March 17, 2026

March 17, 2026

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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of March 16th and March 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 our review of IT GIRL by Allison Pataki, a sweeping, sensational novel of America’s first “It Girl,” whose dramatic journey to center stage echoes through the decades. According to our reviewer Rebecca Munro, the book “undoubtedly will inspire insightful, thought-provoking conversations, especially among book clubs.”

Join Us Tomorrow Evening for Our 
“Bookaccino Live” Spring Preview Event!

Enter Our Contest for
THE MOTHER-DAUGHTER BOOK CLUB
by THIS Friday at Noon ET!

This Week's Bonus News:
Our Review of IT GIRL by Allison Pataki 

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.

Wednesday, March 18th at 8pm ET: “Bookaccino Live” Spring Preview Event: Carol Fitzgerald will talk about a number of books releasing this spring that we think you will enjoy reading. Included will be fiction; historical fiction; thrillers and mysteries; and memoirs, biographies and other nonfiction.

Wednesday, March 18th at 8pm ET: The Poisoned Pen Bookstore: Deborah Goodrich Royce will talk about her new novel, BEST BOY, a gripping psychological thriller that teeters on the knife-edge of memory and identity when the arrival of a shocking letter threatens the carefully constructed life of a woman desperate to outrun her past.

On Sale the Week of March 16th in Hardcover

March 17th

THE ANTIQUE HUNTER'S MURDER AT THE CASTLE by C. L. Miller (Domestic Thriller/Mystery)
Hot on the heels of an art forger, a member of the Lockwood Antique Hunter’s Agency disappears while investigating an isolated castle deep in the Scottish countryside. Freya and Aunt Carole race to her last known location and arrive in the wintry, snow-covered Scottish Borders. At the castle, they discover that a murdered laird in the vegetable garden and his priceless collection of silverware has been stolen. Local police believe that Freya’s missing team member was involved with the robbery and murder...but where is she now? As a snowstorm descends on the castle, Freya and Carole call in back-up to help uncover what happened that fateful night. As each question is met with more mystery, the clock is ticking to find their friend and the murderer before they are cut off from the outside world.
Atria Books | 9781668032060 

BLACK BAG by Luke Kennard (Fiction/Humor) 
A penniless and out-of-work actor picks up a job working for Dr. Blend, a university professor who is conducting a psychological experiment. How will Dr. Blend’s students react to someone zipped into an oversized bag, sitting at the back of the lecture hall over a series of Fall lectures? The role, eagerly accepted, soon has unexpected consequences. A professor of post-humanism develops research questions of her own --- in particular, can you love someone secreted away inside a black bag? --- and the actor’s childhood friend forms a vision for monetizing this new situation.
Zando | 9781638933380 

BLOODLUST by Sandra Brown (Romantic Suspense) 
Two years ago, Detective Mitch Haskell lost his wife to a vicious act of retribution, and he has since attributed her murder to two men. Roland Malone is a ruthless executioner and drug dealer who fronts as a restaurant owner. He performs his handiwork at the biddings of Oz, the faceless kingpin of a drug trafficking operation whose name alone evokes terror. Detective John Bowie has forced Mitch to get therapy to sort himself out. Dr. Dylan Reede is immediately empathetic to the pain she senses beneath Mitch’s cavalier attitude and wisecracking. But from the moment he breezes into her office, Dylan finds it a struggle to maintain the professional and personal boundaries that keep her own tragic past at a safe distance. As Mitch begins to close in on Oz and Malone’s operation, they’re prepared to stop him by any means necessary. 
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538743027 

EVERYONE IN THIS BANK IS A THIEF by Benjamin Stevenson (Mystery)
I’ve spent the last few years solving murders. But a bank heist is a new one, even for me. I’ve never been a hostage before. The doors are chained shut. No one in or out. Which means that when someone in the bank is murdered, everyone is a suspect. The bank robber. The manager. The security guard. The kid. The film producer. The priest. The receptionist. The patient. The caregiver. Me. It turns out that more than one person planned to rob the bank today. You can steal more from a bank than just money. Who is stealing what? Are they willing to kill for it? And can I solve the crime before the police kick down the door and rescue us?
Mariner Books | 9780063434387 

FINLAY DONOVAN CROSSES THE LINE by Elle Cosimano (Mystery/Humor)
Finlay Donovan’s nanny and partner-in-crime, Vero, has been extradited from Virginia to Maryland, where she’s facing criminal charges for a theft she swears she didn’t commit. A prisoner to an ankle bracelet as she awaits her trial, Vero is forced to live with her overbearing mother and nosy aunt. Threatening messages keep arriving on her mother’s door, demanding that Vero “turn over the money…or else.” But proving her innocence might be an impossible feat. Vero was the treasurer of her sorority when the money went missing --- one of the only people who had access to the cash. And her alibi is a date who ghosted her. With her court date quickly approaching, and her mysterious stalker on her tail, she needs to clear her name fast. Finlay sets off on a mission to suss out the real thief and bring Vero home.
Minotaur Books | 9781250337597 

THE FOUNTAIN by Casey Scieszka (Fantasy) 
Vera Van Valkenburgh hasn’t been home in 188 years. But now Vera, forever 26 and able to heal from any wound, has returned to the Catskills. Whatever made her family immortal happened here, and if she can uncover it, maybe she can reverse it. After nearly two centuries --- an endless sequence of unnoticed, meaningless lives and a soul-shaking incident in the desert --- she longs to be released. Posing as a newly arrived forest ranger, she quickly blends into the upstate community and learns of something curious and disturbing. A mysterious, well-funded company is snapping up local property. But when her brother, a fellow immortal, shows up --- accompanied by a woman whose face is incredibly familiar to Vera --- the purpose for her return gets clouded. Vera is in a race against time to find out what has caused her condition before someone else does.
Harper | 9780063393400 

