July 22, 2025

July 22, 2025

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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of July 21st and July 28th 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 UNRAVELING OF JULIA, which will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick. In Lisa Scottoline's first psychological thriller, a young widow inherits a Tuscan estate from a mysterious benefactor and finds herself thrust into the crosshairs of a dangerous conspiracy.

This Week's Bonus News:
Our Review of THE UNRAVELING OF JULIA
by Lisa Scottoline
An Upcoming Bookreporter.com Bets On Title

Upcoming Virtual Book and Author Events

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

Wednesday, July 23rd at 7pm ET: “Friends & Fiction”: Join “Friends & Fiction” for a conversation with Lisa Scottoline about her new novel, THE UNRAVELING OF JULIA. This gripping psychological thriller takes readers to the breathtaking hills of Tuscany, where a crumbling villa hides a long-buried family secret.

Monday, July 28th at 3pm ET: Barnes & Noble: Join Barnes & Noble as they welcome Shari Lapena for a live virtual discussion of SHE DIDN'T SEE IT COMING as part of their B&N Midday Mystery Virtual Event series. Shari will be in conversation with the New York Times bestselling author of SHE'S NOT SORRY, Mary Kubica.

Monday, July 28th at 4pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Denise Mina will talk about her new book, THE GOOD LIAR, a provocative mystery in which new evidence in an old murder case forces one woman to make an impossible choice.

Tuesday, July 29th at 9pm ET: Killer Author Club: Kimberly Belle, Heather Gudenkauf and Kaira Rouda will talk to Anthony Horowitz about his latest novel, MARBLE HALL MURDERS, a mind-boggling metafictional mystery featuring detective Atticus Pünd and editor Susan Ryeland.

On Sale the Week of July 21st in Hardcover

July 21st

THE HAMPTONS LAWYER: A Jane Smith Thriller by James Patterson and Mike Lupica (Legal Thriller)
The Hamptons on Long Island is known for its beautiful beaches, its luxury lifestyle --- and its exclusive legal advice. When Jane Smith takes on a famous celebrity client, she’s armed and ready: with brilliant arguments, hard evidence --- and two Glocks. Yet she’s chased down and shot at, and she risks contempt of court. That’s when mounting a legal defense turns into self-defense. Knowing every day in court could be her last, she’s a survivor. For now.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316569934

July 22nd

THE BOYS IN THE LIGHT: An Extraordinary World War II Story of Survival, Faith, and Brotherhood by Nina Willner (History) 
THE BOYS IN THE LIGHT follows the parallel journeys of Company D and Eddie Willner, the author’s father, as they are caught up on two sides of World War II. At 16, Eddie Willner was among the millions of European Jews rounded up by Hitler’s Nazis. He was forced into slave labor alongside his father and his best friend, Mike, and spent the next three years of his life surviving the death camps. Meanwhile, in the United States, boys only a few years older than Eddie were joining the army and heading toward their own precarious futures. A company of 3rd Armored Division tankers, led by 23-year-old Elmer Hovland, quickly became battle-hardened and weary, constantly questioning whether the war was worth it. They got their answer when two emaciated boys stepped out of the woods with their tattooed arms raised.
Dutton | 9780593471272

THE CONFESSIONS by Paul Bradley Carr (Thriller)
LLIAM is the world’s most powerful supercomputer, built to make the toughest decisions for its users. But when it suddenly goes offline with no explanation, the world is thrust into chaos. Then, on every continent, mysterious envelopes arrive in the mail, exposing people’s darkest secrets and most shocking crimes. All beginning with the same chilling words: “We must confess.” With millions of people suddenly made to confront their past transgressions, CEO Kaitlan Goss must track down the only person who can help undo the resulting violent chaos: Maud Brookes, an ex-nun who taught LLIAM what it means to be human. But when Maud receives a letter herself, revealing Kaitlan’s own unforgivable sin, the two women are forced into a deadly game of deceit as the world teeters on the brink.
Atria Books | 9781668074404

DEAD OF SUMMER by Jessa Maxwell (Psychological Thriller)
Orla O’Connor hasn’t been to the isolated New England enclave of Hadley Island since she graduated from high school a decade ago. As a teenager, her best friend, Alice, disappeared from its shores without a trace. Now, Orla returns to her family’s beachfront home to clean it out before her parents sell it. Unfortunately, her childhood crush, David, is back for the summer with his girlfriend, Faith. Meanwhile, local Henry hasn’t left his house since the young girl went missing, in an attempt to let the accusations against him die down. But Orla’s return has shaken him, and lately he’s been seeing strange things. When there’s another disappearance on the island, all three find themselves pulled into an eerie and twisty mystery that will haunt them for the rest of their lives.
Atria Books | 9781668070390

GIRL, 1983 written by Linn Ullmann, translated by Martin Aitken (Fiction) 
Paris, a winter’s night in 1983. She is 16 years old, lost in unfamiliar streets. On a scrap of paper in her pocket is the address of a photographer, K, 30 years her senior. Almost four decades later, as her life and the world around her begin to unravel, the grown woman seeks to comprehend the young girl of before. Set in Oslo, New York and Paris, GIRL, 1983 is a genre-defying and bravura quest through layers of memory and oblivion. As in her landmark previous work, UNQUIET, Linn Ullmann’s narrator continues to probe the elegiac sway of memory as she looks for ways to disclose a long-guarded secret.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324066354

