May 2, 2023

May 2, 2023

In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of May 1st and May 8th that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers, along with Bonus News, where we call out a contest, feature or review that we want to let you know about so you have it on your radar.

This week, we are calling attention to our Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks feature for May, which includes Indie Next, LibraryReads, Oprah's Book Club, the Barnes & Noble Book Club, Reese's Book Club, the "Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club, the "Good Morning America" Book Club, and more.

We hosted our latest “Bookaccino Live” Book Group event last Wednesday night. Kristin Hannah joined us to discuss her most recent book, THE FOUR WINDS. Now in paperback, it was an instant #1 New York Times bestseller when it released in hardcover in 2021, a “Read with Jenna” Today Show Book Club pick, and a Bookreporter.com Bets On selection. This rich, sweeping novel stunningly brings to life the Great Depression and the people who lived through it.

Kristin shared her research process, which consists of a year of reading everything she can get her hands on about her chosen topic --- including memoirs --- to give her insight into the time period. She talked about discovering that Elsa was her protagonist, not Elsa’s daughter Loreda, and how that meant abandoning hundreds of pages of writing. And she revealed the very interesting way that she came up with the title of the book. Readers participated on and off camera with some excellent questions that made for a robust discussion. Click here to watch the video or here to listen to the podcast.

Upcoming Virtual Book and Author Events

Below are three upcoming virtual book and author events that you may be interested in attending. Click on the links for more info and to register.

Wednesday, May 3rd at 5pm ET: Browseabout Books and Lewes Public Library: Join Lewes Public Library for a conversation with Shannon McKenna Schmidt, author of THE FIRST LADY OF WORLD WAR II: Eleanor Roosevelt's Daring Journey to the Frontlines and Back. Joining Shannon in conversation will be Paul Sparrow, the former director of the FDR Presidential Library and Museum.

Wednesday, May 3rd at 7pm ET: "Friends and Fiction": The "Friends and Fiction" authors --- Mary Kay Andrews, Kristin Harmel, Kristy Woodson Harvey and Patti Callahan Henry --- will be celebrating the launch of Patti's new historical novel, THE SECRET BOOK OF FLORA LEA, which is May's Barnes & Noble Book Club pick.

Tuesday, May 9th at 3pm ET: Barnes & Noble Book Club: Join Barnes & Noble as they welcome Jeannette Walls for a live book club event to discuss HANG THE MOON, April's B&N Book Club pick. She will be in conversation with Shannon DeVito, the Sr. Director of Book Strategy and Customer Experience at B&N, and Miwa Messer, B&N’s Editorial Director.

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

On Sale the Week of May 1st in Hardcover

May 1st

THE 1998 YANKEES: The Inside Story of the Greatest Baseball Team Ever by Jack Curry (Sports)
The visiting clubhouse in San Diego was soggy, sweaty and sticky after the 1998 Yankees swept the Padres in four games and celebrated winning their 24th World Series title. The players raised bottles of champagne, sprayed the bubbly on each other, and reveled in a baseball season that might have been more memorable than any in history. Jack Curry was part of that unforgettable scene as a reporter, navigating around the clubhouse to ask the same, pertinent question. After winning an unprecedented 125 games and pummeling teams along the way, were these Yankees the best team ever? Twenty five years later, Curry revisits that season to discuss how that team was built and why the Yankees were such a talented, refreshing and successful club.
Twelve | 9781538722978

THE 23rd MIDNIGHT by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro (Thriller)
Detective Lindsay Boxer put serial killer Evan Burke in jail. Reporter Cindy Thomas wrote a book that put him on the bestseller list. An obsessed maniac has turned Burke’s true-crime story into a playbook. And is embellishing it with gruesome touches all his own. Now Lindsay is tracking an elusive suspect, and the entire Murder Club is facing destruction.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316402781

ROAD TO NOWHERE: The Early 1990s Collapse and Rebuild of New York City Baseball by Chris Donnelly (Sports/History)
After the chaos of the 1980s, the New York Yankees finally bottomed out in 1990. The team finished in last place, enduring one of their worst seasons ever. Setting out to rebuild the franchise, Gene Michael made shrewd trades and free agent signings, and he allowed the team’s prospects to develop in the Minor Leagues before getting to the Bronx. Meanwhile, the Mets, beloved for their intensity and hard-partying ways in the 1980s, became everything that had driven fans away from the Yankees. They made bad trades and questionable signings, fired managers seemingly every year, and were a powder keg of never-ending controversy. But by 1996, despite their record, the Mets were already making moves that would return them to relevance and set them on a path to the ultimate showdown with the Yankees.
University of Nebraska Press | 9781496221421

May 2nd

ALL THE DAYS OF SUMMER by Nancy Thayer (Fiction)
When her marriage fizzles out, Heather Willette decides to leave her husband and rent a cottage on Nantucket. Her plan is going perfectly --- until her son, Ross, announces he’s moving to Nantucket to work at his girlfriend’s family’s construction business instead of going back home to work with his own father. Worst of all for Heather, this means having to get along with her. Kailee Essex is thrilled that Ross is willing to move to her hometown. She has big hopes for their happily ever after, especially now that her parents are finally showing interest in her career. She’s less thrilled, however, about his mother living nearby. Kailee has clashed with Heather since the day they met. But anything is possible in the summer sun and sea breezes of Nantucket --- even reconciliation.
Ballantine Books | 9780593358450

BAD, BAD SEYMOUR BROWN: A Corie Geller Novel by Susan Isaacs (Mystery)
When Corie Geller asked her parents to move from their apartment into the suburban McMansion she shares with her husband and teenage daughter, she assumed they'd fit right in with the placid life she’d opted for when she left the Joint Anti-terrorism Task Force of the FBI. But then her retired NYPD detective father gets a call from good-natured and slightly nerdy film professor April Brown --- one of the victims of a case he was never able to solve. When April was a five-year-old, she’d emerged unscathed from the arson that killed her parents. Now, two decades later, April is asking for help. Someone has made an attempt on her life. Corie and her dad immediately say yes and jump into a full-fledged investigation. If they don’t move fast, whoever attacked April is sure to strike again.
Atlantic Monthly Press | 9780802159069

BELOW THE LINE: A Hollywood Crime Novel by Lowell Cauffiel (Hard-boiled Crime Fiction)
Former Detroit homicide detective Edwin Blake broke into show business as a script consultant on cop movies. Now living in Los Angeles five years later, Blake is suffering from clinical depression, is no longer in demand in film and TV --- and money is short. But things look up when Blake gets a call from wealthy, oddball producer Jason “JP” Perry, telling him he wants to hire him for a future cable TV series. But there’s a catch. First he wants Blake to locate the missing ex-wife of a “friend of a friend” from Chicago. However, Blake is not the only one on the case. Hired gun Warren Poole also has been contracted to find the woman. When a corrupt Hollywood producer, an ex-cop with a conscience, and a career criminal without one all have the same quarry, trouble is bound to ensue.
Arcade Crimewise | 9781956763485

CAMERA GIRL: The Coming of Age of Jackie Bouvier Kennedy by Carl Sferrazza Anthony (Biography)
CAMERA GIRL brings to cinematic life Jackie Bouvier Kennedy’s years as a young, single woman trying to figure out who she wanted to become. Chafing at the expectations of her family and the societal limitations placed on women in that era, Jackie pursued her dream career as a writer. Set primarily during the years of 1949 to 1953, when Jackie was in her early 20s, the book recounts in heretofore unrevealed detail the story of her late college years and her early adulthood as a working woman.
Gallery Books | 9781982141875

CHAIN-GANG ALL-STARS by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Dystopian Fiction/Satire)
Loretta Thurwar and Hamara “Hurricane Staxxx” Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE --- or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment --- a highly popular, highly controversial, profit-raising program in America’s increasingly dominant private prison industry. It’s the return of the gladiators, and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom. In CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death-matches for packed arenas with righteous protestors at the gates. Thurwar and Staxxx, both teammates and lovers, are the fan favorites. And if all goes well, Thurwar will be free in just a few matches. As she prepares to leave her fellow Links, she considers how she might help preserve their humanity, in defiance of these so-called games.
Pantheon | 9780593317334

CLYTEMNESTRA by Costanza Casati (Historical Fiction)
You were born to a king, but you marry a tyrant. You stand by helplessly as he sacrifices your child to placate the gods. You watch him wage war on a foreign shore, and you comfort yourself with violent thoughts of your own. Because this was not the first offense against you. This was not the life you ever deserved. And this will not be your undoing. Slowly you plot. But when your husband returns in triumph, you become a woman with a choice. Acceptance or vengeance, infamy follows both. So you bide your time and force the gods' hands in the game of retribution. For you understood something long ago that the others never did. If power isn't given to you, you have to take it for yourself.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781728268231

THE COVENANT OF WATER by Abraham Verghese (Historical Fiction)
Spanning the years 1900 to 1977, THE COVENANT OF WATER is set in Kerala, on South India’s Malabar Coast, and follows three generations of a family that suffers a peculiar affliction: In every generation, at least one person dies by drowning --- and in Kerala, water is everywhere. At the turn of the century, a 12-year-old girl from Kerala’s long-existing Christian community, grieving the death of her father, is sent by boat to her wedding, where she will meet her 40-year-old husband for the first time. From this unforgettable new beginning, the young girl --- and future matriarch, known as Big Ammachi --- will witness unthinkable changes over the span of her extraordinary life, full of joy and triumph, as well as hardship and loss, her faith and love the only constants.
Grove Press | 9780802162175

CULTURED: A Jake Longly Thriller by D.P. Lyle (Mystery/Thriller)
Jake Longly is back where he belongs: relaxing on the beach in front of his restaurant in Gulf Shores, Alabama. His peace is interrupted, however, when he receives a call from his private investigator father. April Wilkerson has gone missing from Lindemann Farms, the rustic yet posh resort built by self-help and financial guru Jonathon Lindemann. Lindemann, founder of The Lindemann Method (TLM), recruits wealthy people to join his program, charging a hefty entry fee but in return promising huge financial gains and self-enlightenment. Jake’s celebrity status makes him the best person for the case. When Jake and his girlfriend, Nicole, go on an undercover visit to Lindemann Farms, some suspicious activity makes them wonder about the legitimacy of TLM.
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608095520

