September 6, 2022

September 6, 2022

In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of September 5th and September 12th 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 Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks feature for September, which includes Indie Next, LibraryReads, the Barnes & Noble Book Club, Reese's Book Club, the "Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club, the "Good Morning America" Book Club, and more.

We also are featuring DAISY DARKER by Alice Feeney, which is now available and will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick. The New York Times bestselling author of ROCK PAPER SCISSORS returns with a locked-room mystery when a family reunion leads to murder in a delightfully twisty and atmospheric thriller.

Now Available: DAISY DARKER by Alice Feeney
An Upcoming Bookreporter.com Bets On Title

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, September 7th 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 Kristina McMorris about her latest historical novel, THE WAYS WE HIDE, a sweeping World War II tale of an illusionist whose recruitment by British intelligence sets her on a perilous, heartrending path.

Wednesday, September 7th at 7pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Mike Lupica will discuss his new mystery, ROBERT B. PARKER'S FALLOUT, in which police chief Jesse Stone must pull out all the stops to unravel the truth about two seemingly unconnected mysterious deaths and stop a killer from striking again.

Thursday, September 8th at 7pm ET: Barnes & Noble Book Club: Join Barnes & Noble as they welcome Anthony Marra for a live book club event to discuss MERCURY PICTURES PRESENTS, August's B&N Book Club pick. He will be in conversation with Shannon DeVito, the Director of Category Management at B&N, and Miwa Messer, B&N’s Editorial Director.

Thursday, September 8th at 8pm ET: Prairie Lights: Join Prairie Lights for a reading and conversation with Belinda Huijuan Tang in celebration of the release of her debut novel, A MAP FOR THE MISSING. She will be joined in conversation by Sanjena Sathian, author of the critically acclaimed novel, GOLD DIGGERS.

Tuesday, September 13th at 8pm ET: Mystery to Me: Deanna Raybourn will be in conversation with “All the Books!” podcast host Liberty Hardy about her new novel, KILLERS OF A CERTAIN AGE. They’ve spent their lives as the deadliest assassins in a clandestine international organization, but now that they're 60 years old, four women friends can’t just retire. It’s kill or be killed in this action-packed thriller.

This Week's Bonus News:
Our Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks for September

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

On Sale the Week of September 12th in Hardcover

September 12th

BLOWBACK by James Patterson and Brendan DuBois (Political Thriller)
US President Keegan Barrett has swept into office on his success as Director of the CIA. Six months into his first term, he devises a clandestine power grab with deadly consequences. Barrett personally orders CIA agents Liam Grey and Noa Himel to execute his plan, but their loyalties are divided. The CIA serves at the pleasure of the president, yet they’ve sworn to support and defend the Constitution of the United States against all enemies, foreign and domestic. When the threat comes directly from the Oval Office, that’s where the blowback begins.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316499637

September 13th

ACT OF OBLIVION by Robert Harris (Historical Thriller)
1660 England. General Edward Whalley and his son-in law, Colonel William Goffe, board a ship bound for the New World. They are on the run, wanted for the murder of King Charles I --- a brazen execution that marked the culmination of the English Civil War, in which parliamentarians successfully battled royalists for control. But now, 10 years after Charles’ beheading, the royalists have returned to power. Under the provisions of the Act of Oblivion, the 59 men who signed the king’s death warrant and participated in his execution have been found guilty in absentia of high treason. Some of the Roundheads, including Oliver Cromwell, are already dead. Others have been captured, hung, drawn and quartered. A few are imprisoned for life. But two have escaped to America by boat.
Harper | 9780063248007

AN AFFAIR OF SPIES by Ronald H. Balson (Historical Thriller)
Nathan Silverman’s idyllic childhood in Berlin is soon marred by increasing levels of bigotry against his family and the rest of the Jewish community. After his uncle is arrested on Kristallnacht, he leaves Germany for New York City with only his mother’s wedding ring to sell for survival. While attending an evening course at Columbia in 1942, Nathan notices a recruitment poster on a university wall and decides to enlist in the military and help fight the Nazi regime. The Allies are racing to develop a nuclear weapon before the Nazis, and a German theoretical physicist is hoping to defect. The physicist was a friend of his father's, and Nathan's mission is to return to Berlin via France and smuggle him out of Europe.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250282460