GREENWICH by Kate Broad (Fiction)
Summer, 1999. Rachel Fiske is almost 18 when she arrives at her aunt and uncle’s mansion in Greenwich, Connecticut. Her glamorous aunt is struggling to heal from an injury, and Rachel wants to help --- and escape her own troubles back home. But her aunt is oddly spacey, and her uncle is consumed with business. The only bright spot is Claudia, a recent college graduate, an aspiring artist, and the live-in babysitter for Rachel’s cousin. As summer deepens, Rachel eagerly hopes their friendship might grow into more. But when a tragic accident occurs, Rachel must make a pivotal choice. Caught between her desire to do the right thing and to protect her future, she’s the only one who knows what really happened --- and her decision has consequences far beyond what she could have predicted.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250363046

INK RIBBON RED by Alex Pavesi (Mystery/Thriller)
Anatol invites five of his oldest friends to his family home in the Wiltshire countryside to celebrate his 30th birthday. At his request, they play a game of his invention called Motive Method Death. The rules are simple: Everyone chooses two players at random, then writes a short story in which one kills the other. Points are awarded for making the murders feel real. Of course, it’s only natural for each friend to use what they know. But once they’ve put it in a story, each secret is out. It’s not long before the game reawakens old resentments and brings private matters into the light of day. With each fictional crime, someone new gets a very real motive. Can all six friends survive the weekend, or will truth turn out to be deadlier than fiction?
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250755957

THE LAST WIZARDS' BALL by Charlaine Harris (Dark Fantasy/Thriller)
Lizbeth Rose’s sister, Felicia, attends the Grand Wizards’ Ball, and as one of the most powerful --- and beautiful --- death wizards in a generation, she is highly sought after as one of the belles of the ball. However, war and violence are on the rise in Europe as German and Japanese wizards are also courting Felicia…and some are refusing to take no for an answer. As the façade of genteel wizard society turns deadly, Lizbeth must learn not only to protect her sister, but also to navigate the arcane world that is pulling her sister and husband into a dangerous dance with death that could change the world as they know it.
S&S/Saga Press | 9781668038123 

THE LIBRARY AT HELLEBORE by Cassandra Khaw (Dark Fantasy/Horror)
The Hellebore Technical Institute for the Gifted is the premier academy for the dangerously powerful: the Anti-Christs and Ragnaroks, the world-eaters and apocalypse-makers. Hellebore promises redemption, acceptance and a normal life after graduation. At least that’s what Alessa Li is told after she’s kidnapped and forcibly enrolled. But the Institute is more than just a haven for monsters. On graduation day, the faculty embark on a ravenous rampage, feasting on their students. Trapped in the school’s cavernous library, Alessa and her surviving classmates must do something they were never taught: work together. If they don't, this school will eat them alive.
Tor Nightfire | 9781250877819 

THE LIST by Steve Berry (Legal Thriller)
After a 10-year self-imposed exile, Brent Walker is returning home to Concord, a quaint town in central Georgia. His father died two years ago, and now Brent --- hired by Southern Republic Pulp and Paper Company as its assistant general counsel --- is returning to care for his ailing mother. Southern Republic’s success is based largely on a highly unorthodox and deadly system to control costs, known only to the three owners of the company. Now, one of them, Christopher Bozin, has had a change of heart. Brent’s return to Concord, a move Bozin personally orchestrated, provides his conscience with a chance at redemption. So a plan is set into motion, one that not only will criminally implicate Bozin’s two partners but also will place Brent square in the crosshairs of men who want him dead --- with only one course left available.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538770870 

MAGGIE; OR, A MAN AND A WOMAN WALK INTO A BAR by Katie Yee
(Fiction/Humor)
A man and a woman walk into a restaurant. The woman expects a lovely night filled with endless plates of samosas. Instead, she finds out her husband is having an affair with a woman named Maggie. A short while after, her chest starts to ache. She walks into an examination room, where she finds out the pain in her breast isn’t just heartbreak --- it’s cancer. She decides to call the tumor Maggie. Unfolding in fragments over the course of the ensuing months, MAGGIE; OR, A MAN AND A WOMAN WALK INTO A BAR follows the narrator as she embarks on a journey of grief, healing and reclamation.
S&S/Summit Books | 9781668084212 

MENDELL STATION by J.B. Hwang (Fiction)
It's January 2020, and Miriam is already getting a sense that the world might be ending. First, she learns that her best friend, Esther, has died. Then her faith in God --- in everything, really --- follows suit. Her job teaching Scripture at a private Christian school suddenly seems untenable, so she quits. Thankfully, the postal service is hiring. While Miriam finds comfort in her route, the mail truck can hardly outpace the memory of her lost friend and eroded faith. She finds herself composing letters to Esther that she will never deliver, reflecting on their shared childhoods and deep understanding of each other's difficult families.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781639736188 

NOT QUITE DEAD YET by Holly Jackson (Thriller)
In seven days Jet Mason will be dead. Jet is the daughter of one of the wealthiest families in Woodstock, Vermont. Twenty-seven years old, she’s still waiting for her life to begin. I’ll do it later, she always says. She has time. Until Halloween night, when Jet is violently attacked by an unseen intruder. She suffers a catastrophic head injury. The doctor is certain that within a week, the injury will trigger a deadly aneurysm. Jet has never thought of herself as having enemies. But now she looks at everyone in a new light: her family, her former best friend turned sister-in-law, her ex-boyfriend. She has at most seven days, and as her condition deteriorates, she has only her childhood friend, Billy, for help. But nevertheless, she’s absolutely determined to finally finish something: Jet is going to solve her own murder.
Bantam | 9780593977057 

