February 20, 2024

February 20, 2024

Never Miss a Contest or a Promotion!
Follow and Like Us on Social Media

In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of February 19th and February 26th 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 Carol Fitzgerald's Bookreporter.com Bets On commentary for ONE WRONG WORD. Hank Phillippi Ryan’s newly released psychological thriller explores the insidious nature of gossip, scandal and lies --- and how careers, friendships and even marriages can be shattered forever.

Carol had the pleasure of chatting with Hank Phillippi Ryan for our latest "Bookreporter Talks To" interview. The idea for ONE WRONG WORD came from something that happened to Hank when she was 19. She talks about crafting the characters and how she tries to keep readers on top of the action by introducing the characters as chapter titles where they are speaking. Hank always writes organically without an outline; both the characters and the action come to her as she writes. She points to various details in the book and explains why it matters that they are presented as they are. And she talks about crisis management, which seems to be at the heart of many news situations today.

Carol would love Arden Ward to be an ongoing series character. And in the interview, you will find out which New York Times bestselling author would like to see the same thing! That is not what is next for Hank, but she tells us what is coming up in her 16th book, which will be out next year. Hank also comments on the interviews that she conducts with authors and why she loves doing them. Click here to watch the video or here to listen to the podcast.

Our final Winter Reading prize book is END OF STORY, the highly anticipated new novel from THE WOMAN IN THE WINDOW author A. J. Finn. This spellbinding thriller, which is being described as part Knives Out and part Agatha Christie, will be a Bets On selection.

The 24-hour contest is now up, so be sure to enter for your chance to win one of five copies of END OF STORY. The deadline for your entries is TOMORROW, Wednesday, February 21st at noon ET.

We hosted this month’s “Bookaccino Live” book preview event last Wednesday afternoon. Carol talked about 26 books releasing between now and March 5th, plus 14 from April, that we wanted to get on your radar. You can watch the presentation here and see a list of the featured titles here.

Upcoming Virtual Book and Author Events

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

Wednesday, February 21st at 3pm ET: Barnes & Noble: Join Barnes & Noble as they welcome Mark Greaney for a live virtual discussion of his latest thriller, THE CHAOS AGENT, as part of their Midday Mystery Virtual Event series. Mark will be in conversation with New York Times bestselling author Gregg Hurwitz.

Wednesday, February 21st 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 Tia Williams about her new novel, A LOVE SONG FOR RICKI WILDE, which is the F&F Pick of the Month.

Monday, February 26th at 3pm ET: Murder By The Book: B. A. Paris will talk to Mystery & Thriller Maven’s Sara DiVello about her latest novel, THE GUEST, in which she invites readers into another home full of heart-pounding secrets.

Monday, February 26th at 8pm ET: Murder By The Book: Mark Greaney will talk to Mystery & Thriller Maven’s Sara DiVello about his new thriller, THE CHAOS AGENT, in which artificial intelligence leads to shockingly real danger for the Gray Man.

Monday, February 26th at 8pm ET: Murder By The Book: Lisa Unger will talk to Mystery & Thriller Maven’s Sara DiVello about her latest unputdownable thriller, THE NEW COUPLE IN 5B, in which a couple inherits an apartment with a spine-tingling past.

Tuesday, February 27th at 1pm ET: Simon & Schuster's Book Club Favorites: Michelle Min Sterling will join members of the Simon & Schuster team to discuss her debut novel, CAMP ZERO, which is February's pick for S&S's Book Club Favorites.

This Week's Bonus News:
Carol's Bookreporter.com Bets On Commentary for
ONE WRONG WORD by Hank Phillippi Ryan

On Sale the Week of February 19th in Hardcover

February 20th

THE ATLAS MANEUVER: A Cotton Malone Novel by Steve Berry (Thriller)
In the waning months of World War II, Japan hid vast quantities of gold and other stolen valuables in boobytrapped underground caches all across the Philippines. By 1947, some of that loot was recovered by the United States government, which told no one about the find. Instead, those assets were stamped classified and secretly assimilated into something called the Black Eagle Trust. In the present day, retired Justice Department operative Cotton Malone is in Switzerland doing a favor for a friend. But what was supposed to be a simple operation turns violent, and Cotton is thrust into a war between the world’s oldest bank and the CIA, a battle that directly involves the Black Eagle Trust. He quickly discovers that everything hinges on a woman from his past, who suddenly reappears harboring a host of explosive secrets centering on bitcoin.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538721032

THE BEZZLE: A Martin Hench Novel by Cory Doctorow (Science Fiction/Thriller)
Martin Hench is at the top of his game as a self-employed forensic accountant, a veteran of the long guerrilla war between people who want to hide money and those who want to find it. When Marty disrupts a seemingly innocuous scheme during a vacation on Catalina Island, he has no idea he’s kicked off a chain of events that will overtake the next decade of his life. Martin has made his most dangerous mistake yet: trespassed into the playgrounds of the ultra-wealthy and spoiled their fun. Secure in the knowledge that they’re living behind far too many firewalls of shell companies and investors ever to be identified, they are interested not in the lives they ruin, but only in how much money they can extract from the government and the hundreds of thousands of prisoners they have at their mercy.
Tor Books | 9781250865878

THE BOY WHO CRIED BEAR: A Haven's Rock Novel by Kelley Armstrong (Mystery)
Haven’s Rock is a well-hidden town surrounded by forest that serves as a refuge for those who need to disappear. Detective Casey Duncan and her husband, Sheriff Eric Dalton, already feel at home in their new town, which reminds them of where they first met in Rockton. And while they know how to navigate the woods and its various dangers, other residents don’t. Which is why people aren't allowed to wander off alone. When Max, the town’s youngest resident --- taught to track animals by Eric --- fears a bear is stalking a hiking party, alarms are raised. Even stranger, the 10-year-old swears the bear had human eyes. Casey and Eric know the dangers a bear can present, so they’re taking it seriously. But odd occurrences are happening all around them, and when a dead body turns up, they’re not sure what they’re up against.
Minotaur Books | 9781250865441

THE CHAOS AGENT: A Gray Man Novel by Mark Greaney (Thriller)
Someone is killing the world’s leading experts on robotics and artificial intelligence. Is it a tech company trying to eliminate the competition, or is it something even more sinister? The Gray Man’s quest for a quiet life has led him to Central America, where he and his lover, Zoya Zakharova, have assumed new identities. With a list of enemies that includes billionaires, terrorists and governments, they need to keep a low profile. Eventually, though, they’re tracked down and offered a job by an old acquaintance of Zoya’s. He needs their help extracting a Russian scientist who is on the kill list. They reject the offer, but just being seen with him is enough to put assassins on their trail. Now they’re back on the run, but no matter which way they turn, it's clear that whoever is tracking them is always going to be one step ahead.
Berkley | 9780593548141

DAYBREAK by Matt Gallagher (Fiction)
Thirty-three-year-old Luke “Pax” Paxton has been out of the US military for almost a decade, haunted by a mistake made in an unforgiving moment of combat. When an old army friend suggests they travel to Ukraine to help fight against the Russian invasion, he agrees, and together they cross an ocean to Lviv, the City of Lions. He carries with him the address of a former love, a Ukrainian woman named Svitlana whom he had known as a young soldier. His feverish journey through Lviv takes him down winding and missile-cratered streets as he forms surprising connections. And when Pax gets the chance to save someone dear to Svitlana, he just might be able to correct the wrongs that have wracked him with guilt for so many years.
Atria Books | 9781501177859

