July 21, 2026

July 21, 2026

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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of July 20th and July 27th 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 release of Lisa Scottoline's latest psychological thriller, THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING, which will be a Bookreporter.com Bets On selection. 

One book group will win up to 10 copies of the book, and they will get to talk to Lisa in October or November. In addition, we are awarding 10 readers 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 book group members about the book and recommend that they discuss it this fall.

But even if you are not chosen to receive copies of the book, you and your group can still win a virtual chat with Lisa. We have four of these discussions to give away.

Be sure to enter the contest by Wednesday, August 19th at noon ET.

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This Week's Bonus News: ReadingGroupGuides.com's
Special Contest & Author Chat Opportunity for
THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING by Lisa Scottoline
An Upcoming Bookreporter.com Bets On Title

Upcoming Virtual Book and Author Events

On Sale the Week of July 20th in Hardcover

July 21st

CARRY ME TO MY GRAVE by Christopher Golden (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
Maggie Wise will take your eyes. When Malcolm was growing up, the local kids made up that chant about his mother, claiming she was a witch. He and his siblings did their best to ignore it. Now, Maggie is dying, and those same siblings have left Malcolm and his sister-in-law, Violet, to hold a vigil at her bedside. A dark figure waits and watches from beneath the willow tree across the street. Hundreds of miles away, an ancient evil stirs in its burrow under a farmer’s cornfield. Across the country, other buried things begin to dream in anticipation of Maggie’s demise. On her deathbed, the old woman elicits a promise from Malcolm: When she dies, he and Violet must return her body to her birthplace. From the moment she takes her last breath, there are forces trying to stop Malcolm from fulfilling that promise.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250404527 

COOL MACHINE by Colson Whitehead (Historical Fiction)
1981. In Harlem, Ray Carney has just been named Sterling Furniture’s Dealer of the Month. But when the banks won’t give his beloved wife, Elizabeth, a loan for her new travel agency, Carney gambles on one last heist. 1983. To some, Carney’s friend and partner in crime, Pepper, is a stone-cold sociopath. To others, a top thief with questionable people skills. Either way, he’s feeling his age in his troubled gut and aching bones. 1986. Carney has always been haunted by his inability to save his cousin, Freddie. Now, 20 years after Freddie’s death, he has a chance to rescue Freddie’s son from the violent forces of the city. But coming out of retirement and teaming up with Pepper again will mean risking the safety and security he’s spent decades building for his family, with only one shot to get it right.
Doubleday | 9780385550505 

DAD, LOVE, ME: A Memoir by Matthew Quick (Memoir)
Matthew Quick traveled all over the world advocating for mental health awareness, standing before crowds as a success story. But secretly, he was depressed. And some days, he didn’t want to live. Years earlier, when he first told his father that he wanted to be a novelist, the response was immediate and brutal: “Idiot!” Quick channeled his pain into his debut novel, THE SILVER LININGS PLAYBOOK, which became a New York Times bestseller and was adapted into an Oscar-winning film. Still, the approval he longed for never came. His father remained cold and withholding. The deeper the rift between them grew, the deeper he sank into anxiety and addiction. In this book, Quick takes readers deep into his psyche, as he wrestles with both his own mental health and his father’s cognitive decline.
Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster | 9781668091753

THE MORTONS by Justine Larbalestier and Scott Westerfeld (Fiction)
The Mortons are a modern-day, old-money dynasty with impeccable taste --- from their exquisitely crafted cocktails to their expertly tailored vintage garments. They are also stone-cold killers. For the Mortons, homicide is heritage. They, along with the other crime families, send their progeny to Helshire College, where legacy students learn to exercise control over their wealthy peers. Jessica Morton has always excelled at Helshire, secure in the knowledge that she is the prodigy of her generation. Now, having committed her first kill, it should be Jessica’s moment, her honor. But that kill will cut more ways than one, unknotting a series of revelations spanning the Mortons’ country estate, the New York City art world, and Helshire itself.
Pamela Dorman Books | 9798217059492 

RISE ABOVE: A Memoir by Matthew Schnipper (Memoir)
Renzo Rollins Schnipper was born in February 2020, a split second before the beginning of the pandemic. To his parents, he was the reason for the universe’s existence at a time when there was little hope to be found in the world. Then, on Christmas Eve 2021, a rare medical event suddenly took Renzo from them. RISE ABOVE begins with an account of Renzo’s short but blazingly full life from his father’s perspective. Even as it is an account of grief, Matthew Schnipper’s memoir is about resilience in the face of the unexpected turns life takes and how to chart a path forward. Schnipper chronicles the tragic, frustrating and sometimes dumb ways that grief manifests, and how he tried to rise above the pain.
Random House | 9780593730690 

SAVVY SUMMERS AND THE PO'BOY PERILS by Sandra Jackson-Opoku (Mystery)
An old friend hires Savvy Summers to cater a company luncheon at a nearby office building on Chicago's South Side. Stepping out of her traditional soul food comfort zone, Savvy whips together a menu of Creole classics --- with her own spin, of course. But when someone is found dead in the company’s conference room, Savvy’s culinary creations are suddenly in the spotlight for all the wrong reasons. Caught within a messy web of gossip, miscommunication and fraught coworker relationships, Savvy will have to settle the confusion to clear her name. Somebody is hiding something, and with the help of her trusty assistant manager, Penny Lopés, Savvy sets out to uncover exactly who is to blame.
Minotaur Books | 9781250428066 

THE SHADOW STEP: A Detective Miller Novel by Mark Billingham (Mystery/Thriller)
The Shadow Step: One taken simultaneously by a pair of dancers facing the same direction, one of them behind and slightly shifted leftwards (“in the shadow”). A perfectly executed shadow step demonstrates synchronized elegance. It showcases a couple in near telepathic harmony with one another. It normally does not end with someone stone-dead in a lake. DS Declan Miller is a magnet for strange cases, but an innocent man confessing to the crime? That’s a first. Things rapidly escalate when the murder that isn’t really a murder attracts the unwanted attention of a drug Queenpin, a deranged ex-squaddie, and a lovesick gangland enforcer. And when a real murder follows --- and a student is kidnapped --- all evidence points back to the same innocent man.
Atlantic Crime | 9780802167354 

