January 23, 2024

January 23, 2024

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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of January 22nd and January 29th 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 Winter Reading Contests and Feature, which we have brought back for a ninth year. On select days in January and February, we are hosting a series of 24-hour contests spotlighting a book releasing this winter and giving five lucky readers the chance to win it.

Our first contest is now up! The prize book is THE LAST SUMMER AT CHELSEA BEACH, a 2015 novel from Pam Jenoff that has been re-released with a brand-new cover.

From the sandy shores of America to the battered streets of London, one woman's search for love and redemption will defy all odds.

If you would like to be one of five winners who will receive a copy of the book, be sure to enter here by TOMORROW, Wednesday, January 24th at noon ET.

Upcoming Virtual Book and Author Events

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

Wednesday, January 24th at 3pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Janice Hallett will talk about her new mystery, THE MYSTERIOUS CASE OF THE ALPERTON ANGELS, in which a true crime journalist revives a long-buried case about a cult --- and finds herself too close to the story.

Wednesday, January 24th 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 Abbott Kahler about her spellbinding fiction debut, WHERE YOU END.

Wednesday, January 24th at 7pm ET: Publishers Lunch/American Booksellers Association: Leigh Haber will host the Buzz Books Editors and Authors Panel, a virtual event sponsored by Publishers Lunch and the American Booksellers Association. Five breakout authors will chat with their editors about their forthcoming titles.

Wednesday, January 24th at 8pm ET: "Bookaccino Live" Book Group: Carol Fitzgerald will talk to Lisa See about her novel, LADY TAN'S CIRCLE OF WOMEN, a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick. Lisa 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 Lisa a question on camera, please send Carol an email with the subject line “Lisa” by January 24th at noon ET.

Monday, January 29th at 6pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Mariah Fredericks will talk to special guest host Karen Odden about her mesmerizing new novel, THE WHARTON PLOT, which follows renowned novelist Edith Wharton in the twilight years of the Gilded Age in New York as she tracks a killer.

This Week's Bonus News:
Bookreporter.com's Ninth Annual
Winter Reading Contests and Feature

On Sale the Week of January 22nd in Hardcover

January 23rd

THE BULLET SWALLOWER by Elizabeth Gonzalez James (Western/Magical Realism)
In 1895, Antonio Sonoro is the latest in a long line of ruthless men. A drought has ravaged the town of Dorado, Mexico, where he lives with his wife and children. So when he hears about a train laden with gold and other treasures, he sets off for Houston to rob it. But when the heist goes awry and his younger brother, Hugo, is killed by the Texas Rangers, Antonio finds himself launched into a quest for revenge. In 1964, Jaime Sonoro is Mexico’s most renowned actor and singer. But his comfortable life is disrupted when he discovers a book that purports to tell the entire history of his family beginning with Cain and Abel. Jaime realizes that he may be the one who has to pay for his ancestors’ crimes unless he can discover the true story of his grandfather Antonio, the legendary bandido El Tragabalas, The Bullet Swallower.
Simon & Schuster | 9781668009321

THE BUSY BODY by Kemper Donovan (Mystery)
Former Senator Dorothy Gibson is the most talked-about person in the country right now. As an independent candidate for President of the United States, Dorothy split the vote and is being blamed for the shocking result. After her very public defeat, she’s retreated to her home in rural Maine, inviting her ghostwriter to join her. Her collaborator is impressed by Dorothy’s work ethic and steel-trap mind, not to mention the stunning surroundings (and one particularly gorgeous bodyguard). But when a neighbor dies under suspicious circumstances, Dorothy is determined to find the killer in their midst. And when Dorothy Gibson asks if you want to team up for a top-secret, possibly dangerous murder investigation, the only answer is: “Of course!” Working together, the two women are soon untangling motives and whittling down suspects.
A John Scognamiglio Book | 9781496744531

DEAD IN LONG BEACH, CALIFORNIA by Venita Blackburn (Fiction)
Coral is the first person to discover her brother Jay’s dead body in the wake of his suicide. There’s no note, only a drably furnished bachelor pad in Long Beach, California, and a cell phone with a handful of numbers in it. Coral pockets the phone. And then she starts responding to texts as her dead brother. Over the course of one week, Coral, the successful yet lonely author of a hit dystopian novel, Wildfire, becomes increasingly untethered from reality. Blindsided by grief and operating with reckless determination, she doubles --- and triples --- down on posing as her brother. As Coral’s swirl of lies slowly closes in on her, the quirky and mysterious alien world of Wildfire becomes enmeshed in her own reality, in the process pushing long-buried memories, traumas and secrets dangerously into the present.
MCD | 9780374602826

DEAD MAN'S HAND: A Pike Logan Novel by Brad Taylor (Thriller/Adventure)
To finally end the war between their nations, a rogue band of Ukranian partisans known as the Wolves teams up with members of Russia’s military intelligence to assassinate Vladimir Putin. But Putin is aware of the traitors in his midst and assigns the loyal commander of the Russian National Guard to root them out. It’s a mission Victor Petrov is expected to undertake after he prevents Sweden from joining NATO --- by assassinating a deputy minister of foreign affairs. After receiving intelligence about the threat in Sweden, the United States sends Pike Logan to identify Petrov’s target --- only for him to get caught in the crossfire. When the smoke clears, Pike makes no effort to stop the Wolves on their ultimate mission, believing it just, until he discovers that their operation has unimaginable consequences.
William Morrow | 9780063222052

DIVA by Daisy Goodwin (Historical Fiction)
In the glittering and ruthlessly competitive world of opera, Maria Callas was known simply as la divina: the divine one. But her fame was hard-won. Raised in Nazi-occupied Greece by a mother who mercilessly exploited her golden voice, she learned early in life to protect herself from those who would use her for their own ends. When she met the fabulously rich Greek shipping magnate Aristotle Onassis, for the first time in her life, she believed she’d found someone who saw the woman within the legendary soprano. She fell desperately in love. And then suddenly, it was over. The international press announced that Aristotle Onassis would marry the most famous woman in the world, former First Lady Jacqueline Kennedy, leaving Maria to pick up the pieces.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250279927

EXORDIA by Seth Dickinson (Science Fiction/Thriller)
Anna Sinjari --- refugee, survivor of genocide, disaffected office worker --- has a close encounter that reveals universe-threatening stakes. Enter Ssrin, a many-headed serpent alien who is on the run from her own past. Ssrin and Anna are inexorably, dangerously drawn to each other, and their contact reveals universe-threatening stakes. While humanity reels from disaster, Anna must join a small team of civilians, soldiers and scientists to investigate a mysterious broadcast and unknowable horror. If they can manage to face their own demons, they just might save the world.
Tordotcom | 9781250233011

FAMILY FAMILY by Laurie Frankel (Fiction)
India Allwood grew up wanting to be an actor. Armed with a stack of index cards (for research/line memorization/make-shift confetti), she goes from awkward 16-year-old to Broadway ingenue to TV superhero. Her new movie is a prestige picture about adoption, but its spin is the same old tired story of tragedy. India is an adoptive mom in real life, though. She wants everyone to know there’s more to her family than pain and regret. So she does something you should never do --- she tells a journalist the truth: it’s a bad movie. Soon she’s at the center of a media storm, battling accusations from the press and the paparazzi. Her twin 10-year-olds know they need help --- and who better to call than family? But that’s where it gets really messy because India is not just an adoptive mother.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250236807

