September 12, 2023

September 12, 2023

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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of September 11th and September 18th 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 New Release Spotlight of THE RIVER WE REMEMBER, William Kent Krueger's latest stand-alone novel. It’s an Indie Next pick, a Book of the Month Club selection, a Barnes & Noble Most Anticipated Book of September, and an upcoming Bookreporter.com Bets On title. In the summer of 1958, a small Minnesota town is rocked by the murder of its most powerful citizen, pouring fresh fuel on old grievances.

Carol Fitzgerald's latest "Bookreporter Talks To" interview is with Angie Kim, whose new novel, HAPPINESS FALLS, packs so much between its pages and will be a Bets On selection. It’s a family story with a mystery woven through. Much of the book revolves around 14-year-old Eugene, who has Angelman syndrome, and what he may know about the disappearance of his father.

Angie talks about how long this story was in her head (more than a decade) and why she felt that this was the right time to tell it. She notes that she aimed to look at the impact of someone who is verbally disabled on the entire family. And she wanted to address how those who are different may be in jeopardy when being looked at by law enforcement as they would not be attuned to things like Eugene’s jumping to calm himself or the verbal noises he makes. These cues could keep someone who is disabled from protecting themselves.

Angie also discusses her creative writing work with students who have issues with oral communication and shares how the person who performs Eugene’s part for the audiobook was hand-selected by her from among this group. Click here to watch the video or here to listen to the podcast.

Upcoming Virtual Book and Author Events

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

Wednesday, September 13th at 2pm ET: "Bookaccino Live: A Lively Talk About Books": Carol Fitzgerald will present titles releasing between September 12th and October 3rd, along with a few from November, that she would like to get on your radar.

Wednesday, September 13th at 7pm ET: "Friends and Fiction": The "Friends and Fiction" authors --- Mary Kay Andrews, Kristin Harmel, Kristy Woodson Harvey and Patti Callahan Henry --- will talk to Denene Millner and Jessica Ward about their latest novels: Denene's ONE BLOOD and Jessica's THE ST. AMBROSE SCHOOL FOR GIRLS.

Wednesday, September 13th at 9pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Charlaine Harris will talk about her latest novel, ALL THE DEAD SHALL WEEP, the fifth installment in her Gunnie Rose series. Sisters Lizbeth Rose and Felicia, as well as brother Eli and Peter, are reunited in Texoma only to break apart before the Wizard’s Ball held in San Diego, which will determine all their fates.

Thursday, September 14th at 4pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: K.J. Dell'Antonia will talk about her new book, PLAYING THE WITCH CARD, which the publisher has described as "Gilmore Girls" meets Practical Magic. Three generations of magic. Two rogue exes. One Tarot deck. The perfect recipe for chaos.

Monday, September 18th at 8pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Lou Berney will talk about his new thriller, DARK RIDE. Hardy “Hardly” Reed is drifting through life. When he encounters two children who are being physically abused, he's stirred to action for the first time in his life. However, he'll have to become smarter and more capable than he's ever been if he wants to save the kids --- and himself.

This Week's Bonus News:
Our New Release Spotlight of
THE RIVER WE REMEMBER by William Kent Krueger
An Upcoming Bookreporter.com Bets On Title

On Sale the Week of September 11th in Hardcover

September 12th

CHENNEVILLE: A Novel of Murder, Loss, and Vengeance by Paulette Jiles (Historical Fiction)
Union soldier John Chenneville suffered a traumatic head wound in battle. By the time he returned home, the Civil War was over, but tragedy awaited. John’s beloved sister and her family had been brutally murdered. Their killer goes by many names. He fought for the North and wore a badge in the name of the law. But the man John knows as A. J. Dodd is little more than a rabid animal, slaughtering without reason or remorse, needing to be put down. John will not be deterred. Not by the U.S. Marshal who threatens to arrest him for murder should he succeed. And not by Victoria Reavis, the telegraphist aiding him in his death-driven quest, yet hoping he’ll choose to embrace a life with her instead.
William Morrow | 9780063252684

CODE RED: A Mitch Rapp Novel by Vince Flynn and Kyle Mills (Political Thriller)
Mitch Rapp hates owing anyone a favor --- especially when it’s the world’s most powerful crime lord. But when Damian Losa calls, Mitch is honor-bound to answer. The Syrian government appears to have created a highly addictive new narcotic that it plans to distribute throughout Europe. It’s a major threat to Losa’s business, and he’s determined to send someone to keep him on top by any means necessary. As he crosses into war-torn Syria, Rapp quickly discovers a shocking truth. The new drug isn’t being produced by Damascus to prop up the government’s collapsing finances. Instead, it was created by Russia’s asymmetrical warfare unit, not for profit but as a weapon against the West.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781982164997

DOPPELGANGER: A Trip into the Mirror World by Naomi Klein (Memoir)
Not long ago, celebrated activist and public intellectual Naomi Klein was confronted with a doppelganger whose views she found abhorrent but whose name and public persona were sufficiently similar to her own that many people got confused about who was who. Destabilized, she lost her bearings, until she began to understand the experience as one manifestation of a strangeness many of us have come to know but struggle to define. Under such conditions, reality itself seems to have become unmoored. Is there a cure for our moment of collective vertigo? In DOPPELGANGER, Klein turns her gaze inward to our psychic landscapes, and outward to the possibilities for building hope amid intersecting economic, medical and political crises.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374610326

ELON MUSK by Walter Isaacson (Biography)
When Elon Musk was a kid in South Africa, he was regularly beaten by bullies. But the physical scars were minor compared to the emotional ones inflicted by his father. He developed into a tough yet vulnerable man-child, prone to abrupt Jekyll-and-Hyde mood swings, with an exceedingly high tolerance for risk, a craving for drama, an epic sense of mission, and a maniacal intensity that was callous and at times destructive. For two years, Walter Isaacson shadowed Musk, attended his meetings, walked his factories with him, and spent hours interviewing him, his family, friends, coworkers and adversaries. The result is this revealing inside story, filled with amazing tales of triumphs and turmoil, that addresses the question: Are the demons that drive Musk also what it takes to drive innovation and progress?
Simon & Schuster | 9781982181284

THE ENCHANTERS by James Ellroy (Historical Mystery)
Los Angeles, August 4, 1962. The city broils through a midsummer heat wave. Marilyn Monroe ODs. A B-movie starlet is kidnapped. The overhyped LAPD overreacts. Chief Bill Parker is looking for some getback. The Monroe deal looks like a moneymaker. He calls in Freddy Otash. The freewheeling Freddy O: tainted ex-cop, defrocked private eye, dope fiend and freelance extortionist. A man who lives by the maxim “Opportunity is love.” Freddy gets to work. He dimly perceives Marilyn Monroe’s death and the kidnapped starlet to be a poisonous riddle that only he has the guts and the brains to untangle.
Knopf | 9780593320440

FAIR ROSALINE by Natasha Solomons (Historical Fiction)
The first time Romeo Montague sees young Rosaline Capulet, he falls instantly in love. Rosaline, headstrong and independent, is unsure of Romeo's attentions, but with her father determined that she join a convent, this handsome and charming stranger offers her the chance of a different life. Soon, though, Rosaline begins to doubt all that Romeo has told her. She breaks off the match, only for Romeo's gaze to turn towards her cousin, 13-year-old Juliet. Gradually Rosaline realizes that it is not only Juliet's reputation at stake, but her life. With only hours remaining before she will be banished behind the nunnery walls, will Rosaline save Juliet from her Romeo? Or can this story only ever end one way?
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781728281230

FIRST GEN: A Memoir by Alejandra Campoverdi (Memoir)
Alejandra Campoverdi has been a child on welfare, a White House aide to President Obama, a Harvard graduate, a gang member’s girlfriend, and a candidate for U.S. Congress. She’s ridden on Air Force One and in G-rides. She’s been featured in Maxim magazine and had a double mastectomy. Living a life of contradictory extremes often comes with the territory when you’re a “First and Only.” It also comes at a price. With candor and heart, Alejandra retraces her trajectory as a Mexican American woman raised by an immigrant single mother in Los Angeles. Foregoing the tidy bullet points of her resume and instead shining a light on the spaces between them, what emerges is a powerful testimony that shatters the one-dimensional glossy narrative we are often sold of what it takes to achieve the American Dream.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538757185

HEMLOCK ISLAND by Kelley Armstrong (Horror)
Laney Kilpatrick has been renting her vacation home to strangers. But broken belongings and campfires that nearly burn down the house have escalated to bloody bones, hex circles, and terrified renters who have fled after finding blood and nail marks all over the guest room closet. When Laney shows up to investigate with her teenage niece in tow, she discovers that her ex, Kit, has also been informed and is there with Jayla, his sister and her former best friend. Then Sadie, another old high school friend, charters over with her brother, who’s now a cop. There are tensions and secrets, whispers in the woods and, before long, the discovery of a hand poking up from the earth. Then the body that goes with it. But by that time, someone has taken off with their one and only means off the island.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250284198