THE SUBTLE PLEASURES OF INDISCRETION: An Isabel Dalhousie Novel by Alexander McCall Smith (Mystery)
When Isabel Dalhousie receives a surprise visit from a friend who recently has discovered the existence of a long-lost brother, she will have to face this quandary in her usual deft and thoughtful way. The friend has always held her father in high regard and is worried that knowledge of his affair will tarnish her siblings’ perception of him. Meanwhile, Isabel’s husband, Jamie, has been offered the gig of his dreams --- the opportunity to play in a series of concerts at a prestigious venue in London. After meeting the series coordinator, it becomes clear to Isabel that the woman has a massive crush on Jamie. Should she tell Jamie of her suspicions, or would that mean calling his talent into question? As always, Isabel will have to use her pragmatic sensibility and kindness to navigate tricky situations.
Pantheon | 9798217207336 

THE TALKING BONE by Rene Denfeld (Mystery/Thriller)
Ruby Spencer is known as “the exonerator.” Her job as an investigator is to free innocent men from death row, and she’s good at what she does. What many people don’t know is that she spends her time finding missing women, too. The orphaned daughter of an orphaned mother, Ruby feels a natural affinity for those who have been mistreated by the world at large. Her newest case takes her to Georgia and involves a man set to be executed in two weeks. What begins as a routine exoneration unexpectedly sends Ruby down a winding path. Pursuing the truth, she begins to uncover crimes that lead to startling revelations about her own life. With time running out, will Ruby’s search for answers ultimately lead her to danger?
Harper | 9780063396890 

TENDERNESS by Rowan Beaird (Historical Fiction)
On a remote island off the coast of Virginia, family and friends gather to celebrate the wedding of Shay O’Connor and Andrew Pruitt. From the moment the guests arrive, all they can whisper about is the bride, who recently left the headline-making cult Synanon. Why would someone like Shay, an Ivy League graduate with a wealthy, doting fiancée, join Synanon? And has she really escaped their grasp? Told from the interwoven perspectives of Shay’s brother William, her longtime friend Joel, and Shay herself, TENDERNESS excavates dark family histories and romantic regrets. As the wedding day approaches, Joel and William pull at the loose threads of Shay’s story, and it becomes clear there is an even greater threat on the island than the secrets each character is keeping from one another.
Flatiron Books | 9781250386694 

THREE REASONS FOR REVENGE by Dervla McTiernan
(Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Alexis Turner walks into the police station to report an assault. By the end of the day, she is nowhere to be found. Soon after she disappears, three identical packages arrive at three very different doors: a respected psychologist's home, a socialite's mansion, and a struggling single father's run-down apartment. Inside, each gift is perfectly tailored to its recipient --- and each will tear apart the life of its intended victim. Someone with intimate knowledge of their targets is orchestrating these attacks. Someone who knows exactly how to hurt each victim where they're most vulnerable. As Detective Sergeant Judith Lee races to uncover the connection between three unrelated people, she discovers she's no longer just investigating the game --- she's being forced to play.
William Morrow | 9780063042292 

UNSAYABLE: A Life in Writing by Michael Cunningham (Memoir)
At the age of three, Michael Cunningham began obsessively collecting the names of things: oak, Chevrolet, finch, tulip, Tupperware. Each word rendered the world ever so slightly more understandable, more describable, kicking off a lifelong love affair with language --- one that would, eventually, maybe inevitably, lead him to become a writer. In UNSAYABLE, Cunningham’s memories spill forth, and with them reflections on the craft of writing. He is 15, in a swimming pool at night, gazing at the first boy he ever fell in love with. He is a new college graduate, setting off for nowhere in a Dodge Dart, hoping to pull meaning (and a novel) from the expanse of America. He is in an art gallery, unwittingly having the first in a lifetime of conversations with the man he would marry. 
Random House | 9798217198337 

VERA STEIN IS FINE by Julie Murphy (Romantic Comedy)
Starlight Palms, a favorite retirement facility among Hollywood actors and industry professionals, has a brand-new resident: 40-year-old Vera Stein. Vera knows she’s missed her chance at a life worthy of the silver screen, just like she missed her chance at ever finding true love. She has spent most of her adult years caretaking for her dying mother and her movie star boss’s ego. Now abruptly houseless and jobless, Vera has nowhere to land, so to grandmother’s house we go! The Starlight Palms Senior Living Center isn’t lacking in saucy plot twists or a leading man: Elias Buckley, the on-site doctor and Vera’s former ill-fated college fling. It’s not long before Vera falls into a job as the activities coordinator and under the spell of a certain smart-mouthed doctor.
Avon | 9780063386839 

YELLOW PINE by Claire Vaye Watkins (Fiction) 
In her homestead deep in the Mojave, Rose has found a way to live “on the other side of the portal,” with an intentionality that’s brought her hard-won peace and freedom. She’s navigating single parenthood, and she’s found a community out at Yellow Pine, where a group of spirited misfits have mounted a stand against the “green energy gold rush” Rose is certain will destroy her beloved desert. When she accepts an overture from Miles, an old flame, their passion proves as intense --- and unsteady --- as ever. But even as their rekindled romance flickers, it fuels a deeper, more consuming drive in Rose: to birth not only another child but a fuller, more intact way of being in the face of rapacious consumerism, industrialization and misanthropy.
Riverhead Books | 9798217045020 

