January 2, 2024

January 2, 2024

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

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

We're awarding all 44 of Carol Fitzgerald's 2023 Bookreporter.com Bets On selections to the Grand Prize winner of our End-of-the-Year Contest. Eleven other winners will receive four of these titles. Be sure to enter here by Friday, January 12th at noon ET.

If you would like to know more about these books, be sure to check out this video and podcast where Carol talks about each of her picks and why they resonated with her so much.

You have until Wednesday, January 10th at noon ET to enter our End-of-the-Year Contest on ReadingGroupGuides.com, where we’re 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 in 2023.

One Grand Prize winner will be awarded SIX fabulous book group titles releasing this year:

• 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
• THE WOMEN by Kristin Hannah

Upcoming Virtual Book and Author Events

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

Each month, we share top book picks from Indie Next and LibraryReads. We also feature a number of other prominent selections, including the Barnes & Noble Book Club, the "Good Morning America" Book Club, Oprah’s Book Club, the "Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club, Reese's Book Club, Simon & Schuster’s Book Club Favorites, and the Target Book Club.

Below is a preview of January's "Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks." For the complete Indie Next and LibraryReads lists, as well as additional links pertaining to this month's selections, please click here.

Indie Next
#1 Pick: THE FURY by Alex Michaelides
THE STORM WE MADE by Vanessa Chan
MERCURY by Amy Jo Burns
THE HEIRESS by Rachel Hawkins
MIDNIGHT RUIN by Katee Robert

LibraryReads
Top Pick: EMILY WILDE'S MAP OF THE OTHERLANDS by Heather Fawcett
THE BUSY BODY by Kemper Donovan
FIRST LIE WINS by Ashley Elston
DIVA by Daisy Goodwin
THE DJINN WAITS A HUNDRED YEARS by Shubnum Khan

Barnes & Noble Book Club
MERCURY by Amy Jo Burns

"Good Morning America" Book Club
THE STORM WE MADE by Vanessa Chan

"Read with Jenna" Today Show Book Club
To be announced on Thursday, January 4th

Reese's Book Club
FIRST LIE WINS by Ashley Elston

Simon & Schuster's Book Club Favorites
THE STORM WE MADE by Vanessa Chan

Target Book Club
WHERE THE DEAD SLEEP by Joshua Moehling

On Sale the Week of January 1st in Hardcover

January 2nd

ANNA O by Matthew Blake (Psychological Thriller)
Anna Ogilvy was a budding 25-year-old writer with a bright future. Then, one night, she stabbed two people to death with no apparent motive --- and hasn’t woken up since. Dubbed “Sleeping Beauty” by the tabloids, Anna’s condition is a rare psychosomatic disorder known to neurologists as “resignation syndrome.” Dr. Benedict Prince is a forensic psychologist and an expert in the field of sleep-related homicides. His methods are the last hope of solving the infamous “Anna O” case and waking Anna up so she can stand trial. But he must be careful treating such a high-profile suspect --- he has career secrets and a complicated personal life of his own. As Anna shows the first signs of stirring, Benedict must determine what really happened and if Anna should be held responsible for her crimes.
Harper | 9780063314153

THE ASCENT by Adam Plantinga (Thriller)
Kurt Argento is an ex-Detroit street cop who can’t let injustice go. If he sees a young girl being dragged into an alley, he's going to rescue her and cause some damage. When he does just that in a small corrupt Missouri town, he’s brutally beaten and thrown into a maximum-security prison. Julie Wakefield, a grad student who happens to be the governor's daughter, is about to take a tour of the prison. But when a malfunction in the security system releases a horde of prisoners, a fierce struggle for survival ensues. Argento must help a small band of staff and civilians, including Julie and her two state trooper handlers, make their way from the bottom floor to the roof to safety. All that stands in their way are six floors of the most dangerous convicts in Missouri.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538739877

THE BOOK OF FIRE by Christy Lefteri (Fiction)
In present-day Greece, deep in an ancient forest, lives a family: Irini, a musician, who teaches children to read and play music; her husband, Tasso, who paints pictures of the forest, his greatest muse; and Chara, their young daughter, whose name means joy. On the fateful day that will forever alter the trajectory of their lives, flames chase fleeing birds across the sky. The wildfire that will consume their home, and their lives as they know it, races toward them. Months later, as the village tries to rebuild, Irini stumbles upon the man who started the fire, a land speculator who had intended only a small, controlled burn to clear forestland to build on but instead ignited a catastrophe. He is dying, although the cause is unclear, and in her anger at all he took from them, Irini makes a split-second decision that will haunt her.
Ballantine Books | 9780593497272

FIRST LIE WINS by Ashley Elston (Psychological Thriller)
The identity comes first: Evie Porter. Once she’s given a name and location by her mysterious boss, Mr. Smith, she learns everything there is to know about the town and the people in it. Then the mark: Ryan Sumner. The last piece of the puzzle is the job. Evie isn’t privy to Mr. Smith’s real identity, but she knows this job will be different. Ryan has gotten under her skin, and she’s starting to envision a different sort of life for herself. But Evie can’t make any mistakes --- especially after what happened last time. Because the one thing she’s worked her entire life to keep clean, the one identity she could always go back to --- her real identity --- just walked right into this town. Evie Porter must stay one step ahead of her past while making sure there’s still a future in front of her.
Pamela Dorman Books | 9780593492918

HERE IN AVALON by Tara Isabella Burton (Fiction)
Raised --- and often neglected --- by a wayward mother, Rose finally has built the life she’s always wanted. Her sister Cecilia, on the other hand, has spent her life in pursuit of fairy-tale narratives of transcendence and true love. When Cecilia declares she’s come home for good, following the ending of a whirlwind marriage, Rose hopes Cecilia finally might be ready to face adulthood. But then Cecilia gets involved with the Avalon, a cultish-sounding cabaret troupe, and soon vanishes --- one of a growing number of suspicious disappearances among the city’s lost and loneliest souls. The only way Rose can find Cecilia is by tracking down the Avalon herself. But as Rose gets closer to solving the mystery of what happened to her sister, the Avalon works its magic on her, too.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982170097

A HITCH IN TIME: Reflections Ready for Reconsideration by Christopher Hitchens (Political Science/Essays)
Anthologized here for the first time, A HITCH IN TIME is a choice selection of Christopher Hitchens’ finest reviews, diary entries and essays --- along with a smattering of ferocious letters. Familiar bêtes noires --- Kennedy, Nixon, Kissinger and Clinton --- rub shoulders with lesser-known preoccupations: P.G. Wodehouse, Princess Margaret and, magisterially, Isaiah Berlin. Here is a banquet of entertaining stories ranging from his thoughts on Salman Rushdie to being spanked by Margaret Thatcher in The House of Lords and the night he took his son to the Oscars. The broad scope and high caliber of Hitchens’ essays allows his work to transcend the occasion for which it was written and continues to be essential reading.
Twelve | 9781538757659