THE DAYDREAMS by Laura Hankin (Fiction)
Back in 2004, The Daydreams had it all: a cast of innocent-seeming teenagers acting and singing their hearts out, amazing ratings, and a will-they-or-won’t-they romance that steamed up fan fiction forums. Then, during the live season two finale, it all imploded, leaving everyone scrambling to understand why. Afterward, the four stars went down very different paths. Now, though, the fans are demanding a reunion special. The stars all have private reasons to come back. But as they tentatively rediscover the magic of the original show, old secrets threaten to resurface --- including the real reason behind their downfall. Will this reunion be a chance to make things right? Or will it be the biggest mess the world has ever seen? No matter what, the ratings will be wild.
Berkley | 9780593438183

DID YOU HEAR ABOUT KITTY KARR? by Crystal Smith Paul (Fiction)
When Kitty Karr Tate, a white icon of the silver screen, dies and bequeaths her multimillion-dollar estate to the St. John sisters --- three young, wealthy Black women --- it prompts questions. Lots of questions. A celebrity in her own right, Elise St. John would rather focus on sorting out Kitty’s affairs than deal with the press. But what she discovers in one of Kitty’s journals rocks her world harder than any other brewing scandal could --- and between a cheating fiancé and the fallout from a controversial social media post, there are plenty. The truth behind Kitty's ascent to stardom from her beginnings in the segregated South threatens to expose a web of unexpected family ties, debts owed and debatable crimes that could unravel the all-American fabric of the St. John sisters and those closest to them.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250815309

THE EAST INDIAN by Brinda Charry (Historical Fiction)
Meet Tony: insatiably curious and deeply compassionate with a unique perspective on every scene he encounters. Kidnapped and transported to the New World after traveling from the British East India Company’s outpost on the Coromandel Coast to the teeming streets of London, young Tony finds himself in Jamestown, Virginia, where he and his fellow indentured servants must work the tobacco plantations. Orphaned and afraid, Tony initially longs for home. But as he adjusts to his new environment, finding companionship and even love, he can envision a life for himself after servitude. His dream: to become a medicine man, or a physician’s assistant, an expert on roots and herbs, a dispenser of healing compounds.
Scribner | 9781668004524

THE FERRYMAN by Justin Cronin (Dystopian Thriller/Science Fiction)
The archipelago of Prospera lies hidden from the horrors of a deteriorating outside world. Its lucky citizens enjoy long, fulfilling lives until the monitors embedded in their forearms fall below 10 percent. Then they retire themselves, embarking on a ferry ride to the island known as the Nursery, where their failing bodies are renewed, their memories are wiped clean, and they are readied to restart life afresh.  Proctor Bennett has a satisfying career as a ferryman, gently shepherding people through the retirement process. But then comes the day he is summoned to retire his own father, who gives him a disturbing and cryptic message before being wrestled onto the ferry. Soon Proctor finds himself questioning everything he once believed --- and on a desperate mission to uncover the truth.
Ballantine Books | 9780525619475

THE FIRST LADY OF WORLD WAR II: Eleanor Roosevelt's Daring Journey to the Frontlines and Back by Shannon McKenna Schmidt (History)
On August 27, 1943, news broke in the United States that First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt was on the other side of the world. A closely guarded secret, she had left San Francisco aboard a military transport plane headed for the South Pacific to support the troops on the frontlines of World War II. Americans had believed she was secluded at home. As Allied forces battled the Japanese for control of the region, Eleanor was there on the frontlines, spending five weeks traveling, on a mission as First Lady of the United States to experience what our servicemen were experiencing...and report back home.
Sourcebooks | 9781728256610

THE GIRL BY THE BRIDGE: A Detective Konrad Novel by Arnaldur Indridason (Mystery)
An elderly couple are worried about their granddaughter. They know she's been smuggling drugs, and now she's gone missing. Looking for help, they turn to Konrad, a former policeman whose reputation precedes him. Always absent-minded, he constantly ruminates on the fate of his father, who was stabbed to death decades ago. But digging into the past reveals much more than anyone set out to discover, and a little girl who drowned in the Reykjavik city pond unexpectedly captures everyone's attention.
Minotaur Books | 9781250892607

THE HALF MOON by Mary Beth Keane (Fiction)
Malcolm Gephardt, the longtime bartender at the Half Moon, has always dreamed of owning a bar. When his boss finally retires, Malcolm stretches to buy the place. He sees unquantifiable magic and potential in the Half Moon and hopes to transform it into a bigger success but struggles to stay afloat. His smart and confident wife, Jess, has devoted herself to her law career. After years of trying for a baby, she is facing the idea that motherhood may not be in the cards for her. Like Malcolm, she feels her youth beginning to slip away and wonders how to reshape her future. THE HALF MOON takes place over the course of one week when Malcolm learns shocking news about Jess, a patron of the bar goes missing, and a blizzard hits the town of Gillam, trapping everyone in place.
Scribner | 9781982172602

A HISTORY OF BURNING by Janika Oza (Historical Fiction)
In 1898, Pirbhai, a teenage boy looking for work, is taken from his village in India to labor for the British on the East African Railway. Far from home, he commits a brutal act in the name of survival that will haunt him and his family for years to come. Pirbhai’s children are born in Uganda during the waning days of British colonial rule, and as the country moves toward independence, his granddaughters come of age in a divided nation. In 1972, the entire family is forced to flee under Idi Amin’s military dictatorship. Pirbhai’s grandchildren are now scattered across the world, struggling to find their way back to each other. One day a letter arrives with news that makes each generation question how far they are willing to go, and who they are willing to defy, to secure their own place in the world.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538724248

THE HUMBLE LOVER by Edmund White (Fiction/Humor)
Aldwych West, an 80-year-old modern-day aristocrat living alone in his Manhattan townhouse, is used to having what he wants. And when he sets eyes on August Dupond, a strong, stunningly beautiful soloist in the New York City Ballet, he decides he must have him. Soon they strike up a closeness that falls between the blurry lines of friendship, sponsorship and love, and August moves in with Aldwych. But eventually August starts bringing home other men, and a formidable woman in Aldwych's circle named Ernestine also takes a deep interest in the young, enchanting star. Messy entanglements and fierce rivalries ensue.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781639730889

LA TERCERA by Gina Apostol (Fiction)
Rosario, a Filipina novelist in New York City, has just learned of her mother’s death in the Philippines. Instead of rushing home, she puts off her return by embarking on a remote investigation into her family’s history and her mother’s supposed inheritance, a place called La Tercera, which may or may not exist. Each life Rosario explores opens onto an array of other lives and raises a multitude of new questions. But as the search for La Tercera becomes increasingly labyrinthine, Rosario’s mother and the entire Delgado family emerge in all their dizzying complexity: traitors and heroes, reactionaries and revolutionaries. Meanwhile, another narrative takes shape --- of the country’s erased history of exploitation and slaughter at the hands of American occupying forces.
Soho Press | 9781641293907

THE MARRIAGE ACT by John Marrs (Thriller)
Britain. The near-future. A right-wing government believes it has the answer to society’s ills --- the Sanctity of Marriage Act, which actively encourages marriage as the norm, punishing those who choose to remain single. But four couples are about to discover just how impossible relationships can be when the government is monitoring every aspect of our personal lives --- monitoring every word, every minor disagreement…and will use every tool in its arsenal to ensure everyone will love, honor and obey.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335005939

THE MIDNIGHT NEWS by Jo Baker (Historical Fiction)
It is 1940, and 20-year-old Charlotte Richmond watches from her attic window as enemy planes fly over London. Still grieving her beloved brother, who never returned from France, she is trying to keep herself out of trouble: holding down a typist job at the Ministry of Information, sharing gin and confidences with her best friend, Elena, and dodging her overbearing father. On her way to work, she often sees the boy who feeds the birds --- a source of unexpected joy amid the rubble of the Blitz. But every day brings new scenes of devastation, and after yet another heartbreaking loss, Charlotte has an uncanny sense of foreboding. Someone is stalking the darkness, targeting her friends. And now he’s following her. As grief and suspicion consume her, Charlotte’s nerves become increasingly frayed.
Knopf | 9780593534977

THE NIGERWIFE by Vanessa Walters (Literary Thriller/Mystery)
Nicole Oruwari has the perfect life: a handsome husband; a palatial house in the heart of glittering Lagos, Nigeria; and a glamorous group of friends. She left gloomy London and a troubled family past behind for sunny, moneyed Lagos, becoming part of the Nigerwives --- a community of foreign women married to Nigerian men. But when Nicole disappears without a trace after a boat trip, the cracks in her so-called perfect life start to show. As the investigation turns up nothing but dead ends, her auntie Claudine decides to take matters into her own hands. Armed with only a cell phone and a plane ticket to Nigeria, she digs into her niece’s life and uncovers a hidden side filled with dark secrets, isolation and even violence. But the more she discovers about Nicole, the more Claudine’s own buried history threatens to come to light.
Atria Books | 9781668011089

THE NIGHT FLOWERS by Sara Herchenroether (Mystery/Thriller)
In 1983, deep in New Mexico’s Gila National Forest, the bodies of a young woman and two children were found. Who were they? How did they get there? Thirty years later, two women find themselves drawn to the cold case. Librarian Laura MacDonald begins her own investigation as a way to distract herself from breast cancer treatments and becomes consumed by her search for answers. Jean Martinez is a veteran detective determined to keep working cold cases for the Sierra County police force even as her family begs her to retire. With only fragments from dusty case files and a witness who doesn’t want to remember, this unlikely duo is determined --- no matter the cost --- to uncover the truth behind the murders.
Tin House Books | 9781953534866

NO TWO PERSONS by Erica Bauermeister (Fiction)
Alice has always wanted to be a writer. Her talent is innate, but her stories remain safe and detached, until a devastating event breaks her heart open, and she creates a stunning debut novel. Her words find their way to readers, from a teenager hiding her homelessness, to a free diver pushing himself beyond endurance, an artist furious at the world around her, a bookseller in search of love, a widower rent by grief. Each one is drawn into Alice’s novel; each one discovers something different that alters their perspective, and presents new pathways forward for their lives. Together, their stories reveal how books can affect us in the most beautiful and unexpected of ways.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250284372