INNAMORATA by Ava Reid (Gothic Fantasy/Romance)
Once there was an island where the dead walked the earth, and seven noble houses ruled by the arcane secrets of necromancy. A conqueror’s blade brought them low, burning their libraries, killing their lords, and extinguishing their eldritch magic. But defiant against the new order stands the House of Teeth and its last living members: Marozia, the heiress to the House, and her cousin, Lady Agnes. Though she has not spoken a word in seven years, Agnes is the true carrier of the House’s legacy. She must recapture the secrets of death magic and avenge her family’s fallen honor. She must arrange the betrothal of her beloved cousin, Marozia, to Liuprand, heir to the conqueror’s throne, for access to the forbidden library in his grotesquely grand castle. Revenge burns in Agnes’ heart but so do stranger passions --- and it is Liuprand, the golden prince, who speaks to her soul.
Del Rey | 9780593722596

LIFE: A Love Story by Elizabeth Berg (Fiction)
As 92-year-old Florence "Flo" Greene nears the end of her life, she writes a letter to Ruthie, the woman who grew up next door to her, describing the items Flo is leaving Ruthie in her will. But as it goes on, telling surprising stories about those “little” things Flo will leave behind, an unforgettable portrait of the life she has lived emerges. The letter starts off as an autobiography in things, but it turns out to do much more than that: ultimately, it will transform Flo and those around her. In the time she has left, Flo decides to take herself up on tiny dares. As these adventures lead her to make new friends, Flo helps them find the fulfillment that living a full life has led her to understand.
Random House | 9780593446829

MOTHER IS WATCHING by Karma Brown (Dystopian Horror/Science Fiction) 
Mathilde "Tilly" Crewson, a 39-year-old mother and art conservator, is tasked with restoring The Mother. The painting, believed to be the work of a female surgeon-turned-artist after a personal tragedy, is the rumored fourth piece in a collection of only three known works. But this newly discovered painting, scarred by fire, holds more than meets the eye. Soon after receiving the painting, Tilly discovers she’s unexpectedly pregnant, and strange, inexplicable occurrences begin: terrifying insect swarms, eerie visits from her long-deceased mother, and sinister whispers that invade her mind. As these malevolent forces intensify, Tilly comes to a harrowing realization: the only way to sever the perilous bond she shares with the painting is to destroy it. But The Mother has plans of her own --- and they’re darker than Tilly ever could imagine.
Dutton | 9798217045716 

PARADISO 17 by Hannah Lillith Assadi (Historical Fiction)
Born in Palestine on the precipice of 1948’s Nakba, Sufien is forced to leave the only home he’s ever known. In the dusty, oil-rich desert of Kuwait, he meets his first love and decides he must leave his family. In a small Italian university town, he spends his youth wrapped up in the sweet promise of the West and the forgetful assurance of wine. When life takes him to a gritty New York, he discovers his true vocation and falls for a Jewish woman born into a wholly different world. Sufien’s life spans friendships lost and maintained, a stint selling leathers at a tanner’s stall, the ineffable company of cats, and the freedom of the open road, the glowing pride of fatherhood, Sufi myths, prophetic dreams, and visions of the afterlife --- and always the sweet, treacherous song of a balcony urging him to fly, to fall, to fall.
Knopf | 9780593804056 

THE SHOCK OF THE LIGHT by Lori Inglis Hall (Historical Fiction)
As World War II takes hold across Europe, twins Tessa and Theo are eager to do their part. Theo is recruited by the RAF and disappears into the skies, while Tessa jumps at the chance to join the Special Operations Executive, devoted to spying and sabotage behind enemy lines. Two years later, Theo comes home. Tessa does not. A wounded Theo is broken by the loss of his fellows and his sister. He’s a clandestinely gay man at a time when homosexuality was illegal --- and he will pay a price for pursuing answers about Tessa’s fate. Decades later, PhD candidate Edie is deep into her research on the Special Operations Executive during the war. When she finds Theo in London, they form an unlikely partnership, and together they finally uncover the truth about Theo’s beloved sister.
Pamela Dorman Books | 9780593834251 

STAY ALIVE: Berlin, 1939-1945 by Ian Buruma (History)
In 1939, when Ian Buruma’s epic opens, Berlin has been under Nazi rule for six years, and its 4.3 million people have made their accommodations to the regime, more or less. When war broke out with Poland in September, what was most striking at first was how little changed. Unless you were Jewish. Then life, already hard, was soon to get unfathomably worse. Buruma gives tender attention to the Jewish experience in Berlin during the war, weaving its thread into the broader fabric of this marvelously rich and vivid mosaic of urban life. The distillation of a broad-gauged reckoning with a vast trove of primary sources, including a surprising number of interviews with living survivors, STAY ALIVE is a study in extremes --- depravity and resilience, moral blindness and moral courage, pious bigotry and unchecked hedonism.
Penguin Press | 9780593654347 

On Sale the Week of March 16th in Paperback

March 17th

THE ANTIDOTE by Karen Russell (Historical Fiction)
THE ANTIDOTE opens on Black Sunday, as a historic dust storm ravages the fictional town of Uz, Nebraska. But Uz is already collapsing --- not just under the weight of the Great Depression and the Dust Bowl drought but beneath its own violent histories. Karen Russell’s novel follows a "Prairie Witch,” whose body serves as a bank vault for people's memories and secrets; a Polish wheat farmer who learns how quickly a hoarded blessing can become a curse; his orphan niece, a basketball star and witch’s apprentice in furious flight from her grief; a voluble scarecrow; and a New Deal photographer whose time-traveling camera threatens to reveal both the town’s secrets and its fate.
Vintage | 9780593688366