THE FRIENDSHIP CLUB by Robyn Carr (Fiction)
Celebrity cooking show host Marni McGuire has been married twice, widowed and divorced. Now in her mid-50s, she’s single. Happily so. She just needs to convince her pregnant daughter, Bella, of this fact. And maybe convince herself, too. Especially after Marni’s efforts to humor her determined daughter result in a series of disastrous dates that somehow prompt Marni to wonder if maybe the right man for her is still out there after all. Similarly single, Marni’s best friend and colleague is confident she’s content without a man, but both older women soon find themselves leading by example as the young intern on their show appears caught in a toxic relationship --- and Bella reveals her own marriage maybe isn’t built to withstand the stresses of the baby on the way. Suddenly, all four women find themselves at a crossroads.
Mira | 9780778311881

FRONT SIGHT: Three Swagger Novellas by Stephen Hunter (Political/Historical Thriller)
This collection of three interconnected novellas follows each generation of the iconic Swagger family. In “City of Meat,” Charles Swagger is on the hunt for notorious bank robber Baby Face Nelson when he traces a tip to the Chicago stock yards. While there, he’s brutally assaulted and discovers that the madman who attacked him is involved in a nearby narcotics ring. Earl Swagger investigates a violent bank robbery in “Johnny Tuesday” that left two dead and a fortune missing in small-town Maryland. At every turn, however, he’s met with silence and hostility from the townsfolk. Finally, in “Five Dolls for the Gut Hook,” a 32-year-old Bob Lee Swagger is back from Vietnam nearly broken over good men lost for nothing. But one afternoon he’s wakened from his nightmares by two men with a problem.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781668030363

HARBOR LIGHTS: Stories by James Lee Burke (Fiction/Short Stories)
These eight stories from James Lee Burke moves from the marshlands on the Gulf of Mexico to the sweeping plains of Colorado to prisons, saloons and trailer parks across the South, weaving together love, friendship, violence, survival and revenge. A boy and his father watch a German submarine sink an oil tanker as evil forces in the disguise of federal agents try to ruin their family. A girl is beaten up outside a bar as her university-professor father navigates new love and threats from a group of neo-Nazis. A pair of undercover union organizers are hired to break colts for a Hollywood actor, whose “Western hero” façade hides darkness. An oil rig worker witnesses a horrific attack on a local village while on a job in South America and seeks justice through one final act of bravery.
Atlantic Monthly Press | 9780802160966

KINNING by Nisi Shawl (Science Fiction)
The Great War is over. Everfair has found peace within its borders. But our heroes’ stories are far from done. Tink and his sister, Bee-Lung, are traveling the world via aircanoe, spreading the spores of a mysterious empathy-generating fungus. Through these spores, they seek to build bonds between people and help spread revolutionary sentiments of socialism and equality. Meanwhile, Everfair’s Princess Mwadi and Prince Ilunga return home from a sojourn in Egypt to vie for their country’s rule following the abdication of their father, King Mwenda. But their mother, Queen Josina, manipulates them both from behind the scenes, while also pitting Europe’s influenza-weakened political powers against one another as these countries fight to regain control of their rebellious colonies.
Tor Books | 9781250212696

LAST ACTS by Alexander Sammartino (Fiction)
Even though his firearms store is failing, things are looking up for David Rizzo. His son, Nick, has just recovered after a near-fatal overdose, which means one thing: Rizzo can use Nick’s resurrection to create the most compelling television commercial for a gun emporium that the world has ever seen. After all, this is America, Rizzo tells himself. Surely anything is possible. But the relationship between father and son is fragile, mired in mutual disappointment. And when the pair embarks on their scheme to avoid bankruptcy, a high-stakes crash of hijinks, hope and disaster ensues.
Scribner | 9781982196745

MARTYR! by Kaveh Akbar (Fiction)
Cyrus Shams is a young man grappling with an inheritance of violence and loss: his mother’s plane was shot down over the skies of the Persian Gulf in a senseless accident, and his father’s life in America was circumscribed by his work killing chickens at a factory farm in the Midwest. Cyrus is a drunk, an addict and a poet, whose obsession with martyrs leads him to examine the mysteries of his past --- toward an uncle who rode through Iranian battlefields dressed as the angel of death to inspire and comfort the dying, and toward his mother, through a painting discovered in a Brooklyn art gallery that suggests she may not have been who or what she seemed.
Knopf | 9780593537619

THE MISSING WITNESS: A Quinn & Costa Novel by Allison Brennan
(Mystery/Thriller)
Detective Kara Quinn is back in Los Angeles to testify against a notorious human trafficker. But when the accused is shot in broad daylight, the chaotic scene of the crime turns up few reliable bystanders. And one witness --- a whistleblower who might be the key to everything --- has disappeared. After another person close to the case is killed, it’s clear that anyone who knows too much is in danger, and tracking down the witness becomes a matter of life and death. But as explosive secrets surface within the LAPD and FBI, Kara questions everything she thought she knew about the case, her colleagues and the life she left behind months ago. Now with FBI special agent Matt Costa’s help, she must race to find the missing witness and get to the bottom of the avalanche of conspiracies that has rocked LA to its core…before it's too late.
Mira | 9780778369653

MURDER, SHE WROTE: FIT FOR MURDER by Jessica Fletcher and Terrie Farley Moran (Mystery)
Evelyn Phillips, the former editor of the Cabot Cove Gazette, is back in Cabot Cove. Evelyn tells Jessica and Seth that she got a couple of really weird notes from Bertha Mae Cormier, so she’s come back to town to check on her old friend. Jessica does become somewhat concerned when Bertha Mae starts to talk about her new neighbor, Martin Terranova, who teaches yoga and meditation in his pool house. Jessica attends one of his classes and notices that Terranova is flirtatious with several elderly clients, especially Bertha Mae. Evelyn is becoming convinced that Terranova is after Bertha Mae’s money. A short while later, Martin turns up dead in his weight room. What at first blush seems to be an accident soon proves to be murder, and Evelyn becomes the prime suspect.
Berkley | 9780593640692

MY FAVORITE SCAR written by Nicolás Ferraro, translated by Mallory N. Craig-Kuhn (Noir Thriller)
Fifteen-year-old Ámbar has never known any parent other than her father, Víctor Mondragón, nor any life other than his. On any given Friday night, Ámbar longs to be at the arcade or a rock concert, but she’s more likely to be patching up Víctor’s latest bullet hole in a dingy motel or creating a new set of fake identities for the both of them. When a tattooed mercenary kills Víctor’s best friend and vows that Víctor is next, father and daughter set off on a joyride across Argentina in search of bloody retribution. But Ámbar’s growing pains hurt worse than her beloved sawed-off shotgun’s kickback as she begins to question the structure of her world. How much is her father not telling her? Could her life ever be different? And will she survive long enough to find out?
Soho Crime | 9781641295154

THE MYSTERIOUS CASE OF THE ALPERTON ANGELS by Janice Hallett (Mystery)
Everyone knows the story of the Alperton Angels: the cult that brainwashed a teenage girl into believing her baby was the anti-Christ. When the girl came to her senses and called the police, the Angels committed suicide and mother and baby disappeared. Now, true-crime author Amanda Bailey is looking to revive her career by writing a book on the case. The Alperton baby has turned 18; finding them will be the scoop of the year. But rival author Oliver Menzies is just as smart, better connected and also on the baby’s trail. As Amanda and Oliver are forced to collaborate, they realize that the truth about the Angels is much darker and stranger than they’d ever imagined, and in pursuit of the story they risk becoming part of it.
Atria Books | 9781668023396

