August 23, 2022

August 23, 2022

Please note: There will be no "On Sale This Week" newsletter on August 30th as we take our annual summer break, so we are covering releases for the next three weeks in this edition. Our next "On Sale This Week" newsletter will be sent on Tuesday, September 6th.

In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of August 22nd, August 29th and September 5th that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers, along with Bonus News, where we call out a contest, feature or review that we want to let you know about so you have it on your radar.

This week, we are calling attention to our "What's Your Book Group Reading This Month?" contest on ReadingGroupGuides.com. Three book groups will win up to 12 copies of THE READING LIST by Sara Nisha Adams, which is now available in paperback. The deadline for your entries is Wednesday, September 14th at noon ET.

Upcoming Virtual Book and Author Events

As many book and author events are still happening online these days, we are highlighting a number of them that you may be interested in attending. Click on the links below for more info and to register.

Wednesday, August 24th at 3pm ET: Barnes & Noble: Join Barnes & Noble as they welcome the New York Times bestselling author of the Cork O’Connor mystery series, William Kent Krueger, for a live virtual discussion of FOX CREEK as part of their B&N Midday Mystery Virtual Event series. He will be in conversation with the New York Times bestselling author of the Longmire mysteries, Craig Johnson.

Wednesday, August 24th at 7pm ET: "Friends and Fiction": The "Friends and Fiction" authors --- Mary Kay Andrews, Kristin Harmel, Kristy Woodson Harvey and Patti Callahan Henry --- will talk to Tamron Hall, whose debut mystery novel, AS THE WICKED WATCH, is now available in paperback.

Wednesday, August 24th at 8:30pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Robert Dugoni will discuss his pulse-pounding new novel, WHAT SHE FOUND, in which solving a decades-old disappearance sets Tracy Crosswhite on a dangerous collision course with the past.

Thursday, August 25th at 8pm ET: Warwick's: Warwick's will host Joyce Carol Oates as she discusses her new book, BABYSITTER, with veteran journalist Dean Nelson. In the wake of unsolved child killings that have shocked Detroit, the lives of several residents are drawn together with tragic consequences.

Thursday, August 25th at 9pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Faye Kellerman will discuss her latest thriller, THE HUNT, which sees Detective Peter Decker and Rina Lazarus returning to Los Angeles when a kidnapping hits close to home.

Saturday, August 27th at 12:30pm ET: Warwick's: Warwick's, in partnership with Rakestraw Books, will host Frances Mayes as she discusses her new book, A PLACE IN THE WORLD: Finding the Meaning of Home, with Kim Sunée.

Monday, August 29th at 7pm ET: Murder By The Book: Karin Slaughter will talk about her new novel, GIRL, FORGOTTEN, with Mystery & Thriller Maven’s Sara DiVello. Newly minted US Marshal Andrea Oliver investigates a cold case with links to her father’s past.

Monday, August 29th at 8pm ET: Random House Studio Sessions: Random House Studio Sessions is Random House's new event series featuring live conversations with the biggest names on your bookshelf, filmed in their studio and broadcast virtually to wherever you are. The series launches with Taylor Jenkins Reid, who will talk about her latest novel, CARRIE SOTO IS BACK.

Wednesday, August 31st at 7pm ET: "Friends and Fiction": The "Friends and Fiction" authors will talk to Team W (Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig and Karen White), along with Miriam Parker, whose second novel, ROOM AND BOARD, is now in stores.

Thursday, September 1st at 9pm ET: Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore: Mysterious Galaxy will present a virtual event featuring Scott Shepherd and Brian Freeman. They will talk about their latest thrillers: Shepherd's SHOULD I FALL and Freeman's ROBERT LUDLUM'S THE BOURNE SACRIFICE.

Tuesday, September 6th at 7pm ET: Sourcebooks: The Sourcebooks Booklight Events series presents Kristina McMorris (THE WAYS WE HIDE), Jennifer Coburn (CRADLES OF THE REICH) and Eden Robins (WHEN FRANNY STANDS UP) as they talk about their newest releases with Mary O’Malley, a bookseller at Skylark Bookshop.

This Week's Bonus News:
ReadingGroupGuides.com's
"What's Your Book Group Reading This Month?" Contest
Enter to Win Up to 12 Paperback Copies of
THE READING LIST by Sara Nisha Adams for Your Group

On Sale the Week of August 22nd in Hardcover

August 23rd

AFTERLIVES by Abdulrazak Gurnah (Historical Fiction)
When he was just a boy, Ilyas was stolen from his parents on the coast of east Africa by German colonial troops. After years away, fighting against his own people, he returns home to find his parents gone and his sister, Afiya, abandoned into de facto slavery. Hamza, too, returns home from the war, scarred in body and soul and with nothing but the clothes on his back --- until he meets the beautiful, undaunted Afiya. As these young people live and work and fall in love, their fates knotted ever more tightly together, the shadow of a new war on another continent falls over them, threatening once again to carry them away.
Riverhead Books | 9780593541883

BABEL: Or the Necessity of Violence: An Arcane History of the Oxford Translators' Revolution by R. F. Kuang (Historical Fantasy)
1828. Robin Swift, orphaned by cholera in Canton, is brought to London by the mysterious Professor Lovell. There, he trains for years in Latin, Ancient Greek and Chinese, all in preparation for the day he’ll enroll in Oxford University’s prestigious Royal Institute of Translation --- also known as Babel. Babel is the world's center for translation and, more importantly, magic. For Robin, Oxford is a utopia dedicated to the pursuit of knowledge. But knowledge obeys power, and as a Chinese boy raised in Britain, Robin realizes serving Babel means betraying his motherland. As his studies progress, Robin finds himself caught between Babel and the shadowy Hermes Society, an organization dedicated to stopping imperial expansion.
Harper Voyager | 9780063021426

BABYSITTER by Joyce Carol Oates (Domestic Thriller)
In the waning days of the turbulent 1970s, in the wake of unsolved child killings that have shocked Detroit, the lives of several residents are drawn together with tragic consequences. There is Hannah, wife of a prominent local businessman, who has begun an affair with a darkly charismatic stranger whose identity remains elusive; Mikey, a canny street hustler who finds himself on a chilling mission to rectify injustice; and the serial killer known as Babysitter, an enigmatic and terrifying figure at the periphery of elite Detroit. As Babysitter continues his rampage of abductions and killings, these individuals intersect with one another in startling and unexpected ways.
Knopf | 9780593535172

BIG RED: A Novel Starring Rita Hayworth and Orson Welles by Jerome Charyn (Historical Fiction)
In BIG RED, Jerome Charyn reimagines the life of one of America’s most enduring icons, “Gilda” herself, Rita Hayworth, whose fiery red tresses and hypnotic dancing graced the silver screen over 60 times in her nearly 40-year career. The quintessential movie star of the 1940s, Hayworth has long been objectified as a sex symbol, pin-up girl and so-called Love Goddess. Channeling the ghosts of a buried past, Charyn finally lifts the veils that have long enshrouded Hayworth, evoking her emotional complexity --- her passions, her pain and her inner turmoil.
Liveright | 9781324091332

DARK MUSIC written by David Lagercrantz, translated by Ian Giles (Thriller)
Professor Hans Rekke is a world authority on interrogation techniques, capable of dizzying feats of logic and observation. But he also has a fragile psyche that falls apart under pressure. Micaela Vargas is a street-smart police officer, the daughter of Chilean political refugees, who grew up in the projects on the outskirts of Stockholm and has two brothers on the wrong side of the law. She is tenacious and uncompromising, and desperate to prove herself to her fellow cops. Micaela needs Hans’ unique mind to help her solve the case of a murdered asylum seeker from Afghanistan. Hans needs Micaela to save him from himself. Together, they need to find the killer before they’re both silenced for good.
Knopf | 9780593319215

FOX CREEK by William Kent Krueger (Mystery)
The ancient Ojibwe healer Henry Meloux has had a vision of his death. As he walks the Northwoods in solitude, he tries to prepare himself peacefully for the end of his long life. But peace is destined to elude him as hunters fill the woods seeking a woman named Dolores Morriseau, a stranger who had come to the healer for shelter and the gift of his wisdom. Meloux guides this stranger and his great niece, Cork O’Connor’s wife, to safety deep into the Boundary Waters, his home for more than a century. On the last journey he may ever take into this beloved land, Meloux must do his best to outwit the deadly mercenaries who follow. Meanwhile, in Aurora, Cork works feverishly to identify the hunters and the reason for their relentless pursuit, but he has little to go on.
Atria Books | 9781982128715

GIRL, FORGOTTEN by Karin Slaughter (Mystery/Thriller)
Longbill Beach, 1982. Emily Vaughn gets ready for the prom. For an athlete, who is smart, pretty and well-liked, this night should be the highlight of her high school career. But Emily has a secret. And by the end of the evening, that secret will be silenced forever. Forty years later, Emily’s murder remains a mystery. Her tight-knit group of friends closed ranks; her respected, wealthy family retreated inwards; and the small town moved on from her grisly attack. But that's all about to change. US Marshal Andrea Oliver arrives in Longbill Beach on her first assignment: to protect a judge receiving death threats. But, in reality, Andrea is there to find justice for Emily. The killer is still out there --- and Andrea must discover the truth before she gets silenced, too.
William Morrow | 9780062858115

HAVEN by Emma Donoghue (Historical Fiction)
In seventh-century Ireland, a scholar and priest called Artt has a dream telling him to leave the sinful world behind. Taking two monks --- young Trian and old Cormac --- he rows down the river Shannon in search of an isolated spot on which to found a monastery. Drifting out into the Atlantic, the three men find an impossibly steep, bare island inhabited by tens of thousands of birds and claim it for God. In such a place, what will survival mean?
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316413930

THE HUNDRED WATERS by Lauren Acampora (Fiction)
Formerly a model and photographer trying to make it in New York, Louisa Rader is back in her affluent hometown of Nearwater, Connecticut, where she's married to a successful older architect, raising a preteen daughter, and trying to vitalize the provincial local art center. As the years pass, she's grown restless in her safe and comfortable routine, haunted by the flash of the life she used to live. When intense and intriguing young artist-environmentalist Gabriel arrives in town with his aristocratic family, his impact on the Raders has hothouse effects. As Gabriel pushes to realize his artistic vision for the world, he pulls both Louisa and her daughter, Sylvie, under his spell, with consequences that disrupt the Raders’ world forever.
Grove Press | 9780802159748

THE HUNT: A Decker/Lazarus Novel by Faye Kellerman (Mystery)
Peter Decker and his partner, Detective Tyler McAdams, are thrown into an unsolved case and propelled into action when a body is found in the very woods where a man previously went missing in upstate New York. But that’s not the only crisis that Peter has to deal with. Teresa McLaughlin, the biological mother of Peter and his wife Rina Lazarus’ foster son, Gabe, has fled to Los Angeles with her two children in tow, hoping to avoid a court injunction amid a messy divorce. But LA is no escape from her problems; she is found by ruthless men and beaten mercilessly. When she wakes, barely conscious, Teresa discovers that both of her children are gone and frantically calls Gabe for help.
William Morrow | 9780062910493

