October 29, 2024

October 29, 2024

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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of October 28th and November 4th 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 Mystery Mayhem Author Spotlight of THE GRAYS OF TRUTH by Sharon Virts, which is now in stores, along with our review. This gripping tale of murder and deceit set in Reconstruction-era Baltimore will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick --- and Carol Fitzgerald looks forward to interviewing Sharon about the book soon.

Carol's latest "Bookreporter Talks To" interview is with Susan Rieger. Her new novel, LIKE MOTHER, LIKE MOTHER, is November's Barnes & Noble Book Club pick and will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On selection.

Susan explains what drove her to write this book and why it is structured as a mystery, with the feel of literary Russian nesting dolls. She also reveals which was her favorite character to write and discusses the use of genealogy, as well as DNA. And Susan talks about what it was like to start writing fiction late in life.

The aforementioned THE GRAYS OF TRUTH is our latest Fall Reading prize book. The 24-hour contest is now up, so be sure to enter for your chance to win one of five copies of the book. The deadline for your entries is TOMORROW, Wednesday, October 30th at noon ET.

Our final Fall Reading contest will go live on Wednesday at noon ET. The prize book will be the aforementioned LIKE MOTHER, LIKE MOTHER. The deadline for your entries is Thursday, October 31st at noon ET.

This Week's Bonus News:
Our Mystery Mayhem Author Spotlight of
THE GRAYS OF TRUTH by Sharon Virts
An Upcoming Bookreporter.com Bets On Title

Upcoming Virtual Book and Author Events

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

Wednesday, October 30th at 7pm ET: Barnes & Noble: Join Barnes & Noble as they welcome #1 New York Times bestselling author Kerri Maniscalco for a live virtual discussion of her new steamy stand-alone novel, THRONE OF SECRETS. Kerri will be in conversation with the New York Times bestselling author of LOVE, THEORETICALLY, Ali Hazelwood.

Wednesday, October 30th at 7pm ET: “Friends & Fiction”: Join “Friends & Fiction” for a conversation with Louise Penny about the latest entry in her Inspector Armand Gamache series, THE GREY WOLF. Here, Louise pulls the curtain back on what modern terrorism could look like as the head of homicide at the Sûreté must figure out who he can trust in a race-against-time hunt for clues in a terrifying case.

On Sale the Week of October 28th in Hardcover

October 29th

THE BLUE HOUR by Paula Hawkins (Psychological Thriller)
Welcome to Eris: an island with only one house, one inhabitant, one way out. Unreachable from the Scottish mainland for 12 hours each day. Once home to Vanessa, a famous artist whose notoriously unfaithful husband disappeared 20 years ago. Now home to Grace, a solitary creature of the tides, content in her own isolation. But when a shocking discovery is made in an art gallery far away in London, a visitor comes calling. And the secrets of Eris threaten to emerge.
Mariner Books | 9780063396524

GATHER ME: A Memoir in Praise of the Books That Saved Me by Glory Edim (Memoir)
Glory Edim, who grew up in Virginia to Nigerian immigrant parents, started the popular Well-Read Black Girl book club at age 30, eventually reaching a community of half a million readers. But her own love of books stretches far back. Edim’s father moved back to Nigeria while she was still a child, marking the beginning of a series of traumatic changes and losses for her family. What became an escape, a safe space and a second home for her and her brother was their local library. Books were where Edim found community, and as she grew older she discovered authors and ideas that she wasn’t being taught about in class. Reading wherever and whenever she could, be it in her dorm room or when traveling by subway or plane, she found the Black writers whose words would forever change her life.
Ballantine Books | 9780525619796

THE GREY WOLF by Louise Penny (Mystery)
Relentless phone calls interrupt the peace of a warm August morning in Three Pines. Someone has managed to track down Armand Gamache, head of homicide at the Sûreté, as he sits with his wife in their back garden. Reine-Marie watches with increasing unease as her husband refuses to pick up, though he clearly knows who is on the other end. When he finally answers, his rage shatters the calm of their quiet Sunday morning. That's only the first in a sequence of strange events that begin THE GREY WOLF. A missing coat, an intruder alarm, a note for Gamache reading "this might interest you," a puzzling scrap of paper with a mysterious list --- and then a murder. All propel Chief Inspector Gamache and his team toward a terrible realization. Something much more sinister than any one murder or any one case is fast approaching.
Minotaur Books | 9781250328137

LIKE MOTHER, LIKE MOTHER by Susan Rieger (Fiction)
Detroit, 1960. Lila Pereira is two years old when her angry, abusive father has her mother committed to an asylum. Lila never sees her mother again. Three decades later, Lila rises to the pinnacle of American media as the powerful, brilliant executive editor of The Washington Globe. Lila leaves the rearing of her daughters to her generous husband, Joe. Grace, their youngest daughter, feels abandoned. She wishes her mother would attend PTA meetings, not White House correspondents’ dinners. As she grows up, she cannot shake her resentment. She wants out from under Lila’s shadow, yet the more she resists, the more Lila seems to shape her life. Grace becomes a successful reporter, even publishing a bestselling book about her mother. In the process of writing it, she realizes how little she knows about her own family.
The Dial Press | 9780525512493

MY THREE DOGS by W. Bruce Cameron (Fiction)
When a tragic accident separates three dogs from their human, they find themselves up for adoption --- separately. But Riggs, a dedicated, loyal Australian Shepherd, refuses to see his family torn apart. After the exuberant and fun-loving doodle Archie and quick-witted Jack Russell Luna are taken to new homes, Riggs' powerful herding instincts send him on a journey to bring his pack back together again.
Forge Books | 9781250900203

