September 23, 2025

September 23, 2025

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

This week, we are calling attention to our “What's Your Book Group Reading This Month?” contest on ReadingGroupGuides.com. Three book groups will win up to 12 copies of THE BLUE HOUR by Paula Hawkins, an instant New York Times bestseller and a “Good Morning America” Book Club pick that releases in paperback on September 30th and was a Bookreporter.com Bets On selection when it published in hardcover last year. The deadline for your entries is Wednesday, October 8th at noon ET.

Join Us THIS Thursday Evening!

This Week's Bonus News:
"What's Your Book Group Reading This Month?" Contest
on ReadingGroupGuides.com
Enter to Win Up to 12 Paperback Copies of
THE BLUE HOUR by Paula Hawkins for Your Group

Upcoming Virtual Book and Author Events

Here are three 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 24th at 7pm ET: “Friends & Fiction”: Join “Friends & Fiction” for a conversation with Jane Hamilton about her new book, THE PHOEBE VARIATIONS, a stunning coming-of-age novel about girls, mothers and finding one's way in the world.

Thursday, September 25th at 8pm ET: “Bookaccino Live” Book Group: Carol Fitzgerald will talk to Amy Neff about her debut novel, THE DAYS I LOVED YOU MOST, a Bookreporter.com Bets On pick that is now available in paperback. Amy also will answer questions from guests who will be “on stage,” as well as from other members of the audience.

Tuesday, September 30th at 3pm ET: Barnes & Noble: Join Barnes & Noble as they welcome Ann Cleeves for a live virtual discussion of THE KILLING STONES --- which marks the eagerly awaited return of her beloved detective Jimmy Perez from the Shetland series --- as part of their B&N Midday Mystery Virtual Event series. Ann will be in conversation with the New York Times bestselling author of the V.I. Warshawski series, Sara Paretsky.

On Sale the Week of September 22nd in Hardcover

September 23rd

107 DAYS by Kamala Harris (Memoir/Politics)
Your Secret Service code name is Pioneer. You are the first woman in history to be elected vice president of the United States. On July 21, 2024, your running mate, Joe Biden, announces that he will not be seeking reelection. The presidential election will occur on November 5, 2024. You have 107 days. For the first time, and with surprising and revealing insights, Kamala Harris tells the story of one of the wildest and most consequential presidential campaigns in American history.
Simon & Schuster | 9781668211656 

AWAKE: A Memoir by Jen Hatmaker (Memoir)
At 2:30am on July 11, 2020, Jen Hatmaker woke up to her husband of 26 years whispering in his phone to another woman from their bed. It was the end of life as she knew it. In the months that followed, she went from being a shiny, funny, popular leader, to a divorced wreck on antidepressants and anti-anxiety meds parenting five kids alone with no clue about her own bank accounts. Having led millions of women for over a decade --- urging them to embrace authenticity, find radical agency, and create healthy relationships --- this seemed nothing less than total failure. In AWAKE, Jen shares for the first time what happened when she found herself completely lost at sea --- and how she made it to shore.
Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster | 9781668083680 

BEINGS by Ilana Masad (Historical/Science Fiction)
In 1961, an interracial couple drove through the dark mountains of New Hampshire when a mysterious light began to follow them. Years later, through hypnosis, they recalled an unbelievable brush with extraterrestrial life. In BEINGS, the couple's experience serves as one part of a trio of intertwined threads. Known only by their roles as husband and wife, Ilana Masad explores the pair's trauma and its aftermath and questions what it means to accept the impossible. In the second thread, letters penned by a budding science-fiction writer, Phyllis, to her beloved, Rosa, expose the raw ache of queer yearning, loneliness and alienation in the repressive 1960s. In the present day, a reclusive and chronically ill Archivist attempts to understand a strange forgotten childhood encounter while descending into obsession over both Phyllis' letters and the testimony of the first alien abductees.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781639737000 

CIRCLE OF DAYS by Ken Follett (Historical Fiction)
Seft, a talented flint miner, walks the Great Plain in the high summer heat to witness the rituals that signal the start of a new year. He is there to trade his stone at the Midsummer Fair and to find Neen, the girl he loves. Joia, Neen’s sister, is a priestess with a vision and an unmatched ability to lead. As a child, she watches the Midsummer ceremony and dreams of a miraculous new monument, raised from the biggest stones in the world. But trouble is brewing among the hills and woodlands of the Great Plain. Joia’s vision of a great stone circle, assembled by the divided tribes of the Plain, will inspire Seft and become their life’s work. But as drought ravages the earth, mistrust grows between the herders, farmers and woodlanders --- and an act of savage violence leads to open warfare.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538772775

A DARK AND DEADLY JOURNEY: An Evelyne Redfern Mystery by Julia Kelly (Historical Mystery)
When a British Intelligence informant in Portugal mysteriously disappears just after hinting that he has vital information about German plans that could tip the balance of World War II, typist-turned-field agent Evelyne Redfern and her dashingly irksome partner, David Poole, are sent headed to Lisbon to find him. Once they land, Evelyne and David aren't even able to leave the airport, before she discovers one of their fellow aeroplane passengers murdered and uncovers a diary with a clear link between the victim and their missing informant. With their mission in jeopardy before it can truly begin, Evelyne and David fight to keep their cover intact as they descend deeper into the shadows that surround Lisbon’s glittering collection of wealthy expats and dangerous spies.
Minotaur Books | 9781250865540 

DARK HORSE: A Dick Francis Novel by Felix Francis (Thriller)
Imogen Duffy is an up-and-coming Irish jump jockey making her mark in steeplechase racing. But not all is well in Imogen's life. Jealous of her success, Imogen’s controlling boyfriend, Liam, is stalking her, and when she tries to break it off with him, he turns violent. Fleeing to England, Imogen hopes to leave Liam behind. But Liam vehemently refuses to let her go --- until he’s found dead, stabbed with a knife bearing Imogen’s fingerprints. Imogen’s father, convinced of her innocence, seeks out Sid Halley to ask for his help uncovering the truth, and Sid reluctantly agrees to investigate. The case becomes all too personal soon after, when Sid realizes he is being stalked and threatened. Is it the killer? With his life and reputation on the line, Sid races to solve the case before someone else ends up dead.
Crooked Lane Books | 9798892422604

A DIFFERENT KIND OF TENSION: New and Selected Stories by Jonathan Lethem (Fiction/Short Stories)
This dazzling, genre-defying collection from Jonathan Lethem features seven major stories published since his last collection, along with his best work spanning more than three decades. A major new story, “The Red Sun School of Thoughts,” never published before, follows a teenage boy coming to terms with figures of authority and power --- those in both his biological family and the family he creates for himself. Elsewhere we meet “Super Goat Man,” a down-at-the-heels bohemian superhero; “The Porn Critic,” whose accidental expertise wrecks his own romantic aspirations; and “Sleepy People,” who pose interpersonal conundrums without ever rousing from their slumber. 
Ecco | 9780063388840 

END GAME by Jeffrey Archer (Mystery/Thriller)
London, 2012. The eyes of the world are on Britain as the country prepares to host the Olympic Games. But the glare of the spotlight makes London a target for some of the most dangerous people on earth. And the moment the bid is won, an international conspiracy is set in motion to unleash a devastating attack that will leave the world in chaos. One man stands between triumph and disaster: Commander William Warwick, heading up Scotland Yard's elite team. But as he pursues the shadowy organization, he sets off a deadly game of cat and mouse that will take him from the bustling streets of London to the hidden corridors of power. Can Warwick stop the assassin before the greatest show on earth becomes a catastrophe?
HarperCollins | 9780008640286

INSPIRED BY CATS: Writers and Their Mews(es) by Nava Atlas and Bob Eckstein (Essays)
Cats and writers are a match made in book heaven. Throughout history, our feline friends have served as trusted desk mates from the composition of a single poem to the creation of the first English dictionary. In INSPIRED BY CATS, author Nava Atlas and illustrator Bob Eckstein capture these endearing, enduring relationships in a witty, sophisticated collection featuring 60 famous authors and their beloved companions. Novelists, poets, humorists, short story writers and memoirists from all eras are represented --- from Mark Twain, Colette and Ernest Hemingway to Ray Bradbury and Toni Morrison.
Countryman Press | 9781682689493

