February 17, 2026

February 17, 2026

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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of February 16th and February 23rd 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 ReadingGroupGuides.com's BIG contest celebrating the recent release of Brisa Carleton’s debut novel, LAST CALL AT THE SAVOY, which is a 2025 Bookreporter.com Bets On pick. 

Three book groups will win up to 12 copies of the book, and they will get to talk to Brisa in May or June. In addition, we are awarding 25 book group members a single copy of the book, with a promise that they will read it and give us their feedback on it. They also will tell their group members about the book and recommend that they discuss it in June, July or August. Be sure to enter the contest by Monday, March 16th at noon ET.

This Week's Bonus News:
ReadingGroupGuides.com's
Special Contest & Author Chat Opportunity for
LAST CALL AT THE SAVOY by Brisa Carleton

Upcoming Virtual Book and Author Events

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

Thursday, February 19th at 7pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Jennifer K. Breedlove will talk about MURDER WILL OUT, her awarding-winning debut novel that brings coastal Maine to life in a lighter, modern gothic mystery that's as atmospheric as it is heartwarming.

Thursday, February 19th at 9pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Caitlin Rother will talk about her latest novel, HOOKED, a suspenseful thriller in which a journalist and a cop fight a sexual attraction as they join forces to expose a layered scheme of dark and dangerous secrets.

On Sale the Week of February 16th in Hardcover

February 17th

ADRIFT by Will Dean (Domestic Thriller)
Peggy and Drew, both aspiring writers, move to an isolated canal boat with their 14-year-old son. Peggy is the glue that holds their family together, even as their son is bullied relentlessly for his physique and his family’s lack of money. But when Drew becomes frustrated by his wife’s sudden writing success, he moves their boat further and further from civilization. With their increasing isolation, personal challenges become harder to ignore, even as they desperately try to break toxic generational patterns. But when Drew’s gaslighting becomes too much for Peggy to take, it sets off a catastrophic series of events.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781668080054 

AMERICAN STRUGGLE: Democracy, Dissent, and the Pursuit of a More Perfect Union: An Anthology by Jon Meacham (History)
In AMERICAN STRUGGLE, Jon Meacham illuminates the nation’s complicated past. This rich and diverse collection covers a wide spectrum of history, from 1619 to the 21st century, with primary-source documents that take us back to critical moments in which Americans fought over the meaning and the direction of the national experiment. From the founders to Lincoln to Obama, from Andrew Jackson to Theodore Roosevelt to Ronald Reagan, from Seneca Falls to the March on Washington, this chorus tells the story of the country and of its people. As clashes over liberty and slavery, inclusion and exclusion, play out, these voices remind us that contentious citizenship and fair-minded observations are essential to bringing about the more perfect union envisioned in the Preamble to the Constitution.
Random House | 9780593597552 

ASHLAND by Dan Simon (Fiction)
Dan Simon's debut novel takes place in Ashland, New Hampshire, a former mill town in the lakes region, and is told in six voices. Among them are Carolyn, a 20-year-old writer at a turning point in her life; Gordon, who arrives in Ashland in the twilight of his years; Andy, a local boy; Geoff, Carolyn's writing teacher at Plymouth State; and Edith, Gordon's wife, who is inadvertently Carolyn's spiritual guide and friend. Then there is Jennie, Carolyn's aunt, who seems to offer her a model for how to live. But things aren't always what they seem, and Carolyn must discover her own rules and make her own way.
Europa Editions | 9798889661672 

THE ASTRAL LIBRARY by Kate Quinn (Fiction/Magical Realism)
Alexandria “Alix” Watson has learned one lesson from her barren childhood in the foster-care system: Unlike people, books will never let you down. Working three dead-end jobs to make ends meet and knowing that college is a pipe dream, Alix takes nightly refuge in the high-vaulted reading room at the Boston Public Library, escaping into her favorite fantasy novels and dreaming of far-off lands. Until the day she stumbles through a hidden door and meets the Librarian: the ageless, acerbic guardian of a hidden library where the desperate and the lost escape to new lives...inside their favorite books. The Librarian takes a dazzled Alix under her wing, but before she can escape into the pages of her new life, a shadowy enemy emerges to threaten everyone the Astral Library has ever helped protect.
William Morrow | 9780063479753

BAD ASIANS by Lillian Li (Fiction)
Diana, Justin, Errol and Vivian worked hard, got A's and attended a good university --- only to graduate into the Great Recession of 2008. Now, despite their newly minted degrees, they’re unemployed and stuck again under their parents’ roofs in a hypercompetitive Chinese American community. So when Grace --- once the neighborhood golden child, now a Harvard Law School dropout --- asks to make a documentary about the crew, they agree. The video, "Bad Asians," goes viral on an up-and-coming media platform (YouTube, anyone?). Suddenly, millions of people know them as cruel caricatures, each full of pent-up frustrations with the others. And after a desperate attempt at spin control further derails their plans for the lives they’d always imagined, the friends must face harsh truths about themselves and coming of age in the new millennium.
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250363626 

THE BLOOD COUNTESS: Murder, Betrayal, and the Making of a Monster by Shelley Puhak (True Crime/History)
There have long been whispers, coming from the castle; from the village square; from the dark woods. The great lady --- a countess, from one of Europe's oldest families --- is a vicious killer. When the king's men force their way into her manor house, she is caught murdering yet another of her maids. She is walled up in a tower and never seen again, except in the uppermost barred window, where she curses all those who dared speak up against her. Told and retold in many languages, the legend of the Blood Countess has consumed cultural imaginations around the world. But despite claims that Elizabeth Bathory tortured and killed as many as 650 girls, some have wondered if the Countess was herself a victim --- of one of the most successful disinformation campaigns known to history. So was Elizabeth Bathory a monster, a victim, or a bit of both?
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781639732159

THE DEVIL'S BIBLE: A Cotton Malone Novel by Steve Berry (Thriller)
Former Justice Department operative Cotton Malone is called to Sweden when the younger sister of King Wilhelm I is kidnapped. The ransom demand? Hand over an 800-year-old book, the Codex Gigas --- the largest illuminated medieval manuscript in the world. Claimed as war loot from Bohemia in 1648, it’s been kept in Stockholm for nearly 400 years. Along the way, it also acquired another more mysterious moniker: The Devil’s Bible. Now the Czech Republic wants the codex back, and Sweden has agreed to return it, but forces are at work to stop that deal from happening. The likely instigator? Russia. Which is also at the top of the list for possible kidnappers. It’s up to Cotton and Cassiopeia Vitt to locate the king’s sister, secure the codex and thwart the Russians. Yet nothing is as it seems.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538770603 

EVIL GENIUS by Claire Oshetsky (Domestic Thriller/Humor)
Nineteen-year-old Celia Dent keeps telling herself how lucky she is to be working at the phone company and to be married to Drew. Celia’s contentment with her little life is shattered, though, when a woman she knows from work is murdered in a love tryst gone awry. What would that be like, Celia wonders, to die for love --- or to kill for love? Before she knows it, her musings about love-and-death happenings are bleeding into daily life. Suddenly she’s playing hooky from work and searching for a love tryst of her very own. She’s practicing her marksmanship at a local gun range and thinking about how good it would feel to bury something sharp inside her domineering husband’s ear. It’s all pretend, though, until the night comes when Celia finally goes too far, and she and Drew are set on a deadly collision course.
Ecco | 9780063466487

FIRST SIGN OF DANGER: A Haven's Rock Novel by Kelley Armstrong (Mystery) 
Detective Casey Duncan and her husband, Sheriff Eric Dalton, are entering a new chapter of life as parents to their six-month-old baby. Their family is hidden away in the sanctuary town of Haven's Rock where they can live safe and private lives. But when they encounter hikers too close to the borders of Haven's Rock, they realize they're in danger of being exposed. When they find one of the hikers dead the next day, they realize that their paranoia was justified, but they're no closer to finding out who these people were and what they were doing in the vicinity of Haven's Rock. Only by tracing the hikers' movements, as well as examining the recent behavior of their closest neighbors, the workers of a secretive mining camp, will they be able to figure out where the threat is coming from and shut it down.
Minotaur Books | 9781250351821 

THE HARD LINE: A Gray Man Novel by Mark Greaney (Thriller)
Court Gentry’s current family operates out of an office park in Norfolk, Virginia. The Ghost Town is an off-the-books direct action team run by Matt Hanley, former CIA Deputy Director. They take on the jobs the Agency needs handled “discretely.” Somewhere at the top of the US Intelligence apparatus, security experts and intelligence operations worldwide are threatened. It starts with a blown safe house in Tunis. Then Court himself barely escapes from an ambush in the jungles of Nicaragua. Now key members of the U.S. counterintelligence community are being assassinated in their own neighborhoods. With the feds compromised, it’s up to Court and his team to stop the hit squads. But eliminating professional kill teams may be the least of the Gray Man’s worries when he finds himself targeted by the legendary assassin codenamed Whetstone.
Berkley | 9780593954812 

