February 14, 2023

February 14, 2023

In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of February 13th and February 20th 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 February, 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.

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, February 15th at 3pm ET: Barnes & Noble: Join Barnes & Noble as they welcome debut author Joshua Moehling for a live virtual discussion of AND THERE HE KEPT HER (now available in paperback) as part of the B&N Midday Mystery Virtual Event series. Moehling will be in conversation with the author of THE OVERNIGHT GUEST, Heather Gudenkauf.

Wednesday, February 15th 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 J.T. Ellison about her latest thriller, IT'S ONE OF US. Appearing on the Aftershow will be Jill Santopolo, whose new novel is STARS IN AN ITALIAN SKY.

Thursday, February 16th at 3pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Lexie Elliott will talk about her latest novel, BRIGHT AND DEADLY THINGS, in which a remote back-to-basics mountaintop retreat in the French Alps turns deadly as an Oxford fellow finds herself in the crosshairs of her late husband’s dangerous secrets.

Thursday, February 16th at 8pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Charles Todd will discuss THE CLIFF'S EDGE, the latest installment in his mystery series that he co-wrote with his mother, the late Caroline Todd. In the aftermath of World War I, nurse Bess Crawford is caught in a deadly feud between two families.

Monday, February 20th at 7:30pm ET: “Lisa Live!”: Join Lisa Scottoline every Monday night as she hosts her weekly “Talking LOYALTY” video series and Facebook Live events leading up to the publication of her historical novel, LOYALTY, on March 28th. And be sure to enter the LOYALTY Pre-order Sweepstakes!

Tuesday, February 21st at 3pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Harriet Tyce will talk to Alex Michaelides about her new thriller, IT ENDS AT MIDNIGHT, which is about a party that spirals into murder when one guest's plan to right old wrongs ends in blood.

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

On Sale the Week of February 13th in Hardcover

February 14th

THE APPLICANT by Nazlı Koca (Fiction)
Leyla, a Turkish twenty-something living in Berlin, is scrubbing toilets at an Alice in Wonderland-themed hostel after failing her thesis, losing her student visa and suing her German university in a Kafkaesque attempt to reverse her failure. She attempts to find solace in the techno beats of Berlin’s nightlife but with little success. Right as the clock winds down on the hold on her visa, Leyla meets a conservative Swedish tourist and --- against her political convictions and better judgment --- begins to fall in love, or something like it. Will she accept an IKEA life with the Volvo salesman and relinquish her creative dreams, or return to Turkey to her mother and sister, codependent and enmeshed, her father’s ghost still haunting their lives?
Grove Press | 9780802160546

BLACK WOLF by Kathleen Kent (Thriller)
It is 1990 when Melvina Donleavy arrives in Soviet Belarus on her first undercover mission with the CIA. To the prying eyes of the KGB, she is merely a secretary; to her CIA minders, she is the only one who can stop the flow of nuclear weapons from the crumbling Soviet Union into the Middle East. For Mel has a secret: she is a “super recognizer,” someone who never forgets a face. But no training could prepare her for the reality of life undercover, and for the streets of Minsk, where women have been disappearing. Soviet law enforcement is firm: murder is a capitalist disease. But could a serial killer be at work? As Mel searches for answers, she catches the eye of an entirely different kind of threat: the elusive and petrifying “Black Wolf,” head of the KGB.
Mulholland Books | 9780316280211

BRIGHT AND DEADLY THINGS by Lexie Elliott (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
The Chalet des Anglais should be the ideal locale for recently widowed Oxford don Emily to begin cutting through the fog of her grief. The rustic chalet nestled at the foot of the verdant, snow-topped Alps should afford Emily both time and space to heal. Joining her will be a collection of friends from the university, as well as other fellows, graduates and undergraduates. Something feels off, though, heightening Emily’s existing grief-induced anxiety. Her friends and colleagues are behaving oddly, and as hostilities grow, she begins to wonder if the chalet’s dark history has cast a shadow over the retreat. When a student disappears, Emily realizes that she’d better separate friend from foe, and real from imagined --- or the next disappearance may be her own.
Berkley | 9780593098721

THE CLIFF'S EDGE: A Bess Crawford Mystery by Charles Todd (Historical Mystery)
Restless and uncertain of her future in the wake of World War I, former battlefield nurse Bess Crawford agrees to travel to Yorkshire to help a friend of her cousin Melinda through surgery. But circumstances change suddenly when news of a terrible accident reaches them. Bess agrees to go to isolated Scarfdale and the Neville family, where one man has been killed and another gravely injured. The police are asking questions, and Bess is quickly drawn into the fray as two once close families take sides. When another tragedy strikes, the police are ready to make an arrest. What dark truth is behind these deaths? And what about the tale of an older murder --- one that doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the Nevilles?
William Morrow | 9780063039940

DEATH OF A TRAITOR: A Hamish Macbeth Murder Mystery by M. C. Beaton with R.W. Green (Mystery)
Kate Hibbert is all too eager to lend a hand to her neighbors. Although she has been a resident of the sleepy village of Lochdubh for only a year, in that time Kate has alienated one too many of its residents with her interfering --- and not entirely well-intentioned --- ways. When Kate’s neighbor sees her lugging a heavy suitcase to the bus stop, he hopes that the prying woman is leaving for good. But two weeks later, Kate’s cousin arrives in town with the news that Kate has gone missing --- and she demands that the local police step in. Sergeant Hamish Macbeth is called in to investigate the disappearance, and soon he is befuddled by a storm of lies, intrigue and scandal…and the sneaking suspicion that Kate was someone much more sinister than she claimed.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538746769

ESSEX DOGS by Dan Jones (Historical Thriller)
July 1346. Ten men land on the beaches of Normandy. They call themselves the Essex Dogs: an unruly platoon of archers and men-at-arms led by a battle-scarred captain whose best days are behind him. The fight for the throne of the largest kingdom in Western Europe has begun. Heading ever deeper into enemy territory toward Crécy, this band of brothers knows they are off to fight a battle that will forge nations and shape the very fabric of human lives. But first they must survive a bloody war in which rules are abandoned and chivalry itself is slaughtered.
Viking | 9780593653784

HOURGLASS by Keiran Goddard (Fiction)
The second time you came, we went from bar to bar to bar. It made the city feel smaller. Like a map we were folding to the size of a stamp. We were good at that. We could have fit an entire universe inside a matchbox. Exquisitely crafted, richly imagined and as funny as it is moving, HOURGLASS is an unusual and uniquely told love story. Turning time upside down, it combs the wreckage of personal heartbreak for something universal and asks what it means to lose what you love.
Europa Editions | 9781609458171

IF A POEM COULD LIVE AND BREATHE: A Novel of Teddy Roosevelt's First Love by Mary Calvi (Historical Fiction)
Cambridge, 1878. The era of the Gilded Age. Alice Lee sets out to break from the norms of her mother’s generation. Women are fighting for educational opportunities and exploring a new sense of intellectual and personal freedom. Native New Yorker and Harvard student Teddy Roosevelt is on his own journey of discovery, and when they meet, unrelenting currents of love change the trajectory of his life forever. Studded with the real love letters between a young Theodore Roosevelt and Boston beauty Alice Lee --- many of them never before published --- IF A POEM COULD LIVE AND BREATHE makes vivid what many historians believe to be the pivotal years that made the future president into the man of action that defined his political life and cemented his legacy.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250277831