THE KILLER QUESTION by Janice Hallett (Mystery)
Sue and Mal Eastwood run an isolated rural pub called The Case is Altered, where a weekly trivia game has revived its flagging fortunes --- that is, until a body is found in the nearby river. Soon after, a mysterious new team arrives and shakes up the diverse field of regulars by scoring top marks in every round...every week. Meanwhile, Sue and Mal have a secret of their own. Before arriving here, they were caught up in a secret police operation that meant they had to leave town --- and whatever happened back then seems to have finally caught up with them. Five years later, the pub lies derelict, and their nephew, Dominic, is determined to make a documentary about their story. What happened at this unassuming pub? And can a single question really kill?
Atria Books | 9781668083536 

A KILLER WEDDING by Joan O'Leary (Mystery/Humor)
The iconic Gloria Beaufort, founder of the billion-dollar beauty empire Glo, has personally chosen Christine to cover her grandson’s wedding for Bespoke, the cult fashion magazine that every A-list bride dreams of being featured in. A career-making scoop and a free trip to a castle turned five-star hotel on the Emerald Isle? It feels too good to be true. Because it is. Gloria is found dead on the very first morning of the celebratory weekend, and her entire family wants to keep her death a secret and for the wedding to march on. When Gloria’s heirs issue a chilling warning to Christine to keep things quiet, she can’t help but wonder if one of them is guilty. As Christine navigates a world where glamour masks grimy secrets and everyone she meets is a suspect, she realizes that among this glitzy elite, nothing is as it seems.
William Morrow | 9780063432215 

THE LONELINESS OF SONIA AND SUNNY by Kiran Desai (Fiction)
When Sonia and Sunny first glimpse each other on an overnight train, they are immediately captivated yet also embarrassed by the fact that their grandparents had once tried to matchmake them, a clumsy meddling that served only to drive Sonia and Sunny apart. Sonia, an aspiring novelist who recently completed her studies in the snowy mountains of Vermont, has returned to her family in India. She fears that she is haunted by a dark spell cast by an artist to whom she had once turned for intimacy and inspiration. Sunny, a struggling journalist resettled in New York City, is attempting to flee his imperious mother and the violence of his warring clan. Uncertain of their future, Sonia and Sunny embark on a search for happiness together as they confront the many alienations of our modern world.
Hogarth | 9780307700155 

ONE OF US by Dan Chaon (Historical Thriller)
It’s 1915, and life is falling apart for 13-year-old twins Bolt and Eleanor. When their mother dies, they are forced to leave home under the care of a vicious con man who claims to be their long-lost uncle Charlie. During a late-night poker game, when one of his rages ends in murder, they decide to flee. Salvation arrives in the form of Mr. Jengling, founder of the Emporium of Wonders. He adopts Bolt and Eleanor, who travel by train across the vast, sometimes brutal American frontier with their new family, watching as the exhibitions spark amazement wherever they go. But as Bolt falls in deeper with their new clan, he finds Eleanor pulling further away from him. And when Uncle Charlie picks up their trail, the twins find themselves facing a peril that will forever alter the trajectory of their lives.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250175236

THE PHOEBE VARIATIONS by Jane Hamilton (Fiction)
Seventeen-year-old Phoebe was never interested in her birth family. But on the cusp of her high school graduation, her adoptive mother, Greta, insists on a visit to meet her biological parents and siblings. The encounter is a jolt, a revelation that derails Phoebe. With the help of her best friend, Luna, Phoebe runs away --- as far as their friend Patrick O’Connor’s chaotic home, where she hopes to go unnoticed among his 13 siblings. But when Phoebe asks Patrick to chop off her hip-length hair, she’s suddenly transformed. Patrick’s older brothers can’t help but notice the striking, Peter Pan–like stranger who suddenly has appeared in their midst. What starts as an adolescent rebellion soon spirals into a whirlwind of self-discovery and unexpected connections. 
Zibby Publishing | ‎9798991140287 

THE SISTERHOOD: A Lady Emily Mystery by Tasha Alexander (Historical Mystery)
London, 1907. When the Season's most accomplished and elegant debutante, Victoria Goldsborough, collapses and dies at her engagement ball, the great and good of London Society prepare to mourn the tragic loss of an upstanding young woman. But all is not what it seems, and after a toxic beverage is revealed to be the cause of death, the king himself instructs Lady Emily and her husband, Colin Hargreaves, to unearth the truth. Who would want to harm one of the most popular women of the year? Emily and Colin’s investigation leads to a centuries-old tomb in the center of London with a mysterious link to another death dating back to Roman times and the violent reign of Boudica, ancient Britain's fearsome warrior queen. As the stakes rise and the clock ticks down, Emily must find the killer before they strike again.
Minotaur Books | 9781250374981 

A SLOWLY DYING CAUSE: A Lynley Novel by Elizabeth George (Mystery)
Michael Lobb has just been found dead on the floor of his family’s tin and pewter workshop. It’s suspicious enough that his body was found by a representative of Cornwall EcoMining, a company keen on acquiring his family’s land, and it’s made even worse when he’s revealed to have been the majority owner of the business and the sole obstacle preventing a deal from being made. But it doesn’t take long for Inspector Beatrice Hannaford to unearth the layers of estrangement that surrounded Michael in his final days, pointing suspicions elsewhere. In comes Kayla, a young woman half Michael’s age, who has just been made his widow. Detective Inspector Thomas Lynley and Detective Sergeant Barbara Havers are brought in to help solve the crime and search for justice in a community where lust, greed and family traditions collide with devastating consequences.
Viking | 9780593493588 

SOFTLY, AS I LEAVE YOU: Life After Elvis by Priscilla Beaulieu Presley with Mary Jane Ross (Memoir)
Priscilla Presley’s divorce from Elvis left his fans incredulous. From the outside, life in Elvis’ mansion looked glamorous and enviable. But inside the mansion, her husband was constantly surrounded by a male entourage, while at the gates, lines of beautiful women waited hopefully for an audience with the King. From the time she was 17, that life was all Priscilla had known. During her 10 years with Elvis, it became painfully apparent that she had no idea who she was outside Elvis’ world. The only way to find herself was to leave that world and seek a new life of her own, because leaving was the only way to survive --- for herself and for her daughter. SOFTLY, AS I LEAVE YOU is the deeply personal story of what Priscilla lost and what she found when she walked away from the man she loved.
Grand Central Publishing | 9780306836480

SPREAD ME by Sarah Gailey (Science Fiction/Horror)
Kinsey has the perfect job as the team lead in a remote research outpost. She loves the isolation and the way the desert keeps temptations from the civilian world far out of reach. When her crew discovers a mysterious specimen buried deep in the sand, Kinsey breaks quarantine and brings it inside. But the longer it's there, the more her carefully controlled life begins to unravel. Temptation has found her after all, and it can't be ignored any longer. One by one, Kinsey's team realizes the thing they're studying is in search of a new host --- and one of them is the perfect candidate.
Tor Nightfire | 9781250387332 

THIEF OF NIGHT by Holly Black (Supernatural Thriller/Dark Fantasy)
Charlie Hall, crooked from the day she was born, may have finally met her match. After defeating Salt and stealing her lover --- the powerful shadow, Vince --- back from under the noses of the powerful Cabal leaders, she thought she’d won. Agreeing to become the Hierophant and risking her life hunting down dangerous rogue shadows seemed a small price to pay if she got to do it while being tethered to Vince. But Vince is no longer the man she loved. The tethering process wiped away his memories of the last year, leaving only Red --- the ruthless shadow who spent years as a killer for a cruel, mercurial billionaire. Red doesn’t remember Charlie and doesn’t like her. So when Charlie is ordered to track down the Blight responsible for a massacre at a local church, she’s worse than just alone, heartbroken and outmatched. She’s vulnerable.
Tor Books | 9781250812223 

WE LOVE YOU, BUNNY by Mona Awad (Fiction/Dark Humor)
In BUNNY, Samantha Heather Mackey, a lonely outsider student at a highly selective MFA program in New England, was first ostracized and then seduced by a clique of creepy-sweet rich girls who call themselves “Bunny.” An invitation to the Bunnies’ Smut Salon leads Samantha down a dark rabbit hole (pun intended) into the violently surreal world of their off-campus workshops where monstrous creations are conjured with deadly and wondrous consequences. When WE LOVE YOU, BUNNY opens, Sam has just published her first novel to critical acclaim. But at a New England stop on her book tour, her one-time frenemies, furious at the way they’ve been portrayed, kidnap her. Now a captive audience, it’s her (and our) turn to hear the Bunnies’ side of the story.
S&S/Marysue Rucci Books | 9781668059869 