HER LAST BREATH by Taylor Adams (Psychological Thriller)
After years of excuses, Tess has finally agreed to go caving with her best friend, Allie. As Tess and Allie descend into the depths, they realize they’re not alone. A stranger who claims to be a fellow caver harasses them. Allie insults the guy --- and he retaliates. Soon, Tess is trapped inside a narrow crawl space hundreds of feet underground, fighting to stay alive. Twenty-four hours later, as a hospitalized Tess recounts her harrowing story of survival, the detective interviewing her shares new and shocking secrets about Allie's true past. Together, they begin to suspect the brutal attack wasn’t so random after all. Who was Allie, really? Why did this man target them? And did Tess really leave the danger behind when she escaped the cave?
William Morrow | 9780063394131 

LAST SEEN by Christopher Castellani (Psychological Thriller)
Caleb was driving home for Christmas. Steven was pounding beers at a local bar. Matthew was out looking for his ex-girlfriend. Leo was walking in the woods on a winter night. Then they disappeared. Days, weeks, years later, their bodies turn up in icy rivers hundreds of miles apart. How did they get there? What, if anything, connects them? Some of their loved ones believe the official answers. Some are convinced the boys are victims of an insidious network called the Smiley Face Killers. Some are trying to forget them altogether. Meanwhile, Caleb, Steven, Matthew and Leo find one other --- and other boys like them --- in the murky depths of the afterlife. Each tells his story in his own way, speaking his version of truth, confessing his desires and grievances, and even his hopes for a future he still somehow believes belongs to him.
Viking | 9798217061037 

LAWS OF LOVE AND LOGIC by Debra Curtis (Fiction)
Lily Webb is deeply in love with a charismatic boy, a college-bound quarterback. But their dreams of a life together are cut short when his passionate protectiveness leads to an irrevocable choice. Lily already knows the sting of loss, beginning with the death of her mother, a tragedy that left deep scars on both her and her gifted younger sister, Jane. Jane seeks escape in the abstract world of mathematics and quantum mechanics --- when she can keep the demons that fuel her addictions at bay. As the years pass, Lily buries her twin griefs deep in her heart, finding solace and a new beginning with Marshall Middleton, a renowned ornithologist. But when the boy who was once everything to Lily reappears in her life, she struggles with questions around that terrible night in high school.
Ballantine Books | 9798217092277 

LEAN CAT, SAVAGE CAT by Lauren J. Joseph (Fiction)
Alone at a party, Charli knows she’s in a rut. Kicking around with the rest of London’s bohemian dropouts, she has no idea what to do with her arts degree, and her research project on Romy Haag --- the transsexual disco singer and longtime lover of David Bowie --- has all but stalled out. But her life takes a turn when she bumps into the mysterious Alexander Geist. Androgynously, glamorously handsome, he feels something like a soul mate. Naturally, when he leaves for Berlin, Charli follows. There, at the center of the city’s febrile party scene, Charli and Alexander embark on their great project: turn Alexander into the greatest pop star since David Bowie. But Alexander is elusive, mercurial; Charli is in over her head before she realizes just how self-destructive her life has become under his spell.
Catapult | 9781646223282 

LEAVING HOME: A Memoir in Full Colour by Mark Haddon (Memoir)
LEAVING HOME is a portrait of the artist both as a child and as an adult. His parents were not really cut out for the job of having children. They were cut out, respectively, for the jobs of designing abattoirs and keeping a pathologically clean and tidy house. At least he had the consolations of The Weetabix Solar System Wallchart, walnut whips and the occasional Babycham. Astringently honest and scalpel sharp, this is a book about being different and seeing the world differently. It’s about being a cartoonist and a care assistant. It’s about family. It’s about knickerbocker glories and heart surgery, about papier mâché and mental breakdown and great white sharks. It’s about how art, in all its varied forms, provides a way of understanding and coming to terms with the mess of human life.
Doubleday | 9780385551892 

ON MORRISON by Namwali Serpell (Literary Criticism)
Toni Morrison, Nobel Laureate and one of our most beloved writers, has inspired generations of readers. But her artistic genius is often overshadowed by her monumental public persona, perhaps because, as Namwali Serpell puts it, “she is our only truly canonical Black female writer --- and her work is highly complex.” In ON MORRISON, Serpell brings her unique experience as both an award-winning writer and a professor who teaches a course on Morrison to illuminate her masterful experiments with literary form. This is Morrison as you’ve never encountered her before, a journey through her oeuvre --- her fiction and criticism, as well as her lesser-known dramatic works and poetry --- with contextual guidance and original close readings.
Hogarth | 9780593732915 

PLAYMAKERS: The Jewish Entrepreneurs Who Created the Toy Industry in America by Michael Kimmel (Social History)
In 1902, Morris and Rose Michtom invented the Teddy Bear --- bound by clothing scraps, stuffed with sawdust, and given button eyes with a sad, longing expression --- in the back room of their Brooklyn candy store. Together they launched the Ideal Toy Corporation, joining a set of other poor, first-generation Jewish toymakers: the Hassenfeld brothers of Hasbro, Ruth Moskowicz and Elliot Handler of Mattel, and Joshua Lionel Cowan of Lionel Trains. From Barbie and G.I. Joe to Popeye, Superman and Mr. Potato Head, PLAYMAKERS reveals how the toy industry created the idealized American childhood: an enchanted world, full of wild creatures and eternal struggles between good and evil, with endless realms of fantasy and beauty. 
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324105282 

SO OLD, SO YOUNG by Grant Ginder (Fiction/Humor) 
For Marco and Mia, Sasha and Theo, Richie and Adam, the one constant in life after college together has been change. New jobs. New cities. New spouses. New children. Through it all, one thing they thought would always stay the same is their friendship. But time has a way of breaking even the strongest bonds, and testing what we thought we knew. From East Village apartment parties and disastrous destination weddings, to 40th birthdays and suburban backyard barbecues, SO OLD, SO YOUNG is a story about the growing pains of the Millennial generation, and a celebration of how love can shift, stumble and grow into something bigger than we ever could have imagined.
Gallery/Scout Press | 9781668051771 

WHEN I KILL YOU by B. A. Paris (Domestic Thriller) 
Nell Masters is certain that someone is following her. The hairs on the back of her neck rise when she travels to and from work, there are silent calls to her office, and a huge bouquet of flowers arrives without a card. Nell has a secret that she’s hiding from everyone in her life, including her new partner, Alex. But Alex also has secrets of his own. Fourteen years earlier, when Nell went by the name Elle Nugent, she witnessed a student, Bryony Sanders, getting into a stranger’s car. When Bryony was found murdered, Elle became obsessed with finding the person responsible. She was convinced she knew who it was, and her fixation with Brett Parker, the man she accused, led her down a dangerous path. Has someone from Nell’s past discovered her new identity? Has the stalker become the stalked? Or is there something even more deadly at play?
St. Martin's Press | 9781250289445 

On Sale the Week of February 16th in Paperback

February 17th

THE ANTIQUE HUNTER’S DEATH ON THE RED SEA by C. L. Miller
(Domestic Thriller/Mystery)
When a painting vanishes from a maritime museum and a dead body is found nearby, the newly established Lockwood Antique Hunter’s Agency, Freya Lockwood and her Aunt Carole, are called to investigate. Following a lead that takes them aboard a glamorous antiques cruise sailing toward the Red Sea in Jordan, they quickly discover that the ship’s art gallery is filled with stolen antiquities. Each antique is also listed in Freya’s late mentor’s journals that detail unsolved cases. In chasing a murderer with a stolen painting, they may have found something more sinister than they ever could’ve imagined. Their hunt soon turns deadly when they learn that the enigmatic and dangerous art trafficker named The Collector could be on board. Will Freya and Carole be able to discover the Collector’s identity and stop his murderous plans before the ship docks?
Atria Books | 9781668032046

THE ASHFIRE KING by Chelsea Abdullah (Fantasy/Adventure)
After fleeing a patricidal prince, legendary merchant Loulie al-Nazari and banished prince Mazen bin Malik find themselves in the realm of jinn. But instead of sanctuary, they find a world on the cusp of collapse. The jinn cities, long sheltered beneath the Sandsea by the magic of its kings, are sinking. Amid the turmoil, political alliances are forming, and rebellion is on the rise. When Loulie assists a dissenter --- one of her bodyguard’s old comrades --- she puts herself in the center of a centuries-old war. Trapped in a world that isn’t her own and wielding magic that belongs to a fallen king, Loulie must decide: Will she carry on someone else’s legacy or carve out her own?
Orbit | 9780316369169

