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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of November 27th and December 4th 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 VERY special contest on ReadingGroupGuides.com, where we are giving readers the opportunity to share their favorite book that they read with their group and their favorite book that they read outside their group this year.
One Grand Prize winner will receive SIX outstanding book group titles releasing in early 2024: FINDING MARGARET FULLER by Allison Pataki, FIRST LIE WINS by Ashley Elston, SLOW NOODLES: A Cambodian Memoir of Love, Loss, and Family Recipes by Chantha Nguon with Kim Green, THE STORM WE MADE by Vanessa Chan, WHAT HAPPENED TO NINA? by Dervla McTiernan, and THE WOMEN by Kristin Hannah. Be sure to enter by Wednesday, January 10th at noon ET.
Please keep in mind that you have until Monday, December 4th at noon ET to enter our contest for Kristin Hannah's THE WOMEN and be one of 25 winners who will read the book, share their comments on it and submit a question for Kristin.
Releasing on February 6th and set during the Vietnam War, THE WOMEN is at once an intimate portrait of a woman coming of age in a dangerous time and an epic tale of a nation divided by war and broken by politics, of a generation both fueled by dreams and lost on the battlefield.
Winners must be committed to sending us both their feedback and their question for Kristin by Monday, January 8th. Carol Fitzgerald will be chatting with Kristin during a LIVE “Bookreporter Talks To” interview that will take place in the evening a month or so after the book releases and asking some of these questions. As an added bonus, winners will be given the option of asking Kristin their question on camera!
This is your last newsletter reminder to sign up for this month’s “Bookaccino Live” Book Group event, which will take place THIS Thursday, November 30th at 8pm ET.
Our guest will be Dani Shapiro, and she will be talking about her novel, SIGNAL FIRES, a Bookreporter.com Bets On title that is newly released in paperback. Click here to register for the event. If you would like to ask Dani a question about the book on camera during the event and chat with her in our virtual green room before the event, please email Carol with your question using the subject line “Dani” by Thursday at noon ET. Be sure to include your name, city and state, as well as your question.
P.S. For those of you who shop online, if you use the store links that appear on our site for shopping, Bookreporter.com gets a small affiliate fee on your purchases from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and IndieBound. As you read our reviews and features, we would appreciate your considering this as you buy!
Upcoming Virtual Book and Author Events
Here are six upcoming virtual book and author events that you may be interested in attending. Click on the links for more info and to register.
Wednesday, November 29th at 1pm ET: Simon & Schuster's Book Club Favorites: Nancy Jooyoun Kim will join members of the Simon & Schuster team to discuss her new novel, WHAT WE KEPT TO OURSELVES, which is November's pick for S&S's Book Club Favorites.
Wednesday, November 29th 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 Ariel Lawhon about her new novel, THE FROZEN RIVER, a gripping historical mystery inspired by the life and diary of Martha Ballard, a renowned 18th-century midwife who defied the legal system and wrote herself into American history.
Thursday, November 30th at 8pm ET: "Bookaccino Live" Book Group: Carol Fitzgerald will talk to Dani Shapiro about her novel, SIGNAL FIRES, a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick that is now available in paperback. Dani also will answer questions from guests who will be "on stage," as well as from other members of the audience. If you would like to be one of our featured audience guests and ask Dani a question on camera, please send Carol an email with the subject line “Dani” by November 30th at noon ET.
Monday, December 4th at 2pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Val McDermid will talk about her latest novel, PAST LYING, a superb new addition to her masterful crime series. DCI Karen Pirie returns in a propulsive thriller of deceit and vengeance, set against the disquiet of a global pandemic.
Monday, December 4th at 4pm ET: Barnes & Noble: Join Barnes & Noble as they welcome New York Times bestselling author Mary Kay Andrews for a live virtual discussion of BRIGHT LIGHTS, BIG CHRISTMAS, a novella celebrating love and the warm, glittering charm of the holiday season. Mary Kay will be in conversation with Adriana Trigiani, the New York Times bestselling author of 20 books of fiction and nonfiction, most recently THE GOOD LEFT UNDONE.
Tuesday, December 5th at 4pm ET: Book Passage: Alice McDermott and Lisa Gornick will talk about their latest novels: Alice's ABSOLUTION, a riveting account of women’s lives on the margins of the Vietnam War, and Lisa's ANA TURNS, a kaleidoscopic story that unspools over the 24 hours of a very contemporary woman's 60th birthday.
This Week's Bonus News:
Special Contest on ReadingGroupGuides.com
Share Your Favorite Books of 2023 and Enter to Win
SIX Outstanding Book Group Titles Releasing in 2024!
This is the time of year when we start seeing “Best Books of the Year” lists. We would like you and your book group to help us compile ours by entering ReadingGroupGuides.com's End-of-the-Year contest!
All you have to do is fill out this form, sharing both your favorite book that you discussed with your group and your favorite book that you read outside your group in 2023, by Wednesday, January 10th at noon ET.
One Grand Prize winner will be awarded SIX fabulous book group titles releasing in early 2024:
Please note: Your favorite book that you discussed with your group CAN be the same as your favorite book that you read outside your group. And they don't need to have been published in 2023. Also, please be careful with the spelling of book titles and authors’ first and last names to save us editing time.
We will share our reader-compiled "Best Of" list with you shortly after the contest ends. We cannot wait to see what you select!
Click here to share your favorite books of 2023 and enter the contest.
On Sale the Week of November 27th in Hardcover
November 28th
THE KINGDOM OF SWEETS: A Novel of the Nutcracker by Erika Johansen (Dark Fantasy)
Light and dark. This is the cursed birthright placed upon Clara and Natasha by their godfather, Drosselmeyer. Charming Clara grows into a life of beauty and ease, while Natasha is relegated to her sister’s shadow. But Natasha seizes the opportunity for revenge one Christmas Eve, when Drosselmeyer arrives at the family gala with the Nutcracker, an enchanted gift that offers entry into an alternate world: the Kingdom of Sweets. Following Clara into the glittering land of snow and sugar, Natasha discovers a source of power far greater than Drosselmeyer: the Sugar Plum Fairy. But as Natasha uncovers the truth about a dark destiny crafted long before her birth, she must reckon with forces both earthly and magical, human and diabolical, and decide to which world she truly belongs.
Dutton | 9781524742751
LISTEN: On Music, Sound and Us by Michel Faber (Music History/Criticism)
There are countless books on music with much analysis given to musicians, bands, eras and/or genres. But rarely does a book delve into what's going on inside us when we listen. Michel Faber explores two big questions: How do we listen to music, and why do we listen to music? To answer these questions, he considers a range of factors, which includes age, illness, the notion of "cool," commerce, the dichotomy between "good" and "bad" taste, and much more.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335000620
THE MYSTERY GUEST: A Maid Novel by Nita Prose (Mystery)
With her flair for cleaning and proper etiquette, Molly Gray has risen through the ranks of the glorious five-star Regency Grand Hotel to become the esteemed Head Maid. But just as her life reaches a pinnacle state of perfection, her world is turned upside down when J. D. Grimthorpe, the world-renowned mystery author, drops dead on the hotel’s tearoom floor. When Detective Stark, Molly’s old foe, investigates the author’s unexpected demise, it becomes clear that this death was murder most foul. Suspects abound, and everyone wants to know: Who killed J. D. Grimthorpe? As the high-profile death threatens the hotel’s pristine reputation, Molly knows that she alone holds the key to unlocking the killer’s identity. But that key is buried deep in her past, as long ago she knew J. D. Grimthorpe.
Ballantine Books | 9780593356180
THE PATH TO PARADISE: A Francis Ford Coppola Story by Sam Wasson (Biography/Performing Arts)
Francis Ford Coppola is one of the great American dreamers, and his most magnificent dream is American Zoetrope, the production company he founded in San Francisco years before his gargantuan success, when he was only 30. Through Zoetrope’s experimental, communal utopia, Coppola attempted to reimagine the entire pursuit of moviemaking. Now, more than 50 years later, despite myriad setbacks, the visionary filmmaker’s dream persists, most notably in the production of his decades-in-the-making film and the culmination of his utopian ideals, Megalopolis. Granted total and unprecedented access to Coppola’s archives, conducting hundreds of interviews with the artist and those who have worked closely with him, Sam Wasson weaves together an extraordinary portrait.
