July 23, 2024

July 23, 2024

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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of July 22nd and July 29th that we think will be of interest to Bookreporter.com readers, along with Bonus News, where we call out a contest, feature or review that we want to let you know about so you have it on your radar.

This week, we are calling attention to our review of the newly released LONG ISLAND COMPROMISE. This exhilarating novel from Taffy Brodesser-Akner, the New York Times bestselling author of FLEISHMAN IS IN TROUBLE, is about one American family, the dark moment that shatters their suburban paradise, and the wild legacy of trauma and inheritance.

Summer is here, and it’s time to catch up on your beach reading with this year’s Fallon Book Club Summer Reads! Cast your vote for this summer’s pick before 12am PT on Wednesday night, and tune in to “The Tonight Show” on Thursday when the winner will be revealed.

This year's finalists are THE GOD OF THE WOODS by Liz Moore (an upcoming Bets On pick), I WAS A TEENAGE SLASHER by Stephen Graham Jones, THE LAST MURDER AT THE END OF THE WORLD by Stuart Turton, MARGO'S GOT MONEY TROUBLES by Rufi Thorpe, THE PARIS NOVEL by Ruth Reichl (a Bets On selection), and YOU ARE HERE by David Nicholls.

Upcoming Virtual Book and Author Events

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

Wednesday, July 24th at 7pm ET: "Friends and Fiction": The "Friends and Fiction" authors --- Mary Kay Andrews, Kristin Harmel, Kristy Woodson Harvey and Patti Callahan Henry --- will talk to Emily Giffin about her new novel, THE SUMMER PACT, a tender portrayal of grief, love and hope.

Wednesday, July 24th at 7pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Dean Jobb will talk about his new book, A GENTLEMAN AND A THIEF, with special guest host David Grann. This captivating true-crime caper is about Arthur Barry, who pulled off the most audacious and lucrative jewel heists of the Jazz Age.

Monday, July 29th at 8pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Joshua Hood will talk about his latest novel, BURN OUT, with special guest host Don Bentley. What begins as a straightforward search-and-rescue mission for Jake Slade swiftly turns into a harrowing run for his life.

Tuesday, July 30th at 8pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Allison Montclair will talk about her sixth Sparks & Bainbridge mystery, MURDER AT THE WHITE PALACE. In post-WWII London, the matchmakers of The Right Sort Marriage Bureau are involved in yet another murder.

Tuesday, July 30th at 9pm ET: Killer Author Club: Kimberly Belle, Heather Gudenkauf and Kaira Rouda will talk to Lauren Thoman about her new novel, YOU SHOULDN'T BE HERE. Two strangers search for the truth behind bizarre occurrences no one else dares to discuss --- only to discover that they’re connected by secrets that could destroy them both.

This Week's Bonus News:
Our Review of LONG ISLAND COMPROMISE
by Taffy Brodesser-Akner

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

On Sale the Week of July 29th in Hardcover

July 29th

HARD TO KILL: A Jane Smith Thriller by James Patterson and Mike Lupica (Legal Thriller)
Attorney Jane Smith is mounting an impossible criminal defense. Her client, Rob Jacobson, is the unluckiest of the unlucky. No sooner is he accused of killing a family of three in the Hamptons than a second family is gunned down. It’s not double jeopardy. It’s not double murder. It’s double triple homicide. Jane’s career has spanned from NYPD beat cop to Hamptons courtroom. She’s tough to beat. She’s even tougher to kill. The defense may never rest.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316569910

July 30th

THE DAYS I LOVED YOU MOST by Amy Neff (Fiction)
In the summer of 1941, on the New England shores where they were raised, Evelyn and Joseph fell in love. Now, more than 60 years later, with a lifetime between them, they have gathered their three grown children to share the staggering news: she has received a tragic diagnosis, and he cannot live without her. So in one year’s time, they will end their lives on their own terms. As the couple comes to grips with their fate, they retrace their past --- the joys and regrets, the laughter and the sorrow --- that brought them to this moment. They embark on a journey to live out their greatest dreams and to comfort and connect with each of their children before they're gone. But as their final days draw closer, they must confront the stark reality of what they are about to do, and make peace with the legacy they will leave behind for their family.
Park Row | 9780778310471

