September 1, 2026

September 1, 2026

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Last Thursday marked 30 years since Bookreporter launched, the first book review site online. Initially it was called The Book Report, and it only was on AOL. Click here to read a piece from Carol Fitzgerald where she talks about the history of the company, how we have grown and evolved throughout the years, and the exciting plans that we have lined up for early 2027.

In this newsletter, you will find books releasing the weeks of August 31st and September 7th 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 New Release Spotlight of Hank Phillippi Ryan's latest thriller, MOTHER DAUGHTER SISTER STRANGER (an upcoming Bookreporter.com Bets On selection), along with our review. What if your own family history turns out to be a terrifying lie? Every family has its story, and this one is deadly. 

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This Week's Bonus News:
Our New Release Spotlight & Featured Review of
MOTHER DAUGHTER SISTER STRANGER
by Hank Phillippi Ryan
An Upcoming Bookreporter.com Bets On Title

Upcoming Virtual Book and Author Events

On Sale the Week of August 31st in Hardcover

September 1st

AGRIPPA: A Novel of Ancient Rome's Descent into Dictatorship by Robert Harris (Historical Thriller)
He was born feet first. His mother did not survive, and the nickname, Agrippa --- mother killer --- stuck. But the schoolyard taunting only served to harden his resolve and hone his predilection for aggression. Agrippa was a mere commoner, a plebeian, but he earned the respect and fear of his peers. He defended a bullied young boy, Octavius, who turned out to be Caesar’s nephew. He eventually joined the ranks of the legionnaires and marched against their enemies. His prowess on the battlefield spoke for itself, and Caesar relied on him to protect his favored nephew. When Caesar was murdered in the Senate, Octavius inherited the empire in name only. To assume the mantle, he would have to fight for it. Agrippa, forever by his side, would be his closest advisor and the merciless agent of his military will.
Doubleday | 9780385552387 

BACKWATER by James Sallis (Noir Mystery) 
When an old friend from his days on the police force makes a plea for him to come and help with what seems to be a murder case, jazz guitarist Bishop steps back into a former life. But the job is in the town where he grew up, to which he vowed never to return. And his friend disappears, leaving him with responsibilities he never anticipated or wanted. Not to mention a couple more murders. Bishop slips into his old role as easily as into well-worn, comfortable old clothes. Getting his bearings in the town’s close society and among his own memories is a different matter.
Soho Crime | 9781641298599 

THE BARMAN OF THE RITZ by Philippe Collin (Historical Fiction)
Paris, 1940. The Nazis have descended on Paris, and the Occupation has begun. Businesses across the city have shuttered, but the legendary Ritz Hotel remains open, its dazzling lights still burning bright on the Place Vendôme. When it becomes the favorite watering hole of the occupying forces, its barman, Frank Meier, is forced to adapt to a new clientele. But Frank has a secret: he is Jewish. Tensions rise as the war progresses, but Frank refuses to leave his post behind the bar. Unbeknownst to the Nazi officers he serves night after night, Frank forms precarious alliances with unlikely accomplices in order to save other Jewish families in the city and keep his loved ones alive.
Scribner | 9781668097199 

BEFORE YOU WERE ANNE by Emiko Jean (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Married, pregnant and thriving in her career, Detective Chelsey Calhoun’s life finally feels whole. But then an explosive new case shatters everything. A mother is dead. Her 16-year-old daughter, Naomi, has disappeared. And the search will awaken questions about Chelsey’s own origins. The victim called herself Anne Walker. But she was born Rika Takahashi, and her journey from a remote Japanese farm to suburban Seattle conceals decades of deception. Across Tokyo’s shadowed underworld, an isolated Idaho town, and years of carefully constructed lies, Rika reinvented herself at every turn. But she was always running --- from someone, or something. Now, Chelsey must find Naomi before she becomes the next victim.
Simon & Schuster | 9781668023969 

THE BIRTHING TREE by Amanda Peters (Fiction)
Born under the shadow of a birthing tree sacred to generations of Mi’kmaq women, Aliet Paul grows up outside a small Nova Scotia town with her fierce, loving grandmother, Kiju. Her mother died bringing her into the world under that very tree. Her father remains a mystery no one will name. As Aliet comes of age, she navigates love, loss and a personal tragedy that veers her from the path her grandmother wanted for her. She becomes a nurse trained in modern medicine, yet she carries Kiju’s teachings close. Years later, when the call comes that Kiju has died, Aliet returns home to a crumbling house. As she digs to uncover who her family really is, each revelation pulls her deeper into a web of long-guarded silences, dangerous loyalties and generational wounds that refuse to stay buried.
Catapult | 9781646223695 

