September 9, 2025

September 9, 2025

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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of September 8th and September 15th 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 Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks feature for September, which includes Indie Next, LibraryReads, the Barnes & Noble Book Club, the "Good Morning America" Book Club, Oprah's Book Club, the PBS Books Readers Club, the "Read with Jenna" Book Club, Reese's Book Club, and the Target Book Club.

Join Us Tomorrow Afternoon!

Join Us Next Tuesday Evening!

This Week's Bonus News:
Our Favorite Monthly Lists & Picks for September

Upcoming Virtual Book and Author Events

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

Wednesday, September 10th at 2pm ET: “Bookaccino Live” Book Preview Afternoon Event: Carol Fitzgerald will present titles releasing between September 9th and September 30th, along with a few from the second half of October, plus November, that we would like to get on your radar. 

Wednesday, September 10th at 3pm ET: Barnes & Noble: Join Barnes & Noble as they welcome Mick Herron for a live virtual discussion of CLOWN TOWN, his ninth Slough House thriller, as part of their B&N Midday Mystery Virtual Event series. Mick will be in conversation with the bestselling author of THE SEVEN OR EIGHT DEATHS OF STELLA FORTUNA, Juliet Grames.

Wednesday, September 10th at 7pm ET: “Friends & Fiction”: Join “Friends & Fiction” for a conversation with Elin Hilderbrand and her daughter, Shelby Cunningham, about their novel, THE ACADEMY, which is the irresistible, deliciously scandalous story of one drama-filled year at a New England boarding school.

Sunday, September 14th at 3pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Jeffrey Archer will talk about his latest thriller, END GAME. William Warwick and Ross Hogan return, for one last time, in a gripping and unputdownable finale.

Monday, September 15th at 8pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Walter Mosley will talk about his latest thrilling mystery, GRAY DAWN. Detective Easy Rawlins has settled into the happy rhythm of his new life when a dark siren from his past returns and threatens to destroy the peace he's fought for.

Tuesday, September 16th at 8pm ET: "Bookaccino Live" Fall Preview Evening Event: Carol Fitzgerald will talk about a number of books releasing this fall that we think you will enjoy reading over the next few months. Included will be fiction; historical fiction; thrillers and mysteries; and memoirs, biographies and other nonfiction.

On Sale the Week of September 8th in Hardcover

September 9th

ACQUIRED TASTE by Clay McLeod Chapman (Horror/Short Stories)
A father returns from serving in Vietnam with a strange and terrifying addiction; a man removes something horrifying from his fireplace and becomes desperate to return it; and a right-wing news channel has its hooks in people in more ways than one. From department store Santas to ghost boyfriends and salamander-worshipping nuns; from the claustrophobia of the COVID-19 pandemic to small-town Chesapeake USA, Clay McLeod Chapman takes universal fears of parenthood, addiction and political divisions and makes them uniquely his own.
Titan Books | 9781835410783 

ALL THE WAY TO THE RIVER: Love, Loss, and Liberation by Elizabeth Gilbert (Memoir/Self-Help) 
In 2000, Elizabeth Gilbert met Rayya. They became friends, then best friends, then inseparable. When tragedy entered their lives, the truth was finally laid bare: The two were in love. They were also a pair of addicts, on a collision course toward catastrophe. What if your most beautiful love story turned into your biggest nightmare? What if the dear friend who taught you so much about your self-destructive tendencies became the unstable partner with whom you disastrously reenacted every one of them? And what if your most devastating heartbreak opened a pathway to your greatest awakening?
Riverhead Books | 9780593540985

ALL THIS COULD BE YOURS by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Psychological Thriller)
Debut sensation Tessa Calloway is on a whirlwind book tour for her instant bestseller, All This Could Be Yours. She receives standing ovations from adoring fans while her husband, Henry, and their two children cheer her on from their brand-new dream house. But there's a chilling problem with Tessa's triumphant book tour. She soon discovers she is being stalked by someone who's obsessed not only with sabotaging her career, but also with destroying her perfect family back home. Tessa fears that the fallout from an impossible decision she once made appears to be coming due. And she’s realizing that every high-stakes bargain comes with a high-stakes price. If Tessa can't untangle who's threatening to expose her darkest secrets, she'll lose her career, her family --- and possibly her life.
Minotaur Books | 9781250349996 

AMERICAN KINGS: A Biography of the Quarterback by Seth Wickersham
(Sports/Biography)
The quarterback: the American equivalent of royalty, long glamorized, mythologized and worshipped. Still, long before the Super Bowl trophies, massive contracts, brand deals and millions of social media followers comes the dream. From the backyard to Pop Warner, from high school to college, from the NFL to the Hall of Fame, becoming the country’s ultimate idol requires single-minded focus while navigating a maze of bad breaks, insecurities, jealousy, pressure and fame. Long known as the outsider’s guide into this elite world, Seth Wickersham’s fresh reporting goes deep into the quarterback journey, measuring the distance between what the men who have traveled it expected and what they found at the end of the road.
Hyperion Avenue | 9781368099189 

THE BOOK OF I by David Greig (Historical Fiction)
The year is 825 CE. In the aftermath of a vicious attack by raiders from the north, an unlikely trio finds themselves the lone survivors on a remote Scottish isle. Still breathing are young Brother Martin, the only resident of the local monastery to escape martyrdom; Una, a beekeeper and mead maker who has been relieved of her violent husband during the slaughter; and Grimur, an aging Norseman who claws his way out of the hasty grave his fellow raiders left him in, thinking him dead. As the seasons pass in this wild and lonely setting, their inherent distrust of each other melts into a complex meditation on the distances and bonds between them.
Europa Editions | 9798889661276 

THE BOOK OF SHEEN: A Memoir by Charles Sheen (Memoir)
Charlie Sheen should not be alive to write this book. But in THE BOOK OF SHEEN, the movie and TV star, who has defied the odds, finally presents his story, in his own words. Sheen broke into movies in the 1980s, playing a hoodlum in Ferris Bueller’s Day Off, a young soldier in Platoon, and an ethically compromised trader in Wall Street. But somewhere along the way, despite a successful transition to TV leading man in "Spin City" and "Two and a Half Men," he descended into a vortex of extracurricular activities. Now sober, Sheen delivers a clear-eyed narrative of his highs and lows with humor, candor, and a vivid, captivating writing style that is uniquely his. THE BOOK OF SHEEN reads like a far-fetched, overstuffed novel of Hollywood life --- yet it is all true.
Gallery Books | 9781668075289

CLIVE CUSSLER THE IRON STORM: An Isaac Bell Adventure by Jack Du Brul (Historical Thriller/Adventure)
Van Dorn agent Isaac Bell knows that when the President of the United States asks you to undertake a special mission, the only appropriate answer is “Right away, sir.” After battling in the trenches, Bell finds himself flying beside a group of Allied aviators, unwilling to let them fight alone, even when they are faced with capture. Bell and his compatriots are imprisoned in a medieval castle. Escape lies tantalizingly close, though freedom may be short-lived. Even in the middle of a world war, Bell finds there are forces worse than those arrayed against the Americans on the battlefield. Opponents who are so evil that they are willing to set aside whatever rules of war still exist to take the fight to where they think it belongs: the streets of the United States. And there’s only one man who can stop them: Isaac Bell.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593853566 

CLOWN TOWN by Mick Herron (Thriller)
David Cartwright has left his library to the Spooks’ College in Oxford, and now one of the books is missing. Or perhaps it never existed. River, once a “slow horse” of Slough House, MI5’s outpost for demoted and disgraced spies, starts investigating the secrets of his grandfather’s library. Over at the Park, MI5 First Desk Diana Taverner is in a pickle. An operation carried out during the height of the Troubles laid bare the ugly side of state security, and those involved are threatening to expose details. But every threat hides an opportunity, and Taverner has come up with a scheme. Jackson Lamb, the enigmatic and odiferous head of Slough House, has no plans to send in the clowns. On the other hand, if the clowns ignore his instructions, any harm that befalls them is hardly his fault. But they’re his clowns. And if they don’t all make it home, there will be a reckoning.
Soho Crime | 9781641297264 

