February 6, 2024

February 6, 2024

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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of February 5th and February 12th 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 New Release Spotlight of ONE WRONG WORD, which is now in stores, along with our review. This heart-racing new psychological thriller from USA Today bestselling and multiple award-winning author Hank Phillippi Ryan is one of our Winter Reading contest titles and will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick. Carol Fitzgerald looks forward to interviewing Hank later this month.

Upcoming Virtual Book and Author Events

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

Wednesday, February 7th at 3pm ET: Barnes & Noble: Join Barnes & Noble as they welcome Jordan Harper for a live virtual discussion of EVERYBODY KNOWS, which is now in paperback, as part of their Midday Mystery Virtual Event series. Jordan will be in conversation with the New York Times bestselling author of ALL THE SINNERS BLEED, S. A. Cosby.

Wednesday, February 7th 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 Amy Jo Burns about her latest book, MERCURY, a Barnes & Noble Book Club pick.

Wednesday, February 7th at 7pm ET: Warwick's: Warwick's will host Jenni L. Walsh as she discusses her new novel, UNSINKABLE, with Rachel McMillan. Inspired by true stories of survival and resilience, the book entwines the lives of two women --- one from World War I and another from World War II --- as they face adversity and take hold of the second chances given to them.

This Week's Bonus News:
Our New Release Spotlight of
ONE WRONG WORD by Hank Phillippi Ryan
An Upcoming Bookreporter.com Bets On Title

On Sale the Week of February 5th in Hardcover

February 6th

THE ADVERSARY by Michael Crummey (Fiction)
In an isolated outport on Newfoundland's northern coastline, Abe Strapp is about to marry the daughter of a rival merchant to cement his hold on the shore when the Widow Caines arrives to throw the wedding and Abe's plans into chaos. That ruthless act of sabotage is the opening salvo in a battle between the man and woman who own Mockbeggar's largest mercantile firms, each fighting for the scarce resources of the north Atlantic fishery, each seeking a measure of revenge on the person they despise most in the world. As their unshakeable animosity spirals further each year into vendettas and violence, the community is increasingly divided --- and even the innocents in Mockbeggar find themselves forced to take sides, with devastating consequences.
Doubleday | 9780385550321

THE ANTIQUE HUNTER'S GUIDE TO MURDER by C. L. Miller
(Domestic Thriller/Mystery)
Freya Lockwood is shocked when she learns that Arthur Crockleford, an antiques dealer and her estranged mentor, has died under mysterious circumstances. She has spent the last 20 years avoiding her quaint English hometown, but when she receives a letter from Arthur asking her to investigate --- sent just days before his death --- Freya has no choice but to return to a life she had sworn to leave behind. Joining forces with her eccentric Aunt Carole, Freya follows clues and her instincts to an old manor house for an advertised antiques enthusiast’s weekend. But it’s clear to Freya that the antiques are all just poor reproductions and her fellow guests are secretive and menacing. What is going on at this estate, and how was Arthur involved? Can Freya and Carole discover the truth before the killer strikes again?
Atria Books | 9781668032008

ANTIQUITY written by Hanna Johansson, translated by Kira Josefsson (Fiction)
On a Greek island rich with ancient beauty, a lonely woman in her 30s upends the relationship between a mother and her teenage daughter. Lust and admiration for Helena, a chic older artist, brings the book’s unnamed narrator to Ermoupoli, where Helena’s daughter, Olga, seems at first like an obstacle and a nuisance. But the unpredictable forces of ego and desire take over, leading our narrator down a more dangerous path, and causing the roles of lover and beloved, child and adult, stranger and intimate to become distorted. As the months go by, the fragile web connecting the three women nears rupture, and the ominous consequences of their entanglement loom just beyond a summer that must end.
Catapult | 9781646221714

BURMA SAHIB by Paul Theroux (Historical Fiction)
At age 19, young Eton graduate Eric Blair set sail for India, dreading the assignment ahead. Along with several other young conscripts, he would be trained for three years as a servant of the British Empire, overseeing the local policemen in Burma. Navigating the social, racial and class politics of his fellow British at the same time as he learned the local languages and struggled to control his men would prove difficult enough. But doing all of this while grappling with his own self-worth, his sense that he was not cut out for this, is soon overwhelming for the young Blair. Eventually, his clashes with his superiors, and the drama that unfolds in this hot, beautiful land, will change him forever.
Mariner Books | 9780063297548

DEAR MOM AND DAD: A Letter About Family, Memory, and the America We Once Knew by Patti Davis (Memoir)
Eager to retell the narrative of her own family and her coming of age, Patti Davis casts aside misperceptions that defined her in the past. DEAR MOM AND DAD reveals young Patti as a sensitive child, who was not able to be the public person her family demanded. Just as she re-examines her own role in an increasingly dysfunctional family drama, Davis casts an empathetic yet honest eye on her parents --- her father, the eternal lifeguard, who saved 77 people, yet failed to create a coherent AIDS policy, and her mother, who never escaped her own tortured youth. Even as she unravels her mother’s highly edited persona, and her father’s loving but distant personality, Davis remains steadfast in her artistic expression, as she melds irony, comedy and tragedy with dreamlike memories of an ever-present past.
Liveright | 9781324093480

EVERYONE WHO CAN FORGIVE ME IS DEAD by Jenny Hollander (Thriller)
Nine years ago, with the world's eyes on her, Charlie Colbert fled. The press and the police called Charlie a "witness" to the nightmarish events at her elite graduate school on Christmas Eve --- events known to the public as "Scarlet Christmas" --- though Charlie knows she was much more than that. Now, Charlie has meticulously rebuilt her life: She's the editor-in-chief of a major magazine, engaged to the golden child of the publishing industry, and hell-bent on never, ever letting her guard down again. But when a buzzy film made by one of Charlie's former classmates threatens to shatter everything she's worked for, Charlie realizes how much she's changed in nine years. Now, she's not going to let anything --- not even the people she once loved most --- get in her way.
Minotaur Books | 9781250890849

FLOAT UP, SING DOWN: Stories by Laird Hunt (Fiction/Short Stories)
Candy Wilson has forgotten to buy the paprika. Turner Davis needs to get his zinnias in. Della Dorner told her mother she was going to the Galaxy Swirl, but that's not where she's really headed on her new Schwinn five-speed. FLOAT UP, SING DOWN is the story of a single day. But in that day, how much teeming life! The residents of this rural town have their routines, preferences, joys, grudges and regrets. Gossip is paramount. Lives are entwined. Retired sheriffs climb corn bins and muse on lost love, French teachers throw firecrackers out of barn windows, and teenagers borrow motorcycles to ride the back roads. Each of these 14 stories follows one character's day in the life in one of Laird Hunt's most beloved and enduring landscapes.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781639730100

FOURTEEN DAYS: A Collaborative Novel edited by Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston (Fiction)
One week into the COVID-19 shutdown, tenants of a Lower East Side apartment building in Manhattan have begun to gather on the rooftop and tell stories. With each passing night, more and more neighbors gather, bringing chairs, milk crates and overturned pails. Gradually the tenants --- some of whom have barely spoken to each other --- become real neighbors. In this DECAMERON-like serial novel, general editors Margaret Atwood and Douglas Preston and a star-studded list of contributors create a beautiful ode to the people who couldn’t escape when the pandemic hit. A dazzling, heartwarming and ultimately surprising narrative, FOURTEEN DAYS reveals how beneath the horrible loss and suffering, some communities managed to become stronger.
Harper | 9780358616382

THE GHOST ORCHID: An Alex Delaware Novel by Jonathan Kellerman (Psychological Thriller)
A pool boy enters a secluded Bel Air property and discovers two bodies floating in the bright blue water: Gio Aggiunta, the playboy heir to an Italian shoe empire, and a gorgeous, even wealthier neighbor named Meagin March. A married neighbor. An illicit affair stoking rage is a perfect motive. But the house is untouched. No forced entry, no forensic evidence. The case has “that feeling,” and when that happens, LAPD homicide lieutenant Milo Sturgis turns to his friend, the brilliant psychologist Alex Delaware. As Milo and Alex investigate both victims, they discover two troubled pasts. And as they dig deeper, Meagin March’s very identity begins to blur. Who was this glamorous but conflicted woman? Did her past catch up to her? Or did Gio’s family connections create a threat spanning two continents?
Ballantine Books | 9780593497678

GRETA & VALDIN by Rebecca K Reilly (Fiction)
It’s been a year since his ex-boyfriend dumped him and moved from Auckland to Buenos Aires, and Valdin is doing fine. He has a good flat with his sister Greta, a good career where his colleagues only occasionally remind him that he is the sole Maaori person in the office, and a good friend who he only sleeps with when he’s sad. But when work sends him to Argentina and he’s thrown back in his former lover’s orbit, Valdin is forced to confront the feelings he’s been trying to ignore --- and the future he wants. Greta is not letting her painfully unrequited crush get her down. She would love to focus on the charming fellow grad student she meets at a party and her friendships with a circle of similarly floundering twenty-somethings, but her chaotic family life won’t stop intruding.
Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster | 9781668028049

HOLLYWOOD HUSTLE by Jon Lindstrom (Thriller)
Winston Greene, a has-been film star, wakes up one morning to find his six-year-old granddaughter at his bedside --- traumatized, unattended and gripping onto a thumb drive. She comes bearing video proof that her mother, Win’s troubled adult daughter, has been kidnapped by a murderous gang demanding all his “movie money” for her safe return. But what they don’t know is that his movie money is long gone. Unable to go to the police for fear the kidnappers will make good on their promise to kill his daughter, Winston turns to two close friends: a legendary Hollywood stuntman and a disgraced former LAPD detective. There’s no easy way out for Winston or his daughter, and he begins to realize that to get her back, he’ll have to beat the kidnappers at their own game.
Crooked Lane Books | 9781639106295

LAST SEEN IN HAVANA: A Havana Mystery by Teresa Dovalpage (Mystery)
Newly widowed baker Mercedes Spivey flies from Miami to her native Cuba in 2019 to care for her ailing paternal grandmother. Mercedes’ life has been shaped by loss, beginning with the mysterious unsolved disappearance of her mother when Mercedes was a little girl. Returning to Cuba revives Mercedes’ hopes of finding her mother as she attempts to piece together the few scraps of information she has. Thirty-three years earlier, an American college student with endless political optimism falls deliriously in love with a handsome Cuban soldier while on a spontaneous visit to the island. She decides to stay permanently but soon discovers that nothing is as it seems in Havana. The two women’s stories proceed in parallel as Mercedes gets closer to the truth about her mother, uncovering shocking family secrets in the process.
Soho Crime | 9781641295390