NO ONE CAN KNOW by Kate Alice Marshall (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Fourteen years ago, the Palmer sisters --- Emma, Juliette and Daphne --- left their home in Arden Hills and never returned. But when Emma discovers she’s pregnant and her husband loses his job, she has no option but to return to the house that she and her estranged sisters still own...and where their parents were murdered. Emma has never told anyone what she saw the night her parents died, even when she became the prime suspect. But her presence in the house threatens to uncover secrets that have stayed hidden for years, and the sisters are drawn together once again. As they face their memories of the past, rivalries restart, connections are forged, and, for the first time, Emma starts to ask questions about what really happened that night.
Flatiron Books | 9781250859914

RANDOM IN DEATH by J. D. Robb (Mystery/Thriller)
Jenna is at a New York club with her best friends, watching the legendary band Avenue A. From the stage, guitarist Jake Kincade catches her eye and smiles. It’s the best night of her life. It’s also the last night of her life. Minutes later, Jake is in the alley getting some fresh air, and the girl from the dance floor comes stumbling out, sick and confused and deathly pale. He tries to help, but it’s no use. He doesn’t know that someone in the crowd has jabbed her with a needle --- and when his girlfriend Nadine arrives, she knows the only thing left to do for the girl is call her friend, Lieutenant Eve Dallas. There are no obvious clues why this levelheaded 16-year-old would be targeted. If Jenna was just the random, unlucky victim of a madman consumed by hatred, there are likely more deaths to come.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250289544

THE WHARTON PLOT by Mariah Fredericks (Historical Mystery)
New York City, 1911. Finding herself at a crossroads with both her marriage and her writing, Edith Wharton makes the decision to leave America, her publisher and her loveless marriage. And then, dashing novelist David Graham Phillips --- a writer with often notorious ideas about society and women’s place in it --- is shot to death outside the Princeton Club. Edith herself met the man only once, when the two formed a mutual distaste over tea in the Palm Court of the Belmont hotel. When Phillips is killed, Edith's life takes another turn. His sister is convinced Graham was killed by someone determined to stop the publication of his next book, which promised to uncover secrets that powerful people rather would have stayed hidden. Though unconvinced, Edith is curious. What kind of book could push someone to kill?
Minotaur Books | 9781250827425

On Sale the Week of January 22nd in Paperback

January 22nd

THE PRICE YOU PAY by Jim Fusilli (Thriller)
Paperback Original
In mid-1970s Jersey City, young Mickey Wright is thrust into a world controlled by a powerful Teamster local associated with the Genovese crime syndicate. The man who puts him in jeopardy is his father, a free-wheeling policeman well-known to Jersey City's politicians and drug dealers. When a Black trucker is murdered, Mickey is forced to choose between loyalty to family and the Teamsters or to values he shares with Debbie Olsen, the love of his young life who is the daughter of a solidly middle-class family. Memorable appearances by Mickey's sister, who is broken by her father's foul will, and memories of their late mother haunt the story. The question of whether Mickey can stand tall, break free and live a worthy life of his choosing isn't answered until a final, shocking confrontation.
Down & Out Books | 9781643963525
 

January 23rd

ADVIKA AND THE HOLLYWOOD WIVES by Kirthana Ramisetti (Fiction)
Advika Srinivasan considers herself a failed screenwriter. To pay the bills and keep her mind off of the recent death of her twin sister, she’s taken to bartending A-list events, including the 2015 Governors Ball, the official afterparty of the Oscars. There, she meets legendary film producer Julian Zelding. Despite their 41-year age difference, Advika falls helplessly under his spell, and their evening flirtation ignites into a whirlwind courtship and elopement. A month into their marriage, Julian’s first wife dies, and a tabloid reports a shocking stipulation in her will. A single film reel and $1,000,000 will be bequeathed to “Julian’s latest child bride” on one condition: Advika must divorce him first. Shaken out of her love fog, Advika decides to investigate him through the eyes and experiences of his exes.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538709283

AFTER DEATH by Dean Koontz (Thriller)
Michael Mace, head of security at a top-secret research facility, opens his eyes in a makeshift morgue 24 hours following an event in which everyone perished --- including him and his best friend, Shelby Shrewsberry. Having awakened with an extraordinary ability unlike anything he --- or anyone else --- has ever imagined, Michael is capable of being as elusive as a ghost. He sets out to honor his late friend by helping Nina Dozier and her son, John, whom Shelby greatly admired. Although what Michael does for Nina is life-changing, his actions also evoke the wrath of John’s father, a member of one of the most violent street gangs in Los Angeles. But an even greater threat is descending: the Internal Security Agency’s most vicious assassin, Durand Calaphas.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781662513060

THE BAD ANGEL BROTHERS by Paul Theroux (Fiction/Dark Humor)
Cal has always lived in the shadow of his manipulative and domineering brother, Frank, who was doted upon by their mother and beloved by the girls in their small New England hometown --- including Cal’s own girlfriends. In an attempt to escape Frank’s intrusive presence, Cal pursues a different kind of freedom in the world’s wild spaces, prospecting for gold and precious minerals. Soon he is dripping in wealth, his pockets full of gold nuggets and emeralds, but the money means far less to him than his independence. As Cal’s success grows, so too does Frank’s power and his influence in Cal’s affairs, the devastating threat he creates at the center of his little brother’s life. When Frank decides to commit the ultimate betrayal, Cal is left with only one, final solution.
Mariner Books | 9780063374447

THE BLUE WINDOW by Suzanne Berne (Fiction)
Secrets abound in Lorna’s family. Her mother Marika, who survived the Nazi occupation of Holland, abandoned the family. The reason she left, and her whereabouts afterward, were shrouded in mystery. As is a darker secret Marika has repressed for nearly 70 years. Now that Lorna, a respected psychotherapist, has a child of her own, she’s determined to make Marika a part of their lives. But it’s been a struggle for nearly two decades. Lorna’s son, Adam, is creative, passionate and uncomfortable in his own skin. The more Lorna tries to get Adam to talk, the more he withdraws. How do you care for people you can’t understand and who don’t want to be understood? As Lorna confronts this question, she must face secrets of her own.
S&S/Marysue Rucci Books | 9781476794273

CHAIN-GANG ALL-STARS by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Dystopian Fiction/Satire)
Loretta Thurwar and Hamara “Hurricane Staxxx” Stacker are the stars of Chain-Gang All-Stars, the cornerstone of CAPE --- or Criminal Action Penal Entertainment --- a highly popular, highly controversial, profit-raising program in America’s increasingly dominant private prison industry. It’s the return of the gladiators, and prisoners are competing for the ultimate prize: their freedom. In CAPE, prisoners travel as Links in Chain-Gangs, competing in death-matches for packed arenas with righteous protestors at the gates. Thurwar and Staxxx, both teammates and lovers, are the fan favorites. And if all goes well, Thurwar will be free in just a few matches. As she prepares to leave her fellow Links, she considers how she might help preserve their humanity, in defiance of these so-called games.
Vintage | 9780593469316

THE CLINIC by Cate Quinn (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Meg works for a casino in LA, catching cheaters and popping a few too many pain pills to cope, following a far different path than her sister Haley, a famous actress. But suddenly reports surface of Haley dying at the remote rehab facility where she had been forced to go to get her addictions under control. There are whispers of suicide, but Meg can't believe it. She decides that the best way to find out what happened to her sister is to check in herself --- to investigate what really happened from the inside. Battling her own addictions and figuring out the truth will be much more difficult than she imagined, far away from friends, family --- and anyone who could help her.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781728293981