IRON CURTAIN: A Love Story by Vesna Goldsworthy (Fiction)
Milena Urbanska is a red princess living in a Soviet satellite state in the 1980s. She enjoys limitless luxury and limited freedom; the end of the Cold War seems unimaginable. When she meets Jason, a confident but politically naive British poet, they fall into bed together. Before long, Milena is planning her escape. She follows Jason to London, where she’s shocked to find herself living in bohemian poverty. The rented apartment is dingy, the food disgusting and Jason’s family withholding, but at least there are no hidden cameras recording her every move. As she adjusts to her new life, however, Milena discovers the dark side of Jason’s idea of freedom.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324021728

THE LAST ORPHAN: An Orphan X Novel by Gregg Hurwitz (Thriller)
As a child, Evan Smoak was raised and trained as an off-the-books assassin for the government as part of the Orphan program. When he broke with the program, he remade himself as The Nowhere Man, dedicated to helping the most desperate in their times of trouble, and found himself slowly back on the government's radar. But Orphan X has always been several steps ahead of his pursuers. Until he makes one little mistake. Now the President has him in her control and offers Evan a deal --- eliminate a rich, powerful man she says is too dangerous to live, and she'll let Evan survive. But when Evan left the Program, he swore to only use his skills against those who really deserve it. Now he has to decide what's more important --- his principles or his life.
Minotaur Books | 9781250252326

THE LAST TALE OF THE FLOWER BRIDE by Roshani Chokshi (Magical Realism/Romance)
Once upon a time, a man who believed in fairy tales married a beautiful, mysterious woman named Indigo Maxwell-Casteñada. In exchange for her love, Indigo extracted a promise: that her bridegroom would never pry into her past. But when Indigo learns that her estranged aunt is dying and the couple is forced to return to her childhood home, the House of Dreams, the bridegroom will soon find himself unable to resist. For within the crumbling manor’s extravagant rooms and musty halls, there lurks the shadow of another girl: Azure, Indigo’s dearest childhood friend who suddenly disappeared. As the house slowly reveals his wife’s secrets, the bridegroom will be forced to choose between reality and fantasy, even if doing so threatens to destroy their marriage…or their lives.
William Morrow | 9780063206502

THE LAUGHTER by Sonora Jha (Fiction)
Dr. Oliver Harding, a tenured professor of English, is long settled into the routines of a divorced, aging academic. But his quiet, staid life is upended by his new colleague, Ruhaba Khan, a dynamic Pakistani Muslim law professor. Ruhaba unexpectedly ignites Oliver’s long-dormant passions, a secret desire that quickly tips towards obsession after her teenaged nephew, Adil Alam, arrives from France to stay with her. Drawn to them, Oliver tries to reconcile his discomfort with the worlds from which they come, and to quiet his sense of dismay at the encroaching change they represent. After protests break out demanding diversity across the university, Oliver finds himself and his beliefs under fire, even as his past reveals a picture more complicated than it seems.
HarperVia | 9780063240254

LYING BESIDE YOU: A Cyrus Haven Novel by Michael Robotham (Psychological Thriller)
As a boy, Cyrus Haven survived a family massacre and slowly pieced his life back together. Now, after almost 20 years, his brother is applying to be released from a secure psychiatric hospital --- and Cyrus is expected to forgive Elias and welcome him home. Cyrus is now a successful psychologist, working with the police, and sharing his house with Evie Cormac, a damaged and gifted teenager who can tell when someone is lying. When a man is murdered and his daughter disappears, Cyrus is called in to help piece together Maya Kirk’s last hours. Police believe she was drugged and driven away from the same bar where Evie is working. A second victim is soon taken, and Evie is the only person who glimpsed the man behind the wheel. But only two people believe her. One is Cyrus. The other is the killer.
Scribner | 9781982166489

MY LAST INNOCENT YEAR by Daisy Alpert Florin (Fiction)
It’s 1998, and Isabel Rosen has one semester left at Wilder College, a prestigious school in New Hampshire. Desperate to shed her working-class roots and still mourning the death of her mother four years earlier, Isabel has always felt like an outsider at Wilder. But now, in her final semester, she believes she has found her place --- until a nonconsensual sexual encounter with one of the only other Jewish students on campus leaves her reeling. Enter R. H. Connelly, a once-famous poet and Isabel’s writing professor, a man with secrets of his own. Connelly makes Isabel feel seen, beautiful and talented. His belief in her ignites a belief in herself, and the two begin an affair that shakes the foundation of who Isabel thinks she is --- for better and worse.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250857033

ON THE SAVAGE SIDE by Tiffany McDaniel (Fiction)
Arcade and Daffodil are twins born one minute apart. With their fiery red hair and thirst for escape, they form an unbreakable bond nurtured by their grandmother’s stories. Together, they disappear into their imaginations and forge a world all their own. But what the two sisters can’t escape are the generational ghosts that haunt their family. Growing up in the shadow of their rural Ohio town, the sisters cling tightly to one another. Years later, Arcade wrestles with the memories of her early life, just as a local woman is discovered drowned in the river. Soon, more bodies are found. As her friends disappear around her, Arcade is forced to reckon with the past while the killer circles closer.
Knopf | 9780593320709

PLAYHOUSE by Richard Bausch (Fiction)
As renovations begin at the Shakespeare Theater of Memphis, life for the core members of the company seems to be falling into disarray. Their trusted director has just retired, and theater manager Thaddeus Deerforth dreads the arrival of an imperious, inscrutable visiting director. Claudette, struggling to make ends meet as an actor and destabilized by family troubles, is getting frequent calls from her ex-boyfriend --- and also the narcissistic, lecherous television actor who has been recruited to play King Lear in their fall production. Also invited to the cast is Malcolm Ruark, a disgraced TV anchor muddling through the fallout of a scandal involving his underaged niece --- and suddenly in an even more precarious situation when the same niece, now 18, is cast to play Cordelia.
Knopf | 9780451494849

THE SUN WALKS DOWN by Fiona McFarlane (Fiction)
In September 1883, a small town in the South Australian outback huddles under strange, vivid sunsets. Six-year-old Denny Wallace has gone missing during a dust storm, and the entire community is caught up in the search for him. As they scour the desert and mountains for the lost child, the residents of Fairly --- newlyweds, farmers, mothers, indigenous trackers, cameleers, children, artists, schoolteachers, widows, maids and policemen --- confront their relationships, both with one another and with the landscape they inhabit. The colonial Australia of THE SUN WALKS DOWN is noisy with opinions, arguments, longings and terrors. It's haunted by many gods --- the sun among them, rising and falling on each day in which Denny could be found, or lost forever.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374606237

TELL HER EVERYTHING by Mirza Waheed (Fiction)
As he prepares for a visit from his estranged daughter, Dr K, a retired surgeon enjoying the comforts of retirement in London, rehearses the conversations he will have with her over the course of her visit. It’s been years since he has seen her. He spent much of his time polishing the confession he wants to make to her. As her visit gets closer, he recalls the country, a prosperous oil monarchy, he left India for to make his home and career. A dream job, the hospital he worked was just a 10-minute walk from home. He had access to a lifestyle that he never would have had back home. Money and success came quickly, but the price was steep and often unbearable, especially to a wife and daughter who watch him walk the perilous path of lifelong ambition.
Melville House | 9781685890438