On Sale the Week of July 20th in Paperback

July 21st

BADLANDS: A Nora Kelly Novel by Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child (Thriller)
In the New Mexico badlands, the skeleton of a woman is found --- and the case is assigned to FBI Agent Corrie Swanson. The victim walked into the desert, shedding clothes as she went, and died in agony of heatstroke and thirst. Two rare artifacts are found clutched in her bony hands --- lightning stones used by the ancient Chaco people to summon the gods. Is it suicide or…sacrifice? Agent Swanson brings in archaeologist Nora Kelly to investigate. When a second body is found --- exactly like the other --- the two realize the case runs deeper than they imagined. As Corrie and Nora pursue their investigation into remote canyons, haunted ruins and long-lost rituals, they find themselves confronting a dark power that, disturbed from its long slumber, threatens to exact an unspeakable price.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538765845

DEADLY DOES IT: A Mason & Mann Mystery by Abbi Waxman (Mystery)
Paperback Original
Mason, a Gen Z adrenaline junkie, and Mann, an ex-con, ex-actress and lawyer turned sleuth, have already solved one murder together. Now they face a second crime that’s way too close to home. Alexa Rousso keeps having accidents, and no one but her thinks it’s a coincidence. Could her checkered past be coming back to get her? Mason and Mann’s investigation takes them to the Bay Area, the Central Coast, and --- of course --- the hippest spots in Los Angeles. Will the Berkeley boho vibe convert Mann from vintage couture? Will the wine snobs of Ojai drive Mason to drink (or to vinicide, which isn’t even a thing)? More importantly, will they solve the mystery before the murderer’s sights settle on the detectives themselves. Or will this new challenge also be their last?
Berkley | 9780593816691

A FATE WORSE THAN DROWNING by Sarah L. Hawthorn (Historical Fantasy)
Paperback Original
A year ago, Elle made a deal with the devil to save her sister. Now, they live on a desolate spit of land beyond Halifax harbor. Elle, as lighthouse keeper, steers unsuspecting sailors to their destruction. Those are the terms of her bargain. Liney need never know the cost. Her safety is worth every drop of blood. But a sinner's pact is not so simple. When the devil returns, demanding more --- more shipwrecks, no survivors --- Elle knows what she must do to keep Liney safe. Then a woman washes ashore. Is she a soul to be sacrificed, or part of a darker design? As Liney and the stranger grow closer, Elle faces an impossible choice: kill, and break Liney's heart, or forfeit her own soul.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464238147

FORGET ME NOT by Stacy Willingham (Psychological Thriller)
Twenty-two years ago, Claire Campbell’s older sister, Natalie, disappeared shortly after her 18th birthday. Days later, her blood was found in a car, a man was arrested, and the case was swiftly closed. In the decades since, Claire has attempted to forget her traumatic past by moving to the city and climbing the ranks as an investigative journalist. Until an unexpected call from her father forces her to come back home and face it all anew. Claire decides on a whim to accept a seasonal job at Galloway Farm, a muscadine vineyard in coastal South Carolina. There, she stumbles across an old diary written by one of the vineyard's owners that describes details of various unsolved crimes. As the days stretch on, Claire starts to obsess over the diary's contents, as well as the lingering feeling that her own sister's disappearance may be somehow tied to it all.
Minotaur Books | 9781250887993

THE FRIEND OF THE FAMILY by Dean Koontz (Historical Thriller)
The human “oddities” in the Museum of the Strange are less wondrous than the gawking rubes had been promised. But Alida is something else. The real thing. Traveling Depression-era America from carnival midways to speakeasies, Alida is resigned to an exploited and lonely life on the road as the museum’s golden ticket. Until she’s rescued by two compassionate strangers. Franklin and Loretta Fairchild see in Alida a gifted and uncannily well-read girl in need of a loving touch and a family. With the openhearted couple and their three precociously imaginative children, Alida finds it. Yet despite everyone’s overwhelming generosity and acceptance, Alida knows she is still a very different kind of girl. Her dreams bear that out. They’re vivid, unsettling and threatening. Alida fears that they’re also warnings. And that it’s the Fairchilds who may need rescue from a bad, bad world.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781662533303

FULL BLOOM by Francesca Serritella (Fiction)
Reeling from a breakup and overlooked at her job as a lighting designer, Iris Sunnegren finds herself stuck, disconnected and lonely in crowded New York City. Then a mysterious neighbor, an older Frenchwoman, makes her a gift: a bespoke perfume. One spritz, a dab behind the ears, and Iris feels like a different woman. Suddenly, she is the object of every man’s desire. She can cast off her inhibitions and use her newfound allure to dazzle the high-profile client, attract a man who excites her like no other, and access all the rarified spaces that once excluded her. Invigorated by the perfume, Iris embodies her maximum power --- a flower fully bloomed. But there is danger in connecting to our primal emotions. Scent awakens buried memories, and nightmares of the childhood house fire Iris barely survived return to haunt her.
Ballantine Books | 9780525510413

THE HAMPTONS LAWYER: A Jane Smith Thriller by James Patterson and Mike Lupica (Legal Thriller)
The Hamptons on Long Island is known for its beautiful beaches, its luxury lifestyle --- and its exclusive legal advice. When Jane Smith takes on a famous celebrity client, she’s armed and ready: with brilliant arguments, hard evidence --- and two Glocks. Yet she is chased down and shot at, and she risks contempt of court. That’s when mounting a legal defense turns into self-defense. Knowing every day in court could be her last, she’s a survivor. For now.
Little, Brown and Company | 9781538759172

IF BOOKS COULD KILL by Kate Eberle (Romantic Comedy/Mystery & Thriller)
Paperback Original
When Roxie makes a tongue-in-cheek wish to live out the plot of her favorite author’s next novel, she has romance in mind --- namely, the sweet, safe, swoon-worthy storylines Anna Matthews is known for. It should be a dream come true when her wish is granted and she finds herself swept into a first date with a handsome stranger who seems designed to take her breath away. Except for one little hiccup: That handsome stranger tries to take her breath away. Literally. With a knife. Thrown into a perilous genre she’s never read, Roxie is desperate for help. So when her escape takes her straight into the path of Grant Hoffman, an anxious English professor with a convenient love of crime novels, she decides that kidnapping a grown man is a small price to pay for her own survival.
Penguin Books | 9780143139102