PARIAH by Dan Fesperman (Thriller)
Hal Knight, a comedian and movie star-turned politician, is no stranger to controversy. But after an embarrassing and humiliating encounter on set, Knight resigns from Congress and disappears to the tiny Caribbean island of Vieques. Shortly after his arrival, he is approached by a trio of CIA operatives hoping to recruit him to infiltrate the power structure of Bolrovia --- a hostile Eastern European country whose despotic president, Nikolai Horvatz, happens to be a longtime fan of Knight’s adolescent male humor. Knowing that Horvatz plans to invite the disgraced star for an official visit, the CIA coaxes Knight to accept, which he does. Upon arrival as President Horvatz’s guest of honor, Knight confronts his ultimate acting challenge.
Knopf | 9780593802236

THAT LAST CAROLINA SUMMER by Karen White (Fiction) 
As a child, Phoebe Manigault developed the gift of premonition after she was struck by lightning in the creek near her Charleston home. Plagued throughout her life by mysterious dreams, Phoebe eventually moves to the West Coast. Now, years later, she is summoned back to South Carolina to help her sister, Addie, care for their ailing mother. As Phoebe’s return lures her back into deep-rooted tensions and conflicts, she is drawn to Celeste, whose granddaughter went missing years ago. Their connection brings comfort to Phoebe, while Celeste’s adult grandson, Liam, resurrects complicated emotions tied to Phoebe’s past. But the longer Phoebe spends in her childhood home, the more her recurring nightmares intensify --- bringing her closer to the shocking truth that irrevocably will change everything.
Park Row | 9780778310693 

THERE WILL BE BODIES: A Flavia Albia Novel by Lindsey Davis (Historical Mystery)
In first-century Rome, Flavia Albia is once again faced with uncovering the truth. Quite literally. Only 10 years earlier, Mount Vesuvius erupted and rained ash down about the Roman cities and towns along the Bay of Naples. But while some cities were destroyed, others were merely badly damaged. And the uncle of Flavia Albia’s husband seizes the opportunity to buy a villa…cheap! It just has to be dug out of the ash and restored. Oh, and any bodies uncovered, including the previous owner, given a proper burial. As the Villa is being renovated, there are indeed bodies found. But one is not like the others. Instead of buried in the ash, the previous owner’s body is found in a locked storeroom, and Albia is immediately suspicious that he didn’t die in the eruption.
Minotaur Books | 9781250906731

On Sale the Week of July 21st in Paperback

July 22nd

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 | 9780593446607

BURN by Peter Heller (Dystopian Thriller)
Every year, Jess and Storey have made an annual pilgrimage to the most remote corners of the country. Although the state of Maine has convulsed all summer with secession mania --- a mania that simultaneously has spread across other states --- Jess and Storey figure it’s a fight reserved for legislators or, worst-case scenario, folks in the capital. But after weeks hunting off the grid, the men reach a small town and are shocked by what they find: a bridge blown apart, buildings burned to the ground, and bombed-out cars abandoned on the road. Trying to make sense of the sudden destruction all around them, they set their sights on finding their way home, dodging armed men as they seek a path to safety. Then a startling discovery drastically alters their path and the stakes of their escape.
Vintage | 9780593687505

DIDION & BABITZ by Lili Anolik (Biography)
Eve Babitz died on December 17, 2021. Found in the wrack, ruin and filth of her apartment was a stack of boxes packed by her mother decades before. Inside was a lost world that centered on a two-story rental in a down-at-the-heel section of Hollywood: 7406 Franklin Avenue, a combination salon-hotbed-living end where writers and artists mixed with movie stars, rock ’n’ rollers and drug trash. 7406 Franklin Avenue was the making of one great American writer: Joan Didion. It also was the breaking and then the remaking --- and thus the true making --- of another great American writer: Eve Babitz. Didion and Babitz formed a complicated alliance, a friendship that went bad, amity turning to enmity. Didion, in spite of her confessional style, is so little known or understood. She’s remained opaque, elusive. Until now.
Scribner | 9781668065495

FRIENDS TO LOVERS by Sally Blakely (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Best friends Joni and Ren have been inseparable since childhood. So when Joni moves across the country for her job, the two devise a creative way to stay in touch: they’ll be each other’s plus-ones every year for wedding season, no matter what else is happening in their lives. It’s a tradition that works, until a line is crossed and the friendship they once thought was forever is ruined. Now Joni is back at their families’ shared summer home for her sister’s wedding, and she’s determined to make the week perfect, even if it means faking a friendship with Ren. How hard can it be to pretend to be friends with the person who once knew you best? But as sunny beach days together turn into starry nights, Joni begins to question what her life is without Ren in it.
Canary Street Press | 9781335014245

IDENTITY UNKNOWN: A Scarpetta Novel by Patricia Cornwell (Mystery/Thriller)
Summoned to an abandoned theme park to retrieve a body, Dr. Kay Scarpetta is devastated to learn that the victim is a man she once had an intense love affair with. The murder scene is bizarre, with a crop circle of petals around the body, and Sal Giordano’s skin is strangely red. Scarpetta’s niece, Lucy, believes he was dropped from an unidentified flying craft. Scarpetta knows an autopsy can reveal the dead’s secrets, but she is shocked to find that her friend seems to have deliberately left her a clue. As the investigators are torn between suspicions of otherworldly forces, and of Giordano himself, Scarpetta detects an explanation closer to home that, in her mind, is far more evil.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538770405

