In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of March 6th and March 13th that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers, along with Bonus News, where we call out a contest, feature or review that we want to let you know about so you have it on your radar.
This week, we are calling attention to our special contest for THE HOUSE OF LINCOLN. Culminating in an eyewitness account of the little-known Springfield race riot of 1908, Nancy Horan's upcoming novel takes readers on a journey through the historic changes that reshaped America and that continue to reverberate today. We are awarding 25 lucky readers an advance copy of the book, which will be in stores on June 6th. The deadline for your entries is Friday, March 17th at noon ET.
Spring is in the air (or will be very soon)! We’ve already caught the fever --- and it’s being fueled by some wonderful new and upcoming releases. Our 12th annual Spring Preview Contests and Feature spotlights many of these picks, which we know people will be talking about over the next few months. We are hosting a series of 24-hour contests for these titles on select days in March and April, and the first giveaway kicked off today. You will need to check the site to see the featured book and enter to win. We also are sending a special newsletter to announce each title, which you can sign up for here.
Our latest “Bookreporter Talks To” interview is with Shelley Read, who joined Carol for a deep-dive conversation about her highly anticipated debut novel, GO AS A RIVER, and the history behind it. This heartbreaking coming-of-age story of a resilient young woman whose life is changed forever by one chance encounter is perfect for readers of GREAT CIRCLE, THE FOUR WINDS and WHERE THE CRAWDADS SING.
Carol has spent a lot of time in the Gunnison Valley of Colorado that Shelley writes about, so this book felt very personal to her. Shelley, a fifth-generation Coloradan, shares the background on how she came to write the novel --- and why it took until she was in her 50s to finish it. They also talk about her love of the outdoors and how that found its way into so much of her prose. Click here to watch the video or here to listen to the podcast. GO AS A RIVER will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick (don't miss Carol's commentary later this month) and would be perfect for book group discussions.
Last Wednesday night, we hosted our latest “Bookaccino Live” Book Group event, which we had to reschedule from February 22nd due to sound issues on Zoom. Happily, everything went smoothly this time as Fiona Davis joined us to discuss her most recent novel, THE MAGNOLIA PALACE, which is now available in paperback.
Fiona talked about her decision to set the book at the Frick Museum and shared some terrific photos that gave readers background on her characters and research process. She discussed her other work, including what has drawn her to select particular buildings to feature, and the expert she speaks with before she begins a project and consults with along the way. She also explained how her acting career has inspired her writing. The conversation was lively and included what is next for Fiona, THE SPECTACULAR, which takes place at Radio City Music Hall. Click here to watch the video or here to listen to the podcast.
We are happy to announce that Allison Pataki will be our next “Bookaccino Live” Book Group guest. The event will be held on Wednesday, March 29th at 8pm ET, and you can sign up for it here. We will be talking about Allison’s novel from last year, THE MAGNIFICENT LIVES OF MARJORIE POST, a Bets On selection that is now in paperback.
Just as we did on Wednesday night, there will be a two-part Q&A session after Carol talks to Allison. For the first part, those who are asking a question “on camera” will be featured. This includes spending time with Allison backstage in our virtual green room before the show starts. If you would like to ask your question "live on screen" this way, please email Carol with the subject line "Marjorie" by noon ET on the 29th. Be sure to include your name, city and state, as well as your question. If you do not want to appear on camera but still would like to ask a question, please note that you want to be off camera, and share your question --- adding your name, city and state.
This is your last newsletter reminder to sign up for our upcoming “Bookaccino Live” preview event, which will take place TOMORROW, Wednesday, March 8th at 2pm ET. The focus will be on titles releasing between now and April 4th, in addition to a few from May, that Carol would like to get on your radar. Click here to register. Those attending the live event will be asked to answer a survey about the books from the presentation that they are most interested in reading and will be eligible to win a prize.
For those of you who are doing online shopping, if you use the store links below, Bookreporter.com gets a small affiliate fee on your purchases. We would appreciate your considering this!
Amazon | Barnes & Noble | Indiebound
Upcoming Virtual Book and Author Events
As 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, March 8th at 2pm ET: "Bookaccino Live: A Lively Talk About Books": Carol Fitzgerald will present titles releasing between March 7th and April 4th, along with a few from May, that she would like to get on your radar.
Wednesday, March 8th 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 Jennifer Rosner and Julia Kelly about their latest historical novels, Rosner's ONCE WE WERE HOME and Kelly's THE LOST ENGLISH GIRL.
Wednesday, March 8th at 9pm ET: Mysterious Galaxy Bookstore: Owen King will be in conversation with Tom Bissell about his new novel, THE CURATOR. In this Dickensian fantasy of illusion and charm, cats are revered as religious figures, thieves are noble, scholars are revolutionaries, and conjurers are the most wonderful criminals you can imagine.
Thursday, March 9th at 6pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Peter Swanson will talk about his latest thriller, THE KIND WORTH SAVING, in which a private eye starts to follow a possibly adulterous husband --- but little does he know that the twisted trail will lead back to the woman who hired him.
Thursday, March 9th at 8pm ET: Blue Willow Bookshop: Join Alice Winn in celebration of her book, IN MEMORIAM, a haunting, virtuosic debut novel about two young men who fall in love during World War I.
Saturday, March 11th at 1pm ET: Warwick's: Warwick's will host Julia Kelly as she discusses her new book, THE LOST ENGLISH GIRL, with Hazel Gaynor. The acclaimed author of THE LIGHT OVER LONDON has penned an epic saga of love, motherhood and betrayal set against World War II.
Monday, March 13th at 7pm ET: Rogue Reads: Meet award-winning authors Cara Black, Brendan Dubois, William Landay and Brittany Butler. They will read from their new novels, answer questions and discuss their relationships with their characters. The event will be emceed by Rogue Women Writers' very own Tosca Lee.
Monday, March 13th at 7:30pm ET: “Lisa Live!”: Join Lisa Scottoline every Monday night through March 27th 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, March 14th at 3:30pm ET: Barnes & Noble Book Club: Join Barnes & Noble as they welcome Paula Lichtarowicz for a live book club event to discuss THE SNOW HARE, February's B&N Book Club pick. She will be in conversation with Shannon DeVito, the Director of Category Management at B&N, and Miwa Messer, B&N’s Editorial Director.
Tuesday, March 14th at 4pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Donna Leon will talk about SO SHALL YOU REAP, the 32nd installment in her bestselling series, in which a connection to Commissario Guido Brunetti’s own youthful past helps solve a mysterious murder.
Tuesday, March 14th at 8:30pm ET: Book Passage: Ann Napolitano will be in conversation with Angie Kim about her new novel, HELLO BEAUTIFUL, a poignant and engrossing family story that asks: Can love make a broken person whole?
This Week's Bonus News:
Our Special Contest for THE HOUSE OF LINCOLN
by Nancy Horan, Releasing June 6th
Enter to Win One of 25 Advance Copies
Nancy Horan, who wrote the New York Times bestseller LOVING FRANK, returns with THE HOUSE OF LINCOLN, a sweeping historical novel that tells the story of Abraham Lincoln's ascendance from rumpled lawyer to U.S. president to the Great Emancipator through the eyes of a young asylum-seeker who arrives in Lincoln's home of Springfield from Madeira, Portugal. The book doesn't release until June 6th, but we have 25 advance copies to give away to readers. To enter, please fill out this form by Friday, March 17th at noon ET.
THE HOUSE OF LINCOLN by Nancy Horan (Historical Fiction)
Showing intelligence beyond society's expectations, 14-year-old Ana Ferreira lands a job in the Lincoln household assisting Mary Lincoln with their boys and with the hostess duties borne by the wife of a rising political star. Ana bears witness to the evolution of Lincoln's views on equality and the Union and observes in full complexity the psyche and pain of his bold, polarizing wife, Mary.
Along with her African American friend Cal, Ana encounters the presence of the underground railroad in town and experiences personally how slavery is tearing apart her adopted country. Culminating in an eyewitness account of the little-known Springfield race riot of 1908, THE HOUSE OF LINCOLN takes readers on a journey through the historic changes that reshaped America and that continue to reverberate today.
- Click here to read Nancy Horan's bio.
Click here to enter the contest.
On Sale the Week of March 6th in Hardcover
March 7th
ALL THAT IS MINE I CARRY WITH ME by William Landay (Domestic Thriller/Mystery)
Ten-year-old Miranda Larkin comes home from school to find her house eerily quiet. Her mother is missing. Nothing else is out of place. There is no sign of struggle. Her mom’s pocketbook remains in the front hall, in its usual spot. So begins a mystery that will span a lifetime. What happened to Jane Larkin? Investigators suspect Jane’s husband. A criminal defense attorney, Dan Larkin would surely be an expert in outfoxing the police. But no evidence is found linking him to a crime, and the case fades from the public’s memory. Jane’s three children --- Alex, Jeff and Miranda --- are left to be raised by the man who may have murdered their mother. Two decades later, the remains of Jane Larkin are found. The investigation is awakened. The children, now grown, are forced to choose sides.
Bantam | 9780345531841
AT SEA by Emma Fedor (Fiction)
Cara moves to Martha’s Vineyard after graduating from college, determined to make sense of her mother’s death and decide what direction she wants to take her life as an artist. There she meets Brendan, who sweeps her away with his humor, charisma and an intoxicating secret. When Cara gets pregnant with their son, she’s sure their happy ending is underway. But she’s thrown by Brendan’s dramatic moods, unexplained disappearances and the weight of his secrets. When he vanishes with their child, she is left desolate and questioning everything she thought was true. Five years later, Cara is married to another man and trying to rebuild her life, when she hears rumors of two people who sound a lot like her lost love and child.
Gallery Books | 9781982171544
BIRNAM WOOD by Eleanor Catton (Psychological Thriller)
A landslide has closed the Korowai Pass on New Zealand’s South Island, cutting off the town of Thorndike and leaving a sizable farm abandoned. The disaster presents an opportunity for Birnam Wood, an undeclared, unregulated guerrilla gardening collective that plants crops wherever no one will notice. But the enigmatic American billionaire Robert Lemoine also has an interest in the place: he has snatched it up to build his end-times bunker, or so he tells Birnam’s founder, Mira, when he catches her on the property. He’s intrigued by Mira, and by Birnam Wood. Although they’re poles apart politically, it seems Lemoine and the group might have enemies in common. But can Birnam trust him? And, as their ideals and ideologies are tested, can they trust one another?
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374110338
BURNING DISTANCE by Joanne Leedom-Ackerman (Political Thriller/Mystery)
When 10-year-old Elizabeth West’s father dies in a tragic plane crash, her family moves to London. Her mother marries a knighted British businessman who has two children, and Elizabeth (Lizzy) and her two sisters move in with their new family. At age 16, while attending the American School of London, Lizzy meets and falls in love with Adil Hasan. But when Adil’s father is deported, Lizzy and Adil are separated. Lizzy’s family has also become involved with French-German industrialist Gerald Rene Wagner. Little does she know that Adil’s family has ties to the man as well. When a member of her family is murdered in Berlin under mysterious circumstances, questions surface about Wagner’s dealings, and Lizzy reexamines what really may have happened to her father.