A PLACE IN THE WORLD: Finding the Meaning of Home by Frances Mayes (Memoir)
Though Frances Mayes is known for her travels, she has always sought a sense of home wherever she goes. In this poetic testament to the power of place in our lives, Mayes reflects on the idea of home, from the earliest imprint of four walls to the startling discoveries of feeling the strange ease of homes abroad, friends’ homes, and even momentary homes that spark desires for other lives. Her musings are all the more poignant after so many have spent their long pandemic months at home. From her travels across Italy --- Tuscany, of course, but also Venice and Capri --- to the American South, France and Mexico, Mayes examines the connective tissue among them through the homes she’s inhabited.
Crown | 9780593443330

PLEASE JOIN US by Catherine McKenzie (Psychological Thriller)
Nicole Mueller’s once brilliant law career is falling apart. She and her husband, Dan, are soon to be forced out of the apartment they love. After a warning from her firm’s senior partners, she receives an invitation from an exclusive women’s networking group, Panthera Leo, and signs up for their retreat in Colorado. Once there, she meets the other women who will make up her Pride --- a CEO, an actress, a finance whiz and a congresswoman. Nicole is all in. And when she gets home, she soon sees dividends. Her new network quickly provides her with clients that help her relaunch her career, and a great new apartment too. But then she’s called to the congresswoman’s apartment late at night where she’s pressed into helping her cover up a crime.
Atria Books | 9781982159245

SAVING FREUD: The Rescuers Who Brought Him to Freedom by Andrew Nagorski (Biography)
In March 1938, German soldiers crossed the border into Austria, and Hitler absorbed the country into the Third Reich. Anticipating these events, many Jews had fled Austria, but the most famous Austrian Jew remained in Vienna, where he had lived since early childhood. Sigmund Freud was 81 years old, ill with cancer, and still unconvinced that his life was in danger. But several prominent people close to Freud thought otherwise, and they began a coordinated effort to persuade Freud to leave his beloved Vienna and emigrate to England. The group included a Welsh physician, Napoleon’s great-grandniece, an American ambassador, Freud’s devoted youngest daughter, Anna, and his personal doctor.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982172831

TRAITOR'S DANCE: A Sam Capra Novel by Jeff Abbott (Thriller)
Sam Capra is working for America's most secret espionage agency, known as Section K, when he is informed that Markus Bolt is missing. Bolt is the last American traitor, who had turned over allied agent names and military secrets to the Russians. He fled to Moscow when he was discovered, but now a trusted source inside Russia tells Section K that Markus Bolt has vanished from Moscow --- and the Americans need to find him before the Russians do. Sam is charged with making contact with Bolt's abandoned American daughter, Amanda, and determining if she's had any contact with her father. He must discover the reason behind Bolt's unexpected run and protect Amanda from the killers hunting her father.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538708743

On Sale the Week of August 22nd in Paperback

August 23rd

THE BURNING by Jonathan and Jesse Kellerman (Mystery/Thriller)
A raging wildfire. A massive blackout. A wealthy man shot to death in his palatial hilltop home. For Clay Edison, it’s all in a day’s work. As a deputy coroner, caring for the dead, he speaks for those who cannot speak for themselves. He prides himself on an unflinching commitment to the truth. Even when it gets him into trouble. Then, while working the murder scene, Clay is horrified to discover a link to his brother, Luke, who is fresh out of prison and struggling to stay on the straight and narrow. And now he’s gone AWOL. The race is on for Clay to find him before anyone else can. Confronted with Luke’s legacy of violence, he is forced to reckon with his own suspicions, resentments and loyalties.
Ballantine Books | 9780525620136

THE DARKNESS OF OTHERS by Cate Holahan (Domestic Thriller/Mystery)
Paperback Original
Imani Banks lives in a posh Brooklyn Heights neighborhood that has just been rocked to its core. An acclaimed movie director has been murdered, and his blond trophy wife --- Imani’s closest friend --- is missing. Their neighbors, along with the media, jump to the conclusion that Melissa Walker has killed her husband in a fit of rage and is on the run. Recently, Imani and her chef husband rented some extra rooms in their house to a struggling waitress from his restaurant. Tonya Sayre has moved in with her teen daughter, and the convenient timing and her suspicious behavior soon lead Imani to suspect that the true killer is living right under her own roof. Now all she has to do is prove it.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538709184

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 | 9781250816153

END OF DAYS: A Pike Logan Novel by Brad Taylor (Thriller/Adventure)
When a paragliding trip over the picturesque mountains of Switzerland results in the brutal murder of the former head of Israeli intelligence, Mossad brings in terrorist hunters Aaron and Shoshana to investigate. But they'll need help to find out who was behind the attack and what they’re planning next. Luckily, Aaron and Shoshana know exactly who to call: taskforce operators Pike Logan and Jennifer Cahill. Some suspect that Keta’ib Hezbollah, an Iranian-funded militia group operating in Iraq, might be responsible for the “accidental” deaths of key members of the American and Israeli governments. But something isn’t adding up, and Pike, Jennifer and the two Mossad operators are determined to find the real assassins before more people are cut down.
William Morrow | 9780062886118

ENEMY AT THE GATES: A Mitch Rapp Novel by Vince Flynn and Kyle Mills (Political Thriller)
Mitch Rapp has worked for a number of presidents over his career, but Anthony Cook is unlike any he’s encountered before. Cunning and autocratic, he feels no loyalty to America’s institutions and is distrustful of the influence Rapp and CIA director Irene Kennedy have in Washington. Meanwhile, when Kennedy discovers evidence of a mole scouring the Agency’s database for sensitive information on Nicholas Ward, the world’s first trillionaire, she convinces Rapp to take a job protecting him. In doing so, he finds himself walking an impossible tightrope: Keep the man alive, but also use him as bait to uncover a traitor who has seemingly unlimited access to government secrets.
Pocket Books | 9781982164898

LOVE ON THE BRAIN by Ali Hazelwood (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Bee Königswasser lives by a simple code: What would Marie Curie do? If NASA offered her the lead on a neuroengineering project, Marie would accept without hesitation. But the mother of modern physics never had to co-lead with Levi Ward. Levi made his feelings toward Bee very clear in grad school --- archenemies work best employed in their own galaxies far, far away. Now, her equipment is missing, the staff is ignoring her, and Bee finds her floundering career in somewhat of a pickle. But she could swear she can see Levi softening into an ally and devouring her with those eyes. When it comes time to actually make a move and put her heart on the line, there’s only one question that matters: What will Bee Königswasser do?
Berkley | 9780593336847

THE NINTH MONTH by James Patterson and Richard DiLallo (Thriller)
Paperback Original
Emily Atkinson leads a complicated life in New York City. She’s a successful marketing executive who lives in a luxury apartment and enjoys a glamorous existence until she lands in the hospital with a double diagnosis: she parties too much --- and she’s pregnant. Her nurse and new best friend, Betsey, helps Emily rediscover how much she loves morning runs in the park and quiet nights at home. But as a series of women in her wealthy social circles go missing, Emily’s pregnancy becomes decidedly high-risk.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538753002

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 | 9780063022669

A PLACE LIKE HOME: Short Stories by Rosamunde Pilcher (Fiction/Short Stories)
A PLACE LIKE HOME is a collection of short stories by internationally bestselling author Rosamunde Pilcher, never before published in book form. It contains 15 stories, which range from “The Holiday,” in which a wife surprises her husband of 25 years with a holiday full of Mediterranean sunshine, red rocks and blue seas in an effort to rekindle the romance they had before children; “The Eye of Love,” which takes the reader to a village by the sea where old flames meet again; and “A Place Like Home,” where a lonely young woman goes to recuperate in the Scottish countryside after a brief illness. The fruit orchards and fresh sea air offer much-needed respite --- but not as much as the handsome, mysterious farmer she meets.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250795021

ROBERT B. PARKER’S STONE’S THROW: A Jesse Stone Novel by Mike Lupica (Mystery)
The town of Paradise receives a tragic shock when the mayor is discovered dead. It's ostensibly suicide, but Jesse Stone has his doubts…especially because the piece of land where the man was found is the subject of a contentious and dodgy land deal. Two powerful moguls are fighting over the right to buy and develop the prime piece of real estate, and one of them has brought in a hired gun, an old adversary of Jesse’s: Wilson Cromartie, aka Crow. Meanwhile, the town council is debating if they want to sacrifice Paradise’s stately character for the economic boost of a glitzy new development. Tempers are running hot, and as the deaths begin to mount, it’s increasingly clear that the mayor may have been standing in the wrong person’s way.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780525542131

RULES AT THE SCHOOL BY THE SEA: The Second School by the Sea Novel by Jenny Colgan (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Maggie Adair’s first year as a teacher at Downey House was a surprising success. Now engaged to her longtime boyfriend, sweet and steady Stan, Maggie has to stop thinking about David McDonald, her colleague at the boys’ school down the road. Can she take a leaf out of the Well Behaved Teacher’s exercise book and stick to her plan for a small but elegant wedding and settled life of matrimony? Even as Maggie tries to stay within the lines, rules are being broken all around her. Maggie’s boss, headmistress Veronica Deveral, has more to lose than anyone. When Daniel Stapleton joins the faculty, Veronica finds herself forced to confront a scandalous secret she thought she’d carefully buried forever.
Avon | 9780063141766

WHAT A DOG KNOWS by Susan Wilson (Fiction)
Ruby Heartwood, a traveling psychic, has always lived a life on the move. She needs no one, and no one needs her. Until one night, when she is camped by the side of the road, a fierce thunder and lightning storm erupts. In the middle of the downpour, she hears a distinct voice telling her to "let me in." In jumps a little black and white dog, and to Ruby's astonishment, she can hear the dog's thoughts. Has she been struck by lightning? Did the storm do this? Is she losing her mind? It turns out that Ruby can hear many dogs' thoughts. She decides to set up semi-permanent residency in the town of Harmony Farms until she can sort out what is going on and who the dog, Hitch, belongs to. But some people in Harmony Farms don't want her there. And it seems that events keep preventing Ruby from leaving.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250077271

WHAT SHE FOUND by Robert Dugoni (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
Detective Tracy Crosswhite has agreed to look into the disappearance of investigative reporter Lisa Childress. Solving the cold case is an obsession for Lisa’s daughter, Anita. So is clearing the name of her father, a prime suspect who became a pariah. After 25 years, all Anita wants is the truth --- no matter where it leads. For Tracy, that means reopening the potentially explosive investigations Lisa was following on the dark night she vanished. As all the pieces come together, it becomes clear that Tracy is in the midst of a case that will push her loyalties and her resilience to the limit. What she uncovers will come with a greater price than anyone feared.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781542008327

WHAT STORM, WHAT THUNDER by Myriam J. A. Chancy (Fiction)
An earthquake of 7.0 magnitude shakes the capital of Haiti, Port-au-Prince. Myriam J. A. Chancy charts the inner lives of the characters affected by the disaster --- Richard, an expat and wealthy water-bottling executive with a secret daughter; the daughter, Anne, an architect who drafts affordable housing structures for a global NGO; a small-time drug trafficker, Leopold, who pines for a beautiful call girl; Sonia and her business partner, Dieudonné, who are followed by a man they believe is the vodou spirit of death; Didier, an emigrant musician who drives a taxi in Boston; Sara, a mother haunted by the ghosts of her children in an IDP camp; her husband, Olivier, an accountant forced to abandon the wife he loves; their son, Jonas, who haunts them both; and Ma Lou, the old woman selling produce in the market who remembers them all.
Tin House Books | 9781953534385