IT WAS HER HOUSE FIRST by Cherie Priest (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
Paperback Original
Silent film star Venita Rost's malevolent spirit lurks spider-like in her cliffside mansion, a once-beautiful home that's claimed countless unlucky souls. Snared in her terrible web, Inspector Bartholomew Sloan --- her eternal nemesis --- watches her wreak havoc in helpless horror. Now the house has yet another new owner. This time it's Ronnie Mitchell, a grieving woman who buys the run-down place sight unseen. She arrives armed with an unexpected inheritance, a strong background in renovation, and a blissful ignorance regarding the house's blood-soaked history. In the shadows, unseen eyes watch. Then, a man comes knocking. He brings wild stories and a thinly veiled jealousy, as well as a secret connection to the house that can only lead to violence. Venita's fury awakens, and a deadly game unfolds.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781728292854

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.
Vintage | 9780593470039

THE MADNESS by Dawn Kurtagich (Gothic Thriller/Horror)
With one unexpected email from her estranged best friend, Lucy, Mina Murray’s carefully curated life is turned upside down. Leaving behind her psychiatric practice in London, she returns home to the windswept shores of Wales. Faced with everything she’s left behind, she soon discovers that Lucy’s symptoms mirror those of her mysterious amnesiac patient hundreds of miles away. With nothing but an untreatable sickness connecting the two women, and with Lucy’s life on the line, Mina finds herself asking questions and being drawn ever-deeper into a web of secrets, missing girls, and the powerful, nameless force at its center --- one that has been haunting her for years. As terrible, ancient truths begin to reveal themselves, Mina prepares to confront her own darkest secrets and, with them, an evil beyond comprehension.
Graydon House | 9781525830440

THE MONSTER OF ELENDHAVEN by Jennifer Giesbrecht (Dark Fantasy)
Set against the backdrop of the plague-ridden city of Elendhaven, clinging to the edge of the ocean and stripped of all hope, you’ll find a tale of retribution, magic and monstrosity. In the deep shadows of this forsaken city dwells a monster. With a soul as icy as it is cunning, it weaves its hands around throats, immune from the grips of death. A puppet to its fragile master who sends it on perilous errands, it becomes a weapon in a scheme too horrible to name. As the bond between the master and the monster tightens, a catastrophic revenge plan is formed. These monsters of Elendhaven will have their revenge on everyone who wronged the city, even if they have to burn the world to do it.
Tor Nightfire | 9781250225368

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 tenderhearted 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.
Vintage | 9780593688007

ONCE MORE FROM THE TOP by Emily Layden (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Since releasing her debut album her senior year of high school, Dylan Read has spent 15 years growing up in the public eye. In the circles of fame and celebrity in which she now travels, the careful maintenance of Dylan Read, the pop star, is often more important than the songs themselves. And so lots of people think they understand everything about her. But what no one knows is the part of her origin story she successfully has kept hidden: her childhood best friend, Kelsey, vanished the year before Dylan became famous. Now, as Dylan is at the height of her career, Kelsey’s body is found at the bottom of their hometown lake --- forcing Dylan to reckon with their shared past, her friend’s influence on her music, and if there’s more to their story than meets the eye.
Mariner Books | 9780063315105

THE ONE AND ONLY VIVIAN STONE by Melissa O'Connor (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
After her grandmother’s death, thirty-something Margot DuBois prepares to sell the house quickly so she can go back to her predictable life in Santa Barbara. While cleaning out the attic, she comes across eight unlabeled cassette tapes. Unable to use the damaged tape player, she calls in a favor from Leo --- her first love and first epic heartbreak --- and they strike a deal: he’ll fix the player if he can hear what’s on the tapes. When they manage to listen, the two are shocked to hear the voice of comedic legend Vivian Stone. Why did she record these tapes, and how did Margot’s grandmother get them? Margot and Leo fall down a memory lane of their own. Margot is inspired by Vivian’s tenacity and courage to keep fighting for the life she wants, but everything changes when Vivian reveals a secret tied to her past.
Gallery Books | 9781668074831

PINK SLIME written by Fernanda Trías, translated by Heather Cleary (Dystopian Fiction/Horror)
In a city ravaged by a mysterious plague, a woman tries to understand why her world is falling apart. An algae bloom has poisoned the previously pristine air that blows in from the sea. Inland, a secretive corporation churns out the only food anyone can afford --- a revolting pink paste, made of an unknown substance. In the short, desperate breaks between deadly windstorms, our narrator stubbornly tends to her few remaining relationships: with her difficult but vulnerable mother; with the ex-husband for whom she still harbors feelings; with the boy she nannies, whose parents sent him away even as terrible threats loomed. Yet as conditions outside deteriorate further, her commitment to remaining in place only grows --- even if staying means being left behind.
Scribner | 9781668049785

On Sale the Week of July 28th in Hardcover

July 29th

ANGEL DOWN by Daniel Kraus (Historical/Supernatural Thriller) 
Private Cyril Bagger has managed to survive the unspeakable horrors of the Great War through his wits and deception, swindling fellow soldiers at every opportunity. But his survival instincts are put to the ultimate test when he and four other grunts are given a deadly mission: venture into the perilous No Man’s Land to euthanize a wounded comrade. What they find amid the ruined battlefield, however, is not a man in need of mercy but a fallen angel, seemingly struck down by artillery fire. This celestial being may hold the key to ending the brutal conflict, but only if the soldiers can suppress their individual desires and work together. As jealousy, greed and paranoia take hold, the group is torn apart by their inner demons, threatening to turn their angelic encounter into a descent into hell.
Atria Books | 9781668068458 