END OF STORY by A. J. Finn (Psychological Thriller)
“I’ll be dead in three months. Come tell my story.” So writes reclusive mystery novelist Sebastian Trapp to his longtime correspondent, Nicky Hunter, an expert in detective fiction. With mere months to live, Trapp invites Nicky to his spectacular San Francisco mansion to help draft his life story…while living alongside his beautiful second wife, Diana; his wayward nephew, Freddy; and his protective daughter, Madeleine. Soon Nicky finds herself caught in an irresistible case of real-life “detective fever.” Twenty years earlier --- on New Year’s Eve 1999 --- Sebastian’s first wife and teenage son vanished from different locations, never to be seen again. Did the perfect crime writer commit the perfect crime? And why has he emerged from seclusion, two decades later, to allow a stranger to dig into his past?
William Morrow | 9780062678454

THE GUEST by B. A. Paris (Domestic Thriller)
Iris and Gabriel have just arrived home from a make-or-break holiday. But a shock awaits them. One of their closest friends, Laure, is in their house. The atmosphere quickly becomes tense as she oversteps again and again: sleeping in their bed, wearing Iris' clothes, even rearranging the furniture. Laure has walked out on her husband --- and their good friend --- Pierre over his confession of an affair and a secret child. Iris and Gabriel want to be supportive of their friends, but as Laure's mood becomes increasingly unpredictable, her presence takes its toll. Iris and Gabriel's only respite comes in the form of a couple new to town. But with them comes their gardener, who has a checkered past. Soon, secrets from all their pasts will unravel, some more dangerous than they could have known.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250289421

HARD GIRLS by J. Robert Lennon (Thriller)
Jane Pool likes her safe, suburban existence just fine, but she remains haunted by her past: her mercurial, absent mother, her parents’ secrets, and the act of violence that transformed her life. When her estranged twin, Lila, makes contact, claiming to know where their mother is and why she left all those years ago, Jane agrees to join her, desperate for answers and the chance to reconnect with the only person who really knew her true self. Yet as the hunt becomes treacherous and pulls the two women to the earth’s distant corners, they find themselves up against their mother’s subterfuge and the darkness that always stalked their family. Now Jane stands to lose the life she’s made for the one that has been impossible to escape.
Mulholland Books | 9780316550581

THE HIDDEN LIFE OF CECILY LARSON by Ellen Baker (Historical Fiction)
In 1924, four-year-old Cecily Larson’s mother reluctantly drops her off at an orphanage in Chicago. Three years later, Cecily is sold to a traveling circus to perform as the “little sister” to glamorous bareback rider Isabelle DuMonde. But as the years go by, the cracks in her little world begin to show. And when teenage Cecily meets and falls in love with a young roustabout named Lucky, she finds her life thrown onto an entirely unexpected --- and dangerous --- course. In 2015, Cecily is now 94 and living a quiet life in Minnesota. But when her family decides to surprise her with an at-home DNA test, the unexpected results not only bring to light the tragic love story that Cecily has kept hidden for decades but also throw into question everything about the family she has raised and claimed as her own for nearly 70 years.
Mariner Books | 9780063351196

ISLAND WITCH by Amanda Jayatissa (Supernatural/Historical Thriller)
Being the daughter of the village Capuwa, or demon-priest, Amara is used to keeping mostly to herself. Influenced by the new religious practices brought in by the British Colonizers, the villagers who once respected her father’s craft have turned on the family. Yet, they all still seem to call on him whenever supernatural disturbances arise. Now someone --- or something --- is viciously seizing upon men in the jungle. But instead of enlisting Amara’s father’s help, the villages have accused him of carrying out the attacks himself. As she tries to clear her father’s name, Amara finds herself haunted by dreams that eerily predict the dark forces on her island. And she can’t shake the feeling that it’s all connected to the night she woke up to hear her mother’s frantic cries: No one can find out what happened.
Berkley | 9780593549261

MRS. GULLIVER by Valerie Martin (Historical Fiction)
It’s 1954 on far-flung Verona Island, a tropical paradise with a fragile economy and a rising crime rate. Prostitution is legal, and Lila Gulliver is proud of her business, a high-end brothel where her clients are guaranteed privacy and discretion. When Carità Bercy, a young, destitute and beautiful blind woman, arrives at her door seeking employment, Lila decides to give her a chance. Carità proves a valuable asset to the house, as well as a psychological puzzle to her employer. One hot night, Ian Drohan, a handsome youth and the scion of the wealthiest family on the island, visits Lila’s house and falls madly in love with Carità. Lila doubts his sincerity and fears for Carità’s future. Carità has no such fears. In fact, she is a reckless force of nature, determined to succeed in ways Lila hasn’t even contemplated.
Doubleday | 9780385549950

OTTER COUNTRY: An Unexpected Adventure in the Natural World by Miriam Darlington (Nature/Travel Memoir)
Mysterious, graceful and ever-clever, otters have captivated our imaginations, despite the fact that few people have encountered one in the wild. In OTTER COUNTRY, celebrated nature writer Miriam Darlington captures the fascination she's had for these playful animals since childhood and chronicles her immersive journey into their watery world. Over the course of a single year, Darlington takes readers on a winding expedition in pursuit of these elusive creatures. As she’s drawn deeper into wilder habitats, Darlington meets biologists, conservationists, fishing and hunting enthusiasts, and poets --- enriching her understanding, admiration and awe of the wild otter. With each encounter, she reveals the scientific, environmental and cultural importance of this creature and the places it calls home.
Tin House Books | 9781959030348

OURS by Phillip B. Williams (Historical Fiction/Magical Realism)
Saint is a fearsome conjuror who, in the 1830s, annihilates plantations all over Arkansas to rescue the people enslaved there. She brings those she has freed to a haven of her own creation: a town just north of St. Louis, magically concealed from outsiders, named Ours. It is in this miraculous place that Saint’s grand experiment --- a truly secluded community where her people may flourish --- takes root. But although Saint does her best to protect the inhabitants of Ours, over time, her conjuring and memories begin to betray her, leaving the town vulnerable to intrusions by newcomers with powers of their own. As the cracks in Saint’s creation are exposed, some begin to wonder if the community’s safety might be yet another form of bondage.
Viking | 9780593654828

SLOW NOODLES: A Cambodian Memoir of Love, Loss, and Family Recipes by Chantha Nguon with Kim Green (Memoir)
In SLOW NOODLES, Chantha Nguon recounts her life as a Cambodian refugee who loses everything and everyone --- her home, her family, her country --- all but the remembered tastes and aromas of her mother’s kitchen. She summons the quiet rhythms of 1960s Battambang, her provincial hometown, before the dictator Pol Pot tore her country apart and killed more than a million Cambodians, many of them ethnic Vietnamese like Nguon and her family. Then, as an immigrant in Saigon, Nguon loses her mother, brothers and sister and eventually flees to a refugee camp in Thailand. For two decades in exile, she survives by cooking in a brothel, serving drinks in a nightclub, making and selling street food, becoming a suture nurse and weaving silk.
Algonquin Books | 9781643753492

SPLINTERS: Another Kind of Love Story by Leslie Jamison (Memoir)
Leslie Jamison has become one of our most beloved contemporary voices, a scribe of the real, the true, the complex. In her first memoir, Jamison turns her unrivaled powers of perception on some of the most intimate relationships of her life: her consuming love for her young daughter, a ruptured marriage once swollen with hope, and the shaping legacy of her own parents’ complicated bond. In examining what it means for a woman to be many things at once --- a mother, an artist, a teacher, a lover --- Jamison places the magical and the mundane side by side in surprising ways. The result is a work of nonfiction like no other, an almost impossibly deep reckoning with the muchness of life and art, and a book that grieves the departure of one love even as it celebrates the arrival of another.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316374880