THE HORSE by Willy Vlautin (Fiction)
Al Ward lives on an isolated mining claim in the high desert of central Nevada 50 miles from the nearest town. A grizzled man in his 60s, he survives on canned soup, instant coffee, and memories of his ex-wife, friends and family he’s lost, and his life as a touring musician. Al finds himself teetering on the edge of madness and running out of reasons to go on --- until a horse arrives on his doorstep: nameless, blind and utterly helpless. Is the animal real, or a phantom conjured from imagination? As Al contemplates the horse’s existence --- and what, if anything, he can do --- his thoughts are interspersed with memories, from the moment his mother’s part-time boyfriend gifts him a 1959 butterscotch blonde Telecaster, to the day his travels begin.
Harper | 9780063346574

LIKE MOTHER, LIKE DAUGHTER by Kimberly McCreight (Domestic Thriller)
When Cleo, a student at NYU, arrives late for dinner at her childhood home in Brooklyn, she finds food burning in the oven and no sign of her mother, Kat. Then Cleo discovers her mom’s bloody shoe under the sofa. Something terrible has happened. But what? Kat is the essence of Park Slope perfection: a happily married, successful corporate lawyer. Or so Cleo thinks. Kat has been lying. She’s not just a lawyer; she’s her firm’s fixer. And in the days leading up to her disappearance, Kat has become aware of multiple threats: demands for money from her unfaithful soon-to-be ex-husband; evidence that Cleo has slipped back into a relationship that’s far riskier than she understands; and menacing anonymous messages from her past --- all of which she’s kept hidden from Cleo.
Knopf | 9780593536421

MURDER AT THE WHITE PALACE: A Sparks & Bainbridge Mystery by Allison Montclair (Historical Mystery)
In the immediate post-war days of London, two unlikely partners have undertaken an even more unlikely, if necessary, business venture --- The Right Sort Marriage Bureau. The two partners are Miss Iris Sparks, a woman with a dangerous past in British intelligence, and Mrs. Gwendolyn Bainbridge, a genteel war widow with a young son entangled in a complicated aristocratic family. Looking to throw a New Year’s Eve soiree for their clients, Sparks and Bainbridge scout an empty building --- only to find a body contained in the walls. What they initially assume is a victim of the recent Blitz is uncovered instead to be a murder victim. To make matters worse, the owner of the building is Sparks’ beau, Archie Spelling, who has ties to a variety of enterprises on the right and wrong sides of the law, and the main investigator for the police is her ex-fiancée.
Minotaur Books | 9781250854216

OFF THE BOOKS by Soma Mei Sheng Frazier (Fiction)
Recent Dartmouth dropout Mei drives a limo to make ends meet. Her grandfather convinces her to allow her customers to pay under the table, and before she knows it, she is working as a routine chauffeur for sex workers. Mei does her best to mind her own business, but her knack for discretion soon leads her on a life-changing trip with a new client. Henry piques Mei’s interest. Toting an enormous black suitcase with him everywhere he goes, he’s more concerned with taking frequent breaks than making good time on the road. When Mei discovers Henry's secret, she does away with her usual close-lipped demeanor and decides she has no choice but to confront him. What Henry reveals rocks her to her core and shifts this once casual, transactional road trip to one of moral stakes and dangerous consequences.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250872715

SLOW DANCE by Rainbow Rowell (Romance)
Shiloh and Carey were best friends. They spent entire summers sitting on Shiloh’s porch steps, dreaming about the future. They were both going to get out of north Omaha --- Shiloh would go to college and become an actress, and Cary would join the Navy. They promised each other that their friendship would never change. Well, Shiloh did go to college, and Cary did join the Navy. And yet, somehow, everything changed. Now Shiloh is 33, and it’s been 14 years since she talked to Cary. She’s been married and divorced. She has two kids. And she’s back living in the same house in which she grew up. When she’s invited to an old friend’s wedding, all Shiloh can think about is if Cary will be there --- and if she hopes he will be. Would Cary even want to talk to her? After everything? The answer is yes. And yes. And yes.
William Morrow | 9780063380196