BOOK OF FORBIDDEN WORDS by Louise Fein (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
1552, Paris: The printing press is quickly spreading new ideas across Europe, threatening the power of church and state, and unleashing a wave of book burning and heretic hunting. When frightened ex-nun Lysbette Angiers arrives at Charlotte Guillard’s famous printing shop with her manuscript, neither woman knows just how far the powerful elite will go to prevent the spread of Lysbette’s audacious ideas. 1952, New York: Milly Bennett is a lonely housewife struggling to find her way in her new neighborhood amidst the paranoid clamors of McCarthy’s America. She finds her life taking an unexpected turn when a relic from her past presents her with a 400-year-old manuscript to decipher, pulling her into a vortex of danger that threatens to shatter her world. Milly, Lysbette and Charlotte each face a reality where the spread of ideas are feared and every effort is made to suppress them.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063411432

CARNEY by A. F. Carter (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
The Baxter Police Department should be prepared to battle against the drug dealers, pimps and stick-up artists constantly streaming into town. However, the department began recruiting shortly after the Nissan contract was awarded, which began the city’s rapid transformation. But the commission vetting new hires rushed to bring in almost anyone with a law enforcement background. Men and women were added as fast as they applied, creating a vortex that perfectly suited a group of ex-cops from Missouri as corrupt as they are brutal. Captain Delia Mariola is not afraid of them, but she needs help and finds it in the form of Tom Carney. An experienced undercover, his status is known only by Delia and the commissioner. That secret proves invaluable as Carney weaves unsuspected through Baxter’s underworld. But to what end?
The Mysterious Press | 9781613167267

CLOSE YOUR EYES AND COUNT TO 10 by Lisa Unger (Psychological Thriller)
Charismatic daredevil and extreme adventurer Maverick Dillan invites you to the ultimate game of hide-and-seek. But as the players gather on Falcao Island, the event quickly spirals into a chilling test of survival. A storm rages as a deadly threat stalks the contestants, turning the challenge into something far more sinister than the social media stunt it was intended to be. Enter Adele, a single mother with a fierce determination to protect her children at all costs. When she begins the game, she unwittingly enters a twisted web of deception and intrigue. Can she maneuver through the treacherous storm and the relentless competition and get home to her family? In a ruthless battle for survival where the stakes are higher than ever, the blurry line between the virtual and the real proves that the only person we can trust is ourselves.
Park Row | 9780778333371

COLD AS HELL: A Haven's Rock Novel by Kelley Armstrong (Mystery)
Detective Casey Duncan and her husband, Sheriff Eric Dalton, are starting a family now that they’ve settled into their life at Haven’s Rock. As Casey nears the end of her pregnancy, she lets nothing stop her from investigating what happens in the forbidden forest outside the town of Haven’s Rock. When one of the town's residents is drugged and wanders too close to the edge of town, she’s dragged into the woods kicking and screaming. She’s saved in the nick of time, but the women of the town are alarmed. Casey and Eric investigate the assault just as a snowstorm hits Haven’s Rock, covering the forest. It’s there that they find a frozen body, naked in the snow. With mixed accounts of the woman's last movements, the two begin to question who they can trust --- and who they can't --- in their seemingly safe haven.
Minotaur Books | 9781250351814

THE FAMILY RECIPE by Carolyn Huynh (Fiction)
Duc Tran, the eccentric founder of the Vietnamese sandwich chain Duc’s Sandwiches, has decided to retire. With the help of the shady family lawyer, Duc informs his five estranged adult children that to receive their inheritance, his four daughters must revitalize run-down shops in old-school Little Saigon locations across America within a year. But if the first-born (and only) son, Jude, gets married first, everything will go to him. Each daughter is stuck in a new city, battling gentrification, declining ethnic enclaves and messy love lives, while struggling to modernize their father’s American dream. Jude wonders if he wants to marry for love or for money --- or neither. As Duc’s children scramble to win their inheritance, they begin to learn the real intention behind the inheritance scheme --- and the secret their long-lost mother kept tucked away in the old fishing tackle box all along.
Atria Books | 9781668033050

THE FIRST TO GO WEST: American Ambition, Bloody Conquest, and the Fateful Journey of Jedediah Smith by Tom Clavin and Bob Drury (History)
It is the early 19th century, and the land recently purchased by President Thomas Jefferson stretches west for thousands of miles. Who inhabits this vast new garden of Eden? What strange beasts and natural formations can be found? Thus was the birth of Manifest Destiny and the resulting bloody battles with Indigenous tribes encountered by white explorers. Also in this volatile mix are the grizzled fur trappers and mountain men, waging war against the Native American tribes whose lands they traverse. This is the setting of THE FIRST TO GO WEST, and the guide to this epic narrative is arguably America’s greatest yet most unsung pathfinder, Jedediah Smith. His explorations into the forested frontiers on both sides of the Rocky Mountains and all the way to the West Coast would become the stuff of legend.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250878588

THE GUILT PILL by Saumya Dave (Fiction)
Maya Patel seemingly has it all. But behind closed doors, she's drowning. Her newborn has taken a toll on her marriage, her best friend won't return her calls, and her company is hanging on by a thread. If she could just be a better boss, mother, wife and friend, maybe she wouldn't feel so guilty all the time. Enter: #Girlboss Liz Anderson, who introduces Maya to the "guilt pill," an experimental supplement that erases female guilt. It's the perfect antidote to Maya’s self-blame and imposter syndrome, and she can finally become the woman she’s always wanted to be. There's just one catch --- for Maya to truly "have it all," she must be willing to risk it all. And as she falls deeper down the pill's guilt-free rabbit hole, her growing ruthlessness could threaten everything she's built for herself…and the family she's worked so hard to protect.
Park Row | 9780778368359

IMMORTAL by Sue Lynn Tan (Fantasy/Romance)
The young heir to a mortal crown, Liyen ascends a precarious throne when her grandfather dies, vowing to end her kingdom’s obligation to the immortals and take vengeance against those she feels responsible for his death. When she is summoned to the Immortal Realm, she seizes the opportunity to learn their secrets and to form a tenuous alliance to safeguard her people, all with the one she should fear and mistrust the most: the ruthless God of War. As they are drawn together, a treacherous attraction ignites between them --- one she has to resist, to not endanger all she is fighting for. But with darker forces closing in around them, and her kingdom plunged into peril, Liyen must risk everything to save her people from an unspeakable fate, even if it means forging a dangerous bond with the immortal. Even if it means losing her heart.
Harper Voyager | 9780063267626

AN INSIDE JOB by Daniel Silva (Thriller/Adventure)
Gabriel Allon has been awarded a commission to restore one of the most important paintings in Venice. But when he discovers the body of a mysterious woman floating in the waters of the Venetian Lagoon, he finds himself in a desperate race to recover a lost masterpiece by Leonardo da Vinci. The painting, a portrait of a beautiful young girl, has been gathering dust in a storeroom at the Vatican Museums for more than a century, misattributed and hidden beneath a worthless picture by an unknown artist. Because no one knows that the Leonardo is there, no one notices when it disappears one night during a suspicious power outage. No one but the ruthless mobsters and moneymen behind the theft --- and the mysterious woman Gabriel found in a watery grave in Venice. A woman without a name. A woman without a face.
Harper Perennial | 9780063384415

THE LAMB by Lucy Rose (Gothic Horror)
Margot and Mama have lived by the forest ever since Margot can remember. When Margot is not at school, they spend quiet days together in their cottage, waiting for strangers to knock on their door. Strays, Mama calls them. People who have strayed too far from the road. Mama loves the strays. She feeds them wine and keeps them warm. Then she satisfies her burning appetite by picking apart their bodies. But Mama’s want is stronger than her hunger sometimes. And when a beautiful, white-toothed stray named Eden turns up in the heart of a snowstorm, Margot must confront the shifting dynamics of her family, untangle her own desires, and make her bid for freedom.
Harper Perennial | 9780063374614

LORNE: The Man Who Invented Saturday Night Live by Susan Morrison (Biography)
Over the 50 years that Lorne Michaels has been at the helm of “Saturday Night Live,” he has become a revered and inimitable presence in the entertainment world. He’s a tastemaker, a mogul, a withholding father figure, a genius spotter of talent, a shrewd businessman, a name-dropper, a raconteur, the inspiration for Dr. Evil, the winner of more than a hundred Emmys --- and, essentially, a mystery. Generations of writers and performers have spent their lives trying to figure him out, by turns demonizing and lionizing him. LORNE will introduce you to him, in full, for the first time. With unprecedented access to Michaels and the entire “SNL” apparatus, Susan Morrison takes readers behind the curtain for the lively, up-and-down, definitive story of how Michaels created and maintained the institution that changed comedy forever.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780812988895