THE CARPOOL DETECTIVES: A True Story of Four Moms, Two Bodies, and One Mysterious Cold Case by Chuck Hogan (True Crime)
Marissa, Jeannie, Samira and Nicole are beginning to grapple with their own identities. As their children become more independent, they struggle to find purpose. But when they meet at a bowling night fundraiser for their kids’ school, they discover a shared interest in true crime that crystalizes around a mysterious double homicide that took place in their hometown a decade earlier. A couple in their 60s vanished overnight from their home and mysteriously shuttered their family business, leaving millions of dollars unaccounted for. Initially believed to have absconded with the money, they went from suspects to victims when their bodies were discovered in their car at the bottom of a steep ravine. And then the case turned cold. But what if the moms could solve it? What if they could bring a killer to justice and give closure to a grieving family?
Random House | 9780593733226 

DEATH AND THE RUNAWAYS: A Mary Shelley Mystery by Heather Redmond (Historical Mystery)
London, June 1814: On a day out in Hyde Park to celebrate the peace treaty with France, Mary Godwin and Jane “Claire” Clairmont are less than charmed by their brother Charles’ courtship with a girl from the local cheese shop. When Miss Winnet Davies is not swooning from the heat, she’s imploring Charles to buy her a pretty dress. But he hasn’t a tuppence --- nor have they, as their father, philosopher William Godwin, is facing the prospect of debtor’s prison. When a constable arrives at the Godwin home the following day, looking for Charles, Mary and Jane learn that the lifeless body of Miss Davies was found hanging from a tree branch and an examination revealed she was with child. Their stepbrother has gone missing. Mary assumes that he too is dead, but her stepmother admonishes her and insists the sisters find their brother.
Kensington | 9781496749062 

FADE IN by Kyle Mills (Political Thriller)
When ex-navy SEAL Salam al-Fayed --- Fade to his friends --- steps in front of a sniper’s bullet, he assumes all his problems are solved. Having already been declared clinically dead twice in his career, he’s hoping the third time will be the charm. Instead, he wakes in a hospital having gone from being one of the deadliest operatives in US history to a man incapable of even standing without assistance. Alone and wanted by authorities, he’s destined to spend the rest of his life lying in a prison infirmary. So when a shadowy organization offers him a new identity and next-generation medical care, he has no choice but to agree. Nothing’s free, though. After a grueling rehabilitation, he’s drafted into an elite paramilitary unit. But who’s in charge? When a dire threat explodes out of China, his question is quickly answered.
Authors Equity | 9798893310399 

FINE YOUNG PEOPLE by Anna Bruno (Literary Mystery) 
Frankie is a good daughter, a loyal best friend and a model student, coasting through her final semester at an elite Catholic prep school in a wealthy Pittsburgh enclave. But acceptance to her dream college leaves her unmoored. When a classmate takes his life after posting a cryptic message about Woolf Whiting --- a former student hockey player who died in a presumed suicide years earlier --- Frankie and her best friend, Shiv, decide to investigate Woolf’s death as part of their journalism class project. As the community mourns, a muffled conversation between Frankie's mom, who teaches history at the school, and the priest who teaches her philosophy class draws the girls further into unraveling the mysterious life and death of Woolf.
Algonquin Books | 9781643757001 

THE GOOD LIAR by Denise Mina (Mystery/Thriller)
A year ago, a father and his fiancée were brutally murdered in their opulent London townhouse, sparking the most high-profile murder investigation in recent history. Blood spatter expert Doctor Claudia O’Sheil’s evidence put the killer behind bars --- or so everyone believes. But since the trial, Claudia has learned a horrific truth: her evidence and her testimony were wrong. And someone she knows made sure of it. Now, as she takes the stage to give a career-defining speech before London’s elite, Claudia faces a devastating choice. Protect her children and her career with her continued complicity, or blow the whole conspiracy apart and reveal the truth: not only is the real murderer still out there, but they’re in the audience.
Mulholland Books | 9780316243049 

GUESS AGAIN by Charlie Donlea (Psychological Thriller)
Ten years ago, 17-year-old high school volleyball star Callie Jones vanished from her quiet Wisconsin lake community. A highly publicized search followed, but her body was never found. Ethan Hall, a former renegade detective turned ER doctor, left law enforcement to escape the horrors of the kid crime division. But on the 10th anniversary of Callie’s disappearance, his former partner, Pete Kramer, makes a desperate request. Pete is the veteran detective who originally investigated the case. Now he’s dying, and he needs Ethan to return to the haunting work he left behind --- and solve what happened to Callie, once and for all. It turns out there is much more to the nightmare of Callie’s disappearance than Ethan imagined, including a connection with his own dark past…and secrets that are still worth killing for.
Kensington | 9781496753960

MEAN MOMS by Emma Rosenblum (Domestic Thriller)
Meet Frost, Morgan and Belle --- a wealthy, gorgeous group of New York City moms, the queen bees of downtown Manhattan. Their children attend Atherton Academy, the top private school in the city, and their social lives revolve around elaborate themed parties. On the first day of school, the arrival of a new mom and mysterious beauty from Miami, Sofia, shakes up their world. When Sofia quickly integrates herself into their clique, inexplicably bad things start to happen to the women. Is someone at school out to get them?
Flatiron Books | 9781250364203 

AN ORAL HISTORY OF ATLANTIS: Stories by Ed Park (Fiction/Short Stories) 
In “Machine City” a college student’s chance role in a friend’s movie blurs the line between his character and his true self. (Is he a robot?) In “Slide to Unlock” a man comes to terms with his life via the passwords he struggles to remember in extremis. (What’s his mom’s name backward?) And in “Weird Menace” a director and faded movie star gab about science fiction, bad costume choices and lost loves on a commentary track for a B-film from the ’80s that neither remembers all that well. In Ed Park’s utterly original collection, characters bemoan their fleeting youth, focus on their breathing, meet cute, break up, write book reviews, translate ancient glyphs, bid on stuff online, whale watch, and once in a while find solace in the sublime.
Random House | 9780812998993 