WHAT WE CAN KNOW by Ian McEwan (Dystopian Science Fiction/Romance)
2014: At a dinner for close friends and colleagues, renowned poet Francis Blundy honors his wife’s birthday by reading aloud a new poem dedicated to her, “A Corona for Vivien.” Little does anyone gathered around the candlelit table know that for generations to come, people will speculate about the message of this poem, a copy of which has never been found and remains an enduring mystery. 2119: Just over 100 years in the future, much of the western world has been submerged by rising seas following a catastrophic nuclear accident. Thomas Metcalfe, a lonely scholar and researcher, longs for the early 21st century as he chases the ghost of one poem, “A Corona for Vivien.” When he stumbles across a clue that may lead to the elusive poem’s discovery, a story is revealed of entangled loves and a brutal crime that destroys his assumptions about people he thought he knew intimately well.
Knopf | 9780593804728 

WILL THERE EVER BE ANOTHER YOU by Patricia Lockwood (Fiction/Humor)
Amid a global pandemic, one young woman is trying to keep the pieces together --- of her family, stunned by a devastating loss, and of her mind, left mangled and misfiring from a mystifying disease. She’s afraid of her own floorboards, and “WHAT IS LOVE? BABY DON’T HURT ME” plays over and over in her ears. She hates her friends, or more accurately, she doesn’t know who they are. Has the illness stolen her old mind and given her a new one? Does it mean she’ll get to start over from scratch, a chance afforded to very few people? The very weave of herself seems to have loosened: time and memories pass straight through her body. “I’m sorry not to respond to your email,” she writes, “but I live completely in the present now."
Riverhead Books | 9780593718551

On Sale the Week of September 22nd in Paperback

September 23rd

AMERICA FIRST: Roosevelt vs. Lindbergh in the Shadow of War by H. W. Brands (History)
Hitler's invasion of Poland launched a momentous period of decision-making for the United States. With fascism rampant abroad, should America take responsibility for its defeat? For Charles Lindbergh, saying no to another world war only 20 years after the first was the obvious answer. Lindbergh had become famous and adored around the world after his historic first flight over the Atlantic. In the years since, he had emerged as a vocal critic of American involvement overseas, rallying Americans against foreign war as the leading spokesman for the America First Committee. While Hitler advanced across Europe and threatened the British Isles, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt struggled to turn the tide of public opinion. Aided by secret British disinformation efforts in America, he readied the country for war.
Vintage | 9780593686577

DARK SPACE by Rob Hart and Alex Segura (Science Fiction/Thriller)
Jose Carriles is the pilot of the Mosaic, a massive ship taking the Interstellar Union's first-ever mission to outside our solar system. His former friend, Corin Timony, should have been the best spy at the Bazaar, the lunar colony's international intelligence arm. Instead, she's been demoted to admin duties. But when the Mosaic experiences a series of strange malfunctions, and Carriles is forced to take a wild gamble to save the ship, he begins to suspect the reasons behind the exploratory mission weren't exactly on the up and up. At the same time, Timony's old instincts kick in as she realizes that the distress call she received from the Mosaic has been wiped without a trace. As people start to end up dead and loyalties are tested, Timony and Carriles find themselves entangled in a star-spanning conspiracy.
Blackstone Publishing | 9798228396265

DEATH BY MISADVENTURE: A Lady Emily Mystery by Tasha Alexander (Historical Mystery)
In the winter of 1906, Lady Emily and her husband, Colin, are invited to the opulent home of Baroness Ursula von Duchtel in the Bavarian alps. Outside is a mountainous winter wonderland with a view of Mad King Ludwig’s fairy tale castle. Inside, the villa hosts a magnificent but eclectic art collection --- as well as an equally eclectic collection of fellow guests. Among them are a musician, an art dealer, a coquette from the demi-monde, and Kaspar, the Baroness’ boorish son-in-law, whom, it begins to appear, someone wants dead. Emily continues to investigate Kaspar's increasingly lethal “mishaps" when tragedy strikes, ensnaring the guests in a web of fear and suspicion. It’s up to Emily to sift through old secrets and motivations, some stretching far into the past, to unmask the killer.
Minotaur Books | 9781250872388

THE EMPUSIUM: A Health Resort Horror Story written by Olga Tokarczuk, translated by Antonia Lloyd-Jones (Historical/Gothic Horror)
September 1913. A young Pole suffering from tuberculosis arrives at Wilhelm Opitz’s Guesthouse for Gentlemen in the village of Görbersdorf, a health resort in the Silesian mountains. Every evening the residents gather to imbibe the hallucinogenic local liqueur and debate the great issues of the day: Monarchy or democracy? Do devils exist? Are women born inferior? War or peace? Meanwhile, disturbing things are happening in the guesthouse and the surrounding hills. Someone --- or something --- seems to be watching, attempting to infiltrate this cloistered world. Little does the newcomer realize, as he tries to unravel both the truths within himself and the mystery of the sinister forces beyond, that they have already chosen their next target.
Riverhead Books | 9780593712955

FAMOUS by Blake Crouch (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Meet Lance. Thirty-eight years old. Works a meaningless job. Still lives above his parents’ garage. By all accounts, a world-class loser. Save for one glaring exception: He has a million-dollar face. Lance has been mistaken 87 times for the Oscar-winning movie star James Jansen, and for the last 10 years, he has saved his money and studied Jansen’s films, his moves, his idiosyncrasies --- even the way he speaks. Now, after an unceremonious termination from his job, Lance has decided that the time has come to go after his dream of truly becoming Jansen. From New York’s avant-garde, off-off Broadway scene to the glitter of Los Angeles, Lance embarks on a journey toward becoming James Jansen that will take him closer to the star than even he had dreamed --- and to darker lengths than he could’ve possibly imagined.
Ballantine Books | 9798217091560

GOING HOME IN THE DARK by Dean Koontz (Thriller)
As kids, outcasts Rebecca, Bobby, Spencer and Ernie were inseparable friends in the idyllic town of Maple Grove. Three left to pursue lofty dreams --- and achieved them. Only Ernie never left. When he falls into a coma, his three amigos feel an urgent need to return home. After two decades, not a lot has changed in Maple Grove, especially Ernie’s obnoxious, scary mother. But they begin to remember a hulking, murderous figure and weirdness piled on mystery that they were made to forget. As Ernie sinks deeper into darkness, something strange awaits any friend who tries to save him. For Rebecca, Bobby and Spencer, time is running out to remember the terrors of the past in a perfect town where nothing is what it seems.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781662517792

THE GUEST IN ROOM 120 by Sara Ackerman (Historical Mystery/Romance)
Paperback Original
1905: As the mother of a university and a woman with an iron will, Jane Stanford has made her share of enemies. After a scare at her mansion in San Francisco and on the advice of her doctor, she flees to Honolulu and the fashionable new Moana hotel. But as fate would have it, the island is not as safe as it seems. 2005: Zoe Finch is a bestselling author who desperately needs a jump-start on her next novel, and she makes a split decision to attend a writers' conference at the Moana under an assumed name. As a storm brews offshore, she begins having nightmares that feel hauntingly real. Terrified, Zoe enlists the help of mystery writer Dylan Winters and, over the course of the week, races to uncover the shocking truth of what happened in the hotel 100 years ago almost to the day.
Mira | 9780778387220

HARD TOWN by Adam Plantinga (Thriller)
Still working through his grief over the passing of his wife, ex-Detroit cop Kurt Argento finds himself house-sitting for a friend with his loyal companion, Hudson, a Chow Chow-Shepard mix. Then Kristin Reed shows up with her young son, Ethan, and begs Argento to help find her missing husband. Argento starts to notice that Fenton, Arizona, is more than meets the eye. First there's the large, overly equipped public safety team complete with specialized tactics and sophisticated weaponry. Then there's the unusual financial boosting of failing small businesses by the U.S. government. Finally, there's a man with no name who seems to have an unprecedented control over the town. Argento finds himself unraveling not just the truth behind the disappearance of a family, but a conspiracy that's taken a whole town to cover up.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538739914