BODY LANGUAGE by Meg Howrey (Fiction)
Sloane, a former actress now working as a therapist, is determined to find a meaningful way through menopause. Her sister, Laurel, is managing her own growing rage and restlessness while engaging in work at an environmental nonprofit. Nanette, the youngest, has answered a long-delayed religious calling and is living as a novice in a convent. All three lives will be further disrupted when Sloane receives a call summoning her to their mother’s house, Laurel discovers possible evidence of her husband’s infidelity, and Nanette finds herself in the middle of a media frenzy. Soon, all three are reunited under their mother’s roof, and no one can seem to agree on anything beyond the obvious: Barbara has dementia, as did her mother and sister before her.
Doubleday | 9780385551755 

THE DISAPPEARERS by Marlon James (Fiction)
In 1988, eight men in Kingston, Jamaica, begin rehearsals for a play. Though strangers to one another, they share an inescapable truth: All of them are gay. And they live in a world that refuses to accept them. One night, the men are savagely beaten, and one of them is killed. As their bodies heal, the survivors begin to face the hatred and contempt that the violence laid bare. Some try to ignore what happened. Others double down on retribution. Some disappear completely.
Riverhead Books | 9780593717202 

KISS SLAY REPLAY: A Time Loop Novel by Rachel Harrison
(Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
Willa Sullivan is excited to celebrate her best friends finally having the big wedding they’ve always wanted. But this is the first time she’s seen her ex-fiancé in months, and he brought a date. Everything feels off. Things start to look up, though, when Willa meets Danny, the groom’s charming and single childhood best friend. When they sneak off together, their rendezvous is interrupted by a masked killer terrorizing the reception. Willa and Danny fight to save the ones they love and survive the night, but the killer is unrelenting. Willa wakes up, and it’s the morning of the wedding. She just had the most intense nightmare of her life. But as the day unfolds, there are some uncanny coincidences that make her question whether it was really a dream, déjà vu or something more sinister.
Berkley | 9798217188574 

MAD AS HELL: How 60 Minutes Took on the Powerful and Made Television History by Harry Moses (Memoir)
For almost 60 years, every Sunday night at 7:00 sharp, a simple ticking stopwatch made America stop what it was doing. At its peak, “60 Minutes” was the most powerful hour on television, drawing as many as 50 million viewers each week. Presidents watched. CEOs braced themselves. Ordinary citizens --- wronged, ignored or silenced --- found a voice. Today, amid upheaval at CBS News and renewed debate over press freedom, that voice faces an urgent test of its journalistic integrity. In MAD AS HELL, a producer from the program’s golden years takes readers deep inside the broadcast that reshaped television journalism.
Prospecta Press | 9781632261816 

THE MOST DANGEROUS GAMES by MrBeast and James Patterson
(Thriller/Adventure)
The Games begin in Antarctica, where one wrong step on the ice kills you, and they never let up: Shark water off a remote Chilean island, desert heat that cooks you where you stand, storm-battered peaks, and caves so black you cannot find your own hand. No rescue. No second chances. A billion dollars to whoever is still standing. Then the terrain stops being the thing that can kill you, and the other players start. Alliances turn into ambushes. Trust becomes the sharpest weapon. And somewhere above it all, a hidden voice is watching every move, testing, deciding who deserves to survive.
William Morrow | 9780063488762

MOTHER DAUGHTER SISTER STRANGER by Hank Phillippi Ryan (Psychological Thriller)
The sole survivors of the fiery plane crash that killed their parents, Eliza Ramsey and her sister, Bea, share an unbreakable bond. But now, on the 11th anniversary of the tragedy, Bea fails to retrieve her preteen daughter from a sleepover at Eliza’s. Eliza knows her sister would never leave her precious Piper behind, and she fears the worst. But did Bea plan her own disappearance? The Ramseys’ lives have already crashed and burned once. Now, Eliza discovers she's the only one who can protect her niece from the horrifying legacy of her family’s sinister history. Together, the two must prevent their lives from going up in flames once again.
Minotaur Books | 9781250350022 

MURDER IN ST. JAMES'S PARK: A Lady Worthing Mystery by Vanessa Riley (Historical Mystery)
London, 1807. Lady Abigail Worthing’s marriage of convenience to James Monroe, the Lord Worthing, is over. But James is out of her life quicker than Abigail anticipated when she finds his body in St. James’s Park. Shocked by her husband’s brutal murder, Abigail is determined to catch his killer. But when she discovers that James’ transgressions ran far deeper and darker than she thought possible, Abigail questions her own judgment. Did she make a terrible mistake when solving a past crime, and does the key to James’ death lie in the letters he was writing shortly before his demise? With her neighbor and good friend Stapleton Henderson by her side, Abigail confronts jealousy, resentment and stunning betrayal that will shake her to her core.
Severn House | 9781448317646 

THE OXFORD GUIDE TO SCANDAL AND LIES by Kate Westbury (Historical Mystery)
Oxford, England, 1951. The Honorable Ginevra Bishop is following in her mother’s footsteps by studying at Oxford, eager to prove she’s more than a debutante. Sidney Braithwaite likes brooding, Latin and ignoring his nightmares. He’s determined to forge a new life for himself at Oxford, far from his childhood mining village and free from memories of the war. Though Gin and Sidney have little in common, the British Security Service is keen to unite her charm with his espionage experience. There’s a Soviet spy at the university, and the agent tracking them down was poisoned. MI5 wants Gin and Sidney to pick up the trail and identify the informant before more sensitive information is compromised.
Minotaur Books | 9781250424105 

