October 3, 2023

October 3, 2023

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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of October 2nd and October 9th 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 October, which includes Indie Next, LibraryReads, the Barnes & Noble Book Club, Reese's Book Club, the "Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club, the "Good Morning America" Book Club, and more.

Carol Fitzgerald's latest "Bookreporter Talks To" interview is with Thrity Umrigar, whose new novel, THE MUSEUM OF FAILURES, will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On title (as was her previous book, HONOR).

Remy Wadia has come back to India from his home in Columbus, Ohio, to adopt a baby. His friends know a young woman who is pregnant and wants to give up her child. Remy is conflicted about this trip as he has had a long, contentious relationship with his mother, and this is his first time back in India since the death of his father, who was his champion. He and his dad shared a warm, loving relationship. His mom is colder and more guarded with him.

Thrity talks about her plotting and the building of her characters, as well as the multiple references to “the museum of failures” in the book. Like Remy, Thrity is Parsi, part of a very small sect, and she delves into their history. There is also a discussion about how infrequently many Americans contemplate the nuances of the larger world, and how little is taught in school about much of it. Click here to watch the video or here to listen to the podcast.

Upcoming Virtual Book and Author Events

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

Wednesday, October 4th at 3pm ET: Barnes & Noble: Join Barnes & Noble as they welcome the bestselling author of SLOW HORSES, Mick Herron, for a live virtual discussion of THE SECRET HOURS as part of their Midday Mystery Virtual Event series. Mick will be in conversation with award-winning author Dan Fesperman.

Wednesday, October 4th 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 Jessica Knoll about her new thriller, BRIGHT YOUNG WOMEN, which is Simon & Schuster's Book Club Favorites pick for October.

Saturday, October 7th at 1pm ET: Warwick's: Warwick's will host Julia Kelly as she discusses her new book, A TRAITOR IN WHITEHALL, the first entry in her mysterious and immersive Parisian Orphan series.

Monday, October 9th at 8pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Nelson DeMille and Alex DeMille will talk about their latest thriller, BLOOD LINES, which marks the return of Special Agents Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor, who are on the hunt for the cold-blooded murderer of one of their fellow agents.

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

On Sale the Week of October 2nd in Hardcover

October 3rd

BROOKLYN CRIME NOVEL by Jonathan Lethem (Fiction)
On the streets of 1970s Brooklyn, a daily ritual goes down: the dance. Money is exchanged, belongings surrendered, power asserted. The promise of violence lies everywhere, a currency itself. For these children --- Black, brown and white --- the street is a stage in shadow. And in the wings hide the other players: parents; cops; renovators; landlords; those who write the headlines, the histories and the laws; those who award this neighborhood its name. The rules appear obvious at first. But in memory’s prism, criminals and victims may seem to trade places. The voices of the past may seem to rise and gather as if in harmony, then make war with one another. A street may seem to crack open and reveal what lies behind its glimmering facade. None who lived through it are ever permitted to forget.
Ecco | 9780062938824

A COLD HIGHLAND WIND: A Lady Emily Mystery by Tasha Alexander (Historical Mystery)
In the summer of 1905, Lady Emily, husband Colin Hargreaves and their three sons eagerly embark on a family vacation at Cairnfarn Castle, the Scottish estate of their dear friend Jeremy, Duke of Bainbridge. But a high-spirited celebration at the beginning of their stay comes to a grisly end when the duke’s gamekeeper is found murdered on the banks of the loch. Handsome Angus Sinclair had a host of enemies: the fiancée he abandoned in Edinburgh, the young woman who had fallen hopelessly in love with him, and the rough farmer who saw him as a rival for her affections. But what is the meaning of the curious runic stone left on Sinclair’s forehead?
Minotaur Books | 9781250872333

THE DEAD TAKE THE A TRAIN by Cassandra Khaw and Richard Kadrey (Dark Fantasy/Horror)
Julie is a coked-up, burnt-out 30-year-old whose only retirement plan is dying early. She’s been trying to establish herself in the NYC magic scene, and she’ll work the most gruesome gigs, exorcize the nastiest demons, and make deals with the cruelest gods to claw her way to the top. But nothing can prepare her for the toughest job yet: when her best friend, Sarah, shows up at her door in need of help. Keeping Sarah safe becomes top priority. Julie is desperate for a quick fix to break the dead-end grind and save her friend. But her power grab sets off a deadly chain of events that puts Sarah --- and the entire world --- directly in the path of annihilation.
Tor Nightfire | 9781250867025

DEATH VALLEY by Melissa Broder (Fiction/Magical Realism)
A woman arrives alone at a Best Western seeking respite from an emptiness that plagues her. She has fled to the California high desert to escape a cloud of sorrow --- for both her father in the ICU and a husband whose illness is worsening. What the motel provides, however, is not peace but a path, thanks to a receptionist who recommends a nearby hike. Out on the sun-scorched trail, the woman encounters a towering cactus whose size and shape mean it should not exist in California. Yet the cactus is there, with a gash through its side that beckons like a familiar door. So she enters it. What awaits her inside this mystical succulent sets her on a journey at once desolate and rich, hilarious and poignant.
Scribner | 9781668024843

GOING INFINITE: The Rise and Fall of a New Tycoon by Michael Lewis (Business & Economics)
When Michael Lewis first met him, Sam Bankman-Fried was the world’s youngest billionaire and crypto’s Gatsby. CEOs, celebrities and leaders of small countries all vied for his time and cash after he catapulted, practically overnight, onto the Forbes billionaire list. Who was this rumpled guy in cargo shorts and limp white socks, whose eyes twitched across Zoom meetings as he played video games on the side? In GOING INFINITE, Michael Lewis sets out to answer this question, taking readers into the mind of Bankman-Fried, whose rise and fall offers an education in high-frequency trading, cryptocurrencies, philanthropy, bankruptcy and the justice system.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324074335

A HAUNTING ON THE HILL by Elizabeth Hand (Gothic Horror)
Holly Sherwin has been a struggling playwright for years, but now, after receiving a grant to develop her play “Witching Night,” she finally may be close to her big break. All she needs is time and space to bring her vision to life. When she stumbles across Hill House on a weekend getaway upstate, she is immediately taken in by the mansion, nearly hidden outside a remote village. It’s the perfect place to develop and rehearse her play. Despite her own hesitations, Holly’s girlfriend, Nisa, agrees to join Holly in renting the house for a month, and soon a troupe of actors, each with ghosts of their own, arrive. Yet as they settle in, the house’s peculiarities are made known. All too soon, Holly and her friends find themselves at odds not just with one another, but with the house itself.
Mulholland Books | 9780316527323

HELL IF WE DON'T CHANGE OUR WAYS: A Memoir by Brittany Means (Memoir)
Brittany Means’ childhood was a blur of highways and traumas that collapsed any effort to track time. Riding shotgun as her mother struggled to escape abusive relationships, Brittany didn’t care where they were going as long as they were together. But every so often, her mom would surprise her --- and leave. As Brittany grew older and questioned her own complicated relationships and the poverty, abuse and instability that enveloped her, she began to recognize that hell wasn’t only the place she read about in the Bible; it was the cycle of violence that entrapped her family. While untangling the web of her most painful memories, Brittany crafts a tale of self-preservation, resilience and hope with a unique narrative style --- a sparkling example of the human ability to withstand the most horrific experiences and still thrive.
Zibby Books | 9798985282894

HOW TO SAY BABYLON: A Memoir by Safiya Sinclair (Memoir)
Throughout her childhood, Safiya Sinclair’s father, a volatile reggae musician and militant adherent to a strict sect of Rastafari, became obsessed with her purity --- in particular, with the threat of what Rastas call Babylon, the immoral and corrupting influences of the Western world outside their home. He worried that womanhood would make Safiya and her sisters morally weak and impure, and believed a woman’s highest virtue was her obedience. As Safiya watched her mother struggle voicelessly for years under housework and the rigidity of her father’s beliefs, she increasingly used her education as a sharp tool with which to find her voice and break free. Inevitably, with her rebellion comes clashes with her father, whose rage and paranoia explodes in increasing violence.
37 Ink | 9781982132330

THE HURRICANE WARS by Thea Guanzon (Fantasy/Romance)
All Talasyn has ever known is the Hurricane Wars. Growing up an orphan in a nation under siege by the ruthless Night Emperor, she found her family among the soldiers who fight for freedom. But she is hiding a deadly secret: light magic courses through her veins, a blazing power believed to have been wiped out years ago that can cut through the Night Empire’s shadows. Prince Alaric, the emperor’s only son and heir, has been tasked with obliterating any threats to the Night Empire’s rule with the strength of his armies and mighty shadow magic. He discovers the greatest threat yet in Talasyn. In a clash of light and dark, their powers merge and create a force the likes of which has never been seen. But an even greater danger is coming, and the strange magic they can create together could be the only way to overcome it.
Harper Voyager | 9780063277274

IN LIGHT OF ALL DARKNESS: Inside the Polly Klaas Kidnapping and the Search for America's Child by Kim Cross (True Crime)
On October 1, 1993, 12-year-old Polly Klaas was kidnapped at knifepoint from her bedroom in Petaluma, California, during a sleepover with two friends. This rarest of all kidnappings --- a stranger abduction from the home --- triggered one of the largest manhunts in FBI history. The emotional gravity of Polly’s story touched every agent, police officer and forensic technician who worked on her case. Many of these investigators have never shared their stories --- until now. Kim Cross has written the first comprehensive account of what happened on that fateful night in October, as well as how the case forever transformed the Bureau’s approach to solving crimes.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538725061

INCENTIVE FOR DEATH by James Spoonhour (Mystery/Thriller)
A high-profile D.C. attorney is found dead in his office. McDermott “Mac” Burke and Oliver Shaw, homicide investigators for the Metropolitan Police Department, are called to investigate. There appear to be no signs of foul play, but there is also no obvious sign of a natural cause of death. The detectives are perplexed until the medical examiner notices a tiny pin prick on the lawyer’s neck and theorizes that he was injected with succinylcholine, which is a common horse tranquilizer that dissipates quickly in the body. As Mac and Oliver begin to look further, they discover that the lawyer had sold his life insurance policy to a large viatical company. Then they realize that more deaths under mysterious circumstances have occurred among those who have sold their policies to the same company.
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608095766