THE QUEEN by Nick Cutter (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
On a sunny morning in June, Margaret Carpenter wakes up to find a new iPhone on her doorstep. She switches it on to find a text from her best friend, Charity Atwater. The problem is, Charity has been missing for over a month. Most people in town --- even the police --- think she’s dead. Margaret and Charity have been lifelong friends. They share everything and know the most intimate details about one another. Except for the destructive secret hidden from them both. A secret that will trigger a chain of events ending in tragedy, bloodshed and death. And now Charity wants Margaret to know her story --- the real story. In a narrative that takes place over one feverish day, Margaret follows a series of increasingly disquieting breadcrumbs as she forges deeper into the mystery of her best friend --- a person she never truly knew at all.
Gallery Books | 9781668020975

THIS MOTHERLESS LAND by Nikki May (Fiction)
Quiet Funke is happy in Nigeria. But when tragedy strikes, she’s sent to England, a place she knows only from her mother’s stories. To her dismay, she finds the much-lauded estate dilapidated, the food tasteless, the weather gray. Worse still, her mother’s family is cold and distant. With one exception: her cousin, Liv. Free-spirited Liv has always wanted to break free of her joyless family. She becomes fiercely protective of her little cousin, and her warmth and kindness give Funke a place to heal. The two girls grow into adulthood the closest of friends, but the choices their mothers made haunt them. And when a second tragedy occurs, their friendship is torn apart. Against the long shadow of their shared family history, each woman will struggle to chart a path forward, separated by country, misunderstanding and ambition.
Mariner Books | 9780063084292

On Sale the Week of October 28th in Paperback

October 29th

ABSOLUTION by Alice McDermott (Historical Fiction)
Tricia is a shy newlywed, married to a rising attorney on loan to navy intelligence. Charlene is a practiced corporate spouse and mother of three. In Saigon in 1963, the two women form a wary alliance as they balance the era’s mandate to be “helpmeets” to their ambitious husbands with their own inchoate impulse to “do good” for the people of Vietnam. Sixty years later, Charlene’s daughter, spurred by an encounter with an aging Vietnam vet, reaches out to Tricia. Together, they look back at their time in Saigon, taking wry account of that pivotal year and of Charlene’s altruistic machinations. They discover how their own lives as women on the periphery have been shaped and burdened by the same sort of unintended consequences that followed America’s tragic interference in Southeast Asia.
Picador | 9781250337993

THE BERRY PICKERS by Amanda Peters (Fiction)
July 1962. A Mi’kmaq family from Nova Scotia arrives in Maine to pick blueberries for the summer. Weeks later, four-year-old Ruthie, the family’s youngest child, vanishes. She is last seen by her six-year-old brother, Joe, sitting on a favorite rock at the edge of a berry field. Joe will remain distraught by his sister’s disappearance for years to come. In Maine, a young girl named Norma grows up as the only child of an affluent family. Her father is emotionally distant, her mother frustratingly overprotective. Norma is often troubled by recurring dreams and visions that seem more like memories than imagination. As she grows older, Norma slowly comes to realize there is something her parents aren’t telling her --- and she will spend decades trying to uncover this family secret.
Catapult | 9781646222384

DEATH STAKE: A Trasker Thriller by Andrew Mayne (Thriller/Adventure)
Paperback Original
Retired intelligence operative Brad Trasker heads security at a remote aerospace facility when there’s a major breach. A photo of their top-secret AI-designed hydrogen engine has surfaced online. Trasker’s investigation into who did it soon leads to a start-up in Bangkok, where its three software developers have disappeared, along with nearly a million dollars in investment money. Following their tracks, Trasker hits a dead end. The start-up’s HQ is a padlocked crime scene. No one --- not the cagey locals, the mobbed-up gangs or the Royal Thai Police --- is keen on answering Trasker’s questions. But their message is clear: get out of Bangkok or die. Hunted by assassins, Trasker is drawn into the same complex high-tech underworld of cryptocurrency, digital espionage and betrayal that swallowed up the runaway coders.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781662522222

THE GRAYS OF TRUTH by Sharon Virts (Historical Mystery)
Paperback Original
In Reconstruction-era Baltimore, members of the city’s elite keep turning up dead. When Jane Gray Wharton’s husband, Ned, dies unexpectedly while overnighting at his brother’s home, Jane has no reason to question the circumstances of his death. But on a visit to the same house a few weeks later, both Jane and her daughter fall gravely ill, and Jane begins to suspect foul play. Though a trained chemist and former nurse, Jane is haunted by a history of delusion, loss and institutionalization. As the unexpected and devastating deaths begin to multiply, Jane’s grip on reality starts to slip. When a respected army officer falls terribly ill after visiting the Whartons’ Baltimore home, Jane’s greatest fears become all too real. The time has come to act. But who will believe her? And can she even trust her own mind?
Flashpoint | 9781959411727

THE HAPPY COUPLE by Naoise Dolan (Fiction)
Meet Celine and Luke. For all intents and purposes, the happy couple. Luke (a serial cheater) and Celine (more interested in piano than domestic life) plan to marry in a year. Archie (the best man) should be moving on from his love for Luke and up the corporate ladder, but he finds himself utterly stuck. Phoebe (the bridesmaid and Celine’s sister) just wants to get to the bottom of Luke’s frequent unexplained disappearances. And Vivian (a wedding guest) is the only one with any emotional distance and observes her friends like ants in a colony. As the wedding approaches and their five lives intersect, these characters will each look for a path to the happily ever after. But does it lie at the end of an aisle?
Ecco | 9780063330474

A HOLLY JOLLY EVER AFTER: A Christmas Notch Novel by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone (Romantic Comedy)
As the arguably lesser of the three former members of the boy band INK, Kallum Lieberman enjoyed his 15 minutes of fame and then moved home where he opened a regional pizza chain called Slice, Slice, Baby! But after an old one-off sex tape is leaked and quickly goes viral, Kallum decides he’s ready to step into the spotlight again, starring in a sexy Santa biopic for the Hope Channel. Winnie Baker married her childhood sweetheart, avoided the downfalls of adolescent stardom, and transitioned into a stable adult acting career. But after her perfect life falls apart, Winnie is ready to redefine herself…and what better way than a steamier-than-a-steaming-hot-mug-of-cider Christmas movie? Suddenly, Kallum’s teenage crush on Winnie is bubbling to the surface, and Winnie might be catching feelings herself.
Avon | 9780063222656

