August 5, 2025

August 5, 2025

Never Miss a Contest or a Promotion!
Follow and Like Us on Social Media

In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of August 4th and August 11th 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 New Release Spotlight of Samsun Knight's latest novel, LIKENESS. According to author Margot Livesey, Knight “has an exquisite gift for capturing those moments when a character reaches the edge of their known feelings and steps into terra incognita. The result is a wonderfully suspenseful and deeply pleasurable novel.”

This Week's Bonus News:
Our New Release Spotlight of
LIKENESS by Samsun Knight

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, August 6th at 3pm ET: Barnes & Noble: Join Barnes & Noble as they welcome Charlie Donlea for a live virtual discussion of his twisty new novel of psychological suspense, GUESS AGAIN, as part of their B&N Midday Mystery Virtual Event series. Charlie will be in conversation with the New York Times bestselling author of SHE'S NOT SORRY, Mary Kubica.

Wednesday, August 6th at 7pm ET: “Friends & Fiction”: Join “Friends & Fiction” for a conversation with Morgan Pager and Laura Dickerman about their outstanding debut novels: Morgan's THE ART OF VANISHING and Laura's HOT DESK.

Monday, August 11th at 3pm ET: Barnes & Noble: Join Barnes & Noble as they welcome Eli Cranor for a live virtual discussion of his new thriller, MISSISSIPPI BLUE 42, as part of their B&N Midday Mystery Virtual Event series. Eli will be in conversation with the bestselling author of KING OF ASHES, S. A. Cosby.

Tuesday, August 12th at 9pm ET: Killer Author Club: Kimberly Belle, Heather Gudenkauf and Kaira Rouda will talk to James L'Etoile about his latest novel, RIVER OF LIES, the second installment in his mystery series featuring Detective Emily Hunter, following FACE OF GREED.

On Sale the Week of August 4th in Hardcover

August 5th

THE ART OF A LIE by Laura Shepherd-Robinson (Historical Mystery)
Following the murder of her husband in what looks like a violent street robbery, Hannah Cole is struggling to keep her head above water. Her confectionary shop on Piccadilly is barely turning a profit, and her suppliers are conspiring to put her out of business. Henry Fielding, the famous author-turned-magistrate, is threatening to confiscate the money in her husband’s bank account because he believes it might have been illicitly acquired. And even those who claim to be Hannah’s friends have darker intent. Only William Devereux seems different. A friend of her late husband, Devereux helps Hannah unravel some of the mysteries surrounding his death. But their friendship opens Hannah to speculation and gossip and draws Henry Fielding’s attention her way, locking her into a battle of wits more devastating than anything she can imagine.
Atria Books | 9781668083093

AUTOMATIC NOODLE by Annalee Newitz (Science Fiction)
You don’t have to eat food to know the way to a city’s heart is through its stomach. So when a group of deactivated robots come back online in an abandoned ghost kitchen, they decide to make their own way doing what they know: making food --- the tastiest hand-pulled noodles around --- for the humans of San Francisco, who are recovering from a devastating war. But when their robot-run business starts causing a stir, a targeted wave of one-star reviews threatens to boil over into a crisis. To keep their doors open, they’ll have to call on their customers, their community and each other --- and find a way to survive and thrive in a world that wasn’t built for them.
Tordotcom | 9781250357465 

THE BLONDE WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD by Ally Carter
(Romantic Comedy/Suspense)
Ten years ago, they joined the CIA. Six years ago, he left the game. Five years ago, they fell in love. One year ago, she ran out into the cold with absolutely no intention of ever coming back. And two minutes ago, they woke up, bloody and bruised and handcuffed together in the dark. They don’t know where they are. They don’t know how they got there. And they have absolutely no idea who is after them or what this nameless, faceless villain wants. The only thing that’s clear is that, after 10 years of covers and chemistry, secrets and lies, these two rival spies have been sucked into their greatest mission yet, and now they’re going to have to team up to stay alive (if they don’t kill each other first). 
Avon | 9780063386976 

THE DEAD COME TO STAY by Brandy Schillace (Mystery)
Jo Jones can't seem to catch a break. Trading in city life for the cozy, peaceful hills of North Yorkshire should have been a "fresh start.” Instead, she's been driven further into the past than she thought possible --- and not just her own. Then there’s the gossipy town politics Jo must constantly navigate as a neurodivergent transplanted American. And of course, the whole murder business. When prickly town detective James MacAdams discovers a body in the moors with coincidental ties to Jo Jones, they're forced to team up on the case. The clues will lead them into the wealthiest locales of Yorkshire, from sparkling glass hotels to luxury property sites to elite country clubs. But what begins as bizarre murder case quickly plunges them both into the blackmarket world of rare artifacts and antique trading...and a murderer who will do anything to cover it up.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335121875 

THE DEAD HUSBAND COOKBOOK by Danielle Valentine
(Psychological Thriller/Horror)
When infamous chef, restaurateur and television personality Maria Capello's husband died, the media circus was intense…and quick to cast the blame. Whispers claimed Maria murdered her husband to build her culinary empire on his bones, and that there was an all-too-grisly reason his body was never recovered. Yet for the past few decades, the Capello family maintained their stony silence --- until now. Thea Woods has no idea why she was chosen to work with Maria on her sure-to-be-infamous memoir, but she doesn't question her luck. Spirited away to the Capellos' rustic upstate farm, she's soon embroiled in the mystery --- and cut off from the rest of the world. As the true story of Maria's past unfolds and the stench of rot hidden behind the kind coastal grandmother veneer rises, Thea finds herself trapped...and desperately afraid.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781728276915 

DEAR MISS LAKE by AJ Pearce (Historical Fiction)
London, July 1944. After nearly five years of war, the readers of Woman’s Friend magazine are relying on the support of Emmy Lake and her team more than ever. With the city under attack, the magazine staff decamps to the countryside for the summer. Determined to help the women of Britain carry on, Emmy and friends are hard at work finding new ways to inspire resilience. With her army officer husband Charles posted close to home, and best friend Bunty by her side, Emmy happily throws herself into rural life, juggling children, magazine assignments and plans for a very important wedding. And then a call comes that means she may finally fulfill her long-held dream of becoming a war correspondent. But when disaster strikes, Emmy needs her friends, her community and her readers more than ever.
Scribner | 9781668007747 

DEPARTURE 37 by Scott Carson (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
On a clear October day, the American skies empty after hundreds of pilots refuse to fly, triggering a complete ground stop as authorities seek to explain an act of baffling coordination that the pilots insist was anything but planned. The pilots received disturbing, middle-of-the-night calls from their mothers, and each mother had a simple and urgent request: Do not fly today. But none of the mothers remember making them --- and some of them are dead. While the nation’s military chiefs and artificial intelligence experts mobilize in search of answers, a 16-year-old girl named Charlie on the coast of Maine watches a strange, silvery balloon drift across the water and toward her home. Her father’s dream of opening a craft brewery on an old airfield has been a disaster, and all she wants is an escape back to Brooklyn. She’s about to get much more than that.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781982191481 

THE DEVIL REACHED TOWARD THE SKY: An Oral History of the Making and Unleashing of the Atomic Bomb by Garrett M. Graff (Oral History)
The building of the atomic bomb is the most audacious undertaking in human history: a rush by a small group of scientists and engineers in complete secrecy to unlock the most fundamental power of the universe. Even today, 80 years later, the Manhattan Project evokes boldness, daring and the grandest of dreams: bringing an end to World War II in the Pacific. THE DEVIL REACHED TOWARD THE SKY is the panoramic narrative of how ordinary people grapple with extraordinary wartime risks, sacrifices and choices that will transform the course of history. Drawing from dozens of oral history archives and hundreds of books, reports, letters, diaries and transcripts from across the US, Japan and Europe, Garrett M. Graff masterfully blends the memories and perspectives from the known and unknown.
Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster | 9781668092392 

A DOG IN GEORGIA by Lauren Grodstein (Fiction)
Amy Webb is a chef. Or rather, she was a chef. Somewhere along the way, she also became a wife and a stepmother and an emergency contact, and the part of her that was a chef disappeared entirely --- along with her sense of self. Which is why she is currently in the republic of Georgia, on a mission to find a lost dog named Angel, and, more importantly, the life’s purpose she once took for granted. For months, Amy has escaped by watching YouTube videos of Angel walking the children of Tbilisi to school. When Angel goes missing, Amy volunteers to go find him. But Angel proves elusive, and while she does make friends with a number of stray dogs, what she finds in Tblisi is entirely human. Is she happy in her marriage? What happened to her career? Why doesn’t she ever cook anymore, even just for herself? 
Algonquin Books | 9781643752358

FLASHOUT by Alexis Soloski (Psychological Thriller)
New York, 1972. A cloistered college student slips out of the dorms to attend a performance by a legendary experimental performance troupe. Within months, she has left campus life behind and joined the company, infatuated by its charismatic leader and his promises of absolute freedom. California, 1997. A theater teacher at an exclusive private school receives an unsettling letter. With her job at risk and her past clawing at her carefully constructed present, what will she do to protect the life she has made?
Flatiron Books | 9781250883643