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608095339
THE CARGO REBELLION: Those Who Chose Freedom written by Jason Chang, Benjamin Barson and Alexis Dudden; illustrated by Kim Inthavong (Graphic Novel/History)
THE CARGO REBELLION tells a true story of mutiny on the high seas in which 400 indentured Chinese men overthrew their captor, the Connecticut businessman and slave trader Leslie Bryson, taking a stand against an exploitative global enterprise. The laborers learned that Bryson’s claimed destination of San Francisco was a lie to trick them into deadly servitude in the dreaded guano islands of Peru. Reaching a dramatic tipping point, the mutineers rose up and killed Bryson and several of the ship's officers and then attempted to sail back to China. This book is a history from below that does justice to the memory of hundreds of thousands of indentured workers and demonstrates how Asian migration to the Americas was rooted in slavery, colonialism and the life-and-death struggle against servitude.
PM Press | 9781629639642
THE CURATOR by Owen King (Historical Fantasy)
It begins in an unnamed city nicknamed “the Fairest.” It is distinguished by many things, from the river fair to the mountains that split the municipality in half; its theaters and many museums; the Morgue Ship; and, like all cities, its essential unmappability. Dora has a secret desire --- to find where her brother went after he died, believing that the answer lies within The Museum of Psykical Research. With the city amidst a revolutionary upheaval, Dora contrives to gain the curatorship of the half-forgotten museum only to find it all but burnt to the ground, with the neighboring museums oddly untouched. She is offered one of these, The National Museum of the Worker. However, neither this museum, nor the street it is hidden away on, nor Dora herself, are what they at first appear to be.
Scribner | 9781982196806
THE DIG by Anne Burt (Thriller)
Antonia King has a complicated relationship with the past. She and her brother were found amid the rubble of a bombed-out apartment in Sarajevo and taken in by a family of contractors in Thebes, Minnesota. Eager to escape the constraints of her adopted town, Antonia embarks on a high-powered legal career. But it isn’t long before her brother’s mysterious disappearance pulls her back home. There, over the course of a single day, Antonia unearths decades of secrets and lies, leading to shocking revelations about her adoptive family --- and the sinister truth behind her biological mother’s death --- that will alter the course of her life and change her definition of family forever.
Counterpoint | 9781640096042
THE FAREWELL TOUR by Stephanie Clifford (Fiction)
Lillian Waters is hitting the road for the very last time. Jaded from her years in the music business, perpetually hungover and diagnosed with career-ending vocal problems, Lillian cobbles together a nationwide farewell tour. She yearns to feel the rush of making live music one more time and bask in the glow of a packed house before she makes the last, and most important, stop on the tour: the farm she left behind at age 10 and the sister she is finally ready to confront about an agonizing betrayal in their childhood. As the novel crisscrosses eras, we see her striving to build a career in the male-dominated world of country music, including the hard choices she makes. Nearing her final tour stop, Lil is forced to confront those choices and how they shaped her life.
Harper | 9780063251137
THE FOXGLOVE KING by Hannah Whitten (Dark Fantasy/Romance)
When Lore was 13, she escaped a cult in the catacombs beneath the city of Dellaire. And in the 10 years since, she’s lived by one rule: don’t let them find you. Easier said than done, when her death magic ties her to the city. Mortem, the magic born from death, is a high-priced and illicit commodity in Dellaire, and Lore’s job running poisons keeps her in food, shelter and relative security. But when a run goes wrong and Lore’s power is revealed, she’s taken by the Presque Mort, a group of warrior-monks sanctioned to use Mortem working for the Sainted King. Entire villages on the outskirts of the country have been dying overnight, seemingly at random. Lore can either use her magic to find out what’s happening and who in the King’s court is responsible, or die.
Orbit | 9780316434997
THE GOD OF ENDINGS by Jacqueline Holland (Dark Fantasy)
Collette LeSange has been hiding a dark truth: She is immortal. In 1834, Colette’s grandfather granted her the gift of eternal life. Since then, she has endured centuries of turmoil and heartache. Now, almost 150 years later, Collette is a lonely artist running an elite fine art school for children in upstate New York. But her life is suddenly upended by the arrival of a gifted child from a troubled home, the return of a stalking presence from her past, and her own mysteriously growing hunger for blood.
Flatiron Books | 9781250856760
THE GOLDEN SPOON by Jessa Maxwell (Mystery)
Every summer for the past 10 years, six awestruck bakers have descended on the grounds of Grafton, the leafy and imposing Vermont estate that is not only the filming site for “Bake Week” but also the childhood home of the show’s famous host, celebrated baker Betsy Martin. The author of numerous bestselling cookbooks and hailed as “America’s Grandmother,” Betsy Martin isn’t as warm off-screen as on, though no one needs to know that but her. She has always demanded perfection and gotten it with a smile, but this year something is off. As the baking competition commences, things begin to go awry. At first, it’s merely sabotage --- sugar replaced with salt, a burner turned to high --- but when a body is discovered, everyone is a suspect.
Atria Books | 9781668008003
I AM DEBRA LEE: A Memoir by Debra Lee (Memoir)
As an incredible glass-ceiling breaker and the woman who brought timeless television shows like “The Game” and “Being Mary Jane” to cable, Debra Lee has been the visionary responsible for elevating Black images and storytelling for decades. Now she’s telling her own story in an intimate and eye-opening tale about the triumphant and tricky moments of a career in entertainment. I AM DEBRA LEE is filled with deeply personal revelations, juicy celebrity intel and electrifying behind-the-scenes stories that reveal how she went from a girl raised in the segregated South to leading the first Black company traded on the New York Stock Exchange, and how she juggled social responsibility while managing a company targeted toward the Black community.
Legacy Lit | 9780306828591
IN MEMORIAM by Alice Winn (Historical Fiction)
It’s 1914, and World War I is ceaselessly churning through thousands of young men on both sides of the fight. The violence of the front feels far away to Henry Gaunt, Sidney Ellwood and the rest of their classmates, safely ensconced in their idyllic boarding school in the English countryside. Gaunt, half German, is busy fighting his own private battle --- an all-consuming infatuation with his best friend, Ellwood --- without a clue that Ellwood is pining for him in return. When Gaunt's family asks him to enlist, Gaunt does so immediately, relieved to escape his overwhelming feelings for Ellwood. To Gaunt's horror, Ellwood rushes to join him at the front, and the rest of their classmates soon follow. Now death surrounds them in all its grim reality, often inches away, and no one knows who will be next.
Knopf | 9780593534564
THE KIND WORTH SAVING by Peter Swanson (Mystery/Thriller)
There was always something slightly dangerous about Joan. So when she turns up at private investigator Henry Kimball’s office asking him to investigate her husband, he can’t help feeling ill at ease. Just the sight of her stirs up a chilling memory: He knew Joan in his previous life as a high school English teacher, when he was at the center of a tragedy. Now Joan needs his help in proving that her husband is cheating. But what should be a simple case of infidelity becomes much more complicated when Kimball finds two bodies in an uninhabited suburban home with a FOR SALE sign out front. Suddenly it feels like the past is repeating itself, and Henry must go back to one of the worst days of his life to uncover the truth.
William Morrow | 9780063204980
THE LAST BEEKEEPER by Julie Carrick Dalton (Post-Apocalyptic Mystery/Thriller)
It’s been more than a decade since the world has come undone, and Sasha Severn has returned to her childhood home to find the mythic research that her father, the infamous Last Beekeeper, hid before he was incarcerated. There, Sasha is confronted with a group of squatters who have claimed the quiet, idyllic farm as a way to escape the horrific conditions of state housing. While she feels threatened by their presence at first, the friends soon become her newfound family. But just as she settles into her new life, Sasha witnesses the impossible. She sees a honeybee, presumed extinct. People who claim to see bees are ridiculed and silenced for reasons Sasha doesn't understand, but she can't shake the feeling that this impossible bee is connected to her father's missing research.
Forge Books | 9781250269218
THE LONDON SÉANCE SOCIETY by Sarah Penner (Gothic Historical Mystery)
1873. At an abandoned château on the outskirts of Paris, a dark séance is about to take place, led by acclaimed spiritualist Vaudeline D’Allaire. Known worldwide for her talent in conjuring the spirits of murder victims to ascertain the identities of the people who killed them, she is highly sought after by widows and investigators alike. Lenna Wickes has come to Paris to find answers about her sister’s death, but to do so, she must embrace the unknown and overcome her own logic-driven bias against the occult. When Vaudeline is beckoned to England to solve a high-profile murder, Lenna accompanies her as an understudy. But soon they begin to suspect that they are not merely out to solve a crime, but perhaps entangled in one themselves.
Park Row | 9780778387114
THE LOST ENGLISH GIRL by Julia Kelly (Historical Fiction)
Raised in a strict Catholic family, Viv Byrne finds herself pregnant after a fling with Joshua Levinson, a Jewish man. When Joshua makes a life-changing choice on their wedding day, Viv is forced into the arms of her disapproving family. Four years later and on the eve of World War II, Viv is faced with the impossible choice to evacuate her young daughter to the countryside estate of the affluent Thompson family. In New York City, Joshua gives up his failing musical career to serve in the Royal Air Force. However, tragedy strikes when Viv learns that the countryside safe haven she sent her daughter to wasn’t immune from the horrors of war. It is only years later, with Joshua’s help, that Viv learns the secrets of their shared past and what it will take to put a family back together again.
Gallery Books | 9781982171704
MAYBE NEXT TIME by Cesca Major (Fiction)
It is an ordinary Monday, and harried literary agent Emma is flying out of the door. Preoccupied with work and her ever-growing to-do list, she fails to notice that her lovely husband Dan seems bereft, her son can barely meet her eye, and her daughter won’t go near her. As she rushes back through the door for dinner, Dan is still upset. They fight, and he walks out. Just as she realizes it is their anniversary, she hears the screech of brakes. Dan is dead. The next day Emma wakes up…and Dan is alive. It’s Monday again. And again. And again. Emma tries desperately to change the course of fate by doing different things each time she wakes up. But will she have the chance to find herself again, remember what she likes about her job, reconnect with her children and love her husband?
William Morrow | 9780063239920
THE MIMICKING OF KNOWN SUCCESSES by Malka Older (Science Fiction/Mystery)
On a remote, gas-wreathed outpost of a human colony on Jupiter, a man goes missing. The enigmatic Investigator Mossa follows his trail to Valdegeld, home to the colony’s erudite university --- and Mossa’s former girlfriend, a scholar of Earth’s pre-collapse ecosystems. Pleiti has dedicated her research and her career to aiding the larger effort towards a possible return to Earth. When Mossa unexpectedly arrives and requests Pleiti’s assistance in her latest investigation, the two of them embark on a twisting path in which the future of life on Earth is at stake --- and, perhaps, their futures together.
Tordotcom | 9781250860507
MONSTRILIO by Gerardo Sámano Córdova (Literary Horror)
Grieving mother Magos cuts out a piece of her deceased 11-year-old son Santiago’s lung. Acting on fierce maternal instinct and the dubious logic of an old folktale, she nurtures the lung until it gains sentience, growing into the carnivorous little Monstrilio she keeps hidden within the walls of her family’s decaying Mexico City estate. Eventually, Monstrilio begins to resemble the Santiago he once was, but his innate impulses --- though curbed by his biological and chosen family’s communal care --- threaten to destroy this fragile second chance at life.
Zando | 9781638930365
A MOST INTRIGUING LADY by Sarah Ferguson, Duchess of York (Historical Mystery/Romance)
Victorian London was notorious for its pickpockets. But in the country houses of the elite, gentleman burglars, art thieves and con men preyed on the rich and titled. Wealthy victims would never go to the police. What they needed was a society insider, a person of discretion and finely tuned powers of observation, adept at navigating intrigue. That person was Lady Mary Montagu Douglas Scott, the youngest child of Queen Victoria’s close friends the Duke and Duchess of Buccleuch. While at a house party, Lady Mary meets Colonel Walter Trefusis, a war veteran who has a desk job in Whitehall providing a front for his role in the British Intelligence Service. The two form an unlikely alliance to solve a series of audacious crimes --- and indulge in a highly charged on-off romance.