PAPER GHOSTS by Sarah Addison Allen (Fiction/Magical Realism) 
For decades, the women of Wester House have unsettled and fascinated their small, timeless North Carolina town. Their home is full of whispers, old griefs and uncanny knowing. But when Willamena Wester reaches out to the granddaughter she once pushed away, long-buried truths begin to stir. 1976: Restless young Willamena falls for a stranded musician who brings freedom and the promise of another life to her carefully controlled world. Their brief, incandescent love story promises to escape the pull of the Wester legacy until Willamena makes a fateful choice that changes her life forever. Present day: Returning home is the last thing Bailey Wester wants. Yet, as she reconnects with Willamena, the grandmother she feared, Bailey begins to understand the love, heartbreak and impossible choices that shaped the women in her family.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250283429 

PROMISED LAND by Henry Wise (Thriller)
Deep within southside Virginia lies the Snakefoot --- a wild swampland that holds secrets, hides truths, and harbors the dead in murky waters that refuse to shine yet somehow glow. One morning, a pickup truck is found jammed into the mud, the driver’s door open amidst scattered bullets and bloodstains on the seat. The driver, Rainbo Boon, is nowhere to be found, but his tracks lead Deputy Sheriff Will Seems and his partner, Tania Jameson, into the swamp. During their investigation, Buck Tomlin, the grandson of the missing Rainbo, proves cooperative, at least at first. But when the boy’s whereabouts from the night of the accident don’t check out, Will and Tania must confront the troubling reality that the Snakefoot might hold more than just a runaway victim.
Atlantic Crime | 9780802164506 

THE SILENT APPEAL by Janice Hallett (Mystery)
Welcome back to Lower Lockwood. The Fairway Players return with Sarah-Jane and Kevin MacDonald as committee cochairs. This year, they have chosen to stage Agatha Christie’s The Hollow. But auditions aren’t their only problem: Sarah-Jane’s sister, Nicky-Rose, is suddenly back in town under mysterious circumstances. As always, they’re short on men, and new Player Fran Elroy-Jones enlists a young married couple and the husband’s cousin to join. But no one wants to play the part of the hated Gerda, leaving Kevin and Sarah-Jane with no option but to reach out to an old member. Tensions run high, and intrepid lawyers Femi and Charlotte are tasked with uncovering exactly what happened on the opening night of The Hollow --- and if the correct person has taken the blame.
Atria Books | 9781668083710

THINK LIKE A DOG: How Positive Psychology Can Help Your Dog Thrive by Dr. Jen Golbeck, PhD (Psychology/Personal Growth)
Like many of us, Jen Golbeck looked at her rescue golden retrievers and affectionately wondered what exactly was going on in their cute, fuzzy heads. But as a left-brained scientist, Golbeck set out to seek concrete answers --- research and data --- to back up the hunch that there’s a lot more going on beneath the surface of our pups’ funny looks and adorable, occasionally destructive, behaviors. What she finds is a surprising relationship between positive psychology and how we might learn to think about how our dogs think in a whole new light. She introduces a mold-breaking concept that shifts our focus from solving problems and scolding “bad behavior” to building on strengths based on qualities like focus, vitality and curiosity.
Atria Books | 9781668060735

THE THREE GRACES OF PEARL STREET by Elizabeth Wellington Rollins (Fiction)
Graziella, a 96-year-old former nun, spends her days running the parish’s food kitchen, convinced it is her responsibility to keep everyone fed in their working-class New York neighborhood. Her daughter, Grace, a respected psychology professor, appears accomplished and composed, yet she finds herself unmoored as her personal life falters. Ella --- Graziella’s granddaughter and Grace’s daughter --- is weary of defending her vegan diet and anti-capitalistic lifestyle. Blind to her own brilliance, she longs, above all, for a place to belong. Living together again, the three Graces reckon with the distances that have shaped them, and with what it means, at last, to be fully known.
Atria Books | 9781668224861 

TOM CLANCY PRESSURE DEPTH: A Jack Ryan Jr. Novel by Jack Stewart
(Thriller/Adventure)
Jack Ryan Jr. is on Guam to work on a project for Hendley Associates. His involvement with a US Navy dive team working off the coast uncovers a threat to international security. For years, rumors persisted that the Soviets had placed a device for tracking American submarines on the sea floor. By now, the technology should be outdated. But the Americans are still interested in recovering it. It's a seemingly routine mission until they make a shocking discovery: the defensive network they thought they were looking for is actually a weapon unlike anything they’ve ever seen. That explains the arrival of a Chinese special operations team who seem determined to get their hands on the aging tech, even if they have to kill to do it.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9798217183166 