HOW I WON A NOBEL PRIZE by Julius Taranto (Fiction)
Helen is a young physicist on a path to solve high-temperature superconductivity (which could save the planet). When she discovers that her brilliant adviser is involved in a sex scandal, Helen is torn. Should she give up on her work with him? Or should she accompany him to a controversial university, founded by a provocateur billionaire, that hosts academics other schools have thrown out? Helen decides she must go. She brings along her partner, Hew, who is much less sanguine about living on an island where the disgraced and deplorable get to operate with impunity. On campus, Helen finds herself drawn to an iconoclastic older novelist, while Hew stews in an increasingly radical protest movement. Their rift deepens until both confront choices that will reshape their lives --- and maybe the world.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316513074

LARRY McMURTRY: A Life by Tracy Daugherty (Biography)
In over 40 books, in a career that spanned over 60 years, Larry McMurtry staked his claim as a superior chronicler of the American West, and as the Great Plains’ keenest witness since Willa Cather and Wallace Stegner. Tracy Daugherty's latest book traces his origins as one of the last American writers who had direct contact with this country’s pioneer traditions. It follows his astonishing career as bestselling novelist, Pulitzer Prize winner, author of the beloved LONESOME DOVE, Academy Award-winning screenwriter, public intellectual and passionate bookseller.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250282330

NORMAL RULES DON'T APPLY: Stories by Kate Atkinson (Fiction/Short Stories)
In NORMAL RULES DON’T APPLY, nothing is quite as it seems. We meet a queen who makes a bargain she cannot keep; a secretary who watches over the life she has just left; a lost man who bets on a horse that may --- or may not --- have spoken to him. Everything that readers love about the novels of Kate Atkinson is here: the inventiveness, the verbal felicity, the sharp observations of human nature, and the deeply satisfying emotional wallop.
Doubleday | 9780385549509

OMEGA FARM: A Memoir by Martha McPhee (Memoir)
In March 2020, Martha McPhee, her husband and their two almost-grown children set out for her childhood home in New Jersey, where she finds herself grappling simultaneously with a mother slipping into severe dementia and a house that’s been neglected of late. As Martha works to manage her mother’s care and the sprawling, ramshackle property, she is pulled back into her childhood, almost against her will. Martha grew up at Omega Farm in a house filled with art, people and the kind of chaos that was sometimes benevolent, sometimes more sinister. Caring for her mother and her children, struggling to mend the forest, the past relentlessly asserts itself --- even as Martha’s mother, the person she might share her memories with or even try to hold to account, no longer knows who Martha is.
Scribner | 9781982197995

ONCE A GIANT: A Story of Victory, Tragedy, and Life After Football by Gary Myers (Sports)
The 1986 New York Giants are legendary. A championship team coached by Bill Parcells and his wunderkind assistant Bill Belichick, featuring future Hall of Famers and All-Pros like Phil Simms, Lawrence Taylor, Mark Bavaro and Harry Carson. They were dominant on the field and formed a unique and lasting bond off of it. More than 30 years later, it's the friendships that have proved more important --- a matter of life and death. In ONCE A GIANT, bestselling football writer Gary Myers tells the story of that team and what became of it. Gridiron glory eventually faded; chronic pain, addiction and, in some cases, crimes have followed. Many football players face these harsh realities, but the Giants have confronted and survived them together.
PublicAffairs | 9781541702394

ROUGE by Mona Awad (Gothic Horror/Dark Humor)
When her estranged mother Noelle mysteriously dies, Belle finds herself back in Southern California, dealing with her mother’s considerable debts and grappling with lingering questions about her death. The stakes escalate when a strange woman in red appears at the funeral, offering a tantalizing clue about her mother’s demise, followed by a cryptic video about a transformative spa experience. With the help of a pair of red shoes, Belle is lured into the barbed embrace of La Maison de Méduse, the same lavish, culty spa to which her mother was devoted. There, Belle discovers the frightening secret behind her (and her mother’s) obsession with the mirror --- and the great shimmering depths (and demons) that lurk on the other side of the glass.
S&S/Marysue Rucci Books | 9781982169695

SCATTERSHOT: Life, Music, Elton, and Me by Bernie Taupin (Memoir)
Half of one of the greatest creative partnerships in popular music, Bernie Taupin is the man who wrote the lyrics for Elton John, who conceived the ideas that spawned countless hits. Together they were a duo, a unit, an immovable object. Their extraordinary, half-century-and-counting creative relationship has been chronicled in biopics (like 2019's Rocketman) and even John's own autobiography, ME. But Taupin, a famously private person, has kept his own account of their adventures close to his chest, until now. SCATTERSHOT allows the reader to witness events unfolding from Taupin's singular perspective --- sometimes front and center, sometimes from the edge, yet always described vibrantly, with an infectious energy that only a vivid songwriter's prose could offer.
Hachette Books | 9780306828676

THE SECRET HOURS by Mick Herron (Thriller)
Two years ago, a hostile Prime Minister launched the Monochrome inquiry, investigating "historical over-reaching" by the British Secret Service. Monochrome’s mission was to ferret out any misconduct by any MI5 officer --- and allowed Griselda Fleet and Malcolm Kyle, the two civil servants seconded to the project, access to all confidential information in the Service archives. Now that the administration that created Monochrome has been ousted, the investigation is a total bust --- and Griselda and Malcolm are stuck watching as their career prospects are washed away. Until the eve of Monochrome’s shuttering, when an MI5 case file appears without explanation. It is the buried history of a classified operation in 1994 Berlin whose cover-up has rewritten 30 years of Service history.
Soho Crime | 9781641295215

THE SIX: The Untold Story of America's First Women Astronauts by Loren Grush (History)
When NASA sent astronauts to the moon in the 1960s and 1970s, the agency excluded women from the corps, arguing that only military test pilots --- a group then made up exclusively of men --- had the right stuff. Eventually, though, NASA recognized its blunder and opened the application process to a wider array of hopefuls, regardless of race or gender. From a candidate pool of 8,000, six elite women were selected in 1978: Sally Ride, Judy Resnik, Anna Fisher, Kathy Sullivan, Shannon Lucid and Rhea Seddon. In THE SIX, acclaimed journalist Loren Grush shows these brilliant and courageous women enduring claustrophobic --- and sometimes deeply sexist --- media attention, undergoing rigorous survival training, and preparing for years to take multi-million-dollar payloads into orbit.
Scribner | 9781982172800

THE SPANISH DIPLOMAT'S SECRET by Nev March (Historical Mystery)
Captain Jim Agnihotri and his wife, Lady Diana Framji, are embarking to England in the summer of 1894. Jim is hopeful the cruise will help Diana open up to him. Something is troubling her, and Jim is concerned. On their first evening, Jim meets an intriguing Spaniard, a fellow soldier with whom he finds an instant kinship. But within 24 hours, Don Juan Nepomuceno is murdered, his body discovered shortly after he asks rather urgently to see Jim. When the captain discovers that Jim is an investigator, he pleads with Jim to find the killer before they dock in Liverpool in six days, or there could be international consequences. Aboard the beleaguered luxury liner are a thousand suspects but no witnesses to the locked-cabin crime.
Minotaur Books | 9781250855060

THE TRAITOR AMONG US: An Elena Standish Novel by Anne Perry (Historical Mystery)
Not far from the sprawling grounds of Wyndham Hall, the body of longtime MI6 agent John Repton is found, shot dead with a single bullet to the heart. Repton was killed while surveilling the members of a household with alleged ties to fascists who threaten the security of the country, as Hitler’s influence spreads across Europe. Elena Standish is assigned the case, thanks to her new connection to the Wyndham family: Her older sister, Margot, is being courted by Lady Wyndham’s brother. As Elena and her colleague, James Allenby, dig deeper into the Wyndham family’s nefarious connections, Margot grows suspicious. Can Elena reconcile her political and professional obligations with her loyalty and love for her sister? Will Elena and Allenby uncover their colleague’s killer?
Ballantine Books | 9780593359150

THE VASTER WILDS by Lauren Groff (Historical Fiction)
A servant girl escapes from a colonial settlement in the wilderness. She carries nothing with her but her wits, a few possessions, and the spark of god that burns hot within her. What she finds in this terra incognita is beyond the limits of her imagination and will bend her belief in everything that her own civilization has taught her. THE VASTER WILDS is a work of raw and prophetic power that tells the story of America in miniature, through one girl at a hinge point in history, to ask how --- and if --- we can adapt quickly enough to save ourselves.
Riverhead Books | 9780593418390

WHAT KIND OF MOTHER by Clay McLeod Chapman (Supernatural Horror/Domestic Thriller)
After striking out on her own as a teen mom, Madi Price is forced to return to her hometown of Brandywine, Virginia, with her 17-year-old daughter. With nothing to her name, she scrapes together a living as a palm reader at the local farmers market. It’s there that she connects with old high school flame Henry McCabe, now a reclusive local fisherman whose infant son, Skyler, went missing five years ago. Everyone in town is sure Skyler is dead, but when Madi reads Henry’s palm, she’s haunted by strange and disturbing visions that suggest otherwise. As she follows the thread of these visions, Madi discovers a terrifying nightmare waiting at the center of the labyrinth --- and it’s coming for everyone she holds dear.
Quirk Books | 9781683693802