VARINA PALLADINO'S JERSEY ITALIAN LOVE STORY by Terri-Lynne DeFino (Fiction)
Lively widow Varina Paladino has lived in the same house in Wyldale, New Jersey, her entire life. The town might be slightly stuck in the 1960s, but its population is getting younger and the Paladinos are embracing the change. What Varina is not embracing is dating. Running Paladino’s Italian Specialties grocery, caring for her mother and keeping her large, loud Jersey Italian family from killing one another take up all of Varina’s energy anyway. Sylvia Spini worries about her daughter being left all alone when she dies; she knows what it is to be old and alone. So when her granddaughter, Donatella, comes to her with an ill-conceived plan to find Varina a man, she dives in. The three men of the family are each secretly plotting their own big life changes, which will throw everyone for a loop.
William Morrow | 9780063228436

On Sale the Week of February 13th in Paperback

February 14th

3 DAYS TO LIVE by James Patterson (Thriller)
Paperback Original
The people closest to you can be your most dangerous enemies in this heart-pounding collection of three brand-new thrillers from the master of suspense. A CIA-agent bride is on her European honeymoon when she and her husband are poisoned --- leaving her 72 hours to take revenge (with Duane Swierczynski). When a deal goes bad on a tech executive in Washington, DC, he turns an order to kill his family into a chance to relive his military glory days (with Bill Schweigart). A Los Angeles doctor trusts her two housekeepers, but when she’s murdered in a botched attempt to steal drugs, the pair of grifters vie to control their former employer’s estate --- facing off against the Russian mob (with Julie Margaret Hogben).
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538752746

AGATHA CHRISTIE: First Lady of Crime edited by H. R. F. Keating (Essays)
Agatha Christie was not only the most successful author of detective stories the world has ever known, she was also a mystery in herself, giving only the rarest interviews --- declining absolutely to become any sort of public figure --- and a mystery, too, in the manner in which she achieved her astonishing success. Distinguished crime novelist (and acclaimed critic) H. R. F. Keating brings together a dozen noted writers from both sides of the Atlantic to throw light on the ever-intriguing Dame Agatha. Some essays analyze Christie’s art itself; others explain the reasons for her success --- not just the books, but also in film and theater.
Pegasus Crime | 9781639362943

THE CAGE by Bonnie Kistler (Psychological Thriller)
On a cold, misty Sunday night, two women are alone in the offices of fashion conglomerate Claudine de Martineau International. One is the company’s human resources director. Impeccably dressed and perfectly coiffed, she sits at her desk and stares somberly out the window. Down the hall, her colleague, one of the company’s lawyers, is buried under a pile of paperwork, frantically rushing to finish. Leaving at the same time, the two women, each preoccupied by her own thoughts, enter the elevator that will take them down from the 30th floor. When they arrive at the lobby, one of the women is dead. Was it murder or suicide?
Harper Paperbacks | 9780063089167

CASTE: The Origins of Our Discontents by Isabel Wilkerson (History/Sociology)
Beyond race, class or other factors, there is a powerful caste system that influences people’s lives and behavior and the nation’s fate. Linking the caste systems of America, India and Nazi Germany, Isabel Wilkerson explores eight pillars that underlie caste systems across civilizations, including divine will, bloodlines, stigma and more. Using riveting stories about people --- including Martin Luther King, Jr., baseball’s Satchel Paige, a single father and his toddler son, Wilkerson herself, and many others --- she shows the ways that the insidious undertow of caste is experienced every day. CASTE is an eye-opening story of people and history, and a reexamination of what lies under the surface of ordinary lives and of American life today.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780593230275

DIABLO MESA: A Nora Kelly Novel by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (Thriller)
Lucas Tappan, a wealthy and eccentric billionaire and founder of Icarus Space Systems, approaches the Santa Fe Archaeological Institute with an outlandish proposal --- to finance a careful, scientific excavation of the Roswell Incident site, where a UFO is alleged to have crashed in 1947. A skeptical Nora Kelly is tasked with the job. Nora's excavation immediately uncovers two murder victims buried at the site, faces and hands obliterated with acid to erase their identities. Special Agent Corrie Swanson is assigned to the case. As Nora’s excavation proceeds, uncovering things both bizarre and seemingly inexplicable, Corrie’s homicide investigation throws open a Pandora's box of espionage and violence.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538736760

GROUNDSKEEPING by Lee Cole (Fiction)
In the run-up to the 2016 election, Owen Callahan, an aspiring writer, moves back to Kentucky to live with his Trump-supporting uncle and grandfather. Eager to clean up his act after wasting time and potential in his early 20s, he takes a job as a groundskeeper at a small local college, in exchange for which he is permitted to take a writing course. Here he meets Alma Hazdic, a writer in residence who seems to have everything that Owen lacks --- a prestigious position, an Ivy League education, success as a writer. They begin a secret relationship, and as they grow closer, Alma --- who comes from a liberal family of Bosnian immigrants --- struggles to understand Owen’s fraught relationship with family and home.
Vintage | 9780593314784

HEARTBREAK: A Personal and Scientific Journey by Florence Williams (Memoir)
When her 25-year marriage suddenly falls apart, journalist Florence Williams expects the loss to hurt. But when she starts feeling physically sick, losing weight and sleep, she sets out in pursuit of rational explanation. She travels to the frontiers of the science of “social pain” to learn why heartbreak hurts so much --- and why so much of the conventional wisdom about it is wrong. Soon Williams finds herself on a surprising path that leads her from neurogenomic research laboratories to trying MDMA in a Portland therapist’s living room, from divorce workshops to the mountains and rivers that restore her. She tests her blood for genetic markers of grief, undergoes electrical shocks while looking at pictures of her ex, and discovers that our immune cells listen to loneliness.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324050452

MOON WITCH, SPIDER KING by Marlon James (Historical Fantasy)
In BLACK LEOPARD, RED WOLF, Sogolon the Moon Witch proved a worthy adversary to Tracker as they clashed across a mythical African landscape in search of a mysterious boy who disappeared. In MOON WITCH, SPIDER KING, Sogolon takes center stage and gives her own account of what happened to the boy, and how she plotted and fought, triumphed and failed as she looked for him. It’s also the story of a century-long feud --- seen through the eyes of a 177-year-old witch --- that Sogolon had with the Aesi, chancellor to the king. It is said that Aesi works so closely with the king that together they are like the eight limbs of one spider. It takes brains and courage to challenge him, which Sogolon does for reasons of her own.
Riverhead Books | 9780735220218

A NARROW DOOR by Joanne Harris (Psychological Thriller)
It's an incendiary moment for St Oswald's school. For the first time in its history, a headmistress is in power, the gates opening to girls. Rebecca Buckfast has spilled blood to reach this position. Barely 40, she is just starting to reap the harvest of her ambition. As the new regime takes on the old guard, the ground shifts. And with it, the remains of a body are discovered. But Rebecca is here to make her mark. She'll bury the past so deep it will evade even her own memory, just like she has done before. After all, you can't keep a good woman down.
Pegasus Crime | 9781639363667

OUR AMERICAN FRIEND by Anna Pitoniak (Thriller)
Paris, 1974. Lara Orlov and her family arrive from Moscow at the height of the Cold War, thanks to her father’s position as a diplomat. The years pass, and Lara becomes more and more enamored with the City of Lights. As a teenager in Paris, she falls deeply in love with fellow Russian expat Sasha, who opens her eyes to the ills of the Soviet Union. Decades later, journalist Sofie Morse gets a call from the office of First Lady Lara Caine. She knows little about Lara --- only that she was born in Soviet Russia and raised in Paris before marrying Henry Caine, the brash future president. After decades of silence, Lara is finally ready to speak candidly about her past. As Sofie begins to write Lara’s biography, she can’t help but wonder: Why is Lara revealing such sensitive information? And why now?
Simon & Schuster | 9781982158965