INK RIBBON RED by Alex Pavesi (Mystery/Thriller)
Anatol invites five of his oldest friends to his family home in the Wiltshire countryside to celebrate his 30th birthday. At his request, they play a game of his invention called Motive Method Death. The rules are simple: Everyone chooses two players at random, then writes a short story in which one kills the other. Points are awarded for making the murders feel real. Of course, it’s only natural for each friend to use what they know. But once they’ve put it in a story, each secret is out. It’s not long before the game reawakens old resentments and brings private matters into the light of day. With each fictional crime, someone new gets a very real motive. Can all six friends survive the weekend, or will truth turn out to be deadlier than fiction?
Holt Paperbacks | 9781250755971

THE KILLER QUESTION by Janice Hallett (Mystery)
Sue and Mal Eastwood run an isolated rural pub called The Case is Altered, where a weekly trivia game has revived its flagging fortunes --- that is, until a body is found in the nearby river. Soon after, a mysterious new team arrives and shakes up the diverse field of regulars by scoring top marks in every round...every week. Meanwhile, Sue and Mal have a secret of their own. Before arriving here, they were caught up in a secret police operation that meant they had to leave town --- and whatever happened back then seems to have finally caught up with them. Five years later, the pub lies derelict, and their nephew, Dominic, is determined to make a documentary about their story. What happened at this unassuming pub? And can a single question really kill?
Atria Books | 9781668083543

LOVED ONE by Aisha Muharrar (Fiction)
When her first-love-turned-close-friend, Gabe, dies unexpectedly at 29, 30-year-old Julia is launched into an intercontinental quest to recover his lost possessions. Her journey takes her from Los Angeles to London and into the murky realm of the past. It also sets Julia on a collision course with the last woman he loved, a guarded, self-possessed florist and restaurateur named Elizabeth, who insists on withholding Gabe’s beloved guitar --- one of the departed indie rock musician’s dearest belongings --- for reasons Julia can’t understand. Both women, it turns out, have something to hide and soon find themselves engaged in a complex dance of withholding and revelation.
Penguin Books | 9780593655863

MAGGIE; OR, A MAN AND A WOMAN WALK INTO A BAR by Katie Yee
(Fiction/Humor)
A man and a woman walk into a restaurant. The woman expects a lovely night filled with endless plates of samosas. Instead, she finds out her husband is having an affair with a woman named Maggie. A short while after, her chest starts to ache. She walks into an examination room, where she finds out the pain in her breast isn’t just heartbreak --- it’s cancer. She decides to call the tumor Maggie. Unfolding in fragments over the course of the ensuing months, MAGGIE; OR, A MAN AND A WOMAN WALK INTO A BAR follows the narrator as she embarks on a journey of grief, healing and reclamation.
S&S/Summit Books | 9781668084229

MY FRIENDS by Fredrik Backman (Fiction)
Most people don’t even notice them --- three tiny figures sitting at the end of a long pier in the corner of one of the most famous paintings in the world. Most people think it’s just a depiction of the sea. But Louisa, an aspiring artist herself, knows otherwise. Twenty-five years earlier, in a distant seaside town, a group of teenagers find refuge from their bruising home lives by spending long summer days on an abandoned pier, telling silly jokes, sharing secrets, and committing small acts of rebellion. Out of that summer emerges a transcendent work of art, a painting that unexpectedly will be placed into 18-year-old Louisa’s care. She embarks on a surprise-filled cross-country journey to learn how the painting came to be and to decide what to do with it.
Atria Books | 9781982112837

AN ORAL HISTORY OF ATLANTIS: Stories by Ed Park (Fiction/Short Stories)
In “Machine City,” a college student’s chance role in a friend’s movie blurs the line between his character and his true self. (Is he a robot?) In “Slide to Unlock,” a man comes to terms with his life via the passwords he struggles to remember in extremis. (What’s his mom’s name backward?) And in “Weird Menace,” a director and faded movie star gab about science fiction, bad costume choices and lost loves on a commentary track for a B-film from the ’80s that neither remembers all that well. In Ed Park’s utterly original collection, characters bemoan their fleeting youth, focus on their breathing, meet cute, break up, write book reviews, translate ancient glyphs, bid on stuff online, whale watch, and once in a while find solace in the sublime.
Random House Trade Paperbacks | 9780812988345

OUR MARRIAGE IS MURDER by Carol Goodman (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Paperback Original
Fred and Thea Morgan-Lane coauthor the wildly successful Death Takes a Holiday series, and they’ve been invited to the Italian castle where it all began for a mystery conference celebrating their first novel, Death Takes the Castle. But 20 years and 20 books after they met, Thea wants out. Shortly after their arrival at the beautiful Castellarosa, a shocking death takes place when the wrong person drinks a cocktail meant for Thea. Could someone be trying to kill her? When a second death occurs, a disturbing pattern emerges. These deaths aren’t random --- they’re following the murders in Death Takes a Castle exactly. In order to save the day --- and maybe even their marriage --- the unhappy couple will have to work together to figure out who is using their book as a blueprint for a killing spree.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063398788

POSITIVE OBSESSION: The Life and Times of Octavia E. Butler by Susana M. Morris (Biography)
As the first Black woman to consistently write and publish in the field of science fiction, Octavia Butler was a trailblazer. With her deft pen, she created stories speculating the devolution of the American empire, using it as an apt metaphor for the best and worst of humanity --- our innovation and ingenuity, our naked greed and ambition, our propensity for violence and hierarchy. Her fiction charts the rise and fall of the American project --- the nation’s transformation from a provincial backwater to a capitalist juggernaut (made possible by chattel slavery) to a bloated imperialist superpower on the verge of implosion. In POSITIVE OBSESSION, Susana M. Morris places Butler’s story firmly within the cultural, social and historical context that shaped her life.
Amistad | 9780063211834