On Sale the Week of September 11th in Paperback

September 12th

1989: An Allie Burns Novel by Val McDermid (Thriller)
Allie Burns is now running the northern news operation of the Sunday Globe, chafing at losing her role in investigative journalism and at the descent into the gutter of the UK tabloid media. But there’s plenty to keep her occupied. The year begins with the memorial service for the victims of the bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, but Allie has barely filed her copy when she stumbles over a story about HIV/AIDS that will shock her into a major change of direction. The world of newspapers is undergoing a revolution, there’s skullduggery in the medical research labs, and there are seismic rumblings behind the Iron Curtain. When murder is added to this potent mix, Allie is forced to question all her old certainties.
Atlantic Monthly Press ‎| 9780802161215

23 ½ LIES by James Patterson (Thriller)
Paperback Original
Enjoy three heart-racing thrillers from the New York Times bestselling master of suspense. In "23 ½ Lies" (with Maxine Paetro), Lindsay Boxer's estranged father is gunned down execution-style, and her investigation uncovers life-altering truths. To Rory Yates, being a Texas Ranger means absolute loyalty to the badge. But he’s put through the ultimate test when an armored car robbery suspect might be an ex-Ranger gone rogue in "Fallen Ranger" (with Andrew Bourelle). When a starving artist is paid to expose his client's cheating wife, can he paint the picture that will save his own life? Find out in "Watch Your Back" (with Loren D. Estleman).
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538752685

ACT OF OBLIVION by Robert Harris (Historical Thriller)
1660 England. General Edward Whalley and his son-in law, Colonel William Goffe, board a ship bound for the New World. They are on the run, wanted for the murder of King Charles I --- a brazen execution that marked the culmination of the English Civil War, in which parliamentarians successfully battled royalists for control. But now, 10 years after Charles’ beheading, the royalists have returned to power. Under the provisions of the Act of Oblivion, the 59 men who signed the king’s death warrant and participated in his execution have been found guilty in absentia of high treason. Some of the Roundheads, including Oliver Cromwell, are already dead. Others have been captured, hung, drawn and quartered. A few are imprisoned for life. But two have escaped to America by boat.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780063248014

THE BLACK LORD by Colin Hinckley (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
Paperback Original
Eddie’s parents may be arguing about the disappearance of his infant brother, Danny, but Eddie is facing a terror all his own. There’s a strange figure outside that claims it has Danny safe and sound --- all Eddie needs to do to get his brother back is open that window. Eddie’s father is filled with guilt over his relationship with his own lost brother. His mother has been abandoned to navigate her grief and terror alone. And his grandmother carries a disturbing, all-too-relevant truth about their shared family history. As minutes tick by and hope for Danny grows ever smaller, the very fabric of their world disintegrates, welcoming eldritch terrors of unspeakable provenance to their doorstep. The family is losing a decades-long struggle against an entity that is not of this world, and its hunger threatens to swallow them whole.
Tenebrous Press | 9781959790921

BLISS MONTAGE: Stories by Ling Ma (Fiction/Short Stories)
What happens when fantasy tears the screen of the everyday to wake us up? Could that waking be our end? In BLISS MONTAGE, Ling Ma brings us eight wildly different tales of people making their way through the madness and reality of our collective delusions: love and loneliness, connection and possession, friendship, motherhood, the idea of home. A woman lives in a house with all her ex-boyfriends. A toxic friendship grows up around a drug that makes you invisible. An ancient ritual might heal you of anything --- if you bury yourself alive. These and other scenarios investigate the ways that the outlandish and the ordinary are shockingly, deceptively, heartbreakingly alike.
Picador | 9781250893543

BOOMTOWN by A. F. Carter (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
Police captain Delia Mariola is still struggling to drive the predatory drug dealers from the rustbelt town of Baxter, before the new Nissan plant owners lose faith in this forgotten corner of America. It doesn’t help that a boomtown has grown up just outside of city limits --- a wild west designed to feed every unsavory desire of the workers building the plant. In the midst of this drug war, a young prostitute’s body turns up on the streets of Baxter. Delia is relentless in her pursuit of the killer and the group she believes is behind the criminal enterprises plaguing her streets. But Delia isn’t the only person looking for the murderer. Two strangers have arrived in town, claiming to be the family of the deceased and possibly looking for a version of justice that has more to do with back hills vigilantism than the court of law.
Mysterious Press | 9781613164532

CATCH HER DEATH by Melinda Leigh (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
After Sheriff Bree Taggert’s takedown of cold-blooded murderer Travis Ekin, his family vows revenge. Travis’ mother and brothers are every bit as violent, and Bree is in their crosshairs. To complicate matters, Bree’s best friend, Dana Romano, walks into her date’s home and finds him shot in the chest. Dana tangles with an unidentified intruder, but he escapes through the back door. The crime scene is in another police department’s jurisdiction, and the lead investigator focuses on Dana as the prime suspect. While Bree and investigator Matt Flynn work off the books to clear Dana, Bree’s family receives deadly threats. A second dead body and a shocking piece of evidence link the two cases. Bree and Matt must find the killer fast --- before either case takes another deadly turn.
Montlake | 9781542038652

DEATH THREAT: A Buddy Steel Thriller by Michael Brandman (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
Buddy Steel's maverick behavior as a police officer has won his commander's respect and a promotion to LAPD homicide detective. Almost immediately, he is asked to join a task force working to bust a major meth shipment to LA from Mexico. One of the two undercover agents on the case has gotten himself killed by the Mexican cartel but not before spilling that a female agent is deeply enmeshed within their organization. The agent in question --- Kara Machado --- barely learns that her true identity may soon be exposed to the cartel when she is whisked abruptly to their family compound in Mexico, cut off from any communication with the outside world. But Buddy has personal history with Kara, and he's determined to bring her home safely.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781728277356

ELIZABETH TAYLOR: The Grit & Glamour of an Icon by Kate Andersen Brower (Biography)
No celebrity rivals Elizabeth Taylor’s glamour and guts or her level of fame. In the first-ever authorized biography of the Hollywood icon, Kate Andersen Brower reveals the world through Elizabeth’s eyes. Brower uses Elizabeth’s unpublished letters, diary entries and off-the-record interview transcripts, as well as interviews with 250 of her closest friends and family, to tell the full, unvarnished story of her remarkable career and her explosive private life that made headlines worldwide. ELIZABETH TAYLOR captures this intelligent, empathetic, tenacious, volatile and complex woman as never before.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780063067660

THE ENEMY BESIDE ME by Naomi Ragen (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Taking over from her father and grandfather as the head of the Survivor’s Campaign, an organization whose purpose is to bring Nazi war criminals to justice, Milia Gottstein has dedicated her life to making sure the voices of Holocaust victims will never be silenced. It is an overwhelming and heartbreaking mission that has often usurped her time and energy being a wife to busy surgeon Julius, and a mother and grandmother. But now, just as she is finally ready to pass on her work to others, making time for her personal life, an unexpected phone call suddenly explodes all she thought she knew about her present and her future.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250840905

THE ENIGMA OF ROOM 622 written by Joël Dicker, translated by Robert Bononno (Mystery/Thriller)
A writer named Joël, Switzerland’s most prominent novelist, flees to the Hôtel de Verbier, a luxury resort in the Swiss Alps. Disheartened over a recent breakup and his longtime publisher’s death, Joël hopes to rest. However, his plans quickly go awry. It all starts with a seemingly innocuous detail: at the Verbier, there is no room 622. Before long, Joël and fellow guest Scarlett uncover a long-unsolved murder that transpired in the hotel's room 622. The attendant circumstances: the succession of Switzerland’s largest private bank, a mysterious counterintelligence operation called P-30, and a most disreputable sabotage of hotel hospitality.
HarperVia | 9780063098824

GODKILLER by Hannah Kaner (Fantasy/Adventure)
Paperback Original
Gods are forbidden in the kingdom of Middren. Formed by human desires and fed by their worship, there are countless gods in the world --- but after a great war, the new king outlawed them and now pays “godkillers” to destroy any who try to rise from the shadows. As a child, Kissen saw her family murdered by a fire god. Now, she makes a living killing them and enjoys it. But all this changes when Kissen is tasked with helping a young noble girl with a god problem. The child’s soul is bonded to a tiny god of white lies, and Kissen can’t kill it without ending the girl’s life too. Joined by a disillusioned knight on a secret quest, the unlikely group must travel to the ruined city of Blenraden, where the last of the wild gods reside, to each beg a favor.
Harper Voyager | 9780063348271

THE HEART OF IT ALL by Christian Kiefer (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Set in a failing small town in central Ohio, THE HEART OF IT ALL asks how one manages, in an America of increasing division, to find a sense of family and community. The novel focuses on the members of three families --- the Baileys, a white family that has put down deep roots in the community; the Marwats, an immigrant family that owns the town’s largest employer; and the Shaws, especially young Anthony, an outsider whose very presence gently shakes the town’s understanding of itself.
Melville House | 9781685890810