ALL THAT'S LEFT UNSAID by Tracey Lien (Fiction)
Just let him go. These are the words Ky Tran will forever regret. The words she spoke when her parents called to ask if they should let her younger brother, Denny, out to celebrate his high school graduation with friends. That night, Denny is brutally murdered inside a busy restaurant in the Sydney suburb of Cabramatta, a refugee enclave facing violent crime, an indifferent police force and the worst heroin epidemic in Australian history. The police are stumped by Denny’s case. A dozen people were at Lucky 8 restaurant when Denny died, but each of the bystanders claim to have seen nothing. Desperately hoping that understanding what happened might ease her suffocating guilt, Ky sets aside her grief and determines to track down the witnesses herself.
William Morrow | 9780063227736

THE BEST FRIEND by Jessica Fellowes (Domestic Thriller)
Bella and Kate. Kate and Bella. From childhood they were bosom friends --- Bella sensible and cautious, Kate gregarious and just a little dangerous. Yet, in spite of their intimacy, their trust is fragile. Men came into their lives, and things changed: a black seed was set in the heart of their relationship. Over decades, acts of both cruelty and love ferment until one shocking event tests them more than ever. Neither will escape unscathed.
Minotaur Books | 9781250831804

BLISS MONTAGE: Stories by Ling Ma (Fiction/Short Stories)
What happens when fantasy tears the screen of the everyday to wake us up? Could that waking be our end? In BLISS MONTAGE, Ling Ma brings us eight wildly different tales of people making their way through the madness and reality of our collective delusions: love and loneliness, connection and possession, friendship, motherhood, the idea of home. A woman lives in a house with all her ex-boyfriends. A toxic friendship grows up around a drug that makes you invisible. An ancient ritual might heal you of anything --- if you bury yourself alive. These and other scenarios investigate the ways that the outlandish and the ordinary are shockingly, deceptively, heartbreakingly alike.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374293512

BLOOD & INK: The Scandalous Jazz Age Double Murder That Hooked America on True Crime by Joe Pompeo (True Crime/History)
On September 16, 1922, the bodies of Reverend Edward Hall and Eleanor Mills were found on an abandoned farm outside of New Brunswick, New Jersey. The killer had arranged the bodies in a pose conveying intimacy. The murder of Hall --- a prominent clergyman whose wife, Frances Hall, was a proud heiress with illustrious ancestors and ties to the Johnson & Johnson dynasty --- would have made headlines on its own. But when authorities identified Eleanor Mills as a choir singer from his church married to the church sexton, the story shocked locals and sent the scandal ricocheting around the country, fueling the nascent tabloid industry. BLOOD & INK freshly chronicles what remains one of the most electrifying but forgotten murder mysteries in U.S. history.
William Morrow | 9780063001732

THE ENIGMA OF ROOM 622 written by Joël Dicker, translated by Robert Bononno (Mystery/Thriller)
A writer named Joël, Switzerland’s most prominent novelist, flees to the Hôtel de Verbier, a luxury resort in the Swiss Alps. Disheartened over a recent breakup and his longtime publisher’s death, Joël hopes to rest. However, his plans quickly go awry. It all starts with a seemingly innocuous detail: at the Verbier, there is no room 622. Before long, Joël and fellow guest Scarlett uncover a long-unsolved murder that transpired in the hotel's room 622. The attendant circumstances: the succession of Switzerland’s largest private bank, a mysterious counterintelligence operation called P-30, and a most disreputable sabotage of hotel hospitality.
HarperVia | 9780063098817

THE GUEST HOUSE by Robin Morgan-Bentley (Psychological Thriller)
Jamie and Victoria are off for a last quick vacation before the arrival of their first baby. The remote country guesthouse Victoria chose seems like the perfect retreat --- miles away from the distractions of work and their regular life. And the older couple that run the establishment, Barry and Fiona, are more than accommodating. But when Jamie and Victoria awake on their first morning, they find the house deserted. Barry and Fiona are nowhere to be seen. All the doors are locked. And their cell phones and car keys have disappeared. They have no way out and no way to call for help, and the contractions are getting stronger.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781728256061

HOW NOT TO DROWN IN A GLASS OF WATER by Angie Cruz (Fiction)
Cara Romero thought she would work at the factory of little lamps for the rest of her life. But when, in her mid-50s, she loses her job in the Great Recession, she is forced back into the job market for the first time in decades. Set up with a job counselor, Cara instead begins to narrate the story of her life. Over the course of 12 sessions, Cara recounts her tempestuous love affairs, her alternately biting and loving relationships with her neighbor Lulu and her sister Angela, her struggles with debt, gentrification and loss, and, eventually, what really happened between her and her estranged son, Fernando. As Cara confronts her darkest secrets and regrets, we see a woman buffeted by life but still full of fight.
Flatiron Books | 9781250208453