Harper | 9780063037847
ROBERT B. PARKER'S BROKEN TRUST: A Spenser Novel by Mike Lupica (Mystery)
A brilliant scientist and an astute businessman, Andrew Crain’s groundbreaking work with lithium has made him one of the world’s richest men. He is universally adored and admired; that is, until Crain’s beautiful wife, Laura, comes to Spenser hoping that he can find out what skeletons lurk in her husband’s closet. Though Crain is a generous philanthropist and loving family man, she is concerned. He recently has become secretive, bordering on paranoid, and prone to violent outbursts. As Spenser digs into the billionaire’s past, he realizes that the man may have done terrible things on his rise to the top --- but he also may have had good reason to. What Spenser discovers will cause him to question his own views on morality --- and place him in grave danger.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593540244
UNNATURAL DEATH: A Scarpetta Novel by Patricia Cornwell (Mystery/Thriller)
Chief medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta finds herself in a Northern Virginia wilderness examining the remains of two campers wanted by federal law enforcement. The victims have been savaged beyond recognition, and other evidence is terrifying and baffling, including a larger-than-life footprint. After one of the most frightening body retrievals of her career, Scarpetta must discover who would commit murders this savage, and why.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538743164
THE WATCHMAKER'S HAND: A Lincoln Rhyme Novel by Jeffery Deaver (Thriller)
When a New York City construction crane mysteriously collapses, causing mass destruction and injury, forensic criminalist Lincoln Rhyme and detective Amelia Sachs are on the case. A political group claims responsibility for the sabotage and threatens another attack in 24 hours, unless its demands are met. Then a clue reveals to Rhyme that his nemesis, known as the Watchmaker, has come to town to fulfill his promise of murdering the criminalist. Now Rhyme and Sachs have to dodge his brilliant scheme to destroy them both, while racing against time to stop the construction site terrorists. With New York in a panic, Rhyme and his team must unravel a handful of plots as tightly wound as a timepiece --- before more cranes fall, raining down death and destruction from above.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593422113
WE MUST NOT THINK OF OURSELVES by Lauren Grodstein (Historical Fiction)
In November 1940, Adam Paskow becomes a prisoner in the Warsaw Ghetto, where the Jews of the city are cut off from their former lives and held captive by Nazi guards. Weeks later, he is approached by a mysterious figure with a surprising request: Will he join a secret group of archivists working to preserve the truth of what is happening inside these walls? Adam agrees and begins taking testimonies from his students, friends and neighbors. One of the people Adam interviews is his flatmate Sala Wiskoff, who is married with two children. Over the months of their confinement, in the presence of her family, Adam and Sala fall in love. But when Adam discovers a possible escape from the Ghetto, he is faced with an unbearable choice: Whom can he save, and at what cost?
Algonquin Books | 9781643752341
On Sale the Week of November 27th in Paperback
November 28th
ALL THE BROKEN PLACES by John Boyne (Historical Fiction)
Ninety-one-year-old Gretel Fernsby has lived in the same well-to-do mansion block in London for decades. She doesn’t talk about her escape from Nazi Germany at age 12. She doesn’t talk about the grim post-war years in France with her mother. Most of all, she doesn’t talk about her father, who was the commandant of one of the Reich’s most notorious extermination camps. Then, a new family moves into the apartment below her. In spite of herself, Gretel can’t help but begin a friendship with the little boy, Henry, though his presence brings back memories she would rather forget. One night, she witnesses a disturbing, violent argument between Henry’s beautiful mother and his arrogant father, one that threatens Gretel’s hard-won, self-contained existence.
Penguin Books | 9780593653449
BLAZE ME A SUN: A Novel About a Crime written by Christoffer Carlsson, translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles (Mystery)
In February 1986, the Halland police receive a call from a man who claims to have attacked his first victim. By the time police officer Sven Jörgensson reaches the crime scene, the woman is taking her last breath. On the same night, Sweden plunges into a state of shock after the murder of the prime minister. Could there possibly be a connection? As Sven becomes obsessed with the case, two more fall victim. Decades later, the case unexpectedly resurfaces when a novelist returns home to Halland amid a failed marriage and a sputtering career. The writer befriends the retired police officer, who helps the novelist --- our narrator --- unspool the many strands of this engrossing tale about a community confronting its shames and legacies.
Hogarth | 9780593449370
THE BODY FALLS: An Inishowen Mystery by Andrea Carter (Mystery)
Benedicta (Ben) O’Keeffe returns to Glendara, Inishowen, where a charity cycle event is taking place. But rain causes the cyclists to postpone the start of their event and stay overnight in the town. In the middle of the night, Police Sergeant Tom Molloy is called out to Mamore Gap. A body, dislodged from a high bank by the heavy rain, has fallen onto a passing vehicle. It is identified as Bob Jameson, a well-known charities boss and the organizer of the cycling event. Stunned, the local doctor finds evidence of a recent snakebite. Terrible weather persists, and soon bridges are down and roads are impassable. Glendara is completely cut off. Since there are no native snakes in Ireland, could there be a killer trapped in the community?
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608095827
THE COUPLE AT THE TABLE by Sophie Hannah (Psychological Thriller)
Jane and William are enjoying their honeymoon at an exclusive couples-only resort until Jane receives a chilling note warning her to “Beware of the couple at the table nearest to yours.” At dinner that night, five other couples are present, and none of their tables is any nearer or farther away than any of the others. It’s almost as if someone has set the scene in order to make the warning note meaningless. But why would anyone do that? Jane has no idea. But someone in this dining room will be dead before breakfast, and all the evidence will suggest that no one there that night could have possibly committed the crime.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063257719
THE FICTION WRITER by Jillian Cantor (Gothic Mystery)
Paperback Original
The once-rising literary star Olivia Fitzgerald is down on her luck. Her most recent novel --- a retelling of Daphne du Maurier’s REBECCA --- was a flop, her boyfriend of nine years just dumped her, and she’s battling a bad case of writer’s block. So when her agent calls her with a high-paying ghostwriting opportunity, Olivia is all too willing to sign the NDA. At first, the write-for-hire job seems too good to be true. All she has to do is interview Henry “Ash” Asherwood, a reclusive mega billionaire, twice named People’s Sexiest Man Alive, who wants her help in writing a book that reveals a shocking secret about his late grandmother and Daphne du Maurier. But when Olivia arrives at his Malibu estate, nothing is as it seems --- and before she knows it, she’s trapped in a gothic mystery of her own.
Park Row | 9780778334187
HUNTING TIME: A Colter Shaw Novel by Jeffery Deaver (Thriller)
Allison Parker is on the run with her teenage daughter, Hannah. Colter Shaw has been hired by her eccentric boss, entrepreneur Marty Harmon, to find and protect her. The reason for Allison’s panicked flight is soon apparent. She’s being stalked by her ex-husband, Jon Merritt. Newly released from prison and fueled by blinding rage, Jon is a man whose former profession as a police detective makes him uniquely suited for the hunt. And he’s not alone. Two hitmen are also hot on her heels --- an eerie pair of thugs who take delight not only in murder but in the sport of devising clever ways to make bodies disappear forever. Even if Shaw manages to catch up with Allison and her daughter, his troubles will be just beginning.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780593422106
THE LAST LOVE NOTE by Emma Grey (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Two years after losing her husband Cameron, Kate is grieving, solo parenting, working like mad at her university fundraising job, always dropping the ball --- and yet clinging to her sense of humor. Lurching from one comedic crisis to the next, she also navigates an overbearing mom and a Tinder-obsessed best friend who's determined to matchmake Kate with her hot new neighbor. When an in-flight problem leaves Kate and her boss, Hugh, stranded for a weekend on the east coast of Australia, she finally has a chance, away from her son, to really process her grief and see what’s right in front of her. When it becomes clear that Hugh is hiding a secret, Kate turns to the trail of scribbled notes she once used to hold her life together. The first note captured her heart. Will the last note set it free?
