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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of September 29th and October 6th 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 Carol Fitzgerald's Bookreporter.com Bets On commentary for ALL THIS COULD BE YOURS. Is a debut author's blockbuster bestseller about to ruin her life? A glamorous book tour becomes a deadly cat-and-mouse chase in this captivating new thriller by USA Today bestselling author Hank Phillippi Ryan.
Carol's latest “Bookreporter Talks To” interview is with Virginia Evans, whose debut novel is THE CORRESPONDENT.
Virginia always saw the book as having an epistolary format, and she wrote it as readers are seeing it, with one letter after another. Carol thought this style worked for the storytelling as it allowed for pacing and for different aspects of Sybil’s life, and the world as she knows it now, to be explored. Virginia loved that Carol picked up on one detail that no one else had mentioned in an interview or a review.
Carol listened to the audiobook recording, which features a 13-person ensemble cast, and enjoyed it so much that it will be a Bets On selection in audio. It already has been named an AudioFile Earphones Award Winner and an Audible Best of the Year (So Far) selection.
In a moment of what seemed like kismet, THE CORRESPONDENT was announced as a New York Times bestseller just a few hours after Carol spoke with Virginia, though the book was first published back in April. This growth in readership is quite unusual, so it truly says something about the story and the building word of mouth for it.
Last Thursday night, Amy Neff joined us for September's “Bookaccino Live” Book Group event to discuss her debut novel, THE DAYS I LOVED YOU MOST, an international bestseller and a Bets On pick that is now available in paperback.
Amy worked on this book for more than a decade, and it all started with her writing in a notebook in Central Park when she was in her 20s. She talks about her own extended family and how their beach vacations (where picnics were held in the garage) influenced her writing about a long marriage, though she is only in her late 30s. Amy also shares that she developed the chapters with the three children later in the writing process.
There is a lot of conversation about the ending. Readers want to know if that had changed over the course of Amy's writing.
* Please note that the podcast is not available at this time as our distributor is having tech issues. When it is ready, you will be able to access it using this link.
We are thrilled to announce that Paula Hawkins will be October’s “Bookaccino Live” Book Group guest. The event will be held on Wednesday, October 22nd at 8pm ET. We will talk about her instant New York Times bestseller, THE BLUE HOUR, a “Good Morning America” Book Club pick and a Bets On title that is now available in paperback. It also is our current “What’s Your Book Group Reading This Month?” prize book on ReadingGroupGuides.com.
Just as we did last Thursday night, there will be a two-part Q&A session after Carol talks to Paula, who many of you know as the author of THE GIRL ON THE TRAIN.
For the first part, those who are asking a question on camera will be featured. This includes spending time with Paula backstage in our virtual green room before the show starts. If you would like to ask your question "live on screen" this way, please email Carol with the subject line "Paula" by noon ET on October 22nd. Be sure to include your name, city and state, as well as your question. If you do not want to appear on camera but still would like to ask a question, please note that you want to be off camera, and share your question --- adding your name, city and state.
Then we will take questions from other members of the audience.
Our final Fall Reading prize book is I AM YOU by Victoria Redel, an unforgettable love story that reimagines the life of renowned still-life painter Maria van Oosterwijck during the Dutch Golden Age.
The contest is now up, so be sure to enter for your chance to win one of five copies. Typically these are 24-hour giveaways, but we are extending the deadline to Thursday, October 2nd at noon ET. That gives you an extra day to submit your entries!
P.S. For those of you who shop online, if you use the store links that appear on our site for shopping, Bookreporter.com gets a small affiliate fee on your purchases from Amazon, Barnes & Noble and IndieBound. As you read our reviews and features, we would appreciate your considering this as you buy!
This Week's Bonus News:
Carol's Bookreporter Bets On Commentary for
ALL THIS COULD BE YOURS by Hank Phillippi Ryan
ALL THIS COULD BE YOURS by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Psychological Thriller)
Many of you have been to author events and have loved the opportunity to meet with writers and hear them discuss their work --- and, yes, sign books. So what really happens on a book tour? Hank Phillippi Ryan uses this as the foundation for her latest thriller, ALL THIS COULD BE YOURS.
Tessa Calloway is a debut author whose novel, All This Could Be Yours, has garnered lots of attention. She already had a following on social media when she ditched her job a few years ago to take back her “one life.” People understood this, so when her book appeared, readers were ready to buy it and come out to meet her. In the novel, Annabelle Brown, like Tessa, does not take her boss’s offer to have it all. Instead, she grabs life with two hands.
But readers do not know that Annabelle is based on someone from Tessa’s past. As she is on the road, it feels like her past may be catching up with her. Is she just sleep-deprived from her rigorous tour, or is more going on here?
- Click here to read more about the book.
- Click here to read our review.
- Click here to read an excerpt.
- Click here for the discussion guide on ReadingGroupGuides.com.
- Click here to watch our "Bookreporter Talks To" interview with Hank Phillippi Ryan.
- Click here to listen to a podcast of the interview.
Click here to read more of Carol's Bets On commentary.
Upcoming Virtual Book and Author Events
Here are 10 upcoming virtual book and author events that you may be interested in attending. Click on the links for more info and to register.
Wednesday, October 1st at 7pm ET: “Friends & Fiction”: Join “Friends & Fiction” for a conversation with Meagan Church about her new novel, THE MAD WIFE, a haunting exploration of identity, motherhood, and the suffocating grip of societal expectations that will leave you questioning the lives we build --- and the lies we live.
Wednesday, October 1st at 8pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: J. A. Jance will talk about her new book, THE GIRL FROM DEVIL'S LAKE, which finds Arizona County Sheriff Joanna Brady solving her biggest case yet --- from a body in the desert to crimes spanning decades and countries.
Thursday, October 2nd at 3pm ET: Barnes & Noble: Join Barnes & Noble as they welcome New York Times bestselling author S. D. House for a live virtual discussion of DEAD MAN BLUES --- a gripping historical crime novel set in the South that pulls the past into the present --- as part of their B&N Midday Mystery Virtual Event series. S. D. will be in conversation with the New York Times bestselling author of A LAND MORE KIND THAN HOME, Wiley Cash.
Thursday, October 2nd at 4pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Janice Hallett will talk about her latest novel, THE KILLER QUESTION, an edge-of-your-seat mystery that takes place at a pub’s weekly trivia night, revealed through quiz categories, phone messages and email correspondence.
Thursday, October 2nd at 7pm ET: Warwick's: Warwick's presents Patricia Cornwell as she discusses her latest Scarpetta novel, SHARP FORCE, with Dan Aykroyd. A serial killer wreaks havoc on Northern Virginia, appearing as a ghostly apparition before striking --- and Kay Scarpetta must avoid becoming their next victim.