BIG BREATH IN by John Straley (Mystery)
Diagnosed with terminal cancer, retired marine biologist Delphine is on the brink of throwing in the towel. She has outlived her PI husband and worries that she’s become a burden to her son and his growing family. One night, while contemplating how to go on, she witnesses a violent argument between a man and his girlfriend. When Delphine discovers that the woman has gone missing along with her young child, she embarks on a quest to find them. What begins as a chance encounter balloons into a rescue mission across the Pacific Northwest. Along the way, Delphine encounters the dregs of humanity --- grappling with schemers, kidnappers and murderers --- as well as its joys. With the help of a few friends, a retired PI and a queer biker gang, she is determined to see her mission through...knowing full well that it may be her last.
Soho Crime | 9781641297394

THE CUT by C. J. Dotson (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
A historic hotel long past its prime and huddled along The Cut, a questionable Lake Erie beach, isn’t Sadie Miles’ ideal place to raise a toddler while also navigating her second pregnancy. After finally fleeing her abusive ex-fiancé, though, Sadie’s new housekeeping position and free room at L’Arpin Hotel are the best she can manage. On her first night, Sadie runs to help a guest struggling in the hotel’s pool only to find the water calm and empty when she gets there, leaving her with a lingering unease. When a guest then goes missing and her manager insists they simply left without checking out, Sadie suspects he’s covering up darker goings-on in the hotel. Everything isn't as it seems within the dim hallways of L’Arpin.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250336576

THE END OF MY LIFE IS KILLING ME: The Unexpected Joys of a Cancer Slacker by Annabelle Gurwitch (Memoir)
Paperback Original
After Annabelle Gurwitch received an out-of-the blue diagnosis of Stage 4 lung cancer, an existential dread set in. Precision medicine offered a temporary reprieve --- but instead of turning into a cancer warrior, Annabelle declared herself a cancer slacker. Her motto: no runs, no ribbons, no religion. Told with her signature wit, warmth and gimlet eye, Gurwitch draws inspiration from Greek mythology and TV comedies, Kermit the Frog and Samuel Beckett. She accidentally acquires an angel, embraces being in it “just for the sex,” and finds herself on a European van tour selling merch for a heavy metal band.
Zibby Publishing | 9798992377071

FRIENDS HELPING FRIENDS by Patrick Hoffman (Thriller)
Bunny Simpson grew up poor in Grand Junction, Colorado. Now in his 20s and working in Denver, he has simple dreams: He wants to help his uncle pay rent, save a little money, and maybe start a business one day. His best friend, Jerry LeClair, fantasizes about moving to California. The problem is they don’t have any prospects. Enter Helen McCalla, an attorney with an ax to grind against her ex-husband, who happens to be a judge in the local court. She offers the boys a deal: scare the man, rough him up a little, and she’ll give them a few thousand dollars. It’s simple --- just friends helping friends, right?
Atlantic Crime | 9780802166586

THE HAUNTING OF ROOM 904 by Erika T. Wurth (Paranormal Thriller/Horror)
Olivia Becente was never supposed to have the gift. The ability to commune with the dead was the specialty of her sister, Naiche. But when Naiche dies unexpectedly and under strange circumstances, somehow Olivia suddenly can’t stop seeing and hearing from spirits. A few years later, she’s the most in-demand paranormal investigator in Denver. She’s good at her job, but the loss of Naiche haunts her. That’s when she hears from the Brown Palace, a landmark Denver hotel. The owner can’t explain it, but every few years, a girl is found dead in room 904, no matter what room she checked into the night before. Olivia’s investigation forces her to confront a mysterious and possibly dangerous cult, a vindictive journalist, betrayal by her friends, and shocking revelations about her sister’s secret life.
Flatiron Books | 9781250908612

THE HIDING SEASON by Ava Glass (Thriller)
Paperback Original
After a painful divorce, Maya Landry is in desperate need of a fresh start, which she finds deep in the Rocky Mountains of Montana. Maya is hired as a summer keeper of billionaire-owned ski lodges left empty after snow season ends. Her new life of peace and isolation is going exactly as hoped…until she stumbles across a dead body on the living room floor of one of the lodges. There’s no cell service on the resort, and by the time she’s able to find a signal and call the police, the body is gone. Later that night, a stranger tells her that someone knows she was up on the mountain that day, someone willing to kill to keep their secrets. She’s not sure whether to believe him…until the killers come for her in the dead of night. Maya narrowly escapes, only to find that same mysterious man waiting to rush her away. But can she trust him? Can she trust anyone?
Bantam | 9780593972243

THE LOVE WE FOUND by Jill Santopolo (Fiction)
It’s been nearly 10 years since Gabe has been gone when Lucy finds a tiny piece of paper in a box of his old photos. An address in Rome. Why did Gabe keep it, and what was he doing in Italy? Lucy buys a last-minute plane ticket. Impulsive, but Gabe always brought that out in her. Lucy’s journey to uncover Gabe’s secret leads her to Dr. Dax Armstrong, a New Yorker in Italy working with an NGO. His broad shoulders and sad, intense eyes draw Lucy in. His touch reaches her in a forgotten place --- one that no one has neared since Gabe. But her old life awaits, along with an earth-shattering decision --- whether she and Darren should tell their son, Samuel, the truth about his father. How can Lucy move forward while she’s rooted in the past? Fate broke her heart once. Can finding new love set her free?
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780593419229

THE PARIS EXPRESS by Emma Donoghue (Historical Fiction)
Based on an 1895 disaster that went down in history when it was captured in a series of surreal, extraordinary photographs, THE PARIS EXPRESS is set on a train packed with a fascinating cast of characters who hail from as close as Brittany and as far as Russia, Ireland, Algeria, Pennsylvania and Cambodia. Members of parliament hurry back to Paris to vote; a medical student suspects a girl may be dying; a secretary tries to convince her boss of the potential of moving pictures; two of the train’s crew build a life away from their wives; a young anarchist makes a terrifying plan, and much more.
S&S/Summit Books | 9781668082805