A STEP PAST DARKNESS by Vera Kurian (Psychological Thriller)
There’s something sinister under the surface of the idyllic, suburban town of Wesley Falls, and it’s not just the abandoned coal mine that lies beneath it. The summer of 1995 kicks off with a party in the mine where six high school students witness a horrifying crime that changes the course of their lives. When they realize that they can’t trust anyone but each other, they begin to investigate what happened on their own. As tensions escalate in town to a breaking point, the six make a vow of silence, bury all their evidence, and promise to never contact each other again. But 20 years later, Jia calls them all back to Wesley Falls. Maddy has been murdered, and they are the only ones who can uncover why. But to end things, they have to return to the mine one last time.
Park Row | 9780778310761

SUN OF BLOOD AND RUIN by Mariely Lares (Historical Fantasy/Adventure)
In 16th-century New Spain, witchcraft is punishable by death, indigenous temples have been destroyed, and tales of mythical creatures that once roamed the land have become whispers in the night. Hidden behind a mask, Pantera uses her magic and legendary swordplay skills to fight the tyranny of Spanish rule. To all who know her, Leonora de las Casas Tlazohtzin never leaves the palace and is promised to the heir of the Spanish throne. The respectable, law-abiding Lady Leonora faints at the sight of blood and would rather be caught dead than meddle in court affairs. No one suspects that Leonora and Pantera are the same person. When an ancient prophecy of destruction threatens to come true, Leonora --- and therefore Pantera --- is forced to decide: surrender the mask or fight to the end.
Harper Voyager | 9780063254312

WELCOME TO THE HYUNAM-DONG BOOKSHOP written by Hwang Bo-reum, translated by Shanna Tan (Fiction)
Yeongju is burned out. She did everything she was supposed to: go to school, marry a decent man, get a respectable job. Then it all fell apart. In a leap of faith, Yeongju abandons her old life, quits her high-flying career, and follows her dream. She opens a bookshop. In a quaint neighborhood in Seoul, surrounded by books, Yeongju and her customers take refuge. From the lonely barista to the unhappily married coffee roaster --- and the writer who sees something special in Yeongju --- they all have disappointments in their past. The Hyunam-dong Bookshop becomes the place where they all learn how to truly live.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781639732425

On Sale the Week of February 19th in Paperback

February 20th

THE 23rd MIDNIGHT by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro (Thriller)
Detective Lindsay Boxer put serial killer Evan Burke in jail. Reporter Cindy Thomas wrote a book that put him on the bestseller list. An obsessed maniac has turned Burke’s true-crime story into a playbook. And he's embellishing it with gruesome touches all his own. Now Lindsay is tracking an elusive suspect, and the entire Murder Club is facing destruction.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538710623

ALL THE RAGE: A D.I. Adam Fawley Thriller by Cara Hunter (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
After being abducted and assaulted, a teenage girl somehow managed to escape from her captor. She is traumatized and needs to heal, but the police need her help to catch her assailant --- information she clearly knows but is unwilling to give. Without the girl’s assistance, DI Adam Fawley’s investigation is at a dead end. When another girl vanishes under the same circumstances, he recognizes a disturbing pattern --- and a link to something long buried in his past.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063260931

THE APPLICANT by Nazlı Koca (Fiction)
Leyla, a Turkish twenty-something living in Berlin, is scrubbing toilets at an Alice in Wonderland-themed hostel after failing her thesis, losing her student visa and suing her German university in a Kafkaesque attempt to reverse her failure. She attempts to find solace in the techno beats of Berlin’s nightlife but with little success. Right as the clock winds down on the hold on her visa, Leyla meets a conservative Swedish tourist and --- against her political convictions and better judgment --- begins to fall in love, or something like it. Will she accept an IKEA life with the Volvo salesman and relinquish her creative dreams, or return to Turkey to her mother and sister, codependent and enmeshed, her father’s ghost still haunting their lives?
Grove Press | 9780802162717

BLIND SPOTS by Thomas Mullen (Science Fiction/Noir Thriller)
Seven years ago, everyone in the world went blind in a matter of months. Technology helped people adjust to the new normal, creating a device that approximates vision, downloading visual data directly to people’s brains. But what happens when someone finds a way to hack it and change what people see? Homicide detective Mark Owens has been on the force since before The Blinding. When a scientist is murdered, and the only witness insists the killer was blacked out of her vision, Owens doesn’t believe her --- until a similar murder happens in front of him. With suspects ranging from tech billionaires to anti-modernity cultists --- and with the bodies piling up --- Owens must conduct an investigation in which he can’t even trust his own eyes.
Minotaur Books | 9781250842763

BURNING DISTANCE by Joanne Leedom-Ackerman (Political Thriller/Mystery)
When 10-year-old Elizabeth West’s father dies in a tragic plane crash, her family moves to London. Her mother marries a knighted British businessman who has two children, and Elizabeth (Lizzy) and her two sisters move in with their new family. At age 16, while attending the American School of London, Lizzy meets and falls in love with Adil Hasan. But when Adil’s father is deported, Lizzy and Adil are separated. Lizzy’s family has also become involved with French-German industrialist Gerald Rene Wagner. Little does she know that Adil’s family has ties to the man as well. When a member of her family is murdered in Berlin under mysterious circumstances, questions surface about Wagner’s dealings, and Lizzy reexamines what really may have happened to her father.
Oceanview Publishing ‎| 9781608096060

CAMP ZERO by Michelle Min Sterling (Dystopian/Science Fiction)
In remote northern Canada, a team led by a visionary American architect is break­ing ground on a building project called Camp Zero, intended to be the beginning of a new way of life. A clever and determined young woman code-named Rose is offered a chance to join the Blooms, a group hired to entertain the men in camp --- but her real mission is to secretly monitor the mercurial architect in charge. In return, she’ll receive a home for her climate-displaced Korean immigrant mother and herself. Rose quickly secures the trust of her target, only to discover that everyone has a hidden agenda, and nothing is as it seems.
Atria Books ‎| 9781668007570

THE COLLECTOR by Daniel Silva (Thriller/Adventure)
Legendary art restorer and spy Gabriel Allon joins forces with a brilliant and beautiful master-thief to track down the world’s most valuable missing painting. But soon he finds himself in a desperate race to prevent an unthinkable conflict between Russia and the West.
Harper Paperbacks | 9780062834997

THE DESTROYER OF WORLDS: A Return to Lovecraft Country by Matt Ruff (Historical Fantasy/Horror)
Atticus Turner and his father, Montrose, travel to North Carolina, where they plan to mark the centennial of their ancestor’s escape from slavery by retracing the route he took. But an encounter with an old nemesis turns their reenactment into a real life-and-death pursuit. Back in Chicago, George Berry fights for his own life. Diagnosed with cancer, he strikes a devil’s bargain with the ghost of Hiram Winthrop, who promises a miracle cure. But to receive it, George will first have to bring Winthrop back from the dead. Meanwhile, 15-year-old Horace Berry joins his mother, Hippolyta, and her friend, Letitia Dandridge, on a research trip to Nevada. But Hippolyta has a secret agenda that will take her and Horace to the far end of the universe and bring a new threat home to Letitia’s doorstep.
Harper Perennial | 9780063256903

THE DISTANCE BETWEEN US by Maggie O'Farrell (Fiction)
First Publication in the US
On a cold February afternoon, Stella catches sight of a man she hasn't seen for many years but instantly recognizes. Or thinks she does. At the same moment on the other side of the globe, in the middle of a crowd of Chinese New Year revelers, Jake realizes that things are becoming dangerous. They know nothing of one another's existence, but both Stella and Jake flee their lives: Jake in search of a place so remote it doesn't appear on any map, and Stella for a destination in Scotland, the significance of which only her sister, Nina, will understand.
Vintage | 9780593687963