Zibby Books | 9781958506288
MOONRISE OVER NEW JESSUP by Jamila Minnicks (Historical Fiction)
In 1957, Alice Young steps off the bus into the all-Black town of New Jessup, Alabama, where residents have largely rejected integration as the means for Black social advancement. Instead, they seek to maintain, and fortify, the community they cherish on their “side of the woods.” In this place, Alice falls in love with Raymond Campbell, whose clandestine organizing activities challenge New Jessup’s longstanding status quo and could lead to the young couple’s expulsion --- or worse --- from the home they both hold dear. But as Raymond continues to push alternatives for enhancing New Jessup’s political power, Alice must find a way to balance her undying support for his underground work with her desire to protect New Jessup from the rising pressure of upheaval from inside, and outside, their side of town.
Algonquin Books | 9781643755397
ONLY THE DEAD by Jack Carr (Political Thriller)
In 1980, a freshman congressman was gunned down in Rhode Island, sending shockwaves through Washington that are still reverberating over four decades later. Now, with the world on the brink of war and a weakened United States facing rampant inflation, political division and shocking assassinations, a secret cabal of global elites is ready to assume control. And with the world’s most dangerous man locked in solitary confinement, the conspirators believe the final obstacle to complete domination has been eliminated. They’re wrong. With the odds stacked against him, James Reece is on a mission generations in the making. He is on the warpath. And when James Reece picks up his tomahawk and sniper rifle, no one is out of range.
Pocket Books | 9781982181703
UNNATURAL HISTORY: An Alex Delaware Novel by Jonathan Kellerman (Psychological Thriller)
The newly hired personal assistant to a handsome, wealthy photographer is ready to greet her boss with coffee and good cheer. Instead, she finds him slumped in bed, shot to death. The victim recently had received rave media attention for his latest project: images of homeless people in their personal “dream” situations, elaborately costumed and enacting unfulfilled fantasies. There are some, however, who view the whole thing as nothing more than crass exploitation. Has disgruntlement blossomed into homicidal rage? Or do the roots of violence reach down to the victim’s family? Then new murders arise, and Dr. Alex Delaware and Detective Milo Sturgis begin peeling back layer after layer of intrigue and complexity, culminating in one of the deadliest threats they’ve ever faced.
Ballantine Books | 9780525618638
WHAT HAVE WE DONE by Alex Finlay (Mystery/Thriller)
Twenty five years ago, Jenna, Donnie and Nico were the best of friends, having forged a bond through the abuse and neglect they endured as residents of Savior House, a group home for parentless teens. When the home was shut down --- after the disappearance of several kids --- the three were split up. Though the trauma of their childhood has never left them, each went on to live accomplished --- if troubled --- lives. They haven’t seen one another since they were teens but now are reunited for a single haunting reason: someone is trying to kill them. To survive, the group will have to revisit the nightmares of their childhoods and confront their shared past --- a past that holds the secret to why someone wants them dead.
Minotaur Books | 9781250906588
December 1st
THE LAST CARETAKER by Jessica Strawser (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Katie’s divorce was, in a word, humiliating. So when her friend, Bess, offers a fresh start --- a resident caretaking job at a nature preserve --- Katie accepts. But from day one, something feels off. Katie’s new farmhouse looks as if the last caretaker barely moved out at all. When a frantic, terrified woman arrives late at night, expecting a safe place to hide, it’s clear caretaking involves way more than Katie bargained for. Suddenly, Katie is no longer sure who she can trust: the brooding groundskeeper, the daily regulars --- hikers, dog walkers, bird-watchers, photographers --- even Bess. As Katie digs deeper for clues in what the last caretaker left behind, she must discover courage she never knew she had --- and decide how much she’ll risk to do the right thing.
Lake Union Publishing | 9781662510229
NIGHT OWL: A Trasker Thriller by Andrew Mayne (Thriller/Adventure)
Paperback Original
After three decades in counterintelligence, Brad Trasker is retired, disillusioned and dealing with a tragic loss. Spy games are behind him until he attends the launch of a next-generation aircraft. When the project of innovative aerospace CEO Kylie Connor explodes on the tarmac --- nearly killing her in the process --- Trasker is pulled back into the line of fire. The mystery of the sabotage quickly deepens. All of Kylie’s data has been wiped from the server. One of her engineers has disappeared. A seed investor has died in a suspicious car accident. And a cold-blooded murder raises the stakes even higher. To discover who’s pulling the strings behind a dangerous conspiracy, Trasker needs to find a motive. Corporate espionage, revenge or something he can’t yet see?
Thomas & Mercer | 9781662506437
PLEASE TELL ME by Mike Omer (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
When eight-year-old Kathy Stone turns up on the side of the road a year after her abduction, the world awaits her harrowing story. But she doesn’t speak at all, not even to her own parents. Child therapist Robin Hart is the only one who’s had success connecting with the girl. Robin has been using play therapy to help Kathy process her memories. But as their work continues, Kathy’s playtime takes a grim turn: a doll stabs another doll, a tiny figurine is chained to a plastic toy couch. All of these horrifying moments, enacted within a Victorian doll house. Every session, another toy dies. But the most disturbing detail? Kathy seems to be playacting real unsolved murders. Soon Robin wonders if Kathy not only holds the key to the murders of the past but if she knows something about the murders of the future.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781662509377
On Sale the Week of December 4th in Hardcover
December 4th
WHAT REALLY HAPPENS IN VEGAS: True Stories of the People Who Make Vegas, Vegas by James Patterson and Mark Seal (Biography)
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas --- until now. In WHAT REALLY HAPPENS IN VEGAS, full of surprises for both newcomers and Las Vegas regulars, James Patterson and Vanity Fair contributing editor Mark Seal transport readers from the thrill of adrenaline-fueled vice to the glitter of A-list celebrity and entertainment.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316406901
December 5th
AIRPLANE MODE: An Irreverent History of Travel by Shahnaz Habib (Cultural History/Travel Essays)
The color of one’s skin and passport have long dictated the conditions of travel. For Shahnaz Habib, travel and travel writing have always been complicated pleasures. Habib threads the history of travel with her personal story as a child on family vacations in India, an adult curious about the world, and an immigrant for whom roundtrips are an annual fact of life. Tracing the power dynamics that underlie tourism, AIRPLANE MODE parses who gets to travel and who gets to write about the experience. Threaded through the book are analyses of obvious and not-so-obvious travel artifacts: passports, carousels, bougainvilleas, guidebooks, trains, the idea of wanderlust itself. Together, they tell a subversive history of travel as a Euro-American mode of consumerism. But as any traveler knows, travel is more than that.
Catapult | 9781646220151
BECOMING ELLA FITZGERALD: The Jazz Singer Who Transformed American Song by Judith Tick (Biography)
In this first major biography since Ella Fitzgerald’s death, historian Judith Tick offers a sublime portrait of this ambitious risk-taker whose exceptional musical spontaneity made her a transformational artist. BECOMING ELLA FITZGERALD clears up long-enduring mysteries. Archival research and in-depth family interviews shed new light on the singer’s difficult childhood in Yonkers, New York, the tragic death of her mother, and the year she spent in a girls’ reformatory school --- where she sang in its renowned choir and dreamed of being a dancer. Rarely seen profiles from the Black press offer precious glimpses of Fitzgerald’s tense experiences of racial discrimination and her struggles with constricting models of Black and white femininity at midcentury.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393241051
THE CURSE OF PENRYTH HALL by Jess Armstrong (Historical/Gothic Mystery)
After the Great War, American heiress Ruby Vaughn made a life for herself running a rare bookstore alongside her octogenarian employer and housemate in Exeter. She’s avoided dwelling on the past, but it always has a way of finding her. When Ruby is forced to deliver a box of books to a folk healer living deep in the Cornish countryside, she is brought back to the one place she swore she’d never return. A foreboding fortress, Penryth Hall is home to Ruby’s once dearest friend, Tamsyn, and her husband, Sir Edward Chenowyth. It’s an unsettling place, and after a more unsettling evening, Ruby is eager to depart. But her plans change when Penryth’s bells ring for the first time in 30 years. Edward is dead; he met a gruesome end in the orchard, and with his death brings whispers of a returned curse.