I WALK BETWEEN THE RAINDROPS: Stories by T.C. Boyle (Fiction/Short Stories)
In the title story of WALK BETWEEN THE RAINDROPS, a woman sits down next to a man at a bar and claims she has ESP. In “Thirteen Days,” passengers on a cruise line are quarantined, to horrifying and hilarious effect. And “Hyena” begins simply: “That was the day the hyena came for him, and never mind that there were no hyenas in the South of France, and especially not in Pont-Saint-Esprit --- it was there and it came for him.” A virtuoso of the short form, T.C. Boyle returns with an inventive, uproarious and masterfully told collection of short stories characterized by biting satire, resonant wit and a boundless, irrepressible imagination.
Ecco | 9780063052888

LESSONS by Ian McEwan (Fiction)
When the world is still counting the cost of the Second World War and the Iron Curtain has closed, 11-year-old Roland Baines' life is turned upside down. Two thousand miles from his mother's protective love, stranded at an unusual boarding school, his vulnerability attracts piano teacher Miss Miriam Cornell, leaving scars as well as a memory of love that will never fade. Now, when his wife vanishes, leaving him alone with his tiny son, Roland is forced to confront the reality of his restless existence. As the radiation from Chernobyl spreads across Europe, he begins a search for answers that looks deep into his family history and will last for the rest of his life.
Knopf | 9780593535202

LIFE'S WORK: A Memoir by David Milch (Memoir)
From the start, David Milch’s life seems destined to echo that of his father, a successful if drug-addicted surgeon. Almost every achievement is accompanied by an act of self-immolation, but the deepest sadnesses also contain moments of grace. Betting on racehorses and stealing booze at eight years old, mentored by Robert Penn Warren and excoriated by Richard Yates at 21, Milch never did anything by half. He got into Yale Law School only to be expelled for shooting out streetlights with a shotgun. He paused his studies at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop to manufacture acid in Cuernavaca. He created and wrote some of the most lauded television series of all time, made a family and pursued sobriety, then lost his fortune betting horses just as his father had taught him.
Random House | 9780525510741

LIKE A ROLLING STONE: A Memoir by Jann S. Wenner (Memoir)
Rolling Stone founder, co-editor and publisher Jann Wenner’s deeply personal memoir vividly describes and brings you inside the music, the politics and the lifestyle of a generation, an epoch of cultural change that swept America and beyond. He takes us into the life and work of Bob Dylan, John Lennon, Mick Jagger, Bono and Bruce Springsteen, to name a few. He was instrumental in the careers of Hunter S. Thompson, Tom Wolfe and Annie Leibovitz. His journey took him to the Oval Office with his legendary interviews with Bill Clinton and Barak Obama, leaders to whom Rolling Stone gave its historic, full-throated backing. The people Wenner chose to be seen and heard in the pages of Rolling Stone tried to change American culture, values and morality.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316415194

MARPLE: Twelve New Mysteries by Agatha Christie and various authors (Mystery/Short Stories)
Agatha Christie’s legendary sleuth, Jane Marple, returns to solve 12 baffling cases in this brand-new collection, penned by a host of acclaimed authors skilled in the fine art of mystery and murder. Join Marple as she travels through her sleepy English village and around the world. In St Mary Mead, a Christmas dinner is interrupted by unexpected guests; the Broadway stage in New York City is set for a dangerous improvisation; bad omens surround an untimely death aboard a cruise ship to Hong Kong; and a bestselling writer on holiday in Italy is caught in a nefarious plot. These and other crimes committed in the name of love, jealousy, blackmail and revenge are ones that only the indomitable Jane Marple can solve.
William Morrow | 9780063136052

THE MOSQUITO BOWL: A Game of Life and Death in World War II by Buzz Bissinger (History)
When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, college football was at the height of its popularity. As the nation geared up for total war, one branch of the service dominated the aspirations of college football stars: the United States Marine Corps. Which is why, on Christmas Eve of 1944, when the 4th and 29th Marine regiments found themselves in the middle of the Pacific Ocean training for what would be the bloodiest battle of the war, their ranks included one of the greatest pools of football talent ever assembled. The two regiments would play each other in a football game as close to the real thing as you could get in the dirt and coral of Guadalcanal. The bruising and bloody game that followed became known as “The Mosquito Bowl.”
Harper | ‎9780062879929