A MAP TO PARADISE by Susan Meissner (Historical Fiction)
With her name on the Hollywood blacklist and her life on hold, starlet Melanie Cole has little choice in company. There is her next-door neighbor, Elwood, but the screenwriter’s agoraphobia allows for just short chats through open windows. He’s her sole confidante, though, as she and her housekeeper, Eva, an immigrant from war-torn Europe, rarely make conversation. Then one early morning, Melanie and Eva spot Elwood’s sister-in-law and caretaker, June, digging in his beloved rose garden. After that they don’t see Elwood at all anymore. Where could a man who never leaves the house possibly have gone? As they try to find out if something has happened to him, unexpected secrets are revealed among all three women, leading to an alliance that seems the only way for any of them to hold on to what they can still call their own.
Berkley | 9780593332870

THE NEW NEIGHBORS by Claire Douglas (Domestic Thriller)
Paperback Original
When Lena overhears a conversation between her next-door neighbors, she thinks she must have misheard. The Morgans are a kind, retired couple who recently moved to their sleepy suburban street in Bristol where nothing ever happens. But to Lena it sounded very much like they were planning a crime. Her family and friends tell her she must be mistaken. Yet Lena can’t stop thinking about that strange conversation. What if they really are about to do something terrible? What if she can prevent it? Especially when doing something might help ease her conscience about her own dark past.
Harper Perennial | 9780063354432

PARANOIA: A Michael Bennett Thriller by James Patterson and James O. Born (Psychological Thriller)
At every death scene, NYPD Detective Michael Bennett says a prayer over the victim. But recently, too many of the departed have been fellow cops. “I want you to look at these deaths on special assignment,” NYPD Inspector Celeste Cantor says. “Report only to me.” Bennett excels as a solo investigator. But he's chasing a killer who feeds on isolation...and paranoia.
Little, Brown and Company | 9781538710685

ROSE OF JERICHO by Alex Grecian (Historical Fantasy/Supernatural Horror)
Something wicked is going on in the village of Ascension. A mother wasting away from cancer is suddenly up and about. A boy trampled by a milk cart walks away from the accident. A hanged man can still speak, broken neck and all. The dead are not dying. When Rabbit and Sadie Grace accompany their friend, Rose, to Ascension to help take care of her ailing cousin, they immediately notice that their new house, Bethany Hall, is occupied by dozens of ghosts. And something is waiting for them in the attic. The villagers of Ascension are unwelcoming and wary of their weird visitors. As the three women attempt to find out what’s happening in the town, they must be careful not to be found out. But a much larger --- and more dangerous --- force is galloping straight for them.
Tor Nightfire | 9781250874726

SHOW DON’T TELL: Stories by Curtis Sittenfeld (Fiction/Short Stories)
In her second story collection, Curtis Sittenfeld shows why she’s as beloved for her short fiction as she is for her novels. In these dazzling stories, she conjures up characters so real that they seem like old friends, laying bare the moments when their long-held beliefs are overturned. In “The Patron Saints of Middle Age,” a woman visits two friends she hasn’t seen since her divorce. In “A for Alone,” a married artist embarks on a creative project intended to disprove the so-called Mike Pence Rule, which suggests that women and men can’t spend time alone together without lusting after each other. And in “Lost but Not Forgotten,” Sittenfeld gives readers of her novel PREP a window into the world of her beloved character Lee Fiora, decades later, when Lee attends an alumni reunion at her boarding school.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780593446751

TOM CLANCY LINE OF DEMARCATION: A Jack Ryan Jr. Novel by M. P. Woodward (Thriller/Adventure)
It starts with the destruction of a US Coast Guard cutter and the loss of her entire crew. But the USCG Claiborne was on an innocuous mission to open a sea lane between an oil field off the coast of South America and the refineries of southern Louisiana. The destruction of the ship won't stop that mission from continuing. So who would sacrifice 22 men and women just to slow down the plan? That's the question plaguing Jack Ryan Jr. He's in Guyana to work a deal to get his company, Hendley Associates, in on the ground floor of this new discovery, but Russia’s Wagner Group and a pack of Venezuelan narco-terrorists have other ideas --- and will risk war with the United States to see them through. It's up to Jack to identify the killers before they draw a bead on him.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593718025

THE UNRAVELING OF JULIA by Lisa Scottoline (Psychological Thriller)
One awful night, Julia Pritzker witnesses the murder of her beloved husband during a mugging on a Philadelphia street. Her luck seems to change when stunning news arrives from Italy, informing her that she’s inherited a fortune, a Tuscan villa, and a vineyard. But she’s mystified by her Italian benefactor, a total stranger named Emilia Rossi. She flies to Tuscany for answers. There, Julia learns that Rossi suffered from delusions of grandeur, believing herself to be a descendant of Caterina Sforza, a powerful Renaissance duchess. Julia doubts that is true, but she can’t deny the uncanny resemblance between her, Caterina and Rossi. She starts to unearth eerie parallels between them --- and disturbing secrets. Before long, Julia suspects she’s being followed and soon finds herself in a harrowing struggle for sanity and survival.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538770016

WHERE THE WILDFLOWERS GROW by Terah Shelton Harris (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Leigh is the last of the Wildes. She knows this because she watched them all die. Grief never truly fades, and even as the tragedy haunts her, Leigh carries on. So when the transport bus taking her to prison careens off the road, killing everyone onboard except her, she does what's in her nature. She survives. While searching for a place to hide, Leigh stumbles upon an unexpected sanctuary: a flower farm in rural Alabama tucked away from the world. What Leigh doesn't expect is the found family there who have built something from the wreckage of their own lives. Slowly, Leigh finds peace with the hard pace and soft nature of the farm, taking comfort in the life blooming around her. But the past isn't so easily buried. No matter how far she runs, the truth of who she is and the ghosts of the Wildes follow.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781464229237

On Sale the Week of February 23rd in Hardcover

February 24th

BEST BOY by Deborah Goodrich Royce (Psychological Thriller)
Viveca Stevenson has it all: a handsome and successful husband, an adorable 10-year-old son, and a coastal dream house in Greenwich, Connecticut. She has a solid group of girlfriends and is content with the afterglow of the film career she’s left behind. But when a threatening letter arrives --- from a man she does not remember --- it cracks open a part of her past she thought was buried for good. A terrifying chain of events is set in motion, forcing Viveca to confront what happened on a shattering Halloween night in high school when she had a different name, a different face and a different voice. Who is the man contacting her now, and was he really the best boy on her most famous film, Misty? Why can’t she remember him --- or that night?
Post Hill Press | 9798895653340 

BRAWLER: Stories by Lauren Groff (Fiction/Short Stories)
Ranging from the 1950s to the present day and moving across age, class and region --- from New England to Florida to California --- these nine stories reflect and expand upon a shared theme: the ceaseless battle between humans’ dark and light angels. “In every human there is both an animal and a god wrestling unto death,“ one character tells us. Among those we see caught in this match are a young woman suddenly responsible for her disabled sibling, a hot-tempered high school swimmer in need of an adult, a mother blinded by the loss of her family, and a banking scion endowed with a different kind of inheritance. Motivated by love, impeded by the double edges of other peoples’ good intentions, they try to do the right thing for as long as they can.
Riverhead Books | 9780593418420 

CLEOPATRA by Saara El-Arifi (Historical Fiction)
You know my name, but you do not know me. Your historians call me seductress, but I was ever in love's thrall. Your playwrights speak of witchcraft, but my talents came from the gods themselves. Your poets sing of my bloodlust, but I was always protecting my children. How willfully they refuse to concede that a woman could be powerful, strategic and divinely blessed to rule. Death will silence me no longer. This is not the story of how I died. But how I lived.
Ballantine Books | 9780593875643 

THE CROSSROADS: A Joe Pickett Novel by C. J. Box (Mystery/Thriller)
Marybeth Pickett gets the call she has always dreaded: her husband, Joe, is in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the head. Joe was found in his pickup at Antler Creek Junction, a crossroads connecting three ranches. Each road leading to a dangerous family. Each family with a different bone to pick with the local game warden. Marybeth and the new sheriff assume that Joe was ambushed by one of the families, but they have no idea which one since Joe didn’t say where he was going or why. With Joe unconscious and fighting for his life with Marybeth at his side, Sheridan, April and Lucy split up and investigate each of the families to uncover the truth of what happened to their father before it’s too late.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593851098 