MERCURY by Amy Jo Burns (Fiction)
It’s 1990, and 17-year-old Marley West is blazing into the river valley town of Mercury, Pennsylvania. A perpetual loner, she seeks a place at someone’s table and a family of her own. The first thing she sees when she arrives in town is three men standing on a rooftop. The Joseph brothers become Marley’s whole world before she can blink. Soon, she is young wife to one, The One Who Got Away to another, and adopted mother to them all. As their own mother fades away and their roofing business crumbles under the weight of their unwieldy father’s inflated ego, Marley steps in to shepherd these unruly men. Years later, an eerie discovery in the church attic causes old wounds to resurface, and suddenly the family’s survival hangs in the balance.
Celadon Books | 9781250908568

RABBIT HOLE by Kate Brody (Mystery)
Ten years ago, Theodora “Teddy” Angstrom’s older sister, Angie, went missing. Her case remains unsolved. Now Teddy’s father, Mark, has killed himself. Unbeknownst to Mark’s family, he had been active in a Reddit community fixated on Angie, and Teddy can’t help but fall down the same rabbit hole. Teddy’s investigation quickly gets her in hot water with her gun-nut boyfriend, her long-lost half brother, and her colleagues at the prestigious high school where she teaches English. Further complicating matters is Teddy’s growing obsession with Mickey, a charming amateur sleuth who is eerily keen on helping her solve the case. As she struggles to reconcile new information with old memories, Teddy’s erratic behavior reaches a fever pitch, but she won’t stop until she finds Angie.
Soho Crime | 9781641294874

THE STORM WE MADE by Vanessa Chan (Historical Fiction)
Malaya, 1945. Cecily Alcantara’s 15-year-old son, Abel, has disappeared, and her youngest daughter, Jasmin, is confined in a basement to prevent being pressed into service at the comfort stations. Her eldest daughter Jujube, who works at a tea house frequented by drunk Japanese soldiers, becomes angrier by the day. A decade prior, Cecily had been desperate to be more than a housewife to a low-level bureaucrat in British-colonized Malaya. A chance meeting with the charismatic General Fuijwara lured her into a life of espionage, pursuing dreams of an “Asia for Asians.” Instead, Cecily helped usher in an even more brutal occupation by the Japanese. Ten years later, as the war reaches its apex, her actions have caught up with her. Now her family is on the brink of destruction --- and she will do anything to save them.
S&S/Marysue Rucci Books | 9781668015148

THIS PLAGUE OF SOULS by Mike McCormack (Noir/Metaphysical Thriller)
Nealon returns from prison to his house in the West of Ireland to find it empty. No heat or light, no sign of his wife or child. It is as if the world has forgotten or erased him. Then he starts getting calls from a man who claims to know what's happened to his family --- a man who will tell Nealon all he needs to know in return for a single meeting. In a hotel lobby, in the shadow of an unfolding terrorist attack, Nealon and the man embark on a conversation shot through with secrets and evasions, a verbal game of cat and mouse that leaps from Nealon's past and childhood to the motives driving a series of international crimes launched against "a world so wretched it can only be redeemed by an act of revenge."
Soho Press | 9781641295789

UPSIDE DOWN by Danielle Steel (Fiction)
Oscar-winning actress Ardith Law is a Hollywood icon. Radiant at 62, she is the epitome of glamour and a highly respected artist. But her success has come at a price: She has a strained relationship with her daughter, Morgan, who at 38 still blames Ardith for putting her career before being a mother. Morgan is a successful plastic surgeon in New York City --- and the distance from Ardith’s Bel Air mansion is not lost on either of them. As each woman navigates an unconventional romance, they cautiously approach each other on new terms and attempt to put aside their past for a new future.
Delacorte Press | 9780593498378

WILD AND DISTANT SEAS by Tara Karr Roberts (Fiction)
Evangeline Hussey has made a home for herself on Nantucket, though she knows she is still an outsider to the island’s small, close-knit community. Her husband, Hosea, and the life they built together was once all she needed. But now Hosea is gone, lost at sea. Evangeline is only able to hold on to his inn, and her place on the island, by employing a curious gift to glimpse and re-form the recent memories of those who would cast her out. One night, an idealistic sailor appears on her doorstep asking her to call him Ishmael. Yet her careful illusion suddenly begins to fracture. He soon sails away with Ahab to hunt an infamous white whale, and Evangeline is left to forge a new life from the pieces that remain. Her choices ripple through generations, across continents and into the depths of the sea.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324064886

On Sale the Week of January 1st in Paperback

January 1st

THE AMISH WIFE: Unraveling the Lies, Secrets, and Conspiracy That Let a Killer Go Free by Gregg Olsen (True Crime)
Paperback Original
In 1977, in an Ohio Amish community, pregnant wife and mother Ida Stutzman perished during a barn fire. The coroner’s report: natural causes. Ida’s husband, Eli, was never considered a suspect. But when he eventually rejected the faith and took his son, Danny, with him, murder followed. The dubious circumstances of the tragic blaze were willfully ignored and Eli’s shifting narratives disregarded. Could Eli’s subsequent cross-country journey of death --- including that of his own son --- have been prevented if just one person came forward with what they knew about the real Eli Stutzman? With the help of aging witnesses and shocking long-buried letters, Gregg Olsen finally uncovers the disturbing truth --- about Ida’s murder and the conspiracy of silence and secrets that kept it hidden for 45 years.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781542016506

January 2nd

AGE OF VICE by Deepti Kapoor (Thriller)
New Delhi, 3 a.m. A speeding Mercedes jumps the curb, and in the blink of an eye five people are dead. It’s a rich man’s car, but when the dust settles there is no rich man at all --- just a shell-shocked servant who cannot explain the strange series of events that led to this crime. Nor can he foresee the dark drama that is about to unfold. Deftly shifting through time and perspective in contemporary India, AGE OF VICE is an epic, action-packed story propelled by the seductive wealth, startling corruption and bloodthirsty violence of the Wadia family --- loved by some, loathed by others, feared by all. In the shadow of lavish estates, extravagant parties, predatory business deals and calculated political influence, three lives become dangerously intertwined.
Riverhead Books | 9780593328804