Minotaur Books | 9781250886019
DAUGHTER OF ASHES: A Teresa Battaglia Novel written by Ilaria Tuti, translated by Ekin Oklap (Mystery/Thriller)
Superintendent Teresa Battaglia, a trailblazing criminal detective on the Italian police force, is on sick leave, recovering from her recent brush with death in pursuit of a killer. But none of her colleagues, not even her partner, know that her Alzheimer’s is getting worse, and that she is unsure she will ever return to work. Teresa’s plans for retirement are shelved, however, when she is urgently summoned to meet with menacing serial killer Giacomo Mainardi. Refusing to speak with anyone but Teresa, whose investigative work 27 years prior landed him in maximum security prison, Mainardi has disconcerting news: somebody is after him, and only Teresa holds the key to keeping everyone, including herself, safe. To solve the case, Teresa must come face to face with a history she thought she’d buried.
Soho Crime | 9781641294171
DEATH WRITES: An Inishowen Mystery by Andrea Carter (Mystery)
Preparations are underway for Glenfest, Glendara’s literary festival. Phyllis Kettle, the local bookshop owner, is especially pleased to have persuaded Gavin Featherstone, the local bestselling recluse writer, to take part. The festival begins, and an eager crowd awaits Featherstone’s appearance on stage. He is unexpectedly engaging, but when he stands to read from his new book, he stumbles and keels over on the platform. Solicitor Benedicta “Ben” O’Keeffe discovers that she holds Featherstone’s will at the office, drafted by her predecessor. Soon, she’s drawn into a complicated legal wrangle over the man’s estate involving his family and the assistant who lived with him. But nothing can be resolved yet, as a killer cannot inherit from their victim --- and Gavin Featherstone’s death was a murder.
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608095667
DISSOLVED by Sara Blaedel and Mads Peder Nordbo (Thriller)
Everything is peaceful in Tommerup, Denmark, until a young mother disappears in the middle of an idyllic summer day. There’s no trace of the missing woman when Chief Superintendent Liam Stark and Superintendent Dea Torp are called to investigate. When another person goes missing, and Liam and Dea find a strange note linking the second missing person to the first crime, they suspect the disappearances may be the work of a serial killer. As the investigation continues, dark secrets about the victims from the past are revealed. Is someone targeting them because of this? As more people vanish, it’s a race against time for Liam and Dea, who find themselves face to face with horrifying footage that reveals what is happening to the victims --- and what will happen to future targets if they can’t stop the killer.
Crooked Lane Books | 9781639105953
THE END OF THE WORLD IS A CUL DE SAC: Stories by Louise Kennedy (Fiction/Short Stories)
In THE END OF THE WORLD IS A CUL DE SAC, women’s lives are etched by poverty --- material, emotional, sexual --- but also splashed by beauty, sometimes even joy, as they search for the good in the cards they’ve been dealt. A wife is abandoned by her new husband in a derelict housing estate, with blood on her hands. An expectant mother’s worst fears about her husband’s entanglement with a teenage girl are confirmed. A sister is tormented by visions of the man her brother murdered during the Troubles. A woman struggles to forgive herself after an abortion threatens to destroy her marriage.
Riverhead Books | 9780593540923
FLORES AND MISS PAULA by Melissa Rivero (Fiction)
Thirtysomething Flores and her mother, Paula, still live in the same Brooklyn apartment, but that may be the only thing they have in common. It’s been nearly three years since they lost beloved husband and father Martín. One day, cleaning beneath his urn, Flores discovers a note written in her mother’s handwriting: Perdóname si te falle. Recuerda que siempre te quise. (“Forgive me if I failed you. Remember that I always loved you.”) But what would Paula need forgiveness for? Now newfound doubts and old memories come flooding in, complicating each woman’s efforts to carve out a good life for herself and support the other in the same. When Flores and Paula learn they will be forced to move, they finally must confront their complicated past --- and decide if they share the same dreams for the future.
Ecco | 9780063272491
THE FOURTH RULE by Jeff Lindsay (Thriller)
Impossible doesn’t belong in Riley Wolfe’s vocabulary. He’s a master of heists and disguises, whose life's work is swindling the rich out of their undeserved treasures. Now rumors surrounding a dangerous new figure of international crime are spreading through the underworld. And this ruthless collector, the Cobra, has a personal vendetta against Riley. With the aid of his new partner, Caitlin, Riley prepares to take on the most powerful cultural institution in the world and bring home the supposedly unstealable Rosetta Stone. With the Cobra waiting for the right moment to strike, Riley is put to the ultimate test as he faces this most venomous villain --- and tries to make it out alive.
Dutton | 9780593186251
THE FROZEN RIVER by Ariel Lawhon (Historical Mystery)
Maine, 1789: The Kennebec River freezes, entombing a man in the ice. Martha Ballard is summoned to examine the body and determine the cause of death. As the local midwife and healer, Martha is good at keeping secrets. Her diary is a record of every birth and death, every murder and debacle that unfolds in the town of Hallowell. In that diary she also documented the details of an alleged rape that occurred four months earlier. Now, one of the men accused of that heinous attack has been found dead in the ice. While Martha is certain she knows what happened the night of the assault, she suspects that the two crimes are linked. Over the course of one long, hard winter, Martha’s diary lands at the center of the scandal and threatens to tear both her family and her community apart.
Doubleday | 9780385546874
GOD SAVE BENEDICT ARNOLD: The True Story of America's Most Hated Man by Jack Kelly (History)
Benedict Arnold committed treason. For more than two centuries, that’s all that most Americans have known about him. Yet Arnold was much more than a turncoat --- his achievements during the early years of the Revolutionary War defined him as the most successful soldier of the era. GOD SAVE BENEDICT ARNOLD tells the gripping story of Arnold’s rush of audacious feats --- his capture of Fort Ticonderoga, his Maine mountain expedition to attack Quebec, the famous artillery brawl at Valcour Island, the turning-point battle at Saratoga --- that laid the groundwork for our independence.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250281951
HERE IN THE DARK by Alexis Soloski (Psychological Thriller)
A former actress, Vivian Parry now works as the junior theater critic at a major Manhattan magazine. Her nights are spent beyond the lights, in a reserved seat, giving herself over to the shows she loves. By day, she savages them. Angling for a promotion, she reluctantly agrees to an interview, a conversation that reveals secrets she thought she had long since buried. Then her interviewer disappears, and she learns --- from his devastated fiancée --- that she was the last person to have seen him alive. When the police refuse to investigate, Vivian does what she promised herself she would never do again: she plays a part. Assuming the role of amateur detective, she turns her critical gaze toward an unsanitary private eye, a sketchy internet startup, a threatening financier, fake blood and one very real corpse.
Flatiron Books | 9781250882943
THE LOST TOMB: And Other Real-Life Stories of Bones, Burials, and Murder by Douglas Preston (True Crime/History)
From the jungles of Honduras to macabre archaeological sites in the American Southwest, Douglas Preston's journalistic explorations have taken him across the globe. He broke the story of an extraordinary mass grave of animals killed by the asteroid impact that caused the extinction of the dinosaurs, he explored what lay hidden in the booby-trapped Money Pit on Oak Island, and he roamed the haunted hills of Italy in search of the Monster of Florence. THE LOST TOMB brings together an astonishing and compelling collection of true stories about buried treasure, enigmatic murders, lost tombs, bizarre crimes, and other fascinating tales of the past and present.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538741221
MANNER OF DEATH by Robin Cook (Medical Thriller)
After Dr. Jack Stapleton’s near-death confrontation with a medical serial killer, his wife, NYC Chief Medical Examiner Laurie Montgomery, is carrying the load both at work and at home. When Laurie insists that Dr. Ryan Sullivan --- an underperforming senior pathology resident --- assist her on a suicide autopsy in hopes of stimulating his interest in the field, the last thing she expects is to be unwittingly drawn into a major conspiracy that puts her own life in jeopardy. Desperate to avoid performing as many forensic autopsies as possible, Ryan offers to participate in a research project on a series of suicides put together by one of the medical legal investigators. These suicides, like the case Ryan analyzes with Laurie, hint at some bothersome questions about their "manner of death."
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593713891
THE MAYORS OF NEW YORK: A Lydia Chin/Bill Smith Mystery by S. J. Rozan (Mystery)
In January, New York City inaugurates its first female mayor. In April, her son disappears. Called in by the mayor's chief aide --- a former girlfriend of private investigator Bill Smith --- to find the missing 15-year-old, Bill and his partner, Lydia Chin, are told the boy has run away. Neither the press nor the NYPD know that he’s missing, and the mayor wants him back before a headstrong child turns into a political catastrophe. But as Bill and Lydia investigate, they turn up more questions than answers. Why did the boy leave? Who else is searching for him, and why? What is his twin sister hiding? Then a teen is found dead, and another is hit by gunfire. Are these tragedies related to each other, and to the mayor's missing son?