THE WITCHES OF MOONSHYNE MANOR by Bianca Marais (Fiction/Magical Realism)
Paperback Original
Five octogenarian witches gather as an angry mob threatens to demolish Moonshyne Manor. All eyes turn to the witch in charge, Queenie, who confesses they’ve fallen far behind on their mortgage payments. Still, there’s hope, since the imminent return of Ruby --- one of the sisterhood who’s been gone for 33 years --- will surely be their salvation. But the mob is only the start of their troubles. One man is hellbent on avenging his family for the theft of a legacy he claims was rightfully his. In an act of desperation, Queenie makes a bargain with an evil far more powerful than anything they’ve ever faced. Then things take a turn for the worse when Ruby’s homecoming reveals a seemingly insurmountable obstacle instead of the solution to all their problems.
Mira | 9780778386995

On Sale the Week of August 29th in Hardcover

August 30th

BULLY MARKET: My Story of Money and Misogyny at Goldman Sachs by Jamie Fiore Higgins (Business & Economics/Memoir)
Jamie Fiore Higgins became one of the few women at the highest ranks of Goldman Sachs. Spurred on by the obligation she felt to her working-class immigrant family, she rose through the ranks and saw it all: out-of-control, lavish parties flowing with never-ending drinks; affairs flouted in the office; rampant drug use; and, most pervasively, a discriminatory culture that seemed designed to hold back the few women and people of color employed at the company. Despite Goldman Sachs having the right talking points and statistics, Fiore Higgins soon realized that these provided a veneer to cover up what she found to be an abusive culture. BULLY MARKET sounds the alarm on the culture of finance and corporate America, while offering clear, actionable ideas for creating a fairer workplace.
Simon & Schuster | 9781668001028

CARRIE SOTO IS BACK by Taylor Jenkins Reid (Fiction)
By the time she retires from tennis, Carrie Soto is the best player the world has ever seen. She has shattered every record and claimed 20 Grand Slam titles. And if you ask Carrie, she is entitled to every one. But six years after her retirement, Carrie finds herself sitting in the stands of the 1994 US Open, watching her record be taken from her by a brutal, stunning player named Nicki Chan. At 37 years old, Carrie makes the monumental decision to come out of retirement for one last year in an attempt to reclaim her record. Even if the sports media says that they never liked “the Battle-Axe” anyway. Even if her body doesn’t move as fast as it did. And even if it means swallowing her pride to train with a man she once almost opened her heart to: Bowe Huntley.
Ballantine Books | 9780593158685

DAISY DARKER by Alice Feeney (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Daisy Darker was born with a broken heart. Now, after years of avoiding each other, Daisy Darker’s entire family is assembling for Nana’s 80th birthday party in her crumbling gothic house on a tiny tidal island. The family arrives, each of them harboring secrets. When the tide comes in, they will be cut off from the rest of the world for eight hours. But at the stroke of midnight, as a storm rages, Nana is found dead. And an hour later, the next family member follows. Trapped on an island where someone is killing them one by one, the Darkers must reckon with their present mystery as well as their past secrets, before the tide goes out and all is revealed.
Flatiron Books | 9781250843937

THE HOUSE OF FORTUNE by Jessie Burton (Historical Fiction)
Amsterdam, 1705. It is Thea Brandt's 18th birthday. Thea knows her birthday marks the day her mother, Marin, died in labor. Her family refuses to share the details of this story, just as they seem terrified to speak of “the miniaturist” --- a shadowy figure from their past who is possessed of uncanny abilities to capture that which is hidden. Thea’s Aunt Nella believes the solution to all of Thea's problems is to find her a husband who will guarantee her future. An unexpected invitation to Amsterdam's most exclusive ball seems like a golden opportunity. But when Thea finds on her doorstep a parcel containing a miniature figure of her secret lover, Walter, it becomes clear that someone out there has another fate in mind for the family.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781635579741

THE INK BLACK HEART: A Cormoran Strike Novel by Robert Galbraith (Mystery)
When a frantic Edie Ledwell appears in the office begging to speak to her, private detective Robin Ellacott doesn’t know quite what to make of the situation. The cocreator of a popular cartoon, The Ink Black Heart, Edie is being persecuted by a mysterious online figure who goes by the pseudonym of Anomie. Edie is desperate to uncover Anomie’s true identity. Robin decides that the agency can’t help with this --- and thinks nothing more of it until a few days later, when she reads the shocking news that Edie has been tasered and then murdered in Highgate Cemetery, the location of The Ink Black Heart. Robin and her business partner, Cormoran Strike, find themselves embroiled in a case that threatens them in new and horrifying ways.
Mulholland Books | 9780316413039

MURDER IN WESTMINSTER: A Lady Worthing Mystery by Vanessa Riley (Historical Mystery)
Discovering a body on her property presents Lady Abigail Worthing with more than one pressing problem. The victim is Juliet, the wife of her neighbor, Stapleton Henderson. Although Abigail has little connection with the lady in question, she expects to be under suspicion. Abigail’s skin color and her mother’s notorious past have earned her a certain reputation among the ton, and no amount of wealth or status will eclipse it. Abigail can’t divulge that she was attending a secret pro-abolition meeting at the time of the murder. To her surprise, Henderson offers her an alibi. Though he and Juliet were long estranged, and she had a string of lovers, he feels a certain loyalty to his late wife. Perhaps together, he and Abigail can learn the truth.
Kensington | 9781496738660

OTHER BIRDS by Sarah Addison Allen (Fiction/Magical Realism)
Down a narrow alley in the small coastal town of Mallow Island, South Carolina, lies a stunning cobblestone building comprised of five apartments. It’s called The Dellawisp, and it is named after the tiny turquoise birds who, alongside its human tenants, inhabit an air of magical secrecy. When Zoey Hennessey comes to claim her deceased mother’s apartment at The Dellawisp, she meets her quirky, enigmatic neighbors. Each with their own story. Each with their own longings. Each whose ending isn’t yet written. When one of them dies under odd circumstances the night Zoey arrives, she is thrust into the mystery of The Dellawisp, which involves missing pages from a legendary writer whose work might be hidden there.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250019868

On Sale the Week of August 29th in Paperback

August 30th

CACKLE by Rachel Harrison (Thriller/Horror)
After being unceremoniously dumped by her longtime boyfriend, Annie seeks a fresh start. She accepts a teaching position that moves her from Manhattan to a small village upstate. There she meets Sophie, who wants to be her friend. Sophie also wants her to stop apologizing and start living for herself. That’s how Sophie lives. Annie can’t help but gravitate toward the self-possessed Sophie, wanting to spend more and more time with her, despite the fact that the rest of the townsfolk seem a little afraid of her. Sophie’s appearance is uncanny and ageless, her mansion in the middle of the woods feels a little unearthly, and she does seem to wield a certain power. But she couldn’t be. Could she?
Berkley | 9780593202036

FUZZ: When Nature Breaks the Law by Mary Roach (Science/Humor)
What’s to be done about a jaywalking moose? A bear caught breaking and entering? A murderous tree? Three hundred years ago, animals that broke the law would be assigned legal representation and put on trial. These days, as Mary Roach discovers, the answers are best found not in jurisprudence but in science: the curious science of human-wildlife conflict, a discipline at the crossroads of human behavior and wildlife biology. Combining little-known forensic science and conservation genetics with a motley cast of laser scarecrows, langur impersonators and trespassing squirrels, Roach reveals as much about humanity as about nature’s lawbreakers.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324036128

A HISTORY OF WILD PLACES by Shea Ernshaw (Psychological Thriller)
Travis Wren has an unusual talent for locating missing people. Hired by families as a last resort, he requires only a single object to find the person who has vanished. When he takes on the case of Maggie St. James --- a well-known author of dark, macabre children’s books --- he’s led to a place many believed to be only a legend. Called Pastoral, this reclusive community was founded in the 1970s by like-minded people searching for a simpler way of life. By all accounts, the commune shouldn’t exist anymore…and soon after Travis stumbles upon it, he disappears. Unraveling the mystery of what happened reveals secrets that Theo, a lifelong member of Pastoral; his wife, Calla; and her sister, Bee, keep from one another.
Atria Books | 9781982164812

KIN: A Memoir by Shawna Kay Rodenberg (Memoir)
When Shawna Kay Rodenberg was four, her father spirited her family from their home in the hills of Eastern Kentucky to Minnesota, renouncing all of their earthly possessions to live in the Body, an off-the-grid End Times religious community. Disciplined harshly for her many infractions, Shawna was sexually abused by a predatory adult member of the community. Soon after the leader of the Body died and revelations of the sexual abuse came to light, her family returned to the same Kentucky mountains that their ancestors have called home for 300 years. Shawna ultimately leaves her mountain home but only as she masters a perilous balancing act between who she has been and who she will become.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781635579345

THE LOST GIRLS OF WILLOWBROOK by Ellen Marie Wiseman (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Sage Winters’ twin sister, Rosemary, died from pneumonia six years ago. Their mother perished in a car crash, and Sage’s stepfather, Alan, resents being burdened by a responsibility he never wanted. Yet, despite living as near strangers in their Staten Island apartment, Sage is stunned to discover that Alan has kept a shocking secret: Rosemary didn’t die. She was committed to Willowbrook State School and has lingered there until just a few days ago, when she went missing. With no idea what to expect, Sage secretly sets out for Willowbrook, determined to find Rosemary. What she learns, once she steps through its doors and is mistakenly believed to be her sister, will change her life in ways she never could have imagined.
Kensington | 9781496715883

THE LOST TICKET by Freya Sampson (Fiction)
Paperback Original
When Libby Nicholls arrives in London, brokenhearted and with her life in tatters, the first person she meets on the bus is elderly Frank. He tells her about the time in 1962 that he met a girl on the number 88 bus. They made plans for a date at the National Gallery art museum, but Frank lost the bus ticket with her number on it. For the past 60 years, he’s ridden the same bus trying to find her, but with no luck. Libby is inspired to action, and with the help of an unlikely companion, she papers the bus route with posters advertising their search. Libby begins to open her guarded heart to new friendships and a budding romance, as her tightly controlled world expands. But with Frank’s dementia progressing quickly, their chance of finding the girl on the 88 bus is slipping away.
Berkley | 9780593201411

MERCY: An Atlee Pine Thiller by David Baldacci (Thriller)
For her entire life, FBI agent Atlee Pine has been searching for her twin sister, Mercy, who was abducted at the age of six and never seen again. Mercy’s disappearance left behind a damaged family that later shattered beyond repair when Atlee’s parents inexplicably abandoned her. Now, after a perilous investigation that nearly proved fatal, Atlee has finally discovered not only the reason behind her parents’ abandonment and Mercy’s kidnapping, but also the most promising breakthrough yet: proof that Mercy survived her abduction and then escaped her captors many years ago. Though Atlee is tantalizingly close to her family at last, the final leg of her long road to Mercy will be the most treacherous yet.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538719732

