August 18, 2026

August 18, 2026

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In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of August 17th and August 24th 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 Fall Reading Contests and Feature, a series of 24-hour giveaways that are taking place on select days through mid-October. Enter for your chance to win titles that we think will be great fall reading picks.

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This Week's Bonus News:
Bookreporter.com's 16th Annual
Fall Reading Contests and Feature

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On Sale the Week of August 17th in Hardcover

August 17th

DELUSIONAL: A Michael Bennett Thriller by James Patterson and James O. Born (Thriller) 
In New York City, a series of deadly bombs explodes. Across the river, a military base is burglarized for munitions. In Montana, violence and arson rock a small town outside of Bozeman. Are the incidents related? Detective Michael Bennett, army sniper turned NYPD officer Rob Trilling and the ATF investigate. A single-minded group angry with the government keeps turning up in unexpected places, insisting that they’re only trying to make the world a better place. To law enforcement, their claims seem delusional. Will words or gunpowder light the next fuse?
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316569835 

August 18th

THE CALAMITIES by Chuck Wendig (Dark Urban Fantasy/Horror) 
Mourning Mayne knows he’ll one day bear the duty of managing his family’s vast empire of wealth and power. But the feckless Mourning has always struggled to accept this legacy of cruelty, domination and exploitation…and something even darker. Because the Maynes are no ordinary family. Hidden in our world are the fiends --- half-human, half-demon, and possessed of a dark magic born from buying human souls --- and the Maynes are one of the oldest and most influential fiendish families. But when Mourning’s estranged father, the formidable and terrifying Hadrian Mayne, demands that Mourning return to the fold, he has to decide whether to accept his legacy and embrace his role in the family or to forge his own destiny…and, with it, change the course of the world. 
Del Rey | 9798217091812 

FIRST SUMMER by Ekin Oklap (Fiction)
One afternoon at the start of summer, a teenage girl watches a new girl move in across the street. In Clara, she recognizes the same loneliness that she feels herself, but finds tenderness and laughter, too. Over hot, languid days spent talking and reading side by side in the garden, the narrator is awakened to the possibility of a true connection with another human being, free of the self-consciousness she feels with others. Meanwhile, in a distant fictional galaxy, Nadia the space explorer --- the protagonist of a childhood book series beloved by both girls --- traverses the known universe with her companion, Rosa. Their imagined adventures make sense of new and powerful feelings.
S&S/Summit Books | 9781668225790 

GOD'S COUNTRY by William Kent Krueger (Mystery)
Preparing for a family trip into the Boundary Waters, Cork O’Connor is troubled by ominous visions about his future. Ignoring the warnings, he uncovers signs of violence while searching for his missing friend, Cordell Bishop. Soon, he is forced to negotiate with dangerous criminals, the Kennedy brothers, who are seeking their late father’s hidden stash. Facing escalating danger and difficult choices, Cork grapples with his darkest instincts as he helps others escape and eventually takes justice into his own hands.
Atria Books | 9781668231869 

THE LONELIEST TREE IN THE WORLD written by Mariana Salomão Carrara, translated by Alison Entrekin and Julia Sanches (Fiction)
On a small tobacco farm in the south of Brazil, a family of five tries to keep up with the economic tribulations and environmental threats of modern rural life. The father, Carlos, is reckoning with a depression that has hollowed his soul. His wife, Guerlinda, must cope with her husband's mental absence from family life while raising three children. Alice, the eldest daughter, rebels against her mother and traditional gender standards. Her younger sister, Maria, struggles to reconcile her book smarts with the harsh manual labor demanded by the farm. And two-year-old Pedrinho is already being put to work tending the tobacco. As the harvesting and burning season approaches, big tobacco companies, unpredictable conditions and consequences of pesticide treatments threaten the family’s livelihood and mental well-being.
Catapult | 9781646223190 

THE MINIMALIST by Kailee Pedersen (Psychological Thriller/Horror)
As the last and greatest student of famed minimalist composer Ryder Wakefield, Mia Voss’ rise to prominence in the insular world of classical music has long been assured. When Ryder dies unexpectedly, she inherits everything --- including the unfinished manuscript of his final composition. Haunted by memories of her tragic romance with Ryder’s late son, Oliver, Mia leaves her girlfriend behind and returns to Ryder’s home to finish his last work. There, she is forced to confront her complex relationship with Ryder, who hid his Jewish and gay identities to become one of the most important 20th-century American composers; her lingering guilt over Oliver’s suicide; and her own musical ambition as the manuscript begins to exert a disturbing, mesmerizing hold over her.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250328274 

MY SISTER IS GOING TO KILL ME by Nina Simon (Mystery)
Liv and Mandy Chisholm’s yearly sister trip is an attempt to bond as their lives increasingly diverge. This year, they take off for a rafting adventure through the breathtaking depths of the Grand Canyon with a group of strangers. But beyond the terrors of whitewater rapids, sibling squabbles and rogue reptiles, the ferocious beauty of the river carries a darker undercurrent and an unexpected guest: a murderer in their midst. When a fellow traveler is found dead and another corpse hits the water, the rafting trip flips from idyllic sister vacation to high-stakes murder investigation. Every suspect has a secret, every clue is drenched in mystery, and Liv and Mandy can hardly trust each other, let alone their own instincts. 
William Morrow | 9780063478022 

PROMISE ME NEVER by Liv Constantine (Psychological Thriller)
Aspiring writer Savannah’s scheme to meet superstar horror novelist Bennett Bryson turns out better than she ever imagined. Not only does her charming and handsome literary idol offer to read her work, he is instantly smitten with her. After a whirlwind romance, Savannah says “yes” to marriage, and the two settle into Bennett's secluded upstate home. But then cracks appear in her perfect new life. Bennett's behavior becomes dark and controlling. And Savannah cannot escape the shadow of Bennett's first wife, the free-spirited and passionate artist Poppy, who died in a tragic accident but still seems to be Savannah’s rival for Bennett's affection. Then comes an enigmatic warning: Bennett is not who he seems. The women who came before Savannah have disappeared. And Savannah could be next.
Bantam | 9780593875230

THE SALT KING by Natasha Pulley (Apocalyptic Science Fiction/Romance)
Jesuit priest Avelyn Brocken was born into a mining family in Hreodwater, a small, totally isolated salt town in the Fens of England. At age 16, he fled, abandoning his faith in the god of the mine --- the Salt King --- and the mythology that killed his whole family. When a fellow priest is miraculously healed only to then be turned to salt after a visit to Hreodwater, Avelyn is sent by the Vatican to investigate. But in Hreodwater, the town's gentle doctor, Jericho, tells him that the priest is not the only one experiencing strange cures --- and may not be the only one in danger from a substance in the mine that the locals call “salt light.” As salt light spreads, devastating cities around the world, Avelyn must decide what and who to believe --- and if his faith is strong enough to withstand an apocalypse.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781639737291 