LIKE A MOTHER by Mina Hardy (Psychological Thriller)
Sarah and Adam Granatt had the perfect suburban life. They were the couple everyone envied --- until Adam died. In the wake of his death, Adam’s secrets begin to emerge. The first comes out when a woman named Candace introduces herself to Sarah as Adam’s mother. Sarah is rightfully confused: Adam had always said his mother was dead. Adam also lied about making sure Sarah, Ellie and the new baby would be taken care of financially. Candace can offer emotional support and, better yet, a place to stay until after the baby is born. Living in Adam’s childhood home, Sarah begins to understand the life he had before they met. When Sarah notices Candace’s strange obsession with her, and the house begins to feel less like salvation and more like a cage, she realizes that the secrets go deeper than she ever could’ve imagined.
Crooked Lane Books | 9781639106233

A LOVE SONG FOR RICKI WILDE by Tia Williams (Romance)
Ricki Wilde has many talents, but being a Wilde isn’t one of them. As the impulsive, artistic daughter of a powerful Atlanta dynasty, she’s the opposite of her famous socialite sisters. In her bones, Ricki knows that a more exciting life awaits her somewhere. When regal nonagenarian Ms. Della invites her to rent the bottom floor of her Harlem brownstone, Ricki jumps at the chance for a fresh beginning. She leaves behind her family, wealth and chaotic romantic decisions to realize her dream of opening a flower shop. And just beneath the surface of her new neighborhood, the music, stories and dazzling drama of the Harlem Renaissance still simmers. One evening in February, Ricki encounters a handsome, deeply mysterious stranger who knocks her world off balance in the most unexpected way.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538726709

NIGHTWATCHING by Tracy Sierra (Domestic Thriller)
Home alone with her young children during a blizzard, a mother tucks her son back into bed in the middle of the night. Suddenly she hears footsteps coming up the stairs and sees the figure of a man appear down the hallway. Terrified, she quietly wakes her children and hustles them into the oldest part of the house, a tiny, secret room concealed behind a wall. There they hide as the man searches for them, trying to tempt the children out with promises and scare the mother into surrender. In the suffocating darkness, the mother struggles to remain calm and to plan. Should she search for a weapon or attempt escape? But then she catches another glimpse of him. And at once she knows her situation is even more dire than she’d feared, because she knows exactly who he is --- and what he wants.
Pamela Dorman Books | 9780593654767

ONE WRONG WORD by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Psychological Thriller)
Unfairly accused of having an affair with a powerful client, crisis management expert Arden Ward’s life and dreams are about to crash and burn. Then Arden is given an ultimatum. She has just two weeks to save her career and her reputation. Is Cordelia Bannister the answer to her prayers? Cordelia needs Arden’s help for her husband Ned, a Boston real estate mogul who was recently acquitted in a fatal drunk driving accident. But his reputation is ruined, and the fallout is devastating for his family. Revelations soon begin to emerge about what really happened the night of the accident. And then another car crash throws Ned back into the spotlight. The more Arden tries to untangle the truth, the more she’s haunted by one disturbing question: What if she’s also protecting a killer?
Forge Books | 9781250849496

ORDINARY HUMAN FAILINGS by Megan Nolan (Fiction)
It's 1990 in London, and reporter Tom Hargreaves’ star seems set to rise when he stumbles across a sensational scoop: a dead child on a London estate, grieving parents beloved across the neighborhood, and the finger of suspicion pointing at one reclusive family of Irish immigrants and “bad apples”: the Greens. At their heart sits Carmel: beautiful, otherworldly, broken, and once destined for a future beyond her circumstances until life --- and love --- got in her way. Crushed by failure and surrounded by disappointment, there's nowhere for her to go and no chance of escape. Now, with the police closing in on a suspect and the tabloids hunting their monster, she must confront the secrets and silences that have trapped her family for so many generations.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316567787

OWNING UP: New Fiction by George Pelecanos (Crime Fiction/Short Stories)
Esteemed crime fiction writer George Pelecanos has penned four blistering novellas, drawn together by themes of strife, violence and humanity. When the son of the Carusos is involved in a hold-up, the family home comes under siege in the form of a no-knock warrant. Months after the cops destroyed their home, the Carusos struggle to return to normal. Elsewhere, two former inmates reunite by chance on the set of a TV production. Both have found their way on the straight and narrow path, until one sees the potential for an easy grift. A teenage boy must step into the man he'd like to be as a hostage crisis grips his hometown. A woman adrift meets a man tied to her grandmother's past, an encounter that awakens her to a bloody history that undergirds the place she grew up.
Mulholland Books | 9780316570473

A PLAGUE ON BOTH YOUR HOUSES: A Novel in the Shadow of the Russian Mafia by Robert Littell (Thriller)
On Christmas Day, 1991, Mikhail Gorbachev delivered a 10-minute televised speech announcing his resignation as Soviet president. Moments later, the red flag was lowered from its floodlit perch atop the Kremlin, and the Soviet Union ceases to exist. Into the vacuum surged the Russian mafia, supplying what the new state could not: krysha, or "roof" --- protection for the privately owned businesses sprouting up across the country. Rivalries turned bloody as Moscow's Jewish mafia battled the Ossete vory v zakone (literally "thieves-in-law") for control of the city. Caught up in the mayhem, Yulia, only daughter of the Jewish mafia godfather, and Roman, only son of the Ossete mafia godfather, navigated the minefield of a star-crossed love affair as they attempt to escape a destiny that appears preordained.
Blackstone Publishing | 9798212227711

THE PRICE YOU PAY: A Peter Ash Novel by Nick Petrie (Thriller)
Lewis has helped Peter Ash out of more trouble than Peter cares to remember, so he doesn’t hesitate when Lewis asks for a favor in return. Lewis has left his criminal past behind, but he and Peter must drive into a blizzard to help a former associate. They learn that someone has stolen notebooks full of incriminating secrets about Lewis' long-ago crimes, and they realize the situation is much worse than they'd thought. To save Lewis’ wife and two boys, Lewis and Peter must find the notebooks. With Peter's longtime girlfriend, they begin the search --- facing ruthless and violent foes at each turn, including one powerful person who will stop at nothing for revenge. Will Lewis and Peter be able to keep that dark past buried? Or will they need to step into the darkness to save the people they love most?
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593540558

REDWOOD COURT by DéLana R. A. Dameron (Fiction)
On Redwood Court, the cul-de-sac in the all-Black working-class suburb of Columbia, South Carolina, where her grandparents live, Mika Tabor learns important lessons from the people who raise her: her exhausted parents, who work long hours at multiple jobs while still making sure their kids experience the adventure of family vacations; her older sister, who in a house filled with Motown would rather listen to Alanis Morrisette; her retired grandparents, children of Jim Crow, who realized their own vision of success when they bought their house on the Court in the 1960s, imagining it filled with future generations; and the many neighbors who hold tight to the community they’ve built, committed to fostering joy and love in an America so insistent on seeing Black people stumble and fall.
The Dial Press | 9780593447024

THE ROAD FROM BELHAVEN by Margot Livesey (Historical Fiction)
Growing up in the care of her grandparents on Belhaven Farm, Lizzie Craig discovers as a small child that she can see into the future. But her gift is selective. She doesn’t, for instance, see that she has an older sister who will come to join the family. As her “pictures” foretell various incidents and accidents, she begins to realize a painful truth: she may glimpse the future, but she can seldom change it. Nor can Lizzie change the feelings that come when a young man named Louis begins to court her. Why have the adults around her not revealed that the touch of a hand can change everything? After following Louis to Glasgow, though, she learns the limits of his devotion. Faced with a seemingly impossible choice, she makes a terrible mistake. But her second sight may allow her a second chance.
Knopf | 9780593537046

TALES OF THE CELESTIAL KINGDOM written by Sue Lynn Tan, illustrated by Kelly Chong (Fantasy/Short Stories)
TALES FROM THE CELESTIAL KINGDOM collects nine spellbinding stories --- two previously published and seven original, including the epilogue to the Celestial Kingdom duology --- set in the enchanting world of DAUGHTER OF THE MOON GODDESS and HEART OF THE SUN WARRIOR. Filled with magic and mythology, friendship and love, these stories intertwine through the past, present and future of the two novels, told from the perspectives of multiple characters, including Chang’e, Shuxiao, Liwei and Wenzhi. With beautiful illustrations from Kelly Chong throughout, these wondrous tales make the perfect complement to Sue Lynn Tan’s breathtaking series.
Harper Voyager | 9780063326699

UNION STATION: A John Russell Novel by David Downing (Historical Thriller)
John Russell, an English journalist, had always been a reluctant spy. It’s a dangerous life --- especially when you are tasked with being a double agent for Soviet and American intelligence. But it’s been years since Russell was finally able to extricate himself from his life of espionage --- through a shady deal with a high-ranking Soviet official. Now it’s 1953, and Russell and his family live a life of relative comfort in Los Angeles. Feeling somewhat adrift, Russell has just begun work on a book investigating American firms that continued doing business with Germany during Nazi occupation. Then he notices someone is tailing him around Los Angeles. Has someone not taken kindly to his research? Or could it be that the deal he struck all those years ago has left him with unfinished business?
Soho Crime | 9781641293570

WHY WE READ: On Bookworms, Libraries, and Just One More Page Before Lights Out by Shannon Reed (Literary Criticism/Essays)
We read to escape, to learn, to find love, to feel seen. We read to encounter new worlds, to discover new recipes, to find connection across difference, or simply to pass a rainy afternoon. No matter the reason, books have the power to keep us safe, to challenge us, and, perhaps most importantly, to make us more fully human. Shannon Reed, a longtime teacher, lifelong reader and New Yorker contributor, gets it. With one simple goal in mind, she makes the case that we should read for pleasure above all else. In WHY WE READ, Reed shares surprising stories from her life as a reader and the poignant ways in which books have impacted her students.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335007964

THE WOMEN by Kristin Hannah (Historical Fiction)
“Women can be heroes, too.” When 20-year-old nursing student Frances “Frankie” McGrath hears these unexpected words, it is a revelation. Raised on idyllic Coronado Island and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing and being a good girl. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly imagines a different choice for her life. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she impulsively joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path. As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is overwhelmed by the chaos and destruction of war, as well as the unexpected trauma of coming home to a changed and politically divided America.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250178633