MIDNIGHT CLIMAX: A Kats Takemoto Novel by Peter Kageyama (Historical Mystery)
Paperback Original
Kats Takemoto, the nisei private detective from HUNTERS POINT, returns to investigate the murder of a young Chinese girl, killed in a covert CIA brothel in the heart of San Francisco. Her family, members of a Tong, a powerful Chinatown gang, demand vengeance that threatens to start an all-out war in Chinatown unless Kats can discover the truth behind the slaying. Along the way, he will discover a personal connection to the suspected killer, a fellow veteran who was tortured and experimented on, turning him into a lethal weapon and a ticking bomb. Kats and his friends race to find this soldier before the government and the rival Tong gangs spiral into more bloodshed.
St. Petersburg Press | 9781940300818

PICASSO’S LOVERS by Jeanne Mackin (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
The women of Picasso’s life are glamorous and elusive, existing in the shadow of his fame --- until 1950s aspiring journalist Alana Olson determines to bring one into the light. Unsure of what to expect but bent on uncovering what really lies beneath the canvas, Alana steps into Sara Murphy’s well-guarded home to discover a past complicated by secrets and intrigue. Sara paints a luxurious picture of the French Riviera in 1923, but also a tragic one. The more Sara reveals, the more cracks emerge in Picasso’s once-vibrant social circle --- and the more Alana feels a disturbing convergence with her own life. Who are these other muses? What became of them? What will become of her? Desperate to trace the threads, Alana dives into the glittering lives of the past. But to do so, she must contend with her own reality.
Berkley | 9781101990568

THE PORCELAIN MOON: A Novel of France, the Great War, and Forbidden Love by Janie Chang (Historical Fiction)
In the final days of the First World War, a young Chinese woman, Pauline Deng, runs away from her uncle’s home in Paris to evade a marriage being arranged for her in Shanghai. To prevent the union, she needs the help of her cousin Theo, who is working as a translator for the Chinese Labour Corps in the French countryside. In the town of Noyelles-sur-Mer, Camille Roussel is planning her escape from an abusive marriage, and to end a love affair that can no longer continue. When Camille offers Pauline a room for her stay, the two women become friends. But it’s not long before Pauline uncovers a perilous secret that Camille has been hiding from her. As their dangerous situation escalates, they are forced to make a terrible decision that will bind them together for the rest of their lives.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063290969

ROBERT LUDLUM’S THE TREADSTONE RENDITION by Joshua Hood
(Thriller/Adventure)
Adam Hayes has stepped away from the field for the last time. He's promised his wife that he won't put his life on the line any more, and there's nothing that will make him break a promise to her. Well, almost nothing. With America withdrawing from Afghanistan and the Taliban closing in, Abdul Nassir reached out to his old friend. The Afghan is desperate to flee his homeland. Like most of his countrymen, he is petrified by the Taliban takeover, but he also can't trust the Americans. He’s the only eyewitness to a massacre committed by a rogue team of CIA contractors. Not only can he identify the butcher who directed the bloodbath, he also has photographic proof. He’ll only be safe when those pictures are made public. Now, there’s just one man he can trust to get him to safety --- Adam Hayes.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780593419847

SYMPHONY OF SECRETS by Brendan Slocumb (Mystery/Thriller)
Bern Hendricks is one of the world’s preeminent experts on composer Frederick Delaney. When Mallory Roberts, a direct descendant of Delaney, asks for Bern’s help authenticating a newly discovered piece, which may be his famous lost opera, he jumps at the chance. In 1920s Manhattan, Josephine Reed meets struggling musician Fred Delaney. Josephine is a natural prodigy who hears beautiful music in the sounds of the world around her. With Josephine as his silent partner, Delaney’s career takes off. In the present day, Bern and his tech-savvy acquaintance, Eboni, begin to uncover more clues that indicate Delaney may have had help in composing his most successful work. And they soon become caught in the crosshairs of a powerful organization that will stop at nothing to keep their secret hidden.
Vintage | 9780593315453

THE THING IN THE SNOW by Sean Adams (Psychological Thriller/Satire)
At the far reaches of the world, the Northern Institute sits in a vast expanse of ice and snow. Once a thriving research facility, its operations were abruptly shut down after an unspecified incident, and its research teams promptly evacuated. Now it’s home to a team of three caretakers --- Gibbs, Cline and their supervisor, Hart --- and a single remaining researcher named Gilroy, who is feverishly studying the sensation of coldness. Their objective is simple: occupy the space, complete their weekly tasks, and keep the building in working order in case research ever resumes. There’s just one obstacle standing in his way: a mysterious object that has appeared out in the snow. Gibbs and Cline can’t discern its exact shape and color, nor if it’s moving or fixed in place. But it is there. Isn’t it?
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063257764

UNRAVELING: What I Learned About Life While Shearing Sheep, Dyeing Wool, and Making the World's Ugliest Sweater by Peggy Orenstein (Memoir)
The COVID pandemic propelled many people to change their lives in ways large and small. Some adopted puppies. Others stress-baked. Peggy Orenstein, a lifelong knitter, went just a little further. To keep herself engaged and cope with a series of seismic shifts in family life, she set out to make a garment from the ground up: learning to shear sheep, spin and dye yarn, then knitting herself a sweater. Orenstein hoped the project would help her process not just wool but her grief over the recent death of her mother and the decline of her dad, the impending departure of her college-bound daughter, and other thorny issues of aging as a woman in a culture that by turns ignores and disdains them. What she didn’t expect was a journey into some of the major issues of our time.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780063081734

THE WAY OF THE BEAR: A Leaphorn, Chee & Manuelito Novel by Anne Hillerman (Mystery)
An unexpected death on a lonely road outside of Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument raises questions for Navajo Tribal Police officers Jim Chee and Bernadette Manuelito. Why would a seasoned outdoorsman and well-known paleontologist freeze to death within walking distance of his car? A second death brings more turmoil. Who is the unidentified man killed during a home invasion where nothing much seems to have been taken? Why was he murdered? Chee and Manuelito appreciate the scenery of the Bears Ears area and its wealth of human and scientific resources. But their visit to this achingly beautiful place is disrupted by a current of unprecedented violence that sweeps them both into danger.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780063313972

THE WEDDING PLANNER by Danielle Steel (Fiction)
Faith Ferguson is New York’s most in-demand wedding planner. But as much as she enjoys her work, her two failed engagements leave her with no desire to get married herself. She finds fulfillment in her close relationship with her twin sister, Hope; her role as a mentor for her assistant, Violet; and her career. This year, new clients have flocked to her, and she signs up an extravagant reception, a mid-sized gathering and an intimate soirée, in addition to her mother’s next marriage and Violet’s modest ceremony. Faith finds herself forming bonds with her new clients and their loved ones --- most notably the handsome brother of one of her grooms. But in no time, Faith is grappling with private quarrels, unplanned pregnancies, family scandals, dark secrets and the possibility of canceled ceremonies.
Dell | 9781984821799

