July 16, 2024

July 16, 2024

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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of July 15th and July 22nd 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 current Word of Mouth contest. Let us know by Friday, July 26th at noon ET what books you’ve read, and you’ll have a chance to win THE CLIFFS by J. Courtney Sullivan and HUSBANDS & LOVERS by Beatriz Williams, both of which are Bookreporter.com Bets On picks.

Upcoming Virtual Book and Author Events

Here are four 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 17th 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 Jamie Brenner about her new book, A NOVEL SUMMER, which is the F&F Pick of the Month.

Thursday, July 18th at 8pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Brian Freeman and Ryan Steck will talk about their latest suspense novels: Freeman's ROBERT LUDLUM'S THE BOURNE SHADOW: A Jason Bourne Novel and Steck's OUT FOR BLOOD: A Matthew Redd Thriller.

Tuesday, July 23rd at 3pm ET: A Special "Read with Jenna" Virtual Book Club Event: Join "Read with Jenna" for an afternoon of conversation, connection and community with Chris Whitaker, the author of ALL THE COLORS OF THE DARK. The event will feature an intimate chat, followed by an interactive Q&A, as well as breakout rooms where book club members can share their own perspectives on the book.

Tuesday, July 23rd at 7pm ET: Ashland Public Library: Ashland Public Library is thrilled to be chatting with Rachelle Bergstein, whose book, THE GENIUS OF JUDY: How Judy Blume Rewrote Childhood for All of Us, is about one of our very favorite literacy warriors and an author with whom so many of us grew up.

This Week's Bonus News:
Bookreporter.com's Word of Mouth Contest
Win a Copy of THE CLIFFS by J. Courtney Sullivan
and HUSBANDS & LOVERS by Beatriz Williams

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

On Sale the Week of July 22nd in Hardcover

July 23rd

THE BEST LIES by David Ellis (Thriller)
Leo Balanoff is a diagnosed pathological liar with unthinkable skeletons in his family's closet. He's also a crusading attorney who seeks justice at all costs. When a ruthless drug dealer is found dead and Leo’s fingerprints show up on the murder weapon, no one believes a word he says. But he might be the FBI’s only shot at taking down the dealer’s brutal syndicate. Risk his life going undercover for the feds or head straight to prison for murder? Leo accepts the FBI’s offer --- but it comes with a price, including a collision course with his ex, Andi Piotrowski, a former cop and “the one who got away.” Forced to walk a tightrope between an ambitious FBI agent and a cruel, calculating crime boss, Leo is trapped in a corner. But he has more secrets than anyone realizes, and a few more cards left to play.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780399170935

THE BOOK OF ELSEWHERE by Keanu Reeves and China Miéville
(Science Fiction/Adventure)
There have always been whispers. Legends. The warrior who cannot be killed. Who has seen a thousand civilizations rise and fall. He has had many names: Unute, Child of Lightning, Death himself. These days, he’s known simply as “B.” And he wants to be able to die. In the present day, a U.S. black-ops group has promised him they can help with that. And all he needs to do is help them in return. But when an all-too-mortal soldier comes back to life, the impossible event ultimately points toward a force even more mysterious than B himself. One at least as strong. And one with a plan all its own.
Del Rey | 9780593446591

A CERTAIN KIND OF STARLIGHT by Heather Webber (Fiction/Magical Realism)
Twelve years ago, Addie Fullbright’s dying friend entrusted her with a huge secret. It’s so shattering that Addie felt she had to leave her hometown of Starlight, Alabama, to keep from revealing a devastating truth to someone she cares for deeply. But when her beloved aunt gets a shocking diagnosis and asks her to come back to Starlight to help run the family bakery, Addie knows it’s finally time to go home again. Tessa Jane Wingrove-Fullbright’s world is suddenly in shambles after a painful breakup, her favorite aunt’s unexpected health troubles, and because crushing expectations from the Wingrove side of her family are forcing her to keep secrets and make painful choices. When she’s called back to Starlight to help her aunt, she is barely holding herself together and fears she’ll never find her way back to who she used to be.
Forge Books | 9781250867292