CROWN CITY: A Japantown Mystery by Naomi Hirahara (Historical Mystery)
Pasadena, 1903: Eighteen-year-old Ryunosuke “Ryui” Wada staggers off the boat from Yokohama, Japan, ready to reinvent himself after the untimely deaths of his parents. He does his best to settle into his work as an art dealer’s apprentice while adjusting to his new home. From his enigmatic photographer roommate, Jack, to the beautiful seamstress living downstairs, Ryui finds himself surrounded by colorful characters and unbelievable opportunities and is soon utterly swept up in all that “Crown City” has to offer. But tensions are seething under Pasadena’s bustling prosperity. Ryui is the victim of an anti-Japanese attack, and a painting is stolen from the studio of Toshio Aoki, Pasadena’s most successful Japanese artist, who then hires Ryui and Jack to investigate. It’s not long before their sleuthing leads them into real danger.
Soho Press | 9781641296083 

DOLLFACE by Lindy Ryan (Horror)
Horror author Jill has just moved to suburban New Jersey, hoping to fit in with the new PTA moms and maybe not weird everyone out with her Final Girl coffee mug. You know. Make some real friends. But then a plastic face-masked serial killer begins slashing their way through town, one overly made-up mom at a time. The police are incredulous. The moms are indignant. And Jill is slowly wrapped into a killer’s murderous spree, until she just might be the last woman standing.
Minotaur Books | 9781250888914

ENCOUNTERS WITH UNEXPECTED ANIMALS: Stories by Bret Anthony Johnston (Fiction/Short Stories)
ENCOUNTERS WITH UNEXPECTED ANIMALS takes readers deep into the heart of bestselling author Bret Anthony Johnston’s home state of Texas, where teenagers search for love, parents grasp at connections with their children, and animals --- real or imagined, familiar or unexpected --- are reminders of the mystery, danger and beauty of being alive. In “Caiman,” a father buys a baby alligator in hopes of keeping his family safe. In “Soldier of Fortune,” a teenage boy dog-sits for his neighbors after tragedy strikes, and his innocent snooping uncovers the family’s most guarded secret. And in the luminous “Half of What Atlee Rouse Knows About Horses,” an elderly man’s heart is laid bare with the raw and breathtaking power of wild horses.
Random House | 9780399590153 

THE GIRLS BEFORE by Kate Alice Marshall (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Stranger is trapped in the dark, with only her imagination and the scribbles on the wall left by long-dead girls to keep her company. Nearly out of food and water, she makes one last attempt to escape. Audrey is a search-and-rescue expert who never stopped looking for her ex-best friend, Janie, who disappeared when they were teenagers. Janie used to love the local legend of a forest witch who saves girls from bad men, but Audrey knows now that for every one saved, there’s always another one lost. When she stumbles upon evidence in the forest that a teenage runaway might have actually been kidnapped from land belonging to the town’s most prominent family, she will have to dig through decades of secrets to reveal the biggest one of all: what happened to the girls before.
Flatiron Books: Pine & Cedar | 9781250343086 

A GOOD ANIMAL by Sara Maurer (Fiction)
In the farm country outside Sault Ste. Marie, Michigan --- a border town where life moves slow and dreams run fast --- most kids want out. Not Everett Lindt. He’s set on staying put, rebuilding his family’s sheep farm, and carving a future from the land he loves. Then he meets Mary, a new girl in town with restless energy and bigger plans. When their relationship reaches a crossroads, Everett sees a life together. Mary, however, is desperate to find a way out. Together, they make an impulsive choice --- one that could change everything.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250383563 

THE HEIR OF WHITESTONE by Catherine Coulter (Historical Mystery/Romance)
Alex Ivanov is a brilliant young innovator, designing cutting-edge train engines. But Alex isn’t really Alex Ivanov. As a boy, he was pulled from the Thames with no memory of who he was. Rescued and raised by the formidable Ryder Sherbrooke, Alex has built a new life, but his past is catching up with him. Lady Camilla Rohman has problems of her own. She is trapped by a scheming stepmother and a family determined to see her married off. When fate throws her into Alex’s path, their connection is undeniable. But as their whirlwind romance turns into marriage, danger follows. On their honeymoon, a series of deadly attacks make one thing clear --- someone wants Alex dead. As they race to uncover the truth, old enemies and long-buried secrets come to light, leading them to a shocking revelation that will change everything.
A John Scognamiglio Book | 9781496760890 

I GIVE YOU MY SILENCE written by Mario Vargas Llosa, translated by Adrian Nathan West (Fiction)
Toño Azpilcueta --- writer of sundry articles, aspirant to the now defunct professorship of Peruvian studies --- is an expert in the vals, a genre of music descended from the European waltz but rooted in New World Creole culture. When he hears a performance by the solitary and elusive guitarist Lalo Molfino, he is convinced not only that he is in the presence of the country’s finest musician, but that his own love for Peruvian music has a profound social function. If he could just write the biography of the man before him and tell the story of both the vals and its attendant inspiring ethos, huachafería (Peru’s most important contribution to world culture, according to Toño), he might capture his country’s soul and inspire his fellow citizens to remember the ties that bind them.
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374616250 

THE IRISH GOODBYE: Micro-Memoirs by Beth Ann Fennelly (Memoir)
What can we learn from an ordinary life observed with extraordinary skill? In THE IRISH GOODBYE, Beth Ann Fennelly writes of the small moments that shape a life, in the process dignifying the diminutive through the act of attention. Fennelly explores her roles as a friend, wife, mother and daughter, documenting a brush with an old flame or the devastating death of her sister in crystalline, precise sentences. The longer essays concern Fennelly’s relationships --- with a beloved mother-in-law, a decades-long friendship between five former college roommates, an artist who paints a series of nude portraits in Fennelly’s town, for which she poses. Interspersed between these longer memoirs are sections of flash nonfiction, a form Fennelly innovated in the genre-defying HEATING & COOLING. 
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324117407 

IT'S NEVER TOO LATE: A Memoir by Marla Gibbs, with contributions by Malaika Adero (Memoir)
Marla Gibbs, the star of such classic television series as “The Jeffersons” and “227,” has been a Hollywood icon for generations of fans. Now, at 93, she chronicles her climb from a difficult youth in which she yearned for safety and love, to the high-stakes world of Hollywood where she became a confident powerbroker learning to work behind the scenes for fair pay, access, and more creative control for herself and her colleagues. Told in her forthright voice, IT’S NEVER TOO LATE illuminates Gibbs' daring move to Los Angeles to rebuild her life after an abusive marriage, how she became an actor, and how she eventually learned to balance acting with show running. 
Amistad | 9780063356634 

KIN by Tayari Jones (Fiction)
Vernice and Annie, two motherless daughters raised in Honeysuckle, Louisiana, have been best friends and neighbors since earliest childhood but are fated to live starkly different lives. Raised by a fierce aunt determined to give her a stable home in the wake of her mother’s death, Vernice leaves Honeysuckle at 18 for Spelman College, where she joins a sisterhood of powerfully connected Black women and discovers a world of affluence, manners, aspiration and inequality. Annie, abandoned by her mother as a child and fixated on the idea of finding her and filling the bottomless hole left by her absence, sets off on a journey that will take her into a world of peril and adversity, as well as love and adventure, culminating in a battle for her life.
Knopf | 9780525659181 

MORE THAN ENOUGH by Anna Quindlen (Fiction)
High school English teacher Polly Goodman can talk about everything and anything with the women in her book club, which is why they’ve become her closest friends and, along with her veterinarian husband, the bedrock of her life. Her students, her fraught relationship with her mother, her struggles with IVF --- Polly’s book club friends have heard about it all. But when they give Polly an ancestry test kit as a joke, the results match her with a stranger. It is clear to Polly that this match is a mistake, but still she cannot help but comb through her family history for answers. Then, when it seems that the book club circle of four will become three, Polly learns how friendships can change your life in the most profound ways.
Random House | 9780593734605 

NOWHERE BURNING by Catriona Ward (Psychological Thriller/Horror) 
Riley and her brother, Oliver, set off in the pitch-black night, fleeing their troubled home. They are heading for Nowhere --- an abandoned ranch, once the playground of its former eccentric movie-star owner, now a haven for runaways. What awaits could be the freedom they crave. But this mysterious clan guards dark secrets, and the scorched grounds hold the ghosts of the past. Riley quickly realizes that while she and Oliver may have escaped the devil they knew, something darker lurks in the burnt shell of Nowhere. Something that asks a terrible price for sanctuary.
Tor Nightfire | 9781250860057 

