslovakia had already fallen, and the Dunkirk evacuation was just two weeks away. For the next 12 months, Hitler would wage a relentless bombing campaign, killing 45,000 Britons. It was up to Churchill to hold his country together and persuade President Franklin Roosevelt that Britain was a worthy ally --- and willing to fight to the end. In THE SPLENDID AND THE VILE, Erik Larson shows, in cinematic detail, how Churchill taught the British people “the art of being fearless."
Crown | 9780385348737

THE TEXAS JOB by Reavis Z. Wortham (Historical Mystery)
Paperback Original
Texas Ranger Tom Bell is simply tracking a fugitive killer in 1931 when he rides into Kilgore, a hastily erected shanty town crawling with oil drillers in search of work. The sheriff of the boomtown is overwhelmed, and none of the roughnecks are inclined to assist the young Ranger in his search for the wanted man. In fact, it soon becomes apparent that the lawman's presence has irritated the wrong people. When two failed attempts are made on his life, Bell knows he's getting closer to finding out who is responsible for cheating and murdering local landowners to access the rich oil fields flowing beneath their farms. When they ambush him for a third time, they make the fatal mistake of killing someone close to him and leaving the Ranger alive.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464215704

WHERE I CAN’T FOLLOW by Ashley Blooms (Fiction/Magical Realism)
Paperback Original
Maren Walker told herself she wouldn't need to sell pills for long, that it was only means to an end. But there’s always another bill for Granny's doctor, another problem with the car, another reason she's getting nowhere. She dreams of walking through her little door to leave it all behind. The doors have appeared to the people in her mountain town for as long as anyone can remember, though no one knows where they lead. All anyone knows is that if you go, you'll never come back. Maren's mother left through her door when Maren was nine, and her shadow has followed Maren ever since. When she faces the possibility of escaping her struggles for good, Maren must choose just what kind of future she wants to build.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781728226392

YOU MADE ME LOVE YOU: Selected Stories, 1981-2018 by John Edgar Wideman (Fiction/Short Stories)
When John Edgar Wideman won the PEN Malamud Award in 2019, he joined a list of esteemed writers --- from Eudora Welty to George Saunders --- all of whom are acknowledged masters of the short story. Wideman’s commitment to short fiction has been lifelong, and here he gathers a representative selection from throughout his career, stories that challenge what defines, separates and unites us; dare to push form and defy convention; and, to quote Wideman, seek to “deconstruct the given formulas of African American culture and life.”
Scribner | 9781982148928

On Sale the Week of February 21st in Hardcover

February 22nd

BENEATH THE STAIRS by Jennifer Fawcett (Horror)
Few in sleepy Sumner’s Mills have stumbled across the Octagon House hidden deep in the woods. Even fewer are brave enough to trespass. A man had killed his wife and two young daughters there, a shocking, gruesome crime that the sleepy upstate New York town tried to bury. One summer night, an emboldened 14-year-old Clare and her best friend, Abby, ventured into the Octagon House. Clare came out, but a piece of Abby never did. Twenty years later, an adult Clare receives word that Abby has attempted suicide at the Octagon House and now lies in a coma. With little to lose and still grieving after a personal tragedy, Clare returns to her roots to uncover the darkness responsible for Abby’s accident.
Atria Books | 9781982177157

THE BERLIN EXCHANGE by Joseph Kanon (Historical Thriller)
Berlin, 1963. The height of the Cold War. An early morning spy swap is taking place at a discreet border crossing usually reserved for East German VIPs. The Communists are trading two American students caught helping people to escape over the wall and an aging MI6 operative. On the other side of the trade is Martin Keller, a physicist who once made headlines but then disappeared into the English prison system. Keller’s most critical possession: his American passport. Keller’s most ardent desire: to see his ex-wife, Sabine, and their young son. He has worked for the service long enough to know that nothing happens by chance. They want him for something. Not physics; his expertise is out of date. Something else, which he cannot learn until he arrives in East Berlin, when suddenly the game is afoot.
Scribner | 9781982158651

BLACK CLOUD RISING by David Wright Faladé (Historical Fiction)
By the fall of 1863, Union forces had taken control of Tidewater Virginia and established a toehold in eastern North Carolina. Thousands of freed slaves and runaways flooded the Union lines, but Confederate irregulars still roamed the region. In December, the newly formed African Brigade, a unit of these former slaves led by General Edward Augustus Wild --- a one-armed, impassioned Abolitionist --- set out from Portsmouth to hunt down the rebel guerillas and extinguish the threat. From this little-known historical episode comes BLACK CLOUD RISING, a dramatic, moving account of these soldiers --- men who only weeks earlier had been enslaved, but were now Union infantrymen setting out to fight their former owners.
Grove Press | 9780802159199

BLUE FIRE: A Victoria Emerson Thriller by John Gilstrap (Political Thriller)
They call it Hell Day --- a world war that lasted less than 24 hours. Nations unleashed weapons that destroyed more than a century’s worth of technology. Electrical grids cannot generate power. Communications and computers cannot run. And the remnants of the U.S. government cannot be depended upon. Those who survived must live as their ancestors did, off a land ruled by the whims of nature. One-time congressional representative Victoria Emerson has become the new leader of the small town of Ortho, West Virginia. An autumn morning’s calm is shattered when her teenage son sounds the alarm with the cry “Blue Fire” --- the code phrase for imminent danger. A band of National Guardsmen intends to take Ortho and its resources for themselves.
Kensington | 9781496728579