FULL BLOOM by Francesca Serritella (Fiction)
Reeling from a breakup and overlooked at her job as a lighting designer, Iris Sunnegren finds herself stuck, disconnected and lonely in crowded New York City. Then a mysterious neighbor, an older Frenchwoman, makes her a gift: a bespoke perfume. One spritz, a dab behind the ears, and Iris feels like a different woman. Suddenly, she is the object of every man’s desire. She can cast off her inhibitions and use her newfound allure to dazzle the high-profile client, attract a man who excites her like no other, and access all the rarefied spaces that once excluded her. Invigorated by the perfume, Iris embodies her maximum power --- a flower fully bloomed. But there is danger in connecting to our primal emotions. Scent awakens buried memories, and nightmares of the childhood house fire Iris barely survived return to haunt her.
Ballantine Books | 9780525510390

THE HOUNDING by Xenobe Purvis (Gothic/Historical Fiction)
Even before the rumors about the Mansfield girls begin, Little Nettlebed is a village steeped in the uncanny, from strange creatures that wash up on the riverbank to portentous ravens gathering on the roofs of people about to die. But when the villagers start to hear barking, and one claims to see the Mansfield sisters transform before his very eyes, the allegations spark fascination and fear like nothing has before. The truth is that, though the inhabitants of Little Nettlebed have never much liked the Mansfield girls, they’ve always had plenty to say about them. Even if local belief in witchcraft is waning, an aversion to difference is as widespread as ever, and these conflicting narratives all point to the same ultimate conclusion: Something isn’t right in Little Nettlebed, and the sisters will be the ones to pay for it.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250366382

HUNTER'S HEART RIDGE by Sarah Stewart Taylor (Historical Mystery) 
It's November 1965 and the second weekend of Vermont's regular deer season when Vermont State Police detective Franklin Warren is called out to what looks like an accidental shooting at The Ridge Club, an exclusive men's hunting and fishing club: a former ambassador has been shot while out hunting. With the war in Vietnam picking up speed on the other side of the world, Warren quickly realizes that many of the club’s members are powerful men who may have ulterior motives and connections in high places. While Warren's suspicions about the club members build, his neighbor, Alice Bellows, is throwing a dinner party. When her old handler and friend, Arthur Crannock, unexpectedly shows up in Bethany, Alice begins to wonder if his presence has anything to do with the death at the hunting club.
Minotaur Books | 9781250370730 

INDIAN COUNTRY by Shobha Rao (Fiction)
Janavi is a wonderfully independent, young modern Indian woman. Sagar is a trained hydraulic engineer, and his parents were never able to forgive him for an unspeakable act from his past. Yet the two are forced together into an arranged marriage that neither of them wants. Even worse, Sagar has already accepted a job in America, in a strange place called Montana, where he will be in charge of dismantling a dam. His white colleagues do not welcome him with open arms, and Janavi finds herself unable to forgive her sister back in India, whose betrayal led her to this marriage and this strange place. When a colleague of Sagar's is found drowned, Sagar is the obvious scapegoat. But is this death one in a long history of people of color paying the price for the white man's arrogance and expansionism?
Crown | 9780593798959 

JENNY COOPER HAS A SECRET by Joy Fielding (Psychological Thriller)
Reeling from her husband’s death and best friend’s dementia diagnosis, 76-year-old Linda Davidson feels lost and alone. Eager to escape the tension at home, Linda goes to visit her friend at Legacy Place, a memory care facility for the elderly, where she meets Jenny Cooper, a 92-year-old dementia patient who makes a shocking confession: she kills people. Linda dismisses the so-called secret as the confusion of an ailing mind, but Jenny seems strangely lucid during their visits as she recounts stories of her many victims --- mostly men who hurt her. Then a fellow patient at Legacy Place dies. Everyone else sees it as the natural death of a sick old man, but Linda can’t help but wonder: Is there any chance Jenny is telling the truth?
Ballantine Books | 9780593873175 

L.A. WOMEN by Ella Berman (Historical Fiction)
After a steady descent from literary stardom, Lane Warren is back. She has secured a new book deal based off the life of her sometime friend and, more often, rival, Gala Margolis. Lane’s only problem is that notorious free spirit Gala has been missing for months. Ten years earlier, Gala was a charming socialite and Lane was a Hollywood outsider amidst the glittering 1960s L.A. party scene. Though they were never best friends, Lane found Gala sharp and compelling. Gala liked that Lane took her seriously. They were both writers. They were drawn to each other. That was until Gala’s star began to rise, and Lane grew envious. Then Lane did something that she wouldn’t ever be able to take back…changing the trajectories of both their lives.
Berkley | 9780593639153 

THE LOCKED WARD by Sarah Pekkanen (Psychological Thriller)
It’s the Crime of the Decade when glamorous Georgia Cartwright, who was adopted as a newborn, is accused of killing the biological daughter of her wealthy, Southern family. Georgia is locked in a psychiatric institution where the most violent offenders are held while she awaits trial. The only words she whispers when her estranged twin sister, Amanda, visits are “I didn’t do it. You’ve got to get me out of here.” Amanda doesn't trust Georgia, but she can't abandon her in a place so eerie and menacing that it seems to exist in another dimension. Is Georgia the victim of a powerful family that's so depraved murder is the least of their crimes? Or is Amanda being led down a path of madness into the web of a master manipulator?
St. Martin's Press | 9781250349514

THE MAGICIAN OF TIGER CASTLE by Louis Sachar (Historical Fantasy)
Long ago and far away lies the kingdom of Esquaveta. There, Princess Tullia is in nearly as much peril as her struggling kingdom. Esquaveta desperately needs to forge an alliance, and to that end, Tullia's father has arranged a marriage between her and an odious prince. However, one month before the "wedding of the century," Tullia falls in love with a lowly apprentice scribe. The king turns to Anatole, his much-maligned magician. Seventeen years earlier, when Anatole first came to the castle, he was regarded as something of a prodigy. But after a long series of failures, he has become the object of contempt and ridicule. The only one who still believes in him is the princess. When the king orders Anatole to brew a potion that will ensure Tullia agrees to the wedding, Anatole is faced with an impossible choice.
Ace | 9780593952306

THE MAN NO ONE BELIEVED: The Untold Story of the Georgia Church Murders by Joshua Sharpe (True Crime)
In 1985, a white man walked into a South Georgia church and brutally murdered Harold and Thelma Swain, two pillars of the area’s Black community. The killer vanished into the night. For 15 years, the case remained unsolved. Then authorities zeroed in on Dennis Perry, a carpenter who grew up nearby. Convicted with devastatingly flawed evidence, Perry received a double life sentence. When award-winning journalist and South Georgia native Joshua Sharpe retraces the case, he discovers a winding path of corruption, devastating missteps and secrets. He eventually uncovers explosive evidence that helps prove Perry’s innocence. And he confronts a long-ignored suspect: an alleged white supremacist who had bragged about committing the murders. But the fight for the truth is not easily won.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324020714 

MISSISSIPPI BLUE 42 by Eli Cranor (Thriller/Humor)
Special Agent Rae Johnson grew up on football fields alongside her father, a national-championship-winning coach. Which is exactly why, fresh out of Quantico, she’s sent down to Compson, Mississippi, to investigate the illicit money flowing into a bustling football program in the heart of the Delta. But two days into the assignment, things take a dire turn when UCM’s star quarterback is flung from the roof of a college bar, lands on a bag of money, and dies. Hoping to turn a routine fraud case into a career-defining bust, Rae ingratiates herself with the fans, coaches, players and politicians who make up the university’s complex social hierarchy. With rumors of corruption rustling through the kudzu vines, Rae soon realizes there’s more to the game than what she’d learned as a child.
Soho Crime | 9781641296977 

MODERATION by Elaine Castillo (Fiction)
Girlie Delmundo is the greatest content moderator in the world. Despite the setbacks of financial crises, climate catastrophe and a global pandemic, she’s getting a promotion. Now, thanks to her parent company Paragon’s purchase of Fairground --- the world’s preeminent virtual reality content provider --- she’s on the way to becoming an elite VR moderator. Despite the isolation that virtual reality requires from colleagues, friends and family, the unbelievable perks of her new job mean she can solve a lot of her family's problems with money and mobility. But when she meets William Cheung, Playground’s wry, reticent co-founder (now Chief Product Officer), slowly unearths some of his secrets, and finds herself somehow falling in love, she’ll learn that history might be impossible to moderate and the future utterly impossible to control.
Viking | 9780593489666 

MY OTHER HEART by Emma Nanami Strenner (Fiction)
In June 1998, Mimi Truang is on her way home to Vietnam when her toddler daughter vanishes in the Philadelphia airport. Seventeen years later, two best friends in Chestnut Hill, Pennsylvania, discuss their summer plans before college. Kit, with the support of her white adoptive parents, will travel to Tokyo to explore her Japanese roots. This dizzying adventure offers her a taste of first love and a new understanding of what it means to belong. Sabrina had hoped to take a similar trip to China, but money is tight. Her disappointment subsides, however, when she meets a bold, uncompromising new mentor who prompts Sabrina to ask questions she’s avoided all her life. Meanwhile, Mimi purchases a plane ticket to Philadelphia. She finally has a lead in her search for her daughter. When Mimi, Kit and Sabrina come face to face, they will confront the people they truly are.
Pamela Dorman Books | ‎9780593831014