THE YEAR OF THE LOCUST by Terry Hayes (Political Thriller)
If, like Kane, you’re a Denied Access Area spy for the CIA, then boundaries have no meaning. Your function is to go in, do whatever is required, and get out again --- by whatever means necessary. You know when to run, when to hide --- and when to shoot. But some places don’t play by the rules. Some places are too dangerous, even for a man of Kane’s experience. The badlands where the borders of Pakistan, Iran and Afghanistan meet are such a place --- a place where violence is the only way to survive. Kane travels there to exfiltrate a man with vital information for the safety of the West, but instead he meets an adversary who will take the world to the brink of extinction. A frightening, clever, vicious man with blood on his hands and vengeance in his heart.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781668055786

On Sale the Week of February 5th in Paperback

February 6th

ALL THAT IS MINE I CARRY WITH ME by William Landay (Domestic Thriller/Mystery)
Ten-year-old Miranda Larkin comes home from school to find her house eerily quiet. Her mother is missing. Nothing else is out of place. There is no sign of a struggle. Her mom’s pocketbook remains in the front hall, in its usual spot. So begins a mystery that will span a lifetime. What happened to Jane Larkin? Investigators suspect Jane’s husband. A criminal defense attorney, Dan Larkin surely would be an expert in outfoxing the police. But no evidence is found linking him to a crime, and the case fades from the public’s memory. Jane’s three children --- Alex, Jeff and Miranda --- are left to be raised by the man who may have murdered their mother. Two decades later, the remains of Jane Larkin are found. The investigation is awakened. The children, now grown, are forced to choose sides.
Bantam | 9780345531865

B.F.F.: A Memoir of Friendship Lost and Found by Christie Tate (Memoir)
After more than a decade of dead-end dates and dysfunctional relationships, Christie Tate has reclaimed her voice and settled down. Her days of agonizing in group therapy over guys who won’t commit are over, the grueling emotional work required to attach to another person tucked neatly into the past. But she soon realizes that the feeling of “apartness” that has plagued her since childhood isn’t magically going away now that she’s in a healthy romantic relationship. With her friend, Meredith, by her side, she embarks on a brutally honest exploration of her friendships past and present, sorting through the ways that debilitating shame and jealousy have kept the lasting bonds she craves out of reach --- and how she can overcome a history of letting go too soon.
Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster | 9781668009437

THE BLACKHOUSE by Carole Johnstone (Gothic Thriller)
Maggie Mackay has been haunted her entire life. No matter what she does, she can’t shake the sense that something is wrong with her. And maybe something is. When she was five years old, Maggie announced that a man on the remote island of Kilmeray in Scotland’s Outer Hebrides --- a place she’d never visited --- was murdered. Her unfounded claim drew media attention and turned the locals against each other, creating rifts that never mended. Now, nearly 20 years later, Maggie is determined to discover what really happened and what the villagers are hiding. But everyone has secrets, and some are deadly. As she gets closer to the horrifying truth, the island’s legendary and violent storms begin to rage again, and Maggie’s own life is in danger.
Scribner | 9781982199685

BRIDE by Ali Hazelwood (Paranormal Romance)
Paperback Original
Misery Lark, the only daughter of the most powerful Vampyre councilman of the Southwest, is once again an outcast. Her days of living in anonymity among the Humans are over. She has been called upon to uphold a historic peacekeeping alliance between the Vampyres and their mortal enemies, the Weres, and sees little choice but to surrender herself in the exchange. Weres are ruthless and unpredictable, and their Alpha, Lowe Moreland, is no exception. He rules his pack with absolute authority, but not without justice. It’s clear from the way he tracks Misery’s every movement that he doesn’t trust her. If only he knew how right he was. Misery has her own reasons to agree to this marriage of convenience, reasons that have nothing to do with politics or alliances, and everything to do with the only thing she's ever cared about.
Berkley | 9780593550403

CALL AND RESPONSE: Stories by Gothataone Moeng (Fiction/Short Stories)
A young widow adheres to the expectations of wearing mourning clothes for nearly a year, though she's unsure what the traditions mean or whether she is ready to meet the world without their protection. An older sister returns home from a confusing time in America, only to explain at every turn why she’s left the land of opportunity. A younger sister hides her sexual exploits from her family, while her older brother openly flaunts his infidelity. The stories collected in CALL AND RESPONSE are strongly anchored in place --- in the village of Serowe, where the author is from, and in Gaborone, the capital city of Botswana --- charting the emotional journeys of women seeking love and opportunity beyond the barriers of custom and circumstance.
Penguin Books | 9780593491003

CITY OF DREAMS by Don Winslow (Thriller)
On the losing side of a bloody East Coast crime war, Danny Ryan is now on the run. The Mafia, the cops and the FBI all want him dead or in prison. With his little boy, his elderly father and the tattered remnants of his loyal crew of soldiers, he makes the classic American migration to California to start a new life. But the Feds track him down and want Danny to do them a favor that could make him a fortune --- or kill him. When Hollywood starts shooting a film based on his former life, Danny demands a piece of the action and begins to rebuild his criminal empire. Then he falls in love with a beautiful movie star who has a dark past of her own. As their worlds collide in an explosion that could destroy them both, Danny has to fight for his life in a city where dreams are born. Or where they go to die.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062851246

THE CLIFF’S EDGE: A Bess Crawford Mystery by Charles Todd (Historical Mystery)
Restless and uncertain of her future in the wake of World War I, former battlefield nurse Bess Crawford agrees to travel to Yorkshire to help a friend of her cousin Melinda through surgery. But circumstances change suddenly when news of a terrible accident reaches them. Bess agrees to go to isolated Scarfdale and the Neville family, where one man has been killed and another gravely injured. The police are asking questions, and Bess is quickly drawn into the fray as two once close families take sides. When another tragedy strikes, the police are ready to make an arrest. What dark truth is behind these deaths? And what about the tale of an older murder --- one that doesn’t seem to have anything to do with the Nevilles?
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063039957

COMMITMENT by Mona Simpson (Fiction)
When Diane Aziz drives her oldest son, Walter, from Los Angeles to college at UC Berkeley, it will be her last parental act before falling into a deep depression. A single mother who maintains a wishful belief that her children can attain all the things she hasn’t, she’s worked hard to secure their future in caste-driven 1980s Los Angeles, gaining them illegal entry to an affluent public school. When she enters a state hospital, her closest friend tries to keep the children safe and their mother’s dreams for them alive. Moving from Berkeley and Los Angeles to New York and back again, this is a story about one family trying to navigate the crisis of their lives, a crisis many know firsthand in their own families or in those of their neighbors.
Vintage | 9780593312964

THE DIARY KEEPERS: World War II Written by the People Who Lived Through It by Nina Siegal (History)
Journalist Nina Siegal, who grew up in a family that had survived the Holocaust in Europe, had always wondered about the experience of regular people during World War II. She had heard stories of the war as a child and Anne Frank’s diary, but the tales were either crafted as moral lessons --- to never waste food, to be grateful for all you receive, to hide your silver --- or told with a punchline. The details of the past went untold in an effort to make it easier to assimilate into American life. When Siegal moved to Amsterdam as an adult, those questions came up again, as did another horrifying one: Why did 75% of the Dutch Jewish community perish in the war, while in other Western European countries the proportions were significantly lower?
Ecco | 9780063070660

THE DRIFT by C. J. Tudor (Gothic Thriller/Horror)
Evacuated from a secluded boarding school during a snowstorm, Hannah’s coach careers off the road, trapping her with a handful of survivors. Meg is in a cable car stranded high above snowy mountains, with five strangers and no memory of how they got on board. They are heading to a place known only as “The Retreat,” but Meg realizes they may not all make it there alive. Carter is gazing out the window of an isolated ski chalet that he and his companions call home. As their generator begins to waver in the storm, their fragile bonds will be tested when the power finally fails. The imminent dangers faced by Hannah, Meg and Carter are each one part of the puzzle. Lurking in their shadows is an even greater danger --- one with the power to consume all of humanity.
Ballantine Books | 9780593356586

EXILES by Jane Harper (Mystery/Thriller)
Federal Investigator Aaron Falk is on his way to a small town deep in Southern Australian wine country for the christening of an old friend's baby. But mystery follows him, even on vacation. This weekend marks the one-year anniversary of Kim Gillespie's disappearance. One year ago, at a busy town festival on a warm spring night, Kim safely tucked her sleeping baby into her stroller, then vanished into the crowd. No one has seen her since. When Kim's older daughter makes a plea for anyone with information about her missing mom to come forward, Falk and his old buddy Raco can't leave the case alone. What would make a mother abandon her child? What happened to Kim Gillespie?
Flatiron Books | 9781250235367

FIFTY BEASTS TO BREAK YOUR HEART: And Other Stories by GennaRose Nethercott (Fantasy/Short Stories)
Paperback Original
These stories are about the abomination that resides within us all. That churning, clawing, ravenous yearning: the hunger to be held, and seen, and known. And the terror, too: to be loved too well, or not enough, or for long enough. Two teenage girls working at a sinister roadside attraction explore its secrets --- and their own doomed summer love. A zombie rooster plays detective in a missing persons case. A woman moves into a new house with her acclaimed artist boyfriend --- and finds her body slowly shifting into something specially constructed to accommodate his needs and whims. A pack of middle schoolers turn to the occult to rid themselves of a hated new classmate. And a pair of outcasts, a vampire and a goat woman, find solace in each other, even as the world's lack of understanding might bring about its own end.
Vintage | 9780593314180

THE HOUSE OF EVE by Sadeqa Johnson (Historical Fiction)
1950s Philadelphia: Fifteen-year-old Ruby Pearsall is on track to becoming the first in her family to attend college. But a taboo love affair threatens to pull her back down into the poverty and desperation that has been passed on to her like a birthright. When Eleanor Quarles meets the handsome William Pride at Howard University, they fall madly in love. But William hails from one of DC’s elite wealthy Black families, and his parents don’t let just anyone into their fold. Eleanor hopes that a baby will make her finally feel at home in William’s family and grant her the life she’s been searching for. But having a baby --- and fitting in --- is easier said than done. With their stories colliding in the most unexpected of ways, Ruby and Eleanor will make decisions that shape the trajectory of their lives.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982197377