PORTRAIT OF AN UNKNOWN WOMAN by Daniel Silva (Thriller/Adventure)
Legendary spy and art restorer Gabriel Allon has at long last severed ties with Israeli intelligence and settled quietly in Venice. His beautiful wife, Chiara, has taken over the day-to-day management of the Tiepolo Restoration Company, and their two young children are discreetly enrolled in a neighborhood scuola elementare. For his part, Gabriel spends his days wandering the streets and canals of the watery city, bidding farewell to the demons of his tragic, violent past. But when the eccentric London art dealer Julian Isherwood asks Gabriel to investigate the circumstances surrounding the rediscovery and lucrative sale of a centuries-old painting, he is drawn into a deadly game of cat and mouse where nothing is as it seems.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062834980

THE RECOVERY AGENT by Janet Evanovich (Thriller/Adventure)
As a recovery agent, Gabriela Rose is hired by individuals and companies seeking lost treasures, stolen heirlooms or missing assets of any kind. But her latest job isn’t for some bamboozled billionaire. It’s for her own family, whose home is going to be wiped off the map if they can’t come up with a lot of money fast. Inspired by an old family legend, Gabriela sets off for the jungles of Peru in pursuit of the Ring of Solomon and the lost treasure of Cortez. But this particular job comes with a huge problem attached to it --- Gabriela’s ex-husband, Rafer. It’s Rafer who has the map that possibly points the way to the treasure, and he’s not about to let Gabriela find it without him. It’s going to take a team to defeat the vicious drug lord who also has been searching for the fabled ring.
Atria Books | 9781982154929

THE THOUSAND EYES by A. K. Larkwood (Fantasy/Adventure)
Two years after defying the wizard Belthandros Sethennai and escaping into the great unknown, Csorwe and Shuthmili have made a new life for themselves, hunting for secrets among the ruins of an ancient snake empire. Along for the ride is Tal Charossa, determined to leave the humiliation and heartbreak of his hometown far behind him, even if it means enduring the company of his old rival and her insufferable girlfriend. All three of them would be quite happy never to see Sethennai again. But when a routine expedition goes off the rails and a terrifying imperial relic awakens, they find that a common enemy may be all it takes to bring them back into his orbit.
Tor Books | 9781250238955

A THOUSAND STEPS by T. Jefferson Parker (Historical Thriller)
Laguna Beach, California, 1968. Folks from all over are flocking there seeking peace, love and enlightenment. Matt Anthony is just trying to get by. Matt is 16, broke and never sure where his next meal is coming from. Mom is a stoner, his deadbeat dad is a no-show, his brother is fighting in Vietnam…and his big sister, Jazz, has just gone missing. The cops figure she’s just another runaway hippie chick, enjoying a summer of love, but Matt doesn’t believe it. Not after another missing girl turns up dead on the beach. In a town where the cops don’t trust the hippies and the hippies don’t trust the cops, uncovering what’s really happened to Jazz is going to force Matt to grow up fast.
Forge Books | 9781250890214

WATERGATE: A New History by Garrett M. Graff (History/Politics)
In the early hours of June 17, 1972, a security guard named Frank Wills enters six words into the log book of the Watergate office complex that will change the course of history: 1:47 AM Found tape on doors; call police. The subsequent arrests of five men seeking to bug and burgle the Democratic National Committee offices --- three of them Cuban exiles, two of them former intelligence operatives --- quickly unravels a web of scandal that ultimately ends a presidency and forever alters views of moral authority and leadership. Watergate becomes a shorthand for corruption, deceit and unanswered questions. Now, award-winning journalist Garrett M. Graff explores the full scope of this unprecedented moment from start to finish in the first comprehensive, single-volume account in decades.
Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster | 9781982139179

WHEN WE WERE BIRDS by Ayanna Lloyd Banwo (Fiction/Magical Realism)
In the old house on a hill, where the city meets the rainforest, Yejide’s mother is dying. She is leaving behind a legacy that now passes to Yejide: one St. Bernard woman in every generation has the power to shepherd the city’s souls into the afterlife. But after years of suffering her mother’s neglect and bitterness, Yejide is looking for a way out. Raised in the countryside by a devout Rastafarian mother, Darwin has always abided by the religious commandment not to interact with death. But when the only job he can find is grave digging, he must betray the life his mother built for him in order to provide for them both. Yejide and Darwin will meet inside the gates of Fidelis, an ancient and sprawling cemetery, where a reckoning with fate beckons them both.
Anchor | 9780593313619

THE YEAR OF THE HORSES: A Memoir by Courtney Maum (Memoir)
At the age of 37, Courtney Maum finds herself in an indoor arena in Connecticut, moments away from stepping back into the saddle. For her, this is not just a riding lesson, but a last-ditch attempt to pull herself back from the brink even though riding is a relic from the past she walked away from. Although Maum does know what depression looks like, she finds herself refusing to admit, at this point in her life, that it could look like her: a woman with a privileged past, a mortgage, a husband, a healthy child and a published novel. When both therapy and medication fail, Courtney returns to her childhood passion of horseback riding as a way to recover the joy and fearlessness she once had access to as a young girl.
Tin House Books | 9781953534828

THE YOUNGER WIFE by Sally Hepworth (Domestic Thriller)
A heart surgeon at the top of his field, Stephen Aston is getting married again. But first he must divorce his current wife, even though she can no longer speak for herself. Tully and Rachel Aston look upon their father’s fiancée, Heather, as nothing but an interloper. Heather is younger than both of them. Clearly, she’s after their father’s money. With their mother in a precarious position, Tully and Rachel are determined to get to the truth about their family’s secrets, the new wife closing in, and who their father really is. Heather has secrets of her own. Will getting to the truth unleash the most dangerous impulses
in all of them?
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250229687

On Sale the Week of February 20th in Hardcover

February 21st

ARCH-CONSPIRATOR by Veronica Roth (Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction)
Outside the last city on Earth, the planet is a wasteland. Without the Archive, where the genes of the dead are stored, humanity will end. Antigone’s parents, Oedipus and Jocasta, are dead. Passing into the Archive should be cause for celebration, but with her militant uncle Kreon rising to claim her father's vacant throne, all Antigone feels is rage. When he welcomes her and her siblings into his mansion, Antigone sees it for what it really is: a gilded cage, where she is a captive as well as a guest. But her uncle will soon learn that no cage is unbreakable. And neither is he.
Tor Books | 9781250855466

THE BLOOD OF PATRIOTS AND TRAITORS: A Max Geller Spy Thriller by James A. Scott (Thriller)
Former CIA Russia expert Max Geller is recovering from an intense mission while lying low in Australia, enjoying his sudden wealth in the company of his new girlfriend, Vanessa. But his beachy bliss is short-lived when he is ambushed by the CIA. He soon learns that Vanessa is being used as blackmail by his former CIA boss, Rodney, to convince him to go to Moscow. His mission is to smuggle out a defector with knowledge of a secret Kremlin war plan. Max is wanted by the Russians, so the defector could be bait to lure him into the hands of his old enemy, FSB Colonel Zabluda. When Max is spotted in Moscow, Zabluda launches a manhunt, pursuing him and the defector across country lines. Max and the defector race to evade countless attacks and attempts at capture as they escape to the United States.
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608095261