THE INTERN by Michele Campbell (Legal Thriller)
Madison Rivera lands the internship of a lifetime working for Judge Kathryn Conroy. But Madison has a secret that could destroy her career. Her troubled younger brother, Danny, has been arrested, and Conroy is the judge on his case. When Danny goes missing after accusing the judge of corruption, Madison’s quest for answers brings her deep into the judge’s glamorous world. Is Kathryn Conroy a mentor, a victim or a criminal? Is she trying to help Madison or use her as a pawn? And why is somebody trying to kill her? As the two women circle each other in a dangerous cat-and-mouse game, will they save each other, or will betrayal leave one of them dead?
St. Martin's Press | 9781250274977

JUDGMENT PREY: A Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers Novel by John Sandford (Mystery/Thriller)
Alex Sand was playing basketball with his two young sons when all three were shot in cold blood. A wealthy federal judge, there’s no short list of people who could have a vendetta against Alex. But the gruesome murders, especially that of his children, turn their St. Paul community on its head. Alex was on the verge of a major donation to a local housing charity, Heart/Twin Cities. With the money in limbo, eyes suddenly turn to his grieving widow, Margaret Cooper, to see what she might do with the money. Margaret struggles to move forward and can’t imagine how or why anyone would target her husband. With public pressure mounting and both the local police force and the FBI hitting dead end after dead end, Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers are called in to do what others could not: find answers.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593542811

LET HIM IN by William Friend (Gothic Psychological Thriller/Horror)
Alfie wakes up one night to find his twin daughters at the foot of his bed, claiming there's a shadowy figure in their bedroom. When no such thing can be found, he assumes the girls had a nightmare. He isn't surprised that they're troubled. Grief has made its home at Hart House: nine months ago, the twins' mother, Pippa, died unexpectedly. But the situation quickly develops into something more insidious. The girls set an extra place for him at the table. They whisper to him. They say he's going to take them away. Alfie calls upon Julia --- Pippa's sister and a psychiatrist --- to oust the malignant tenant from their lives. But as Alfie himself is haunted by visions and someone watches him at night, he begins to question the true character of the force that has poisoned his daughters' minds, with dark and violent consequences.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781728275185

THE LIST by Yomi Adegoke (Fiction)
Ola Olajide, a celebrated journalist at Womxxxn magazine, is set to marry the love of her life in one month’s time. Young, beautiful and successful, she and her fiancé, Michael, are considered the “couple goals” of their social network and seem to have it all. That is, until one morning when they both wake up to the same message: “Oh my god, have you seen The List?” It began as a crowdsourced collection of names and somehow morphed into an anonymous account posting allegations on social media. Ola usually would be the first to support such a list --- she’d retweet it, call for the men to be fired, write article after article. Except this time, Michael’s name is on it.
William Morrow | 9780063274877

A MAN OF TWO FACES: A Memoir, A History, A Memorial by Viet Thanh Nguyen (Memoir)
With insight, humor, formal invention and lyricism, Viet Thanh Nguyen rewinds the film of his own life. He expands the genre of personal memoir by acknowledging larger stories of refugeehood, colonization, and ideas about Vietnam and America, writing with his trademark sardonic wit and incisive analysis, as well as a deep emotional openness about his life as a father and a son. A MAN OF TWO FACES explores the necessity of both forgetting and of memory, the promises America so readily makes and breaks, and the exceptional life story of one of the most original and important writers working today.
Grove Press | 9780802160508

THE MANIAC by Benjamín Labatut (Fiction)
A prodigy whose gifts terrified the people around him, John von Neumann transformed every field he touched, inventing game theory and the first programmable computer, and pioneering AI, digital life and cellular automata. Through a chorus of family members, friends, colleagues and rivals, Labatut shows us the evolution of a mind unmatched and of a body of work that has unmoored the world in its wake. THE MANIAC places von Neumann at the center of a literary triptych that begins with Paul Ehrenfest, an Austrian physicist and friend of Einstein, who fell into despair when he saw science and technology become tyrannical forces. It ends a hundred years later, in the showdown between the South Korean Go Master Lee Sedol and the AI program AlphaGo.
Penguin Press | 9780593654477

MARY AND THE BIRTH OF FRANKENSTEIN written by Anne Eekhout, translated by Laura Watkinson (Historical Fiction)
Switzerland, 1816. A volcanic eruption in Indonesia envelopes the whole of Europe in ash and cloud. Amid this “year without a summer,” 18-year-old Mary Shelley and her lover, Percy Bysshe Shelley, arrive at Lake Geneva to visit Lord Byron and his companion, John Polidori. One famous evening, Byron issues a challenge to write the best ghost story. Contemplating what to write, Mary recalls another summer, when she was 14. Scotland, 1812. A guest of the Baxter family, Mary arrives in Dundee, befriending young Isabella Baxter. As their bond deepens, Mary and Isabella’s feelings for each other intensify. But someone has been watching them --- the charismatic and vaguely sinister Mr. Booth, Isabella's older brother-in-law, who may not be as benevolent as he purports to be.
HarperVia | 9780063256743

MENEWOOD by Nicola Griffith (Historical Fiction)
Making a much-anticipated return to the world of HILD, MENEWOOD transports readers back to seventh-century Britain, a land of rival kings and religions poised for epochal change. Hild is no longer the bright child who made a place in Edwin Overking’s court with her seemingly supernatural insight. She is 18, honed and tested, the formidable lady of Elmet, now building her personal stronghold in the valley of Menewood. But old alliances are fraying. Younger rivals are snapping at Edwin’s heels. And war is brewing. Not knowing whom to trust, Edwin becomes volatile and recalls his young advisor to court. There Hild begins to understand the true extent of the chaos ahead --- and realizes she must find a way to navigate the turbulence and fight to protect both the kingdom and her own people.
MCD | 9780374208080

MIDNIGHT IS THE DARKEST HOUR by Ashley Winstead (Gothic Thriller/Horror)
In her small hometown of Bottom Springs, Louisiana, librarian Ruth Cornier has always felt like an outsider, even as her beloved father rains fire-and-brimstone warnings from the pulpit at Holy Fire Baptist. Unfortunately for Ruth, the only things the townspeople fear more than the God and the Devil are the myths that haunt the area, like the story of the Low Man, a vampiric figure said to steal into sinners' bedrooms and kill them on moonless nights. When a skull is found deep in the swamp next to mysterious carved symbols, Bottom Springs is thrown into uproar --- and Ruth realizes only she and Everett, an old friend with a dark past, have the power to comb the town's secret underbelly in search of true evil.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781728269962

MOSCOW X by David McCloskey (Political Thriller)
CIA officers Sia and Max enter Russia under commercial cover to recruit Vladimir Putin’s moneyman. Sia works for a London law firm that conceals the wealth of the superrich. Max’s family business in Mexico, a CIA front since the 1960s, is a farm that breeds high-end racehorses. They pose as a couple to target Vadim, Putin’s private banker, and his wife, Anna, who --- unbeknownst to the CIA --- is a Russian intelligence officer under deep cover at the bank. As they descend further into a Russian world dripping with luxury and rife with gangland violence, Sia and Max’s only hope may be Anna, who is playing a game of her own.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324050759

THE MURDER OF ANDREW JOHNSON by Burt Solomon (Historical Thriller)
Andrew Johnson was called The Great Commoner, appealing to the masses, loathing the establishment and anyone he deemed elitist. Once Johnson made an enemy, you became his enemy for life. He saw insults where none were intended, and personal loyalty meant everything. He also was the first U.S. president to be impeached. Time, however, waits for no man, and even the Famous (or Infamous) must leave this world eventually. But when a man has as many enemies as the Devil, what death could really be a natural one? From political opponents to most of his own family, the suspects are endless, and the truth not really wanted. John Hay --- lawyer, sometimes governmental bureaucrat, and now journeyman investigative reporter --- is set on finding that truth. And it may wind up killing him.
Forge Books | 9780765392725

MY DARLING GIRL by Jennifer McMahon (Psychological/Supernatural Thriller)
Alison has never been a fan of Christmas. But with it right around the corner and her husband busily decorating their cozy Vermont home, she has no choice but to face it. Then she gets the call. Mavis, Alison’s estranged mother, has been diagnosed with cancer and has only weeks to live. She wants to spend her remaining days with her daughter, son-in-law and two granddaughters. But Alison grew up with her mother’s alcoholism and violent abuse and is reluctant to unearth these traumatic memories. Still, she eventually agrees to take in Mavis, hoping that she and her mother could finally heal and have the relationship she’s always dreamed of. But when mysterious and otherworldly things start happening upon Mavis’ arrival, Alison begins to suspect that her mother is not quite who she seems.
Gallery/Scout Press | 9781668019061

THE NIGHT HOUSE written by Jo Nesbø, translated by Neil Smith (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
In the wake of his parents’ tragic deaths in a house fire, 14-year-old Richard Elauved has been sent to live with his aunt and uncle in the remote, insular town of Ballantyne. Richard quickly earns a reputation as an outcast, and when a classmate named Tom goes missing, everyone suspects he is responsible. No one believes him when he says the telephone booth out by the edge of the woods sucked Tom into the receiver. No one, that is, except Karen, a beguiling fellow outsider. Richard traces the number that Tom prank-called from the phone booth to an abandoned house in the Mirror Forest. There he catches a glimpse of a terrifying face in the window. And then the voices begin to whisper in his ear: She’s going to burn. The girl you love is going to burn. There’s nothing you can do about it.
Knopf | 9780593537169

PRINCESS OF DUNE by Brian Herbert and Kevin J. Anderson (Science Fiction/Space Opera)
Raised in the Imperial court and born to be a political bargaining chip, Irulan was sent at an early age to be trained as a Bene Gesserit Sister. Now of marriageable age, Princess Irulan sees the machinations of the many factions vying for power and is determined to become much more than a pawn to be moved about on anyone’s gameboard. Meanwhile, on Arrakis, Chani is trained in the Fremen mystical ways by an ancient Reverend Mother. Brought up to believe in her father’s ecological dream of a green Arrakis, she follows Liet around to Imperial testing stations, surviving the many hazards of desert life. Chani soon learns the harsh cost of Fremen dreams and obligations under the oppressive boot heel of the long Harkonnen occupation.
Tor Books | 9781250906212