INHERITANCE: The Lost Bride Trilogy, Book 1 by Nora Roberts
(Paranormal Fantasy/Romance)
Graphic designer Sonya MacTavish is stunned to learn that her late father had a twin he never knew about --- and that her newly discovered uncle, Collin Poole, has left her almost everything he owned, including a majestic Victorian house on the Maine coast, which the will stipulates she must live in it for at least three years. Trey, the young lawyer who greets her at the sprawling clifftop manor, acknowledges that the place is haunted…but just a little. Sonya sees a painting by her father inexplicably hanging in her deceased uncle’s office, and a portrait of a woman named Astrid, whom the lawyer refers to as “the first lost bride.” It’s becoming clear that Sonya has inherited far more than a house. She has inherited a centuries-old curse and a puzzle to be solved if there is any hope of breaking it.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250901835

LEAVE THE GIRLS BEHIND by Jacqueline Bublitz (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Ruth-Ann Baker is a college dropout, a bartender --- and an amateur detective who just can’t stay away from true crime. Nineteen years ago, her childhood friend was murdered by suspected serial killer Ethan Oswald. Still tormented by the case, Ruth can’t help but think of the long-dead Oswald when another young girl goes missing from the same town. And when she uncovers startling new evidence that suggests Oswald did not act alone, she is determined to find his deadly partner in crime. Embarking on a global investigation, Ruth becomes close to three very different women --- one of whom just might hold the key to what happened to the missing girl. And her childhood friend, all those years ago.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781982199050

MASQUERADE by Mike Fu (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Newly single Meadow Liu is house-sitting for his friend, artist Selma Shimizu, when he stumbles upon The Masquerade, a translated novel about a masked ball in 1930s Shanghai. The author’s name is the same as Meadow’s own in Chinese, Liu Tian --- a coincidence that proves to be the first of many strange happenings. Over the course of a single summer, Meadow must contend with a possibly haunted apartment, a mirror that plays tricks and a stranger speaking in riddles at the bar where he works, as well as a startling revelation about a former lover. And when Selma vanishes from her artist residency, Meadow is forced to question everything he knows as the boundaries between real and imagined begin to blur.
Tin House Books | 9781959030843

RABBIT HOLE by Kate Brody (Mystery)
Ten years ago, Theodora “Teddy” Angstrom’s older sister, Angie, went missing. Her case remains unsolved. Now Teddy’s father, Mark, has killed himself. Unbeknownst to Mark’s family, he had been active in a Reddit community fixated on Angie, and Teddy can’t help but fall down the same rabbit hole. Teddy’s investigation quickly gets her in hot water with her gun-nut boyfriend, her long-lost half brother, and her colleagues at the prestigious high school where she teaches English. Further complicating matters is Teddy’s growing obsession with Mickey, a charming amateur sleuth who is eerily keen on helping her solve the case. As she struggles to reconcile new information with old memories, Teddy’s erratic behavior reaches a fever pitch, but she won’t stop until she finds Angie.
Soho Crime | 9781641296205

REDWOOD COURT by DéLana R. A. Dameron (Fiction)
On Redwood Court, the cul-de-sac in the all-Black working-class suburb of Columbia, South Carolina, where her grandparents live, Mika Tabor learns important lessons from the people who raise her: her exhausted parents, who work long hours at multiple jobs while still making sure their kids experience the adventure of family vacations; her older sister, who in a house filled with Motown would rather listen to Alanis Morrisette; her retired grandparents, children of Jim Crow, who realized their own vision of success when they bought their house on the Court in the 1960s, imagining it filled with future generations; and the many neighbors who hold tight to the community they’ve built, committed to fostering joy and love in an America so insistent on seeing Black people stumble and fall.
Dial Press Trade Paperback | 9780593447048

ROBERT B. PARKER’S BROKEN TRUST: A Spenser Novel by Mike Lupica (Mystery)
A brilliant scientist and an astute businessman, Andrew Crain’s groundbreaking work with lithium has made him one of the world’s richest men. He is universally adored and admired; that is, until Crain’s beautiful wife, Laura, comes to Spenser hoping that he can find out what skeletons lurk in her husband’s closet. Though Crain is a generous philanthropist and loving family man, she is concerned. He recently has become secretive, bordering on paranoid, and prone to violent outbursts. As Spenser digs into the billionaire’s past, he realizes that the man may have done terrible things on his rise to the top --- but he also may have had good reason to. What Spenser discovers will cause him to question his own views on morality --- and place him in grave danger.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780593540268

SAME BED DIFFERENT DREAMS by Ed Park (Speculative Fiction)
In 1919, far-flung patriots establish the Korean Provisional Government to protest the Japanese occupation of their country. This government-in-exile proves mostly symbolic, though, and after Japan’s defeat in World War II, the KPG dissolves and civil war erupts, resulting in the tragic North-South split that remains today. But what if the KPG still existed --- now working toward a unified Korea, secretly pulling levers to further its aims? SAME BED DIFFERENT DREAMS weaves together three distinct narrative voices with an archive of mysterious images and twists reality like a kaleidoscope. Korean history, American pop culture and our tech-fraught lives come together in acclaimed author Ed Park’s novel.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780812988321

SUN OF BLOOD AND RUIN by Mariely Lares (Historical Fantasy/Adventure)
In 16th-century New Spain, witchcraft is punishable by death, indigenous temples have been destroyed, and tales of mythical creatures that once roamed the land have become whispers in the night. Hidden behind a mask, Pantera uses her magic and legendary swordplay skills to fight the tyranny of Spanish rule. To all who know her, Leonora de las Casas Tlazohtzin never leaves the palace and is promised to the heir of the Spanish throne. The respectable, law-abiding Lady Leonora faints at the sight of blood and would rather be caught dead than meddle in court affairs. No one suspects that Leonora and Pantera are the same person. When an ancient prophecy of destruction threatens to come true, Leonora --- and therefore Pantera --- is forced to decide: surrender the mask or fight to the end.
Harper Voyager | 9780063254329