NATURAL HISTORY: Stories by Andrea Barrett (Fiction/Short Stories)
The six exquisite stories in NATURAL HISTORY are set largely in a small community in central New York State and portray some of Andrea Barrett’s most beloved characters, spanning the decades between the Civil War to the present day. In “Henrietta and Her Moths,” a woman tends to an insect nursery as her sister’s life follows a different path. In “Open House,” a young man grapples with a choice between a thrilling life spent discovering fossils and a desire to remain close to home. And in the magnificent title novella, “Natural History,” Barrett deepens the connection between her characters, bringing us through to the present day and providing an unforgettable capstone.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324035190

NONA THE NINTH by Tamsyn Muir (Science Fiction/Space Opera)
In many ways, Nona is like other people. She lives with her family, has a job at her local school, and loves walks on the beach and meeting new dogs. But Nona is not like other people. Six months ago she woke up in a stranger's body, and she's afraid she might have to give it back. The whole city is falling to pieces. A monstrous blue sphere hangs on the horizon, ready to tear the planet apart. Blood of Eden forces have surrounded the last Cohort facility and wait for the Emperor Undying to come calling. Their leaders want Nona to be the weapon that will save them from the Nine Houses. Nona would prefer to live an ordinary life with the people she loves, with Pyrrha and Camilla and Palamedes, but she also knows that nothing lasts forever. And each night, Nona dreams of a woman with a skull-painted face.
Tordotcom | 9781250854117

OATH OF LOYALTY: A Mitch Rapp Novel by Vince Flynn and Kyle Mills (Political Thriller)
With President Anthony Cook convinced that Mitch Rapp poses a mortal threat to him, CIA Director Irene Kennedy is forced to construct a truce between the two men. The terms are simple: Rapp agrees to leave the country and stay in plain sight for as long as Cook controls the White House. In exchange, the administration agrees not to make any moves against him. This fragile détente holds until Cook’s power-hungry security adviser convinces him that Rapp has no intention of honoring their agreement. In an effort to put him on the defensive, they leak the true identity of his partner, Claudia Gould. As Rapp races to neutralize the enemies organizing against her, he discovers that a new generation of assassins is on her trail.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781982164911

PEOPLE PERSON by Candice Carty-Williams (Fiction)
Dimple Pennington knows of her half siblings, but she doesn’t really know them. Five people who don’t have anything in common except for faint memories of being driven through Brixton in their dad’s gold jeep, and some pretty complex abandonment issues. Dimple has bigger things to think about. She’s 30, and her life isn’t really going anywhere. An aspiring lifestyle influencer with a terrible and wayward boyfriend, Dimple’s life has shrunk to the size of a phone screen. And despite a small but loyal following, she’s never felt more alone in her life. That is, until a dramatic event brings her half siblings crashing back into her life. And when they’re all forced to reconnect with Cyril Pennington, the absent father they never really knew, things get even more complicated.
Gallery/Scout Press | 9781501196041

A PLACE CALLED HOME: A Memoir by David Ambroz (Memoir)
There are millions of homeless children in America today. In A PLACE CALLED HOME, award-winning child welfare advocate David Ambroz writes about growing up homeless in New York for 11 years and his subsequent years in foster care, offering a window into what so many kids living in poverty experience every day. David and his siblings should be in elementary school, but instead they are walking the streets seeking shelter while their mother is battling mental illness. When David is placed in foster care, at first it feels like salvation but soon proves to be just as unsafe. He finds hope and opportunities in libraries, schools and the occasional kind-hearted adult; he harnesses an inner grit to escape the all-too-familiar outcome for a kid like him.
Legacy Lit | 9780306903540

PRISONERS OF THE CASTLE: An Epic Story of Survival and Escape from Colditz, the Nazis' Fortress Prison by Ben Macintyre (History)
During World War II, the German army used the towering Colditz Castle to hold the most defiant Allied prisoners. For four years, these prisoners of the castle tested its walls and its guards with ingenious escape attempts that would become legend. But as Ben Macintyre shows, the story of Colditz was about much more than escape. Its population represented a society in miniature, full of heroes and traitors, class conflicts and secret alliances, and the full range of human joy and despair. PRISONERS OF THE CASTLE traces the war’s arc from within Colditz’s stone walls, where the stakes rose as Hitler’s war machine faltered and the men feared that liberation would not come soon enough to spare them a grisly fate at the hands of the Nazis.
Crown | 9780593136331