BURNER: A Gray Man Novel by Mark Greaney (Thriller)
When you kick over a rock, you never know what's going to crawl out. Alex Velesky is about to discover that the hard way. He's stolen records from the Swiss bank that employs him, thinking that he'll uncover a criminal conspiracy. But he soon finds that he's tapped into the mother lode of corruption. Before he knows it, he's being hunted by everyone from the Russian mafia to the CIA. Court Gentry and his erstwhile lover, Zoya Zakharova, find themselves on opposite poles when it comes to Velesky. They both want him but for different reasons. That's a problem for tomorrow. Today they need to keep him and themselves alive. Right now, it's not looking good.
Berkley | 9780593548103

THE DESTROYER OF WORLDS: A Return to Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff (Historical Fantasy)
Atticus Turner and his father, Montrose, travel to North Carolina, where they plan to mark the centennial of their ancestor’s escape from slavery by retracing the route he took. But an encounter with an old nemesis turns their reenactment into a real life-and-death pursuit. Back in Chicago, George Berry fights for his own life. Diagnosed with cancer, he strikes a devil’s bargain with the ghost of Hiram Winthrop, who promises a miracle cure. But to receive it, George will first have to bring Winthrop back from the dead. Meanwhile, 15-year-old Horace Berry joins his mother, Hippolyta, and her friend, Letitia Dandridge, on a research trip to Nevada. But Hippolyta has a secret agenda that will take her and Horace to the far end of the universe and bring a new threat home to Letitia’s doorstep.
Harper | 9780063256897

THE DIARY KEEPERS: World War II in the Netherlands, as Written by the People Who Lived Through It by Nina Siegal (History)
Journalist Nina Siegal, who grew up in a family that had survived the Holocaust in Europe, had always wondered about the experience of regular people during World War II. She had heard stories of the war as a child and Anne Frank’s diary, but the tales were either crafted as moral lessons --- to never waste food, to be grateful for all you receive, to hide your silver --- or told with a punchline. The details of the past went untold in an effort to make it easier to assimilate into American life. When Siegal moved to Amsterdam as an adult, those questions came up again, as did another horrifying one: Why did 75% of the Dutch Jewish community perish in the war, while in other Western European countries the proportions were significantly lower?
Ecco | 9780063070653

EVERY MAN A KING: A King Oliver Novel by Walter Mosley (Mystery)
When friend of the family and multi-billionaire Roger Ferris comes to Joe King Oliver with an assignment, he has no choice but to accept. White nationalist Alfred Xavier Quiller has been accused of murder and the sale of sensitive information to the Russians. Ferris has reason to believe that Quiller has been set up, and he needs King to see if the charges hold. This linear assignment becomes a winding quest to uncover the extent of Quiller’s dealings, understand Ferris’ skin in the game, and get to the bottom of who is working for whom. Even with the help of bodyguard and mercenary Oliya Ruez, the machine King is up against proves relentless and unsparing. As King gets closer to exposing the truth, he and his loved ones barrel towards grave danger.
Mulholland Books | 9780316460217

I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU by Rebecca Makkai (Fiction)
A successful film professor and podcaster, Bodie Kane is content to forget her past --- the family tragedy that marred her adolescence, her four largely miserable years at a New Hampshire boarding school, and the murder of her former roommate, Thalia Keith, in the spring of their senior year. Though the circumstances surrounding Thalia’s death and the conviction of the school’s athletic trainer, Omar Evans, are hotly debated online, Bodie prefers --- needs --- to let sleeping dogs lie. But when the Granby School invites her back to teach a course, Bodie is inexorably drawn to the case and its increasingly apparent flaws. In their rush to convict Omar, did the school and the police overlook other suspects? Is the real killer still out there?
Viking | 9780593490143

IT ENDS AT MIDNIGHT by Harriet Tyce (Psychological Thriller)
It's New Year's Eve, and the stage is set for a lavish party in one of Edinburgh's best postcodes. It's a moment for old friends to set the past to rights --- and move on. The night sky is alive with fireworks, and the champagne is flowing. But the celebration fails to materialize. Because someone at this party is going to die tonight. Midnight approaches, and the countdown begins --- but it seems one of the guests doesn't want a resolution. They want revenge.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781728263847

IT'S ONE OF US by J.T. Ellison (Psychological Thriller)
Olivia Bender desperately wants to be a mother. Fertility treatments and IVF keep failing. And just when she feels she’s at her lowest point, the police deliver shocking news to Olivia and her husband, Park. DNA results show that the prime suspect in a murder investigation is Park’s son. Olivia is relieved, knowing this is a mistake. Despite their desire, the Benders don’t have any children. Then comes the confession. Many years ago, Park donated sperm to a clinic. He has no idea how many times it was sold --- or how many children he has sired. As the murder investigation goes deeper, more terrible truths come to light. With every revelation, Olivia must face the unthinkable. The man she married has fathered a killer. But can she hold that against him when she keeps such dark secrets of her own?
Mira | 9780778311768

THE LAST KINGDOM by Steve Berry (Thriller)
King Ludwig II of Bavaria was an enigmatic figure who was deposed in 1886, mysteriously drowning three days later. Eccentric to the point of madness, history tells us that in the years before he died, Ludwig engaged in a worldwide search for a new kingdom --- a place he could retreat into and rule as he wished. But a question remains: Did he succeed? Enter Cotton Malone. After many months, Malone’s protégé, Luke Daniels, has managed to infiltrate a renegade group intent on winning Bavarian independence from Germany. In a race across Bavaria for clues hidden in Ludwig’s three fairy-tale castles --- Neuschwanstein, Linderhof and Herrenchiemsee --- Malone and Daniels battle an ever-growing list of deadly adversaries, all intent on finding the last kingdom.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538720998

MURDER AT HAVEN'S ROCK by Kelley Armstrong (Mystery)
Deep in the Yukon wilderness, a town is being built. A place for people to disappear, a fresh start from a life on the run. Haven’s Rock isn’t the first town of this kind, something detective Casey Duncan and her husband, Sheriff Eric Dalton, know firsthand. They met in the original town of Rockton. But greed and deception led the couple to financing a new refuge for those in need. This time around, they get to decide which applicants are approved for residency. There’s only one rule in Haven’s Rock: stay out of the forest. When two of the town's construction crew members break it and go missing, Casey and Eric are called in ahead of schedule to track them down. When a body is discovered, Casey and Eric must find out what happened to the dead woman and locate those still missing.
Minotaur Books | 9781250865410

MURDER YOUR EMPLOYER: The McMasters Guide to Homicide by Rupert Holmes (Mystery & Thriller/Dark Humor)
Who hasn’t wondered for a split second what the world would be like if a person who is the object of your affliction ceased to exist? But then you’ve probably never heard of The McMasters Conservatory, dedicated to the consummate execution of the homicidal arts. To gain admission, a student must have an ethical reason for erasing someone who deeply deserves a fate no worse (nor better) than death. The campus of this “Poison Ivy League” college --- its location unknown to even those who study there --- is where you might find yourself the practice target of a classmate…and where one’s mandatory graduation thesis is getting away with the perfect murder of someone whose death will make the world a much better place to live.
Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster | 9781451648218

THE PORCELAIN MOON: A Novel of France, the Great War, and Forbidden Love by Janie Chang (Historical Fiction)
In the final days of the First World War, a young Chinese woman, Pauline Deng, runs away from her uncle’s home in Paris to evade a marriage being arranged for her in Shanghai. To prevent the union, she needs the help of her cousin Theo, who is working as a translator for the Chinese Labour Corps in the French countryside. In the town of Noyelles-sur-Mer, Camille Roussel is planning her escape from an abusive marriage, and to end a love affair that can no longer continue. When Camille offers Pauline a room for her stay, the two women become friends. But it’s not long before Pauline uncovers a perilous secret that Camille has been hiding from her. As their dangerous situation escalates, they are forced to make a terrible decision that will bind them together for the rest of their lives.
William Morrow | 9780063072862