ROBERT LUDLUM'S THE BOURNE ESCAPE by Brian Freeman (Thriller/Adventure) 
Jason Bourne is on a boat in the Mediterranean moonlight with his lover, Johanna. He’s happy for the first time in years. Then in the next instant, he finds himself floating on wreckage as fire and smoke choke the sky. Johanna is gone. And Bourne finds the darkness of lost memory closing around his mind again. As he did once before, Bourne must piece together the fragments of who he is, even as assassins hunt him across Europe. He teams up with his spy chief, Shadow, who reveals the shocking secret that Bourne’s surrogate father --- David Abbott, the founder of Treadstone --- is alive and missing. Together they must find Abbott before his enemies do. But Shadow is a master of manipulation who won’t hesitate to betray Bourne to get what she wants. 
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9798217046188 

SAVVY SUMMERS AND THE SWEET POTATO CRIMES by Sandra Jackson-Opoku (Mystery)
When Savvy Summers first opened Essie's soul food café, she never expected her customer-favorite sweet potato pie to become the center of a murder investigation. But when Grandy Jaspers, the 75-year-old neighborhood womanizer, drops dead at table two, she suddenly has more to worry about than just maintaining Essie's reputation for the finest soul food in the Chicagoland area. Even as the police deem Grandy’s death an accident, Savvy quickly finds herself --- and her beloved café --- in the middle of an entire city’s worth of bad press. Desperate to clear her name and keep her business afloat, Savvy and her snooping assistant manager, Penny Lopés, take it upon themselves to find who really killed Grandy.
Minotaur Books | 9781250351906

SHE DIDN'T SEE IT COMING by Shari Lapena (Domestic Thriller)
Bryden and Sam have it all: thriving careers, a smart apartment in a luxury condominium, supportive friends and a cherished daughter. Then Sam receives a call at his office. Bryden, who is working from home that day, has failed to collect their daughter from daycare. Arriving home with their little girl, he finds his wife’s car in the underground garage. Upstairs in their apartment, her laptop is open on the table, her cell phone nearby, her keys in their usual place in the hall. Except Bryden is nowhere to be seen. It’s as if she just walked out. How can she have disappeared from her own home? And did she even leave the building at all?
Pamela Dorman Books | 9780593832448 

UNDER THE STARS by Beatriz Williams (Historical Fiction)
Audrey Fisher has struggled all her life to emerge from the shadow of her famous mother by forging a career as a world-class chef. Meredith Fisher’s glamorous screen persona disguises the trauma of the tragic accident that haunts her dreams. She has one last chance to sober up and salvage her big comeback. And where else but discreet, moneyed Winthrop Island can a famous actress spend the summer without the intrusion of other people? Until Audrey discovers an old wooden chest among the belongings of her estranged bartender father, and the astonishing contents draw the women deep into Winthrop’s past and its many secrets. How did a trove of paintings from one of America’s greatest artists wind up in the cellar of the Mohegan Inn? And who is the mysterious woman portrayed on every canvas?
Ballantine Books | 9780593724255 

THE WINDS FROM FURTHER WEST by Alexander McCall Smith (Fiction)
Dr. Neil Anderson has just started a new position at the University of Edinburgh when he meets Chrissie, an intelligent and ambitious colleague at the institute. Before long, the two move into a gorgeous flat on the south side of the city. Things seem to be going well for Neil until an accusation of insensitive comments lands him in hot water with the university, and he discovers a troubling secret about his relationship. He leaves everything behind for the remote and secluded beauty of the Isle of Mull off the west coast of Scotland. Not long after his arrival, a ship comes in to the harbor; its cargo --- two wolf cubs --- will drastically change the course of his life yet again. These cubs spark controversy on the island, leading Neil to Katie, the island’s resident veterinarian, and bring with them the possibility of new beginnings and a budding romance.
Pantheon | 9780385551410 

YOU BELONG HERE by Megan Miranda (Psychological Thriller)
Beckett Bowery never thought she’d return to Wyatt Valley, a picturesque college town in the Virginia mountains steeped in tradition. Her roots there were strong: Beckett’s parents taught at the college, and she never even imagined studying anywhere else --- until a tragedy her senior year ended with two local men dead, and her roommate on the run, never to be seen again. For the last two decades, Beckett has done her best to keep her distance. Then her daughter, Delilah, secretly applies to Wyatt College and earns a full scholarship, and Beckett can only hope that her lingering fears are unfounded. But deep down, she knows that Wyatt Valley has a long memory, and the past isn’t the only dangerous thing in town.
S&S/Marysue Rucci Books | 9781668080979

On Sale the Week of July 28th in Paperback

July 29th

BAD LIAR by Tami Hoag (Mystery/Thriller)
A murder victim dumped at the dead end of a lonely country road is not the way sheriff’s detective Nick Fourcade wants to start his week. His only lead takes him to the family of a hometown hero suddenly gone missing. Marc Mercier left his home for a weekend hunting trip and hasn’t been seen since. Meanwhile, sheriff’s detective Annie Broussard begins her first day back on the job after suffering a brutal attack by taking on the case of B’Lynn Fontenot, a mother desperate to find her grown son, a recovering drug addict. Robbie Fontenot has been missing for eight days, but the local police have no interest in the case. As Annie searches for Robbie, and Nick investigates Marc’s disappearance, it quickly becomes apparent that nothing is as it seems in the lives of either man.
Dutton | 9781101985458