Monday, October 6th at 7pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Hank Phillippi Ryan will talk about her new thriller, ALL THIS COULD BE YOURS, in which a glamorous book tour becomes a deadly cat-and-mouse chase.
Tuesday, October 7th at 3pm ET: Barnes & Noble Book Club: Join Barnes & Noble as they welcome Patrick Ryan for a live virtual event to discuss their September B&N Book Club pick, BUCKEYE. Patrick will be in conversation with Lexie Symth, B&N's Fiction Category Manager, and Brenda Allison, Frontlist Buyer at B&N.
Tuesday, October 7th at 7pm ET: Warwick's: Warwick's presents Madeline Martin as she discusses her latest book, THE SECRET BOOK SOCIETY, with Rachel McMillan. Set in Victorian London, this captivating historical novel is about a forbidden book club, dangerous secrets, and the women who dare to break free.
Tuesday, October 7th at 8pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Stephen Hunter will talk about his new novel, THE GUN MAN JACKSON SWAGGER, a classic Western about a Civil War veteran investigating the dark reality of a prosperous ranch.
Tuesday, October 7th at 9pm ET: Killer Author Club: Kimberly Belle, Heather Gudenkauf and Kaira Rouda will talk to Tessa Wegert about IN THE BONES, the opening installment in her North Country series. The arrival of a celebrity athlete on a remote peninsula in New York’s Thousand Islands unearths dark and deadly buried secrets.
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 Otoha 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, Otoha 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, Otoha 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
On Sale the Week of October 6th in Hardcover
October 7th
AND I'LL TAKE OUT YOUR EYES by A. M. Sosa (Fiction)
Since the age of seven, Christian has been under the thumb of a curse. He reads its dark signs everywhere: in his bedridden mother’s wilting plants; in his brother’s estrangement; in his father’s eager fists and glassy stare. He reads it in his nightmares, in Stockton’s soundtrack of sirens and gunshots. Above all, he reads the curse in the mirror, watching himself “turn” into the crow his father always predicted he’d become. Maddened by the city’s heatwaves and his own unthinkable desires, often high and drunk, Christian rips through his neighborhood, desperate to escape not only the city but the monster of his pain. But even when he leaves, the curse follows. Can Christian ever be absolved? Or is he condemned to be consumed by the same violence as his father?
Algonquin Books | 9781643756912
BONE VALLEY: A True Story of Injustice and Redemption in the Heart of Florida by Gilbert King (True Crime)
In 1987, Leo Schofield was arrested and charged with the murder of his wife, Michelle. Always insistent on his innocence, he was poorly served by his legal defense: the investigation was sloppy, the case was flimsy, and numerous pieces of evidence were ignored. He was sentenced to life in prison. Over 30 years later, Gilbert King is tipped off to Leo’s case and is astonished by what he finds: layers of corruption, flawed evidence and deep-seated errors. He can’t shake the story and starts to get to know Leo and his family. Leo shows an incomprehensible amount of grace and love about his situation, which spurs Gilbert even more to tell his story.
Flatiron Books | 9781250368546
CHRISTMAS AT THE NANTUCKET RESTAURANT by Pamela Kelley (Fiction)
Nantucket's famous Christmas Stroll is always the first week of December, and the co-owners of Mimi's Place want to do something extra special for the restaurant this year. It will be Emma and Paul's first Christmas together as a couple and Mandy's first holiday as a newly divorced mother of two. Although Mandy does have a promising new relationship, she wants to take things very slow. Their sister, Jill, and her new husband, Billy, are planning to spend the whole month of December on Nantucket too. Gina Caruso, the awesome bar manager, is spending her first winter on Nantucket after having lived in Boston for years. She's confused when someone she had a major crush on back in Boston moves to Nantucket, while Jared Hawthorne, the new sous chef at Mimi's Place, makes it his mission to introduce Gina to all of Nantucket's holiday festivities.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781464246210
CINDER HOUSE by Freya Marske (Gothic Fantasy/Romance)
Ella is a haunting. Murdered at 16, her ghost is furiously trapped in her father's house, invisible to everyone except her stepmother and stepsisters. Even when she discovers how to untether herself from her prison, there are limits. She cannot be seen or heard by the living people who surround her. Her family must never learn she is able to leave. And at the stroke of every midnight, she finds herself back on the staircase where she died. Until she forges a wary friendship with a fairy charm-seller and makes a bargain for three nights of almost-living freedom. Freedom that means she can finally be seen. Danced with. Touched. You think you know Ella's story: the ball, the magical shoes, the handsome prince. You're halfway right, and all-the-way wrong.
Tordotcom | 9781250341716
CRY HAVOC: A Tom Reece Thriller by Jack Carr (Historical/Political Thriller)
Just before the Tet Offensive, before President Johnson announces he will not run for reelection, before the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, as riots and protests rage across the nation, a spy ship is captured by communist forces off the coast of North Korea. The crew thought they had destroyed everything of intelligence value. They were wrong. As a KGB “illegal” elicits information from a high-ranking NSA official, and teams of special operators infiltrating into Laos, Cambodia and North Vietnam disappear without a trace, an ambitious Soviet advisor launches an ingenious plan that could forever alter the world balance of power. Tom Reece, a SEAL operator attached to the highly classified and shadowy MACV-SOG, is about to be thrust into a bloody battle to discover the truth.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781668095256
THE ELOPEMENT: A Novel of the Austen Family by Gill Hornby (Historical Fiction)
1820. Mary Dorothea Knatchbull is living under the sole charge of her widowed father, Sir Edward, a man of strict principles and high Christian values. But when her father marries Miss Fanny Knight of Godmersham Park, Mary’s life is suddenly changed. Her new stepmother comes from a large, happy and sociable family, and Fanny’s sisters become Mary’s first friends. Her aunt, Miss Cassandra Austen of Chawton, is especially kind. Her brothers are not only amusing, but handsome and charming. And as Mary Dorothea starts to bloom into a beautiful young woman, she forms a special bond with one Mr. Knight in particular. Soon, they are deeply in love and determined to marry. It promises to be the most perfect match. Who would want to stand in their way?
Pegasus Books | 9781639369652
FINAL ORBIT by Chris Hadfield (Historical Thriller)
Houston, 1975. A new Apollo mission launches into orbit, on course to dock with a Russian Soyuz craft: three NASA astronauts and three cosmonauts, joining to celebrate a new dawn of Soviet-American cooperation. But as NASA Flight Controller Kaz Zemeckis listens in from Earth, a deadly accident onboard the orbiting spacecraft changes everything. Meanwhile, from a remote location in east Asia, the first Chinese spacecraft secretly launches. On board is China’s first astronaut, Fang Kuo-chun, whose mission puts him on a collision course with the Apollo crew. As Kaz races against an enemy on the ground and for answers beyond the sky, the safety of the remaining crew hangs in the balance.