Pegasus Crime | 9781639365258
MURDER CROSSED HER MIND: A Pentecost and Parker Mystery by Stephen Spotswood (Historical Mystery)
Vera Bodine, an elderly shut-in with an exceptional memory, has gone missing, and famed detective Lillian Pentecost and her crackerjack assistant, Willowjean “Will” Parker, have been hired to track her down. But there’s no shortage of people who might like to get ahold of what’s in Bodine’s head. Does her disappearance have to do with the high-profile law firm whose secrets she still keeps; the violent murder of a young woman, with which Bodine had lately become obsessed; or is it the work she did with the FBI hunting Nazi spies intent on wartime sabotage? Any and all are on the suspect list, including their client, Forest Whitsun, hotshot defense attorney and no friend to Pentecost and Parker. The clock is ticking to get Bodine back alive, but circumstances conspire to pull both investigators away from the case.
Doubleday | 9780385549288
ORBITAL by Samantha Harvey (Science Fiction)
ORBITAL deftly snapshots one day in the lives of six women and men hurtling through space --- not towards the moon or the vast unknown, but around our planet. Selected for one of the last space station missions of its kind before the program is dismantled, these astronauts and cosmonauts have left their lives behind to travel at a speed of over 17,000 miles an hour as the earth reels below. We glimpse moments of their earthly lives through brief communications with family, their photos and talismans; we watch them whip up dehydrated meals, float in gravity-free sleep, and exercise in regimented routines to prevent atrophying muscles; we witness them form bonds that will stand between them and utter solitude. Most of all, we are with them as they behold and record their silent blue planet.
Atlantic Monthly Press | 9780802161543
THE OTHER MOTHERS by Katherine Faulkner (Domestic Thriller)
When a young nanny is found dead under mysterious circumstances, new mom Tash is intrigued. She has been searching for a story to launch her career as a freelance journalist. But she also has been searching for new friends to help her navigate motherhood. She sees them at her son’s new playgroup. The other mothers. A group of sleek, sophisticated women. When the mothers welcome her into their circle, Tash discovers the kind of life she has always dreamt of and is quickly swept up into their wealthy world. But when another young woman is found dead, it’s clear there’s much more to the community than meets the eye. Are these women really her friends? Or is there another, more dangerous reason that she has been so quickly accepted into their exclusive world?
Gallery Books | 9781668024782
PROPHET SONG by Paul Lynch (Dystopian Fiction)
On a dark, wet evening in Dublin, scientist and mother of four Eilish Stack answers her front door to find two officers from Ireland’s newly formed secret police on her step. They have arrived to interrogate her husband, a trade unionist. Ireland is falling apart, caught in the grip of a government turning towards tyranny. As the life she knows and the ones she loves disappear before her eyes, Eilish must contend with the dystopian logic of her new, unraveling country. How far will she go to save her family? And what --- or who --- is she willing to leave behind?
Atlantic Monthly Press | 9780802163011
SONGS ON ENDLESS REPEAT: Essays and Outtakes by Anthony Veasna So (Essays/Fiction)
The late Anthony Veasna So’s debut story collection, AFTERPARTIES, was a landmark publication. And he was equally known for his comic, soulful essays, published in n+1, The New Yorker and The Millions. SONGS ON ENDLESS REPEAT gathers those essays together, along with previously unpublished fiction. Written with razor-sharp wit and an unflinching eye, the essays examine his youth in California, the lives of his refugee parents, his intimate friendships, loss, pop culture and more. And in linked fiction following three Cambodian American cousins who stand to inherit their late aunt’s illegitimate loan-sharking business, So explores community, grief and longing with inimitable humor and depth.
Ecco | 9780063049963
SUNSET, WATER CITY by Chris McKinney (Noir Science Fiction/Thriller)
2160: It's been 10 years since the cataclysmic events of Eventide, Water City, where 99.97 percent of the human population was possessed or obliterated by Akira Kimura, Water City’s renowned scientist and Earth’s former savior. Our nameless antihero and his daughter, Ascalon, navigate through a post-apocalyptic landscape populated by barbaric Zeroes --- the permanent residents of the continent’s biggest landfill, The Great Leachate --- who cling to the ways of the old world. They live in opposition to Akira’s godlike domination of the planet. She has taken control of the population that viewed her as a god and converted them into her Gardeners, zombie-like humans who plod along to build her vision of a new world. What that world exactly entails, Ascalon is not entirely sure, but she intends to find out.
Soho Crime | 9781641295130
UNFINISHED WOMAN: A Memoir by Robyn Davidson (Memoir)
In 1977, while she was in her 20s, Robyn Davidson set off with a dog and four camels to cross 1,700 miles of Australian desert to the sea. A life of almost constant traveling followed --- from the Outback to Sydney's underworld; from ’60s street life to the London literary scene; from migrating with nomads in India and Tibet to marrying an Indian prince. The only territory she avoided was the past. In UNFINISHED WOMAN, she ventures into that unknown, unearthing an ache for a lost but barely remembered mother and an unmet desire to feel at home in her freedom. Adventurous but guarded, fearless yet broken, Davidson asks: How can we live with pain and uncertainty to find beauty in the strangeness of being?
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781620401620
WELCOME HOME, STRANGER by Kate Christensen (Fiction)
An environmental journalist in Washington, DC, Rachel has shunned her New England working-class family for years. Divorced and childless in her middle age, she’s a true independent spirit with the pain and experience to prove it. Coping with challenges large and small, she thinks her life is in free fall --- until she’s summoned home to deal with the aftermath of her mother’s death. Then things really fall apart. Surrounded by a cast of sometimes comic, sometimes heartbreakingly serious characters --- an arriviste sister, an alcoholic brother-in-law and, most importantly, the love of her life recently married to the sister’s best friend --- Rachel must come to terms with her past, the sorrow she has long buried, and the ghost of the mother who, for better and worse, made her the woman she is.
Harper | 9780063299702
WHERE THE DEAD WAIT by Ally Wilkes (Supernatural Thriller/Gothic Horror)
William Day should be an acclaimed Arctic explorer. But after a failed expedition, in which his remaining men only survived by eating their dead comrades, he returned in disgrace. Thirteen years later, his second-in-command, Jesse Stevens, has gone missing in the same frozen waters. Perhaps this is Day’s chance to restore his tarnished reputation by bringing Stevens --- the man who’s haunted his whole life --- back home. But when the rescue mission becomes an uncanny journey into his past, Day must face up to the things he’s done. Aboard ship, Day also must contend with unwanted passengers. Following a trail of cryptic messages, gaunt bodies and old bones, their search becomes more and more unnerving, as it becomes clear that the restless dead are never far behind.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781982182823
THE WILDEST SUN by Asha Lemmie (Historical Fiction)
When tragedy forces Delphine Auber, an aspiring writer on the cusp of adulthood, from her home in postwar Paris, she seizes the opportunity to embark on the journey she's long dreamed of: finding the father she has never known. But her quest --- spanning from Paris to New York’s Harlem, to Havana and Key West --- is complicated by the fact that she believes him to be famed luminary Ernest Hemingway, a man just as elusive as he is iconic. She desperately yearns for his approval, as both a daughter and a writer, convinced that he holds the key to who she's truly meant to be. But what will happen if she's wrong, or if her real story falls outside of the legend of her parentage that she’s revered all her life?