EMPRESS OF THE NILE: The Daredevil Archaeologist Who Saved Egypt's Ancient Temples from Destruction by Lynne Olson (Biography)
In the 1960s, the world’s attention was focused on a nail-biting race against time. Fifty countries contributed nearly a billion dollars to save a dozen ancient Egyptian temples, built during the height of the pharaohs’ rule, from drowning in the floodwaters of the massive new Aswan High Dam. But the extensive press coverage at the time overlooked the gutsy French archaeologist who made it all happen. Without the intervention of Christiane Desroches-Noblecourt, the temples would now be at the bottom of a vast reservoir. It was an unimaginably large and complex project that required the fragile sandstone temples to be dismantled, stone by stone, and rebuilt on higher ground.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780525509486

I HAVE SOME QUESTIONS FOR YOU by Rebecca Makkai (Fiction)
A successful film professor and podcaster, Bodie Kane is content to forget her past --- the family tragedy that marred her adolescence, her four largely miserable years at a New Hampshire boarding school, and the murder of her former roommate, Thalia Keith, in the spring of their senior year. Though the circumstances surrounding Thalia’s death and the conviction of the school’s athletic trainer, Omar Evans, are hotly debated online, Bodie prefers --- needs --- to let sleeping dogs lie. But when the Granby School invites her back to teach a course, Bodie is inexorably drawn to the case and its increasingly apparent flaws. In their rush to convict Omar, did the school and the police overlook other suspects? Is the real killer still out there?
Penguin Books | 9780593490167

INDEPENDENCE by Chitra Banerjee Divakaruni (Historical Fiction)
India, 1947. In a rural village in Bengal live three sisters. Priya is intelligent and idealistic, resolved to follow in her father’s footsteps and become a doctor. Deepa is the beauty, determined to make a marriage that will bring her family joy and status. Jamini is devout, sharp-eyed and a talented quiltmaker, with deeper passions than she reveals. Theirs is a home of love and safety, a refuge from the violent events taking shape in the nation. Then their father is killed during a riot, and even their neighbors turn against them. When the partition of India is officially decided, a drastic --- and dangerous --- change is in the air. The sisters find themselves separated from one another, each on different paths. They fear for what will happen not just to themselves, but to each other.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063142398

NEAR MISS: A Stone Barrington Novel by Stuart Woods and Brett Battles
(Thriller/Adventure)
Following a string of adventures, Stone Barrington is enjoying some downtime in New York City when a chance encounter introduces him to a charming new companion. Too bad she also comes with the baggage of a persistent ex-boyfriend intent on retribution. As Stone skillfully dodges each disturbance, it becomes clear that there's an even more treacherous game being played behind the scenes. When long-standing grudges resurface, Stone is brought back into the orbit of some familiar enemies. He must use all of his tricks --- as well as those of a few old friends --- to evade trouble before it's too late. But this time, danger just might catch up with him.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780593540084

NOWHERE LIKE HOME by Sara Shepard (Domestic Thriller)
Paperback Original
When Lenna gets a call from her old friend Rhiannon, she is startled. Rhiannon disappeared years ago without a trace. But Lenna is even more startled to learn that Rhiannon has a son and that she lives off the grid with a group of women in a community called Halcyon. Rhiannon invites Lenna, a new mother herself, to join them. Lenna decides to go and hopefully repair her relationship with Rhiannon, but as she drives into the desert and her cell service gets weaker, she becomes suspicious. Who are these women, and why did Rhiannon invite her here? And that is before she learns about the community's rules (no outside phone calls, no questions about people’s pasts) and the padlock on the gate that leads out to the main road. But Lenna has other concerns, secrets from her past that she is terrified will come out.
Dutton | 9780593186961

THE QUANTUM SOLUTION: An Evan Ryder Novel by Eric Van Lustbader
(Thriller/Adventure)
Evan Ryder is an extraordinary intelligence field agent now working for the security arm of Parachute, a private company and the world’s leader in the application of quantum technology. In the past, Ryder has done lethal battle in the modern global wars of power politics, extremist ideology, corrosive disinformation and outrageous greed. But now she finds herself in a battle arena whose dangers, while less obvious, are greater than anything the world has seen before --- the present and future war of weaponized quantum technology. When an elite Russian scientist and the American Secretary of Defense die, at the same time half a world apart, of inexplicable sudden catastrophic brain damage, the world’s intelligence services realize that the quantum war has truly begun.
Forge Books | 9781250839152

THE RAVEN THIEF: A Secret Staircase Novel by Gigi Pandian (Mystery)
Secret Staircase Construction just finished their first project with Tempest Raj officially a part of the team --- a classic mystery novel-themed home interior. Their client is now ready to celebrate her new life without her cheating ex-husband, famous mystery author Corbin Colt. First up, a party, and Tempest and Grandpa Ash are invited to the exclusive mock séance to remove any trace of Corbin from the property --- for good. It's all lighthearted fun until Corbin's dead body crashes the party. The only possible suspects are the eight people around the séance table --- a circle of clasped hands that wasn't broken. Suspicion quickly falls on Grandpa Ash, the only one with actual blood on him. To prove her beloved grandfather’s innocence, Tempest must figure out what really happened.
Minotaur Books | 9781250891853

THE SENSE OF WONDER by Matthew Salesses (Fiction)
When Won Lee, the first Asian American in the NBA, stuns the world in a seven-game winning streak, the global media audience dubs it “The Wonder” --- much to Won’s chagrin. Meanwhile, Won struggles to get attention from his coach, his peers, his fans and, most importantly, his hero, Powerball!, who also happens to be his teammate and the captain. Covering it all is sportswriter Robert Sung, who writes about Won's stardom while grappling with his own missed hoops opportunities, as well as his place as an Asian American in media. And to witness it all is Carrie Kang, a big studio producer, who juggles a newfound relationship with Won while attempting to bring K-drama to an industry not known to embrace anything new or different.
Back Bay Books | 9780316425810

SINK: A Memoir by Joseph Earl Thomas (Memoir)
Surrounded by the failure of systems, including his family, the public school system and democratic society, Joseph Earl Thomas grew up feeling like he was under constant threat. Roaches fell from the ceiling, most lessons were taught through violence, and, to make matters worse, he always seemed to be hungry. To escape these foes, he began retreating inward. In SINK, Thomas queries the possibility of escape through fantasy worlds, while grappling with children’s inability to change their circumstances. In a series of exacting and fierce vignettes, Thomas guides readers through the trouble of cruelty without heroics or reprieve and explores how the cycle of hostility permeates our environments. And yet, even in the depths of isolation, there are unexpected moments of joy carved out as Thomas finds kinship.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538706183

STEALING by Margaret Verble (Historical Fiction)
Kit Crockett lives on a farm with her grief-stricken, widowed father. One day, she discovers that a mysterious and beautiful woman has moved in just down the road. Kit and the newcomer, Bella, become friends, and the lonely Kit draws comfort from her. But when a malicious neighbor finds out, Kit suddenly finds herself at the center of a tragic, fatal crime and becomes a ward of the court. Her Cherokee family wants to raise her, but the righteous Christians in town instead send her to a religious boarding school. Kit’s heritage is attacked, and she’s subjected to religious indoctrination and other forms of abuse. But Kit secretly keeps a journal recounting what she remembers --- and revealing just what she has forgotten. Over the course of STEALING, she unravels the truth of how she ended up at the school and plots a way out.
Mariner Books | 9780063267091