THIS GIRL’S A KILLER by Emma C. Wells (Thriller/Humor)
Paperback Original
Cordelia Black loves exactly three things: her chosen family, her hairdresser (worth every penny plus tip) and killing bad men. By day, she's an ambitious pharma rep with a flawless reputation and designer wardrobe. By night, she culls South Louisiana of unscrupulous men --- monsters who think they've evaded justice, until they meet her. But when the evening news starts throwing around the term "serial killer" and her best friend starts dating a man who just might unravel everything Cordelia has worked for, she must come face to face with the choices she's made. The good, the bad and the murderous. Her family and her freedom depend on it.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464218620

THE WATERS by Bonnie Jo Campbell (Fiction)
On an island in the Great Massasauga Swamp --- an area known as “The Waters” to the residents of nearby Whiteheart, Michigan --- herbalist and eccentric Hermine “Herself” Zook has healed the local women of their ailments for generations. As stubborn as her tonics are powerful, Herself inspires reverence and fear in the people of Whiteheart, and even in her own three estranged daughters. The youngest --- the beautiful, inscrutable and lazy Rose Thorn --- has left her own daughter, 11-year-old Dorothy “Donkey” Zook, to grow up wild. Donkey spends her days searching for truths in the lush landscape and in her math books, waiting for her wayward mother and longing for a father, unaware that family secrets, passionate love and violent men will flood through the swamp and upend her idyllic childhood.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324105152

WE MUST NOT THINK OF OURSELVES by Lauren Grodstein (Historical Fiction)
In November 1940, Adam Paskow becomes a prisoner in the Warsaw Ghetto, where the Jews of the city are cut off from their former lives and held captive by Nazi guards. Weeks later, he is approached by a mysterious figure with a surprising request: Will he join a secret group of archivists working to preserve the truth of what is happening inside these walls? Adam agrees and begins taking testimonies from his students, friends and neighbors. One of the people Adam interviews is his flatmate, Sala Wiskoff, who is married with two children. Over the months of their confinement, in the presence of her family, Adam and Sala fall in love. But when Adam discovers a possible escape from the Ghetto, he is faced with an unbearable choice: Whom can he save, and at what cost?
Algonquin Books ‎| 9781643756363

November 1st

A TRIBUTE OF FIRE by Sariah Wilson (Fantasy/Romance)
Paperback Original
Lia is the princess of Locris, a dying desert nation cursed centuries ago by an earth goddess --- one still worshipped by the thriving and adversarial nation of Ilion. Every year, Ilion offers the goddess a sacrifice: two Locrian maidens forced to compete in a life-and-death race to reach her temple. In a millennium, no maiden has made it out of Ilion alive. This year, Lia is one of the hunted. An education in battle gives her a fighting chance, but the challenges are greater than she feared: Lia’s beloved but untrained sister, Quynh, has been put in the path of danger. The winding streets of Ilion itself have been transformed into a labyrinthine maze of countless choices and dead ends. And if the risks weren’t significant enough, Lia is reluctantly drawn to the commandingly attractive Jason, an Ilionian sailor she loathes to trust and desires like no man before.
Montlake | 9781662525148

A VERY BAD THING by J.T. Ellison (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
With a number of hit titles and a highly anticipated movie tie-in, celebrated novelist Columbia Jones is at the top of her game. Fans around the world adore her. But on the final night of her latest book tour, one face in the crowd makes the author collapse. And by the next morning, she’s lying dead in a pool of blood. Columbia’s death shocks the world and leaves Darian, her daughter and publicist, reeling. The police have nothing to go on --- at first. But then details emerge, pointing to the author’s illicit past. It turns out many people had motive to kill Columbia. And with a hungry reporter and frustrated cop on the trail, her secrets won’t stay buried long. But how many lives will they shatter as the truth comes out?
Thomas & Mercer | 9781662520310

On Sale the Week of November 4th in Hardcover

November 5th

THE AUTHOR'S GUIDE TO MURDER by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig and Karen White (Mystery)
There’s been a sensational murder at historic Castle Kinloch, a gothic fantasy of grey granite on a remote island in the Highlands of Scotland. Literary superstar Brett Saffron Presley has been found dead --- under bizarre circumstances --- in the castle tower’s book-lined study. Years ago, Presley purchased the castle as a showpiece for his brand and to lure paying guests with a taste for writerly glamour. Now it seems that the castle has done him in…or, possibly, one of the castle’s guests has. Detective Chief Inspector Euan McIntosh, a local with no love for literary Americans, finds himself with the unenviable task of extracting statements from three American lady novelists. Why did these authors really come to Castle Kinloch?
William Morrow | 9780063259867

BEFORE WE FORGET KINDNESS by Toshikazu Kawaguchi (Fiction/Magical Realism)
In this fifth book in the sensational, cozy Before the Coffee Gets Cold series translated from Japanese, the mysterious café where customers arrive hoping to travel back in time welcomes four new guests: the father who could not allow his daughter to get married, a woman who couldn't give Valentine's Day chocolates to her loved one, a boy who wants to show his smile to his divorced parents, and a wife holding a child with no name. They must follow the café's strict rules, however, and come back to the present before their coffee goes cold. Another moving and heartwarming tale from Toshikazu Kawaguchi, in BEFORE WE FORGET KINDNESS our new visitors wish to go back into their past to move on with their present, finding closure and comfort so they can embark on a beautiful future.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335915283