NONNA MARIA AND THE CASE OF THE STOLEN NECKLACE by Lorenzo Carcaterra (Mystery)
Two crimes have rocked the sun-drenched island of Ischia. And once again, the island’s denizens have called upon Nonna Maria, the espresso-brewing, sage-counsel-giving sleuth. A wealthy woman alleges that a valuable necklace has been stolen from her hotel room, and she blames Nonna Maria’s goddaughter as the most likely suspect. Nearby, the body of a woman is found on a curved road near the borough of Barano. The woman is not known to anyone on the island. The one potential suspect is a young friend of Nonna Maria’s who drove by the area that very night and thinks he might have hit something --- perhaps the woman in question. It’s up to Nonna Maria to string together the clues and solve these two mysteries before death comes to Ischia again.
Bantam | 9780593499184

PAPER NAMES by Susie Luo (Fiction)
Set in New York and China over three decades, PAPER NAMES explores what it means to be American from three different perspectives. There’s Tony, a Chinese-born engineer turned Manhattan doorman, who immigrated to the United States to give his family a better life. His daughter, Tammy, who we meet at age nine and follow through adulthood, grapples with the expectations of a first-generation American and her own personal desires. Finally, there’s Oliver, a handsome white lawyer with a dark family secret who lives in the building where Tony works. A violent attack causes their lives to intertwine in ways that will change them forever.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335426888

PINSTRIPES BY THE TALE: Half a Century In and Around Yankees Baseball by Marty Appel (Sports)
When 19-year-old Marty Appel got a job as a mail clerk for the New York Yankees, assigned to spend the summer of '68 answering Mickey Mantle’s fan letters, he couldn't have known it was just the start of over a half-century entwined with the Bronx Bombers. As a PR director, television producer, writer and historian, Appel never missed an opportunity to get to know the main characters --- and supporting cast --- of Yankees lore. The result is an unparalleled trove of colorful stories featuring a seemingly unending parade of characters, including Mantle, Joe DiMaggio, Yogi Berra, Thurman Munson, Derek Jeter, George Steinbrenner and everyone in between.
Triumph Books | 9781637272787

THE ROPE ARTIST written by Fuminori Nakamura, translated by Sam Bett (Noir Mystery)
Two detectives. Two identical women. One dead body --- then two, then three, then four. All knotted up in Japan’s underground BDSM scene and kinbaku, a form of rope bondage that bears a complex cultural history of spirituality, torture, cleansing and sacrifice. As Togashi, a junior member of the police force, investigates the murder of a kinbaku instructor, he finds himself unable to resist his own private transgressive desires. In contrast, Togashi’s Sherlock Holmesian colleague Hayama is morally upright to a fault, with a stalwart commitment to the truth and nearly superhuman powers of deduction. When Hayama notices a dangerous measure of darkness within Togashi, he embarks on a parallel investigation that soon spirals out of control.
Soho Crime | 9781641293259

THE SALT GROWS HEAVY by Cassandra Khaw (Fantasy/Horror)
You may think you know how the fairy tale goes: a mermaid comes to shore and weds the prince. But what the fables forget is that mermaids have teeth. And now her daughters have devoured the kingdom and burned it to ashes. On the run, the mermaid is joined by a mysterious plague doctor with a darkness of their own. Deep in the eerie, snow-crusted forest, the pair stumble upon a village of ageless children who thirst for blood and the three “saints” who control them. The mermaid and her doctor must embrace the cruelest parts of their true nature if they hope to survive.
Tor Nightfire | 9781250830913

THE SECRET BOOK OF FLORA LEA by Patti Callahan Henry (Historical Fiction)
In the war-torn London of 1939, 14-year-old Hazel and five-year-old Flora are evacuated to a rural village to escape the horrors of the Second World War. Hazel distracts her young sister with a fairy tale about a magical land, a secret place they can escape to that is all their own. When Flora suddenly vanishes while playing near the banks of the river, Hazel blames herself, and she carries that guilt into adulthood. Twenty years later, Hazel lives in an elegantly timeworn Bloomsbury flat with her charming boyfriend. But her tidy life is turned upside down when she unwraps a package containing an illustrated book called Whisperwood and the River of Stars. Could this book hold the secrets to Flora’s disappearance? Could it be a sign that her beloved sister is still alive?
Atria Books | 9781668011836

SUMMER ON SAG HARBOR by Sunny Hostin (Fiction)
In a hidden enclave in Sag Harbor, affectionately known as SANS --- Sag Harbor Hills, Azurest and Nineveh --- there’s a close-knit community of African American elites who escape the city and enjoy the beautiful warm weather and beaches at their vacation homes. Against the odds, Olivia Jones has blazed her own enviable career path and built her name in the finance world. Mourning both the loss and betrayal of Omar, a surrogate father to her and her two godsisters, Olivia is driven to solve the mystery of what happened to her biological father, a police officer who was unjustly killed. Untethered from her life in New York City, Olivia moves to a summer home in Sag Harbor and begins forging a new community out in SANS. As the summer stretches on, each relationship teaches her more about who she really is.
William Morrow | 9780062994219

SWAMP STORY by Dave Barry (Fiction/Humor)
Jesse Braddock is trapped in a tiny cabin deep in the Everglades with her infant daughter and ex-boyfriend, a wannabe reality TV star. She stumbles across a long-lost treasure that could solve all her problems. But some very bad men are also looking for the treasure, and they know Jesse has it. Meanwhile, Ken Bortle of Bortle Brothers Bait and Beer has hatched a scheme to lure tourists to his failing store by making viral videos of the “Everglades Melon Monster.” Incredibly, this plan actually works, inspiring a horde of TikTokers to swarm into the swamp in search of the monster at the same time villains are on the hunt for Jesse’s treasure. Amid this mayhem, a presidential hopeful arrives in the Everglades to start his campaign. Needless to say, it does not go as planned.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982191337

TELL ME EVERYTHING: A Memoir by Minka Kelly (Memoir)
Fans know her as the spoiled, rich cheerleader Lyla Garrity on “Friday Night Lights” or as the affluent, mysterious Samantha on the HBO megahit “Euphoria.” But as revealed for the first time in these pages, Minka Kelly’s life has been anything but easy. Raised by a single mother who worked as a stripper and struggled with addiction, Minka spent years waking up in strange apartments as she and her mom bounced around the country, relying on friends and relatives to take them in. She reconnected with her father, Aerosmith’s Rick Dufay, and eventually made her way to Los Angeles, where she landed the role of a lifetime on “Friday Night Lights.” Now an established actress and philanthropist, Minka takes this next step in her career as a writer.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250852069

THE TWENTY by Sam Holland (Psychological Thriller)
When DCI Adam Bishop arrives at the crime scene in the dead of night, the sight of the body is bad enough. But what Adam notices next chills him to his core. More bodies surface. And the spray-painted numbers daubed above the corpses reveal the horrific truth: the killer is counting down. But to what end? Adam has no idea, until Dr. Romilly Cole knocks on his door with damning evidence pointing to a series of murders 25 years earlier --- a case she knows intimately from her past. Now it’s personal --- and the next knock on his door could be fatal.
Crooked Lane Books | 9781639102563

WE ARE TOO MANY: A Memoir [Kind of] by Hannah Pittard (Memoir)
In this wryly humorous and innovative look at a marriage gone wrong, Hannah Pittard recalls a decade’s worth of unforgettable conversations, beginning with the one in which she discovers her husband has been having sex with her charismatic best friend, Trish. These time-jumping exchanges are fast-paced, intimate and often jaw-dropping in their willingness to reveal the vulnerabilities inherent in any friendship or marriage. Blending fact and fiction, sometimes recreating exchanges with extreme accuracy and sometimes diving headlong into pure speculation, Pittard takes stock not only of her own past and future but also of the larger, more universal experiences they connect with --- from the depths of female rage to the heartbreaking ways we inevitably outgrow certain people.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250869043

THE WEDDING PLANNER by Danielle Steel (Fiction)
Faith Ferguson is New York’s most in-demand wedding planner. But as much as she enjoys her work, her two failed engagements leave her with no desire to get married herself. She finds fulfillment in her close relationship with her twin sister, Hope; her role as a mentor for her assistant, Violet; and her career. This year, new clients have flocked to her, and she signs up an extravagant reception, a mid-sized gathering and an intimate soirée, in addition to her mother’s next marriage and Violet’s modest ceremony. Faith finds herself forming bonds with her new clients and their loved ones --- most notably the handsome brother of one of her grooms. But in no time, Faith is grappling with private quarrels, unplanned pregnancies, family scandals, dark secrets and the possibility of canceled ceremonies.
Delacorte Press | 9781984821775

YOU HAVE TO BE PREPARED TO DIE BEFORE YOU CAN BEGIN TO LIVE: Ten Weeks in Birmingham That Changed America by Paul Kix (History)
It’s one of the iconic photographs of American history: a Black teenager, a policeman and his lunging German Shepherd. Birmingham, Alabama, May 1963. In May 2020, as reporter Paul Kix stared at a different photo --- that of a Minneapolis police officer suffocating George Floyd --- he kept returning to the other photo taken half a century earlier, haunted by its echoes. What, Kix wondered, was the full legacy of the Birmingham photo? And of the campaign it stemmed from? In YOU HAVE TO BE PREPARED TO DIE BEFORE YOU CAN BEGIN TO LIVE, Paul Kix takes the reader behind the scenes as he tells the story of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference’s pivotal 10-week campaign in 1963 to end segregation in Birmingham, Alabama.
Celadon Books | 9781250807694