Mulholland Books | 9780316581684
GIRL WARRIOR: On Coming of Age by Joy Harjo (Memoir)
“To know ourselves is the most profound and difficult endeavor. Though we are all made of the same questions, we have individual routes to the answers, or to reframing the questions. Why is there evil in the world? Why do people suffer, and some more than others? Why are we here? What are we doing here? What happens after death? Does anything mean anything at all? Who am I and what does it matter?” writes Joy Harjo. In POET WARRIOR, the renowned poet and activist led readers through her lifelong process of artistic evolution. In GIRL WARRIOR, she speaks directly to Native girls and women, sharing stories about her own coming of age to bring renewed attention to the pivotal moments of becoming --- including forgiveness, failure, falling, rising up, and honoring our vast family of beings.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324094173
THE HITCHHIKERS by Chevy Stevens (Psychological Thriller)
It’s the summer of 1976, and Alice and Tom set out on the remote Canadian highways in their new RV, hoping to heal their broken hearts after a devastating tragedy. They’ve planned the trip perfectly and taken care of every detail. Then they meet two young hitchhikers down on their luck and offer them a ride. But Simon and Jenny aren’t what they seem. They’ve left a trail of blood, destruction and madness behind them. Now Alice and Tom are trapped, prisoners in a deadly game, with nowhere to turn. As the tension builds, the lines blur, and the question becomes: In whose heart does evil truly lie? What secrets are Jenny and Simon hiding? And who will live another day?
St. Martin's Press | 9781250133656
HOLE IN THE SKY by Daniel H. Wilson (Science Fiction/Thriller)
On the Great Plains of Oklahoma, in the heart of the Cherokee Nation, a strange atmospheric disturbance is noticed by Jim Hardgray, a down-on-his-luck single father trying to reconnect with his teenage daughter, Tawny. At NASA’s headquarters in Houston, Texas, astrophysicist Dr. Mikayla Johnson observes an interaction with the Voyager 1 spacecraft on the far side of the solar system, and she concludes that something enormous and unidentified is heading directly for Earth. And in an undisclosed bunker somewhere in the United States, an American threat forecaster known only as the Man Downstairs intercepts a cryptic communication and sends a message directly to the president and highest-ranking military brass: “First contact imminent.”
Doubleday | 9780385551113
THE INTRUDER by Freida McFadden (Psychological Thriller)
Casey's cabin in the wilderness is not built for a hurricane. Her roof shakes, the lights flicker, and the tree outside her front door sways ominously in the wind. But she's a lot more worried about the girl she discovers lurking outside her kitchen window. She's young. She's alone. And she's covered in blood. The girl won't explain where she came from, or loosen her grip on the knife in her right hand. And when Casey makes a disturbing discovery in the middle of the night, things take a turn for the worse. The girl has a dark secret. One she'll kill to keep. And if Casey gets too close to the truth, she may not live to see the morning.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464260919
IT GIRL: The Life and Legacy of Jane Birkin by Marisa Meltzer (Biography)
Jane Birkin was synonymous with chic. Her effortless style and artistic legacy have been immortalized through her music and film career. And, of course, she was the inspiration behind one of the world’s most coveted bags, the Hermès Birkin. But who was the real woman behind the it girl? Now, Marisa Meltzer sheds new light on Birkin’s enigmatic life and explores her profound influence on generations in a rigorously reported biography unlike any other. IT GIRL paints a vivid portrait of Birkin and her profound legacy, from her early years in 1960s London to her rise as a beloved celebrity in France, detailing personal challenges, her relationships with creative powerhouses, and the duality of her public and private selves.
Atria Books | 9781668060285
KEEP THIS FOR ME by Jennifer Fawcett (Literary Thriller)
One hot August night in 1993, a young couple go to a party. When their car breaks down, they are picked up by a truck driver who attacks the man and abducts the woman. She is never seen again. That woman was Fiona Green’s mother. When the trucker, Eddie Ward, is caught, a mass grave of bodies is discovered in his backyard, but Fiona’s mother isn’t there. Thirty years later, on his prison deathbed, Ward insists that he didn’t kill her, so Fiona finds herself back in the small town where her mother disappeared. Fighting demons of her own, she’s shocked when history repeats itself: another woman, another roadside breakdown, and another disappearance. Only this time the primary suspect is Jason Ward, Eddie’s son. Desperate, Fiona hunts down answers, unaware that she is being drawn into a dangerous trap.
Atria Books | 9781668050644
LAST RITES by Ozzy Osbourne (Memoir)
At the age of 69, Ozzy Osbourne was on a triumphant farewell tour, playing to sold-out arenas and rave reviews all around the world. Then: disaster. In a matter of just a few weeks, he went from being hospitalized with a finger infection to having to abandon his tour --- and all public life --- as he faced near-total paralysis from the neck down. LAST RITES is the shocking, bitterly hilarious, never-before-told story of Ozzy's descent into hell. Along the way, he reflects on his extraordinary life and career, including his marriage to wife Sharon, as well as his reflections on what it took for him to get back onstage for the triumphant Back to the Beginning concert, streamed around the world, where Ozzy reunited with his Black Sabbath bandmates for the final time.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538775417
MIRAGE CITY: An Evander Mills Mystery by Lev AC Rosen (Historical Mystery)
Private Investigator Evander “Andy” Mills’ next case takes him out of his comfort zone in San Francisco --- and much to his dismay, back home to Los Angeles. After a secretive queer rights organization called the Mattachine Society enlists Andy to find some missing members, he must dodge not only motorcycle gangs and mysterious forces, but his own mother, too. Avoiding her proves to be a challenge when the case leads Andy to the psychiatric clinic she works at. Worlds collide, buried secrets are dug up, and Andy realizes he's going to have to make some hard choices. With secrets, drugs and doctors swirling around him, time is running out for Andy to locate the missing and get them to safety. And for him to make it back to San Francisco in one piece.
Minotaur Books | 9781250322470
MOTHERS written by Brenda Lozano, translated by Heather Cleary (Fiction)
When the kidnapping of a little girl shocks the Mexican capital, the lives of two very different women become forever intertwined. Gloria Felipe lives a comfortable upper-class life with her husband and five children. Nuria Valencia comes from a working-class background and has been desperately trying to get pregnant in order to save her marriage. After traditional methods produce no results, she subjects herself to horrific fertility treatments designed and administered by men, and ultimately tries to adopt but is rejected on the basis that a woman in her early 30s is too old to adopt a baby. Failed time and again by the system and about to lose hope, she is presented with an opportunity that seems almost too good to be true.