THE LAST HILL: The Epic Story of a Ranger Battalion and the Battle That Defined WWII by Bob Drury and Tom Clavin (History)
They were known as “Rudder’s Rangers,” the most elite and experienced attack unit in the United States Army. In December 1944, Lt. Col. James Rudder's 2nd Battalion would form the spearhead into Germany, taking the war into Hitler’s homeland at last. In the process, Rudder was given two objectives: Take Hill 400…and hold the hill by any means possible. To the last man, if necessary. The battle-hardened battalion had no idea that several Wehrmacht regiments, who greatly outnumbered the Rangers, had been given the exact same orders. The clash of the two determined forces was one of the bloodiest and most costly encounters of World War II.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250247186

LAVENDER HOUSE by Lev AC Rosen (Historical Mystery)
Lavender House, 1952: the family seat of recently deceased matriarch Irene Lamontaine, head of the famous Lamontaine soap empire. Irene’s recipes for her signature scents are a well-guarded secret, but it's not the only one behind these gates. This estate offers a unique freedom, where none of the residents or staff hide who they are. But to keep their secret, they've needed to keep others out. And now they're worried they're keeping a murderer in. Irene’s widow hires Evander Mills to uncover the truth behind her mysterious death. Andy, recently fired from the San Francisco police after being caught in a raid on a gay bar, is happy to accept. However, he quickly finds himself a pawn in a family game of old money, subterfuge and jealousy --- and Irene’s death is only the beginning.
Forge Books | 9781250834249

LIFE’S WORK: A Memoir by David Milch (Memoir)
From the start, David Milch’s life seems destined to echo that of his father, a successful if drug-addicted surgeon. Almost every achievement is accompanied by an act of self-immolation, but the deepest sadnesses also contain moments of grace. Betting on racehorses and stealing booze at eight years old, mentored by Robert Penn Warren and excoriated by Richard Yates at 21, Milch never did anything by half. He got into Yale Law School only to be expelled for shooting out streetlights with a shotgun. He paused his studies at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop to manufacture acid in Cuernavaca. He created and wrote some of the most lauded television series of all time, made a family and pursued sobriety, then lost his fortune betting horses just as his father had taught him.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780525510765

LITTLE EVE by Catriona Ward (Gothic Horror/Mystery)
On the wind-battered isle of Altnaharra, off the wildest coast of Scotland, a clan prepares to bring about the end of the world and its imminent rebirth. The Adder is coming, and one of their number will inherit its powers. They all want the honor, but young Eve is willing to do anything for the distinction. A reckoning beyond Eve’s imagination begins when Chief Inspector Black arrives to investigate a brutal murder, and their sacred ceremony goes terribly wrong. And soon all the secrets of Altnaharra will be uncovered.
Tor Nightfire | 9781250812674

LUCY BY THE SEA by Elizabeth Strout (Fiction)
As a panicked world goes into lockdown, Lucy Barton is uprooted from her life in Manhattan and bundled away to a small town in Maine by her ex-husband and on-again, off-again friend, William. For the next several months, it’s just Lucy, William and their complex past together in a little house nestled against the moody, swirling sea. At the heart of this story are the deep human connections that unite us even when we’re apart --- the pain of a beloved daughter’s suffering, the emptiness that comes from the death of a loved one, the promise of a new friendship, and the comfort of an old, enduring love.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780593446089

THE MOSQUITO BOWL: A Game of Life and Death in World War II by Buzz Bissinger (History)
When the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, college football was at the height of its popularity. As the nation geared up for total war, one branch of the service dominated the aspirations of college football stars: the United States Marine Corps. Which is why, on Christmas Eve of 1944, when the 4th and 29th Marine regiments found themselves in the middle of the Pacific Ocean training for what would be the bloodiest battle of the war, their ranks included one of the greatest pools of football talent ever assembled. The two regiments would play each other in a football game as close to the real thing as you could get in the dirt and coral of Guadalcanal. The bruising and bloody game that followed became known as “The Mosquito Bowl.”
Harper Perennial | 9780062879936

NONA THE NINTH by Tamsyn Muir (Science Fiction/Space Opera)
In many ways, Nona is like other people. She lives with her family, has a job at her local school, and loves walks on the beach and meeting new dogs. But Nona is not like other people. Six months ago she woke up in a stranger's body, and she's afraid she might have to give it back. The whole city is falling to pieces. A monstrous blue sphere hangs on the horizon, ready to tear the planet apart. Blood of Eden forces have surrounded the last Cohort facility and wait for the Emperor Undying to come calling. Their leaders want Nona to be the weapon that will save them from the Nine Houses. Nona would prefer to live an ordinary life with the people she loves, with Pyrrha and Camilla and Palamedes, but she also knows that nothing lasts forever. And each night, Nona dreams of a woman with a skull-painted face.
Tordotcom | 9781250899132

ONE HUNDRED SATURDAYS: Stella Levi and the Search for a Lost World by Michael Frank, with artwork by Maira Kalman (Biography)
With nearly a century of life behind her, Stella Levi had never before spoken in detail about her past. Then she met Michael Frank. He came to her Greenwich Village apartment to ask her a question about the Juderia, the neighborhood in Rhodes where she’d grown up in a Jewish community that had thrived there for half a millennium. Neither of them could know this was the first of 100 Saturdays that they would spend in each other’s company as Stella traveled back in time to conjure what it felt like to come of age on this luminous, legendary island in the eastern Aegean, which the Italians began governing as an official possession in 1923 and transformed over the next two decades until the Germans seized control and deported the entire Juderia to Auschwitz.
Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster | 9781982167233

THE ORACLE OF MARACOOR by Gregory Maguire (Fantasy)
THE ORACLE OF MARACOOR continues the story of Elphaba’s green-skinned granddaughter, Rain. That strange land, Maracoor --- across the ocean from Oz --- is beset by an invading army. In the mayhem, Rain and Cossy, a child felon, break out of prison. Helped by a few flying monkeys, they struggle to escape the city before it falls under siege. Their arresting officer, Lucikles, also retreats with his family to a highland redoubt. But safety eludes them all. Chaos thunders upon them in the form of warriors, refugees and brigands. The very fabric of reality loosens, liberating creatures of myth and legend. Cued in by secrets known only to the most highly placed members of the royal court, Rain and her companions hunt the fabled Oracle of Maracoor for guidance and soothsaying.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063094024

OUR SHARE OF NIGHT written by Mariana Enriquez, translated by Megan McDowell (Gothic Thriller/Horror)
A young father and son set out on a road trip, devastated by the death of the wife and mother they both loved. United in grief, the pair travel to her ancestral home, where they must confront the terrifying legacy she has bequeathed: a family called the Order that commits unspeakable acts in search of immortality. For Gaspar, the son, this maniacal cult is his destiny. As the Order tries to pull him into their evil, he and his father take flight, attempting to outrun a powerful clan that will do anything to ensure its own survival. But how far will Gaspar’s father go to protect his child? And can anyone escape their fate?
Hogarth | 9780451495150

PERFECTLY NICE NEIGHBORS by Kia Abdullah (Domestic Thriller)
Paperback Original
Salma Khatun is hopeful about Blenheim, the suburban development into which she, her husband and their son have just moved. The Bangladeshi family needs a fresh start, and Blenheim feels like just the place. Soon after they move in, Salma spots her white neighbor, Tom Hutton, ripping out the anti-racist banner her son put in the front garden. Avoiding confrontation, Salma takes the banner inside and puts it in her window. But the next morning, she wakes up to find her window smeared with paint. When she does speak to Tom, battle lines are drawn between the two families. As racial and social tensions escalate and the stakes rise, it’s clear that a reckoning is coming…and someone is going to get hurt.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593713815

PLAYING THE WITCH CARD by KJ Dell'Antonia (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Flair Hardwicke knows three things: magic is real, love isn’t, and relying on either ends in disaster. So while she’s grateful for the chance to take over her grandmother’s Kansas bakery after she finally leaves her cheating husband, she won’t be embracing Nana’s fortune-telling side-hustle. Hers is a strictly no-magic operation --- until the innocent batch of Tarot card cookies Flair bakes for the town’s Halloween celebration unleashes the power of the family deck, luring Flair’s unpredictable mother to town, tempting Flair’s magic-obsessed daughter, and bringing back Flair’s first love while ensnaring her ex in a curse she can’t break. Flair’s attempts to control the chaos only make things worse, playing right into the hands of a powerful witch.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593713792

PRINE ON PRINE: Interviews and Encounters with John Prine edited by Holly Gleason (Music/Biography)
Paperback Original
John Prine hated giving interviews, but he said much when he talked. Embarrassed by fame, delighted by the smallest things, the first songwriter to read at the Library of Congress, and winner of the Pen Award for Literary Excellence, Prine saw the world unlike anyone else. The songs from 1971’s John Prine remain spot-on takes of the human condition today, and his writing only got richer, funnier and more incisive. The interviews in PRINE ON PRINE trace his career evolution, his singular mind, his enduring awareness of social issues, and his acute love of life.
Chicago Review Press | 9781641606301