On Sale the Week of May 1st in Paperback

May 1st

SOMETHING BAD WRONG by Eryk Pruitt (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
True-crime podcaster Jess Keeler has returned to Deeton County, North Carolina, to pick up where her grandfather left off. Sheriff’s Deputy Big Jim Ballard was a respected detective --- until it all came crashing down during a 1972 murder investigation. For Jim, solving the murders of two teens should have been the highlight of his already storied career. Instead, he battled his own mind, unsure where his hunches ended and the truth began. Working from her grandfather’s disjointed notes, Jess is sure that she can finally put the cold case --- and her family’s shame --- to rest. Enlisting the help of disgraced reporter Dan Decker, Jess soon discovers ugly truths about the first investigation, which was shaped by corruption, egos and a family secret that may be the key to the crime.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781662507052

May 2nd

THE BOYS by Katie Hafner (Fiction)
When introverted Ethan Fawcett marries fun-loving Barb, he has every reason to believe he will be delivered from a lifetime of solitude. She fills his world with a sense of adventure, expanding his horizons beyond his comfortable routine. To ease Ethan’s fears of becoming a father, Barb suggests they foster two young brothers, Tommy and Sam, and Ethan immediately falls in love with the boys. When the pandemic hits, he becomes obsessed with providing a perfect life for them. But instead of bringing Barb and Ethan closer together, the boys become a wedge in their relationship, as Ethan is unable to share with Barb a secret that has been haunting him since childhood. Then Ethan takes Tommy and Sam on a biking trip in Italy, and it becomes clear just how unusual Ethan and his boys are.
Spiegel & Grau | 9781954118348

BULLY MARKET: My Story of Money and Misogyny at Goldman Sachs by Jamie Fiore Higgins (Business & Economics/Memoir)
Jamie Fiore Higgins became one of the few women at the highest ranks of Goldman Sachs. Spurred on by the obligation she felt to her working-class immigrant family, she rose through the ranks and saw it all: out-of-control, lavish parties flowing with never-ending drinks; affairs flouted in the office; rampant drug use; and, most pervasively, a discriminatory culture that seemed designed to hold back the few women and people of color employed at the company. Despite Goldman Sachs having the right talking points and statistics, Fiore Higgins soon realized that these provided a veneer to cover up what she found to be an abusive culture. BULLY MARKET sounds the alarm on the culture of finance and corporate America, while offering clear, actionable ideas for creating a fairer workplace.
Simon & Schuster | 9781668001035

DARLING GIRL: A Novel of Peter Pan by Liz Michalski (Fiction/Magical Realism)
Life is looking up for Holly Darling, the granddaughter of Wendy --- yes, that Wendy. That is, until she gets a call that her daughter, Eden, who has been in a coma for nearly a decade, has gone missing from the estate where she’s been long tucked away. And, worst of all, Holly knows who must be responsible: Peter Pan, who is not only very real, but very dangerous. Holly is desperate to find Eden and protect her son, Jack, from a terrible web of family secrets before she loses both her children. And yet she has no one to turn to. Her mother, Jane, is the only other person in the world who knows that Peter is more than a story, but she refuses to accept that he is not the hero she’s always imagined.
Dutton | 9780593185650

ELEKTRA by Jennifer Saint (Historical Fiction/Mythology)
When Clytemnestra marries Agamemnon, she ignores the insidious whispers about his family line, the House of Atreus. But when, on the eve of the Trojan War, Agamemnon betrays Clytemnestra in the most unimaginable way, she must confront the curse that has long ravaged their family. In Troy, Princess Cassandra has the gift of prophecy but carries a curse of her own: no one will ever believe what she sees. When she is shown what will happen to her beloved city when Agamemnon and his army arrives, she is powerless to stop the tragedy from unfolding. Elektra, Clytemnestra and Agamemnon’s youngest daughter, wants only for her beloved father to return home from war. But can she escape her family’s bloody history, or is her destiny bound by violence, too?
Flatiron Books | 9781250773623

ENDLESS SUMMER: Stories from Days That Last Forever by Elin Hilderbrand (Fiction/Short Stories)
Bestselling author Elin Hilderbrand revisits her most treasured and iconic characters in this magical collection of stories. Collected in a single volume for the first time, ENDLESS SUMMER ranges from fan favorites to original, never-before-seen works. In “The Surfing Lesson,” the marriage at the heart of BEAUTIFUL DAY crosses uncertain territory when Margot Carmichael encourages her husband to reunite with his ex-girlfriend. The legendary weekend of a Harvard-Yale football game in “The Tailgate” recharts the course of Matchmaker Dabney Kimball’s first --- and abiding --- true love. And in a brand-new novella, “Summer of ’89,” we reconnect with the Levin sisters, whose distant adult lives collide once again at a tumultuous family reunion on Nantucket.
Back Bay Books | 9780316461023

THE FAVOR by Nora Murphy (Domestic Thriller)
Leah and McKenna have never met, though they have parallel lives. They don’t --- ever --- find themselves in the same train carriage or meet accidentally at the gym or the coffee shop. They don’t --- ever --- discuss their problems and find common ground. They don’t --- ever --- acknowledge to each other that although their lives have all the trappings of success, wealth and happiness, they are, in fact, trapped. Leah understands that what’s inside a home can be far more dangerous than what’s outside. So when she notices someone else who may be starting down the same path she’s on, she pays attention. She watches over McKenna from afar. Until one night she sees more than she bargained for.
Minotaur Books | 9781250888198

HELLTOWN: The Untold Story of a Serial Killer on Cape Cod by Casey Sherman (True Crime)
In the winter of 1969, the bodies of four young women were discovered in a cemetery near the tip of Cape Cod. In a place once known as Helltown, the victims had been shot, stabbed, dismembered and mutilated. As investigators would soon learn, the perpetrator was a young, handsome serial killer named Tony Costa. A bizarre former taxidermist with a split personality and a penchant for violence, Costa ultimately mobilized friends in the hippie community for support and retribution, and captivated literary icons and rivals Kurt Vonnegut and Norman Mailer. Costa embarked on a daring cat-and-mouse game with investigators, who --- as the body count kept growing --- were desperate to put an end to the killing season on Cape Cod.
Sourcebooks | 9781728271934

HIDE by Kiersten White (Supernatural Thriller)
The challenge: Spend a week hiding in an abandoned amusement park and don’t get caught. The prize: Enough money to change everything. Even though everyone is desperate to win --- to seize a dream future or escape a haunting past --- Mack is sure she can beat her competitors. All she has to do is hide, and she’s an expert at that. It’s the reason she’s alive and her family isn’t. But as the people around her begin disappearing one by one, Mack realizes that this competition is even more sinister than she imagined, and that together might be the only way to survive.
Del Rey | 9780593359259

HOOKED: A Memoir in Crafts by Sutton Foster (Memoir)
Whether she’s playing an “age-defying” book editor on television or dazzling audiences on the Broadway stage, Sutton Foster manages to make it all look easy. How? Crafting. From the moment she picked up a cross stitch needle to escape the bullying chorus girls in her early performing days, she was hooked. Cross stitching led to crocheting, crocheting led to collages, which led to drawing and so much more. Channeling her emotions into her creations centered Sutton as she navigated the significant moments in her life and gave her tangible reminders of her experiences. Now, in this charming and poignant collection, Sutton shares those moments, along with crochet patterns, recipes and so much more.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538734292

THE ISLAND VILLA by Sarah Morgan (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Celebrated romance author Catherine Swift has topped the bestseller lists for decades, though her personal story hasn’t been quite so successful. Three failed marriages have left her relationship with her daughters strained, but that’s about to be rectified. Engaged yet again, Catherine is counting on this wedding to be what finally brings them together as a family. Adeline doesn’t know what’s worse --- that her mother is getting married a fourth time, or that she’s being guilted into witnessing the train wreck at Catherine’s luxury villa in Corfu. Cassie, on the other hand, is thrilled by her mother’s news and admires Catherine’s resilience. As Cassie and Adeline arrive on the island, they each have very different expectations of what this week will bring, but in the lead-up to the wedding, all will be revealed --- for better or worse.
Canary Street Press | 9781335630957

JUST A REGULAR BOY by Catherine Ryan Hyde (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Raised off the grid in the middle of nowhere, Remy Blake is days shy of his eighth birthday when his survivalist father unexpectedly dies. As seasons pass, supplies run out, and fending for himself grows more desperate, Remy sets out on foot, unprepared for the great unknown of civilization. He is found --- near feral, silent and terrified --- in the small rural town of Blaire. To Anne, a nurturing mother of two adopted teenagers who’s still dealing with her own childhood rejections, Remy is not a lost cause. Just a challenging one. As Remy cautiously adapts to his new foster home, his family wants nothing more than to reassure him that he can trust the world. But to do so, they must first reexamine how much they trust the world themselves, and how much they should.
Lake Union Publishing | 9781662504358

LAST SUMMER ON STATE STREET by Toya Wolfe (Fiction)
Felicia “Fe Fe” Stevens is living with her vigilantly loving mother and older teenage brother in building 4950 of Chicago’s Robert Taylor Homes. It’s the summer of 1999, and her high-rise is next in line to be torn down by the Chicago Housing Authority. It is at this time that she forms a tentative trio with the devout Precious Brown and Stacia Buchanan, daughter of a Gangster Disciple Queen-Pin. But when Fe Fe welcomes a mysterious new friend, Tonya, into their fold, the dynamics shift, upending the lives of all four girls. Decades later, as she remembers that fateful summer, Fe Fe tries to make sense of the grief and fraught bonds that still haunt her and attempts to reclaim the love that never left.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063209732

LATE BLOOMERS by Deepa Varadarajan (Fiction/Humor)
Paperback Original
After 36 years of a dutiful but unhappy arranged marriage, recently divorced Suresh and Lata Raman find themselves starting new paths in life. Suresh is trying to navigate the world of online dating on a website that caters to Indians and is striking out at every turn --- until he meets a mysterious, devastatingly attractive younger woman. Lata is enjoying her newfound independence, but she's caught off guard when a professor in his early 60s starts to flirt with her. Meanwhile, Suresh and Lata's daughter, Priya, thinks her father's online pursuits are distasteful even as she embarks upon a clandestine affair of her own. And their son, Nikesh, pretends at a seemingly perfect marriage with his law-firm colleague and their young son, but hides the truth of what his relationship really entails.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780593498026