CARAMEL PECAN ROLL MURDER: A Hannah Swensen Mystery with Recipes! by Joanne Fluke (Mystery)
Embracing a sweet escape from her usual routine at The Cookie Jar, Hannah Swensen gets asked for her help in baking pastries at the local inn for a flashy fishing competition with big prizes and even bigger names. But the fun stops when she spots a runway boat on the water and, on board, the lifeless body of the event’s renowned celebrity spokesperson. Famed TV show host Sonny Bowman wasn’t humble about his ability to reel in winning catches, and no one knew that better than his tragically overworked sidekick, Joey. Did Joey finally take bloody revenge on his pompous boss --- or was Sonny killed by a jealous contestant?
Kensington | 9781496736086

CAROLINA BUILT by Kianna Alexander (Historical Fiction)
Josephine N. Leary is determined to build a life of her own and a future for her family. When she moves to Edenton, North Carolina from the plantation where she was born, she is free, newly married and ready to follow her dreams. As the demands of life pull Josephine’s attention away, it becomes increasingly difficult for her to pursue her real estate aspirations. She finds herself immersed in deepening her marriage, mothering her daughters, and being a dutiful daughter and granddaughter. Still, she manages to teach herself to be a businesswoman, manage her finances and make smart investments in the local real estate market. But with each passing year, it grows more and more difficult to focus on building her legacy from the ground up.
Gallery Books | 9781982163686

COACH K: The Rise and Reign of Mike Krzyzewski by Ian O'Connor (Sports/Biography)
Mike Krzyzewski, known worldwide as “Coach K,” is a five-time national champion at Duke, the NCAA's all-time leader in victories with nearly 1,200, and the first man to lead Team USA to three Olympic basketball gold medals. Through unprecedented access to Krzyzewski’s best friends, closest advisers, fiercest adversaries, and generations of his players and assistants, New York Times bestselling author Ian O’Connor takes you behind the Blue Devil curtain with a penetrating examination of the great but flawed leader as he closes out his iconic career.
Mariner Books | 9780358345404

CROWN & SCEPTRE: A New History of the British Monarchy, from William the Conqueror to Elizabeth II by Tracy Borman (History)
Since William the Conqueror, duke of Normandy, crossed the English Channel in 1066 to defeat King Harold II and unite England’s various kingdoms, 41 kings and queens have sat on Britain’s throne. Ironically, during very few of these 955 years has the throne’s occupant been unambiguously English. Appealing to the intrinsic fascination with British royalty, Tracy Borman lifts the veil to reveal the remarkable characters and personalities who have ruled and, since the Glorious Revolution of 1688, have more ceremonially reigned --- a crucial distinction explaining the staying power of the monarchy as the royal family has evolved and adapted to the needs and opinions of its people, avoiding the storms of rebellion that brought many of Europe’s royals to an abrupt end.
Atlantic Monthly Press | 9780802159106

THE DARK QUEENS: The Bloody Rivalry That Forged the Medieval World by Shelley Puhak (History)
In sixth-century Merovingian France, Brunhild and her sister-in-law, Fredegund, were iron-willed strategists who reigned over vast realms, changing the face of Europe. The two queens commanded armies and negotiated with kings and popes. They formed coalitions and broke them, mothered children and lost them. They fought a decades-long civil war --- against each other. With ingenuity and skill, they battled to stay alive in the game of statecraft, and in the process laid the foundations of what would one day be Charlemagne's empire. Yet after the queens' deaths, their stories were rewritten, their names consigned to slander and legend. In THE DARK QUEENS, Shelley Puhak sets the record straight.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781635574913

FAKE by Erica Katz (Thriller)
Emma Caan is a forger, an artist who specializes in 19th-century paintings. But she isn’t a criminal; her copies are commissioned by museums and ultra-wealthy collectors protecting their investments. Emma has more than mastered a Gauguin brushstroke and a van Gogh wheat field, but her work is sometimes a painful reminder of the artistic dreams she once chased for herself. When oligarch art collector Leonard Sobetsky unexpectedly appears with an invitation, Emma sees a way out --- a new job, a new path for herself, and access to the kind of money she needs to support her unstable and recently widowed mother. But every invitation incurs an obligation…and Emma isn’t prepared for what’s to come.
Harper | 9780063082588

THE HARBOR by Katrine Engberg (Literary Thriller/Mystery)
When 15-year-old Oscar Dreyer-Hoff disappears, the police assume he’s simply a runaway. But his frantic family is certain that something terrible has happened. After all, what runaway would leave behind a note that reads: He looked around and saw the knife that had stabbed Basil Hallward. He had cleaned it many times, till there was no stain left upon it. It was bright and glistened. As it had killed the painter, so it would kill the painter’s work, and all that that meant. It would kill the past, and when that was dead, he would be free. It’s not much to go on, but it’s all that detectives Jeppe Kørner and Anette Werner have. And with every passing hour, as the odds of finding a missing person grow dimmer, it will have to be enough.
Gallery/Scout Press | 9781982127633