CHILDREN OF THE STATE: Stories of Survival and Hope in the Juvenile Justice System by Jeff Hobbs (Biography/Social Science)
For many kids, a mistake made at age 13 or 14 --- often resulting from external factors coupled with a biologically immature brain --- can resonate through the rest of their lives, making high school difficult, college nearly impossible, and a middle-class life a mere fantasy. In CHILDREN OF THE STATE, Jeff Hobbs challenges any preconceived perceptions about how the juvenile justice system works --- and demonstrates in brilliant, piercing prose that no one so young should ever be considered irredeemable. He presents three different true stories that show the day-to-day life and the challenges faced by those living and working in juvenile programs: educators, counselors and --- most importantly --- children.
Scribner | 9781982116378

CODE 6 by James Grippando (Thriller)
Aspiring playwright Kate Gamble is struggling to launch a script she’s been secretly researching her entire life. Her father is Christian Gamble, CEO of Buck Technologies, a private data integration company whose clients include the CIA and virtually every counter-terrorism organization in the Western World. Kate’s father adores her, and a play about the dark side of Big Data would be the ultimate betrayal in his eyes. But Kate is compelled to tell this story --- not only as an artist exploring the personal information catastrophe that affects us all, but as a daughter trying to understand her mother’s apparent loss of purpose. Then Patrick Battle comes back into her life, changing everything she has ever thought about her play, her father and her mother’s tragic death.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780063223806

DRINKING GAMES: A Memoir by Sarah Levy (Memoir)
On paper, Sarah Levy’s life was on track. She was 28, living in New York City, working a great job and socializing every weekend. But Sarah had a secret: her relationship with alcohol was becoming toxic. And only she could save herself. DRINKING GAMES explores the role alcohol has in our formative years and what it means to opt out of a culture completely enmeshed in drinking. It’s an examination of what our short-term choices about alcohol do to our long-term selves and how they challenge our ability to be vulnerable enough to discover what we really want in life.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250841322

EVERYONE IN MY FAMILY HAS KILLED SOMEONE by Benjamin Stevenson (Mystery)
Everyone in my family has killed someone. Some of us, the high achievers, have killed more than once. I’m not trying to be dramatic, but it is the truth. Some of us are good, others are bad, and some just unfortunate. I’m Ernest Cunningham. Call me Ern or Ernie. I wish I’d killed whoever decided our family reunion should be at a ski resort, but it’s a little more complicated than that. Have I killed someone? Yes. I have. Who was it?
Mariner Books | 9780063279032

HOW TO SELL A HAUNTED HOUSE by Grady Hendrix (Gothic Thriller/Horror)
When Louise finds out that her parents have died, she dreads going home. She doesn’t want to leave her daughter with her ex and fly to Charleston. She doesn’t want to deal with her family home, stuffed to the rafters with the remnants of her father’s academic career and her mother’s lifelong obsession with puppets and dolls. She doesn’t want to learn how to live without the two people who knew and loved her best in the world. Most of all, she doesn’t want to deal with her brother, Mark, who never left their hometown, gets fired from one job after another, and resents her success. Unfortunately, she’ll need his help to get the house ready for sale. But some houses don’t want to be sold, and their home has other plans for both of them.
Berkley | 9780593201275

THE LOST VAN GOGH by Jonathan Santlofer (Thriller)
Paperback Original
For years, there have been whispers that, before his death, Van Gogh completed a final self-portrait. Curators and art historians have savored this rumor, hoping it could illuminate some of the troubled artist's many secrets, but even they have to concede that the missing painting is likely lost forever. But when Luke Perrone, artist and great-grandson of the man who stole the Mona Lisa, and Alexis Verde, daughter of a notorious art thief, discover what may be the missing portrait, they are drawn into a most epic art puzzle. When only days later the painting disappears again, they are reunited with INTERPOL agent John Washington Smith in a dangerous and deadly search that will not only expose secrets of the artist's last days but draw them into one of history's darkest eras.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781728258966

LOVE, CLANCY: Diary of a Good Dog by W. Bruce Cameron (Fiction)
You’ve probably never met someone like Clancy. He’s keeping a diary, he’s falling in love, there are rivals for his affections, he lives with his best friend and his worst enemy. Even taken together, these factors are maybe not that unusual, except that Clancy is a dog. His point of view is therefore perhaps…different. A tremendous cast of wonderful characters find themselves jointly and separately navigating the challenges of life, love and…other pets, including Clancy's “worst enemy” --- one very disdainful cat. It’s a lot to keep track of, especially when things start to spin hilariously out of control. But fortunately we have the observations of Clancy, a very good dog, who shares a valuable perspective on what is really important.
Forge Books | 9781250163561

NONFICTION by Julie Myerson (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Two parents stand by powerlessly as their only child seems intent on destroying herself. As the mother --- a novelist --- attempts to understand her daughter, she finds herself revisiting her own uneasy, unresolved relationship with her mother. Weaving between childhoods past and present, laced with temptation and betrayal, NONFICTION is an unflinching account of a mother, daughter, wife and author reckoning with the world around her. But can a writer ever be trusted with the truth of her own story?
Tin House Books | 9781959030317

SMALL WORLD by Laura Zigman (Fiction)
A year after her divorce, Joyce is settling into being single again and has developed a secret comforting hobby: trolling the neighborhood social networking site Small World for posts that help solve life’s easiest problems. When her older sister, Lydia, calls to tell her she’s moving back east after almost 30 years away, Joyce invites Lydia to temporarily move into her Cambridge apartment. But instead of forging the bond she always dreamed of having with Lydia, their relationship frays. And they rarely discuss the loss of their sister, Eleanor, who was significantly disabled and died when she was only 10 years old. When new revelations from their family’s history come to light, will those secrets further split them apart, or course-correct their connection for the future?
Ecco | 9780063088290

WHAT LIES IN THE WOODS by Kate Alice Marshall (Thriller)
Naomi Shaw used to believe in magic. Twenty-two years ago, she and her two best friends, Cassidy and Olivia, spent the summer roaming the woods, imagining a world of ceremony and wonder. They called it the Goddess Game. The summer ended suddenly when Naomi was attacked. Miraculously, she survived her 17 stab wounds and lived to identify the man who had hurt her. The girls’ testimony put away a serial killer, wanted for murdering six women. They were heroes. And they were liars. For decades, the friends have kept a secret worth killing for. But now Olivia wants to tell, and Naomi sets out to find out what really happened in the woods --- no matter how dangerous the truth turns out to be.
Flatiron Books | 9781250859891