LAWS OF WRATH: A Martyr Maker Novel by Eriq La Salle (Thriller)
Paperback Original
NYPD detectives Phee Freeman and Quincy Cavanaugh are called to the scene of a brutal murder, where Freeman learns his older sibling is the victim. At first, the slaying looks like the random act of a vicious killer, but both detectives and FBI agent Janet Maclin soon discover this is something much more sinister. Similar ritualistic murders throughout the city leave the three investigators no choice but to join forces with Dr. Daria Zibik, a brilliant but deranged Satanic cult leader. Phee and his partners must do everything they can to stop the bloodshed and determine if the evil they are hunting and the psychopath they are trusting could actually be one and the same.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781728261034

THE LIONESS by Chris Bohjalian (Historical Thriller)
Tanzania, 1964. When A-list actress Katie Barstow and her new husband, David Hill, decide to bring their Hollywood friends to the Serengeti for their honeymoon, they envision paradise. Their glamorous guests expect civilized adventure: fresh ice from the kerosene-powered ice maker, dinners of cooked gazelle meat, and plenty of stories to tell over lunch back on Rodeo Drive. What Katie and her glittering entourage do not expect is this: a kidnapping gone wrong, their guides bleeding out in the dirt, and a team of Russian mercenaries herding their hostages into Land Rovers, guns to their heads. As the powerful sun gives way to night, the gunmen shove them into abandoned huts, and Katie prays for a simple thing: to see the sun rise one more time.
Vintage | 9780525565970

LUCKY TURTLE by Bill Roorbach (Fiction)
When 16-year-old Cindra Zoeller is sent to a reform camp in Montana after being involved in an armed robbery, she is thrust into a world of mountains, cowboys, prayers, miscreants and people from all walks of life like she’s never seen in suburban Massachusetts. At Camp Challenge, she becomes transfixed by Lucky, a camp employee of mysterious origin, and the chemistry between them is instant and profound. The pair escape together into the wilderness to create an idyllic life far from the reach of the law. But they can run from the outside world for only so long, and the consequences of their naïve fantasy of a future together --- and circumstances shaped by skin color --- will keep them apart for decades.
Algonquin Books | 9781643753904

MAGPIE by Elizabeth Day (Domestic Thriller)
Marisa and Jake are a perfect couple. And Kate, their new lodger, is the perfect roommate --- and not just because her rent payments will give them the income they need to start trying for the baby of their dreams. Except --- no one is truly perfect. Sure, Kate doesn’t seem to care much about personal boundaries and can occasionally seem overly familiar with Jake. But Marisa doesn’t let it concern her, knowing that soon Kate will be gone. Conceiving a baby is easier said than done, though, and Jake and Marisa’s perfect relationship is put to the test through months of fertility treatments and false starts. To make matters worse, Kate’s boundary-pushing turns into an all-out obsession --- with Jake, with Marisa and with their future child.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982187613

THE MANY DAUGHTERS OF AFONG MOY by Jamie Ford (Historical Fiction)
Dorothy Moy breaks her own heart for a living. As Washington’s former poet laureate, that’s how she describes channeling her dissociative episodes and mental health struggles into her art. But when her five-year-old daughter exhibits similar behavior and begins remembering things from the lives of their ancestors, Dorothy believes the past has truly come to haunt her. Through an experimental treatment designed to mitigate inherited trauma, Dorothy intimately connects with past generations of women in her family. As painful recollections affect her present life, she discovers that trauma isn’t the only thing she’s inherited. A stranger is searching for her in each time period --- a stranger who’s loved her through all of her genetic memories.
Atria Books | 9781982158224

MY SEVEN BLACK FATHERS: A Memoir of Race, Family, and the Mentors Who Made Me Whole by Will Jawando (Memoir)
Will Jawando tells a deeply affirmative story of hope and respect for men of color at a time when Black men are routinely stigmatized. As a boy growing up outside DC, Will, who went by his Nigerian name, Yemi, was shunted from school to school, never quite fitting in. He was a Black kid with a divorced white mother, a frayed relationship with his biological father, and teachers who scolded him for being disruptive in class and on the playground. Eventually, he became close to Kalfani, a kid he looked up to on the basketball court. Years after he got the call telling him that Kalfani was dead, another sickening casualty of gun violence, Will looks back on the relationships with an extraordinary series of mentors that enabled him to thrive.
Picador | 9781250867186

NERUDA ON THE PARK by Cleyvis Natera (Fiction)
The Guerreros have lived in Nothar Park, a predominantly Dominican part of New York City, for 20 years. When demolition begins on a neighboring tenement, Eusebia, an elder of the community, takes matters into her own hands by devising an increasingly dangerous series of schemes to stop construction of the luxury condos. Meanwhile, Eusebia’s daughter, Luz, a rising associate at a top Manhattan law firm, becomes distracted by a sweltering romance with the handsome white developer at the company her mother so vehemently opposes. As Luz’s father, Vladimir, secretly designs their retirement home in the Dominican Republic, mother and daughter collide, ramping up tensions in Nothar Park and racing toward a near-fatal climax.
Ballantine Books | 9780593358504

NIGHTWORK by Nora Roberts (Romantic Suspense)
Harry Booth started stealing at the age of nine to keep a roof over his ailing mother’s head. When she finally succumbed to cancer, he left Chicago --- but kept up his nightwork, developing into a master thief with a code of honor and an expertise in not attracting attention...or getting attached. Until he meets Miranda Emerson, and the powerful bond between them upends all his rules. But along the way, Booth has made some dangerous associations, including the ruthless Carter LaPorte. Knowing LaPorte will leverage any personal connection, Booth abandons Miranda for her own safety and disappears. But the bond between Miranda and Booth is too strong, pulling them inexorably back together. Now Booth must face LaPorte, to truly free himself and Miranda once and for all.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250848734

ON GIN LANE by Brooke Lea Foster (Historical Fiction)
Everleigh “Lee” Farrows thinks she finally has life all figured out: a handsome fiancé named Roland, a trust in her name, and a house in Bronxville waiting for her to fill it with three adorable children. That is, until Roland brings her out to the Hamptons for a summer that will change everything. Most women could only dream of the engagement present Roland unexpectedly bestows on Lee --- a beachside hotel on the prized Gin Lane --- but Lee’s delight is clouded by unpleasant memories of another hotel, the Plaza, where she grew up in the shadow of her mother’s mental illness. When tragedy strikes on the hotel’s opening weekend, the cracks in Lee’s picture-perfect future slowly begin to reveal themselves.
Gallery Books | 9781982174446

ONE OF THE GIRLS by Lucy Clarke (Psychological Thriller)
It was supposed to be the perfect weekend away. Six very different women travel to a sun-soaked Greek island for a bachelorette trip to celebrate Lexi’s upcoming wedding. From the glorious ocean views to the quaint tavernas and whitewashed streets, the vacation seems too good to be true. But dangerous undercurrents run beneath the sunset swims and midnight cocktails --- because each of the women is hiding a secret. Someone is determined to make sure that Lexi’s marriage never happens --- and that one of them doesn’t leave the island alive.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780593422663

OUT OF THE CORNER: A Memoir by Jennifer Grey (Memoir)
Jennifer Grey takes readers on a vivid tour of the experiences that have shaped her --- from her childhood as the daughter of Broadway and film legend Joel Grey, to the surprise hit with Patrick Swayze that made her America’s sweetheart, to her inspiring season 11 win on ABC’s "Dancing with the Stars." Throughout this intimate narrative, Grey richly evokes places and times that were defining for a generation --- from her wild child nights in New York’s club scene, to her roles in quintessential movies of the 1980s. With self-deprecating humor and frankness, she looks back on her unbridled, romantic adventures in Hollywood. And with enormous bravery, she shares the devastating fallout from a plastic surgery procedure that caused the sudden and stunning loss of her professional identity and career.
Ballantine Books | 9780593356722

PARADISE FALLS: A Deadly Secret, a Cover-Up, and the Women Who Forged the Modern Environmental Movement by Keith O'Brien (Biography)
Lois Gibbs, Luella Kenny and other mothers loved their neighborhood on the east side of Niagara Falls. It had an elementary school, a playground and rows of affordable homes. But in the spring of 1977, pungent odors began to seep into these little houses, and it didn’t take long for worried mothers to identify the curious scent. It was the sickly sweet smell of chemicals. In PARADISE FALLS, New York Times journalist Keith O’Brien uncovers how Gibbs and Kenny exposed the poisonous secrets buried in their neighborhood.
Vintage | 9780593312094

A PREVIOUS LIFE by Edmund White (Fiction/Humor)
Sicilian aristocrat and musician Ruggero and his younger American wife, Constance, agree to break their marital silence and write their Confessions. Until now they had a ban on speaking about the past, since transparency had wrecked their previous marriages. As the two alternate reading the memoirs they've written about their lives, Constance reveals her multiple marriages to older men, and Ruggero details the affairs he's had with men and women across his lifetime --- most importantly his passionate affair with the author Edmund White.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781639730728

SHRINES OF GAIETY by Kate Atkinson (Historical Fiction)
It’s 1926, and in a country still recovering from the Great War, London has become the focus for a delirious new nightlife. In the clubs of Soho, peers of the realm rub shoulders with starlets, foreign dignitaries with gangsters, and girls sell dances for a shilling a time. The notorious queen of this glittering world is Nellie Coker, ruthless but also ambitious to advance her six children, including the enigmatic eldest, Niven, whose character has been forged in the crucible of the Somme. But success breeds enemies, and Nellie’s empire faces threats from without and within. For beneath the dazzle of Soho’s gaiety, there is a dark underbelly, a world in which it is all too easy to become lost.
Anchor | 9780593466322

SISTER STARDUST by Jane Green (Historical Fiction)
In her 20s, and already a famous model and actress, Talitha moved from London to a palace in Marrakesh with her husband Paul Getty, the famous oil heir. There she presided over a swirling ex-pat scene filled with music, art, free love and a counterculture taking root across the world. When Claire arrives in London from her small town, she never expects to cross paths with a woman as magnetic as Talitha Getty. Yearning for the adventure and independence, she's swept off to Marrakesh, where the two become kindred spirits. But as their friendship blossoms and the two grow closer, the realities of Talitha's precarious existence set off a chain of dangerous events that could alter Claire's life forever.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335449580

