July 9, 2024

July 9, 2024

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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of July 8th and July 15th 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 Fiction Author Spotlight of THE LION WOMEN OF TEHRAN by Marjan Kamali, which is now in stores, along with our review. This heartfelt, epic novel of friendship, betrayal and redemption --- set against three transformative decades in Tehran, Iran --- will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On selection.

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, July 10th at 2pm ET: "Bookaccino Live" Book Preview: Carol Fitzgerald will present titles releasing between July 9th and August 6th, along with a few from September, that she would like to get on your radar. Included will be fiction; historical fiction; thrillers and mysteries; and memoirs, biographies and other nonfiction.

Thursday, July 11th at 2pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Donna Leon will talk about her latest novel, A REFINER'S FIRE. In this 33rd installment of her series, Commissario Guido Brunetti confronts a present-day Venetian menace and the ghosts of a heroism that never was.

Tuesday, July 16th at 9pm ET: Killer Author Club: Kimberly Belle, Heather Gudenkauf and Kaira Rouda will talk to C. J. Box about THREE-INCH TEETH, the 24th and latest installment in his series featuring Joe Pickett, who this time faces two different kinds of rampaging beasts --- one animal, one human.

This Week's Bonus News:
Our Fiction Author Spotlight of
THE LION WOMEN OF TEHRAN by Marjan Kamali
An Upcoming Bookreporter.com Bets On Title

On Sale the Week of July 8th in Hardcover

July 9th

THE ANTHROPOLOGISTS by Aysegül Savas (Fiction)
Asya and Manu are looking at apartments, envisioning their future in a foreign city. What should their life here look like? What rituals will structure their days? Whom can they consider family? As the young couple dreams about the possibilities of each new listing, Asya, a documentarian, gathers footage from the neighborhood like an anthropologist observing local customs. “Forget about daily life,” chides her grandmother on the phone. “We named you for a whole continent and you're filming a park.” Back in their home countries, parents age, grandparents get sick, nieces and nephews grow up --- all just slightly out of reach. But Asya and Manu's new world is growing, too, they hope. As they open the horizons of their lives, what and whom will they hold onto, and what will they need to release?
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781639733064

BAD TOURISTS by Caro Carver (Psychological Thriller)
Best friends Darcy, Camilla and Kate escape for a post-divorce retreat in the Maldives, the perfect place to relax, reset and embrace a fresh start in life. Darcy is learning how to be a free woman at 42. Camilla has found the perfect calling as a fitness and wellness influencer with a devoted following. And Kate is finally working on the book she was meant to write after years of telling other people’s stories. Their dream getaway? The exclusive and isolated Sapphire Island Resort. With luxurious private villas, crystal-clear waters and sun-drenched white sand beaches, relaxation is guaranteed. But this is no ordinary friendship, and they’re not the only guests on the island with secrets. Who left the body on the beach --- and who’s next?
Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster | 9781668058848

THE BRIAR CLUB by Kate Quinn (Historical Fiction)
Washington, DC, 1950. Everyone keeps to themselves at Briarwood House, a down-at-the-heels all-female boardinghouse in the heart of the nation’s capital, where secrets hide behind white picket fences. But when the lovely, mysterious widow Grace March moves into the attic room, she draws her oddball collection of neighbors into unlikely friendships. Grace’s weekly attic-room dinner parties and window-brewed sun tea become a healing balm on all their lives, but she hides a terrible secret of her own. When a shocking act of violence tears the house apart, the Briar Club women must decide once and for all: Who is the true enemy in their midst?
William Morrow | 9780063244740

THE BURNING by Linda Castillo (Mystery/Thriller)
Newlywed Chief of Police Kate Burkholder is summoned to a suspicious fire in the woods, where she discovers a charred body. According to the coroner, the deceased --- an Amish man named Milan Swanz --- was chained to a stake and burned alive. Kate knows all too well that the Amish prefer to handle their problems without interference from the outside world, and no one will speak about the murdered man. From what she’s able to piece together, Swanz led a deeply troubled life and recently had been excommunicated. When her own brother is implicated in the case, Kate finds herself not only at odds with the Amish, the world of which she was once a part, but also the English community and her counterparts in law enforcement. The investigation takes a violent turn when Kate’s life is threatened by a mysterious stranger.
Minotaur Books | 9781250781116

BURY YOUR GAYS by Chuck Tingle (Horror)
Misha knows that chasing success in Hollywood can be hell. But finally, after years of trying to make it, his big moment is here: an Oscar nomination. And the executives at the studio for his long-running streaming series know just the thing to kick his career to the next level: kill off the gay characters, "for the algorithm," in the upcoming season finale. Misha refuses, but he soon realizes that he’s just put a target on his back. And what’s worse, monsters from his horror movie days are stalking him and his friends through the hills above Los Angeles. Haunted by his past, Misha must risk his entire future --- before the horrors from the silver screen find a way to bury him for good.
Tor Nightfire | 9781250874658

COME TO THE WINDOW by Howard Norman (Historical Fiction)
It’s 1918. The war in Europe grinds on, and the Spanish flu seems to be on an insatiable killing spree. But in the small fishing village of Parrsboro, Nova Scotia, a more confined drama slowly unfolds. It begins when Elizabeth Frame murders her husband hours after their wedding and thrusts the revolver into the blowhole of a beached whale. Crime reporter Toby Havenshaw covers the hearing, and his diary subsequently follows the surprising twists and turns of Elizabeth Frame’s flight from the law, accompanied as she is by a love-besotted court stenographer. But Toby’s diary also paints a vivid and deeply affecting portrait of his marriage to Amelia, a surgeon just returned from the front lines in France and Belgium. When a child is born to Elizabeth Frame on the lam, Amelia is drawn into events in ways she never could have imagined. And then everything changes.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324076339

THE DALLERGUT DREAM DEPARTMENT STORE written by Miye Lee, translated by Sandy Joosun Lee (Fantasy)
In a mysterious town hidden in our collective subconscious, there's a department store that sells dreams. Visitors both human and animal shuffle in to purchase their latest adventure. Each floor specializes in a specific type of dream: childhood memories, food dreams, ice skating, dreams of stardom. Flying dreams are almost always sold out. Some seek dreams of loved ones who have died. For Penny, an enthusiastic new hire, working at Dallergut is the opportunity of a lifetime. As she uncovers the workings of this whimsical world, she bonds with a cast of unforgettable characters, including Dallergut, the flamboyant and wise owner; Babynap Rockabye, a famous dream designer; Maxim, a nightmare producer; and the many customers who dream to heal, dream to grow and dream to flourish.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335081179

A DEATH IN CORNWALL by Daniel Silva (Thriller/Adventure)
Art restorer and legendary spy Gabriel Allon has slipped quietly into London to attend a reception at the Courtauld Gallery celebrating the return of a stolen self-portrait by Vincent van Gogh. But when an old friend from the Devon and Cornwall Police seeks his help with a baffling murder investigation, he finds himself pursuing a powerful and dangerous new adversary. The victim is Charlotte Blake, a celebrated professor of art history from Oxford who spends her weekends in the same seaside village where Gabriel once lived under an assumed identity. Her murder appears to be the work of a diabolical serial killer who has been terrorizing the Cornish countryside. But there are a number of telltale inconsistencies, including a missing mobile phone. And then there is the mysterious three-letter cypher she left behind on a notepad in her study.
Harper | 9780063384200

THE FAMILY EXPERIMENT by John Marrs (Dystopian Thriller)
The world's population is soaring, creating overcrowded cities and an economic crisis. And in the UK, the breaking point has arrived. A growing number of people can no longer afford to start families, let alone raise them. But for those desperate to experience parenthood, there is an alternative. For a monthly subscription fee, clients can create a virtual child from scratch who they can access via the metaverse and a VR headset. To launch this new initiative, the company behind Virtual Children has created a reality TV show called “The Substitute.” It will follow 10 couples as they raise a virtual child from birth to the age of 18 but in a condensed nine-month time period. The prize: the right to keep their virtual child, or risk it all for the chance of a real baby.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335000361

THE HEART IN WINTER by Kevin Barry (Historical Fiction)
October 1891. A hard winter approaches across the Rocky Mountains. The city of Butte, Montana, is rich on copper mines and rampant with vice and debauchery among a hard-living crowd of immigrant Irish workers. Here we find Tom Rourke, a young poet and ballad-maker of the town, but also a doper, a drinker and a fearsome degenerate. Polly Gillespie arrives in town as the new bride of the extremely devout mine captain Long Anthony Harrington. A thunderbolt love affair takes spark between Tom and Polly, and they strike out west on a stolen horse. But a posse of deranged Cornish gunmen are soon in hot pursuit and closing in fast. With everything to lose and the safety and anonymity of San Francisco still a distant speck on their horizon, the choices they make will haunt them for the rest of their lives.
Doubleday | 9780385550598