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 | 9781250879516

SONGBIRDS by Christy Lefteri (Fiction)
Nisha works as a nanny and maid for a wealthy widow on the island of Cyprus. Yiannis is a poacher, trapping the tiny protected songbirds that stop in Cyprus as they migrate each year from Africa to Europe and selling them on the illegal market. He dreams of finding a new way of life, and of marrying Nisha. But one night, Nisha makes dinner for the family who pays her: Petra and her daughter, Aliki. Then, after she cleans the kitchen and tucks Aliki into bed, Nisha goes out on a mysterious errand and vanishes. When the police refuse to pursue the case, Petra takes on the investigation herself, a path that leads her to Nisha’s friends --- other workers in the neighborhood --- and to the darker side of a migrant’s life.
Ballantine Books | 9780593238066

THE STOLEN HOURS by Allen Eskens (Mystery/Thriller)
Lila Nash is on the verge of landing her dream job --- working as a prosecutor under the Hennepin County Attorney --- and has settled into a happy life with her boyfriend, Joe Talbert. But when a woman is pulled from the Mississippi River, barely alive, things in the office take a personal turn. The police believe the woman’s assailant is local photographer Gavin Spenser, but the case quickly flounders as the evidence wears thin. The more determined Lila is to put Gavin behind bars, the more elusive justice becomes. Battling a vindictive new boss and haunted by the ghosts of her own unspeakable attack, which she’s kept a dark secret for eight long years, Lila knows the clock is ticking down.
Mulholland Books | 9780316703512

SURVIVE THE NIGHT by Riley Sager (Psychological Thriller)
Josh Baxter, the man behind the wheel, is a virtual stranger to Charlie. They met at the campus ride board, each looking to share the long drive home to Ohio. Both have good reasons for wanting to get away. For Charlie, it’s guilt and grief over the murder of her best friend, who became the third victim of the man known as the Campus Killer. For Josh, it’s to help care for his sick father. Or so he says. Charlie has her doubts. There’s something suspicious about Josh. As they travel an empty highway in the dead of night, an increasingly worried Charlie begins to think she’s sharing a car with the Campus Killer. Is Josh truly dangerous? Or is Charlie’s suspicion merely a figment of her movie-fueled imagination?
Dutton | 9780593183182

THE THREAD COLLECTORS by Shaunna J. Edwards and Alyson Richman (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
1863: In a small Creole cottage in New Orleans, an ingenious young Black woman named Stella embroiders intricate maps on repurposed cloth to help enslaved men flee and join the Union Army. Bound to a man who would kill her if he knew of her clandestine activities, Stella has to hide not only her efforts but her love for William, a Black soldier and a brilliant musician. Meanwhile, in New York City, a Jewish woman stitches a quilt for her husband, who is stationed in Louisiana with the Union Army. But when months go by without word from him, Lily resolves to make the perilous journey South to search for him. The paths of these two women converge in New Orleans, where an unexpected encounter leads them to discover that even the most delicate threads have the capacity to save us.
Graydon House | 9781525899782

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 | 9781250796844

September 1st

A HARVEST OF SECRETS by Roland Merullo (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Italy, 1943. The seeds of terror planted by Hitler have brought Allied forces to Italian soil. Young lovers separated by war --- one near a Tuscan hill town, the other a soldier on the Sicilian front --- will meet any challenge to reunite. Vittoria SanAntonio, the daughter of a prosperous vineyard owner, is caught in a web of family secrets. Defying her domineering father, she has fallen for humble vineyard keeper Carlo Conte. When Carlo is conscripted into Mussolini’s army, it sets a fire in Vittoria, and she joins the resistance. As the Nazi war machine encroaches, Vittoria is drawn into dangers as unknowable as those faced by the man she loves.
Lake Union Publishing | 9781542034388

On Sale the Week of September 5th in Hardcover

September 6th

ABOUT FACE by William Giraldi (Fiction/Dark Humor)
Val Face is a charismatic self-help guru who captivates multitudes with his uncanny ability to heal adherents using only the power of his words, the mysterious touch of his hands, and the transcendent beauty of his face. Assigned to write a profile of Face during his much-hyped New England tour, 30-year-old impoverished journalist Seger Jovi pens a brutal hatchet job. But Seger, at once curious and incredulous, is soon sucked into the mystic’s vortex of fame, becoming a devotee himself as he contends with the machinations and absurdities of Face’s many protectors. Just as the exalted guru appears to be reaching the apex of his powers, danger threatens from the periphery in the form of an obsessive stalker who wants Face dead.
Liveright | 9781324091356

AGATHA CHRISTIE: An Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley (Biography)
Why did Agatha Christie spend her career pretending that she was “just” an ordinary housewife, when clearly she wasn’t? Her life is fascinating for its mysteries and its passions. She went surfing in Hawaii, loved fast cars, and was intrigued by the new science of psychology, which helped her through devastating mental illness. So why, despite all the evidence to the contrary, did Agatha present herself as a retiring Edwardian lady of leisure? She was born in 1890 into a world that had its own rules about what women could and couldn’t do. Lucy Worsley’s biography is not just of a massively, internationally successful writer. It's also the story of a person who, despite the obstacles of class and gender, became an astonishingly successful working woman.
Pegasus Crime | 9781639362523

AMERICAN DEMON: Eliot Ness and the Hunt for America's Jack the Ripper by Daniel Stashower (True Crime/History)
On September 5, 1934, a young beachcomber made a gruesome discovery on the shores of Cleveland’s Lake Erie: the lower half of a female torso, neatly severed at the waist. The victim, dubbed “The Lady of the Lake,” was only the first of a butcher’s dozen. Over the next four years, 12 more bodies would be scattered across the city. Amid the growing uproar, Cleveland’s besieged mayor turned to his newly appointed director of public safety: Eliot Ness. Ness had come to Cleveland fresh from his headline-grabbing exploits in Chicago, where he and his band of “Untouchables” led the frontline assault on Al Capone’s bootlegging empire. Now he would confront a case that would redefine his storied career.
Minotaur Books | 9781250041166

BACK TO THE GARDEN by Laurie R. King (Mystery)
A magnificent house, vast formal gardens, a golden family that shaped California, and a colorful past filled with now-famous artists: the Gardener Estate was a 12th-century Eden. And now, just as the Estate is preparing to move into a new future, restoration work on some of its art digs up a grim relic of the home’s past: a human skull, hidden away for decades. Inspector Raquel Laing has her work cut out for her. Fifty years ago, the Estate’s young heir, Rob Gardener, turned his palatial home into a counterculture commune of peace, love and equality. But that was also a time when serial killers preyed on innocents --- monsters like The Highwayman, whose case has just surged back into the public eye. Could the skull belong to one of his victims?
Bantam | 9780593496565

THE BAD ANGEL BROTHERS by Paul Theroux (Fiction/Dark Humor)
Cal has always lived in the shadow of his manipulative and domineering brother, Frank, who was doted upon by their mother and beloved by the girls in their small New England hometown --- including Cal’s own girlfriends. In an attempt to escape Frank’s intrusive presence, Cal pursues a different kind of freedom in the world’s wild spaces, prospecting for gold and precious minerals. Soon he is dripping in wealth, his pockets full of gold nuggets and emeralds, but the money means far less to him than his independence. As Cal’s success grows, so too does Frank’s power and his influence in Cal’s affairs, the devastating threat he creates at the center of his little brother’s life. When Frank decides to commit the ultimate betrayal, Cal is left with only one, final solution.
Mariner Books | 9780358716891

CAPTIVE: An Eve Duncan Novel by Iris Johansen (Thriller)
Jane MacGuire is enjoying a period of domestic bliss as she focuses on her art, and her partner, Seth Caleb, uses his unique abilities as an agent for the MI6 intelligence service. But when Seth crosses crime lord Hugh Bohdan, he incurs the wrath of one of the world’s most powerful criminal empires, and Jane is soon on the run. With that peril, though, comes an astonishing discovery: a 200-year-old secret on the brink of becoming lost to history. Jane and Seth must join forces to unlock the fascinating puzzle, even as they hurtle toward a lethal final confrontation in the Highlands. But before their adventure is over, they will encounter their biggest shock of all…and realize nothing can be the same for them ever again.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538726297

CLIVE CUSSLER'S HELLBURNER: A Novel of the Oregon Files by Mike Maden (Thriller/Adventure)
When Juan Cabrillo fails to capture the leader of Mexico’s most dangerous drug cartel and loses an Oregon crew member in the process, he’s determined to get revenge. Little does he know that the explosion he just narrowly escaped was merely the latest flash of violence from a machine of war that has existed for decades. Cabrillo’s Corporation of mercenaries may have finally met its match in The Pipeline, a criminal syndicate passed down from father to son across generations. A group that sits with its finger on the trigger of a torpedo so deadly it could level entire cities. With millions of innocent civilians hanging in the balance, the Oregon’s crew must unravel a tangle of drug-smuggling routes and international conspiracies.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593540640

THE DECEPTIONS by Jill Bialosky (Fiction)
An unnamed narrator’s life is unraveling. Her only child has left home, and her 20-year marriage is strained. Anticipation about her soon-to-be-released book of poetry looms. She seeks answers to the paradoxes of love, desire and parenthood among the Greek and Roman gods at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. As she passes her days teaching at a boys’ prep school, spending her off-hours sequestered in the museum's austere galleries, she is haunted by memories of a yearlong friendship with a colleague, a fellow poet struggling with his craft. As secret betrayals and deceptions come to light and rage threatens to overwhelm her, the pantheon of gods assume remarkably vivid lives of their own, forcing her to choose between reality and myth.
Counterpoint | 9781640090248

DESPERATION IN DEATH by J. D. Robb (Mystery/Thriller)
New York, 2061: The place called the Pleasure Academy is a living nightmare where abducted girls are trapped, trained for a life of abject service while their souls are slowly but surely destroyed. Dorian, a 13-year-old runaway, might never have made it out if not for her fellow inmate Mina, who’d hatched the escape plan. Unfortunately, they didn’t get away fast enough. Now Dorian is injured, terrified and wandering the streets of New York, and Mina lies dead near the waterfront while Lt. Eve Dallas looks over the scene. Mina’s expensive, elegant clothes and beauty products convince Dallas that she was being groomed, literally and figuratively, for sex trafficking --- and that whoever is investing in this high-overhead operation expects windfall profits.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250278234

FAIRY TALE by Stephen King (Supernatural Thriller/Dark Fantasy)
Charlie Reade looks like a regular high school kid, but he carries a heavy load. His mom was killed in a hit-and-run accident when he was 10, and grief drove his dad to drink. Charlie learned how to take care of himself --- and his dad. When Charlie is 17, he meets a dog named Radar and her aging master, Howard Bowditch, a recluse in a big house at the top of a big hill, with a locked shed in the backyard. Sometimes strange sounds emerge from it. Charlie starts doing jobs for Mr. Bowditch and loses his heart to Radar. Then, when Bowditch dies, he leaves Charlie a cassette tape telling a story no one would believe. What Bowditch knows, and has kept secret all his long life, is that inside the shed is a portal to another world.
Scribner | 9781668002179