WHERE THE DEAD SLEEP by Joshua Moehling (Mystery/Thriller)
When an early morning call brings Deputy Ben Packard to the scene of a home invasion, he finds Bill Sandersen shot in his bed. Bill was a well-liked local who chased easy money his whole life, leaving bad debts and broken hearts in his wake. As the investigation begins, tragedy strikes the Sheriff's department, forcing Packard to make a difficult choice about his future: step down as acting Sheriff and pursue a quiet life, or subject himself to the scrutiny of an election for the full-time role of Sheriff, a job he's not sure he wants. There's a hidden history to Sandy Lake that Packard can't see. Bad blood and old secrets run deep. But an attempt on Packard's life means he's getting uncomfortably close to the dangerous legacy of the quiet Minnesota town. And someone will do anything to keep it hidden.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781728290188

On Sale the Week of January 8th in Hardcover

January 8th

HOLMES, MARPLE & POE: The Greatest Crime-Solving Team of the Twenty-First Century by James Patterson and Brian Sitts (Thriller)
In New York City, three intriguing, smart and stylish private investigators open Holmes, Marple & Poe Investigations. Who are these detectives with famous names and mysterious, untraceable pasts? Brendan Holmes (The Brain): Identifies suspects via deduction and logic. Margaret Marple (The Eyes): Possesses powers of observation too often underestimated. Auguste Poe (The Muscle): Chases down every lead no matter how dangerous or dark. The agency’s daring methodology and headline-making solves attract the attention of NYPD Detective Helene Grey. Her solo investigation into her three unknowable competitors rivals the best mysteries of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie and Edgar Allan Poe.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316405195

January 9th

THE ATLAS COMPLEX by Olivie Blake (Dark Fantasy)
An explosive return to the library leaves the six Alexandrians vulnerable to the lethal terms of their recruitment. Old alliances quickly fracture as the initiates take opposing strategies as to how to deal with the deadly bargain they have so far failed to uphold. Those who remain with the archives wrestle with the ethics of their astronomical abilities, while elsewhere, an unlikely pair from the Society cohort partner to influence politics on a global stage. And still the outside world mobilizes to destroy them, while the Caretaker himself, Atlas Blakely, may yet succeed with a plan foreseen to have world-ending stakes. It’s a race to survive as the six Society recruits are faced with the question of what they're willing to betray for limitless power --- and who will be destroyed along the way.
Tor Books | 9781250855138

CALIFORNIA BEAR by Duane Swierczynski (Thriller)
Jack Queen has been exonerated and freed from prison thanks to retired LAPD officer Cato Hightower. But when guilt gnaws at Jack, he admits: “I actually did it.” To which Hightower responds: “Yeah, no kidding.” The ex-cop has a special job in mind for the ex-con. Fourteen-year-old Matilda Finnerty has been diagnosed with leukemia, but that’s not going to stop her from tackling the most important mystery of her life: Is her father guilty of murder? Jeanie Hightower mends family trees for a living, but the genealogist is unable to repair her own marriage. And her soon-to-be ex may have entangled her in a scheme that has drawn the bloody wrath of The Bear, a prolific serial killer who disappeared 40 years ago and is only now emerging from hibernation when the conditions are just right.
Mulholland Books | 9780316382977

COLD VICTORY by Karl Marlantes (Historical Fiction)
Helsinki, 1947. Finland teeters between the Soviet Union and the West. Everyone is being watched. A wrong look or a wrong word could end in catastrophe. Natalya Bobrova, from Russia, and Louise Koski, from the United States, are young wives of their country’s military attachés. When they meet at an embassy party, their husbands, world-class skiers Arnie and Mikhail, drunkenly challenge each other to a friendly --- but secret --- cross-country wilderness race. If news of the race gets out and Mikhail loses, Natalya knows it would mean his death, her imprisonment and the loss of her two children. Meanwhile, Louise, who is childless, uses the race as an opportunity to raise money for a local orphanage, naïve to the danger it will bring to Natalya and her family.
Grove Press | 9780802161420

DEEP FREEZE by Michael C. Grumley (Technothriller)
The accident came quickly. With no warning. In the dead of night, a precipitous plunge into a freezing river trapped everyone inside the bus. It was then that Army veteran John Reiff’s life came to an end. Extinguished in the sudden rush of frigid water. There was no expectation of survival. None. Let alone waking up beneath blinding hospital lights. Struggling to move, or see, or even breathe. But the doctors assure him that everything is normal. That things will improve. And yet, he has a strange feeling that there's something they're not telling him. As Reiff's mind and body gradually recover, he becomes certain that the doctors are lying to him. One by one, puzzle pieces are slowly falling into place, and he soon realizes that things are not at all what they seem.
Forge Books | 9781250898685

THE DJINN WAITS A HUNDRED YEARS by Shubnum Khan (Gothic Horror/Mystery)
Akbar Manzil was once a grand estate off the coast of South Africa. Nearly a century later, it stands in ruins: an isolated boardinghouse for eclectic misfits. Sana finds herself irresistibly drawn to the history of the mansion: to the eerie and forgotten East Wing, home to a clutter of broken and abandoned objects --- and to the door at its end, locked for decades. Behind the door is a bedroom frozen in time and a worn diary that whispers of a dark past: the long-forgotten story of a young woman named Meena, who died there tragically a hundred years ago. Watching Sana from the room’s shadows is a besotted, grieving djinn, an invisible spirit who has haunted the mansion since her mysterious death. Sana digs into the past, dredging up old and terrible secrets that will change the lives of everyone living and dead at Akbar Manzil.
Viking | 9780593653456

THE EXPECTANT DETECTIVES by Kat Ailes (Mystery/Humor)
For Alice and her partner Joe, moving to the sleepy village of Penton is a chance to embrace country life and prepare for the birth of their first child. But the rural idyll they’d hoped for doesn’t quite pan out when a dead body is discovered at their local prenatal class, and they find themselves suspects in a murder investigation. With a cloud of suspicion hanging over the heads of the whole group, Alice and her new-found pregnant friends set out to solve the mystery and clear their names, with the help of her troublesome dog, Helen. However, there are more secrets and tensions in the heart of Penton than first meet the eye. Between the discovery of a shady commune up in the woods, the unearthing of a mysterious death years earlier, and the near-tragic poisoning of Helen, Alice is soon in way over her head.
Minotaur Books | 9781250322708

THE FETISHIST by Katherine Min (Fiction)
On a cold, gloomy night, 23-year-old Kyoko stands in the rain with a knife in her hoodie’s pocket. Her target is Daniel, who seduced Kyoko’s mother and then callously dropped her, leading to her death. But tonight there will be repercussions. Following the unsuspecting Daniel home, Kyoko manages to get a rash kidnapping plot off the ground…and then nothing goes as planned. THE FETISHIST is the story of three people --- Kyoko, a Japanese American punk-rock singer full of rage and grief; Daniel, a philandering violinist forced to confront the wreckage of his past; and Alma, the love of Daniel’s life, a Korean American cello prodigy long adored for her beauty, passion and talent, but who spends her final days examining if she was ever, truly, loved.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593713655