WHEN THE JESSAMINE GROWS by Donna Everhart (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Talk of impending war is a steady drumbeat throughout North Carolina. Joetta McBride and her husband, Ennis, have built a modest but happy life for themselves, raising 15-year-old Henry and 11-year-old Robert on their small subsistence farm. They do not support the Confederacy’s position on slavery, but Joetta considers her family to be neutral. However, Joetta’s own father-in-law fills his grandsons’ heads with stories about the glory of battle and the Southern cause until one night Henry runs off to join the war. At Joetta’s frantic insistence, Ennis leaves to find their son and bring him home. But soon weeks pass with no word from father or son. Joetta finds herself increasingly at odds with those around her --- until one act of kindness brings her family to the edge of even greater disaster.
Kensington | 9781496740700

YOUR TABLE IS READY: Tales of a New York City Maître D' by Michael Cecchi-Azzolina (Memoir)
From his early career serving theater stars like Tennessee Williams and Dustin Hoffman at La Rousse right through to the last pre-pandemic-shutdown full houses at Le Coucou, Michel Cecchi-Azzolina has seen it all. In YOUR TABLE IS READY, he breaks down how restaurants really run (and don’t), and how the economics work for owners and overworked staff alike. The professionals who gravitate to the business are a special, tougher breed, practiced in dealing with the demanding patrons and with each other, in a very distinctive ecosystem that’s somewhere between a George Orwell “down and out in…” dungeon and a sleek showman’s smoke-and-mirrors palace.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250325747

On Sale the Week of January 29th in Hardcover

January 30th

BELONGING by Jill Fordyce (Fiction)
Jenny is 13 when an epic dust storm rolls into her central California town in December 1977. Bedridden after contracting a life-threatening illness in the storm and suffering a shocking loss, Jenny realizes she will never be cared for by the mother who both neglects and terrifies her or the father who allows it. She relies on her cousin, Heather, who has the loving home Jenny longs for; her beloved great-uncle, Gino, the last link between generations; her best friend, Henry, a free spirit with whom she shares an inexplicable bond; and earnest baseball star Billy, who becomes her first love. After a stunning turn of events in both their lives, Jenny and Henry leave for college in LA together in the summer of 1982. When she returns home years later, the life Jenny so carefully created collides with the one she left behind.
Post Hill Press | 9798888451748

THE CITY OF STARDUST by Georgia Summers (Dark Fantasy)
For centuries, the Everlys have seen their best and brightest disappear, taken as punishment for a crime no one remembers, for a purpose no one understands. Their tormentor, a woman named Penelope, never ages, never grows sick --- and never forgives a debt. Violet Everly was a child when her mother left on a stormy night, determined to break the curse. When Marianne never returns, Penelope issues an ultimatum: Violet has 10 years to find her mother, or she will take her place. Violet is the last of the Everly line, the last to suffer. Unless she can break the curse first. Her hunt leads her into a seductive magical underworld of power-hungry scholars, fickle gods and monsters bent on revenge.
Redhook | 9780316561488

COME AND GET IT by Kiley Reid (Fiction)
It's 2017 at the University of Arkansas. Millie Cousins, a senior resident assistant, wants to graduate, get a job and buy a house. So when Agatha Paul, a visiting professor and writer, offers Millie an easy yet unusual opportunity, she jumps at the chance. But Millie's starry-eyed hustle becomes jeopardized by odd new friends, vengeful dorm pranks and illicit intrigue. A fresh and intimate portrait of desire, consumption and reckless abandon, COME AND GET IT is a tension-filled story about money, indiscretion and bad behavior.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593328200

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ASTRID BRICARD by Natasha Lester (Historical Fiction)
Everyone remembers her daringly short, silver lamé dress. It was an iconic photo capturing an electric moment, where emerging American designer Astrid Bricard is young, uninhibited, and on the cusp of fashion and feminism’s changing landscape. Yet she can't escape the shadow of her mother, Mizza Bricard, infamous "muse" for Christian Dior. Astrid would give anything to take her place among the great houses of couture --- on her own terms. But then Astrid disappeared. Now Astrid's daughter, Blythe, holds what remains of her mother and grandmother's legacies. Of all the Bricard women, she can gather the torn, painfully beautiful fabrics of three generations of heartbreak to create something that will shake the foundations of fashion. But what really happened to Astrid?
Forever | 9781538706954

EVERYONE ON THIS TRAIN IS A SUSPECT by Benjamin Stevenson (Mystery)
When the Australian Mystery Writers’ Society invited me to their crime-writing festival aboard the Ghan, the famous train between Darwin and Adelaide, I was hoping for some inspiration for my second book. Fiction, this time: I needed a break from real people killing each other. Obviously, that didn’t pan out. The program is a who’s who of crime-writing royalty: the debut writer (me!), the forensic science writer, the blockbuster writer, the legal thriller writer, the literary writer, and the psychological suspense writer. But when one of us is murdered, the remaining authors quickly turn into five detectives. Together, we should know how to solve a crime. Of course, we also should know how to commit one. How can you find a killer when all the suspects know how to get away with murder?
Mariner Books | 9780063279070

GOOD MATERIAL by Dolly Alderton (Fiction)
Andy loves Jen. Jen loved Andy. And he can't work out why she stopped. Now he is without a home, waiting for his stand-up career to take off, and wondering why everyone else around him seems to have grown up while he wasn't looking. Set adrift on the sea of heartbreak, Andy clings to the idea of solving the puzzle of his ruined relationship. Because if he can find the answer to that, then maybe Jen can find her way back to him. But Andy still has a lot to learn, not least his ex-girlfriend's side of the story.
Knopf | 9780593801307

HARD BY A GREAT FOREST by Leo Vardiashvili (Fiction)
Saba is just a child when he flees the fighting in the former Soviet Republic of Georgia with his older brother, Sandro, and father, Irakli, for asylum in England. Two decades later, all three men are struggling to make peace with the past. When Irakli decides to return to Georgia, pulled back by memories of a lost wife and a decaying but still beautiful homeland, Saba and Sandro wait eagerly for news. But within weeks of his arrival, Irakli disappears, and the final message they receive from him causes a mystery to unfold before them: “I left a trail I can’t erase. Do not follow it.” In a journey that will lead him to the very heart of a conflict that has marred generations and fractured his own family, Saba must retrace his father’s footsteps to discover what remains of their homeland and its people.
Riverhead Books | 9780593545034

HELD by Anne Michaels (Historical Fiction)
1917. On a battlefield near the River Escaut, John lies in the aftermath of a blast, unable to move or feel his legs. Struggling to focus his thoughts, he is lost to memory as the snow falls --- a chance encounter in a pub by a railway, a hot bath with his lover on a winter night. 1920. John has returned from war to North Yorkshire, near a different river. He is alive but still not whole. Reunited with Helena, an artist, he reopens his photography business and tries to keep on living. But the past erupts insistently into the present, as ghosts begin to surface in his pictures: ghosts with messages he cannot understand. So begins a narrative that spans four generations of connections and consequences that ignite and reignite as the century unfolds.
Knopf | 9780593536865

HOUSE OF FLAME AND SHADOW: A Crescent City Novel by Sarah J. Maas (Fantasy/Romance)
Bryce Quinlan never expected to see a world other than Midgard, but now that she has, all she wants is to get back. Everything she loves is in Midgard: her family, her friends, her mate. Stranded in a strange new world, she's going to need all her wits about her to get home again. And that's no easy feat when she has no idea who to trust. Hunt Athalar has found himself in some deep holes in his life, but this one might be the deepest of all. After a few brief months with everything he ever wanted, he's in the Asteri's dungeons again, stripped of his freedom and without a clue as to Bryce's fate. He's desperate to help her, but until he can escape the Asteri's leash, his hands are quite literally tied.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781635574104