THE HOLLYWOOD ASSISTANT by May Cobb (Psychological Thriller)
Cassidy Foster is heartbroken, stuck in life and getting a little too obsessed with plants. Then, when a well-connected friend becomes sick of Cassidy’s moping and gets her a gig with famous Hollywood couple Marisol and Nate Sterling, Cassidy jumps at the chance to move to sunny LA. All she has to do is be available a few hours a week for errands. In return, she has access to luxury. When Nate takes interest in her, asking her to read scripts he’s written, Cassidy thinks this could be the key to kickstarting her writing dreams. As their business relationship grows, so does their attraction. But Cassidy learns she was hired for a different purpose. The Sterlings aren’t the perfect couple. Marisol isn’t the perfect wife. And when one of them is found dead, Cassidy becomes the perfect suspect.
Berkley | 9780593546826

HUMOR ME by Cat Shook (Fiction/Humor)
Presley Fry has been an assistant at the Late Night Show for way too long. She’s adopted a “business casual” approach to dating to save herself from the embarrassment of seeking genuine connection, and she’s content to let her gregarious roommate, Isabelle, orchestrate her entire social life. Not completely disillusioned, Presley is enamored with the world of stand-up comedy. The joy she finds in discovering up-and-coming comedians is enough for now. Presley is still reeling from her mother's death. Enter Susan Clark, her late mother's childhood best friend. Susan is married to the head of the network where Presley works, and she’s determined to take Presley under her wing. She’s equally determined to connect Presley with her son, the bright and affable Lawrence, who couldn’t be further from Presley’s type.
Celadon Books | 9781250904713

I SHOT THE DEVIL by Ruth McIver (Thriller)
Erin Sloane was 16 when high school senior Andre Villiers was murdered by his friends. They were her friends, too, led by the intense, charismatic Ricky Hell. Five people went into West Cypress Woods the night Andre was murdered. Only three came out. Ativan, alcohol and distance had dimmed Erin's memories of that time. But nearly 20 years later, an aging father will bring her home. Now a journalist, she is asked to write a story about the Southport Three and the thrill-kill murder that electrified the country. Erin's investigation propels her closer and closer to a terrifying truth. And closer and closer to danger.
Blackstone Publishing | 9798212320740

LADYKILLER by Katherine Wood (Thriller)
Gia and Abby have been friends since childhood, forever bonded by the tragedy that unfolded in Greece when they were 18. Now 30, heiress Gia is back in Greece with her shiny new husband, while bookish Abby is working 14-hour days as an attorney. When Gia invites Abby on an all-expenses-paid trip to Sweden to celebrate her birthday, Abby is thrilled to reconnect. But on the day of her flight, Abby receives an ominous email that threatens to unearth the skeletons of her past. When she and Gia’s brother, Benny, arrive in Sweden, Gia isn’t there. Worried, Abby and Benny fly to Greece, where they find Gia’s beachfront estate eerily deserted, the sole clue to her whereabouts the manuscript she penned, detailing the events leading up to her disappearance. How much of Gia’s story is true? Where is she now? And will Abby find her before it’s too late?
Bantam | 9780593726440

LENNY MARKS GETS AWAY WITH MURDER by Kerryn Mayne (Fiction)
Lenny Marks bikes home from work at exactly 4pm each day, buys the same groceries for the same meals every week, and owns 36 copies of THE HOBBIT. The closest thing she has to a friendship is playing Scrabble against an imaginary Monica Gellar while watching “Friends” reruns. And Lenny is very, very good at not remembering what happened the day her mother and stepfather disappeared when she was still a child. The day a voice in the back of her mind started whispering, You did this. Until a letter from the parole board arrives in the mail --- and when her desperate attempts to ignore it fail, Lenny starts to unravel. As long-buried memories come to the surface, Lenny’s careful routines fall apart. For the first time, she finds herself forced to connect with the community around her, and unexpected new relationships begin to bloom.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250340108

LONG ISLAND COMPROMISE by Taffy Brodesser-Akner (Fiction)
In 1980, a wealthy businessman named Carl Fletcher is kidnapped from his driveway, brutalized and held for ransom. He is returned to his wife and kids less than a week later, and the family moves on with their lives. But now, nearly 40 years later, it’s clear that perhaps nobody ever got over anything. Carl has spent the ensuing years secretly seeking closure to the matter of his kidnapping, while his wife, Ruth, has spent her potential protecting her husband’s emotional health. Their three grown children aren’t doing much better. As they hover at the delicate precipice of a different kind of survival, they learn that the family fortune has dwindled to just about nothing, and they must face desperate questions about how much their wealth has played a part in both their lives’ successes and failures.
Random House | 9780593133491

NAVOLA by Paolo Bacigalupi (Historical Fantasy)
In Navola, a bustling city-state dominated by a handful of influential families, business is power, and power is everything. For generations, the di Regulai family --- merchant bankers with a vast empire --- has nurtured tendrils that stretch to the farthest reaches of the known world. And though they claim not to be political, their staggering wealth has bought cities and toppled kingdoms. Soon, Davico di Regulai will be expected to take the reins of power from his father and demonstrate his mastery of the games of Navolese diplomacy: knowing who to trust and who to doubt, and how to read what lies hidden behind a smile. But in Navola, strange and ancient undercurrents lurk behind the gilt and grandeur. As tensions rise and the events unfold, Davico will be tested to his limits.
Knopf | 9780593535059

OUR LONG MARVELOUS DYING by Anna DeForest (Fiction)
In a pandemic-hushed city, a young doctor lives a life of insecure attachments: to a distant partner in an untended marriage, to a loaner child who stirs up hurts from the past, to houseplants wilting in a dark apartment on a once-vibrant street. Through a yearlong fellowship caring for the dying and their families, death is impossible to ignore, and still more endings loom at every turn --- endings made worse by wounded, avoidant doctors who don’t know how to let go. But after the sudden loss of a long-estranged father, our unnamed narrator’s work is thrown into painful relief, and we see, under threats large and small, how far we will go to hold on to our lives --- no matter how little we live them.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316567121

A REFINER'S FIRE: A Commissario Guido Brunetti Mystery by Donna Leon (Mystery)
Around 1:00 on an early spring morning, two teenage gangs are arrested after clashing violently in one of Venice’s squares. Commissario Claudia Griffoni perhaps ill-advisedly walks the last of the boys home because his father, Dario Monforte, failed to pick him up at the Questura. Coincidentally, Guido Brunetti is asked by a wealthy friend of Vice-Questore Patta to vet Monforte for a job, triggering Brunetti’s memory that 20 years earlier Monforte had been publicly celebrated as the hero of a devastating bombing of the Italian military compound in Iraq. Yet Monforte had never been awarded a medal either by the Carabinieri, his service branch, or by the Italian government. That seeming contradiction, and the brutal attack on one of Brunetti’s colleagues by a possible gang member, concentrate Brunetti’s attentions.
Atlantic Monthly Press | 9780802162540

THE SKY ON FIRE by Jenn Lyons (Fantasy/Adventure)
Anahrod lives only for survival, forging her own way through the harsh jungles of the Deep with her titan drake by her side. Even when an adventuring party saves her from capture by a local warlord, she is eager to return to her solitary life. But this is no ordinary rescue. It’s Anahrod’s past catching up with her. These cunning misfits --- and their frustratingly appealing dragonrider ringleader --- intend to spirit her away to the dragon-ruled sky cities, where they need her help to steal from a dragon’s hoard. There’s only one problem: the hoard in question belongs to the current regent, Neveranimas --- and she wants Anahrod dead.
Tor Books | 9781250342003

THE SPELLSHOP by Sarah Beth Durst (Fantasy/Romance)
As a librarian at the Great Library of Alyssium, Kiela and her assistant, Caz --- a magically sentient spider plant --- have spent the last decade sequestered among the empire’s most precious spellbooks, preserving their magic for the city’s elite. When a revolution begins and the library goes up in flames, she and Caz flee with all the spellbooks they can carry and head to a remote island Kiela never thought she’d see again: her childhood home. Taking refuge there, Kiela discovers a nosy neighbor who keeps showing up to make sure she’s fed and to help fix up her new home. In need of income, Kiela identifies something that even the bakery in town doesn’t have --- jam --- and her cottage garden is soon covered in ripe berries. She risks the consequences of using unsanctioned spells and opens the island’s first-ever and much-needed secret spellshop.
Bramble | 9781250333971

STATE OF PARADISE by Laura van den Berg (Fiction)
It’s another summer in a small Florida town. After an illness that vanishes as mysteriously as it arrived, everything appears to be getting back to normal: soul-crushing heat, torrential downpours, sinkholes swallowing the earth, ominous cats, a world-bending virtual reality device being handed out by a company called ELECTRA, and an increasing number of posters dotting the streets with the faces of missing citizens. Living in her mother’s home, a ghostwriter for a famous thriller author tracks the eerie changes. Then, during a violent rainstorm, her sister goes missing. She returns a few days later, sprawled on their mother’s lawn and speaking of another dimension. Now the ghostwriter must investigate not only what happened to her sister and the other missing people but also the uncanny connections between ELECTRA, the famous author she works for, and reality itself.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374612207

THE SUMMER PACT by Emily Giffin (Fiction)
Four freshmen arrive at college from completely different worlds: Lainey, a California party girl with a flair for drama; Tyson, a brilliant scholar and an aspiring lawyer from Washington, D.C.; Summer, an ambitious, recruited athlete from the Midwest; and Hannah, a mild-mannered southerner. Soon after arriving on campus, they strike up a conversation in their shared dorm. As their college years fly by, the four become inseparable. But as graduation nears, their lives are forever changed after a desperate act leads to tragic consequences. They make a pact, promising to always be there for one another. Ten years later, Hannah is anticipating what should be one of the happiest moments of her life when everything is suddenly turned upside down. Calling on her closest friends, it soon becomes clear that they are all facing their own crossroads.
Ballantine Books | 9780593600290