GOODBYE GIRL: A Jack Swyteck Novel by James Grippando (Legal Thriller)
Jack Swyteck’s latest client, Imani Nichols, is a Grammy-winning pop star whose career has skyrocketed. Despite her success, she’s the most underpaid superstar on the planet because of an onerous record contract she signed as a teenager with her now ex-husband, Shaky Nichols. Preferring to see thieves profit from her music than let her ex-husband pocket one more dime, Imani takes to social media and tells her millions of fans to “go pirate” and download her music illegally. Her hardball tactic leads to scorched-earth litigation, and now she needs Jack’s help. The case takes a deadly turn when salacious allegations of infidelity send Imani and Shaky down a path of mutual assured destruction, each implicating the other in the unsolved murder of Imani’s extramarital lover 12 years ago.
Harper | 9780063223844

THE HEIRESS by Rachel Hawkins (Gothic Thriller)
When Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore dies, she’s not only North Carolina’s richest woman, she’s also its most notorious. The victim of a famous kidnapping as a child and a widow four times over, Ruby ruled the tiny town of Tavistock from Ashby House, her family’s estate high in the Blue Ridge Mountains. But in the aftermath of Ruby’s death, her adopted son, Camden, wants little to do with the house or the money --- and even less to do with the surviving McTavishes. Ten years later, his uncle’s death pulls Camden and his wife, Jules, back into the family fold at Ashby House. Its views are just as stunning as ever, its rooms just as elegant, but the legacy of Ruby is inescapable. And as Ashby House tightens its grip on Camden and Jules, questions about the infamous heiress come to light.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250280039

HOLIDAY COUNTRY by İnci Atrek (Fiction)
Ada adores spending every summer in a Turkish seaside town with her mother and grandmother at the family villa. The glittering waters, endless olive groves and her spirited friends make it easy to leave her idle life in California behind. But no matter how much Ada feels that she belongs to the country where her mother grew up, deep down, her connection to the culture feels as fleeting as the seasons. When Levent, a mysterious man from her mother’s past, shows up in their town, Ada can’t help but imagine a different future for her mother --- one that promises a return to home, to love, to happiness. But while playing matchmaker, Ada has to come to terms with her own intensifying attraction to Levent. Does the future she’s fighting for belong to her mother --- or to her alone?
Flatiron Books | 9781250889461

MISLAID IN PARTS HALF-KNOWN by Seanan McGuire (Dark Fantasy)
Antsy is the latest student to pass through the doors at Eleanor West's School for Wayward Children. When the school’s (literally irresistible) mean girl realizes that Antsy's talent for finding absolutely anything may extend to doors, Antsy is forced to flee in the company of a small group of friends, looking for a way back to the Shop Where the Lost Things Go to be sure that Vineta and Hudson are keeping their promise. Along the way, they will travel from a world hiding painful memories that cut as sharply as its beauty, to a land that time wasn’t yet old enough to forget --- and more than one student's life will change forever.
Tordotcom | 9781250848505

MY FRIENDS by Hisham Matar (Fiction)
One evening, as a young boy growing up in Benghazi, Khaled hears a bizarre short story read aloud on the radio, about a man being eaten alive by a cat. Obsessed by the power of those words --- and by their enigmatic author, Hosam Zowa --- Khaled eventually embarks on a journey to pursue a life of the mind at the University of Edinburgh. There, thrust into an open society that is miles away from the world he knew in Libya, Khaled begins to change. He attends a protest against the Qaddafi regime in London, only to watch it explode into tragedy. In a flash, Khaled finds himself injured and clinging to life. When a chance encounter in a hotel brings Khaled face to face with Hosam Zowa, the author of the fateful short story, he is subsumed into the deepest friendship of his life.
Random House | 9780812994841

NAOMI OSAKA: Her Journey to Finding Her Power and Her Voice by Ben Rothenberg (Biography)
Most tennis fans were introduced to Naomi Osaka as they watched her win the 2018 US Open final in an unforgettably controversial and dramatic victory over her idol, Serena Williams. Since then, Osaka has galvanized the tennis world --- and gained attention across the culture --- not only by winning three more majors but by finding her voice. But until now, the story of the Haitian Japanese American Osaka family’s journey across the world to follow their tennis dreams --- and how their youngest daughter found her power off the court --- has remained little known. It is a story unlike any other, and Ben Rothenberg’s biography not only shows where Osaka came from but also where she's going as she returns to competitive tennis after a year on maternity leave.
Dutton | 9780593472439

THE NIGHT ISLAND by Jayne Ann Krentz (Romantic Suspense)
Bonded by a night none of them can remember, Talia March, Pallas Llewellyn and Amelia Rivers are dedicated to uncovering the mystery of what really happened to them months ago --- an experience that amplified innate psychic abilities in each of them. The women suspect they were test subjects years earlier. All they have to do is find the list of others who took that same test. When Talia follows up on a lead from Phoebe, a fan of the trio’s podcast, she discovers that the informant has vanished. Talia isn’t the only one looking for Phoebe. Luke Rand, a hunted and haunted man who is chasing the same list that Talia is after, also shows up at the meeting place, and they are instantly suspicious of each other. But when a killer begins to stalk them, they realize they have to join forces to find Phoebe and the list.
Berkley | 9780593639856

NORTHWOODS by Amy Pease (Mystery/Thriller)
Eli North is not okay. His drinking is getting worse by the day, his emotional wounds after a deployment to Afghanistan are as raw as ever, his marriage and career are over, and the only job he can hold down is with the local sheriff’s department. And that’s only because the sheriff is his mother --- and she’s overwhelmed with small town Shaky Lake’s dwindling budget and the fallout from the opioid epidemic. The Northwoods of Wisconsin may be a vacationer’s paradise, but amidst the fishing trips and campfires and Paul Bunyan festivals, something sinister is taking shape. When the body of a teenage boy is found in the lake, it sets in motion an investigation that leads Eli to a wealthy enclave with a violent past, a pharmaceutical salesman and a missing teenage girl.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781668017265

OLD CRIMES: And Other Stories by Jill McCorkle (Fiction/Short Stories)
Jill McCorkle’s short story collection delves into the lives of characters who hold their secrets and misdeeds close, even as the past continues to reverberate over time and across generations. And despite the characters’ yearnings for connection, they can’t seem to tell the whole truth. In “Low Tones,” a woman uses her hearing impairment as a way to guard herself from her husband’s commentary. In “Lineman,” a telephone lineman strains to connect to his family even as he feels pushed aside in a digital world. In “Confessional,” a young couple buys a confessional booth for fun, only to discover the cost of honesty.
Algonquin Books | 9781616209735