SOMEONE LIKE US by Dinaw Mengestu (Fiction)
After abandoning his once-promising career as a journalist in search of a new life in Paris, Mamush meets Hannah, a photographer. Now, five years later, with his marriage to Hannah on the verge of collapse, he returns to the close-knit immigrant Ethiopian community of Washington, DC, that defined his childhood. At its center is Mamush’s stoic, implacable mother, and Samuel, the larger-than-life father figure whose ceaseless charm and humor have always served as a cover for a harder, more troubling truth. But on the same day that Mamush arrives home in Washington, Samuel is found dead in his garage. With Hannah and their two-year-old son back in Paris, Mamush sets out on an unexpected journey across America in search of answers to questions he'd been told never to ask.
Knopf | 9780385350006

WE BURN DAYLIGHT by Bret Anthony Johnston (Fiction)
Waco, Texas, 1993. People from all walks of life have arrived to follow the Lamb’s gospel --- signing over savings and pensions, selling their homes and shedding marriages. They’ve come here to worship at the feet of a former landscaper turned prophet who is preparing for the End Times with a staggering cache of weapons. Jaye’s mother is one of his newest and most devout followers, though Jaye herself has suspicions about the Lamb’s methods --- and his motives. Roy is the youngest son of the local sheriff, a 14-year-old boy with a heart of gold and a nose for trouble who falls for Jaye without knowing of her mother’s attachment to the man who is currently making his father’s life hell. The two teenagers are drawn to each other immediately and completely, but their love may have dire consequences for their families.
Random House | 9780399590122

THE WEDDING PEOPLE by Alison Espach (Fiction/Humor)
It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn. She's immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she’s dreamed of coming for years. She hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband. But she’s here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield…except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe's plan --- which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can’t stop confiding in each other.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250899576

WHAT HAVE YOU DONE? by Shari Lapena (Domestic Thriller)
Nothing ever happens in sleepy little Fairhill, Vermont. But this morning that will change. And one innocent question could be deadly. What have you done? The teenagers get their kicks telling ghost stories in the old graveyard. The parents trust that their kids will arrive home safe from school. Everyone knows everyone. Curtains rarely twitch. Front doors are left unlocked. But Diana Brewer isn’t lying safely in her bed where she belongs. Instead she lies in a hayfield, circled by vultures, discovered by a local farmer. How quickly a girl becomes a ghost. How quickly a town of friendly, familiar faces becomes a town of suspects, a place of fear and paranoia. Someone in Fairhill did this. Everyone wants answers.
Pamela Dorman Books | 9780593489963

On Sale the Week of July 29th in Paperback

July 30th

CUTTING TEETH by Chandler Baker (Domestic Thriller/Mystery)
Darby, Mary Beth and Rhea are on personal quests to reclaim aspects of their identities subsumed by motherhood --- their careers, their sex lives, their bodies. Their children, though, disrupt their plans when an unsettling medical condition begins to go around the Little Academy preschool: the kids are craving blood. Then a young teacher is found dead, and the only potential witnesses are 10 adorable four-year-olds. Soon it becomes clear that the children are not just witnesses, but also suspects...and so are their mothers. As the police begin to look more closely, the children’s ability to bleed their parents dry becomes deadly serious.
Flatiron Books | 9781250839800

THE GOODBYE PROCESS: Stories by Mary Jones (Fiction/Short Stories)
Paperback Original
In her debut short story collection, Mary Jones uses her distinctive voice to examine the painful and sometimes surreal ways we say goodbye. The stories --- which range from tender and heartbreaking to unsettling and darkly funny --- will push you out of your comfort zone and ignite intense emotions surrounding love and loss. A woman camps out on the porch of an ex-lover who has barricaded himself inside the house; a preteen girl caught shoplifting finds herself in grave danger; a Los Angeles real estate agent falls for a woman who helps him detach from years of dramatic plastic surgery; a man hires a professional mourner to ensure his wife’s funeral is a success. Again and again, Jones’ characters find themselves facing the ends of things: relationships, health and innocence.
Zibby Books | 9781958506622

LOOK IN THE MIRROR by Catherine Steadman (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Still grieving from the loss of her father, Nina discovers that she has inherited property in the British Virgin Islands --- a vacation home she had no idea existed, until now. The house is extraordinary: state-of-the-art, all glass and marble. How did her sensible father come into enough money for this? Why did he keep it from her? And what else was he hiding? Maria, once an ambitious medical student, is a nanny for the super-rich. Just one more gig, and she’ll be set. Finally, she’ll be secure. But when her wards never show, Maria begins to make herself at home, spending her days luxuriating by the pool and in the sauna. There’s just one rule: Don’t go in the basement. That room is off-limits. But her curiosity just might get the better of her. And soon, she’ll wish her only worry was not getting paid.
Ballantine Books | 9780593725764