CONFRONTING EVIL: Assessing the Worst of the Worst by Bill O'Reilly and Josh Hammer (History)
The concept of evil is universal, ancient and ever present today. The biblical book of Genesis clearly defines it when Cain kills his brother, Abel, out of jealousy. Evil is a choice to make another suffer. As long as human beings have walked, evil has been close by. CONFRONTING EVIL by Bill O'Reilly and Josh Hammer recounts the deeds of the worst people in history: Genghis Khan. The Roman Emperor Caligula. Henry VIII. The collective evil of the 19th-century slave traders and the 20th-century robber barons. Stalin. Hitler. Mao. The Ayatollah Khomeini. Putin. The Mexican drug cartels. Collectively, these warlords, tyrants, businessmen and criminals are directly responsible for the death and misery of hundreds of millions of people.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250374042 

CROOKS: A Novel About Crime and Family by Lou Berney (Thriller)
For Buddy, a low-level mob wise guy, and Lillian, a charming pickpocket, the criminal underworld is the only life they’ve ever known. When they’re forced to flee the glittering Babylon of Las Vegas, they end up opening a club in Oklahoma City --- a town that quickly feels like a gold mine of fresh marks and easy new money. Along for the ride are their five children, all of them raised into the family business of crime --- until the day comes when they each have a chance to make their own way in the world, even if they can never completely escape the family’s long, dark shadow.
William Morrow | 9780063445574 

DARK RENAISSANCE: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare's Greatest Rival by Stephen Greenblatt (Biography)
In repressive Elizabethan England, artists are frightened into dull conventionality; foreigners are suspect; popular entertainment largely consists of coarse spectacles, animal fights and hangings. Into this crude world of government censorship and religious authoritarianism comes an ambitious cobbler’s son from Canterbury with a daring desire to be known --- and an uncanny ear for Latin poetry. For Christopher Marlowe, it’s a secret portal to beauty, visionary imagination, transgressive desire and dangerous skepticism. What Marlowe seizes in his rare opportunity for a classical education brings about a spectacular explosion of English literature, language and culture. His astonishing literary success will nourish the talent of a collaborator and rival, William Shakespeare. DARK RENAISSANCE illuminates both Marlowe’s times and the origins and significance of his work.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9780393882278 

THE DEEPEST CUT: A Monkeewrench Novel by P. J. Tracy (Thriller)
Minneapolis homicide detectives Leo Magozzi and Gino Rolseth arrest a sadistic pair of killers for the murder of several women with the help of Monkeewrench, their eccentric, cyber-sleuth friends and partners. One of the killers dies in custody, and the other, Wolfgang Mauer, is sent to a maximum-security mental hospital. There, Mauer plots his escape --- and his vengeance. With the help of his mother, a former militia leader and assassin, he schemes to get out of the mental hospital and hunt down the detectives and the Monkeewrench crew that got him a life sentence. When Mauer successfully escapes, an inexperienced county sheriff is thrown head-first into a massive manhunt for the murderer. When she finds three bodies and discovers that Mauer has kidnapped a young boy, she realizes that Mauer’s escape was just the beginning.
Crooked Lane Books | 9781639108770 

AN ECHO OF CHILDREN by Ramsey Campbell (Supernatural Horror/Psychological Thriller)
Coral and Allan Clarendon have just moved to the seaside town of Barnwall with their young son, Dean. If an uncommon number of children have died unnaturally in Barnwall throughout history, surely Dean must be safe with his parents. Could their house be a source of peril? Allan and Coral seem to think so, since they call for an exorcism. Allan’s father, Thom, believes his wife is wrong to think the ceremony has left Dean in worse danger. But if she’s alone in seeing the terrors that are gathering around him, how desperate will her solution have to be?
Flame Tree Press | 9781787589780 

THE ELEMENTS by John Boyne (Fiction)
In THE ELEMENTS, acclaimed Irish novelist John Boyne has created an epic saga that weaves together four interconnected narratives, each representing a different perspective on crime: the enabler, the accomplice, the perpetrator and the victim. The narrative follows a mother on the run from her past, a young soccer star facing a trial, a successful surgeon grappling with childhood trauma, and a father on a transformative journey with his son. Each is somehow connected to the next, and as the story unfolds, their lives intersect in unimaginable ways.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250410368 

HOT WAX by M.L. Rio (Thriller)
Summer, 1989: Ten-year-old Suzanne is drawn like a magnet to her father’s forbidden world of electric guitars and tricked-out cars. When her mother remarries, she jumps at the chance to tag along on the concert tour that just might be Gil and the Kills’ wild ride to glory. But as the band blazes up the charts, internal power struggles set Gil and his group on a collision course destined for a bloody reckoning --- one shrouded in mystery and lore for decades to come. The only witness to a desperate act of violence, Suzanne spends the next 29 years trying to disappear. She trades the music and mayhem of her youth for the quiet of the suburbs and the company of her mild-mannered husband, Rob. But when her father’s sudden death resurrects the troubled past she tried so hard to bury, she leaves it all behind and hits the road in search of answers.
Simon & Schuster | 9781668070024

LIFE, AND DEATH, AND GIANTS by Ron Rindo (Fiction/Magical Realism)
Gabriel Fisher was born an orphan, weighing 18 pounds and measuring 27 inches long. No one in Lakota, Wisconsin, knows what to make of him. He walks at eight months, communicates with animals, and seems to possess extraordinary athletic talent. But when the older brother who has been caring for him dies, Gabriel is taken in by his devout Amish grandparents who disapprove of all the attention and hide him away from the English world. But it’s hard to hide forever when you’re nearly eight feet tall. At 17, Gabriel is spotted working in a hay field by the local football coach. What happens next transforms not only Gabriel’s life but the lives of everyone he meets.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250375339 

MAKE ME COMMISSIONER: I Know What's Wrong with Baseball and How to Fix It by Jane Leavy (Sports)
As a pioneering female sportswriter, Jane Leavy eventually turned her talent to books, penning three of the all-time best baseball biographies about three of the all-time best players: Sandy Koufax, Mickey Mantle and Babe Ruth. But when she went searching for a fourth biographical subject, she realized that baseball had faltered. The Moneyball era of the last two decades obsessed over data and slowed the game down to a crawl. Major League Baseball has begun to address issues too long ignored, yet the questions linger: How much have these efforts helped to improve the game and reassert its place in American culture? Leavy takes a whirlwind tour of the country seeking answers to these questions. What she uncovers is not only what’s wrong with baseball --- and how to fix it --- but also what’s right with baseball.
Grand Central Publishing | 9780306834660 

THE MYSTERIOUS CASE OF THE MISSING CRIME WRITER by Ragnar Jónasson (Mystery)
One winter evening, bestselling crime author Elín S. Jónsdóttir goes missing. There are no clues to her disappearance, and it is up to young detective Helgi to crack the case before its leaked to the press. As Helgi interviews the people closest to her --- a publisher, an accountant, a retired judge --- he realizes that Elín’s life wasn’t what it seemed. In fact, her past is even stranger than the fiction she wrote. As the case of the missing crime writer becomes more mysterious by the hour, Helgi must uncover the secrets of the writer's very unexpected life.
Minotaur Books | 9781250408266 

ONE OF THEM by Kitty Zeldis (Historical Fiction)
Anne Bishop seems like a typical Vassar sophomore --- one of a popular group of privileged WASP friends. None of the girls in her circle has any idea that she’s Jewish, or that her real first name is Miriam. Pretending to be a Gentile has made life easier. As Anne, she no longer suffers the snubs, snide remarks and daily restrictions Jews face. But her secret life is threatened when she becomes fascinated by a girl not in her crowd. Delia Goldhush is sophisticated, stylish, brilliant and unashamedly Jewish. Knowing that her growing closeness with Delia would be social suicide if it were discovered, Anne keeps their friendship quiet. Delia seems to understand --- until a cruelty on Anne’s part drives them apart and sends them scattering to other corners of the world, alone and together.
Harper | 9780063352841 