THE SECRET DINNER by Raphael Montes (Literary Thriller/Horror)
Dante, Piglet, Miguel and Hugo are your average students trying to make ends meet with part-time jobs, excited about the bright futures at their fingertips. So when their rent skyrockets, they struggle to keep their new lives and big dreams afloat. They need to make money however they can. In order to keep their apartment, the friends adopt an unorthodox plan and are soon sucked into a dark world of secret dinner parties catering to the twisted fantasies of Rio’s elite. What starts as a joke quickly spirals out of their control. As the four friends fall deeper into this dark underworld and earn more money, the stakes get higher and the consequences deadlier, revealing the devious depths that lurk within each of them and threatening not only their friendship but also their lives.
Celadon Books | 9781250442413 

SIREN SAYS by Jennifer Michelle Herrera (Fantasy/Romance)
Twenty-five-year-old Raven Wynn knows that the ancient plant magic running through her veins brings nothing but destruction. It’s the reason she’s now bound by a painful curse --- one that will destroy her if she can’t find a way to break its hold. When her estranged Aunt Delilah bursts into her life promising a cure, Raven seizes the chance. Once her magic is fully unleashed, she is more powerful --- and more dangerous --- than anyone thought possible. In exchange for learning to control her magic, Raven will capture one of the spirits that roam Delilah’s hometown on May’s Eve so that it may grant Delilah’s secret wish. With the help of an enigmatic new friend, Cherry, as well as an infuriatingly handsome stoneworker, Idris, Raven learns that her task is even more perilous than she imagined.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593714386 

STRIP RULES by Martin Limón (Thriller) 
Blackjack pro Ronnie “the Technician” Redfield has his life blown up when a casino owner decides to take him down. Card counting isn’t illegal, but the court battle costs Ronnie his livelihood, his sobriety and his family. His wife is dead, and his teenage daughter, Margot, has disappeared. Now, three years later, he’s just about dug himself out of his hole when his old army buddy, “Wild” Bill Grimsley --- now a casino handler for high rollers --- shows up to drag Ronnie back into the action. Bill has a revenge plot to take down Rodrigo Gwynne, the nastiest, most exploitative casino owner on the Strip. All Ronnie has to do is what he does best: make money off the house. If he succeeds, his share of the take will be enough to get his life back on track --- and hire a detective to track down Margot.
Soho Crime | 9781641298308 

A VERY SPECIAL EPISODE by Camille Acker (Fiction)
Nina Johnson has always taken pride in belonging to The Tenth. Her great-great-grandmother founded the prestigious DC society --- a space for influential African Americans --- just 40 years after the Emancipation Proclamation. Nina has been elected to helm the organization, but she is determined to escape the influence of her mother and forge her own path. To realize her ambitions, Nina needs funding. So when a wealthy white benefactor named Sienna Masters offers financial support in exchange for her participation in a mysterious project at a former public housing complex, The Orchard, Nina ignores her initial skepticism and agrees to a partnership. But as Nina and those closest to her piece together Sienna's true motives, they discover far more sinister forces at play.
Random House | 9780593597507 

On Sale the Week of August 17th in Paperback

August 18th

AND THE SEA GAVE UP THE DEAD by William Friend (Psychological Thriller/Horror)
Paperback Original
When Morwenna receives a troubling call from her reclusive Aunt Bethan, she reluctantly returns to the family's crumbling chateau by the French seaside. Bethan has lived there alone for years, ever since her husband vanished in circumstances the locals are still gripped by. Some whisper she killed him. Others claim something older, and far worse, took him. What Morwenna finds is a house warped by grief. And the deeper she digs, the more the chateau seems aware of her presence. Worse, it seems drawn to her children. As strange events escalate, Morwenna must uncover the truth about her uncle's fate and the beings the villagers believe still haunt the estate --- before history repeats itself. Because if the tales are true, something long buried is stirring…and it has been waiting for her family to return.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464259951

AUTOMATIC NOODLE by Annalee Newitz (Science Fiction)
You don’t have to eat food to know the way to a city’s heart is through its stomach. So when a group of deactivated robots come back online in an abandoned ghost kitchen, they decide to make their own way doing what they know: making food --- the tastiest hand-pulled noodles around --- for the humans of San Francisco, who are recovering from a devastating war. But when their robot-run business starts causing a stir, a targeted wave of one-star reviews threatens to boil over into a crisis. To keep their doors open, they’ll have to call on their customers, their community and each other --- and find a way to survive and thrive in a world that wasn’t built for them.
Tordotcom | 9781250450982

AWAKE IN THE FLOATING CITY by Susanna Kwan (Dystopian Fiction)
Bo knows she should go. Years of rain have drowned the city, and almost everyone else has fled. Her mother was carried away in a storm surge, and Bo has been alone ever since. She is stalled: an artist unable to make art, a daughter unable to give up the hope that her mother may still be alive. Half-heartedly, she allows her cousin to plan for her escape --- but as the departure day approaches, she finds a note slipped under her door from Mia, an elderly woman who lives in her building and wants to hire Bo to be her caregiver. Suddenly, Bo has a reason to stay. Mia can be prickly, but they forge a connection deeper than any Bo has had with a client. Then Mia’s health turns, and Bo determines to honor their disappearing world and this woman who has brought her back to it.
Vintage | 9780593687260

THE BLONDE WHO CAME IN FROM THE COLD by Ally Carter
(Romantic Comedy/Suspense)
Ten years ago, they joined the CIA. Six years ago, he left the game. Five years ago, they fell in love. One year ago, she ran out into the cold with absolutely no intention of ever coming back. And two minutes ago, they woke up, bloody and bruised and handcuffed together in the dark. They don’t know where they are. They don’t know how they got there. And they have absolutely no idea who is after them or what this nameless, faceless villain wants. The only thing that’s clear is that, after 10 years of covers and chemistry, secrets and lies, these two rival spies have been sucked into their greatest mission yet, and now they’re going to have to team up to stay alive (if they don’t kill each other first).
Avon | 9780063386983

BRAIN DAMAGE by Freida McFadden (Psychological Thriller)
First Publication by Poisoned Pen Press
Dr. Charly McKenna had the perfect life: a thriving dermatology practice, a luxury apartment overlooking Central Park, and a handsome husband who adored her. Until the night a bullet tore through her skull…and stole everything. Now Charly wakes in a rehabilitation hospital unable to walk, speak or remember her own name. All she knows is that someone tried to kill her. As fragments of memory surface, so do unsettling questions about the people around her. The truth of what happened that night lives somewhere inside her brain. And as Charly pieces together the jagged edges of her past, she begins to realize the most terrifying possibility: the person who wants her dead might be the one she once trusted most.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464249617