Dutton | 9780593185711
THE WONDER OF IT ALL: A House of Falconer Novel by Barbara Taylor Bradford (Historical Fiction)
James Falconer, a tycoon and a self-made man, seems to have the world in the palm of his hand. But the Great War looms, and James decides to fight for king and country. He returns a changed man, with wounds both physical and mental. His beloved wife is dead, but a new woman returns to help nurse him back to health. Georgiana Ward once held James in her thrall, but years have passed and bitterness has set in. Still, the old attraction is there, and James is determined to make amends to both Georgiana and his child, Leonie --- now a grown woman and someone he hasn't seen in decades. Leonie is having none of it and is embarking on a dangerous journey with a man who might very well destroy her. As James fights to return to the man he once was, he needs to find a way to heal his body, soul and family.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250187482
YOURS FOR THE TAKING by Gabrielle Korn (Dystopian Fiction)
The year is 2050. Ava and her girlfriend live in what's left of Brooklyn. Although they love each other, it's hard to find happiness while the effects of climate change rapidly eclipse their world. Soon, it won't be safe outside at all. The only people guaranteed survival are the ones whose applications are accepted to The Inside Project, a series of weather-safe, city-sized structures around the world. When Ava is accepted to live Inside and her girlfriend isn’t, she’s forced to go alone. But her heartbreak is quickly replaced with a feeling of belonging: Inside seems like it’s the safe space she’s been searching for...most of the time. Other times she can’t shake the feeling that something is deeply off.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250283368
On Sale the Week of December 4th in Paperback
December 5th
ANATOMY OF 55 MORE SONGS: The Oral History of Top Hits That Changed Rock, Pop and Soul by Marc Myers (Music/History)
Songs that sell the most copies become hits, but some of those hits become something more --- iconic recordings that not only inspire a generation but also change the direction of music. In ANATOMY OF 55 MORE SONGS, based on his column for the Wall Street Journal, music journalist and historian Marc Myers tells the story behind 55 rock, pop, R&B, country and soul-gospel hits through intimate interviews with the artists who wrote and recorded them. The book ranges from Creedence Clearwater Revival’s “Bad Moon Rising” to Dionne Warwick’s “Walk On By,” The Beach Boys’ “Good Vibrations” and Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid.” Through an absorbing, chronological, song-by-song analysis of the most memorable post-war hits, Myers provides a sweeping look at the evolution of pop music between 1964 and today.
Grove Press | 9780802161260
ASHES OF MAN: The Sun Eater, Book Five by Christopher Ruocchio (Space Opera/Fantasy)
With the Cielcin united under one banner, the Sollan Empire stands alone after the betrayal of the Commonwealth. The Prophet-King of the Cielcin has sent its armies to burn the worlds of men. Worse, there are rumors...whispers that Hadrian Marlowe is dead, killed in the fighting. But Hadrian survived with the help of the witch, Valka, and together they escaped the net of the enemy having learned a terrible truth: the gods that the Cielcin worship are real and will not rest until the universe is dark and cold. What is more, the Emperor himself is in danger. The Prophet-King has learned to track his movements as he travels along the borders of Imperial space. Now the Cielcin legions are closing in, their swords poised to strike off the head of all mankind.
DAW | 9780756416614
BAD CREE by Jessica Johns (Mystery/Horror)
When Mackenzie wakes up with a severed crow's head in her hands, she panics. Only moments earlier she had been fending off masses of birds in a snow-covered forest. In bed, when she blinks, the head disappears. Night after night, Mackenzie’s dreams return her to a memory from before her sister Sabrina’s untimely death: a weekend at the family’s lakefront campsite, long obscured by a fog of guilt. But when the waking world starts closing in, too, Mackenzie knows this is more than she can handle alone. Traveling north to her rural hometown in Alberta, she finds her family still steeped in the same grief that she ran away to Vancouver to escape. They welcome her back, but their shaky reunion only seems to intensify her dreams --- and make them more dangerous.
Anchor | 9780593467947
BEFORE WE WERE INNOCENT by Ella Berman (Psychological Thriller)
Ten years ago, after a sun-soaked summer spent in Greece, best friends Bess and Joni were cleared of having any involvement in their friend Evangeline’s death. But that didn’t stop the media from ripping apart their teenage lives like vultures. While the girls were never convicted, Joni capitalized on her newfound infamy to become a motivational speaker. Bess resolved to make her life as small and controlled as possible so she wouldn’t risk losing everything all over again. And it almost worked. Except now Joni needs a favor, and when she turns up at her old friend's doorstep asking for an alibi, Bess has no choice but to say yes. But as the two friends try desperately to shake off their past, they have to face reality. Can you ever be an innocent woman when everyone wants you to be guilty?
Berkley | 9780593099551
BLOOD & INK: The Scandalous Jazz Age Double Murder That Hooked America on True Crime by Joe Pompeo (True Crime/History)
On September 16, 1922, the bodies of Reverend Edward Hall and Eleanor Mills were found on an abandoned farm outside of New Brunswick, New Jersey. The killer had arranged the bodies in a pose conveying intimacy. The murder of Hall --- a prominent clergyman whose wife, Frances Hall, was a proud heiress with illustrious ancestors and ties to the Johnson & Johnson dynasty --- would have made headlines on its own. But when authorities identified Eleanor Mills as a choir singer from his church married to the church sexton, the story shocked locals and sent the scandal ricocheting around the country, fueling the nascent tabloid industry. BLOOD & INK freshly chronicles what remains one of the most electrifying but forgotten murder mysteries in U.S. history.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063001749
THE CITY BETWEEN THE BRIDGES: 1794 by Niklas Natt och Dag (Historical Thriller)
Stockholm, 1794: A young nobleman, Eric Three Roses, languishes in a hospital as the rest of the city claims that he belongs in a madhouse. Riddled with guilt, he writes down the memories of his lost love --- his beautiful wife who died on their wedding night. The young woman’s mother also mourns her death and, desperate for justice, begs for help from the only person who will listen to her: Jean Mickel Cardell, the one-armed watchman. But she isn’t the only person seeking him out. Emil, younger brother to the brilliant lawyer and detective Cecil Winge, finds the watchman to demand his late brother’s pocket watch back. Instead, Cardell enlists Emil’s help to discover what really happened at the Three Roses estate that dreaded wedding night.
Washington Square Press | 9781982145927
THE COUPLE IN THE PHOTO by Helen Cooper (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Paperback Original
Lucy and her husband, Adam, have been best friends with another couple, Cora and Scott, for years. They vacation together, co-own a beach cottage, and their children are inseparable. So Lucy is devastated when, while looking at a colleague’s photos of a trip to the Maldives, she spots a picture of Scott, apparently on vacation with another woman. Then she learns that the woman in the photo has gone missing. Lucy can’t help but fear that Scott was involved. But searching for answers might uncover secrets about Scott, Cora and even her own husband that could destroy the picture-perfect lives they have built together. Or maybe she was never part of the picture at all. Is it possible that everyone knows more than they are letting on? If so, what are the consequences of exposing the truth?
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593544907
A DIFFERENT KIND OF GONE by Catherine Ryan Hyde (Fiction)
Paperback Original
When 19-year-old Jill Moss goes missing near the Utah-Arizona border, everyone has an opinion. Only Norma Gallagher, a search-and-rescue volunteer, knows the real story. Norma already has found Jill, huddled in a cave and terrified that her abusive boyfriend, Jake, will kill her. To protect Jill from a dangerous man, Norma quietly delivers the girl to her grateful parents in California, even though she’s conflicted. Keeping Jill safe and hidden from Jake, the press and the public will be their secret. Five years later, the disappearance stirs a new media frenzy when Jake is arrested for the murder of Jill Moss --- and Norma knows he didn’t kill her. As Jake is about to stand trial, lust for retribution inflames public opinion, and Jill’s family refuses to come forward, forcing Norma to make a life-changing decision.
Lake Union Publishing | 9781662504402
EMPIRE OF ICE AND STONE: The Disastrous and Heroic Voyage of the Karluk by Buddy Levy (History)
In the summer of 1913, the wooden-hulled brigantine Karluk departed Canada for the Arctic Ocean. At the helm was Captain Bob Bartlett, considered the world’s greatest living ice navigator. The expedition’s visionary leader was a flamboyant impresario named Vilhjalmur Stefansson, who was hungry for fame. Just six weeks after the Karluk departed, giant ice floes closed in around her. As the ship became icebound, Stefansson disembarked with five companions and struck out on what he claimed was a 10-day caribou hunting trip. Most on board would never see him again. Captain Bartlett now made a difficult and courageous decision. He would take one of the young Inuit hunters and attempt a 1,000-mile journey to save the shipwrecked survivors. It was their only hope.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250871633
ENDPAPERS by Jennifer Savran Kelly (Fiction)
A bookbinder who works in conservation at the Met, Dawn Levit spends her free time scouting the city’s street art, hoping something might spark inspiration. Instead, everything looks like a dead end. And wherever she turns, her gender identity clashes with the rest of her life. Then, one day at work, Dawn finds something hidden behind the endpaper of an old book: the torn-off cover of a ’50s lesbian pulp novel, Turn Her About. On the front is a campy illustration of a woman looking into a handheld mirror and seeing a man’s face. And on the back is a love letter. Dawn latches onto the coincidence, becoming obsessed with tracking down the note’s author. Her fixation only increases when her best friend, Jae, is injured in a hate crime, for which she feels responsible.