LIFE WITHOUT CHILDREN: Stories by Roddy Doyle (Fiction/Short Stories)
Love and marriage. Children and family. Death and grief. Life touches everyone the same. But living under lockdown, it changes us alone. In these 10 beautifully moving short stories written mostly over the last year, Booker Prize winner Roddy Doyle paints a collective portrait of our strange times. A man abroad wanders the stag-and-hen-strewn streets of Newcastle, as news of the virus at home asks him to question his next move. An exhausted nurse struggles to let go, having lost a much-loved patient in isolation. A middle-aged son, barred from his mother’s funeral, wakes to an oncoming hangover of regret.
Viking | 9780593300565

THE MARAUDERS: Standing Up to Vigilantes in the American Borderlands by Patrick Strickland (Social Science)
THE MARAUDERS uncovers the riveting nonfiction saga of far-right militias terrorizing the border towns of southern Arizona. In one of the towns profiled, Arivaca, rogue militia members killed a man and his nine-year-old daughter in 2009. In response, the residents organized and spent two years trying to push the new militias out through boycotts and by urging local businesses to ban them. The militias and vigilante groups again raised the stakes, spreading Pizzagate-style conspiracy theories alleging that town residents were complicit in child sex trafficking, prompting fears of vigilante violence. The people targeted by hate groups, and the individuals who rose up to stop them in their tracks, are the heroes of this dramatic story.
Melville House | 9781612199269

NOTHING TO LOSE: A J.P. Beaumont Novel by J.A. Jance (Mystery/Thriller)
Years ago, when he was a homicide detective with the Seattle PD, J. P. Beaumont’s partner, Sue Danielson, was murdered. Volatile and angry, Danielson’s ex-husband came after her in her home. With nowhere else to turn, Jared, Sue’s teenage son, frantically called Beau for help. As Beau rushed to the scene, he urged Jared to grab his younger brother and flee the house. In the end, Beau’s plea and Jared’s quick action saved the two boys from their father’s murderous rage. Now, almost 20 years later, Jared reappears in Beau’s life seeking his help once again --- his younger brother, Chris, is missing. Beau encounters a tangled web of family secrets in which a killer with nothing to lose is waiting to take another life.
William Morrow | 9780063010062

THE PARADOX HOTEL by Rob Hart (Technothriller/Mystery)
January Cole’s job just got a whole lot harder. Not that running security at the Paradox was ever really easy. Nothing is simple at a hotel where the ultra-wealthy tourists arrive costumed for a dozen different time periods, all eagerly waiting to catch their “flights” to the past. Or where proximity to the timeport makes the clocks run backward on occasion --- and, rumor has it, allows ghosts to stroll the halls. None of that compares to the corpse in room 526. The one that seems to be both there and not there. The one that somehow only January can see. On top of that, some very important new guests have just checked in. The U.S. government is about to privatize time-travel technology --- and the world’s most powerful people are on hand to stake their claims.
Ballantine Books | 9781984820648

THE PARIS APARTMENT by Lucy Foley (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Jess needs a fresh start. She’s broke and alone, and she’s just left her job under less than ideal circumstances. Her half-brother, Ben, didn’t sound thrilled when she asked if she could crash with him for a bit, but he didn’t say no, and surely everything will look better from Paris. Only when she shows up --- to find a very nice apartment, could Ben really have afforded this? --- he’s not there. The longer Ben stays missing, the more Jess starts to dig into her brother’s situation, and the more questions she has. Ben’s neighbors are an eclectic bunch, and not particularly friendly. Jess may have come to Paris to escape her past, but it’s starting to look like it’s Ben’s future that’s in question.
William Morrow | 9780063003057

SCOUNDREL: How a Convicted Murderer Persuaded the Women Who Loved Him, the Conservative Establishment, and the Courts to Set Him Free by Sarah Weinman (True Crime)
In the 1960s, Edgar Smith, in prison and sentenced to death for the murder of teenager Victoria Zielinski, struck up a correspondence with William F. Buckley, the founder of National Review. Buckley, who refused to believe that a man who supported the neoconservative movement could have committed such a heinous crime, began to advocate not only for Smith’s life to be spared but also for his sentence to be overturned. So begins a bizarre and tragic tale of mid-century America. Sarah Weinman’s SCOUNDREL leads us through the twists of fate and fortune that brought Smith to freedom, book deals, fame...and eventually to attempting murder again.
Ecco | 9780062899767

THE SILENT SISTERS by Robert Dugoni (Thriller)
After a harrowing escape from Russian agents on his last mission, Charles Jenkins thinks he’s finally done with the spy game. But then the final two of the seven sisters --- American assets who have been deep undercover in Russia for decades --- cut off all communication with their handlers. Are they in hiding after detecting surveillance? Or have they turned and become double agents? It’s Jenkins’ duty to find out, but he’s been added to a Russian kill list. It will require all of Jenkins’ knowledge of spycraft --- and an array of disguises --- to return to the country undetected. But when plans go awry his first night in Moscow, mafia henchmen, Russian agents and a particularly dogged Moscow police detective pursue him.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781542029919