THE ROYAL WINDSOR SECRET by Christine Wells (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Told she was an orphan, Cleo Davenport knows the rumor --- that her father is none other than the Prince of Wales, heir to the British throne. And at her childhood home at Cairo’s Shepheard’s Hotel, where royals, rulers and the wealthy live, they even called her “The Princess.” But her life is turned upside down when she turns 17. Sent to London under the chaperonage of her very proper aunt, she’s told it’s time to learn manners and make her debut. Cleo longs for independence and a career as a jewelry designer for Cartier, but she can’t move forward until she finds out about her past. Her investigations take a shocking turn into the world of the Parisian demi-monde and a high-class courtesan whose scandalous affair with the young Prince of Wales threatened to bring down the British monarchy.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063268241

THE SANCTUARY by Katrine Engberg (Literary Thriller/Noir Mystery)
Jeppe Kørner, on leave from the police force and nursing a broken heart, has taken refuge on the island of Bornholm for the winter. Also on the island is Esther de Laurenti, a writer working on a biography of a female anthropologist with a mysterious past and coming to terms with her own crushing sense of loneliness in the wake of a dear friend’s death. When Jeppe lends a helping hand at the island’s local sawmill, he begins to realize that the island may not be the peaceful refuge it appears to be. Back in Copenhagen, Anette Werner is tasked with leading the investigation into a severed corpse discovered on a downtown playground. As she follows the strange trail of clues, they all seem to lead back to Bornholm.
Gallery/Scout Press | 9781668002261

THE SKY VAULT by Benjamin Percy (Science Fiction/Dystopian Thriller)
Paperback Original
The comet, Cain, came from beyond our solar system, its debris containing elements unknown. Now, in the isolated region of Fairbanks, Alaska, the skies shift and stretch as an interstellar dust cloud seeds the atmosphere. When a plane shudders its way through pulpy, swirling, bruise-shaped clouds, lit with sudden cracks of lightning, the sky opens and the aircraft vanishes…but only for a minute. When the flight lands, everyone on board and in the community will be changed forever. Chuck Bridges, a local DJ and conspiracy theorist, was on board and later reported dead to his family, but not before proclaiming that something inside the clouds was speaking to him. Now his son, Theo, must chase down answers to the mystery his father unlocked.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9781328544414

A SLIVER OF DARKNESS: Stories by C. J. Tudor (Psychological Thriller/Short Stories)
Time slips. Doomsday scenarios. Killer butterflies. C. J. Tudor’s novels are widely acclaimed for their dark, twisty suspense plots, but with A SLIVER OF DARKNESS, she pulls us even further into her dizzying imagination. In “The Lion at the Gate,” a strange piece of graffiti leads to a terrifying encounter for four school friends. In “Final Course,” the world has descended into darkness, but a group of old friends make time for one last dinner party. In “Runaway Blues,” thwarted love, revenge and something very nasty stowed in a hat box converge. In “Gloria,” a strange girl at a service station endears herself to a coldhearted killer, but can a leopard really change its spots? And in “I’m Not Ted,” a case of mistaken identity has unforeseen fatal consequences.
Ballantine Books | 9780593500873

THE SONG OF THE CELL: An Exploration of Medicine and the New Human by Siddhartha Mukherjee (Medicine/History)
In the late 1600s, a distinguished English polymath, Robert Hooke, and an eccentric Dutch cloth-merchant, Antonie van Leeuwenhoek, looked down their handmade microscopes. What they saw introduced a radical concept that swept through biology and medicine, touching virtually every aspect of the two sciences and altering both forever. It was the fact that complex living organisms are assemblages of tiny, self-contained, self-regulating units. Our organs, our physiology, our selves --- hearts, blood, brains --- are built from these compartments. Hooke christened them “cells.” In THE SONG OF THE CELL, Siddhartha Mukherjee tells the story of how scientists discovered cells, began to understand them, and are now using that knowledge to create new humans.
Scribner | 9781982117368

THIS IS HOW WE END THINGS by R.J. Jacobs (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Forest, North Carolina. Under the instruction of enigmatic Professor Joe Lyons, five graduate students are studying the tedious science behind the acts of lying. But discovering the secrets of deception isn't making any of the students more honest. Instead, it's making it easier for them to guard their own secrets --- and they all have something to hide. When a test goes awry and one of them is found dead, the students find themselves trapped by a snowstorm on an abandoned campus with a local detective on the case. As harbored secrets begin to break the surface, the graduates must find out who's lying, who isn't, and who may have been capable of committing murder. It turns out deception is even more dangerous than they thought.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781728254104

THE VILLAGE IDIOT by Steve Stern (Historical Fiction)
THE VILLAGE IDIOT begins on a glorious spring day in Paris 1917. Amid the carnage of World War I, some of the foremost artists of the age have chosen to stage a boat race. At the head of the regatta is Amedeo Modigliani, seated regally in a bathtub pulled by a flock of canvasback ducks. But unbeknownst to the competition, he has a secret advantage: his young friend, the immigrant painter Chaim Soutine, is hauling the tub from underwater. Soutine, an unwashed, misfit artist (who incidentally can’t swim), has been persuaded by the Italian to don a ponderous diving suit and trudge along the floor of the river Seine. Disoriented and confused by the artificial air in his helmet, Chaim stumbles through the events of his past and future life.
Melville House | 9781685890773

THE WINNERS by Fredrik Backman (Fiction)
Maya Andersson and Benji Ovich, two young people who left in search of a life far from the forest town, come home and joyfully reunite with their closest childhood friends. They can see how much Beartown has changed. There is a sense of optimism and purpose in the town, embodied in the impressive new ice rink that has been built down by the lake. Two years have passed since the events that no one wants to think about. Everyone has tried to move on, but there’s something about this place that prevents it. The destruction caused by a ferocious late-summer storm reignites the old rivalry between Beartown and the neighboring town of Hed, a rivalry that has always been fought through their ice hockey teams. Mukherjee (Author)
Washington Square Press | 9781982112806

On Sale the Week of September 18th in Hardcover

September 19th

ALL YOU HAVE TO DO IS CALL by Kerri Maher (Historical Fiction)
Chicago, early 1970s: Who does a woman call when she needs help? Jane. The best-known secret in the city, Jane is an underground women’s health organization composed entirely of women helping women, empowering them to live lives free from the expectations of society by offering reproductive counseling and safe, illegal abortions. Veronica, Jane’s founder, prides herself on the services she has provided to thousands of women, yet the price of others’ freedom is that she leads a double life. When she’s not at Jane, Veronica plays the role of a conventional housewife --- which becomes even more difficult during her own high-risk pregnancy.
Berkley | 9780593102213

ASTOR: The Rise and Fall of an American Fortune by Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe (History)
From 1783, when German immigrant John Jacob Astor first arrived in the United States, until 2009, when Brooke Astor’s son, Anthony Marshall, was convicted of defrauding his elderly mother, the Astor name occupied a unique place in American society. The family fortune, first made by a beaver trapping business that grew into an empire, was then amplified by holdings in Manhattan real estate. Over the ensuing generations, Astors ruled Gilded Age New York society and inserted themselves into political and cultural life, but also suffered the most famous loss on the Titanic. In ASTOR, Anderson Cooper and Katherine Howe chronicle the lives of the Astors and explore what the Astor name has come to mean in America --- offering a window onto the making of America itself.
Harper | 9780062964700

BLACK SHEEP by Rachel Harrison (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
Vesper Wright left home at 18 and never looked back --- mostly because she was told that leaving the staunchly religious community she grew up in meant she couldn’t return. But then an envelope arrives on her doorstep. Inside is an invitation to the wedding of Vesper’s beloved cousin, Rosie. It’s to be hosted at the family farm. Have they made an exception to the rule? It wouldn’t be the first time Vesper has been given special treatment. Something inside her insists she go to the wedding. Even if it means returning to the toxic environment she escaped. Even if it means reuniting with her mother, Constance, a former horror film star and forever ice queen. When Vesper’s homecoming exhumes a terrifying secret, she’s forced to reckon with her family’s beliefs and her own crisis of faith.
Berkley | 9780593545850

THE BOOK OF (MORE) DELIGHTS: Essays by Ross Gay (Essays)
In Ross Gay’s new collection of small, daily wonders, again written over the course of a year, one of America’s most original voices continues his ongoing investigation of delight. For Gay, what delights us is what connects us, what gives us meaning --- from the joy of hearing a nostalgic song blasting from a passing car to the pleasure of refusing the “nefarious” scannable QR code menus, from the tiny dog he fell hard for to his mother baking a dozen kinds of cookies for her grandchildren. As always, Gay revels in the natural world --- sweet potatoes being harvested, a hummingbird carousing in the beebalm, a sunflower growing out of a wall around the cemetery, the shared bounty from a neighbor’s fig tree --- and the trillion mysterious ways this glorious earth delights us.
Algonquin Books | 9781643753096