INTERMEZZO by Sally Rooney (Fiction)
Aside from the fact that they are brothers, Peter and Ivan Koubek seem to have little in common. Peter is a Dublin lawyer in his 30s. In the wake of their father’s death, he’s medicating himself to sleep and struggling to manage his relationships with two very different women --- his enduring first love, Sylvia, and Naomi, a college student for whom life is one long joke. Ivan is a 22-year-old competitive chess player. In the early weeks of his bereavement, he meets Margaret, an older woman emerging from her own turbulent past, and their lives become rapidly and intensely intertwined. For two grieving brothers and the people they love, this is a new interlude --- a period of desire, despair and possibility; a chance to find out how much one life might hold inside itself without breaking.
Picador | 9781250397560

A LITTLE LESS BROKEN: How an Autism Diagnosis Finally Made Me Whole by Marian Schembari (Memoir)
Marian Schembari was 34 years old when she learned she was autistic. By then, she'd spent decades hiding her tics and shutting down in public, wondering why she couldn't just act like everyone else. Therapists told her she had Tourette's syndrome, obsessive-compulsive disorder, sensory processing disorder, social anxiety and recurrent depression. They prescribed breathing techniques and gratitude journaling. Nothing helped. It wasn't until years later that she finally learned the truth: she wasn't weird or deficient or moody or sensitive or broken. She was autistic. In this deeply personal and researched memoir, Schembari's journey takes her from the mountains of New Zealand to the tech offices of San Francisco, from her first love to her first child, all with unflinching honesty and good humor.
Flatiron Books | 9781250895776

THE LOST HOURS by Lynn Tavernier (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
Detective Andrea Stuart thought her weeklong escape to the quiet shores of Jamestown would be a time to rest. But a blocked call in the early hours of the morning pulls her back into a world she’s been trying to leave behind --- and into a case no one wants her to solve. Hope Philbrick, heir to one of Rhode Island’s most powerful families, has fallen to her death from a seaside cliff after her lavish pre-wedding celebration. Everyone says it was an accident. Her fiancé is grieving. The family wants silence. And Andrea has been told, in no uncertain terms, to keep her head down and follow orders. But something about the scene doesn't sit right. The deeper she digs, the more the glittering façade of privilege cracks. To uncover the truth, Andrea must risk her career --- and confront a haunting past she’s never truly escaped.
Crooked Lane Books | 9798892422871

MIDNIGHT AND BLUE: An Inspector Rebus Novel by Ian Rankin (Mystery)
A convict is brutally murdered in his locked cell deep in the heart of Scotland’s most infamous prison. Sleeping in a cell across the floor lies John Rebus, the equally notorious detective. Stripped of his badge and estranged from his police family, he is now fighting for his own life --- protected by an old nemesis but always one wrong move away from the shank. As new allies and old enemies circle, and the days and nights bleed into each other, even this legendary figure struggles to keep his head. They say old habits die hard, though. The death stirs Rebus’ deductive --- and manipulative --- impulses, setting off a domino-chain of scheming criminals, corrupt prison guards, and perhaps only one or two good souls who may see it all through. But how do you find a killer in a place full of them?
Mulholland Books | 9780316473958

THE MOST WONDERFUL CRIME OF THE YEAR by Ally Carter
(Romantic Comedy/Mystery)
Maggie Chase is the new Queen of the Cozy Mystery. Ethan Wyatt is Mr. Big-time Thriller Guy. She hates his guts. He thinks her name is Marcie (no matter how many times she’s told him otherwise). But when they both accept a cryptic invitation to attend a Christmas house party at the English estate of a reclusive fan, neither is expecting their host to be the most powerful author in the world: Eleanor Ashley, the Duchess of Death herself. That night, the weather turns, and the next morning Eleanor is gone. She vanished from a locked room, and Maggie has to wonder: Is Eleanor in danger? Or is it all some kind of test? Is Ethan the competition? Or is he the only person in that snowbound mansion she can trust? As the snow gets deeper and the stakes get higher, every clue will bring Maggie and Ethan closer to the truth --- and each other.
Avon | 9780063276710

PASSIONTIDE by Monique Roffey (Fiction)
Everyone on the small island of St. Colibri is sleeping peacefully. Everyone except Sora Tanaka, a young pan player lying under the cannonball tree. Sora, a professional musician, had been visiting St. Colibri to take part in the island’s famous steel pan competition. But Sora isn’t asleep; she’s dead --- brutally murdered and still in her costume. And as the women of this island know all too well, Sora is far from the first woman to be killed, and she probably won’t be the last. In PASSIONTIDE, Sora’s death is the last straw and the beginning of something much larger, a "revolution" some are calling it. The event draws together four women who have never before seen each other as allies: a friend of the victim, the organizer of a sex workers’ collective, a local activist, and the prime minister’s wife.
Vintage | 9780593688526

QUEEN MACBETH by Val McDermid (Historical Thriller)
A thousand years ago in an ancient Scottish landscape, a woman is on the run with her three companions --- a healer, a weaver and a seer. The men hunting her will kill her --- because she is the only one who stands between them and their violent ambition. She is no lady: she is the first queen of Scotland, married to a king called Macbeth. As the net closes in, what unfurls is a tale of passion, forced marriage, bloody massacre and the harsh realities of medieval Scotland. At the heart of it is one strong, charismatic woman, who survived loss and jeopardy to outwit the endless plotting of a string of ruthless and power-hungry men. Her struggle won her a country. But now it could cost her life.
Grove Press | 9780802165459

REDNECKS by Taylor Brown (Historical Fiction)
REDNECKS dramatizes the 1920 to 1921 events of the West Virginia Mine Wars --- from the Matewan Massacre through the Battle of Blair Mountain, the largest armed conflict on American soil since the Civil War, when some one million rounds were fired, bombs were dropped on Appalachia, and the term “redneck” would come to have an unexpected origin story. In a land where the coal companies use violence and intimidation to keep miners from organizing, “Doc Moo" Muhanna, a Lebanese-American doctor, toils amid the blood and injustice of the mining camps. When Frank Hugham, a Black World War I veteran and coal miner, takes dramatic steps to lead a miners' revolt with a band of fellow veterans, Doc Moo risks his life and career to treat sick and wounded miners, while Frank's grandmother, Beulah, fights her own battle to save her home and grandson.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250329356

ROAD TRIP WITH A VAMPIRE by Jenna Levine (Paranormal Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Reformed bad witch Grizelda “Zelda” Watson had hoped to never see another vampire again when she slipped away to sunny California for a fresh start. But when a vampire with amnesia unexpectedly shows up on her doorstep with a letter from her old friend, Reggie, and asks for her help, she can’t say no. Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Peter Elliott is tall and gorgeous, and looks great in yoga shorts. Peter soon becomes the only person in Zelda’s new life who knows the truth about what she is. If she can help him decipher the cryptic notes in his journal, the only clues to his lost memories, she might as well try before sending him on his way. But when an alarming message from Peter's past coincides with a clear sign that Zelda can't keep running from her own, they embark on a cross-country road trip for answers.
Berkley | 9780593819913

SHE-WOLVES: The Untold History of Women on Wall Street by Paulina Bren (History)
First came the secretaries from Brooklyn and Queens --- the “smart cookies” who saw that making money, lots of it, might be within their grasp. Then came the first female Harvard Business School graduates, who were in for a rude awakening because an equal degree did not mean equal opportunity. But by the 1980s, as the market went into turbodrive, women were being plucked from elite campuses to feed the belly of a rapidly expanding beast, playing for high stakes in Wall Street’s bad-boy culture by day and clubbing by night. In SHE-WOLVES, award-winning historian Paulina Bren tells the story of how women infiltrated Wall Street from the swinging '60s to 9/11 --- starting at a time when “No Ladies” signs hung across the doors of its luncheon clubs and (more discretely) inside its brokerage houses and investment banks.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324117650