STILL TALKING: Stories by Lore Segal (Fiction/Short Stories)
Paperback Original
Lore Segal was a master of the short story, and this collection shows her in peak form. Profound, dark and often hilarious, Segal portrays her characters' foibles, eccentricities and passions with great compassion and exactness, as they grapple with life, aging and each other. Readers of LADIES' LUNCH will recognize the educated, urbane nonagenarian women who have been friends for a lifetime, as they tackle aging’s affronts with wit, grace and resourcefulness.
Melville House | 9781685892517

STOP ME IF YOU’VE HEARD THIS ONE by Kristen Arnett (Fiction)
Cherry Hendricks might be down on her luck, but she can write the book on what makes something funny. She’s a professional clown who creates raucous, zany fun at gigs all over Orlando. Between her clowning and her shifts at an aquarium store for extra cash, she’s always hustling. Not to mention balancing her judgmental mother, her messy love life, and her equally messy community of fellow performers. Things start looking up when Cherry meets Margot the Magnificent, a much older lesbian magician. With Margot’s mentorship and industry connections, Cherry is sure to take her art to the next level. Plus, Margot is sexy as hell. It’s not long before Cherry must decide how much she’s willing to risk for Margot and for her own explosive new act --- and what kind of clown she wants to be under her suit.
Riverhead Books | 9780593719794

THEFT by Abdulrazak Gurnah (Fiction)
At the turn of the 21st century, three young people come of age in Tanzania. Karim returns to his sleepy hometown after university with new swagger and ambition. Fauzia glimpses in him a chance at escape from a smothering upbringing. The two of them offer a haven to Badar, a poor boy still unsure if the future holds anything for him at all. As tourism, technology, and unexpected opportunities and perils reach their quiet corner of the world, each arrives at a different understanding of what it means to take your fate into your own hands.
Riverhead Books | 9780593852620

On Sale the Week of March 23rd in Hardcover

March 24th

ALMOST LIFE by Kiran Millwood Hargrave (Fiction)
Erica and Laure meet on the steps of the Sacré-Coeur in Paris, 1978. Erica is a student, relishing her first summer abroad before beginning university at home in England. Laure is studying for her PhD at the Sorbonne, drinking and smoking far too much, and sleeping with a married woman. The moment the two women meet, the spark is undeniable, but their encounter turns into far more than a summer of love. It is the beginning of a relationship that will define their lives and every decision they have yet to make. Erica and Laure’s love story spans decades, marriage, children, secret trysts and the agonizing changes --- both personal and political --- that might mean they can be together after all. But when life brings them within touching distance again, will they be brave enough to seize a future together?
S&S/Summit Books | 9781668204276 

A BEAUTIFUL LOAN by Mary Costello (Fiction)
In 1985 Dublin, 19-year-old Anna Hughes is in thrall to Peter Gallagher, an older, worldly man. Introverted and naive, Anna is captivated by Peter’s experience, his wide circle of friends and his thirst for adventure. Her obsessive longing for him leads to marriage and, eventually, a crushing betrayal. When Anna meets a kindhearted Algerian man, she finds herself falling in love with him. Life with Karim offers stability and renewed hope, and Anna slowly begins to uncover deeper layers of herself. Unfolding over 25 years, A BEAUTIFUL LOAN is about the loss of innocence, the shame and humiliations of love, and the psychological cost of seeking salvation in others. 
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324106173 

THE BEHEADING GAME by Rebecca Lehmann (Speculative Historical Fiction/Magical Realism)
THE BEHEADING GAME begins in the hours after Anne Boleyn’s beheading, when she wakes to find herself unceremoniously laid to rest in a makeshift coffin, her head wrapped in linen at her knees. Discarded by King Henry VIII for being unable to give him a male heir and reviled by Cromwell for being too smart for her own good, she was ultimately executed based on trumped-up charges of adultery, incest and high treason. Anne escapes the Tower of London, sews her head back on, then sets out on a quest to kill Henry VIII before he can marry her own lady-in-waiting, Jane Seymour. Traveling the streets of London in the guise of a commoner, with the help of a prostitute who becomes a trusted friend (and perhaps something more), Anne soon realizes how little she knew about life in the real world.
Crown | 9798217086481 

THE BOSSES OF THE BRONX: The Endless Drama of the Yankees Under the House of Steinbrenner by Mike Vaccaro (Sports)
Since taking over the New York Yankees franchise in 1973, the Steinbrenners have transformed the fabled team from a struggling franchise into a baseball dynasty. George purchased the team for $8.8 million and quickly became known as “The Boss” --- a hands-on owner whose relentless pursuit of victory defined an era. Under his leadership, the Yankees captured seven World Series championships, became a global sports brand, and consistently dominated the sports pages. Yet, as veteran New York Post columnist Mike Vaccaro reveals, the story of the Steinbrenners and their team is much bigger and more complex --- a drama of Shakespearian proportions, combining tragedy and great comedy.
Harper | 9780063414778 

CELESTIAL LIGHTS by Cecile Pin (Fiction)
January 28, 1986: Soon after launch, the Challenger shuttle falls out of the sky and into the sea. At the same time, Oliver Ines is born. He spends his childhood in an English village where his bedroom is covered in glow-in-the-dark wallpaper bearing the planets and stars. Decades later, he has become one of the most renowned astronauts of his time. When an enterprising billionaire taps him to lead a landmark mission to the distant moon Europa, Ollie makes a choice that will send his whole world spinning. As the mission advances deeper into uncharted territory, Ollie finds himself retreating into the past: his university days in London and years in the navy, relationships found and lost, becoming a husband and father. But will the world he remembers still be waiting for him 10 years later when he returns?
Henry Holt and Co. | 9781250863492 