Catapult | 9781646222537
MY BELOVED: A Mitford Novel by Jan Karon (Fiction)
When Father Tim’s wife, Cynthia, asks what he wants for Christmas, he pens the answer in a love letter that bares his most private feelings. Then the letter goes missing and circulates among his astonished neighbors. So much for private. Can a letter change a life? Ask Helene, the piano teacher who has avoided her feelings for a lifetime. Ask Hope, the village bookseller who desperately needs something that’s impossibly out of reach. Or, if you’d like to know how a brush with death can be the portal to a happy marriage, Cynthia will tell you all about it. In MY BELOVED, Harley gets an important letter of his own; a broken heart teaches the Old Mayor, Esther Cunningham, a lesson that’s been a long time coming; and thanks to Lace and Dooley, readers get what they’ve been waiting for: Sadie.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9798217047178
NEAR FLESH: Stories by Katherine Dunn (Fiction/Short Stories)
A woman invests in a series of sex robots to get her off and comes to terms with the limitations --- and real threat --- of automated companionship. A knowing young student pursues an affair with an older man, the poet in residence at the university where she studies writing, and weighs the benefits and costs of their arrangement. A mother moves to a farm with her family and must come to terms with the violence simmering beneath her skin. NEAR FLESH is the first and only collection of short fiction by Katherine Dunn, the author of the bestselling novel GEEK LOVE. These 19 stories are attuned to the spit and grit of tough living. They pulse with yearning for a more prosperous life, for sexual satisfaction, to escape abusive husbands and the disappointments of convention.
MCD | 9780374602352
OVERDUE by Stephanie Perkins (Romance)
Librarian Ingrid Dahl has been happily dating her college boyfriend, Cory, for 11 years without ever discussing marriage. But when Ingrid’s sister announces her engagement to a woman she’s only been dating for two years, Ingrid and Cory feel pressured to consider their future. Neither has ever been with anybody else, so they make an unconventional decision. They'll take a one-month break to date other people, then they'll reunite and move toward marriage. Ingrid even has someone in mind: her charmingly grumpy coworker, Macon Nowakowski, on whom she’s secretly crushed for years. But plans go awry, and when the month ends, Ingrid and Cory realize they’re not ready to resume their relationship --- and Ingrid’s harmless crush on Macon has turned into something much more complicated.
Saturday Books | 9781250313461
PAPER GIRL: A Memoir of Home and Family in a Fractured America by Beth Macy (Memoir)
Urbana, Ohio, was not a utopia when Beth Macy grew up there in the ’70s and ’80s. Her dad was known as the town drunk, which hurt, as did their poverty. But Urbana had a healthy economy and thriving schools, and Macy had middle-class schoolmates whose families became her role models. But as her mother’s health declined in 2020, she couldn’t shake the feeling that her town had dramatically hardened. Macy had grown up as the paper girl, delivering the local newspaper, which was the community’s civic glue. Now she found scant local news and precious little civic glue. This was not an assignment Macy had ever imagined taking on, but after her mother’s death, she decided to figure out what happened to Urbana in the 40 years since she’d left. The result is an astonishing book that brings into focus our most urgent set of national issues.
Penguin Press | 9780593656730
PHOTOGRAPH by Brian Freeman (Mystery/Thriller)
Shannon Wells is a private investigator who helps women with nowhere else to go. Last year, a woman named Faith Selby came to Shannon with a strange request: Find out who I really am. Shannon soon discovered that Faith was hiding a whole other life, but was unable to penetrate the web of mystery the woman had built around her past. Now Faith is dead. The only clue to who she was and why she was murdered is an old photograph of a little girl in the rain outside a Midwestern motel. The hunt for answers takes Shannon from the hot beaches of Florida to a remote small town in Michigan as she peels away layer after layer of a shocking cold case that has rippled violently into the present. With each secret she uncovers, the danger around her grows --- and forces Shannon to confront the demons hiding in her own past.
Blackstone Publishing | 9781665109765
QUEEN DEMON by Martha Wells (Fantasy/Adventure)
Dahin, a beloved member of the Witch King's coterie, believes he has clues to the location of the Hierarchs' Well. The Witch King Kai, along with his companions Ziede and Tahren, knowing there's something he isn't telling them, travel with him to the rebuilt university of Ancartre, which may be dangerously close to finding the Well itself. Can Kai stop the rise of a new Hierarch? And can he trust his companions to do what’s right?
Tor Books | 9781250826916
RACE AGAINST TERROR: Chasing an Al Qaeda Killer at the Dawn of the Forever War by Jake Tapper (True Crime)
June 2011: The case has been cold for nearly 10 years when a terrorist fleeing the Arab Spring turns himself in and confesses to killing American soldiers in Afghanistan. This brazen act sets off an unlikely chain of events that puts the entirety of the American justice system to the test. They have the killer but no evidence to prove the murders happened. Determined to deliver justice, a team led by federal prosecutors Dave Bitkower and Shreve Ariail must traverse the globe, uncovering facts across thousands of miles and tracing shocking plots of terror in order to prevent tragedy from striking again. RACE AGAINST TERROR shows a man radicalized to enact violence, courageous soldiers who risked their lives for each other, and the diverse set of men and women who work tirelessly to stay one step ahead of disaster.
Atria Books | 9781668079447
THE SECOND CHANCE CINEMA by Thea Weiss (Fiction/Magical Realism)
At the end of a fog-covered alley glitters a glamorous cinema that’s nearly impossible to find. When Ellie and her fiancé, Drake, stumble upon it during a late-night walk, they’re shocked to discover what’s playing inside the red-velvet auditorium: their formative memories. Drake fears what the cinema might reveal, but he eventually gives in when Ellie insists they return for more viewings. She’s haunted by a night from her past that she doesn’t fully remember. This is her opportunity to piece the story back together. But as the memories displayed on screen inch closer to the present, they realize they’re both keeping secrets from each other. With their wedding on the horizon, Ellie and Drake must decide if seeing their pasts changes their plans for a future together.
Atria Books | 9781668080405
SHADOW TICKET by Thomas Pynchon (Historical/Noir Mystery)
Milwaukee, 1932. The Great Depression is going full blast, the repeal of Prohibition is just around the corner, Al Capone is in the federal pen, and the private investigation business shifts from labor-management relations to the more domestic kind. Hicks McTaggart, a onetime strikebreaker turned private eye, thinks he’s found job security until he gets sent out on what should be a routine case: locating and bringing back the heiress of a Wisconsin cheese fortune who’s taken a mind to go wandering. Before he knows it, he’s been shanghaied onto a transoceanic liner, eventually ending up in Hungary. By the time Hicks catches up with the runaway heiress, he will find himself entangled with Nazis, Soviet agents, British counterspies, swing musicians, practitioners of the paranormal, outlaw motorcyclists, and the troubles that come with each of them.