UNDER STORY by Chloe Benjamin (Fiction)
At the edge of the world, biologist Laurel Salter is hiding from everything she’s ever known. For 10 hours a day, six days per week, she works as a dishwasher at McMurdo Station, an isolated research base in Antarctica. She tells no one that before she arrived, she was a renowned young scientist with a promising career and a family. But even in this remote outpost, Laurel can’t escape her past. When a strange light appears across the ice --- and draws a group of physicists to McMurdo --- her former husband, Eli, won't be far behind. Laurel is captivated by the Arc: its surreal glow; the way it seems almost alive. And though Eli is reluctant to test her wildest theory, Laurel is convinced that the Arc leads down a rabbit hole and into a world they can barely imagine. 
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9780593545218 

On Sale the Week of August 31st in Paperback

September 1st

AMITY by Nathan Harris (Historical Fiction)
The Civil War might be over, but formerly enslaved Coleman and June have yet to find the freedom they’ve been promised. Two years ago, the siblings were separated when their old master, Mr. Harper, took June away to Mexico. Coleman stayed behind in Louisiana, clinging to the hope that one day June would return. When an unexpected letter from Mr. Harper arrives, summoning Coleman to Mexico, Coleman thinks that finally his prayers have been answered. What Coleman cannot know is the tangled truth of June’s tribulations under Mr. Harper out on the frontier. And when disaster strikes Coleman’s journey, he is forced on the run with Mr. Harper's daughter, Florence. Together, they venture into the Mexican desert to find June, all the while evading two crooked brothers who will stop at nothing to capture Coleman and Florence and collect the money they're owed. 
Little, Brown Paperbacks | 9780316456357

AWAKE: A Memoir by Jen Hatmaker (Memoir)
At 2:30am on July 11, 2020, Jen Hatmaker woke up to her husband of 26 years whispering in his phone to another woman from their bed. It was the end of life as she knew it. In the months that followed, she went from being a shiny, funny, popular leader, to a divorced wreck on antidepressants and anti-anxiety meds parenting five kids alone with no clue about her own bank accounts. Having led millions of women for over a decade --- urging them to embrace authenticity, find radical agency, and create healthy relationships --- this seemed nothing less than total failure. In AWAKE, Jen shares for the first time what happened when she found herself completely lost at sea --- and how she made it to shore.
Avid Reader Press/Simon & Schuster | 9781668083697

BOOK OF LIVES: A Memoir of Sorts by Margaret Atwood (Memoir)
Raised by scientifically minded parents, Margaret Atwood spent most of each year in the wild forest of northern Quebec. It was an unfettered and nomadic childhood, sometimes isolated but also thrilling and beautiful. From this unconventional start, Atwood unfolds the story of her life, linking key moments to the books that have shaped our literary landscape --- from the cruel school year that would become CAT'S EYE to the unease of 1980s Berlin, where she began THE HANDMAID'S TALE. In pages alive with the natural world, reading and books, major political turning points, and her lifelong love for the charismatic writer Graeme Gibson, we meet poets, bears, Hollywood stars and larger-than-life characters straight from the pages of an Atwood novel.
Vintage | 9780593314081

THE CAPTIVE by Kit Burgoyne (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
For months, Luke and his underground revolutionary group have been planning their biggest operation yet: kidnapping 23-year-old Adeline Woolsaw, heiress to a vast yet largely anonymous company that runs everything from military bases and mental hospitals to commuter trains, call centers and prisons. But the revolutionaries get a shock when they bundle Adeline into their van. She’s about to go into labor. And she may not object to being kidnapped, if it allows her and the baby to escape her despotic parents. Her parents are the ones who made a deal with an ancient evil of nearly limitless power. Now the Woolsaws and their henchmen will stop at nothing to get the infant back, so they can establish an infernal new kingdom on Earth with their grandchild on the throne.
Hell’s Hundred | 9781641298711

CROOKS: A Novel About Crime and Family by Lou Berney (Thriller)
For Buddy, a low-level mob wise guy, and Lillian, a charming pickpocket, the criminal underworld is the only life they’ve ever known. When they’re forced to flee the glittering Babylon of Las Vegas, they end up opening a club in Oklahoma City --- a town that quickly feels like a gold mine of fresh marks and easy new money. Along for the ride are their five children, all of them raised into the family business of crime --- until the day comes when they each have a chance to make their own way in the world, even if they can never completely escape the family’s long, dark shadow.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063445567

THE CROSSROADS: A Joe Pickett Novel by C. J. Box (Mystery/Thriller)
Marybeth Pickett gets the call she has always dreaded: her husband, Joe, is in critical condition with a gunshot wound to the head. Joe was found in his pickup at Antler Creek Junction, a crossroads connecting three ranches. Each road leading to a dangerous family. Each family with a different bone to pick with the local game warden. Marybeth and the new sheriff assume that Joe was ambushed by one of the families, but they have no idea which one since Joe didn’t say where he was going or why. With Joe unconscious and fighting for his life with Marybeth at his side, Sheridan, April and Lucy split up and investigate each of the families to uncover the truth of what happened to their father before it’s too late.
G.P. Putnam’s Sons | 9780593851111