THE FORTUNES OF JADED WOMEN by Carolyn Huynh (Fiction)
Everyone in Orange County’s Little Saigon knew that the Duong sisters were cursed. It started with their ancestor, Oanh, who dared to leave her marriage for true love --- so a fearsome Vietnamese witch cursed Oanh and her descendants so that they would never find love or happiness, and the Duong women would only give birth to daughters. Oanh’s current descendant, Mai Nguyen, is divorced, estranged from her younger sisters, and has three adult daughters who are successful in their careers --- though the same can’t be said for their love lives. Desperate for guidance, Mai consults Auntie Hua, her trusted psychic in Hawaii, who delivers an unexpected prediction: this year, her family will witness a marriage, a funeral and the birth of a son.
Atria Books | 9781982188733

THE GIRL FROM GUERNICA by Karen Robards (Historical Fiction)
On an April day in 1937, the sky opens and fire rains down upon the small Spanish town of Guernica. Seventeen-year-old Sibi and her family are caught up in the horror. Griff, an American military attaché, pulls Sibi from the wreckage, and it’s only the first time he saves her life in a span of hours. When Germany claims no involvement in the attack, insisting the Spanish Republic was responsible, Griff guides Sibi to lie to Nazi officials. If she or her sisters reveal that they saw planes bearing swastikas, the gestapo will silence them. As war begins to rage across Europe, Sibi joins the underground resistance, secretly exchanging information with Griff. But as the scope of Germany’s ambitions becomes clear, maintaining the facade of a Nazi sympathizer becomes ever more difficult.
Mira | 9780778309963

HAS ANYONE SEEN MY TOES? by Christopher Buckley (Fiction/Humor)
During the pandemic, an aging screenwriter is holed up in a coastal South Carolina town with his beloved second wife, Peaches. He’s been binge-eating for a year and developed a notable rapport with the local fast-food chain Hippo King. He struggles to work --- on a ludicrous screenplay about a Nazi attempt to kidnap FDR and, naturally, an article for Etymology Today on English words of Carthaginian origin. He’s told Peaches so often about the origins of the world mayonnaise that she’s developed an aversion to using the condiment. He thinks he has COVID. His wife thinks he is losing his mind. Things were going from bad to worse even before his doctor suggested a battery of brain tests. He knows what that means: dementia!
Simon & Schuster | 9781982198046

HELL AND BACK: A Longmire Mystery by Craig Johnson (Mystery)
What if you woke up lying in the middle of the street in the infamous town of Fort Pratt, Montana, where 30 young Native boys perished in a tragic 1896 boarding-school fire? What if every person you encountered in that endless night was dead? What if you were covered in blood and missing a bullet from the gun holstered on your hip? What if there was something out there in the yellowed skies, along with the deceased and the smell of ash and dust, something the Northern Cheyenne refer to as the Éveohtsé-heómėse, the Wandering Without, the Taker of Souls? What if the only way you know who you are is because your name is printed in the leather sweatband of your cowboy hat. And what if it says your name is Walt Longmire…but you don’t remember him?
Viking | 9780593297285

THE HOUSE WITH THE GOLDEN DOOR by Elodie Harper (Historical Fiction)
The life of a courtesan in Pompeii is glamorous yet perilous. At night in the home he bought for her, the house with the golden door, Amara’s dreams are haunted by her past. She longs for her sisterhood of friends --- the women at the brothel she was forced to leave behind --- and, worse, finds herself pursued by the cruel and vindictive man who once owned her. To be truly free, she will need to be as ruthless as he is. Amara knows that her existence in Pompeii is subject to Venus, the goddess of love. Yet finding love may prove to be the most dangerous act of all.
Union Square & Co. | 9781454946625

IF I SURVIVE YOU by Jonathan Escoffery (Fiction/Short Stories)
In the 1970s, Topper and Sanya flee to Miami as political violence consumes their native Kingston. But America, as the couple and their two children learn, is far from the promised land. Excluded from society as Black immigrants, the family pushes on through Hurricane Andrew and later the 2008 recession, living in a house so cursed that the pet fish launches itself out of its own tank rather than stay. But even as things fall apart, the family remains motivated, often to its own detriment, by what their younger son, Trelawny, calls “the exquisite, racking compulsion to survive.” The linked stories in IF I SURVIVE YOU center on Trelawny as he struggles to carve out a place for himself amid financial disaster, racism and flat-out bad luck.
MCD | 9780374605988

IN SEARCH OF MARY SEACOLE: The Making of a Black Cultural Icon and Humanitarian by Helen Rappaport (Biography)
Raised in Jamaica, Mary Seacole first came to England in the 1850s after working in Panama. She wanted to volunteer as a nurse and aide during the Crimean War. When her services were rejected, she financed her own expedition to Balaclava, where her reputation for her nursing --- and for her compassion --- became almost legendary. Popularly known as “Mother Seacole,” she was the most famous Black celebrity of her generation --- an extraordinary achievement in Victorian Britain. However, after her death in 1881, she was largely forgotten. IN SEARCH OF MARY SEACOLE is the fruit of almost 20 years of research and reveals the truth about Seacole's personal life, her "rivalry" with Florence Nightingale and other misconceptions.
Pegasus Books | 9781639362745

ITHACA by Claire North (Historical Fiction)
Seventeen years ago, King Odysseus sailed to war with Troy, taking with him every man of fighting age from the island of Ithaca. None of them has returned, and the women of Ithaca have been left behind to run the kingdom. Penelope was barely into womanhood when she wed Odysseus. While he lived, her position was secure. But now, years on, speculation is mounting that her husband is dead, and suitors are beginning to knock at her door. Everyone waits for the balance of power to tip, and Penelope knows that any choice she makes could plunge Ithaca into bloody civil war. Only through cunning, wit and her trusted circle of maids can she maintain the tenuous peace needed for the kingdom to survive.
Redhook | 9780316422963

KILLERS OF A CERTAIN AGE by Deanna Raybourn (Thriller)
Billie, Mary Alice, Helen and Natalie have worked for the Museum, an elite network of assassins, for 40 years. Now their talents are considered old-school, and no one appreciates what they have to offer in an age that relies more on technology than people skills. When the foursome is sent on an all-expenses-paid vacation to mark their retirement, they are targeted by one of their own. Only the Board, the top-level members of the Museum, can order the termination of field agents, and the women realize they’ve been marked for death. Now, to get out alive, they have to turn against their own organization, relying on experience and each other to get the job done, knowing that working together is the secret to their survival.
Berkley | 9780593200681

THE LAST CROWN by Elzbieta Cherezinska (Historical Fiction)
The web of love and lies is thicker than ever as we reunite with players spread across the board of Europe in this sequel to THE WIDOW QUEEN. Our heroes and enemies alike are beholden to the hands of fate. While Olav Tryggvason reclaims the throne of Norway and baptizes the land by blood, King Sven in Denmark is filled with rage at his once comrade. Not only does Olav threaten Sven’s hold on Norway, but his hold on his own wife --- the woman with two crowns, three sons and a heart long spoken for: Swietoslawa, the Bold One. Meanwhile, those Swietoslawa trusts most --- Astrid, her sister; Sigvald, her brother-in-law and head of the Jomsvikings; and even her own son, Olaf --- take shocking, selfish action with consequences that will reverberate for years to come.
Forge Books | 9781250775740

THE MARRIAGE PORTRAIT by Maggie O'Farrell (Historical Fiction)
Florence, the 1550s. Lucrezia, third daughter of the grand duke, is comfortable with her obscure place in the palazzo: free to devote herself to her own artistic pursuits. But when her older sister dies on the eve of her wedding to the ruler of Ferrara, Modena and Reggio, Lucrezia is thrust into the limelight: the duke is quick to request her hand in marriage and her father just as quick to accept on her behalf. Having barely left girlhood behind, Lucrezia must now enter an unfamiliar court where her arrival is not universally welcomed. Perhaps most mystifying of all is her new husband himself, Alfonso. Is he the playful sophisticate he appeared to be before their wedding, or the ruthless politician before whom even his formidable sisters seem to tremble?
Knopf | 9780593320624

THE MARSH QUEEN by Virginia Hartman (Fiction)
When Loni Murrow receives a call from her younger brother summoning her back home to help their obstinate mother recover after an accident, her neat, contained life in Washington, DC, is thrown into chaos. Going through her mother’s things, Loni uncovers scraps and snippets of a time in her life she would prefer to forget --- a childhood marked by her father Boyd’s death by drowning and her mother Ruth’s persistent bad mood. When Loni comes across a single, cryptic note from a stranger --- “There are some things I have to tell you about Boyd’s death”--- she begins a dangerous quest to discover the truth, all the while struggling to reconnect with her mother and reconcile with her brother and his wife, who seem to thwart her at every turn.
Gallery Books | 9781982171605

ON THE ROOFTOP by Margaret Wilkerson Sexton (Historical Fiction)
At home they are just sisters, but on stage they are The Salvations. Ruth, Esther and Chloe have been singing and dancing in harmony since they could speak. Thanks to the rigorous direction of their mother, Vivian, they’ve become a bona fide girl group whose shows are the talk of the Jazz-era Fillmore. Now Vivian has scored a once-in-a-lifetime offer from a talent manager, who promises to catapult The Salvations into the national spotlight. Vivian knows this is the big break she’s been praying for. But sometime between the hours of rehearsal on their rooftop and the weekly gigs at the Champagne Supper Club, the girls have become women --- women with dreams that their mother cannot imagine.
Ecco | 9780063139961

ONE HUNDRED SATURDAYS: Stella Levi and the Search for a Lost World by Michael Frank, with artwork by Maira Kalman (Biography)
With nearly a century of life behind her, Stella Levi had never before spoken in detail about her past. Then she met Michael Frank. He came to her Greenwich Village apartment to ask her a question about the Juderia, the neighborhood in Rhodes where she’d grown up in a Jewish community that had thrived there for half a millennium. Neither of them could know this was the first of 100 Saturdays that they would spend in each other’s company as Stella traveled back in time to conjure what it felt like to come of age on this luminous, legendary island in the eastern Aegean, which the Italians began governing as an official possession in 1923 and transformed over the next two decades until the Germans seized control and deported the entire Juderia to Auschwitz.
Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster | 9781982167226

A QUILT FOR CHRISTMAS: A Christmas Novella by Melody Carlson (Fiction)
Christmas should be celebrated with family, but for Vera Swanson, that’s not an option this year. Widowed and recently relocated, she is lonely in her condo-for-one --- until little Fiona Albright knocks on her door needing help. With her mother seriously ill and her father out of town, Fiona enlists Vera’s aid. When she finds out that her new neighbor is a quilter, she has a special request --- a Christmas quilt for Mama. Vera will have to get a ragtag group of women together to fulfill the request. Between free-spirited artist Tasha, chatty empty nester Beverly, retired therapist Eleanor, and herself, Vera has hopes that Christmas for the Albright family will be merry after all. And she may even find herself a new family of friends along the way.
Revell | 9780800739348