THE HOUSE OF LAST RESORT by Christopher Golden (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
Across Italy there are many half-empty towns, nearly abandoned by those who migrate to the coast or to cities. The beautiful, crumbling hilltop town of Becchina is among them, but its mayor has taken drastic measures to rebuild --- selling abandoned homes to anyone in the world for a single Euro, as long as the buyer promises to live there for at least five years. It’s a no-brainer for American couple Tommy and Kate Puglisi. Both work remotely, and Becchina is the home of Tommy’s grandparents, his closest living relatives. It feels like a romantic adventure, an opportunity the young couple would be crazy not to seize. But from the moment they move in, they feel a shadow has fallen on them. Tommy’s grandmother is furious, even a little frightened, when she realizes which house they’ve bought.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250285898

MRS. QUINN'S RISE TO FAME by Olivia Ford (Fiction)
Nothing could be more out of character, but after 59 years of marriage, as her husband Bernard’s health declines, and her friends' lives become focused on their grandchildren --- which Jenny never had --- Jenny decides she wants a little something for herself. So she secretly applies to be a contestant on the primetime TV show “Britain Bakes.” But her new-found independence, and the stress of the competition, starts to unearth memories buried decades ago. Chocolate teacakes remind her of a furtive errand involving a wedding ring; sugared donuts call up a stranger’s kind act; a simple cottage loaf brings back the moment her life changed forever. With her baking star rising, Jenny struggles to keep a lid on that first secret --- a long-concealed deceit that threatens to shatter the very foundations of her marriage.
Pamela Dorman Books | 9780593656419

ONE HOUR OF FERVOR written by Muriel Barbery, translated by Alison Anderson (Fiction)
Haru, a successful Japanese art dealer, loves beauty, harmony, art, balance, intriguing women, sophisticated conversation and elegance. Months after a brief affair in Japan with a French woman, Maud, he discovers she is pregnant with his child. However, she warns him that if he ever tries to see her or the child, she will kill herself. Quietly devastated at the thought of never knowing his daughter, who will become a dark presence in an otherwise elegantly orchestrated life, Haru decides he will respect Maud’s wishes. His daughter grows to adulthood without ever knowing him. Is it too late to change things?
Europa Editions | 9798889660040

PRIMA FACIE by Suzie Miller (Legal Thriller)
Tessa Ensler has worked her way up to being a top criminal defense barrister against all the odds. Her quick-witted cross-examinations and intelligence in the courtroom see her clocking up win after win --- including securing freedom for men accused of rape and sexual assault. Innocence until proven guilty is, after all, the bedrock of a civilized society. But when Tessa is raped by a coworker, she struggles to find the strength to bring him to justice in the face of the barriers and opposition within that same system. Determined to have her day in court, Tessa is forced to confront the stark reality that the law was not written for victims and that she is the one on trial. She fights on, even as her evidence is manipulated to make her look like a liar, even while she is retraumatized on the stand.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250292209

WOLVES OF WINTER by Dan Jones (Historical Thriller)
1347. Bruised and bloodied by an epic battle at Crécy, six soldiers known as the Essex Dogs pick through the wreckage of the fighting --- and their own lives. Now a new siege is beginning, and the Dogs are sent to attack the soaring walls of Calais. King Edward has vowed no Englishman will leave France until this city falls. To get home, they must survive a merciless winter in a lawless camp deadlier than any battlefield. Obsessed with tracking down the vanished Captain, Loveday struggles to control his own men. Romford is haunted by the reappearance of a horrific figure from his past. And Scotsman is spiraling into a pit of drink, violence and self-pity. The Dogs are being torn apart, but this war is far from over. It won't be long before they lose more of their own.
Viking | 9780593653791

February 1st

THE BAD WEATHER FRIEND by Dean Koontz (Thriller/Adventure)
Benny Catspaw’s perpetually sunny disposition is tested when he loses his job, his reputation, his fiancée and his favorite chair. Someone is out to get him. He just doesn’t know who or why. Then Benny receives an inheritance from an uncle he’s never heard of: a giant crate and a video message. All will be well in time. Stranger yet is what’s inside the crate. He’s a seven-foot-tall self-described “bad weather friend” named Spike whose mission is to help people who are just too good for this world. He’ll find Benny’s enemies and deal with them. This might be satisfying if Spike wasn’t such a menacing presence with terrifying techniques of intimidation. In the company of Spike and a fascinated young waitress-cum-PI-in-training named Harper, Benny plunges into a perilous high-speed adventure.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781662500497

LAST NIGHT by Luanne Rice (Domestic Thriller/Mystery)
A fierce blizzard is burying the eastern seaboard, but on the icy Rhode Island shore, renowned artist Maddie Morrison finds warm sanctuary from a contentious divorce at the legendary Ocean House. Hours later, her body is found buried under a blanket of snow, and her little daughter, CeCe, has disappeared without a trace. For Detective Conor Reid; his brother, Tom, a coast guard commander; and Maddie’s grieving sister, Hadley, the posh hotel becomes ground zero for an investigation. Trapped by the blizzard, they must hunker down and determine who in the young mother’s life could have possibly wanted her dead. There are stories of a twisted romantic past. Of old jealousies and resentments that still cut to the bone. And a history of greed, rage and revenge that created the perfect storm for murder.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781542030199

On Sale the Week of January 29th in Paperback

January 30th

BROTHERLESS NIGHT by V. V. Ganeshananthan (Fiction)
Jaffna, 1981. Sixteen-year-old Sashi wants to become a doctor. But over the next decade, a vicious civil war tears through her home, and her dream spins off course as she sees her four beloved brothers and their friend K swept up in the mounting violence. Desperate to act, Sashi accepts K’s invitation to work as a medic at a field hospital for the militant Tamil Tigers, who are fighting for a separate homeland for Sri Lanka’s Tamil minority. But after the Tigers murder one of her teachers and Indian peacekeepers arrive only to commit further atrocities, Sashi begins to question where she stands. When one of her medical school professors invites her to join a secret project documenting human rights violations, she embarks on a dangerous path that will change her forever.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780812978278

CLEOPATRA AND FRANKENSTEIN by Coco Mellors (Fiction)
Twenty-four-year-old British painter Cleo has escaped from England to New York and is still finding her place in the sleepless city when, a few months before her student visa ends, she meets Frank. Twenty years older and a self-made success, Frank's life is full of all the excesses Cleo's lacks. He offers her the chance to be happy, the freedom to paint and the opportunity to apply for a Green Card. But their impulsive marriage irreversibly changes both their lives, and the lives of those close to them, in ways they never could've predicted.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781639730704

CLOVER HENDRY’S DAY OFF by Beth Morrey (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Clover Hendry hasn’t said “No” a day in her life. Until today. Normally a woman who tips her hairdresser even when the cut is hideous, is endlessly patient with her horrendous mother, and says “yes” every time her boss asks her to work late. Today, things are going to be very different. Because Clover is taking the day off. Today, she’s going to do and say whatever she likes, even if it means her whole life unravels. What made Clover change her ways? Why doesn’t she care anymore? There’s more to this day than meets the eye.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593540312