CRY HAVOC: A Terminal List Thriller by Jack Carr (Historical/Political Thriller)
Just before the Tet Offensive, before President Johnson announces he will not run for reelection, before the assassinations of Martin Luther King Jr. and Bobby Kennedy, as riots and protests rage across the nation, a spy ship is captured by communist forces off the coast of North Korea. The crew thought they had destroyed everything of intelligence value. They were wrong. As a KGB “illegal” elicits information from a high-ranking NSA official, and teams of special operators infiltrating into Laos, Cambodia and North Vietnam disappear without a trace, an ambitious Soviet advisor launches an ingenious plan that could forever alter the world balance of power. Tom Reece, a SEAL operator attached to the highly classified and shadowy MACV-SOG, is about to be thrust into a bloody battle to discover the truth.
Atria/Emily Bestler Books | 9781668095263

DARK RENAISSANCE: The Dangerous Times and Fatal Genius of Shakespeare's Greatest Rival by Stephen Greenblatt (Biography)
In repressive Elizabethan England, artists are frightened into dull conventionality; foreigners are suspect; popular entertainment largely consists of coarse spectacles, animal fights and hangings. Into this crude world of government censorship and religious authoritarianism comes an ambitious cobbler’s son from Canterbury with a daring desire to be known --- and an uncanny ear for Latin poetry. For Christopher Marlowe, it’s a secret portal to beauty, visionary imagination, transgressive desire and dangerous skepticism. What Marlowe seizes in his rare opportunity for a classical education brings about a spectacular explosion of English literature, language and culture. His astonishing literary success will nourish the talent of a collaborator and rival, William Shakespeare. DARK RENAISSANCE illuminates both Marlowe’s times and the origins and significance of his work.
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324134213

A DIFFERENT KIND OF TENSION: New and Selected Stories by Jonathan Lethem (Fiction/Short Stories)
This dazzling, genre-defying collection from Jonathan Lethem features seven major stories published since his last collection, along with his best work spanning more than three decades. A major new story, “The Red Sun School of Thoughts,” never published before, follows a teenage boy coming to terms with figures of authority and power --- those in both his biological family and the family he creates for himself. Elsewhere we meet “Super Goat Man,” a down-at-the-heels bohemian superhero; “The Porn Critic,” whose accidental expertise wrecks his own romantic aspirations; and “Sleepy People,” who pose interpersonal conundrums without ever rousing from their slumber. 
Ecco | 9780063388864

FINDING MY WAY: A Memoir by Malala Yousafzai (Memoir)
Thrust onto the public stage at 15 years old after the Taliban’s brutal attack on her life, Malala Yousafzai quickly became an international icon known for bravery and resilience. But away from the cameras and crowds, she spent years struggling to find her place in an unfamiliar world. Now, for the first time ever, Malala takes us beyond the headlines. FINDING MY WAY is a story of friendship and first love, of anxiety and self-discovery, of trying to stay true to yourself when everyone wants to tell you who you are. In it, Malala traces her path from high school loner to reckless college student to a young woman at peace with her past. Through candid, often messy moments --- like nearly failing exams, getting ghosted, and meeting the love of her life --- Malala reminds us that real role models aren’t perfect. They’re human.
Atria Books | 9781668054284

THE GETAWAY by Kieran Scott (Domestic Thriller/Mystery)
Paperback Original
For years, three couples have gathered at The Villa --- billionaire Lincoln Foster’s Hamptons estate --- for lavish weekends among friends. But this year, mysterious blue cards appear in each bedroom, exposing secrets: their host’s betrayals and the guests’ own dark deeds. Everyone has something to hide. Even uninvited guests hoping to be accepted among the elite. With a hurricane bearing down, no one is getting out. When the revelations turn deadly, the trapped friends must confront what their lies have cost them --- possibly their lives.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781662538520

GRAY DAWN: An Easy Rawlins Mystery by Walter Mosley (Mystery)
The name Easy Rawlins stirs excitement in the hearts of readers and fear in the hearts of his foes. His success has bought him a thriving detective agency, with its first female detective; a remote home, shared with children and pets and lovers, high atop the hills overlooking gritty Los Angeles; and more trouble, more problems and more threats to those whom he loves. In other words, he’s still beset on all sides. A number of below-the-law powerbrokers plead with Easy to locate a mysterious, dangerous woman --- Lutisha James, though she’s gone by another name that Easy will immediately recognize. 1970s Los Angeles is a transient city of delicate, violent balances, and Lutisha has disturbed that. She also has a secret that will upend Easy’s own life, painfully closer to home.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316573245