THE RED WIDOW: The Scandal that Shook Paris and the Woman Behind It All by Sarah Horowitz (True Crime/History)
Paris, 1889: Margeurite Steinheil is a woman with ambition. But having been born into a middle-class family and trapped in a marriage to a failed artist 20 years her senior, she knows her options are limited. Determined to fashion herself into a new woman, Meg orchestrates a scandalous plan with her most powerful resource: her body. She takes elite men as her lovers, charming her way into the good graces of the rich and powerful. A real-life femme fatale, Meg influences government positions and resorts to blackmail --- and maybe even poisoning --- to get her way. Leaving a trail of death and disaster in her wake, she earns the name the "Red Widow" for mysteriously surviving a home invasion that leaves both her husband and mother dead.
Sourcebooks | 9781728226323

ROBERT B. PARKER'S FALLOUT: A Jesse Stone Novel by Mike Lupica (Mystery)
The small town of Paradise is devastated when a star high-school baseball player is found dead at the bottom of a bluff just a day after winning the team’s biggest game. For Jesse, the loss is doubly difficult --- the teen was the nephew of his colleague, Suitcase Simpson, and Jesse had been coaching the young shortstop. As he searches for answers about how the boy died and why, he is stonewalled at every turn. Suddenly he must divide his attention between two cases after the shocking murder of former Paradise police chief Charlie Farrell. Both old and new enemies come into play, and in the end, Jesse and his team must discover the common factor between the two deaths in order to prevent a third.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593540275

RULES OF ENGAGEMENT by Stacey Abrams, writing as Selena Montgomery (Romantic Suspense)
Dr. Raleigh Foster, an operative for a top-secret intelligence organization, knows that her undercover work has its risks. So she doesn't hesitate when asked to infiltrate Scimitar, the terrorist group that has stolen lethal environmental technology. But when she's assigned a partner --- brooding, sexy Adam Grayson --- to pose as her lover, Raleigh discovers that the most dangerous risk of all...is falling in love. Adam blames himself for the botched mission that got his best friend killed by Scimitar, and he believes that Raleigh may have contributed to the man's death. But the closer he works with his alluring partner, the more his suspicions turn to trust --- and intense desire.
Berkley | 9780593439395

SACRIFICIO by Ernesto Mestre-Reed (Fiction)
Cuba, 1998: Rafa, an Afro-Cuban orphan, moves to Havana with nothing to his name and falls into a job at a café. He is soon drawn into a web of ever-shifting entanglements with his boss’s son, the charismatic Renato, leader of the counterrevolutionary group “Los Injected Ones,” which is planning a violent overthrow of the Castro government during Pope John Paul II’s upcoming visit. When Renato goes missing, Rafa’s search for his friend takes him through various haunts in Havana: from an AIDS sanatorium, to the guest rooms of tourist hotels, to the outskirts of the capital, where he enters a phantasmagorical slum cobbled together from the city’s detritus by Los Injected Ones.
Soho Press | 9781641293648

SOLITO: A Memoir by Javier Zamora (Memoir)
Nine-year-old Javier Zamora embarks on a 3,000-mile journey from his small town in El Salvador, through Guatemala and Mexico, and across the U.S. border. He leaves behind his beloved aunt and grandparents to reunite with a mother who left four years ago and a father he barely remembers. Traveling alone amid a group of strangers and a “coyote” hired to lead them to safety, Javier expects his trip to last two short weeks. But he cannot foresee the perilous boat trips, relentless desert treks, pointed guns, arrests and deceptions that await him. Nor can he know that those two weeks will expand into two life-altering months alongside fellow migrants who will come to encircle him like an unexpected family.
Hogarth | 9780593498064

A SONG OF COMFORTABLE CHAIRS: No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (23) by Alexander McCall Smith (Mystery)
Grace Makutsi’s husband, Phuti, is in a bind. An international firm is attempting to undercut his prices in the office furniture market. Phuti has always been concerned with quality and comfort, but this new firm seems interested only in profits. To make matters worse, they have a slick new advertising campaign that seems hard to beat. Nonetheless, with Mma Ramotswe’s help, Phtui comes up with a campaign that may just do the trick. Meanwhile, Mma Makutsi is approached by an old friend who has a troubled son. Grace and Phuti agree to lend a hand, but the boy proves difficult to reach. It will require not only all of their patience and dedication, but also the help of Mma Ramotswe and the formidable Mma Potokwani in order to help the child.
Pantheon | 9780593316979

THE TWO LIVES OF SARA by Catherine Adel West (Historical Fiction)
Sara King boards the bus to Memphis, hoping to outrun her past in Chicago. She is welcomed with open arms by Mama Sugar, a kindly matriarch and owner of the popular boardinghouse The Scarlet Poplar. Like many cities in early 1960s America, Memphis is still segregated, but change is in the air. Black literature and music provide the stories and soundtrack for these turbulent and hopeful times, and Sara finds herself drawn in by conversations of education, politics and a brighter tomorrow with Jonas, a local schoolteacher. Romance blooms between them, but secrets from Mama Sugar’s past threaten their newfound happiness. Sara and Jonas are soon caught in the crosshairs, leading Sara to make decisions that will reshape the rest of their lives.
Park Row | 9780778333227

THE UNFOLDING by A.M. Homes (Alternate History/Humor)
The Big Guy loves his family, money and country. Undone by the results of the 2008 presidential election, he taps a group of like-minded men to reclaim their version of the American Dream. As they build a scheme to disturb and disrupt, the Big Guy also faces turbulence within his family. His wife, Charlotte, grieves a life not lived, while his 18-year-old daughter, Meghan, begins to realize that her favorite subject --- history --- is not exactly what her father taught her.
Viking | 9780735225350

THE YANK: The True Story of a Former US Marine in the Irish Republican Army by John Crawley (Memoir)
The Irish "Troubles" were at a murderous fever pitch when John Crawley volunteered for the IRA. Civilian casualties were common as British soldiers, Republican militants (who wanted the UK out of Northern Ireland) and Unionist police and militants (who wanted to remain in the UK) engaged in gun battles and car bombings throughout Northern Ireland. The IRA split over how to react between the old-line IRA and the new Provisional IRA --- the Provos, mostly impassioned young men who were not hesitant to resort to violence. In a no-holds-barred recounting of his experience, Crawley details, first, the grueling challenges of his Marine Corps training, then how he put his hard-earned munitions and demolitions skills to use back in Ireland in service of the Provos.
Melville House | 9781612199849

On Sale the Week of September 5th in Paperback

September 6th

ALL THESE ASHES by James Queally (Thriller)
Russell Avery, the laid-off reporter turned private investigator, is almost out of clients after he stood up against the Newark police officers whose problems he used to fix for a paycheck, exposing a scandal that left him on the wrong side of one of those thin blue lines. Desperate for work, Russell is as elated as he is skeptical when a detective shows up on his doorstep, asking him to look into one of the Brick City's most haunting mysteries: The Twilight Four killings. As Russell starts untangling the complications of a decades-old murder, he runs into opposition from City Hall and finds himself in the middle of a contentious Mayoral race that could impact Newark for generations to come, all while trying to stay one step ahead of the real Twilight Four killer, who wouldn't mind reducing Russell to ash.
Polis Books | 9781957957029

THE AMERICAN ROOMMATE EXPERIMENT by Elena Armas (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Rosie Graham has a problem. A few, actually. She just quit her well-paid job to focus on her secret career as a romance writer. She hasn’t told her family and now has terrible writer’s block. Then the ceiling of her New York apartment literally crumbles on her. Luckily she has her best friend Lina’s spare key while she’s out of town. But Rosie doesn’t know that Lina has already lent her apartment to her cousin Lucas, who seems intent on coming to Rosie's rescue like a Spanish knight in shining armor. He offers to let Rosie stay with him, at least until she can find some affordable temporary housing. And then he proposes an outrageous experiment to bring back her literary muse and meet her deadline: He’ll take her on a series of experimental dates meant to jump-start her romantic inspiration.
Atria Books | 9781668002773

ANGELIKA FRANKENSTEIN MAKES HER MATCH by Sally Thorne (Historical Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
For generations, every Frankenstein has found their true love and equal, unlocking lifetimes of blissful wedded adventure. Clever, pretty (and odd) Angelika Frankenstein has run out of suitors and fears she may become the exception to this family rule. When assisting in her brother Victor’s ground-breaking experiment to bring a reassembled man back to life, she realizes that having an agreeable gentleman convalescing in the guest suite might be a chance to let a man get to know the real her. For the first time, Angelika embarks upon a project that is all her own. When her handsome scientific miracle sits up on the lab table, her hopes for an instant romantic connection are thrown into disarray. Her resurrected beau has total amnesia and is solely focused on uncovering his true identity.
Avon | 9780062912831

APRIL IN SPAIN by John Banville (Mystery)
On the idyllic coast of San Sebastian, Spain, Dublin pathologist Quirke is struggling to relax. When he glimpses a familiar face in the twilight at Las Acadas bar, it's hard at first to tell if his imagination is just running away with him. Because this young woman can't be April Latimer. She was murdered by her brother years ago --- the conclusion to an unspeakable scandal that shook one of Ireland's foremost political dynasties. Unable to ignore his instincts, Quirke makes a call back home to Ireland, and soon Detective St. John Strafford is dispatched to Spain. But he's not the only one en route. A relentless hit man is on the hunt for his latest prey, and the next victim might be Quirke himself.
Hanover Square Press | 978133547509

THE ATLAS SIX by Olivie Blake (Dark Fantasy)
Each decade, only the six most uniquely talented magicians are selected to earn a place in the Alexandrian Society, the foremost secret society in the world. The chosen will secure a life of power and prestige beyond their wildest dreams. But at what cost? Each of the six newest recruits has their reasons for accepting the Society’s elusive invitation. Even if it means growing closer than they could have imagined to their most dangerous enemies --- or risking unforgivable betrayal from their most trusted allies --- they will fight tooth and nail for the right to join the ranks of the Alexandrians. Even if it means they won’t all survive the year.
Tor Books | 9781250854544

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 | 9781982163693

A COURT OF SILVER FLAMES by Sarah J. Maas (Fantasy/Romance)
Ever since being forced into the Cauldron and becoming High Fae against her will, Nesta Archeron has struggled to find a place for herself within the strange, deadly world she inhabits. The one person who ignites her temper more than any other is Cassian, the battle-scarred warrior whose position in Rhysand and Feyre's Night Court keeps him constantly in Nesta's orbit. The fire between them is undeniable, and only burns hotter as they are forced into close quarters with each other. Meanwhile, the treacherous human queens who returned to the Continent during the last war have forged a dangerous new alliance, threatening the fragile peace that has settled over the realms.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781635577990

A DARKER REALITY: An Elena Standish Novel by Anne Perry (Historical Mystery)
On her first trip to Washington, D.C., Elena Standish finally gets to visit her American mother’s wealthy parents and their magnificent home. Elena’s grandparents are marking a milestone anniversary by throwing an elaborate party with the influential friends of her grandfather, a prominent political industrialist. But the festivities come to a sudden and tragic end when one of the guests, Lila Worth, is run over by a car in the driveway outside. Soon an arrest is made in Lila’s murder, and to Elena’s horror, the accused is none other than her own grandfather, who claims his political enemies are trying to frame him. Who are these enemies, and how can Elena defend this man she barely knows?
Ballantine Books | 9780593159385