THE SING SING FILES: One Journalist, Six Innocent Men, and a Twenty-Year Fight for Justice by Dan Slepian (Memoir)
In 2002, Dan Slepian, a veteran producer for NBC’s “Dateline,” received a tip from a Bronx homicide detective that two men were serving 25 years to life in prison for a 1990 murder they did not commit. Haunted by what the detective had told him, Slepian began an investigation of the case that eventually resulted in freedom for the two men and launched him on a two-decade personal and professional journey into a deeply flawed justice system fiercely resistant to rectifying --- or even acknowledging --- its mistakes and their consequences. THE SING SING FILES is Slepian’s account of challenging that system.
Celadon Books | 9781250897725

SISTER SNAKE by Amanda Lee Koe (Fiction)
Sisterhood is difficult for Su and Emerald. Su leads a sheltered, moneyed life as the picture-perfect wife of a conservative politician in Singapore. Emerald is a nihilistic sugar baby in New York, living from whim to whim and using her charms to make ends meet. But they share a secret: once, they were snakes, basking under a full moon in Tang dynasty China. A thousand years later, their mysterious history is the only thing still binding them together. When Emerald experiences a violent encounter in Central Park and Su boards the next flight to New York, the two reach a tenuous reconciliation for the first time in decades. Su convinces Emerald to move to Singapore so she can keep an eye on her, but she soon begins to worry that Emerald’s irrepressible behavior will out them both.
Ecco | 9780063355071

SOMEWHERE BEYOND THE SEA by TJ Klune (Urban Fantasy)
Arthur Parnassus is the headmaster of a strange orphanage on a distant and peculiar island, and he hopes to soon be the adoptive father to the six magical and so-called dangerous children who live there. He works hard and loves with his whole heart so none of the children ever feel the neglect and pain that he once felt as an orphan on that very same island so long ago. But when Arthur is summoned to make a public statement about his dark past, he finds himself at the helm of a fight for the future that his family, and all magical people, deserve. And when a new magical child hopes to join them on their island home --- one who finds power in calling himself monster, a name Arthur worked so hard to protect his children from --- Arthur knows they’re at a breaking point: their family will either grow stronger than ever or fall apart.
Tor Books | 9781250881229

On Sale the Week of September 29th in Hardcover

September 30th

THE CAPTIVE by Kit Burgoyne (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
For months, Luke and his underground revolutionary group have been planning their biggest operation yet: kidnapping 23-year-old Adeline Woolsaw. They want to expose the Woolsaw Group, the source of Adeline’s parents’ enormous wealth. But the revolutionaries get a shock when they bundle Adeline into their van. She’s about to go into labor. And she may not object to being kidnapped, if it allows her and the baby to escape her despotic parents. It quickly becomes apparent that this is no ordinary child. Luke discovers that Adeline’s parents engineered the pregnancy as part of a dark bargain with an ancient evil of nearly limitless power. Now the Woolsaws and their henchmen will stop at nothing to get the infant back, so they can establish an infernal new kingdom on Earth with their grandchild on the throne.
Hell's Hundred | 9781641297288 

DENIED ACCESS: A Mitch Rapp Novel by Don Bentley (Political Thriller)
The Central Intelligence Agency is in crisis. Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Congress is questioning the organization’s necessity. Interim CIA director Thomas Stansfield must fight for his agency’s survival while explaining why the previous candidate for his job was found murdered in a French hotel --- surrounded by booze, cash and dead men. Worst yet, a brilliantly run sting operation in Moscow has resulted in the arrest of America’s most prized Russian asset and the expulsion of his CIA handler. With the CIA’s Moscow Station now paralyzed by the catastrophic intelligence failure, Stansfield seeks help from Mitch Rapp, a newly minted assassin in the secretive Orion program. But Rapp has problems of his own, and he finds himself on the frontlines in a war between the American and Russian intelligence services.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781668045879 

DINNER AT THE NIGHT LIBRARY written by Hika Harada, translated by Philip Gabriel (Fiction/Magical Realism)
All Otaha Higuchi wants to do is work with books. However, the exhausting nature of her work at a chain bookstore quickly brings reality crashing down around her. She is on the verge of quitting when she receives a message from somebody anonymous, inviting her to apply for a job at "The Night Library." The library exclusively stores books by deceased authors, and none of them can be checked out. Instead, they’re put on public display to be revered and celebrated by the library’s visitors. Night after night, Otaha bonds with her colleagues over meals in the café, each of which are inspired by the literature on the shelves. But as strange occurrences start happening around the library that may bring the threat of its closure, Otaha and her friends fear that the peace they have found there will be forever lost to them.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335013408 

THE GIRL FROM DEVIL'S LAKE: A Brady Novel of Suspense by J. A. Jance (Mystery/Thriller) 
Sheriff Joanna Brady is looking forward to the holidays with her busy family and celebrating her daughter’s graduation from the police academy. But the family is interrupted when a body is discovered beneath a flooded bridge in the Arizona desert. A young boy was murdered, and the details of the crime scene tell Joanna that this was not the killer’s first murder, and it’s only a matter of time before he kills again. As Joanna digs deeper into the case, she uncovers unlikely connections between cases of mysterious deaths and missing persons, having long since gone cold, that extend far beyond the confines of her small town and include the discovery of a body near Devil’s Lake, North Dakota. To get justice for the victims and to save the town of Bisbee from a predator, Joanna must chase down every dangerous lead.
William Morrow | 9780063252639 

HEART THE LOVER by Lily King (Fiction)
In the fall of her senior year of college, our narrator meets two star students from her 17th-Century Lit class: Sam and Yash. The boys invite her into their intoxicating world of academic fervor, rapid-fire banter and raucous card games. They nickname her Jordan, and she quickly discovers the pleasures of friendship, love and her own intellectual ambition. But youthful passion is unpredictable, and soon she finds herself at the center of a charged and intricate triangle. As graduation comes and goes, choices made will alter these three lives forever. Decades later, the vulnerable days of Jordan's youth seem comfortably behind her. But when a surprise visit and unexpected news bring the past crashing into the present, she returns to a world she left behind and must confront the decisions and deceptions of her younger self.
Grove Press | 9780802165176 

I AM YOU by Victoria Redel (Historical Fiction)
At eight years old, Gerta Pieters is forced to disguise herself as a boy and sent to work for a genteel Dutch family. When their brilliant and beautiful daughter, Maria, sees through Gerta’s ruse, she insists that Gerta accompany her to Amsterdam and help her enter the elite, male-dominated art world. While Maria rises in the ranks of society as a painting prodigy, Gerta makes herself invaluable in every way: confidante, muse, lover. But as Gerta steps into her own talents, their relationship fractures into a complex web of obsession and rivalry --- and the secrets they keep threaten to unravel everything.
SJP Lit | 9781638932062 

THE IMPOSSIBLE FORTUNE: A Thursday Murder Club Mystery by Richard Osman (Mystery) 
It’s been a quiet year for the Thursday Murder Club. Joyce is busy with table plans and first dances. Elizabeth is grieving. Ron is dealing with family troubles. And Ibrahim is still providing therapy to his favorite criminal. But when Elizabeth meets Nick, a wedding guest asking for her help, she finds that the thrill of the chase is ignited once again. And when Nick disappears without a trace, his cagey business partner becomes the gang’s next stop. It seems the duo has something valuable --- something worth killing for. Joyce’s daughter, Joanna, jumps into the fray to help the gang as they seek answers. Has someone kidnapped Nick? And what’s this uncrackable code they keep hearing about? Plunged back into action once more, can the four friends solve the puzzle and a murder in time?
Pamela Dorman Books | 9780593653258 

IN THE TIME OF FIVE PUMPKINS: No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency (26) by Alexander McCall Smith (Mystery)
Mma Ramotswe can sense the rain long before it comes. It’s been a long, dry summer, but the first downpour of the season tends to bring with it new growth. In this case, it also brings a new client, who suspects his wife of having an affair. Mma Ramotswe is on the case, and she decides to bring Charlie along. But as they look further into the matter, they begin to suspect their client may not have been entirely truthful in explaining his predicament. Meanwhile, Mr. J.L.B.’s Matekoni has struck up a new friendship with a man named Mr. Mogorosi, a prominent figure in the motor trade business. Mma Ramotswe is concerned that Mr. Mogorosi may have ulterior motives for his attentions. When the two go on a fishing trip in waters teeming with dangerous crocodiles, she begins to worry for Mr. J.L.B. Matekoni’s safety.
Pantheon | 9780593701782 