ONE OF THE GOOD GUYS by Araminta Hall (Psychological Thriller)
Desperate to escape the ghosts of his failed marriage, Cole leaves London behind for a remote stretch of coast, relishing the respite from the noise, drama and relentless careerism that curdled his relationship and mental health. Leonora has made the same move for similar reasons. She’s living a short walk from Cole’s seaside cottage, preparing for her latest art exhibition. The pair forges a connection on the eroding bluff they call home. Then two young women activists raising awareness about gendered violence disappear while passing through. Cole and Leonora find themselves in the middle of a police investigation and the resulting media firestorm when the world learns of what happened. They quickly realize that they don’t know each other that well after all.
Gillian Flynn Books | 9781638931553

POOR DEER by Claire Oshetsky (Fiction)
Margaret Murphy is a weaver of fantastic tales, growing up in a world where the truth is too much for one little girl to endure. Her first memory is of the day her friend Agnes died. No one blames Margaret. Not in so many words. Margaret's mother insists to everyone who will listen that her daughter never even left the house that day. Left alone to make sense of tragedy, Margaret wills herself to forget these unbearable memories, replacing them with imagined stories full of faith and magic that always end happily. Enter Poor Deer: a strange and formidable creature who winds her way uninvited into Margaret’s made-up tales. Poor Deer will not rest until Margaret faces the truth about her past and atones for her role in Agnes’ death.
Ecco | 9780063327665

RIVER EAST, RIVER WEST by Aube Rey Lescure (Fiction)
Shanghai, 2007: Raised by her American expat mother, 14-year-old Alva has never known her Chinese father and is certain a better life awaits them in America. But when her mother announces her engagement to their wealthy Chinese landlord, Lu Fang, Alva’s hopes are dashed. So she plots for the next best thing: the American School in Shanghai. Upon admission, though, Alva is surprised to discover an institution run by an exclusive community of expats. 1985: In the seaside city of Qingdao, Lu Fang is a young, married man and a lowly clerk in a shipping yard. When China opens its doors to the first wave of foreigners in decades, his world is split wide open after he meets an American woman who makes him confront difficult questions about his current status in life and how much will ever be enough.
William Morrow | 9780063257856

SUGAR, BABY by Celine Saintclare (Fiction)
SUGAR, BABY follows Agnes, a mixed-race 21-year-old whose life seems to be heading nowhere. Still living at home, she works as a cleaner and spends all her money in clubs on the weekends searching for distractions from her mundane life. That is, until she meets Emily, the daughter of one of her cleaning clients, who lives in London and works as a model…and a sugar baby, dating rich older men for money. Emily's life is the escape Agnes has been longing for. But this new lifestyle is the last straw for her religious mother, Constance. Kicked out of her family home, Agnes moves in with Emily and the other sugar babies in their fancy London flat. As she is thrown from one precarious relationship to the next, she finds herself searching for fulfillment just as desperately as she was before.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781639732463

THE WATERS by Bonnie Jo Campbell (Fiction)
On an island in the Great Massasauga Swamp --- an area known as “The Waters” to the residents of nearby Whiteheart, Michigan --- herbalist and eccentric Hermine “Herself” Zook has healed the local women of their ailments for generations. As stubborn as her tonics are powerful, Herself inspires reverence and fear in the people of Whiteheart, and even in her own three estranged daughters. The youngest --- the beautiful, inscrutable and lazy Rose Thorn --- has left her own daughter, 11-year-old Dorothy “Donkey” Zook, to grow up wild. Donkey spends her days searching for truths in the lush landscape and in her math books, waiting for her wayward mother and longing for a father, unaware that family secrets, passionate love and violent men will flood through the swamp and upend her idyllic childhood.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393248432

YOU ONLY CALL WHEN YOU'RE IN TROUBLE by Stephen McCauley (Fiction)
After a lifetime of taking care of his impossible but irresistible sister and his cherished niece, Tom is ready to put himself first. An architect specializing in tiny houses, he finally has an opportunity to build his masterpiece. Assuming, that is, he can stick to his resolution to keep the demands of his needy family at bay. Naturally, that’s when his phone rings. His niece, Cecily --- the real love of Tom’s life, as his boyfriend reminded him when moving out --- is embroiled in a Title IX investigation at the college where she teaches that threatens her career and relationship. And after decades of lying, his sister wants him to help her tell Cecily the real identity of her father. Tom does what he’s always done --- answers the call. Thus begins a journey that will change everyone’s life.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250296795

On Sale the Week of January 8th in Paperback

January 9th

AFTER SAPPHO by Selby Wynn Schwartz (Historical Fiction)
“The first thing we did was change our names. We were going to be Sappho.” So begins Selby Wynn Schwartz’s debut novel, centuries after the Greek poet penned her lyric verse. Ignited by the same muse, a myriad of women break from their small, predetermined lives for seemingly disparate paths. In 1892, Rina Faccio trades her needlepoint for a pen; in 1902, Romaine Brooks sails for Capri with nothing but her clotted paintbrushes; and in 1923, Virginia Woolf writes, “I want to make life fuller and fuller.” Writing in cascading vignettes, Schwartz spins an invigorating tale of women whose narratives converge and splinter as they forge queer identities and claim the right to their own lives.
Liveright | 9781324094470

THE ATLAS PARADOX by Olivie Blake (Dark Fantasy)
THE ATLAS PARADOX is the long-awaited sequel to Olivie Blake's New York Times bestselling dark academic sensation, THE ATLAS SIX --- guaranteed to have even more yearning, backstabbing, betrayal and chaos. Six magicians were presented with the opportunity of a lifetime. Five are now members of the Society. Two paths lay before them. All must pick a side. Alliances will be tested, hearts will be broken, and The Society of Alexandrians will be revealed for what it is: a secret society with raw, world-changing power, headed by a man whose plans to change life as we know it are already underway.
Tor Books | 9781250855107

THE BANDIT QUEENS by Parini Shroff (Fiction)
Five years ago, Geeta’s no-good husband walked out on her, and she has no idea where he is. But in her remote village in India, rumor has it that Geeta killed him. It turns out that being known as a “self-made” widow comes with some perks. No one messes with her, harasses her or tries to control (ahem, marry) her. It’s even been good for business; no one dares to not buy her jewelry. And now other women are asking for her “expertise,” making her an unwitting consultant for husband disposal. With Geeta’s dangerous reputation becoming a double-edged sword, she has to find a way to protect the life she’s built. But what happens next sets in motion a chain of events that will change everything --- not just for Geeta, but for all the women in their village.
Ballantine Books | 9780593498972

