October 10, 2023

October 10, 2023

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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of October 9th and October 16th 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 review of BLOOD LINES by Nelson DeMille and Alex DeMille. This newly released follow-up to THE DESERTER features the return of Army Criminal Investigation Agents Scott Brodie and Maggie Taylor, who are on the hunt for the cold-blooded murderer of one of their fellow agents.

Carol Fitzgerald's latest "Bookreporter Talks To" interview is with Jean Kwok, whose new novel, THE LEFTOVER WOMAN, will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On selection.

In this book, Jasmine Yang has given birth to a girl. But with China's One Child Policy in place, her husband tells her that the baby died and instead arranges for an adoption to take place in the US. He wants to have a son as his one child. The baby is adopted by Rebecca Whitney, who works at a publishing company. Here, Jean offers a fun "inside baseball" look at publishing, along with the story of the adopted girl.

Jasmine comes to New York undocumented seeking to reunite with her daughter. Jean explains that coming to a new country like Jasmine does is hard and that she must live under the radar to support herself. She also talks about those "from home" who have touchpoints with you that are special. And she shares how her own upbringing as the youngest in a family of seven found its way into this story. Click here to watch the video or here to listen to the podcast.

Upcoming Virtual Book and Author Events

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

Wednesday, October 11th at 2pm ET: "Bookaccino Live: A Lively Talk About Books": Carol Fitzgerald will present titles releasing between October 10th and October 31st, along with a few from November and December, that she would like to get on your radar.

Wednesday, October 11th at 3pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Donna Leon will talk about her new book, WANDERING THROUGH LIFE. In this highly anticipated memoir, the internationally bestselling author of the Guido Brunetti mysteries tells her own adventurous life story as she enters her 80s. Please note: This event was rescheduled from October 2nd.

Wednesday, October 11th 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 Thrity Umrigar about her new novel, THE MUSEUM OF FAILURES, an immersive story about family secrets and the power of forgiveness.

This Week's Bonus News:
Our Review of BLOOD LINES
by Nelson DeMille and Alex DeMille

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

On Sale the Week of October 16th in Hardcover

October 17th

BOURNVILLE by Jonathan Coe (Fiction)
Bournville is a quiet village in the heart of England famous for its chocolate. For 11-year-old Mary, it is the center of her world. During the next three-quarters of a century, Mary will have children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren. She will live through the Coronation of Queen Elizabeth II and the 1966 World Cup final (the last time England won), royal weddings and royal funerals, Brexit and COVID-19. Parts of the chocolate factory will be transformed into a theme park, and Bournville itself will gradually disappear into the sprawl of the growing city of Birmingham. As we travel through 75 years of social change, one pressing question starts to emerge: Will these changing times bring Mary's family --- and their country --- closer together, or leave them more adrift and divided than ever before?
Europa Editions | 9781609459420

THE CHRISTMAS GUEST by Peter Swanson (Psychological Thriller)
Ashley Smith, an American art student in London for her junior year, was planning on spending Christmas alone. But a last-minute invitation from fellow student Emma Chapman brings her to Starvewood Hall, the country residence of the Chapman family. Ashley is mesmerized by the cozy, firelit house, the large family, and the charming village of Clevemoor, but also by Adam Chapman, Emma’s aloof and handsome brother. But Adam is being investigated by the local police over the recent brutal slaying of a girl from the village, and there is a mysterious stranger who haunts the woodland path between Starvewood Hall and the local pub. Ashley begins to wonder what kind of story she is actually inhabiting. Over 30 years later, the events of that horrific week are revisited, along with a diary from that time.
William Morrow | 9780063297456