THE HOUSE OF LINCOLN by Nancy Horan (Historical Fiction)
THE HOUSE OF LINCOLN tells the story of Abraham Lincoln's ascendance from rumpled lawyer to U.S. president to Great Emancipator through the eyes of a young immigrant who arrives in Lincoln's home of Springfield, Illinois, from Madeira, Portugal. Showing intelligence beyond society's expectations, 14-year-old Ana Ferreira is offered a job in the Lincoln household assisting Mary Lincoln with their boys and with the hosting duties borne by the wife of a rising political star. Ana bears witness to the evolution of Lincoln's views on equality and the Union, and observes in full complexity the psyche and pain of his bold, polarizing wife. Yet, alongside her dearest friend in the Black community, she also directly experiences how slavery contradicts the promise of freedom in her adopted country.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781728282114

I WILL FIND YOU by Harlan Coben (Thriller)
David Burroughs was once a devoted father to his three-year-old son Matthew, living a dream life just a short drive away from the working-class suburb where he and his wife, Cheryl, first fell in love --- until one fateful night when David woke suddenly to discover Matthew had been murdered. Half a decade later, David has been wrongly accused and convicted of the murder, left to serve out his time in a maximum-security prison. Then Cheryl’s younger sister, Rachel, makes a surprise appearance during visiting hours bearing a strange photograph. It’s a vacation shot of a bustling amusement park a friend shared with her, and in the background is a boy bearing an eerie resemblance to David’s son. Even though it can’t be, David just knows: Matthew is still alive.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538748381

THE KIND WORTH SAVING by Peter Swanson (Mystery/Thriller)
There was always something slightly dangerous about Joan. So when she turns up at private investigator Henry Kimball’s office asking him to investigate her husband, he can’t help feeling ill at ease. Just the sight of her stirs up a chilling memory: He knew Joan in his previous life as a high school English teacher, when he was at the center of a tragedy. Now Joan needs his help in proving that her husband is cheating. But what should be a simple case of infidelity becomes much more complicated when Kimball finds two bodies in an uninhabited suburban home with a FOR SALE sign out front. Suddenly it feels like the past is repeating itself, and Henry must go back to one of the worst days of his life to uncover the truth.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063204997

THE LAST ORPHAN: An Orphan X Novel by Gregg Hurwitz (Thriller)
As a child, Evan Smoak was raised and trained as an off-the-books assassin for the government as part of the Orphan program. When he broke with the program, he remade himself as The Nowhere Man, dedicated to helping the most desperate in their times of trouble, and found himself slowly back on the government's radar. But Orphan X has always been several steps ahead of his pursuers. Until he makes one little mistake. Now the President has him in her control and offers Evan a deal --- eliminate a rich, powerful man she says is too dangerous to live, and she'll let Evan survive. But when Evan left the Program, he swore to only use his skills against those who really deserve it. Now he has to decide what's more important --- his principles or his life.
Minotaur Books | 9781250336538

LONE WOMEN by Victor LaValle (Historical Thriller/Supernatural Horror)
Adelaide Henry carries an enormous steamer trunk with her wherever she goes. It’s locked at all times. Because when the trunk opens, people around Adelaide start to disappear. The year is 1915, and Adelaide is in trouble. Her secret sin killed her parents, forcing her to flee California in a hellfire rush and make her way to Montana as a homesteader. Dragging the trunk with her at every stop, she will become one of the “lone women” taking advantage of the government’s offer of free land for those who can tame it --- except that Adelaide isn’t alone. And the secret she’s tried so desperately to lock away might be the only thing that will help her survive the harsh territory.
One World | 9780525512103

THE LOVE SCRIBE by Amy Meyerson (Fiction)
When Alice’s best friend, Gabby, is reeling from a breakup, Alice writes her a heartfelt story to cheer her up. While reading it in a café, Gabby meets the man of her dreams. Thinking the story might have some special power to it, Gabby shares it with her sister and other friends, who all find instant love. Word of mouth spreads, and Alice stumbles upon a new calling --- to be a love scribe. But not all the love stories she writes unfold as expected. And while Alice tries to harness her extraordinary gift, she is summoned to a mansion in the woods where she encounters the reclusive Madeline Alger and her mysterious library. As Alice struggles to write a story for Madeline, her most challenging assignment yet, she’s forced to confront her own guarded heart.
Park Row | 9780778310778

MAAME by Jessica George (Fiction)
It’s fair to say that Maddie’s life in London is far from rewarding. With a mother who spends most of her time in Ghana (yet still somehow manages to be overbearing), Maddie is the primary caretaker for her father, who suffers from advanced stage Parkinson’s. At work, her boss is a nightmare and Maddie is tired of always being the only Black person in every meeting. So when her mum returns from her latest trip to Ghana, Maddie seizes the chance to move out of the family home and finally start living. A self-acknowledged late bloomer, she’s ready to experience some important “firsts.” But when tragedy strikes, Maddie is forced to face the true nature of her unconventional family, and the perils --- and rewards --- of putting her heart on the line.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250853738

MORE THAN MEETS THE EYE by Iris Johansen and Roy Johansen (Mystery/Thriller)
After scoring a plea deal in a high-profile murder trial, serial killer James Michael Barrett leads a grim parade of law enforcement officers to the body of his last victim. At the alleged burial site, the officers swing their shovels down and are met with a strange metallic sound they weren’t expecting. In a blink, a terrific explosion rocks the woods, killing Barrett and most of the officers instantly. The detonation is only the beginning of a shocking case for FBI consultant Kendra Michaels. A string of heinous murders in the style of the very-dead Barrett mysteriously continue, and it becomes clear that he may not have been working alone. But the killer has a terrifying plan that Kendra and her team are only beginning to understand.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538726242

NIGHT FLIGHT TO PARIS: A Kate Rees WWII Novel by Cara Black (Historical Thriller)
October 1942: It’s been two years since Kate Rees was sent to Paris on a British Secret Service mission to assassinate Hitler. Since then, she has left spycraft behind to take a training job as a sharpshooting instructor in the Scottish Highlands. But her quiet life is violently disrupted when Colonel Stepney, her former handler, drags her back into the fray for a risky three-pronged mission in Paris. Each task is more dangerous than the next: Deliver a package of forbidden biological material. Assassinate a high-ranking German operative whose knowledge of invasion plans could turn the tide of the war against the Allies. Rescue a British agent who once saved Kate’s life --- and get out.
Soho Crime | 9781641295666

QUEENS OF LONDON by Heather Webb (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
1925, London. When Alice Diamond, aka "Diamond Annie," is elected the Queen of the Forty Elephants, she's determined to take the all-girl gang to new heights. She has a plan to create a dynasty the likes of which no one has ever seen and demands absolute loyalty from her "family" --- it's how she's always kept the cops in line. Too bad she's now the target for one of Britain's first female policewomen. Officer Lilian Wyles isn't merely one of the first female detectives at Scotland Yard, she's one of the best detectives on the force. Even so, she'll have to win a big score to prove herself. When she hears about the large-scale heist in the works to fund Alice's new dynasty, she realizes she has the chance she's been looking for --- and the added bonus of putting Diamond Annie out of business permanently.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781728245003

A SINISTER REVENGE: A Veronica Speedwell Mystery by Deanna Raybourn (Historical Mystery)
Veronica Speedwell’s natural-historian beau, Stoker, has been away in Bavaria for months, and their relationship is at an impasse. But when Veronica shows up before him with his brother, Tiberius, Lord Templeton-Vane, he is lured back home by an intriguing job offer: preparing an iguanodon for a very special dinner party. Tiberius has received a cryptic message --- along with the obituaries of two recently deceased members of his old group of friends, the Seven Sinners --- that he too should get his affairs in order. Realizing he is in grave danger but not knowing why, he plans a reunion party for the remaining Sinners at his family estate to lure the killer out while Veronica and Stoker investigate. As the guests arrive and settle in, the evening’s events turn deadly.
Berkley | 9780593545935

SMOKE KINGS by Jahmal Mayfield (Noir Thriller)
Paperback Original
Nate Evers, a young Black political activist, struggles with rage as his people are still being killed in the streets 62 years after Emmett Till. When his little cousin is murdered, Nate leads three grief-stricken friends on a mission of retribution --- kidnapping the descendants of long-ago perpetrators of hate crimes, confronting the targets with their racist lineages, and forcing them to pay reparations to a community fund. For three of the group members, the results mean justice; for Nate, it’s pure revenge. Not all targets go quietly into the night, though, and Nate and his friends' world spirals out of control when they confront the wrong man. Now the leader of a white supremacist group is hot on their tail, as is a jaded lawman with some disturbingly racist views of his own.
Melville House | 9781685891114

SOMEDAY, MAYBE by Onyi Nwabineli (Fiction)
Here are three things you should know about my husband: 1) He was the great love of my life despite his penchant for going incommunicado, 2) He was, as far as I and everyone else could tell, perfectly happy. Which is significant because… 3) On New Year’s Eve, he killed himself. And here is one thing you should know about me: I found him. Bonus fact: No. I am not okay. SOMEDAY, MAYBE is a debut novel about a young woman’s emotional journey through unimaginable loss, pulled along by her tight-knit Nigerian family, a posse of friends, and the love and laughter she shared with her husband.
Graydon House | 9781525809828

A SPELL OF GOOD THINGS by Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ (Fiction)
Wuraola is a golden girl, the perfect child of a wealthy family. Now an exhausted young doctor in her first year of practice, she is beloved by Kunle, the volatile son of an ascendant politician. Eniola is tall for his age, a boy who looks like a man. Because his father has lost his job, Eniola spends his days running errands for the local tailor, collecting newspapers, begging when he must and dreaming of a big future. When a local politician takes an interest in Eniola and sudden violence shatters a family party, Wuraola's and Eniola’s lives become intertwined. In A SPELL OF GOOD THINGS, Ayọ̀bámi Adébáyọ̀ shines her light on Nigeria, the gaping divide between the haves and the have-nots, and the shared humanity that lives in between.
Vintage | 9781984898883

THE TEACHER by Freida McFadden (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Eve has a good life. She gets up each day, gets a kiss from her husband Nate, and heads off to teach math at the local high school. All is as it should be. Last year, though, Caseham High was rocked by a scandal involving a student-teacher affair, with one student, Addie, at its center. But Eve knows there is far more to these ugly rumors than meets the eye. Addie can't be trusted. She lies. She hurts people. She destroys lives. At least, that's what everyone says. But nobody knows the real Addie. Nobody knows the secrets that could destroy her. And Addie will do anything to keep it quiet.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781728296210