HER ONE REGRET: An Ocean State Novel by Donna Freitas (Mystery/Thriller)
When successful Rhode Island real estate agent Lucy Mendoza vanishes, leaving her baby behind in a grocery store parking lot, the news quickly makes national headlines. Lucy’s best friend, Michelle, is devastated, and terrified that Lucy’s life is at stake. But she knows something that could complicate the police investigation. Lucy had confessed something unspeakable: She regretted becoming a mother, so much so that she’d fantasized about faking her own kidnapping. If the police and media were to find out, Lucy would become a monster in the eyes of the public. Michelle is sure Lucy would never abandon her daughter. But could she be wrong? Could Lucy have been so desperate that she chose to escape her life?
Soho Crime | 9781641298438

IN THE KILLER’S SIGHT by Mike Omer (Psychological Thriller/Mystery)
Paperback Original
Officer Kate Marino has a complicated relationship with her hometown. But there’s one thing that could bring her back. Her 17-year-old niece, Alice, disappeared two days ago. And she’s not the only woman who’s gone missing. With police dogs Nero and Bella (now retired) in tow, Kate returns to her childhood home and the ghosts that inhabit it. It’s not just the looming presence of her father that hinders her investigation. Something even more sinister awaits her there. Dead bodies confirm that the missing women are the work of a serial killer who hunts his prey through the New Hampshire wilderness. With time running out, Kate is determined to find Alice before she becomes his next victim.
Thomas & Mercer | 9781662530043

I’VE GOT A NEW COMPLAINT: Essays on Aging Disgracefully and Other Small Disasters by Laurie Notaro (Humor/Essays)
Paperback Original
Laurie Notaro can time travel. The portal is Scottsdale, Arizona. Once inside her elderly parents’ home, she’s a child again --- who’s two years away from collecting Social Security. Caught between generations, Laurie is young enough to be thrust into the role of caregiver yet old enough to be grappling with her own creaking bones and analog life skills. She runs rampant through Italy with her American driving skills. Infuriating office politics leave her little choice but revenge and some hexes. Laurie also confronts a high school bully at a reunion, considers an elaborate funeral at a puppet theater, and fancies an ideal retirement plan involving a bank robbery. As for sex at 60, honestly, it’s a challenge.
Little A | 9781662528842

THE LAST DEATH OF THE YEAR: A Hercule Poirot Mystery by Sophie Hannah (Historical Mystery) 
New Year’s Eve, 1932. Hercule Poirot and Inspector Edward Catchpool arrive on the tiny Greek island of Lamperos to celebrate the holiday with what turns out to be a rather odd community of locals living in a dilapidated house. A dark sense of foreboding overshadows the beautiful island getaway when the guests play a New Year’s Resolutions game after dinner, and one written resolution gleefully threatens to perform “the last and first death of the year.” Hours later, one of the home’s residents is found dead on the terrace. In light of the shocking murder, Poirot reveals to Catchpool the real reason he’s brought him to the island --- the life of another community member has been threatened. Now both men resolve to ensure that the first murder will be the last.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063424524

LIBRARY OF FORBIDDEN BOOKS by Mario Escobar (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Berlin, 1933. The vibrant cultural heart of Germany is darkening under the shadow of the Nazi regime. For Helene Nathan, one of the first female librarians at a prestigious German library, the books she cherishes are targets. As the government begins its systematic purge of literature, compiling lists of “forbidden” works and orchestrating public book burnings, Helene realizes she cannot stand by as her world turns to ash. Determined to resist the encroaching tyranny, Helene and her colleagues embark on a perilous mission of secretly collecting and hiding the very books slated for destruction. Her quiet rebellion is especially complicated by the fact that Helene is half-Jewish, and Rudolf Kummer, a ruthless Nazi official, seemingly has a personal vendetta against her.
Thomas Nelson | 9781400355815

MERCY by Joan Silber (Historical Fiction)
In the gritty East Village of 1970s New York, Ivan and his best friend, Eddie, a popular local bartender, are dabbling in drugs following a short tour of Europe. One night, as Ivan and Eddie experiment with heroin, things go horribly wrong. In a panic, Ivan rushes Eddie to a crowded local ER and, believing his friend is about to die, makes the awful choice to leave him there. This one act of abandonment haunts Ivan his entire life. He keeps this secret from his friends and later his family, forever searching for mercy from “a remorse that never dies.” Ivan's decision also ripples across time through an extended community, affecting a host of other people unknowingly connected to that night.
Counterpoint | 9781640097988

QUEEN DEMON by Martha Wells (Fantasy/Adventure)
Dahin, a beloved member of the Witch King's coterie, believes he has clues to the location of the Hierarchs' Well. The Witch King Kai, along with his companions Ziede and Tahren, knowing there's something he isn't telling them, travel with him to the rebuilt university of Ancartre, which may be dangerously close to finding the Well itself. Can Kai stop the rise of a new Hierarch? And can he trust his companions to do what’s right?
Tor Books | 9781250826930