DISTANT SONS by Tim Johnston (Literary Thriller/Mystery)
What if Sean Courtland’s old Chevy truck had broken down somewhere else? What if he’d never met Denise Givens, a waitress at a local tavern, and gotten into a bar fight defending her honor? Or offered a ride to Dan Young, another young man like Sean, burdened by secrets and just drifting through the small Wisconsin town? Instead, Sean enlists Dan’s help with a construction job in the basement of a local --- the elderly, reclusive Marion Devereaux --- and gradually the two men come to realize that they’ve washed up in a place haunted by the disappearance of three young boys decades earlier. As Sean and Dan’s friendship deepens, and as Sean gets closer to Denise and her father, they come to the attention of a savvy local detective, Corrine Viegas, who has her own reasons for digging into Dan’s past.
Algonquin Books | 9781643753591

EVERYTHING I LEARNED, I LEARNED IN A CHINESE RESTAURANT: A Memoir by Curtis Chin (Memoir)
1980s Detroit was a volatile place to live, but above the fray stood a safe haven: Chung’s Cantonese Cuisine, where anyone --- from the city’s first Black mayor to the local drag queens, from a big-time Hollywood star to elderly Jewish couples --- could sit down for a warm, home-cooked meal. Here was where, beneath a bright-red awning and surrounded by his multigenerational family, filmmaker and activist Curtis Chin came of age; where he learned to embrace his identity as a gay ABC, or American-born Chinese; where he navigated the divided city’s spiraling misfortunes; and where he realized just how much he had to offer to the world, to his beloved family and to himself.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316507653

THE EXCHANGE: After The Firm by John Grisham (Legal Thriller)
What became of Mitch and Abby McDeere after they exposed the crimes of Memphis law firm Bendini, Lambert & Locke and fled the country? The answer is in THE EXCHANGE, the riveting sequel to THE FIRM, the blockbuster thriller that launched the career of America’s favorite storyteller. It is now 15 years later, and Mitch and Abby are living in Manhattan, where Mitch is a partner at the largest law firm in the world. When a mentor in Rome asks him for a favor that will take him far from home, Mitch finds himself at the center of a sinister plot that has worldwide implications --- and once again endangers his colleagues, friends and family. Mitch has become a master at staying one step ahead of his adversaries, but this time there’s nowhere to hide.
Doubleday | 9780385548953

HOME AT NIGHT: A Mercy Carr Mystery by Paula Munier (Mystery)
It’s Halloween in Vermont, winter is coming, and five humans, two dogs and a cat are a crowd in Mercy Carr’s small cabin. She needs more room --- and she knows just the place: Grackle Tree Farm, with 30 acres of woods and wetlands and a Victorian manor to die for. They say it’s haunted by the ghosts of missing children and lost poets and a murderer or two, but Mercy loves it anyway. Even when Elvis finds a dead body in the library. A coded letter found on the victim points to a hidden treasure that may be worth a fortune (if it’s real). She and Captain Thrasher conduct a search of the old place --- and end up at the wrong end of a Glock. A masked man shoots Thrasher, and she and Elvis must take him down before he murders them all.
Minotaur Books | 9781250887894

THE HOUSE OF DOORS by Tan Twan Eng (Historical Fiction)
Lesley Hamlyn and her husband, Robert, are living at Cassowary House on the Straits Settlement of Penang. When “Willie” Somerset Maugham, a famed writer and old friend of Robert's, arrives for an extended visit with his secretary Gerald, the pair threatens a rift that could alter more lives than one. Having long hidden his homosexuality, Maugham’s unhappy and expensive marriage of convenience becomes unbearable after he loses his savings --- and the freedom to travel with Gerald. He arrives at Cassowary House in desperate need of a subject for his next book. Lesley, too, is enduring a marriage more duplicitous than it first appears. Maugham suspects an affair and, learning of Lesley's past connection to the Chinese revolutionary, Dr. Sun Yat Sen, decides to probe deeper.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781639731930

ONE WOMAN SHOW by Christine Coulson (Historical Fiction)
Christine Coulson spent 25 years writing for the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Her final project was to write wall labels for the museum’s new British Galleries. During that time, she dreamt of using The Met’s strict label format to describe people as intricate works of art. The result is this bullet of a novel that imagines a privileged 20th-century woman as an artifact --- an object prized, collected and critiqued. ONE WOMAN SHOW revolves around the life of Kitty Whitaker as she is defined by her potential for display and moved from collection to collection through multiple marriages. Coulson precisely distills each stage of this sprawling life, every brief snapshot in time a wry reflection on womanhood, ownership, value and power.
Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster | 9781668027783