DAUGHTER OF EGYPT by Marie Benedict (Historical Fiction)
In the 1920s, archaeologist Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon of Highclere Castle made headlines around the world with the discovery of the treasure-filled tomb of the boy Pharaoh Tutankhamun. But behind it all stood Lady Evelyn Herbert --- daughter of Lord Carnarvon --- whose daring spirit and relentless curiosity made the momentous find possible. Nearly 3,000 years earlier, another woman defied the expectations of her time: Hatshepsut, Egypt’s lost pharaoh. Her reign was bold, visionary --- and nearly erased from history. When Evelyn becomes obsessed with finding Hatshepsut’s secret tomb, she risks everything to uncover the truth about her reign and keep valued artifacts in Egypt, their rightful home. But as danger closes in and political tensions rise, she must make an impossible choice: protect her father’s legacy --- or forge her own.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250280732 

THE DELIVERY: A Mercury Carter Thriller by Andrew Welsh-Huggins (Thriller)
A former postal inspector, Mercury Carter specializes in moving sensitive or dangerous packages from point A to B. And sometimes he needs his gun to do so. Carter’s current mission leads him to Providence, Rhode Island, but his delivery is interrupted when he comes across a woman badly injured in a car wreck in the pouring rain. Then a man with a gun appears, warning Carter away from the scene. Carter leaps into action, disarming the attacker and rescuing the crash victim. Just as Carter thinks the danger has passed, he discovers a deeper mystery stemming from the crash, a deadly puzzle involving a memorable pair of grifters, a crooked ex-cop, stolen identities, human trafficking and murder. And it appears that Carter’s next assignment will put him right in this conspiracy’s perilous center.
The Mysterious Press | 9781613167175 

ENEMY OF MY ENEMY: A Daredevil Marvel Crime Novel by Alex Segura (Thriller)
When reports come in that the Kingpin and a police officer have been killed and that Frank Castle (aka the Punisher) has turned himself in for it, Matt Murdock senses holes in the narratives that the media and the streets are quick to run with. Both criminals have been Matt’s nemeses when he dons the cowl of the Daredevil, and there’s no denying that New York is better off without its Kingpin and with the Punisher behind bars. And yet, while the Punisher is a murderous vigilante, he doesn’t kill cops. And he doesn’t turn himself in. Castle certainly deserves prison for all of the other crimes he has committed in the past. However, Matt’s indomitable sense of justice insists that nobody should be locked away for crimes they didn’t actually commit. Representing the vigilante in court, Matt enters a contest of wills and guile with Castle to try and uncover the game beneath the game.
Hyperion Avenue | 9781368095365 

THE FORTUNE TELLERS OF RUE DARU by Olesya Salnikova Gilmore (Gothic Horror/Historical Mystery)
Zina and her grandmother, Baba Valya, own a tearoom on rue Daru in Paris, where they have lived quietly since Zina’s mother’s untimely death. By day, the women serve tea. But when dusk falls, they divine fortunes and perform séances for their loyal clientele. Then the charming Princess Olga and her brother arrive, searching for knowledge about the disappearance of their father, the exiled Grand Duke, cousin of the last Tsar of Russia. Zina performs the séance and is able to summon the Grand Duke. But to her horror, he starts to haunt the shop and seems to know something sinister about her mother’s death. As Zina delves into her family’s hidden past, dark secrets are unearthed, threatening the home and tearoom Zina and her grandmother have worked so hard to build, not to mention their very lives.
Berkley | 9780593952689 

HONEYSUCKLE by Bar Fridman-Tell (Dark Fantasy/Horror)
Once upon a time, on the edge between meadow and forest, there was a lonely child with only his older sister for company. In exchange for being left in peace, his sister made him a playmate --- Daye, a girl woven from flowers and words. And for the first time, this boy, Rory, had a friend. Rory couldn't be happier, until he learns that Daye is a short-lived creature. At the end of each season, she must be woven back together or fall gruesomely apart. And every time Daye falls apart might be her last. As Rory and Daye grow older and the line between friendship and romance begins to blur, Rory becomes desperate to break this cycle of bloom and decay. But the farther Rory pushes his research and experiments to lengthen Daye's existence, the more Daye begins to wonder just how much control she really has over her own life.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781639736737 

IN THE FIELDS OF FATHERLESS CHILDREN by Pamela Steele (Historical Fiction)
In late 1960s Appalachia, many things loom darkly over June Branham. The Vietnam War is dividing the country, and a strip mine is eating away the mountain at the head of the holler where she lives. While still in high school, June has fallen in love. She is pregnant, and the father may be Ellis Akers. Ellis is the son of Solomon, a mortal enemy of June’s stepfather, Isom. June’s brother, Tom, leaves to enlist in the war, and so does Ellis. Suddenly, June is on her own, at 16 with a newborn, and is a mother unable to protect her daughter from the wrath of Isom. Without warning, her baby is kidnapped. Guided by her love for the generations of women before her, but now desperately alone, June must carefully navigate the search for her child alongside family and strangers in a wild and disappearing landscape.
Counterpoint | 9781640097605

THE MOONLIGHT RUNNER by Karen Robards (Historical Fiction) 
Ireland, 1918. In a world brutalized by the Great War and devastated by the Spanish flu, 22-year-old Rynn Carmichael is suddenly pulled into the war of independence when Donal O’Reilly, the boy she has loved for most of her life, takes up gunrunning in support of the rebellion. Raised in a small Irish village on the shores of Donegal Bay, Rynn is working as a nurse in a convalescent home for soldiers wounded in the Great War when she overhears a British officer gloating over the trap that has been set for Irish gunrunners bringing a boat full of smuggled arms ashore. Knowing that Donal must be involved, she rushes out at midnight to warn the incoming boat, only to find herself caught up in a terrifying and tragic series of events.
Park Row | 9780778305842 

THE NIGHT WE MET by Abby Jimenez (Romantic Comedy)
In everyone’s life, there’s a split-second decision that can change everything. For Larissa, it came when choosing who to ride home with after a concert. That night, she had no idea she’d met the perfect man. She and Chris are great friends, co-parenting a slightly unhinged rescue Yorkie, sharing their favorite books, and judging bread (pumpernickel for the win!). For the first time amid all her side hustles to scrape by, things finally feel easy. But she didn’t choose Chris to drive her home all those months ago --- she went with his best friend, and he became her boyfriend. All Chris wants is for Larissa to be happy. Standing by on the sidelines is slowly killing him, but making a move would destroy someone else. How can something that feels so right be absolutely impossible? 
Forever | 9781538759226 