SAVVY SUMMERS AND THE SWEET POTATO CRIMES by Sandra Jackson-Opoku (Mystery)
When Savvy Summers first opened Essie's soul food café, she never expected her customer-favorite sweet potato pie to become the center of a murder investigation. But when Grandy Jaspers, the 75-year-old neighborhood womanizer, drops dead at table two, she suddenly has more to worry about than just maintaining Essie's reputation for the finest soul food in the Chicagoland area. Even as the police deem Grandy’s death an accident, Savvy quickly finds herself --- and her beloved café --- in the middle of an entire city’s worth of bad press. Desperate to clear her name and keep her business afloat, Savvy and her snooping assistant manager, Penny Lopés, take it upon themselves to find who really killed Grandy.
Minotaur Books | 9781250351920

THE STORY KEEPER by Kelly Rimmer (Gothic/Historical Mystery)
Paperback Original
In the aftermath of a tumultuous year, Fiona Winslow finds solace in the decaying grandeur of Wurimbirra, the rambling family estate she once called home. Intent on restoring it, she discovers the keys to more than just the dilapidated mansion. Beneath the crumbling plaster and dust are secrets that have been buried for a generation. When a curious book, The Midnight Estate, catches her attention in her late uncle’s library, Fiona is plunged into a tale that mirrors her own --- a story of love, loss and betrayal. But as the lines between fiction and reality blur, Fiona must ask herself: Is the true mystery the one hidden within the walls of her ancestral home, or is it within the pages of a book that chose her as much as she chose it?
Mira | 9781525805110

SUGAR AND SPITE: An Agatha Raisin Mystery by M. C. Beaton with R.W. Green (Mystery)
When a series of deaths within the small Cotswolds birdwatching community begins to unravel her village, Agatha and her team at Raisin Investigators are certain there has been foul play involved. Now, they must dig up decades' worth of tempestuous relationships and simmering secrets among the birdwatching enthusiasts of the village in order to prevent any further deaths. But with Agatha's own relationship with John Glass on the rocks after he is called away on his job as a cruise ship dance instructor, and Sir Charles Fraith now attempting to step into John’s shoes as her lover, Agatha has her work cut out for her. She will have to break out her binoculars and embrace her bitter side to solve the murders and wrangle the sickly-sweet temptations in her own life.
Minotaur Books | 9781250378583

WHAT THE NIGHT BRINGS: A Tom Thorne Novel by Mark Billingham
(Mystery/Thriller)
The targeted murder of four officers is only the first in a series of attacks that leaves police scared, angry and, most disturbingly of all, vengeful. As Tom Thorne and Nicola Tanner dig into the reasons for the violence, a deeper darkness begins to emerge: the possibility that these murders are payback. The price paid for an unspeakable betrayal. To uncover the truth, Thorne will be forced to question everything he stands for. He can trust nobody, and the shocking secrets revealed by one terrible night will fracture his entire world.
Atlantic Crime | 9780802167484

On Sale the Week of July 27th in Hardcover

July 28th

ALL THAT'S UNSEEN: An Appalachian Memoir by Emilee Hackney (Memoir)
Born and raised deep in the hollers of the Appalachian Mountains, Emilee Hackney knew little beyond the ridgelines and coalfields of southwest Virginia. At 14, she meets Sam, a senior at her high school, who offers her a glimpse at a promising future together. But as they begin attending services at Deliverance Christian Church as a couple, Emilee is thrust into the radical realm of Pentecostalism. In a culture where marriage at 19 isn’t uncommon, Emilee is engaged to Sam. But what she doesn’t know yet is that the man she plans to marry is not who he claims to be. Years later, on the verge of spiraling out of control, Emilee applies to Harvard and is accepted. She begins the arduous process of reinventing herself and her relationships with her home, faith and values against the backdrop of the divisive 2016 election.
Penguin Press | 9780593831403 

BEGINNING MIDDLE END by Valeria Luiselli (Fiction)
This story begins when a mother and her daughter take off on a trip. It is a summer of rapidly changing winds, volcanic rumbles and sudden tempests. They’ve landed in Sicily, near the ancient ruins where the mother’s grandmother worked long ago on an archaeological dig. The narrator’s marriage has collapsed, her mother is losing her memory, and her daughter is on the threshold of adolescence, starting to ask difficult questions and form complex memories. How do you begin again? the narrator wonders, pondering her family line. How do you begin again if you got the beginning wrong? While the mother tries to figure out how to reconstruct their lives as a duo, her daughter takes the reins of the story, and their journey soon becomes a quest for origins.
Knopf | 9798217208319

BUYER BEWARE by Catherine Ryan Howard (Domestic Thriller)
When Ellie moves to 1 Delaney Row, she hopes to find a fresh start --- a place where no one knows her name, her history or her secrets. But what she doesn’t know is that her new home is already hiding someone else’s secrets --- and the people determined to keep them are watching her. As Ellie starts to unravel the house’s disturbing backstory, coming closer to the shocking mystery at its center, she unwittingly puts herself on a deadly collision course not just with her new home’s history, but with her own as well.
Simon & Schuster | 9781668075111

CITY OF WIDOWS by Nadia Hashimi (Fiction)
In February 2020, the US began to withdraw troops from Afghanistan after nearly 20 years of occupation. A whole generation of Afghan women had been born during that time --- women who had grown up in relative peace, gone to school, entered the professions, even served in the army and Parliament. The women of Afghanistan watched as the Taliban filled the streets again. In the bustling, cosmopolitan city of Kabul, women are TV newscasters, shop owners, doctors, teachers, lawyers, even soldiers. They include Marjan, who fought with the Afghan army and will risk everything to keep her daughter safe. Soraya led the army’s all-female combat force over the objections of her upper-class family. She is now a wanted woman whose brother may choose not to shelter her from the Taliban.
William Morrow | 9780063423541 