Avon | 9780063216822
NIGHT FLIGHT TO PARIS: A Kate Rees WWII Novel by Cara Black (Historical Thriller)
October 1942: It’s been two years since Kate Rees was sent to Paris on a British Secret Service mission to assassinate Hitler. Since then, she has left spycraft behind to take a training job as a sharpshooting instructor in the Scottish Highlands. But her quiet life is violently disrupted when Colonel Stepney, her former handler, drags her back into the fray for a risky three-pronged mission in Paris. Each task is more dangerous than the next: Deliver a package of forbidden biological material. Assassinate a high-ranking German operative whose knowledge of invasion plans could turn the tide of the war against the Allies. Rescue a British agent who once saved Kate’s life --- and get out.
Soho Crime | 9781641293556
A NOBLE CUNNING: The Countess and the Tower by Patricia Bernstein (Historical Fiction)
The heroine of A NOBLE CUNNING --- Bethan Glentaggart, Countess of Clarencefield, a persecuted Catholic noblewoman --- is determined to try every possible means of saving her husband Gavin's life with the help of a group of devoted female friends. Amid the turbulence of the 1715 Rebellion against England's first German king, George I, Bethan faces down a mob attack on her home, travels alone from the Scottish Lowlands to London through one of the worst snowstorms in many years, and confronts a cruel king before his court to plead for mercy for Gavin. As a last resort, Bethan and her friends must devise and put in motion a devilishly complex scheme featuring multiple disguises and even the judicious use of poison to try to free Gavin.
History Through Fiction LLC | 9781736499061
NOW YOU SEE US by Balli Kaur Jaswal (Mystery/Humor)
Corazon, Donita and Angel are Filipina domestic workers --- part of the wave of women sent to Singapore to be cleaners, maids and caregivers. But an explosive news story shatters Singapore’s famous tranquility, sending a chill down the spine of every domestic worker. Flordeliza Martinez, a Filipina maid, has been arrested for murdering her female employer. The three women don’t know the accused well, but she could be any of them. Every worker knows stories of women who were scapegoated or even executed for crimes they didn’t commit. Shocked into action, Donita, Corazon and Angel will use their considerable moxie and insight to piece together the mystery of what really happened on the day Flordeliza’s employer was murdered.
William Morrow | 9780063161603
OLD BABES IN THE WOOD: Stories by Margaret Atwood (Fiction/Short Stories)
Margaret Atwood’s collection of 15 stories --- some of which have appeared in The New Yorker and The New York Times Magazine --- looks deeply into the heart of family relationships, marriage, loss and memory, and what it means to spend a life together. The two intrepid sisters of the title story grapple with loss and memory on a perfect summer evening; “Impatient Griselda” explores alienation and miscommunication with a fresh twist on a folkloric classic; and “My Evil Mother” touches on the fantastical, examining a mother-daughter relationship in which the mother purports to be a witch. At the heart of the collection are seven stories that follow a married couple across the decades, the moments big and small that make up a long life of uncommon love --- and what comes after.
Doubleday | 9780385549073
PINEAPPLE STREET by Jenny Jackson (Fiction)
PINEAPPLE STREET follows three women in one wealthy Brooklyn clan. Darley, the eldest daughter in the well-connected old money Stockton family, followed her heart, trading her job and her inheritance for motherhood but giving up far too much in the process. Sasha, a middle-class New England girl, has married into the Brooklyn Heights family and finds herself cast as the arriviste outsider. And Georgiana, the baby of the family, has fallen in love with someone she can’t have and must decide what kind of person she wants to be.
Pamela Dorman Books | 9780593490693
A SINISTER REVENGE: A Veronica Speedwell Mystery by Deanna Raybourn (Historical Mystery)
Veronica Speedwell’s natural-historian beau, Stoker, has been away in Bavaria for months, and their relationship is at an impasse. But when Veronica shows up before him with his brother, Tiberius, Lord Templeton-Vane, he is lured back home by an intriguing job offer: preparing an iguanodon for a very special dinner party. Tiberius has received a cryptic message --- along with the obituaries of two recently deceased members of his old group of friends, the Seven Sinners --- that he too should get his affairs in order. Realizing he is in grave danger but not knowing why, he plans a reunion party for the remaining Sinners at his family estate to lure the killer out while Veronica and Stoker investigate. As the guests arrive and settle in, the evening’s events turn deadly.
Berkley | 9780593545928
THE SISTER EFFECT by Susan Mallery (Fiction)
Finley McGowan is determined that the niece she’s raising will always feel loved and wanted. Unlike how she felt after her mom left to pursue a dream of stardom, and when the grandfather who was left to raise them abandoned her and her sister, Sloane, when they needed him most. Finley reacted to her chaotic childhood by walking the straight and narrow. Sloane went the other way. Now Sloane is back, as beautiful and as damaged as ever…and she wants a relationship with her daughter. She says she’s changed, but Finley’s heart has been burned once too often for her to trust easily. But is her reluctance to forgive really about Sloane or worry over losing what she loves the most?
HQN | 9781335448644
STANDING DEAD: A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery by Margaret Mizushima (Mystery)
Deputy Mattie Cobb and her sister, Julia, travel to Mexico to visit their mother. But when they arrive, they discover that she and her husband have vanished without a trace. Back in Timber Creek, Mattie finds a chilling note on her front door telling her to look for “him” among the standing dead up in the high country. The sheriff’s department springs into action and sends a team to the mountains, where Mattie’s K-9 partner, Robo, makes a grisly discovery --- a body tied to a dead pine tree. Mattie is shocked when she realizes she knows the dead man. And then another note arrives, warning that Mattie’s mother is in desperate straits. In a last-ditch gambit, Mattie must go deep undercover into a killer’s lair to save her mother --- or die trying.
Crooked Lane Books | 9781639102440
STASH: My Life in Hiding by Laura Cathcart Robbins (Memoir)
After years of hiding her addiction from everyone --- from stockpiling pills in her Louboutins to elaborately scheduling withdrawals between PTA meetings, baby showers and tennis matches --- Laura Cathcart Robbins settles into a complicated purgatory. She learns the hard way that privilege doesn’t protect you from pain. Facing divorce, the possibility of a grueling custody battle, and internalized racism, Robbins wonders just how much more she can take. Now, with courage and candid openness, she reveals how she managed to begin the long journey towards sobriety and unexpectedly finding new love. Robbins harrowingly illustrates taking down the wall she built around herself brick by brick and what it means to be Black in a startingly white world.
Atria Books | 9781668005330
TINA, MAFIA SOLDIER written by Maria Rosa Cutrufelli, translated by Robin Pickering-Iazzi (Noir Thriller)
Sicily, 1980s: When she was just eight years old, Tina watched as her father, a member of Cosa Nostra, was murdered in cold blood. Now a teenager, she terrorizes her hometown of Gela, having made it her mission to join the mafia, an organization traditionally forbidden to women as made members. Nicknamed ’a masculidda, or “the tomboy,” Tina has taken charge of her own gang, and is notorious for her cruelty and reckless disregard for societal expectations. When a news article is published about Tina’s latest crimes, a teacher living in Rome feels compelled to write a novel about her --- even though it means returning to her native Sicily to gather material. She and Tina circle around each other in a dangerous dance of obsession and violence until their first, and last, explosive meeting.
Soho Crime | 9781641294249
THE WATCHMAKER'S DAUGHTER: The True Story of World War II Heroine Corrie ten Boom by Larry Loftis (Biography)
Corrie ten Boom was a groundbreaking, female Dutch watchmaker whose family unselfishly transformed their house into a hiding place straight out of a spy novel to shelter Jews and refugees from the Nazis during Gestapo raids. Even though the Nazis knew what the ten Booms were up to, they were never able to find those sheltered within the house when they raided it. Corrie stopped at nothing to face down the evils of her time and overcame unbelievable obstacles and odds. But even more remarkable than her heroism and survival was Corrie’s attitude when she was released. Miraculously, she was able to eschew bitterness and embrace forgiveness as she ministered to people in need around the globe.
William Morrow | 9780063234581
WEYWARD by Emilia Hart (Historical Fiction/Magical Realism)
2019: Under cover of darkness, Kate flees London for ramshackle Weyward Cottage, inherited from her great-aunt. The cottage is worlds away from the abusive partner who tormented Kate. But she begins to suspect that her great-aunt had a secret. 1619: Altha is awaiting trial for the murder of a local farmer. Her mother taught her their magic, which is rooted in a deep knowledge of the natural world. But as the evidence for witchcraft is set out against Altha, she knows it will take all of her powers to maintain her freedom. 1942: As World War II rages, Violet is trapped in her family's grand, crumbling estate. Her mother was rumored to have gone mad before her death. The only traces Violet has of her are a locket bearing the initial W and the word weyward scratched into the baseboard of her bedroom.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250280800
WHAT HAPPENED TO RUTHY RAMIREZ by Claire Jimenez (Fiction)
When 13-year-old Ruthy disappeared after track practice without a trace, it left her family scarred and scrambling. One night, 12 years later, oldest sister Jessica spots a woman on her TV screen in “Catfight,” a raunchy reality show. She rushes to tell her younger sister, Nina: This woman's hair is dyed red, and she calls herself Ruby, but the beauty mark under her left eye is instantly recognizable. Could it be Ruthy after all this time? Jessica and Nina hatch a plan to drive to where the show is filmed. When their mother Dolores catches wind of their scheme, she insists on joining, along with her best friend, Irene. What follows is a family road trip and reckoning that will force the Ramirez women to finally face the past and look toward a future --- with or without Ruthy in it.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538725962
WHAT HAVE WE DONE by Alex Finlay (Mystery/Thriller)
Twenty five years ago, Jenna, Donnie and Nico were the best of friends, having forged a bond through the abuse and neglect they endured as residents of Savior House, a group home for parentless teens. When the home was shut down --- after the disappearance of several kids --- the three were split up. Though the trauma of their childhood has never left them, each went on to live accomplished --- if troubled --- lives. They haven’t seen one another since they were teens but now are reunited for a single haunting reason: someone is trying to kill them. To survive, the group will have to revisit the nightmares of their childhoods and confront their shared past --- a past that holds the secret to why someone wants them dead.
Minotaur Books | 9781250863720
WHITE FOX by Owen Matthews (Historical Thriller)
In a desolate Russian penal colony, the radio blares the news of President Kennedy’s death. Lieutenant Colonel Alexander Vasin’s new post as director of a gulag camp in the middle of a frozen tundra is far from a promotion. This is where disgraced agents, like Vasin, are sent to disappear and die quietly. But when tensions in the camp mount and a violent revolt breaks out, Vasin finds himself on the run with a mysterious prisoner holding the most dangerous secret in the world: who ordered the murder of President Kennedy. In a breathless chase that leads them throughout the Soviet Union, Vasin must stay one step ahead of the deadliest spy and police organizations in the world, and keep the most wanted man in Russia alive.