Penguin Press | 9781594206108
SHARP FORCE: A Scarpetta Novel by Patricia Cornwell (Mystery/Thriller)
During the early hours of Christmas morning, chief medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta receives a chilling call. The Phantom Slasher has struck again. The serial killer has terrorized Northern Virginia for months. His pattern is to stalk with a sophisticated technology that enables him to invade his victims' homes and watch their every move. They wake up to a ghost-like hologram before being murdered in their beds. Scarpetta is summoned to Mercy Island, the site of a notorious psychiatric hospital where two people have been brutalized, one of them from Scarpetta’s past. It soon becomes apparent that she could be next.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538773963
THE SILVER HILLS BOARDING HOUSE by Linda Lael Miller
(Historical Romance/Western)
Lizbet Fontaine will do anything to keep her family together, even leave behind the only life she’s ever known to journey to the West. But as the jitney rumbles away, holding tightly to her little brother’s and sister’s hands, she knows something is wrong. Her stepfather has summoned an associate with a predatory glint in his eyes, and Lizbet knows she needs to save them all. She just doesn’t know how…until a kind man points out the Silver Hills Boarding House. Gabe Whitfield is no saint, but he won’t let a woman be threatened. Getting involved with Lizbet and little Frankie and Jubal is the last thing on his mind, though. When his wife and their child died a few years ago, a piece of him died, too. So he’ll help this family find their way at Miss Ornetta’s boarding house. Anything more is out of the question. But that one chance meeting changes Gabe forever.
Canary Street Press | 9781335424761
TWICE by Mitch Albom (Fiction)
When he is eight years old, Alfie Logan discovers the magical ability to get a second chance at everything. He can undo any moment and live it again. The one catch: he must accept the consequences of his second try --- for better or worse. Eventually, Alfie turns his gift to his love life, studying his crushes and going back to make himself more appealing. In time, he falls deeply in love with Gianna, the woman he believes is the one. He seems to find contentment. But as the years pass, Alfie’s eye begins to wander. Which is when he learns a lone caveat to his power: once he undoes a love, that person can never fall in love with him again. Knowing that if he gives in to temptation, he will risk losing what he has with Gianna, Alfie makes a choice that changes his life forever.
Harper | 9780062406682
TWICE BLESSED: A Story of Unconditional Love by Stefanie Mercado Altman, Claire Altman and Stan Altman (Memoir)
TWICE BLESSED is a beautifully written memoir that explores the depths of love, resilience and the true meaning of family. Stefanie Mercado Altman, Claire Altman and Stan Altman share an intimate and inspiring story about the bonds that define us, from adoption to caregiving and beyond. When Stefanie was adopted by Claire and Stan, their family was built on love and trust rather than biology. As they navigated the joys and struggles of parenting, they faced challenges that tested their resilience, including Stefanie’s search for identity and connection with her birth mother, Rosa, a gifted artist whose struggles with AIDS cast a long shadow.
Empire State Editions | 9781531511807
VENETIAN VESPERS by John Banville (Historical Fiction)
1899. As the new century approaches, struggling English writer Evelyn Dolman marries Laura Rensselaer, the daughter of an American oil tycoon. Evelyn anticipates that he and Laura will inherit a substantial fortune and lead a comfortable, settled life. But his hopes are dashed when a mysterious rift between Laura and her father, just before the patriarch’s death, leads to her disinheritance. The unhappy newlyweds travel to Venice to celebrate the New Year at the Palazzo Dioscuri, the ancestral home of the charming but treacherous Count Barbarigo. From their first moments in the mist-blanketed floating city, otherworldly occurrences begin to accumulate. Where has Laura disappeared to? How to explain the increasingly sinister circumstances closing around him? Could he be losing his mind?
Knopf | 9780593801161
THE WOMEN OF WILD HILL by Kirsten Miller (Fiction/Magical Realism)
There are places on earth where nature’s powers gather. Girls raised there are bequeathed strange gifts. Such a place is Wild Hill. For centuries, the ghost of a witch murdered by colonists claimed the beautiful and fertile Wild Hill…until a young Scottish woman with strange gifts arrived. Sadie Duncan was allowed to stay. Five generations of Sadie’s descendants called Wild Hill home, each generation more powerful than the last. Then, in the aftermath of a terrible tragedy, the last of the Duncans abandoned their ancestral home. Now Brigid, Phoebe and Sibyl have been brought to Wild Hill to discover their family legacy. The Old One, furious at the path mankind has taken, has chosen three powerful witches to turn the tide. The Duncans will fulfill their destinies --- but only if they can set aside their grievances and come together as a family.
William Morrow | 9780063282858
On Sale the Week of October 6th in Paperback
October 7th
BLOOD TEST: A Comedy by Charles Baxter (Fiction/Humor)
Brock Hobson, an insurance salesman and Sunday-school teacher, finds his equilibrium disturbed by the results of a predictive blood test. From his good-as-gold, gentle girlfriend to the macho subcontractor guy his ex-wife left him for, not to mention his well-raised teenage kids, now exploring sex and sexuality, the secondary characters in Brock's life all contribute meaningfully to the drama, as increasing challenges to his sense of self and purpose crash over him. The final battle --- no spoilers, but there is one --- couldn't be more delightful, as BLOOD TEST reminds us to choose the best people to love, accept the ones we love even if we didn’t choose them, and love them all well.
Vintage | 9780593685594
THE BOG WIFE by Kay Chronister (Gothic Horror)
Since time immemorial, the Haddesley family has tended the cranberry bog. In exchange, the bog sustains them. The staunch seasons of their lives are governed by a strict covenant that is renewed each generation with the ritual sacrifice of their patriarch, and in return, the bog produces a "bog-wife." Brought to life from vegetation, this woman is meant to carry on the family line. But when the bog fails --- or refuses --- to honor the bargain, the Haddesleys, a group of discordant siblings still grieving the mother who mysteriously disappeared years earlier, face an unknown future. As youngest daughter Nora takes desperate measures to keep her warring siblings together, fledgling patriarch Charlie uncovers a disturbing secret that casts doubt over everything the family has ever believed about itself.
Counterpoint | 9781640097322
THE BOUNDARIES WE CROSS by Brad Parks (Domestic Thriller)
Charles Bliss, a teacher at an elite Connecticut boarding school, has been accused of engaging in a romantic relationship with a student. The student behind the accusation, Hayley Goodloe, is the daughter of a state senator, the granddaughter of an ex-governor, and an heiress to a massive fortune. But Charles has long prided himself on keeping proper boundaries with his students. He insists he would never cross the line. Or would he? Hayley’s diary makes it clear she had strong feelings for her teacher. Was it just an unrequited schoolgirl crush? Or was it something more? When Hayley disappears under suspicious circumstances, a daunting pile of evidence points to Charles as the chief suspect. Charles swears he’s being framed. And it soon becomes apparent there’s only one way he can clear his name. Find her.