FISHBONE CINDERELLA by Elizabeth Lim (Historical Fiction)
1940s Hong Kong. When Japanese soldiers invade her hometown, Ha Yut Ying makes an unlikely escape --- by turning invisible. After the war is over, she’s sent to Hong Kong to live with her distant father and glamorous stepmother, who turn her into the family’s servant. 1960s San Francisco. Marigold has always had a knack for uncovering secrets, but nothing prepares her for the day she accidentally witnesses her mother vanish before her eyes. The moment fractures their bond, leaving questions that shadow her entire childhood. But when her mother’s condition suddenly deteriorates, Marigold is convinced she’s the only person who can save her. To do so, she must journey into the secrets her mother never shared and uncover the tragic, fairytale-tinged history their family has fought to forget.
Del Rey | 9798217092987 

FURIOUS VIOLET by Sarai Walker (Psychological Thriller)
Violet “West” Shelley has unwillingly spent her life in the spotlight as the only daughter of a legendary poet and feminist icon who died tragically young. Now, as the self-described “lowbrow” crime journalist approaches 50 --- burned out, creatively blocked, and far older than her mother ever was --- she retreats to her hometown in the Colorado mountains hometown to finish a long-overdue book about the “Crying Killer,” a notorious serial killer who sobs for his mother after committing his crimes. But what begins as a bid for solitude quickly spirals into something far more sinister. A stalker emerges, insisting that West is their long-lost mother, though she has never had children. As the threats escalate, West is drawn into a chilling psychological web where the boundaries between fiction and reality begin to collapse.
Harper | 9780063437876 

GETTING AWAY WITH MURDER by Shari Lapena (Psychological Thriller)
Jill and Ted adore their New York brownstone the way others adore their children. It reflects who they are, their status and tastes. With the grand mahogany staircase and state-of-the-art kitchen, it is the stuff of glossy magazines and real-estate dreams. It is their sanctuary. So when Ted’s inheritance runs out and he makes a bad investment, they panic. How can they protect their beloved home and enviable lifestyle? The answer is obvious. The death of one wealthy family member --- from whom they stand to inherit millions --- could solve all their problems. Together, they will get away with murder. As long as they trust each other. As long as neither makes a mistake. As long as there are no surprises.
Pamela Dorman Books | 9780593832479

THE GOOD PARTS by Evann Normandin (Fiction/Magical Realism)
When Landon receives a letter from Rose --- the woman he once planned forever with --- he learns that their love story is over. She has undergone a radical memory-erasing treatment, leaving behind her grief, her past...and him. But Landon can't bear to lose the love of his life. Now living in Edinburgh, Rose's world is a blank canvas, and she's dating someone new. When Landon reenters her life as a stranger, they become fast friends. But what Rose doesn’t know is that this new friend carries the weight of everything they once shared. And when she starts exhibiting strange symptoms, it becomes clear their history isn’t gone --- it’s just buried. And remembering could come at a devastating cost.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538780329 

INDIE DARLING by Lauren Nossett (Mystery/Thriller)
Kelly Williams, a private investigator in Nashville, helps women. Her latest client is Sarah Owens, better known as Seraph, the magnetic and polarizing lead singer of the indie sensation The Garden Snakes. After a series of threats turns violent, she hires Kelly to identify her assailant. With feminist anthems, cryptic lyrical easter eggs, and an electrifying stage presence, Seraph has built a fiercely loyal following --- and attracted a number of critics. At that level of fame, her attacker could be anyone. Then, in the middle of a Nashville performance, Seraph is shot on stage. The ambulance carrying her disappears. As the city reels and conspiracy theories swirl, Kelly is pulled into a dangerous web of secrets involving Seraph’s bandmates, her troubled past, and the high cost of stardom.
Flatiron Books | 9781250413826 

MEET ME IN PARIS by Kristin Harmel (Fiction)
Julia Glover has brought her 23-year-old daughter, Piper, to Paris. Julia is dying, and as they desperately try to make memories together, the world opens up around them. Rock star Jackson Quick’s glory days are behind him. This week, he’ll launch his reunion tour in Paris, the city where it all began. When he meets a woman who finally sees him for who he is at his core, the ground shifts beneath his feet. Henry McGee has been writing hit songs for decades. But his secret is that every love song he’s ever written is for a woman named Celeste, whom he loved a lifetime ago. He has spent 80 years believing she died, but then a letter arrives telling him the opposite. These intertwining stories --- plus several others --- unfold over a few breathtaking spring days.
Gallery Books | 9781668092538 

RUNNER by Ashton Lattimore (Historical Fiction)
Martha’s Vineyard, 1923. The sea was the gift that kept on giving to Lena Jameson’s father, Earl, a fisherman turned successful rumrunner who built up a small fortune smuggling liquor from offshore ships to thirsty customers back on the island. But when Earl and his entire crew are lost in a mysterious shipwreck that some whisper was no accident, his loved ones are left reeling and penniless. And Lena, who had been on the cusp of a college career in Boston, sees her future slipping away. Desperate to save her family, as well as her own hopes of escaping their small town, Lena decides to take over Earl’s rum-running business. But as buried secrets rise to the surface and the temptations of the glittering underworld pull Lena in deeper, everything she’s fought to protect soon hangs in the balance.
Ballantine Books | 9780593975459 

SEA OF CHARMS by Sarah Beth Durst (Fantasy/Romance)
Betrayed by love, Marin lives and works as a supply runner, sailing from island to island, delivering an array of goods with Perri the sea serpent and Ree the sailor shrub as her crew. On one of her routine trips to the capital, Alyssium, Marin finds a revolution underway --- and her friend, Dax, in the line of fire. What starts as a rescue evolves into a deal: Marin will keep Dax on as a member of her crew if he pretends to be her boyfriend at the End-of-Harvest Festival back home. But against her better judgment, Marin finds herself intrigued by his stubbornness, his passion for stories, his charming smile --- and realizes that perhaps she isn’t saving him. Maybe it’s the other way around.
Bramble | 9781250400673 