THE BOUNDARIES WE CROSS by Brad Parks (Domestic Thriller)
Charles Bliss, a teacher at an elite Connecticut boarding school, has been accused of engaging in a romantic relationship with a student. The student behind the accusation, Hayley Goodloe, is the daughter of a state senator, the granddaughter of an ex-governor, and an heiress to a massive fortune. But Charles has long prided himself on keeping proper boundaries with his students. He insists he would never cross the line. Or would he? Hayley’s diary makes it clear she had strong feelings for her teacher. Was it just an unrequited schoolgirl crush? Or was it something more? When Hayley disappears under suspicious circumstances, a daunting pile of evidence points to Charles as the chief suspect. Charles swears he’s being framed. And it soon becomes apparent there’s only one way he can clear his name. Find her.
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608096244

CARSON THE MAGNIFICENT by Bill Zehme with Mike Thomas (Biography)
In 2002, Bill Zehme landed one of the most coveted assignments for a magazine writer: an interview with Johnny Carson. Shortly after Carson’s death in 2005, Zehme signed a contract to do an expansive biography. He toiled on the book for nearly a decade before a cancer diagnosis and ongoing treatments halted his progress. Yet the hundreds of pages Zehme managed to complete are astounding both for the caliber of their writing and how they illuminate one of the most inscrutable figures in entertainment history. In one passage, Zehme notes that when asked by an interviewer for the secret to his success, Carson replied simply, “Be yourself and tell the truth.” Completed with help from journalist and Zehme’s former research assistant Mike Thomas, CARSON THE MAGNIFICENT offers just that: an honest assessment of who Johnny Carson really was.
Simon & Schuster | 9781451645279

ELEANORE OF AVIGNON by Elizabeth DeLozier (Historical Fiction)
Provence, 1347. Eleanore (Elea) Blanchet is a young midwife and herbalist with remarkable skills. In a chance encounter, she meets Guigo de Chauliac, the enigmatic personal physician to the powerful Pope Clement, and strikes a deal with him to take her on as his apprentice. Under Chauliac’s tutelage, she hones her skills as a healer. Then, two pieces of earth-shattering news: the Black Death has made landfall in Europe, and the disgraced Queen Joanna is coming to Avignon to stand trial for her husband’s murder. She is pregnant and in need of a midwife, a role only Elea can fill. The queen’s childbirth approaches as the plague spreads like wildfire, leaving half the city dead in its wake. The people of Avignon grow desperate for a scapegoat, and a group of religious heretics launch a witch hunt, one that could cost Elea everything.
Dutton | 9780593475034

FLINT KILL CREEK: Stories of Mystery and Suspense by Joyce Carol Oates (Mystery & Thriller/Short Stories)
These new, recent and reformulated stories by Joyce Carol Oates, collected here for the first time, showcase a wide range of crime fiction and psychological suspense. A young, insecure woman finds her relationship changing as she grows more and more dependent on a man who likes to take her on long walks beside a dangerously roaring creek. Another woman, nervous around men, not quite knowing how to act when paid a compliment, becomes flustered when a doctor suggests they go out for coffee, or possibly a drink. She finally decides that she will join him when he suggests they meet at his home. A man is so forgetful that his wife panics and yells into his phone, asking where their daughter has gone. A woman resents that a colleague has achieved greater success and thinks she ought to do something about it.
Mysterious Press | 9781613165577

AN INSIGNIFICANT CASE by Phillip Margolin (Legal Thriller)
Charlie Webb is a third-rate lawyer who graduated from a third-rate law school and has opened his own law firm, where he gets by handling cases for dubious associates from his youth and some court-appointed cases. In AN INSIGNIFICANT CASE, he’s appointed to be the attorney for a decidedly crackpot artist who calls himself Guido Sabatini (born Lawrence Weiss). Sabatini has been arrested --- again --- for breaking into a restaurant and stealing back a painting he sold them because he was insulted by where it was displayed. But as Lawrence Weiss, he’s also an accomplished card shark and burglar; while he was there, he stole a thumb drive from the owner’s safe. When this minor theft case becomes a double homicide, and even more, Charlie is faced with the most important and deadliest case of his life.
Minotaur Books | 9781250885821

THE LAKE OF LOST GIRLS by Katherine Greene (Domestic Thriller/Mystery)
It’s 1998, and female students are going missing at Southern State University in North Carolina. But freshman Jessica Fadley is going through her own struggles. Just as her life seems to be careening dangerously out of control, she suddenly disappears. Twenty-four years later, Jessica’s sister, Lindsey, is desperately searching for answers and uses the momentum of a new chart-topping true crime podcast that focuses on cold cases to guide her own investigation. Soon, interest reaches fever pitch when the bodies of the long-missing women begin turning up at a local lake, which leads Lindsey down a disturbing road of discovery. In the present, one sister searches to untangle a complicated web of lies. In the past, the other descends ever deeper into a darkness that will lead to her ultimate fate.
Crooked Lane Books | 9781639109081

LINCOLN VS. DAVIS: The War of the Presidents by Nigel Hamilton (Biography)
Of all the books written on Abraham Lincoln, there has been one surprising gap: the drama of how the “railsplitter” from Illinois grew into his critical role as U.S. commander-in-chief and managed to outwit his formidable opponent, Jefferson Davis, in what remains history's only military faceoff between rival American presidents. Confronted with the most violent and challenging war ever seen on American soil, Lincoln seemed ill-suited to the task. But in a Shakespearean twist, he summoned the courage to make a climactic decision: issuing as a “military necessity” a proclamation freeing the 3.5 million enslaved Americans without whom the South could not feed or fund their armed insurrection. The new war policy doomed the rebellion, and the fate of President Davis was sealed.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316564632