THE STONE WORLD by Joel Agee (Historical Fiction)
Joel Agee’s first novel begins in a house with a large garden in an unnamed Mexican town in the late 1940s, where six-and-a-half-year-old Peter reads, dreams and plays with his friends. The world around him is a unique one in history: a community of leftist emigrés who have found refuge in Mexico from the Nazi and fascist regimes of Europe, rubbing shoulders with Mexican labor activists and leftists such as Frida Kahlo. But the emigrés long for home --- including Peter’s stepfather, who wants to return to his native Germany. Going back to Europe may not be safe for any of them yet, however, which gives rise to anguished arguments among Peter’s parents and their tight group of friends.
Melville House | 9781612199542

THE SWIMMERS by Julie Otsuka (Fiction)
The swimmers are unknown to one another except through their private routines and the solace each takes in their morning or afternoon laps. But when a crack appears at the bottom of the pool, they are cast out into an unforgiving world without comfort or relief. One of these swimmers is Alice, who is slowly losing her memory. For Alice, the pool was a final stand against the darkness of her encroaching dementia. Without the fellowship of other swimmers and the routine of her daily laps, she is plunged into dislocation and chaos, swept into memories of her childhood and the Japanese American incarceration camp in which she spent the war. Alice's estranged daughter, reentering her mother's life too late, witnesses her stark and devastating decline.
Knopf | 9780593321331

THINK OF ME by Frances Liardet (Historical Fiction)
During the perils of World War II in Alexandria, Egypt, two people from different worlds will find their way back to each other time and time again, their love a beacon for their survival. After the war, James and Yvette establish roots in England hoping for a new beginning, until a tragic event drives a wedge between them, and the path back to each other is one they both must be brave enough to face. Decades later, and 10 years after his wife’s death, James moves to the English village of Upton seeking change. When he discovers a scarf that might have been Yvette’s, James begins to unlock revelations about his past that just might return his lost faith to him --- his faith in God, humanity, himself and, perhaps most important of all, love.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593191149

THIS MIGHT HURT by Stephanie Wrobel (Psychological Thriller)
Natalie Collins hasn’t heard from her sister, Kit, in more than half a year. Not since Kit found Wisewood. On a private island off the coast of Maine, Wisewood’s guests commit to six-month stays and are prohibited from contact with the rest of the world so they can focus on achieving true fearlessness. Natalie thinks it’s a bad idea, but Kit has had enough of her sister’s cynicism and voluntarily disappears off the grid. Six months later, Natalie receives a menacing email from a Wisewood account threatening to reveal the secret she’s been keeping from Kit. Panicked, Natalie hurries north to come clean to her sister and bring her home. But she’s about to learn that Wisewood won’t let either of them go without a fight.
Berkley | 9780593100080

WHAT MY BONES KNOW: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma by Stephanie Foo (Memoir)
By age 30, Stephanie Foo had her dream job as an award-winning radio producer at “This American Life” and a loving boyfriend. But behind her office door, she was having panic attacks and sobbing at her desk every morning. After years of questioning what was wrong with herself, she was diagnosed with complex PTSD --- a condition that occurs when trauma happens continuously, over the course of years. In WHAT MY BONES KNOW, Foo interviews scientists and psychologists and tries a variety of innovative therapies. She returns to her hometown of San Jose, California, to investigate the effects of immigrant trauma on the community, and she uncovers family secrets in the country of her birth, Malaysia, to learn how trauma can be inherited through generations.
Ballantine Books | 9780593238103

WHEN I'M GONE, LOOK FOR ME IN THE EAST by Quan Barry (Fiction)
Tasked with finding the reincarnation of a great lama --- a spiritual teacher who may have been born anywhere in the vast Mongolian landscape --- the young monk Chuluun sets out with his identical twin, Mun, who has rejected the monastic life they once shared. Their relationship will be tested on this journey through their homeland as each possesses the ability to hear the other’s thoughts. Quan Barry carries us across a terrain as unforgiving as it is beautiful and culturally varied. As their country stretches before them, questions of faith --- along with more earthly matters of love and brotherhood --- haunt the twins.
Pantheon | 9781524748111

WISH YOU WERE GONE by Kieran Scott (Domestic Thriller)
Emma Walsh has finally worked up the courage to confront her husband, James, about his drinking. But he never shows up to meet her as planned. His body lies crumpled amidst the wreckage of his flashy car, which has been smashed to its final resting place halfway through the back wall of their suburban house’s garage. In the aftermath of the fatal crash, Emma and her teenage children begin to embrace life without James’ looming, volcanic presence. It turns out that her husband’s legacy as an upstanding business owner and family man shines only because so many people, for so long, were so willing to keep his secrets --- secrets that twist into new and unexpected shapes as the mysterious details of his last day of life begin to come to light.
Gallery Books | 9781982153984