THE CRYING KILLER by Jess Lourey (Domestic Thriller)
Paperback Original
Tuesday Hendrickson has spent eight years running from memories of that night. Her sister’s screams. Blood on the walls. And Arsen Bauer, a monster known as the Crying Killer, shot down in a barrage of bullets as he fled. Tuesday changed her last name and moved away. She’s now a private investigator who guards herself and her daughter, Julia, like their lives depend on it. And maybe they do. Because unless she’s imagining things, Tuesday has seen Arsen on the streets of Saint Paul. When bodies begin surfacing bearing the Crying Killer’s brutal and unmistakable signature, Tuesday is certain he’s coming for them. As her paranoia intensifies, she is left with a terrible choice: unearth the shocking secret she buried with her sister, or become the Crying Killer’s next victim.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781662531491

HOW TO FIND ROMANCE IN A BOOKSHOP by Poppy Alexander (Romance)
Paperback Original
Petra's career as a literary agent has imploded. Now she is stuck for six months babysitting a little bookshop by the sea. Ross McCloud’s award-winning debut novel blew the minds of the world’s literati, but now he and his keenly awaited second work have vanished. When Petra discovers Ross lurking, incognito, in the secondhand books section, a kinship tentatively forms. She also is finding time to help her new best friend, Jess --- owner of a local telephone box library --- to launch the inaugural Portneath Literary Festival. What better opportunity to put the Festival on the map, says Ross, than for Petra to unveil his second novel to the world there, before relaunching her career representing him at the Frankfurt book fair? But can Petra find the courage to help the man she loves?
Avon | 9780063463424

THE LOST BAKER OF VIENNA by Sharon Kurtzman (Historical Fiction)
In 2018, Zoe Rosenzweig is reeling after the loss of her beloved grandfather, a Holocaust survivor. She becomes obsessed with finding out what really happened to her family during the war. Vienna, 1946: Chana Rosenzweig has endured the horrors of war to find herself, her mother and her younger brother finally free in Vienna. But freedom doesn’t look like they’d imagined it would, as they struggle to make a living and stay safe. Despite the danger, Chana sneaks out most nights to return to the hotel kitchen where she works as a dishwasher, using the quiet nighttime hours to bake her late father’s recipes. Soon, Chana finds herself caught in a dangerous love triangle, torn between the black-market dealer who has offered marriage and protection, and the apprentice baker who shares her passions. How will Chana balance her love of baking against her family’s need for security?
Penguin Books | 9780593830888

OUR LAST WILD DAYS by Anna Bailey (Thriller)
Living in a shack out in the swamps, the Labasques made do by hunting down alligators and other animals. To the good people of Jacknife, Louisiana, they are troublemakers and outcasts, the kind of people you wouldn’t want in your community. So when Cutter Labasque is found face down in the muddy swamp, no one seems to care, not even her two brothers. The only person who questions the official verdict of suicide is Cutter’s childhood friend, Loyal May, who has just returned home to care for her mother. When she left town at 18 years old, she betrayed Cutter. Now with a ragtag group from the local paper where she works, Loyal goes in search of answers, uncovering a web of deceit and corruption that implicates those in town.
Atria Books | 9781982157203

PARKIE by Michael S. Bregman (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Stanley and Ernie are best friends who couldn’t be more unalike. The common denominator holding their friendship together besides skateboarding is selling drugs to the affluent scions of Manhattan’s Upper East Side at the Central Park Bandshell. As Stanley and Ernie come of age, they claim Bandshell as their turf and transform it into their own personal fiefdom. But as their influence grows, the pair must decide which lines to cross --- or not. While Ernie forges one path, Stanley discovers tarot and the Aleister Crowley system of Magick. He becomes obsessed with the dark side of mysticism and withdraws from all vestiges of morality. Meanwhile, the 1980s unfold while Stanley and Ernie carry on as formidable players --- until ill-fated events ensue and everything reaches a breaking point.
Seventh Street Books | 9781645061618

THE POSSESSION OF ALBA DÍAZ by Isabel Cañas (Gothic Thriller/Horror)
In 1765, plague sweeps through Zacatecas. Alba flees with her wealthy merchant parents and fiancé, Carlos, to his family’s isolated mine for refuge. But she begins suffering from strange hallucinations, sleepwalking and violent convulsions. She senses something cold lurking beneath her skin. Something angry. Something wrong. Elías, haunted by a troubled past, came to the New World to make his fortune and escape his family’s legacy of greed. Alba, as his cousin’s betrothed, is none of his business. Which, of course, is why he can’t help but notice the growing tension between them every time she enters the room…and why he notices her deteriorate when the demon’s thirst for blood gets stronger. In the fight for her life, Alba and Elías become entangled with the occult, the Church, long-kept secrets and each other.
Berkley | 9780593641088

ROSE IN CHAINS by Julie Soto (Fantasy/Romance)
The war is over, the dark forces have won, and the hero who was supposed to save them is dead.  Captured as her castle is overrun by the enemy, the world as Briony Rosewood knows it is changed forever. Evil has won, and her people face imminent servitude, imprisonment or death. Stripped of her Magic and her freedom, Briony and the other survivors are quickly sold off to the highest bidders in an auction --- and as Evermore's princess, she fetches the highest price. After a fierce bidding war, she’s sold to none other than Toven Hearst, scion of a family known for their cruelty. Yet despite the horrors of her new world and the role she must learn to play within it, all is not lost. Help --- and hope --- may yet arise in the most unlikely of places.
Forever | 9781538771235

THE SOCIETY OF UNKNOWABLE OBJECTS by Gareth Brown (Fantasy/Thriller)
The world of unknowable objects --- magical items that most people have no idea possess powers --- has been quiet for decades. But the three current members of a secret society have remained watchful, meeting every six months in the basement of a bookshop in London. They are pledged to protect their archive of magical items hidden away, safe from the outside world --- and the world safe from them. But when Frank Simpson, the longest-standing member of the Society of Unknowable Objects, hears of a new artifact coming to light in Hong Kong, he sends Magda Sparks to investigate. Within hours of arriving in Hong Kong, Magda is confronted by a professional killer who seems to know all about unknowable objects, specifically one that was stolen from him a decade before. Magda is forced to flee, using an artifact that not even the rest of the Society knows about.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063324046

SPREAD ME by Sarah Gailey (Science Fiction/Horror)
Kinsey has the perfect job as the team lead in a remote research outpost. She loves the isolation and the way the desert keeps temptations from the civilian world far out of reach. When her crew discovers a mysterious specimen buried deep in the sand, Kinsey breaks quarantine and brings it inside. But the longer it's there, the more her carefully controlled life begins to unravel. Temptation has found her after all, and it can't be ignored any longer. One by one, Kinsey's team realizes the thing they're studying is in search of a new host --- and one of them is the perfect candidate.
Tor Nightfire | 9781250445742