THE SEARCH FOR THE GENUINE: Nonfiction, 1970-2015 by Jim Harrison (Essays)
New York Times bestselling author Jim Harrison (1937-2016) was a writer with a poet's economy of style and trencherman's appetites and ribald humor. In THE SEARCH FOR THE GENIUINE, a collection of new and previously published essays, the giant of letters muses on everything from grouse hunting fishing to Zen Buddhism and matters of the spirit, including reported pieces on Yellowstone and shark-tagging in the open ocean, commentary on writers from Bukowski to Neruda to Peter Matthiessen, and a heartbreaking essay on life --- and, for those attempting to cross in the ever-more-dangerous gaps, death --- on the US/Mexico border.
Grove Press | 9780802157218

THE SKI JUMPERS by Peter Geye (Fiction)
A brilliant ski jumper has to be fearless --- Jon Bargaard remembers this well. His memories of daring leaps and risks might be the key to the book he’s always wanted to write: a novel about his family, beginning with Pops, once a champion ski jumper himself, who also took Jon and his younger brother, Anton, to the heights. But Jon has never been able to get past the next, ruinous episode of their history, and now that he has received a terrible diagnosis, he’s afraid he never will. In THE SKI JUMPERS, Peter Geye follows Jon deep into the past he tried so hard to leave behind, telling the story he spent his life escaping.
University of Minnesota Press | 9781517913496

SUGAR STREET by Jonathan Dee (Fiction)
An unnamed male narrator has hit the road. Rid of any possible identifiers, his possessions amount to $168,548 in cash stashed in an envelope under his car seat. Vigilantly avoiding security cameras, he drives until he hits a city where his past is unlikely to track him down, and finds a room to rent from a less-than-stable landlady whose need for money outweighs her desire to ask questions. He seems to have escaped his former self. But can he? In a story that moves with swift dark humor and insight, Jonathan Dee takes us through his narrator’s attempt to disavow his former life of privilege and enter a blameless new existence.
Grove Press | 9780802160003

WISE GALS: The Spies Who Built the CIA and Changed the Future of Espionage by Nathalia Holt (Biography)
In the wake of World War II, four agents were critical in helping build a new organization that we now know as the CIA. Adelaide Hawkins, Mary Hutchison, Eloise Page and Elizabeth Sudmeier, called the “wise gals” by their male colleagues, were not the stereotypical femme fatales of spy novels. They were smart, courageous and groundbreaking agents at the top of their class, instrumental in both developing innovative tools for intelligence gathering --- and insisting (in their own unique ways) that they receive the credit and pay their expertise deserved. In WISE GALS, Nathalia Holt uses firsthand interviews with past and present officials and declassified government documents to uncover the stories of these four inspirational women.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593328484

On Sale the Week of September 12th in Paperback

September 13th

ASSEMBLY by Natasha Brown (Fiction)
Come of age in the credit crunch. Be civil in a hostile environment. Go to college, get an education, start a career. Do all the right things. Buy an apartment. Buy art. Buy a sort of happiness. But above all, keep your head down. Keep quiet. And keep going. The narrator of ASSEMBLY is a Black British woman. She is preparing to attend a lavish garden party at her boyfriend’s family estate, set deep in the English countryside. At the same time, she is considering the carefully assembled pieces of herself. As the minutes tick down and the future beckons, she can’t escape the question: Is it time to take it all apart?
Back Bay Books | 9780316268363

BAD DAY BREAKING: A Bad Axe County Novel by John Galligan (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
A strange religious sect has arrived in Bad Axe County, Wisconsin. Armed with guns, an enigmatic spiritual leader and his followers set up their compound in an abandoned storage lot. It’s not long before rumors start to spread of sadistic rituals and a planned takeover of the local government. But when one of the followers is found dead in the river, that’s when full-on panic sets in. Sheriff Heidi Kick may not be a fan of the new group, but she is also dismayed by the hostile reaction of the Bad Axe community. With a murder investigation on her hands, the situation becomes more complicated when Sheriff Kick finds out that an ex-boyfriend from her youth is out on parole early and looking to hunt her down.
Atria Books | 9781982166564

THE BOOK HATERS’ BOOK CLUB by Gretchen Anthony (Fiction/Humor)
Paperback Original
All it takes is the right book to turn a Book Hater into a Book Lover. That was what Elliot, the beloved co-owner of Over the Rainbow Bookshop, believed before his untimely passing. He always had the perfect book suggestion for the self-proclaimed Book Hater. Now his grief-ridden business partner, Irma, has agreed to sell Over the Rainbow to condo developers. But others won’t give up the bookshop without a fight. When Irma breaks the news to her daughters, Bree and Laney, and Elliot’s romantic partner, Thom, they are aghast. Over the Rainbow has been Bree and Laney’s sanctuary since childhood, and Thom would do anything to preserve Elliot’s legacy. Together they conspire to save the bookshop, even if it takes some snooping, gossip and minor sabotage.
Park Row | 9780778333067