Doubleday | 9780385543446
WORTHY OPPONENTS by Danielle Steel (Romance)
Spencer Brooke always knew she was destined to be CEO of her grandfather’s business --- the most respected and luxurious department store in New York City. She may be the owner of Brooke’s, but she’s also now a divorced single mother of twin boys. And with the ever-evolving landscape of the fashion industry comes new challenges for Spencer and the legacy she’s inherited. Mike Weston is known for making enormous profits by transforming small businesses into bigger, more successful ones. With his marriage at a breaking point, investing is where he thrives. And Brooke’s feels like the perfect opportunity. Yet the firm’s beautiful and savvy CEO turns down the offer before they even meet. But when bad luck strikes, suddenly she is backed into a corner.
Delacorte Press | 9781984821805
On Sale the Week of March 6th in Paperback
March 7th
ATOMIC ANNA by Rachel Barenbaum (Fiction)
In 1986, renowned nuclear scientist Anna Berkova is sleeping in her bed in the Soviet Union when Chernobyl’s reactor melts down. It’s the exact moment she tears through time --- and it’s an accident. When she opens her eyes, she’s landed in 1992 only to discover Molly, her estranged daughter, shot in the chest. Molly, with her dying breath, begs Anna to go back in time and stop the disaster, to save Molly’s daughter Raisa, and put their family’s future on a better path. As these remarkable women work together to prevent the greatest nuclear disaster of the 20th century, they grapple with the power their discoveries hold. Just because you can change the past, does it mean you should?
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538734872
THE BOSTON MASSACRE: A Family History by Serena Zabin (History)
The story of the Boston Massacre --- when on a late winter evening in 1770, British soldiers shot five local men to death --- is familiar to generations. But from the very beginning, many accounts have obscured a fascinating truth: the Massacre arose from conflicts that were as personal as they were political. Professor Serena Zabin draws on original sources and lively stories to follow British troops as they are dispatched from Ireland to Boston in 1768 to subdue the increasingly rebellious colonists. And she reveals a forgotten world hidden in plain sight: the many regimental wives and children who accompanied these armies.
Mariner Books | 9780063275898
BROTHERS ON THREE: A True Story of Family, Resistance, and Hope on a Reservation in Montana by Abe Streep (Biography)
March 11, 2017, was a night to remember. In front of the hopeful eyes of thousands of friends, family members and fans, the Arlee Warriors would finally bring the high school basketball state championship title home to the Flathead Indian Reservation. The game would become the stuff of legend, with the boys revered as local heroes. The team’s place in Montana history was now cemented, but for starters Will Mesteth, Jr. and Phillip Malatare, life would keep moving on --- senior year was only just beginning. In BROTHERS ON THREE, we follow Phil and Will, along with their teammates, coaches and families, as they balance the pressures of adolescence, shoulder the dreams of their community, and chart their own individual courses for the future.
Celadon Books | 9781250210692
THE CAMPBELL SISTERS by Eileen Joyce Donovan (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Helen Campbell is the eldest and most practical of three sisters, daughters of hard-working Irish emigrants living in New York City in the 1950s. She does what she can to keep the wild-child middle sister, Carolyn, in line and support the youngest, Peggy, as she pursues her dreams of becoming a doctor. Then Helen meets Charlie. While it's love at first sight for those two, Carolyn's antics threaten to derail all the sisters' future happiness. However, through thick and thin, the three sisters strive to prevail, though not necessarily in the ways they thought they wanted.
DX Varos Publishing | 9781955065702
THE CANDY HOUSE by Jennifer Egan (Fiction)
Bix Bouton's company, Mandala, is so successful that he is “one of those tech demi-gods with whom we’re all on a first name basis.” Bix is 40, with four kids, restless and desperate for a new idea, when he stumbles into a conversation group, mostly Columbia professors, one of whom is experimenting with downloading or “externalizing” memory. Within a decade, Bix’s new technology, “Own Your Unconscious” --- which allows you access to every memory you’ve ever had, and to share your memories in exchange for access to the memories of others --- has seduced multitudes. In the world of Jennifer Egan’s spectacular imagination, there are “counters” who track and exploit desires, and there are “eluders,” those who understand the price of taking a bite of the Candy House.
Scribner | 9781476716770
A DEATH AT THE PARTY by Amy Stuart (Domestic Thriller)
Paperback Original
Nadine Walsh’s summer garden party is in full swing. But she finds herself standing over a dead body in her basement while her guests clink glasses upstairs. What happened? How did it come to this? Rewind to that morning when Nadine is in her kitchen, making last-minute preparations before she welcomes more than a hundred guests to her home to celebrate her mother’s birthday. But only her mother knows that today isn’t just a birthday party. It marks another anniversary as well. Still, Nadine will focus just on tonight. Everyone deserves a celebration after the year they’ve had. A chance for fun. A chance to forget. But it’s hard to forget when Nadine’s head is swirling with secrets, haunting memories, and concerns about what might happen when her guests unite.
Simon & Schuster | 9781668009109
FEVERED STAR by Rebecca Roanhorse (Historical Fantasy)
The great city of Tova is shattered. The sun is held within the smothering grip of the Crow God’s eclipse, but a comet that marks the death of a ruler and heralds the rise of a new order is imminent. The Meridian: a land where magic has been codified and the worship of gods suppressed. How do you live when legends come to life, and the faith you had is rewarded? As sea captain Xiala is swept up in the chaos and currents of change, she finds an unexpected ally in the former Priest of Knives. For the Clan Matriarchs of Tova, tense alliances form as far-flung enemies gather and the war in the heavens is reflected upon the earth. And for Serapio and Naranpa, both now living avatars, the struggle for free will and personhood in the face of destiny rages.
Gallery/Saga Press | 9781534437746
FRIENDLY FIRE: A Nik Byron Investigation by Mark Pawlosky (Thriller)
Paperback Original
When Geoffrey Tate, one of the world’s richest individuals and the CEO of Yukon --- the country’s preeminent artificial intelligence company --- is shot and killed by his young trophy wife, it’s going to grab headlines. And seasoned Newshound reporter Nik Byron intends to be the one generating them. But Nik’s investigation quickly leads him down a treacherous path he didn’t foresee. The sensational trial that follows Tate’s death threatens to derail Bullwhip --- the military’s next generation of AI-inspired war machines --- and scramble the fortunes of political heavyweights and Pentagon brass alike. His journalistic instincts aroused, Nik embarks on an uncertain hunt for the truth that takes him deep into the murky worlds of Washington lobbyists, the military-industrial complex and the Saudi intelligence apparatus.
Girl Friday Books | 9781954854628
THE GOODBYE COAST: A Philip Marlowe Novel by Joe Ide (Hard-boiled Mystery)
In THE GOODBYE COAST, Philip Marlowe is a quiet, lonely and remarkably capable and confident private detective. However, he lives beneath the shadow of his father, a once-decorated LAPD homicide detective who has given in to drink after the death of Marlowe’s mother. Marlowe, against his better judgment, accepts two missing person cases --- the first, a daughter of a faded, tyrannical Hollywood starlet; the second, a British child stolen from his mother by his father. At the center of the novel is Marlowe’s troubled and confounding relationship with his father, a son who despises yet respects his dad, and a dad who’s unable to hide his bitter disappointment with his grown boy.
Mulholland Books | 9780316459259
GOODNIGHT FROM PARIS by Jane Healey (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Paris, 1939. Hollywood actress Drue Leyton, married to Frenchman Jacques Tartière, lives as an expatriate in love. But when her husband is dispatched to Brittany to work as a liaison for the British military, Drue finds herself alone with her housekeeper. With her career and fame 4,500 miles away, she accepts an opportunity that will change her life forever. Befriended by seasoned wartime journalist Dorothy Thompson and urged on by political operative Jean Fraysse, Drue broadcasts radio programs to the United States. Her duty: shake America from its apathy and, as Nazis encroach and France is occupied, push for resistance and help from the US. As Drue and Jean fall under suspicion, Hitler sends his own message: when Drue’s adopted country is conquered, she will be executed.
Lake Union Publishing | 9781662505294
THE GOSPEL OF ORLA by Eoghan Walls (Fiction)
Paperback Original
A stunning debut novel from the Northern Irish poet Eoghan Walls, THE GOSPEL OF ORLA is the coming-of-age story of a young girl, Orla, and the man she meets who has an astonishing and unique ability. It is also a road novel that takes us across the north of England after the two flee Orla’s village together. Here the mysteries of faith charge full bore into the vagaries of contemporary mores.
Seven Stories Press | 9781644212820
HOSTILE INTENT: A Matt Drake Novel by Don Bentley (Political Thriller)
When a mysterious walk-in to the US embassy in Vienna claims to have critical information about a Russian intelligence operation, he raises eyebrows. But when he asks for Matt Drake by name and calls himself the Irishman, he gets the DIA’s premier case officer on a one-way flight. Matt arrives to find Austria’s charming capital lousy with intelligence officers, all swirling around Nolan Burke --- a one-time member of the real IRA. But before Matt can debrief Nolan, the Irishman is kidnapped by a Russian direct action team. Now, Matt must find a way to repay the debt of honor he owes Nolan while stopping World War III in the process.
Berkley | 9780593333549
KAIKEYI by Vaishnavi Patel (Historical Fiction)
The only daughter of the kingdom of Kekaya, Kaikeyi is raised on tales of the gods. Yet she watches as her father unceremoniously banishes her mother, and listens as her own worth is reduced to how great a marriage alliance she can secure. And when she calls upon the gods for help, they never seem to hear. Desperate for some measure of independence, she turns to the texts she once read with her mother and discovers a magic that is hers alone. With this power, Kaikeyi transforms herself from an overlooked princess into a warrior, diplomat and most favored queen. But as the evil from her childhood stories threatens the cosmic order, the path she has forged clashes with the destiny the gods have chosen for her family.
Redhook | 9780759557307
THE LAST SUSPICIOUS HOLDOUT: Stories by Ladee Hubbard (Fiction/Short Stories)
These 13 gripping tales deftly chronicle poignant moments in the lives of an African American community located in a “sliver of southern suburbia.” Spanning from 1992 to 2007, the stories represent a period during which the Black middle class expanded while stories of "welfare Queens," "crack babies" and "super predators" abounded in the media. Characters spotlighted in one story reappear in another, providing a stunning testament to the enduring resilience of Black people as they navigate the “post-racial” period that THE LAST SUSPICIOUS HOLDOUT so vividly portrays.
Amistad | 9780062979100
LESSONS AT THE SCHOOL BY THE SEA: The Third School by the Sea Novel by Jenny Colgan (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Beloved high school teacher Maggie Adair had been comfortably, if somewhat ambivalently, engaged to her dependable long-distance boyfriend, Stan. But in the heat of summer, Maggie’s attraction to her colleague David McDonald has caught fire. Now both are facing an uncertain future as they try to figure out how to stay committed to their careers --- and each other. Meanwhile, the girls of Downey House --- mercurial Fliss, glamorous Alice and shy, hard-working Simone --- have had long summers at home, which weren’t quite the respite they had been hoping for. But the new school year is thankfully here, and it will bring new pupils and lots of fresh challenges for students and teachers alike at the school by the sea.