THAT NIGHT by Gillian McAllister (Domestic Thriller)
First Publication in the US
On vacation in Europe, Frannie makes two urgent phone calls. One to her sister, and one to her brother. The siblings come running, and they find their sister covered in blood, kneeling over an unmoving body. There’s been an accident: Frannie has hit a man with her car, and she needs their help. They bury the body, and they make a promise. They’ll never tell anyone. But when the police come calling, the siblings’ lies start to spiral. They begin to doubt their trust in each other. Because what really happened that night? And who will be the first to crack?
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063488953

THE UNSTOPPABLES by David Biro (Crime Fiction)
Paperback Original
Soon after Ivy League-educated physician Richard Kline returns to his hometown of Bay Ridge to take over his father’s medical practice, his dreams of a steady, conventional life begin to crumble. His wife leaves him; health insurance vultures have descended on his practice; a mysterious Russian woman becomes his new bookkeeper; and a patient holds him at gunpoint in his own waiting room. Kline seeks help from two long-lost childhood friends: Sal Bondini, the son of a notorious mob boss, and Sean O’Toole, a police officer at the local precinct. As boys, the three friends were constantly up to their necks in trouble. As adults, they now may be in over their heads.
Regalo Press | 9798895656259

WHAT DOES IT FEEL LIKE? by Sophie Kinsella (Fiction)
Eve is a successful novelist who wakes up one day in a hospital bed with no memory of how she got there. Her husband explains that she has had an operation to remove the large, malignant tumor growing in her brain. As Eve learns to walk, talk and write again --- and as she wrestles with her diagnosis, and how and when to explain it to her beloved children --- she begins to recall what’s most important to her: long walks with her husband’s hand clasped firmly around her own, family game nights, and always buying that dress when she sees it. Recounted in brief anecdotes, each one is an attempt to answer the type of impossible questions recognizable to anyone navigating the labyrinth of grief.
Dial Press Trade Paperback | 9798217199846

WHAT HUNGER by Catherine Dang (Horror)
The thought of her brother, Tommy, leaving for college fills Ronny Nguyen with dread, as she contemplates the quiet house she will be left alone in with her parents, Me and Ba. They rarely speak of their past in Vietnam, except through the lens of food. In the aftermath of the war, Me and Ba taught Ronny and Tommy that meat was a dangerous luxury, a symbol of survival that should never be taken for granted. But when tragedy strikes, Ronny's world is upended. Her sense of self and her understanding of her family are shattered. A few nights later, at her first high school party, a boy crosses the line, and Ronny is overtaken by a force larger than herself. This newfound power comes with an insatiable hunger for raw meat, a craving that is both a saving grace and a potential destroyer.
Simon & Schuster | 9781668065587

WRECK by Catherine Newman (Fiction/Humor)
If you loved Rocky and her family on vacation on Cape Cod, wait until you join them at home two years later. (And if this is your first meeting with this crew, get ready to laugh and cry --- and relate.) Rocky, still anxious, nostalgic and funny, is living in Western Massachusetts with her husband, Nick, and their daughter, Willa, who's back home after college. Their son, Jamie, has taken a new job in New York, and Mort, Rocky’s widowed father, has moved in. It all couldn’t be more ridiculously normal…until Rocky finds herself obsessed with a local accident that only tangentially affects them --- and with a medical condition that, she hopes, won’t affect them at all.
Harper Perennial | 9780063453920

On Sale the Week of August 24th in Hardcover

August 25th

BIG LITTLE TRUTHS by Liane Moriarty (Domestic Thriller/Mystery)
The last time we saw the women of BIG LITTLE LIES, their children were five years old. Now they’re teenagers. When the high school principal receives a threatening package in the mail, word quickly spreads throughout the community. But Madeline, Celeste, Jane, Renata and Bonnie have other things to worry about. Celeste’s mother-in-law is behaving oddly. Madeline is facing perhaps the biggest challenge of her life. Jane is at a dangerous fork in her marriage. Bonnie has realized there’s only so much solace in yoga. And Renata is living her best life --- revenge is sweet. When a stranger begins lurking around the school asking supposedly innocent questions, this tightly connected group of women finally must face the full repercussions of the big little truths they have and haven’t shared with their kids.
Crown | 9780593798638 

BRONA: The First Druids of Shannara by Terry Brooks and Delilah S. Dawson (Fantasy)
Years have passed since Galaphile Joss and his life partner, Nirianne, established Paranor as a way to bring harmony to the Four Lands. Now their two sons are becoming men in a land of peace and plenty. Admittedly, it is a land that their eldest child, Abronja, finds rather boring. At 16, he longs for a way to prove himself --- a chance to show he is every bit the equal of his famous father. But when the excitement he has been longing for materializes, it is in the form of an old evil: a dark sorcerer whom his father had defeated but not destroyed. Abronja was conceived while the dark sorcerer had control of Nirianne, and Galaphile has always feared that a spark of malevolence lives on in his beloved child.
Del Rey | 9780593129838

CHILDREN OF WOLVES by Lawrence Osborne (Thriller)
Four children from wealthy families are sent to a strict prestigious boarding school for troubled teenagers. Haunted by the horrors they experience, they vow to disrupt the status quo by all means necessary. Years later, Tyler is a private investigator who has been hired by petrochemical billionaire James Arthur Knight Jr. to find his runaway daughter, Chana. At a seaside hotel in Turkey, he finds Chana lounging with her three wealthy friends and living with a fake name. Enthralled by Chana’s shyness and elegance, Tyler decides to keep his discovery to himself, accepting Mr. Knight’s payments while feeding him elusive information. One night, when Tyler lets slip his relationship with the American consul, Chana conjures a plot that sets into motion a dark chain of events.
S&S/Summit Books | 9781668226438

CROCODILOPOLIS by John Manuel Arias (Fiction) 
Once a powerful, cold-blooded politician in Costa Rica, Seth Oreamundo is now living in exile in Washington, DC --- and his younger brother, Osario, is to blame. Born into a corrupt political dynasty and raised on a seemingly idyllic coffee estate, the Oreamundo brothers were destined for greatness. But a dark family secret and a scandalous double crossing sent their lives into a tailspin, changing the country forever. Osario must pay, and Seth decides the only way to do so is to return home to Costa Rica and feed his brother to the infamous river of crocodiles from their childhood. What follows is a spellbinding story of revenge alternating between Seth's murderous plans and memories of the brothers' upbringing.
Bloomsbury Publishing | 9781639738434 

DAGGERBOUND by T. Kingfisher (Fantasy/Romance)
Learned Edmund, a disillusioned scholar, is transporting yet another precious relic from one stuffy temple to a different stuffy temple. But when Edmund is set upon by bandits, he breaks the cardinal rule and grabs for the relic, an ancient sword. To his surprise, an alarmingly handsome man appears, wielding daggers of blue steel and cutting the thieves down. This man is the Dervish, an immortal warrior who has been trapped for centuries in a sword of enchanted steel. He hates the curse that put him there, and he wants to hate Edmund. But the damned scholar is just so sweet and clever and kind. And while the Dervish may be able to protect Edmund from bandits, cultists, dragons and strange inhuman diplomats, he may find it much harder to protect his own heart.
Bramble | 9781250400086