PLAY NICE by Rachel Harrison (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
Clio Louise Barnes leads a picture-perfect life as a stylist and influencer, but beneath the glossy veneer she harbors a not-so glamorous secret: she grew up in a haunted house. Well, not haunted. Possessed. After Clio’s parents' messy divorce, her mother, Alex, moved Clio and her sisters into a house occupied by a demon. Or so Alex claimed. That’s not what Clio’s sisters remember or what the courts determined when they stripped her of custody after she went off the deep end. But Alex was insistent; she even wrote a book about her experience in the house. After Alex’s sudden death, the supposedly possessed house passes to Clio and her sisters. Where her sisters see childhood trauma, Clio sees an opportunity for house-flipping content. But as the home makeover process begins, Clio discovers there might be some truth to her mother’s claims.
Berkley | 9780593642573 

REACHER: The Stories Behind the Stories by Lee Child (Memoir/Essays)
After making his debut in 1997’s THE KILLING FLOOR, Jack Reacher has quickly become one of the most popular --- and most enduring --- fictional heroes to emerge in the past half-century. Now, his creator tells the stories behind the stories. These are the origin tales of all of the Reacher novels written solely by Lee Child, chock full of colorful anecdotes and intriguing inspirations. An afterword by crime fiction expert and bookseller Otto Penzler considers the importance of the character and novels in the canon of contemporary crime fiction. In addition to the essays, this collection includes an original Reacher short story --- the first new Reacher appearance entirely written by Lee Child since 2019.
Mysterious Press | 9781613167069 

THE RIGHTEOUS by Ronald H. Balson (Historical Fiction)
By the end of 1943, nearly all of Europe’s Jewish population had fled, been deported, captured or killed by Hitler. Only Hungary, and its almost 900,000 Jews, remained free from Hitler’s subjugation. They lived under government edicts and restrictions but without fear of harm. That changed in March 1944, after the Nazi defeat at Stalingrad, as an avaricious Hitler conquered Hungary and declared his plan for mass extermination of the Jewish people. In THE RIGHTEOUS, Theresa Weissbach, a professor, hasn’t heard from her parents in Budapest for over a year. Her best friend, Julia Powers, who recently was awarded a Distinguished Service Medal for her OSS service in occupied Holland, joins her to locate and rescue Theresa’s family. While there, they become involved in a much larger cause, trying to save as many people as they can.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250373083

RIPENESS by Sarah Moss (Fiction)
Just out of school, Edith has been sent from her quiet English life to rural Italy. It is the 1960s, and her mother has issued strict instructions: tend to her sister, ballet dancer Lydia, in the final weeks of her scandalous pregnancy; help at the birth; and make a phone call that will summon the nuns who will spirit the child away to a new home. Decades later, a happily divorced Edith has made a life of contentment and comfort in Ireland. Then her best friend, Maebh, receives a shocking phone call from an American man. He claims to be a brother she never knew existed: a child her mother gave up and never spoke of again. As Edith helps her friend reckon with this new idea of family and how it might change her life, her thoughts turn back to Lydia and her own fractured history.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374609016 

THE SECRET OF SECRETS by Dan Brown (Thriller)
Robert Langdon, esteemed professor of symbology, travels to Prague to attend a groundbreaking lecture by Katherine Solomon --- a prominent noetic scientist with whom he recently has begun a relationship. Katherine is on the verge of publishing an explosive book that contains startling discoveries about the nature of human consciousness and threatens to disrupt centuries of established belief. But a brutal murder catapults the trip into chaos, and Katherine suddenly disappears along with her manuscript. Langdon finds himself targeted by a powerful organization and hunted by a chilling assailant sprung from Prague’s most ancient mythology. In a thrilling race through the dual worlds of futuristic science and mystical lore, Langdon uncovers a shocking truth about a secret project that will forever change the way we think about the human mind.
Doubleday | 9780385546898

THE UNEXPECTED JOURNEY: Finding Strength, Hope, and Yourself on the Caregiving Path by Emma Heming Willis (Memoir/Inspiration)
The day Emma Heming Willis’ husband, Bruce Willis, was diagnosed with frontotemporal dementia (FTD), all they were given was a pamphlet and told to check back in a few months. With no hope or direction, Emma walked out of that doctor’s appointment frozen with fear, confusion and a sense that her world had just fallen apart. In fact, it had. Bruce and Emma had their story written, their future mapped out. Yet all those dreams crumbled with that diagnosis, and Emma felt alone and more isolated than ever. With THE UNEXPECTED JOURNEY, Emma has written the book she wishes she’d been handed on the day of Bruce’s diagnosis: a supportive guide to navigating the complicated, heartbreaking and transformative experience that is caregiving for your loved one.
The Open Field | 9780593833940

YOU WEREN'T MEANT TO BE HUMAN by Andrew Joseph White
(Science Fiction/Horror)
Festering masses of worms and flies have taken root in dark corners across Appalachia. In exchange for unwavering loyalty and fresh corpses, these hives offer a few struggling humans salvation. A fresh start. It’s an offer that none refuse. Crane is grateful. Among his hive’s followers, Crane has found a chance to transition, to never speak again, to live a life that won’t destroy him. He even met Levi: a handsome ex-Marine and brutal killer who treats him like a real man, mostly. But when Levi gets Crane pregnant --- and the hive demands the child’s birth, no matter the cost --- Crane’s desperation to make it stop will drive the community that saved him into a devastating spiral that can only end in blood.
S&S/Saga Press | 9781668038079

On Sale the Week of September 8th in Paperback

September 9th

AND THEN? AND THEN? WHAT ELSE? by Daniel Handler, aka Lemony Snicket (Memoir)
Writing as Lemony Snicket, Daniel Handler has led several generations of young readers into that special and curious space of being hopelessly lost, and joyfully finding yourself, in the essential strangeness of literature. The wondrous and perilous journey of the Baudelaire orphans sprung from the author’s own path, from his childhood discovery of Baudelaire’s poetry through the countless peculiarities of his pursuit of a literary life --- abject failure and startling success, breakthrough and breakdown, concordance and controversy --- lit along the way by the books and culture he loved best. AND THEN? AND THEN? WHAT ELSE? is a book not just for anyone curious about the creator of Lemony Snicket, but for anyone who loved books when they were a child and still loves them now.
Liveright | 9781324097068

BELLEVUE by Robin Cook (Medical Thriller/Horror)
Twenty-three-year-old Michael “Mitt” Fuller starts his surgical residency with great anticipation at the iconic Bellevue Hospital, following in the footsteps of four previous, celebrated Fuller generations. To his advantage he’s always had a secret sixth sense, a sensitivity to the nonphysical. But quickly one patient after another assigned to his care begin to die from mysterious causes. As he tries to juggle these inexplicable deaths with the demands of being a first-year resident, things rapidly spiral out of control. Visions begin to plague Mitt --- visions of a little girl in a bloodstained dress, bloodcurdling screams in the distance, and worse. As bodies mount, he finds himself drawn to the abandoned Bellevue Psychopathic Hospital building and discovers that he’s more closely tied to the sins of the past than he ever thought possible.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780593718841

BONE OF THE BONE: Essays on America by a Daughter of the Working Class by Sarah Smarsh (Essays)
In BONE OF THE BONE, National Book Award finalist Sarah Smarsh brings her graceful storytelling and incisive critique to the challenges that define our times --- class division, political fissures, gender inequality, environmental crisis, media bias, the rural-urban gulf. Smarsh, a journalist who grew up on a wheat farm in Kansas and was the first in her family to graduate from college, has long focused on cultural dissonance that many in her industry neglected until recently. Now, this thought-provoking collection of more than 30 of her highly relevant, previously published essays from the past decade (2013–2024) --- ranging from personal narratives to news commentary --- demonstrates a life and a career steeped in the issues that affect our collective future.
Scribner | 9781668061848