THE SISTERHOOD: The Secret History of Women at the CIA by Liza Mundy (History)
Created in the aftermath of World War II, the Central Intelligence Agency relied on women even as it attempted to channel their talents and keep them down. They were unlikely spies, which is exactly what made them perfect for the role. Because women were seen as unimportant, pioneering female intelligence officers moved unnoticed around Bonn, Geneva and Moscow, stealing secrets from under the noses of their KGB adversaries. Back at headquarters, women built the CIA’s critical archives --- first by hand, then by computer. And they noticed things that the men at the top didn’t see. As the CIA faced an identity crisis after the Cold War, it was a close-knit network of female analysts who spotted the rising threat of al-Qaeda --- though their warnings were repeatedly brushed aside.
Crown | 9780593238172

STRAW DOGS OF THE UNIVERSE by Ye Chun (Historical Fiction)
After her village is devastated by famine, 10-year-old Sixiang is sold to a human trafficker for a bag of rice and six silver coins. Her mother is reluctant to let her go, but the promise of a better life for her beloved daughter ultimately sways her. Arriving in America with the profits from her sale and a single photograph of Guifeng, her absent father, Sixiang journeys across an unfamiliar American landscape in the hopes of reuniting her family. As she makes her way through an unforgiving new world, her father, a railroad worker in California, finds his attempts to build a life for himself both upended and defined by a long-lost love and the seemingly inescapable violence of the American West.
Catapult | 9781646220625

THE TWELVE DOGS OF CHRISTMAS by Susan Wiggs (Fiction)
A year after breaking up with her husband, Brenda Malloy has put her life back together. She has found purpose and healing as a volunteer with a dog rescue organization in Houston, Texas. The rescue partners with a program in Avalon, New York, a small, snowy town deep in the Catskills. Now Brenda is arranging the transport of rescued dogs from Houston to Avalon. Brenda’s friends worry about her driving a van 2,000 miles with 12 dogs in crates, but she shrugs off their concern. However, a blinding snowstorm, an escaped mutt, and a life-saving encounter with Adam Bellamy --- a single dad and paramedic --- means that Brenda has to stay in Avalon longer than she planned. As she drops off each precious pup at their new homes, some of the comfort and joy of the season begins to creep up on Brenda.
William Morrow | 9780063253513

UNDER THE SMOKESTREWN SKY by A. Deborah Baker (Dark Fantasy/Adventure)
Since stumbling from their world into the Up and Under, Avery and Zib have walked the improbable road across forests, seas and skies, finding friends in the unlikeliest of places and enemies great in number, as they make their way toward the Impossible City in the hope of finding their way home. But the final part of their journey is filled with danger and demise. Not everyone will make it through unscathed. Not everyone will make it through alive.
Tordotcom | 9781250848475

THE UNMAKING OF JUNE FARROW by Adrienne Young (Mystery & Romance/Magical Realism)
The Farrow women are known for their thriving flower farm --- and the mysterious curse that has plagued their family line. The whole town remembers the madness that led to Susanna Farrow’s disappearance, leaving June to be raised by her grandmother and haunted by rumors. It’s been a year since June started seeing and hearing things that weren’t there. But she is determined to end the curse once and for all, even if she must sacrifice finding love and having a family of her own. After her grandmother’s death, June discovers a series of cryptic clues regarding her mother’s decades-old disappearance, except they only lead to more questions. But could the door she once assumed was a hallucination be the answer she’s been searching for?
Delacorte Press | 9780593598672