THE UNCHARTED FLIGHT OF OLIVIA WEST by Sara Ackerman (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
1927. When Olivia "Livy" West learns of the Dole Air Race --- a high-stakes contest to be the first to make the 2,400-mile Pacific crossing from the West Coast to Hawaii --- she sets her sights on qualifying. But it soon becomes clear that only men will make the cut. Livy manages to be picked as a navigator for one of the pilots, before setting out on a harrowing journey that some will not survive. 1987. Wren Summers has inherited a remote piece of land on the Big Island with nothing on it but a dilapidated barn and an overgrown mac nut grove. She plans on selling it but is drawn in by the mysterious objects kept in the barn by her late great-uncle. Determined to find out what really happened all those years ago, Wren enlists the help of residents at a nearby retirement home to uncover Olivia’s story piece by piece.
Mira | 9780778369516

UP WITH THE SUN by Thomas Mallon (Crime Fiction)
Dick Kallman was an up-and-coming actor in the ’50s and ’60s --- until he wasn’t. A costar on Broadway, a member of Lucille Ball’s historic Desilu workshop, and finally a primetime TV actor, Dick had hustled to get his big break. But just as soon as his star began to rise, his roles began to dry up and he faded from the spotlight, his name out of tabloids and newspapers until his sensational murder in 1980. Through the eyes of his occasional pianist and longtime acquaintance Matt Liannetto, a tenderhearted but wry observer often on the fringes of Broadway’s big moments, Kallman’s life and death come into appallingly sharp focus.
Vintage | 9780525565918

WALK THE BLUE LINE: Real Cops, True Stories by James Patterson and Matt Eversmann, with Chris Mooney (Biography)
Police officers risk their lives every day to protect and serve our homes, families and communities. These men and women are our eyes. Our ears. Our protectors. Those who wear a badge, doing their best to help people. These cops serve their communities. They serve their country. They’re in the business of saving lives --- even at the risk of their own. These patrol officers and K9 handlers, sheriffs and detectives, reveal what it’s really like to wear the uniform, to carry the weight of the responsibility they’ve been given. This is a calling. This is the job.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538710869

WE ARE TOO MANY: A Memoir [Kind of] by Hannah Pittard (Memoir)
In this wryly humorous and innovative look at a marriage gone wrong, Hannah Pittard recalls a decade’s worth of unforgettable conversations, beginning with the one in which she discovers her husband has been having sex with her charismatic best friend, Trish. These time-jumping exchanges are fast-paced, intimate and often jaw-dropping in their willingness to reveal the vulnerabilities inherent in any friendship or marriage. Blending fact and fiction, sometimes recreating exchanges with extreme accuracy and sometimes diving headlong into pure speculation, Pittard takes stock not only of her own past and future but also of the larger, more universal experiences they connect with --- from the depths of female rage to the heartbreaking ways we inevitably outgrow certain people.
Holt Paperbacks | 9781250869067

WHAT IS MINE by Lyn Liao Butler (Domestic Thriller)
Paperback Original
Hope Chen and her husband are raising her nine-year-old nephew, Luca, in the wake of his troubled mother’s death. One day, Luca and his dog disappear without a trace. Guilt-ridden, fearing the worst but praying for the best, Hope finds her imagination running wild. Meanwhile, a woman with dangerous secrets to keep buried will do anything to protect her marriage. In one fleeting instant, it’s all within her reach. She finally can give her husband the one thing that will make him love her again. Hope will do anything to get Luca back. The other woman will do anything to stop Hope. As Hope’s search grows more desperate and the other woman’s plans more twisted, their lives collide in an explosive battle of wits. With a boy caught in the middle, nothing on this deadly path of love and revenge is what it seems.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781662513008

WHEN GRUMPY MET SUNSHINE by Charlotte Stein (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
When grumpy ex-footballer Alfie Harding gets badgered into selling his memoirs, he knows he’s never going to be able to write them. So in walks curvy, cheery and cute as heck ghostwriter Mabel Willicker, who knows just how to sunshine and sass her way into getting every little detail out of Alfie. They banter and bicker their way to writing his life story, both of them sure they’ll never be anything other than at odds. But after their business arrangement is mistaken for a budding romance, the pair have to pretend to be an item for a public who’s ravenous for more of this Cinderella story. Or at least it feels like it’s pretend --- until each slow-burn step in their fake relationship sparks a heat neither can control. Is this sizzling chemistry just for show? Or something so real it might just give them their fairy tale ending?
St. Martin's Griffin | 9781250867933

WHEN THE MOON TURNS BLUE by Pamela Terry (Fiction)
On the morning after Harry Cline’s funeral, a rare ice storm hits the town of Wesleyan, Georgia. The community wakes up to find its controversial statue of Confederate general Henry Benning destroyed --- and not by the weather. Half the town had wanted to remove the statue; the other half had wanted to preserve it. Now that the matter has been taken out of their hands, the town’s long-simmering tensions are laid bare. Without Harry beside her, Marietta is left to question many of her preconceived ideas about her friends and family. She longs to salvage these connections, but the world is changing and the divides can no longer be ignored.
Ballantine Books | 9780593359228

On Sale the Week of February 12th in Hardcover

February 12th

CROSSHAIRS: A Michael Bennett Thriller by James Patterson and James O. Born (Psychological Thriller)
A killer uses fearsome precision to take out impossible targets. Detective Michael Bennett teams with a shooting expert --- a former Army Ranger and sniper with NYPD’s Emergency Services Unit. But Officer Rob Trilling seems more comfortable with rifles than he is with people. When his new partner begins to log unexplained absences from duty, only Bennett can prove whether the decorated officer is a lonely hunter or a hardened assassin.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316403382

February 13th

THE BOOK OF DOORS by Gareth Brown (Fantasy/Adventure)
Cassie Andrews works in a New York City bookshop and lives an unassuming, ordinary life. Until the day one of her favorite customers --- a lonely yet charming old man --- dies right in front of her. She always loved his stories, and now she has nothing to remember him by. Nothing but the last book he was reading. But this is no ordinary book. It is the Book of Doors. Inscribed with enigmatic words and mysterious drawings, it promises Cassie that any door is every door. You just need to know how to open them. Then she’s approached by a gaunt stranger who calls himself Drummond Fox. He’s a librarian who keeps watch over a unique set of rare volumes. The tome now in Cassie’s possession is not the only book with great power, but it is the one most coveted by those who collect them. Now Cassie is being hunted by those few who know of the Special Books.
William Morrow | 9780063323988

THE BOOK OF LOVE by Kelly Link (Paranormal Urban Fantasy)
Late one night, Laura, Daniel and Mo find themselves beneath the fluorescent lights of a high school classroom, almost a year after disappearing from their hometown, the small seaside community of Lovesend, Massachusetts, having long been presumed dead. Which, in fact, they are. With them in the room is their previously unremarkable high school music teacher, who seems to know something about their disappearance --- and what has brought them back again. Desperate to reclaim their lives, the three agree to the terms of the bargain their music teacher proposes. They will be given a series of magical tasks. While they undertake them, they may return to their families and friends, but they can tell no one where they’ve been. But their resurrection has attracted the notice of other supernatural figures, all with their own agendas.
Random House | 9780812996586

DEATH OF A SPY: A Hamish Macbeth Murder Mystery by M. C. Beaton with R.W. Green (Mystery)
Sergeant Hamish Macbeth is worried about how the locals will react to his new assistant officer. The officer is none other than the enigmatic American James Bland, who is on an exchange scheme from his home city of Chicago, supposedly to study policing methods in Scotland. Hamish knows that this is far from the truth. Having recently become involved in identifying a Russian spy ring to solve a murder, he is aware that Bland’s mission is to track down the members of the spy network still at large. Bland trusts Hamish to help him find all of those who may have been, or may still be, in league with the Russians. In the meantime, a spate of burglaries and robberies committed by a man described as having a gold tooth and a spider’s web tattoo on his neck give Hamish cause for serious concern.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538743300

THE FORTUNE SELLER by Rachel Kapelke-Dale (Mystery/Thriller)
Middle-class Rosie Macalister has worked for years to fit in with her wealthy friends on the Yale equestrian team. But when she comes back from her junior year abroad with newfound confidence, she finds that the group has been infiltrated by a mysterious intruder: Annelise Tattinger. A talented tarot reader and a brilliant rider, the enigmatic Annelise is unlike anyone Rosie has ever met. But when one of their friends notices money disappearing from her bank account, Annelise's place in the circle is thrown into question. As the girls turn against each other, the group’s unspoken tensions and assumptions lead to devastating consequences. It's only after graduation, when Rosie begins a job at a Manhattan hedge fund, that she uncovers Annelise's true identity --- and how her place in their elite Yale set was no accident.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250286130

THE FOX WIFE by Yangsze Choo (Historical Fiction)
Manchuria, 1908. In the last years of the dying Qing Empire, a courtesan is found frozen in a doorway. Her death is clouded by rumors of foxes, which are believed to lure people by transforming themselves into beautiful women and handsome men. Bao, a detective with an uncanny ability to sniff out the truth, is hired to uncover the dead woman’s identity. Since childhood, Bao has been intrigued by the fox gods, yet they’ve remained tantalizingly out of reach. Until, perhaps, now. Meanwhile, a family who owns a famous Chinese medicine shop can cure ailments but can’t escape the curse that afflicts them --- their eldest sons die before their 24th birthdays. When a disruptively winsome servant named Snow enters their household, the family’s luck seems to change. Or does it?
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250266019

THE FRAMED WOMEN OF ARDEMORE HOUSE by Brandy Schillace (Mystery)
Jo Jones has always had a little trouble fitting in. As a neurodivergent, hyperlexic book editor and divorced New Yorker transplanted into the English countryside, Jo doesn’t know what stands out more: her Americanisms or her autism. After losing her job, her mother and her marriage all in one year, she couldn’t be happier to take possession of a possibly haunted (and clearly unwanted) family estate in North Yorkshire. But when the body of the moody town groundskeeper turns up on her rug with three bullets in his back, Jo finds herself in potential danger --- and she’s also a potential suspect. At the same time, a peculiar family portrait vanishes from a secret room in the manor, bearing a strange connection to both the dead body and Jo’s mysterious family history.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335014030