EVERY MAN A KING: A King Oliver Novel by Walter Mosley (Mystery)
When friend of the family and multi-billionaire Roger Ferris comes to Joe King Oliver with an assignment, he has no choice but to accept. White nationalist Alfred Xavier Quiller has been accused of murder and the sale of sensitive information to the Russians. Ferris has reason to believe that Quiller has been set up, and he needs King to see if the charges hold. This linear assignment becomes a winding quest to uncover the extent of Quiller’s dealings, understand Ferris’ skin in the game, and get to the bottom of who is working for whom. Even with the help of bodyguard and mercenary Oliya Ruez, the machine King is up against proves relentless and unsparing. As King gets closer to exposing the truth, he and his loved ones barrel towards grave danger.
Mulholland Books | 9780316460200

EVERYBODY KNOWS by Jordan Harper (Mystery)
As a “black-bag” publicist tasked not with letting the good news out but keeping the bad news in, Mae Pruett works for one of LA’s most powerful and sought-after crisis PR firms, at the center of a sprawling web of lawyers, PR flaks and private security firms she calls “The Beast.” After her boss is gunned down in front of the Beverly Hills Hotel in a random attack, Mae takes it upon herself to investigate and runs headfirst into The Beast’s lawless machinations and the twisted systems it exists to perpetuate. It takes her on a roving neon joyride through a Los Angeles full of influencers pumped full of pills and fillers; sprawling mansions footsteps away from sprawling homeless encampments; crooked cops; and mysterious wrecking crews in the middle of the night.
Mulholland Books | 9780316458023

FINLAY DONOVAN JUMPS THE GUN by Elle Cosimano (Mystery/Humor)
Finlay Donovan has been in messes before --- after all, she's an author and single mom who’s a pro at getting out bloodstains for rather unexpected reasons --- but none quite like this. She and her nanny/partner-in-crime, Vero, accidentally destroyed a luxury car that they “borrowed” in the process of saving Finlay’s ex-husband. The Russian mob handled her debt, but that means Finlay now owes them. Still running the show from behind bars, mob boss Feliks has a task for Finlay: find a contract killer before the cops do. Problem is, the killer might be an officer. Luckily, hot cop Nick has started up a citizen’s police academy, so Finlay has the perfect cover-up to sleuth out the real criminal as she does some “research” for her new novel. Nick is more than happy to get close to Finlay, but he’s also getting dangerously close to the truth.
Minotaur Books | 9781250846051

THE HOUSE OF PLAIN TRUTH by Donna Hemans (Fiction)
Paperback Original
With news of her father’s passing, Pearline abruptly leaves her daughter and grandchildren behind in Brooklyn to return to her childhood home in Jamaica. But Pearline isn’t prepared for her father’s puzzling deathbed wish that she find her siblings --- whom she hasn’t seen in 60 years --- and discover the secret that tore her family apart. Moving through time and place, from Cuba to Montego Bay and from Brooklyn to Havana, THE HOUSE OF PLAIN TRUTH traces Pearline’s reconciliation of what she thought she knew about her family and the truth of their origin.
Zibby Books | 9781958506073

HOW WE NAMED THE STARS by Andrés N. Ordorica (Fiction)
Paperback Original
When Daniel de La Luna arrives as a scholarship student at an elite East Coast university, he bears the weight of his family’s hopes and dreams, and the burden of sharing his late uncle’s name. Daniel flounders at first --- but then Sam, his roommate, changes everything. As their relationship evolves from brotherly banter to something more intimate, Daniel soon finds himself in love with a man who helps him see himself in a new light. But just as their relationship takes flight, Daniel is pulled away, first by Sam’s hesitation and then by a brutal turn of events that changes Daniel’s life forever. As he grapples with profound loss, Daniel finds himself in his family’s ancestral homeland in México for the summer, finding joy in this setting even as he struggles to come to terms with what’s happened and faces a host of new questions.
Tin House Books | 9781959030331

LOYALTY by Lisa Scottoline (Historical Fiction)
Franco Fiorvanti is a handsome lemon grower toiling on the estate of a baron. When the baron asks him to kidnap a little boy named Dante, Franco makes a decision that will change his life --- and even the history of Sicily --- forever. Gaetano Catalano is an idealistic young lawyer who is a member of the Beati Paoli, a real-life secret society of aristocrats who investigate crime in Palermo. Gaetano sets out to find the boy and punish the kidnapper, but his mission leads him to a darker place than he had ever imagined. Meanwhile, Mafalda Pancari is a new mother rejoicing at the birth of her daughter, Lucia, when disaster strikes. And Alfredo D’Antonio is a reclusive goatherd under constant threat of being discovered as a Jew. These characters will collide as LOYALTY twists and turns to its monumental showdown.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780525539834

MISFIRE by Tammy Euliano (Medical Thriller)
Kadence, a new type of implanted defibrillator, misfires in a patient visiting University Hospital for a routine medical procedure. Dr. Kate Downey, an experienced anesthesiologist, resuscitates the patient, but she grows concerned for a loved one who recently received the same device --- her beloved Great-Aunt Irm. When a second device misfires, Kate turns to Nikki Yarborough, her friend and Aunt Irm’s cardiologist. Though Nikki helps protect Kate’s aunt, she is prevented from alerting other patients by the corporate greed of her department chairman. As the inventor of the device and part owner of MDI, the company he formed to commercialize it, he claims that the device misfires are due to a soon-to-be-corrected software bug. Kate learns his claim is false.
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608096039

MISSING PERSONS: A Private Novel by James Patterson, with Adam Hamdy (Thriller)
Paperback Original
A wealthy businessman approaches Jack Morgan, head of Private --- the world's largest investigation agency --- with a desperate plea to track down his daughter and two grandchildren, who have disappeared without a trace. What at first seems to be a simple missing persons case soon escalates into something much more deadly, when Jack discovers the daughter is being pursued by highly trained operatives. As Jack uncovers more of the woman's backstory, the trail leads towards Afghanistan --- where Jack's career as a US Marine ended in catastrophe. Jack will need to face the trauma of his past to save a family's future.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538754528

MOCKINGBIRD SUMMER by Lynda Rutledge (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
In segregated High Cotton, Texas, in 1964, the racial divide is as clear as the railroad tracks running through town. It’s also where two girls are going to shake things up. This is the last summer of 13-year-old Corky Corcoran’s childhood, and her family hires a Haitian housekeeper who brings her daughter, America, along with her. Corky is quick to befriend America and eager to share her favorite new “grown-up” novel, TO KILL A MOCKINGBIRD. America’s take on it is different and profoundly personal. As their friendship grows, Corky finds out so much more about America’s life and her hidden skill: she can run as fast as Olympian Wilma Rudolph! When Corky asks America to play with her girls’ softball team for the annual church rivals game, it’s a move that crosses the color line and sets off a firestorm.
Lake Union Publishing | 9781662504518

MONSTRILIO by Gerardo Sámano Córdova (Literary Horror)
Grieving mother Magos cuts out a piece of her deceased 11-year-old son Santiago’s lung. Acting on fierce maternal instinct and the dubious logic of an old folktale, she nurtures the lung until it gains sentience, growing into the carnivorous little Monstrilio she keeps hidden within the walls of her family’s decaying Mexico City estate. Eventually, Monstrilio begins to resemble the Santiago he once was, but his innate impulses --- though curbed by his biological and chosen family’s communal care --- threaten to destroy this fragile second chance at life.
Zando | 9781638931607