OUT OF THE SKY: Heroism and Rebirth in Nazi Europe by Matti Friedman (History)
Matti Friedman unravels one of the strangest episodes of World War II. In 1944, a team of young women and men who had escaped the Holocaust made the inconceivable choice to parachute back into Nazi-occupied Europe under the cover of a British military operation. Yet, by the end of the mission, not a single Nazi was harmed and not a single Jew was saved, and many of the parachutists died in the process. Even so, some of their names would become legendary. But what exactly was the mission, and what had the parachutists actually accomplished? What made them heroes? Using thousands of original documents from once-secret files, manuscripts, memoirs and unpublished letters, Friedman follows four of the parachutists from the spring of 1944 to the operation’s dramatic end that winter.
Spiegel & Grau | 9781954118980 

PYTHON'S KISS: Stories by Louise Erdrich (Fiction/Short Stories)
Written over the past two decades, Louise Erdrich’s magnificent story collection features a range of characters --- a tribal newsletter editor whose son tells her a story that nothing in her experience can encompass; immigrant farmers whose tenuous hold on the earth, and sanity, is challenged; and ordinary people, bird lovers, artists, grade-school teachers and romantics. A girl decides to spend her life with a stone. A man is confronted with a folk-singing thief. A woman enters a corporately owned afterlife to seek revenge on her father. Accompanied by specially commissioned artwork by Aza Erdrich Abe --- an intimate and revelatory creative collaboration between mother and daughter --- these stories offer an opportunity to celebrate the wisdom and brilliant, wide-ranging imagination of one of America’s most important writers.
Harper | 9780063375000 

SEASONS OF GLASS AND IRON: Stories by Amal El-Mohtar (Fantasy/Short Stories)
With confidence and style, Amal El-Mohtar guides us through exquisitely told and sharply observed tales about life as it is, was and could be. Like miscellany from other worlds, these stories are told in letters, diary entries, reference materials, folktales and lyrical prose. Full of Nebula, Locus, World Fantasy, and Hugo Award-winning and nominated stories, SEASONS OF GLASS AND IRON includes "Seasons of Glass and Iron," "The Green Book," "Madeleine," "The Lonely Sea in the Sky," "And Their Lips Rang with the Sun," "The Truth About Owls," "A Hollow Play," "Anabasis," "To Follow the Waves," "John Hollowback and the Witch," "Florilegia, or, Some Lies About Flowers," "Pockets," and more.
Tordotcom | 9781250341006

STORM WARNING by Alice Henderson (Thriller)
Alex Carter is thrilled to be in lush, tropical Hawaii for her new assignment: to study and protect hawksbill turtles. From global warming to poaching to the simple fragility of a turtle’s nest, these creatures are under constant threat. And as excited as Alex is to swim, explore and relax, she’s also ready to be these turtles’ fiercest protector. Alex looks forward to a break from the danger of her past assignments, but she soon finds that environmental crime can happen anywhere. As a massive hurricane approaches, armed thieves storm onto the beach where Alex and her volunteers are desperately trying to move turtle eggs to safety out of the storm surge. When the gunmen take one of her volunteers hostage, and Alex tracks them to a nearby paleontology museum, she suspects that there’s more to these mysterious criminals than meets the eye.
William Morrow | 9780063371859 

A SUIT OR A SUITCASE: Poems by Maggie Smith (Poetry)
In Maggie Smith’s new collection, these poems turn over the strange relationships between the body and the mind, the self and the world. With her signature tenderness and clarity of observation, and with stunning swoops of imagination, Smith considers --- and reconsiders --- what it is to be human: Does one life matter in the grand scheme of space and time? How can it be that we are the same people we were 10, 20 or 30 years ago, but also different people? And could there be more to life, just beyond the borders of what we can experience? Each poem is an ode to the power of our minds and proof that both a life and a self, whether within a suit or a suitcase, is infinitely expandable.
Washington Square Press | 9781668090053 

TWO KINDS OF STRANGER by Steve Cavanagh (Psychological Thriller)
Social media influencer Elly Parker had the perfect life --- that is until she discovered her husband had been having an affair with her best friend. But as hurt, betrayed and unmoored as Elly is, she has made it her mission to help others in need. When Elly meets a man on the steps to the subway platform, crutches in one hand and a yellow suitcase by his feet, she can’t help but feel sorry for him. This small act of kindness sets off a chain of events more terrifying than anything she ever could imagine. To survive, Elly will need to convince the world that what happened to her was real. She needs a lawyer who can bend the rules to find the truth. Eddie Flynn and his team must find the stranger with the yellow suitcase. But little do they know this cunning killer is a master manipulator and is always one step ahead.
Atria Books | 9781668093399

WOLF WORM by T. Kingfisher (Gothic Horror/Supernatural Thriller)
Sonia Wilson is a talented scientific illustrator, but she is only able to follow her dream because of her father’s reputation as a renowned scientist. Such is the lot in life for a woman in science in 1899. And after his death, she is left without work, prospects or hope. So when the reclusive Dr. Halder offers her a position illustrating his vast collection of insects, Sonia jumps at the chance to move to his North Carolina manor house. Once there, though, she encounters dark happenings in the Carolina woods, and even darker questions come to light. What happened to her predecessor? Why are animals acting so strangely, and what is behind the peculiar local whispers about “blood thieves”? With the aid of the housekeeper and a local healer, Sonia discovers that Halder’s entomological studies have taken him down a twisted road.
Tor Nightfire | 9781250829825