On Sale the Week of February 21st in Paperback

February 22nd

THE AGITATORS: Three Friends Who Fought for Abolition and Women's Rights by Dorothy Wickenden (History)
Harriet Tubman --- no-nonsense, funny, uncannily prescient and strategically brilliant --- was one of the most important conductors on the underground railroad and hid the enslaved men, women and children she rescued in the basement kitchens of Martha Wright, Quaker mother of seven, and Frances Seward, wife of Governor, then Senator, then Secretary of State William H. Seward. Beginning two decades before the Civil War, when Tubman was still enslaved and Martha and Frances were young women bound by law and tradition, THE AGITATORS ends two decades after the war, in a radically changed United States.
Scribner | 9781476760742

ALL GIRLS by Emily Layden (Mystery)
ALL GIRLS follows nine young women as they navigate their ambitions and fears at a prestigious New England prep school, all pitched against the backdrop of a scandal the administration wants silenced. But as the months unfold, and the school's efforts to control the ensuing crisis fall short, these extraordinary girls are forced to discover their voices, and their power.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250751126

ANIMAL INSTINCT: A K Team Novel by David Rosenfelt (Mystery)
Corey Douglas and his K-9 partner, a German shepherd named Simon Garfunkel, are recently retired police officers turned private investigators. Along with fellow former cop Laurie Collins and her investigating partner, Marcus, they call themselves the K Team. Their latest case gives Corey a chance to solve "the one that got away." Corey knew the murder victim from his time on the force, when he was unable to protect her in a domestic dispute. Now, he is convinced the same abusive boyfriend is responsible for her murder. With some help from Laurie’s lawyer husband, Andy Carpenter, the K Team is determined to prove what the police could not. What they uncover is much more sinister than they could have imagined.
Minotaur Books | 9781250829429

CALL ME A CAB by Donald E. Westlake (Romantic Suspense)
Paperback Original
In 1977, Donald E. Westlake turned his pen to suspense of a very different sort --- and the results have never been published…until now. A New York City taxi driver is hired to drive a beautiful woman all the way across America, from Manhattan to Los Angeles, where the biggest decision of her life is waiting to be made. From Pennsylvania to Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Kansas, Colorado, Utah, Arizona and Nevada on the way to California, the characters’ odyssey takes them through uncharted territory --- on the map and in their lives.
Hard Case Crime | 9781789098181

THE CELLIST by Daniel Silva (Thriller/Adventure)
Once Russia’s richest man, Viktor Orlov now resides in splendid exile in London, where he has waged a tireless crusade against the authoritarian kleptocrats who have seized control of the Kremlin. Yet somehow, in the midst of a global pandemic, Russia’s vengeful president finally manages to cross Orlov’s name off his kill list. Gabriel Allon owes his very life to Viktor Orlov, and his desperate search for the truth eventually will take him to Geneva, where a private intelligence service controlled by a childhood friend of the Russian president is using KGB-style “active measures” to undermine the West from within. Known as the Haydn Group, the unit is plotting an unspeakable act of violence that will plunge an already divided America into chaos and leave Russia unchallenged.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062834973

DOUBLE JEOPARDY: A Stone Barrington Novel by Stuart Woods (Thriller/Adventure)
Stone Barrington is settling in for a stretch in New York when he receives news that demands immediate action. An old family matter has unexpectedly resurfaced, and Stone must decamp to the craggy shores of Maine to address the issue head-on. There, Stone finds that a dual-pronged threat is hiding in plain sight among the stately houses and exclusive coastal clubs, and the incursion isn't easily rebuffed. These enemies have friends in high places, funds to spare, and a score to settle with Stone...and only the cleverest plot will draw them out into the open. From luxuriously renovated homes to the choppy ocean waters, the pursuit can only lead to an explosive end.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780593188392

GEOGRAPHY OF AN ADULTERY written by Agnès Riva, translated by John Cullen (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Ema and Paul are lovers. Like so many others before them, they met through work. Both are married with children, and they arrange hurried meetings away from prying eyes --- Paul’s car, a corner of Ema’s house, a hotel room. But their relationship soon suffers from this too-restricted sphere, and Ema decides to put them both in danger, at the risk of losing everything.
Other Press | 9781590511107

A HISTORY OF WHAT COMES NEXT: A Take Them to the Stars Novel by Sylvain Neuvel (Historical Thriller/Science Fiction)
For generations, Mia’s family has shaped human history to push them to the stars. The year is 1945, and now it is her turn. Her mission: to lure scientist Wernher Von Braun away from the Nazi party and into the American rocket program, securing the future of the space race. But there is a threat. A ruthless enemy lurks behind the scenes. Sylvain Neuvel’s genre-bending sci-fi thriller is a dark and gripping exploration of the amorality of progress and the nature of violence, as seen through the eyes of the women who make that progress possible and the men who are determined to stop them.
Tordotcom | 9781250262097

THE HUNTING WIVES by May Cobb (Psychological Thriller)
Sophie O'Neill left behind an envy-inspiring career and the stressful, competitive life of big-city Chicago to settle down with her husband and young son in a small Texas town. There she meets Margot Banks, an alluring socialite who is part of an elite clique secretly known as the Hunting Wives. Sophie finds herself completely drawn to Margot and swept into her mysterious world of late-night target practice and dangerous partying. As Sophie's curiosity gives way to full-blown obsession, she slips farther away from the safety of her family and deeper into this nest of vipers. When the body of a teenage girl is discovered in the woods where the Hunting Wives meet, Sophie finds herself in the middle of a murder investigation.
Berkley | 9780593101148