PEOPLE LIKE US by Jason Mott (Fiction)
Two Black writers are trying to find peace and belonging in a world that is riven with gun violence. One is on a global book tour after a big prize win; the other is set to give a speech at a school that has suffered a shooting. As their two storylines merge, truths and antics abound in equal measure: characters drink booze out of an award trophy; menaces lurk in the shadows; tiny French cars putter around the countryside; handguns seem to hover in the air; and dreams endure against all odds.
Dutton | 9798217047116 

SHEEPDOGS by Elliot Ackerman (Thriller/Humor)
Skwerl, once an elite member of the CIA's paramilitary unit, was cast out after a raid gone wrong in Afghanistan. Big Cheese Aziz, a former Afghan pilot of legendary skill, now works the graveyard shift at a gas station. Recruited into a shadowy network of "sheepdogs," they embark on a mission to repossess a multi-million-dollar private jet stranded on a remote African airfield. But as they wind through a labyrinth of lies and hidden agendas, they discover that nothing is as it seems. Their contact vanishes, their handler's motives are suspect, and the true source of their payday remains a mystery. With the stakes skyrocketing and the women in their lives drawn into the fray, this unlikely spy duo find themselves deep in the underbelly of modern war and intelligence.
Knopf | 9780593803851 

SONGS FOR OTHER PEOPLE'S WEDDINGS written by David Levithan, with songs by Jens Lekman (Romantic Comedy)
J is an accidental wedding singer. Unlike most wedding singers, he writes an original song for every couple --- his way of finding out about the small, strange things that brought them together and the hopeful, vulnerable feelings they’re experiencing. J’s own love life is in a state of flux. His girlfriend is off to New York for work, and as her life grows bigger and busier without him in it, he finds it harder to stick to a happy tune. He doesn’t know whether to encourage the soon-to-be-wed couples or warn them. When complications hit and love is tested, is there any way to sing through all the noise?
Abrams Press | 9781419778124 

TART: Misadventures of an Anonymous Chef by Slutty Cheff (Memoir/Humor)
When Slutty Cheff finds herself bored and fed-up with her 9–5 job in corporate marketing, she turns to the only thing that she really likes to do: cooking. So she quits her job, swaps emails for emulsions, and sets off to pursue her dreams of becoming a chef. The world of London’s fine dining restaurants is so much more than she imagined. There are the exhausting lows of 60-hour work weeks in windowless kitchens and the shock of stepping into the changing room as the only woman. There are the thrilling highs of a busy night, when service is running smoothly; electrifying run-ins with hot bartenders and even hotter chefs; and, always, the exhilaration of cycling hands-free through a city that is still sleeping. This is a story about searching for your purpose, and experiencing and embracing life to the fullest along the way.
S&S/Marysue Rucci Books | 9781668070222 

THIS HAPPENED TO ME: A Reckoning by Kate Price (Memoir)
Kate Price, who grew up in a small mill town in central Pennsylvania, was able to escape the unbroken cycles of poverty, violence, addiction, mental illness and abuse that had plagued her family for generations. She started a new life in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in pursuit of her master’s and PhD. But despite having left this dark world behind, it still kept a firm grip on her. Overcome with unexplainable grief and sadness, Price sought out Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, a trauma specialist to help heal her constant emotional pain through EMDR therapy. When Price felt safe enough, she discovered what that darkness that lay within her was. Her father had abused and trafficked her as a child. Price grappled with what had been revealed. And so began a 10-year quest alongside a journalist to prove what Price knew to be her truth.
Gallery Books | 9781668036228 

THIS HERE IS LOVE by Princess Joy L. Perry (Historical Fiction)
As the 17th century burns to a close in Tidewater, Virginia, America’s character is wrought in the fires of wealth, race and freedom. Young Bless, the only child left to her enslaved mother, stubbornly crafts the terms of her vital existence. She stands as the lone bulwark between her mother and irreparable despair, her mother’s only possibility of hope, as Bless reshapes the boundaries of love. David is a helping child and a solace to his parents, and he gave a purpose to their trials. His survival hinges on his mother’s shrewd intellect and ferocious fight, but his sustenance is his freed Black father’s dream of emancipation for the entire family. Jack Dane, a Scots-Irish boy, sails to Britain’s colonies when his father sells him into indentured servitude as an escape from poverty. There Jack learns from the rich the value of each person’s life.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324105978 

WE SHOULD ALL BE BIRDS: A Memoir by Brian Buckbee with Carol Ann Fitzgerald (Memoir)
On a spring evening in Montana, Brian Buckbee encounters an injured baby pigeon. Heartbroken after the loss of the love of his life and increasingly isolated by a mysterious illness that overtook him while trekking through Asia, Brian is unaware that this bird --- who he names Two-Step --- will change his life. Brian takes in Two-Step and more injured birds, eventually transforming his home into a madcap bird rehabilitation and rescue center. As Brian and Two-Step grow closer, an unexpected kinship forms. But their paths won’t converge forever. As Two-Step heals and finds love, Brian’s condition worsens, and with his friend’s release back into the world looming closer, Brian must decide where this story leaves him.
Tin House Books | 9781963108293 

On Sale the Week of August 4th in Paperback

August 5th

AND SO I ROAR by Abi Daré (Fiction)
When Tia accidentally overhears a whispered conversation between her mother --- who is terminally ill and lying in a hospital bed in Nigeria --- and her aunt, the repercussions will send her on a desperate quest to uncover a secret her mother has been hiding for nearly two decades. Back home in Lagos a few days later, Adunni, a plucky 14-year-old runaway, is lying awake in Tia’s guest room. Having escaped from her rural village in a desperate bid to seek a better future, she finally has found refuge with Tia, who has helped her enroll in school. Suddenly, there’s a horrible knocking at the front gate. It’s only the beginning of a harrowing ordeal that will see Tia forced to make a terrible choice between protecting Adunni or finally learning the truth behind the secret her mother has hidden from her.
Dutton | 9780593186572

COUNTING MIRACLES by Nicholas Sparks (Fiction)
Tanner Hughes was raised by his grandparents, following in his grandfather’s military footsteps to become an Army Ranger. Before his grandmother passes away, she drops a bombshell with the name of the father he never knew --- and where to find him. Tanner sets out for Asheboro, North Carolina, to ask around. He’s been in town less than 24 hours when he meets Kaitlyn Cooper, a doctor and single mom. They both feel an immediate connection. Meanwhile, 83-year-old Jasper lives alone in a cabin, haunted by a tragic accident that took place decades before. When he hears rumors that a white deer has been spotted in the forest --- a creature of legend that inspired his father and grandfather --- he becomes obsessed with it. As these characters’ fates orbit closer together, none of them is expecting a miracle. But that may be exactly what is about to alter their futures forever.
Dell | 9780593449615

CROSSHAIRS: A Michael Bennett Thriller by James Patterson and James O. Born (Psychological Thriller)
A killer uses fearsome precision to take out impossible targets. Detective Michael Bennett teams with a shooting expert --- a former Army Ranger and sniper with NYPD’s Emergency Services Unit. But Officer Rob Trilling seems more comfortable with rifles than he is with people. When his new partner begins to log unexplained absences from duty, only Bennett can prove whether the decorated officer is a lonely hunter or a hardened assassin.
Little, Brown and Company | 9781538710661

DEATH AT THE SIGN OF THE ROOK: A Jackson Brodie Book by Kate Atkinson (Mystery)
Ex-detective Jackson Brodie is staving off a bad case of mid-life malaise when he is called to a sleepy Yorkshire town and the seemingly tedious matter of a stolen painting. But Jackson soon uncovers a string of unsolved art thefts that lead him down a dizzying spiral of disguise and deceit to Burton Makepeace, a formerly magnificent estate now partially converted into a hotel hosting Murder Mystery weekends. As paying guests, impecunious aristocrats and old friends collide, we are treated to Kate Atkinson’s most charming and fiendishly clever mystery yet, one that pays homage to the masters of the genre --- from Agatha Christie and Dorothy Sayers to the modern era of Knives Out and "Only Murders in the Building."
Vintage | 9780593466339

EDEN UNDONE: A True Story of Sex, Murder, and Utopia at the Dawn of World War II by Abbott Kahler (True Crime/History)
At the height of the Great Depression, Los Angeles oil mogul George Allan Hancock and his crew of Smithsonian scientists came upon a gruesome scene: two bodies, mummified by the searing heat, on the shore of a remote Galápagos island. For the past four years, Hancock and other American elites had traveled the South Seas to collect specimens for scientific research. On one trip to the Galápagos, Hancock was surprised to discover an equally exotic group of humans: European exiles who had fled political and economic unrest, hoping to create a utopian paradise. One was so devoted to a life of isolation that he’d had his teeth extracted and replaced with a set of steel dentures. As Hancock and his fellow American explorers would witness, paradise had turned into chaos.
Crown | 9780451498663

EYE OF THE BEHOLDER by Emma Bamford (Psychological Thriller)
Maddy Wight is hired to ghostwrite the memoir of world-renowned cosmetic surgeon Dr. Angela Reynolds. She travels to Angela’s remote estate in the Scottish Highlands to hunker down and learn everything she can. Sharing the estate is Angela’s enigmatic business partner, Scott, whose mercurial moods change as quickly as the conditions on the darkening moors outside --- and Maddy finds herself drawn ever closer to him. Returning to London once the book is finished, Maddy is excited for their future together. But her dreams are shattered at the book launch when Angela learns that Scott has leapt to his death from the Scottish cliffs. Which is why Maddy is completely blindsided months later when she sees Scott entering the Tube station just in front of her. It can’t be him, can it?
Gallery/Scout Press | 9781982170400