UP ON THE WOOF TOP: A Chet & Bernie Mystery by Spencer Quinn (Mystery)
Chet the dog and his human partner, Bernie Little, find themselves high in the mountains this holiday season to help Dame Ariadne Carlisle, a renowned author of bestselling Christmas mysteries, find Rudy, her lead reindeer and good luck charm, who has gone missing. At Kringle Ranch, Dame Ariadne’s expansive mountain spread, Chet discovers that he is not fond of reindeer. But the case turns out to be about much more than reindeer after Dame Ariadne’s personal assistant takes a long fall into Devil’s Purse, a deep mountain gorge. When our duo discovers that someone very close to Dame Ariadne was murdered in that same spot decades earlier, they start looking into that long-ago unsolved crime. But as they reach into the past, the past is also reaching out for them.
Forge Books | 9781250843302

On Sale the Week of October 16th in Paperback

October 17th

THE ABYSS: Nuclear Crisis Cuba 1962 by Max Hastings (History)
In THE ABYSS, Max Hastings turns his focus to one of the most terrifying events of the mid-20th century --- the 13 days in October 1962 when the world stood on the brink of nuclear war. Hastings looks at the conflict with fresh eyes, focusing on the people at the heart of the crisis --- American President John F. Kennedy, Soviet First Secretary Nikita Khrushchev, Cuban Prime Minister Fidel Castro, and a host of their advisors. As the action moves back and forth from Moscow to Washington, DC, to Havana, Hastings seeks to explain, as much as to describe, the attitudes and conduct of the Soviets, Cubans and Americans, and to recreate the tension and heightened fears of countless innocent bystanders whose lives hung in the balance.
Harper Perennial | 9780062980175

ALL THE BLOOD WE SHARE: A Novel of the Bloody Benders of Kansas by Camilla Bruce (Historical Thriller)
Something dark and twisted has taken root at the Bender Inn. At first the townspeople of Cherryvale welcome the rising medium Kate Bender and her family. Kate's messages from the Beyond give their tedious dreams hope, and her mother's potions cure their little ills --- for a price. No one knows about their other business, the shortcut to a better life. And why shouldn’t their family prosper? They’re careful. It’s only from those who are marked, those who travel alone and can easily disappear, that the Benders demand their pound of flesh. But even a gifted seer like Kate can make a misstep. Now, as the secrets festering beneath the soil of the family orchard threaten to bring them all to ruin, the Benders must sharpen their craft --- or vanish themselves.
Berkley | 9780593102602

AMERICAN GIRL by Wendy Walker (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Paperback Original
Charlie Hudson, an autistic 17-year-old, is determined to leave Sawyer, PA, as soon as she graduates high school. In the meantime, she works as many hours as she can at a sandwich shop called The Triple S to save money for college. But when shop owner Clay Cooper --- a man both respected and feared in their small economically depressed town --- is found dead, each member of his staff becomes a suspect in the perplexing case. Before she can go anywhere, Charlie must protect herself and her friends by uncovering the danger that is still lurking in their tight-knit community.
Blackstone Publishing | 9798212409827

AMERICAN MIDNIGHT: The Great War, a Violent Peace, and Democracy's Forgotten Crisis by Adam Hochschild (History)
The nation was on the brink. Mobs burned Black churches to the ground. Courts threw thousands of people into prison for opinions they voiced --- in one notable case, only in private. Self-appointed vigilantes executed tens of thousands of citizens’ arrests. Some 75 newspapers and magazines were banned from the mail and forced to close. When the government stepped in, it was often to fan the flames. This was America during and after the Great War: a brief but appalling era blighted by lynchings, censorship and the sadistic, sometimes fatal abuse of conscientious objectors in military prisons --- a time whose toxic currents of racism, nativism, red-baiting and contempt for the rule of law then flowed directly through the intervening decades to poison our own.
Mariner Books | 9780063278523