THE IMPOSITION OF UNNECESSARY OBSTACLES by Malka Older (Science Fiction/Mystery)
Mossa has returned to Valdegeld on a missing person’s case, for which she’ll once again need Pleiti’s insight. Seventeen students and staff members have disappeared from Valdegeld University, yet no one has noticed. The answers to this case may lie on the moon of Io --- Mossa’s home --- and the history of Jupiter’s original settlements during humanity's exodus from Earth. But Pleiti’s faith in her life’s work as a scholar of the past has grown precarious, and this new case threatens to further destabilize her dreams for humanity’s future, as well as her own.
Tordotcom | 9781250906793

THE KAMOGAWA FOOD DETECTIVES written by Hisashi Kashiwai, translated by Jesse Kirkwood (Mystery)
Down a quiet backstreet in Kyoto exists a very special restaurant. Run by Koishi Kamogawa and her father Nagare, the Kamogawa Diner serves up deliciously extravagant meals. But that's not the main reason customers stop by. The father-daughter duo are “food detectives.” Through ingenious investigations, they are able to recreate dishes from a person’s treasured memories --- dishes that may well hold the keys to their forgotten past and future happiness. The restaurant of lost recipes provides a link to vanished moments, creating a present full of possibility.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593717714

THE LANTERN'S DANCE: A Novel of Suspense Featuring Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes by Laurie R. King (Historical Mystery)
Mary Russell and Sherlock Holmes look forward to spending time with Holmes’ son, the famous artist Damian Adler, and his family. But when they arrive at Damian’s house, they learn that the Adlers have fled from a mysterious threat. Holmes rushes after Damian, while Russell stays behind to search the empty house. In Damian’s studio, she discovers four crates packed with memorabilia related to Holmes’ grand-uncle, the artist Horace Vernet. There’s also an old journal written in a nearly impenetrable code. She slowly realizes that each entry is built around an image --- the first of which is a child, bundled into a carriage by an abductor, watching her mother recede from view. Who is the young Indian woman who created this elaborate puzzle? What does she have to do with Damian, or the Vernets --- or the threat hovering over the house?
Bantam | 9780593496596

THE LAST DAYS OF THE MIDNIGHT RAMBLERS by Sarah Tomlinson (Fiction)
A legendary model and style icon, Anke Berben reveled in headline-grabbing romances with three members of the hugely influential rock band the Midnight Ramblers. The band members were as famous for their backstage drama as for their music, and Anke is the only one who fully understands the tangled relationships, betrayals and suspicions that have added to the Ramblers’ enduring appeal and mystique. That is most evident in the mystery around Anke’s role in the death of Mal, the band’s founder and Anke’s husband, in 1969. When Mari Hawthorn accepts the job to work with Anke on her memoir, she is dead set on getting to the truth of Mal’s death. As she ingratiates herself into the world of the band, she grows enchanted, against her better judgment, by these legendary rock stars.
Flatiron Books | 9781250890481

LEAVING by Roxana Robinson (Fiction)
Sarah and Warren’s college love story ended in a single moment. Decades later, when a chance meeting brings them together, a passion ignites. Since they parted in college, each has married, raised a family and made a career. When they meet again, Sarah is divorced and living outside New York, while Warren is still married and living in Boston. Seeing Warren sparks an awakening in Sarah, who feels emotionally alive for the first time in decades. Still, she hesitates to reclaim a chance at love after her painful divorce and years of framing her life around her children and her work. Warren has no such reservations: he wants to leave his marriage but can’t predict how his wife and daughter will react. As their affair intensifies, Sarah and Warren must confront the moral responsibilities of their love for their families and each other.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324065388

LONE WOLF: An Orphan X Novel by Gregg Hurwitz (Thriller)
Once a black ops government assassin known as Orphan X, Evan Smoak left the Program, went deep underground, and reinvented himself as someone who will go anywhere and risk everything to help the truly desperate. Since then, Evan has fought international crime syndicates and drug cartels, faced down the most powerful people in the world, and even brought down a president. Now struggling with an unexpected personal crisis, Evan goes back to the very basics of his mission. This time, the truly desperate is a little girl who wants him to find her missing dog. This unlikely, tiny job quickly explodes into his biggest mission yet, one that finds him battered between twisted AI technocrat billionaires, a mysterious female assassin who seems a mirror of himself, and personal stakes so gut-wrenching he can scarcely make sense of them.
Minotaur Books | 9781250871732

MEDEA by Eilish Quin (Historical Fiction)
Known for the brutal act of killing her own children to exact vengeance on her deceitful husband, the Argonauts leader Jason, Medea has carved out a singularly infamous niche in our histories. But what if that isn’t the full story? The daughter of a sea nymph and the granddaughter of a Titan, Medea is a paradox. She is at once rendered compelling by virtue of the divinity that flows through her bloodline and made powerless by the fact of her being a woman. As a child, she intuitively submerges herself in witchcraft and sorcery, but soon finds it may not be a match for the prophecies that hang over her entire family like a shroud. As Medea comes into her own as a woman and a witch, she also faces the arrival of the hero Jason, preordained by the gods to be not only her husband, but also her lifeline to escape her isolated existence.
Atria Books | 9781668020760

A MURDER IN HOLLYWOOD: The Untold Story of Tinseltown's Most Shocking Crime by Casey Sherman (True Crime)
Hollywood starlet Lana Turner seemed to have it all --- a thriving film career, a beautiful daughter, and the kind of fame and fortune that most people could only dream of. But when the famous femme fatale began dating mobster Johnny Stompanato, her personal life became violent and unpredictable. Lana's teenage daughter, Cheryl, watched her beloved mother's life deteriorate as Stompanato's intense jealousy took over. Eventually, the physical and emotional abuse became too much to bear, and Lana attempted to break it off with Johnny --- with disastrous consequences. The details of what happened that fateful night remain foggy, but it ended in a series of frantic phone calls and Stompanato dead on Lana's bedroom floor, with Cheryl claiming to have plunged a knife into his abdomen in an attempt to protect her mother.
Sourcebooks | 9781728276502

MY SIDE OF THE RIVER: A Memoir by Elizabeth Camarillo Gutierrez (Memoir)
Born to Mexican immigrants south of the Rillito River in Tucson, Arizona, Elizabeth had the world at her fingertips. She was preparing to enter her freshman year of high school as the number one student when her own country suddenly took away the most important right a child has: the right to have a family. When her parents’ visas expired and they were forced to return to Mexico, Elizabeth was left responsible for her younger brother, as well as her education. Even though her parents couldn’t stay, there was no way she could let go of the opportunities the U.S. could provide. Armed with only her passport, Elizabeth became what her school would eventually describe as an unaccompanied homeless youth, one of thousands of underage victims affected by family separation due to broken immigration laws.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250277954

ORIGINAL SINS by Erin Young (Thriller)
It’s a brutal winter in Des Moines, Iowa, and the city is gripped by fear. A serial attacker known as the Sin Eater is stalking women and has just struck again. It’s a tough time and a tough place for Riley Fisher, a former small-town sergeant, to be reporting for duty as an FBI agent on her first assignment. Teamed with a man she’s not sure she can trust and struggling to prove herself --- while fighting the pull of her old life and family dramas --- Riley is tasked with investigating a vicious death threat against the newly elected female state governor. Gradually, she traces a disturbing connection between this case and the hunt for the Sin Eater. Through snow, ice, violence and lies, Riley Fisher is drawn towards a terrifying revelation.
Flatiron Books | 9781250799425

SIMPLY THE BEST: A Chicago Stars Novel by Susan Elizabeth Phillips (Romantic Comedy/Mystery)
Brett Rivers is the hottest sports agent in the business. Rory Garrett is a disaster. She has a big heart, an empty bank account, a passion for making exquisite chocolate, and a huge inferiority complex from living in the shadow of Brett’s most important client, her football legend brother. Brett and Rory never should have met, and they never should have had to deal with the consequences of one stupid, drunken night, one disastrous lie, one career in jeopardy, one missing football player…and a very dead body. To Rory, Brett represents skewed values and a devious mind. To Brett, Rory is forbidden fruit who is off limits. A woman who has succeeded at nothing and a man who has succeeded at everything confront the challenge of their lives as they struggle with themselves and each other.
Avon | 9780063248564

SMOKE AND ASHES: Opium's Hidden Histories by Amitav Ghosh (History/Memoir)
When Amitav Ghosh began the research for his monumental cycle of novels, the Ibis Trilogy, 10 years ago, he was startled to learn how the lives of the 19th-century sailors and soldiers he wrote about were dictated not only by the currents of the Indian Ocean but also by the precious commodity carried in enormous quantities on those currents: opium. Most surprising of all, however, was the discovery that his own identity and family history were swept up in the story. SMOKE AND ASHES is at once a travelogue, a memoir and an essay in history, drawing on decades of archival research. In it, Ghosh traces the transformative effect the opium trade had on Britain, India and China, as well as the world at large.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374602925

THE SPLIT by Kit Frick (Domestic Thriller)
Jane Connor is resigned to being the “plain Jane” of her family --- pragmatic and dependable --- so unlike her beautiful and impetuous younger sister, Esme. When Esme calls Jane during a flash summer storm, announcing she has left her high-society husband, Jane is shocked to learn that her sister wishes to stay with her. Could this be an opportunity for them to become close again? The only catch: Esme needs a ride from the city to their small Connecticut hometown, and Jane is terrified of getting on the highway…because of what she did when they were teens. Jane must either let Esme stand on her own two feet for once or jump to her flighty younger sister’s rescue --- and her choice cleaves her life in two.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781668022474

THE SUMMER BOOK CLUB by Susan Mallery (Fiction)
Besties Laurel and Paris are excited to welcome Cassie to the group. This year, the book club is all about fill-your-heart reads, an escape from the chaos of the everyday --- running a business, raising a family, juggling a hundred to-dos. Since Laurel’s divorce, she feels like the Worst Mom Ever. Her skepticism of men may have scarred her vulnerable daughters. Cassie has an unfortunate habit of falling for ridiculous man-boys who dump her once she fixes them. Paris knows good men exist. She’s still reeling after chasing off the only one brave enough --- and foolish enough --- to marry her. Inspired by the heroines who risk everything for fulfillment, Laurel, Paris and Cassie begin to take big chances in life and in love. Facing an unwritten chapter can be terrifying. But it also can be exhilarating if only they can find the courage to change.
Canary Street Press | 9781335448668