TREAD OF ANGELS by Rebecca Roanhorse (Historical Fantasy)
The year is 1883, and the mining town of Goetia is booming as prospectors from near and far come to mine the powerful new element Divinity from the high mountains of Colorado with the help of the pariahs of society known as the Fallen. The Fallen are the descendants of demonkind living amongst the Virtues, the winners in an ancient war, with the descendants of both sides choosing to live alongside Abaddon’s mountain. Celeste, a card sharp with a need for justice, takes on the role of advocatus diaboli to defend her sister, Mariel, accused of murdering a Virtue.
Gallery/Saga Press | 9781982166199

TRUST by Hernan Diaz (Historical Fiction)
Even through the roar and effervescence of the 1920s, everyone in New York has heard of Benjamin and Helen Rask. He is a legendary Wall Street tycoon; she is the daughter of eccentric aristocrats. Together, they have risen to the very top of a world of seemingly endless wealth --- all as a decade of excess and speculation draws to an end. But at what cost have they acquired their immense fortune? This is the mystery at the center of Bonds, a successful 1937 novel that all of New York seems to have read. Yet there are other versions of this tale of privilege and deceit. Hernan Diaz’s TRUST elegantly puts these competing narratives into conversation with one another --- and in tension with the perspective of one woman bent on disentangling fact from fiction.
Riverhead Books | 9780593420324

TWO NIGHTS IN LISBON by Chris Pavone (Thriller)
Ariel Pryce wakes up in Lisbon, alone. Her husband is gone --- no warning, no note, not answering his phone. Something is wrong. She starts with hotel security, then the police, then the American embassy, at each confronting questions she can’t fully answer: What exactly is John doing in Lisbon? Why would he drag her along on his business trip? Who would want to harm him? And why does Ariel know so little about her new --- much younger --- husband? The clock is ticking. Ariel is increasingly frustrated and desperate, running out of time, and the one person in the world who can help is the one person she least wants to ask.
Picador | 9781250872302

UNDELIVERED: The Never-Heard Speeches That Would Have Rewritten History by Jeff Nussbaum (History)
For almost every delivered speech, there exists an undelivered opposite. These "second speeches" provide alternative histories of what could have been if not for schedule changes, changes of heart or momentous turns of events. In UNDELIVERED, political speechwriter Jeff Nussbaum presents the most notable speeches the public never heard, from Dwight Eisenhower’s apology for a D-Day failure to Richard Nixon’s refusal to resign the presidency, and even Hillary Clinton’s acceptance for a 2016 victory --- the latter never seen until now. Examining the content of these speeches and the context of the historic moments that almost came to be, Nussbaum considers not only what they tell us about the past but also what they can inform us about our present.
Flatiron Books | 9781250245670

VACATIONLAND by Meg Mitchell Moore (Fiction)
Louisa has come to her parents’ house in Maine this summer with all three of her kids, a barely written book and a trunkful of resentment. She is hoping that the vacation will soothe the irritation she is feeling about her life choices and replace it with enthusiasm for both her family and her work. But all isn’t well in Maine. Louisa’s father, a retired judge, is suffering from Alzheimer’s. Louisa’s mother is alternately pretending everything is fine and not pretending at all. And one of Louisa’s children happens upon a very confusing letter referring to something Louisa doesn’t think her father could possibly have done. Louisa is not the only one searching for something in Maine this summer.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063026124

WE DO WHAT WE DO IN THE DARK by Michelle Hart (Fiction)
Mallory is a freshman in college when she meets the woman. She sees her for the first time at the university’s gym, immediately entranced by this elegant, older person, whom she later learns is married and works at the school. Before long, they begin a clandestine affair. Mallory retreats from the rest of the world and into a relationship with this melancholy, elusive woman she admires so much yet who can never be fully hers, solidifying a sense of solitude that has both haunted and soothed her as long as she can remember. Years after the affair has ended, Mallory must decide whether to stay safely in this isolation, this constructed loneliness, or to step fully into the world and confront what the woman meant to her, for better or worse.
Riverhead Books | 9780593329689

THE WRONG GOOD DEED by Caroline B. Cooney (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
1964: Christaphine is 20 years old and determined to make a home and a life for her and her husband, Tommy. But when Christaphine discovers Tommy and his friends on the verge of committing a horrible crime, she does what she has to do to stop them. Afterwards, she knows she can't ever go home again. So she disappears. Fifty years later: When Clemmie's neighbor, Muffin, drags her from Sunday morning service at Trinity Hill Church, convinced that the man she's just spotted across the aisle is a dangerous figure from her past, at first Clemmie thinks she's being dramatic. But as Muffin reveals to Clemmie what happened in the middle of a field in South Carolina five decades ago, Clemmie realizes her friend has been keeping dark secrets --- just as Clemmie herself has.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781728274782

On Sale the Week of May 8th in Hardcover

May 9th

ATALANTA by Jennifer Saint (Historical Fiction/Mythology)
When Princess Atalanta is born, a daughter rather than the son her parents hoped for, she is left on a mountainside to die. Raised by a mother bear under the protective eye of the goddess Artemis, Atalanta grows up wild and free, with just one condition: if she marries, Artemis warns, it will be her undoing. Although she loves her beautiful forest home, Atalanta yearns for adventure. When Artemis offers her the chance to fight in her name alongside the Argonauts, the fiercest band of warriors the world has ever seen, Atalanta seizes it. The Argonauts' quest for the Golden Fleece is filled with impossible challenges, but Atalanta proves herself equal to the men she fights alongside. As she is swept into a passionate affair, she begins to question the goddess's true intentions.
Flatiron Books | 9781250855572

THE COLLECTED REGRETS OF CLOVER by Mikki Brammer (Fiction)
From the day she watched her kindergarten teacher drop dead during a dramatic telling of PETER RABBIT, Clover Brooks has felt a stronger connection with the dying than she has with the living. After the beloved grandfather who raised her dies alone while she is traveling, Clover becomes a death doula in New York City, dedicating her life to ushering people peacefully through their end-of-life process. Clover spends so much time with the dying that she has no life of her own, until the final wishes of a feisty old woman send Clover on a trip across the country to uncover a forgotten love story --- and perhaps her own happy ending.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250284396

THE DADDY DIARIES: The Year I Grew Up by Andy Cohen (Memoir/Humor)
One of Andy Cohen’s most momentous years starts off with a hangover the morning after an epic New Year’s Eve broadcast. But Andy doesn’t have time to dwell on the drama, as his role as media mogul is now matched with the responsibilities, joys and growing pains of parenthood. With a three-year-old son, Ben, and a daughter, Lucy, born in May, stories of late-night parties are replaced by early mornings with Ben, drama at the playground, and the musings of a single dad trying to navigate having it all. All this is set against the backdrop of constant "Housewives" drama, hijinks behind the scenes at "Watch What Happens Live," a revolving door of famous faces, and a worried mother (and newly minted grandmother) in St. Louis.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250890924

FEHERTY: The Remarkably Funny and Tragic Journey of Golf's David Feherty by John Feinstein (Sports/Biography)
John Feinstein, who has spent four decades finding intriguing sports characters and narratives and turning them into classic books, chronicles the life and career of David Feherty. The two have known each other for years, beginning with Feinstein’s work on A GOOD WALK SPOILED, which was researched and written at a time when Feherty was an excellent player who won five times in Europe and was on the '91 Ryder Cup team, but also was a functioning alcoholic. In retirement from the game, Feherty has sobered up, while his golf world persona has only grown in stature. Feherty is now a grand ambassador for golf, a man who is feted by US Presidents and respected by every big name in the game.
Hachette Books | 9780306830006

FIRE WITH FIRE by Candice Fox (Thriller)
Following their daughter's mysterious disappearance, Ryan and Elsie Delaney have taken the LAPD forensic lab hostage and given law enforcement an ultimatum: Find their daughter, Tilly, or they will destroy all the evidence they can find to other cold cases. Detective Charlie Hoskins has been undercover in a deadly motorcycle gang for five years. With his cover blown, he has no choice but to find Tilly himself or lose everything he's worked for as the lab burns. Lynette Lamb was a police officer --- until yesterday, when she was fired before her first beat. Figuring out what happened to Tilly is her one and only chance at rejoining the career she's prepared her whole life for. Hoskins and Lamb will have to team up to solve this cold case before the situation explodes.
Forge Books | 9781250875969

FIXIT: An IQ Novel by Joe Ide (Mystery)
Danger has always followed Isaiah Quintabe, a reality he’s keenly aware of as he’s laid up in a hospital bed, recovering from injuries sustained in his last case. So he’s unaware that Grace, the love of his life, has been abducted by his sworn enemy, the professional hitman Skip Hanson. Now, Isaiah and his sometimes partner, ex-hustler Juanell Dodson, must track scant clues through L.A.’s perilous landscape as Grace’s predicament grows more uncertain. A complication arises in the form of Winnie Hando, a homicide detective with something to prove. Stubborn and effective, Winnie sees his efforts as an obstruction to the investigation. As the desperate hunt winds on, Isaiah fears that even if he can bring Grace home alive, things between them will never be the same.
Mulholland Books | 9780316531085

THE HOUSE ON PRYTANIA: A Royal Street Novel by Karen White (Mystery)
Nola Trenholm may not be psychic herself, but she has spent enough time around people who are to know when ghosts are present, and there are definitely a few lingering spirits in her recently purchased Creole cottage in New Orleans. But with the sudden return of Sunny Ryan, Beau Ryan’s long-lost sister, Nola has plenty to distract her from her ghostly housemates. Especially when Beau, wanting to mete out justice to those he blames for Sunny’s kidnapping, asks Nola for a favor that threatens to derail her hard-won recovery and send her hurtling backward. Torn between helping Beau and protecting herself, Nola doesn’t realize until it’s almost too late why the ghosts are haunting her house --- a startling revelation that will throw her and Beau together to fight a common enemy.
Berkley | 9780593334621