TELL IT TO ME SINGING by Tita Ramírez (Fiction)
Monica Campo is pregnant with her first child when, moments before being wheeled into emergency heart surgery, her mother confesses a long-held secret: Monica’s father is not the man who raised her. But when her mother wakes up and begins having delusional episodes, Monica doesn’t know what to believe --- whether the confession was real or just a channeling of the telenovela her mother watches nightly. In her despair, Monica wants to speak with only one person: her ex-boyfriend of five years, Manny. She can’t help but worry, though, what this says about her relationship with her fiancé and father of her unborn child. Monica’s search for the truth leads her to a new understanding of the past.
S&S/Marysue Rucci Books | 9781982157319

THIS GREAT HEMISPHERE by Mateo Askaripour (Political Thriller/Science Fiction)
Despite the odds, Sweetmint, a young invisible woman, has done everything right her entire life --- school, university, and now a highly sought-after apprenticeship with the Northwestern Hemisphere’s premier inventor, a non-invisible man belonging to the Dominant Population. But the world she has fought so hard to build after the disappearance of her older brother comes crashing down when authorities claim that not only is he alive and well, he’s the main suspect in the murder of the Chief Executive of the Northwestern Hemisphere. A manhunt ensues, and Sweetmint sets off on a mission to find him before it’s too late. She must dodge a relentless law officer who’s determined to maintain order and an ambitious politician with sights set on becoming the next Chief Executive by any means necessary.
Dutton | 9780593472347

THE UNRAVELING by Vi Keeland (Psychological Thriller/Romantic Suspense)
After experiencing a terrible loss, New York City psychiatrist Meredith McCall feels painfully adrift. When she crosses paths with a man with whom she has a tragic connection, she follows him, sparking an unhealthy obsession with Gabriel Wright. How is he doing so well while her life is in shambles? But when Gabriel walks into her office as a patient, seemingly unaware of who she is, she knows it crosses all ethical and moral bounds to treat him. Yet, Meredith can’t bring herself to turn him away and becomes further entangled. With her life and career continuing to unravel, it appears that things could not get any worse…until they do.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781668046852

W. E. B. GRIFFIN ZERO OPTION: A Men at War Novel by Peter Kirsanow (Historical Thriller/Adventure)
November 1943. Stalin is pressing the Allies to open a second front in Europe in order to ease the pressure on the bloody grinding war in the East. Roosevelt and Churchill agree to meet the Soviet premier in Tehran. Wild Bill Donovan, the charismatic leader of the OSS, has intelligence that someone is planning to assassinate either or both of the Western leaders at the conference. He sends his best agent, Dick Canidy, to thwart the plan. But how can he do that when he doesn't even know if the killer is a Nazi or an Ally?
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780399171222

On Sale the Week of July 8th in Paperback

July 9th

THE AIR RAID BOOK CLUB by Annie Lyons (Historical Fiction)
London, 1938: The bookstore just doesn’t feel the same to Gertie Bingham ever since the death of her beloved husband, Harry. Meanwhile, Hitler is on the rise in Germany, and Jewish families are making the heart-wrenching decision to send their children away from the growing turmoil. After a nudge from her dear friend Charles, Gertie decides to take in one of these refugees, a headstrong teenage girl named Hedy. When the Blitz begins and bombs whistle overhead, Gertie and Hedy come up with the idea to start an air raid book club. Together with neighbors and bookstore customers, they hold lively discussions. But even the best book can only provide a temporary escape. As the tragic reality of the war hits home, the book club faces unimaginable losses.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063296206

ALL THE SINNERS BLEED by S. A. Cosby (Thriller)
Titus Crown is the first Black sheriff in the history of Charon County, Virginia. In recent decades, quiet Charon has had only two murders. Then a year to the day after Titus’ election, a schoolteacher is killed by a former student, and the student is fatally shot by Titus’ deputies. As Titus investigates the shootings, he unearths terrible crimes and a serial killer who has been hiding in plain sight. With the killer’s possible connections to a local church and the town’s harrowing history weighing on him, Titus projects confidence about closing the case while concealing a painful secret from his own past. At the same time, he also has to contend with a far-right group that wants to hold a parade in celebration of the town’s Confederate history.
Flatiron Books | 9781250831927

ALL-NIGHT PHARMACY by Ruth Madievsky (Fiction)
On the night of her high school graduation, a young woman follows her older sister, Debbie, to a bar. After the two share a bag of unidentified pills, the evening turns into a haze of sensual and risky interactions. Our unnamed narrator has always been under Debbie’s spell. Despite her own hesitations, she has always said yes to nights like these. That is, until Debbie disappears. Falling deeper into the life she cultivated with her sister, our narrator gets a job as an emergency room secretary where she steals pills to sell on the side. Cue Sasha, a Jewish refugee from the former Soviet Union who claims to be a psychic tasked with acting as the narrator’s spiritual guide. The nature of this relationship evolves and blurs, a kaleidoscope of friendship, sex, mysticism and ambiguous power dynamics.
Catapult | 9781646222254

BLACK CANDLE WOMEN by Diane Marie Brown (Fiction)
Generations of Montrose women --- Augusta, Victoria, Willow --- have always lived together in their quaint California bungalow. They keep to themselves, and their collection of tinctures and spells is an unspoken bond between them. But when young Nickie Montrose brings home a boy for the first time, their quiet lives are thrown into disarray. For the family has withheld a crucial secret from Nickie all these years: any person a Montrose woman falls in love with will die. Their surprise guest forces each woman to reckon with her own past choices and mistakes. And as new truths about the curse emerge, they're set on a collision course dating back to 1950s New Orleans’s French Quarter --- where a hidden story in a mysterious book may just hold the answers they seek in life and in love.
Graydon House | 9781525804281

THE BLONDE IDENTITY by Ally Carter (Romantic Comedy/Suspense)
It’s the middle of the night in the middle of Paris, and a woman just woke up with no memory. She only knows three things for certain: 1) She has a splitting headache. 2) The hottest guy she has (probably) ever seen is standing over her, telling her to run. And oh yeah… 3) People keep trying to kill her. When she sees footage of herself fighting off a dozen men, there’s only one explanation: obviously she’s a spy! Except, according to Mr. Hot Guy, she’s not. She’s a spy’s identical twin sister. Too bad the only person who knows she’s not the woman they’re looking for is this very grouchy, very sexy, very secret agent who (reluctantly) agrees to help her disappear. Which is easier said than done when a criminal organization wants you dead and every intelligence service in the world wants you caught.
Avon | 9780063276659

CASSANDRA IN REVERSE by Holly Smale (Fiction)
Cassandra Penelope Dankworth is a creature of habit. She likes what she likes (museums, jumpsuits, her boyfriend, Will) and strongly dislikes what she doesn't (mess, change, her boss drinking out of her mug). Her life runs in a pleasing, predictable order…until now. She's just been dumped. She's just been fired. Her local café has run out of banana muffins. Then, something truly unexpected happens: Cassie discovers she can go back and change the past. One small rewind at a time, Cassie attempts to fix the life she accidentally obliterated. But soon she'll discover she's trying to fix all the wrong things.
Mira | 9780778305446

THE CLEARING by Simon Toyne (Psychological Thriller)
Adele Friar knows better than most that something dangerous lurks in the forest. So when her sister Maddie goes missing, she fears that the woods may hold the answers. Locals put the unusually high number of missing persons in the area down to inexperienced hikers getting lost in the forest’s depths, or girls abandoning their sleepy rural town for the excitement of city life. Some even blame the Cinderman, a legend who haunts the woods looking for unsuspecting victims. With help from Adele and DCI Tannahill Khan back in London, forensic specialist Laughton Rees is determined to find Maddie and dispel the dangerous ghost stories once and for all. But what if the monster in the woods isn’t a myth after all, and a cold-blooded killer is stalking his victims from the shadowy safety of the trees?
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063390744

CONFESSIONS OF THE DEAD by James Patterson and J. D. Barker (Psychological Thriller/Horror)
Paperback Original
Hollows Bend, New Hampshire, is a picture-perfect New England town where weekend tourists flock to see fall leaves and eat breakfast at the Stairway Diner. The crime rate --- zero --- is a point of pride for Sheriff Ellie Pritchett. The day the stranger shows up is when the trouble starts. The sheriff and her deputy investigate the mysterious teenage girl. None of the locals can place her. She can’t --- or won’t --- answer any questions. She won’t even tell them her name. While the girl is in protective custody, the officers are called to multiple crime scenes leading them closer and closer to a lake outside of town that doesn’t appear on any map.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538758922

DIRTY THIRTY: A Stephanie Plum Novel by Janet Evanovich (Mystery)
Stephanie Plum, Trenton’s hardest working, most underappreciated bounty hunter, is offered a freelance assignment that seems simple enough. Local jeweler Martin Rabner wants her to locate his former security guard, Andy Manley (aka Nutsy), who he is convinced stole a fortune in diamonds out of his safe. Stephanie is also looking for another troubled man, Duncan Dugan, a fugitive from justice arrested for robbing the same jewelry store on the same day. As the body count rises and witnesses start to disappear, it won’t be easy for Stephanie to keep herself clean when everyone else is playing dirty. It’s a good thing Stephanie isn’t afraid of getting a little dirty, too.
Atria Books | 9781668003114