SCORCHED GRACE: A Sister Holiday Mystery by Margot Douaihy (Mystery)
When Saint Sebastian’s School becomes the target of a shocking arson spree, the Sisters of the Sublime Blood and their surrounding New Orleans community are thrust into chaos. Patience is a virtue, but punk rocker turned nun Sister Holiday isn’t satisfied to just wait around for officials to return her home and sanctuary to its former peace, instead deciding to unveil the mysterious attacker herself. Her investigation leads her down a twisty path of suspicion and secrets, turning her against colleagues, students and even fellow Sisters along the way. And to piece together the clues of this high-stakes mystery, she must at last reckon with the sins of her own past.
Gillian Flynn Books | 9781638930242

SINK: A Memoir by Joseph Earl Thomas (Memoir)
Saddled with a mercurial mother mired in crack addiction and demeaned daily for his perceived weakness, Joseph Earl Thomas grew up feeling he was under constant threat. Fists and palms pounded down at school and at home, leaving welts that ached long after they disappeared. An inescapable hunger gnawed at his frequently empty stomach, and requests for food were often met with indifference if not open hostility. Deemed too unlike the other boys to ever gain the acceptance he so desperately desired, he began to escape into fantasy and virtual worlds. In SINK, Thomas guides readers through the unceasing cruelty that defined his circumstances, laying bare the depths of his loneliness and illuminating the vital reprieve that geek culture offered him.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538706176

A SMALL SACRIFICE FOR AN ENORMOUS HAPPINESS: Stories by Jai Chakrabarti (Fiction/Short Stories)
In these 14 masterful stories, Jai Chakrabarti crosses continents and cultures to explore what it means to cultivate a family today, across borders, religions and race. In the title story, a closeted gay man in 1980s Kolkata seeks to have a child with his lover’s wife. An Indian widow, engaged to a Jewish man, struggles to balance her cultural identity with the rituals and traditions of her newfound family. An American musician travels to see his guru for the final time --- and makes a promise he cannot keep. A young woman from an Indian village arrives in Brooklyn to care for the toddler of a biracial couple. And a mystical agent is sent by a mother to solve her son’s domestic problems.
Knopf | 9780525658948

WE SHOULD NOT BE FRIENDS: The Story of a Friendship by Will Schwalbe (Memoir)
By the time Will Schwalbe was a junior at college, he already had met everyone he cared to know. He also knew exactly who he wanted to avoid: the jocks. The jocks wore baseball caps and moved in packs, filling boisterous tables in the dining hall, and on the whole seemed to be another species entirely. All this changed dramatically when Will collided with Chris Maxey, known to just about everyone as Maxey. Maxey was physically imposing, loud and a star wrestler who was determined to become a Navy SEAL. Thanks to the strangely liberating circumstances of a little-known secret society at Yale, the two forged a bond that would become a mainstay of each other’s lives as they repeatedly lost and found each other and themselves in the years after graduation.
Knopf | 9780525654933

WHEN THE MOON TURNS BLUE by Pamela Terry (Fiction)
On the morning after Harry Cline’s funeral, a rare ice storm hits the town of Wesleyan, Georgia. The community wakes up to find its controversial statue of Confederate general Henry Benning destroyed --- and not by the weather. Half the town had wanted to remove the statue; the other half had wanted to preserve it. Now that the matter has been taken out of their hands, the town’s long-simmering tensions are laid bare. Without Harry beside her, Marietta is left to question many of her preconceived ideas about her friends and family. She longs to salvage these connections, but the world is changing and the divides can no longer be ignored.
Ballantine Books | 9780593359204

WHITE SMOKE: A Victoria Emerson Thriller by John Gilstrap (Political Thriller)
One-time congressional representative Victoria Emerson has received a request from the deposed president of the United States --- come to the bunker at Hilltop Manor, where the remnants of the U.S. government have been imprisoned. A ruthless band has seized power, leaving civilians to die of starvation and untreated injuries. The self-appointed leader, Roger Parsons, plans to punish the former rulers for thrusting the country into Hell Day, the devastating war that changed the world in just a few hours. Victoria is reluctant to leave Ortho, the West Virginia town she has developed and defended. But as a born leader, she feels the call of duty. Forging her way through a landscape terrorized by local warlords and desperate scavengers, she arrives at Hilltop Manor to find a powder keg of battling factions.
Kensington | 9781496741820

THE WRITING RETREAT by Julia Bartz (Psychological Thriller)
Alex has all but given up on her dreams of becoming a published author when she receives a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: attend an exclusive, month-long writing retreat at the estate of feminist horror writer Roza Vallo. Even the knowledge that Wren, her former best friend and current rival, is attending doesn’t dampen her excitement. But when the attendees arrive, Roza drops a bombshell --- they all must complete an entire novel from scratch during the next month, and the author of the best one will receive a life-changing seven-figure publishing deal. Determined to win this seemingly impossible contest, Alex buckles down and tries to ignore the strange happenings at the estate. But when one of the writers vanishes during a snowstorm, Alex realizes that something very sinister is afoot.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781982199456

On Sale the Week of February 20th in Paperback

February 21st

12 BYTES: How AI Will Change the Way We Live and Love by Jeanette Winterson (Essays)
In 12 BYTES, the New York Times bestselling author of WHY BE HAPPY WHEN YOU CAN BE NORMAL? draws on her years of thinking and reading about artificial intelligence in all its bewildering manifestations. In her brilliant, laser-focused, uniquely pointed and witty style of storytelling, Jeanette Winterson looks to history, religion, myth, literature, the politics of race and gender, and computer science to help us understand the radical changes to the way we live and love that are happening now.
Grove Press | 9780802160362

BLACK CLOUD RISING by David Wright Faladé (Historical Fiction)
By the fall of 1863, Union forces had taken control of Tidewater Virginia and established a toehold in eastern North Carolina. Thousands of freed slaves and runaways flooded the Union lines, but Confederate irregulars still roamed the region. In December, the newly formed African Brigade, a unit of these former slaves led by General Edward Augustus Wild --- a one-armed, impassioned Abolitionist --- set out from Portsmouth to hunt down the rebel guerillas and extinguish the threat. From this little-known historical episode comes BLACK CLOUD RISING, a dramatic, moving account of these soldiers --- men who only weeks earlier had been enslaved, but were now Union infantrymen setting out to fight their former owners.
Grove Press | 9780802160393

CITIZEN K-9 : A K Team Novel by David Rosenfelt (Mystery)
The Paterson Police Department has created a cold case division, and they want to hire the private investigators known as the K Team to look into the crimes. After all, Corey Douglas and his K-9 partner, German shepherd Simon Garfunkel, recently retired from the force. Plus, another K Team member, Laurie Collins, used to be a cop as well. Their first cold case hits home for the K Team. A decade ago, at Laurie's 10th high school reunion, two of their friends simply…vanished. With no leads, the case went cold. As the team starts to delve deeper into the events leading up to that night, the pieces start to come together. But someone wants to stop them from uncovering the truth behind the disappearance, by any means necessary.
Minotaur Books | 9781250828958