TOM CLANCY FLASH POINT: A Jack Ryan Jr. Novel by Don Bentley
(Thriller/Adventure)
When a benign surveillance operation takes a deadly turn, Jack Ryan Jr. finds himself locked in a struggle with an unseen enemy bent on destroying the Campus. The chase leads Jack to the South China Sea where a midair collision between aircraft from rival nations threatens to serve as a flash point for the entire region. As Jack frantically tries to put the pieces of the conspiracy together, the Campus is hit with a crippling attack. When the dust settles, Jack is one of the few operators still standing and the Campus’s de facto leader. But the fight is just beginning. As tensions escalate, Jack’s mysterious adversary executes a brilliant campaign to paralyze the American government even as China inches closer to invading Taiwan.
Berkley | 9780593422809

THE TROUBLE WITH YOU by Ellen Feldman (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Raised never to step out of bounds, educated in one of the Sister Seven Colleges for a career as a wife and mother, torn between her cousin, Mimi, who is determined to keep her a “nice girl” --- the kind that marries a doctor --- and her aunt Rose, who has a rebellious past of her own, Fanny struggles to raise her young daughter and forge a new life by sheer will and pluck. When she gets a job as a secretary to the “queen” of radio serials --- never to be referred to as soaps --- she discovers she likes working. Through her friendship with an actress who stars in the series and a man who writes them, she comes face to face with the blacklist, which is destroying careers and wrecking lives. Ultimately, Fanny must decide between playing it safe or doing what she knows is right.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250879462

WHAT HAPPENED TO RUTHY RAMIREZ by Claire Jiménez (Fiction)
When 13-year-old Ruthy disappeared after track practice without a trace, it left her family scarred and scrambling. One night, 12 years later, oldest sister Jessica spots a woman on her TV screen in “Catfight,” a raunchy reality show. She rushes to tell her younger sister, Nina: This woman's hair is dyed red, and she calls herself Ruby, but the beauty mark under her left eye is instantly recognizable. Could it be Ruthy after all this time? Jessica and Nina hatch a plan to drive to where the show is filmed. When their mother Dolores catches wind of their scheme, she insists on joining, along with her best friend, Irene. What follows is a family road trip and reckoning that will force the Ramirez women to finally face the past and look toward a future --- with or without Ruthy in it.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538725979

On Sale the Week of February 26th in Hardcover

February 27th

AFTER ANNIE by Anna Quindlen (Fiction)
When Annie Brown dies suddenly, her husband, children and closest friend are left to find a way forward without the woman who has been the linchpin of all their lives. Bill is overwhelmed without his beloved wife, and Annemarie wrestles with the bad habits her best friend had helped her overcome. And Ali, the eldest of Annie’s children, has to grow up overnight, to care for her younger brothers and even her father and to puzzle out for herself many of the mysteries of adult life. Over the course of the next year, what saves them all is Annie --- ever-present in their minds, loving but not sentimental, caring but nobody’s fool, a voice in their heads that is funny, sharp and remarkably clear. The power she has given to those who loved her is the power to go on without her. The lesson they learn is that no one beloved is ever truly gone.
Random House | 9780593229804

THE AMERICAN DAUGHTERS by Maurice Carlos Ruffin (Historical Fiction)
Ady, a curious, sharp-witted girl, and her fierce mother, Sanite, are inseparable. Enslaved to a businessman in the French Quarter of New Orleans, the pair spend their days dreaming of a loving future and reminiscing about their family’s rebellious and storied history. When mother and daughter are separated, Ady is left hopeless and directionless until she stumbles into the Mockingbird Inn and meets Lenore, a free Black woman with whom she becomes fast friends. Lenore invites Ady to join a clandestine society of spies called the Daughters. With the courage instilled in her by Sanite --- and with help from these strong women --- Ady learns how to put herself first. So begins her journey toward liberation and imagining a new future.
One World | 9780593729397

BURN BOOK: A Tech Love Story by Kara Swisher (Business & Economics/Memoir)
While covering the explosion of the digital sector in the early 1990s, Kara Swisher developed a long track record of digging up and reporting the facts about this new world order. Swisher has interviewed everyone who matters in tech over three decades, right when they presided over an explosion of world-changing innovation that has both helped and hurt our world. Steve Jobs, Jeff Bezos, Elon Musk, Bill Gates, Sheryl Sandberg, Bob Iger, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, Meg Whitman, Peter Thiel, Sam Altman and Mark Zuckerberg are just a few whom Swisher made sweat --- figuratively and, in Zuckerberg’s case, literally. Despite the damage she chronicles, Swisher remains optimistic about tech’s potential to help solve problems and not just create them.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982163891

CARSON McCULLERS: A Life by Mary V. Dearborn (Biography)
She was born Lula Carson Smith in Columbus, Georgia. Her dream was to become a concert pianist, though she’d been writing since she was 16, and the influence of music was evident throughout her work. At 20, she married Reeves McCullers, a fellow southerner, ex-soldier and aspiring writer. They had a fraught, tumultuous marriage lasting 12 years and ending with his suicide in 1953. Her first novel, THE HEART IS A LONELY HUNTER, was published in 1940 when she was 23. Overnight, Carson McCullers became the most widely talked about writer of the time. With unprecedented access to the cache of materials that has surfaced in the past decade, Mary Dearborn gives us the first full picture of this brilliant, complex artist who was decades ahead of her time, a writer who understood --- and captured --- the heart and longing of the outcast.
Knopf | 9780525521013

THE DEERFIELD MASSACRE: A Surprise Attack, a Forced March, and the Fight for Survival in Early America by James L. Swanson (History)
In an obscure, 200-year-old museum in a little town in western Massachusetts, there stands what once was the most revered relic from the history of early New England: the massive, tomahawk-scarred door that came to symbolize the notorious Deerfield Massacre of 1704. This impregnable barricade, known to early Americans as “The Old Indian Door,” is the sole surviving artifact from one of the most dramatic moments in colonial American history. In the leap year of 1704, on the cold, snowy night of February 29th, hundreds of Indians and their French allies swept down on an isolated frontier outpost to slaughter or capture its inhabitants. The sacking of Deerfield led to one of the greatest sagas of survival, sacrifice, family and faith ever told in North America.
Scribner | 9781501108167

A FATE INKED IN BLOOD: Book One of the Saga of the Unfated by Danielle L. Jensen (Historical Fantasy/Romance)
Bound in an unwanted marriage, Freya dreams of becoming a warrior. When her husband betrays her to the region’s jarl, she is involved in a fight to the death against his son, Bjorn. To survive, Freya is forced to reveal her deepest secret: She possesses a drop of a goddess’s blood, which makes her a shield maiden with magic capable of repelling any attack. And it’s been foretold that such magic will unite the fractured nation of Skaland beneath the one who controls the shield maiden’s fate. Believing he’s destined to rule Skaland as king, the fanatical jarl binds Freya with a blood oath and orders Bjorn to protect her from their enemies. Desperate to prove her strength, Freya must train to fight and learn to control her magic, all while facing perilous tests set by the gods. The greatest test of all, however, may be resisting her forbidden attraction to Bjorn.
Del Rey | 9780593599839

GREEN DOT by Madeleine Gray (Fiction/Humor)
At 24, Hera is a clump of unmet potential. To her, the future is nothing but an exhausting thought exercise, one depressing hypothetical after another. She’s sharp in more ways than one, adrift in her own smug malaise, until her new job moderating the comments section of an online news outlet --- a role even more mind-numbing than it sounds --- introduces her to Arthur, a middle-aged journalist. Though she's preferred women to men for years now, she soon finds herself falling into an all-consuming affair with him. She is coming apart with want and loving every second of it. Well, except for the tiny hiccup that Arthur has a wife --- and she has no idea Hera exists.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250890597