THE BURIAL TIDE by Neil Sharpson (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
Paperback Original
On an eerily quiet island off the coast of Ireland, a woman with no memory claws her way out of her grave and back to life. But not everyone welcomes the return of Mara Fitch. Inishbannock. Where strange misshapen figures watch from the trees and the roads are covered in teeth. Where two brothers gamble for nothing, the doctor only treats one patient, and the pub owner speaks in riddles. Where a poet loses and finds his soul. And a man without a heart claims he's the key to unlocking Mara's secrets. As Mara returns to her life on this upside-down island, her memories begin to leech their way back to the surface. The more she remembers, the more the village will do anything to stop her.
Zando | 9781638932024

THE CITY AND ITS UNCERTAIN WALLS written by Haruki Murakami, translated by Philip Gabriel (Fiction/Magical Realism)
When a young man’s girlfriend mysteriously vanishes, he is heartbroken --- and determined to find the imaginary town where he suspects she has taken up residence. Thus begins a lifelong search that takes the man into middle age, to a job in a remote library with mysteries of its own, and on a journey between the real world and this otherworld: a shadowless city where unicorns roam and willow trees grow. There he finds his beloved working in a different library --- a dream library. But she has no memory of their life together. And as the seasons pass and the man grows more uncertain about the porous boundaries between these two worlds, he must decide what he is willing to lose.
Vintage | 9780593687840

DEVILS KILL DEVILS by Johnny Compton (Gothic Thriller/Horror)
Sarita has been watched over by a guardian angel her entire life. She calls him Angelo and keeps him a secret. But secrets can’t stay buried forever. When Angelo murders someone she loves, Sarita begins to see what's really been lurking in the shadows surrounding her. And she will have to embrace the evil within if she hopes to make it out alive.
Tor Nightfire | 9781250861658

A FIRE IN THE SKY by Sophie Jordan (Fantasy/Romance)
Dragon fire no longer blisters the skies over Penterra, but inside the lavish palace, life is still perilous, especially for Tamsyn. Raised in the glittering court alongside the princesses, it's her duty to be punished for their misdeeds. Treated as part of the royal family but also as the lowliest servant, Tamsyn fits nowhere. Her only friend is Stig, Captain of the Guard, though sometimes she thinks he wants more than friendship. When Fell, the Beast of the Borderlands, descends on her home, Tamsyn’s world becomes even more dangerous. To save the pampered princesses from a fate worse than death, she is commanded to don a veil and marry the brutal warrior. She agrees to the deception even though it means leaving Stig, and the only life she’s ever known, behind. The wedding night begins with unexpected passion --- and ends in near violence when her trickery is exposed.
Avon | 9780063391536

FIRST DO NO HARM by Joe Kenda (Mystery)
A string of overdoses in Colorado Springs has Detectives Joe Kenda and Lee Wilson on the lookout for a bad batch of heroin that has been cut with a drug they've never seen before. Meanwhile, at Springs General Hospital, Dr. Blair Moreland --- the notoriously unpleasant head anesthesiologist --- has found a way to feed his deepening addiction to the very same powerful new drug: Fentanyl. But when Dr. Moreland starts supplying the dangerous painkiller to dealer Lula Lopez --- planning to manufacture the drug himself --- he angers a Mexican crime syndicate and sets into motion a cycle of death and violence that threatens to engulf the entire city. Detectives Kenda and Wilson must track down the source of this killer heroin before anyone else can overdose --- and stop Moreland before he can escape the long arm of the law.
Blackstone Publishing | 9798228396234

THE GRAVE ARTIST by Jeffery Deaver and Isabella Maldonado (Thriller)
Paperback Original
A wedding reception is coming to a close in the Hollywood Hills when the blissful day is shattered by the death of one of the newlyweds. Though the incident appears to be an accident, Homeland Security Investigations agent Carmen Sanchez and her partner, security expert Jake Heron, discover that the tragedy is the third in a series of similar deaths and conclude something far more sinister is at play. The two uncover chilling evidence pointing to a serial killer who has taken evil to the next level. Dubbed the Honeymoon Killer, this man isn’t interested in his victims but in creating his own macabre masterpiece from their graves --- focused on the survivors and reveling in their grief. And now his dark obsession has turned to Carmen and Jake. Time is running out as a deadly game between predator and prey begins.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781662518737

THE GREAT HIPPOPOTAMUS HOTEL: No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (25) by Alexander McCall Smith (Mystery)
In the rolling hills just outside Gaborone, surrounded by a grove of acacia trees, lies The Great Hippopotamus Hotel. With spacious rooms overlooking the Botswanan countryside and a fine and loyal staff, the hotel has served as a refuge to weary travelers for many years. But a sudden string of misfortunes threatens to ruin the hotel’s reputation. Food poisoning befalls an unlucky diner, laundry mysteriously disappears from the drying line, and a scorpion stings one of the guests. It appears that something foul is afoot. Mma Ramotswe and Mma Makutsi are on the case to find out who could be responsible for these unfortunate events. The answer at first seems clear, especially when they find out that Violet Sephotho is involved. But as they dig deeper, they realize that the solution is not as simple as it initially seems.
Vintage | 9780593688762

I MIGHT BE IN TROUBLE by Daniel Aleman (Fiction/Dark Humor)
A few years ago, David Alvarez had it all: a six-figure book deal, a loving boyfriend and an exciting writing career. His debut novel was a resounding success, which made the publication of his second book --- a total flop --- all the more devastating. Now, David is single and desperately trying to come up with the next great idea for his third manuscript. When David connects with a sexy stranger on a dating app, he figures a wild night out in New York City may be just what he needs to find inspiration. Lucky for him, his date turns out to be handsome, confident and wealthy. After one of the best nights of his life, David wakes up hungover but giddy --- only to find prince charming dead next to him in bed. He and his literary agent, Stacey, must untangle the events of the previous night, cover their tracks and spin the entire misadventure into David’s career-defining novel.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538766354

IF I WERE YOU by Cesca Major (Romantic Comedy)
Amy and Flynn have been dating for two years. And they love each other. Don’t they? Only Amy can’t read Flynn’s mind, and Flynn can’t read Amy’s. Little do they know this weekend is make or break. Amy’s nervous older sister is getting married at the world’s swankiest wedding venue in rural Devon and is relying on her younger sister to be the perfect Chief Bridesmaid. Frustrations on the way to the wedding escalate until both Amy and Flynn are shouting at each other in a country lane during a thunderstorm. Why can’t they see things from the other’s point of view? When lightning strikes, Flynn and Amy are thrown to the ground. And they soon realize that they’ve switched bodies. But when they each discover big secrets in the other’s past, can their relationship survive?
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063240025

LAURYN HARPER FALLS APART by Shauna Robinson (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Lauryn Harper had a plan. A high-achieving, perfectly constructed, eight-year plan. But after a (totally blown out of proportion) mishap at work, that plan is put to the test. As punishment for her mistake, she is transferred to the Ryser charity department, a branch that just so happens to be located in the hometown she abandoned long ago --- and that her powerful corporate employer is responsible for running into the ground. Horrified at the thought of returning and facing those she left behind, Lauryn quickly comes up with a new plan: impress her boss enough that she's briskly whisked back to her big city life. However, it soon becomes clear that sticking to plans isn't that simple, especially when her ex-best friend enters the charity department demanding they help revitalize the town.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781728268712

THE MEDICI RETURN: A Cotton Malone Novel by Steve Berry (Thriller)
Cotton Malone is on the hunt for a forgotten 16th-century Pledge of Christ --- a sworn promise made by Pope Julius II that evidences a monetary debt owed by the Vatican, still valid after five centuries --- now worth in the trillions of dollars. But collecting that debt centers on what happened to the famed Medici of Florence --- a family that history says died out, without heirs, centuries ago. Who will become the next prime minister of Italy, and who will be the next pope? Finding answers proves difficult until Cotton realizes that everything hinges on when, and if, the Medici return.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538770580