Algonquin Books | 9781643755403
THE ENGAGEMENT PARTY by Darby Kane (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Emily Hunt went missing from her affluent liberal arts school on graduation weekend. Her body was found floating in a river, and a quiet loner died by suicide. A tenuous link --- one text --- bound the two dead students together and was enough for law enforcement to close the case. But they got it wrong, and now someone is determined to set it right. Twelve years later, college friends gather to celebrate an engagement over a long-overdue getaway on a swanky private island in Maine --- with only one way in and one way out. Sierra Prescott, invited as a guest and unconnected to past events, is the only person who soon senses not all is what it seems. The tension in the air is ignited when they find a dead man in the trunk of a car with a note: time to tell the truth. And things only get worse.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063225626
THE FAKE MATE by Lana Ferguson (Paranormal Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Only a year out of residency, Mackenzie Carter has had some very bad dates lately. Out of options, it feels like a small thing to tell her grandmother that she’s met someone. That is, until she blurts out the name of the first man she sees and the last man she would ever date: Noah Taylor, the big bad wolf of Denver General. With outdated stigmas surrounding unmated alphas that have people wondering if they still howl at the moon, Noah has been careful to keep his designation under wraps. It’s worked for years, until an anonymous tip has everything coming to light. The chatty, overly friendly ER doctor asking him to be her fake boyfriend on the same day he’s called to meet the board has to be kismet, right? But when the fake-mate act turns into a very real friends-with-benefits arrangement, lines start to blur.
Berkley | 9780593549377
FIVE BAD DEEDS by Caz Frear (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Teacher, mother, wife and all-around good citizen Ellen Walsh is juggling nonstop commitments --- from raising a teen and two toddlers to job-hunting to finally renovating her dream home, the Meadowhouse. Amidst the chaos, an ominous note arrives in the mail, declaring: People have to learn there are consequences, Ellen. And I’m going to teach you that lesson. Right under your nose. Why would someone send her this? Ellen has no clue. But someone blames her for all the bad they’ve experienced. Could the five bad deeds that come to haunt Ellen explain why things have gone so horribly wrong? As she races to discover who’s set on destroying her reputation and her future, Ellen continues to receive increasingly threatening messages…each one hitting closer to everything she cherishes.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780063091115
THE GIFTS by Liz Hyder (Historical Fantasy/Speculative Fiction)
October 1840. A young woman staggers alone through a forest in the English countryside as a huge pair of impossible wings rip themselves from her shoulders. In London, rumors of a "fallen angel" cause a frenzy across the city, and a surgeon desperate for fame and fortune finds himself in the grips of a dangerous obsession, one that will place the women he seeks in the most terrible danger. A spellbinding tale told through five different perspectives and set against the luminous backdrop of 19th-century London, THE GIFTS explores science, nature and religion, enlightenment, the role of women in society, and the dark danger of ambition.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781728271699
A HARD DAY FOR A HANGOVER by Darynda Jones (Mystery/Humor)
Some people greet the day with open arms. Sheriff Sunshine Vicram would rather give it a hearty shove and get back into bed, because there’s just too much going on right now. There’s a series of women going missing, and Sunny feels powerless to stop it. There’s her persistent and awesomely rebellious daughter Auri, who’s out to singlehandedly become Del Sol’s youngest and fiercest investigator. And then there’s drama with Levi Ravinder, the guy she’s loved and lusted after for years. The guy who just might be her one and only. The guy who comes from a family of disingenuous vipers looking to oust him --- and Sunshine --- for good. Like we said, the new day can take a hike.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250266965
THE HOUSE IN THE PINES by Ana Reyes (Psychological Thriller)
Maya was a high school senior when her best friend, Aubrey, mysteriously dropped dead in front of the enigmatic man named Frank. Seven years later, Maya’s past comes rushing back when she comes across a recent YouTube video in which a young woman suddenly keels over and dies in a diner while sitting across from none other than Frank. She heads to her Berkshires hometown to relive that fateful summer --- the influence Frank once had on her and the obsessive jealousy that nearly destroyed her friendship with Aubrey. At her mother’s house, she excavates fragments of her past and notices hidden messages in her deceased Guatemalan father’s book that didn’t stand out to her earlier. To save herself, she must understand a story written before she was born.
Dutton | 9780593186732
THE HOUSE OF WOLVES by James Patterson and Mike Lupica (Thriller)
The Wolfs, the most powerful family in California, have a new head --- 36-year-old former high school teacher Jenny Wolf. That means Jenny now runs the prestigious San Francisco Tribune. She also controls the legendary pro football team, the Wolves. And she has a murdered father to avenge --- if she can survive the killers all around her.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538710807
THE INGENUE by Rachel Kapelke-Dale (Psychological Thriller)
When former piano prodigy Saskia Kreis returns home to Milwaukee after her mother's unexpected death, she expects to inherit the family estate, the Elf House. But with the discovery that her mother's will bequeathed the Elf House to a man with whom Saskia shares a complicated history, she is forced to reexamine her own past --- and the romantic relationship that changed the course of her life --- for answers. Can she find a way to claim her heritage while keeping her secrets buried, or will the fallout from digging too deep destroy her? Set against a post #MeToo landscape, THE INGENUE delves into mother-daughter relationships, the expectations of talent, the stories we tell ourselves, and what happens when the things that once made you special are taken from you.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250834584
MEDUSA by Jessie Burton (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Exiled to a far-flung island after being abused by powerful Gods, Medusa has little company other than the snakes that adorn her head instead of hair. Haunted by the memories of a life before everything was stolen from her, she has no choice but to make peace with her present: she is Medusa the Monster. But when the charmed and beautiful Perseus arrives on the island, her lonely existence is blown open, unleashing desire, love --- and betrayal.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781639732685
MEET THE BENEDETTOS by Katie Cotugno (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
A few years after a reality TV show skyrocketed the Benedettos to pop-culture fame, the five twentysomething sisters are nearly broke and living together in their parents’ crumbling McMansion. Lilly, the sensible second-eldest sister, is all too aware that her family is viewed as a spectacle, but she’s focused on holding herself and her family together. The Benedettos’ fortunes finally appear to be brightening when Charlie Bingley, the dashing star of Captain Fantastic, moves into their Los Angeles neighborhood with his friend, Will Darcy, in tow. It isn’t long before Charlie falls for the warm and lovely eldest sister, June. Lilly has no such luck: the arrogant and judgmental Will Darcy, a man plagued by his own private demons, seems ready to clash with her at every turn --- yet the two can’t seem to stay away from each other.
Harper Perennial | 9780063324145
MURDER AT HAVEN’S ROCK by Kelley Armstrong (Mystery)
Deep in the Yukon wilderness, a town is being built. A place for people to disappear, a fresh start from a life on the run. Haven’s Rock isn’t the first town of this kind, something detective Casey Duncan and her husband, Sheriff Eric Dalton, know firsthand. They met in the original town of Rockton. But greed and deception led the couple to financing a new refuge for those in need. This time around, they get to decide which applicants are approved for residency. There’s only one rule in Haven’s Rock: stay out of the forest. When two of the town's construction crew members break it and go missing, Casey and Eric are called in ahead of schedule to track them down. When a body is discovered, Casey and Eric must find out what happened to the dead woman and locate those still missing.