THE NAME OF THIS BAND IS R.E.M.: A Biography by Peter Ames Carlin
(Music/Biography)
In the spring of 1980, an unexpected group of musical eccentrics came together to play their very first performance at a college party in Athens, Georgia. Within a few short years, they had taken over the world. Raw, outrageous and expressive, R.E.M.’s distinctive musical flair was unmatched, and a string of mega-successes solidified them as generational spokesmen. In the tumultuous transition between the wide-open ’80s and the anxiety of the early ’90s, R.E.M. challenged the corporate and social order, chasing a vision and cultivating a magnetic, transgressive sound. In this rich, intimate biography, critically acclaimed author Peter Ames Carlin looks beyond the sex, drugs and rock ’n’ roll to open a window into the fascinating lives of four college friends who stuck together at any cost, until the end.
Doubleday | 9780385546942

THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS AT DUNDER MIFFLIN written by Brian Baumgartner and Ben Silverman, illustrated by Maël Gourmelen (Fiction/Humor)
It’s Christmas Eve at Scranton’s finest paper company, and Michael Scott is nowhere to be found. As the office dozes off after their raucous holiday party, two mysterious visitors sneak in: a Santa peddling holiday cheer and that’s what she said jokes, and his beet-loving, dutiful, right-hand elf. Armed with absurd gifts for the staff, tacky decorations for the office, and absolutely nothing good for Toby, the two prepare to give Dunder Mifflin a holiday they’ll never forget. A hilarious twist on a Christmas classic, THE NIGHT BEFORE CHRISTMAS AT DUNDER MIFFLIN is a rollicking, festive and heartwarming jaunt through everyone’s favorite office, the perfect holiday treat for any fan of the show.
Mariner Books | 9780063372726

PONY CONFIDENTIAL by Christina Lynch (Mystery)
Pony has been passed from owner to owner for longer than he can remember. Fed up, he busts out and goes on a cross-country mission to reunite with Penny, the little girl who he was separated from and hasn’t seen in years. Penny, now an adult, is living an ordinary life when she gets a knock on her door and finds herself in handcuffs, accused of murder and whisked back to the place she grew up. Her only comfort when the past comes back to haunt her is the memory of her precious, rebellious pony. Hearing of Penny’s fate, Pony knows that Penny is no murderer. So, as smart and devious as he is cute, the pony must use his hard-won knowledge of human weakness and cruelty to try to clear Penny’s name and find the real killer.
Berkley | 9780593640364

THE ROAD OF BONES: The Ashen Series, Book One by Demi Winters
(Historical Fantasy/Romance)
Silla Nordvig is running for her life. The Queen of Íseldur has sent warriors to bring Silla to Sunnavík, where death awaits her. When her father is killed, his last words set Silla on a perilous quest: travel the treacherous Road of Bones --- a thousand-mile stretch haunted by warbands, creatures of darkness and a mysterious murderer --- and go to Kopa, where a shield-house awaits her. After barely surviving the first stretch of road, a desperate Silla sneaks into a supply wagon belonging to the notorious Bloodaxe Crew. To make it to Kopa, she must win over Axe Eyes, the brooding leader of the Crew, while avoiding the Wolf, his distractingly handsome right-hand man. All the while, the queen's ruthless assassin hunts Silla obsessively. Will Silla make it safely to Kopa? Or will she fall prey to the perils of the Road of Bones?
Delacorte Press | 9780593975619

WHAT THE CHICKEN KNOWS: A New Appreciation of the World's Most Familiar Bird by Sy Montgomery (Nature)
For more than two decades, Sy Montgomery has kept a flock of chickens in her backyard. Each chicken has an individual personality and connects with Sy in her own way. In WHAT THE CHICKEN KNOWS, Sy takes us inside the flock and reveals all the things that make chickens such remarkable creatures. Only hours after leaving the egg, they are able to walk, run and peck; relationships are important to them, and the average chicken can recognize more than a hundred other chickens; they remember the past and anticipate the future; and they communicate specific information through at least 24 distinct calls. Visitors to her home are astonished by all of this, but for Sy what’s more astonishing is how little most people know about chickens, especially considering there are about 20 percent more chickens on earth than people.
Atria Books | 9781668047361

On Sale the Week of November 4th in Paperback

November 5th

THE ATLAS MANEUVER: A Cotton Malone Novel by Steve Berry (Thriller)
In the waning months of World War II, Japan hid vast quantities of gold and other stolen valuables in boobytrapped underground caches all across the Philippines. By 1947, some of that loot was recovered, not by treasure hunters, but by the United States government, which told no one about the find. Instead, those assets were stamped classified, shipped to Europe, and secretly assimilated into something called the Black Eagle Trust. Retired Justice Department Operative Cotton Malone is in Switzerland doing a favor for a friend. But what was supposed to be a simple operation turns violent, and Cotton is thrust into a war between the world’s oldest bank and the CIA. He quickly discovers that everything hinges on a woman from his past, who suddenly reappears harboring a host of explosive secrets.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538771716

THE BEAUTIFUL AND THE WILD by Peggy Townsend (Thriller)
It’s summer in Alaska, and the light surrounding the shipping-container-turned-storage shed where Liv Russo is being held prisoner is fuzzy and gray. Around her is thick forest and jagged mountains. In front of her, across a clearing, is a low-slung cabin with a single window that spills a wash of yellow light onto bare ground. Illuminated in that light is the father of her child, a man she once loved. A man who is now her jailor. Liv vows to do anything to escape. Carrying her own secrets and a fierce need to protect her young son, Liv must navigate a new world where extreme weather, starvation and dangerous wildlife are not the only threats she faces. With winter's arrival imminent, she knows she must reckon with her past and the choices that brought her to the unforgiving Alaskan landscape if she is ever going to make it out alive.
Berkley | 9780593638101