THE PROSPECTORS by Ariel Djanikian (Historical Fiction)
The middle daughter of struggling California fruit farmers, Alice Bush is accustomed to feeling inferior and destitute. But when her elder sister’s husband strikes a vein of gold in the Yukon Territory, Alice finally seizes control of her destiny by joining a wave of white settlers making the dangerous trek to the Klondike. By luck and circumstance, she becomes tightly intertwined in her sister and brother-in-law’s newfound fortune, as well as the beginning of a generations-long family quest for wealth. One hundred years later, in 2015, Alice’s great-great-granddaughter, Anna, must grapple with moral conflict and questions of justice as she travels to the Klondike to bequeath her would-be inheritance to the First Nations peoples who paid the price for its creation.
William Morrow | 9780063289734

THE SCANDALOUS CONFESSIONS OF LYDIA BENNET, WITCH by Melinda Taub (Historical Fantasy)
In this exuberant retelling of Jane Austen’s PRIDE AND PREJUDICE, Lydia Bennet puts pen to paper to relate the real events and aftermath of the classic story. Some facts are well known: Mrs. Bennet suffers from her nerves, Mr. Bennet suffers from Mrs. Bennet, and all five daughters suffer from an estate that is entailed only to male heirs. But Lydia also suffers from entirely different concerns. Her best-loved sister, Kitty, is really a barn cat. Wickham is every bit as wicked as the world believes him to be, but what else would one expect from a demon? And if Mr. Darcy is uptight about etiquette, that’s nothing compared to his feelings about magic. Most of all, Lydia has yet to learn that for a witch, promises have power.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538739204

SECOND ACT by Danielle Steel (Fiction)
As the head of a prestigious movie studio for nearly two decades, Andy Westfield has had every conceivable professional luxury. But then his world is upended. The studio is sold, and the buyer’s son demands the top seat. Out of a job and humiliated, Andy spirals. When his head clears, he decides to get as far away from Los Angeles as possible. Andy signs a six-month rental agreement for a luxurious home in a tiny, forgotten coastal town two hours from London. When he arrives, he hires Violet Smith to help get his affairs in order. But when Violet leaves the manuscript of her unfinished novel behind after work one day, Andy lets his curiosity get the best of him and is captivated by a story that begs to be adapted for the big screen. Could this be the miracle they’ve both been looking for?
Delacorte Press | 9781984821959

STARLING HOUSE by Alix E. Harrow (Gothic Fantasy)
Opal is determined to find a better life for her younger brother, Jasper. One that gets them out of Eden, Kentucky, a town remarkable for only two things: bad luck and E. Starling, the reclusive 19th-century author of The Underland, who disappeared over a hundred years ago. Everyone agrees that it’s best to ignore the uncanny mansion and its misanthropic heir, Arthur. Almost everyone, anyway. Opal has been obsessed with The Underland since she was a child. When she gets the chance to step inside Starling House, she can't resist. But sinister forces are digging deeper into the buried secrets of Starling House, and Arthur’s own nightmares have become far too real. As Eden itself seems to be drowning in its own ghosts, Opal realizes that she finally might have found a reason to stick around.
Tor Books | 9781250799050

THRONE OF THE FALLEN by Kerri Maniscalco (Fantasy/Romance)
When a cryptic note arrives, signaling the beginning of a deadly game, the Prince of Envy knows it will take more than a hint of sin to win and save his falling demon court. None of his meticulous plans prepare him for the frustrating artist who ignites his sin like no other. The trouble with scoundrels and blackguards is that they haven’t a modicum of honor, which Miss Camilla Antonius learns after one desperate mistake allows Waverly Green’s most notorious rake to blackmail her. To avoid a ruinous scandal, Camilla is forced to enter a devil’s bargain with Envy, little expecting that his game will awaken her true nature. Together, Envy and Camilla must embark on a perilous journey through the Underworld while trying to avoid the most dangerous trap of all: falling in love.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316557290

A TRAITOR IN WHITEHALL by Julia Kelly (Historical Mystery)
1940, England: Evelyne Redfern, known as “The Parisian Orphan” as a child, is working on the line at a munitions factory in wartime London. When Mr. Fletcher, one of her father’s old friends, spots Evelyne on a night out, Evelyne finds herself plunged into the world of Prime Minister Winston Churchill’s cabinet war rooms. However, shortly after she settles into her new role as a secretary, one of the girls at work is murdered, and Evelyne must use all of her amateur sleuthing expertise to find the killer. But doing so puts her right in the path of David Poole, a cagey minister’s aide who seems determined to thwart her investigations. That is, until Evelyne finds out that David’s real mission is to root out a mole selling government secrets to Britain’s enemies, and the pair begrudgingly team up.
Minotaur Books | 9781250865489

THE WITCHING YEAR: A Memoir of Earnest Fumbling Through Modern Witchcraft by Diana Helmuth (Memoir)
Thirty-three-year-old Diana Helmuth is skeptical of organized religion. She is also skeptical of disorganized religion. But, more than anything, she is tired of God being dead. So she decides to try on the fastest growing, self-directed faith in America: Witchcraft. The result is 366 days of observation, trial, error, wit and back spasms. Witches today are often presented as confident and finished, proud and powerful. Diana is eager to join them. She wants to follow all the rules, memorize all the incantations and read all the liturgy. But there’s one glaring problem: no Witch can agree on what the right rules, liturgy and incantations are. As with life, Diana will have to define the craft for herself, looking past the fashionable and figuring out how to define the real.
S&S/Simon Element | 9781668002988

YUMI AND THE NIGHTMARE PAINTER: A Cosmere Novel by Brandon Sanderson (Famtasy/Adventure)
Yumi has spent her entire life in strict obedience, granting her the power to summon the spirits that bestow vital aid upon her society. But she longs for even a single day as a normal person. Painter patrols the dark streets dreaming of being a hero --- a goal that has led to nothing but heartache and isolation, leaving him always on the outside looking in. In their own ways, both of them face the world alone. Suddenly flung together, Yumi and Painter must strive to right the wrongs in both their lives, reconciling their past and present while maintaining the precarious balance of each of their worlds. If they cannot unravel the mystery of what brought them together before it’s too late, they risk forever losing not only the bond growing between them, but the very worlds they’ve always struggled to protect.
Tor Books | 9781250899699

On Sale the Week of October 2nd in Paperback

October 3rd

ACROSS THE SAND by Hugh Howey (Science Fiction/Post-Apocalyptic Thriller)
The old world is buried. A new one has been forged atop the shifting dunes, a land of howling wind and infernal sand. In this barren home, siblings Conner, Rob, Palmer and Violet daily carve out a future. They live in the shadow of their father and oldest sister, Vic, two of the greatest sand divers ever to comb the desert’s depths. But these branches of their family tree are long gone, leaving the younger siblings scratching in the dust, hopeful for a better life. On the other side of No Man’s Land, Anya was born beside the abundant mines knowing her prospects would be to marry, have a family and work in ore. But when an atomic bomb delivered by a stranger destroys most of her town, she follows her father to a strange land of dunes to bring vengeance to their enemies.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063286986

AESTHETICA by Allie Rowbottom (Fiction)
At 19, she was an Instagram celebrity. Now, at 35, she works behind the cosmetic counter at the “black and white store,” peddling anti-aging products to women seeking physical and spiritual transformation. She, too, is seeking rebirth. She’s about to undergo the high-risk, elective surgery Aesthetica™, a procedure that will reverse all her past plastic surgery procedures, hopefully returning her to a truer self. Provided she survives the knife. But on the eve of the surgery, her traumatic past resurfaces when she is asked to participate in the public takedown of her former manager/boyfriend, who has rebranded himself as a paragon of “woke” masculinity in the post-#MeToo world. With the hours ticking down to her surgery, she must confront the ugly truth about her experiences on and off the Instagram grid.
Soho Press | 9781641295321

BILLIE STARR’S BOOK OF SORRIES by Deborah E. Kennedy (Fiction)
In a small town where everyone knows everyone’s business, down-on-her-luck single mother Jenny Newberg is on a first-name basis with the debt collector at the bank, who is moving toward foreclosure. She is constantly apologizing to her precocious young daughter, Billie Starr, who is filling a book with her mother’s sorries. Then a pair of strangers in black suits offers her a hefty check to seduce someone known as the Candidate. But nothing ever goes as Jenny plans, and she is swept into the Candidate’s orbit. Surrounded by a wide universe of new ideas, she realizes how constrained her life has been by the expectations of everyone around her, and she starts to see how much more she might be capable of.
Flatiron Books | 9781250138453

BROTHER, SISTER, MOTHER, EXPLORER by Jamie Figueroa (Fiction)
In the tourist town of Ciudad de Tres Hermanas, in the aftermath of their mother's passing, two siblings spend a final weekend together in their childhood home. Seeing her brother, Rafa, careening toward a place of no return, Rufina devises a bet: If they can make enough money performing for privileged tourists in the plaza over the course of the weekend to afford a plane ticket out, Rafa must commit to living. If not, Rufina will make her peace with Rafa's own plan for the future, however terrifying it may be. As the siblings reckon with generational and ancestral trauma, set against the indignities of present-day prejudice, other strange hauntings begin to stalk these pages.
Catapult | 9781646221219

THE DEATH OF US by Lori Rader-Day (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
One rainy night 15 years ago, Ashley Hay stood on Liss Kehoe’s front porch and handed over her brand-new baby, Callan. She was never seen or heard from again. Since then, Liss has raised Callan as her own and loves him as fiercely as any mother would. But in the back of her mind, she’s always wondered if Ashley is still out there somewhere --- and feared what might happen if she comes back. When Ashley does reappear, it’s not in the way Liss expected. After all these years, Ashley’s car has been found…in the quarry pond on Kehoe property. But the discovery of the car dredges up more questions than answers. What really happened on the night of Ashley’s disappearance? Was it a tragic accident, or something far more sinister? Someone in town knows the truth, and they’ll go to great lengths to keep it quiet.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063293335