THE DISAPPEARANCE OF ASTRID BRICARD by Natasha Lester (Historical Fiction)
Everyone remembers her daringly short, silver lamé dress. It was an iconic photo capturing an electric moment, where emerging American designer Astrid Bricard is young, uninhibited, and on the cusp of fashion and feminism’s changing landscape. Yet she can't escape the shadow of her mother, Mizza Bricard, infamous "muse" for Christian Dior. Astrid would give anything to take her place among the great houses of couture --- on her own terms. But then Astrid disappeared. Now Astrid's daughter, Blythe, holds what remains of her mother and grandmother's legacies. Of all the Bricard women, she can gather the torn, painfully beautiful fabrics of three generations of heartbreak to create something that will shake the foundations of fashion. But what really happened to Astrid?
Forever | 9781538706961

THE GAME CHANGER by Lana Ferguson (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
When a very public breakup becomes a PR nightmare for Ian Chase's hockey team, he hopes to focus on his game. With his career and the team’s image in jeopardy, Ian is surprised to find a solution through none other than Delilah Baker, his best friend and teammate's sister. Delilah is known as “the darling of baking” on her local cable show. But with her numbers dwindling, she offers up the half-baked idea to collaborate with her brother’s team to entice the hockey fans of Boston to tune in to her show. Delilah thinks it will be a piece of cake --- until the team sends Ian Chase, her brother’s best friend and the object of a decade-long crush that she’s never quite gotten over. With more than just their careers on thin ice, the line between what’s real and what’s for show begins to blur.
Berkley | 9780593816837

THE HOUSE OF FORTUNE by Jessie Burton (Historical Fiction)
Amsterdam, 1705. It is Thea Brandt's 18th birthday. Thea knows her birthday marks the day her mother, Marin, died in labor. Her family refuses to share the details of this story, just as they seem terrified to speak of “the miniaturist” --- a shadowy figure from their past who is possessed of uncanny abilities to capture that which is hidden. Thea’s Aunt Nella believes the solution to all of Thea's problems is to find her a husband who will guarantee her future. An unexpected invitation to Amsterdam's most exclusive ball seems like a golden opportunity. But when Thea finds on her doorstep a parcel containing a miniature figure of her secret lover, Walter, it becomes clear that someone out there has another fate in mind for the family.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781639731626

HOW TO SAY BABYLON: A Memoir by Safiya Sinclair (Memoir)
Throughout her childhood, Safiya Sinclair’s father, a volatile reggae musician and militant adherent to a strict sect of Rastafari, became obsessed with her purity --- in particular, with the threat of what Rastas call Babylon, the immoral and corrupting influences of the Western world outside their home. He worried that womanhood would make Safiya and her sisters morally weak and impure, and believed a woman’s highest virtue was her obedience. As Safiya watched her mother struggle voicelessly for years under housework and the rigidity of her father’s beliefs, she increasingly used her education as a sharp tool with which to find her voice and break free. Inevitably, with her rebellion comes clashes with her father, whose rage and paranoia explodes in increasing violence.
S&S/37 Ink | 9781982132347

IMMORTAL LONGINGS by Chloe Gong (Fantasy)
Every year, thousands in the kingdom of Talin flock to its capital twin cities, San-Er, where the palace hosts a set of games. Competitors fight to the death to win unimaginable riches. Five years ago, a massacre killed Princess Calla Tuoleimi's parents and left the palace of Er empty…and she was the one who did it. Before King Kasa’s forces in San can catch her, she plans to finish the job and bring down the monarchy. Her reclusive uncle always greets the victor of the games, so if she wins, she gets her opportunity at last to kill him. Calla finds both an unexpected alliance with Anton Makusa, an exiled aristocrat, and help from King Kasa’s adopted son, August, who wants to mend Talin’s ills. But before the games close, Calla must decide what she’s playing for --- her lover or her kingdom.
S&S/Saga Press | 9781668000236

IT'S ELEMENTARY by Elise Bryant (Mystery)
Paperback Original
Mavis Miller is not a PTA mom. So no one is more surprised than her when she caves to Trisha Holbrook, the long-reigning, slightly terrifying PTA president, and finds herself in charge of the school’s brand-new DEI committee. As one of the few Black parents at this California elementary school, Mavis tries to convince herself this is an opportunity for real change. But things go off the rails at the very first meeting, when the new principal's plans leave Trisha absolutely furious. Later that night, when Mavis spies Trisha in yellow rubber gloves and booties, lugging cleaning supplies and giant black trash bags to her waiting minivan, it’s only natural that her mind jumps to somewhere it surely wouldn’t in the light of day. Except Principal Smith fails to show up for work the next morning and has been MIA since the meeting.
Berkley | 9780593640784

THE LITTLE VILLAGE OF BOOK LOVERS by Nina George (Romance)
In a little town in the south of France in the 1960s, a dazzling encounter with Love itself changes the life of infant orphan Marie-Jeanne forever. As a girl, Marie-Jeanne realizes that she can see the marks Love has left on the people around her --- tiny glowing lights on the faces and hands that shimmer more brightly when the one meant for them is near. Before long, Marie-Jeanne is playing matchmaker. As she grows up, Marie-Jeanne helps her foster father, Francis, begin a mobile library that travels throughout the many small mountain towns in the region of Nyons. She finds herself bringing soulmates together every place they go --- and there are always books that play a pivotal role in that quest. However, the only person that Marie-Jeanne can’t seem to find a soulmate for is herself.
Ballantine Books | 9780593157909

THE MILITIA HOUSE by John Milas (Gothic Horror)
It’s 2010, and the recently promoted Corporal Loyette and his unit are finishing up their deployment at a new base in Kajaki, Afghanistan. Their duties here are straightforward --- loading and unloading cargo into and out of helicopters --- and their days are a mix of boredom and dread. The Brits they’re replacing delight in telling them the history of the old barracks just off base, a Soviet-era militia house they claim is haunted, and Loyette and his men don’t need much convincing to make a clandestine trip outside the wire to explore it. It’s a short, middle-of-the-day adventure, but the men experience a mounting agitation after their visit to the militia house. In the days that follow, they try to forget about the strange, unsettling sights and sounds from the house, but things are increasingly…not right.
Holt Paperbacks | 9781250857088

MRS. PLANSKY’S REVENGE by Spencer Quinn (Fiction)
Mrs. Loretta Plansky, a recent widow in her 70s, is settling into retirement in Florida while dealing with her 98-year-old father and fielding requests for money from her beloved children and grandchildren. One night, Mrs. Plansky is startled awake by a phone call from a voice claiming to be her grandson, Will, who desperately needs $10,000 to get out of a jam. By morning, she has lost everything. Law enforcement announces that her life savings have vanished, and it’s hopeless to find the scammers behind the heist. First humiliated, then furious, Mrs. Plansky refuses to be just another victim. In a courageous bid for justice, she follows her only clue on a whirlwind adventure to a small village in Romania to get her money and her dignity back --- and perhaps find a new lease on life, too.
Forge Books | 9781250843357

NO TWO PERSONS by Erica Bauermeister (Fiction)
Alice has always wanted to be a writer. Her talent is innate, but her stories remain safe and detached, until a devastating event breaks her heart open, and she creates a stunning debut novel. Her words find their way to readers, from a teenager hiding her homelessness, to a free diver pushing himself beyond endurance, an artist furious at the world around her, a bookseller in search of love, a widower rent by grief. Each one is drawn into Alice’s novel; each one discovers something different that alters their perspective, and presents new pathways forward for their lives. Together, their stories reveal how books can affect us in the most beautiful and unexpected of ways.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250869029

THE SPARE ROOM by Andrea Bartz (Domestic Thriller)
Kelly’s new life in Philadelphia has turned into a nightmare. The only bright spot is her newly rekindled friendship with her childhood friend, Sabrina --- now a glamorous bestselling author with a handsome, high-powered husband. When Sabrina and Nathan offer Kelly an escape hatch, volunteering the spare room of their remote Virginia mansion, she jumps at the chance to run away from her old life. There, Kelly secretly finds herself falling for both her enchanting hosts --- until one night, a wild and unexpected threesome leads the couple to open their marriage for her. At first, Kelly loves being part of this risqué new world. But when she discovers that the last woman they invited into their marriage is missing, she starts to wonder if they could be dangerous…and if she might be next.
Ballantine Books | 9781984820518

THE STOLEN COAST by Dwyer Murphy (Noir Thriller)
Jack might be a polished, Harvard-educated lawyer on paper, but everyone in the down-at-the-heels, if picturesque, village of Onset, Massachusetts, knows his real job: moving people on the run from powerful enemies. The family business --- co-managed with his father, a retired spy --- is smooth sailing, as they fill up Onset’s holiday homes during the town’s long, drowsy off-season and help clients shed their identities in preparation for fresh starts. But when Elena, Jack’s former flame --- a dedicated hustler who's no stranger to the fugitive life --- makes an unexpected return to town, her arrival upends Jack’s routine existence. It isn’t long before Jack finds himself enmeshed in her latest project: intercepting millions of dollars’ worth of raw diamonds before they’re shipped overseas.
Penguin Books | 9780593653692