DEATH ON THE TIBER: A Flavia Albia Novel by Lindsey Davis (Historical Mystery)
First-century Rome is plagued by all the evils the have beset major cities since time immemorial: crime, corruption, squalor and, worst of all, tourists. When a barge full of those entitled creatures arrives in Rome, they hit all the touristy hot-spots (the Amphitheatre, the Capitol, the dodgy bars with dubious entertainments) before departing for the next destination --- leaving behind one of their party, dead and floating in the Tiber. While the authorities first try to pass her death off as a suicide, it’s quickly proved that the victim was strangled to death and her body was dumped. When Flavia Albia, a private informer, learns that the victim was in Rome searching for the man who abandoned her --- Florius, Albia’s vicious nemesis --- Albia is determined to find out the truth behind the murder and finally have her revenge.
Minotaur Books | 9781250906717

GLORY DAYS: Stories by Simon Rich (Fiction/Short Stories)
Super Mario turns 40 and is forced to “take-a stock” of his life and how “messed up it’s-a become.” Goliath struggles to control the media narrative in the lead-up to his death match against David, a small, beloved child. And a long-discarded participation trophy reminisces about the glorious field day in 1993, when he wound up in the arms of a jubilant, asthmatic Simon Rich. High-stakes and heartfelt, this hilarious and powerful collection of short stories mourns the death of youthful innocence and hails the beginning of something approximating wisdom.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316569002

THE HAUNTING OF HECATE CAVENDISH by Paula Brackston (Historical Fantasy)
England, 1881. Hereford Cathedral stands sentinel over the city, keeping its secrets, holding long-forgotten souls in its stony embrace. Hecate Cavendish speeds through the cobbled streets on her bicycle, heading for her new life as Assistant Librarian. But this is no ordinary collection of books. The cathedral houses an ancient chained library. The most prized artifact, however, is the medieval world map that hangs next to Hecate’s desk. Little does she know how much the curious people and mythical creatures depicted on it will come to mean to her. Nor does she suspect that there are lost souls waiting for her in the haunted cathedral. Some will become her dearest friends. Some will seek her help in finding peace. Others will put her in great peril and, as she quickly learns, threaten the lives of everyone she loves.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250284020

A HUNGER TO KILL: A Serial Killer, a Determined Detective, and the Quest for a Confession That Changed a Small Town Forever by Kim Mager with Lisa Pulitzer (True Crime)
On September 13, 2016, emergency dispatchers received a 911 call from a terrified woman who claimed to be kidnapped. The man holding her hostage was Shawn Grate, a serial killer whom the press later dubbed “The Ladykiller.” A key to his conviction and death sentence were Grate’s extensive recorded confessions --- all extracted by one woman: Detective Kim Mager. As an experienced specialist in sex offenses, Detective Mager was one of the officers assigned to Grate’s case. Over a period of eight days, Mager conducted one interview after another, risking her life by sitting alone in the interview room with a malevolent predator. Using brilliant psychological strategy in a lethal game of wits, Mager successfully elicited his damning confessions to five murders, kidnapping and multiple sexual assaults of women across Ohio.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250274885

LIARS by Sarah Manguso (Fiction)
When Jane, an aspiring writer, meets filmmaker John Bridges, they both want the same things: to be in love, to live a successful, creative life, and to be happy. When they marry, Jane believes she has found everything she was looking for, including --- a few years later --- all the attendant joys and labors of motherhood. But it’s not long until Jane finds herself subsumed by John’s ambitions, whims and ego; in short, she becomes a wife. As Jane’s career flourishes, their marriage starts to falter. Throughout the upheavals of family life, Jane tries to hold it all together. That is, until John leaves her.
Hogarth | 9780593241257

THE LOST BOY OF SANTA CHIONIA by Juliet Grames (Historical Mystery)
Calabria, 1960. Francesca Loftfield, a 27-year-old, starry-eyed American, arrives in the isolated mountain village of Santa Chionia tasked with opening a nursery school. There is no road, no doctor, no running water or electricity. And thanks to a recent flood that swept away the post office, there’s no mail, either. Most troubling, though, is the human skeleton that surfaced after the flood waters receded. Who is it? And why don’t the police come and investigate? When the local priest's housekeeper begs Francesca to help determine if the remains are those of her long-missing son, Francesca begins to ask a lot of inconvenient questions. As an outsider, she might be the only person who can uncover the truth. Or she might be getting in over her head.
Knopf | 9780593536179