DOWN AND OUT IN PARADISE: The Life of Anthony Bourdain by Charles Leerhsen (Biography)
Anthony Bourdain’s death by suicide in June 2018 shocked people around the world. Bourdain seemed to have it all: an irresistible personality, a dream job, a beautiful family and international fame. The reality, though, was more complicated than it seemed. Bourdain became a celebrity with his bestselling book, KITCHEN CONFIDENTIAL. He parlayed it into a series of hit television shows, including Food Network’s “Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations” and CNN’s “Parts Unknown.” But his charisma belied a troubled spirit. DOWN AND OUT IN PARADISE is the first book to tell the true and full Bourdain story, relating the highs and lows of an extraordinary life.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982140458

GHOSTLY: A Collection of Ghost Stories introduced and illustrated by Audrey Niffenegger (Horror/Short Stories)
From Edgar Allan Poe to Kelly Link, M. R. James to Neil Gaiman, H.H. Munro to Audrey Niffenegger herself, GHOSTLY spans the whole history of the ghost story genre from gothic horror to the modern era. Each story is introduced by Niffenegger, with short original commentary and background on why she chose to include it. Also featured is her own story, “A Secret Life with Cats.”
Scribner | 9781501111204

THE HERO OF THIS BOOK by Elizabeth McCracken (Fiction)
Ten months after her mother’s death, the narrator of THE HERO OF THIS BOOK takes a trip to London. The city was a favorite of her mother’s, and as the narrator wanders the streets, she finds herself reflecting on her mother’s life and their relationship. Thoughts of the past meld with questions of the future: Back in New England, the family home is now up for sale, its considerable contents already winnowed. The woman, a writer, recalls all that made her complicated mother extraordinary and finds herself wondering how her mother had endured. Even though she wants to respect her mother’s nearly pathological sense of privacy, the woman must come to terms with whether making a chronicle of this remarkable life constitutes an act of love or betrayal.
Ecco | 9780062971296

HESTER by Laurie Lico Albanese (Historical Fiction)
Isobel Gamble is a young seamstress carrying generations of secrets when she sets sail from Scotland in the early 1800s with her husband, Edward. An apothecary who has fallen under the spell of opium, his pile of debts have forced them to flee Glasgow for a fresh start in the New World. But only days after they've arrived in Salem, Edward abruptly joins a departing ship as a medic --- leaving Isobel penniless and alone in a strange country. When she meets a young Nathaniel Hawthorne, the two are instantly drawn to each other. As the weeks pass and Edward's safe return grows increasingly unlikely, Nathaniel and Isobel grow closer and closer. Together, they are a muse and a dark storyteller; the enchanter and the enchanted. But which is which?
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250825162

A HISTORY OF FEAR by Luke Dumas (Literary Thriller/Horror)
Grayson Hale, the most infamous murderer in Scotland, is better known by a different name: the Devil’s Advocate. The 25-year-old American grad student rose to instant notoriety when he confessed to the slaughter of his classmate, Liam Stewart, claiming the Devil made him do it. When Hale is found hanged in his prison cell, officers uncover a handwritten manuscript that promises to answer the question that’s haunted the nation for years: Was Hale a lunatic, or had he been telling the truth all along?
Washington Square Press | 9781982199036

THE HOLLOW KIND by Andy Davidson (Gothic Horror/Thriller)
When Nellie Gardner learns that she has inherited a turpentine estate from her long-lost grandfather, she throws everything she can think of in her pickup and flees to Georgia with her 11-year-old son, Max, in tow. August Redfern’s “estate” is a decrepit farmhouse on a thousand acres of old pine forest, but Nellie sees it as the perfect refuge --- a safe place to hide from her violent husband and the chance for a fresh start. But Max sees what his mother can’t: Redfern Hill is no haven. Something lurks beneath the soil, ancient and hungry, with the power to corrupt hearts and destroy souls. And Nellie’s return is about to wake it up.
Picador | 9781250893529

THE LAST CHAIRLIFT by John Irving (Fiction)
In Aspen, Colorado, in 1941, Rachel Brewster is a slalom skier at the National Downhill and Slalom Championships. Little Ray, as she is called, finishes nowhere near the podium, but she manages to get pregnant. Back home, in New England, Little Ray becomes a ski instructor. Her son, Adam, grows up in a family that defies conventions and evades questions concerning the eventful past. Years later, looking for answers, Adam will go to Aspen. In the Hotel Jerome, where he was conceived, Adam will meet some ghosts. In THE LAST CHAIRLIFT, they aren’t the first or the last ghosts he sees.
Simon & Schuster | 9781501189289

THE LAST KINGDOM by Steve Berry (Thriller)
King Ludwig II of Bavaria was an enigmatic figure who was deposed in 1886, mysteriously drowning three days later. Eccentric to the point of madness, history tells us that in the years before he died, Ludwig engaged in a worldwide search for a new kingdom --- a place he could retreat into and rule as he wished. But a question remains: Did he succeed? Enter Cotton Malone. After many months, Malone’s protégé, Luke Daniels, has managed to infiltrate a renegade group intent on winning Bavarian independence from Germany. In a race across Bavaria for clues hidden in Ludwig’s three fairy-tale castles --- Neuschwanstein, Linderhof and Herrenchiemsee --- Malone and Daniels battle an ever-growing list of deadly adversaries, all intent on finding the last kingdom.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538759240

THE LOCKED DOOR by Freida McFadden (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
While 11-year-old Nora Davis was up in her bedroom doing homework, she had no idea her father was killing women in the basement. Until the day the police arrived at their front door. Decades later, Nora's father is spending his life behind bars, and Nora is a successful surgeon with a quiet, solitary existence. Nobody knows about her past, and she'll do anything to keep it that way. Then one of her young female patients is murdered, killed in the same unique and horrific manner that her father used to kill his victims. Somebody knows who Nora is. Somebody wants her to take the fall for this unthinkable crime. But she's not like her father. The police can't pin anything on her. As long as they don't look in her basement.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781728296180

MURDER ON THE CHRISTMAS EXPRESS by Alexandra Benedict (Mystery)
Paperback Original
In the early hours of Christmas Eve, the sleeper train from London to the Highlands derails, along with the festive plans of its travelers. With the train buried in snow in the middle of nowhere, the passengers have only each other, and not all of them will reach their holiday celebrations. As a killer tries to pick passengers off one by one, former Met Detective Roz Parker can't resist one last investigation, but murder in a locked room is a formidable puzzle for even the most seasoned investigator. As accusations begin to fly, the group of travelers fractures and unexpected alliances form. Can Roz find the culprit before anyone else is lost?
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781728284415

OCEAN’S ECHO by Everina Maxwell (Science Fiction/Space Opera)
Rich socialite, inveterate flirt and walking disaster Tennalhin Halkana can read minds. Tennal, like all neuromodified “readers,” is a security threat on his own. But when controlled, readers are a rare asset. Not only can they read minds, they can navigate chaotic space, the maelstroms surrounding the gateway to the wider universe. Conscripted into the military under dubious circumstances, Tennal is placed into the care of Lieutenant Surit Yeni, a duty-bound soldier, principled leader and the son of a notorious traitor general. Whereas Tennal can read minds, Surit can influence them. Like all other neuromodified “architects,” he can impose his will onto others, and he’s under orders to control Tennal by merging their minds.
Bramble | 9781250758873

ONE LAST KILL by Robert Dugoni (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
Tracy Crosswhite is reopening the investigation into Seattle’s Route 99 serial killer. After 13 victims, he stopped hunting and the trail went cold, stirring public outrage. Now, nearly three decades after his first kill, Tracy is expected to finally bring closure to the victims’ families and redeem the Seattle PD’s reputation. Even if it means working with her nemesis, Captain Johnny Nolasco. Lead detective of the original task force, Nolasco dares Tracy to do what he failed to: close the case. Forming an uneasy alliance, Tracy and Nolasco revisit old leads and pursue new evidence only to unearth high-level corruption and cover-ups as dangerous as the elusive killer himself. At the risk of being exposed, such deadly and powerful forces will go to extremes to stay in the shadows.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781662500213

PERIL IN PARIS: A Royal Spyness Mystery by Rhys Bowen (Historical Mystery)
When I receive a letter from my glamorous best friend, Belinda, Darcy suggests we take a trip to Paris to visit her. It seems he also has a spot of business of which to take care, so I will be staying in Belinda’s flat as she works feverishly on Coco Chanel’s fall collection. Darcy has asked me to take on a small chore as a part of his latest assignment. I am to covertly retrieve something from an attendee of Coco’s show. It seems easy enough, but I discover that this little errand could have terrifying consequences for a world on the brink of war. When things go horribly wrong, I am left to find a killer all while trying to fend off a French policeman who is certain that I am a criminal mastermind.
Berkley | 9780593437872

A RESTLESS TRUTH by Freya Marske (Historical Fantasy)
Maud Blyth has always longed for adventure. She expected plenty of it when she volunteered to serve as an old lady’s companion on an ocean liner, in order to help her beloved older brother unravel a magical conspiracy that began generations ago. What she didn’t expect was for the old lady in question to turn up dead on the first day of the voyage. Now she has to deal with a dead body, a disrespectful parrot, and the lovely, dangerously outrageous Violet Debenham, who’s also returning home to England. Violet is everything that Maud has been trained to distrust yet can’t help but desire: a magician, an actress and a magnet for scandal.
Tordotcom | 9781250831897

THE REVIVALISTS by Christopher M. Hood (Dystopian Fiction)
Bill and Penelope are the lucky ones. Not only do they survive the Shark Flu emerging from the melting Icelandic permafrost to sweep like a scythe across the world, they begin to rebuild a life in the wreckage of the old. A garden to feed themselves planted where the lawn used to be, a mattress pulled down to the living room fireplace for warmth. Even Bill’s psychology practice endures the collapse of the social order, the handful of remaining clients bartering cans of food for their sessions. But when their daughter’s voice over the radio in the kitchen announces that she’s joined a cult 3,000 miles away in Bishop, California, they leave it all behind to embark on a perilous trek across the hollowed-out remains of America to save her.
Harper Perennial | 9780063221406