AND THERE WAS LIGHT: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle by Jon Meacham (Biography)
Hated and hailed, excoriated and revered, Abraham Lincoln was at the pinnacle of American power when implacable secessionists gave no quarter in a clash of visions bound up with money, race, identity and faith. In him we can see the possibilities of the presidency as well as its limitations. At once familiar and elusive, Lincoln tends to be seen as the greatest of American presidents --- a remote icon --- or as a politician driven more by calculation than by conviction. This illuminating new portrait gives us a very human Lincoln --- an imperfect man whose moral antislavery commitment began as he grew up in an antislavery Baptist community; who insisted that slavery was a moral evil; and who sought, as he put it, to do right as God gave him to see the right.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780553393989

AT WHAT COST, SILENCE?: The Texian Trilogy, Book 1 by Karen Lynne Klink (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Adrien Villere suspects he is not like other boys. For years, he desperately locks away his feelings and fears --- but eventually, tragedy and loss drive him to seek solace from his mentor, young neighbor Jacob Hart. However, Jacob’s betrayal of Adrien’s trust results in secret abuse, setting off a chain of actions from which neither Adrien’s wise sister, Bernadette, nor his closest friend, Isaac, can turn him. AT WHAT COST, SILENCE presents two contrasting plantation families in a society where strict rules of belief and behavior are clear, and public opinion can shape an entire life.
She Writes Press | 9781647426033

THE BONE SHARD WAR by Andrea Stewart (Fantasy/Adventure)
Lin Sukai has won her first victory as Emperor, but the future of the Phoenix Empire hangs in the balance --- and Lin is dangerously short of allies. Yet hopes lies in history. Legend tells of seven mythic swords, forged in centuries past. If Lin can find them before her enemies do, she may yet be able to turn the tide. If she fails, the Sukai dynasty --- and the entire empire --- will fall.
Orbit | 9780316541541

CHRISTMAS AT CORGI COVE by Annie England Noblin (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Rosie Reynolds had come to lakeside Corgi Cove as a lost, lonely girl abandoned by her own mother, but there she discovered a true place to call home. She loves her Corgis, Bonnie and Clyde; loves the lakeside life; and loves her aunt and uncle most of all. But when she discovers that their struggling inn is about to be bought out by some big city chain, she hatches a plan: to win a contest naming theirs the best Christmas-themed inn in the USA. However, she didn’t count on Everett St Claire, who doesn't think it will be that difficult to convince one elderly couple to take the money to retire. With the holidays nearing and the deadline looming, Rosie and Everett are about to discover the magic of a Christmas at Corgi Cove.
Avon | 9780063222243

COMPANY OF FOOS by Paul Davidson (Fiction/Satire)
Paperback Original
Cameron Murphy just landed the ultimate dream job. Unfortunately, working at one of the world's largest tech companies is a bit of a nightmare. Now, stuck in the Pacific Northwest with his family in tow, he must sidestep corporate politics, avoid the certifiably insane and develop a product that will change the world of entertainment forever. Easy, right? But with his wife, Jess, struggling to find her own identity in a wasteland of suburban frigidity, and the corporate algorithm out to get him, becoming a true success might require an awful lot of failure.
Foo Publishing | 9798891450431

A HEART FULL OF HEADSTONES: An Inspector Rebus Novel by Ian Rankin (Mystery)
John Rebus stands accused: on trial for a crime that could put him behind bars for the rest of his life. But what drove a good man to cross the line? Detective Inspector Siobhan Clarke may well find out. Clarke is tasked with the city’s most explosive case in years: an infamous cop, at the center of decades of misconduct, has gone missing. Finding him will expose not only her superiors, but her mentor, John Rebus. And Rebus himself may not have her own interests at heart, as the repayment of a past debt places him in the crosshairs of both crime lords and his police brethren.
Back Bay Books | 9780316473651