I AM A GIRL FROM AFRICA: A Memoir of Empowerment, Community, and Hope by Elizabeth Nyamayaro (Memoir)
When a severe drought hit her village in Zimbabwe, Elizabeth, then eight, had no idea that this moment of utter devastation would come to define her life purpose. Unable to move from hunger, she encountered a United Nations aid worker who gave her a bowl of warm porridge and saved her life. This transformative moment inspired Elizabeth to become a humanitarian, and she vowed to dedicate her life to giving back to her community, her continent and the world. Grounded by the African concept of ubuntu --- “I am because we are” --- I AM A GIRL FROM AFRICA charts Elizabeth’s quest in pursuit of her dream from the small village of Goromonzi to Harare, London, New York and beyond.
Scribner | 9781982113025

INSIDE STORY by Martin Amis (Fiction)
Martin Amis’ most intimate and epic work yet had its birth in the death of his closest friend, Christopher Hitchens, and it is within that profound and sprawling friendship that this autobiographical novel unfurls. Hitch was Amis’ wingman and adviser from their early days as young magazine staffers in London through years of literary gossip, romantic entanglements and unsettling obsessions. As INSIDE STORY traces other significant influences in Amis’ life --- including his father, Kingsley Amis; his hero, Saul Bellow; the poet Philip Larkin; and the writers Iris Murdoch and Elizabeth Jane Howard --- it evolves into a tender, witty exploration of the hardest questions: how to live, how to grieve and how to die. The result is a love letter to life that opens up a previously unseen portrait of a writer’s extraordinary world.
Vintage | 9780593311714

THE KITCHEN FRONT by Jennifer Ryan (Historical Fiction)
Two years into World War II, Britain is feeling her losses: The Nazis have won battles, the Blitz has destroyed cities, and U-boats have cut off the supply of food. In an effort to help housewives with food rationing, a BBC radio program called “The Kitchen Front” is holding a cooking contest --- and the grand prize is a job as the program’s first-ever female co-host. For four very different women, winning the competition would present a crucial chance to change their lives. They are giving it their all --- even if that sometimes means bending the rules. But with so much at stake, will the contest that aims to bring the community together only serve to break it apart?
Ballantine Books | 9780593158814

THE LIBRARY OF THE DEAD by T. L. Huchu (Supernatural Thriller/Fantasy)
Ropa dropped out of school to become a ghostalker. Now she speaks to Edinburgh’s dead, carrying messages to those they left behind. A girl has to earn a living, and it seems harmless enough. Until, that is, the dead whisper that someone is bewitching children --- leaving them husks, empty of joy and strength. It’s on Ropa’s patch, so she feels honor-bound to investigate. But what she learns will rock her world. Ropa will dice with death as she calls on Zimbabwean magic and Scottish pragmatism to hunt down clues. And although underground Edinburgh hides a wealth of dark secrets, she also discovers an occult library, a magical mentor and some unexpected allies. Yet as shadows lengthen, will the hunter become the hunted?
Tor Books | 9781250767783

THE LOST APOTHECARY by Sarah Penner (Historical Fiction)
Hidden in the depths of 18th-century London, a secret apothecary shop caters to an unusual kind of clientele. Women across the city whisper of a mysterious figure named Nella, who sells well-disguised poisons to use against the oppressive men in their lives. But the apothecary’s fate is jeopardized when her newest patron, a precocious 12-year-old, makes a fatal mistake, sparking a string of consequences that echo through the centuries. Meanwhile, in present-day London, aspiring historian Caroline Parcewell spends her 10th wedding anniversary alone, running from her own demons. When she stumbles upon a clue to the unsolved apothecary murders that haunted London 200 years ago, her life collides with the apothecary’s in a stunning twist of fate --- and not everyone will survive.
Park Row | 9780778311973

THE LOST VILLAGE written by Camilla Sten, translated by Alexandra Fleming (Mystery/Thriller)
Documentary filmmaker Alice Lindstedt has been obsessed with the vanishing residents of the old mining town, dubbed “The Lost Village,” since she was a little girl. In 1959, her grandmother’s entire family disappeared in this mysterious tragedy. Ever since, the unanswered questions surrounding the only two people who were left --- a woman stoned to death in the town center and an abandoned newborn --- have plagued her. She’s gathered a small crew of friends in the remote village to make a film about what really happened. Not long after they’ve set up camp, mysterious things begin to happen. Equipment is destroyed. People go missing. As doubt breeds fear and their very minds begin to crack, one thing becomes startlingly clear to Alice: They are not alone.
Minotaur Books | 9781250803290