THE ROARING DAYS OF ZORA LILY by Noelle Salazar (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
2023, The Smithsonian's National Museum of American History: A costume conservator is preparing an exhibition featuring movie costumes from the 1920s to present day. As she gingerly places a gown once worn by Greta Garbo on a mannequin, she discovers another name hidden beneath the designer's label, leaving her to wonder. Who is Zora Lily? 1924, Seattle: Poverty-stricken Zora Hough spends her days looking after her younger siblings while sewing up holes and fixing hems for clients to bring in extra money. But at night, she secretly dreams of becoming a designer. When her best friend gets a job dancing in a club downtown, Zora is lured in by her stories of music, glittering dresses and boys. But as her ambition is challenged by tragedy and duty to her family, she will learn that dreams come with a cost.
Mira | 9780778305200

SECRETS OF THE NILE: A Lady Emily Mystery by Tasha Alexander (Historical Mystery)
Lady Emily and her husband, Colin Hargreaves, have joined his formidable mother on a holiday to visit the exotic treasures of Egypt. Their host, Lord Bertram Deeley, is a renowned amateur British collector of antiquities, who has invited his closest friends on a lavish cruise up the Nile to his home at Luxor. But on the first night of their journey, he suddenly collapses after offering a welcome toast, a victim of the lethal poison cyanide. Who amongst this group of his nearest and dearest would want to kill their generous host? Emily and Colin’s investigation soon reveals that even his closest friends had reasons to want him dead. A key clue may lie with several ancient ushabtis, exquisite 3,000-year-old sculptures that played a role in a hidden story from the time of Ancient Egypt.
Minotaur Books | 9781250819710

SOMEWHERE SISTERS: A Story of Adoption, Identity, and the Meaning of Family by Erika Hayasaki (Biography)
It was 1998 in Nha Trang, Vietnam, and Liên struggled to care for her newborn twin girls. Hà was taken in by Liên’s sister, and she grew up in a rural village with her aunt. Hà’s twin sister, Loan, was adopted by a wealthy, white American family who renamed her Isabella. Isabella grew up in the suburbs of Chicago with a nonbiological sister, Olivia, also adopted from Vietnam, and they attended a predominantly white Catholic school. But when Isabella’s adoptive mother learned of her biological twin back in Vietnam, all of their lives changed forever. Erika Hayasaki spent years and hundreds of hours interviewing each of the birth and adoptive family members. She brings the girls’ experiences to life on the page, challenging conceptions about adoption and what it means to give a child a good life.
Algonquin Books | 9781643755366

UNMASKED: My Life Solving America's Cold Cases by Paul Holes, with Robin Gaby Fisher (True Crime/Memoir)
In UNMASKED, cold case investigator Paul Holes takes us through his memories of a storied career and provides an insider account of some of the most notorious cases in contemporary American history, including the hunt for the Golden State Killer, Laci Peterson's murder and Jaycee Dugard's kidnapping. This is also a revelatory profile of a complex man and what makes him tick: the drive to find closure for victims and their loved ones, the inability to walk away from a challenge --- even at the expense of his own happiness. Holes opens up the most intimate scenes of his life: his moments of self-doubt and the impact that detective work has had on his marriage.
Celadon Books | 9781250622808

WHITE HORSE by Erika T. Wurth (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
Kari James spends most of her time at her favorite spot in Denver, a bar called White Horse. There, she tries her best to ignore her past and the questions surrounding her mother who abandoned her when she was just two years old. But soon after her cousin, Debby, brings her a traditional bracelet that once belonged to Kari’s mother, Kari starts seeing disturbing visions of her mother and a mysterious creature. When the visions refuse to go away, she must uncover what really happened to her mother. Kari’s journey toward a truth long denied by both her family and law enforcement forces her to confront her dysfunctional relationships, thoughts about a friend she lost in childhood, and her desire for the one thing she’s always wanted but could never have.
Flatiron Books | 9781250847676

WILDFIRE: A Maple Hills Novel by Hannah Grace (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Maple Hills students Russ Callaghan and Aurora Roberts cross paths at a party celebrating the end of the academic year, where a drinking game results in them having a passionate one-night stand. Never one to overstay her welcome (or expect much from a man), Aurora slips away before Russ even has the chance to ask for her full name. Imagine their surprise when they bump into each other on the first day of the summer camp where they are both counselors. Russ hopes if he gets far enough away from Maple Hills, he can avoid dealing with the repercussions of his father’s gambling addiction, while Aurora is tired of craving attention from everyone around her and wants to go back to the last place she truly felt at home. Will the two learn to peacefully coexist? Or did their one night together start a fire they can’t put out?
Atria Books | 9781668026274

A WINTER IN NEW YORK by Josie Silver (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Iris moves to New York to restart her life. While at a famous autumn street fair in Little Italy, a little family-run gelateria catches her eye. Could it be the same shop that’s in an old photo of her mother’s? Iris returns the next day and meets the handsome Gio, who tells her that the shop is in danger of closing. His uncle, the sole keeper of their family’s gelato recipe, is recovering from a stroke and can no longer remember it. When Iris samples the last remaining batch, she realizes that their gelato and her gelato are one and the same. She offers her services as a chef to help them re-create the flavor and finds herself falling for Gio and his family. But when Gio’s uncle finally wakes up, all of the secrets Iris has been keeping threaten to ruin the new life --- and new love --- she’s been building all winter long.
Dell | 9780593722862

WRECK THE HALLS by Tessa Bailey (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Melody Gallard spends her days restoring old books and avoiding the limelight. But when a producer offers her a lot of money to reunite her mother’s band on live TV, Mel begins to wonder if it’s time to rattle the cage, shake up her quiet life…and see him again. The only other person who could wrangle the rock and roll divas. Beat Dawkins, the lead singer’s son, is Melody’s opposite --- the camera loves him, he could charm the pants off anyone, and his mom is not a potential cult leader. Still, they might have been best friends if not for the legendary feud that broke up the band. When they met as teenagers, Mel felt an instant spark, but it’s nothing compared to the wild, intense attraction that builds as they embark on a madcap mission to convince their mothers to perform one last show.
Avon | 9780063308305

On Sale the Week of October 9th in Hardcover

October 10th

THE BELL IN THE FOG by Lev AC Rosen (Historical Mystery)
San Francisco, 1952. Detective Evander “Andy” Mills has started a new life for himself as a private detective, but his business hasn’t exactly taken off. It turns out that word spreads fast when you have a bad reputation, and no one in the queer community trusts him enough to ask an ex-cop for help. When James, an old flame from the war who had mysteriously disappeared, arrives in his offices above the Ruby, Andy wants to kick him out. But the job seems to be a simple case of blackmail, and Andy’s debts are piling up. He agrees to investigate, despite everything it stirs up. The case will take him back to the shadowy, closeted world of the Navy, and then out into the gay bars of the city, where the past rises up to meet him, like the swell of the ocean under a warship.
Forge Books | 9781250834256

BLACKOUTS by Justin Torres (Fiction)
Out in the desert in a place called the Palace, a young man tends to a dying soul, someone he once knew briefly but who has haunted the edges of his life: Juan Gay. Juan has a project to pass along, one built around a true artifact of a book --- Sex Variants: A Study of Homosexual Patterns --- and its devastating history. This book contains accounts collected in the early 20th century from queer subjects by a queer researcher, Jan Gay, whose groundbreaking work was then co-opted by a committee. The voices of these subjects have been filtered, muted, but it is possible to hear them from within and beyond the text. As Juan waits for his end, he and the narrator recount for each other moments of joy and oblivion; they resurrect loves, lives, mothers, fathers, minor heroes.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374293574

BLOOD LINES by Nelson DeMille and Alex DeMille (Thriller)
Army Criminal Investigation Agents Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor are tasked with investigating the murder of one of their own: CID Special Agent Harry Vance, an accomplished counterterrorism agent whose body was discovered in a city park in the heart of Berlin’s Arab refugee community. The authorities suspect this is an act of Islamic terrorism, but Brodie and Taylor soon believe there is more to this case. As they work to discover what the murder victim was doing in the days and weeks preceding his death, they become immersed in the many conflicts and contradictions of modern Germany. Ultimately, Brodie and Taylor realize that the murder of Harry Vance was merely the prelude to a much more sinister future event --- unless they can unravel the mystery in time to stop it.
Scribner | 9781501101816

THE BURNOUT by Sophie Kinsella (Romantic Comedy)
Sasha has had it. She cannot bring herself to respond to another inane, “urgent” email or participate in the corporate employee joyfulness program. Armed with good intentions to drink kale smoothies, try yoga and find peace, she heads to the seaside resort she loved as a child. But it’s the off-season, the hotel is in dilapidated shambles, and she has to share the beach with the only other occupant: a grumpy guy named Finn, who seems as stressed as Sasha. How can she commune with nature when he’s sitting on her favorite rock, watching her? Nor can they agree on how best to alleviate their burnout. When curious messages, seemingly addressed to Sasha and Finn, begin to appear on the beach, the two are forced to talk --- about everything.
The Dial Press | 9780593730393

THE DEFECTOR by Chris Hadfield (Thriller)
Israel, October 1973. As the Yom Kippur War flares into life, a state-of-the-art Soviet MiG fighter plane plummets to an unexpected landing. NASA Flight Controller and former US test pilot Kaz Zemeckis watches from the ground --- unaware that its arrival will pull him into a high-stakes game of spies, lies and secrets that hold the key to Cold War air and space supremacy. For within that plane is a Soviet pilot pleading to defect, offering a prize beyond value: the workings of the Soviets' mythical "Foxbat" MiG-25, the fastest, highest-flying fighter plane in the world. But trusting him is risky, and Kaz must tread a careful line. As Kaz accompanies the defector into the United States, to the military’s most secret test site, he must hope that --- with skill and cunning --- the game plays out his way.
Mulholland Books | 9780316565028