VILLAGE IN THE DARK by Iris Yamashita (Mystery/Thriller)
On a frigid February day, Anchorage Detective Cara Kennedy stands by the graves of her husband and son, watching as their caskets are raised from the earth. It feels sacrilegious, but she has no choice. Aaron and Dylan disappeared on a hike a year ago, their bones eventually found and buried. But shocking clues have emerged that foul play was involved, potentially connecting them to a string of other deaths and disappearances. Somehow tied to the mystery is Mia Upash, who grew up in an isolated village called Unity, a community of women and children in hiding from abusive men. Mia never imagined the trouble she would find herself in when she left home to live in Man’s World. Although she remains haunted by the tragedy of what happened to the man and the boy in the woods, she has her own reasons for keeping quiet.
Berkley | 9780593336700

THE WARM HANDS OF GHOSTS by Katherine Arden (Historical Fantasy)
January 1918. Laura Iven was a revered field nurse until she was wounded and discharged from the medical corps, leaving behind a brother still fighting in Flanders. Now home in Halifax, Canada, Laura receives word of Freddie’s death in combat, but something doesn’t make sense. Determined to uncover the truth, she returns to Belgium as a volunteer at a private hospital. Could Freddie have escaped the battlefield, only to fall prey to something --- or someone --- else? November 1917. Freddie Iven awakens after an explosion to find himself trapped in an overturned pillbox with a wounded enemy soldier. Against all odds, the two form an alliance and succeed in clawing their way out. They take refuge with a mysterious man who seems to have the power to make the hellscape of the trenches disappear.
Del Rey | 9780593128251

WHAT FEASTS AT NIGHT by T. Kingfisher (Horror)
After their terrifying ordeal at the Usher manor, Alex Easton feels as if they just survived another war. All they crave is rest, routine and sunshine. Instead, as a favor to Angus and Miss Potter, they find themself heading to their family hunting lodge, deep in the cold, damp forests of their home country, Gallacia. In theory, one can find relaxation in even the coldest and dampest of Gallacian autumns. But when Easton arrives, they find the caretaker dead, the lodge in disarray, and the grounds troubled by a strange, uncanny silence. The villagers whisper that a breath-stealing monster from folklore has taken up residence in Easton’s home. Easton knows better than to put too much stock in local superstitions, but they can tell that something is not quite right in their home…or in their dreams.
Tor Nightfire | 9781250830852

A WILD AND HEAVENLY PLACE by Robin Oliveira (Historical Fiction)
Hailey MacIntyre seems conjured from the depths of Samuel Fiddes’ loneliness. Caring for his young sister in the tenements of Glasgow, Scotland, Samuel has known only hunger, while Hailey has never known want. Yet, when Samuel saves Hailey’s brother from a runaway carriage, their connection is undeniable. But then the City of Glasgow Bank fails, and Hailey’s bankrupt father impulsively moves their family across the globe to Seattle. Samuel is haunted by Hailey’s parting words: Remember, Washington Territory. Armed only with his wits, he determines to follow her, leaving behind everything he has ever known in search of Hailey and the chance of a better life for his sister. But the fledgling town barely cut out of the wilderness holds its own secrets and will test them all in ways unimaginable.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593543856

On Sale the Week of February 12th in Paperback

February 13th

AFTER THAT NIGHT by Karin Slaughter (Mystery/Thriller)
Fifteen years ago, Sara Linton’s life changed forever when a celebratory night out ended in a violent attack that tore her world apart. Since then, Sara has remade her life. A successful doctor, engaged to a man she loves, she finally has managed to leave the past behind her. Until one evening, on call in the ER, everything changes. Sara battles to save a broken young woman who’s been brutally attacked. But as the investigation progresses, led by GBI Special Agent Will Trent, it becomes clear that Dani Cooper’s assault is uncannily linked to Sara’s. And the past isn’t going to stay buried forever.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063157798

AT FIRST SPITE: A Harlot's Bay Novel by Olivia Dade (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
When Athena Greydon’s fiancé ends their engagement, she has no choice but to move into the Spite House she recklessly bought him as a wedding gift. Dr. Matthew Vine the Freaking Third --- aka the uptight, judgy jerk who convinced his younger brother to leave her --- is living on her other side. Unfortunately, loathing Matthew proves more difficult than anticipated. He helps her move. He listens. And he’s kind of…hot? Matthew may not regret ending his brother's engagement, but he does regret what the breakup has done to Athena. He'll help her in any way he can. She’ll never forgive him, though. Even if she did, how could he ever tell his beloved younger brother the truth --- that Matthew wants the very same woman he encouraged Johnny to leave?
Avon | 9780063215917

AT THE RIVER by Kendra Elliot (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
Twenty years ago, five teenage campers disappeared. Two eventually turned up, bound and left for dead on the Columbia River’s rocky shore. Only Devin Bonner miraculously survived, but with no memories of what happened in the Oregon forest. FBI Special Agent Mercy Kilpatrick and her husband, Police Chief Truman Daly, are investigating the murder of a true-crime podcaster found at the river’s edge in the same location, and with the exact same manner of death. With the discovery, Devin’s nightmares return. His only real friend is Ollie Smith, Truman’s orphaned ward, whose own search for the truth sucks Ollie into a mystery far greater and more dangerous than anyone imagined. Mercy and Truman must work fast to unlock whatever traumas are buried in Devin’s memories before the secrets of the past claim another victim.
Montlake | 9781662511851

BOY OF CHAOTIC MAKING by Charlie N. Holmberg (Historical Fantasy)
Paperback Original
Merritt Fernsby’s life has changed considerably since he inherited Whimbrel House. He’s engaged to Hulda Larkin, who opened his eyes to the uncanny. And he’s grown quite protective of his uncle Owein, who is presently inhabiting the body of a mixed-breed terrier when Merritt receives a missive from none other than Alexandrina Victoria, the Queen of England: I am interested in your dog. It’s the queen’s duty to the peerage to keep British wizardry empowered. Her offer: England will find a human vessel for Owein, marry him into the royal family, and add this remarkable soul-shifter to its lineage. For Owein, a boy trapped in the body of a pup, it’s a dream come true. However, once they are in London and in consortium with a necromancer, the situation doesn’t feel right, both with their hosts and the house they inhabit.
47North | 9781662508738

BRUTES by Dizz Tate (Fiction)
In Falls Landing, Florida --- a place built of theme parks, swampy lakes and scorched bougainvillea flowers --- something sinister lurks in the deep. A gang of 13-year-old girls obsessively orbit around the local preacher's daughter, Sammy. She is mesmerizing, older and in love with Eddie. But suddenly, Sammy goes missing. Where is she? Watching from a distance, they edge ever closer to discovering a dark secret about their fame-hungry town and the cruel cost of a ticket out. What they see will continue to haunt them for the rest of their lives.
Catapult | 9781646222155

THE CRITIC’S DAUGHTER: A Memoir by Priscilla Gilman (Memoir)
Growing up on the Upper West Side of New York City in the 1970s, in an apartment filled with dazzling literary and artistic characters, Priscilla Gilman worshiped her brilliant, adoring and mercurial father --- the writer, theater critic and Yale School of Drama professor Richard Gilman. But when Priscilla was 10 years old, her mother, renowned literary agent Lynn Nesbit, abruptly announced that she was ending the marriage. The resulting cascade of disturbing revelations --- about her parents’ hollow marriage, her father’s double life and tortured sexual identity --- fundamentally changed Priscilla’s perception of her father, as she attempted to protect him from the depression that had long shadowed him.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324074632

THE DANCE TREE by Kiran Millwood Hargrave (Historical Fiction)
Strasbourg, 1518. In the midst of a blisteringly hot summer, a lone woman begins to dance in the city square. She dances for days without pause or rest, and when hundreds of other women join her, the men running the city declare a state of emergency and hire musicians to play the Devil out of the mob. Outside the city, pregnant Lisbet lives with her husband and mother-in-law, tending the bees that are the family’s livelihood. Though Lisbet is removed from the frenzy of the dancing plague afflicting the city’s women, her own quiet life is upended by the arrival of her sister-in-law. Nethe has been away for seven years, serving a penance in the mountains for a crime no one will name. It is a secret Lisbet is determined to uncover.
HarperVia | 9780063274785

FANGIRL DOWN by Tessa Bailey (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Wells Whitaker was once golf’s hottest rising star, but lately all he has to show for his “promising” career is a killer hangover, a collection of broken clubs and one remaining supporter. No matter how bad he plays, the beautiful, sunny redhead is always on the sidelines. But when Wells quits in a blaze of glory and his fangirl finally goes home, he knows he made the greatest mistake of his life. Josephine Doyle believed in the gorgeous, grumpy golfer. Yet after he throws in the towel, she begins to wonder if her faith was misplaced. Then a determined Wells shows up at her door with a wild proposal: be his new caddy, help him turn his game around and split the prize money. As they travel together, sparks fly. Before long, Wells starts winning again, and Josephine is surprised to find a sweet, thoughtful guy underneath his gruff, growly exterior. Is this real life?
Avon | 9780063308367

THE FIVE-STAR WEEKEND by Elin Hilderbrand (Fiction)
Hollis Shaw’s life seems picture-perfect. She’s the creator of the popular food blog Hungry with Hollis and is married to Matthew, a dreamy heart surgeon. But after she and Matthew get into a heated argument one snowy morning, he leaves for the airport and is killed in a car accident. The cracks in Hollis’ perfect life --- her strained marriage and her complicated relationship with her daughter, Caroline --- grow deeper. So when Hollis hears about something called a “Five-Star Weekend” --- one woman organizes a trip for her best friend from each phase of her life: her teenage years, her 20s, her 30s and midlife --- she decides to host her own Five-Star Weekend. But the weekend doesn’t turn out to be a joyful Hallmark movie.
Back Bay Books | 9780316259187

FOLLOW ME TO HELL: McNelly's Texas Rangers and the Rise of Frontier Justice by Tom Clavin (History)
In turbulent 1870s Texas, the revered and fearless Ranger Leander McNelly led his men in one dramatic campaign after another, throwing cattle thieves, desperadoes, border ruffians and other dangerous criminals into jail or (if that's how they wanted it) six feet under. They would stop at nothing in pursuit of justice, even sending 26 Rangers across the border to retrieve stolen cattle --- taking on hundreds of Mexican troops with nothing but their Sharps rifles and six-guns. The nation came to call them “McNelly’s Rangers.” Set against the backdrop of 200 years of thrilling Texas Rangers history, FOLLOW ME TO HELL takes readers into the tough life along the Texas border that was tamed by a courageous yet doomed captain and his team of fearless men.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250214577