INDEPENDENCE SQUARE: Arkady Renko in Ukraine by Martin Cruz Smith (Thriller)
It’s June 2021, and Arkady Renko knows that Russia is preparing to invade and subsequently annex Ukraine as it did Crimea in 2014. He is, however, preoccupied with other grievances. His longtime lover, Tatiana Petrovna, has deserted him for her work as an investigative reporter. And he is having trouble with his dexterity and balance. A visit to his doctor reveals that these are symptoms for Parkinson’s disease. Rather than dwell on his diagnosis, he throws himself into another case. An acquaintance has asked him to find his daughter, Karina, an anti-Putin activist who has disappeared. In the course of the investigation, Arkady falls for Karina's roommate, Elena, a Tatar from Ukraine. Later, in Crimea, Tatiana reemerges to complicate Arkady’s new romance.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982188306

THE LEAVING SEASON: A Memoir in Essays by Kelly McMasters (Memoir/Essays)
Kelly McMasters found herself in her mid-30s living her fantasy: she’d moved with her husband from New York City to rural Pennsylvania, where their children roamed idyllic acres. The pastoral landscape and the bookshop they opened were restorative at first, for her and her marriage. But soon she was quietly plotting her escape. In THE LEAVING SEASON, McMasters chronicles the heady rush of falling in love and carving out a life in the city, the slow dissolution of her relationship in an isolated farmhouse, and the complexities of making a new home for herself and her children as a single parent. She delves into the tricky and often devastating balance between seeing and being seen; loss and longing; desire and doubt; and the paradox of leaving what you love in order to survive.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393541052

THE MAKING OF ANOTHER MAJOR MOTION PICTURE MASTERPIECE written by Tom Hanks, illustrated by R. Sikoryak (Fiction)
Part One of this story takes place in 1947. A troubled soldier, returning from the war, meets his talented five-year-old nephew and then disappears for 23 years. Cut to 1970: The nephew, now drawing underground comic books, reconnects with his uncle and --- remembering the comic book he saw when he was five --- draws a new version with his uncle as a World War II fighting hero. Cut to the present day: A commercially successful director discovers the 1970 comic book and decides to turn it into a contemporary superhero movie. Cue the cast: We meet the film’s extremely difficult male star, his wonderful leading lady, the eccentric writer/director, the producer, the gofer production assistant, and everyone else on both sides of the camera.
Knopf | 9780525655596

THE NIGHTINGALE AFFAIR by Tim Mason (Historical Mystery/Thriller)
In 1855, Britain and France are fighting to keep the Russians from snatching the Crimean Peninsula from the Ottoman Empire, and Florence Nightingale has made it her mission to improve the wretched conditions in the British military hospitals in Turkey. When young women start turning up dead, their mouths sewn shut with embroidered fabric roses, Inspector Charles Field is sent from England to find the killer among the doctors, military men, journalists and others swarming Turkey’s famous Barrack Hospital. When the prime suspect takes his own life, the case is closed. Or is it? Twelve years later, women again start turning up dead, their mouths covered by that telltale embroidered rose. Did Field suspect the wrong man before, or is he dealing with a deviant copycat?
Algonquin Books | 9781643750392

OUR MIGRANT SOULS: A Meditation on Race and the Meanings and Myths of "Latino" by Héctor Tobar (Social Science/Ethnic Studies)
"Latino" is the most open-ended and loosely defined of the major race categories in the United States. OUR MIGRANT SOULS assembles the Pulitzer Prize winner Héctor Tobar's personal experiences as the son of Guatemalan immigrants and the stories told to him by his Latinx students to offer a spirited rebuke to racist ideas about Latino people. It decodes the meaning of "Latino" as a racial and ethnic identity in the modern United States, and seeks to give voice to the angst and anger of young Latino people who have seen latinidad transformed into hateful tropes about "illegals" and have faced insults, harassment and division based on white insecurities and economic exploitation.
MCD | 9780374609900

PIECES OF BLUE by Holly Goldberg Sloan (Fiction)
When Paul Hill drowns in a surfing accident, his broken-hearted wife, Lindsey, and their three children are left in huge financial trouble. Once Paul’s life insurance finally comes through, Lindsey impulsively uses the money to buy a charmingly ramshackle motel in Hawaii. Teenage Olivia quickly develops a crush on a handsome but monosyllabic skateboarder. Twelve-year-old Carlos reinvents himself as a popular kid named Carl. And Sena, the youngest, will do whatever it takes to protect her beloved motel chickens. But while the kids adjust, Lindsey is flailing. Then a handsome stranger rolls into the motel parking lot, and she’s surprised to feel a long-dormant part of herself stirring. She accepts his offer to help, unaware that he may have secrets of his own.
Flatiron Books | 9781250847300

THE PRIVATE LIFE OF SPIES AND THE EXQUISITE ART OF GETTING EVEN: Stories of Espionage and Revenge by Alexander McCall Smith (Fiction/Short Stories)
In this dual collection of short stories, Alexander McCall Smith brings his trademark humor and warmth to inventive tales of spying and vengeance. In one story, a spy dropped deep into enemy territory manages to disguise himself --- quite convincingly --- as a nun. In another, an invitation to join the Vatican Secret Service sends a prospective operative down a rabbit hole of controversy and confusion. A third story finds an author, on the brink of public ruin, seeing the error of his ways after an act of kindness saves the day. A keen observer of humanity imbued with a sparkling imagination, Smith illustrates throughout that transparency is paramount and forgiveness is restorative.
Pantheon | 9780593700693

THE QUANTUM SOLUTION: An Evan Ryder Novel by Eric Van Lustbader (Thriller/Adventure)
Evan Ryder is an extraordinary intelligence field agent now working for the security arm of Parachute, a private company and the world’s leader in the application of quantum technology. In the past, Ryder has done lethal battle in the modern global wars of power politics, extremist ideology, corrosive disinformation and outrageous greed. But now she finds herself in a battle arena whose dangers, while less obvious, are greater than anything the world has seen before --- the present and future war of weaponized quantum technology. When an elite Russian scientist and the American Secretary of Defense die, at the same time half a world apart, of inexplicable sudden catastrophic brain damage, the world’s intelligence services realize that the quantum war has truly begun.
Forge Books | 9781250839138

RED MEMORY: The Afterlives of China's Cultural Revolution by Tania Branigan (History)
“It is impossible to understand China today without understanding the Cultural Revolution,” Tania Branigan writes. During this decade of Maoist fanaticism between 1966 and 1976, children turned on parents, students condemned teachers, and as many as two million people died for their supposed political sins, while tens of millions were hounded, ostracized and imprisoned. Yet in China this brutal and turbulent period exists, for the most part, as an absence; official suppression and personal trauma have conspired in national amnesia. RED MEMORY uncovers 40 years of silence through the stories of individuals who lived through the madness.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324051954

RETROSPECTIVE written by Juan Gabriel Vásquez, translated by Anne McLean (Fiction)
Colombian film director Sergio Cabrera is in Barcelona for a retrospective of his work. It's a hard time for him: his father, actor Fausto Cabrera, has just died; his marriage is in crisis; and his home country has rejected peace agreements that might have ended more than 50 years of war. In the course of a few intense days, as his films are on exhibit, Sergio recalls the events that marked his family's unusual and dramatic lives. From the Spanish Civil War to the exile of his family to Latin America, and from the Cultural Revolution in China to the guerrilla movements of 1960s Colombia, Sergio and his family's experience is extraordinary by any standards. RETROSPECTIVE reveals the story of one man and his family, and a devastating portrait of the forces that shaped their lives and turned the world upside down.
Riverhead Books | 9780593539613

STAN LEE'S THE DEVIL'S QUINTET: THE SHADOW SOCIETY by Jay Bonansinga (Science Fiction/Thriller)
Ever since THE ARMAGEDDON CODE, the Devil’s Quintet have been using their demonic powers to fight evil and protect the world, while remaining nothing but an urban legend to the general public. But the Devil is not about to let them keep using his powers for good. Created by Satan himself to counter the Quintet, the Shadow Society are five saintly men and women who have been secretly (and strategically) possessed by five of Hell’s most powerful demons. Granted supernatural powers of their own, they are part of a literally diabolical plot to strike at the very heart of the Quintet --- and destroy humanity’s last hope!
Tor Books | 9781250776853

On Sale the Week of May 8th in Paperback

May 9th

ADRIFT by Lisa Brideau (Thriller)
Paperback Original
Ess wakes up alone on a sailboat in the remote Pacific Northwest with no memory of who she is or how she got there. She finds a note, but it's more warning than comfort: Start over. Don't make yourself known. Don't look back. Ess must have answers. She sails over a turbulent ocean to a town hundreds of miles away that she hopes might offer insight. The chilling clues she uncovers point to a desperate attempt at erasing her former life. But why? And someone is watching her…someone who knows she must never learn her truth. In Ess' world, the earth is precariously balanced at a climate tipping point, and she is perched at the edge of a choice. Which life does she want? The one taken from her --- and the dangerous secret that was buried --- or the new one she can make for herself?
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781728265681

THE BOYFRIEND CANDIDATE by Ashley Winstead (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Alexis Stone, a shy school librarian, meets Logan at a hotel bar. Audacious and filterless, Logan is Alexis’ opposite. Just as she’s about to fulfill her hookup wish, the hotel catches fire in a freak lightning storm. In their rush to escape, Logan is discovered carrying her into the street, where people are waiting with cameras. Alexis is bewildered until suddenly pictures of her and Logan escaping the fire are all over the internet. It turns out Logan is none other than Logan Arthur, the hotshot candidate challenging the Texas governor’s seat. The salacious scandal is poised to sink his career --- and jeopardize Alexis’ job --- until a solution is proposed: he and Alexis could pretend to be in a relationship until Election Day…in two months. What could possibly go wrong?
Graydon House | 9781525804960