COACH K: The Rise and Reign of Mike Krzyzewski by Ian O'Connor (Sports/Biography)
Mike Krzyzewski, known worldwide as “Coach K,” is a five-time national champion at Duke, the NCAA's all-time leader in victories with nearly 1,200, and the first man to lead Team USA to three Olympic basketball gold medals. Through unprecedented access to Krzyzewski’s best friends, closest advisers, fiercest adversaries, and generations of his players and assistants, New York Times bestselling author Ian O’Connor takes you behind the Blue Devil curtain with a penetrating examination of the great but flawed leader as he closes out his iconic career.
Mariner Books | 9780063268579

DON’T KNOW TOUGH by Eli Cranor (Fiction)
In Denton, Arkansas, the fate of the high school football team rests on the shoulders of Billy Lowe, a volatile but talented running back. Billy comes from an extremely troubled home: a trailer park where he is terrorized by his unstable mother’s abusive boyfriend. He takes out his anger on the field, but when his savagery crosses a line, he faces suspension. As a born-again Christian, head coach Trent Powers feels a divine calling to save Billy --- save him from his circumstances, and save his soul. Then Billy’s abuser is found murdered in the Lowe family trailer, and all evidence points toward Billy. Now nothing can stop an explosive chain of violence that could tear the whole town apart on the eve of the playoffs.
Soho Crime | 9781641294560

DREAM TOWN: An Archer Novel by David Baldacci (Historical Thriller)
Aloysius Archer is in Los Angeles to ring in the New Year with an old friend, aspiring actress Liberty Callahan, when their evening is interrupted by an acquaintance of Callahan’s: Eleanor Lamb, a screenwriter in dire straits. After a series of increasingly chilling events, Eleanor fears that her life is in danger, and she wants to hire Archer to look into the matter. Archer suspects that Eleanor knows more than she’s saying, but before he can officially take on her case, a dead body turns up inside of Eleanor’s home…and Eleanor herself disappears. With the help of Callahan and his partner, Willie Dash, Archer launches an investigation that will take him from mob-ridden Las Vegas to the glamorous world of Hollywood to the darkest corners of Los Angeles.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538719756

FAKE by Erica Katz (Thriller)
Emma Caan is a forger, an artist who specializes in 19th-century paintings. But she isn’t a criminal; her copies are commissioned by museums and ultra-wealthy collectors protecting their investments. Emma has more than mastered a Gauguin brushstroke and a van Gogh wheat field, but her work is sometimes a painful reminder of the artistic dreams she once chased for herself. When oligarch art collector Leonard Sobetsky unexpectedly appears with an invitation, Emma sees a way out --- a new job, a new path for herself, and access to the kind of money she needs to support her unstable and recently widowed mother. But every invitation incurs an obligation…and Emma isn’t prepared for what’s to come.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780063082595

FRENCH BRAID by Anne Tyler (Fiction)
The Garretts take their first and last family vacation in the summer of 1959. They hardly ever leave home, but in some ways they have never been farther apart. Mercy has trouble resisting the siren call of her aspirations to be a painter, which means less time keeping house for her husband, Robin. Their teenage daughters, steady Alice and boy-crazy Lily, could not have less in common. Their youngest, David, is already intent on escaping his family's orbit, for reasons none of them understand. Yet, as these lives advance across decades, the Garretts' influences on one another ripple ineffably but unmistakably through each generation.
Vintage | 9780593466407

A GAME OF FEAR: An Inspector Ian Rutledge Mystery by Charles Todd (Historical Mystery)
Scotland Yard sends Inspector Ian Rutledge to Benton Abbey, a grand manor with a storied past. The lady of the house claims she saw a violent murder --- but there is no body, no blood. She also insists she recognized the killer: Captain Nelson. Only it could not have been Nelson because he died during the war. Everyone in the village believes that Lady Benton’s losses have turned her mind --- she is, after all, a grieving widow and mother --- but the woman Rutledge interviews is rational and self-possessed. And then there is Captain Nelson: what really happened to him in the war? The more Rutledge delves into this baffling case, the more suspicious tragedies he uncovers.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062905604

I'M NEVER FINE: Scenes and Spasms on Loss by Joseph Lezza (Memoir)
Paperback Original
When Joseph Lezza caught himself wishing necrotizing skin infections upon unhurried retirees in the self-checkout lane, and fantasized about loud-talking commuters making quick friends with the underside of a steamroller, he began to wonder if he was fine. Of all the things Joseph could have been, he certainly wasn't fine. The "fine" he'd adopted watching his father succumb to cancer was beginning to wane. It could no longer be used as a shield to melt the face off of anyone who dared to inquire. All the "fines" prophesized in every article, every book and every inspirational meme had lost their value. When Joseph realized he was facing a future that would find him standing over the carcass of an overzealous Costco greeter, one thing became clear: moving on required looking back.
Vine Leaves Press | 9786185728007

IN LOVE: A Memoir of Love and Loss by Amy Bloom (Memoir)
Amy Bloom began to notice changes in her husband, Brian. Their world was altered forever when an MRI confirmed what they could no longer ignore: Brian had Alzheimer’s disease. Forced to confront the truth of the diagnosis and its impact on the future he had envisioned, Brian was determined to die on his feet, not live on his knees. Supporting each other in their last journey together, Brian and Amy made the unimaginably difficult and painful decision to go to Dignitas, an organization based in Switzerland that empowers a person to end their own life with dignity and peace. In this heartbreaking and surprising memoir, Bloom sheds light on a part of life we so often shy away from discussing --- its ending.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780593243954

LAST DANCE ON THE STARLIGHT PIER by Sarah Bird (Historical Fiction)
The daughter of a famous vaudevillian dancer, Evie Grace Devlin is pushed onto the stage at a young age and dubbed the toe-dancing “Pint-Sized Pavlova.” Evie hates the glare of the spotlight, no matter how much her fame-obsessed mother forces her into it. A scholarship to study nursing at a Catholic hospital in Galveston, Texas, provides Evie with her only hope of escape. However, just as Evie is about to be certified, secrets from her past are revealed, and she is cast out. It’s 1932, and she is just one more casualty of the Great Depression. With no choice but to return to her roots, Evie finds work --- as an unregistered nurse --- looking after a troupe of marathon dancers. Unexpectedly she is thrust back where she doesn’t want to be: in front of screaming, adoring audiences.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250265562

THE LAST WILD HORSES written by Maja Lunde, translated by Diane Oatley (Dystopian Fiction)
Mikhail lives in Russia in 1881. When a skeleton of a rare wild horse is brought to him, the zoologist plans an expedition to Mongolia to find the fabled Przewalski horse. In 1992, Karin, alongside her troubled son Mathias and several Przewalski horses, travels to Mongolia to reintroduce the magnificent horses to their native land. Europe’s future is uncertain in 2064, but Eva is willing to sacrifice nearly everything to hold onto her family’s farm. Her teenage daughter implores her to leave the farm and Norway, but a pregnant wild mare Eva is tending is about to foal. Then, a young woman named Louise unexpectedly arrives on the farm, with mysterious intentions that will either bring them all together or devastate them one by one.
HarperVia | 9780062951427

LIFE WITHOUT CHILDREN: Stories by Roddy Doyle (Fiction/Short Stories)
Love and marriage. Children and family. Death and grief. Life touches everyone the same. But living under lockdown, it changes us alone. In these 10 beautifully moving short stories written mostly over the last year, Booker Prize winner Roddy Doyle paints a collective portrait of our strange times. A man abroad wanders the stag-and-hen-strewn streets of Newcastle, as news of the virus at home asks him to question his next move. An exhausted nurse struggles to let go, having lost a much-loved patient in isolation. A middle-aged son, barred from his mother’s funeral, wakes to an oncoming hangover of regret.
Penguin Books | 9780593300589