GRIEF IS FOR PEOPLE by Sloane Crosley (Memoir)
For most of her adult life, Sloane Crosley and her closest friend, Russell, worked together and played together as they navigated the corridors of office life, the literary world, and the dramatic cultural shifts in New York City. One day, while Russell is still alive, Sloane’s apartment is broken into. Along with her most prized possessions, the thief makes off with her sense of security, leaving a mystery in its place. When Russell dies exactly one month later, his suicide propels her on a wild quest to right the unrightable, to explore what constitutes family and possession as the city itself faces the staggering toll brought on by the pandemic.
MCD | 9780374609849

LEAVE NO TRACE: A National Parks Thriller by A. J. Landau (Thriller)
In a daring, brutal act of terrorism, an explosion rocks and topples the Statue of Liberty. Special Agent Michael Walker of the National Park Service is sent to New York as the agent-in-charge. Gina Delgado of the FBI has been placed in charge of the investigation as the lead of the Joint Terrorism Task Force, and threats of a second terrorism attack are already being called into the media. While barred from the meetings of the Joint Task Force for his lack of security clearance, Walker finds a young boy among the survivors with a critical piece of information --- a video linking the attackers to the assault. As a radical domestic terrorist group threatens further attacks against America's cultural symbols, powerful forces within the government are misleading the investigation to further their own radical agenda.
Minotaur Books | 9781250877338

MY NAME WAS EDEN by Eleanor Barker-White (Psychological Thriller)
When her daughter Eden came home from the hospital, Lucy was profoundly relieved. Eden had survived a drowning incident and had no apparent brain damage or serious injuries. Lucy fervently welcomed having a second chance at being the good mother she should have been before her teenager’s accident. Until Eden tells her that Eden isn’t her name. Until she starts calling herself Eli. The name Lucy had reserved for Eden’s unborn twin. Don’t worry, says the doctor. Eden is completely fine, says her husband. Of course I’m fine, Eden says, with that strange new smile of hers. I didn’t die. I’m here. But Lucy knows something is very wrong with Eden. She’s not her maddening, complicated teenage girl anymore --- this even-tempered, steady-eyed child is someone else entirely. Eden, it seems, is the twin who disappeared.
William Morrow | 9780063341296

NO BETTER TIME: A Novel of the Spirited Women of the Six Triple Eight Central Postal Directory Battalion by Sheila Williams (Historical Fiction)
In the wake of the attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941, Dorothy Thom joins the Women’s Army Corps. Women from all levels of society work together to navigate a military segregated by race and gender. In early 1945, Dorothy and 800 African American WACs cross the turbulent North Atlantic to their post in England. Their orders are to process the mail sent to GIs from their loved ones back home. They arrive to find mail stockpiled for over two years in warehouses and airplane hangars. Many pieces are in poor condition, and the names are illegible. In England and France, the WACs traverse a landscape of unimagined possibilities. With their outlooks changed forever, they return to the United States as the catalysts for change in America and build lives that transcend anything their ancestors ever dreamed of.
Amistad | 9780063307933

NORMAL WOMEN: Nine Hundred Years of Making History by Philippa Gregory (History)
In this ambitious and groundbreaking book, Philippa Gregory tells the story of England over 900 years, for the very first time placing women --- some 50 percent of the population --- center stage. Using research skills honed in her work as one of our foremost historical novelists, Gregory trawled through court records, newspapers and journals to find highwaywomen and beggars, murderers and brides, housewives and pirates, female husbands and hermits. The “normal women” you will meet in these pages went to war, plowed the fields, campaigned, wrote and loved. They rode in jousts, flew Spitfires, issued their own currency, and built ships, corn mills and houses. They committed crimes or treason, worshipped many gods, cooked and nursed, invented things and rioted. A lot.
HarperOne | 9780063304321

THE OTHER VALLEY by Scott Alexander Howard (Science Fiction)
Sixteen-year-old Odile is vying for a coveted seat on the Conseil. If she earns the position, she’ll decide who may cross her town’s heavily guarded borders. On the other side, it’s the same valley, the same town. Except to the east, the town is 20 years ahead in time. To the west, it’s 20 years behind. The towns repeat in an endless sequence across the wilderness. When Odile recognizes two visitors she wasn’t supposed to see, she realizes that the parents of her friend Edme have been escorted across the border from the future, on a mourning tour, to view their son while he’s still alive in Odile’s present. Edme, the only person to truly see Odile, is about to die. Sworn to secrecy in order to preserve the timeline, Odile now becomes the Conseil’s top candidate. Yet she finds herself drawing closer to the doomed boy, imperiling her entire future.
Atria Books | 9781668015476

THE PAINTER'S DAUGHTERS by Emily Howes (Historical Fiction)
Peggy and Molly Gainsborough, the daughters of one of England’s most famous portrait artists of the 1700s, are best friends. From a young age, Molly periodically experiences bouts of mental confusion, even forgetting who she is, and Peggy instinctively knows she must help cover up her sister’s condition. When the family moves to Bath, it’s not so easy to hide Molly’s slip-ups. There, the sisters are thrown into the whirlwind of polite society, where the codes of behavior are crystal clear. Molly dreams of a normal life but slides deeper and more publicly into her delusions. By now, Peggy knows the shadow of an asylum looms for women like Molly. But when Peggy unexpectedly falls in love with her father’s friend, the charming composer Johann Fischer, the sisters’ precarious situation is thrown catastrophically off course.
Simon & Schuster | 9781668021385

PIGLET by Lottie Hazell (Fiction)
An up-and-coming cookbook editor at a London publishing house, Piglet has lovely, loyal friends and a handsome fiancé, Kit. One of the many things Kit loves about Piglet is the delicious, unfathomably elaborate meals she’s always cooking. But when Kit confesses a horrible betrayal two weeks before they’re set to be married, Piglet finds herself suddenly…hungry. The couple decides to move forward with the wedding as planned, but as it nears and Piglet balances family expectations, pressure at work and her quest to make the perfect cake, she finds herself increasingly unsettled, behaving in ways even she can’t explain. By the day of her wedding, Piglet is undone but is also ready to look beyond the lies we sometimes tell ourselves to get by.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250289841

THE RUMOR GAME by Thomas Mullen (Historical Thriller)
Reporter Anne Lemire writes the Rumor Clinic, a newspaper column that disproves the many harmful rumors floating around town, some of them spread by Axis spies and others just gossip mixed with fear and ignorance. Tired of chasing silly rumors about Rosie Riveters' safety on the job, she wants to write about something bigger. Special Agent Devon Mulvey, one of the few Catholics at the FBI, spends his weekdays preventing industrial sabotage and his Sundays spying on clerics with suspect loyalties --- and he spends his evenings wooing the many lonely women whose husbands are off at war. When Anne’s story about Nazi propaganda intersects with Devon’s investigation into the death of a factory worker, the two are led down a dangerous trail of espionage, organized crime and domestic fascism.
Minotaur Books | 9781250842770

SHARING TOO MUCH: Musings from an Unlikely Life by Richard Paul Evans (Essays)
Before he was the #1 New York Times bestselling author of holiday classics such as THE CHRISTMAS BOX, Richard Paul Evans was a young boy being raised by a suicidal mother and dealing with relentless bullying. He could not fathom what the future held for him. Now, in this intimate and heartfelt collection of personal essays, Evans shares his moving journey from childhood to beloved author. Here, he offers the insightful lessons he’s learned and engaging advice about everything from marriage to parenthood and even facing near-death experiences.
Gallery Books | 9781982177461

THREE-INCH TEETH: A Joe Pickett Novel by C. J. Box (Mystery/Thriller)
A rogue grizzly bear has gone on a rampage --- killing, among others, the potential fiancé of Joe Pickett’s daughter. At the same time, Dallas Cates, who Joe helped lock up years ago, is released from prison with a special list tattooed on his skin. He wants revenge on the people who sent him away: the six people he blames for the deaths of his entire family and the loss of his reputation and property. Using the grizzly attacks as cover, Cates sets out to methodically check off his list. The problem is, both Nate Romanowski and Joe Pickett are on it.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593331347