REPLACEABLE YOU: Adventures in Human Anatomy by Mary Roach
(Science/Humor)
The body is the most complex machine in the world, and the only one for which you cannot get a replacement part from the manufacturer. For centuries, medicine has reached for what’s available --- sculpting noses from brass, borrowing skin from frogs and hearts from pigs, crafting eye parts from jet canopies and breasts from petroleum by-products. Today we’re attempting to grow body parts from scratch using stem cells and 3D printers. How are we doing? Are we there yet? In REPLACEABLE YOU, Mary Roach explores the remarkable advances and difficult questions prompted by the human body’s failings. 
W. W. Norton & Company | 9781324134268

SIPSWORTH by Simon Van Booy (Metaphysical Fiction)
Following the loss of her husband and son, Helen Cartwright returns to the village of her childhood after living abroad for six decades. Her only wish is to die quickly and without fuss. She retreats into her home on Westminster Crescent, becoming a creature of routine and habit: “Each day was an impersonation of the one before with only a slight shuffle --- as though even for death there is a queue.” Then, one cold winter night, a chance encounter with a mouse sets Helen on a surprising journey. SIPSWORTH is a reminder that there can be second chances. No matter what we have planned for ourselves, sometimes life has plans of its own.
David R. Godine, Publisher | 9781567928754

THE TAO OF THE BACKUP CATCHER: Playing Baseball for the Love of the Game by Tim Brown, with Erik Kratz (Sports)
In baseball, there are superstars, stars and everyday players --- and then there are the rest. THE TAO OF THE BACKUP CATCHER is about them, the backup catchers, who exist near the bottom of the roster and the end of the bench and between the numbers in a sport --- and a society --- increasingly driven by cold, hard analytics. It is a story of grown men who once dreamed of stardom and generational wealth. Instead, they were handed a broom and a deeper understanding of who wins and why, who stands tall and who folds, and who will invest their own lives in catching bullpens and the back ends of doubleheaders.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538726563

A TIME OF WITCHES by Madeline Martin (Gothic Historical Mystery)
Paperback Original
Lilith Legare’s life is unraveling. Since her mother’s death, strange things have been happening --- including her recurring nightmare of being burned alive at the stake. Her search for answers brings her to the decaying Brackenmere Manor where the past blurs with the present. In 1645 Suffolk, Sybil Brantham stands accused as a witch. An educated, wealthy widow, she is branded a threat by men who fear her independence. As arrests begin and suspicion abounds, Sybil must protect her younger sister. Across centuries, Lilith and Sybil are bound by blood and by danger. To save themselves, and each other, they must confront the silence that has stolen women’s power for generations --- and dare to claim their voices before it’s too late.
Hanover Square Press | 9781335002679

THE TRUE TRUE STORY OF RAJA THE GULLIBLE (AND HIS MOTHER) by Rabih Alameddine (Fiction)
In a tiny Beirut apartment, 63-year-old Raja and his mother live side by side. A beloved high school philosophy teacher and “the neighborhood homosexual,” Raja relishes books, meditative walks, order and solitude. Zalfa, his octogenarian mother, views her son’s desire for privacy as a personal affront. She demands to know every detail of Raja’s work life and love life, boundaries be damned. When Raja receives an invite to an all-expenses-paid writing residency in America, the timing couldn’t be better. It arrives on the heels of a series of personal and national disasters that have left Raja longing for peace and quiet away from his mother and the heartache of Lebanon. But what at first seems to be a stroke of good fortune soon leads Raja to recount and relive the very disasters and past betrayals he wishes to forget.
Grove Press | 9780802168436

VENETIAN VESPERS by John Banville (Historical Fiction)
1899. As the new century approaches, struggling English writer Evelyn Dolman marries Laura Rensselaer, the daughter of an American oil tycoon. Evelyn anticipates that he and Laura will inherit a substantial fortune and lead a comfortable, settled life. But his hopes are dashed when a mysterious rift between Laura and her father, just before the patriarch’s death, leads to her disinheritance. The unhappy newlyweds travel to Venice to celebrate the New Year at the Palazzo Dioscuri, the ancestral home of the charming but treacherous Count Barbarigo. From their first moments in the mist-blanketed floating city, otherworldly occurrences begin to accumulate. Where has Laura disappeared to? How to explain the increasingly sinister circumstances closing around him? Could he be losing his mind?
Vintage | 9780593686546

THE WAYFINDER by Adam Johnson (Historical Fiction)
Talking corpses, poetic parrots, and a fan that wafts the breath of life. This is the world that young Kōrero finds herself thrust into when a mysterious visitor lands on her island, a place so remote that its inhabitants have forgotten the word for stranger. Her people are desperate and on the brink of starvation, and the wayward stranger offers them an impossible choice: they can remain in the only home they’ve ever known and await the uncertainty to come, or Kōrero can join him and venture into unfamiliar waters, guided by only the night sky and his assurance of a bountiful future in the Kingdom of Tonga. What Kōrero and her people don’t know is that the promised refuge is no utopia. Instead, Tonga is an empire at war and on the verge of collapse.
Picador | 9781250448743