OMEGA RULES: An Evan Ryder Novel by Eric Van Lustbader (Thriller/Adventure)
Evan Ryder was once a field agent for a black-ops arm of the Department of Defense. Now she works for Parachute, a cutting-edge quantum-computing firm whose private espionage network exceeds any government spy agency. But her mission remains the same: seek out and destroy Omega, a fanatical global cult intent on destroying democracy. The fight against Omega has already cost Evan dearly, but she will not stop until she has torn out the conspiracy by its roots, no matter the risk. In OMEGA RULES, the assassination of a Parachute agent in Vienna sets Evan on a dangerous, world-wide hunt for answers and on a collision course with forces so powerful they may be beyond her abilities to annihilate.
Forge Books | 9781250839121

OUR LADY OF MYSTERIOUS AILMENTS by T. L. Huchu (Supernatural Thriller/Fantasy)
When Ropa Moyo discovered an occult underground library, she expected great things. She’s really into Edinburgh’s secret societies, but it turns out they are less into her. So instead of getting paid to work magic, she’s had to accept a crummy unpaid internship. Then her friend, Priya, offers her a job on the side. Priya works at Our Lady of Mysterious Maladies, a very specialized hospital, where a new illness is resisting magical and medical remedies alike. If Ropa can solve the case, she might earn as she learns --- and impress her mentor, Sir Callander. Her sleuthing will lead her to a lost fortune, an avenging spirit and a secret buried deep in Scotland’s past. But how are they connected? Lives are at stake, and Ropa is running out of time
Tor Books | 9781250767806

THE PARIS APARTMENT by Lucy Foley (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Jess needs a fresh start. She’s broke and alone, and she’s just left her job under less than ideal circumstances. Her half-brother, Ben, didn’t sound thrilled when she asked if she could crash with him for a bit, but he didn’t say no, and surely everything will look better from Paris. Only when she shows up --- to find a very nice apartment, could Ben really have afforded this? --- he’s not there. The longer Ben stays missing, the more Jess starts to dig into her brother’s situation, and the more questions she has. Ben’s neighbors are an eclectic bunch, and not particularly friendly. Jess may have come to Paris to escape her past, but it’s starting to look like it’s Ben’s future that’s in question.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063003064

SEA CASTLE by Andrew Mayne (Thriller/Adventure)
Paperback Original
When a young woman washes ashore on a Fort Lauderdale beach, Sloan McPherson of the Underwater Investigation Unit is called in to consult. For answers she reaches out to Gwen Wylder. The Miami homicide detective is notorious for being manipulative, bitter, a tyrant to her peers and wicked smart. And she demands something in return from Sloan: fresh insight into seemingly unrelated cold-case murders and disappearances --- and a possible serial killer trolling the Florida coast. As loose ends of the old files begin to come together, another woman disappears. Sloan and Gwen are certain she’s the newest link in a deadly chain. They are determined to track her down before she dies, but they soon find themselves in uncharted waters.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781662506413

TOM CLANCY ZERO HOUR: A Jack Ryan Jr. Novel by Don Bentley (Thriller/Adventure)
When the leader of North Korea is catastrophically injured, his incapacitation inadvertently triggers a “dead-man’s switch,” activating an army of sleeper agents in South Korea and precipitating a struggle for succession. Jack Ryan, Jr. is in Seoul to interview a potential addition to the Campus. But his benign trip takes a deadly turn when a wave of violence perpetrated by North Korean operatives grips South Korea’s capital. A mysterious voice from North Korea offers Jack a way to stop the peninsula’s rush to war, but her price may be more than he can afford to pay.
Berkley | 9780593422748

A TOUCH OF JEN by Beth Morgan (Fiction/Dark Humor)
Remy and Alicia, a couple of insecure service workers, are not particularly happy together. But they are bound by a shared obsession with Jen, a beautiful former co-worker of Remy’s who now seems to be following her bliss as a globe-trotting jewelry designer. In and outside the bedroom, Remy and Alicia's entire relationship revolves around fantasies of Jen, whose every Instagram caption, outfit and new age mantra they know by heart. Imagine their confused excitement when they run into Jen, and she invites them on a surfing trip to the Hamptons with her wealthy boyfriend and their group. Once there, Remy and Alicia try to fit into Jen’s exalted social circle, but violent desire and class resentment bubble beneath the surface of this beachside paradise, threatening to erupt.
Back Bay Books | 9780316704274

UNDER LOCK & SKELETON KEY: A Secret Staircase Mystery by Gigi Pandian (Mystery)
After a disastrous accident derails Tempest Raj’s career, and life, she heads back to her childhood home in California. Though she resists, every day brings her closer to the inevitable: working for her father’s company. Secret Staircase Construction specializes in bringing the magic of childhood to all by transforming clients’ homes with sliding bookcases, intricate locks, backyard treehouses and hidden reading nooks. When Tempest visits her dad’s latest renovation project, her former stage double is discovered dead inside a wall that’s supposedly been sealed for more than a century. Fearing she was the intended victim, it’s up to Tempest to solve this seemingly impossible crime.
Minotaur Books | 9781250805003

WEDDING OF THE SEASON by Lauren Edmondson (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Despite its beauty, Newport is a place that Cass Coventry would prefer to forget. But after an extended absence, she’s back in her hometown to celebrate her sister’s engagement --- even if she’s marrying into the family that famously stole the Gilded Age Coventry mansion out from under them a decade ago. The moment Cass pulls up to the estate, she’s in for one surprise after another. The bride-to-be is hiding a big secret. Her mother has royal-wedding aspirations. And when the date is set for only three months away, a local gossip blog makes the two families its new favorite subject. It's not long before Cass' weekend in town becomes a full summer of frenzied wedding planning and society drama --- but also idyllic sails, starry nights and a former love.
Graydon House | 9781525899997

WHAT MY BONES KNOW: A Memoir of Healing from Complex Trauma by Stephanie Foo (Memoir)
By age 30, Stephanie Foo had her dream job as an award-winning radio producer at “This American Life” and a loving boyfriend. But behind her office door, she was having panic attacks and sobbing at her desk every morning. After years of questioning what was wrong with herself, she was diagnosed with complex PTSD --- a condition that occurs when trauma happens continuously, over the course of years. In WHAT MY BONES KNOW, Foo interviews scientists and psychologists and tries a variety of innovative therapies. She returns to her hometown of San Jose, California, to investigate the effects of immigrant trauma on the community, and she uncovers family secrets in the country of her birth, Malaysia, to learn how trauma can be inherited through generations.
Ballantine Books | 9780593238127

THE WOMAN WITH THE CURE by Lynn Cullen (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
In 1940s and ’50s America, polio is as dreaded as the atomic bomb. Some of the world’s best minds are engaged in the race to find a vaccine. The man who succeeds will be a god. But Dorothy Horstmann is not focused on beating her colleagues to the vaccine. She just wants the world to have a cure. Applying the same determination that lifted her from a humble background as the daughter of immigrants, to becoming a doctor, she hunts down the monster where it lurks: in the blood. This discovery of hers, and an error by a competitor, catapults her closest colleague to a lead in the race. When his chance to win comes on a worldwide scale, she is asked to sink or validate his vaccine --- and to decide what is forgivable, and how much should be sacrificed, in pursuit of the cure.
Berkley | 9780593438060

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