NICKED by M. T. Anderson (Historical Fantasy)
The year is 1087, and a pox is sweeping through the Italian city of Bari. When a lowly monk is visited by Saint Nicholas in his dreams, he interprets the vision as a call to serve the sick. But his superiors, and the power brokers they serve, have different plans for the tender-hearted Brother Nicephorus. Enter Tyun, a charismatic treasure hunter renowned for “liberating” holy relics from their tombs. The 700-year-old bones of Saint Nicholas are rumored to weep a mysterious liquid that can heal the sick, Tyun says. For the humble price of a small fortune, he will steal the bones and deliver them to Bari, curing the plague and restoring glory to the fallen city. And Nicephorus, the “dreamer,” will be his guide. What follows is a heist for the ages, as Nicephorus is swept away on strange tides, and alongside even stranger bedfellows, to commit sacrilegious theft.
Pantheon | 9780593701607

WHAT WE'LL BURN LAST by Heather Chavez (Domestic Thriller/Mystery)
When she was 12, Leyna Clarke watched her older sister, Grace, walk away from their Sierra Nevada foothills home with her boyfriend, Adam Duran. Neither was ever seen again. Sixteen years later, a stranger who looks like Grace shows up at the restaurant where Leyna works --- and vanishes soon after. Leyna's mother, Meredith, still lives in the family’s old home, even if she claims to believe the police’s theory that Grace and Adam were willing runaways. Down the street, Adam’s mother, Olivia, has also stayed, determined to be there when her son finally returns…and to prove that Meredith and Leyna have been hiding something all these years. But the past isn’t the only threat to the two families, or the missing girl. As a wildfire sparks, tempers flare and intentions turn deadly.
Mulholland Books | 9780316531658

THE WRONG HANDS: The New Detective Miller Novel by Mark Billingham
(Mystery/Thriller)
Unconventional Detective Declan Miller has a problem. Well, two problems. First, there's his dead wife and her yet-to-be-solved murder. He really should stop talking to her ghosts. Second, and most pressing, a young man has just appeared on his doorstep with a briefcase…containing a pair of severed hands. Miller knows that this case is proof of a contract killing commissioned by local ne'er-do-well Wayne Cutler --- a man he suspects also might be responsible for his wife's death. Now Miller has leverage, but unfortunately, he also has something that both Cutler and a villainous fast-food kingpin are desperate to get hold of.
Atlantic Monthly Press | 9780802163097

On Sale the Week of July 22nd in Paperback

July 23rd

ALL THE DEAD SHALL WEEP by Charlaine Harris (Dark Fantasy/Thriller)
Following the murderous events of SERPENT OF HEAVEN, Lizbeth Rose is awaiting the arrival of her sister, Felicia, and her husband’s younger brother, Eli, in Texoma. Both needed to leave the seat of the Holy Russian Empire in San Diego after Felicia’s burgeoning wizardly power in death magic became the reason for kidnapping and assassination attempts from her mother’s family of high-powered wizards in Mexico. Yet bad news has traveled ahead of them, as Eli is called back to San Diego, taking Peter along with him, splitting them apart in more ways than one as their enemies’ plans for revenge come to fruition.
S&S/Saga Press | 9781982182533

ATALANTA by Jennifer Saint (Historical Fiction/Mythology)
When Princess Atalanta is born, a daughter rather than the son her parents hoped for, she is left on a mountainside to die. Raised by a mother bear under the protective eye of the goddess Artemis, Atalanta grows up wild and free, with just one condition: if she marries, Artemis warns, it will be her undoing. Although she loves her beautiful forest home, Atalanta yearns for adventure. When Artemis offers her the chance to fight in her name alongside the Argonauts, the fiercest band of warriors the world has ever seen, Atalanta seizes it. The Argonauts' quest for the Golden Fleece is filled with impossible challenges, but Atalanta proves herself equal to the men she fights alongside. As she is swept into a passionate affair, she begins to question the goddess's true intentions.
Flatiron Books | 9781250855589