A COUNCIL OF DOLLS by Mona Susan Power (Historical Fiction/Magical Realism)
Sissy, born 1961: Sissy’s relationship with her beautiful and volatile mother is difficult, even dangerous. But her life is also filled with beautiful things, including a new Christmas present, a doll called Ethel. Ethel whispers advice and kindness in Sissy’s ear and, in one especially terrifying moment, maybe even saves Sissy’s life. Lillian, born 1925: In a time of terrible change, Lillian clings to her sister, Blanche, and her doll, Mae. When the sisters are forced to attend an “Indian school” far from their home, Blanche refuses to be cowed by the school’s abusive nuns. But when tragedy strikes the sisters, Mae finds her way to defend the girls. Cora, born 1888: Cora isn’t afraid of the white men who remove her to a school across the country to be “civilized.” When teachers burn her beloved buckskin and beaded doll, Winona, Cora discovers that the spirit of Winona may not be entirely lost.
Mariner Books | 9780063281103

DEAD WEST by Matt Goldman (Mystery)
Nils Shapiro accepts what appears to be an easy, lucrative job: find out if Beverly Mayer’s grandson is foolishly throwing away his trust fund in Hollywood, especially now, in the wake of his fiancée’s tragic death. However, that easy job becomes much more complicated once Nils arrives in Los Angeles. He quickly suspects that Ebben Mayer’s fiancée was murdered, and that Ebben himself may have been the target. As Nils moves into Ebben’s inner circle, he discovers that everyone in Ebben’s professional life seems to have dubious motives at best. With Nils' friend Jameson White, who has come to Los Angeles to deal with demons of his own, acting as Ebben’s bodyguard, Nils sets out to find a killer before it’s too late.
Forge Books | 9781250323699

DOUBLE BARREL BLUFF by Lou Berney (Thriller)
Paperback Original
During his years as a wheelman for the Armenian mob in Los Angeles, Shake Bouchon didn’t think of himself as the settling-down type. But now he’s happily married to Gina, the love of his life --- and former adversary --- in Indiana, of all places. The great thing about Bloomington, for two people with checkered pasts, is that everyone is nice and no one knows them. Until the day a brutal Armenian thug shows up in his backyard. He demands that Shake help him find his missing mob boss, Alexandra “Lexy” Ilandryan, who also happens to be Shake’s ex-girlfriend. Shake reluctantly agrees to travel to Siem Reap, Cambodia, where Lexy was last seen. Once there, he finds himself tangled in an underworld of Cambodian gangsters, mob politics and opportunistic expats, where the stakes aren’t clear and everyone is looking to score.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780062292483

THE FROZEN RIVER by Ariel Lawhon (Historical Mystery)
Maine, 1789: The Kennebec River freezes, entombing a man in the ice. Martha Ballard is summoned to examine the body and determine the cause of death. As the local midwife and healer, Martha is good at keeping secrets. Her diary is a record of every birth and death, every murder and debacle that unfolds in the town of Hallowell. In that diary she also documented the details of an alleged rape that occurred four months earlier. Now, one of the men accused of that heinous attack has been found dead in the ice. While Martha is certain she knows what happened the night of the assault, she suspects that the two crimes are linked. Over the course of one long, hard winter, Martha’s diary lands at the center of the scandal and threatens to tear both her family and her community apart.
Vintage | 9780593312070

THE HEIRESS by Rachel Hawkins (Gothic Thriller)
When Ruby McTavish Callahan Woodward Miller Kenmore dies, she’s not only North Carolina’s richest woman, she’s also its most notorious. The victim of a famous kidnapping as a child and a widow four times over, Ruby ruled the tiny town of Tavistock from Ashby House, her family’s estate high in the Blue Ridge Mountains. But in the aftermath of Ruby’s death, her adopted son, Camden, wants little to do with the house or the money --- and even less to do with the surviving McTavishes. Ten years later, his uncle’s death pulls Camden and his wife, Jules, back into the family fold at Ashby House. Its views are just as stunning as ever, its rooms just as elegant, but the legacy of Ruby is inescapable. And as Ashby House tightens its grip on Camden and Jules, questions about the infamous heiress come to light.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250834706

THE HURRICANE WARS by Thea Guanzon (Fantasy/Romance)
All Talasyn has ever known is the Hurricane Wars. Growing up an orphan in a nation under siege by the ruthless Night Emperor, she found her family among the soldiers who fight for freedom. But she is hiding a deadly secret: light magic courses through her veins, a blazing power believed to have been wiped out years ago that can cut through the Night Empire’s shadows. Prince Alaric, the emperor’s only son and heir, has been tasked with obliterating any threats to the Night Empire’s rule with the strength of his armies and mighty shadow magic. He discovers the greatest threat yet in Talasyn. In a clash of light and dark, their powers merge and create a force the likes of which has never been seen. But an even greater danger is coming, and the strange magic they can create together could be the only way to overcome it.
Harper Voyager | 9780063277250

INDEPENDENCE SQUARE: Arkady Renko in Ukraine by Martin Cruz Smith (Thriller)
It’s June 2021, and Arkady Renko knows that Russia is preparing to invade and subsequently annex Ukraine as it did Crimea in 2014. He is, however, preoccupied with other grievances. His longtime lover, Tatiana Petrovna, has deserted him for her work as an investigative reporter. And he is having trouble with his dexterity and balance. A visit to his doctor reveals that these are symptoms for Parkinson’s disease. Rather than dwell on his diagnosis, he throws himself into another case. An acquaintance has asked him to find his daughter, Karina, an anti-Putin activist who has disappeared. In the course of the investigation, Arkady falls for Karina's roommate, Elena, a Tatar from Ukraine. Later, in Crimea, Tatiana reemerges to complicate Arkady’s new romance.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982188313

KILL YOURS, KILL MINE by Katherine Kovacic (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Mia's grief counseling practice, The Pleiades, is named for the seven sisters from Greek mythology who were the companions of the Goddess of the Hunt --- and who, in some stories, die of grief or are killed to be saved from attackers. Mia has been gathering broken women together for a radical form of group therapy --- five women crippled with grief by the murders of their sisters and seething with rage that the partners who killed them all walk free. She just needs one more. When Mia meets Naomi, she knows she has found the perfect candidate, but Naomi is resistant. She only needs to meet the others before she realizes that they, too, are consumed with desire for hands-on revenge. Under Mia's guidance, the women devise a plan to heal themselves. The premise is satisfyingly simple: I'll kill yours if you kill mine.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464219689