THE SUN SETS IN SINGAPORE by Kehinde Fadipe (Fiction)
For Dara, a workaholic lawyer from the UK, Singapore is opportunity. Every day, brokering deals for her firm’s wealthy clientele, she gets closer to her ultimate goal: making partner. For Amaka, a sharp-tongued banker from Nigeria, Singapore is extravagance. Gucci, Prada, Hermès --- she loves nothing more than to luxuriate in the major department stores that call her name on Orchard Road. And for Lillian, a former pianist turned “trailing spouse” from the U.S., Singapore is reinvention. In a stunning apartment with 360° views, the island seems to glitter as far as the eye can see. But complications are looming in the form of an enigmatic stranger, whose presence exposes cracks in Singapore’s beguiling façade.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538741504

WITCH KING by Martha Wells (Fantasy/Adventure)
After being murdered, his consciousness dormant and unaware of the passing of time while confined in an elaborate water trap, Kai wakes to find a lesser mage attempting to harness Kai’s magic to his own advantage. That was never going to go well. But why was Kai imprisoned in the first place? What has changed in the world since his assassination? And why does the Rising World Coalition appear to be growing in influence? Kai will need to pull his allies close and draw on all his pain magic if he is to answer even the least of these questions. He’s not going to like the answers.
Tordotcom | 9781250826817

On Sale the Week of July 15th in Hardcover

July 15th

TIGER, TIGER: His Life, As It's Never Been Told Before by James Patterson
(Sports/Biography)
On April 13, 1986, 10-year-old Tiger Woods watches his idol, Jack Nicklaus, win his record sixth Masters. Just over a decade later, chants of “Ti-ger, Ti-ger!” ring out as the 21-year-old wins his first Green Jacket. He blazes an incredible path, winning 14 major titles (second only to Nicklaus himself) by the time he’s 33, smashing records and raising standards. Then come multiple public scandals and potentially career-ending injuries. The once-assured champion becomes an all-American underdog. “YouTube golfer” is how his two children know their father --- winless since 2013 --- until he wins the 2019 Masters, his 15th major, before their eyes. But the story doesn’t end there. TIGER, TIGER is the first full-scale Woods biography of the decade.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316438605

July 16th

THE ASTROLOGY HOUSE by Carinn Jade (Psychological Thriller)
Margot has been working 80-hour weeks as a newly minted partner at her law firm. She’s disconnected from her brother, Adam, the only family she has left. And she’s still not pregnant after years of trying. Stars Harbor Astrological Retreat promises rest, relaxation and wisdom for Margot and her friends. With Instagram-worthy views and nightly astrology readings, this getaway should be nothing but idyllic fun. For Adam, it’s the perfect opportunity to rekindle the romance that fuels his writing. But his wife, Aimee, hides the darkness of her past with a beautiful social media feed. Their friend, Farah, is a successful doctor who cannot admit that she’s losing control. Yet no one holds a greater secret than their astrologer host, Rini. She has a plan for all of her guests, and one of them won’t be leaving Stars Harbor alive.
Atria Books | 9781668045961

BEEP by Bill Roorbach (Fiction)
In this immensely enjoyable and wise novel, it takes a sweet and personable squirrel monkey, Beep, to help us see the world we live in more clearly. While intending only to go deeper and higher into the Costa Rican rain forest to find a mate, he instead meets Inga, a kindly American tween on vacation with her family. Inadvertently, Beep travels to Manhattan with Inga. With her devoted help --- and a bit of inspiration from a visiting Greta Thunberg, along with a dramatic zoo liberation --- Beep manages to change the destiny of the world. He even finds his monkey love. Along the way, a vast cast of engaging and perceptive animals have a great deal to say about humanity and the divisions among us, our alien cities, our strange practices and our folly, as well as our beauty, and our promise, unfulfilled.
Algonquin Books | 9781643755618

THE BLACK BIRD ORACLE by Deborah Harkness (Paranormal Romance/Fantasy)
Deborah Harkness first introduced the world to Diana Bishop, an Oxford scholar and witch, and vampire geneticist Matthew de Clermont in A DISCOVERY OF WITCHES. Drawn to each other despite long-standing taboos, these two otherworldly beings found themselves at the center of a battle for a lost, enchanted manuscript known as Ashmole 782. Now, Diana and Matthew receive a formal demand from the Congregation: They must test the magic of their seven-year-old twins, Pip and Rebecca. Concerned with their safety and desperate to avoid the same fate that led her parents to spellbind her, Diana decides to forge a different path for her family’s future and answers a message from a great-aunt she never knew existed, Gwyneth Proctor, whose invitation simply reads: It’s time you came home, Diana.
Ballantine Books | 9780593724774

THE BRIGHT SWORD: A Novel of King Arthur by Lev Grossman (Historical Fantasy)
A gifted young knight named Collum arrives at Camelot to compete for a spot on the Round Table, only to find that he’s too late. The king died two weeks ago at the Battle of Camlann, leaving no heir, and only a handful of the knights of the Round Table survive. They’re joined by Nimue, who was Merlin’s apprentice until she turned on him and buried him under a hill. Together this ragtag fellowship will set out to rebuild Camelot in a world that has lost its balance. But Arthur’s death has revealed Britain’s fault lines. Kingdoms are turning on each other, warlords lay siege to Camelot, and rival factions are forming around the disgraced Lancelot and the fallen Queen Guinevere. It is up to Collum and his companions to reclaim Excalibur, solve the mysteries of this ruined world and make it whole again.
Viking | 9780735224049

CABARET MACABRE: A Joseph Spector Locked-Room Mystery by Tom Mead (Historical Mystery)
Victor Silvius has spent nine years as an inmate at The Grange, a private sanatorium, for the crime of attacking judge Sir Giles Drury. Now, the judge’s wife, Lady Elspeth Drury, believes that Silvius is the one responsible for a series of threatening letters her husband recently has received, so she seeks out retired stage magician Joseph Spector. Meanwhile, Miss Caroline Silvius is disturbed after a recent visit to her brother Victor, convinced that he isn’t safe at The Grange. Someone is trying to kill him, and she suspects that the judge, who already has made Silvius’ life a living hell, may be behind it. Caroline hires Inspector George Flint of Scotland Yard to investigate. The two cases collide at Marchbanks, the Drury family seat of over 400 years, where a series of unnerving events interrupt the peace and quiet of the snowy countryside.
Mysterious Press | 9781613165300

THE CONDITIONS OF UNCONDITIONAL LOVE: An Isabel Dalhousie Novel by Alexander McCall Smith (Mystery)
It seems as if Isabel Dalhousie’s life has fallen into a comfortable and tidy rhythm. Well, as tidy as things can be with two small boys wreaking havoc around the house. But when her husband, Jamie, invites a woman named Dawn --- recently embroiled in a contentious affair with a member of Jamie’s orchestra --- to stay with them, things begin to go awry. Strange noises can be heard from the upper floor, even when Dawn is supposedly at work, and the couple wonders if something more nefarious may be afoot. If that weren’t enough, Professor Robert Lettuce is staging an academic conference and has asked Isabel to publish the conference papers in a special issue of the Review of Applied Ethics. But something is definitely suspect about the funding, and it will be up to Isabel to sort it out.
Pantheon | 9780593701720

DESPERATION REEF by T. Jefferson Parker (Thriller)
Jen Stonebreaker hasn't entered into a big-wave surfing competition since witnessing her husband's tragic death 25 years ago at the Monsters of the Mavericks. Now, she is ready to tackle those same Monsters with her twin sons, Casey and Brock, who have become competitive surfers in a perilous sport. Casey spends his days helping with the family restaurant. His love for the ocean and his willingness to expose illegal poachers on his platforms puts him on a collision course with a crime syndicate eager to destroy anyone threatening their business. The founder of Breath of Life, a church and rescue mission that assists with natural disasters that no one else will touch, Brock has lived an adventurous and sometimes violent life. But threats to destroy his mission --- and his family --- swirl around him.
Forge Books | 9781250907882

DOCILE: Memoirs of a Not-So-Perfect Asian Girl by Hyeseung Song (Memoir)
A daughter of Korean immigrants, Hyeseung Song spends her earliest years in the cane fields of Texas. With her parents at constant odds, she learns more words in Korean for hatred than for love. When the family’s fake Gucci business lands them in bankruptcy, Song moves to a new elementary school. Neither rich nor white, Song does what is necessary to be visible: she internalizes the model minority myth, as well as her beloved mother’s dreams to see her on a secure path. Years of self-erasure take a toll, and Song experiences recurring episodes of depression and mania. A thought repeats: I want to die. I want to die. Song enters a psychiatric hospital where she meets patients with similar struggles. So begins her sweeping journey to heal herself by losing everything.
Simon & Schuster | 9781668003664