DISAPPEARED by Bonnar Spring (Mystery/Thriller)
Julie Welch’s sister, Fay Lariviere, disappears from their hotel in Morocco. Although she leaves a note that she’ll be back in two days, Fay doesn’t return. Julie’s anger shifts to worry --- and to fear when she discovers a stalker. Then, an attack meant for Julie kills another woman. Searching Fay’s luggage and quizzing the hotel staff, Julie discovers Fay’s destination --- a remote village in the Saharan desert. Convinced her sister is in danger and propelled by her own jeopardy, Julie rushes to warn Fay. By the time she reaches the village, Julie finds that Fay has traveled deeper into the desert. With a villager as her guide, Julie follows, only to be stranded in the Sahara when the guide abandons her. Julie is eventually reunited with Fay --- in a prison cell --- and learns the reasons for Fay’s secrecy.
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608095605

DRAGONS OF DECEIT: Dragonlance Destinies, Volume 1 by Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman (Fantasy/Adventure)
Destina Rosethorn believes herself to be a favored child of destiny. But when her father dies in the War of the Lance, she watches her carefully constructed world come crashing down. She loses not only her beloved father but also the legacy he has left her: the family lands and castle. To save her father, she hatches a bold plan --- to go back in time and prevent his death. First, she has to secure the Device of Time Journeying. But to change time, she’ll need another magical artifact --- the most powerful and dangerous artifact ever created. Destina’s quest sets in motion a chain of disastrous events that threaten to divert the course of the River of Time, alter the past and forever change the future.
Random House Worlds | 9781984819390

ESCAPE: A Billy Harney Thriller by James Patterson and David Ellis (Thriller)
As Chicago PD’s special-ops leader, Detective Billy Harney knows well that money is not the only valuable currency. The filthy rich man he’s investigating is down to his last 20 million. He’s also being held in jail. For now. Billy’s unit is called in when an escape plan results in officers down and inmates vanished. In an empty lot, Billy spots two Kevlar vests. Two helmets. Two assault rifles. And a handwritten note: Hi, Billy, Are you having fun yet?
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538752920

FELLOWSHIP POINT by Alice Elliott Dark (Fiction)
Celebrated children’s book author Agnes Lee is determined to secure her legacy --- to complete what she knows will be the final volume of her pseudonymously written Franklin Square novels and permanently protect the peninsula of majestic coast in Maine known as Fellowship Point. To donate the land to a trust, Agnes must convince shareholders to dissolve a generations-old partnership. And one of those shareholders is her best friend, Polly Wister, who exalts in creating beauty and harmony in her home, in her friendships and in her family. Polly soon finds her loyalties torn between the wishes of her best friend and the wishes of her three sons. But what is it that Polly wants herself?
S&S/Marysue Rucci Books | 9781982131821

JUST LIKE MOTHER by Anne Heltzel (Psychological Thriller/Horror)
The last time Maeve saw her cousin was the night she escaped the cult in which they were raised. For the past two decades, Maeve has worked hard to build a normal life in New York City, where she keeps everything --- and everyone --- at a safe distance. When Andrea suddenly reappears, Maeve regains the only true friend she’s ever had. The more Maeve immerses herself in Andrea’s world, the more disconnected she feels from her life back in the city --- and the cousins’ increasing attachment triggers memories Maeve has fought hard to bury. But confronting the terrors of her childhood may be the only way for Maeve to transcend the nightmare still to come.
Tor Nightfire | 9781250787521

THE LITTLE FLOWER SHOP by Lori Foster (Romance)
Paperback Original
Since her divorce, Emily Lucretia has been focused on her flower shop and taking care of her aging aunt and uncle. Saul Culver, the town’s favorite bachelor and owner of the local barbecue joint, has been interested in Emily for a while. But as much as Emily knows about flowers, she can be a little oblivious to her own appeal. Saul is determined to show her just how special she is, but he isn’t the only one trying to get Emily out of her shell. Well-meaning locals have started tagging photos of Emily with #theflowerlady on social media --- and now the entire town is involved in finding her Mr. Right. Saul won't give up easily. He has finally caught her attention and is determined to convince Emily --- and the town --- that this is the real deal and not just some passing trend.
Canary Street Press | 9781335506382

LOCAL GONE MISSING by Fiona Barton (Mystery/Thriller)
Elise King is a successful and ambitious detective --- or she was before a medical leave left her unsure if she'd ever return to work. She now spends most days watching the growing tensions in her small seaside town of Ebbing --- the weekenders renovating old bungalows into luxury homes, and the locals resentful of the changes. The conflicts boil over when a newcomer wants to put the town on the map with a weekend music festival, and two teenagers overdose on drugs. When a man disappears the first night of the festival, Elise starts digging for answers. Ebbing is a small town, but it's full of secrets and hidden connections that run deeper and darker than Elise ever could have imagined.
Berkley | 9781984803061

THE MIDNIGHT LIBRARY by Matt Haig (Fiction)
Somewhere out beyond the edge of the universe, there is a library that contains an infinite number of books, each one the story of another reality. One tells the story of your life as it is, along with another book for the other life you could have lived if you had made a different choice at any point in your life. While we all wonder how our lives might have been, what if you had the chance to go to the library and see for yourself? Would any of these other lives truly be better? Nora Seed finds herself faced with this decision. Confronted with the possibility of changing her life for a new one, she must search within herself as she travels through the Midnight Library to decide what is truly fulfilling in life, and what makes it worth living in the first place.
Penguin Books | 9780525559498

THE MURDER RULE by Dervla McTiernan (Psychological Thriller)
First Rule: Make them like you. Second Rule: Make them need you. Third Rule: Make them pay. They think I’m a young, idealistic law student, that I’m passionate about reforming a corrupt and brutal system. They think I’m working hard to impress them. They think I’m here to save an innocent man on death row. They're wrong. I’m going to bury him.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063042216

NO ONE NEEDS TO KNOW by Lindsay Cameron (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
On UrbanMyth, an anonymous discussion board grouped by zip code, the residents of Manhattan’s exclusive Upper East Side disclosed it all --- things they would never share with their friends or their spouses. So when a “hacktivist” group breaks into the forum and exposes the real identity of each poster, the repercussions echo down Park Avenue with a force that none could have anticipated. And someone ends up dead. Is the murderer Heather, the outsider who would do anything to get her daughter into the elite’s good graces and into their even better schools? Norah, the high-powered executive failing to balance work with the emotional responsibilities of motherhood? Or Poppy, whose perfect-on-the-outside façade conceals more than her share of secrets?
Bantam | 9780593159101

SEASONAL FEARS by Seanan McGuire (Dark Fantasy)
Melanie has a destiny, though it isn’t the one everyone assumes it to be. She’s delicate; she’s fragile; she’s dying. Now, truly, is the winter of her soul. Harry doesn’t want to believe in destiny, because that means accepting the loss of the one person who gives his life meaning, who brings summer to his world. So, when a new road is laid out in front of them --- a road that will lead through untold dangers toward a possible lifetime together --- walking down it seems to be the only option. But others are following behind, with violence in their hearts. It looks like Destiny has a plan for them after all.
Tordotcom | 9781250768292

SWEET SWEET REVENGE LTD written by Jonas Jonasson, translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles (Fiction/Dark Humor)
Meet Ole Mbatian Jr., a Maasai warrior; Kevin, his sort-of-son; Agneta, a wronged and penniless ex-wife; and Johan, an unscrupulous Stockholm ad-man whose company specializes in revenge services. As Agneta and Kevin seek revenge against the gallery owner who has wronged them, this madcap, funny and philosophical novel takes off on a madcap journey that spans five continents and whirls around a colorful cast of characters, including a goat called Molly and the Pope. As he’s done in his previous novels, Jonas Jonasson acts as a travel guide through time, drops in a few lessons on colonialism and art history, and pokes fun at capitalism and the art world, with plenty of laughs along the way.
HarperVia | 9780063072169

TAKE NO NAMES by Daniel Nieh (Thriller)
Victor Li is a man without a past. To his new employer, Mark, he’s just an anonymous hired hand to help with the dirty work. Together, they break into storage units that contain the possessions of the recently deported, pocketing whatever is worth selling. Only Victor and his sister, Jules, know that he’s a wanted man. Amid the backpacks and suitcases, Victor makes the find of a lifetime: a gem rare and valuable enough to change his fortunes in an instant. Thankfully, its former owner, a woman named Song Fei, also left a book of cryptic notes --- including the name of a gemstone dealer in Mexico City. When Victor and Mark cross the southern border, they quickly realize that this gem is wrapped up in a much larger scheme than they imagined.
Ecco | 9780062886682

TRAILED: One Woman's Quest to Solve the Shenandoah Murders by Kathryn Miles (True Crime)
In May 1996, two skilled backcountry leaders, Lollie Winans and Julie Williams, entered Virginia’s Shenandoah National Park for a week-long backcountry camping trip. During their final days in the park, they descended the narrow remnants of a trail and pitched their tent in a hidden spot. After the pair didn’t return home as planned, park rangers found a scene of horror at their campsite --- their tent slashed open, their beloved dog missing and both women dead in their sleeping bags. The unsolved murders of Winans and Williams continue to haunt all who had encountered them or knew their story. When award-winning journalist and outdoors expert Kathryn Miles begins looking into the case, she discovers conflicting evidence, mismatched timelines and details that just don’t add up.
Algonquin Books | 9781643753874

THE UNSINKABLE GRETA JAMES by Jennifer E. Smith (Fiction)
Right after the sudden death of her mother and just before the launch of her high-stakes sophomore album, Greta James falls apart on stage. The footage quickly goes viral and she stops playing, her career suddenly in jeopardy --- the kind of jeopardy her father, Conrad, has always predicted. Months later, Greta reluctantly agrees to accompany Conrad on the Alaskan cruise her parents had booked to celebrate their 40th anniversary. It could be their last chance to heal old wounds in the wake of shared loss. But the trip will also prove to be a voyage of discovery for them both, and for Ben Wilder, a charming historian, onboard to lecture about THE CALL OF THE WILD, who is struggling with a major upheaval in his own life.
Ballantine Books | 9780593358290

Please visit the other websites in TheBookReportNetwork.com: ReadingGroupGuides.com and AuthorsOnTheWeb.com.

And be sure to connect with us on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and YouTube.