WANDERING STARS by Tommy Orange (Fiction)
Colorado, 1864. Star, a young survivor of the Sand Creek Massacre, is brought to the Fort Marion prison castle, where he is forced to learn English and practice Christianity by Richard Henry Pratt, an evangelical prison guard who will go on to found the Carlisle Indian Industrial School, an institution dedicated to the eradication of Native history, culture and identity. A generation later, Star’s son, Charles, is sent to the school, where he is brutalized by the man who was once his father’s jailer. Under Pratt’s harsh treatment, Charles clings to moments he shares with a young fellow student, Opal Viola, as the two envision a future away from the institutional violence that follows their bloodlines.
Knopf | 9780593318256

On Sale the Week of February 26th in Paperback

February 27th

ALL THAT IS HIDDEN: A Molly Murphy Mystery by Rhys Bowen and Clare Broyles (Historical Mystery)
Former private detective Molly Murphy Sullivan and her policeman husband, Daniel, have built quite a life for themselves in Greenwich Village. They have a good marriage, a true partnership where they value each other’s opinions in all things. So when he tells her they’re moving to a fancy home on Fifth Avenue --- and that he’s running for the sheriff of New York --- Molly is left reeling. Daniel begs Molly to trust him. But why would he run for sheriff on the Tammany ticket? A party known more for kickbacks and quid pro quo than anything else, it used to be everything Daniel despised. So what’s changed? And why didn’t he discuss it with her beforehand? Molly can’t help but wonder what Daniel has gotten himself tangled up in…and if he needs her help to get out.
Minotaur Books | 9781250808110

AMERICAN MERMAID by Julia Langbein (Fiction/Humor)
Broke English teacher Penelope Schleeman is as surprised as anyone when her feminist, eco-warrior novel American Mermaid becomes a bestseller. But when Hollywood insists she convert her fierce, androgynous protagonist into a teen sex object in a clamshell bra, strange things start to happen. Is Penelope losing her mind, or has her fictional mermaid come to life, enacting revenge against society’s limited view of what a woman can and should be? AMERICAN MERMAID follows a young woman braving the casual slights and cruel calculations of a winner-take-all society and discovering a beating heart in her own fiction: a new kind of mermaid who will fight to keep her voice and choose her place.
Vintage | 9780593470145

COLD PEOPLE by Tom Rob Smith (Dystopian Thriller/Science Fiction)
The world has fallen. Without warning, a mysterious and omnipotent force has claimed the planet for their own. There are no negotiations, no demands, no reasons given for their actions. All they have is a message: humanity has 30 days to reach the one place on Earth where they will be allowed to exist --- Antarctica. COLD PEOPLE follows the perilous journeys of a handful of those who endure the frantic exodus to the most extreme environment on the planet. But their goal is not merely to survive the present. Because as they cling to life on the ice, the remnants of their past swept away, they also must confront the urgent challenge: Can they change and evolve rapidly enough to ensure humanity’s future? Can they build a new society in the sub-zero cold?
Scribner | 9781982198411

THE EXCEPTIONS: Nancy Hopkins and the Fight for Women in Science by Kate Zernike (History)
In 1999, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology admitted to discriminating against women on its faculty, forcing institutions across the country to confront a problem they had long ignored: the need for more women at the top levels of science. Written by the journalist who broke the story for The Boston Globe, THE EXCEPTIONS is the untold story of how 16 highly accomplished women on the MIT faculty came together to do the work that triggered the historic admission. It centers on the life of Nancy Hopkins, a reluctant feminist who became the leader of the 16 and a hero to two generations of women in science.
Scribner | 9781982131845

GHOST ISLAND: A Ghosts of the Past Novel by Max Seeck (Mystery)
Paperback Original
Jessica Niemi is put on leave after a violent altercation between her and a belligerent man makes headlines. To escape the unwanted scrutiny, Jessica travels to a remote island in the Åland archipelago and rents a room at a small seaside inn. There she meets three elderly visitors who are the remaining “birds of spring,” former refugees who fled Finland as children during World War II and lived together for a few months in an orphanage on the island. The orphanage no longer exists, but the local legend about one of its inhabitants still haunts the surviving orphans. Every evening a girl named Maija would stand on the pier, but one night she disappeared and was never seen again. When one of the “birds of spring” is found dead, drowned alongside the same pier, Jessica tries to put the pieces of this terrifying mystery together.
Berkley | 9780593438862

HOMESTEAD by Melinda Moustakis (Historical Fiction)
Anchorage, 1956. When Marie and Lawrence first lock eyes at the Moose Lodge, they are immediately drawn together. But when they decide to marry, days later, they are more in love with the promise of homesteading than anything. For Lawrence, his parcel of 150 acres is an opportunity to finally belong in a world that has never delivered on its promise. For Marie, the land is an escape from the empty future she sees spinning out before her, and a risky bet is better than none at all. But over the next few years, as they work the land in an attempt to secure a deed to their homestead, they must face everything they don’t know about each other. As the Territory of Alaska moves toward statehood and inexorable change, can Marie and Lawrence create something new, or will they break apart trying?
Flatiron Books | 9781250845573

MARVELOUS by Molly Greeley (Historical Fiction)
1547: Pedro Gonzales, a young boy living on the island of Tenerife, understands that he is different from the other children in his village. He is mercilessly ridiculed for the hair covering his body from head to toe. When he is kidnapped off the beach near his home, he finds himself delivered by a slave broker into the dangerous and glamorous world of France’s royal court. Catherine de’ Medici is fascinated by Pedro and determined to find him a bride. Catherine Raffelin is a beautiful 17-year-old girl whose merchant father has fallen on hard times and offers up his daughter to Queen Catherine. The queen will pay his debts, and his daughter will marry Pedro. Catherine must learn to navigate this strange new world and the unusual man who is now her husband.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063244108

THE MOSTLY TRUE STORY OF TANNER & LOUISE by Colleen Oakley (Fiction)
Twenty-one-year-old Tanner Quimby needs a place to live. Since she has no credit or money to speak of, her options are limited. So when an opportunity to work as a live-in caregiver for an elderly woman falls into her lap, she takes it. One slip on the rug. That’s all it took for Louise Wilt’s daughter to demand that Louise have a full-time nanny living with her. The two start off their living arrangement happily ignoring each other until Tanner starts to notice things. Why does Louise keep her garden shed locked up tighter than a prison? Why is the local news fixated on the suspect of one of the biggest jewelry heists in American history who looks eerily like Louise? And why does Louise suddenly appear in her room, with a packed bag at 1 a.m., insisting that they leave town immediately?
Berkley | 9780593549094

ONCE UPON A TOME: The Misadventures of a Rare Bookseller by Oliver Darkshire (Memoir)
Some years ago, Oliver Darkshire stepped into the hushed interior of Henry Sotheran Ltd to apply for a job. Allured by the smell of old books and the temptation of a management-approved afternoon nap, Darkshire was soon unteetering stacks of first editions and placating the store’s resident ghost (the late Mr. Sotheran, hit by a tram). A novice in this ancient, potentially haunted establishment, Darkshire describes Sotheran’s brushes with history (Dickens, the Titanic), its joyous disorganization, and the unspoken rules of its gleefully old-fashioned staff. As Darkshire gains confidence and experience, he shares trivia about ancient editions and explores the strange space that books occupy in our lives --- where old books often have strong sentimental value, but rarely a commercial one.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324074786