COLD TRAIL: A Garrett Kohl Novel by Taylor Moore (Thriller/Adventure)
On leave from the DEA, Garrett Kohl is ready to settle down and build a stable foundation for his family. But in order to give his girlfriend, Lacey, and adopted son, Asadi, the life they deserve and get out from under crippling debt, some risks have to be taken. And shocking alliances have to be formed. First, Garrett partners with an old nemesis to form his new energy venture: Savage Exploration. Then his estranged, aloof sister, Grace, reemerges, keen on brokering a contract to connect the Kohl Ranch energy play to a pipeline on the Texas coast. But the company’s earlier success is endangered when an explosion at a nearby natural gas plant injures several workers. Garrett begins to suspect foul play and embarks on a winding investigation, teaming up with his old war buddy, Kai Stoddard, and reaching out to his CIA contacts, uncovering a sinister conspiracy overseas.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063292499

THE HEAVEN & EARTH GROCERY STORE by James McBride (Historical Fiction)
In 1972, when workers in Pottstown, Pennsylvania, were digging the foundations for a new development, the last thing they expected to find was a skeleton at the bottom of a well. Who the skeleton was and how it got there were two of the long-held secrets kept by the residents of Chicken Hill, the dilapidated neighborhood where immigrant Jews and African Americans lived side by side and shared ambitions and sorrows. Chicken Hill was where Moshe and Chona Ludlow lived when Moshe integrated his theater and where Chona ran the Heaven & Earth Grocery Store. When the state came looking for a deaf boy to institutionalize him, it was Chona and Nate Timblin, the Black janitor at Moshe’s theater and the unofficial leader of the Black community on Chicken Hill, who worked together to keep the boy safe.
Riverhead Books | 9780593422953

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 Perennial | 9780063346598

A HUNGER TO KILL: A Serial Killer, a Detective, and the Confession That Shocked a Nation by Kim Mager with Lisa Pulitzer (True Crime)
In the fall of 2016, authorities in Ashland, Ohio, arrested serial killer Shawn Grate on kidnapping charges. Grate immediately latched onto Detective Kim Mager, an experienced sex offenses specialist assigned to his case, and repeatedly demanded to speak with her, perhaps convinced that he could control her like he controlled his victims. But he was wrong. For eight days of brutal interviews, Detective Mager successfully elicited Grate's damning confessions to five murders. These recorded conversations would be key to his later conviction and death sentence. A HUNGER TO KILL reveals the psyche of one of the most brutal serial killers in American history from the woman who took him down in collaboration with New York Times bestselling author Lisa Pulitzer.
St. Martin’s True Crime | 9781250794123

THE LIES THEY TOLD by Ellen Marie Wiseman (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
When Lena Conti sees immigrant families being forcibly separated on Ellis Island, she vows not to let the officers take her two-year-old daughter. But the inspection process is more rigorous than she imagined, and she is separated from her mother and teenage brother, who are deported back to Germany. Silas Wolfe, a widowed family relative, reluctantly brings Lena and her daughter to his weathered cabin in Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains to care for his home and children. After a social worker from the Eugenics Office accuses Lena of promiscuity and feeblemindedness, her own worst fears come true. Sent to the Virginia State Colony for the Feebleminded and Epileptics, Lena faces impossible choices in hopes of reuniting with her daughter --- and protecting the people, and the land, she has grown to love.
Kensington | 9781496741509

LIKENESS by Samsun Knight (Fiction)
Paperback Original
On a summer evening in the 1990s, Anne learns that one of her husband’s lovers is expecting his child, only a few weeks after learning that she too is pregnant. He tells her casually, as if it’s just another colorful story about his day. And the tenuous understanding between them --- the careful balance of privacy and flexibility that has sustained their open marriage to date --- is shattered. Meanwhile, Sandy, the lover, works to find her own path forward through her surprise pregnancy and all the million tiny miracles and catastrophes that she now must navigate, often entirely on her own. Searching through diaries, grocery lists and seances with the dead, Sandy tries to remember just enough of her original sense of direction to make her own way home.
University of Iowa Press | 9781685970208

MASQUERADE by O.O. Sangoyomi (Historical Fiction)
Òdòdó’s hometown of Timbuktu has been conquered by the warrior king of Yorùbáland, and living conditions for the women in her blacksmith guild, who were already shunned as social pariahs, grow even worse. Then Òdòdó is abducted. She is whisked across the Sahara to the capital city of Ṣàngótẹ̀, where she is shocked to discover that her kidnapper is none other than the vagrant who had visited her guild just days prior. But now that he is swathed in riches rather than rags, Òdòdó realizes he is not a vagrant at all; he is the warrior king, and he has chosen her to be his wife. In a sudden change of fortune, Òdòdó soars to the very heights of society. But after a lifetime of subjugation, she finds the power that saturates this world of battle and political savvy too enticing to resist.
Forge Books | 9781250904317

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.
Holt Paperbacks | 9781250872708

ON THE HUNT by Iris Johansen (Thriller)
Kira Drake has come to Paris with her highly trained Golden Retriever, Mack, to investigate the horrific bombing of a museum in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower. What she doesn’t know is that one powerful man has a special reason to find the person responsible. Jack Harlan has all the money in the world, but it can’t bring his brother back. His sibling was murdered during the theft of a scientific discovery that could have made the world a better place. Now, after a four-year search, Harlan learns that this bombing was the work of the same twisted man. Kira and her dog are in demand from law enforcement agencies all over the world, but Harlan convinces her to continue the investigation for his own purposes, wherever it may lead. So against her better judgment, Kira finds herself on the hunt, placing her trust in Harlan.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538726426