Avon | 9780063141803
THE LIES I TELL by Julie Clark (Domestic Thriller)
Meg Williams. Maggie Littleton. Melody Wilde. Different names for the same person, depending on the town, depending on the job. She's a con artist who erases herself to become whoever you need her to be. A college student. A life coach. A real estate agent. Nothing about her is real. She slides alongside you and tells you exactly what you need to hear, and by the time she's done, you've likely lost everything. Kat Roberts has been waiting 10 years for the woman who upended her life to return. And now that she has, Kat is determined to be the one to expose her. But as the two women grow closer, Kat's long-held assumptions begin to crumble, leaving Kat to wonder who Meg's true target is.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781728260129
MEMPHIS by Tara M. Stringfellow (Fiction)
Ten-year-old Joan, her mother and her younger sister flee her father’s explosive temper and seek refuge at her mother’s ancestral home in Memphis. Half a century earlier, Joan’s grandfather built this majestic house in the historic Black neighborhood of Douglass --- only to be lynched days after becoming the first Black detective in the city. Joan tries to settle into her new life, but family secrets cast a longer shadow than any of them expected. As she grows up, Joan finds relief in her artwork. One of her subjects is their enigmatic neighbor Miss Dawn, who claims to know something about curses, and whose stories about the past help Joan see how her passion, imagination and relentless hope are, in fact, the continuation of a long matrilineal tradition.
Dial Press Trade Paperback | 9780593230503
OCEAN STATE by Stewart O’Nan (Fiction)
In the first line of OCEAN STATE, we learn that a high school student was murdered, and we find out who did it. The story that unfolds from there is thus one of the build-up to and fallout from the murder, told through the alternating perspectives of the four women at its heart. Angel, the murderer; Carol, her mother; and Birdy; the victim all converge in a climax both tragic and inevitable. Watching over it all is the retrospective testimony of Angel’s younger sister Marie, who reflects on that doomed autumn of 2009 with all the wisdom of hindsight. Angel and Birdy love the same teenage boy and are compelled by the intensity of their feelings to extremes neither could have anticipated.
Grove Press | 9780802162335
OFF THE MAP by Trish Doller (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Carla Black has been traveling the world on her own in her vintage Jeep Wrangler for nearly a decade, stopping only long enough to replenish her adventure fund. She doesn’t do love, and she doesn’t ever go home. Eamon Sullivan is a modern-day cartographer who creates digital maps. His work helps people find their way, but he’s the one who’s lost his sense of direction. He’s unhappy at work, recently dumped, and his one big dream is stalled out --- literally. Fate throws them together when Carla arrives in Dublin for her best friend’s wedding, and Eamon is tasked with picking her up from the airport. But what should be a simple drive across Ireland quickly becomes complicated with chemistry-filled detours, unexpected feelings and a chance at love --- if only they choose it.
St. Martin's Griffin | 9781250809490
ONE ITALIAN SUMMER by Rebecca Serle (Fiction)
When Katy’s mother dies, she is left reeling. To make matters worse, their planned mother-daughter trip of a lifetime looms: to Positano, the magical town where Carol spent the summer right before she met Katy’s father. Katy has been waiting years for Carol to take her, and now she is faced with embarking on the adventure alone. But as soon as she steps foot on the Amalfi Coast, Katy begins to feel her mother’s spirit. And then Carol appears --- in the flesh, healthy, sun-tanned and 30 years old. Over the course of one Italian summer, Katy gets to know Carol, not as her mother, but as the young woman before her. Soon Katy must reconcile the mother who knew everything with the young lady who does not yet have a clue.
Atria Books | 9781982166809
ROBERT B. PARKER’S REVENGE TOUR: A Sunny Randall Novel by Mike Lupica (Mystery)
PI Sunny Randall owes a favor. Her landlord and former client, famous novelist Melanie Joan Hall, is being threatened and blackmailed, and it is up to Sunny and her best friend Spike to ensure her protection. But as Sunny looks into the identity of Melanie Joan’s stalker, she learns that much of the author’s past is a product of her amazing imagination, and her loyalty to her old friend is challenged as she searches for the truth. At the same time, Sunny springs into action when her aging ex-cop father, Phil, is threatened by a shady lawyer with a desire to settle an old score. Fighting crimes on two fronts, Sunny must use all of her savvy, and the help of her friends, in order to protect those she loves.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780593419779
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 | 9780593439401
SUNDIAL by Catriona Ward (Gothic Horror/Psychological Thriller)
Rob has spent her life running from Sundial, the family’s ranch deep in the Mojave Desert, and her childhood memories. But she’s worried about her daughter, Callie, who collects animal bones and whispers to imaginary friends. It reminds her of a darkness that runs in her family, and Rob knows it’s time to return. Callie is terrified of her mother. Rob digs holes in the backyard late at night and tells disturbing stories about growing up on the ranch. Soon Callie begins to fear that only one of them will leave Sundial alive.
Tor Nightfire | 9781250812704
THIRST FOR SALT by Madelaine Lucas (Fiction)
Paperback Original
It’s in the water where she first sees him: a local man almost 20 years her senior. Adrift in the summer after finishing college, a young woman is on holiday with her mother in an isolated Australian coastal town. Finding herself pulled to Jude, the man in the water, she begins losing herself in the simple, seductive rhythms of his everyday life. As their relationship deepens, life at Sailors Beach offers her the stability she has been craving as the daughter of two drifters --- a loving but impulsive mother and an itinerant father. But the arrival of Maeve, a friend from Jude’s past, threatens to rock their fragile, newfound intimacy. And when she witnesses something she doesn’t fully understand, she finds herself questioning everything.
Tin House Books | 9781953534651
THRILL OF THE HUNT by Rita Mae Brown (Mystery)
It’s the start of fox-hunting season, and “Sister” Jane Arnold is training a new generation of hounds in eager anticipation of Opening Hunt. But before they make it to that exciting day, several members of the hunt club receive ominous videos in which they appear to be doing scandalous, career-ending deeds. The videos are doctored, but does it matter? The unknown blackmailer promises to publish the clips if they don’t get paid, and even the most upstanding citizen can be brought down by the court of public opinion. While Sister and her friends try to unmask the dastardly mind behind the videos, mysteries abound in their beautiful Blue Ridge Mountain town home.
Ballantine Books | 9780593357620
THE WAY FROM HERE by Jane Cockram (Fiction)
Growing up, the Anderson sisters could not have been more different. Susie had an adventurous life, while Camilla --- Mills --- followed a safer path. When Susie suddenly dies, Mills falls apart. Until she receives a bundle of mysterious letters from her estranged sister to be read in the case of her death. Each letter instructs her to visit a place special to Susie, both to spread her ashes but also to uncover some truths Susie has long kept hidden from her family. Their mother Margaret has secrets of her own. When living in Swinging Sixties London, she too made a decision about her life that not only haunts her, but will reverberate through the generations. One family, three very different women. What choices and secrets connect them?
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062939333
THE WEDDING VEIL by Kristy Woodson Harvey (Fiction)
Julia Baxter’s wedding veil, bequeathed to her great-grandmother by a mysterious woman on a train in the 1930s, has passed through generations of her family as a symbol of a happy marriage. But on the morning of her wedding day, something tells her that even the veil’s good luck isn’t enough to make her marriage last forever. Overwhelmed and panicked, she escapes to the Virgin Islands to clear her head. Meanwhile, her grandmother Babs is also feeling shaken. Still grieving the death of her beloved husband, she decides to move out of the house they once shared and into a retirement community. Though she hopes it’s a new beginning, she does not expect to run into an old flame, dredging up the same complicated emotions she felt a lifetime ago.
Gallery Books | 9781982180720
THE WORLD CANNOT GIVE by Tara Isabella Burton (Fiction)
When Laura Stearns arrives at St. Dunstan’s Academy in Maine, she dreams that life there will echo her favorite novel, All Before Them, the sole surviving piece of writing by St. Dunstan’s alum Sebastian Webster. She soon finds the intensity she is looking for among the insular, Webster-worshipping members of the school’s chapel choir, which is presided over by Virginia Strauss. A neurotic overachiever, Virginia inducts Laura into a world of transcendent music and arcane ritual, illicit cliff-diving and midnight crypt visits. But when a new school chaplain challenges Virginia’s hold on the “family” she has created, and Virginia’s efforts to wield her power become increasingly dangerous, Laura must decide how far she will let her devotion to Virginia go.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982170073
On Sale the Week of March 13th in Hardcover
March 14th
48 CLUES INTO THE DISAPPEARANCE OF MY SISTER by Joyce Carol Oates (Mystery)
Marguerite, a beautiful woman, has disappeared from her small town in upstate New York. But is foul play involved? Or did she merely take an opportunity to get away for fun, or finally make the decision to leave behind her claustrophobic life of limited opportunities? Her younger sister, Gigi, wonders if the flimsy silk Dior dress, so casually abandoned on the floor, is a clue to Marguerite’s having seemingly vanished. The police examine the footprints made by her Ferragamo boots leaving the house, ending abruptly and puzzle over how that can help lead to her. Gigi, not so pretty as her sister, slowly reveals her hatred for the perfect, much-loved Marguerite. Bit by bit, like ripping the petals off a flower blossom, revelations about both sisters are uncovered.
Mysterious Press | 9781613163818
ALL THAT IS HIDDEN: A Molly Murphy Mystery by Rhys Bowen and Clare Broyles (Historical Mystery)
Former private detective Molly Murphy Sullivan and her policeman husband, Daniel, have built quite a life for themselves in Greenwich Village. They have a good marriage, a true partnership where they value each other’s opinions in all things. So when he tells her they’re moving to a fancy home on Fifth Avenue --- and that he’s running for the sheriff of New York --- Molly is left reeling. Daniel begs Molly to trust him. But why would he run for sheriff on the Tammany ticket? A party known more for kickbacks and quid pro quo than anything else, it used to be everything Daniel despised. So what’s changed? And why didn’t he discuss it with her beforehand? Molly can’t help but wonder what Daniel has gotten himself tangled up in…and if he needs her help to get out.
Minotaur Books | 9781250808097
COLLATERAL DAMAGE: An Ali Reynolds Mystery by J.A. Jance (Mystery/Thriller)
After spending 20 years behind bars, Frank Muñoz, a disgraced former cop, is out on parole and focused on just one thing: revenge. For Ali Reynolds, the first Christmas without her father is riddled with grief and uncertainty. And with her husband and founding partner of High Noon Enterprises, B. Simpson, preoccupied by an upcoming New Year’s trip to London, she is ready for a break. But when Stu Ramey barges into her home with grave news about a suspicious accident on the highway to Phoenix involving B.’s car, things reach a breaking point. At the hospital, a groggy, post-op B. insists that Ali take his place at a ransomware conference in London as troubles brimming around High Noon come to light. Who would go to such lengths to cut the tech company from the picture?
Gallery Books | 9781982189150
THE DANCE TREE by Kiran Millwood Hargrave (Historical Fiction)
Strasbourg, 1518. In the midst of a blisteringly hot summer, a lone woman begins to dance in the city square. She dances for days without pause or rest, and when hundreds of other women join her, the men running the city declare a state of emergency and hire musicians to play the Devil out of the mob. Outside the city, pregnant Lisbet lives with her husband and mother-in-law, tending the bees that are the family’s livelihood. Though Lisbet is removed from the frenzy of the dancing plague afflicting the city’s women, her own quiet life is upended by the arrival of her sister-in-law. Nethe has been away for seven years, serving a penance in the mountains for a crime no one will name. It is a secret Lisbet is determined to uncover.
HarperVia | 9780063274778
DEAR DOLLY: Collected Wisdom by Dolly Alderton (Essays)
For three years, Dolly Alderton has been sharing her wisdom, warmth and wit with the diverse universe of fans who have turned to her “Dear Dolly” column seeking guidance on a host of life problems. Dolly has thoughtfully answered questions ranging from the painfully --- and sometimes hilariously --- relatable to the occasionally bizarre. Without judgment, and with deep empathy informed by her own, much-chronicled adventures with love, friends and dating, Dolly helps us navigate the labyrinths of life. In DEAR DOLLY, she brings together her collected knowledge in one invaluable volume that will make you think, make you laugh, and help you confront any conundrum or crisis.