PITCHER PERFECT by Tessa Bailey (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Boston Bearcats rookie Robbie Corrigan has made it to the NHL. Life is sweet. That is, until he meets Skylar Paige --- a division 1 softball pitcher, the girl least likely to take anyone’s bull…and the one member of the opposite sex immune to his charms. When he discovers she’s carrying a serious torch for her brother’s best friend, Robbie knows he should just go back to clubbing and whipped cream bikini parties, but he can’t seem to leave Skylar to flounder on her romantic quest to land another man. Nor can he miss out on the opportunity to spend time with her and hopefully redeem himself. Before Robbie knows it, he’s agreed to be Skylar’s fake boyfriend/love coach at an upcoming family wilderness competition where her crush will be in attendance. What could go wrong?
Avon | 9780063380837

SCAR THE SKY by J. Todd Scott (Thriller)
Paperback Original
Everything changed for Andi Ellis when she was struck by lightning and her heart stopped. Andi was resuscitated, but she was never the same as electronics strangely malfunction in her presence. And while many lightning strike victims are left with temporary "lightning tree" markings, on her they are permanent scars. Years later, Andi, her eight-year-old daughter, and a fellow lightning strike survivor have fled Texas and Andi’s dangerous ex to go off the grid in a strange and secluded desert community. Meanwhile, two private investigators pursue a US senator's missing daughter who they find too late. When searching for information on the strange lightning scars on the girl's body, they find themselves pulled into an FBI investigation as people who have been struck by lightning are being murdered.
Crooked Lane Books | 9798892423168

A SUNNY PLACE FOR SHADY PEOPLE: Stories written by Mariana Enriquez, translated by Megan McDowell (Literary Horror/Short Stories)
Welcome to Argentina and the fascinating, frightening, fantastical imagination of Mariana Enriquez. In 12 spellbinding new stories, Enriquez writes about ordinary people, especially women, whose lives turn inside out when they encounter terror, the surreal and the supernatural. A neighborhood nuisanced by ghosts, a family whose faces melt away, a faded hotel haunted by a girl who dissolved in the water tank on the roof, a riverbank populated by birds that used to be women --- these and other tales illuminate the shadows of contemporary life, where the line between good and evil no longer exists.
Hogarth | 9780593733271

TWO-STEP DEVIL by Jamie Quatro (Fiction)
In 2014, in Lookout Mountain, Alabama, the Prophet --- a 70-year-old man who paints his visions --- lives off the grid in a cabin near the Georgia border. While scrounging for materials at the local scrapyard, the Prophet sees a car pull up to an abandoned gas station. In the back seat is a teenage girl with zip ties on her wrists, a girl he realizes he must rescue from her current life. Her name is Michael, and the Prophet feels certain that she is a messenger sent by God to take his end-time warnings to the White House. Michael finds herself in the Prophet’s remote, art-filled cabin, and as their uncertain dynamic evolves into tender friendship, she is offered a surprising opportunity to escape her past --- and perhaps change her future.
‎Grove Press | 9780802165428

THE WOMEN BEHIND THE DOOR by Roddy Doyle (Fiction)
At 66, Paula Spencer --- mother, grandmother, widow, addict, survivor --- has finally started to live her life. She has a job at the dry cleaners she enjoys, her boyfriend Joe is a text away when she needs him, and her four children now have the healthy families and petty dramas that Paula could have only hoped for. But then, her eldest, Nicola, turns up on her doorstep one day. Nicola is everything Paula wasn’t --- independent, affluent, a loving wife and mother, a “success” --- but now she is suddenly determined to leave it all behind. She has left her family and come to stay. As Nicola gradually confides in Paula the secret that unleashed this moment of crisis, mother and daughter must untangle past memory, trauma and revelations to confront what they mean to each other --- and who they want to be.
Penguin Books | 9780593831700

On Sale the Week of September 15th in Hardcover

September 16th

THE ACADEMY by Elin Hilderbrand and Shelby Cunningham (Fiction)
It’s move-in day at Tiffin Academy, and America Today just ranked Tiffin the number-two boarding school in the country. It’s a 17-spot jump. Was there a typo? The dorms need to be renovated, their sports teams always come in last place, and let’s just say Tiffin students are known for being more social than academic. On the other hand, the campus is exquisite, and they do have fun with lots of parties and school dances. But just as the rarefied air of Tiffin is suffused with self-congratulation, the wheels begin to turn --- and then they fall off the bus. One by one, scandalous blind items begin to appear on phones across Tiffin’s campus, thanks to a new app called ZipZap, and nobody is safe. As the year unfolds, bonds are forged and broken, secrets are shared and exposed, and the lives of Tiffin’s students and staff are changed forever.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316567855 

AMONG THE BURNING FLOWERS by Samantha Shannon (Fantasy)
It has been centuries since the Draconic Army took wing, almost extinguishing humankind. Marosa Vetalda is a prisoner in her own home, controlled by her cold father, King Sigoso. Over the mountains, her betrothed, Aubrecht Lievelyn, rules Mentendon in all but name. Together, they intend to usher in a better world. A better world seems impossibly distant to Estina Melaugo, who hunts the Draconic beasts that have slept across the world for centuries. And now the great wyrm Fýredel is stirring, and Yscalin will be the first to fall.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781639736010 

BRADY VS. BELICHICK: The Dynasty Debate by Gary Myers (Sports)
The greatest dynasty in NFL history stood on two pillars: Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. Together they forged a working relationship that provided thrilling results that would change the NFL forever. But what was the nature of that relationship? How did these two figures come together on a national --- and global --- stage and create the most dominant team in the NFL? The answer is more complex and more fraught than anyone really understands. Brady vs. Belichick: Who deserves the credit for nine Super Bowl appearances and six Super Bowl championships? Gary Myers draws on his unique and unparalleled access to Belichick and Brady, but also to the myriad players, coaches, personnel and family, to get to the bottom of this argument and resolve it once and for all.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250381194 

EXILES by Mason Coile (Science Fiction/Mystery & Horror)
The human crew sent to prepare the first colony on Mars arrives to find the new base half-destroyed and the three robots sent to set it up in disarray. The machines have formed alliances, chosen their own names, and picked up some disturbing beliefs. Each must be interrogated. But one of them is missing. In this barren, hostile landscape where even machines have nightmares, the astronauts will need to examine all the stories --- especially their own --- to get to the truth.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593851630 

FIEND by Alma Katsu (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
The Berisha family runs one of the largest import-export companies in the world, and they’ve always been lucky. Their rivals suffer strokes. Inconvenient buildings catch on fire. Earthquakes swallow up manufacturing plants, destroying harmful evidence. Things always seem to work out for the Berishas. They’re blessed. At least that is what Zef, the patriarch, has always told his three children. And each of them knows their place in the family. But when things stop going as planned, and the family blessing starts looking more like a curse, the Berishas begin to splinter, each hatching their own secret scheme. They didn’t get to be one of the richest families in the world without spilling a little blood, but this time, it might be their own.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593714348 

GOOD AND EVIL AND OTHER STORIES written by Samanta Schweblin, translated by Megan McDowell (Fiction/Short Stories)
The characters of GOOD AND EVIL find themselves at a point of no return, dazzled by the glare of impending tragedy. Vulnerable and profoundly human, they become trapped in the instant in which the uncanny has lurched into their lives. Some are transformed, some are isolated, others waver between guilt or tenderness. All of them are riven by uncertainty. Samanta Schweblin’s prose uses tension and truth to construct a literary universe in which the monsters of everyday life come so close to us that we can almost feel their breath. Her writing provokes awe and disquiet, a state of alarm that at the same time transports us to a hypnotic world as recognizable as it is strange.
Knopf | 9780593803103 