DAY by Michael Cunningham (Fiction)
April 5, 2019: In a cozy brownstone in Brooklyn, the veneer of domestic bliss is beginning to crack. Dan and his wife, Isabel, are slowly drifting apart --- and both, it seems, are a little bit in love with Isabel’s younger brother, Robbie. Ten-year-old Nathan is taking his first uncertain steps toward independence, while his sister, five-year-old Violet, does her best not to notice the growing rift between her parents. April 5, 2020: As the world goes into lockdown, the cozy brownstone is starting to feel more like a prison. Violet is terrified of leaving the windows open. Isabel and Dan communicate mostly in veiled sleights and frustrated sighs. And Robbie is stranded in Iceland. April 5, 2021: Emerging from the worst of the crisis, the family reckons with a new, very different reality.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780399591365

DEATH AND THE SISTERS: A Mary Shelley Mystery by Heather Redmond (Historical Mystery)
London, 1814: Mary Godwin and her stepsister, Jane Clairmont, possess quick minds bolstered by an unconventional upbringing. Though quieter and more reserved than the boisterous Jane, Mary’s imagination is keen, and she longs for real-world adventures. One evening, an opportunity arrives in the form of a dinner guest. At 21, Percy Bysshe Shelley is already a renowned poet and radical. When Mary comes downstairs in search of a book after the party has broken up, she finds instead a man face down on the floor --- with a knife in his back. Mary, Jane and Shelley are all drawn to learn the truth behind the tragedy, especially as each discovery seems to hint at a tangled web that includes many in Shelley’s closest circle. But as the attraction between Mary and the married poet intensifies, it sparks a rivalry between the sisters.
Kensington | 9781496748492

THE DROWNING HOUSE by Cherie Priest (Thriller/Horror)
Paperback Original
A violent storm washes a mysterious house onto a rural Pacific Northwest beach, stopping the heart of the only woman who knows what it means. Her grandson, Simon Culpepper, vanishes in the aftermath, leaving two of his childhood friends to comb the small, isolated island for answers. But decades have passed since Melissa and Leo were close, if they were ever close at all. Now they'll have to put aside old rivalries and grudges if they want to find or save the man who brought them together in the first place. And on the way they'll learn a great deal about the sinister house on the beach, the man who built it, and the evil he's bringing back to Marrowstone Island.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781728292823

THE ENGLISH EXPERIENCE by Julie Schumacher (Fiction/Humor)
The hilarious and heartfelt conclusion to the Dear Committee Members trilogy chronicles the beleaguered Professor Fitger as he chaperones Payne University’s annual “Experience: Abroad” to London and beyond, with 11 undergrads in tow. Among his charges are a claustrophobe with a juvenile detention record, a student who erroneously believes he is headed for the Caribbean, a pair of unreconciled lovers, a set of undifferentiated twins, and one young woman who has never been away from her cat before. Through a sea of troubles --- personal, institutional and international --- the gimlet-eyed, acid-tongued Fitger strives to navigate safe passage for all concerned, revealing much about the essential need for human connection and the sometimes surprising places in which it is found.
Vintage | 9780593685754

THE GENERAL AND JULIA by Jon Clinch (Historical Fiction)
Barely able to walk and rendered mute by the cancer metastasizing in his throat, Ulysses S. Grant is scratching out words, hour after hour, day after day. Desperate to complete his memoirs before his death so his family might have some financial security and he some redemption, Grant journeys back in time. He had once been the savior of the Union, the general to whom Lee surrendered at Appomattox, a twice-elected president who fought for the civil rights of Black Americans and against the rising Ku Klux Klan, a plain farmer-turned-business magnate who lost everything to a Wall Street swindler, a devoted husband to his wife Julia, and a loving father to four children. In THE GENERAL AND JULIA, Grant rises from the page in all of his contradictions and foibles, his failures and triumphs.
Atria Books | 9781668009796