BRIGHT YOUNG WOMEN by Jessica Knoll (Psychological Thriller)
BRIGHT YOUNG WOMEN opens on a Saturday night in 1978, hours before a soon-to-be-infamous murderer descends upon a Florida sorority house with deadly results. The lives of those who survive --- including sorority president and key witness Pamela Schumacher --- are forever changed. Across the country, Tina Cannon is convinced her missing friend was targeted by the man papers refer to as the All-American Sex Killer --- and that he’s struck again. Determined to find justice, the two join forces as their search for answers leads to a final, shocking confrontation.
S&S/Marysue Rucci Books | 9781501153228

DARK RIDE by Lou Berney (Thriller)
Twenty-one-year-old Hardy “Hardly” Reed, a minimum-wage scare actor at an amusement park, notices two children sitting all alone on a bench. He checks if they’re okay and sees injuries on both of them, so he reports the incident to Child Protective Services. But the more research he does, the less he trusts that they will do anything about it. Gradually, Hardly develops investigative skills and discovers he’s smarter and more capable than he ever imagined. But he also discovers that the situation is more dangerous than he ever expected. The abusive father who has been hurting these children isn’t just a lawyer --- he also runs a violent drug-dealing operation. The mother claims she wants to escape with the kids, but Hardly isn't sure he can trust her.
William Morrow | 9780062663863

DEAD ON TARGET: An Agatha Raisin Mystery by M. C. Beaton with R.W. Green (Mystery)
A visit to the local village fete for a spot of fun and relaxation turns into a nightmare for Agatha Raisin when she discovers the body of the local landowner in the woods --- with an arrow in his chest and trousers aound his ankles. Agatha’s old adversary, Detective Chief Inspector Wilkes, declares the death a tragic accident, believing the victim has been hit by a stray arrow from an archery demonstration. Agatha is convinced of foul play, however, and is shocked when Wilkes eventually agrees...with her as his prime murder suspect. Determined to clear her name and find the real killer, Agatha launches her own investigation, quickly becoming involved with a family at war, an unscrupulous gangster --- and a killer who is determined to make her the next victim.
Minotaur Books | 9781250898647

DOWN THE HILL: My Descent into the Double Murder in Delphi by Susan Hendricks (True Crime)
On February 13, 2017, two teenage girls --- 13-year-old Abby Williams and 14-year-old Libby German --- decided to enjoy a day off from school by exploring the popular hiking trails near the Monon High Bridge just a few minutes’ drive from Libby’s home in Delphi, Indiana. Libby’s sister, Kelsi, dropped the two girls off at the head of the trail. Less than 24 hours later, their bodies were found on the north bank of Deer Creek, about a mile from where they were last seen. There were few clues and little to go on in terms of physical evidence, except for the visual and audio remnants of a strange encounter the girls had with a stranger just hours before their disappearance. In DOWN THE HILL, longtime anchor and journalist Susan Hendricks digs deeper into the mystery that has captivated our nation for years.
Hachette Books | 9780306830242

FOREVER HOME by Graham Norton (Fiction)
Carol is a divorced teacher living in a small town in Ireland. A second chance at love brings her unexpected connection and belonging --- and sparks a flurry of speculation. What does a woman like her see in a man like that? What happened to his wife who abandoned him and his children all those years ago? Carol and Declan know their relationship is the talk of the town, but the gossip only serves to bring the couple closer. When Declan becomes ill, their relationship falters. His children are untrusting and cruel, and Carol is forced to leave their beloved home and move back with her parents. It seems there are secrets in Declan's past, strange rumors that were never confronted, and suddenly the house they shared takes on a more sinister significance that affects them all.
HarperVia | 9780063338616

THE GOLDEN GATE by Amy Chua (Historical Mystery)
In Berkeley, California, in 1944, Homicide Detective Al Sullivan has just left the swanky Claremont Hotel after a drink in the bar when a presidential candidate is assassinated in one of the rooms upstairs. A rich industrialist with enemies among the anarchist factions on the far left, Walter Wilkinson could have been targeted by any number of groups. But strangely, Sullivan’s investigation brings up the specter of another tragedy at the Claremont 10 years earlier: the death of seven-year-old Iris Stafford, a member of the Bainbridge family, one of the wealthiest in all of San Francisco. Some say she haunts the Claremont still. The many threads of the case keep leading Sullivan back to the three remaining Bainbridge heiresses, now adults: Iris’ sister, Isabella, and her cousins, Cassie and Nicole.
Minotaur Books | 9781250903600

THE LAND OF LOST THINGS by John Connolly (Supernatural Thriller)
Phoebe, an eight-year-old girl, lies comatose following a car accident --- a body without a spirit. Ceres, her mother, can only sit by her bedside and read aloud the fairy stories Phoebe loves in the hope they might summon her back to this world. But an old house on the hospital grounds, a property connected to a book written by a vanished author, is calling to Ceres. Something wants her to enter, to journey to a land colored by the memories of childhood, and the folklore beloved of her father --- a land of witches and dryads, giants and mandrakes; a land where old enemies are watching and waiting. The Land of Lost Things.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781668022283

THE LAST DEVIL TO DIE: A Thursday Murder Club Mystery by Richard Osman (Mystery)
It's rarely a quiet day for the Thursday Murder Club. Shocking news reaches them --- an old friend has been killed, and a dangerous package he was protecting has gone missing. The gang's search leads them into the antiques business, where the tricks of the trade are as old as the objects themselves. As they encounter drug dealers, art forgers and online fraudsters --- as well as heartache close to home --- Elizabeth, Joyce, Ron and Ibrahim have no idea whom to trust. With the body count rising, the clock ticking down, and trouble firmly on their tail, has their luck finally run out? And who will be the last devil to die?
Pamela Dorman Books | 9780593299425

MOVE LIKE WATER: My Story of the Sea by Hannah Stowe (Memoir)
As a young girl, Hannah Stowe was raised at the tide’s edge on the Pembrokeshire coast of Wales, falling asleep to the sweep of the lighthouse beam. Now in her mid-20s, working as a marine biologist and sailor, Stowe draws on her professional experiences sailing tens of thousands of miles in the North Sea, North Atlantic, Mediterranean, Celtic Sea and the Caribbean to explore the human relationship with wild waters. Why is it, she asks, that she and so many others have been drawn to life at sea --- and what might the water around us be able to teach us? In MOVE LIKE WATER, Stowe invites readers to fall in love, as she has, with the sea and those that call it home, and to discover the majesty, wonder and vulnerability of the underwater world.
Tin House Books | 9781959030102

MR. TEXAS by Lawrence Wright (Fiction/Humor)
Sonny Lamb is an affable, if floundering, rancher with the unfortunate habit of becoming a punchline in his Texas hometown. But when a fire breaks out at a neighbor’s farm, Sonny bolts to the farm where his heroic actions make the evening news. A handsomely dressed lobbyist arrives at his ranch door and asks if he’d like to run for his West Texas district’s seat in the state legislature. Though Sonny has zero experience and doesn’t consider himself political at all, the fate of his ranch --- and perhaps his marriage to the lovely “cowgirl” Lola --- hangs in the balance. As he navigates life in politics, Sonny must learn the ropes, weighing his own ethics and environmental concerns against the pressures of veteran politicians, savvy lobbyists and his own party.
Knopf | 9780593537374

THE MYSTERIOUS CASE OF RUDOLF DIESEL: Genius, Power, and Deception on the Eve of World War I by Douglas Brunt (History)
September 29, 1913. The steamship Dresden is halfway between Belgium and England. On board is one of the most famous men in the world, Rudolf Diesel, whose new internal combustion engine is on the verge of revolutionizing global industry forever. But Diesel never arrives at his destination. He vanishes during the night, and headlines around the world wonder if it was an accident, suicide or murder. In THE MYSTERIOUS CASE OF RUDOLF DIESEL, New York Times bestselling author Douglas Brunt reopens the case and provides an astonishing new conclusion about Diesel’s fate.
Atria Books | 9781982169909

NIGHT WATCH by Jayne Anne Phillips (Historical Fiction)
In 1874, in the wake of the War, erasure, trauma and namelessness haunt civilians and veterans, renegades and wanderers, freedmen and runaways. Twelve-year-old ConaLee, the adult in her family for as long as she can remember, finds herself on a buckboard journey with her mother, Eliza, who hasn’t spoken in more than a year. They arrive at the Trans-Allegheny Lunatic Asylum in West Virginia, delivered to the hospital’s entrance by a war veteran who has forced himself into their world. There, far from family, a beloved neighbor, and the mountain home they knew, they try to reclaim their lives. They get swept up in the life of the facility --- the mysterious man they call the Night Watch; the orphan child called Weed; the fearsome woman who runs the kitchen; and the remarkable doctor at the head of the institution.
Knopf | 9780451493330