GRAY DAWN: An Easy Rawlins Mystery by Walter Mosley (Mystery)
The name Easy Rawlins stirs excitement in the hearts of readers and fear in the hearts of his foes. His success has bought him a thriving detective agency, with its first female detective; a remote home, shared with children and pets and lovers, high atop the hills overlooking gritty Los Angeles; and more trouble, more problems and more threats to those whom he loves. In other words, he’s still beset on all sides. A number of below-the-law powerbrokers plead with Easy to locate a mysterious, dangerous woman --- Lutisha James, though she’s gone by another name that Easy will immediately recognize. 1970s Los Angeles is a transient city of delicate, violent balances, and Lutisha has disturbed that. She also has a secret that will upend Easy’s own life, painfully closer to home.
Mulholland Books | 9780316573238 

HISTORY MATTERS written by David McCullough, edited by Dorie McCullough Lawson and Michael Hill (Essays)
HISTORY MATTERS brings together selected essays by beloved historian David McCullough, some published here for the first time, written at different points over the course of his long career, but all focused on the subject of his lifelong passion: the importance of history in understanding our present and future. Edited by McCullough’s daughter, Dorie McCullough Lawson, and his longtime researcher, Michael Hill, this book is a tribute to a master historian and offers fresh insights into McCullough’s enduring interests and writing life. It also features a foreword by Jon Meacham.
Simon & Schuster | 9781668098998 

I AM NOT YOUR ENEMY: A Memoir by Reality Winner (Memoir)
Reality Winner was a 25-year-old translator for the NSA when she read a classified document revealing what she assumed would make headlines during a time of unprecedented leaking: After blatant lies by the Trump administration and public silence by the NSA, there had in fact been foreign interference in the 2016 US election. In a breach of NSA protocol, she impulsively printed it, smuggled it out of the building, and mailed it to The Intercept, which published it and then promptly informed the NSA. For her crime, she received the longest prison sentence ever imposed on a government-affiliated employee convicted of a single count of leaking classified information and spent more than four years in federal prison. Now, for the first time, Winner tells her own story.
Spiegel & Grau | 9781954118843 

OTHER PEOPLE'S HOUSES by Clare Mackintosh (Psychological Thriller)
The Hill is the kind of place where everyone wants to live: luxurious, exclusive and safe. But now someone is breaking and entering these Cheshire homes one by one, and DS Leo Brady suspects that the burglar is looking for something, or someone, in particular. Over the border in Wales, DC Ffion Morgan recovers the body of an estate agent from the lake. There's no love lost between Ffion and estate agents, but who hated this one enough to want her dead --- and why? As their cases collide, Ffion and Leo discover that people will pay a high price to keep their secrets behind closed doors.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781728296548

REPLACEABLE YOU: Adventures in Human Anatomy by Mary Roach
(Science/Humor)
The body is the most complex machine in the world, and the only one for which you cannot get a replacement part from the manufacturer. For centuries, medicine has reached for what’s available --- sculpting noses from brass, borrowing skin from frogs and hearts from pigs, crafting eye parts from jet canopies and breasts from petroleum by-products. Today we’re attempting to grow body parts from scratch using stem cells and 3D printers. How are we doing? Are we there yet? In REPLACEABLE YOU, Mary Roach explores the remarkable advances and difficult questions prompted by the human body’s failings. 
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324050629 

SHE'S UNDER HERE: A Memoir by Karen Palmer (Memoir)
“Once upon a time, I disappeared.” So begins Karen Palmer’s harrowing and redemptive memoir, SHE’S UNDER HERE. In 1989, shortly after her second marriage, Palmer and her new husband quit their jobs without notice. They pulled her two young daughters out of school and buckled them into the rear seat of a used car purchased with cash. The trunk was packed with clothing and toys, pillows and blankets, four place settings, one pot, one pan, and a sack that contained every penny they had. Living with the fear of Palmer’s dangerous ex-husband had become untenable: This was DIY witness protection. In this searingly honest and heartwrenching account, Palmer examines why she ended up trapped, how she escaped, and the ongoing perils of life constructed around a false identity.
Algonquin Books | 9781643757544 

THE SUMMER WAR by Naomi Novik (Fantasy/Adventure)
Celia discovered her talent for magic on the day her beloved oldest brother, Argent, left home. Furious at him for abandoning her in a war-torn land, she lashed out, not realizing her childish, angry words would become imbued with the power of prophecy, dooming him to a life without love. While Argent wanders the world, Celia attempts to undo the curse she placed on him. Yet even as she grows from a girl to a woman, she cannot find the solution --- until she learns the truth about the centuries-old war between her own people and the summerlings, immortal beings who hold a relentless grudge against their mortal neighbors. Now, with the aid of her unwanted middle brother, Celia may be able to both undo her eldest brother’s curse and heal the lands so long torn apart by the Summer War.
Del Rey | 9780593984703 

TO CLUTCH A RAZOR by Veronica Roth (Fantasy)
When Dymitr is called back to the old country for the empty night, a funeral rite intended to keep evil at bay, it's the perfect opportunity for him to get his hands on his family's most guarded relic --- a book of curses that could satisfy the debt he owes legendary witch Baba Jaga. But first he'll have to survive a night with his dangerous, monster-hunting kin. As the sun sets, the line between enemies and allies becomes razor-thin, and Dymitr’s new loyalties are pushed to their breaking point. Family gatherings can be brutal. Dymitr’s just might be fatal.
Tor Books | 9781250855503 

THE WASP TRAP by Mark Edwards (Psychological Thriller)
Six friends reunite in London to celebrate the life of their recently deceased ex-employer, a professor who brought them together in 1999 to help build a dating website based on psychological testing. But what is meant to be a night of bittersweet nostalgia soon becomes a twisted and deadly game. The old friends are given an ultimatum: reveal their darkest secrets to the group or pick each other off one by one. It soon becomes clear that their current predicament is related to their shared past. The love questionnaire they helped develop in 1999 for the dating site was also turned into a tool for weeding out psychopaths: The Wasp Trap. This experiment and the other tragic events of that summer long ago may help reveal the truth behind a killer hiding in plain sight.
Atria Books | 9781668204771 

WATCHING EVIL DEAD: Unearthing the Radiant Artist Within by Josh Malerman (Memoir/Self-Help)
One night, bestselling author Josh Malerman --- then just an aspiring writer --- watched Sam Raimi’s The Evil Dead with his fiancée and two friends. It was a gathering that could’ve gone unnoticed, another date night with a movie. But for Malerman, it became a landmark. It changed the course of his life, and it will inspire you to reflect on your own journey and to discover existing triumphs that are within you already. Describing the course of the night, Malerman reflects on his life, from his career as a musician to his stack of rough drafts, written prior to ever being published --- and on how meeting the love of his life, a fellow creative, opened him to new experiences and new ways of viewing the world they now quest through together. 
Del Rey | 9780593983270

WE THE PEOPLE: A History of the U.S. Constitution by Jill Lepore (History)
Published on the occasion of the 250th anniversary of the nation’s founding --- the anniversary, too, of the first state constitutions --- WE THE PEOPLE offers a wholly new history of the Constitution. “One of the Constitution’s founding purposes was to prevent change,” Lepore writes. “Another was to allow for change without violence.” Relying on the extraordinary database she has assembled at the Amendments Project, Lepore recounts centuries of attempts, mostly by ordinary Americans, to realize the promise of the Constitution. Yet nearly all those efforts have failed. Challenging both the Supreme Court’s monopoly on constitutional interpretation and the flawed theory of “originalism,” Lepore contends in this “gripping and unfamiliar story of our own past” that the philosophy of amendment is foundational to American constitutionalism.
Liveright | 9781631496080 