ONE OF OUR KIND by Nicola Yoon (Psychological Thriller)
Jasmyn and King Williams move their family to the planned Black utopia of Liberty, California, hoping to find a community of like-minded people. King settles in at once, embracing the Liberty ethos, including the luxe wellness center at the top of the hill. But Jasmyn struggles to find her place. She expected to find liberals and social justice activists striving for racial equality, but Liberty residents seem more focused on booking spa treatments and ignoring the world’s troubles. Jasmyn’s only friends in the community are equally perplexed and frustrated by most residents' outlook. Then Jasmyn discovers a terrible secret about Liberty and its founders. Frustration turns to dread as their loved ones start embracing the Liberty way of life. Will the truth destroy her world in ways she never could have imagined?
Vintage | 9780593470688

THE TRAIL OF LOST HEARTS by Tracey Garvis Graves (Romance)
Thirty-four-year-old Wren Waters believes that if you pay attention, the universe will send you exactly what you need. But her worldview shatters when the universe delivers two life-altering blows she didn’t see coming. No one is more surprised than Wren when she discovers that geocaching is the only thing getting her out of bed and out of her head. She decides that a weeklong solo quest geocaching in Oregon is exactly what she needs to take back control of her life. Enter Marshall Hendricks, a psychologist searching for distraction as he struggles with a life-altering blow of his own. Wren is beyond grateful when Marshall rescues her from a horrifying encounter farther down the trail. What begins as a platonic road trip gradually blossoms into something deeper, and the more Wren learns about Marshall, the more she wants to know.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250838803

TRIANGLE by Danielle Steel (Romantic Suspense)
As she approaches the milestone birthday of 40, delicate blond beauty Amanda Delanoe finds joy in running a chic contemporary art gallery in the City of Light, but so far the love of her life has eluded her. Then she meets Olivier Saint Albin, a dashing publisher. At the same time, she reconnects with Tom Quinlan, an old boyfriend from her days at NYU 20 years ago, now a lawyer on sabbatical who has come to Paris to devote himself to writing a thriller. Charming Olivier is a master at the art of flirtation, but as Amanda feels herself falling for him, she learns he is married. Providing counsel and support is her friend and co-owner of the gallery, fun-loving bachelor Pascal Leblanc. When Amanda begins to receive threatening phone calls late at night, it is Pascal she turns to. Then someone breaks into her apartment on the Left Bank, and it’s all too clear she's in real danger. But from whom?
Dell | 9780593498576

AN UNFINISHED MURDER: A Medlar Mystery by Jude Deveraux (Mystery)
Retired romance novelist Sara Medlar has been comfortably sharing her large home with her niece, Kate, and her “honorary grandson,” Jack. It’s a convenient arrangement given that the Medlar Three are often working closely together to solve mysteries. But when real estate agent Kate announces she’s been given the listing for the town’s storied Lachlan House, it sets off alarm bells for Sara and Jack. With little memory of her childhood, Kate doesn’t understand what the fuss is about --- until the trio visits the house and makes a grim discovery. Flooded by memories of the past, Kate realizes she spent time there as a child. But stumbling upon a skeleton dressed in a rotting tuxedo --- a murder victim with connections to her father --- causes Kate to wonder if the childhood she can’t remember might be one she’d rather forget.
Mira | 9780778310617

August 1st

THE FOURTH DAUGHTER by Lyn Liao Butler (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Chef Liv Kuo’s star is on the rise…until a traumatic incident leaves her emotionally unable to venture outside her Manhattan apartment. But an unexpected reason to break free comes from Ah-Ma, Liv’s beloved grandmother in Taiwan. Ah-Ma needs Liv’s help in finding her fourth daughter, taken from her when the girl was an infant. After all these years, it seems impossible. It’s also a mystery: Ah-Ma’s fourth daughter is an aunt Liv never even knew existed. After landing in Taiwan, Liv hears the heartbreaking story of her grandmother’s plight in a country once under martial law, of choices made for her, and of the hopeful search for a lost girl that has endured for more than 60 years. Their journey for answers turns up both a precious old cookbook and a tale of fatal betrayal that shakes everything Liv believed about her family.
Lake Union Publishing | 9781662529054

LAST SEEN by J.T. Ellison (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Halley James knows her marriage is over. But she’s not prepared for the rest of her life to fall apart too. She just lost her job at the forensics lab. Her dad needs emergency surgery. But the biggest blow comes back home in Marchburg, Virginia, where she discovers her mother didn’t actually die in a car crash. Her mom was murdered --- and her father lied about it all these years. Desperate for the truth, Halley chases down a lead in Brockville, Tennessee. But all there is not as it seems. Brockville’s utopian charm hides a chilling darkness. And Halley’s search for answers threatens to expose an unspeakable reality.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781662520389

OUT OF THE WOODS: A Girl, a Killer, and a Lifelong Struggle to Find the Way Home by Gregg Olsen (True Crime)
Paperback Original
In May 2005, authorities discovered the Groene family murdered in their Idaho home. The family’s youngest members --- eight-year-old Shasta and her brother, nine-year-old Dylan --- were nowhere to be found. As a community prayed for their return, Shasta and Dylan were already miles away in the woods of Montana at the hands of serial killer Joseph Edward Duncan. After a harrowing 48-day ordeal, Shasta was rescued. In the following years, while Shasta struggled to outrun her trauma, a pattern of self-destructive behavior shadowed her like an ever-worsening thunderstorm. She still had hope buried deep inside. Every bit as much as the little girl who had been held captive in the woods. This would be an all-new battle for Shasta. And she was determined not to lose.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781662522420

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