DÈY by Edwidge Danticat (Fiction) 
“Is home the place where we are born? Or is it the place where we die?” These questions haunt Magnolia, a successful Haitian American real estate agent in Miami. When she hears gunfire while at a shopping mall, she takes shelter in a nearby restaurant. Once she’s safely home, Magnolia keeps this traumatic event from everyone. But given her life back, she begins to see everything clearly: her extraordinary bond with her daughter, Zoë; her nearly broken relationship with Zoë’s father; the challenges of her mentally troubled mother; and her father’s affair with a woman who has borne him a child. While struggling through the labyrinth of her past, Magnolia also must come to terms with the losses sustained that life-altering day, and nearly every day by her parents and sibling in Haiti.
Knopf | 9780593803523 

THE EVEREST MYSTERY: Sandy Irvine, George Mallory, and the Truth Still Buried on Everest by Julie Summers and Jochen Hemmleb (History)
There is no mystery more compelling in the history of mountaineering than the disappearance of George Mallory and Sandy Irvine close to the summit of Mount Everest on June 8, 1924. Over 100 years after they were last seen “going strong for the top,” the question of exactly what happened to them on that fateful day has not been answered. George Mallory’s frozen remains were discovered in 1999. But in September 2024, a climber found an old boot lying out in the open on the Central Rongbuk Glacier on Mount Everest. It contained a foot, and a sock bearing a nametape spelled out in red: A.C. IRVINE. Did Mallory and Irvine reach the summit, or did they perish while ascending? What happened to the camera that Irvine may have carried, which would have documented their climb?
St. Martin's Press | 9781250460820

FALLEN FOR FRANCE by Elizabeth Letts (Historical Fiction)
Beddou is six years old when he is sent off to apprentice far from his High Atlas village in Morocco. That same month, a magnificent filly is born. For a brief time, the mare belongs to the boy. But Beddou’s heart is broken when a soldier steals his horse and disappears into France just as the Great War roars to a start. Estelle, a young woman in France, finds a distressed Arabian mare wandering alone in the meadow. But soon she loses both the horse and her brother. Thomas is an Englishman hardened by his experience as a wartime veterinarian in France. He finds the mare and promises to protect her --- and the woman who once loved her --- but he doubts his own ability to keep anyone safe. The separate strands of these strangers’ journeys ultimately converge, propelling them to make momentous choices that will change the course of their lives.
Ballantine Books | 9780593496916 

HEART OF GLASS by Jennifer Hillier (Psychological Thriller)
Twenty-five years ago in Seaside, Washington, a charming drifter named Sam met three inseparable teenage girls at the local amusement park. Days later, one of them was found dead. Barb and Nicolette were shocked to learn that the man they all met at Wonderland was the Carnival Killer. After he's arrested for the murders of five young women --- one of whom was their best friend, Lorelei --- Nicolette moved to the city to pursue her dreams of being famous. Barb stayed behind in Seaside, eventually becoming a reporter for the local paper. But when the Carnival Killer recants his confession and a new body washes ashore on the eve of Wonderland’s grand reopening, the secrets that Barb and Nicolette have worked so hard to bury begin to resurface, threatening to destroy everything in their carefully constructed lives.
Minotaur Books | 9781250763181

LIFE OF M by Rachel Cusk (Fiction)
The movie star M is one of the most recognizable faces of our time. Her image is everywhere. It has been like that since she was a child. With such fame, her life has the appearance of freedom: people are instantly obliging, spaces are altered to accommodate her, time can be rearranged. M may live in the same places as real people. She may meet her friends or collect her children from school or walk her dogs as they do. But it seems the rules of reality have melted away. Now, a writer has decided to pay close attention to M’s life in the hope of understanding who she really is. It is hard not to feel ugly or insignificant next to M. But what truths --- about the very experience of living --- might this proximity allow the writer to briefly capture?
Farrar, Straus and Giroux | 9780374618384 

NOT A WORD by Linwood Barclay (Psychological Thriller)
When Reece visits his parents’ house, he’s shocked to find them in bed, dead. At first glance it looks like a murder-suicide perpetrated by his father, but on closer inspection there’s clearly more to the story. For starters, inconsistencies in the crime scene suggest his dad may not have shot himself. As Reece, shaken by his horrifying discovery, awaits questioning from the police, his phone lights up with a call. It’s the last person he ever would have expected to hear from. Reeling from the day’s events, Reece finds himself questioning everything he thought he knew about his parents --- and whether he and his own family are in danger now. While the authorities work to untangle the baffling crime scene, Reece is pulled into a web of secrets linked to the unscrupulous pharma company his father worked for years ago.
William Morrow | 9780063276383

POST MORTEM written by David Lagercrantz, translated by Ian Giles (Mystery)
Professor Hans Rekke and police officer Micaela Vargas have earned a reputation for solving the unsolvable. But they’ve never been confronted by a serial killer. Until now. Rekke receives a visit from Spanish chief inspector Rafael Corales, who is unable to forget the brutal, unsolved murder of a young woman in Santander in 1988. Now other bodies have come to light, marked with signs that seem to be some kind of numerical order. Still recovering from his latest manic episode, his relationship with Vargas strained by a secret she’s keeping, Rekke agrees to help decipher these signs before the killer strikes again. The victim was an aspiring writer, and clues from her posthumously published short story about a stray dog draw Rekke and Vargas deep into the murk of Sweden’s literary scene.
Knopf | 9780593319253 

THE RISE AND FALL OF THE ARTIFICIAL STATE by Jill Lepore (Current Affairs) 
Inspired by Hannah Arendt’s THE ORIGINS OF TOTALITARIANISM, which argued in 1951 that the machinery of modern life was reshaping the very fundamentals of human existence, Jill Lepore --- profoundly disturbed by the technology revolution and by the soulless inundation of artificial intelligence --- unfurls a new history for our own 21st century. Building on an essay in The New Yorker in 2024, Lepore’s clarion call traces our increasing dependence on and strangulation by data. With Orwellian overtones, THE RISE AND FALL OF THE ARTIFICIAL STATE demonstrates how technology has corroded global democracy, creating a new form of AI government, where AI will recommend the course of action to humans in place of human-run legislatures.
Liveright | 9781324098423 

THE SHADOW FRIENDS by Tess Gerritsen (Thriller)
When a renowned disease expert and Russian defector dies mysteriously during a global affairs conference in Purity, Maine, the tight-knit band of former spies in the Martini Club once again sees their quiet coastal retirement interrupted by international intrigue. And when a waitress at the conference hotel is found murdered, Ingrid Slocum sees chilling links to a disastrous mission that nearly killed her three decades ago. Desperate to uncover the truth, Ingrid is drawn back into the game by a magnetic ex-CIA colleague --- and former lover --- who was with her on the long-ago doomed mission. He convinces her to join him, and together they head to Amsterdam to track down her would-be killer. But a clandestine network of assassins is intent on stopping them.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781662533419