FAMILY MEAL by Bryan Washington (Fiction)
Cam is living in Los Angeles and falling apart after the love of his life has died. Kai's ghost won't leave Cam alone; his spectral visits are wild, tender and unexpected. When Cam returns to his hometown of Houston, he crashes back into the orbit of his former best friend, TJ, and TJ's family bakery. TJ is not sure how to navigate this changed Cam, impenetrably cool and self-destructing, or their charged estrangement. Can they find a way past all that has been said --- and left unsaid --- to save each other? Could they find a way back to being okay again, or maybe for the first time?
Riverhead Books | 9780593421093

HITCHCOCK'S BLONDES: The Unforgettable Women Behind the Legendary Director's Dark Obsession by Laurence Leamer (Biography)
In HITCHCOCK’S BLONDES, Laurence Leamer offers an intimate journey into the lives of eight legendary actresses whose stories helped chart the course of Alfred Hitchcock’s career --- from his early days in the British film industry, to his triumphant American debut, to his Hollywood heyday and beyond. Through the stories of June Howard-Tripp, Madeleine Carroll, Ingrid Bergman, Grace Kelly, Janet Leigh, Kim Novak, Eva Marie Saint and Tippi Hedren --- who starred in 14 of Hitchcock’s most notable films and who bore the brunt of his fondness and sometimes fixation --- we can finally start to see the enigmatic man himself. After all, “his” blondes (as he thought of them) knew the truths of his art, his obsessions and desires, as well as anyone.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593542972

THE HIVE AND THE HONEY: Stories by Paul Yoon (Fiction/Short Stories)
A boy searches for his father, a prison guard on Sakhalin Island. In Barcelona, a woman is tasked with spying on a prizefighter who may or may not be her estranged son. A samurai escorts an orphan to his countrymen in the Edo Period. A formerly incarcerated man starts a new life in a small town in upstate New York and attempts to build a family. THE HIVE AND THE HONEY is a bold and indelible collection that portrays the vastness and complexity of diasporic communities, with each story bringing to light the knotty inheritances of their characters. How does a North Korean defector connect with the child she once left behind? What are the traumas that haunt a Korean settlement in Far East Russia?
S&S/Marysue Rucci Books | 9781668020791

HOLD MY GIRL by Charlene Carr (Fiction)
Katherine has spent her entire life striving for perfection, and her hard work has finally paid off. After seven difficult years of trying (and failing) to conceive, Katherine gives birth to Rose, her IVF miracle child. But one thing isn't quite perfect. Rose's pale skin doesn't match Katherine's complexion, and an irritating doubt begins to grow in Katherine's mind. Tess underwent IVF at the same clinic as Katherine, but after finally conceiving, Tess' daughter was stillborn. Now, nearly one year later, she's approaching rock bottom. But shortly before Rose's first birthday, Katherine and Tess get a call from the fertility clinic: Their eggs were switched. As Katherine's carefully planned life begins to crumble around her, Tess finally sees the glimmer of hope she needed to get her life back on track.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781728270418

A HOLLY JOLLY EVER AFTER: A Christmas Notch Novel by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone (Romantic Comedy)
As the arguably lesser of the three former members of the boy band INK, Kallum Lieberman enjoyed his 15 minutes of fame and then moved home where he opened a regional pizza chain called Slice, Slice, Baby! But after an old one-off sex tape is leaked and quickly goes viral, Kallum decides he’s ready to step into the spotlight again, starring in a sexy Santa biopic for the Hope Channel. Winnie Baker married her childhood sweetheart, avoided the downfalls of adolescent stardom, and transitioned into a stable adult acting career. But after her perfect life falls apart, Winnie is ready to redefine herself…and what better way than a steamier-than-a-steaming-hot-mug-of-cider Christmas movie? Suddenly, Kallum’s teenage crush on Winnie is bubbling to the surface, and Winnie might be catching feelings herself.
Avon | 9780063222649

HOLLYWOOD AND THE MOVIES OF THE FIFTIES: The Collapse of the Studio System, the Thrill of Cinerama, and the Invasion of the Ultimate Body Snatcher — Television by Foster Hirsch (Performing Arts/History)
Hollywood in the 1950s was a period when the film industry both set conventions and broke norms and traditions --- from Cinerama, CinemaScope and VistaVision to the epic film and lavish musical. It was a decade that saw the rise of the antihero; the smoldering, the hidden and the unspoken; teenagers gone wild in the streets; the sacred and the profane; the revolution of the Method; the socially conscious; the implosion of the studios; the end of the production code; and the invasion of the ultimate body snatcher: the “small screen” television. Here is Eisenhower’s America, seemingly complacent and conformity-ridden. And here is its darkening, resonant landscape, beset by conflict, discontent and anxiety --- an America on the verge of cultural, political and sexual revolt, busting up and breaking out.
Knopf | 9780307958921

LAST TO LEAVE THE ROOM by Caitlin Starling (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
The city of San Siroco is sinking. The basement of Dr. Tamsin Rivers, the arrogant, selfish head of the research team assigned to find the source of the subsidence, is sinking faster. As Tamsin grows obsessed with the distorting dimensions of the room at the bottom of the stairs, she finds a door that didn’t exist before --- and one night, it opens to reveal an exact physical copy of her. This doppelgänger appears fully, terribly human, passing every test Tamsin can devise. But the longer the double exists, the more Tamsin begins to forget pieces of her life, lose track of time and grow terrified of the outside world. As her employer grows increasingly suspicious, Tamsin must try to hold herself together long enough to figure out what her double wants from her, and just where the mysterious door leads.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250282613

THE LEFTOVER WOMAN by Jean Kwok (Domestic Thriller/Mystery)
Jasmine Yang arrives in New York City from her rural Chinese village without money or family support, fleeing a controlling husband, on a desperate search for the daughter who was taken from her at birth --- another female casualty of China’s controversial One Child Policy. But with her husband on her trail, the clock is ticking, and she’s forced to make increasingly risky decisions if she ever hopes to be reunited with her daughter. Meanwhile, publishing executive Rebecca Whitney seems to have it all: a prestigious family name, a high-powered career, a handsome husband, and an adopted Chinese daughter she adores. But when an industry scandal threatens to jeopardize not only Rebecca’s job but also her marriage, this perfect world begins to crumble and her role in her own family is called into question.
William Morrow | 9780063031463

OBSESSION: A Teddy Fay Novel Featuring Stone Barrington by Stuart Woods and Brett Battles (Thriller/Adventure)
While filming on location in scenic Santa Barbara, California, Peter Barrington and Ben Bacchetti look to expand Centurion Studios' business by making a deal with a young Croatian tech billionaire. But when the magnate’s wife is kidnapped, Teddy Fay is brought in to assess the threat and recover the young woman. As Teddy unravels the threads of her disappearance, he quickly comes to find an old vendetta seething at the center, one that puts them all at risk. And danger is lurking even nearer to home as an obsessive fan with perilous intentions weasels his way onto the film set. It’s only Teddy who can stop him from getting too close for comfort.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593188484

OPINIONS: A Decade of Arguments, Criticism, and Minding Other People's Business by Roxane Gay (Essays)
Since the publication of the groundbreaking BAD FEMINIST and HUNGER, Roxane Gay has continued to tackle big issues embroiling society --- state-sponsored violence and mass shootings, women’s rights post-Dobbs, online disinformation, and the limits of empathy --- alongside more individually personalized matters: Can I tell my co-worker her perfume makes me sneeze? Is it acceptable to schedule a daily 8am meeting? In her role as a New York Times opinion section contributor and the publication’s “Work Friend” columnist, she reaches millions of readers with her wise voice and sharp insights. OPINIONS is a collection of her best nonfiction pieces from the past 10 years.
Harper | 9780063341463

THE PALE HOUSE DEVIL by Richard Kadrey (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
Ford and Neuland are paranormal mercenaries --- one living, one undead; one of them kills the undead, the other kills the living. When a job goes bad in New York, they head west to wait for the heat to cool down. There, a young woman named Tilda Rosenbloom hires them on behalf of wealthy landowner Shepherd Mansfield to track and kill a demon haunting a mansion in remote northern California. As Ford and Neuland investigate the creature, they uncover a legacy of blood, sacrifice and slavery in the house. Forced to confront a powerful creature unlike anything they’ve faced before, they come to learn that the most frightening monster might not be the one they're hunting.
Titan Books | 9781803363899

THE PREMONITION written by Banana Yoshimoto, translated by Asa Yoneda (Fiction)
Yayoi, a 19-year-old woman from a seemingly loving middle-class family, lately has been haunted by the feeling that she has forgotten something important from her childhood. Her premonition grows stronger day by day. As if led by it, she decides to move in with her mysterious aunt, Yukino. For as long as Yayoi can remember, Yukino has lived alone in an old gloomy single-family home. When she is not working, she spends all day in her pajamas, clipping her nails and trimming her split ends. She sometimes wakes Yayoi at 2am to be her drinking companion and watches Friday the 13th over and over to comfort herself. A child study desk, old stuffed animals --- things Yukino wants to forget --- are piled up in her backyard like a graveyard of her memories.
Counterpoint | 9781640093713

ROMAN STORIES written by Jhumpa Lahiri, translated by the author with Todd Portnowitz (Fiction/Short Stories)
Rome is the protagonist, not the setting, of Jhumpa Lahiri's nine stories. In “The Boundary,” one family vacations in the Roman countryside, though we see their lives through the eyes of the caretaker’s daughter, who nurses a wound from her family’s immigrant past. In “P’s Parties,” a Roman couple, now empty nesters, finds comfort and community with foreigners at their friend’s yearly birthday gathering --- until the husband crosses a line. And in “The Steps,” on a public staircase that connects two neighborhoods and the residents who climb up and down it, we see Italy’s capital in all of its social and cultural variegations, filled with the tensions of a changing city: visibility and invisibility, random acts of aggression, the challenge of straddling worlds and cultures, and the meaning of home.
Knopf | 9780593536322