JUDAS 62 by Charles Cumming (Thriller)
1993: Student Lachlan Kite is sent to post-Soviet Russia, a spy in the guise of a language teacher. Embedded in the town of Voronezh, Kite’s mission is to extract a chemical weapons scientist before the man’s groundbreaking research falls into the wrong hands and shuttle him across the border to freedom in Ukraine. But Kite’s mission soon goes wrong, and he is left stranded in a hostile city with a former KGB officer on his trail. 2020: Thirty years after that dangerous mission, Kite discovers that its outcome put his name on the notorious “JUDAS” list --- a record of enemies of Russia who have been targeted for assassination. Kite’s fight for survival takes him to Dubai, where he enters into a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with the Russian secret state.
Mysterious Press | 9781613164686

THE KINGDOMS OF SAVANNAH by George Dawes Green (Literary Thriller/Mystery)
It begins quietly on a balmy Southern night as some locals gather at Bo Peep’s, one of the town’s favorite watering holes. Within an hour, however, a man will be murdered and his companion will be “disappeared.” An unlikely detective, Morgana Musgrove, doyenne of Savannah society, is called upon to unravel the mystery of these crimes. Morgana is an imperious, demanding and conniving woman, whose four grown children are weary of her schemes. But one by one she inveigles them into helping with her investigation, and soon the family uncovers some terrifying truths --- truths that will rock Savannah’s power structure to its core.
Celadon Books | 9781250888792

A LONESOME BLOOD-RED SUN: A Bone Detective Novel by David Putnam (Thriller)
Paperback Original
Dave Beckett, a homicide detective who doesn't color within the lines, is regulated to the lowest job in the division and is known by his peers as The Bone Dick. He handles all "bag of bone" cases found in San Bernardino County's 20,000 square miles, at present count 256 pending unsolved. It's a boring, mundane job...until it isn't. In A LONESOME BLOOD-RED SUN, Beckett is called to a house far out in the desert where a dog has brought a bone to the back door. Beckett investigates and discovers that the victim, two years dead, is someone he knows. With his usual verve and colorful methods, Beckett tracks the killer. The trail leads through a warren of dead ends until he discovers a most unlikely suspect hiding in plain sight.
Level Best Books | 9781685122935

THE MAGIC KINGDOM by Russell Banks (Fiction)
Property speculator Harley Mann begins recording his life story onto a reel-to-reel machine, reflecting on his youth in the early 20th century. He recounts that after his father’s sudden death, his family migrated down to Florida to join a Shaker colony. Led by Elder John, a generous man with a mysterious past, the colony devoted itself to labor, faith and charity, rejecting all temptations that lay beyond the property. Though this way of life initially saved Harley and his family from complete ruin, when Harley began falling in love with Sadie Pratt, a consumptive patient living on the grounds, his loyalty to the Shakers and their conservative worldview grew strained and, ultimately, broke. As Harley dictates his story across more than half a century, the truth about Sadie, Elder John and the Shakers comes to light.
Vintage | 9780593468616

NIGHTS OF PLAGUE written by Orhan Pamuk, translated by Robert Finn (Historical Fiction)
It is April 1900 on the imaginary island of Mingheria --- a state of the Ottoman Empire --- located between Crete and Cyprus. Half the population is Muslim, the other half are Orthodox Greeks, and tension is high between the two. When a plague arrives, the island revolts. To stop the epidemic, an accomplished quarantine expert races to the island. What follows is a shocking murder. The plague continues its rapid spread and stricter quarantine measures are declared, but the incompetence of the island’s governor, increased hostility between the two religions, and the people’s refusal to respect the bans doom the quarantine to failure. As the death count rises, warships blockade the island to keep the disease from spreading. Now the people of Mingheria are on their own, and they must find a way to defeat the plague themselves.
Vintage | 9781984897619

THE RED WIDOW: The Scandal that Shook Paris and the Woman Behind It All by Sarah Horowitz (True Crime/History)
Paris, 1889: Margeurite Steinheil is a woman with ambition. But having been born into a middle-class family and trapped in a marriage to a failed artist 20 years her senior, she knows her options are limited. Determined to fashion herself into a new woman, Meg orchestrates a scandalous plan with her most powerful resource: her body. She takes elite men as her lovers, charming her way into the good graces of the rich and powerful. A real-life femme fatale, Meg influences government positions and resorts to blackmail --- and maybe even poisoning --- to get her way. Leaving a trail of death and disaster in her wake, she earns the name the "Red Widow" for mysteriously surviving a home invasion that leaves both her husband and mother dead.
Sourcebooks | 9781728280332