THEY SAY A GIRL DIED HERE by Sarah Pinborough (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Anna Maybourne never imagined herself living in a place like Harper’s Creek, a nowhere town full of dusty farmland plagued by drought. It’s supposed to be a new start for her and her family. But after dropping out of college, Anna feels stuck in place --- working a part-time job, watching her little sister grow up, and taking care of her grandmother with dementia. It seems that the only interesting thing about her new town is the string of grisly murders attributed to a killer called the Farmhandman. Along with outspoken loner Melissa Laverne and handsome deputy Todd Greenbough, Anna fills her hours with the town’s darkest curiosity. But even though the prime suspect is long dead, the Farmhandman murders begin to feel too close for comfort as the anniversary nears.
Flatiron Books: Pine & Cedar | 9781250436689

On Sale the Week of August 24th in Paperback

August 25th

THE ALPHABET SLEUTHS by Laura Jensen Walker (Mystery)
At 69 years old, Claire Reynolds is changing things up. She’s volunteering. She's learning to rollerblade. She’s rescued a shelter dog. And today, she’s killed a man. It wasn’t on her to-do list, but stuff happens. Besides, the man in question was strangling her good friend, Daphne, so what’s a gal to do? Scream, possibly. Call the cops. Or --- at retired officer Daphne’s insistence --- call in the rest of their senior gal pals, roll up the body in a blanket, and toss it off a cliff. The dead man is a member of the local crime family, and if the police get involved, it’s not just Daphne at risk, it’s all of them. But the body is just the start. Soon the Alphabet Girls --- Atsuko, Barbara, Claire and Daphne --- must transform into the Alphabet Sleuths if they’re to keep their liberty...and their lives.
Severn House | 9781448318964

THE ANSWER IS IN THE WOUND by Kelly Sundberg (Memoir/Essays)
Kelly Sundberg’s abusive marriage nearly broke her, and finding the courage to leave and begin the difficult process of putting herself back together was only the beginning of her story. THE ANSWER IS IN THE WOUND deftly explores the trials and joys Sundberg encountered not only as a newly single parent but also as someone in full pursuit of life. She developed an appreciation for new spiritual practices and reclaimed her body through tattoos. From erasure poetry crafted from emails and a court-mandated apology letter from her ex-husband, to engaging with the research of some of the most prominent voices in 50 years of trauma psychiatry and psychology, this book is a profound meditation on trauma and its lasting effects.
Grove Press | 9780802167637

BACKSTAGE: Stories of a Writing Life by Donna Leon (Memoir)
Donna Leon’s memoir, WANDERING THROUGH LIFE, gave her legions of fans a colorful tour through her life --- from her childhood in New Jersey to her adventures in China and Iran, to her love of Venice and opera. Nowhere, however, did she discuss her writing life. In BACKSTAGE, Donna reveals her admiration for, and inspiration from, the great crime novelists Ruth Rendell and Ross Macdonald, examining their approach to storytelling as she dissects her favorite books of theirs. She expresses her love for Charles Dickens’ GREAT EXPECTATIONS and her appreciation for Sir Walter Scott’s generosity of spirit. And she chronicles the amount of research she undertakes to be able to present authentically, through Guido Brunetti and his colleagues, places and characters far from her own experience.
Grove Press | 9780802167620

THE BLACK WOLF by Louise Penny (Mystery)
Several weeks ago, Chief Inspector Armand Gamache and his team uncovered and stopped a domestic terrorist attack in Montréal, arresting the person behind it. A man they called the Black Wolf. But their relief is short-lived. In a sickening turn of events, Armand has realized that plot was just the beginning. Perhaps even a deliberate misdirection. One he fell into. Something deeper and darker, more damaging, is planned. Did he in fact arrest the Black Wolf, or are they still out there? Armand is appalled to think that his mistake has allowed their conspiracy to grow, to gather supporters. To spread lies, manufacture enemies, and feed hatred and division. Still recovering from wounds received in stopping the first attack, Armand is confined to the village of Three Pines, leading a covert investigation from there.
Minotaur Books | 9781250328199

BRADY VS. BELICHICK: The Dynasty Debate by Gary Myers (Sports)
The greatest dynasty in NFL history stood on two pillars: Tom Brady and Bill Belichick. Together they forged a working relationship that provided thrilling results that would change the NFL forever. But what was the nature of that relationship? How did these two figures come together on a national --- and global --- stage and create the most dominant team in the NFL? The answer is more complex and more fraught than anyone really understands. Brady vs. Belichick: Who deserves the credit for nine Super Bowl appearances and six Super Bowl championships? Gary Myers draws on his unique and unparalleled access to Belichick and Brady, but also to the myriad players, coaches, personnel and family, to get to the bottom of this argument and resolve it once and for all.
St. Martin’s Griffin | 9781250381217

THE COLOR OF HOPE by Danielle Steel (Fiction)
Following the unexpected death of her beloved husband, art gallery owner Samantha Thompson takes a trip to Paris. Once abroad, an impulsive day trip from Paris to Biarritz leads Samantha to discover the charming medieval village of Arcangues in the Basque countryside. The château is the ancestral home of Xavier de Bonport, who is trapped in a loveless marriage and trying to dig himself out financially after a business failed due to the pandemic. He needs rental income as urgently as Samantha needs a refuge. With Xavier living in a smaller house on the property, Samantha begins to transform the château into a temporary home and considers fostering some children at the request of the local Dominican nuns, whose orphanage is filled to capacity. As a newfound family begins to fill the château, Samantha and Xavier wonder if their friendship is becoming something more.
Dell | 9780593498842

ECSTASY by Ivy Pochoda (Psychological Thriller/Horror)
Lena’s wealthy, controlling, humorless husband has just died, and now she contends with her controlling, humorless son, Drew. She lands in Naxos with her best friend in tow for the unveiling of her son's pet project --- the luxurious Agape Villas. Here, she yearns to rediscover her true nature and remember the exuberant dancer and party girl she once was. But Drew tightens his grip, keeping her cloistered inside the hotel and demanding that she fall in line. Lena is intrigued by a group of women living in tents on the beach in front of the Agape. She can feel their drums at night and hear their seductive leader calling her to dance. Soon she'll find that an ancient God stirs on the beach, awakening dark desires of women across the island. The only questions left will be whether or not Lena will join them and what it will cost her.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780593851197

FAGIN THE THIEF by Allison Epstein (Historical Thriller)
Long before Oliver Twist stumbled onto the scene, Jacob Fagin was scrounging a life for himself in the dark alleys of 19th-century London. Born in the Jewish enclave of Stepney after his father was executed for theft, Jacob grows up with his mother, Leah. But his prospects are altered when a seasoned pickpocket teaches him a trade that pays better than an honest living ever could. Striking out on his own, Jacob familiarizes himself with London's wealthiest neighborhoods while forging a path in the shadows. Everything changes when he adopts aspiring teenage thief Bill Sikes, whose mercurial temper poses a danger to himself and anyone foolish enough to cross him. But when a major robbery goes awry, Jacob is forced to decide what he stands for --- and what a life is worth.
Vintage | 9780593687802