THE GENIUS OF JUDY: How Judy Blume Rewrote Childhood for All of Us by Rachelle Bergstein (Biography/Popular Culture)
Judy Blume’s books have garnered her fans of all ages for decades and sold tens of millions of copies. But why were people so drawn to them? And why are we still talking about them now in the 21st century? In THE GENIUS OF JUDY, her remarkable story is revealed as never before, beginning with her as a mother of two searching for purpose outside of her home in 1960s suburban New Jersey. The books she wrote starred regular children with genuine thoughts and problems. But behind those deceptively simple tales, she explored the pillars of the growing women’s rights movement, in which girls and women were entitled to careers, bodily autonomy, fulfilling relationships and even sexual pleasure. Blume wasn’t trying to be a revolutionary --- she just wanted to tell honest stories --- but in doing so, she created a cohesive, culture-altering vision of modern adolescence.
Atria/One Signal Publishers | 9781668010907

I WAS A TEENAGE SLASHER by Stephen Graham Jones (Thriller/Horror)
1989, Lamesa, Texas. A small west Texas town driven by oil and cotton --- and a place where everyone knows everyone else’s business. So it goes for 17-year-old Tolly Driver, a good kid with more potential than application, who is about to be cursed to kill for revenge. Here Stephen Graham Jones explores the Texas he grew up in, the unfairness of being on the outside, through the slasher horror he lives but from the perspective of the killer, Tolly, writing his own autobiography. Find yourself rooting for a killer in this summer teen movie of a novel gone full blood-curdling tragic.
S&S/Saga Press | 9781668022245

IT HAD TO BE YOU by Eliza Jane Brazier (Thriller)
When Eva and Jonathan hook up on the sleeper train from Florence to Paris, they think they’ll never see each other again. Which is too bad, because neither has ever felt a spark like this for another person. But love isn’t on the agenda in their line of work. Six months later, they run into each other in the Hall of Mirrors in Versailles. This encounter is not by chance, because Eva has been hired to kill Jonathan. She’s a contract killer, but what she doesn’t know is that he is too. Their meeting kicks off a high-stakes adventure across Western Europe. There will be tourism. There will be bodies. Eva and Jonathan might even fall for each other. As the two get closer to completing their assignments, it becomes clear that they are also being hunted --- by something even more dangerous than love.
Berkley | 9780593438923

JFK JR.: An Intimate Oral Biography by RoseMarie Terenzio and Liz McNeil (Biography)
The first oral biography of John F. Kennedy Jr. is an extraordinarily intimate, comprehensive look at the real man behind the myth. Sharing never-before-told stories and insights, his closest friends, confidantes, lovers, classmates, teachers and colleagues paint a vivid portrait of one of the most beloved figures of the 20th century, revealing how the boy who saluted became the man America came to know and love who still captures public imagination 25 years after his tragic death. JFK JR. dives deep into his complicated psyche and explores the what-ifs, illuminating both the cultural and political moment he inhabited and the way this son of a president, so full of promise and possibility, embodied America’s most cherished hopes.
Gallery Books | 9781668018514

THE LOST STORY by Meg Shaffer (Romantic Fantasy/Adventure)
As boys, Jeremy Cox and Rafe Howell went missing in a vast West Virginia state forest, only to mysteriously reappear six months later with no explanation for where they’d gone or how they’d survived. Fifteen years later, Rafe is a reclusive artist who has no memory of what happened during those months. Jeremy has become a famed missing persons’ investigator and is the one person who can help vet tech Emilie Wendell find her sister, who vanished in the very same forest as him and Rafe. The two missing boys were in a magical realm filled with impossible beauty and terrible danger. He believes that they will find Emilie’s sister there. However, Jeremy has kept Rafe in the dark since their return for his own inscrutable reasons. But the time for burying secrets comes to an end as the quest for Emilie’s sister begins.
Ballantine Books | 9780593598870

ONE BIG HAPPY FAMILY by Jamie Day (Domestic Thriller)
The Precipice is a legendary, family-owned hotel on the rocky coast of Maine. With the recent passing of their father, the Bishop sisters --- Iris, Vicki and Faith --- have come for the weekend to claim it. But with a hurricane looming and each of the Bishop sisters harboring dangerous secrets, there's murder in the air --- and not everyone who checks into the Precipice will be checking out. Each sister wants what is rightfully hers, and in the mix is the Precipe’s 19-year-old chambermaid, Charley Kelley, who is smart, resilient, older than her years and in desperate straits. The arrival of the Bishop sisters could spell disaster for Charley. Will they close the hotel? Fire her? Discover her habit of pilfering from guests? Or, even worse, learn that she's using a guest room to hide a woman on the run?
St. Martin's Press | 9781250283207

ROBERT LUDLUM'S THE BOURNE SHADOW by Brian Freeman (Thriller/Adventure)
It's been over a decade since Nash Rollins recruited a brilliant and talented, but disaffected, young man named David Webb to join Treadstone. Webb became the agent known as Cain --- and later took on the identity of Jason Bourne. That violent winter --- which included Cain’s first mission for Treadstone --- was also a story of betrayal in ways that David never knew. So after the injury that erased Bourne’s whole life, Nash lied about the circumstances of David’s recruitment to Treadstone. He was afraid that learning the truth might drive Bourne out of the agency forever. But now, when Bourne meets a woman who recognizes him as David Webb, the secrets of those days begin to come out --- and Bourne is forced to confront the dangerous ghosts of a past he doesn’t even remember.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593716458

SUGAR ON THE BONES: A Hap and Leonard Novel by Joe R. Lansdale
(Mystery/Humor)
Minnie Polson has been burned to a crisp in a fire so big and bad that it had to have been deliberate. She had a feeling she was being targeted, but when she solicited Hap and Leonard, all it took was one off-color joke for her to call them off the investigation. As they look closer, Hap and Leonard dredge up troublesome facts. For one, Minnie’s daughter, Alice, has recently vanished. She’d been hard up after her pet grooming business went under and was in line to collect a whopping insurance sum should anything happen to her mother. The same was due to Minnie’s estranged husband, Al, whose kryptonite (beautiful, money-grubbing women) had left him with only a run-down mobile home. But did Minnie’s foolish, cash-strapped family really have it in them to commit a crime this grisly? Or is there a larger, far more sinister scheme at work?
Mulholland Books | 9780316513296

THINGS DON'T BREAK ON THEIR OWN by Sarah Easter Collins
(Literary Thriller/Mystery)
Twenty-five years ago, a young girl left home to walk to school. Her younger sister soon followed. But one of them arrived, and one of them didn’t. Her sister’s disappearance has defined Willa’s life. Everyone thinks her sister is dead, but Willa knows she isn’t. Because there are some things that only sisters know about each other --- and some bonds only sisters can break. Willa sees fragments of her sister everywhere. If there’s the slightest resemblance, she drops everything, and everyone, and tries to see if it's her. When Willa is invited to a dinner party thrown by her first love, she has no reason to expect it will be anything other than an ordinary evening. But nothing about her life has been ordinary since the day her sister disappeared, and that’s not about to change tonight.
Crown | 9780593798331

THE WILDS by Sarah Pearse (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Since the dark events that scarred her childhood, Kier Templer escaped her hometown to live life on the road. She and her twin have never lost contact until, on a trip to a Portuguese national park, Kier vanishes without a trace. Detective Elin Warner arrives in the same park ready to immerse herself in its vast wilderness  --- only to hear about Kier’s disappearance and discover a disturbing map she left behind. The few strangers at an isolated campsite close ranks against Elin’s questions, and the park’s wild beauty starts to turn sinister. Elin must untangle the clues to find out what really happened to Kier. But when you follow a trail, you have to be careful to watch your back.
Pamela Dorman Books | 9780593654040

On Sale the Week of July 15th in Paperback

July 16th

THE AU PAIR AFFAIR by Tessa Bailey (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Tallulah is smart, vivacious and studying to be a marine biologist. But she’s broke. So when Burgess, a battle-scarred hockey veteran and newly single dad to tween Lissa, offers her a job as his live-in nanny, she jumps at the opportunity. According to…well, everyone except Burgess, he needs to get back on the dating scene, and Tallulah is just the girl to show him how. But as boundaries are slowly crossed and Burgess finds himself pulled between his daughter, who wants her parents back together, and his insane chemistry with Tallulah, a huge rift is formed. So Tallulah breaks her own heart and walks away. Though Burgess knows it’s for the best, a chance meeting and a new push from Lissa force him to put everything on the line and fight to prove that he's worthy of a happily ever after with Tallulah.
Avon | 9780063308435

THE BACKTRACK by Erin La Rosa (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Nearly 20 years ago, Sam Leto left her small hometown of Tybee Island, Georgia, to pursue her dreams of becoming a pilot. While she’d prefer to keep flying away from her painful childhood memories, her beloved grandmother Pearl decides it’s time to sell the family home. Reluctantly, Sam is summoned back to pack up the house. The 2000s nostalgia from Sam’s old bedroom hits immediately: Fall Out Boy posters, drawers of roll-on body glitter, and even her favorite CD player with a mixtape from her best friend, Damon Rocha. Damon was always a safe place, and Sam often wonders what would’ve happened if her teenage self admitted her feelings for him back then. Mysteriously, the CD player still works all these years later. And somehow it has the power to show Sam an alternate version of her life.
Canary Street Press | 9781335009456