NORTH WOODS by Daniel Mason (Historical Fiction)
When two young lovers abscond from a Puritan colony, little do they know that their humble cabin in the woods will become the home of an extraordinary succession of human and nonhuman characters alike. An English soldier, destined for glory, abandons the battlefields of the New World to devote himself to growing apples. A pair of spinster twins navigate war and famine, envy and desire. A crime reporter unearths an ancient mass grave --- only to discover that the earth refuses to give up their secrets. A lovelorn painter, a sinister con man, a stalking panther, a lusty beetle: As the inhabitants confront the wonder and mystery around them, they begin to realize that the dark, raucous, beautiful past is very much alive.
Random House | 9780593597033

OF TIME AND TURTLES: Mending the World, Shell by Shattered Shell written by Sy Montgomery, with illustrations by Matt Patterson (Nature)
When acclaimed naturalist Sy Montgomery and wildlife artist Matt Patterson arrive at Turtle Rescue League, they are greeted by hundreds of turtles recovering from injury and illness. Endangered by cars and highways, pollution and poachers, these turtles --- with wounds so severe that even veterinarians would have dismissed them as fatal --- are given a second chance at life. The League’s founders, Natasha and Alexxia, live by one motto: Never give up on a turtle. Ancient and unhurried, long-lived and majestic, their lineage stretches back to the time of the dinosaurs. Some live to 200 years or longer. Others spend months buried under cold winter water. Montgomery turns to these little understood yet endlessly surprising creatures to probe the eternal question: How can we make peace with our time?
Mariner Books | 9780358458180

THE POLE by J. M. Coetzee (Fiction)
Wittold Walccyzkiecz is a vigorous, extravagantly white-haired pianist and interpreter of Chopin who becomes infatuated with Beatriz, a stylish patron of the arts, after she helps organize his concert in Barcelona. Although Beatriz, a married woman, is initially unimpressed by Wittold, she soon finds herself pursued and ineluctably swept into his world. As the journeyman performer sends her countless letters, extends invitations to travel, and even visits her husband’s summer home in Mallorca, their unlikely relationship blossoms, though only on Beatriz’s terms. The power struggle between them intensifies, eventually escalating into a full-fledged battle of the sexes. But is it Beatriz who limits their passion by paralyzing her emotions? Or is it Wittold trying to force into life his dream of love?
Liveright | 9781324093862

RED RABBIT by Alex Grecian (Supernatural Horror/Western)
Sadie Grace is wanted for witchcraft, dead (or alive). And every hired gun in Kansas is out to collect the bounty on her head, including bona fide witch hunter Old Tom and his mysterious, mute ward, Rabbit. On the road to Burden County, they’re joined by two vagabond cowboys with a strong sense of adventure --- but no sense of purpose --- and a recently widowed schoolteacher with nothing left to lose. As their posse grows, so too does the danger. Racing along the drought-stricken plains in a stolen red stagecoach, they encounter monsters more wicked than witches lurking along the dusty trail. But the crew is determined to get that bounty, or die trying.
Tor Nightfire | 9781250874689

SAVING EMMA by Allen Eskens (Mystery/Thriller)
When Boady Sanden first receives the case of Elijah Matthews, he’s certain there’s not much he can do. Elijah, who believes himself to be a prophet, has been locked up in a psychiatric hospital for the past four years, convicted of brutally murdering the pastor of a megachurch. But as a law professor working for the Innocence Project, Boady agrees to look into Elijah’s file. When he does, he is alarmed to find threads that lead back to the death of his colleague and friend, Ben Pruitt, a man shot to death four years earlier in Boady’s own home. Ben’s daughter, Emma, has lived with Boady and Boady’s wife, Dee, ever since that awful night. Now 14 years old, Emma has been growing distant and soon makes a fateful choice that takes her far from the safety of her godparents.
Mulholland Books | 9780316566353

STARTER VILLAIN by John Scalzi (Science Fiction/Humor)
Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits. Jake had enemies, and now they're coming after Charlie. His uncle might have been a stand-up, old-fashioned kind of villain, but these are the real thing: rich, soulless predators backed by multinational corporations and venture capital. It's up to Charlie to win the war his uncle started against a league of supervillains.
Tor Books | 9780765389220

TURNING PAGES: The Adventures and Misadventures of a Publisher by John Sargent (Memoir)
TURNING PAGES is the well-told story of 40 years in the publishing business. For 24 of those years, John Sargent ran one of America’s largest publishing companies. Rather than a straight chronological narrative, Sargent uses the best stories of those years to give us an intimate look inside book publishing. In weaving these stories together, he brings the reader with him through triumph and despair, and a very interesting daily life. The reader will meet his odd publishing family, his interesting authors, and the celebrities with whom he worked. Sargent tells the tale of publishing Monica Lewinsky and recounts what it was like to have an author meeting in Buckingham Palace. He takes the reader with him into the Macmillan battles with Amazon, the Department of Justice and President Donald Trump.
Arcade | 9781956763850

WANDERING THROUGH LIFE: A Memoir by Donna Leon (Memoir)
In a series of vignettes full of affection, irony and good humor, Donna Leon narrates a remarkable life she feels has rather more happened to her than been planned. Having recently celebrated her 80th birthday, Leon poignantly confronts the dual challenges and pleasures of aging. Complete with a brief letter dissuading those hoping to meet Guido Brunetti at the Questura, and always suffused with music, food and her sharp sense of humor, WANDERING THROUGH LIFE offers Donna Leon at her most personal.
Atlantic Monthly Press | 9780802161581

WELLNESS by Nathan Hill (Fiction)
When Jack and Elizabeth meet as college students in the '90s, the two quickly join forces and hold on tight, each eager to claim a place in Chicago’s thriving underground art scene with an appreciative kindred spirit. Fast-forward 20 years to married life, and alongside the challenges of parenting, they encounter cults disguised as mindfulness support groups, polyamorous would-be suitors, Facebook wars, and something called Love Potion Number Nine. For the first time, Jack and Elizabeth struggle to recognize each other, and the no-longer-youthful dreamers are forced to face their demons. In the process, Jack and Elizabeth must undertake separate, personal excavations, or risk losing the best thing in their lives: each other.
Knopf | 9780593536117

THE WHICH OF SHAKESPEARE'S WHY: A Novel of the Authorship Mystery Near Solution Today by Leigh Light (Fiction/Humor)
In THE WHICH OF SHAKESPEARE'S WHY, a 21st-century playwright named Harry Haines makes the case for a major contender via a play he himself is writing for a struggling New Jersey theater company. Faced with strong disapproval from the “Stratfordites” and with the backing of supporters that sometimes takes some unusual forms, Harry attempts, against great odds, to get the play written and staged. In the process, he has to overcome his own doubts, stay on the right side of the right people, keep his romantic life under control, and deal with not only a difficult actress or two but a flock of opinionated Rockettes.
City Point Press | 9781947951686

THE WOLVES OF ETERNITY written by Karl Ove Knausgaard, translated by Martin Aitken (Fiction)
In 1986, Syvert Løyning returns from the military to his mother’s home in southern Norway. One evening, his dead father comes to him in a dream. Realizing that he doesn’t really know who his father was, Syvert begins to investigate his life. What he learns changes his past and undermines the entire notion of who he is. But when his mother becomes ill, he no longer has time or space for lofty speculations. In present-day Russia, Alevtina Kotov, a biologist working at Moscow University, is traveling with her young son to the home of her stepfather to celebrate his 80th birthday. When she finally starts looking into her biological father, she learns that he died many years ago and left two sons, Joar and Syvert. Years later, when Syvert and Alevtina meet in Moscow, two very different approaches to life emerge.
Penguin Press | 9780593490839

THE WREN, THE WREN by Anne Enright (Fiction)
Nell McDaragh never knew her grandfather, the celebrated Irish poet Phil McDaragh. But his love poems seem to speak directly to her. Restless and wryly self-assured, at 22 Nell leaves her mother Carmel’s orderly home to find her own voice as a writer. As she chases obsessive love, damage and transcendence, her grandfather’s poetry seems to guide her home. Carmel knows the magic of her Daddo’s poetry too well. In his poems to her, Phil envisions his daughter as a bright-eyed wren ascending in escape from his hand. But it is Phil who departs, abandoning his wife and two young daughters. Carmel struggles to reconcile “the poet” with the father whose desertion scars her life, along with that of her
fiercely dutiful sister and their gentle, cancer-ridden mother.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324005681

On Sale the Week of September 18th in Paperback

September 19th

THE BEST FRIEND by Jessica Fellowes (Domestic Thriller)
Bella and Kate. Kate and Bella. From childhood they were bosom friends --- Bella sensible and cautious, Kate gregarious and just a little dangerous. Yet, in spite of their intimacy, their trust is fragile. Men came into their lives, and things changed: a black seed was set in the heart of their relationship. Over decades, acts of both cruelty and love ferment until one shocking event tests them more than ever. Neither will escape unscathed.
Minotaur Books | 9781250888211