I DID IT FOR YOU by Amy Engel (Mystery/Thriller)
It’s been 14 years since Greer Dunning’s older sister, Eliza, was murdered, and Greer’s family has never been the same. And now there’s been a similar killing in Greer’s small Kansas hometown. A copycat, according to the authorities, but Greer is convinced there is more to the story. That Eliza’s murderer had help all those years ago. So Greer returns home after more than a decade away, desperate to answer the questions that have haunted her for years. And in her drive to uncover the truth, she forms a bond with the unlikeliest of allies. One that puts her in grave danger, as almost everyone in her small town becomes a suspect.
Dutton | 9780593187418

JACKIE: Public, Private, Secret by J. Randy Taraborrelli (Biography)
Based on hundreds of interviews with friends, family and lovers over a 30-year period --- as well as previously unreleased material from the JFK Library --- Kennedy historian J. Randy Taraborrelli paints an unforgettable new portrait of a woman whose flaws and contradictions only serve to make her even more iconic. “I have three lives,” Jackie told a former lover, “public, private and secret.” In this revealing biography, readers will become intimately familiar with all three.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250801289

JUST ANOTHER MISSING PERSON by Gillian McAllister (Domestic Thriller)
Twenty-two-year-old Olivia has been missing for one day…and counting. She was last seen on CCTV, entering a dead-end alley. And not coming back out again. Julia, the detective heading up the search for Olivia, thinks she knows what to expect. A desperate family, a ticking clock, and long hours away from her husband and daughter. But she has no idea just how close to home this case is going to get. Because the criminal at the heart of the disappearance has something she never expected. His weapon isn’t a gun, or a knife: it’s a secret. Her worst one. And her family's safety depends on one thing: Julia must NOT find out what happened to Olivia --- and must frame somebody else for her murder.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063252493

THE LAST DANCE: The First Detective Miller Novel by Mark Billingham
(Mystery/Thriller)
Maverick sleuth Declan Miller is back at work following the murder of his wife (and amateur ballroom dancing partner), Alex. Working with new partner and heavy metal enthusiast DS Sara Xiu, he is tasked with investigating the double killing of gangland family scion Adrian Cutler and IT consultant Barry Shepherd at the Sands Hotel. Initial evidence suggests a hired gun and a botched job. The search for the hitman begins, and Miller starts reconnecting with his old network --- his ballroom dancing friends, homeless informant Finn, and even the ghost of his wife who keeps showing up in his kitchen. The fact that Alex had been investigating the Cutler family prior to her death complicates things, and as Miller gets closer to the truth, he realizes the danger is walking right up to his doorstep.
Grove Press | 9780802163394

THE NIGHT FLOWERS by Sara Herchenroether (Mystery/Thriller)
In 1983, deep in New Mexico’s Gila National Forest, the bodies of a young woman and two children were found. Who were they? How did they get there? Thirty years later, two women find themselves drawn to the cold case. Librarian Laura MacDonald begins her own investigation as a way to distract herself from breast cancer treatments and becomes consumed by her search for answers. Jean Martinez is a veteran detective determined to keep working cold cases for the Sierra County police force even as her family begs her to retire. With only fragments from dusty case files and a witness who doesn’t want to remember, this unlikely duo is determined --- no matter the cost --- to uncover the truth behind the murders. And with their help, the woman in the woods is finally able to tell her story on her own terms and summon the power to be found.
Tin House Books | 9781959030560

RICOCHET: A Garrett Kohl Novel by Taylor Moore (Thriller/Adventure)
After hunting down a rogue spy as part of an elite CIA counterespionage unit, Garrett Kohl returns home to Texas. But it isn’t long before he’s approached in secret by an engineer working at a nearby nuclear weapons plant. Utilizing a unique skill set, Garrett embarks on an off-the-books investigation and learns that Iranian operatives are blackmailing weapons facility employees and potentially planning a devastating act of sabotage and destruction. Already engaged in an intense shadow war with Tehran and their Quds Force spies, Garrett’s CIA team rallies to take down the extortionists and dismantle their operation. But before they can get their mission underway, enemy commandos hijack a train carrying nuclear weapons and activate a lone wolf assassin to murder the visiting U.S. Secretary of Defense.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063292390