THE BAD WEATHER FRIEND by Dean Koontz (Thriller/Adventure)
Benny Catspaw’s perpetually sunny disposition is tested when he loses his job, his reputation, his fiancée and his favorite chair. Someone is out to get him. He just doesn’t know who or why. Then Benny receives an inheritance from an uncle he’s never heard of: a giant crate and a video message. All will be well in time. Stranger yet is what’s inside the crate. He’s a seven-foot-tall self-described “bad weather friend” named Spike whose mission is to help people who are just too good for this world. He’ll find Benny’s enemies and deal with them. This might be satisfying if Spike wasn’t such a menacing presence with terrifying techniques of intimidation. In the company of Spike and a fascinated young waitress-cum-PI-in-training named Harper, Benny plunges into a perilous high-speed adventure.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781662517778

BOLDLY GO: Reflections on a Life of Awe and Wonder by William Shatner, with Joshua Brandon (Memoir/Essays)
Long before Gene Roddenberry put him on a starship to explore the galaxy, long before he actually did venture to space, William Shatner was gripped by his own quest for knowledge and meaning. Though his eventful life has been nothing short of extraordinary, Shatner is still never so thrilled as when he experiences something that inspires him to simply say, “Wow.” Within these affecting, entertaining and informative essays, he demonstrates that astonishing possibilities and true wonder are all around us. By revealing stories of his life --- some delightful, others tragic --- Shatner reflects on what he has learned along the way to his ninth decade and how important it is to apply the joy of exploration to our own lives.
Atria Books | 9781668007334

THE CARETAKER by Ron Rash (Historical Fiction)
Blowing Rock, North Carolina, 1951. Blackburn Gant, whose life is irrevocably altered by a childhood case of polio, seems condemned to spend his life among the dead as the sole caretaker of a hilltop cemetery. It suits his withdrawn personality, and the inexplicable occurrences that happen from time to time rattle him less than interactions with the living. But when his only friend, the kind but impulsive Jacob Hampton, is conscripted to serve overseas, Blackburn is charged with caring for Jacob’s wife, Naomi, as well. Jacob and Naomi’s elopement has scandalized the community and angered Jacob’s parents. Shunned by the townsfolk for their differences and equally fearful that Jacob may never come home from the war, Blackburn and Naomi grow closer, even as a stunning betrayal shatters familial bonds.
Vintage | 9780525564218

CODE OF THE HILLS: A Mick Hardin Novel by Chris Offutt (Literary Thriller)
Mick Hardin is supposed to be retired, transitioning to civilian life. Back in the hills of Kentucky after a two-year absence, he’d planned to touch down briefly before heading to France, marking the end of his 20-year Army career. But in Rocksalt, trouble is brewing. Mick’s sister Linda, recently reelected as sheriff, and her deputy Johnny Boy Tolliver are investigating the murder of Pete Lowe, a sought-after mechanic at the local racetrack. Mick doesn’t want to get involved --- he wants to say his goodbyes and get out of Dodge. But when he reluctantly agrees to intervene in a family dispute requiring a light touch, he uncovers evidence of an illegal cockfighting ring and another body, somehow linked to the first. And then Linda steps into harm’s way, leaving Mick to solve the crimes himself.
Grove Press | 9780802163363

THE EDEN TEST by Adam Sternbergh (Domestic Thriller)
Daisy and Craig’s marriage is in serious trouble. That’s why Daisy has signed up for the Eden Test, a week-long getaway for couples in need of a fresh start. Yet even as she’s struggling to salvage her marriage, it seems Craig has plans to leave her for another woman. In fact, his bags are already packed --- long before he arrives to meet Daisy in this remote cabin in the woods of upstate New York. At first, their week away is marked by solitude, connection and natural beauty --- and only a few hostile locals. But what Craig doesn’t know is that Daisy, a slyly talented actress, has her own secrets, including a burner phone she’s been using for mysterious texts. Not to mention the Eden Test itself, which poses a searing new question to the couple every day, each more explosive than the last.
Flatiron Books | 9781250855688

THE EXCHANGE: After The Firm by John Grisham (Legal Thriller)
What became of Mitch and Abby McDeere after they exposed the crimes of Memphis law firm Bendini, Lambert & Locke and fled the country? The answer is in THE EXCHANGE, the riveting sequel to THE FIRM, the blockbuster thriller that launched the career of America’s favorite storyteller. It is now 15 years later, and Mitch and Abby are living in Manhattan, where Mitch is a partner at the largest law firm in the world. When a mentor in Rome asks him for a favor that will take him far from home, Mitch finds himself at the center of a sinister plot that has worldwide implications --- and once again endangers his colleagues, friends and family. Mitch has become a master at staying one step ahead of his adversaries, but this time there’s nowhere to hide.
Vintage | 9780593685280

HE WHO DROWNED THE WORLD by Shelley Parker-Chan (Historical Fantasy)
Zhu Yuanzhang, the Radiant King, is riding high after her victory that tore southern China from its Mongol masters. Now she burns with a new desire: to seize the throne and crown herself emperor. But Zhu’s neighbor in the south, the courtesan Madam Zhang, wants the throne for her husband --- and she’s strong enough to wipe Zhu off the map. To stay in the game, Zhu will have to gamble everything on a risky alliance with the talented but unstable eunuch general Ouyang, who already has sacrificed everything for a chance at revenge on his father’s killer, the Great Khan. Unbeknownst to the southerners, a new contender is even closer to the throne. The scorned scholar Wang Baoxiang has maneuvered his way into the capital, and his lethal court games threaten to bring the empire to its knees.
Tor Books | 9781250621849

AN HONEST MAN by Michael Koryta (Thriller)
After discovering seven men murdered aboard their yacht --- including two Senate rivals --- Israel Pike is regarded as a prime suspect. A troubled man infamous on Salvation Point Island for killing his own father a decade before, Israel has few options, no friends and a life-threatening secret. Elsewhere on the island, 12-year-old Lyman Rankin seeks shelter from his alcoholic father in an abandoned house only to discover that he is not alone. A mysterious woman greets him with a hatchet and a promise: “Make a sound and I’ll kill you.” As the investigation barrels forward, Lyman, Israel and the fate of the case collide in immutable ways.
Mulholland Books | 9780316535960

I’M NOT DONE WITH YOU YET by Jesse Q. Sutanto (Psychological Thriller)
A struggling midlist writer, Jane feels trapped in an underwhelming marriage. There's only ever been one person she cared about: Thalia, her best and only friend nearly a decade ago during their Creative Writing days at Oxford. But then one night ruined everything. The blood-soaked night that should have bound Thalia to Jane forever instead made her lose her completely. Thalia disappeared without a trace, and Jane has been unable to find her since. Until now. Because there she is, her name at the top of the New York Times bestseller list: A Most Pleasant Death by Thalia Ashcroft. When she discovers a post from Thalia on her website about attending a book convention in New York City in a week --- “Can’t wait to see you there!” --- Jane can’t wait either. Jane won’t lose Thalia again.
Berkley | 9780593546932

LET HIM IN by William Friend (Psychological Thriller/Gothic Horror)
Alfie wakes up one night to find his twin daughters at the foot of his bed, claiming there's a shadowy figure in their bedroom. When no such thing can be found, he assumes the girls had a nightmare. He isn't surprised that they're troubled. Grief has made its home at Hart House: nine months ago, the twins' mother, Pippa, died unexpectedly. But the situation quickly develops into something more insidious. The girls set an extra place for him at the table. They whisper to him. They say he's going to take them away. Alfie calls upon Julia --- Pippa's sister and a psychiatrist --- to oust the malignant tenant from their lives. But as Alfie himself is haunted by visions and someone watches him at night, he begins to question the true character of the force that has poisoned his daughters' minds, with dark and violent consequences.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781728295138

MAEVE FLY by CJ Leede (Horror)
By day, Maeve Fly works at the happiest place in the world as every child’s favorite ice princess. By the neon night glow of the Sunset Strip, Maeve haunts the dive bars with a drink in one hand and a book in the other, imitating her misanthropic literary heroes. But when Gideon Green --- her best friend’s brother --- moves to town, he awakens something dangerous within her, and the world she knows suddenly shifts beneath her feet. Untethered, Maeve ditches her discontented act and tries on a new persona. A bolder, bloodier one, inspired by the pages of AMERICAN PSYCHO. Step aside Patrick Bateman, it’s Maeve’s turn with the knife.
Tor Nightfire | 9781250857866

MY NAME IS IRIS by Brando Skyhorse (Dystopian Fiction)
After years of drifting apart, Iris Prince and her husband are going through a surprisingly drama-free divorce. It feels like her life is finally exactly what she wants it to be. Then, one beautiful morning, she looks outside her kitchen window --- and sees that a wall has appeared in her front yard overnight. Meanwhile, a Silicon Valley startup has launched a high-tech wrist wearable called "the Band." Pitched as a convenient, eco-friendly tool to help track local utilities and replace driver's licenses and IDs, the Band is available only to those who can prove parental citizenship. Suddenly, Iris, a proud second-generation Mexican American, is now of "unverifiable origin." Amid a climate of fear and hate-fueled violence, Iris must confront how far she'll go to protect what matters to her most.
Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster | 9781982177867