LOOKING GLASS SOUND by Catriona Ward (Speculative Thriller/Horror)
In a cottage overlooking the windswept Maine coast, Wilder Harlow has begun the last book he will ever write. It is the story about the sun-drenched summer days of his youth in Whistler Bay, and the blood-stained path of the killer who stalked his small vacation town. About the terrible secret he and his companions, Nat and Harper, discovered entombed in the coves off the bay. And how the pact they swore that day echoed down the decades, forever shaping their lives. But the more Wilder writes, the less he trusts himself and his memory. He starts to see things that can’t be real. Who, or what, is haunting him? No longer able to trust his own eyes, Wilder begins to fear that this will not only be his last book, but the last thing he ever does.
Tor Nightfire | 9781250860040

MARIA: A Novel of Maria von Trapp by Michelle Moran (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
In the 1950s, Oscar Hammerstein is asked to write the lyrics to a musical based on the life of a woman named Maria von Trapp. As half of the famous Rodgers & Hammerstein duo, he knows it has big Broadway potential. Yet much of Maria’s life will have to be reinvented for the stage, and with the horrors of war still fresh in people’s minds, Hammerstein can’t let audiences see just how close the von Trapps came to losing their lives. But when Maria sees the script that is supposedly based on her life, she becomes so incensed that she sets off to confront Hammerstein in person. Told that he’s busy, she is asked to express her concerns to his secretary, Fran. The pair strike up an unlikely friendship as Maria tells Fran about her life, contradicting much of what eventually will appear in The Sound of Music.
Dell | 9780593499481

NIGHT CANDY: A Colleen Hayes Mystery by Max Tomlinson (Mystery)
In a tragic turn of events, ex-con PI Colleen Hayes’ daughter, Pam, has lost her baby. Meanwhile, a serial killer given the name “Night Candy” is targeting sex workers, both male and female. The situation doesn’t improve when Colleen’s friend and ally --- SFPD Inspector Owens --- is arrested for the murder of his ex-wife, who was found burned in a fire the same night the pair had tried to rekindle their love. Could Owens have really done what they say? Even Colleen has her doubts. But there are people depending on her: Owens, who needs help finding his ex-wife’s real killer, and a trio of sex workers Colleen keeps her eye on --- especially with Night Candy on the loose. Then, one of the three girls is next to disappear. If anything is to test Colleen’s resolve, December 1979 seems to be it.
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608096213

PARTY FAVORS by Sariah Wilson (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
For as long as she can remember, Everly Aprile has been obsessed with the Monterran royals, especially Queen Kat. As for Everly, her career as an event planner has stalled --- and so has her love life. Then a wealthy new client wants a sweet-16 party that’s fit for an American princess. Everly offers to bring it to life by immersing herself in everything Monterra. Call it intervento divino when she meets dizzyingly handsome and charismatic Max Colby, who’s relocated stateside from the Monterran kingdom of her dreams. If Everly promises to be his New York City guide, he’ll teach her the customs and culture of Monterra so her party gets a boost of authenticity. As their friendship grows, Everly starts falling --- but for what? Another unattainable obsession? Max is such a dreamboat that surely he sees her as just a friend.
Montlake | 9781662514241

PEOPLE WILL TALK by Kieran Scott (Domestic Thriller/Mystery)
Paperback Original
At the Frank family’s annual clambake, Peter Frank plans to charm every woman on the guest list. They include Maya, his tennis star girlfriend; Catherine, his high school sweetheart turned wedding planner and influencer; and Leanne, the fiercely protective aunt and legal guardian of his only son. When Maya, Catherine and Leanne arrive, they’re lured into a room together by a mysterious text to find Peter and...Tilly. Tilly explains that she and Peter plan to get married that night, that Maya and Peter are through, that Peter will no longer be investing in Catherine’s company, and that Leanne must give up guardianship of her nephew. The enraged women attend the impromptu wedding, but when a chandelier falls and crushes the bride, suddenly they’re three likely suspects with three perfect motives.
Gallery Books | 9781668038109