SECOND ACT by Danielle Steel (Fiction)
As the head of a prestigious movie studio for nearly two decades, Andy Westfield has had every conceivable professional luxury. But then his world is upended. The studio is sold, and the buyer’s son demands the top seat. Out of a job and humiliated, Andy spirals. When his head clears, he decides to get as far away from Los Angeles as possible. Andy signs a six-month rental agreement for a luxurious home in a tiny, forgotten coastal town two hours from London. When he arrives, he hires Violet Smith to help get his affairs in order. But when Violet leaves the manuscript of her unfinished novel behind after work one day, Andy lets his curiosity get the best of him and is captivated by a story that begs to be adapted for the big screen. Could this be the miracle they’ve both been looking for?
Dell | 9781984821973

SERAPHIM by Joshua Perry (Legal Thriller)
Paperback Original
A 16-year-old confesses to the murder of a local celebrity --- a hero of New Orleans’s shaky post-storm recovery. The boy’s father, doing life in prison on the installment plan for a series of minor offenses, will do anything to save him. Enter Ben Alder, a carpetbagging attorney (and former rabbinical seminary student) who has drifted down to New Orleans. He winds up defending them both. Ben and his partner, Boris, are public defenders obsessed with redeeming their case history of failures, and willing to do anything to protect their clients. As Ben tries to disrupt a corrupt and racist criminal justice system that believes an inexplicable crime has been solved, he confronts his own legacy of loss and faith. And as the novel hurtles towards its tragic, redemptive conclusion, Ben finds himself an onlooker and a perpetrator where he thought he was the hero.
Melville House | 9781685891138

SIR HEREWARD AND MISTER FITZ: Stories of the Witch Knight and the Puppet Sorcerer by Garth Nix (Fantasy/Short Stories)
Sir Hereward: the only male child of an ancient society of witches. Knight, artillerist, swordsman. Mercenary for hire. Ill-starred lover. Mister Fitz: puppet, sorcerer, loremaster. Practitioner of arcane arts and wielder of sorcerous needles. Sir Hereward and Mister Fitz: godslayers. Agents of the Council of the Treaty for the Safety of the World, charged with the location and removal of listed extra-dimensional entities, more commonly known as gods. Together, they are relentless travelers in a treacherous world of magic, gunpowder and adventure. Compiled for the first time ever, these eight magical stories --- plus an all-new tale, “The Field of Fallen Foe” --- comprise a must-have adult fantasy collection for fans and those about to discover the witch knight and his puppet sorcerer for the first time.
Harper Voyager | 9780063291973

SLEEPLESS CITY: A Nick Ryan Novel by Reed Farrel Coleman (Thriller)
Every cop in the city knows his name, but no one says it out loud. In fact, they don't talk about him at all. He doesn't wear a uniform, but he is the most powerful cop in New York. Nick Ryan can find a criminal who's vanished. Or he can make a key witness disappear. He has cars, safe houses, money and weapons hidden all over the city. He's the mayor's private cop, the fixer, the first call when the men and women who protect and serve are in trouble and need protection themselves. With conflicted loyalties and a divided soul, he's a veteran cop still fighting his own private war. He's a soldier of the streets with his own personal code. But what happens when the man who knows all the city's secrets becomes a threat to both sides of the law?
Blackstone Publishing | 9798212876964

THE SPECTACULAR by Fiona Davis (Historical Fiction)
New York City, 1956: When 19-year-old Marion Brooks comes across an opportunity to audition for the Radio City Rockettes, she jumps at the chance to exchange her predictable future for the dazzling life of a performer. Meanwhile, the city is reeling from a string of bombings orchestrated by a person the press has nicknamed the “Big Apple Bomber." With the public in an uproar, the police turn to Peter Griggs, a young doctor who espouses a radical new technique: psychological profiling. As both Marion and Peter find themselves unexpectedly pulled into the police search for the bomber, Marion realizes that if she hopes to catch the culprit, she’ll need to stand out and take a terrifying risk. In doing so, she may be forced to sacrifice everything she’s worked for, as well as the people she loves the most.
Dutton | 9780593184066

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