THE IRISH GOODBYE by Heather Aimee O'Neill (Fiction)
It’s been years since the three Ryan sisters were all together at their beloved family home on the eastern shore of Long Island. Two decades ago, their lives were upended by an accident on their brother Topher’s boat: A friend’s brother was killed, the resulting lawsuit nearly bankrupted their parents, and Topher spiraled into depression, eventually taking his life. Now the Ryan women are back for Thanksgiving, eager to reconnect, but each carrying a heavy secret. When the eldest, Cait, invites a guest from their shared past to Thanksgiving dinner, old tensions boil over and new truths surface, nearly overpowering the flickering light of their family bond. Far more than a family holiday will be ruined unless the sisters can find a way to forgive themselves --- and one another.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250408150 

A MURDER IN PARIS by Matthew Blake (Psychological Thriller)
Olivia Finn is a memory expert at Charing Cross Hospital in London. One night, she receives an urgent call from the police at the Hotel Lutetia on Paris’s famous Left Bank. Olivia’s French grandmother, Josephine Benoit, has appeared at the Lutetia in a distressed state claiming she once committed a murder in the hotel at the end of the Second World War. Traveling to Paris, Olivia finds her grandmother confused. But Josephine insists it is a recovered memory from the past. More disturbingly, hotel records show that a woman did die in that room of the Lutetia in 1945. Could her story really be true? As people start dying in the present day, Olivia is plunged into a race against time to uncover the truth about Josephine and what really happened all those years ago.
Harper | 9780063314191 

THE OCTOBER FILM HAUNT by Michael Wehunt (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
Ten years ago, Jorie Stroud was the rising star of the October Film Haunt --- a trio of horror enthusiasts who camped out at the filming locations of their favorite scary movies, sharing their love through their popular blog. But after a night in the graveyard from Proof of Demons --- perhaps the most chilling cult film ever made, directed by the enigmatic Hélène Enriquez --- everything unraveled. Now, Jorie has built an isolated life with her young son in Vermont. In the devastating wake of her viral, truth-stretching Proof of Demons blog entry, Jorie has put it all behind her. Until a videotape arrives in the mail. Jorie fears someone might be filming her. And the “Rickies” --- Enriquez obsessives who would do anything for the reclusive director --- begin to cross lines in shocking ways. It seems Hélène Enriquez is making a new kind of sequel…and Jorie is her final girl.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250333698 

THE PERSIAN by David McCloskey (Political Thriller)
Kamran Esfahani, a dentist living out a dreary existence in Stockholm, agrees to spy for the Mossad after he’s recruited by Arik Glitzman, the chief of a clandestine unit tasked with running targeted assassinations and sabotage inside Iran. At Glitzman’s direction, Kam returns to his native Tehran and opens a dental practice there, using it as a cover for the Israeli intelligence agency. But when he tries to recruit an Iranian widow seeking to avenge the death of her husband at the hands of the Mossad, the operation goes terribly wrong, landing him in prison under the watchful eye of a sadistic officer. And now, after enduring three years of torture in captivity, Kamran Esfahani sits in an interrogation room, preparing to write his final confession. Kam knows it is too late to save himself. But he has managed to keep one secret --- only one --- and he just might be able to save that.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324123194 

PICK A COLOR by Souvankham Thammavongsa (Fiction)
Ning is a retired boxer, but to the customers who visit her nail salon, she is just another worker named Susan. However, beneath this superficial veneer, Ning is a woman of rigorous intellect and profound complexity. A woman enthralled by the intricacy and rhythms of her work, but also haunted by memories of paths not taken and opportunities lost. A woman navigating the complex power dynamics among her fellow Susans, whose greatest fears and desires lie just behind the gossip they exchange. As the day's work grinds on, the friction between Ning's two identities --- as anonymous manicurist and brilliant observer of her own circumstances --- will gather electric and crackling force, and at last demand a reckoning with the way the world of privilege looks at a woman like Ning.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316422147 

PICKET LINE: The Lost Novella by Elmore Leonard (Historical Fiction)
Chino and Paco Rojas seem well-mannered, at least for Chicanos, to the white cops who pull them over for littering on the long drive from California to Trinity, Texas. So well-mannered, in fact, that Captain Frank McKellan lets them off with a warning and recommends them a job at Stanzik Farms, the largest independent melon grower in the area. But Chino and Paco didn’t drive all this way for work. Instead, Chino is looking for a mysterious man, Vincent Mora, whose new Valley Agricultural Workers Association is causing a scene striking against the farm owners. Stanzik’s fields and Mora’s union bring together a cast of unlikely characters. Some are neighbors, others just passing through. Some know each other well, or at least thought they did…before the picket line.  
Mariner Books | 9780063389366 

THE PORTRAIT by Danielle Steel (Romance)
As a highly sought-after portrait artist, Devon Darcy seems to have the ability to peer into the souls of her subjects and then capture them on canvas. But the world doesn’t know about the devastating losses she has endured. When entrepreneur Charles Mackenzie Taylor sees her at a New York gallery event, he is instantly haunted by her beauty and her talent. Having lost his mother when he was 13, Charlie has given up on love. But Devon awakens something in him across that crowded gallery, and she is in turn intrigued by Charlie. When they encounter each other over the summer in the Hamptons, their connection deepens as they each release years of pent-up emotions and unfulfilled longing. But the ghosts of their pasts are not easily put to rest. And after an accident endangers Devon’s career, they must decide together what their future holds.
Delacorte Press | 9780593498767 

THE SHOCKING EXPERIMENTS OF MISS MARY BENNET by Melinda Taub (Historical Fantasy)
Awkward, plain and overlooked, Mary Bennet has long been out of favor not only with her own family but with generations of readers of PRIDE AND PREJUDICE. But what was this peculiar girl really doing while her sisters were falling in love? As, one by one, Mary’s sisters get married, she hatches a plan. If the world won’t give this fierce, lonely girl a place, she’ll carve one out herself. In a desperate bid to avoid becoming a burden on her family or, worse, married to a controlling man, Mary does what any bright, intrepid girl would do. She takes to the attic and teaches herself to reanimate the dead. If finding acceptance requires a husband, she’ll get one…even if she has to make him herself. However, Mary’s genius and determination aren’t enough to control the malevolent force that she unwittingly unleashes.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538768297 

SOMEBODY IS WALKING ON YOUR GRAVE: My Cemetery Journeys written by Mariana Enriquez, translated by Megan McDowell (Travel/Memoir)
Mariana Enriquez has been fascinated by the haunting beauty of cemeteries since she was a teenager. She has visited them frequently, a goth flaneur taking notes on her aesthetic obsession as she walks among the headstones, “where dying seems much more interesting than being alive.” But when the body of a friend’s mother who disappeared during Argentina’s military dictatorship was found in a common grave, Enriquez began to examine more deeply the complex meanings of cemeteries and where our bodies come to rest. In this rich book of essays, Enriquez travels through North and South America, Europe and Australia, investigating the history and architecture of various cemeteries, their saints and ghosts, their caretakers and visitors, and, of course, their dead.
Hogarth | 9780593733516 

TRULY by Lionel Richie (Memoir)
As a storyteller second to none, Lionel Richie is ready to tell it all. In this intimate, deeply candid memoir, Lionel revisits hilarious and harrowing events to inspire all who doubt themselves or feel their dreams don’t matter. He chronicles lessons learned during his unlikely story of remarkable success --- his dramatic transformation from painfully shy, “tragically” late bloomer to world-class entertainer and composer of love songs that have played as the soundtrack of our lives. Even with its turbulence, loss and near-calamity, Lionel’s journey takes us on a thrill ride and delivers a memoir for the ages --- reminding us of the power of love to elevate our own lives and our world.
HarperOne | 9780063253643 

WHAT STALKS THE DEEP by T. Kingfisher (Gothic Horror/Dark Fantasy)
Alex Easton does not want to visit America. They particularly do not want to visit an abandoned coal mine in West Virginia with a reputation for being haunted. But when their old friend, Dr. Denton, summons them to help find his lost cousin --- who went missing in that very mine --- well, sometimes a sworn soldier has to do what a sworn soldier has to do.
Tor Nightfire | 9781250354921 