THE WHISTLER by Nick Medina (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
Henry Hotard was on the verge of fame, gaining a following and traction with his eerie ghost-hunting videos. Then his dreams came to a screeching halt. Now, he's learning to navigate a new life in a wheelchair, back on the reservation where he grew up. And he’s being haunted. His girlfriend, Jade, insists he just needs time to adjust to his new reality as a quadriplegic, that it’s his traumatized mind playing tricks on him, but Henry knows better. As the specter haunting him creeps closer each night, Henry battles to find a way to endure, to rid himself of the horror stalking him. Worried that this dread might plague him forever, he realizes the only way to exile his phantom is by confronting his troubled past and going back to the events that led to his injury. It all started when he whistled at night.
Berkley | 9780593820407 

THE WILDERNESS by Angela Flournoy (Fiction)
Desiree, Danielle, January, Monique and Nakia are in their early 20s and at the beginning. Of their careers, of marriage, of motherhood, and of big-city lives in New York and Los Angeles. Together, they are finding their way through the wilderness, that period of life when the reality of contemporary adulthood --- overwhelming, mysterious, and full of freedom and consequences --- swoops in and stays. As these friends move from the late 2000s into the late 2020s, from young adults to grown women, they must figure out what they mean to one another --- amid political upheaval, economic and environmental instability, and the increasing volatility of modern American life.
Mariner Books | 9780063318779 

WOLF BELLS by Leni Zumas (Fiction)
On a bluff above a river rises The House, where elderly and disabled residents live alongside young people who help out in exchange for free rent. The community is led by a former punk singer who never wanted to be responsible for anyone yet now finds herself the caretaker of this precarious collection of lives. It’s not a family, exactly, but it has the complicated, sometimes painful, sometimes hilarious, dynamics of kinship. When two kids --- Nola and her little cousin, James --- show up on The House’s back porch in need of refuge, the whole experiment is thrown into question. All are welcome here, or that was the idea. But the authorities are looking for these children, and The House’s finances are teetering on the edge. 
Algonquin Books | 9781643756578

On Sale the Week of September 15th in Paperback

September 16th

ALIAS O. HENRY by Ben Yagoda (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
O. Henry, born William Sidney Porter, arrived in New York City fresh from the Ohio Penitentiary, where he had served three-and-a-half years for embezzlement. The American magazine had just reached its pinnacle as an enterprise, and the short story was the most popular medium in entertainment. Porter was in the city to write. From his cell, he already had sold a number of stories to big magazines, and within five years of arriving in Manhattan, he would become the most successful fiction writer in the country. But he never --- never --- said anything about his prison experience, or, indeed, anything about his past life. Anything true, that is. In life as well as on the page, Porter was a yarn-spinner of the highest order. In this twisting tale, Ben Yagoda uses the novelist’s art to get at the truth that lay behind Porter’s reticence, and in doing so, he presents an iridescent portrait of New York at the time.
Paul Dry Books | 9781589882065

AMERICAN RAPTURE by CJ Leede (Post-Apocalyptic Science Fiction/Horror)
A virus is spreading across America, transforming the infected and making them feral with lust. Sophie, a good Catholic girl, must traverse the hellscape of the midwest to try to find her family while the world around her burns. Along the way she discovers there are far worse fates than dying a virgin. The end times are coming.
Tor Nightfire | 9781250857941

THE AUTHOR’S GUIDE TO MURDER by Beatriz Williams, Lauren Willig and Karen White (Mystery)
There’s been a sensational murder at historic Castle Kinloch, a gothic fantasy of grey granite on a remote island in the Highlands of Scotland. Literary superstar Brett Saffron Presley has been found dead --- under bizarre circumstances --- in the castle tower’s book-lined study. Years ago, Presley purchased the castle as a showpiece for his brand and to lure paying guests with a taste for writerly glamour. Now it seems that the castle has done him in…or, possibly, one of the castle’s guests has. Detective Chief Inspector Euan McIntosh, a local with no love for literary Americans, finds himself with the unenviable task of extracting statements from three American lady novelists. Why did these authors really come to Castle Kinloch?
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063259874

BETRAYAL AT BLACKTHORN PARK: An Evelyne Redfern Mystery by Julia Kelly (Historical Mystery)
Freshly graduated from a rigorous training program in all things spy craft, former typist Evelyne Redfern is eager for her first assignment as a field agent helping Britain win the war. However, when she learns her first task is performing a simple security test at Blackthorn Park, a requisitioned manor house in the sleepy Sussex countryside, she can’t help her initial disappointment. Making matters worse, her handler is to be David Poole, a fellow agent who manages to be both strait-laced and dashing in annoyingly equal measure. However, Evelyne soon realizes that Blackthorn Park is more than meets the eye, and an upcoming visit from Winston Churchill means that security at the secret weapons research and development facility is of the utmost importance. When Evelyne discovers Blackthorn Park’s chief engineer dead in his office, her simple assignment becomes more complicated.
Minotaur Books | 9781250865526

BEYOND HER REACH by Melinda Leigh (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
In a quiet suburban neighborhood in upstate New York, single mom Kelly Gibson is slain in her home --- the victim of a rage killing. Right away, Sheriff Bree Taggert has three persons of interest: an angry soon-to-be ex-husband, a furtive rebound boyfriend, and an obsessive neighbor. But as Bree and investigator Matt Flynn work together to narrow the field, there’s a shocking twist in the case: a second woman is murdered in the same brutal fashion. While investigating, Bree is attacked and left for dead. When another woman is kidnapped, Bree and Matt must act quickly to unravel the deceptions in Kelly’s life and death and find a killer before someone else dies.
Montlake | 9781662522086

BRINGER OF DUST by J. M. Miro (Historical Fantasy)
Agrigento, Sicily, 1883. With the orsine destroyed, Cairndale lies in ruins, and Marlowe has vanished. His only hope of rescue lies in a fabled second orsine --- long-hidden, thought lost --- which might not even exist. But when a body is discovered in the shadow of Cairndale, a body wreathed in the corrupted dust of the drughr, Charlie and the Talents realize there is even more at stake than they'd feared. For a new drughr has arisen, ferocious, horned, seemingly able to move in their world at will --- and it is not alone. A malevolent figure, known only as the Abbess, desires the dust for her own ends. And deep in the world of the dead, a terrible evil stirs --- an evil that the corrupted dust just might hold the secret to reviving or destroying forever.
Flatiron Books | 9781250833877

DEADBEAT by Adam Hamdy (Thriller)
Peyton Collard was a good man once, but his life changed after a horrific car accident. Divorced, drunk and severely damaged, Peyton is offered a life-changing sum of money to kill an evil man. But as he goes on a vigilante journey that leaves a trail of bodies across California, Peyton wonders about the identity of his anonymous patron. Soon, his questions become an obsession, and he embarks on a tense and potentially deadly investigation to discover the truth about the murders he’s committed.
Atria Books | 9781668031537

ELAINE by Will Self (Fiction)
In this brilliantly conceived novel, Will Self turns his forensic eye and technicolor imagination to the troubled life of his mother, Elaine. Standing by the mailbox outside 1100 Hemlock Street in Ithaca, New York, Elaine thinks of her husband and child inside her house and wonders: Is this…it? As she begins to push back against the strictures of her life in 1950s America, she undertakes a disastrous affair that places her marriage to an Ivy League academic and former Communist Party member in peril. Based on the intimate diaries that Self’s mother kept for over 40 years, ELAINE is a writer’s attempt to reach the almost unimaginable realm: a parent’s interior life prior to his own existence.
Grove Press | 9780802165435

ENTITLEMENT by Rumaan Alam (Fiction)
Brooke wants. She isn’t in need, but there are things she wants. A sense of purpose, for instance. She wants to make a difference in the world, to impress her mother along the way, to spend time with friends and secure her independence. Her job assisting an octogenarian billionaire in his quest to give away a vast fortune could help her achieve many of these goals. It may inspire new desires as well: proximity to wealth turns out to be nothing less than transformative. What is money, really, but a kind of belief?
Riverhead Books | 9780593718476