FAMILIARIS by David Wroblewski (Historical Fiction)
It is spring 1919, and John Sawtelle's imagination has gotten him into trouble…again. Now John and his newlywed wife, Mary, along with their two best friends and their three dogs, are setting off for Wisconsin's north woods, where they hope to make a fresh start --- and, with a little luck, discover what it takes to live a life of meaning, purpose and adventure. But the place they are headed for is far stranger and more perilous than they realize, and it will take all their ingenuity, along with a few new friends --- human, animal and otherworldly --- to realize their dreams.
Blackstone Publishing | 9798874868604

HORROR MOVIE by Paul Tremblay (Psychological Thriller/Horror)
In June 1993, a group of young guerilla filmmakers spent four weeks making Horror Movie, a notorious, disturbing, art-house horror flick. Only three of the film’s scenes were ever released to the public, but Horror Movie has nevertheless grown a rabid fan base. Three decades later, Hollywood is pushing for a big-budget reboot. The man who played “The Thin Kid” is the only surviving cast member. He remembers all too well the secrets buried within the original screenplay, the bizarre events of the filming, and the dangerous crossed lines on set that resulted in tragedy. Still, he’s going to help remake the film, even if it means navigating a world of cynical producers, egomaniacal directors and surreal fan conventions --- demons of the past be damned. But at what cost?
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063070028

IN BERLIN by Eric Silberstein (Fiction)
Paperback Original
In the course of a 20-minute commute, software engineer Anna Werner goes from worrying vaguely about a sore shoulder to staggering her way into an ambulance. She has suffered a spinal stroke. Over the coming months, her parents join the insurance man in telling her to get ready for life in a group home. The only person who recognizes what Anna is still capable of is Batul al-Jaberi, a recent Syrian immigrant who meets Anna while doing her rounds as a janitor at the hospital. Batul is applying to medical school, where she hopes to regain control of a life hijacked by her family's flight from persecution in the early days of the Arab Spring. At first the friendship is what Anna and Batul each need to regain mobility. But as their relationship deepens, Batul finds that she must choose between her family and Anna.
Liu Book Group | 9781737351993

THE LION WOMEN OF TEHRAN by Marjan Kamali (Fiction)
In 1950s Tehran, seven-year-old Ellie lives in grand comfort until the untimely death of her father, forcing Ellie and her mother to move to a tiny home downtown. Luckily, on the first day of school, Ellie meets Homa, a kind, passionate girl with a brave and irrepressible spirit. Together, they play games, learn to cook in the stone kitchen of Homa’s warm home, wander through the colorful stalls of the Grand Bazaar, and share their ambitions for becoming “lion women.” But their happiness is disrupted when Ellie and her mother are afforded the opportunity to return to their previous bourgeois life. Now a popular student at the best girls’ high school in Iran, Ellie’s memories of Homa begin to fade. Years later, however, her sudden reappearance in Ellie’s privileged world alters the course of both of their lives.
Gallery Books | 9781668036594

LULA DEAN’S LITTLE LIBRARY OF BANNED BOOKS by Kirsten Miller
(Fiction/Humor)
Beverly Underwood and her arch enemy, Lula Dean, live in the tiny town of Troy, Georgia. Beverly is on the school board, and Lula has become a local celebrity by embarking on a mission to rid the public libraries of all inappropriate books --- none of which she’s actually read. To replace the “pornographic” books she’s challenged at the local public library, Lula starts her own lending library in front of her home. What she doesn’t know is that a local troublemaker has stolen her wholesome books, removed their dust jackets and restocked her library with banned books. One by one, neighbors who borrow books from Lula Dean’s library find their lives changed in unexpected ways. Finally, one of Lula’s enemies discovers the library and decides to turn the tables on her, just as Lula and Beverly are running against each other to replace the town’s disgraced mayor.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063348707

MADWOMAN by Chelsea Bieker (Fiction)
Clove has gone to extremes to keep her past a secret. Thanks to her lies, she’s landed the life of her dreams, complete with a safe husband and two adoring children who will never know the terror that was routine in her own childhood. If her buried anxiety threatens to breach the surface, Clove (if that is really her name) focuses on finding the right supplement, the right gratitude meditation. But when she receives a letter from a women’s prison in California, her past comes screeching into the present, entangling her in a dangerous game with memory and the people she thought she had outrun. As we race between her precarious present-day life in Portland, Oregon, and her childhood in a Waikiki high-rise with her mother and father, Clove is forced to finally unravel the defining day of her life.
Back Bay Books | 9780316573306

THE MIDNIGHT HOUR by Eve Chase (Mystery)
Paperback Original
Notting Hill, London: One May evening, 17-year-old Maggie Parker's mother walks out of their front door and doesn't return. With her little brother in tow, Maggie is drawn into a labyrinthine world of secondhand shops and shadowy figures. As she struggles to maintain a stable life for herself and her brother, she befriends Wolf, another young person also living on his wits alone. But can he help solve the mystery of her mother’s disappearance? When she discovers that her beloved house now holds a dangerous new secret, and Wolf is involved, a heartbroken Maggie makes her escape. Twenty-one years later, Maggie gets a phone call that shatters her hard-won new life. While in London, the incoming owner of the Parkers' old Notting Hill house is excavating the basement, unaware of what might lie beneath --- and the clock starts ticking on buried secrets.
Ballantine Books | 9780593976234

MRS. ENDICOTT’S SPLENDID ADVENTURE by Rhys Bowen (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Surrey, England, 1938. After 30 devoted years of marriage, Ellie Endicott is blindsided by her husband’s appeal for divorce. It’s Ellie’s opportunity for change too. The unfaithful cad can have the house. She’s taking the Bentley. Ellie, her housekeeper Mavis, and her elderly friend Dora --- each needing escape --- impulsively head for parts unknown in the South of France. With the Rhône surging beside them, they have nowhere to be and everywhere to go. Until the Bentley breaks down in the inviting fishing hamlet of Saint Benet. Here, Ellie rents an abandoned villa in the hills, makes wonderful friends among the villagers, and finds herself drawn to Nico, a handsome and enigmatic fisherman. But fates soon change when the threat of war encroaches.
Lake Union Publishing | 9781662527197

ONCE UPON A TIME IN DOLLYWOOD by Ashley Jordan (Romance)
Paperback Original
Eve Ambroise may be a rising star playwright, but her personal life is falling part. Desperate for a fresh start, she breaks up with her fiancé, cuts off her parents, and heads to the Tennessee mountains. But keeping up the lie that she’s just on a writing retreat becomes near impossible when faced with the well-meaning townspeople and a neighbor who has just as much baggage as she has. Coming off a contentious custody battle, Jamie Gallagher is restructuring what his life looks like as a single dad, and spending more days at his cabin makes his new “free time” a little less empty. Especially when he meets the beautiful --- and prickly --- woman next door. What starts out as a fling quickly becomes more serious, and it’s not long before Eve is running scared once again.
Berkley | 9780593819128

OUT OF THE DARKNESS: The Mystery of Aaron Rodgers by Ian O'Connor
(Sports/Biography)
Aaron Rodgers is among the two or three most talented players to ever hold the most important job in American team sports --- quarterback. He also stands as the most mysterious and polarizing figure in the modern-day national pastime that is professional football. From his controversial COVID stance to his methods of spiritual awakening to his estrangement from his family to his high-profile romances to his devastating Achilles injury a mere four plays into his New York Jets career, Rodgers has long dominated the NFL’s news cycle. Ian O’Connor uses hundreds of original interviews to pull back the curtain and answer the most penetrating questions about the league’s most enigmatic player. He reveals all sides of an all-time great and delivers a portrait of a complex man that will forever shape the way he is viewed.
Mariner Books | 9780063297852

RED RIVER ROAD by Anna Downes (Psychological Thriller)
Katy Sweeney is looking for her sister. A year earlier, her free-spirited younger sister, Phoebe, vanished without a trace on the remote, achingly beautiful coastal highway in Western Australia. With no witnesses, no leads and no DNA evidence, the case has gone cold. But Katy refuses to give up on her. Using Phoebe’s social media accounts as a map, Katy retraces her sister’s steps, searching for any clues the police may have missed. Was Phoebe being followed? Who had she met along the way, and how dangerous were they? And then Katy’s path collides with that of Beth, who is on the run from her own dark past. Katy realizes that Beth might be her best --- and only --- chance of finding the truth, and the two women form an uneasy alliance to find out what really happened to Phoebe.
Minotaur Books | 9781250868039

ROBERT B. PARKER’S BUZZ KILL: A Sunny Randall Novel by Alison Gaylin (Mystery)
After a near-death experience, Sunny Randall is ready to lighten her load as a PI --- that is until she is called upon by billionaire media magnate Bill Welch to investigate the disappearance of his son, Dylan, the cofounder of the Gonzo Energy Drink company. Lazy, unscrupulous and a notorious partier, Dylan isn’t exactly reliable. But Dylan’s mother, Lydia, believes he’s in serious danger. Unable to turn down the Welches’ life-changing offer, Sunny takes on the case, starting off by befriending Dylan's smart young business partner, Sky, who seems like his polar opposite. As Sunny traces the marks left behind by Dylan’s past, she needs to unearth all the skeletons in his closet. When bodies start to pile up, Sunny must find answers quickly before she and those she cares about get caught in the crossfire.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780593715666