THE QUEEN OF DIRT ISLAND by Donal Ryan (Fiction)
The Aylward women of Nenagh, Tipperary, are mad about each other, but you wouldn’t always think it. You’d have to know them to know that --- in spite of what the neighbors might say about raised voices and dramatic scenes --- their house is a place of peace, filled with love, a refuge from the sadness and cruelty of the world. Their story begins at an end and ends at a beginning. It involves wives and widows, gunrunners and gougers, sinners and saints. It’s a story of terrible betrayals and fierce loyalties, of isolation and togetherness, of transgression, forgiveness, desire and love. Of all the things family can be and all the things it sometimes isn’t.
Penguin Books | 9780593652954

THE SECRETS OF HARTWOOD HALL by Katie Lumsden (Historical Gothic Mystery)
It’s 1852, and Margaret Lennox, a young widow, attempts to escape the shadows of her past by taking a position as governess to an only child, Louis, at an isolated country house in the west of England. But Margaret soon starts to feel that something isn’t quite right. There are strange figures in the dark, tensions between servants and an abandoned east wing. Even stranger is the local gossip surrounding Mrs. Eversham, Louis’ widowed mother, who is deeply distrusted in the village. Lonely and unsure whom to trust, Margaret finds distraction in a forbidden relationship with the gardener, Paul. But as Margaret’s history threatens to catch up with her, it isn’t long before she learns the truth behind the secrets of Hartwood Hall.
Dutton | 9780593186947

STONE BLIND by Natalie Haynes (Historical Fiction)
The only mortal in a family of gods, Medusa is the youngest of the Gorgon sisters. Unlike her siblings, Medusa grows older, experiences change and feels weakness. Her mortal lifespan gives her an urgency that her family will never know. When the sea god Poseidon assaults Medusa in Athene’s temple, the goddess is enraged. Furious by the violation of her sacred space, Athene takes revenge --- on the young woman. Punished for Poseidon’s actions, Medusa is forever transformed. Writhing snakes replace her hair, and her gaze will turn any living creature to stone. Cursed with the power to destroy all she loves with one look, Medusa condemns herself to a life of solitude. Until Perseus embarks upon a fateful quest to fetch the head of a Gorgon.
Harper Perennial | 9780063258402

TAKE WHAT YOU NEED by Idra Novey (Fiction)
Set in the Allegheny Mountains of Appalachia, TAKE WHAT YOU NEED traces the parallel lives of Jean and her beloved but estranged stepdaughter, Leah, who's sought a clean break from her rural childhood. In Leah’s urban life with her young family, she‘s revealed little about Jean, how much she misses her stepmother’s hard-won insights and joyful lack of inhibition. But with Jean’s death, Leah must return to sort through what’s been left behind. What Leah discovers is staggering: Jean has filled her ramshackle house with giant sculptures she’s welded from scraps of the area’s industrial history. There’s also a young man now living in the house who played an unknown role in Jean’s last years and in her art.
Penguin Books | 9780593652879

UNDER THE STORM written by Christoffer Carlsson, translated by Rachel Willson-Broyles (Mystery)
Paperback Original
On a cold November night, a farmhouse burns to the ground. Inside a young woman is found dead --- not from the fire but murdered. To the people in the rural community of Marbäck, this becomes a reference point: a before and after. For 10-year-old Isak Nyqvist, it sets in motion something he cannot control, igniting his future into an unpredictable inferno. The police focus their attention on Edvard Christensson, the boyfriend of the murdered woman and Isak’s beloved uncle. After a quick investigation, Edvard is found guilty and sentenced to life in prison. Vidar Jörgensson, the rookie officer who first responded to the fire, prides himself on helping solved the murder. Little does he know this will drive him to the brink of professional and personal disaster --- and link his fate to young Isak's.
Hogarth | 9780593449387

WEYWARD by Emilia Hart (Historical Fiction/Magical Realism)
2019: Under cover of darkness, Kate flees London for ramshackle Weyward Cottage, inherited from her great-aunt. The cottage is worlds away from the abusive partner who tormented Kate. But she begins to suspect that her great-aunt had a secret. 1619: Altha is awaiting trial for the murder of a local farmer. Her mother taught her their magic, which is rooted in a deep knowledge of the natural world. But as the evidence for witchcraft is set out against Altha, she knows it will take all of her powers to maintain her freedom. 1942: As World War II rages, Violet is trapped in her family's grand, crumbling estate. Her mother was rumored to have gone mad before her death. The only traces Violet has of her are a locket bearing the initial W and the word weyward scratched into the baseboard of her bedroom.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250842725

ZIG-ZAG BOY: A Memoir of Madness and Motherhood by Tanya Frank (Memoir)
One night in 2009, Tanya Frank finds her 19-year-old son, Zach, in the grip of what the psychiatrists would label a psychotic break. In the years following Zach’s shifting psychiatric diagnoses, Tanya is desperate to find the right answer, the right drug, the right doctor to bring him back to reality. She struggles to navigate archaic mental healthcare systems, first in California and then in her native London during lockdown. Meanwhile, the boy she raised suffers the effects of multiple hospitalizations, powerful drugs that blunt his emotions, therapies that don’t work, and torturous nights on the streets. Holding on to startling moments of hope and seeking solace in nature and community, Tanya learns how to abandon her fears for the future and accept the mysteries of her son’s altered states.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324074625

March 1st

BLANK by Zibby Owens (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Pippa Jones is a fortyish former literary sensation who fears she will be a one-hit wonder. After the follow-up book she was almost done writing, Podlusters, had to be tossed, she couldn’t write a thing. Months of staring at a blank page made her confidence vanish like a one-night stand. When she finds out that she has only five days left to finish (or rather, start) or repay an advance she’s already spent, Pippa has a brilliantly original idea. Okay, fine, her 12-year-old son came up with it as a joke, but Pippa and her teenage daughter approved. Pippa is not only going to make a bold statement, she’ll change the book world while she’s at it! Can she pull it off? At this point, she doesn’t have a choice. When Pippa’s publisher gets intimately involved, it unlocks a series of plot twists she never saw coming.
Little A | 9781662516702

DON’T FORGET ME by Rea Frey (Domestic Thriller)
Paperback Original
All Ruby wanted was a fresh start. But after an early retirement and a relocation to a tight-knit community with her husband, Tom, and her daughter, Lily, her new beginning takes a turn. First her troubled daughter and then her husband disappear without a trace. Unsure how to cope, grief-ridden Ruby turns to her neighborhood friends to find a way forward with new hobbies, including a murder club where they try to solve cold cases. But just as unexpectedly as her family vanished, a body floats to the surface of the nearby lake. And everyone is sure the body belongs to Tom...everyone except Ruby. Determined to find out what happened to her family once and for all, Ruby digs into her neighbors’ lives, and her own, only to uncover secrets that raise more questions than they answer.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781662513237

HYPNOTIZED BY LOVE by Sariah Wilson (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Hypnotist Savannah Sinclair is known for helping clients overcome their deep-rooted issues. But her nontraditional approach also attracts plenty of skeptics --- including her high school nemesis and rival, Mason Beckett, who just so happens to be the boy who broke her heart. Mason’s life hasn’t gone according to plan, and the only gig he can land is writing a scathing exposé of his hometown hypnotist, Savannah. But in order to write an authentic article, he has to be a willing participant. Hypnosis is the last thing he expected. When a fire alarm interrupts their session, Mason walks out into the real world entranced and sporting a sunny disposition. Hypnotized Mason reveals things he’s never told a soul and leads Savannah on a frantic chase to keep him safe. He likes his new self. The problem is, so does Savannah.
Montlake | 9781662514227

Please visit the other websites in TheBookReportNetwork.com: ReadingGroupGuides.com and AuthorsOnTheWeb.com.

And be sure to connect with us on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube and Twitter.