Oceanview Publishing | 9781608096442
COVER STORY by Mhairi McFarlane (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Bel has just landed a job at the Manchester office of a big national newspaper. But she’s not impressed with the new intern, a thirtysomething man named Connor. Connor’s life is in a state of collapse. He’s left his seemingly perfect life in London for a chance to pursue a lifelong dream of becoming a reporter. After a bad first impression with Bel, his internship begins to feel like another in a series of poor decisions. When Bel suddenly finds herself at the heels of a huge story, she’s determined to see it through --- even if it means involving the inscrutable and aloof Connor. Before they know it, they must convince people they’re not just a couple, but a couple madly in love. But as time goes on, they start to wonder if their cover story is just an act, or if their feelings are real.
Avon | 9780063292574
CRAFTING FOR SINNERS by Jenny Kiefer (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
Paperback Original
Ruth is trapped. She’s stuck in her small, religious hometown of Kill Devil, Kentucky, stuck in the closet, and stuck living paycheck to paycheck. After her manager finds out that she lives with her girlfriend, Ruth is fired from her job at New Creations --- a craft store owned by the church that dominates life in Kill Devil. In an act of revenge, Ruth attempts to shoplift some yarn but is caught red-handed. Instead of calling the police, the employees lock her in the store --- and attack her. As Ruth fights for her life using only the crafting supplies at hand, she plunges deeper into the tangled web of the New Creationists, who are hiding a terrible secret that threatens not only her but the entire town.
Quirk Books | 9781683694700
DEALING WITH A DESPERATE DEMON by Charlotte Stein (Paranormal Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Nancy has just about given up on finding her special person when Jack Jackson walks into her bookstore. After a bit of gentle persuasion, he finally accepts her guidance in securing his dream girl. There’s just one problem: his dream girl might have more than an issue with his dating skills. Because Jack isn’t just a little clueless; he’s actually the demonic son of Satan. He’s spent his entire long underlife dragging evildoers to their fates, while really trying not to live up to his dad’s expectations. Now, it isn’t just about getting a date with his dream girl. He needs to become a better man to win over the woman to whom he’s been cosmically bound. If he fails, everyone he cares for will face a terrible fate. Luckily for him, Nancy may well be the witch she’s always tried to pretend she wasn’t.
St. Martin's Griffin | 9781250352354
HOLLOW OUT THE DARK by James Wade (Historical Fiction/Gothic Adventure)
A veteran of the Great War, Jesse Cole is grateful for the quiet life he now leads. But when his closest friend runs afoul of local criminals, Frog and Squirrel Fenley, Jesse is forced to spin his moral compass and enter a violent and volatile underworld. There he encounters corrupt lawmen, hired assassins and a dark family secret that will upend all he once knew. Complicating matters are Texas Ranger Amon Atkins --- who arrives to investigate the Fenleys just as their empire is threatened by a deadly new competition --- and the green-eyed, raven-haired Adaline, a love Jesse thought he'd lost forever. With resources scarce and winter falling hard on the town, a desperate Jesse must choose between the law and the lawless and find a way to survive while still protecting the people he loves.
Blackstone Publishing | 9798228569317
A JINGLE BELL MINGLE by Julie Murphy and Sierra Simone (Romantic Comedy)
Sunny Palmer has accidentally sold her very first screenplay to the Hope Channel. That was six months ago. Fast forward to a looming deadline, and an uninspired Sunny has returned to the source of her inspiration in Christmas Notch, Vermont, to immerse herself in the local Christmas miracle on which her fever dream of a movie pitch was based. Isaac Kelly, a former boy band heartthrob, is the latest owner of the town’s historic mansion. After his years of heartbreak following his young wife’s death, Isaac’s record label is done waiting for new music. What better place to attempt his first holiday album than a snow-covered mansion where he can become a hermit in peace? When Sunny and Isaac discover they’re both creatively blocked, they make a handshake deal: Isaac will help Sunny hunt down the truth behind the local lore, and Sunny will find Isaac a new muse.
Avon | 9780063338227
JOHN LEWIS: A Life by David Greenberg (Biography)
Born into poverty in rural Alabama, John Lewis rose to prominence in the civil rights movement, becoming second only to Martin Luther King, Jr. in his contributions. As a Freedom Rider, he played a crucial role in integrating bus stations across the South. Lewis was a prominent leader in the Nashville sit-in movement and delivered a historic speech at the 1963 March on Washington. As the youngest speaker and chairman of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee (SNCC), he transformed it into a major civil rights organization. His legacy endures through the harrowing events at the Edmund Pettus Bridge in Selma, Alabama, where he survived a brutal beating on “Bloody Sunday.” Rich with new insights, David Greenberg’s biography follows Lewis’ journey beyond the civil rights era.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982143008
THE LAST ONE AT THE WEDDING by Jason Rekulak (Domestic Thriller)
Frank Szatowski is shocked when his daughter, Maggie, calls him for the first time in three years. He’s even more surprised when she invites him to her upcoming wedding in New Hampshire. Frank is ecstatic and determined to finally make things right. He arrives to find that the wedding is at a private estate. It seems that Maggie failed to mention that she’s marrying Aidan Gardner, the son of a famous tech billionaire. Feeling desperately out of place, Frank focuses on reconnecting with Maggie and getting to know her new family. But Aidan is withdrawn and evasive; Maggie doesn’t seem to have time for him; and he finds that the locals are disturbingly hostile to the Gardners. Frank needs to know more about this family his daughter is marrying into, but if he pushes too hard, he could lose her forever.
Flatiron Books | 9781250895820
LETHAL PREY: A Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers Novel by John Sandford (Mystery/Thriller)
Doris Grandfelt, an employee at an accounting firm, was brutally stabbed to death, but nobody knew exactly where the crime took place. Despite her twin sister Lara Grandfelt’s persistent calls to the Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the killer was never found. Twenty years later, Lara has been diagnosed with breast cancer and is determined to find Doris’ killer once and for all. She dumps the entire investigative file on every true-crime site in the world and offers a $5 million reward for information leading to the killer’s arrest. Lucas Davenport and Virgil Flowers are called in to review anything that might be a new lead. When one of the bloggers locates the murder weapon, Lucas and Virgil begin to uncover vital details about the killer’s identity. But what they don’t know is that the killer lurks in plain sight.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780593718414
LIES HE TOLD ME by James Patterson and David Ellis (Thriller)
Everyone in Hemingway Grove, Illinois, knows David and Marcie Bowers. David owns the local pub. Marcie is a former big-city lawyer who practices family law. When David jumps into Cotton River to save a drowning stranger, he’s celebrated as a hero. His muscled physique, shaved head and piercing blue eyes are broadcast on every news outlet. For most people, newfound fame is a lifeline. For David Bowers, it’s a death sentence. For Marcie Bowers, it’s a test. A wife knows the difference between a loving husband and father and a cold-blooded assassin. Right?