THE SIEGE: A Six-Day Hostage Crisis and the Daring Special-Forces Operation That Shocked the World by Ben Macintyre (History)
As the American hostage crisis in Iran boiled into its seventh month in the spring of 1980, six heavily armed gunmen barged into the Iranian embassy in London, taking 26 hostages. What followed over the next six days was an increasingly tense standoff, one that threatened at any moment to spill into a bloodbath. A story of ordinary men and women under immense pressure, THE SIEGE takes readers minute-by-thrilling-minute through an event that would echo across the next two decades and provide a direct historical link to the tragedy on 9/11. Drawing on exclusive interviews and a wealth of never-before-seen files, Ben Macintyre reconstructs a week in which every day minted a new hero and every second spelled the potential for doom.
Crown | 9780593728116

THE SINGER SISTERS by Sarah Seltzer (Fiction)
It's 1996, and alt-rocker Emma Cantor is on tour, with her sights trained on a record deal. Emma has no lack of inspiration for her music --- chiefly her mother, Judie, a 1960s folk legend whose confessional songs made her an icon before her mysterious withdrawal from the public eye. Emma is baffled by Judie's coldness and is deeply shaken when she learns a long-kept secret about their family. When Emma uncovers more about her mother's past, she is vaulted to new heights as a performer. But the knowledge she gains also propels her toward a musical betrayal that further fractures her relationship with Judie. Increasingly famous, but fragile and isolated, Emma grapples with her mother’s legacy and what it means for her own future.
Flatiron Books | 9781250907660

SOMEONE’S GOTTA GIVE by Alisha Fernandez Miranda (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Lucia thought she had it all figured out --- until life in London as a new mom and expat turned everything upside down. She’s barely holding it together when she unexpectedly lands a glamorous job as a philanthropic adviser at London’s poshest private bank. But is the world of the über-wealthy everything that it’s cracked up to be? At work, she’s rubbing elbows with royals. At home, her teething one-year-old is up at all hours of the night, and her husband’s growing connection to his ex-girlfriend is raising suspicions. Can Lucia juggle Buckingham Palace visits, private island getaways, and late-night cocktails at secret clubs while keeping her family intact and staying true to herself?
Zibby Publishing | 9798990630406

THE WRONG SISTER by Claire Douglas (Domestic Thriller)
Paperback Original
Tasha and her older sister, Alice, may look alike, but they couldn’t be more different. Tasha is married with two children and still lives in their hometown near Bristol. Alice is a high-flying scientist who travels the world with her equally successful husband. Yet each sister would trust the other with her life. When Tasha and her husband, Aaron, need a break and Alice offers to stay in their home with the kids, Tasha knows her family is in safe hands. She couldn’t be more wrong. The call from home is devastating. Alice and her husband, Kyle, have been attacked, leaving Alice in intensive care and Kyle dead. Rushing to the hospital, Tasha finds the police trying to piece events together. She can’t think why anyone would attack her sister. Then the note arrives, addressed to Tasha: It was supposed to be you.
Harper Perennial | 9780063354395

ZOMROMCOM by Olivia Dade (Paranormal Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
When Edie Brandstrup attempts to save her sweet, seemingly harmless human neighbor from the first major zombie breach in two decades, she’s stunned to be saved by him instead. As it turns out, he's actually a super-old, super-surly vampire. But Gaston "Max" Boucher wants her to stay in his safety bunker until the breach is resolved. Edie can’t risk more innocent people getting killed, though --- and Max won’t let her save them alone. As they unravel a sinister conspiracy to set zombies loose on the world (again), the duo meet a host of lovable allies and discover they're not the only ones willing to fight for the future of humanity. Despite the awful timing, Edie finds herself falling for the vampire who’s helping her save the world. But all their dangerous plans could end their future before it even begins.
Berkley | 9780593818206

On Sale the Week of August 11th in Hardcover

August 12th

DAWN OF FATE AND FIRE: A Godslayer Novel by Mariely Lares
(Historical Fantasy/Adventure)
After defeating the Obsidian Butterfly, Leonora carries the title of Godslayer. Peace in Mexico City is fragile. Rebellion brews in the North, and when the people’s safety is at risk, Pantera must once again become the demure viceregent Leonora to stop a war before it begins. But her friends are scattered, Tezca is gone, and one wrong move could seal her fate. Caution is her ally, for the real Prince of Asturias --- her former betrothed --- has arrived at court, reigniting rumors that Leonora and Pantera are one. A greater threat looms in the mountains, where a false king seeks to summon the god of night using a weapon of untold power. It’s up to the Godslayer to confront this enemy…and the one growing within her. Only by embracing her divine origins can Leonora triumph over the forces of darkness --- and maybe even spark a revolution that could change Mexico’s fate forever.
Harper Voyager | 9780063254367 

FONSECA by Jessica Francis Kane (Historical Fiction)
Winter 1952. Penelope Fitzgerald’s husband is a struggling alcoholic, their literary journal is on the brink, and she is pregnant with their third child. When she receives a letter from two elderly sisters named Delaney, distant relations with a silver mine, who dangle the possibility of an inheritance, she recognizes it as a creative and practical lifeline. FONSECA fictionalizes Penelope’s real and momentous trip to northern Mexico in pursuit of this legacy. She leaves her two-year-old, Tina, with relatives and sails for New York with her six-year-old, Valpy, in tow. From there, mother and son take a bus all the way to…Fonseca. But when they arrive, nothing goes according to plan. Others are vying for the Delaney money, and for three months --- from Day of the Dead to Candlemas --- Penelope must navigate a quixotic household and guide her impressionable son.
Penguin Press | 9780593298855 

FOR RICHER FOR POORER by Danielle Steel (Fiction)
After working as the head designer for Oscar de la Renta, Eugenia Ward started her own company when she turned 40. She is now a major name in evening gowns and wedding gowns, ready-to-wear and haute couture. But with the fashion business in a major downturn, she recently has suffered heavy losses and desperately needs new investors --- and new ideas. At the same time, she is the matriarch and guiding light for her five adult children, a single mother for more than a decade. Patrick Hughes, a successful real estate developer, is also going through a rough patch and gives Eugenia valuable advice about her business challenges. But as her family gathers for her daughter’s big wedding, tensions are running high, money may be running out, and a hurricane is looming on the horizon.
Delacorte Press | 9780593498798 

THE FREQUENCY OF LIVING THINGS by Nick Fuller Googins (Fiction)
Josie may be the youngest sister, but she takes care of everyone. She is the left-brained scientist to her twin sisters’ right-brained artistic chaos. She also has been their de facto band manager since she was a teenager. When Ara, her middle sister, calls from jail, it isn’t exactly a surprise, and Josie knows exactly how to snap into action. Emma is the quintessential frontwoman, but the success of The Twins’ first (and only) album is two decades behind her. Hiding under the surface of her swagger is a long-held guilt that has turned her into her sister’s enabler. Bertie, who raised her three daughters as a single mother, has always taught them that family won’t always be around to take care of you. But now she must decide if she should reenter their lives in their greatest time of need --- or watch to see if the resilience she’s taught them will help carry them through.
Atria Books | 9781668056066 

GONE IN THE NIGHT: A Detective Annalisa Vega Novel by Joanna Schaffhausen (Mystery)
Detective Annalisa Vega hasn’t forgiven her brother for his role in a murder, and he hasn’t forgiven her for turning him in. So she’s surprised when he asks her to visit him in prison. One of his fellow inmates, Joe Green, may be innocent of the murder that landed him behind bars. Joe is doing hard time for killing his ex-wife’s lawyer, but an anonymous letter sent to the prison warns that the eyewitness in Joe’s trial made up her story. With her private investigation business foundering, Annalisa is desperate enough to start poking around into Joe’s meager case. She immediately finds two problems: the eyewitness definitely lied about what she saw the night of the murder, and Annalisa’s husband, Nick, was the cop who arrested Joe. Annalisa’s search for the truth will test the bounds of her marriage, her family and her own sense of justice.
Minotaur Books | 9781250904171

THE GOSSIP COLUMNIST'S DAUGHTER by Peter Orner (Fiction)
Jed Rosenthal hasn’t published a book in 14 years, the mother of his child left him in a “trial separation” that has stretched on indefinitely, and he struggles to navigate the daily sorrows of their co-parenting arrangement. But the implosion of Jed’s family is simply a footnote in the larger history of the Rosenthal family’s decline. Just days after the JFK assassination, Karyn “Cookie” Kupcinet was found dead in her Hollywood apartment. The press reported that the 22-year-old was strangled, yet unanswered questions linger to this day. Decades later, Jed pores over family stories, newspaper archives, old photos and crime scene notes, believing that if he can divine the truth of Cookie's death --- whether it was suicide, murder or part of a larger conspiracy --- it might shed light on a mystery closer to home. 
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316224659