A NOVEL SUMMER by Jamie Brenner (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Author Shelby Archer found inspiration for her first novel while living on the picturesque shores of Provincetown on Cape Cod. When she comes to the town to celebrate her new bestseller, she is expecting a warm homecoming. But instead she is confronted with the cold shoulders of friends and neighbors who feel exposed and betrayed. Heartbroken, Shelby tries to move on and focus on her next novel. But then an unexpected call comes: her dear friend, who owns the beloved Land's End bookshop, needs help for the summer. Shelby reluctantly returns to the Cape to manage the store. Back at the beach, she sets her focus on the tiny seaside shop. But as her manuscript deadline nears, Shelby is again forced to choose between her own success and a second chance at love and belonging.
Park Row | 9780778310846

ONLY ONE SURVIVES by Hannah Mary McKinnon (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
All drummer Vienna Taylor ever wanted was to make music. If that came with fame, she’d take it --- as long as her best friend, guitarist Madison Pierce, was sharing the spotlight and singing lead. And with their new all-female pop rock band gaining traction, soon everyone would hear their songs. Except, on the way to an event, the Bittersweet’s van careened off an icy mountain road during a blizzard --- leaving one member dead and another severely injured. In order to survive the frigid night, the rest took shelter in a nearby abandoned cabin. But Vienna’s dreams devolved into a terrifying nightmare as, one by one, her fellow band members met a gruesome end…and Madison simply vanished in the night. What really happened to the Bittersweet? Did Vienna’s closest friend finally decide to take center stage on her own terms?
Mira | 9780778305477

THE PERFECT SISTER by Stephanie DeCarolis (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Alex Walker has always looked up to her perfect older sister. Maddie escaped their hometown and seems to have put the memories of their unstable childhood behind her. But despite the different paths their lives have taken, they made a pact to spend one week together every summer. It was a promise they’d never broken...until now. When Maddie suddenly cancels her annual trip home, Alex begins to worry. But when Maddie stops returning her calls altogether, Alex is certain something is wrong. Relying on the only clues Maddie left behind, Alex follows her sister’s footsteps to the Hamptons where she meets the Blackwell family --- the last people to have seen Maddie before she vanished into thin air. The Blackwells seem to have it all, but Alex quickly discovers that a life of luxury always comes at a cost.
Bantam | 9780593726013

PROPHET by Sin Blaché and Helen Macdonald (Noir Science Fiction/Romance)
Adam Rubenstein and Sunil Rao have been reluctant partners since their Uzbekistan days. Adam is a seemingly unflappable American Intelligence officer, and Rao is an ex-MI6 agent with the uncanny ability to discern the truth of things --- about everyone and everything other than Adam. When an American diner turns up in a foggy field in the UK after a mysterious death, Adam and Rao are called in to investigate, setting into motion the most dangerous and otherworldly mission of their lives. In a surreal, action-packed quest that takes Adam and Rao from secret laboratories in Colorado, to a luxury lodge in Aspen, to the remote Nevada desert, the pair begins to uncover how and why people’s fondest memories are being weaponized against them by a spooky, ever-shifting substance called Prophet.
Grove Press | 9780802163400

THE SPIDER: A Killer Instinct Novel written by Lars Kepler, translated by Alice Menzies (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Three years ago, Detective Saga Bauer received an ominous postcard describing a gun and nine white bullets --- one of which was intended for her partner, Detective Joona Linna. The sender alleged that Saga was the only person who could save him. But as time passed, the threat faded. Until now. A sack with a decomposing body has been found hanging from a tree in the forest. A milky white bullet casing turns up at the scene. When the body count begins to rise, the police realize that the killer is sending riddles, offering them the chance to stop the murders before they happen. But the police always seem to arrive a moment too late. As they begin to close in, the case becomes more and more tangled: someone is spinning a fiendishly intricate web, pulling Joona ever closer to a trap he may not be able to escape.
Vintage Crime/Black Lizard | 9780593315606

THE SQUARE OF SEVENS by Laura Shepherd-Robinson (Historical Mystery)
Cornwall, 1730: A young girl known only as Red travels with her father making a living predicting fortunes using the ancient Cornish method of the Square of Sevens. Shortly before he dies, her father entrusts Red’s care to a gentleman scholar, along with a document containing the secret of the Square of Sevens technique. Raised as a lady amidst the Georgian splendor of Bath, Red’s fortune-telling delights in high society. But she cannot ignore the questions that gnaw at her soul: Who was her mother? How did she die? And who are the mysterious enemies her father was always terrified would find him? While Red’s pursuit of these mysteries brings her the possibility of great reward, it also leads to grave danger.
Atria Books | 9781668031131

THE SUNSET CROWD by Karin Tanabe (Historical Fiction)
By day, Evra Scott is at the helm of Sunset on Sunset, the store beloved by Hollywood’s young and beautiful. By night, she’s on the arm of Kai de la Faire, Hawaii’s hottest export and the screenwriter of the moment. Enter Theodora Leigh. The twenty-something Paramount assistant looks like a big screen star, but her sights are firmly set behind the scenes, as she fights to become a movie producer in a town where sex and sexism sell. Observing it all is Bea Dupont, a photographer for Rolling Stone and Vogue, who holds Evra’s Sunset crowd together. She’s also Kai’s oldest friend, and she’s harbored a not-so-secret flame for him since they met at an elite Swiss boarding school. It’s not long before Theodora’s unrelenting ambition sets in motion a dramatic quest for power.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250840226

SUNSET, WATER CITY by Chris McKinney (Noir Science Fiction/Thriller)
2160: It's been 10 years since the cataclysmic events of Eventide, Water City, where 99.97 percent of the human population was possessed or obliterated by Akira Kimura, Water City’s renowned scientist and Earth’s former savior. Our nameless antihero and his daughter, Ascalon, navigate through a post-apocalyptic landscape populated by barbaric Zeroes --- the permanent residents of the continent’s biggest landfill, The Great Leachate --- who cling to the ways of the old world. They live in opposition to Akira’s godlike domination of the planet. She has taken control of the population that viewed her as a god and converted them into her Gardeners, zombie-like humans who plod along to build her vision of a new world. What that world exactly entails, Ascalon is not entirely sure, but she intends to find out.
Soho Crime | 9781641295956

SWORD CATCHER by Cassandra Clare (Fantasy/Romance)
Kel is an orphan, stolen from the life he knew to become the Sword Catcher --- the body double of a royal heir, Prince Conor Aurelian. He has been raised alongside the prince, trained in every aspect of combat and statecraft. He and Conor are as close as brothers, but Kel knows that his destiny is to die for Conor. Lin Caster is one of the Ashkar, a small community whose members still possess magical abilities. By law, they must live behind walls within the city. But Lin, a physician, ventures out to tend to the sick and dying of Castellane. Despite her skills, she cannot heal her best friend without access to forbidden knowledge. After a failed assassination attempt brings Lin and Kel together, they are drawn into the web of the mysterious Ragpicker King, the criminal ruler of Castellane’s underworld.
Del Rey | 9780525620013

THE TRADE OFF by Sandie Jones (Psychological Thriller)
For Stella, deputy editor of The Globe, the choice has always been clear. It doesn’t matter how low she has to stoop --- getting the best story is what she’s built her reputation on. For Jess, The Globe’s rookie reporter, the story stops when the truth does. But she knows that the dirty tricks of the tabloids will be hard to overturn. And when a celebrity is hounded by The Globe and pays the ultimate price, Jess wonders just how much Stella and the paper are responsible. Determined to show the world what the tabloid is capable of, Jess will do whatever it takes to uncover the truth. But she needs to watch her back, because someone else is prepared to kill to bury it.
Minotaur Books | 9781250836953

UNNATURAL DEATH: A Scarpetta Novel by Patricia Cornwell (Mystery/Thriller)
Chief medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta finds herself in a Northern Virginia wilderness examining the remains of two campers wanted by federal law enforcement. The victims have been savaged beyond recognition, and other evidence is terrifying and baffling, including a larger-than-life footprint. After one of the most frightening body retrievals of her career, Scarpetta must discover who would commit murders this savage, and why.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538743188

WOMEN WE BURIED, WOMEN WE BURNED: A Memoir by Rachel Louise Snyder (Memoir)
For decades, journalist Rachel Louise Snyder has been a fierce advocate reporting on the darkest social issues that impact women's lives. WOMEN WE BURIED, WOMEN WE BURNED is her own story. When eight-year-old Rachel's mother died, her distraught father thrust the family into extreme evangelicalism. After a childhood marked by silent rage, teenage Rachel became outwardly furious. She was expelled from school and home at age 16. Living out of her car and relying on strangers, Rachel found herself masquerading as an adult, talking her way into college and eventually traveling the globe. Survival became her reporter's beat. In places like India, Tibet, Niger and Cambodia, she witnessed those who had been through the unimaginable choosing hope over despair.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781639734078

THE WONDER STATE by Sara Flannery Murphy (Supernatural Thriller)
Five friends arrive back in Eternal Springs, Arkansas, the small town they all fled after high school graduation. Each is drawn home by a cryptic, scrawled two-word letter that reads, You promised. It has been 15 years since the summer that changed their lives, and they’re anxious to find out why Brandi called them back, especially when they vowed never to return. But Brandi is missing. She’d been acting erratically for months, railing at whoever might listen about magic all around them. About a power they can’t see. And about strange houses that appear only when you need them.
Picador | 9781250335685

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