Little, Brown and Company | 9781538710708
MAGIC SEASON: A Son's Story by Wade Rouse (Memoir)
As a queer kid in a conservative Ozarks community, Wade Rouse struggled at a young age to garner his father Ted’s approval and find his voice. But Wade and Ted had one thing in common: an undying love for the St. Louis Cardinals. When his father's health takes a turn for the worse, Wade returns to southwest Missouri. Together, during their own magic season, they'll move toward forgiveness, reconciliation and peace.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335462848
MATE by Ali Hazelwood (Paranormal Romance)
Paperback Original
Serena Paris is orphaned, pack-less and one of a kind. Coming forward as the first Human-Were hybrid was supposed to heal a centuries-long rift between species. Instead, it made her a target, prey to the ruthless political machinations between Weres, Vampyres and Humans. With her enemies closing in on her, she has only one option left --- if he’ll have her. As Alpha of the Northwest pack, Koen Alexander commands obedience. His authority is so absolute, only a fool would threaten his mate. It doesn’t matter if Serena doesn’t reciprocate his feelings. Nothing will stop him from keeping her safe. But power-hungry Vampyres and Weres are not the only threats chasing Serena. Sooner or later, her past is bound to catch up with her --- and Koen might be the only thing standing between her and total annihilation.
Berkley | 9780593952580
A MERRY LITTLE LIE by Sarah Morgan (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Becky is stranded at the airport, so when she bumps into her brother’s best friend, Will, and he suggests they drive home together, Becky reluctantly agrees. For the first time, Becky is dreading Christmas, and only Will knows why. Can she trust him to keep her secret? Her twin sister, Rosie, married Declan after a whirlwind romance, and now the cracks are starting to appear. Rosie and Declan have agreed to hide their problems from her family, but Rosie’s insecurities are growing. Will this Christmas bring them closer or drive them apart? Hayley can’t wait for her first Balfour family Christmas with Jamie. The Balfour Christmas traditions sound wonderful, but she’s worried about her place in this close-knit family. Will there be room for her too? And how will they react to the secret she and Jamie have been keeping?
Canary Street Press | 9781335013224
MISS WINTER IN THE LIBRARY WITH A KNIFE by Martin Edwards (Mystery)
Paperback Original
Six down-on-their-luck people with links to the world of crime writing have been invited to play a game this Christmas by the mysterious Midwinter Trust. The challenge seems simple but exciting: Solve the murder of a fictional crime writer in a remote but wonderfully atmospheric village in north Yorkshire to win a prize that will change your fortunes for good. Six staff members from the shadowy Trust are there to make sure everyone plays fair. The contestants have been meticulously vetted, but you can never be too careful. And with the village about to be cut off by a snowstorm, everyone needs to be extra vigilant. Midwinter can play tricks on people's minds. The game is set --- but playing fair isn't on everyone's Christmas list.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464252969
PRECIPICE by Robert Harris (Historical Thriller)
In 1914 London, 26-year-old Venetia Stanley --- aristocratic, clever, bored, reckless --- is part of a fast group of upper-crust bohemians and socialites known as “The Coterie.” She’s also engaged in a clandestine love affair with the Prime Minister, H. H. Asquith, a man more than twice her age. He writes to her obsessively, sharing the most sensitive matters of state. As Asquith reluctantly leads the country into war with Germany, a young intelligence officer with Scotland Yard is assigned to investigate a leak of top-secret documents. Suddenly, what was a sexual intrigue becomes a matter of national security that could topple the British government --- and will alter the course of political history.
Harper Perennial | 9780063248069
THE RESTLESS WAVE: A Novel of the United States Navy by Admiral James Stavridis (Historical Fiction)
Scott Bradley James arrives in Annapolis, Maryland, as a plebe in the class of 1941 without a terribly good idea why he wants to be a naval officer, other than that his father was a sailor, and he wants to see the world, whatever that means. Scott and his roommate become fast friends, and, after surviving scrapes of their own making, the two fetch up at Pearl Harbor. War is brewing, and their class has graduated early. They have been sent to battle stations. Admiral James Stavridis is an acclaimed novelist, a decorated military leader and a great student of military history. He draws on it all to capture the experience of being storm-tossed by the bloody first years of the Second World War. Scott Bradley James is a talented young officer, but he has a lot to learn. And war will have a lot to teach him.
Penguin Books | 9780593652633
ROUGH PAGES: An Evander Mills Mystery by Lev AC Rosen (Historical Mystery)
Private Detective Evander “Andy” Mills has been drawn back to the Lavender House estate for a missing person case. Pat, the family butler, has been volunteering for a book service, one that specializes in mailing queer books to a carefully guarded list of subscribers. With bookseller Howard Salzberger gone suspiciously missing along with his address book, everyone on that list, including some of Andy's closest friends, is now in danger. A search of Howard’s bookstore reveals that someone wanted to stop him and his co-owner, Dorothea Lamb, from sending out their next book. The evidence points not just to the Feds, but to the Mafia, who would be happy to use the subscriber list for blackmail. With his own secrets closing in on him, can Andy find the list before all the lives on it are at risk?
Minotaur Books | 9781250322463
SAFE ENOUGH: And Other Stories by Lee Child (Thriller/Short Stories)
You know Jack Reacher. Now meet 20 more heroes and heavies from the brilliant mind of legendary crime author Lee Child. A drug-dealing hit man feels that he must unburden his fears and guilt to a stranger in “Ten Keys.” A rookie cop in “Normal in Every Way” is assigned to the department’s file room, where he makes connections to historic dates that could lead to solving crimes. A methodical bodyguard quits his job when he’s outsmarted. A military mission is planned to perfection. A potential worker for the Manhattan Project is carefully surveilled by an FBI agent. A killer preys on other killers. Taken together, these stories are a riotous calamity of criminals and crime fighters; individually, they are expertly crafted, piercing tales that hit hard enough to leave a mark.
Mysterious Press | 9781613167144
THE SALT GROWS HEAVY by Cassandra Khaw (Dark Fantasy/Horror)
You may think you know how the fairy tale goes: a mermaid comes to shore and weds the prince. But what the fables forget is that mermaids have teeth. And now her daughters have devoured the kingdom and burned it to ashes. On the run, the mermaid is joined by a mysterious plague doctor with a darkness of their own. Deep in the eerie, snow-crusted forest, the pair stumble upon a village of ageless children who thirst for blood and the three “saints” who control them. The mermaid and her doctor must embrace the cruelest parts of their true nature if they hope to survive.