THE GRAND PALOMA RESORT by Cleyvis Natera (Fiction)
Laura is a local Dominican woman who has risen through the ranks to become manager at the Grand Paloma Resort. Her idea to pair a “platinum” guest with their own resort employee to attend to their every whim has been wildly successful. If only her younger sister, Elena, could get with the program. Elena has tried to live up to her sister’s expectations, but to escape the drudgery of waiting on rich tourists, she’s become increasingly dependent on pills and partying. Now, after an accident, a child left in her charge is believed dead, and Elena knows she'll be held responsible. When Elena runs into the child’s father, he offers her an obscene amount of money for private time with two young local girls. Elena pockets the cash to fund her escape and prays she’s gotten the girls out of harm’s way. But then the girls are reported missing.
Ballantine Books | 9780593873267

HIGH SEASON by Katie Bishop (Psychological Thriller)
On a beautiful summer’s night 20 years ago, troubled 17-year-old Tamara Drayton was found floating face down in the pool of her family’s idyllic mansion in the south of France, leaving her twin brother, golden-boy Blake, to pick up the pieces of their shattered family. Also left behind was their sister, Nina; at six years old, she became the youngest person ever to testify in a French murder trial. She’s the only one who saw what happened --- who watched as her babysitter, Josie Jackson, pushed Tamara under the water and held her there until she stopped breathing. Didn’t she? Twenty years later, Nina's memories have faded, leaving her with no idea of what really transpired that night. When a new true crime documentary about her sister’s murder is announced, Nina thinks this might be her chance to finally find out.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250283931 

I KNOW HOW THIS ENDS by Holly Smale (Fiction)
Margot Wayward is in manically gleeful self-destruct mode. Following the implosion of a 10-year relationship, she’s willfully derailing her successful career, joyfully taking down men on dating apps, and living in total chaos. Until one day, when Margot has a vision of herself with a man she’s never met before. She doesn’t believe in fate. But when Margot meets single-dad Henry, the vision comes true: exactly as she’d foreseen it. As her future continues to reveal itself, a glimpse at a time, Margot realizes she knows exactly what’s going to happen, and when. And there’s nothing she can do to change any of it. So Margot has to decide how to live, how to love again, and how to be herself. Because if you can’t change your destiny, how on earth do you live your present?
Mira | 9780778368632 

KISS HER GOODBYE by Lisa Gardner (Mystery/Thriller)
Recent Afghan refugee Sabera Ahmadi was last seen exiting her place of work three weeks ago. The local police have yet to open a case, while her older, domineering husband, Isaad, seems unconcerned. Sabera's closest friend, however, is convinced Sabera would never willingly leave her three-year-old daughter, Zahra. At her insistence, missing persons expert Frankie Elkin agrees to take up the search. Just in time for a video of the young mother to surface --- showing her walking away from the scene of a brutal double murder. Frankie quickly realizes there's much more to the Ahmadi family than meets the eye. When Isaad also disappears under mysterious circumstances and an attempt is made on Zahra's life, Frankie realizes that she quickly must crack the code of this family's horrific past.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538765104

LOVED ONE by Aisha Muharrar (Fiction)
When her first-love-turned-close-friend, Gabe, dies unexpectedly at 29, 30-year-old Julia is launched into an intercontinental quest to recover his lost possessions. Her journey takes her from Los Angeles to London and into the murky realm of the past. It also sets Julia on a collision course with the last woman he loved, a guarded, self-possessed florist and restaurateur named Elizabeth, who insists on withholding Gabe’s beloved guitar --- one of the departed indie rock musician’s dearest belongings --- for reasons Julia can’t understand. Both women, it turns out, have something to hide and soon find themselves engaged in a complex dance of withholding and revelation.
Viking | 9780593655849

LUCKY DAY by Chuck Tingle (Horror)
Four years ago, an unthinkable disaster occurred. In what was later known as the Low-Probability Event, eight million people were killed in a single day, each of them dying in improbable, bizarre ways. Vera, a former statistics and probability professor, lost everything that day, and she still struggles to make sense of the unbelievable catastrophe. To her, the LPE proved that the God of Order is dead and nothing matters anymore. When Special Agent Layne shows up on Vera’s doorstep, she learns he's investigating a suspiciously --- and statistically impossibly --- lucky casino. He needs her help to prove that the casino’s success is connected to the deaths of millions, and it's Vera's last chance to make sense of a world that doesn’t.
Tor Nightfire | 9781250398659

SEDUCTION THEORY by Emily Adrian (Fiction)
Simone is the star of Edwards University’s creative writing department: renowned Woolf scholar, grief memoirist and campus sex icon. Her less glamorous and ostensibly devoted husband, Ethan, is a forgotten novelist and lecturer in the same department. But when Ethan sleeps with the department administrative assistant, Abigail, the couple’s faith in their flawless relationship is rattled. While Ethan is away for the summer, she grows inordinately close with her advisee, graduate student Roberta “Robbie” Green. But behind Simone’s back, Robbie fictionalizes her mentor’s marriage in a breathtakingly invasive MFA thesis. Determined to tell her version of the story, Robbie paints a revealing portrait of Simone, Ethan, Abigail and even herself, scratching at the very surface of what may --- or may not --- be the truth.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316584517 

THE SOCIETY OF UNKNOWABLE OBJECTS by Gareth Brown (Fantasy/Thriller) 
The world of unknowable objects --- magical items that most people have no idea possess powers --- has been quiet for decades. But the three current members of a secret society have remained watchful, meeting every six months in the basement of a bookshop in London. They are pledged to protect their archive of magical items hidden away, safe from the outside world --- and the world safe from them. But when Frank Simpson, the longest-standing member of the Society of Unknowable Objects, hears of a new artifact coming to light in Hong Kong, he sends Magda Sparks to investigate. Within hours of arriving in Hong Kong, Magda is confronted by a professional killer who seems to know all about unknowable objects, specifically one that was stolen from him a decade before. Magda is forced to flee, using an artifact that not even the rest of the Society knows about.
William Morrow | 9780063324039 

TOO OLD FOR THIS by Samantha Downing (Psychological Thriller)
Lottie Jones thought her crimes were behind her. Decades earlier, she changed her identity and tucked herself away in a small town. Her most exciting nights are the weekly bingo games at the local church and gossiping with her friends. When investigative journalist Plum Dixon shows up on her doorstep asking questions about Lottie’s past and specifically her involvement with numerous unsolved cases, well, Lottie just can’t have that. But getting away with murder is hard enough when you’re young. And when Lottie receives another annoying knock on the door, she realizes this crime just might be the death of her.
Berkley | 9780593101032 

THE VIOLET HOUR: A Lowcountry Tale by Victoria Benton Frank (Fiction)
Violet Adams is the perfect, youngest child in a family of loud, passionate women on Sullivan’s Island, South Carolina. As the sweet, traditional one, she’s always been the steady hand in her family. But after a sudden breakup and subsequent tragedy, she doesn’t know who she is anymore. Aly Knox, Violet’s best friend, is a young influencer still struggling with the loss of her mother and adjusting to joining Violet in Southern living. With her best friend’s help, Violet is determined to break out of her shell --- and who she thought she was --- no matter what. And what better place to look for success, meaning and possibly love than the Lowcountry of South Carolina?
Gallery Books | 9781668067796

WE ARE ALL GUILTY HERE by Karin Slaughter (Mystery/Thriller)
Welcome to North Falls, a small town where everyone knows everyone. Or so they think. Until the night of the fireworks. When two teenage girls vanish, and the town ignites. For Officer Emmy Clifton, it’s personal. She turned away when her best friend's daughter needed help --- and now she must bring her home. But as Emmy combs through the puzzle the girls left behind, she realizes she never really knew them. Nobody did. Every teenage girl has secrets. But who would kill for them? And what else is the town hiding?
William Morrow | 9780063336773

WHAT HUNGER by Catherine Dang (Horror)
The thought of her brother, Tommy, leaving for college fills Ronny Nguyen with dread, as she contemplates the quiet house she will be left alone in with her parents, Me and Ba. They rarely speak of their past in Vietnam, except through the lens of food. In the aftermath of the war, Me and Ba taught Ronny and Tommy that meat was a dangerous luxury, a symbol of survival that should never be taken for granted. But when tragedy strikes, Ronny's world is upended. Her sense of self and her understanding of her family are shattered. A few nights later, at her first high school party, a boy crosses the line, and Ronny is overtaken by a force larger than herself. This newfound power comes with an insatiable hunger for raw meat, a craving that is both a saving grace and a potential destroyer.
Simon & Schuster | 9781668065570

On Sale the Week of August 11th in Paperback

August 12th

THE BIG EMPTY: An Elvis Cole and Joe Pike Novel by Robert Crais (Thriller)
Traci Beller was 13 when her father disappeared in the sleepy town of Rancha, not far from Los Angeles. The evidence says Tommy Beller abandoned his family, but Traci never believed it. The police couldn't find her dad and neither could the detectives her mother hired. But now, 10 years later, Traci is a super-popular influencer with millions of followers and the money to hire a new detective: Elvis Cole. Elvis heads to Rancha where he learns that an ex-con named Sadie Givens and her daughter, Anya, might have a line on the missing man. But when Elvis finds himself shadowed by a deadly gang of vicious criminals, the simple missing persons case becomes far more sinister and dangerous. Elvis calls in his ex-Marine friend, Joe Pike, to help, but even Pike might not be able to help.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780525535775