LOVE IN THE TIME OF BERTIE: A 44 Scotland Street Novel by Alexander McCall Smith (Fiction)
Paperback Original
In the microcosm of 44 Scotland Street, all of life’s richness is found in the glorious goings-on of its residents. There’s Domenica, whose anthropological training has honed her observations of her neighbors; Matthew, whose growing triplets are more than a handful; Bruce, whose challenge as ever is thinking of anything but himself; and Big Lou, who may just have found her shot at romance. And of course, there’s young Bertie Pollock, whose starry-eyed explorations of Edinburgh’s New Town are a touching reminder that life itself is an adventure and there’s joy to be found wherever you choose to look.
Anchor | 9780593468449

MADHOUSE AT THE END OF THE EARTH: The Belgica's Journey into the Dark Antarctic Night by Julian Sancton (History)
In August 1897, the young Belgian commandant Adrien de Gerlache set sail for a three-year expedition aboard the good ship Belgica with dreams of glory. His destination was the uncharted end of the earth: the icy continent of Antarctica. But de Gerlache’s plans to be first to the magnetic South Pole would swiftly go awry. After a series of costly setbacks, the commandant faced two bad options: turn back in defeat and spare his men the devastating Antarctic winter, or recklessly chase fame by sailing deeper into the freezing waters. De Gerlache sailed on, and soon the Belgica was stuck fast in the icy hold of the Bellingshausen Sea. The ship’s occupants were plagued by a mysterious illness and descended into madness. In this epic tale, Julian Sancton unfolds a story of adventure and horror for the ages.
Crown | 9781984824349

MASTER OF THE REVELS: A Return to Neal Stephenson's D.O.D.O. by Nicole Galland (Science Fiction/Thriller)
MASTER OF THE REVELS picks up where THE RISE AND FALL OF D.O.D.O. left off, as Tristan Lyons, Mel Stokes and their fellow outcasts from the Department of Diachronic Operations (D.O.D.O.) fight to stop the powerful Irish witch Gráinne from using time travel to reverse the evolution of all modern technology. Chief amongst Gráinne’s plots: to encrypt cataclysmic spells into Shakespeare’s “cursed” play, “Macbeth.” When her fellow rogue agents fall victim to Gráinne’s schemes, Mel is forced to send Tristan’s untested, wayward sister Robin back in time to 1606 London, where Edmund Tilney, the king’s Master of Revels, controls all staged performances in London. And now Gráinne controls Tilney.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062844880

A MILLION REASONS WHY by Jessica Strawser (Fiction)
Caroline lives a full, happy life --- a thriving career, three feisty children, an enviable marriage, and a close-knit extended family. However, she is about to discover that her fundamental beliefs about them all are wrong. Sela lives a life in shades of gray, suffering from irreversible kidney failure. Her marriage crumbled in the wake of her illness. Her beloved mother, always her closest friend, unexpectedly passed away. She refuses to be defined by her grief, but still, she worries what will happen to her two-year-old son if she doesn’t find a donor match in time. She’s the only one who knows Caroline is her half-sister and may also be her best hope for a future. But Sela’s world isn’t as clear-cut as it appears --- and one misstep could destroy it all.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250620484

OUR TEAM: The Epic Story of Four Men and the World Series That Changed Baseball by Luke Epplin (Sports/History)
OUR TEAM traces the story of the integration of the Cleveland Indians and their quest for a World Series title through four key participants: Bill Veeck, an eccentric and visionary owner adept at exploding fireworks on and off the field; Larry Doby, a soft-spoken, hard-hitting pioneer whose major-league breakthrough shattered stereotypes that so much of white America held about Black ballplayers; Bob Feller, a pitching prodigy from the Iowa cornfields who set the template for the athlete as businessman; and Satchel Paige, a legendary pitcher from the Negro Leagues whose belated entry into the majors whipped baseball fans across the country into a frenzy.
Flatiron Books | 9781250266316

THE OUTSIDE MAN: A Matt Drake Novel by Don Bentley (Political Thriller)
Broad daylight on an Austin, Texas, street, and DIA operative Matt Drake is fighting for his life against a highly trained team of assassins. Who are they? Why do they want him dead? How will he protect those closest to him? The answers will take him into some of the most dangerous spots in the Middle East and will put him in the clutches of an old foe known simply as the Devil. It's a world of double crosses, with no boundaries between the guilty and the innocent. It will take all of Drake's wiles to get out alive.
Berkley | 9781984805157

QUARRY’S BLOOD by Max Allan Collins (Hard-boiled Mystery)
Paperback Original
The professional hitman known as Quarry --- star of the Cinemax TV miniseries of the same name --- has put killing behind him. But after a beautiful writer of true-crime bestsellers drops by to announce he's the subject of her next book, killers descend to give him some of his own deadly medicine, forcing Quarry to journey into his bloody past to find the answers --- and settle old scores. QUARRY’S BLOOD brings the hitman’s decades-long saga right up to the present day as MWA Grand Master Max Allan Collins explores the startling final act of Quarry’s professional career.
Hard Case Crime | 9781789096682

RED ISLAND HOUSE by Andrea Lee (Fiction)
When Shay, an intrepid Black American professor, marries Senna, a brash Italian businessman, she doesn’t imagine that her life’s greatest adventure will carry her far beyond their home in Milan: to an idyllic stretch of beach in Madagascar, where Senna builds a flamboyant vacation villa. Before she knows it, she becomes the reluctant mistress of a sprawling household, caught between her privileged American upbringing and her connection to the continent of her ancestors. So begins Shay’s journey into the heart of a remote African country. Can she keep her identity and her marriage intact amid the wild beauty and the lingering colonial sins of this mysterious world that both captivates and destroys foreigners?
Scribner | 9781982138189