WHAT A TIME TO BE ALIVE by Jade Chang (Fiction)
Lola Treasure Gold can’t figure out her life. She’s broke, unemployed and back in her childhood home, a crumbling cottage in the Hollywood Hills. Worse --- unspeakably worse --- one of her closest friends has just died. So nobody is more surprised than Lola when a jackpot falls in her lap: she stars in a viral video, opening a surprising path for her to become a self-help guru. With the encouragement of her other best friend, Celi, Lola embraces the public interest in her perceived message. But is she a scammer or a sage? Just as Lola is telling others to be their own guiding lights, she can’t seem to find hers. She’s grieving, accused of using the notoriety of her friend’s death to fuel her rise, and full of questions about the fate of her mother.
Ecco | 9780063416390

On Sale the Week of September 29th in Paperback

September 30th

THE BLUE HOUR by Paula Hawkins (Psychological Thriller)
Welcome to Eris: an island with only one house, one inhabitant, one way out. Unreachable from the Scottish mainland for 12 hours each day. Once home to Vanessa, a famous artist whose notoriously unfaithful husband disappeared 20 years ago. Now home to Grace, a solitary creature of the tides, content in her own isolation. But when a shocking discovery is made in an art gallery far away in London, a visitor comes calling. And the secrets of Eris threaten to emerge.
Mariner Books | 9780063396531

CAPTURE OR KILL: A Mitch Rapp Novel by Don Bentley (Political Thriller)
April 2011: On a remote mountaintop overlooking the remains of the Iranian nuclear weapons program, Azad Ashani witnesses a Quds Force demonstration of a capability meant to upend America’s war in the Middle East. Ashani, director of the Iranian Ministry of Intelligence and Security, recognizes the demonstration’s true significance and the nation-ending conflict it will provoke. Alone, Ashani stands no chance of preventing this rush to madness. But with the help of one man, he just might. In Washington, DC, CIA director Irene Kennedy briefs the president that the operational window to kill or capture Osama bin Laden at his recently discovered compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, is rapidly closing. But before he’ll authorize a commando raid on Pakistani soil, the president demands irrefutable proof of bin Laden’s presence. Proof he trusts just one man to provide.
Pocket Books | 9781668045848

A CHRISTMAS DUET by Debbie Macomber (Romance)
Hailey Morgan’s life has always revolved around music. She once had big dreams of becoming a professional songwriter, but the reality of life has led her to working as an assistant high school band teacher. As the holidays approach, Hailey dreads the annual tradition of spending Christmas with her family and dodging her mother’s meddling questions about her love life. When Hailey’s close friend offers her the use of her family’s empty cabin for a rejuvenating solo holiday retreat, she finally decides to do something to make herself happy. However, her arrival in the small town of Podunk, Oregon, is anything but peaceful when she discovers the cabin has been invaded by several wild animals. Luckily, Jay, the son of the town’s main store proprietor --- and a former musician to boot --- is more than willing to help.
Ballantine Books | 9780593725351

EVERYONE A STRANGER by Kevin O'Brien (Historical Thriller)
Paperback Original
Washington D.C., 1943: Virginia Abrams believed the war had taken all it could from her when her husband was killed at Guadalcanal. One year later, she’s pregnant and on the run to avoid a ruthless political family that wants to erase all connections between her and the man who assaulted her. Changing her name, Virginia moves to Seattle to start over. Against her better instincts, she’s pulled into the lives of her new neighbors in an apartment complex --- especially Tim, whose mother dies suddenly in a fall. Virginia fears that her whereabouts have been discovered, and she was the intended target. But there are secrets between the residents too. Tim is convinced there are saboteurs among them, hiding in plain sight. Virginia wants to discount his teenage imagination and her own rising paranoia, yet there’s something menacing here.
Kensington | 9781496738523

THE FAVORITES by Layne Fargo (Romance)
Katarina Shaw has always known that she was destined to become an Olympic skater. When she meets Heath Rocha, a lonely kid stuck in the foster care system, their instant connection makes them a formidable duo on the ice. Clinging to skating --- and each other --- to escape their turbulent lives, Kat and Heath go from childhood sweethearts to champion ice dancers. Until a shocking incident at the Olympic Games brings their partnership to a sudden end. As the 10-year anniversary of their final skate approaches, an unauthorized documentary reignites the public obsession with Shaw and Rocha, claiming to uncover the “real story.” Kat wants nothing to do with the documentary, but she can’t stand the thought of someone else defining her legacy. So after a decade of silence, she’s telling her story.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780593732069

FIRE AND BONES: A Temperance Brennan Novel by Kathy Reichs (Mystery/Thriller)
Always apprehensive about working fire scenes, forensic anthropologist Temperance Brennan is called to Washington, DC, to analyze the victims of a deadly blaze and sees her misgivings justified. The devastated building is in Foggy Bottom, a neighborhood with a colorful past and present, and Tempe becomes suspicious about the property’s ownership when she delves into its history. The pieces start falling into place strangely and quickly, and Tempe teams with a new ally, telejournalist Ivy Doyle. Soon the duo learns that back in the ’30s and ’40s the home was the hangout of a group of bootleggers and racketeers known as the Foggy Bottom Gang. Though interesting, this fact seems irrelevant --- until the son of a Foggy Bottom gang member is shot dead at his home in an affluent part of the district. Coincidence? Targeted attacks? So many questions.
Scribner | 9781668050934

GREAT DISASTERS by Grady Chambers (Fiction)
Paperback Original
In the early 2000s in Chicago, six young men start high school. Though they’ve been friends since boyhood, their high school years set them on new paths: The wars in Iraq and Afghanistan begin, along with the protests against them; Ryan falls in love but struggles to hold onto it; and he and the others learn to lose themselves in alcohol. With each passing year --- as they enter college or the military, then the world beyond; form new relationships with partners and children; and navigate shifting loyalties to a changing country --- the narrator feels the group breaking further apart and finds himself asking: What does it mean to move forward, both with and without one another?
Tin House Books | 9781963108507

THE LOST STORY OF EVA FUENTES by Chanel Cleeton (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
London, 2024: American expat Margo Reynolds has been hired to find a mysterious book published over a century ago. With a single copy left in existence, it has a storied past shrouded in secrecy. Havana, 1966: Librarian Pilar Castillo has devoted her life to books. So when a neighbor fleeing Cuba asks her to return a valuable book to its rightful owner, Pilar will risk everything to protect the literary work entrusted to her care. Boston, 1900: For Cuban school teacher and aspiring author Eva Fuentes, traveling from Havana to Harvard to study for the summer is the opportunity of a lifetime. It leaves her little time to write, but a moonlit encounter with an enigmatic stranger changes everything. The story that pours out of her is one of forbidden love, secrets and lies. Although Eva cannot see it yet, the book will be a danger and salvation for the lives it touches.
Berkley | 9780593816905

THE MAD WIFE by Meagan Church (Historical/Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Lulu Mayfield has spent the last five years molding herself into the perfect 1950s housewife, despite the tragic memories that haunt her and the weight of exhausting expectations. But after she gives birth to her second child, Lulu's carefully crafted life begins to unravel. When a new neighbor, Bitsy, moves in, Lulu suspects that something darker lurks behind the woman's constant smile. As her fixation on Bitsy deepens, Lulu is drawn into a web of unsettling truths that threaten to expose the cracks in her own life. The more she uncovers about Bitsy, the more she questions everything she thought she knew --- and others soon begin questioning her sanity. But is Lulu truly losing her mind? Or is she on the verge of discovering a reality too terrifying to accept?
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781464236747

MIDNIGHT TIMETABLE: A Novel in Ghost Stories written by Bora Chung, translated by Anton Hur (Literary Horror)
Paperback Original
The acclaimed Korean horror and sci-fi writer’s goosebump-inducing new book follows an employee on the night shift at the Institute. They soon learn why some employees don't last long at the center. The handkerchief in Room 302 once belonged to the late mother of two sons, whose rivalry imbues the handkerchief with undue power and unravels the lives of those who seek to possess it. Meanwhile, a live-streaming, ghost-chasing employee steals a cursed sneaker down the hall, but later finds he can’t escape its tread. The cat in Room 206 begins to reveal the crimes of its former family, wanting to understand its own path to the Institute’s dimly lit halls. These violent allegories subtly excavate the horrors of animal cosmetic testing, “conversion therapy,” domestic abuse and late-stage capitalism. 
Algonquin Books | 9781643756639