Harper | 9780063319134
THE DOG OF THE NORTH by Elizabeth McKenzie (Fiction/Humor)
Penny Rush has problems. Her marriage is over, and she has quit her job. Her mother and stepfather went missing in the Australian outback five years ago; her mentally unbalanced father provokes her; and her grandmother, Dr. Pincer, keeps experiments in the refrigerator and something worse in the woodshed. But Penny is a virtuoso at what’s possible when all else fails. There will be a road trip in the Dog of the North, an old van with gingham curtains, a piñata and stiff brakes. There will be injury and peril. There will be a dog named Kweecoats and two brothers who may share a toupee. There will be questions: Why is a detective investigating her grandmother, and what is “the scintillator”? And can Penny recognize a good thing when it finally comes her way?
Penguin Press | 9780593300695
DUST CHILD by Nguyễn Phan Quế Mai (Fiction)
In 1969, sisters Trang and Quỳnh, desperate to help their parents pay off debts, leave their rural village and become “bar girls” in Sài Gòn. The once-innocent Trang eventually gets swept up in an irresistible romance with a charming American helicopter pilot. Decades later, an American veteran, Dan, returns to Việt Nam with his wife, Linda, hoping to find a way to heal from his PTSD and reckon with secrets from his past. At the same time, Phong --- the son of a Black American soldier and a Vietnamese woman --- embarks on a search to find his parents and a way out of Việt Nam. Past and present converge as these characters come together to confront decisions made during a time of war --- decisions that force them to look deep within and find common ground across race, generation, culture and language.
Algonquin Books | 9781643752754
GOOD DOG, BAD COP: A K Team Novel by David Rosenfelt (Mystery)
Corey Douglas’ former mentor, Jimmy Dietrich, had his whole identity wrapped up in being a cop. When Jimmy retired three years ago, his marriage quickly deteriorated, and he tried --- and failed --- to get back on the force. Jimmy was left to try to adjust to life as a civilian. Not long after, two bodies were pulled from the Passaic River: a local woman, Susan Avery, and Jimmy Dietrich. With no true evidence available, the deaths went unsolved and the case declared cold. This didn’t stop the whispers: an affair gone wrong...a murder-suicide committed by Jimmy. Corey never believed it. With this case, the K Team has the opportunity to find the real murderer and clear Jimmy’s name.
Minotaur Books | 9781250828965
HEART SUTRA written by Yan Lianke, translated by Carlos Rojas (Fiction)
At the Religious Training Center on the campus of Beijing’s National Politics University, disciples of China’s five main religions gather for a year of intensive study and training. In this hallowed yet jovial atmosphere, the institute’s two youngest disciples --- Yahui, a Buddhist jade nun, and Gu Mingzheng, a Daoist master --- fall into a fast friendship that might bloom into something more. This year, however, the worldly Director Gong has organized tug-of-war competitions between the religions. Soon it becomes clear that corruption is seeping ever more deeply into the foundation of the institute under Director Gong’s watch, and Yahui and Gu Mingzheng will be forced to ask themselves if it is better to stay committed to an increasingly fraught faith or return to secular life forever.
Grove Press | 9780802162199
HELLO BEAUTIFUL by Ann Napolitano (Fiction)
William Waters grew up in a house silenced by tragedy, where his parents could hardly bear to look at him, much less love him. So when he meets the spirited and ambitious Julia Padavano in his freshman year of college, it’s as if the world has lit up around him. With Julia comes her family, as she and her three sisters are inseparable. With the Padavanos, William experiences a newfound contentment; every moment in their house is filled with loving chaos. But then darkness from William’s past surfaces, jeopardizing not only Julia’s carefully orchestrated plans for their future, but the sisters’ unshakeable devotion to one another. The result is a catastrophic family rift that changes their lives for generations. Will the loyalty that once rooted them be strong enough to draw them back together when it matters most?
The Dial Press | 9780593243732
I WILL FIND YOU by Harlan Coben (Thriller)
David Burroughs was once a devoted father to his three-year-old son Matthew, living a dream life just a short drive away from the working-class suburb where he and his wife, Cheryl, first fell in love --- until one fateful night when David woke suddenly to discover Matthew had been murdered. Half a decade later, David has been wrongly accused and convicted of the murder, left to serve out his time in a maximum-security prison. Then Cheryl’s younger sister, Rachel, makes a surprise appearance during visiting hours bearing a strange photograph. It’s a vacation shot of a bustling amusement park a friend shared with her, and in the background is a boy bearing an eerie resemblance to David’s son. Even though it can’t be, David just knows: Matthew is still alive.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538748367
KÜNSTLERS IN PARADISE by Cathleen Schine (Fiction)
For years Mamie Künstler has lived happily in her bungalow in Venice, California, with her inscrutable housekeeper and her gigantic St. Bernard dog. Their tranquility is upended when Mamie’s grandson, Julian, arrives from New York City to seek his fortune in Hollywood. But it is 2020, the pandemic sweeps in, and Julian’s short visit suddenly has no end in sight. Mamie was only 11 when the Künstlers escaped Vienna in 1939. They made their way to sunny, surreal Los Angeles where they joined a colony of distinguished Jewish musicians, writers and intellectuals also escaping Hitler. Now, Mamie begins to tell Julian the buried stories of her early years in Los Angeles. While the pandemic cuts Julian off from the life he knows, Mamie’s tales open up a world of lives that came before him.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250805904
A LIKELY STORY by Leigh McMullan Abramson (Fiction)
Growing up in the ’90s in New York City as the only child of famous parents was both a blessing and a curse for Isabelle Manning. Her beautiful society hostess mother, Claire, and New York Times bestselling author father, Ward, were the city’s intellectual It couple. Ward’s glamorous obligations often took him away from Isabelle, but Claire made sure her childhood was always filled with magic and love. Now an adult, all Isabelle wants is to be a successful writer like her father. But after many false starts and the unexpected death of her mother, she faces her upcoming 35th birthday alone and on the verge of a breakdown. Her anxiety only skyrockets when she uncovers some shocking truths about her parents and begins wondering if everything she knew about her family was all based on an elaborate lie.
Atria Books | 9781982199241
ONCE UPON A TOME: The Misadventures of a Rare Bookseller by Oliver Darkshire (Memoir)
Some years ago, Oliver Darkshire stepped into the hushed interior of Henry Sotheran Ltd to apply for a job. Allured by the smell of old books and the temptation of a management-approved afternoon nap, Darkshire was soon unteetering stacks of first editions and placating the store’s resident ghost (the late Mr. Sotheran, hit by a tram). A novice in this ancient, potentially haunted establishment, Darkshire describes Sotheran’s brushes with history (Dickens, the Titanic), its joyous disorganization, and the unspoken rules of its gleefully old-fashioned staff. As Darkshire gains confidence and experience, he shares trivia about ancient editions and explores the strange space that books occupy in our lives --- where old books often have strong sentimental value, but rarely a commercial one.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324092070
ONCE WE WERE HOME by Jennifer Rosner (Historical Fiction)
Ana will never forget her mother’s face when she and her baby brother, Oskar, were sent out of their Polish ghetto and into the arms of a Christian friend. When a woman from a Jewish reclamation organization seizes them, Ana sees an opportunity to reconnect with her roots, while Oskar sees only the loss of the home he loves. Roger grows up in a monastery in France. When a relative seeks to retrieve him, the Church steals him across the Pyrenees before relinquishing him to family in Jerusalem. Renata is a post-graduate student in archaeology. After her mother’s death, her grief is entwined with all the questions her mother left unanswered. As their stories unexpectedly converge in Israel two decades later, they each must ask where and to whom they truly belong.
Flatiron Books | 9781250855541
THE OTHER FAMILY DOCTOR: A Veterinarian Explores What Animals Can Teach Us About Love, Life, and Mortality by Karen Fine, DVM (Memoir)
Karen Fine always knew that she wanted to be a vet and wasn't going to let anything stop her: not her allergy to cats, and not the fact that in the '80s veterinary medicine was still a mostly male profession. Inspired by her grandfather, a compassionate doctor who paid house calls to all his (human) patients, Dr. Fine persevered and brought her Oupa's principles into her own practice, which emphasizes the need to understand her patients’ stories to provide the best possible care. And in THE OTHER FAMILY DOCTOR, Dr. Fine shares all these touching, joyful, heartbreaking and life-affirming tales that make up her career as a vet.
Anchor | 9780593466896
OUR BEST INTENTIONS by Vibhuti Jain (Fiction)
Babur “Bobby” Singh, a single parent and the owner of fledgling Uber business “Move with Bobby,” remains ever hopeful about ascending the ladder of American success. He lives in an affluent suburb of New York with his introverted teen daughter, Angie. During summer break, Angie is walking home after training at the high school pool when she finds Henry McCleary, a classmate from a wealthy, prominent family, stabbed and bleeding on the football field. The police immediately focus their investigation on Chiara Thompkins, a runaway Black girl who disappears after the stabbing and wasn’t properly enrolled in the public high school. The incident sends shock waves through the community and reveals jarring truths about the lengths to which families will go to protect themselves.
William Morrow | 9780063278783
THE REAL WORK: On the Mystery of Mastery by Adam Gopnik (Essays)
For decades now, Adam Gopnik has been one of our most beloved writers, a brilliantly perceptive critic of art, food, France and more. But recently, he became obsessed by a more fundamental matter: How do masters learn their miraculous skill, whether it was drawing a museum-ready nude or baking a perfect sourdough loaf? How could anyone become so good at anything? There seemed to be a fundamental mystery to mastery. Was it possible to unravel it? In THE REAL WORK --- the term magicians use for the accumulated craft that makes for a great trick --- Gopnik becomes a dedicated student of several masters of their craft. Rejecting self-help bromides and bullet points, he nevertheless shows that the top people in any field share a set of common qualities and methods.
Liveright | 9781324090755
RED LONDON by Alma Katsu (Thriller)
After her role in taking down a well-placed mole inside the CIA, Agent Lyndsey Duncan arrives in London fully focused on her newest Russian asset, deadly war criminal Dmitri Tarasenko. That is until her MI6 counterpart, Davis Ranford, personally calls for her help. Following a suspicious attack on Russian oligarch Mikhail Rotenberg's property in a tony part of London, Davis needs Lyndsey to cozy up to the billionaire's aristocratic British wife, Emily Rotenberg. But before Lyndsey can cover much ground with her newfound friend, the CIA unveils a perturbing connection between Mikhail and Russia's geopolitical past, one that could upend the world order and jeopardize Lyndsey's longtime allegiance to the Agency.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593421956
RED QUEEN by Juan Gómez-Jurado (Mystery/Thriller)
Antonia Scott, the daughter of a British diplomat and a Spanish mother, has a gifted forensic mind, whose ability to reconstruct crimes and solve baffling murders is legendary. But after a personal trauma, she's refused to continue her work or even leave her apartment. Jon Gutierrez, a police officer in Bilbao --- disgraced, suspended and about to face criminal charges --- is offered a chance to salvage his career by a secretive organization that works in the shadows to direct criminal investigations of a highly sensitive nature. All he has to do is succeed where many others have failed: Convince a recalcitrant Antonia to come out of her self-imposed retirement, protecting her and helping her investigate a new, terrifying case.