WHEN MIKAN ROAD WAS OURS by D.K. Furutani (Historical Fiction)
Amid a sweltering Los Angeles heat wave, Murano, a reclusive high school English teacher, is muddling through life as he reels from his father’s sudden death and his own recent cancer diagnosis. The monotony breaks when he inherits his great-uncle Benjiro’s unpublished memoir. What Murano expects to be a grim reminder of his position as the half-white son of the family’s outcast instead whisks him away to 1930s California, to a time when his family was inseparable. Now, faced with the reality of his family’s dissolution, Murano becomes determined to understand its breaking point following their incarceration in American concentration camps during World War II, no matter what hidden truths he might uncover about his ancestors or himself.
Atria Books | 9781668086926 

On Sale the Week of July 27th in Paperback

July 28th

DAIKON by Samuel Hawley (Alternate History)
War has taken everything from physicist Keizo Kan. His young daughter was killed in the Great Tokyo Air Raid, and now his Japanese American wife, Noriko, has been imprisoned by the brutal Thought Police. An American bomber, downed over Japan on the first day of August 1945, offers the scientist a surprising chance at salvation. The Imperial Army dispatches him to examine an unusual device recovered from the plane’s wreckage --- a bomb containing uranium --- and tells him that if he can unlock its mysteries, his wife will be released. Desperate to stave off Japan’s surrender to the Allies, the army will stop at nothing to harness the weapon’s unimaginable power. They order Kan to prepare the bomb for manual detonation over a target --- a suicide mission that will strike a devastating blow against the Americans.
Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster | 9781668083062

EMPIRE OF THE ELITE: Inside Condé Nast, the Media Dynasty That Reshaped America by Michael M. Grynbaum (Popular Culture/Social History)
For decades, Condé Nast and its glittering magazines defined how to live the good life in America. The brilliant, complicated, striving characters behind Vogue, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker, GQ, Architectural Digest and many other titles manufactured a vision of luxury and sophistication that shaped consumer habits, cultural trends, intellectual attitudes and political beliefs the world over. Condé’s billionaire owner, Si Newhouse, and his stable of star editors, photographers and writers were the gatekeepers who decided what and who mattered, and they offered those opinions to tens of millions of readers every month. EMPIRE OF THE ELITE is full of fresh behind-the-scenes reporting about a plethora of boldface names and sets out to explain how Condé Nast established itself as a de facto American aristocracy, anointing an elite and dictating the culture they presided over.
Simon & Schuster | 9781668003923

FLASHOUT by Alexis Soloski (Psychological Thriller)
New York, 1972. A cloistered college student slips out of the dorms to attend a performance by a legendary experimental performance troupe. Within months, she has left campus life behind and joined the company, infatuated by its charismatic leader and his promises of absolute freedom. California, 1997. A theater teacher at an exclusive private school receives an unsettling letter. With her job at risk and her past clawing at her carefully constructed present, what will she do to protect the life she has made?
Flatiron Books | 9781250883667

THE GIRL WITH ICE IN HER VEINS: A Lisbeth Salander Novel by Karin Smirnoff (Thriller)
Sweden’s far north is growing colder; even in springtime, the town of Gasskas is buried under a relentless snow. As temperatures drop, tensions rise between a global corporation shamelessly exploiting the area's natural resources and wary locals who have scores to settle. A bomb blasts apart a crucial bridge. Soon after, a young journalist is found murdered. Meanwhile, Lisbeth Salander is at home in Stockholm, looking to fill the void her last lover left behind. When she discovers that fellow hacker Plague has been kidnapped and taken up north, and finds her niece, Svala, on her doorstep, she has no choice but to return to Gasskas --- with Mikael Blomkvist at her side. Blomkvist takes the helm at Gasskas' newspaper, and Lisbeth tries to locate Plague. But then Svala goes missing, and Lisbeth's worst fears come to haunt her.
Vintage Crime/Black Lizard | 9780593470398

NORMAL WOMEN: Nine Hundred Years of Making History by Philippa Gregory (History)
In this ambitious and groundbreaking book, Philippa Gregory tells the story of England over 900 years, for the very first time placing women --- some 50 percent of the population --- center stage. Using research skills honed in her work as one of our foremost historical novelists, Gregory trawled through court records, newspapers and journals to find highwaywomen and beggars, murderers and brides, housewives and pirates, female husbands and hermits. The “normal women” you will meet in these pages went to war, plowed the fields, campaigned, wrote and loved. They rode in jousts, flew Spitfires, issued their own currency, and built ships, corn mills and houses. They committed crimes or treason, worshipped many gods, cooked and nursed, invented things and rioted. A lot.
HarperOne | 9780063304338

THE PORTRAIT by Danielle Steel (Romance)
As a highly sought-after portrait artist, Devon Darcy seems to have the ability to peer into the souls of her subjects and then capture them on canvas. But the world doesn’t know about the devastating losses she has endured. When entrepreneur Charles Mackenzie Taylor sees her at a New York gallery event, he is instantly haunted by her beauty and her talent. Having lost his mother when he was 13, Charlie has given up on love. But Devon awakens something in him across that crowded gallery, and she is in turn intrigued by Charlie. When they encounter each other over the summer in the Hamptons, their connection deepens as they each release years of pent-up emotions and unfulfilled longing. But the ghosts of their pasts are not easily put to rest. And after an accident endangers Devon’s career, they must decide together what their future holds.
Dell | 9780593498781