SEVEN EMPTY HOUSES written by Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell (Fiction/Short Stories)
The seven houses in these seven stories are strange. A person is missing, or a truth, or memory; some rooms are enticing, some unmoored, others empty. But in Samanta Schweblin's tense, visionary tales, something always creeps back inside: a ghost, a fight, trespassers, a list of things to do before you die, a child's first encounter with darkness or the fallibility of parents. In each story, twists and turns will unnerve and surprise. Schweblin never takes the expected path and instead digs under the skin, revealing surreal truths about our sense of home, of belonging, and of the fragility of our connections with others.
Riverhead Books | 9780525541400

SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE TWELVE THEFTS OF CHRISTMAS by Tim Major (Historical Mystery)
Sherlock Holmes’ discovery of a mysterious musical score initiates a devious Christmas challenge set by Irene Adler, with clues that are all variations on the theme of “theft without theft,” such as a statue missing from a museum found hidden in the room it was taken from. In the snowy London lead-up to Christmas, Holmes’ preoccupation with the "Adler Variations" risks him neglecting the case of his new client, Norwegian arctic explorer Fridtjof Nansen, who has received a series of threats in the form of animal carcasses left on his doorstep. Could they really be gifts from a strange spirit that has pursued Nansen since the completion of his expedition to cross Greenland? And might this case somehow be related to Irene Adler’s great game?
Titan Books | 9781803361949

THERE IS ONLY ONE GHOST IN THE WORLD by Sophie Klahr and Corey Zeller (Fiction)
Paperback Original
THERE IS ONLY ONE GHOST IN THE WORLD follows the fragmented meditations of a multilayered voice, an intimate witness to our times that delicately and bluntly reveals the best and the worst in all of us. It is a kaleidoscopic investigation into the loneliness of modern American life, as well as family relationships, exploring the truths and lies that families tell one another, and why, with empathy, sorrow and humility. We travel from the oil-slicked beaches of California and the alleys of New Orleans to the steps of the Capitol.
Fiction Collective 2 | 9781573662031

THE THREE LIVES OF ALIX ST. PIERRE by Natasha Lester (Historical Fiction)
Alix St. Pierre grew up surrounded by Hollywood glamour but never truly felt part of that world. In 1943, with WWII raging, she lands a publicity job to recruit women into the workforce. Her skills catch the attention of the U.S. government, and she finds herself with an even bigger assignment: sent to Switzerland as a spy. Soon Alix is on the precipice of something very big. But how far can she trust her German informant? After an Allied victory that didn’t come nearly soon enough, Alix moves to Paris, ready to immerse herself in a new position as director of publicity for the yet-to-be-launched House of Dior. But when a figure from the war reappears and threatens to destroy her future, Alix realizes that only she can right the wrongs of the past…and finally find justice.
Forever | 9781538706923

WHAT YOU DO TO ME by Rochelle B. Weinstein (Romance)
Paperback Original
Journalist Cecilia James is a sucker for a love song. So when she stumbles across a clue to the identity of the muse for one of rock’s greatest, she devotes herself to uncovering the truth, even as her own relationship is falling apart. While writing an article for Rolling Stone, Cecilia works to reveal the mystery that has intrigued fans and discovers a classic tale of two soulmates separated by fate and circumstance. Rock star Eddie Vee once sang with his soul, dedicating love songs to Sara Friedman, his inspiration and first love. Now, Eddie takes refuge in anonymity, closed off to the past. Sara, too, has distanced herself from their love, moving thousands of miles away to live the life she once railed against. As Eddie and Sara tentatively open up to Cecilia about broken dreams, she struggles to give them a happy ending.
Lake Union Publishing | 9781662508271

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