Tor Nightfire | 9781250417978
THE SALVAGE by Anbara Salam (Historical/Gothic Literary Thriller)
Paperback Original
It is 1962, and Marta Khoury, a trailblazing marine archaeologist, has been called to Cairnroch, a small island off the east coast of Scotland. A Victorian shipwreck holds the remains of a celebrated explorer and the treasures of his final expedition. But on her first dive down to the ship, Marta becomes convinced she has seen a dark figure lurking amid the wreckage. When the Cuban Missile Crisis and the deep chill of a record-breaking winter keeps Marta stranded on Cairnroch, she forms a relationship with Elsie, a local woman working in the island’s only hotel. When the ship's artifacts inexplicably disappear, Marta and Elsie have to brave the freezing conditions to search for the missing objects before anyone else catches on.
Tin House Books | 9781963108477
SLAVEROAD by John Edgar Wideman (Fiction/History/Memoir)
For centuries, the buying and selling of human beings was legal, and millions of Africans were kidnapped and then forcibly transported across the Atlantic Ocean to serve as slaves. The enduring legacies of this slave road traffic --- denied, unacknowledged, misunderstood, repressed --- continue to poison the experiences and journeys of all Americans. In a section of “Slaveroad,” called “Sheppard,” William Henry Sheppard, a descendant of enslaved Virginians, travels back to Africa where he works as a missionary, converting Africans to Christianity alongside his Southern white colleague. Wideman imagines drinking afternoon tea with Lucy Gant Sheppard, William’s wife, who was on her own slaveroad, as she experienced her husband’s adultery with the African women he was trying to convert.
Scribner | 9781668057223
SNOW KISSED by RaeAnne Thayne (Romance)
Paperback Original
Christmas has always been single mom Holly Goodwin Moore’s favorite time of year. But she’s just not feeling it this year. The wedding in her ex’s family is almost here, her daughter, Lydia, is bursting at the seams to be a flower girl…and Holly couldn’t be dreading it more. She told a little white lie about having a new boyfriend as her plus-one, hoping to save face. She needs a date for the wedding…and she needs it now. Ryan Caldwell wants to be free this holiday season. So even he isn’t sure how he landed in Shelter Springs, looking after his niece, Audrey, with his estranged father down the road. But when he meets Holly, she makes him want to belong for the very first time. So they make a deal: he’ll be her date if she’ll help him give Audrey a true Christmas to remember while her mom is away.
Canary Street Press | 9781335013170
THE THIRD REALM written by Karl Ove Knausgaard, translated by Martin Aitken (Fiction)
For several days, a strange and bright new star in the sky above Norway has sown an unyielding sense of foreboding, agitation and fear. Tove, a painter on holiday with her family, has spiraled into a psychosis that stirs her into a flurry of unbridled creativity. Geir, a policeman who has been investigating a grisly triple murder, comes to a sinister revelation he must keep to himself. Nineteen-year-old Line falls in love with the lead singer of a metal band and is lured into a secret and frightening world. But most bewildering, and disquieting, is the discovery made by Syvert, an undertaker. Since the star has appeared, no one has died. In THE THIRD REALM, Karl Ove Knausgaard returns to the spellbinding world of THE MORNING STAR and THE WOLVES OF ETERNITY, as a cast of new and familiar characters continue to reckon with the meaning of this star. What is haunting them, and why?
Penguin Books | 9780593655238
TO DIE FOR: A 6:20 Man Thriller by David Baldacci (Thriller)
Travis Devine has become a pro at accomplishing any mission he's given. But this time it’s not his skills that send him to Seattle to aid the FBI in escorting orphaned, 12-year-old Betsy Odom to a meeting with her uncle, who’s under investigation for RICO charges. Instead, he’s hoping to lay low and keep off the radar of an enemy --- the girl on the train. But as Devine gets to know Betsy, questions begin to arise around the death of her parents. Devine digs for answers, and what he finds points to a conspiracy bigger than he ever could’ve imagined. It finally might be time for Devine and the girl on the train to come face to face. Devine is going to find out the difference between his friends and his enemies --- and in some cases, they might well be both.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538757925
WAR by Bob Woodward (Politics)
WAR is an intimate and sweeping account of one of the most tumultuous periods in presidential politics and American history. We see President Joe Biden and his top advisers in tense conversations with Russian president Vladimir Putin, Israeli prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky. We also see Donald Trump, conducting a shadow presidency and seeking to regain political power. With unrivaled, inside-the-room reporting, Bob Woodward shows President Biden’s approach to managing the war in Ukraine, the most significant land war in Europe since World War II, and his tortured path to contain the bloody Middle East conflict between Israel and the terrorist group Hamas.
Simon & Schuster | 9781668052280
WE BURN DAYLIGHT by Bret Anthony Johnston (Fiction)
Waco, Texas, 1993. People from all walks of life have arrived to follow the Lamb’s gospel --- signing over savings and pensions, selling their homes and shedding marriages. They’ve come here to worship at the feet of a former landscaper turned prophet who is preparing for the End Times with a staggering cache of weapons. Jaye’s mother is one of his newest and most devout followers, though Jaye herself has suspicions about the Lamb’s methods --- and his motives. Roy is the youngest son of the local sheriff, a 14-year-old boy with a heart of gold and a nose for trouble who falls for Jaye without knowing of her mother’s attachment to the man who is currently making his father’s life hell. The two teenagers are drawn to each other immediately and completely, but their love may have dire consequences for their families.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780399590146
THE WITCHING MOON MANOR by Stacy Sivinski (Historical Fantasy/Romance)
Paperback Original
The Crescent Moon is thriving after a much-needed expansion, with the ladies who step through its doors continuing to seek comfort in the glimpses of their futures found in the swirls at the bottom of their teacups. Anne is leading the city’s witches as Chicago’s Diviner, Beatrix is swept away on a book tour across the country, and Violet has found her place with her feet swinging through the air above the circus crowds. That is, until the Quigley sisters find themselves stumbling on their chosen paths, and they are drawn back home in search of refuge in each other’s company. But when the threads of fate begin to unravel, Anne must lean on her sisters and team up with a mysterious --- and oddly infuriating --- necromancer to save the city from an uncertain destiny and help old friends find a happy end.
Atria Books | 9781668058411
YOU WILL NEVER BE ME by Jesse Q. Sutanto (Psychological Thriller)
Influencer Meredith Lee didn’t teach Aspen Palmer how to blossom on social media just to be ditched as soon as Aspen became big. So can anyone really blame her for doing a little stalking? Then, Mer gets lucky; she finds one of Aspen’s kids’ iPads and swipes it. Now, she has access to everything. Would anyone else be able to resist tweaking things a little here and there, showing up in Aspen’s place for meetings with potential sponsors? Meanwhile, Aspen doesn’t understand why her perfectly filtered life is falling apart. If she doesn’t find out who’s behind everything, she just might lose it all. When Meredith suddenly goes missing, Aspen’s world is upended, and mysterious threats begin to arrive. But she won’t let anything get in the way of her perfect life again.
Berkley | 9780593546963
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