THE LIES WE LEAVE BEHIND by Noelle Salazar (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Somewhere in the Pacific, 1943. Kate Campbell is a nurse who bravely flies back and forth from the front to rescue wounded soldiers, amid long days, harsh conditions and often dangerous weather. Driven by a deep personal need to help in the war effort, she is conflicted when an injury results in her reassignment to the relative comfort of the English countryside. Love has never been part of her plan, but despite herself, she falls for an officer with three bullet wounds, startling blue eyes and a wicked sense of humor. For the first time, Kate sees a future far from the horrors of war and hate. But before she can pursue it, a secret from her past calls her to duty, and she'll have to travel back into danger one more time to rescue a part of herself she'd left behind. But will she make it back? And will that future still be waiting for her if she does?
Mira | 9780778369615

LOST AND LASSOED: A Rebel Blue Ranch Novel by Lyla Sage (Romance/Western)
Paperback Original
Teddy Andersen is used to being a leader, but now she feels like she’s getting left behind, wondering if life in the small town she loves is enough for her anymore. Gus Ryder doesn’t know what’s harder: taking care of his family’s 8,000-acre ranch, or parenting his spunky six-year-old daughter, who is staying with him for the summer. When his workload starts to overwhelm him, he has to admit that he can’t manage everything on his own. He needs help. His little sister’s best friend, the woman he can’t stand, is not who he had in mind. But when no one else can step in, Teddy is the only option he has. Tempers flare, tension builds, and for the first time ever, Gus and Teddy start to see each other in a different light. As new feelings start to simmer below the surface, they must decide if they should act on them.
Dial Press Trade Paperback | 9780593732458

QUARRY’S RETURN by Max Allan Collins (Hard-boiled Mystery)
Paperback Original
After nearly 50 years in the killing business, the hitman known as Quarry was enjoying a comfortable retirement --- until the grown daughter he only recently met mysteriously went missing. Now it’s up to the old man to show he hasn’t lost a step and, with the help of a femme fatale from his past, prove he’s as ruthless, deadly and unstoppable as any man half his age.
Hard Case Crime | 9781803368764

RAISED BY WOLVES by James Patterson and Emily Raymond (Thriller)
Paperback Original
Two teens appear out of nowhere, ransacking a small-town grocery store and attacking the police officers who come to investigate. Their clothes are torn and filthy, their hands and bare feet callused, and they have fangs. They’re sister and brother, alone against the world. Where did they come from? Raised by wolves, they say. Kai and Holo are taken in by the police chief and his wife, and they begin adjusting to life in a small town, attending school and going on dates. But humans, they find, are the most vicious animals. And the mystery of their upbringing brings dark and powerful forces to Kokanee Creek, tearing the town apart and threatening the lives of everyone they love. How will the wolves survive? How will Kai and Holo?
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538767016

THE TELLER OF SMALL FORTUNES by Julie Leong (Fantasy)
Paperback Original
Tao is an immigrant fortune teller, traveling between villages with just her trusty mule for company. She only tells "small" fortunes, knowing from bitter experience that big fortunes come with big consequences. Even if it’s a lonely life, it’s better than the one she left behind. But a small fortune unexpectedly becomes something more when a (semi) reformed thief and an ex-mercenary recruit her into their desperate search for a lost child. Soon, they’re joined by a baker with a "knead" for adventure, and --- of course --- a slightly magical cat. Tao starts down a new path with companions as big-hearted as her fortunes are small. But as she lowers her walls, the shadows of her past close in --- and she’ll have to decide whether or not to risk everything to preserve the family she never thought she could have.
Ace | 9780593815915

THE VULNERABLES by Sigrid Nunez (Fiction)
Elegy plus comedy is the only way to express how we live in the world today, says a character in Sigrid Nunez’s ninth novel. THE VULNERABLES offers a meditation on our contemporary era, as a solitary female narrator asks what it means to be alive at this complex moment in history and considers how our present reality affects the way a person looks back on her past. Humor, to be sure, is a priceless refuge. Equally vital is connection with others, who here include an adrift member of Gen Z and a spirited parrot named Eureka. This book reveals what happens when strangers are willing to open their hearts to each other and how far even small acts of caring can go to ease another’s distress.
Riverhead Books | 9780593715529

WHEN I’M DEAD: A Black Harbor Novel by Hannah Morrissey (Mystery/Thriller)
On a bone-chilling October night, Medical Examiner Rowan Winthorp investigates the death of her daughter’s best friend. Hours later, the tragedy hits even closer to home when she makes a devastating discovery --- her daughter, Chloe, is gone. But not without a trace. A morbid mosaic of clues forces Rowan and her husband to question how deeply they really knew their daughter. As they work closely to peel back the layers of this case, they begin to unearth disturbing details about Chloe and her secret transgressions…details that threaten to tear them apart. Amidst the noise of navigating her newfound grief and reconciling the sins of her past, an undeniable fact rings true for Rowan: karma has finally come to collect.
Minotaur Books | 9781250357564

WHERE THE DEAD WAIT by Ally Wilkes (Supernatural Thriller/Gothic Horror)
William Day should be an acclaimed Arctic explorer. But after a failed expedition, in which his remaining men only survived by eating their dead comrades, he returned in disgrace. Thirteen years later, his second-in-command, Jesse Stevens, has gone missing in the same frozen waters. Perhaps this is Day’s chance to restore his tarnished reputation by bringing Stevens --- the man who’s haunted his whole life --- back home. But when the rescue mission becomes an uncanny journey into his past, Day must face up to the things he’s done. Aboard ship, Day also must contend with unwanted passengers. Following a trail of cryptic messages, gaunt bodies and old bones, their search becomes more and more unnerving, as it becomes clear that the restless dead are never far behind.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781982182830

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