DAUGHTER OF THE MOON GODDESS by Sue Lynn Tan (Fantasy)
Growing up on the moon, Xingyin is accustomed to solitude, unaware that she is being hidden from the powerful Celestial Emperor who exiled her mother for stealing his elixir of immortality. But when Xingyin’s magic flares and her existence is discovered, she is forced to flee her home, leaving her mother behind. Alone, untrained and afraid, she makes her way to the Celestial Kingdom, a land of wonder and secrets. Disguising her identity, she seizes an opportunity to learn alongside the Crown Prince, mastering archery and magic, even as passion flames between her and the emperor’s son. To save her mother, Xingyin embarks on a perilous quest, confronting legendary creatures and vicious enemies across the earth and skies.
Harper Voyager | 9780063031319

DO YOU TAKE THIS MAN by Denise Williams (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Divorce attorney RJ would never describe herself as romantic. But when she ends up officiating an unplanned wedding for a newly engaged couple in a park, her life is turned upside down. The video of the ceremony goes viral, and she finds herself in the unlikely position of being a sought-after local wedding officiant. Former pro-football event manager Lear is a people person, but after his longtime girlfriend betrayed him, he isn’t looking for love. He knows how to execute events and likes being in control, so working with an opinionated and inflexible officiant who can’t stand him is not high on his list. Surrounded by love at every turn, their physical attraction pulls them together despite their best efforts to stay an arm’s length apart.
Berkley | 9780593437193

E.R. NURSES: Walk My Rounds with Me: True Stories from America's Greatest Unsung Heroes by James Patterson and Matt Eversmann, with Chris Mooney (Medicine/Biography)
James Patterson and Matt Eversmann powerfully present the medical frontline heroes who work to save our lives every day: E.R. nurses. Around the clock, across the country, these highly skilled and compassionate men and women sacrifice and struggle for us and our families. You have never heard their true stories. Not like this. From big-city and small-town hospitals. From behind the scenes. From the heart. This book will make you laugh, make you cry, make you understand. When we’re at our worst, E.R. nurses are at their best.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538707234

THE FAMILY IZQUIERDO by Rubén Degollado (Fiction)
Paperback Original
The tight-knit Izquierdo family is grappling with misfortunes none of them can explain. Their beloved patriarch has suffered from an emotional collapse and is dying; eldest son Gonzalo’s marriage is falling apart; daughter Dina, beleaguered by the fear that her nightmares are real, is a shut-in. When Gonzalo digs up a strange object in the backyard of the family home, the Izquierdos take it as proof that a jealous neighbor has cursed them. Could this be the reason for all their troubles? As the Izquierdos face a distressing present and an uncertain future, they are sustained by the blood that binds them, a divine presence and an abiding love for one another.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393866827

FAULT LINES by Emily Itami (Fiction)
Mizuki is a Japanese housewife. She has a hardworking husband, two adorable children and a beautiful Tokyo apartment. It’s everything a woman could want, yet sometimes she wonders whether she would rather throw herself off the high-rise balcony than spend another evening not talking to her husband and hanging up laundry. Then, one rainy night, she meets Kiyoshi, a successful restaurateur. In him, she rediscovers freedom, friendship and the neon, electric pulse of the city she has always loved. But the further she falls into their relationship, the clearer it becomes that she is living two lives --- and in the end, we can choose only one.
Mariner Books | 9780063099814

THE GLASS HOUSE by Beatrice Colin (Historical Fiction)
Scotland, 1912. Antonia McCulloch’s life hasn’t gone the way she planned. She and her husband, Malcolm, have drifted apart; her burgeoning art career came to nothing; and when she looks in the mirror, she sees disappointment. But at least she will always have Balmarra, her family’s grand Scottish estate, and its exquisite glass house, filled with exotic plants that can take her far away. When her estranged brother’s wife, Cicely Pick, arrives unannounced, with her young daughter and enough trunks to last the summer, Antonia is instantly suspicious. What besides an inheritance dispute could have brought her glamorous sister-in-law all the way from India?
Flatiron Books | 9781250152510

THE GREAT GLORIOUS GODDAMN OF IT ALL by Josh Ritter (Fiction/Magical Realism)
In the tiny timber town of Cordelia, Idaho, everyone has heard tales of the Applegates. Local legend says their family line boasts some of the greatest lumberjacks to ever roam the American West, and from the moment young Weldon stepped foot in the deep Cordelia woods as a child, he dreamed of joining the rowdy ranks of his ancestors. But at the beginning of the 20th century, times are changing fast, and the jacks are dying out. On his deathbed nearly a century later, Weldon Applegate recounts his life in all its glory, filled with tall tales writ large with murder, mayhem, avalanches and bootlegging. It’s the story of dark pine forests brewing with ancient magic, and Weldon’s struggle as a boy to keep his father’s inherited timber claim, the Lost Lot, from the ravenous clutches of Linden Laughlin.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335475084

HERO OF TWO WORLDS: The Marquis de Lafayette in the Age of Revolution by Mike Duncan (History)
Few in history can match the revolutionary career of the Marquis de Lafayette. Over 50 incredible years at the heart of the Age of Revolution, he fought courageously on both sides of the Atlantic. He was a soldier, statesman, idealist, philanthropist and abolitionist. As a teenager, Lafayette ran away from France to join the American Revolution. Returning home a national hero, he helped launch the French Revolution, eventually spending five years locked in dungeon prisons. After his release, Lafayette sparred with Napoleon, joined an underground conspiracy to overthrow King Louis XVIII, and became an international symbol of liberty. Finally, as a revered elder statesman, he was instrumental in the overthrow of the Bourbon Dynasty in the Revolution of 1830.
PublicAffairs | 9781541730342

KILLING THE MOB: The Fight Against Organized Crime in America by Bill O'Reilly and Martin Dugard (True Crime/History)
Bill O’Reilly and Martin Dugard trace the brutal history of 20th-century organized crime in the United States, and plumb the history of this nation’s most notorious serial robbers, conmen, murderers and mob family bosses. Covering the period from the 1930s to the 1980s, they trace the Prohibition-busting bank robbers of the Depression Era, such as John Dillinger, Bonnie & Clyde, Pretty Boy Floyd and Baby-Face Nelson. In addition, they highlight the creation of the Mafia Commission, the power struggles within the “Five Families,” the growth of the FBI under J. Edgar Hoover, the mob battles to control Cuba, Las Vegas and Hollywood, as well as the personal war between the U.S. Attorney General Bobby Kennedy and Teamsters boss Jimmy Hoffa.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250864628

THE KING OF INFINITE SPACE by Lyndsay Faye (Fiction/Magical Realism)
Ben Dane’s Broadway theater baron father is dead --- but by purpose or by accident? Unable to face alone his mother's ghastly remarriage to his uncle, he turns to his dearest friend, Horatio Patel, whom he hasn't seen since their relationship changed forever from platonic to something...other. Horatio is on the first flight to NYC when he finds himself next to a sly tailor who portends inevitable disaster and seems ominously like an architect of mayhem himself. Meanwhile, Ben's ex-fiancé Lia has been drawn into the fold of three florists from New Orleans --- seemingly ageless sisters who teach her the language of flowers, and whose magical bouquets hold both curses and cures. For a price. On one explosive night these kinetic forces will collide, and the only possible outcome is death.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780525535911

L.A. WEATHER by María Amparo Escandón (Fiction)
Oscar, the weather-obsessed patriarch of the Alvarado family, desperately wants a little rain. L.A. is parched, dry as a bone, and he’s harboring a costly secret that distracts him from everything else. His wife, Keila, desperate for a life with a little more intimacy and a little less Weather Channel, feels she has no choice but to end their marriage. Their three daughters --- Claudia, a television chef with a hard-hearted attitude; Olivia, a successful architect who suffers from gentrification guilt; and Patricia, a social media wizard who has an uncanny knack for connecting with audiences but not with her lovers --- are left questioning everything they know. Each will have to take a critical look at her own relationships and make some tough decisions along the way.
Flatiron Books | 9781250802583

LAST GIRL GHOSTED by Lisa Unger (Psychological Thriller)
She met him through a dating app. An intriguing picture on a screen, a date at a downtown bar. What she thought might be just a quick hookup quickly became much more. She fell for him --- hard. It happens sometimes, a powerful connection with a perfect stranger takes you by surprise. Could it be love? But then, just as things were getting real, he stood her up. Then he disappeared --- profiles deleted, phone disconnected. She was ghosted. Maybe it was her fault. She shared too much, too fast. Soon she learns there were others. Girls who thought they were in love. Girls who later went missing. Chasing a digital trail into his dark past --- and hers --- she finds herself on a dangerous hunt. And she's not sure whether she's the predator --- or the prey.
Park Row | 9780778333265

LATE CITY by Robert Olen Butler (Fiction)
Sam Cunningham grows up in Louisiana with a harsh father, who he comes to resent both for his physical abuse and for what he eventually perceives as his flawed morality. Eager to escape and prove himself, Sam enlists in the army as a sniper while still underage. The hardness his father instilled in him helps him make it out of World War I alive, but, as he recounts these tales on his deathbed, we come to realize that it also prevents him from contending with the emotional wounds of war. Back in the U.S., Sam moves to Chicago to begin a career as a newspaperman that will bring him close to all the major historical turns of the 20th century. There he meets his wife and has a son, whose fate counters his at almost every turn.
Grove Press | 9780802160324

THE LATINIST by Mark Prins (Psychological Thriller)
Tessa Templeton has thrived at Oxford University under the tutelage and praise of esteemed classics professor Christopher Eccles. Yet shortly before her thesis defense, Tessa learns that Chris has sabotaged her career --- and realizes their relationship is not at all what she believed. Driven by what he mistakes as love for Tessa, Chris has ensured that no other institution will offer her a position, keeping her at Oxford with him. His tactics grow more invasive as he determines to prove he has her best interests at heart. Meanwhile, Tessa scrambles to undo the damage --- and in the process makes a startling discovery about an obscure second-century Latin poet who could launch her into academic stardom, finally freeing her from Chris’ influence.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324036807

MATRIX by Lauren Groff (Historical Fiction)
Cast out of the royal court by Eleanor of Aquitaine, deemed too coarse and rough-hewn for marriage or courtly life, 17-year-old Marie de France is sent to England to be the new prioress of an impoverished abbey, its nuns on the brink of starvation and beset by disease. At first taken aback by the severity of her new life, Marie finds focus and love in collective life with her singular and mercurial sisters. Born the last in a long line of female warriors and crusaders, Marie is determined to chart a bold new course for the women she now leads and protects. But in a world that is shifting and corroding in frightening ways, one that can never reconcile itself with her existence, will the sheer force of Marie’s vision be bulwark enough?
Riverhead Books | 9781594634505