THE SCHOOL OF MIRRORS by Eva Stachniak (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
During the reign of Louis XV, impoverished but lovely teenage girls from all over France are sent to a discreet villa in the town of Versailles. Overseen by the King’s favorite mistress, Madame de Pompadour, they will be trained as potential courtesans for the King. When the time is right, each girl is smuggled into the palace of Versailles, with its legendary Hall of Mirrors. There they meet a mysterious but splendidly dressed man who they’re told is merely a Polish count, a cousin of the Queen. Living an indulgent life of silk gowns, delicious meals and soft beds, the students at this “school of mirrors” rarely ask questions, and when Louis tires of them, they are married off to minor aristocrats or allowed to retire to one of the more luxurious nunneries.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063119604

SOOLEY by John Grisham (Fiction)
In the summer of his 17th year, Samuel Sooleymon gets the chance of a lifetime: a trip to the United States with his South Sudanese teammates to play in a showcase basketball tournament. However, a civil war is raging across South Sudan; while he is away, rebel troops ransack his village. His father is dead, his sister is missing, and his mother and two younger brothers are in a refugee camp. Partly out of sympathy, the coach of North Carolina Central offers him a scholarship. He moves to Durham, enrolls in classes, joins the team, and prepares to sit out his freshman season. But Samuel has something no other player has: a fierce determination to succeed so he can bring his family to America.
Anchor | 9780593359525

TOGETHER WE WILL GO by J. Michael Straczynski (Fiction)
Mark Antonelli, a failed young writer looking down the barrel at 30, is planning a cross-country road trip. He buys a beat-up old tour bus. He hires a young army vet to drive it. He puts out an ad for others to join him along the way. But this will be a road trip like no other: His passengers are all fellow disheartened souls who have decided that this will be their final journey. Upon arrival in San Francisco, they will find a cliff with an amazing view of the ocean at sunset, hit the gas and drive out of this world. We get to know them through access to their texts, emails, voicemails and the daily journal entries they write as the price of admission for this trip.
Gallery/Scout Press | 9781982142599

THE UPSTAIRS HOUSE by Julia Fine (Fiction)
Megan is mostly raising her newborn alone while her husband travels for work. She is wracked with guilt over her unfinished dissertation --- a thesis on mid-century children’s literature. Enter a new upstairs neighbor: the ghost of Margaret Wise Brown --- author of the beloved classic GOODNIGHT MOON --- whose existence no one else will acknowledge. It seems Margaret has unfinished business with her former lover, the once-famous socialite and actress Michael Strange, and is determined to draw Megan into the fray. As Michael joins the haunting, Megan finds herself caught in the wake of a supernatural power struggle --- and until she can find a way to quiet these spirits, she and her newborn daughter are in terrible danger.
Harper Perennial | 9780062975836

THE VERIFIERS by Jane Pek (Literary Mystery)
Paperback Original
Claudia is used to disregarding her fractious family’s model-minority expectations: she has no interest in finding either a conventional career or a nice Chinese boy. She’s also used to keeping secrets from them, such as that she prefers girls --- and that she's just been stealth-recruited by Veracity, a referrals-only online-dating detective agency. A lifelong mystery reader who wrote her senior thesis on Jane Austen, Claudia believes she's landed her ideal job. But when a client vanishes, Claudia breaks protocol to investigate --- and uncovers a maelstrom of personal and corporate deceit.
Vintage | 9780593313794

VORTEX: An FBI Thriller by Catherine Coulter (Thriller)
Seven years ago, Mia Briscoe was at a college frat rave with her best friend, Serena, when a fire broke out. Everyone was accounted for except Serena, who was never seen or heard from again. Now an investigative journalist covering the political scene in New York City, Mia discovers old photos taken the night of Serena’s disappearance and begins to uncover a sinister string of events going all the way back to that disastrous party. Working with Sherlock, the secrets begin to unravel. But some very powerful --- and very dangerous --- people will do anything to keep them from learning the truth.
William Morrow | 9780063019959

THE WOMAN THEY COULD NOT SILENCE: The Shocking Story of a Woman Who Dared to Fight Back by Kate Moore (Biography)
1860: As the clash between the states rolls slowly to a boil, Elizabeth Packard is facing her own battle. Her husband of 21 years is plotting against her because he feels increasingly threatened --- by Elizabeth's intellect, independence and unwillingness to stifle her own thoughts. One summer morning, Theophilus has her committed to an insane asylum. The conditions inside the Illinois State Hospital in Jacksonville, Illinois, are horrific, and there are many rational women on her ward who tell the same story: they've been committed not because they need medical treatment, but to keep them in line. No one is willing to fight for their freedom, and they cannot possibly fight for themselves. But Elizabeth is about to discover that the merit of losing everything is that you then have nothing to lose.
Sourcebooks | 9781728242576

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