ONE OF US by Elizabeth Day (Fiction)
When Fliss, the eccentric grown daughter of the powerful Fitzmaurice clan, is found dead on a beach in Bali, what seems like a tragic accident stirs more suspicion than closure for those who have traded favors with --- and within --- her family for decades. There is Ben, Fliss’ brother, eager to minimize his sister’s passing, since it’s suddenly clear he’s next in line to be Prime Minister. And Martin --- Ben’s erstwhile best friend --- who is just happy that Fliss’ memorial gives him the chance to re-enter the Fitzmaurice orbit, seeking revenge and acceptance. Where does Richard Take, Ben's disgraced colleague who is determined to make his big comeback, fit in? And circling them all is Andrew Jarvis and his money: Has he been their loyal hero, or the one who has thrown his weight around just to keep them all in check?
Viking | 9798217061983 

THE OPTIMISTS by Brian Platzer (Fiction)
Mr. Keating is an extraordinary teacher: brilliant, dedicated, and possibly a few pages ahead in a book no one else is reading. He’s a magician, able to enchant 14-year-olds into a love of writing and literature. Yet no student has lived up to the promise of their potential more than Clara Hightower. Over the course of three decades, Clara goes from kindergarten thief to a high school genius, Silicon Valley celebrity, and, finally, animal rights activist turned terrorist. But to tell Clara’s story, Mr. Keating must tell his own, including his courtship and marriage, his dreams of writing and comedy, his days in the classroom in lower Manhattan and his rivalry and friendship with his head of school, and his eventual stroke and the isolation that follows.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316576956

THE RESERVATION by Rebecca Kauffman (Fiction)
On the morning of the most important booking in the long history of the celebrated restaurant, Aunt Orsa's erupts into chaos with the discovery that 22 ribeye steaks have been stolen. Hers is the most august of fine-dining establishments in this Midwestern college town, and tonight Orsa is set to host a large party honoring a very special guest --- a bestselling author of national renown. And what's up with the recent spate of online reviews, from insulting to frankly terrible? Is Orsa, who wants only to be loved, being sabotaged on several fronts? No one is above suspicion, not the Mennonite baker or the tattooed hard-ass chef de cuisine. Could the culprit be among the servers, or even the inexperienced undergrad working as hostess? 
Counterpoint | 9781640097483 

SAOIRSE by Charleen Hurtubise (Fiction)
In Michigan, Sarah’s childhood was defined by fear and silence. As a teenager, she saw a chance to escape and took it. Now, in 1999, she is an artist living on the rugged coast of Donegal, Ireland, where she is known as Saoirse (pronounced Sear-sha) --- a name that sounds like the sea and means freedom in the language of her adopted country. Her partner and two beloved daughters are regular subjects of her paintings, and together they have made the safe home she always longed for. But Saoirse's secrets haunt her. No one must learn of the identity she has stolen in order to survive; they cannot know of the dangers that she crossed an ocean to escape. When her artwork wins unexpected acclaim at a Dublin exhibition, the spotlight of fame threatens to unravel the careful lies that hold her world together.
Celadon Books | 9781250400642 

SHE THOUGHT SHE WAS SAFE by Terri Parlato (Domestic Thriller)
After the double blow of divorce and her mother’s death, Emma Shrader receives an invitation to meet her estranged father for the first time. Alex Spencer is a wealthy, renowned author who had a brief fling with Emma’s mom and then disappeared. Now he’d like Emma to come stay at his beautiful home on Cheshire Lake in Maine. The Spencer house is a towering Victorian steeped in history and lore. It should be an inspiring place for Emma to finish working on her own novel. But when a neighbor is found dead under strange circumstances, the surroundings begin to feel less idyllic and welcoming. Not everyone is happy about Emma’s arrival --- especially Alex’s other daughter, Sunny. What exactly has been going on in this quiet, close-knit community? And how much of it has to do with Emma’s arrival?
Kensington | 9781496755704 

TRUST NO ONE by James Rollins (Thriller/Adventure)
The ritualistic murder of a British professor at the University of Exeter points to a startling cast of suspects: his own students. All are enrolled in a postgraduate program covering the history of witchcraft, folklore and spiritualism. All evidence points to Sharyn Karr, an American student. Prior to the professor’s death, he had thrust a centuries-old book upon her. It appears to be the handwritten and encrypted diary of an 18th-century mystic and occultist, the Comte de Saint-Germain. The professor begged her to keep the text safe, ending with a warning: Trust no one. Such a responsibility forces her into cooperation with Duncan Maxwell, a fellow postgrad and the 16th in line to the British Crown. The pair clash at every level, but they both need one another. Especially when they discover the book’s opening words: Herein lies the secret to my immortality. Come find me, if you dare.
William Morrow | 9780063413238

WE THE WOMEN: The Hidden Heroes Who Shaped America by Norah O'Donnell and Kate Andersen Brower (History)
Over a decades-long, distinguished career, award-winning journalist Norah O’Donnell has made it her mission to shed light on untold women’s stories. Now, in honor of America’s 250th birthday, O’Donnell focuses that passion on the American heroines who helped change the course of history. WE THE WOMEN presents a fresh look at American history through the eyes of women, introducing us to inspiring patriots who demanded that the country live up to the promises made 250 years ago in the Declaration of Independence: “that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.” Since the signing of that document, the pressing question from women has been: Why don’t those unalienable rights apply to us?
Ballantine Books | 9780593727027

On Sale the Week of February 23rd in Paperback

February 23rd

THE GOOD MOTHER TEST by Michael R. French (Fiction)
Paperback Original
When Emily, a bright but impulsive UCLA student, gives birth to her daughter Violet, she vows to be the kind of mother she never had. But as Violet grows into a gifted and unpredictable child, Emily’s instinct-driven parenting collides with a world obsessed with achievement, social expectations and expert advice. When Violet’s father, Doug, reenters her life --- now in a relationship with Amanda Hoenig, a respected family therapist --- an uneasy triangle begins to form. What starts as an amicable co-parenting arrangement turns into a psychological tug-of-war over Violet’s future. Emily’s intuition and Amanda’s professional authority clash as everyone insists they are fighting for the same thing: what is best for the child. Violet has her own opinions about this.
Terra Nova Books | 9781948749909

February 24th

AND NOW, BACK TO YOU by B.K. Borison (Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
Jackson Clark and Delilah Stewart have had their fair share of run-ins over the years, often ending in disaster. While Jackson thrives on routine and organization from the comfort of his radio booth, Delilah loves the spontaneity and adventure out in the field. When they’re partnered against their will to cover a historic snowstorm, they find themselves scrambling to figure out how to work together. Eager to be taken seriously as a journalist, Delilah offers Jackson a deal: If he can help her ace this assignment, she’ll help him rediscover his long-lost fun side. With unexplored chemistry burning beneath their clashes, the unlikely partnership quickly tumbles into an easy and surprising friendship. But when other feelings start to enter the equation, can Jackson and Delilah withstand the storm?
Berkley | 9780593953143

BACK AFTER THIS by Linda Holmes (Romantic Comedy)
After a disastrous relationship with a colleague who stole her heart and her ideas, podcaster Cecily Foster has put romantic love on hold. When the boss who’s disappointed her again and again finally offers her the chance to host her own show, she wants to be thrilled. But the show will be about Cecily’s dating life, and she has to follow the guidance of influencer and newly minted relationship coach Eliza Cassidy. Once she’s committed to 20 blind dates of Eliza’s choosing, Cecily finds herself unable to stop thinking about Will, a photographer she helped to rescue a lost dog. Even though there are sparks between the two, Will’s own path is uncertain, and Eliza’s skeptical comments about Cecily’s decision-making aren’t helping. As Cecily struggles to balance the life she truly desires and the one Eliza wants to create for her, she finds herself at a crossroads.
Ballantine Books | 9780593599273

BOY by Nicole Galland (Historical Fiction)
Alexander “Sander” Cooke is the most celebrated “boy player” in the Chamberlain’s Men, William Shakespeare’s theatre company. Indeed, Sander’s androgynous beauty and deft portrayal of female roles have made him the toast of London. Often, he wishes he could stop time and remain a boy forever. Joan Buckler, Sander’s best friend, is whip-smart and fascinated by the snippets of natural philosophy to which she’s been exposed. As a woman, she has no place in the intellectual salons and cultural community of the day. Only in disguise can she learn to her heart’s content. Joan’s covert intellectual endeavors, coupled with Sander’s theatrical triumphs, attract the attention of none other than Francis Bacon. Their lives will be changed forever as they become embroiled in an intricate game of political intrigue that threatens their very survival.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063342866