Minotaur Books | 9781250853677
SO SHALL YOU REAP: A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery by Donna Leon (Mystery)
On a cold November evening, Guido Brunetti and Paola are up late when a call from his colleague Ispettore Vianello arrives, alerting the Commissario that a hand has been seen in one of Venice’s canals. The body is soon found, and Brunetti is assigned to investigate the murder of an undocumented Sri Lankan immigrant. As the investigation expands, Brunetti, Vianello, Commissario Griffoni and Signora Elettra each assemble pieces of a puzzle --- random information about real estate and land use, books, university friendships --- that appear to have little in common. Until Brunetti stumbles over something that transports him back to his own student days, causing him to reflect on lost ideals and the errors of youth, on Italian politics and history, and on the accidents that sometimes lead to revelation.
Atlantic Monthly Press | 9780802162366
TAKE WHAT YOU NEED by Idra Novey (Fiction)
Set in the Allegheny Mountains of Appalachia, TAKE WHAT YOU NEED traces the parallel lives of Jean and her beloved but estranged stepdaughter, Leah, who's sought a clean break from her rural childhood. In Leah’s urban life with her young family, she‘s revealed little about Jean, how much she misses her stepmother’s hard-won insights and joyful lack of inhibition. But with Jean’s death, Leah must return to sort through what’s been left behind. What Leah discovers is staggering: Jean has filled her ramshackle house with giant sculptures she’s welded from scraps of the area’s industrial history. There’s also a young man now living in the house who played an unknown role in Jean’s last years and in her art.
Viking | 9780593652855
THE TEACHERS: A Year Inside America's Most Vulnerable, Important Profession by Alexandra Robbins (Social Issues/Education)
Alexandra Robbins goes behind the scenes to tell the true, sometimes shocking, always inspirational stories of three teachers as they navigate a year in the classroom. She follows Penny, a southern middle school math teacher who grappled with a toxic staff clique at the big school in a small town; Miguel, a special ed teacher in the western United States who fought for his students both as an educator and as an activist; and Rebecca, an East Coast elementary school teacher who struggled to schedule and define a life outside of school. Robbins also interviewed hundreds of other teachers nationwide who share their secrets, dramas and joys. Interspersed among the teachers’ stories are hard-hitting essays featuring cutting-edge reporting on the biggest issues facing teachers today.
Dutton | 9781101986752
WHEN IN ROME by Liam Callanan (Fiction)
Claire is desperate to do something new and get a fresh start. Enter the chance to go to Rome. Home to a struggling convent facing a precipitous end, the city beckons Claire, who's long had a complicated relationship with religion. Once in Rome, she finds a group of funny, fearless nuns in a gorgeous villa. It all leads her to an unexpected question --- should she join the convent? --- and an answer that startles her as much as it does those closest to her. It also startles Marcus, a once-buzzy actor who is eternally in love with Claire. Marcus has come and gone from Claire’s life since college but now reappears in Rome just as she’s about to decide what’s next. As Claire searches for her higher calling, she finds that the key to her future may lay in her past --- and involves an actual key.
Dutton | 9780593184073
WOLF TRAP by Connor Sullivan (Thriller)
Under the direction of the Special Activities Center in the Operations Directorate of the CIA, over 300 highly trained agents operate in the darkest shadows of the country’s covert wars. Plucked from the highest echelons of America’s special mission units, these individuals go through rigorous training by the Agency to perfect the arts of assassination, sabotage, infiltration and guerrilla warfare. When diplomacy and military intervention fails, the President of the United States calls upon them to solve America’s most dangerous crises. Brian Rhome thought his time within this elite group was over. But now he’s on a desperate race against time around the globe as he confronts the traumas of his past and unravels a deadly conspiracy that threatens the highest levels of American democracy.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781982166427
On Sale the Week of March 13th in Paperback
March 14th
22 SECONDS by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro (Thriller)
SFPD Sergeant Lindsay Boxer has guns on her mind. There’s buzz of a last-ditch shipment of drugs and weapons crossing the Mexican border ahead of new restrictive gun laws. Before Lindsay can act, her top informant tips her to a case that hits disturbingly close to home. Former cops. Professional hits. All with the same warning scrawled on their bodies: You talk, you die. Now it’s Lindsay’s turn to choose.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538753163
AVALON by Nell Zink (Fiction)
Bran’s Southern California upbringing is anything but traditional. After her mother joins a Buddhist colony, Bran is raised by her “common-law stepfather” on Bourdon Farms --- a plant nursery that doubles as a cover for a biker gang. She spends her days tending plants, slogging through high school, and imagining what life could be if she had been born to a different family. And then she meets Peter, a beautiful, troubled and charming train wreck of a college student from the East Coast, who launches his teaching career by initiating her into the world of literature and aesthetics. As the two begin a volatile and ostensibly doomed long-distance relationship, Bran searches for meaning in her own surroundings.
Vintage | 9780593468159
THE BERLIN EXCHANGE by Joseph Kanon (Historical Thriller)
Berlin, 1963. The height of the Cold War. An early morning spy swap is taking place at a discreet border crossing usually reserved for East German VIPs. The Communists are trading two American students caught helping people to escape over the wall and an aging MI6 operative. On the other side of the trade is Martin Keller, a physicist who once made headlines but then disappeared into the English prison system. Keller’s most critical possession: his American passport. Keller’s most ardent desire: to see his ex-wife, Sabine, and their young son. He has worked for the service long enough to know that nothing happens by chance. They want him for something. Not physics; his expertise is out of date. Something else, which he cannot learn until he arrives in East Berlin, when suddenly the game is afoot.
Scribner | 9781982158668
THE BUCHAREST DOSSIER by William Maz (Thriller)
At the start of the 1989 uprising in Romania, CIA analyst Bill Hefflin --- a disillusioned Romanian expat --- arrives in Bucharest at the insistence of his KGB asset, code-named Boris. As Hefflin becomes embroiled in an uprising that turns into a brutal revolution, nothing is as it seems, including the search for his childhood love, which has taken on mythical proportions. With the bloody events unfolding at blinding speed, Hefflin realizes the revolution is manipulated by outside forces, including his own CIA and Boris --- the puppeteer who seems to be pulling all the strings of Hefflin’s life.
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608095445
THE CAT WHO SAVED BOOKS written by Sosuke Natsukawa, translated by Louise Heal Kawai (Fiction)
Bookish high school student Rintaro Natsuki is about to close the secondhand bookstore he inherited from his beloved bookworm grandfather. Then, a talking cat appears with an unusual request. The feline asks for --- or rather, demands --- the teenager’s help in saving books with him. The world is full of lonely books left unread and unloved, and the cat and Rintaro must liberate them from their neglectful owners. Their mission sends this odd couple on an amazing journey, where they enter different mazes to set books free. It all culminates in one final, unforgettable challenge --- the last maze that awaits leads Rintaro down a realm only the bravest dare enter.
HarperVia | 9780063095731
CHORUS by Rebecca Kauffman (Historical Fiction)
The seven Shaw siblings have long been haunted by two early and profoundly consequential events. Told in turns from the early 20th century through the 1950s, each sibling relays their own version of the memories that surround both their mother’s mysterious death and the circumstances of one sister’s scandalous teenage pregnancy. As they move into adulthood, the siblings assume new roles: caretaker to their aging father, addict, enabler, academic, decorated veteran, widow, and mothers and fathers to the next generation. Entangled in a family knot, the Shaw siblings face divorce, drama and death while haunted by a mother who was never truly there.
Counterpoint | 9781640095892
CITY ON FIRE by Don Winslow (Thriller)
Two criminal empires together control all of New England. Until a beautiful modern-day Helen of Troy comes between the Irish and the Italians, launching a war that will see them kill each other, destroy an alliance and set a city on fire. Danny Ryan yearns for a more “legit” life and a place in the sun. But as the bloody conflict stacks body on body and brother turns against brother, Danny has to rise above himself. To save his family and friends, he becomes a leader, a ruthless strategist, and a master of a treacherous game in which the winners live and the losers die. From the gritty streets of Providence to the glittering screens of Hollywood to the golden casinos of Las Vegas, Danny Ryan will forge a dynasty.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062851178
DAUGHTERS OF NANTUCKET by Julie Gerstenblatt (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
In 1846 Nantucket, Eliza Macy is struggling to conceal her financial trouble as she waits for her whaling captain husband to return from a voyage. In desperation, she turns against her progressive ideals and targets Meg Wright, a pregnant free Black woman trying to relocate her store to Main Street. Meanwhile, astronomer Maria Mitchell loves running Nantucket’s Atheneum and spending her nights observing the stars, yet she fears revealing the secret wishes of her heart. On a sweltering July night, a massive fire breaks out in town. With everything they possess now threatened, these three very different women are forced to reevaluate their priorities and decide what to save, what to let go, and what kind of life to rebuild from the ashes of the past.
Mira | 9780778333425
THE DIAMOND EYE by Kate Quinn (Historical Fiction)
After Hitler’s invasion of Russia, Mila Pavlichenko must forge herself from studious girl to deadly sniper --- a lethal hunter of Nazis known as Lady Death. When news of her 300th kill makes her a national heroine, Mila is sent to America on a goodwill tour. She finds herself isolated and lonely in the glittering world of Washington, DC --- until an unexpected friendship with First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt and an even more unexpected connection with a silent fellow sniper offer the possibility of happiness. But when an old enemy from Mila’s past joins forces with a deadly new foe lurking in the shadows, Lady Death finds herself battling her own demons and enemy bullets in the deadliest duel of her life.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063144705
FENCING WITH THE KING by Diana Abu-Jaber (Fiction)
The King of Jordan is turning 60! How better to celebrate the occasion than with his favorite pastime --- fencing --- and with his favorite sparring partner, Gabriel Hamdan. Amani, a divorced poet, jumps at the chance to accompany her father to his homeland for the King’s birthday. Her father’s past is a mystery to her --- even more so since she found a poem on blue airmail paper slipped into one of his old Arabic books, written by his mother, a Palestinian refugee who arrived in Jordan during World War I. Her words hint at a long-kept family secret, carefully guarded by Uncle Hafez, an advisor to the King, who has quite personal reasons for inviting his brother to the birthday party. The Hamdan brothers must face a reckoning, with themselves and with each other --- one that almost costs Amani her life.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324050315
THE FOUR WINDS by Kristin Hannah (Historical Fiction)
Texas, 1921. The Great War is over, the bounty of the land is plentiful, and America is on the brink of a new and optimistic era. But for Elsa Wolcott, deemed too old to marry in a time when marriage is a woman’s only option, the future seems bleak. Until the night she meets Rafe Martinelli and decides to change the direction of her life. By 1934, millions are out of work, and drought has devastated the Great Plains. Everything on the Martinelli farm is dying, including Elsa’s tenuous marriage; each day is a desperate battle against nature and a fight to keep her children alive. In this uncertain and perilous time, Elsa --- like so many of her neighbors --- must make an agonizing choice: fight for the land she loves, or leave it behind and go west, to California, in search of a better life for her family.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250178619
GIVE UNTO OTHERS: A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery by Donna Leon (Mystery)
Commissario Guido Brunetti is approached for a favor by Elisabetta Foscarini. Her son-in-law, Enrico Fenzo, has alarmed his wife (her daughter) by confessing that their family might be in danger because of something he’s involved with. Since Fenzo is an accountant, Brunetti logically suspects the cause of danger is related to the finances of a client. Yet his clients seem benign. However, when his friend’s daughter’s place of work is vandalized, Brunetti asks his own favors --- that his colleagues Claudia Griffoni, Lorenzo Vianello and Signorina Elettra Zorzi assist his private investigation, which soon enough turns official as they uncover the dark and Janus-faced nature of a venerable Italian institution.