RETURN TO WYLDCLIFFE HEIGHTS by Carol Goodman (Gothic Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
Agnes Corey, a junior editor at a small independent publisher, has been hired by enigmatic author Veronica St. Clair to transcribe the sequel to her 1993 hit phenomenon, The Secret of Wyldcliffe Heights. St. Clair has been a recluse since the publication of the JANE EYRE-esque book, which coincided with a terrible fire that blinded and scarred her. Agnes arrives in the Hudson Valley at her crumbling estate, which was once a psychiatric hospital for “wayward women.” As St. Clair dictates, Agnes realizes there are clues in the story that reveal the true --- and terrifying --- events three decades ago that inspired the original novel. The line between fact and fiction becomes increasingly blurred, and Agnes discovers terrible secrets about an unresolved murder from long ago, which have startling connections to her own life.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063265288

STRANGE SALLY DIAMOND by Liz Nugent (Psychological Thriller)
Reclusive Sally Diamond causes outrage by trying to incinerate her dead father. Now she’s the center of attention, not only from the hungry media and police detectives, but also from a sinister voice from a past she does not remember. As she begins to discover the horrors of her early childhood, Sally steps into the world for the first time, making new friends, big decisions, and learning that people don’t always mean what they say. But who is the man observing Sally from the other side of the world, and why does he call her Mary? And why does her new neighbor seem to be obsessed with her? Sally’s trust issues are about to be severely challenged.
Gallery/Scout Press | 9781501189722

THE SUNSET YEARS OF AGNES SHARP written by Leonie Swann, translated by Amy Bojang (Mystery/Dark Humor)
It has been an eventful morning for Agnes Sharp and the other inhabitants of Sunset Hall, a house share for the old and unruly in the sleepy English countryside. Although they have had some issues (misplaced reading glasses, conflicting culinary tastes, decreasing mobility and gluttonous grandsons), nothing prepares them for an unexpected visit from a police officer. A body has been discovered next door. Everyone puts on a long face for show, but they are secretly relieved the body in question is not the one they’re currently hiding in the shed (sorry, Lillith). It seems the answer to their little problem with Lillith may have fallen right into their laps. All they have to do is find out who murdered their neighbor, so they can pin Lillith’s death on them, thus killing two (old) birds with one stone (cold killer).
Soho Crime | 9781641295987

A TWISTED LOVE STORY by Samantha Downing (Psychological Thriller)
Wes and Ivy are madly in love. It's the type of romance people write stories about. But what kind of story? When it's good, it's great. Flowers. Grand gestures. Deep meaningful conversations where the whole world disappears. When it's bad, it's really bad. Vengeful fights. Damaged property. Arrest warrants. But their vicious cycle of catastrophic breakups and head-over-heels reconciliations needs to end fast. Because suddenly, Wes and Ivy have a common enemy --- and she's a detective. There's something Wes and Ivy never talk about. The night of their worst breakup, when one of them took things too far, and someone ended up dead. If they can stick together, they can survive anything --- even the tightening net of a police investigation. Because one more breakup just might be their last.
Berkley | 9780593101018

WITNESS: Stories by Jamel Brinkley (Fiction/Short Stories)
In these 10 stories, each set in the changing landscapes of contemporary New York City, a range of characters --- from children to grandmothers to ghosts --- live through the responsibility of perceiving and the moral challenge of speaking up or taking action. Though they strive to connect, to remember, to stand up for, and to really see each other, they often fall short, and the structures they build around these ambitions and failures shape not only their own futures but the legacies and prospects of their families and their city. In its portraits of families and friendships lost and found, the paradox of intimacy, the long shadow of grief and the meaning of home, WITNESS enacts its own testimony.
Picador | 9781250338396

THE WOMAN WHO LIED by Claire Douglas (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Emilia Ward lives in suburban London with her husband, their young son, and a teenager from her first marriage. Emilia is an ordinary mom --- and she’s also the bestselling author of the Miranda Moody detective novels. But when writing her 10th --- and most difficult --- book, life takes a disturbing turn: an incident mimicking the plot of one of her novels occurs in real life. Just an unsettling coincidence, right? Until it happens again. And again. Then someone she knows dies in the same way as a victim in the book she's currently writing. Why is someone doing this? What do they want? How could they possibly know what she’s thinking --- and writing? Is Emilia and her family next?
Harper Paperbacks | 9780063277465

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