MAN ONE: An Amos Walker Mystery by Loren D. Estleman (Hard-boiled Mystery)
Young widow Sage Holland doesn’t look like a murderer --- and that’s because she isn’t one. The beautiful dame has driven non-stop from her home in frozen Alaska to seek out the services of private investigator Amos Walker, bringing not just the ice and snow with her. Sage has a stalker: her late husband’s vengeful brother, who’s determined to make her pay for a crime she didn’t commit. Someone killed David, but it wasn’t her. Walker knows not to take the words of husky-voiced, sorrowful women at face value. But Sage is in sore need of protection, and Walker’s hunt for clues on Detroit’s wintry streets soon leads to far more dead bodies than expected. He’ll have to use every trick he’s learned if he’s to keep not just his client’s blood but also his own from staining the snow.
Severn House | 9781448318933

MISSISSIPPI BLUE 42 by Eli Cranor (Thriller/Humor)
Special Agent Rae Johnson grew up on football fields alongside her father, a national-championship-winning coach. Which is exactly why, fresh out of Quantico, she’s sent down to Compson, Mississippi, to investigate the illicit money flowing into a bustling football program in the heart of the Delta. But two days into the assignment, things take a dire turn when the university’s star quarterback is flung from the roof of a college bar, lands on a bag of money, and dies. With rumors of corruption rustling through the kudzu vines, Rae realizes there’s more to the game than what she’d learned as a child. And in order to win, she’ll have to put all her father’s lessons to the ultimate test.
Soho Crime | 9781641298346

MURDER IN THE READING ROOM: A 42nd Street Library Mystery by Con Lehane (Mystery)
Raymond Ambler, crime-fiction curator at New York City’s prestigious 42nd Street Library, doesn’t consider it a big deal when he misses a call from visiting professor Robin Cartwright…until she turns up dead in a hotel room. Ambler feels duty-bound to find the culprit, and not just because the police half-suspect he’s guilty of the crime. It wasn’t just Professor Cartwright’s phone call he missed, but any sign that she was in danger. Robin was researching accidental deaths she believed were murders. Could her work have gotten her killed? Soon Ambler is knee-deep in suspects, including a shady ex-husband, a slippery pastor, and at least one of his own colleagues. If he doesn’t catch a ruthless killer soon, it won’t be just his own life in danger, but also those of his partner and newborn child.
Severn House | 9781448319169

THE NAMING OF THE BIRDS: An Inspector Cutter Mystery by Paraic O'Donnell (Gothic/Historical Mystery)
Something is troubling Inspector Henry Cutter. Sergeant Gideon Bliss is accustomed to his ill-tempered outbursts, but lately the inspector has grown silent and withdrawn. Then the murders begin. The first to die is the elderly Sir Aneurin Considine, a decorated but obscure civil servant who long ago retired to tend his orchids. If the motive for his killing is a mystery, the manner of his death is more bewildering still. The victims who follow suffer similar fates, their deaths gruesome but immaculately orchestrated. The murderer comes and goes like a ghost, leaving only carefully considered traces. As the hunt for this implacable adversary mounts, the inspector’s gloom deepens, and to Sergeant Bliss, his methods seem as mystifying as the crimes themselves.
Tin House | 9781638934721

NARROW THE ROAD by James Wade (Historical Fiction/Adventure)
Paperback Original
With his father missing and his mother gravely ill, William Carter is struggling to keep his family's cotton farm afloat. As his options wane, William receives a mysterious letter that claims to know his father's whereabouts. Together with his best friend, Ollie, he sets out to find his father and bring him home to set things right. But before the boys can complete their quest, they must navigate the labyrinth of the Big Thicket, some of the country's most uncharted, untamed land. But the danger is doubled when they agree to take on a medicine show runaway named Lena, eliciting the ire of the show's leader, the nefarious con man Doctor Downtain. As William, Ollie and Lena race to uncover the clues and find William's father, Downtain is closing in on them, readying to make good on his violent reputation.
Blackstone Publishing | 9798228960374

A NEW NEW ME by Helen Oyeyemi (Fiction)
Kinga is a woman who is just trying to make it through the week. There’s a Kinga for every day. On Mondays, you can catch Kinga-A deleting food delivery apps. By Friday, Kinga-E is happy to spend the days soaking, wine-drunk, in the bath. Kingas A–G, perhaps unsurprisingly, live a varied life. Between them is a professional matchmaker, a scent-crazed perfumer, and a window cleaner, all with varying degrees of apathy, anger, introversion and bossiness. At least three of them are Team Toxic. It’s an arrangement that’s not without its fair share of admin, grudges and half-truths. But when Kinga-A discovers a man tied up in their apartment, the Kingas have to reckon with the possibility that one of them might be planning to destroy them all.
Riverhead Books | 9780593718780

THE OPPOSITE OF MURDER by Sophie Hannah (Mystery)
Paperback Original
Jemma Stelling walks into a police station and confesses --- not to a murder she's committed, but to the one she's terrified she might. Jemma can't stop herself from thinking about murdering her stepmother, Marianne Upton. The only way to stop herself might be to confess before she snaps and does the unthinkable. But while Jemma is still giving her statement, a call comes in: Marianne has just been found stabbed to death, killed in exactly the way Jemma described. Suddenly, the woman desperate to prevent a murder has an unshakeable alibi…and a disturbingly accurate description of the crime she couldn't have committed. Is Jemma an innocent bystander? Or a brilliant, cold-blooded killer who planned everything down to the minute?
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464279270

OVERKILL: An Ali Reynolds Mystery by J. A. Jance (Mystery/Thriller)
Chuck Brewster, the former business partner of Ali Reynolds’ tech entrepreneur husband B. Simpson, once carried on an illicit affair with Clarice --- B.’s first wife --- while his own wife lay dying of breast cancer. Once the affair came to light and tore both families apart, Chuck and B.’s partnership dissolved. Now, decades later, Chuck is found stabbed to death in his bed with Clarice standing at the top of the staircase, wearing a bloodied nightgown and holding a blood-covered knife. Jailed on suspicion of homicide, Clarice calls B. to ask for help and ends up reaching Ali instead. Although B. washes his hands of the whole situation, Ali suspects there might be more to the case than law enforcement thinks. At the same time, someone is targeting Camille Lee, High Noon Enterprise’s outside salesperson.
Gallery Books | 9781668035900