THE BRIDES OF MARACOOR by Gregory Maguire (Fantasy)
Twenty-five years after WICKED first flew into our lives, THE BRIDES OF MARACOOR finds Elphaba’s granddaughter, Rain, washing ashore on a foreign island. Comatose from crashing into the sea, Rain is taken in by a community of single women committed to obscure devotional practices. As the mainland of Maracoor sustains an assault by a foreign navy, the island’s civil-servant overseer struggles to understand how an alien arriving on the shores of Maracoor could threaten the stability and well-being of an entire nation. Is it myth or magic at work, for good or for ill?
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063093973

DEFENDING BRITTA STEIN by Ronald H. Balson (Legal Thriller)
Ole Henryks, a popular restaurateur, is set to be honored by the Danish/American Association for his many civic and charitable contributions. Ninety-year-old Britta Stein levels public accusations against Henryks by spray-painting “Coward,” “Traitor,” “Collaborator” and “War Criminal” on the walls of his restaurant. Mrs. Stein is ultimately taken into custody and charged with criminal defacement of property. She also becomes the target of a bitter lawsuit filed by Henryks and his son, accusing her of defamation and intentional infliction of emotional distress. With the help of her investigator husband, Liam Taggart, attorney Catherine Lockhart must reach back into wartime Denmark and locate evidence that proves Mrs. Stein's innocence.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250852649

DIAMOND AND THE EYE: A Peter Diamond Investigation by Peter Lovesey (Mystery)
If there's one thing Bath detective Peter Diamond has no patience for, it's a dumb git trying to get involved in one of his investigations --- for example, a Philip Marlowe-wannabe private investigator like the self-styled Johnny Getz (his card claims he Getz results). But fate has saddled Diamond with this trial. A Bath antiques dealer, Septimus "Seppy" Hubbard, has disappeared without a trace, and his daughter, Ruby, has hired Johnny Getz to find him. When a dead body is discovered in Seppy's locked-up store, the missing persons case becomes a murder investigation, and now Diamond has to collaborate with the insufferable private eye.
Soho Crime | 9781641294027

FEAR NO EVIL: An Alex Cross Thriller by James Patterson (Thriller)
Dr. Alex Cross and Detective John Sampson venture into the rugged Montana wilderness --- where they will be the prey. They’re not on the job, but on a personal mission. Until they’re attacked by two rival teams of assassins, controlled by the same mastermind who has stalked Alex and his family for years. Darkness falls. The river churns into rapids. Shots ring out through the forest. No backup. No way out. Fear no evil.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538752807

THE FINAL EQUINOX: A Theo Cray and Jessica Blackwood Thriller by Andrew Mayne (Thriller)
Paperback Original
A signal is detected at the outer edge of the solar system. Computational biologist Dr. Theo Cray and magician-turned-FBI-agent Jessica Blackwood are looking --- and listening --- a little closer. The man at the center of this cosmic mystery is billionaire Thomas T. Theismann. He’s spent a lifetime --- and a fortune --- trying to find out if we’re alone in the universe. Highly skeptical, Theo joins the effort to find the source of the signal, and he quickly enlists Jessica to look into the suspicious death of another academic at the lab. As their investigations converge, they uncover curious connections to the otherworldly contact, including a 1970s science-fiction writer and the body of an astronaut found buried in an ancient tomb.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781542033992

FIVE DECEMBERS by James Kestrel (Hard-boiled Historical Thriller)
December 1941. America teeters on the brink of war, and in Honolulu, Hawaii, police detective Joe McGrady is assigned to investigate a homicide that will change his life forever. Because the trail of murder he uncovers will lead him across the Pacific, far from home and the woman he loves. And though the U.S. doesn't know it yet, a Japanese fleet is already steaming toward Pearl Harbor.
Hard Case Crime | 9781789098679

GO TELL THE BEES THAT I AM GONE by Diana Gabaldon (Historical Fantasy/Romance)
Jamie Fraser and Claire Randall were torn apart by the Jacobite Rising in 1746, and it took them 20 years of loss and heartbreak to find each other again. Now it’s 1779, and Claire and Jamie are finally reunited with their daughter, Brianna; her husband, Roger; and their children, and are rebuilding their home on Fraser’s Ridge --- a fortress that may shelter them against the winds of war as well as weather. But tensions in the Colonies are great: Battles rage from New York to Georgia, and even in the mountains of the backcountry, feelings run hot enough to boil Hell’s teakettle. Jamie knows that loyalties among his tenants are split, and it won’t be long before the war is on his doorstep.
Bantam | 9781101885703