THE FAERIE MORGANA by Louisa Morgan (Historical Fantasy)
Paperback Original
To the other priestesses of the Nine, a powerful council at the Lady’s Temple, Morgana is haughty and arrogant as she performs feats of magic no human should be capable of. Rumors start that she must be a fearsome fae. To King Arthur, Morgana is a trusted and devoted advisor, but his court is wary of her and her prodigious talent at divination. But his wife sees Morgana as a rival and a malevolent witch. To Braithe, Morgana’s faithful acolyte, she is simply the most powerful priestess Camelot has seen. Morgana doesn’t know why she’s so different from everyone else, and she doesn’t much care. But when she aids Arthur to ascend the throne before his time, she sets off a series of events that will change everything Morgana believes about her power.
Redhook | 9780316585118

THE FAIREST: An Arles Shepherd Thriller by Jenny Milchman (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Author Kara Parsons is at a book signing in the town where she was raised. Before it’s over, a young girl approaches with a copy of Kara’s book containing a handwritten inscription: I am a missing child. Most people would alert the police, but Kara knows what happens to the young and vulnerable when the system fails them. She turns to her former therapist, Arles Shepherd, who finds something off about this girl who refuses to reveal her own name. What is she running from? And how much of what she says can be believed? When a man with a gun manages to locate Arles’ remote wilderness home, the true threat is revealed, and Arles and Kara go on the run. But to save this child, Arles must allow her to be found. And that’s when the real danger begins.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781662518447

THE HITCHCOCK HOTEL by Stephanie Wrobel (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Alfred Smettle is not your average Hitchcock fan. He is the founder, owner and manager of The Hitchcock Hotel, a sprawling Victorian house in the White Mountains dedicated to the Master of Suspense. There, Alfred offers his guests round-the-clock film screenings, movie props and memorabilia in every room, plus an aviary with 50 crows. To celebrate the hotel’s first anniversary, he invites his former best friends from his college Film Club for a reunion. He hasn’t spoken to any of them in 16 years, not after what happened. But who better than them to appreciate Alfred’s creation? And to help him finish it. After all, no Hitchcock set is complete without a body.
Berkley | 9780593547137

THE HOUSE OF CROSS: An Alex Cross Thriller by James Patterson (Thriller)
In Washington, DC, the president-elect is tapping the country’s brightest legal minds as candidates for the Supreme Court. Then one of them is gunned down. Another is stabbed. A third is murdered near midnight on a city street. Now it’s up to Detective Alex Cross, the FBI’s top expert in criminal behavior, to go inside the mind of a diabolical killer and protect the country’s best hope for justice. 
Little, Brown and Company | 9781538710609

KEEPING THE FAITH: God, Democracy, and the Trial That Riveted a Nation by Brenda Wineapple (History)
“No subject possesses the minds of men like religious bigotry and hate, and these fires are being lighted today in America.” So said legendary attorney Clarence Darrow as hundreds of people descended on the sleepy town of Dayton, Tennessee, for the trial of a schoolteacher named John T. Scopes, who was charged with breaking the law by teaching evolution to his biology class in a public school. In KEEPING THE FAITH, Brenda Wineapple explores how and why the Scopes trial quickly seemed a circus-like media sensation, drawing massive crowds and worldwide attention. She takes us into the early years of the 20th century --- years of racism, intolerance and world war --- to illuminate, through this pivotal legal showdown, a seismic period in American history.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780593229941

MIDNIGHT BURNING: An Einstein-Chaplin Thriller by Paul Levine (Historical Thriller)
Paperback Original
In 1937, clouds of war gather over Europe, and American fascists march at home. While the FBI chases suspected communists, Nazi agents plot an armed insurrection. When the world's two most famous men --- Albert Einstein and Charlie Chaplin --- uncover the scheme, which includes the assassinations of Hollywood's biggest stars, they fight back with nothing but their ingenuity, raw courage, and the fierce resolve of Georgia Ann Robinson, the LAPD's first Black female officer. A dangerous chase takes our heroes into the heart of darkness, a fascist encampment in the San Gabriel Mountains north of Los Angeles where a militia armed with machine guns plans its attack. It's brains versus brawn in an explosive, unforgettable finale.
Blank Slate Press | 9781943075966

THE NIGHT COLLECTOR by Victor Methos (Legal Thriller)
Paperback Original
The abduction of two teenagers from their Vegas wedding isn’t a case Detective Lazarus Holloway wants to take; it’s one he has to take. His only clue is a bracelet, etched with a Mayan symbol of death and vengeance --- two things the detective is familiar with. With no other leads, Lazarus enlists the help of guardian ad litem Piper Danes. They have a complicated history, but Piper shares his compulsion to save children in need, no matter the personal cost. Unfortunately, that cost gets higher with every new revelation. As they tread further into the dangerous network surrounding the case, secrets from Lazarus’ past follow close behind. He soon finds himself entangled with the players in this game of life, death and disappearances. And if he can’t figure out how he fits in, there may be no getting out.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781662528439

THE ROOM OF LOST STEPS by Simon Tolkien (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Barcelona 1936. Theo Sterling helps the Anarchist workers defeat the army that is trying to overthrow the democratically elected government, and he is reunited with his true love, Maria. But all too soon, his joy turns to terror as the Anarchists turn on him, led by a rival for Maria’s affection. Lucky to escape with his life, Theo returns to England to study at Oxford. But his heart is in Spain, now torn apart by a bloody civil war, and he is quick to abandon his new life when his old schoolmate, Esmond, offers him the chance to fight the Fascists. He is unprepared for the nightmare of war that crushes his spirit and his hope until, back in Barcelona, Theo is confronted with a final terrible choice that will define his life forever.
Lake Union Publishing | 9781662528668

THE SECOND COMING by Garth Risk Hallberg (Fiction)
When 13-year-old Jolie Aspern drops her phone onto the subway tracks in 2011, her estranged dad, Ethan, seems like the furthest thing from her mind. A convicted felon and recovering addict, Ethan has long struggled to see beyond himself. But then a call from New York makes him fear that his daughter is in deeper trouble than anyone realizes. And believing he’s the only one who can save her, he decides to return home. So begins the journey that, in time, will push Jolie and Ethan --- child and adult, apart and together, different yet the same --- out past their depths.
Vintage | 9780593471012

SKY FULL OF ELEPHANTS by Cebo Campbell (Fiction/Magical Realism)
One day, all of the white people in America walk into the nearest body of water. A year later, Charlie Brunton is a Black man living in an entirely new world. Having served time in prison for a wrongful conviction, he’s now a professor of electric and solar power systems at Howard University when he receives a call from his 19-year-old daughter, Sidney, who was left behind by her white mother and stepfamily. Traumatized by the event and terrified of the outside world, Sidney has spent a year in isolation in Wisconsin. Desperate for help, she turns to the father she never met, a man she has always resented. Sidney and Charlie meet for the first time as they embark on a journey across a truly “post-racial” America in search of answers. But neither of them are prepared for this new world and how they see themselves in it.
Simon & Schuster | 9781668034934

THE SLEEP OF EMPIRES: Book #1 of The Book of the Null by David Annandale (Dark Fantasy/Adventure)
Paperback Original
Eloran is a world of imperious elves, fractious human realms, and the hated, skeletal kaul. When Latanna Forgrym’s despised father tries to betroth her to the youngest son of a powerful, manipulative family, she forges a new path by instead marrying a man she respects but doesn’t love. A chance encounter with a pair of mercenaries leads Latanna to a lost crown, a relic of forces the world has tried desperately to forget, and gives her the means to break free from her corrupt family --- but at a terrible price. A kaul mercenary travels through the human realms with a companion of no nation, identifiable species or memories. Latanna’s crown sets the warrior on the path to recovering first his name --- Vorykas --- and then fragments of his past. When a forbidden book resurfaces, threatening to reveal the knowledge Vorykas seeks, enemy forces move to conceal the book and any hint of its contents.
Pyr | 9781645061137

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