THE DANCING FACE by Mike Phillips (Thriller)
Paperback Original
University lecturer Gus knows that stealing the priceless Benin mask, the Dancing Face, from a museum at the heart of the British establishment will gain an avalanche of attention. Which is exactly what he wants. But such a risky theft also will inevitably capture the attention of characters with more money, more power and fewer morals. Naively entangling his loved ones in his increasingly dangerous pursuit of righteous reparation, is Gus prepared for what it will cost him?
Melville House | 9781685891718

A DEATH IN DIAMONDS by SJ Bennett (Historical Mystery)
1957, England. Young Queen Elizabeth II is finding her way in postwar Europe, trying to repair friendships with foreign governments. Advised by her father's old courtiers, the Queen suspects that they may not have her best interests at heart. One of them is trying to sabotage her public appearances. That much she is sure of. When two bodies turn up in Chelsea, the Queen finds herself unwillingly used as the alibi for somebody very close to her. With the reputation of the monarchy at stake, Elizabeth knows she can't face these challenges alone. She needs support from someone she can trust. Therefore, she enlists the help of an ex-code breaker, Joan McGraw, to uncover the truth. But as Elizabeth and Joan are uncovering secrets from the past, the clock is ticking, and they are in more danger than they know.
Crooked Lane Books | 9798892423700

THE DIVORCE written by Moa Herngren, translated by Alice Menzies (Fiction)
Bea couldn't be more excited to trade the stifling Stockholm summer heat for vacation on Gotland Island. She’s looking forward to spending quality time with her beloved husband, Niklas, and their two moody teenage daughters. One night shortly before their departure, Bea and Niklas have a seemingly mundane argument over a trivial issue, and Niklas goes out with a friend to blow off steam. As the hours pass, Niklas doesn’t come home, and Bea’s irritation soon gives way to panic as she imagines what kind of disaster might have happened to delay his return. What she soon learns will change her life forever. While her husband is fine, their marriage is not. Her kind, gentle pediatrician husband wants to leave her. But while this might seem like sudden insanity to Bea, for Niklas, it’s anything but.
HarperVia | 9780063352384

FOR THE RECORD by Emma Lord (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Once the most notorious rivals in the music scene, pop princess Mackenzie Waters and punk rock star Sam Blaze electrified audiences as their bands clashed on stage. But behind the scenes, their simmering tension grew into something more --- until suddenly both bands fell apart, and the idea of Mackenzie and Sam did, too. Two years later, Sam has traded the rock star lifestyle for a quiet life raising the son he didn’t know about. Meanwhile, Mackenzie is dealing with a postoperative change in her voice by only singing under a pseudonym. The only way to revive their public careers? A joint comeback album. Sam and Mackenzie face their biggest challenge yet: giving up their old rivalry and learning to work together. But as old sparks fly and new secrets emerge, they set off a chain reaction neither of them could have anticipated.
St. Martin's Griffin | 9781250845320

THE HARVEY GIRLS by Juliette Fay (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Charlotte Crowninshield was born into one of the finest Boston society families. Now she’s on the run from a brutal husband. Billie MacTavish is the oldest of nine children born to Scottish immigrants in Nebraska. She quit school in the sixth grade to help with her mother’s washing and mending business, but even that isn’t enough to keep the family afloat. Desperate, both women join the ranks of the Harvey Girls, waitresses who serve in America’s first hospitality chain on the Santa Fe railroad. Hired on the same day, they share three things: a room, a heartfelt dislike of each other…and each has a secret that certainly will get them fired. But when they’re sent to work at the luxurious El Tovar hotel at the Grand Canyon, Billie struggles to hide her young age from would-be suitors, and Charlotte discovers the little-known dark side of the national park’s history.
Gallery Books | 9781668095065

THE HAUNTING OF HECATE CAVENDISH by Paula Brackston (Historical Fantasy)
England, 1881. Hereford Cathedral stands sentinel over the city, keeping its secrets, holding long-forgotten souls in its stony embrace. Hecate Cavendish speeds through the cobbled streets on her bicycle, heading for her new life as Assistant Librarian. But this is no ordinary collection of books. The cathedral houses an ancient chained library. The most prized artifact, however, is the medieval world map that hangs next to Hecate’s desk. Little does she know how much the curious people and mythical creatures depicted on it will come to mean to her. Nor does she suspect that there are lost souls waiting for her in the haunted cathedral. Some will become her dearest friends. Some will seek her help in finding peace. Others will put her in great peril and, as she quickly learns, threaten the lives of everyone she loves.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250865632

HERA by Jennifer Saint (Historical Fiction/Mythology)
When the immortal goddess Hera and her brother, Zeus, overthrow their tyrannical father, she dreams of ruling at Zeus' side. But as they establish their reign on Mount Olympus, Hera begins to see that Zeus is just as ruthless and cruel as the father they betrayed. While Zeus ascends, Hera is relegated to the role of wife and mother, a role she never wanted. She was always born to rule, but must she lose herself in perpetuating this cycle of violence and cruelty? Or can she find a way to forge a better world?
Flatiron Books | 9781250855619

HIGHWAY THIRTEEN: Stories by Fiona McFarlane (Fiction/Short Stories)
In the small town of Barrow, Australia, people go about their ordinary lives. They drive to work through the dense state forest. They raise their families. They flirt and yearn. They lie and confess. Some of them leave home. Some of them return. Darkness thrums beneath the surface of these ordinary lives: the violence of one man, a serial killer whose murders made Barrow infamous. His 12 victims are long gone, but their deaths are felt --- beyond the forest where they were buried, beyond this country, beyond even this time. In the past, where a young woman on a school trip to Rome sees something she shouldn’t have. In the present, where a man confronts an ancient grief on the suburban streets of Texas. In the future, in the hands of journalists, podcast hosts and television actors whose livelihoods hinge on the twin spectacles of loss and violence.
Picador | 9781250390448

HOW TO LEAVE THE HOUSE by Nathan Newman (Fiction/Humor)
It's Natwest's last day before he leaves for university, and there's only one thing on his mind: the deeply embarrassing package he ordered to his house --- which still hasn't arrived. He won't leave town without it. This is the story of 24 hours in the life of Natwest and his small-town odyssey in pursuit of the missing package. Yet it's also the story of a middle-aged dentist who dreams of being a respected artist --- but the only thing he can seem to paint is the human mouth. And it's the story of a tortured imam involved in a quasi-romantic entanglement with the local vicar; an octogenerian mourning the death of her secretive husband; and a troubled teenager whose nudes have leaked on the internet. It's the story of Natwest's obnoxious ex-boyfriend; his class-traitor mother and her childhood boyfriend; and the life-changing secrets he knows about Natwest's past.
Penguin Books | 9780593654927

THE HYPOCRITE by Jo Hamya (Fiction)
August 2020. Sophia, a young playwright, awaits her father’s verdict on her new show. A famous author whose novels haven’t aged as gracefully into the modern era as he might have hoped, he is completely unaware that the play centers on a vacation the two took years earlier to an island off Sicily, where he dictated to her a new book. Sophia’s play has been met with rave reviews, but her father has studiously avoided reading any of them. When the house lights dim, however, he understands that his daughter has laid him bare and used the events of their summer to create an incisive, witty, skewering critique of the attitudes and sexual mores of the men of his generation.
Vintage | 9780593686263

JUST ANOTHER DEAD AUTHOR by Katarina Bivald (Mystery)
Paperback Original
When mystery author Berit Gardner agrees to attend a writer's conference in the idyllic French countryside, she dreams of basking in the sun and nurturing budding talent. But her vacation takes a dark turn when the keynote speaker --- a notorious literary titan known for his biting critiques --- drops dead at the end of her lecture. As whispers of foul play swirl, Berit quickly realizes she's stepped into a tangled web of jealousy, betrayal and long-held grudges. Enter the French commissaire, who is less than thrilled to have a curious author meddling in her investigation. But as the suspects pile up, she reluctantly recognizes that Berit's sharp instincts could crack the case wide open. With a colorful cast of authors, agents and aspiring writers all hiding secrets, the stakes rise higher with every clue uncovered.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781728295794

MEN HAVE CALLED HER CRAZY: A Memoir by Anna Marie Tendler (Memoir)
In early 2021, popular artist Anna Marie Tendler checked herself into a psychiatric hospital following a year of crippling anxiety, depression and self-harm. Over two weeks, she underwent myriad psychological tests, participated in numerous therapy sessions, connected with fellow patients and experienced profound breakthroughs. In MEN HAVE CALLED HER CRAZY, Tendler recounts her hospital experience, as well as pivotal moments in her life that preceded and followed. As the title suggests, many of these moments are impacted by men --- unrequited love in high school; the 28-year-old she lost her virginity to when she was 16; the frustrations and absurdities of dating in her mid-30s; and her decision to freeze her eggs as all her friends were starting families.
Simon & Schuster | 9781668032350

MIDNIGHT BLACK: A Gray Man Novel by Mark Greaney (Thriller)
A winter sunrise over the great plains of Russia is no cause for celebration. The temperature barely rises above zero, and the guards at Penal Colony IK22 are determined to take their misery out on the prisoners --- chief among them, one Zoya Zakharova. Once a master spy for Russian foreign intelligence, then the partner and lover of the Gray Man, she has information the Kremlin wants, and they don't care what they have to do to get it. But if they think a thousand miles of frozen wasteland and the combined power of the Russian police state is enough to protect them, they don't know the Gray Man. He's coming, and no one's safe.
Berkley | 9780593548202