NIGHT WHEREVER YOU GO by Tracey Rose Peyton (Historical Fiction)
On a struggling Texas plantation, six enslaved women slip from their sleeping quarters and gather in the woods under the cover of night. The Lucys --- as they call the plantation owners, after Lucifer himself --- have decided to turn around the farm’s bleak financial prospects by making the women bear children. They have hired a “stockman” to impregnate them. But the women are determined to protect themselves. Now each of the six faces a choice. Nan, the doctoring woman, has brought a sack of cotton root clippings that can stave off children when chewed daily. If they all take part, the Lucys may give up and send the stockman away. But a pregnancy for any of them will only encourage the Lucys further. And should their plan be discovered, the consequences will be severe.
Ecco | 9780063249882

NONNA MARIA AND THE CASE OF THE STOLEN NECKLACE by Lorenzo Carcaterra (Mystery)
Two crimes have rocked the sun-drenched island of Ischia. And once again, the island’s denizens have called upon Nonna Maria, the espresso-brewing, sage-counsel-giving sleuth. A wealthy woman alleges that a valuable necklace has been stolen from her hotel room, and she blames Nonna Maria’s goddaughter as the most likely suspect. Nearby, the body of a woman is found on a curved road near the borough of Barano. The woman is not known to anyone on the island. The one potential suspect is a young friend of Nonna Maria’s who drove by the area that very night and thinks he might have hit something --- perhaps the woman in question. It’s up to Nonna Maria to string together the clues and solve these two mysteries before death comes to Ischia again.
Bantam | 9780593499207

A QUANTUM LOVE STORY by Mike Chen (Science Fiction)
Paperback Original
Grieving her best friend's recent death, neuroscientist Mariana Pineda is ready to give up everything to start anew. Even her career --- after one last week consulting at a top-secret particle accelerator. Except the strangest thing happens: a man stops her and claims they've met before. Carter Cho knows who she is, why she's mourning and why she's there. And he needs Mariana to remember everything he’s saying. Because time is about to loop. In a flash of energy, it’s Monday morning. Again. Together, Mariana and Carter enter an inevitable life, four days at a time, over and over, without permanence except for what they share. But just as they figure out this new life, everything changes. Because Carter's memories of the time loop are slowly disappearing. And their only chance at happiness is breaking out of the loop --- forever.
Mira | 9780778369509

THE QUEEN OF SUGAR HILL: A Novel of Hattie McDaniel by ReShonda Tate (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
It was supposed to be the highlight of her career, the pinnacle for which she’d worked all her life. And as Hattie McDaniel took the stage in 1940 to claim an honor that would make her the first African-American woman to win an Academy Award, she tearfully took her place in history. Between personal triumphs and tragedies, heartbreaking losses and severe setbacks, this historic night of winning best supporting actress for her role as the sassy Mammy in the controversial movie Gone with the Wind was going to be life-changing. Or so she thought. Months after winning the award, not only did the Oscar curse set in where Hattie couldn’t find work, but she found herself thrust in the middle of two worlds --- Black and White --- and not being welcomed in either.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063291072

RED TEAM BLUES: A Martin Hench Novel by Cory Doctorow
(Science Fiction/Technothriller)
Martin Hench is a 67-year-old self-employed forensic accountant, a veteran of the long guerilla war between people who want to hide money and those who want to find it. He knows computer hardware and software alike, including the ins and outs of high-end databases and the kinds of spreadsheets that are designed to conceal rather than reveal. He’s a world-level expert on the kind of international money-laundering and shell-company chicanery used by Fortune 500 companies, mid-divorce billionaires and international drug gangs alike. He also knows Silicon Valley like the back of his hand. Now he’s been roped into a job that’s more dangerous than anything he’s ever agreed to before --- and it will take every ounce of his skill to get out alive.
Tor Books | 9781250865854

TWENTY-SEVEN MINUTES by Ashley Tate (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Paperback Original
For the last 10 years, the small, claustrophobic town of West Wilmer has been struggling to understand one thing: Why did it take young Grant Dean 27 minutes to call for help on the fateful night of the car accident that took the life of his beloved sister, Phoebe? Someone knows what really happened the night Phoebe died. Someone who is ready to tell the truth. With Phoebe's memorial in just three days, grief, delusion, ambition and regret tornado together with biting gossip in a town full of people obsessed with a long-gone tragedy with four people at its heart --- the caretaker, the secret girlfriend, the missing bad boy and a former football star. Just kids back then, they are forever tied together the fateful rainy night Phoebe died.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781728278148

VARINA PALLADINO’S JERSEY ITALIAN LOVE STORY by Terri-Lynne DeFino (Fiction)
Lively widow Varina Paladino has lived in the same house in Wyldale, New Jersey, her entire life. The town might be slightly stuck in the 1960s, but its population is getting younger and the Paladinos are embracing the change. What Varina is not embracing is dating. Running Paladino’s Italian Specialties grocery, caring for her mother and keeping her large, loud Jersey Italian family from killing one another take up all of Varina’s energy anyway. Sylvia Spini worries about her daughter being left all alone when she dies; she knows what it is to be old and alone. So when her granddaughter, Donatella, comes to her with an ill-conceived plan to find Varina a man, she dives in. The three men of the family are each secretly plotting their own big life changes, which will throw everyone for a loop.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063228443

VICTORY CITY by Salman Rushdie (Historical Fantasy/Magical Realism)
In the wake of an unimportant battle between two long-forgotten kingdoms in 14th-century southern India, a nine-year-old girl has a divine encounter that will change the course of history. After witnessing the death of her mother, the grief-stricken Pampa Kampana becomes a vessel for her namesake, the goddess Pampa, who begins to speak out of the girl’s mouth. Granting her powers beyond Pampa Kampana’s comprehension, the goddess tells her that she will be instrumental in the rise of a great city called Bisnaga --- “victory city” --- the wonder of the world. Over the next 250 years, Pampa Kampana’s life becomes deeply interwoven with Bisnaga’s, from its literal sowing from a bag of magic seeds to its tragic ruination in the most human of ways: the hubris of those in power.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780593243411

WADE IN THE WATER by Nyani Nkrumah (Fiction)
Set in 1982, in rural, racially divided Ricksville, Mississippi, WADE IN THE WATER tells the story of Ella, a Black, unloved, precocious 11-year-old, and Ms. St. James, a mysterious white woman from Princeton who appears in Ella’s community to carry out some research. Soon, Ms. St. James befriends Ella, who is willing to risk everything to keep her new friend in a town that does not want her there. The relationship between Ella and Ms. St. James, at times loving and funny and other times tense and cautious, becomes more fraught and complex as Ella unwittingly pushes at Ms. St. James’ carefully constructed boundaries that guard a complicated past, and dangerous secrets that could have devastating consequences.
Amistad | 9780063226623

YOUR UTOPIA: Stories written by Bora Chung, translated by Anton Hur
(Fiction/Short Stories)
Paperback Original
Bora Chung’s inimitable blend of horror, absurdity and dark humor reaches its peak in these tales of loss and discovery, dystopia and idealism, death and immortality. In a thrilling translation by the acclaimed Anton Hur, readers will experience a variety of possible fates for humanity. In “The Center for Immortality Research,” a low-level employee runs herself ragged planning a fancy gala for donors only to be blamed for the chaos that ensues during the event in front of the mysterious celebrity benefactors hoping to live forever. In “A Song for Sleep,” an AI elevator in an apartment complex develops a tender, one-sided love for an elderly resident. “Seed” traverses the final frontier of capitalism’s destruction of the planet --- but nature always creeps back to life.
Algonquin Books | 9781643756219

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