BETTER THE BLOOD: A Hana Westerman Thriller by Michael Bennett (Thriller)
Led to a crime scene by a mysterious video, Māori detective Hana Westerman discovers a man ritualistically hanging in a secret room and a puzzling inward-curving inscription. Delving into the investigation after a second, apparently unrelated death, she uncovers a chilling connection to a historic crime: 160 years before, during the brutal and bloody British colonization of New Zealand, a troop of colonial soldiers unjustly executed a Māori Chief. Hana realizes that the murders are utu --- the Māori tradition of rebalancing for the crime committed eight generations ago. There were six soldiers in the British troop, and since descendants of two of the soldiers have been killed, four more potential murders remain. Hana is thus hunting New Zealand’s first serial killer.
Grove Press | 9780802162656

DEATH OF A TRAITOR: A Hamish Macbeth Murder Mystery by M. C. Beaton with R.W. Green (Mystery)
Kate Hibbert is all too eager to lend a hand to her neighbors. Although she has been a resident of the sleepy village of Lochdubh for only a year, in that time Kate has alienated one too many of its residents with her interfering --- and not entirely well-intentioned --- ways. When Kate’s neighbor sees her lugging a heavy suitcase to the bus stop, he hopes that the prying woman is leaving for good. But two weeks later, Kate’s cousin arrives in town with the news that Kate has gone missing --- and she demands that the local police step in. Sergeant Hamish Macbeth is called in to investigate the disappearance, and soon he is befuddled by a storm of lies, intrigue and scandal…and the sneaking suspicion that Kate was someone much more sinister than she claimed.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538746776

DON’T WANT YOU LIKE A BEST FRIEND by Emma R. Alban (Historical Romance)
Paperback Original
It’s 1857, and anxious debutante Beth has just one season to snag a wealthy husband, or she and her mother will be out on the street. But playing the blushing ingenue makes Beth’s skin crawl. Gwen, on the other hand, is on her fourth season and counting, with absolutely no intention of finding a husband. She figures she has plenty of security as the only daughter of a rakish earl. It doesn’t take long for Gwen to hatch her latest scheme: rather than surrender Beth to courtship, they should set up Gwen’s father and Beth’s newly widowed mother. But their parents kind of seem to hate each other. Still, Beth and Gwen are more than up to the challenge of a little 20-year-old heartbreak. Of course, just as their plan begins to unfold, a handsome, wealthy viscount starts calling on Beth, offering up the perfect, secure marriage.
Avon | 9780063312005

EVERYONE BUT MYSELF: A Memoir by Julie Chavez (Memoir)
Paperback Original
For Julie, an elementary school librarian and mother of two boys, there was no time for debilitating anxiety. Yet the terrifying aftershocks of her first panic attack left her grappling with questions about the causes of her mental health crisis and where it would lead next. What follows is a hopeful, honest account of love and loss, a husband who can’t read minds, disastrous family outings, and finding a path (with help from loved ones and a few key new friends) to the joy of a well-lived life.
Zibby Books | 9781958506059

A GUEST AT THE FEAST: Essays by Colm Tóibín (Essays)
“It all started with my balls.” So begins Colm Tóibín’s fabulously compelling essay, laced with humor, about his diagnosis and treatment for cancer. Tóibín survives, but he has entered, as he says, “the age of one ball.” The second essay in this collection is a memoir about growing up in the 1950s and ’60s in the small town of Enniscorthy in County Wexford, the setting for many of Tóibín’s novels and stories, including BROOKLYN, THE BLACKWATER LIGHTSHIP and NORA WEBSTER. Tóibín describes his education by priests, several of whom were condemned years later for abuse. He writes about Irish history and literature, and about the long, tragic journey toward legal and social acceptance of homosexuality.
Scribner | 9781476785219

HELL BENT by Leigh Bardugo (Supernatural Thriller/Dark Fantasy)
Find a gateway to the underworld. Steal a soul out of hell. A simple plan, except people who make this particular journey rarely come back. But Galaxy “Alex” Stern is determined to break Darlington out of purgatory --- even if it costs her a future at Lethe and at Yale. Forbidden from attempting a rescue, Alex and Dawes can’t call on the Ninth House for help, so they assemble a team of dubious allies to save the gentleman of Lethe. Together, they will have to navigate a maze of arcane texts and bizarre artifacts to uncover the societies’ most closely guarded secrets, and break every rule doing it. But when faculty members begin to die off, Alex knows that something deadly is at work. If she is going to survive, she will have to reckon with the monsters of her past and a darkness built into the university’s very walls.
Flatiron Books | 9781250859440

HOW FAR THE LIGHT REACHES: A Life in Ten Sea Creatures by Sabrina Imbler (Memoir/Science)
A queer, mixed-race writer working in a largely white, male field, science and conservation journalist Sabrina Imbler has always been drawn to the mystery of life in the sea, and particularly to creatures living in hostile or remote environments. Each essay in their debut collection profiles one such creature: the mother octopus who starves herself while watching over her eggs, the Chinese sturgeon whose migration route has been decimated by pollution and dams, the bizarre Bobbitt worm (named after Lorena), and other uncanny creatures lurking in the deep ocean, far below where the light reaches. Imbler discovers that some of the most radical models of family, community and care can be found in the sea.
Back Bay Books | 9780316540506

IN THE UPPER COUNTRY by Kai Thomas (Historical Fiction)
In the 1800s in Dunmore, a Canadian town settled by people fleeing enslavement in the American south, young Lensinda Martin works for a crusading Black journalist. One night, a neighboring farmer summons Lensinda after a slave hunter is shot dead on his land by an old woman who recently arrived via the Underground Railroad. When the old woman refuses to flee before the authorities arrive, the farmer urges Lensinda to gather testimony from her before she can be condemned for the crime. But the old woman doesn't want to confess. Instead she proposes a barter: a story for a story. And so begins an extraordinary exchange of tales that reveal an interwoven history of Black and Indigenous peoples in a wide swath of what is called North America.
Penguin Books | 9780593489529

JUST THE NICEST COUPLE by Mary Kubica (Domestic Thriller)
Jake Hayes is missing. This much is certain. At first, his wife, Nina, thinks he is blowing off steam at a friend’s house after their heated fight the night before. But then a day goes by. Two days. Five. And Jake is still nowhere to be found. Lily Scott, Nina’s friend and coworker, thinks she may have been the last to see Jake before he went missing. After Lily confesses everything to her husband, Christian, the two decide that nobody can find out what happened leading up to Jake’s disappearance, especially not Nina. But Nina is out there looking for her husband, and she won’t stop until the truth is discovered.
Park Row | 9780778334064