BRONSHTEIN IN THE BRONX by Robert Littell (Historical Fiction)
January 12, 1917: An ocean liner docks in New York Harbor. Among the disembarking emigrants is Lev Davidovich Bronshtein --- better known by his nom de guerre, Leon Trotsky. Bronshtein has been on the run for a decade, driven from his beloved Russia after escaping political exile in Siberia. He lives for --- and is ready to sacrifice his life for --- a workers’ revolution, at any cost. But is he ready to become an American? In the weeks leading up to the February Revolution that eventually will see Lenin’s Bolsheviks seize power, Bronshtein haunts the streets, newspaper offices and socialist watering holes of New York City, wrestling with the difficult questions of his personal revolutionary ideology, his place in his own family, his relationship to Lenin, and, above all, his conscience.
Soho Press | 9781641297431

CRUSH by Ada Calhoun (Romance)
She’s happy and settled and productive and content in her full life --- a child, a career, an admirable marriage, deep friendships, happy parents, and a spouse she still loves. But when her husband urges her to address what the narrow labels of “husband” and “wife” force them to edit out of their lives, the very best kind of hell breaks loose. Using Ada Calhoun’s personal experiences as a jumping-off point, CRUSH is about the danger and liberation of chasing desire, the havoc it can wreak, and, most of all, the clear sense of self one finds when the storm passes.
Penguin Books | 9780593832042

THE GHOSTS OF ROME by Joseph O'Connor (Historical Thriller)
In the final, perilous months of WWII, a secret network known as The Choir smuggles thousands out of Nazi-occupied Rome via a route known only as the Escape Line. But when a wounded airman falls from the sky, the entire operation is thrown into jeopardy. From the Vatican, Monsignor Hugh O’Flaherty struggles to maintain the fragile network as the ruthless SS Commander Paul Hauptmann closes in. Enter Contessa Giovanna Landini, a bold and defiant member of the Resistance whose actions will tip the balance of power. But in whose favor?
Europa Editions | 9798889661696

THE GIRL AND THE GRAVEDIGGER written by Oliver Pötzsch, translated by Lisa Reinhardt (Historical Mystery)
Paperback Original
Vienna, 1894. Augustin Rothmayer, the oddball gravedigger from Vienna’s Central Cemetery, is approached by Inspector Leopold von Herzfeldt with an unusual favor: he needs Augustin to teach him everything he knows about preserving a dead body, information vital to a new investigation. Opening an ancient Egyptian sarcophagus, employees of Vienna’s Museum of Art History have discovered the well- (and quite recently) preserved body of Alfons Strössner, famed professor of Egyptology. Some believe that the professor was the victim of an ancient curse. But neither Rothmayer nor von Herzfeldt give credence to such superstitious rumors. They are certain it was murder. The trail to unmask a killer leads them to fin-de-siecle Vienna’s unscrupulous upper class and to some eccentric and unusual places, including “mummy parties” and human zoos.
HarperVia | 9780063348493

GRAVE DANGER: A Jack Swyteck Novel by James Grippando (Legal Thriller)
Jack Swyteck’s new client fled Iran to Miami with her daughter and has been accused of kidnapping by her husband. To stop the father from taking the girl back to Tehran, Jack must build a case under international law and prove that returning the child would put her at risk. Everything in this case isn’t what it seems, though, and Jack quickly learns that his client is really the child’s aunt and that the biological mother may have been killed by Iran’s morality police. But what role did the father play in his wife’s death, and why is Jack’s wife, FBI Agent Andie Henning, being pressured by her bosses to persuade Jack to drop the case? Plunging into an investigation unlike any other, Jack must discover who is behind the legal maneuvering and what their interest is.
Harper Perennial | 9780063358041

I WOULD DIE FOR YOU by Sandie Jones (Psychological Thriller)
California, 2011: A writer knocks on Nicole Forbes’ door asking for her personal insight into the downfall of the biggest British band of the 1980s. The same day, her daughter goes missing. The school claims her aunt picked her up…but she doesn’t have an aunt. Convinced of a link between the two, Nicole is forced to revisit long-abandoned memories from her past to protect everything she now holds dear. London, 1986: Sixteen-year-old Cassie is obsessed with Secret Oktober, the hottest band of the moment. Harboring an intense crush on the leading man, Ben Edwards, she will do anything she can to capture his attention. But when Ben discovers her older sister, Nicole, singing at a local bar one night, he can’t help but feel drawn to her, setting in motion a collision course that could tear their family apart.
Minotaur Books | 9781250910059

JACK’S BOYS by John Katzenbach (Thriller)
Connected through a secure internet location, five serial killers communicate in a unique chat room they have named Jack's Special Place in homage to their ultimate model: Jack the Ripper. And so they are Jack's Boys. They delight in each other's crimes. They relish in taunting police around the world with odd clues and deep confusion --- the modern version of the Victorian-era killer they emulate. They feed on each other's killings and think they're untouchable. Until one day they are hacked. Two teenagers are fascinated by the world of the dark web, where they accidentally stumble upon Jack's Boys in their private space and immediately mock them. This triggers a landslide of anger and revenge as the killers decide to teach the teens a lesson in humility and respect for their betters.
Blackstone Publishing | 9798228569577

THE LOST HOUSE by Melissa Larsen (Mystery/Thriller)
Forty years ago, a young woman and her infant daughter were found buried in the cold Icelandic snow. The mother’s throat had been slashed and the infant drowned. The case was never solved. Just a suspicion turned into a certainty: the husband did it. When he took his son and fled halfway across the world to California, it was proof enough of his guilt. Now, nearly half a century later and a year after his death, his granddaughter, Agnes, accepts true crime expert Nora Carver’s invitation to be interviewed for her popular podcast and hops on a flight to the remote town of Bifröst, Iceland. She wants to clear her grandfather’s name once and for all. Is it merely coincidence that a local girl goes missing the very same weekend Agnes arrives? Suddenly, Agnes and Nora’s investigation is turned upside down, and everyone in the small Icelandic town is once again a suspect.
Minotaur Books | 9781250332899

MICKEY & BILLY: The Glory and Tragedy of a Yankee Friendship by Tony Castro (Sports/Biography)
Paperback Original
Through meticulous research and exclusive interviews with the late Mickey Mantle and Billy Martin --- and those who knew them best --- journalist and historian Tony Castro reveals the double-edged sword of their friendship: how the New York Yankees legends, an inseparable duo, epitomized the swagger and spirit of their era while paying the price for fame’s excesses. While leading a 1950s Yankees dynasty, they lived life at full throttle: wild partying, barroom brawls and run-ins with the law. As the years wore on, the very traits that made Mantle and Martin extraordinary figures exacted a heavy price, but in MICKEY & BILLY, we see that their friendship was the saving grace. Only together could Mickey and Billy face life’s next difficult pitch.
Diversion Books | 9798895150863

PLAYWORLD by Adam Ross (Fiction)
Griffin Hurt is in over his head. Between his role as Peter Proton on the hit TV show “The Nuclear Family” and the pressure of high school at New York's elite Boyd Prep --- along with the increasingly compromising demands of his wrestling coach --- he's teetering on the edge of collapse. Then comes Naomi Shah, 22 years Griffin’s senior. Unwilling to lay his burdens on his shrink --- whom he shares with his father, mother and younger brother, Oren --- Griffin soon finds himself in the back of Naomi’s Mercedes sedan, again and again, confessing all to the one person who might do him the most harm.
Vintage | 9780345807007

PRO BONO by Thomas Perry (Thriller)
Los Angeles attorney Charles Warren has dedicated his career to aiding people in financial straits. He is particularly skilled at the art of recovering assets that have been embezzled or hidden. In his newest case, helping a beautiful young widow find the money missing from her late husband’s investment accounts, Charlie recognizes a familiar scheme --- one that echoes the con job that targeted his own widowed mother many years before and led him, as a teenager, to commit a crime of retribution that still weighs on his conscience. He can’t get the present case out of his mind, but within hours of starting his investigation, he is followed, shot at and has his briefcase stolen. As Charlie continues to pursue answers, he quickly becomes too entangled in the web of fraud, betrayal and career criminals surrounding the theft to escape its deadly snare.
The Mysterious Press | 9781613167502

RAISING HARE: A Memoir by Chloe Dalton (Memoir)
Imagine you could hold a baby hare and bottle-feed it. Imagine that it lived under your roof and lolloped around your bedroom at night, drumming on the duvet cover when it wanted your attention. Imagine that, over two years later, it still ran in from the fields when you called it, slept in your house for hours on end, and gave birth to leverets in your study. For political advisor and speechwriter Chloe Dalton, who spent lockdown deep in the English countryside, far away from her usual busy London life, this became her unexpected reality. RAISING HARE chronicles their journey together, while also taking a deep dive into the lives and nature of hares, and the way they have been viewed historically in art, literature and folklore.
Vintage | 9780593689004