RUMOR OF EVIL by Gary Braver (Mystery/Thriller)
Detectives Kirk Lucian and Mandy Wing are charged with investigating a reported suicide of a Cambridge woman in her backyard. After further investigation, the hanging appears staged. Once Kirk and Mandy’s suspicions are confirmed, they make a list of suspects. Clues begin to connect the recent murder to the decades-old mysterious death of a beautiful 16-year-old Romany exchange student who perished when a treehouse she was sleeping in caught fire. The girl, Vadima Lupescu, had done “odd” things among her American peers that stirred up prejudices and suspicions, leading to her brutal death --- and cover-up. As Kirk and Mandy investigate the bizarre rumors --- that Vadima had “gypsy powers” and put curses on those around her --- they discover a cauldron of dark secrets.
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608095933

SWORD CATCHER by Cassandra Clare (Fantasy/Romance)
Kel is an orphan, stolen from the life he knew to become the Sword Catcher --- the body double of a royal heir, Prince Conor Aurelian. He has been raised alongside the prince, trained in every aspect of combat and statecraft. He and Conor are as close as brothers, but Kel knows that his destiny is to die for Conor. Lin Caster is one of the Ashkar, a small community whose members still possess magical abilities. By law, they must live behind walls within the city. But Lin, a physician, ventures out to tend to the sick and dying of Castellane. Despite her skills, she cannot heal her best friend without access to forbidden knowledge. After a failed assassination attempt brings Lin and Kel together, they are drawn into the web of the mysterious Ragpicker King, the criminal ruler of Castellane’s underworld.
Del Rey | 9780525619994

TOO MANY BULLETS by Max Allan Collins (Historical Thriller/Mystery)
In 1968, Nate Heller is there when Robert Kennedy is shot at the Ambassador Hotel. Heller takes it upon himself to investigate the murder when a friend of his and Bobby’s raises doubts about the LAPD’s investigation. Heller strongly suspects the involvement of Jimmy Hoffa (currently imprisoned), but Hoffa seems to be in the clear as the private eye looks into the possible presence of CIA enemies of RFK’s on the murder night, the apparent manipulation of Sirhan Sirhan into a Manchurian Candidate-style assassin, and a probable second shooter.
Hard Case Crime | 9781789099461

TOUCHED by Walter Mosley (Science Fiction/Dystopian Fantasy)
Martin Just wakes up one morning after what feels like, and might actually be, a centuries-long sleep with two new innate pieces of knowledge: Humanity is a virus destined to destroy all existence. And he is the Cure. Martin begins slipping into an alternate consciousness, with new physical strengths, to violently defend his family --- the only Black family in their neighborhood in the Hollywood Hills of Los Angeles --- against pure evil. Think Octavia Butler meets Jeff VanderMeer meets Jordan Peele.
Atlantic Monthly Press | 9780802161840

'TWAS THE BITE BEFORE CHRISTMAS: An Andy Carpenter Mystery by David Rosenfelt (Mystery)
Reluctant lawyer Andy Carpenter is at the Tara Foundation’s annual Christmas party. The dog rescue organization has always been his true calling, and this is one holiday tradition he can get behind because every dog that’s come through the rescue --- and their families --- are invited to celebrate. This year’s party is no exception. But before the stockings can be hung by the chimney with care, homicide detectives ruin the evening. Derek Moore, one of the foundation’s best foster volunteers, is arrested for murder. Andy discovers that Derek --- whose real name is Bobby --- is in the witness protection program after giving evidence against his former gang. The police believe Bobby murdered a member, but Bobby swears to Andy he didn’t do this.
Minotaur Books | 9781250828842

WHAT WE KEPT TO OURSELVES by Nancy Jooyoun Kim (Domestic Thriller/Mystery)
1999: The Kim family is struggling to move on after their mother, Sunny, vanished a year ago. Sixty-one-year-old John Kim feels more isolated from his grown children, Anastasia and Ronald, than ever before. But one evening, their fragile lives are further upended when John finds the body of a stranger in the backyard, carrying a letter to Sunny. 1977: Sunny is pregnant and has just moved to Los Angeles from Korea with her aloof and often-absent husband. Her loneliness and isolation are broken only by a fateful encounter at a bus stop. The unexpected connection spans the decades and echoes into the family’s lives in the present as they uncover devastating secrets that put not only everything they thought they knew about their mother but also their very lives at risk.
Atria Books | 9781668004821

THE WITCH OF MARACOOR by Gregory Maguire (Fantasy)
Following a confrontation with her reclusive great-grandfather, the one-time Wizard of Oz, Rainary Ko --- the granddaughter of Oz’s Wicked Witch of the West --- has re-upped in a mission to settle a few scores and right a wrong or two. Her memory and her passions reviving, Rain turns her gaze back to her native Oz. Though the Grimmerie, which she had cast into the sea, retains its arcane power over her, the lover she left behind in Oz proves no less haunting. Traveling companions and arrivistes can befuddle a young witch coming into her own, but Rain marshals a steely determination to stare her troubles in the eye and see who blinks first.
William Morrow | 9780063094062

On Sale the Week of October 9th in Paperback

October 10th

AGATHA CHRISTIE: An Elusive Woman by Lucy Worsley (Biography)
Why did Agatha Christie spend her career pretending that she was “just” an ordinary housewife, when clearly she wasn’t? Her life is fascinating for its mysteries and its passions. She went surfing in Hawaii, loved fast cars, and was intrigued by the new science of psychology, which helped her through devastating mental illness. So why, despite all the evidence to the contrary, did Agatha present herself as a retiring Edwardian lady of leisure? She was born in 1890 into a world that had its own rules about what women could and couldn’t do. Lucy Worsley’s biography is not just of a massively, internationally successful writer. It's also the story of a person who, despite the obstacles of class and gender, became an astonishingly successful working woman.
Pegasus Crime | 9781639365739

BEASTS OF THE EARTH by James Wade (Fiction)
Harlen LeBlanc is a dependable, if quiet, employee of the Carter Hills High School's grounds department, whose carefully maintained routine is overthrown by an act of violence. As the town searches for answers, LeBlanc strikes out on his own to exonerate a friend, while drawing the eyes of the law to himself and fending off unwelcome voices that call for a sterner form of justice. Twenty years earlier, young Michael Fischer dreads the return of his father from prison. He spends his days stealing from trap lines in the Louisiana bayou to feed his fanatically religious mother and his cherished younger sister, Doreen. When his father eventually returns, an evil arrives in Michael's life that sends him running from everything he has ever known.
Blackstone Publishing | ‎9798212175111

BETTER HATE THAN NEVER by Chloe Liese (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Katerina Wilmot and Christopher Petruchio shared backyards as kids, but as adults they won’t even share the same hemisphere. That is, until Kate makes a rare visit home, and their fiery animosity rekindles into a raging inferno. But when a drunken Kate confesses she’s only been hostile because she thought he hated her, Christopher vows to make peace with Kate once and for all. Tempting as it is to be swept away by her nemesis-turned-gentleman, Kate isn’t sure she can trust his charming good-guy act. When Christopher’s persistence and Kate’s curiosity lead to an impassioned kiss, they realize “peace” is the last thing that will ever be possible between them. As desire gives way to deeper feelings, Kate and Christopher must decide if it’s truly better to hate than to never risk their hearts.
Berkley | 9780593441527

DREAMING OF WATER by A. J. Banner (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Astrid Johansen swore she would never return to Heron Bay, Washington. In that idyllic coastal town, her little sister, Nina, drowned in a reflecting pool under Astrid’s watch 17 years ago. Though guilt has kept her away, Astrid can’t ignore her aunt Maude’s urgent plea to come back. Maude claims to have found a letter that will change everything about the past. When Astrid arrives in Heron Bay, she finds Maude unconscious, perhaps the victim of an attack. As Maude lingers in a coma, Astrid uncovers alarming evidence that Nina’s drowning that tragic night was no accident. The ensuing investigation leads her down a trail of dark memories, lies and betrayals that will shatter her perception of everyone she thought she knew --- even herself.
Lake Union Publishing | 9781662505614

FOR TWICE IN MY LIFE by Annette Christie (Romantic Comedy)
Layla’s chaotic life transformed when she met Ian Barnett. Ambitious, committed and thoughtful, Ian has been everything she'd dreamed of, and she knows he'd say the same of her. So when he breaks up with her out of the blue, Layla is stunned. What went wrong? But then Layla gets a call from the local hospital. Ian has had a biking accident. He's okay, but he needs someone --- his someone --- to get him home safely. As it becomes clear Ian doesn't remember he ended things, it also becomes clear that the accident has given him a new outlook on life…and Layla a second chance to get things right. That is, until Ian’s younger brother comes to town. Matt is restless, unpredictable and threatens to upset the careful balance Layla and Ian have rebuilt.
Back Bay Books | 9780316451130

GILDED MOUNTAIN by Kate Manning (Historical Fiction)
Sylvie Pelletier recounts leaving her family’s snowbound mountain cabin to work in a manor house for the Padgetts, owners of the marble-mining company that employs her father and dominates the town. Her fairy-tale ideas take a dark turn when she realizes the Padgetts’ lofty philosophical talk is at odds with the unfair labor practices that have enriched them. Outside the manor walls, the town of Moonstone is roiling with discontent. The editor of the local newspaper --- a bold woman who takes Sylvie on as an apprentice --- is publishing unflattering accounts of the Padgett Company. Sylvie navigates vastly different worlds and struggles to find her way amid conflicting loyalties. When the harsh winter brings tragedy, Sylvie decides to act.
Scribner | 9781982160951

THE GRANDEST STAGE: A History of the World Series by Tyler Kepner (Sports/History)
The World Series is the most enduring showcase in American team sports. It’s the place where legends are made, where celebration and devastation can hinge on a fly ball off a foul pole or a grounder beneath a first baseman’s glove. In THE GRANDEST STAGE, New York Times national baseball columnist Tyler Kepner delivers an indelible portrait of baseball’s signature event. He digs deep for essential tales dating back to the beginning in 1903, adding insights from Hall of Famers like Reggie Jackson, Mike Schmidt, Jim Palmer, Dennis Eckersley and many others who have thrived --- and failed --- when it mattered most.
Anchor | 9780593081884