THE MOST LIKELY CLUB by Elyssa Friedland (Fiction/Humor)
Paperback Original
In 1997, grunge is king, Titanic is a blockbuster (and Blockbuster still exists), and Thursday nights are for “Friends.” In Bellport, Connecticut, four best friends and high school seniors are ready to light the world on fire. Melissa Levin, Priya Chowdhury, Tara Taylor and Suki Hammer are going places. Their yearbook superlatives confirm it: Most Likely to Win the White House, Cure Cancer, Open a Michelin-Starred Restaurant, and Join the Forbes 400. Fast forward 25 years, and nothing has gone according to plan as the women regroup at their dreaded high school reunion. When a forgotten classmate emerges at the reunion with a surprising announcement, the friends dig out the yearbook and rethink their younger selves. Is it too late to make their dreams come true?
Berkley | 9780593199749

NO GODS, NO MONSTERS by Cadwell Turnbull (Science Fiction/Fantasy)
One October morning, Laina gets the news that her brother was shot and killed by Boston cops. But what looks like a case of police brutality soon reveals something much stranger. Monsters are real. And they want everyone to know it. As creatures from myth and legend come out of the shadows, their emergence sets off a chain of seemingly unrelated events. Members of a local werewolf pack are threatened into silence. A professor follows a missing friend's trail of bread crumbs to a mysterious secret society. And a young boy with unique abilities seeks refuge in a pro-monster organization with secrets of its own. Meanwhile, more people start disappearing, suicides and hate crimes increase, and protests erupt globally, both for and against the monsters.
Blackstone Publishing | 9798200834419

NO LAND TO LIGHT ON by Yara Zgheib (Fiction)
Sama and Hadi are a young Syrian couple in love, dreaming of their future in the country that brought them together. Sama came to Boston years before on a prestigious Harvard scholarship; Hadi landed there as a sponsored refugee from a bloody civil war. Now, they are giddily awaiting the birth of their son, a boy whose native language will be freedom and belonging. When Sama is five months pregnant, Hadi’s father dies suddenly, and Hadi decides to fly back to Jordan for the funeral. He leaves America, promising his wife he’ll be gone only for a few days. On the date of his return, Sama waits for him at the arrivals gate, but he doesn’t appear. As the minutes and then hours pass, she becomes increasingly alarmed, unaware that Hadi has been stopped by US Customs and Border Protection, detained for questioning and deported.
Atria Books | 9781982187439

OLGA written by Bernhard Schlink, translated by Charlotte Collins (Fiction)
Abandoned by her parents, young Olga is raised by her grandmother in a Prussian village in the early years of the 20th century. Smart and precocious, endearing but uncompromising, she fights against ingrained chauvinism to find her place in a world run by lesser men. When Olga falls in love with her neighbor, Herbert, the son of a local aristocrat, her life is irremediably changed. While Herbert indulges his thirst for exploration and adventure, Olga is limited by her gender and circumstance. Her love for Herbert goes against all odds and encounters many obstacles, but even when they are separated, it endures.
HarperVia | 9780063112933

OUR COUNTRY FRIENDS by Gary Shteyngart (Fiction/Humor)
In the rolling hills of upstate New York, a group of friends and friends-of-friends gathers in a country house to wait out the pandemic. Over the next six months, new friendships and romances will take hold, while old betrayals will emerge, forcing each character to reevaluate whom they love and what matters most. The unlikely cast of characters includes a Russian-born novelist; his Russian-born psychiatrist wife; their precocious child obsessed with K-pop; a struggling Indian American writer; a wildly successful Korean American app developer; a global dandy with three passports; a Southern flamethrower of an essayist; and a movie star, the Actor, whose arrival upsets the equilibrium of this chosen family.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9781984855145

THE SENTENCE by Louise Erdrich (Fiction)
Louise Erdrich's THE SENTENCE asks what we owe to the living, the dead, to the reader and to the book. A small independent bookstore in Minneapolis is haunted from November 2019 to November 2020 by the store's most annoying customer. Flora dies on All Souls' Day, but she simply won't leave the store. Tookie, who has landed a job selling books after years of incarceration that she survived by reading "with murderous attention," must solve the mystery of this haunting while at the same time trying to understand all that occurs in Minneapolis during a year of grief, astonishment, isolation and furious reckoning.
Harper Perennial | 9780062671134

THE SISTERS SWEET by Elizabeth Weiss (Historical Fiction)
All Harriet Szász has ever known is life onstage with her sister, Josie. As “The Sisters Sweet,” they pose as conjoined twins in a vaudeville act conceived of by their ambitious parents, who were once themselves theatrical stars. But after Josie exposes the family’s fraud and runs away to Hollywood, Harriet must learn to live out of the spotlight --- and her sister’s shadow. As Josie’s star rises in California, the Szászes fall on hard times. Striving to keep her struggling family afloat, Harriet molds herself into the perfect daughter. She also tentatively forms her first relationships outside her family and begins to imagine a life for herself beyond the role of dutiful daughter that she has played for so long.
Dial Press Trade Paperback | 9781984801562

THE SPECTACULAR by Zoe Whittall (Fiction)
It’s 1997, and Missy is a cellist in an indie rock band on tour across America. She plays the song about her absent mother that made the band famous. But then she meets a tomboy drummer who is hard to forget, and a forgotten flap of cocaine strands her at the border. Fortysomething Carola is just surfacing from a sex scandal at the yoga center where she has been living when she sees her daughter, Missy, for the first time in 10 years --- on the cover of a music magazine. Ruth is 83 and planning her return to the Turkish seaside village where she spent her childhood. But when her granddaughter, Missy, winds up crashing at her house, she decides it’s time that the strong and stubborn women in her family find a way to understand one another again.
Ballantine Books | 9781524799434

STRIKING RANGE: A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery by Margaret Mizushima (Mystery)
He was suspect number one --- the man who tried to kill Deputy Mattie Cobb and may have killed her father 30 years earlier. But when Mattie and cold case detective Jim Hauck reach the Colorado state prison where they will finally get to interview him, he's found dead in his cell. There's only one clue: a map leading to Timber Creek and rugged Redstone Ridge. Mattie and her K-9 partner, Robo, journey into the burned forest surrounding Redstone Ridge. But before they can finish their search, they're called to help investigate the death of a young woman found in a campground filled with elk hunters. Identification of the deceased points to her having recently given birth, but the infant is nowhere to be found.
Crooked Lane Books | 9781639102426

THREE SISTERS by Heather Morris (Historical Fiction)
Against all odds, three Slovakian sisters have survived years of imprisonment in the most notorious death camp in Nazi Germany: Auschwitz. Livia, Magda and Cibi have clung together, nearly died from starvation and overwork, and the brutal whims of the guards in this place of horror. But now the allies are closing in, and the sisters have one last hurdle to face: the death march from Auschwitz, as the Nazis try to erase any evidence of the prisoners held there. Due to a last-minute stroke of luck, the three of them are able to escape formation and hide in the woods for days before being rescued. And this is where the story begins. From there, the three sisters travel to Israel, to their new home, but the battle for freedom takes on new forms.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250809025

THE WAYS WE HIDE by Kristina McMorris (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
As a little girl raised amid the hardships of Michigan's Copper Country, Fenna Vos learned to focus on her own survival. Though she performs onstage as the assistant to an unruly escape artist, behind the curtain she's the mastermind of their act. Ultimately, controlling her surroundings and eluding traps of every kind helps her keep a lingering trauma at bay. Yet for all her planning, Fenna doesn't foresee being called upon by British military intelligence. Tasked with designing escape aids to thwart the Germans, MI9 seeks those with specialized skills for a war nearing its breaking point. But when a test of her loyalty draws her deep into the fray, Fenna discovers that no mission is more treacherous than escaping one's past.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781728249766

WHAT WE FED TO THE MANTICORE: Stories by Talia Lakshmi Kolluri (Fiction/Short Stories)
Paperback Original
Through nine emotionally vivid stories, all narrated from animal perspectives, Talia Lakshmi Kolluri’s debut collection explores themes of environmentalism, conservation, identity, belonging, loss and family with resounding heart and deep tenderness. In Kolluri’s pages, a faithful hound mourns the loss of the endangered rhino he swore to protect. Vultures seek meaning as they attend to the antelope that perished in Central Asia. A beloved donkey’s loyalty to a zookeeper in Gaza is put to the ultimate test. And a wounded pigeon in Delhi finds an unlikely friend.
Tin House Books | 9781953534415

THE WOMEN OF TROY by Pat Barker (Historical Fiction)
Troy has fallen, and the victorious Greeks are eager to return home with the spoils of an endless war --- including the women of Troy themselves. They await a fair wind for the Aegean. It does not come, because the gods are offended. The body of King Priam lies unburied and desecrated, and so the victors remain in suspension, camped in the shadows of the city they destroyed as the coalition that held them together begins to unravel. Old feuds resurface, and new suspicions and rivalries begin to fester. Largely unnoticed by her captors, the one-time Trojan queen Briseis, formerly Achilles' slave, forges alliances when she can, with Priam's aged wife, the defiant Hecuba, and with the disgraced soothsayer Calchas, all the while shrewdly seeking her path to revenge.
Anchor | 9780593311325

THE WRONG END OF THE TELESCOPE by Rabih Alameddine (Fiction)
Mina Simpson, a Lebanese doctor, arrives at the infamous Moria refugee camp on Lesbos, Greece, after being urgently summoned for help by her friend who runs an NGO there. Alienated from her family except for her beloved brother, Mina has avoided being so close to her homeland for decades. But with a week off work and apart from her wife of 30 years, Mina hopes to accomplish something meaningful. Soon, a boat crosses bringing Sumaiya, a fiercely resolute Syrian matriarch with terminal liver cancer. Determined to protect her children and husband at all costs, Sumaiya refuses to alert her family to her diagnosis. Bonded together by Sumaiya's secret, a deep connection sparks between the two women.
Grove Press | 9780802157812

THE YARDS by A. F. Carter (Mystery)
A single mother, Git O’Rourke works hard to support her daughter Charlie, but still finds time to cut loose every once in a while and find a companion for the night. Which is exactly how she ends up in a hotel room with a strange man passed out on heroin, and how she comes to possess the bag of money and guns that he left open as he got his fix. When the dead body is discovered at the Skyview Motor Court, officer Delia Mariola recognizes the victim as the perpetrator in an earlier crime --- a domestic violence call. She knows he’s connected to the local mob, but the crime scene doesn’t exactly resemble their typical hit. Instead, all signs point to a pick-up gone wrong. Which means that all signs point to Git.
Mysterious Press | 9781613163641

YEAR OF THE TIGER: An Activist's Life by Alice Wong (Memoir)
Paperback Original
In Chinese culture, the tiger is deeply revered for its confidence, passion, ambition and ferocity. That same fighting spirit resides in Alice Wong. Drawing on a collection of original essays, previously published work, conversations, graphics, photos, commissioned art by disabled and Asian American artists, and more, Alice uses her unique talent to share an impressionistic scrapbook of her life as an Asian American disabled activist, community organizer, media maker and dreamer. From her love of food and pop culture to her unwavering commitment to dismantling systemic ableism, Alice shares her thoughts on creativity, access, power, care, the pandemic, mortality and the future.
Vintage | 9780593315392

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