Minotaur Books | 9781250865434
NEWSROOM CONFIDENTIAL: Lessons (and Worries) from an Ink-Stained Life by Margaret Sullivan (Memoir)
In NEWSROOM CONFIDENTIAL, Margaret Sullivan chronicles her years in the trenches battling sexism and throwing elbows in a highly competitive newsroom. In 2012, Sullivan was appointed the public editor of the New York Times, the first woman to hold that important role. She was in the unique position of acting on behalf of readers to weigh the actions and reporting of the paper's staff, parsing potential lapses in judgment, unethical practices and thorny journalistic issues. Sullivan recounts how she navigated the paper’s controversies, from Hillary Clinton's emails to the need for greater diversity in the newsroom. In 2016, Sullivan left for the Washington Post, where she had a front-row seat to the rise of Donald Trump in American media and politics.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250906007
QUEENS OF THE AGE OF CHIVALRY: England's Medieval Queens, Book Three by Alison Weir (History)
The Age of Chivalry describes a period of medieval history dominated by the social, religious and moral code of knighthood that prized noble deeds, military greatness, and the game of courtly love between aristocratic men and women. It also was a period of high drama in English history, which included the toppling of two kings, the Hundred Years' War, the Black Death and the Peasants’ Revolt. Feudalism was breaking down, resulting in social and political turmoil. Against this dramatic milieu, Alison Weir describes the lives and reigns of five queen consorts: Marguerite of France, Isabella of France, Philippa of Hainault, Anne of Bohemia and Isabella of Valois.
Ballantine Books | 9781101966747
RAIDERS OF THE LOST HEART by Jo Segura (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Archaeologist Dr. Socorro “Corrie” Mejía has a bone to pick. Literally. It’s been Corrie’s life goal to lead an expedition deep into the Mexican jungle in search of the long-lost remains of her ancestor, Chimalli, an ancient warrior of the Aztec empire. But when she is invited to join an all-expenses-paid dig to do just that, Corrie is sure it’s too good to be true...and she’s right. As the world-renowned expert on Chimalli, by rights Corrie should be leading the expedition, not sharing the glory with her disgustingly handsome nemesis. But as the dig begins, it becomes clear they’ll need to work together when they realize a thief is lurking around their campsite, forcing the pair to keep their discoveries --- and lingering attraction --- under wraps.
Berkley | 9780593547465
REBECCA, NOT BECKY by Christine Platt and Catherine Wigginton Greene (Fiction)
Paperback Original
De’Andrea Whitman, her husband Malik, and their five-year-old daughter, Nina, are new to the upper-crust white suburb of Rolling Hills, Virginia. To ease the transition, De’Andrea’s therapist proposes a challenge: make a white girlfriend. When Rebecca Myland learns about her new neighbors, she's thrilled. As chair of the Parent Diversity Committee at her daughters’ school, she’s championed racial diversity in the community. What could be better than a brand-new Black family? It’s serendipitous when her daughter, Isabella, and Nina become best friends on the first day of kindergarten. Following her therapist’s suggestion, De’Andrea reluctantly joins Rebecca’s committee. When Rolling Hill’s rising racial sentiments bring the two women together in common cause, they find it isn’t the only thing they have in common.
Amistad | 9780063213586
ROSES, IN THE MOUTH OF A LION by Bushra Rehman (Fiction)
Razia Mirza grows up amid the wild grape vines and backyard sunflowers of Corona, Queens, with her best friend, Saima, by her side. When a family rift drives the girls apart, Razia’s heart is broken. She finds solace in Taslima, a new girl in her close-knit Pakistani-American community. But when Razia is accepted to Stuyvesant, a prestigious high school in Manhattan, the gulf between the person she is and the daughter her parents want her to be widens. At Stuyvesant, Razia meets Angela and is attracted to her in a way that blossoms into a new understanding. When their relationship is discovered by an Aunty in the community, Razia must choose between her family and her own future.
Flatiron Books | 9781250834805
SECOND CHANCES IN NEW PORT STEPHEN by TJ Alexander (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Eli Ward hasn’t been back to his suffocating hometown of New Port Stephen, Florida, in ages. Post-transition and sober, he’s a completely different person from the one who left years ago. But when a scandal threatens his career as a TV writer and comedian, he has no choice but to return home for the holidays. Just when he thinks this trip couldn’t get any worse, Eli bumps into his high school ex, Nick Wu, who’s somehow hotter than ever. Divorced and in his 40s, Nick’s world revolves around his father, his daughter and his job. But even a busy life can’t keep him from being intrigued by the reappearance of Eli. Against the backdrop of one weird Floridian Christmas, the two must decide whether to leave the past in the past…or move on together.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781668021965
SINGER DISTANCE by Ethan Chatagnier (Literary Science Fiction/Mystery)
In December 1960, Crystal Singer, her boyfriend Rick and three other MIT grad students take a cross-country road trip from Boston to Arizona to paint a message in the desert. Mars has been silent for 30 years, since the last time Earth solved one of the mathematical proofs the Martian civilization carved onto its surface. The latest proof, which seems to assert contradictory truths about distance, has resisted human understanding for decades. Crystal thinks she’s solved it, and Rick is intent on putting her answer to the test --- if he can keep her from cracking under the pressure on the way. But Crystal’s disappearance after the experiment will set him on a different path than he expected, forever changing the distance between them.
Tin House Books | 9781959030164
THE SNOW HARE by Paula Lichtarowicz (Historical Fiction)
Lena has lived a long, quiet life on her farm in Wales, alongside her husband and child. But as her end approaches, buried memories begin to return. Of her childhood in Poland, and her passion for science. Of the early days of her marriage, reluctant wife to an army officer. Of the birth of her daughter, whose arrival changed everything. Memories less welcome return, too. Her Polish village, transformed overnight by the Soviets, and the war that doomed her entire family to the frigid work camps of the Siberian tundra. And buried in that blinding snow, amongst the darkness of survival, the most haunting memory of all: that of an extraordinary new love.
Back Bay Books | 9780316461375
TECHNICALLY YOURS by Denise Williams (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Pearl Harris has learned the hard way to be careful in work and in love. She has the chance to make lasting change at OurCode --- a nonprofit aimed at inspiring high schoolers to code --- but a recent scandal puts its reputation at risk. Further complicating things, Pearl didn't expect the one man she never stopped thinking about to join as the newest member of her board of directors. Cord Matthews fell for Pearl when they met in an elevator eight years ago. But when she broke his heart, he decided love wasn't for him. When they reconnect after years with no contact, Cord is tempted to consider breaking his ban on serious relationships. But going public with a romance between them might derail Pearl’s career and the progress she’s made at OurCode.
Berkley | 9780593437216
THIS SPELLS LOVE by Kate Robb (Paranormal Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
When Gemma gets dumped by her long-term boyfriend, she gets drunk with her sister, kooky aunt and best friend, Dax. After one too many margaritas, they decide to perform a love-cleansing spell, which promises to erase Gemma’s ex from her memory. They follow all the instructions, including a platonic kiss from Dax to seal the deal. When Gemma wakes up, she realizes that this silly spell has worked. Not only does it seem that she never dated her ex, the rest of her life is completely unrecognizable. The worst part: Dax has no idea who she is. To reverse the spell and get back to her old life, Gemma must convince her once-best-friend-now-near-stranger to kiss her. But as she carries out her plans, she finds herself falling for him --- hard. Soon, Gemma begins to wonder if she even wants to go back to the way things once were.
Dial Press Trade Paperback | 9780593596531
WE KNEW ALL ALONG by Mina Hardy (Domestic Thriller)
Jewelann Jordan has one thing on her mind when she attends her class reunion, and that's making sure her old crush, Christian Campbell, sees exactly what he lost all those years ago. A late night, a hotel room, a rekindled flame that burns even hotter than it did back then. What could go wrong? Everything. The night with Christian isn't the first secret Jewelann has kept from her husband, Ken, so one more shouldn't be much harder --- except that Christian shows up without warning, seemingly determined to do his best to mess up Jewelann's life in any way he can. Worse than that, he seems to have his sights set on charming her son, Eli, and befriending her husband. Fighting to keep it all from spiraling out of control, Jewelann discovers that Christian is not the man he claims to be.
Crooked Lane Books | 9781639105366
WEIGHTLESS: Making Space for My Resilient Body and Soul by Evette Dionne (Memoir)
In WEIGHTLESS, acclaimed writer Evette Dionne explores the minefields that fat Black woman are forced to navigate in the course of everyday life. From her early experiences of harassment to adolescent self-discovery in internet chat rooms to diagnosis with heart failure at age 29, Dionne tracks her relationships with friendship, sex, motherhood, agoraphobia, health, pop culture and self-image. Along the way, she lifts back the curtain to reveal the subtle, insidious forms of surveillance and control levied at fat women. But Dionne’s unflinching account of our deeply held prejudices is matched by her fierce belief in the power of self-love.
Ecco | 9780063076372
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