On Sale the Week of March 23rd in Paperback

March 24th

25 ALIVE by James Patterson and Maxine Paetro (Thriller)
SFPD homicide detective Lindsay Boxer knows her way around a crime scene. But nothing can prepare her for the shock of recognition: the victim is Warren Jacobi, Lindsay’s one-time partner who rose to chief of police. A top investigator until the end, Jacobi managed to leave Lindsay a clue. Following a trail of evidence along the west coast, the Women’s Murder Club pledges to avenge Jacobi’s death before the killer can take another one of their own.
Little, Brown and Company | 9781538758809

THE BOOK OF I by David Greig (Historical Fiction)
The year is 825 CE. In the aftermath of a vicious attack by raiders from the north, an unlikely trio finds themselves the lone survivors on a remote Scottish isle. Still breathing are young Brother Martin, the only resident of the local monastery to escape martyrdom; Una, a beekeeper and mead maker who has been relieved of her violent husband during the slaughter; and Grimur, an aging Norseman who claws his way out of the hasty grave his fellow raiders left him in, thinking him dead. As the seasons pass in this wild and lonely setting, their inherent distrust of each other melts into a complex meditation on the distances and bonds between them.
Europa Editions | 9798889661979

CHAOS MAN by Andrew Mayne (Thriller)
Paperback Original
A train derails in Idaho, nearly causing a nuclear disaster. An inferno at a battery facility in Florida disrupts the electrical grid for days. A potentially devastating failure is discovered at Virginia’s Mud River Dam. To computational biologist Theo Cray, these aren’t mere infrastructure accidents. They are virtually undetectable acts of sabotage. Theo sees a mathematical pattern to the madness that few others can comprehend --- except for his associates: rogue FBI agent Jessica Blackwood, private security specialist Brad Trasker, and Florida underwater investigator Sloan McPherson. If Theo’s intuition and calculations are correct, the disasters are just a warm-up. The worst is yet to come --- a catastrophe that could trigger the deaths of millions across the country.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781662522529

THE CREEK, THE CRONE, AND THE CROW by Leah Weiss (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Welcome to Baines Creek, a humble hamlet hidden deep in Appalachia, where the last one-room schoolhouse in North Carolina is on the brink of closing. It's summer 1980, and teacher Kate Shaw has lived in Baines Creek for 10 years. A skeptic at heart, she rejects mountain superstition and Appalachian folklore, much to the disappointment of Birdie Rocas, a powerful and reclusive witch with a trove of secrets. Yet, as Kate prepares to leave, a sudden death, a shocking request and a legacy that spans centuries throw her into a world that overwhelms her. Enter Lydia Brown, a psychic with a curious birthmark whose visions stopped when she needed them most. Grief-stricken without her gift and desperate for spiritual guidance, she travels to Baines Creek in search of Birdie and the answers she might provide.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781464250590

EXIT STRATEGY: A Reacher Novel by Lee Child and Andrew Child (Thriller)
Jack Reacher will make three stops today. Not all of them were planned for. First --- a Baltimore coffee shop. A seat in the corner, facing the door. Black coffee, two refills, no messing around. A minor interruption from two of the customers, but nothing he can’t deal with swiftly. As he leaves, a young guy brushes against him in the doorway. Instinctively Reacher checks the pocket holding his cash and passport. There’s no problem. Nothing is missing. Second --- a store to buy a coat. Nothing fancy. Something he can ditch when he heads to warmer climates. Large enough to fit a man the size of a bank vault. As he pulls out his cash, he finds something new in his pocket. A handwritten note. A desperate plea for help. Third --- wherever this bend in the road takes him. Impressed by the guy’s technique and intrigued by the message, Reacher makes it his mission to find out more.
Bantam | 9780593725863

I SHOT THE DEVIL by Ruth McIver (Thriller)
Erin Sloane was 16 when high school senior Andre Villiers was murdered by his friends. They were her friends, too, led by the intense, charismatic Ricky Hell. Five people went into West Cypress Woods the night Andre was murdered. Only three came out. Ativan, alcohol and distance had dimmed Erin's memories of that time. But nearly 20 years later, an aging father will bring her home. Now a journalist, she is asked to write a story about the Southport Three and the thrill-kill murder that electrified the country. Erin's investigation propels her closer and closer to a terrifying truth. And closer and closer to danger.
Blackstone Publishing | 9798228569584

THE LAST SESSION by Julia Bartz (Psychological Thriller)
When a catatonic woman shows up at the psychiatric unit, social worker Thea swears she knows her from somewhere. She’s shocked to discover that the patient holds a link to a traumatic time in her past. Upon regaining lucidity, the patient claims she can’t remember the horrific recent events that caused her brain to shut down. Thea is at a loss, especially when the patient is ripped away from her as suddenly as she appeared. Determined to find her, Thea follows a trail of clues to a remote center in Southwestern New Mexico, where a charismatic couple holds a controversial monthly retreat to uncover attendees’ romantic and sexual issues. Forced to participate in increasingly intimate exercises, Thea finds herself inching closer not only to her missing patient, but also to tantalizing answers about her harrowing past.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781982199500

MARBLE HALL MURDERS by Anthony Horowitz (Mystery)
Freelancing for a London publisher, editor Susan Ryeland has been given the last job she wants: working on an Atticus Pünd continuation novel called Pünd’s Last Case. Worse still, she knows the new writer. Eliot Crace is the troubled grandson of legendary children’s author Miriam Crace, who died 20 years ago. Eliot is convinced that she was poisoned. To her surprise, Susan enjoys reading the manuscript, which is set in the South of France and revolves around the mysterious death of Lady Margaret Chalfont, days before she was about to change her will. But when it is revealed that Lady Margaret was also poisoned, alarm bells begin to ring. The more Susan reads, the clearer it becomes that Eliot has deliberately concealed clues about his grandmother’s death inside the book.
Harper Perennial | 9780063305694