MODEL HOME by Rivers Solomon (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
The three Maxwell siblings keep their distance from the gated enclave outside Dallas where they grew up. When their family moved there, they were the only Black family in the neighborhood. Right away, bad things, scary things --- strange, unexplainable, violent --- began to happen in their house. As adults, the siblings all escaped the horrors of home, leaving their parents alone back in Texas. But when news of their parents’ death arrives, Ezri is forced to return to the house with their sisters, Eve and Emanuelle, to reckon with their family’s past and present. Their parents did not die a “natural” death. But was it supernatural?
Picador | 9781250397591

PICTURES OF HIM by Clare Leslie Hall (Domestic Thriller/Romantic Suspense)
Previously published as HIM under Clare Empson
Catherine lives an enviably normal life with her loving husband, Sam, and their two children. But many parts of her past are shrouded in mystery. When a former flame resurfaces, something inside of Catherine gives way, releasing a flood of trauma she had thought was buried long ago. Lying in the hospital after a complete breakdown, language eludes Catherine. As her fragmented memories of her university days sharpen, the threads of her past and present start to coalesce. Catherine is transported back in time to her love affair with Lucian, a charismatic and complicated artist, with whom she shared a passion that was destined to end in tragedy. Fifteen years after the fateful end of their romance, Catherine must finally confront the events that brought her to crisis, while the fragile pieces of her life begin to shift --- and threaten to shatter.
Simon & Schuster | 9781668210512

PLAYGROUND by Richard Powers (Fiction)
Twelve-year-old Evie Beaulieu sinks to the bottom of a swimming pool in Montreal strapped to one of the world’s first aqualungs. Ina Aroita grows up on naval bases across the Pacific with art as her only home. Two polar opposites at an elite Chicago high school bond over a 3,000-year-old board game; Rafi Young will get lost in literature, while Todd Keane’s work will lead to a startling AI breakthrough. They meet on the history-scarred island of Makatea in French Polynesia, whose deposits of phosphorus once helped to feed the world. Now the tiny atoll has been chosen for humanity’s next adventure: a plan to send floating, autonomous cities out onto the open sea. But first, the island’s residents must vote to greenlight the project or turn the seasteaders away.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324123736

THE POSITION OF SPOONS: And Other Intimacies by Deborah Levy (Essays)
Deborah Levy’s vital literary voice speaks about many things. On footwear: “It has always been very clear to me that people who wear shoes without socks are destined to become my friends and lovers.” On public parks: “A civic garden square gentles the pace of the city that surrounds it, holding a thought before it scrambles.” On Elizabeth Hardwick: “She understands what is at stake in literature.” On the conclusion of a marriage: “It doesn’t take an alien to tell us that when love dies we have to find another way of being alive.” Levy traces and measures her life against the backdrop of different literary imaginations. THE POSITION OF SPOONS is full of wisdom and astonishments and brings us into intimate conversation with one of our most insightful, intellectually curious writers.
Picador | 9781250397737

A REASON TO SEE YOU AGAIN by Jami Attenberg (Fiction)
The women of the Cohen family are in crisis. Triggered by the death of their patriarch, Rudy, the glue that held them all together, everyone’s lives soon take a dramatic turn. Shelly, the younger of the two Cohen sisters, runs off to the West Coast to immerse herself in the emerging (and lucrative) world of technology. Her sister, Nancy, gets married at the age of 21 to a traveling salesman with a shadowy lifestyle, while their mother, Frieda, hurls herself into a boozy, troubled existence in Miami, trying to forget the past even as it haunts her. But they each learn in different ways that running from the past can’t save you --- and then must make life-altering decisions about what they want their family to be and what they need to move forward.
Ecco | 9780063039858

REVENGE OF THE TIPPING POINT: Overstories, Superspreaders, and the Rise of Social Engineering by Malcolm Gladwell (Psychology/Social Science)
Why is Miami…Miami? What does the heartbreaking fate of the cheetah tell us about the way we raise our children? Why do Ivy League schools care so much about sports? What is the Magic Third, and what does it mean for racial harmony? In REVENGE OF THE TIPPING POINT, Malcolm Gladwell returns for the first time in 25 years to the subject of social epidemics and tipping points, this time with the aim of explaining the dark side of contagious phenomena. Through a series of riveting stories, Gladwell traces the rise of a new and troubling form of social engineering.
Back Bay Books | 9780316581509

THE SEQUEL by Jean Hanff Korelitz (Psychological Thriller)
Anna Williams-Bonner has taken care of business. That is to say, she’s taken care of her husband, bestselling novelist Jacob Finch Bonner, and laid to rest those anonymous accusations of plagiarism that so tormented him. Now she is living the contented life of a literary widow, enjoying her husband’s royalty checks in perpetuity. But for the second time in her life, a work of fiction intercedes, and this time it’s her own debut novel, The Afterword. When Anna publishes her book and indulges in her own literary acclaim, she begins to receive excerpts of a novel she never expected to see again, a novel that should no longer exist. Someone out there knows far too much: about her late brother, her late husband, and just possibly...Anna herself. What does this person want, and what are they prepared to do?
Celadon Books | 9781250408365

A SONG TO DROWN RIVERS by Ann Liang (Historical Fantasy/Romance)
Xishi’s beauty is seen as a blessing to the villagers of Yue. When she draws the attention of the famous young military advisor Fanli, he presents her with a rare opportunity: to use her beauty as a weapon. One that could topple the rival neighboring kingdom of Wu, improve the lives of her people and avenge her sister’s murder. All she has to do is infiltrate the enemy palace as a spy, seduce their immoral king and weaken them from within. But she knows that Fanli can see through every deception she masters, the attraction between them burning away any falsehoods. Once inside the enemy palace, Xishi finds herself under the hungry gaze of the king’s advisors while the king himself shows her great affection. But the higher Xishi climbs in the Wu court, the farther she and Fanli have to fall.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250908377

THAT LIBRARIAN: The Fight Against Book Banning in America by Amanda Jones (Memoir)
Small-town librarian Amanda Jones has been called a groomer, a pedo and a porn-pusher. She has faced death threats and attacks from strangers and friends alike. When she stood up for diverse perspectives at a public library board meeting, she became a target for extremists using book-banning campaigns --- funded by dark money organizations and advanced by hard right politicians --- in a crusade to make America more white, straight and “Christian.” But Amanda Jones wouldn't give up without a fight. She sued her harassers for defamation and urged others to join her in the resistance. Mapping the book-banning crisis occurring all across the nation, THAT LIBRARIAN draws the battle lines in the war against intellectual freedom, calling book lovers everywhere to rise in defense of our readers.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781639737246

WATER, WATER: Poems by Billy Collins (Poetry)
In this collection of 60 new poems, Billy Collins writes about the beauties and ironies of everyday experience. A poem is best, he feels, when it begins in clarity but ends with a whiff of mystery. In WATER, WATER, Collins combines his vigilant attention and respect for the peripheral to create moments of delight. Common and uncommon events are captured here with equal fascination, be it a cat leaning to drink from a swimming pool, a nurse calling a name in a waiting room, or an astronaut reciting Emily Dickinson from outer space. With his trademark lyrical informality, Collins asks us to slow down and glimpse the elevated in the ordinary, the odd in the familiar.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780593731048

WHAT FEASTS AT NIGHT by T. Kingfisher (Gothic Horror/Dark Fantasy)
After their terrifying ordeal at the Usher manor, Alex Easton feels as if they just survived another war. All they crave is rest, routine and sunshine. Instead, as a favor to Angus and Miss Potter, they find themself heading to their family hunting lodge, deep in the cold, damp forests of their home country, Gallacia. In theory, one can find relaxation in even the coldest and dampest of Gallacian autumns. But when Easton arrives, they find the caretaker dead, the lodge in disarray, and the grounds troubled by a strange, uncanny silence. The villagers whisper that a breath-stealing monster from folklore has taken up residence in Easton’s home. Easton knows better than to put too much stock in local superstitions, but they can tell that something is not quite right in their home…or in their dreams.
Tor Nightfire | 9781250439789

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