PRIDE COMES BEFORE A FALL by Virginia Heath (Historical Romantic Comedy)
Paperback Original
From the moment Portia Kendall read her first revolutionary pamphlet beneath her bedcovers at Miss Prentice’s School for Girls, she realized that her true calling was to make the world a fairer place for the masses downtrodden by the aristocracy. This led her to Equitas, a radical newspaper that champions reform. But as Portia discovers, writing doesn’t pay the bills. To make a living, she must push aside her principles and serve the very people she criticizes weekly in her column. A temporary position as a chaperone in the home of a pompous duke seems like the perfect way to earn enough to follow her heart. Unfortunately, Leopold Sloane, the 11th Duke of Debden, seems to be more dashing and noble than pompous and soon begins to call to her heart. But dare she risk her principles for love, or will her pride always come before a fall?
St. Martin's Griffin | 9781250896117

THE RECKONING: A Renata Drake Thriller by Kelli Stanley (Historical Mystery/Thriller)
California, Southern Humboldt County, 1985. Renata Drake steps off a Greyhound bus and into small-town Garberville, hoping to disappear. But she’s made a mistake. The FBI has the cannabis-producing “Emerald Triangle” town --- and its corrupt residents --- in their sights. Even worse, a teenage girl is missing. And when she turns up dead, the third in three years, it’s clear a serial killer is living among them. Renata knows about murdered girls and the burning desire for justice --- and for revenge. Her younger sister, Josie, is gone, and now so is the man who killed her. Renata didn’t stay in Washington, D.C. to be arrested for executing a murderer, and she shouldn’t stay here either. But Renata decides to investigate, and what she uncovers will trigger a final reckoning: for herself, for a killer, and for all of Southern Humboldt.
Severn House | 9781448318896

SILENT RETREAT by Sally Quinn (Romance)
When prize-winning reporter Sybilla Sumner checks into a monastery for a silent retreat, romance is the last thing on her mind. She plans to spend five meditative days surrounded by the beauty of the Shenandoah Valley --- and apart from her famous husband and their crumbling marriage. James Fitzmaurice-Kelly isn’t looking for romance either. He is the Archbishop of Dublin and has maintained a vow of celibacy for decades --- even as he has publicly questioned the church’s teachings. But as Sybilla and Fitz continue silently crossing paths, an undeniable charge builds between them, one that could see them abandoning their vows.
Subplot | 9798900263434

SWORDHEART by T. Kingfisher (Fantasy/Romance)
Halla unexpectedly has inherited the estate of a wealthy uncle. Unfortunately, she also is saddled with money-hungry relatives full of devious plans for how to wrest the inheritance away from her. While locked in her bedroom, Halla inspects the ancient sword that's been collecting dust on the wall since before she moved in. Out of desperation, she unsheathes it --- and suddenly a man appears. His name is Sarkis, he tells her, and he is an immortal warrior trapped in a prison of enchanted steel. Sarkis is sworn to protect whoever wields the sword. And for Halla, a most unusual wielder, he finds himself fending off not grand armies and deadly assassins but instead everything from kindly-seeming bandits to roving inquisitors to her own in-laws. But as Halla and Sarkis grow closer, they overlook the biggest threat of all --- the sword itself.
Bramble | 9781250400246

THIS HAPPENED TO ME: A Memoir by Kate Price (Memoir)
Kate Price, who grew up in a small mill town in central Pennsylvania, was able to escape the unbroken cycles of poverty, violence, addiction, mental illness and abuse that had plagued her family for generations. She started a new life in Cambridge, Massachusetts, in pursuit of her master’s and PhD. But despite having left this dark world behind, it still kept a firm grip on her. Overcome with unexplainable grief and sadness, Price sought out Dr. Bessel van der Kolk, a trauma specialist to help heal her constant emotional pain through EMDR therapy. When Price felt safe enough, she discovered what that darkness that lay within her was. Her father had abused and trafficked her as a child. Price grappled with what had been revealed. And so began a 10-year quest alongside a journalist to prove what Price knew to be her truth.
Gallery Books | 9781668036235

TONI AT RANDOM: The Iconic Writer’s Legendary Editorship by Dana A. Williams (Biography)
A multifaceted genius, Toni Morrison transcended her role as an author, helping to shape an important period in American publishing and literature as an editor at one of the nation’s most prestigious publishing houses. While Morrison's literary achievements are widely celebrated, her editorial work is little known. Drawing on extensive research and firsthand accounts, this comprehensive study discusses Morrison's remarkable journey from her early days at Random House to her emergence as one of its most important editors. During her tenure in editorial, Morrison refashioned the literary landscape, working with important authors, including Toni Cade Bambara, Leon Forrest and Lucille Clifton, and empowering cultural icons such as Angela Davis and Muhammad Ali to tell their stories on their own terms.
Amistad | 9780063011984

TOO OLD FOR THIS by Samantha Downing (Psychological Thriller)
Lottie Jones thought her crimes were behind her. Decades earlier, she changed her identity and tucked herself away in a small town. Her most exciting nights are the weekly bingo games at the local church and gossiping with her friends. When investigative journalist Plum Dixon shows up on her doorstep asking questions about Lottie’s past and specifically her involvement with numerous unsolved cases, well, Lottie just can’t have that. But getting away with murder is hard enough when you’re young. And when Lottie receives another annoying knock on the door, she realizes this crime just might be the death of her.
Berkley | 9780593101049

THE WEDDING PEOPLE by Alison Espach (Fiction/Humor)
It’s a beautiful day in Newport, Rhode Island, when Phoebe Stone arrives at the grand Cornwall Inn. She's immediately mistaken by everyone in the lobby for one of the wedding people, but she’s actually the only guest at the Cornwall who isn’t here for the big event. Phoebe is here because she’s dreamed of coming for years. She hoped to shuck oysters and take sunset sails with her husband. But she’s here without him, at rock bottom, and determined to have one last decadent splurge on herself. Meanwhile, the bride has accounted for every detail and every possible disaster the weekend might yield…except for, well, Phoebe and Phoebe's plan --- which makes it that much more surprising when the two women can’t stop confiding in each other.
Holt Paperbacks | 9781250899552

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