THE PERSIAN by David McCloskey (Political Thriller)
Kamran Esfahani, a dentist living out a dreary existence in Stockholm, agrees to spy for the Mossad after he’s recruited by Arik Glitzman, the chief of a clandestine unit tasked with running targeted assassinations and sabotage inside Iran. At Glitzman’s direction, Kam returns to his native Tehran and opens a dental practice there, using it as a cover for the Israeli intelligence agency. But when he tries to recruit an Iranian widow seeking to avenge the death of her husband at the hands of the Mossad, the operation goes terribly wrong, landing him in prison under the watchful eye of a sadistic officer. And now, after enduring three years of torture in captivity, Kamran Esfahani sits in an interrogation room, preparing to write his final confession. Kam knows it is too late to save himself. But he has managed to keep one secret --- only one --- and he just might be able to save that.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324134459

SACRED LIGHT: A Georgia O'Keefe Mystery by Kathryn Lasky (Historical Mystery)
New Mexico, 1937. Painter Georgia O’Keeffe is excited for her trip to the intriguing wilderness of the Bisti Badlands. A common site for archaeological excavations, it’s a historical place with enchanting desertscapes but also perilous natural structures. Her trip is overshadowed by the sad news of her friend and native, Juan Nez, going missing. No one knows where he is, and it’s unlikely he’s gotten lost. He knows these lands like the back of his hand. Has something happened to him? And if so, was it an accident, or has a horrible crime taken place? Trying to make sense of the situation, Georgia seeks solace in her art, but soon she comes face to face with a dangerous reality and an even deadlier disaster.
Severn House | 9781448318865

SHERLOCK HOLMES AND THE REAL THING: A Case History Recorded by John H. Watson, M.D. by Nicholas Meyer (Historical Mystery)
London, 189–: While the great city is brought to a standstill by a series of blizzards, a landlady complains that her artist tenant is behind on rent. The next thing you know, there are several corpses, and Sherlock Holmes and his biographer, John H. Watson, MD, find themselves drawn into one of the most bizarre cases of the great detective’s career. And into the cutthroat big business of Art, where chicanery and mendacity (and cut throats) proliferate. What makes a work of art worth killing for? Is it the artist, his mistress, his dealer or his blackmailer? The cast of characters is large. But are they perpetrators, accomplices or victims? And just who is Juliet Packwood, with whom Watson has become infatuated?
The Mysterious Press | 9781613168158

A STUDY IN SECRETS: A Redacted Man Mystery by Jeffrey Siger (Mystery)
Michael A lives a quiet, comfortable life since his retirement from the intelligence services. He spends his days imagining the lives of the anonymous people he watches in the park beneath the window of his elegant New York townhouse --- number 221 --- his every need tended to by his housekeeper, Mrs. Baker. For weeks, a girl has sat in the park every morning at dawn. Always alone. Always watchful. And when the sun rises, she vanishes, as if she was never there. But one day her routine changes --- and Michael realizes that she faces terrible danger. He makes an uncharacteristic decision to abandon his solitude and help her. Soon, Michael finds himself plunged into the New York underworld, and he’ll have to use all the tricks of his former trade if he’s to keep not just himself, but his new friend, alive.
Severn House | 9781448318940

THIS HERE IS LOVE by Princess Joy L. Perry (Historical Fiction)
As the 17th century burns to a close in Tidewater, Virginia, America’s character is wrought in the fires of wealth, race and freedom. Young Bless, the only child left to her enslaved mother, stubbornly crafts the terms of her vital existence. She stands as the lone bulwark between her mother and irreparable despair, her mother’s only possibility of hope, as Bless reshapes the boundaries of love. David is a helping child and a solace to his parents, and he gave a purpose to their trials. His survival hinges on his mother’s shrewd intellect and ferocious fight, but his sustenance is his freed Black father’s dream of emancipation for the entire family. Jack Dane, a Scots-Irish boy, sails to Britain’s colonies when his father sells him into indentured servitude as an escape from poverty. There Jack learns from the rich the value of each person’s life.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324130512

TREATY by Davis Bunn (Science Fiction/Adventure)
Kirra Barret lives with her clan in a mining community in the Fifth Ward of Florian, a city in a human-occupied zone on planet Treaty. She is determined to have a brighter future --- and her unique connection to the planet’s flying alien beasts could be the key to improving her fortunes. In Florian’s upmarket Second Ward, Eva Fourier is offered the chance to become a secret government agent and go after criminals accumulating wealth and power on Treaty by dubious means. From different ends of Florian’s social spectrum, battle lines are drawn as Kirra and Eva’s lives intertwine in unexpected and high-stakes ways --- ways that threaten the long-standing agreement between humans and aliens on Treaty forever.
Severn House | 9781448320646

THE WHITECHAPEL FULL MOON SOCIETY by Elizabeth DeLozier
(Historical Fantasy/Supernatural Thriller)
Paperback Original
When Caroline Foster arrives at the Whitechapel Full Moon Society in search of her missing brother, she finds a dilapidated façade belying an interior as opulent as any exclusive gentlemen’s club. In exchange for room and board, Caroline is hired as the Full Moon’s maid. But when it is revealed that the previous maid was murdered --- an early victim of Jack the Ripper --- and her brother has left behind no answers, only more questions, Caroline begins to suspect her hosts might be hiding something. As more bodies turn up with a connection to the Society, Caroline fears she may have unwittingly stumbled into a bedtime story --- the kind with monsters and curses, family secrets and ancient lore.
Dutton | 9798217045259

THE WOMAN WHO WOULDN’T DIE QUIETLY by Katarina Bivald (Mystery)
Paperback Original
If you've spent your entire life running your family as ruthlessly as you've run the family business, it is perhaps not the best idea to gather them all on a cold and dark remote island to celebrate your 80th birthday. When Margrethe Cullenberg-Franzén falls to her death during her birthday celebration, Ian Ahmed is convinced it's murder. Trapped in a wintry landscape of muted colors and creeping shadows, he and novelist Berit Gardner struggle to unravel the toxic family secrets behind Margrethe's imposing legacy. As winter deepens and the ice seals the islands in silence, the question echoes louder: Who stood to gain the most from the matriarch's fall? And how long before the killer strikes again?
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781728295824

YOU KNOW WHY by J.T. Ellison (Domestic Thriller)
Paperback Original
It’s the holidays, and photographer Brooklyn Locke is bound for Italy with her husband, Trey, and their two children. But when Trey vanishes from the airport, missing their connecting flight, their impromptu vacation --- and life as she knows it --- begins to unravel. Desperate to find her husband, Brooklyn accepts help from a stranger on the same flight, Eden Barrow. But Eden soon makes a shocking claim. She is the sister of Trey’s first wife, and 10 years ago he was the main suspect in her murder. Struggling to comprehend these accusations, fate delivers one more blow: a violent accident that leaves Brooklyn fighting for her life. With nowhere else to turn, Brooklyn leans on Eden for support. But each kindness feels too rehearsed, feeding her doubts about Eden’s motives and Trey’s true past.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781662535918

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