LAST SEEN IN LAPAZ: An Emma Djan Investigation by Kwei Quartey (Mystery)
Just as things at work are slowing down for PI Emma Djan, an old friend of her boss’s asks for help locating his missing daughter in Accra. According to her father, Ngozi had a bright future ahead of her when she became secretive and withdrawn. Suddenly, all she wanted to do was be with her handsome new beau, Femi, instead of attending law school in the fall. So when she disappears from her parents’ house in Nigeria the middle of the night, they immediately suspect Femi was behind it and have reason to believe the pair has fled to Ghana. The case escalates quickly when Femi is found murdered at an opulent hotel in Accra, but there are no signs of Ngozi at the scene. As Emma digs further, she discovers that Femi was part of a network of sex traffickers across West Africa.
Soho Crime | 9781641295314

LIAR, DREAMER, THIEF by Maria Dong (Psychological Thriller)
Katrina Kim may the black sheep of her family and slightly unhinged, but she isn’t a stalker. Her obsession with her co-worker, Kurt, is just one of many coping mechanisms. But when Katrina finds a cryptic message from Kurt that implies he’s aware of her surveillance, her tenuous hold on a normal life crumbles. Driven by compulsion, she enacts the most powerful ritual she has to reclaim control --- a midnight visit to the Cayatoga Bridge --- and arrives just in time to witness Kurt’s suicide. Before he jumps, he slams her with a devastating accusation: his death is all her fault. Horrified, Katrina combs through the clues she’s collected about Kurt over the last three years, but each revelation uncovers a menacing truth: for every moment she was watching him, he was watching her.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538723487

THE LINDBERGH NANNY by Mariah Fredericks (Historical Mystery)
When Charles Lindbergh, Jr. is kidnapped from his family home in New Jersey in 1932, the case makes international headlines. Already celebrated for his flight across the Atlantic, his father, Charles, Sr., is the country’s golden boy, with his wealthy, lovely wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, by his side. But there’s someone else in their household --- Betty Gow, a Scottish immigrant now known around the world as the Lindbergh Nanny. Far from home and bruised from a love affair gone horribly wrong, Betty finds comfort in caring for Charlie and warms to the attentions of handsome sailor Henrik. Then Charlie disappears. Suddenly a suspect in the eyes of both the media and the public, Betty must find the truth about what really happened that night.
Minotaur Books | 9781250888204

THE LOST ENGLISH GIRL by Julia Kelly (Historical Fiction)
Raised in a strict Catholic family, Viv Byrne finds herself pregnant after a fling with Joshua Levinson, a Jewish man. When Joshua makes a life-changing choice on their wedding day, Viv is forced into the arms of her disapproving family. Four years later and on the eve of World War II, Viv is faced with the impossible choice to evacuate her young daughter to the countryside estate of the affluent Thompson family. In New York City, Joshua gives up his failing musical career to serve in the Royal Air Force. However, tragedy strikes when Viv learns that the countryside safe haven she sent her daughter to wasn’t immune from the horrors of war. It is only years later, with Joshua’s help, that Viv learns the secrets of their shared past and what it will take to put a family back together again.
Gallery Books | 9781982171711

THE NAZI CONSPIRACY: The Secret Plot to Kill Roosevelt, Stalin, and Churchill by Brad Meltzer and Josh Mensch (History)
In 1943, as the war against Nazi Germany raged abroad, President Franklin Roosevelt had a critical goal: a face-to-face sit-down with his allies Joseph Stalin and Winston Churchill. This first-ever meeting of the Big Three in Tehran, Iran, would decide some of the most crucial strategic details of the war. Yet when the Nazis found out about the meeting, their own secret plan took shape --- an assassination plot that would’ve changed history. A true story filled with daring rescues, body doubles and political intrigue, THE NAZI CONSPIRACY details FDR’s pivotal meeting in Tehran and the deadly Nazi plot against the heads of state of the three major Allied powers who attended it.
Flatiron Books | 9781250777287

REEF ROAD by Deborah Goodrich Royce (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
A young woman’s life seems perfect until her family goes missing. A writer lives alone with her dog and collects arcane murder statistics. What each of them stands to lose as they sneak around the do-not-enter tape blocking Reef Road beach is exposed by the steady tightening of the cincture encircling them. In a nod to the true crime that inspired it, Deborah Goodrich Royce’s REEF ROAD probes unhealed generational scars in a wrenching and original work of fiction. It is both stunning and sexy, and like a bystander surprised by a curtain left open, you won’t be able to look away.
Post Hill Press | 9798888452110

THE WRITING RETREAT by Julia Bartz (Psychological Thriller)
Alex has all but given up on her dreams of becoming a published author when she receives a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity: attend an exclusive, month-long writing retreat at the estate of feminist horror writer Roza Vallo. Even the knowledge that Wren, her former best friend and current rival, is attending doesn’t dampen her excitement. But when the attendees arrive, Roza drops a bombshell --- they all must complete an entire novel from scratch during the next month, and the author of the best one will receive a life-changing seven-figure publishing deal. Determined to win this seemingly impossible contest, Alex buckles down and tries to ignore the strange happenings at the estate. But when one of the writers vanishes during a snowstorm, Alex realizes that something very sinister is afoot.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781982199463

YOU WILL NEVER BE FOUND by Tove Alsterdal (Mystery)
In the small mining town of Malmberget, north of the Arctic Circle, residents and their houses are being relocated. As the mine that built the town slowly swallows it street by street, building by building, the memories of the community have collapsed into the huge pit they call “the hole.” Only a few stubborn souls cling to their homes, refusing to leave. When two workers making their final preparations hear a sound coming from a basement, they break a cellar window and find a terrified man curled up in a corner. In Ådalen, 700 kilometers away, police officer Eira Sjödin is investigating the disappearance of a man reported missing by his ex-wife. Eira and her colleagues search his apartment, contact his friends and relatives, and query local hospitals, but the man has vanished without a trace.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780063115125

YOUR DRIVER IS WAITING by Priya Guns (Fiction/Dark Humor)
Damani is tired. Her father just died on the job at a fast-food joint, and now she lives paycheck to paycheck in a basement, caring for her mom and driving for an app that is constantly cutting her take. The city is roiling in protests, but while she keeps hearing that they’re fighting for change on behalf of people like her, she literally can’t afford to pay attention. Then she gives a ride to Jolene, who seems like she could be the perfect girlfriend, and their chemistry is off the charts. Jolene has done the reading, goes to every protest and says all the right things. But just as their romance intensifies and Damani finally lets her guard down, Jolene does something unforgivable, setting off an explosive chain of events.
Vintage | 9780593469330

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