THE BOOK CLUB HOTEL by Sarah Morgan (Fiction)
Paperback Original
With its historic charm and picture-perfect library, the Maple Sugar Inn is considered the winter destination. As the holidays approach, the inn is fully booked with guests looking for their dream vacation. But widowed far too young, and exhausted from juggling the hotel with being a dedicated single mom, Hattie Coleman dreams only of making it through the festive season. But when Erica, Claudia and Anna --- lifelong friends who seem to have it all --- check in for a girlfriends’ book club holiday, it changes everything. Their close friendship and shared love of books have carried them through life's ups and downs. But Hattie can see they're also packing some major emotional baggage, and nothing prepares her for how deeply her own story is about to become entwined in theirs.
Avon | 9781335005120

CALL THE DARK by J. Todd Scott (Psychological/Supernatural Thriller)
Paperback Original
A small white plane hurtles from the sky, vanishing into the wilderness. Hiker Maggie Roby watches its final descent, certain that no one could have survived. But to her shock, a 15-year-old girl emerges from the wreckage, wounded but miraculously, impossibly alive. Maggie approaches with trepidation; she has secrets of her own, a past she can’t escape. Saving the girl means risking her future, but she can’t just abandon her, can she? With the young survivor, Maggie embarks on a dangerous trek through the remote Appalachian backcountry, joining up with two veterans from the local sheriff’s department who know the land better than anyone. But even as Maggie charts their course through the mountains, she can sense someone --- or something --- else watching and waiting.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781662500411

CLEAT CUTE by Meryl Wilsner (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Grace Henderson has been a star of the US Women’s National Team for 10 years. But when she’s sidelined with an injury, a bold new upstart, Phoebe Matthews, takes her spot. The last thing Grace expects is to become teammates with benefits with this class clown she sees as her rival. Phoebe is too focused on her first season as a professional soccer player to think about seducing her longtime idol. But when Grace ends up making the first move, they can’t keep their hands off of each other. As the World Cup approaches and Grace works her way back from injury, a miscommunication leaves the women with hilariously different perspectives on their relationship. But they’re on the same page on the field, realizing they can play together instead of vying for the same position.
St. Martin's Griffin | 9781250873309

DUNE: THE HEIR OF CALADAN by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson (Science Fiction/Space Opera)
The story that began with Duke Leto Atreides' rise to power, then continued with the consequences of Lady Jessica’s betrayal, will now conclude with Paul becoming the leader that he needs to be on the way to his pivotal role as Muad’Dib. Any Dune fan will devour this tale of a legend coming into his own.
Tor Books | 9781250765185

THE FURROWS by Namwali Serpell (Fiction)
Cassandra Williams is 12, and her little brother, Wayne, is seven. One day, when they’re alone together, there is an accident and Wayne is lost forever. His body is never recovered. The missing boy cleaves the family with doubt. Their father leaves and starts another family elsewhere. But their mother can’t give up hope and launches an organization dedicated to missing children. As C grows older, she sees her brother everywhere: in bistros, airplane aisles, subway cars. Here is her brother’s face, the light in his eyes, the way he seems to recognize her, too. But it can’t be, of course. Or can it? Then one day, in another accident, C meets a man both mysterious and familiar, a man who is also searching for someone and for his own place in the world. His name is Wayne.
Hogarth | 9780593448939

THE LAST CAMPAIGN: Sherman, Geronimo and the War for America by H. W. Brands (History)
William Tecumseh Sherman and Geronimo were keen strategists and bold soldiers, ruthless with their enemies. Over the course of the 1870s and 1880s, these two war chiefs would confront each other in the final battle for what the American West would be: a sparsely settled, wild home where Indian tribes could thrive, or a more densely populated extension of the America to the east of the Mississippi. When Sherman rose to commanding general of the Army, he was tasked with bringing Geronimo and his followers onto a reservation where they would live as farmers and ranchers and roam no more. But Geronimo preferred to fight.
Anchor | 9780593314524

MURDER IN THE FAMILY by Cara Hunter (Domestic Thriller/Mystery)
Paperback Original
In December 2003, Luke Ryder, the stepfather of acclaimed filmmaker Guy Howard (then aged 10), was found dead in the garden of their suburban family home. Luke Ryder’s murder has never been solved. Guy Howard’s mother and two half-sisters were in the house at the time of the murder, but all swear they saw nothing. Despite a high-profile police investigation and endless media attention, no suspect was ever charged. But some murder cases are simply too big to forget. Now comes the sensational new streaming series “Infamous,” dedicated to investigating --- and perhaps cracking --- this famous cold case. Years later, a group of experts re-examine the evidence on “Infamous” with shocking results. Does the team know more than they’ve been letting on?
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063272071

MURDER AND MAMON: A Tita Rosie's Kitchen Mystery by Mia P. Manansala (Mystery)
Paperback Original
Lila Macapagal's godmothers April, Mae and June --- aka the Calendar Crew --- are celebrating the opening of their latest joint business venture, a new laundromat, to much fanfare (and controversy). However, what should’ve been a joyous occasion quickly turns into a tragedy when they discover the building has been vandalized --- and the body of Ninang April’s niece, recently arrived from the Philippines, next to a chilling message painted on the floor. Was the message aimed at the victim or Lila's gossipy godmothers, who have not-so-squeaky-clean reputations? With Ninang April falling apart from grief and little progress from the Shady Palms Police Department in this slippery case, it’s up to Lila and her network to find justice for the young woman.
Berkley | 9780593549162

NEVER WHISTLE AT NIGHT: An Indigenous Dark Fiction Anthology edited by Shane Hawk and Theodore C. Van Alst Jr. (Horror/Short Stories)
Paperback Original
Many Indigenous people believe that one should never whistle at night. This belief takes many forms. For instance, Native Hawaiians believe it summons the Hukai’po, the spirits of ancient warriors, and Native Mexicans say it calls Lechuza, a witch that can transform into an owl. But what all these legends hold in common is the certainty that whistling at night can cause evil spirits to appear --- and even follow you home. These wholly original and shiver-inducing tales introduce readers to ghosts, curses, hauntings, monstrous creatures, complex family legacies, desperate deeds and chilling acts of revenge. Introduced and contextualized by Stephen Graham Jones, these stories are a celebration of Indigenous peoples’ survival and imagination, and a glorious reveling in all the things that an ill-advised whistle might summon.
Vintage | 9780593468463

THE TAKEN ONES: A Steinbeck and Reed Thriller by Jess Lourey (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Summer 1980: Despite the local superstition that the Bendy Man haunts the woods, three girls go into a Minnesota forest. Only one comes out, dead silent, her memory gone. The mystery of the Taken Ones captures the nation. Summer 2022: Cold case detective Van Reed and forensic scientist Harry Steinbeck are assigned a disturbing homicide --- a woman buried alive, clutching a heart charm necklace belonging to one of the vanished girls. Each has ties to the original case in ways they’re reluctant to share. As Van and Harry connect the crimes of the past and the present, Van struggles with memories of her own nightmarish childhood --- and the fear that uncovering the truth of the Taken Ones will lead her down a path from which she, too, may never return.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781662507618

THE TERRAFORMERS by Annalee Newitz (Science Fiction)
Destry's life is dedicated to terraforming Sask-E. As part of the Environmental Rescue Team, she cares for the planet and its burgeoning eco-systems as her parents and their parents did before her. But the bright, clean future they're building comes under threat when Destry discovers a city full of people that shouldn’t exist, hidden inside a massive volcano. As she uncovers more about their past, Destry begins to question the mission to which she has devoted her life and must make a choice that will reverberate through Sask-E's future for generations to come.
Tor Books | 9781250228024

THE TRAITOR by Ava Glass (Thriller)
Paperback Original
An MI6 operative is found dead, locked in a suitcase inside his own apartment. Despite an exhaustive search, no fingerprints are found at the scene. Emma Makepeace and her handler, Ripley, know an assassination when they see one, and such an obvious murder can mean only one thing: Someone is sending a message. As she digs into his past, Emma discovers that the unfortunate spy had been investigating two Russian oligarchs based in London. He’d become obsessed with the idea that the two were spies, aided by a third man --- whose identity he had yet to uncover. When he shared his findings within MI6 in the weeks before he died, the response came back fast and clear: Drop the investigation and move on. Had he uncovered a secret that cost him his life?
Bantam | 9780593496848

A TRUTH TO LIE FOR: An Elena Standish Novel by Anne Perry (Historical Mystery)
It is the summer of 1934, and Hitler is nearing the summit of supreme power in Germany. When Britain’s MI6 gets word that a pair of German scientists have made breakthroughs in germ warfare, they send Elena Standish on a dangerous mission to get one of them out of Germany before he’s forced to share his knowledge and its devastating power with Hitler’s elite. But the new head of Germany’s germ warfare division is an old enemy of Elena’s grandfather Lucas, the former head of MI6. And he’s bent on using any means at his disposal to avenge his defeat at Lucas’ hands 20 years before. What starts as an effort to save Europe from the devastation of disease soon becomes an intensely personal fight.
Ballantine Books | 9780593359099

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