NOBODY’S FOOL by Harlan Coben (Thriller)
Sami Kierce, a young college grad backpacking in Spain with friends, wakes up one morning covered in blood. There’s a knife in his hand. And beside him is the lifeless body of his girlfriend, Anna. He doesn’t know what happened. His screams drown out his thoughts --- and then he runs. Twenty-two years later, Kierce, now a private investigator, is a new father who’s working off his debts by doing low-level surveillance jobs and teaching wannabe sleuths at a night school in New York City. One evening, he recognizes a familiar face at the back of the classroom. It’s unmistakably Anna. As soon as Kierce makes eye contact with her, she bolts. For Kierce, there is no choice. He knows he must find this woman and solve the impossible mystery that has haunted his every waking moment since that terrible day.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538756379

THE RELUCTANT SHERIFF: A Mick Hardin Novel by Chris Offutt (Literary Thriller)
Mick Hardin never wanted to be sheriff. An ex-Army CID officer, he’s supposed to be retired --- or he was until his sister, Linda, was shot in the line of duty, requiring him to step in as interim sheriff while she recovered. Now he’s stuck in Rocksalt, the place he was most hoping to escape. Back in uniform, Mick is chafing at the sudden dissolution of his retirement plans, wearied by the petty squabbles of Rocksalt’s townsfolk. It’s all business as usual, until the murder of a local bar owner draws an unlikely suspect who threatens to fan the flames of Mick’s past. When two more bodies turn up, seemingly unconnected to the first, Mick is forced to reckon with the mysterious circumstances of a case that is not so open-and-shut as everyone believes.
Atlantic Crime | 9780802166593

THE RIVER HAS ROOTS by Amal El-Mohtar (Fantasy)
In the small town of Thistleford, on the edge of Faerie, dwells the mysterious Hawthorn family. There, they tend and harvest the enchanted willows and honor an ancient compact to sing to them in thanks for their magic. None more devotedly than the family’s latest daughters, Esther and Ysabel, who cherish each other as much as they cherish the ancient trees. But when Esther rejects a forceful suitor in favor of a lover from the land of Faerie, not only the sisters’ bond but also their lives will be at risk.
Tordotcom | 9781250363688

THE SUNFLOWER HOUSE by Adriana Allegri (Historical Fiction)
In a sleepy German village, Allina Strauss’ life seems idyllic: she works at her uncle’s bookshop, makes strudel with her aunt, and spends weekends with her friends and fiancé. But it's 1939, Adolf Hitler is Chancellor, and Allina’s family hides a terrifying secret --- her birth mother was Jewish, making her a Mischling. One fateful night after losing everyone she loves, Allina is forced into service as a nurse at a state-run baby factory called Hochland Home. There, she becomes both witness and participant to the horrors of Heinrich Himmler’s ruthless eugenics program. Allina must keep her Jewish identity a secret in order to survive, but when she discovers the neglect occurring within the home, she’s determined to save not only herself, but also the children in her care.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250326546

TWIST by Colum McCann (Fiction)
Anthony Fennell, an Irish journalist and playwright, is assigned to cover the underwater cables that carry the world’s information. The sum of human existence --- words, images, transactions, memes, voices, viruses --- travels through the tiny fiber-optic tubes. But sometimes the tubes break, at an unfathomable depth. Fennell’s journey brings him to the west coast of Africa, where he uncovers a story about the raw human labor behind the dazzling veneer of the technological world. He meets a fellow Irishman, the mysterious John Conway, who is a skilled engineer and a freediver capable of reaching extraordinary depths. When the ship is sent up the coast to repair a series of major underwater breaks, both men learn that the very cables they seek to fix carry the news that may cause their lives to unravel.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780593241752

WE DO NOT PART written by Han Kang, translated by e. yaewon and Paige Aniyah Morris (Fiction)
One winter morning, Kyungha receives an urgent message from her friend, Inseon, to visit her at a hospital in Seoul. Inseon has injured herself in an accident, and she begs Kyungha to return to Jeju Island, where she lives, to save her beloved pet --- a white bird called Ama. A snowstorm hits the island when Kyungha arrives. She must reach Inseon’s house at all costs, but the icy wind and squalls slow her down as night begins to fall. She wonders if she will arrive in time to save the animal --- or even survive the terrible cold that envelops her with every step. Lost in a world of snow, she doesn’t yet suspect the vertiginous plunge into the darkness that awaits her at her friend’s house.
Hogarth | 9780593595466

WHERE THE TRUTH LIES by Katherine Greene (Domestic Thriller)
Paperback Original
Childhood sweethearts Rhett and Lucinda seem to have the perfect marriage, the child they always wanted, and even the white picket fence. But 15 years ago, the couple came very close to losing everything. When outsider Jennifer Moore arrived in their tight-knit Kentucky town, a brief but explosive affair between the newcomer, and the soon-to-be-married Rhett stirred up a violent storm of betrayal that ended with a dead body and a mystery riddled with corruption and deception. Now, new evidence has surfaced --- including an eyewitness who places Rhett at the scene of the brutal crime. Soon the carefully constructed life Rhett and Lucinda built starts to crumble --- and the truth waiting beneath the surface could destroy them both.
Crooked Lane Books | 9798892424882

YOKO: A Biography by David Sheff (Biography)
John Lennon once described Yoko Ono as the world’s most famous unknown artist. “Everybody knows her name, but no one knows what she does.” She has only been important to history insofar as she impacted Lennon. Throughout her life, Yoko has been a caricature, a curiosity and, often, a villain --- an inscrutable seductress, manipulating con artist and caterwauling fraud. The Lennon/Beatles saga is one of the greatest stories ever told, but Yoko’s part has been missing --- hidden in the Beatles’ formidable shadow, further obscured by flagrant misogyny and racism. This definitive biography of Yoko Ono’s life will change that. In this book, Yoko Ono takes center stage.
Simon & Schuster | 9781982188252

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