Grove Press | 9780802162342
GOOD INTENTIONS by Kasim Ali (Fiction)
It’s the countdown to the New Year, and Nur is steeling himself to tell his parents that he’s seeing someone. A young British Pakistani man, Nur has spent years omitting details about his personal life to maintain his image as the golden child. And it’s come at a cost. Once, Nur was a restless college student, struggling to fit in. At a party, he meets Yasmina, a beautiful and self-possessed aspiring journalist. They start a conversation --- first awkward, then absorbing. And as their relationship develops, so too does Nur’s self-destruction. He falls deeper into traps of his own making, attempting to please both Yasmina and his family until he finally must reveal the truth: Yasmina is Black, and he loves her.
Holt Paperbacks | 9781250871121
THE GOOD LUCK CAFÉ by Annie Rains (Romance)
Paperback Original
Moira Green has a rewarding career and plenty of wonderful friends. Then everything in her life goes topsy-turvy when the town council plans to demolish the site of her mother’s beloved café to make room for much-needed parking. Moira is determined to save her mother’s business, so she swallows her pride and asks Gil Ryan for help. Moira and Somerset Lake’s mayor had been good friends until one night changed everything between them. Now, with Gil supporting the council’s plans, Moira is forced to find another way to save Sweetie’s --- and it involves campaigning against Gil. Going head-to-head in a battle of wills reveals more than either of them are ready for, and as the election heats up, so does their attraction.
Forever | 9781538710081
I LOVE IT WHEN YOU LIE by Kristen Bird (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Each of the three Williams sisters has a man in her life that she could do without. Tara, the pastor’s wife, has been stealing money from the church and would prefer that her husband stay out of it. Then there’s June, who would do anything to have a baby of her own, even if her husband is dead set against it. Clementine, the youngest, is entangled in an affair with her professor, a man whose behavior she's starting to seriously question. Their sister-in-law, Stephanie, knows all the family dirt and is watching the three of them --- and the men in their lives --- closely. When their beloved Gran dies, the Williams sisters return home to bury her. But their grandmother won’t be the only one they’ll put in a grave this weekend…because now someone has gone missing in the dark Appalachian woods.
Mira | 9780778333432
THE LAST CONFESSIONS OF SYLVIA P. by Lee Kravetz (Historical Fiction/Literary Mystery)
Estee, a seasoned curator for a small Massachusetts auction house, makes an astonishing find: the original manuscript of Sylvia Plath’s semi-autobiographical novel, THE BELL JAR, written by hand in her journals 55 years earlier. Vetting the document, Estee will discover she’s connected to Plath’s legacy in an unexpected way. Plath’s psychiatrist, Dr. Ruth Barnhouse, treats Plath during the dark days she spends at McLean Hospital following a suicide attempt, and eventually helps set the talented poet and writer on a path toward literary greatness. Poet Boston Rhodes, a malicious literary rival, pushes Plath to write about her experiences at McLean, tipping her into a fatal spiral of madness and ultimately forging her legacy.
Harper Perennial | 9780063140011
THE LAST TO VANISH by Megan Miranda (Psychological Thriller)
Ten years ago, Abigail Lovett fell into a job she loves, managing The Passage Inn, a cozy, upscale resort nestled in the North Carolina mountain town of Cutter’s Pass. Cutter’s Pass is best known for its outdoor offerings and mysterious history. As the book begins, the string of unsolved disappearances that has haunted the town is once again thrust into the spotlight when journalist Landon West, who was staying at the inn to investigate the story of the vanishing trail, disappears himself. When she finds incriminating evidence that may bring the community closer to the truth, Abby soon discovers how little she knows about her coworkers, neighbors and even those closest to her.
S&S/Marysue Rucci Books | 9781982147327
LOVE AND OTHER FLIGHT DELAYS by Denise Williams (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Love takes flight in a collection of sexy, fun novellas all set at the airport. The Love Connection: An airport pet groomer meets her frequent-flier crush and finds herself in a fake-dating situation with a professional risk assessor who moonlights as a romance author. The Missed Connection: Two strangers share a romantic night only to discover months later that they're professional rivals about to embark on an extended business trip together in this grumpy-meets-sunshine romance. The Sweetest Connection: Two best friends have one week to return a lost love letter found in a candy store at the airport --- and work up the courage to confess the deep feelings between them --- before one of them leaves the country.
Berkley | 9780593441077
ONE-SHOT HARRY by Gary Phillips (Historical Mystery)
Los Angeles, 1963. African American Korean War veteran Harry Ingram earns a living as a news photographer and occasional process server: chasing police radio calls and dodging baseball bats. With racial tensions running high on the eve of Martin Luther King’s Freedom Rally, Ingram risks becoming a victim at every crime scene he photographs. When Ingram hears about a deadly automobile accident on his police scanner, he recognizes the vehicle described as belonging to his good friend and old army buddy, a white jazz trumpeter. The LAPD declares the car crash an accident, but when Ingram develops his photos, he sees signs of foul play. Ingram feels compelled to play detective, even if it means putting his own life on the line.
Soho Crime | 9781641294577
OTHER PEOPLE’S CLOTHES by Calla Henkel (Thriller/Dark Humor)
Hoping to escape the pain of the recent murder of her best friend, art student Zoe Beech finds herself studying abroad in Berlin. She relies on the arrangements of fellow exchange student Hailey Mader, who idolizes Warhol and Britney Spears and wants nothing more than to be an art star. When Hailey stumbles on a posting for a high-ceilinged, prewar sublet by well-known thriller writer Beatrice Becks, the girls snap it up. Convinced that Beatrice intends to use their lives as inspiration for her next novel, Hailey vows to craft main-character-worthy personas. As the year unravels and events spiral out of control, they begin to wonder whose story they are living --- and how it will end.
Anchor | 9780593313787
PASSERSTHROUGH by Peter Rock (Fiction)
At age 11, Helen disappeared in the wilderness of Mount Rainier National Park while camping with her father, Benjamin. She was gone for almost a week before being discovered and returned to her family. It is now 25 years later, and after more than two decades of estrangement, Helen and Benjamin reconnect at his home in Portland, Oregon, to try to understand what happened during the days she was gone. Meanwhile, Benjamin meets an odd pair, a woman and boy who seem driven to help him learn more about Helen’s disappearance and send him on a journey that will lead to a murder house, uncanny possession and a bone-filled body of water known as Sad Clown Lake, a lake “that could only be found by getting lost, that was never in the same place twice.”
Soho Press | 9781641294614
PAY DIRT ROAD by Samantha Jayne Allen (Mystery)
Recently graduated from college and back home in Garnett, Texas, waitressing, lacking not in ambition but certainly in direction, Annie McIntyre is lured into the family business --- a private investigation firm --- by her supposed-to-be-retired grandfather, Leroy, despite the rest of the clan’s misgivings. When a waitress at the café goes missing, Annie and Leroy begin an investigation that leads them down rural routes and haunted byways, to noxious-smelling oil fields and to the glowing neon of local honky-tonks. As Annie works to uncover the truth, she finds herself identifying with the victim in increasing, unsettling ways, and realizes she must confront her own past if she wants to survive this homecoming.
Minotaur Books | 9781250882929
THE SIGN FOR HOME by Blair Fell (Romance)
Arlo Dilly is young, handsome and eager to meet the right girl. He also happens to be DeafBlind, a Jehovah’s Witness and under the strict guardianship of his controlling uncle. His chances of finding someone to love seem slim to none. And yet, it happened once before. Many years ago, at a boarding school for the Deaf, Arlo met the love of his life --- a mysterious girl with onyx eyes and beautifully expressive hands that told him the most amazing stories. But tragedy struck, and their love was lost forever. Or so Arlo thought. After years trying to heal his broken heart, Arlo is assigned a college writing assignment that unlocks buried memories of his past. Soon he wonders if the hearing people he was supposed to trust have been lying to him all along, and if his lost love might be found again.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781982175962
STIFLED LAUGHTER: One Woman's Story About Fighting Censorship by Claudia Johnson (Memoir)
Part memoir, part courtroom drama, and part primer for advocates fighting assaults on free speech, STIFLED LAUGHTER is the story of one woman's efforts to restore literary classics to the classrooms of rural north Florida. Updated with a new introduction, Claudia Johnson's honest, often hilarious, first-person account of censorship in its modern form provides valuable insight into why the books children read at school remains a controversial issue, and why free speech in America remains a precarious right. Johnson fights tirelessly to keep texts like Lysistrata and “The Millers Tale” in Florida school textbooks regardless of a preacher’s efforts to take them out. Readers are given a glimpse into the courtroom and all the drama, passion and hard work that follows.
Fulcrum Publishing | 9781682753491
THREE DEBTS PAID: A Daniel Pitt Novel by Anne Perry (Historical Mystery)
A serial killer is roaming the streets of London, and Daniel Pitt’s university chum Ian, now a member of the police, is leading the search. The murders happen on rainy nights, but Ian knows the victims must have something in common beyond the weather. He turns to Miriam fford Croft, Daniel’s good friend and now officially one of the first female pathologists in London, to tap her scientific know-how to find details he and Daniel have missed. With Miriam involved in the murder investigation, Ian passes Daniel the case of Nicholas Wolford, their former university professor. Charged with assault after reacting violently to an accusation of plagiarism, Wolford is loath to admit he was in the wrong. But Daniel must defend him --- whether he likes him or not.
Ballantine Books | 9780593358757
TSARINA by Ellen Alpsten (Historical Fiction)
St. Petersburg, 1725. Peter the Great lies dying in his magnificent Winter Palace. The weakness and treachery of his only son has driven his father to an appalling act of cruelty and left the empire without an heir. Russia risks falling into chaos. Into the void steps the woman who has been by his side for decades: his second wife, Catherine Alexeyevna. Born into devastating poverty, Catherine used her extraordinary beauty and shrewd intelligence to ingratiate herself with Peter’s powerful generals, finally seducing the Tsar himself. But even amongst the splendor and opulence of her new life, she knows the peril of her position. Can she keep the Tsar’s death a secret as she plays a lethal game to destroy her enemies and take the Crown for herself?
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250214447
UNTIL THE LAST OF ME: A Take Them to the Stars Novel by Sylvain Neuvel (Historical Thriller/Science Fiction)
The First Rule is the most important: Always run, never fight. For generations, Mia’s family has shaped human history to push them to the stars. The year is 1968, and she is on the cusp of destiny, poised to launch the first humans into space. But she cannot take them to the stars, not quite yet. Her adversary is at her heels, the future of the planet at stake, and obeying the First Rule is no longer an option. For the first time in 100 generations, Mia’s family will have to choose to stand their ground, risking not only their bloodline but the future of the human race.
Tordotcom | 9781250262127
VERA WONG’S UNSOLICITED ADVICE FOR MURDERERS by Jesse Q. Sutanto (Mystery)
Paperback Original
Vera Wong lives above her forgotten tea shop in the middle of San Francisco’s Chinatown. One morning, Vera discovers a dead man in the middle of her tea shop. In his outstretched hand is a flash drive. After calling the cops, she swipes the flash drive from the body and tucks it safely into the pocket of her apron. Why? Because Vera is sure she would do a better job than the police possibly could, because nobody sniffs out a wrongdoing quite like a suspicious Chinese mother with time on her hands. Vera knows the killer will be back for the flash drive; all she has to do is watch the increasing number of customers at her shop and figure out which one among them is the killer. What Vera does not expect is to form friendships with her customers and start to care for each and every one of them.
Berkley | 9780593549223
|