KILLER STORY by Matt Witten (Thriller)
Talented and idealistic young reporter Petra Kovach is on the brink of being laid off from her third failing newspaper in a row. To save her job, she pitches the launch of a true crime podcast about a sensational, unsolved murder. Years earlier, an alt-right YouTuber was killed in her Harvard dorm room, and the case went cold. Petra knew the victim; she was once her camp counselor and loved her like a little sister, despite their political differences. Petra’s investigation gets off to a rocky start, as her promising leads quickly shrivel up. In her passionate quest for justice --- and clicks --- Petra burns sources and breaks laws, ultimately putting her own life on the line.
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608096046

A KILLING OF INNOCENTS by Deborah Crombie (Mystery)
On a rainy November evening, trainee doctor Sasha Johnson hurries through the crowd in London's historic Russell Square. Out of the darkness, someone jostles her as they brush past. A moment later, Sasha stumbles and then collapses. When Detective Superintendent Duncan Kincaid and his sergeant, Doug Cullen, are called to the scene, they discover that she's been stabbed. Kincaid immediately calls in his detective wife, Gemma James, who recently has been assigned to a task force on knife crimes that are on the rise. As the team unravels the victim's tangled connections, another murder raises the stakes. Kincaid, Gemma and their colleagues must put even friendships on the line to find the killer stalking the dark streets of Bloomsbury.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062993472

A LIKELY STORY by Leigh McMullan Abramson (Fiction)
Growing up in the ’90s in New York City as the only child of famous parents was both a blessing and a curse for Isabelle Manning. Her beautiful society hostess mother, Claire, and New York Times bestselling author father, Ward, were the city’s intellectual It couple. Ward’s glamorous obligations often took him away from Isabelle, but Claire made sure her childhood was always filled with magic and love. Now an adult, all Isabelle wants is to be a successful writer like her father. But after many false starts and the unexpected death of her mother, she faces her upcoming 35th birthday alone and on the verge of a breakdown. Her anxiety only skyrockets when she uncovers some shocking truths about her parents and begins wondering if everything she knew about her family was all based on an elaborate lie.
Atria Books | 9781982199258

THE MALTESE IGUANA by Tim Dorsey (Mystery/Humor)
After a long and arduous COVID-19 quarantine, Serge A. Storms is fully vaccinated and ready to hit the road. Along with his condo neighbors, he cooks up a wild plan to celebrate in true Serge fashion: each week, they rent a shuttle van and head out for funky Florida road trips and some serious revelry. Meanwhile, a CIA revenge operation down in Honduras goes very, very wrong. The local liaison hired to help with the mission is the only witness to the disaster, and the CIA quickly sets a black ops contractor on his trail to eliminate him. Forced to flee his home country, the witness lands in Miami with a new identity and passport. But the CIA is still on his tail, pushing him further and further south to the Florida Keys, where he runs into Serge’s convoy.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063240636

MY LAST INNOCENT YEAR by Daisy Alpert Florin (Fiction)
It’s 1998, and Isabel Rosen has one semester left at Wilder College, a prestigious school in New Hampshire. Desperate to shed her working-class roots and still mourning the death of her mother four years earlier, Isabel has always felt like an outsider at Wilder. But now, in her final semester, she believes she has found her place --- until a nonconsensual sexual encounter with one of the only other Jewish students on campus leaves her reeling. Enter R. H. Connelly, a once-famous poet and Isabel’s writing professor, a man with secrets of his own. Connelly makes Isabel feel seen, beautiful and talented. His belief in her ignites a belief in herself, and the two begin an affair that shakes the foundation of who Isabel thinks she is --- for better and worse.
Holt Paperbacks | 9781250857057

THE PERFECT PASSION COMPANY by Alexander McCall Smith (Romance/Humor)
Paperback Original
As the new manager of the Perfect Passion Company, Katie’s mission is to help the lonely hearts of Edinburgh. With the assistance of her amiable and handsome office neighbor, William, she finds herself using a personal touch to find matches for the city’s lovelorn citizens. When an airline pilot comes to her looking for a woman to take care of him, Katie sends him to cooking school. The case of a hotelier with a particularly overbearing mother may require a delicate two-pronged approach. And for a client who has a habit of talking so much she does not even seem to draw breath, Katie doesn’t turn down a case just because it’s challenging. Along the way, she learns that her work may be a little broader in scope than she had originally thought, and there may be something to learn about her own future happiness as well.
Vintage | 9780593688328

THE PHOENIX CROWN by Kate Quinn and Janie Chang (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
San Francisco, 1906. Two very different women hope to change their fortunes: Gemma, a golden-haired, silver-voiced soprano, and Suling, a petite and resolute Chinatown embroideress. Their paths cross when they are drawn into the orbit of Henry Thornton, a charming railroad magnate whose extraordinary collection of Chinese antiques includes the fabled Phoenix Crown, a legendary relic of Beijing’s fallen Summer Palace. His patronage offers Gemma and Suling the chance of a lifetime, but their lives are thrown into turmoil when a devastating earthquake rips San Francisco apart and Thornton disappears, leaving behind a mystery reaching further than anyone could have imagined…until the Phoenix Crown reappears five years later at a sumptuous Paris costume ball, drawing Gemma and Suling together in one last desperate quest for justice.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063304734

SIMPLY LIES by David Baldacci (Psychological Thriller)
Former detective Mickey Gibson is juggling the demands of her two small children with the tasks of her job working remotely for ProEye, a global investigation company that hunts down wealthy tax and credit cheats. When Mickey gets a call from a colleague named Arlene Robinson, she thinks nothing of Arlene’s unusual request for her to go inventory the vacant home of an arms dealer who cheated ProEye’s clients and fled. That is, until she arrives at the mansion to discover a dead body in a secret room. Not only does the arms dealer not exist but the murder victim turns out to be Harry Langhorne, a man with mob ties who used to be in Witness Protection. What’s more, no one named Arlene Robinson works at ProEye. In the blink of an eye, Gibson has become a prime suspect in a murder investigation.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538750612

SOMEONE ELSE’S SHOES by Jojo Moyes (Fiction)
Nisha Cantor lives the globetrotting life of the seriously wealthy, until her husband announces a divorce and cuts her off. Nisha is determined to hang onto her glamorous life. But in the meantime, she must scramble to cope --- she doesn’t even have the shoes she was, until a moment ago, standing in. That’s because Sam Kemp --- in the bleakest point of her life --- has accidentally taken Nisha’s gym bag. But Sam hardly has time to worry about a lost gym bag --- she’s struggling to keep herself and her family afloat. When she tries on Nisha’s six-inch-high Christian Louboutin red crocodile shoes, the resulting jolt of confidence makes her realize something must change --- and that thing is herself.
Penguin Books | 9781984879318

THE STRANGER IN HER HOUSE by John Marrs (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Paul is just here to help, or so he claims --- sent by a charity for vulnerable people to do odd jobs for elderly widow Gwen. But for Gwen’s daughter, Connie, there’s just something about Paul that rings alarm bells from day one. The last thing she wants is a stranger meddling in the safe routine she’s built around Gwen. She loves being the one Gwen turns to for cooking, cleaning and company. But the more Paul visits, the more Gwen is relying on him. By the time he conveniently finds himself between homes and has no choice but to move in, Connie is certain he’s trying to push her out completely. It’s her word against his, though, and as her attempts to unmask him become ever more desperate, she’s not the only one left wondering if she’s lost her grip on reality.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781662506482

THE SUN WALKS DOWN by Fiona McFarlane (Fiction)
In September 1883, a small town in the South Australian outback huddles under strange, vivid sunsets. Six-year-old Denny Wallace has gone missing during a dust storm, and the entire community is caught up in the search for him. As they scour the desert and mountains for the lost child, the residents of Fairly --- newlyweds, farmers, mothers, indigenous trackers, cameleers, children, artists, schoolteachers, widows, maids and policemen --- confront their relationships, both with one another and with the landscape they inhabit. The colonial Australia of THE SUN WALKS DOWN is noisy with opinions, arguments, longings and terrors. It's haunted by many gods --- the sun among them, rising and falling on each day in which Denny could be found, or lost forever.
Picador | 9781250321756

THIS DISASTER LOVES YOU by Richard Roper (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Brian’s wife, Lily, disappeared from his life without a trace nearly seven years ago, but Brian never lost hope. Since her disappearance, their once beloved English pub --- and Brian’s livelihood --- has been crumbling piece by piece. As the anniversary of her absence approaches, Brian desperately needs a sign. One doom-scroll on his business’s reviews later, he finds it: an active TripAdvisor account for PinkMoonLily1972 that he knows in his heart is his Lily. Interspliced with Brian’s journey to find Lily is the story of their love. As Brian jumps from one destination to the next to find Lily, Brian comes back to life with the help of Tess, a sarcastic, kind and surprising traveling companion. But in order to move forward, he’ll need to decide: stay in the past or take a chance on something unexpected.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593540701

TINA, MAFIA SOLDIER written by Maria Rosa Cutrufelli, translated by Robin Pickering-Iazzi (Noir Thriller)
Sicily, 1980s: When she was just eight years old, Tina watched as her father, a member of Cosa Nostra, was murdered in cold blood. Now a teenager, she terrorizes her hometown of Gela, having made it her mission to join the mafia, an organization traditionally forbidden to women as made members. Nicknamed ’a masculidda, or “the tomboy,” Tina has taken charge of her own gang, and is notorious for her cruelty and reckless disregard for societal expectations. When a news article is published about Tina’s latest crimes, a teacher living in Rome feels compelled to write a novel about her --- even though it means returning to her native Sicily to gather material. She and Tina circle around each other in a dangerous dance of obsession and violence until their first, and last, explosive meeting.
Soho Crime | 9781641294638

THE TRUE LOVE EXPERIMENT by Christina Lauren (Romantic Comedy)
Ironically, beloved romance novelist Felicity “Fizzy” Chen has never really been in love. Connor Prince, a documentary filmmaker and a single father, loves his work in large part because it allows him to live near his daughter. But when his profit-minded boss orders him to create a reality TV show, putting his job on the line, Connor is out of his element. Desperate to find his romantic lead, a chance run-in with Fizzy offers Connor the perfect solution. What if he could show the queen of romance herself falling head-over-heels for all the world to see? Fizzy gives him a hard pass --- unless he agrees to her list of demands. When he says yes, and production on “The True Love Experiment” begins, Connor wonders if that perfect match will ever be in the cue cards for him, too.
Gallery Books | 9781982173449

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