ROBERT B. PARKER’S BURIED SECRETS: A Jesse Stone Novel by Christopher Farnsworth (Mystery)
Chief of Police Jesse Stone is on his way home from a long shift when a call comes in for a welfare check on an elderly resident of the wealthy seaside town of Paradise, Massachusetts. Inside a house packed with junk and trash is a man’s dead body. It’s a sad, lonely end, but nothing criminal…until Jesse finds the photos of murder victims strewn around the corpse, on top of a treasure trove of $2 million in cash. Jesse takes on the case and finds a trail leading to an aging mobster who will do whatever it takes to keep the past from coming to light. Before long, Jesse has a price on his head as hit men converge on Paradise to take back the cash and destroy any remaining evidence. But the real danger might be coming from inside his own department.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780593544785

THE SAVAGE, NOBLE DEATH OF BABS DIONNE by Ron Currie (Literary Thriller)
Babs Dionne --- proud Franco-American, doting grandmother, and vicious crime matriarch --- rules her small town of Waterville, Maine, with an iron fist. She controls the flow of drugs into Little Canada with the help of her loyal lieutenants, girlfriends since they were teenagers, and her eldest daughter, Lori, a Marine vet struggling with addiction. When a drug kingpin discovers that his numbers are down in the upper northeast, he sends a malevolent force, known only as The Man, to investigate. At the same time, Babs' youngest daughter, Sis, has gone missing, which doesn't seem at all like a coincidence. In 24 hours, Sis will be found dead, and the whole town will seek shelter from Babs’ wrath.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780593851685

SCORCHED EARTH: A Jonathan Grave Thriller by John Gilstrap (Political Thriller)
Paperback Original
Disgraced U.S. President Darmond has been ousted from office, but his minions have taken aim at everyone they perceive to be enemies. Off-the-record contractors on a secret list are being eliminated, one by one. Jonathan Grave and his Security Solutions team manage to turn the tables when the assassins come for them. But the ultimate attack will strike deep at the heart of what’s best about American values. High-tech weapons, terror-driven fanatics and top-level betrayal shred the peace of a peaceful gathering in the rolling hills of rural North Carolina. In this showdown, the winner will take all.
Kensington | 9780786051830

SISTERS IN SCIENCE: How Four Women Physicists Escaped Nazi Germany and Made Scientific History by Olivia Campbell (History)
In the 1930s, Germany was a hotbed of scientific thought. But after the Nazis took power, Jewish and female citizens were forced out of their academic positions. Hedwig Kohn, Lise Meitner, Hertha Sponer and Hildegard Stücklen were eminent in their fields, but they had no choice but to flee due to their Jewish ancestry or anti-Nazi sentiments. Their harrowing journey out of Germany became a life-and-death situation that required Herculean efforts of friends and other prominent scientists. Lise fled to Sweden, where she made a groundbreaking discovery in nuclear physics, and the others fled to the United States, where they brought advanced physics to American universities. No matter their destination, each woman revolutionized the field of physics when all odds were stacked against them, galvanizing young women to do the same.
Park Row | 9780778333395

SIX LITTLE WORDS by Sally Page (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Kate gave up her dreams of being a painter years ago. But six little words pinned to the noticeboard of her local café could change her path forever. "To be, or not to be..." --- printed on an orange card with no explanation --- appears one morning. Each day, a new line from a different Shakespeare play is added, sparking curiosity throughout the café. Among the regulars is Bardy, a retired English teacher grappling with writer's block. As Kate and Bardy follow this breadcrumb trail, they discover a local community group encouraging people to rediscover their own creative spark --- and the long-lost courage to chase it. For Kate, their new group might just offer a second chance at happiness, if only Bardy can find the strength to share his story too.
Blackstone Publishing | 9798228647442

THE STRANGE CASE OF JANE O. by Karen Thompson Walker (Fiction)
A year after her child is born, Jane suffers a series of strange episodes: amnesia, premonitions, hallucinations and an inexplicable sense of dread. Three days after her first visit to a psychiatrist, Jane suddenly goes missing. A day later she is found unconscious in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park, in the midst of what seems to be an episode of dissociative fugue. When she comes to, she has no memory of what has happened to her. Are Jane’s strange experiences the result of being overwhelmed by motherhood, or are they manifestations of a long-buried trauma from her past? Why is she having visions of a young man who died 20 years ago and who warns her of a disaster ahead? Jane’s symptoms lead her psychiatrist ever deeper into the farthest reaches of her mind and cause him to question everything he thinks he knows about so-called reality --- including events in his own life.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9781984853967

THE TALENT by Daniel D'Addario (Fiction/Humor)
As Hollywood prepares for its most glamorous evening, five actresses compete to see who will claim the top prize. Adria, a dignified and highly regarded grand dame of the movie industry, is intent on cementing her legacy as one of the greatest thespians of all time. Bitty must keep a nervous breakdown --- and an increasingly debilitating alcohol addiction --- at bay as she searches for genuine closeness in an unforgiving landscape. Contessa, a former child star, is determined to make the world, and her leading man, take her seriously. Davina attempts to find her footing in superficial Los Angeles, a far cry from her roots as a serious London stage actress. And Jenny --- always the underdog to her rival, Adria --- sees this awards season as her personal redemption, a chance to atone for past mistakes and make up for missed opportunities.
Gallery/Scout Press | 9781668075487

TED BELL’S MONARCH: An Alex Hawke Novel by Ryan Steck (Thriller/Adventure)
Following a successful but costly mission to destroy an enemy outpost in Antarctica, Alex Hawke is looking forward to some quiet time at Teakettle Cottage, his home in Bermuda, along with his family. But he's not a man who can avoid trouble. Former Chief Inspector of Scottland Yard Ambrose Congreve calls him with stunning news. Just days away from a controversial vote threatening to tear the United Kingdom apart at the seams, King Charles has disappeared while vacationing at Balmoral Castle. The prime minister believes she can keep the news quiet for no more than 72 hours. After that, Britain will be plunged into chaos. With the fate of the kingdom hanging in the balance, it's up to Lord Hawke to find and rescue the missing monarch before it's too late.
Berkley | 9780593817254

WHAT HAPPENED THAT NIGHT by Nicci French (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
Tyler Green, convicted of murdering his friend, Leo, at a student house party in 1993, has been released after almost three decades in prison. He has always protested his innocence. On a warm evening in London, Tyler summons eight of his university friends who were present on that fateful night. Is it just a reunion --- or something else? With wine --- and accusations --- flowing liberally, the reunion descends into violent chaos, and one friend will end the night with their throat slit in the upstairs bedroom…the same way that Leo’s was in 1993. When Detective Inspector Maud O’Connor gets called to investigate, she has her own doubts about Tyler’s guilt, despite what his old friends, the rest of the Metropolitan Police Force, and even the Home Secretary would like her to believe.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063298422

WHAT HAPPENED TO THE McCRAYS? by Tracey Lange (Fiction)
When Kyle McCray gets word that his father has suffered a debilitating stroke, he returns to his hometown of Potsdam, New York. Kyle left suddenly two-and-a-half years ago, abandoning people who depended on him: his father, his employees, his friends --- not to mention Casey, his wife of 16 years and a beloved teacher in town. He plans to lie low and help his dad recuperate until he can leave again. The longer he’s home, the more Kyle understands the impact his departure has had on the people he left behind. When he’s presented with an opportunity for redemption as the coach of the floundering middle-school hockey team, he begins to find compassion in unexpected places. Kyle even considers staying in Potsdam, but that’s only possible if he and Casey can come to some kind of peace with each other.
Celadon Books | 9781250328458

WHEN WE GROW UP by Angelica Baker (Fiction)
Married to the love of her life, with a major deal for her first novel, Clare has everything she thought she wanted. So then why does it all feel so wrong? When she agrees to a weeklong vacation with five of her oldest friends, she is hoping for an escape with the people who know her best. There is Jessie, who won’t stop talking about her new boyfriend; Mac, who is trying to pretend he hasn’t outgrown the group; Kyle, the eternal peacemaker; and Renzo, who brought them all together but keeps picking fights. And then, of course, there’s Liam, the guy Clare barely has seen since high school but somehow can’t get out of her head --- or her bed. But when a terrifying news alert shatters their peace, it becomes harder to ignore how much the world has changed since they were teenagers.
Flatiron Books | 9781250345790

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