THE NATURE OF DISAPPEARING by Kimi Cunningham Grant (Thriller)
Emlyn doesn't let herself think about the past. How she and her best friend, Janessa, barely speak anymore. How Tyler, the love of her life, left her half dead on the side of the road three years ago. She now lives alone in her Airstream trailer and works as a fishing and hunting guide in scenic Idaho. Her closest friends are the community's makeshift reverend and a handsome Forest Service ranger. But when Tyler shows up with the news that Janessa is missing, Emlyn is propelled back into the world she worked so hard to forget. As Emlyn and Tyler trace Janessa's path through miles of wild country, Emlyn can't deny the chemistry still crackling between them. But the deeper they press into the wilderness, the more she begins to suspect that a darker truth lies in the woods --- and that Janessa isn't the only one in danger.
Minotaur Books | 9781250907639

PEGGY by Rebecca Godfrey with Leslie Jamison (Historical Fiction)
Venice, 1958. Peggy Guggenheim, heiress and now legendary art collector, sits in the sun at her white marble palazzo on the Grand Canal. She’s in a reflective mood, thinking back on her thrilling, tragic, nearly impossible journey from her sheltered, old-fashioned family in New York to here: iconoclast and independent woman. Rebecca Godfrey’s PEGGY is a blazingly fresh interpretation of a woman who defies every expectation to become an original. The daughter of two Jewish dynasties, Peggy finds her cloistered life turned upside down at 14, when her beloved father perishes on the Titanic. His death prompts Peggy to seek a life of passion and personal freedom and, above all, to believe in the transformative power of art.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780804169165

THE ROAD TO THE COUNTRY by Chigozie Obioma (Historical Fiction)
Set in Nigeria in the late 1960s, THE ROAD TO THE COUNTRY is the epic story of a shy, bookish student haunted by long-held guilt who must go to war to free himself. When his younger brother disappears as the country explodes in civil war, Kunle must set out on an impossible rescue mission. Kunle’s search for his brother becomes a journey of atonement that will see him conscripted into the breakaway Biafran army and forced to fight a war he hardly understands, all while navigating the prophecies of a local Seer, he who marks Kunle as an abami eda --- one who will die and return to life.
Hogarth | 9780593596982

SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE TELEGRAM FROM HELL: A World War I Adventure by Nicholas Meyer (Historical Mystery)
June, 1916. With a world war raging on the continent, exhausted John H. Watson, M.D. is operating on the wounded full-time when his labors are interrupted by a knock on his door, revealing Sherlock Holmes, with a black eye, a missing tooth and a cracked rib. The story he has to tell will set in motion a series of world-changing events in the most consequential case of the detective’s career. Amid rebellion in Ireland and revolution in Russia, Germany has a secret plan to win the war, and Sir William Melville of the British Secret Service dispatches the two aging friends to learn what the scheme is before it can be put into effect. In pursuit of a mysterious coded telegram sent from Berlin to an unknown recipient in Mexico, Holmes and Watson seek to foil the schemes of Holmes’ nemesis, the escaped German spymaster Von Bork.
Mysterious Press | 9781613166758

SOMEONE IN THE ATTIC by Andrea Mara (Domestic Thriller)
Anya is enjoying a relaxing bath when she hears a noise coming from the ceiling. Through the open bathroom door, she sees the attic hatch swing down, and a masked figure drops to the floor. Thirty seconds later, Anya is dead. Across town, Anya's old school friend, Julia, sees an online video of a masked figure climbing out of an attic. She suddenly realizes why the footage is eerily familiar: it was filmed inside her own house in a luxury gated community, designed to keep intruders out. Why would a stranger target Julia? Unless of course, it's not a stranger at all.
Penguin Books | 9780593832080

THE STRANGER AT THE WEDDING by A. E. Gauntlett (Mystery/Thriller)
Annie never much believed in love. That is, until meeting Mark. After crossing paths on morning commutes, they connect at a group counseling session for trauma survivors. Each recognizes something in the other, though both hide their own troubled pasts. It’s a whirlwind romance that propels Annie through their courtship, all the way to her wedding day. But as Annie stands at the altar, casting her eyes over the rows of well-wishers, she spots a stranger in the crowd, and she soon learns that her new life isn’t going to be the happily ever after that she had planned. Who is the stranger at the wedding? What really happened to Mark’s first wife? And was Annie and Mark’s meeting as random as it first appeared, or is something more sinister at work?
Holt Paperbacks | 9781250343345

TELL ME EVERYTHING by Elizabeth Strout (Fiction)
It’s autumn in Maine, and the town lawyer Bob Burgess has become enmeshed in an unfolding murder investigation, defending a lonely, isolated man accused of killing his mother. He also has fallen into a deep and abiding friendship with the acclaimed writer Lucy Barton, who lives down the road in a house by the sea with her ex-husband, William. Together, Lucy and Bob go on walks and talk about their lives, their fears and regrets, and what might have been. Lucy, meanwhile, is finally introduced to the iconic Olive Kitteridge, now living in a retirement community on the edge of town. They spend afternoons together in Olive’s apartment, telling each other stories. Stories about people they have known --- “unrecorded lives,” Olive calls them --- reanimating them, and, in the process, imbuing their lives with meaning.
Random House | 9780593446119

TILL DEATH DO US PART by Laurie Elizabeth Flynn (Domestic Thriller)
Ten years ago, June’s beloved husband, Josh, drowned on their honeymoon, and his body was never found. Now, a decade later, June is finally ready to move on. She owns a natural wine bar in Brooklyn and is engaged to a patient, supportive man named Kyle. But out of the blue, she sees Josh. Is this just a hallucination from the guilt June carries about finally moving on, or is it possible that he never died in the first place? Soon enough, she stumbles across a website for a winery in Napa, and the owner in the photo is identical to her dead husband. With her upcoming wedding looming, June secretly flies to Napa for answers. But she’s not prepared for all the secrets she’s about to unlock because everything she thought she knew about her first love is a lie.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982144692

THE UNRAVELING by Vi Keeland (Psychological Thriller/Romantic Suspense)
After experiencing a terrible loss, New York City psychiatrist Meredith McCall is painfully adrift. When she crosses paths with a man with whom she has a tragic connection, she follows him, sparking an unhealthy obsession with Gabriel Wright. But when Gabriel walks into her office as a patient, seemingly unaware of who she is, she knows it crosses all ethical and moral bounds to treat him. Yet Meredith can’t bring herself to turn him away and becomes further entangled. With her life and career continuing to unravel, it appears that things could not get any worse…until they do.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781668046869

WHAT TIME THE SEXTON’S SPADE DOTH RUST: A Flavia de Luce Novel by Alan Bradley (Historical Mystery)
Flavia de Luce has taken on the mentorship of her odious moon-faced cousin Undine, who has come to live at Buckshaw following the death of her mother. When Major Greyleigh, a local recluse and former hangman, is found dead after a breakfast of poisonous mushrooms, suspicion falls on the de Luce family’s longtime cook, Mrs. Mullet. After all, wasn’t it she who’d picked the mushrooms, cooked the omelet and served it to Greyleigh moments before his death? But Flavia knows she is innocent. Together with Dogger, estate gardener and partner-in-crime, and the obnoxious Undine, Flavia sets out to find the real killer and clear Mrs. Mullet’s good name. Little does she know that following the case’s twists and turns will lead her to a most surprising discovery --- one with the power to upend her entire life.
Bantam | 9780593724538

THE WILDES: A Novel in Five Acts by Louis Bayard (Historical Fiction)
In September 1892, Oscar Wilde and his family have retreated to the idyllic Norfolk countryside for a holiday. His wife, Constance, has every reason to be happy: two beautiful sons, her own work as an advocate for feminist causes, and a delightfully charming and affectionate husband and father to her children, who also happens to be the most sought-after author in England. But with the arrival of an unexpected houseguest, the aristocratic young poet Lord Alfred Douglas, Constance gradually --- and then all at once --- comes to see that her husband’s heart is elsewhere and that the growing intensity between the two men threatens the whole foundation of their lives.
Algonquin Books | 9781643755526

WOUNDS by Sara Blædel and Mads Peder Nordbo (Thriller)
Paperback Original
When a body is discovered in an abandoned building, Denmark police investigators Liam Stark and Dea Torp are called to the scene to investigate. They learn that the victim has several shallow wounds all over his body that were inflicted over the span of several weeks. With a pile of open cases, including two missing teenage girls, Liam and Dea are staggering under the weight of their already heavy caseload. Tension in town heats up when two more bodies are discovered with the same shallow wounds as the first victim, and their suspects list has dried up. Liam and Dea come to the alarming conclusion that they have another serial killer on their hands. And it’s only a matter of time before they strike again. As the investigation continues, Liam and Dea worry that the missing teens might be connected to the murders.
Crooked Lane Books | 9798892422727

Please visit the other websites in TheBookReportNetwork.com:
ReadingGroupGuides.com and AuthorsOnTheWeb.com.

And be sure to connect with us on Facebook, X, Instagram and YouTube.