HAO: Stories by Ye Chun (Fiction/Short Stories)
By turns reflective and visceral, the stories in HAO examine the ways in which women can be silenced as they grapple with sexism and racism, and how they find their own language to define their experience. In “Gold Mountain,” a young mother hides above a ransacked store during the San Francisco anti-Chinese riot of 1877. In “A Drawer,” an illiterate mother invents a language through drawing. And in “Stars,” a graduate student loses her ability to speak after a stroke.
Catapult | 9781646221554

HOLD ME DOWN by Clea Simon (Psychological Thriller)
Gal, a middle-aged musician, is back in Boston to play a memorial for her late drummer/best friend, when she finds herself freezing on stage at the sight of a face in the crowd. The next day, she learns that the man she saw has been killed --- beaten to death behind the venue --- and her friend's widower is being charged in connection with his death. When the friend refuses to defend himself, Gal wonders why and starts her own informal investigation. As she does so, she must reexamine her own wild life, her perception of the past, and an industry that monetizes dysfunction in a dark tale of love, music and murder.
Polis Books | 9781957957036

INSEPARABLE written by Simone de Beauvoir, translated by Sandra Smith (Fiction)
From the moment Sylvie and Andrée meet in their Parisian day school, they see in each other an accomplice with whom to confront the mysteries of girlhood. For the next 10 years, the two are the closest of friends and confidantes as they explore life in a post-World War I France, and as Andrée becomes increasingly reckless and rebellious, edging closer to peril. Sylvie sees a France of clashing ideals and religious hypocrisy --- and at an early age is determined to form her own opinions. Andrée is inclined to melodrama and romance. Despite their different natures, they rely on each other to safeguard their secrets while entering adulthood in a world that did not pay much attention to the wills and desires of young women.
Ecco | 9780063075054

LANDSLIDE by Susan Conley (Fiction)
After a fishing accident leaves her husband hospitalized across the border in Canada, Jill is left to look after her teenage boys --- "the wolves" --- alone. Nothing comes easy in their remote corner of Maine: money is tight; her son, Sam, is getting into more trouble by the day; her eldest, Charlie, is preoccupied with a new girlfriend; and Jill begins to suspect her marriage isn't as stable as she once believed. As one disaster gives way to the next, she begins to think that it's not enough to be a caring wife and mother anymore --- not enough to show up when needed, to nudge her boys in the right direction, to believe everything will be okay. But how to protect this life she loves, this household, this family?
Vintage | 9781984898005

THE MITFORD VANISHING: A Mitford Murders Mystery by Jessica Fellowes (Historical Mystery)
1937. War with Germany is dawning, and a civil war already rages in Spain. Split across political lines, the six Mitford sisters are more divided than ever. Meanwhile, their former maid, Louisa Cannon, is now a private detective, working with her policeman husband, Guy Sullivan. Louisa and Guy are surprised when a call comes in from novelist Nancy Mitford requesting that they look into the disappearance of her Communist sister, Jessica, in Spain. But one case leads to another as they are also asked to investigate the mysterious vanishing of a soldier. As the two cases come together, Louisa and Guy discover that every marriage has its secrets --- but some are deadlier than others.
Minotaur Books | 9781250848727

NO ONE WILL MISS HER by Kat Rosenfield (Psychological Thriller)
On a beautiful October morning in rural Maine, a homicide investigator from the state police pulls into the hard-luck town of Copper Falls. The local junkyard is burning, and the town pariah Lizzie Oullette is dead --- with her husband, Dwayne, nowhere to be found. As scandal ripples through the community, Detective Ian Bird’s inquiries unexpectedly lead him away from small-town Maine to a swank city townhouse several hours south. Adrienne Richards, the blonde and fabulous social media influencer and wife of a disgraced billionaire, had been renting Lizzie’s tiny lake house as a country getaway. As her connection to the case becomes clear, so too does her connection to Lizzie, who narrates their story from beyond the grave.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063057029