ILLUMINATIONS: Stories by Alan Moore (Metaphysical Fiction/Short Stories)
In his first-ever short story collection, Alan Moore presents a series of wildly different characters who discover --- and in some cases even make and unmake --- the various uncharted parts of existence. In "A Hypothetical Lizard," two concubines in a brothel of fantastical specialists fall in love with tragic ramifications. In "Not Even Legend," a paranormal study group is infiltrated by one of the otherworldly beings they seek to investigate. In "Illuminations," a nostalgic older man decides to visit a seaside resort from his youth and finds the past all too close at hand. And in the novella "What We Can Know About Thunderman," Moore charts the surreal and Kafkaesque history of the comics industry's major players over the last 75 years.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781639732074

LIBERATION DAY: Stories by George Saunders (Fiction/Short Stories)
In his first collection of short stories since TENTH OF DECEMBER, George Saunders explores ideas of power, ethics and justice and cuts to the very heart of what it means to live in community with our fellow humans. “Love Letter” is a tender missive from grandfather to grandson in the midst of a dystopian political situation in the (not-too-distant, all-too-believable) future. “Ghoul” is set in a Hell-themed section of an underground amusement park and follows the exploits of a lonely, morally complex character who comes to question everything he takes for granted about his reality. And “My House” --- in a mere seven pages --- comes to terms with the haunting nature of unfulfilled dreams and the inevitability of decay.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780525509615

THE LOST METAL: A Mistborn Novel by Brandon Sanderson (Fantasy)
Return to Brandon Sanderson’s Mistborn world of Scadrial as its second era comes to an earth-shattering conclusion. For years, frontier lawman turned big-city senator Waxillium Ladrian has hunted the shadowy organization the Set --- with his late uncle and his sister among their leaders --- since they started kidnapping people with the power of Allomancy in their bloodlines. When Detective Marasi Colms and her partner, Wayne, find stockpiled weapons bound for the Outer City of Bilming, this opens a new lead. Conflict between Elendel and the Outer Cities only favors the Set, and their tendrils now reach to the Elendel Senate --- whose corruption Wax and Steris have sought to expose --- and Bilming is even more entangled.
Tor Books | 9781250757319

MIDNIGHT AT THE CHRISTMAS BOOKSHOP by Jenny Colgan (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Christmas comes early to McCredie’s little Old Town bookshop in Edinburgh. It’s summer, but an American production company has decided that McCredie’s is the perfect location to film a very cheesy Christmas movie. Carmen Hogan, the bookshop’s manager, is amused and a bit horrified by the goings-on, but the money the studio is paying is too good to pass up. She uses the little windfall from filming to create new displays and fend off a buyout offer from an obnoxious millionaire who wants to turn McCredie’s into a souvenir shop selling kilts made in China and plastic Nessies. Still reeling slightly from a breakup, Carmen is not particularly looking forward to the holidays. But just as snow begins to fall and the lights of Christmas blink on, all sorts of lovely new possibilities present themselves.
Avon | 9780063260450

POSTER GIRL by Veronica Roth (Dystopian Mystery)
For decades, everyone in the Seattle-Portland megalopolis lived under constant surveillance in the form of the Insight, an ocular implant that tracked every word and every action, rewarding or punishing according to the rigid moral code set forth by the Delegation. Then there was a revolution. The Delegation fell. Its most valuable members were locked in the Aperture, a prison on the outskirts of the city. And everyone else, now free from the Insight’s monitoring, went on with their lives. Sonya, former poster girl for the Delegation, has been imprisoned for 10 years when an old enemy comes to her with a deal: find a missing girl who was stolen from her parents by the old regime and earn her freedom. The path Sonya takes to find the child will lead her through an unfamiliar, corrupt post-Delegation world.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063325609

THE RIVER OF SILVER: Tales from the Daevabad Trilogy by S. A. Chakraborty (Historical Fantasy)
Bestselling author S. A. Chakraborty’s acclaimed Daevabad Trilogy gets expanded with this new compilation of stories from before, during and after the events of THE CITY OF BRASS, THE KINGDOM OF COPPER and THE EMPIRE OF GOLD, all from the perspective of characters both beloved and hated, and even those without a voice in the novels. THE RIVER OF SILVER gathers material both seen and new --- including a special coda fans will need to read --- making this the perfect complement to those incredible novels.
Harper Voyager | 9780063233911

SANTA’S LITTLE YELPERS: An Andy Carpenter Mystery by David Rosenfelt (Mystery)
Lawyer Andy Carpenter and his golden retriever, Tara, are surrounded by holiday cheer. It’s even spread to the Tara Foundation. The dog rescue organization, not used to having puppies, has their hands full with a recent litter. Eight puppies are a lot to handle, and Andy is relieved when his co-worker, Chris Myers, agrees to foster them. Myers, a newer employee at the Tara Foundation, did time for a crime he swears he didn’t commit. When Myers discovers a key witness against him lied on the stand, he goes to Andy to ask for representation in getting the conviction overturned. Myers thinks they can have this wrapped up by Christmas. But when the witness is murdered, and Myers is arrested for the crime, things go from bad to worse.
Minotaur Books | 9781250828835

SECRETS TYPED IN BLOOD: A Pentecost and Parker Mystery by Stephen Spotswood (Historical Mystery)
New York City, 1947: For years, Holly Quick has made a good living off of murder, filling up the pages of pulp detective magazines with gruesome tales of revenge. Now someone is bringing her stories to life and leaving a trail of blood-soaked bodies behind. With the threat of another murder looming, and reluctant to go to the police, Holly turns to the best crime-solving duo in or out of the pulps, Willowjean “Will” Parker and her boss, famed detective Lillian Pentecost. The pair are handed the seemingly impossible task of investigating three murders at once without tipping off the cops or the press that the crimes are connected.
Vintage Crime/Black Lizard | 9780593469040

SUCH A PRETTY SMILE by Kristi DeMeester (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
2019: Thirteen-year-old Lila Sawyer has secrets she can’t share with anyone. But when young women around her begin dying, wild speculation ensues. Soon Lila feels haunted from within, terrorized by a delicious evil that shows her how to find her voice --- until she’s in danger for using it. 2004: Caroline Sawyer sees dogs everywhere that no one else seems to notice. As these snarling, teeth-bared delusions begin to take shape in the sculptures she makes in a trance-like state, her fiancé is convinced she needs help from a professional. But Caroline’s past is a dark cellar, filled with repressed memories and a lurking horror that others around her can’t understand. As past and present demons converge, Caroline and Lila must chase the source of this unrelenting power to its core, either to obliterate it or lose themselves forever.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250785497

TRIPLE CROSS: An Alex Cross Thriller by James Patterson (Thriller)
A precise killer, he always moves under the cover of darkness, flawlessly triggering no alarms, leaving no physical evidence. Alex Cross and John Sampson aren’t the only ones investigating. Also in on this most intriguing case is the world’s bestselling true-crime author, who sees patterns everyone else misses. The writer, Thomas Tull, calls the Family Man murders the perfect crime story. He believes the killer may never be caught. Cross knows there is no perfect crime. And he’s going to hunt down the Family Man no matter what it takes. Until the Family Man decides to flip the narrative and bring down Cross and his family.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538752890

VEIL OF DOUBT by Sharon Virts (Historical Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
Emily Lloyd, a young widow in Reconstruction-era Virginia, is accused of poisoning her three-year-old daughter, Maud. Her husband and three other children all died of mysterious illnesses, so when Maud succumbs to an unexplained malady, the town suspects foul play. Soon Mrs. Lloyd is charged not only with poisoning the child but also with murdering her children, her husband and her aunt. Enter Powell Harrison, a soft-spoken, brilliant attorney who recently returned to his Virginia hometown to help his brother manage their late father’s practice. As details about the widow’s erratic behavior and her reclusive neighbors emerge, Harrison begins to suspect that an even more sinister truth might lurk beneath the family’s horrible fate and finds himself irresistibly drawn to the case.
Girl Friday Books | 9781959411253

THE VICIOUS CIRCLE by Katherine St. John (Psychological Thriller)
On a river deep in the Mexican jungle stands the colossal villa Xanadu, a wellness center that’s home to an ardent spiritual group devoted to self-help guru Paul Bentzen and his enigmatic wife, Kali. But when Paul mysteriously dies, his entire estate --- including Xanadu --- is left not to Kali, but to his estranged niece, Sveta. Shocked and confused, Sveta travels from New York City to Mexico to pay her respects. At first, Xanadu seems like a secluded paradise with its tumbling gardens, beautiful people and transcendent vibe. But soon the mystical façade wears thin, revealing a group of brainwashed members drunk on promises of an impossible utopia, guided by a disturbing belief system and a charismatic, dangerously capable leader.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063224063

W. E. B. GRIFFIN THE DEVIL’S WEAPONS: A Men at War Novel by Peter Kirsanow (Historical Thriller/Adventure)
April 1940. By terms of the Soviet Nazi Nonaggression pact, the two dictatorships divided the helpless nation of Poland. Now, the Russians are rounding up enemies of the state in their occupation zone, but one essential target slips away. Dr. Sebastian Kapsky had spent years working with Walter Riedel and Werner von Braun in the early days of rocket science, but as a man with a conscience he refused to continue when he saw the perversion of their work by the Nazis. That makes him the most knowledgeable person about German superweapons outside of Germany. The Germans want him. The Soviets are desperate to grab him, but Wild Bill Donovan knows there's only one man who can find him in the middle of a war zone and get him out --- Dick Canidy.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780593422304

WHICH SIDE ARE YOU ON by Ryan Lee Wong (Fiction)
Twenty-one-year-old Reed is fed up. Angry about the killing of a Black man by an Asian American NYPD officer, he wants to drop out of college and devote himself to the Black Lives Matter movement. But would that truly bring him closer to the moral life he seeks? In a series of intimate, charged conversations, his mother --- once the leader of a Korean-Black coalition --- demands that he rethink his outrage and, along with it, what it means to be an organizer, a student, an ally, an American and a son. As Reed zips around his hometown of Los Angeles with his mother, searching and questioning, he faces a revelation that will change everything.
Catapult | 9781646222025

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