AN OBSERVANT WIFE by Naomi Ragen (Fiction)
From the joy of their wedding day, Yaakov and Leah are soon plunged into the complex reality of their new lives together. Yaakov leaves his beloved yeshiva to work in the city, and Leah confronts the often agonizing restrictions imposed by religious laws governing even the most intimate moments of their married lives. Adding to their difficulties is the hostility of some in the community who continue to view Leah as a dangerous interloper, questioning her sincerity and adherence to religious laws. In the midst of their heartfelt attempts to reach a balance between their human needs and their spiritual obligations, the discovery of a secret, forbidden relationship between troubled teenage daughter Shaindele and a local boy precipitates a maelstrom of life-changing consequences for all.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250853578

OUR FIRST CIVIL WAR: Patriots and Loyalists in the American Revolution by H. W. Brands (History)
What causes people to forsake their country and take up arms against it? In his powerful new history of the American Revolution, this is the question that H. W. Brands answers. George Washington and Benjamin Franklin were the unlikeliest of rebels, with Washington standing at the apex of Virginia society and Franklin more successful still, having risen from humble origins to world fame. John Adams, known for his cantankerous temperament, might have seemed a more obvious candidate for rebellion, but even so, he revered the law. Yet all three men became rebels against the British empire that fostered their success.
Anchor | 9780593082560

THE REAL MRS. TOBIAS by Sally Koslow (Fiction)
Paperback Original
It’s 2015 in New York City, and three women all known as Mrs. Tobias --- Veronika, the matriarch; her daughter-in-law, Mel; and Mel’s daughter-in-law, Birdie --- are trying to navigate personal difficulties, some of which are with one another. Veronika and Mel are both psychotherapists who are more skilled at helping other people than solving their own problems. Birdie, still dealing with the culture shock of moving to New York City and marrying into the Tobias clan, is pushed to her limit when her husband gets into trouble. Overwhelmed, she bolts --- along with the couple’s young daughter --- to her Midwestern hometown, hoping that space, warmth and wisdom from her own feisty grandmother will help her find a path forward.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780063223745

A SINGLE ROSE written by Muriel Barbery, translated by Alison Anderson (Fiction)
Rose is called to Kyoto for the reading of her estranged father’s will. Once there, she encounters acquaintances of her father --- including a potter and poet, an old lady friend, his housekeeper and chauffeur, and Paul, her guide through Kyoto. As the reading of the will gets closer, through her encounters and peregrinations in Kyoto, Rose reaches a poignant understanding of her father’s love and an acceptance of loss.
Europa Editions | 9781609457945

STILL LIFE by Sarah Winman (Fiction)
Tuscany, 1944: As Allied troops advance and bombs sink villages, a young English soldier, Ulysses Temper, finds himself in the wine cellar of a deserted villa. There, he has a chance encounter with Evelyn Skinner, a middle-aged art historian intent on salvaging paintings from the ruins. In each other, Ulysses and Evelyn find a kindred spirit amidst the rubble of war-torn Italy, and paint a course of events that will shape Ulysses’ life for the next four decades. Returning home to London, Ulysses reimmerses himself in his crew at The Stoat and Parot --- a motley mix of pub crawlers and eccentrics --- all the while carrying with him his Italian evocations. So, when an unexpected inheritance brings him back to where it all began, Ulysses knows better than to tempt fate: he must return to the Tuscan hills.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780593330760

UNBOUND: My Story of Liberation and the Birth of the Me Too Movement by Tarana Burke (Memoir)
As a child, Tarana Burke reeled from her sexual assault, believing she was responsible. Unable to confess what she thought of as her own sins for fear of shattering her family, her soul split in two. One side was the bright, intellectually curious third-generation Bronxite steeped in Black literature and power, and the other was the bad, shame-ridden girl who thought of herself as a vile rule breaker, not of a victim. Tarana fought to reunite her fractured soul, through organizing, pursuing justice and finding community. In her debut memoir, she shares her extensive work supporting and empowering Black and brown girls, and the devastating realization that to truly help these girls she needed to help that scared, ashamed child still in her soul.
Flatiron Books: An Oprah Book | 9781250621740

WHERE THEY WAIT by Scott Carson (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
Recently laid-off from his newspaper and desperate for work, war correspondent Nick Bishop takes a humbling job: writing a profile of a new mindfulness app called Clarity. It’s easy money, and a chance to return to his hometown for his first visit in years. The app itself seems like a retread of old ideas, but then there are the “Sleep Songs.” A woman’s hauntingly beautiful voice sings a ballad that is anything but soothing --- it’s disturbing, more of a warning than a relaxation --- but it works. Deep, refreshing sleep follows. So do nightmares. Vivid and chilling, they feature a dead woman who calls Nick by name and whispers guidance. Or are they threats? And soon her voice follows him long after the song is done.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781982104634

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