WHAT ABOUT THE BODIES by Ken Jaworowski (Thriller)
Carla, a single mom poised to finally break free from her cycle of poverty, must risk it all, including her morality, to help her son hide a terrible secret. Reed, an autistic young man, sets out on a journey to keep a deathbed promise to the mother he just lost. Along the way, he’ll encounter both kindhearted residents and a cold-blooded nemesis. And Liz, an aspiring musician on the cusp of a breakthrough, needs to quickly come up with the cash she owes a brutal ex-con. If she can’t pay him, both her dream and her life will be in grave danger. As these three compelling characters intersect, the novel ignites into a story filled with explosive twists, hair-raising chills and boundless love.
Atlantic Crime | 9780802168429

THE WHISTLER by Nick Medina (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
Henry Hotard was on the verge of fame, gaining a following and traction with his eerie ghost-hunting videos. Then his dreams came to a screeching halt. Now, he's learning to navigate a new life in a wheelchair, back on the reservation where he grew up. And he’s being haunted. His girlfriend, Jade, insists he just needs time to adjust to his new reality as a quadriplegic, that it’s his traumatized mind playing tricks on him, but Henry knows better. As the specter haunting him creeps closer each night, Henry battles to find a way to endure, to rid himself of the horror stalking him. Worried that this dread might plague him forever, he realizes the only way to exile his phantom is by confronting his troubled past and going back to the events that led to his injury. It all started when he whistled at night.
Berkley | 9780593820421

WILD DARK SHORE by Charlotte McConaghy (Fiction)
Dominic Salt and his three children are caretakers of Shearwater, a tiny island not far from Antarctica. Home to the world’s largest seed bank, Shearwater was once full of researchers, but with sea levels rising, the Salts are now its final inhabitants. Until, during the worst storm the island has ever seen, a woman mysteriously washes ashore. As they nurse Rowan back to strength, it begins to feel like she might be just what they need. Rowan starts imagining a future where she could belong to someone again. But she isn’t telling the whole truth about why she set out for Shearwater. And when she discovers sabotaged radios and a freshly dug grave, she realizes that Dominic is keeping his own secrets. As the storms on Shearwater gather force, they all must decide if they can trust each other enough to protect the precious seeds in their care before it’s too late.
Flatiron Books | 9781250828019

On Sale the Week of September 7th in Hardcover

September 8th

THE CHASE: A Dick Francis Novel by Felix Francis (Thriller)
Forty-nine-year-old Fabian Tulley is only trying to run his own art gallery in London’s Mayfair in peace. But someone seems determined to ruin his life. Accused of selling a fake Alfred Munnings painting, he is unable to prove his innocence because the police are holding the piece as evidence. While running a retail sale at Cheltenham Racecourse, some of his other paintings are vandalized. Then a couple of men try to run him down in the racecourse parking lot. To make matters even worse, his clients are being threatened to stay away from his gallery, and his landlords are trying to cancel his lease. Everything is against him, but with someone threatening his life’s work, Fabian is determined to fight back. And what a fight it turns out to be.
Crooked Lane Books | 9798892426657 

THE CHINESE LADY by Bo Wang (Historical Fiction)
In 1834, Afong Moy was brought to New York by two merchants as a live exhibit. Rising to fame as the first Chinese female in the United States, she became an oddity among curios as Americans marveled at the opportunity to observe her astonishing little feet, broken and bound to resemble lotuses. As the story moves from 1820s Canton to P.T. Barnum’s American Museum, to Gold Rush San Francisco, three women introduce us to her many names. Her mother calls her Little Sparrow and sells her to a captain who sails her to New York. The captain’s wife names her Julia and “graciously” treats her as her own. And when she is shunted off to P.T Barnum, her fellow human exhibitions call her China. Eventually arriving in San Francisco's Chinatown, she at long last will claim her name and her own story.
HarperVia | 9780063467736 

DRIVEN by Mason Coile (Science Fiction/Psychological Thriller & Horror)
Jamie Newcross wants to disappear. His wife and baby girl have abandoned him, and his only wish is to retreat from society. As it turns out, Jamie is also being haunted. Every house, condo or apartment he moves into is plagued with ghosts. But Jamie has a plan. He posts queries online and finds someone wanting to get rid of their Lion --- the world’s most advanced self-driving car --- a sleek, private, contained vessel that is a hundred percent safe. Or so he thought. Because now, Jamie has woken up to the Lion speeding down a dark road, the hood is dented (wait, is that blood?), and the car will not respond, or stop, or let him out. As the miles rack up and Jamie becomes increasingly complicit in his car’s choices, he is forced to face the tragic past he has kept buried.
G.P. Putnam's Sons | 9798217177103

FIGHTING EDGE: A Timber Creek K-9 Mystery by Margaret Mizushima (Mystery) 
A routine welfare check becomes a nightmare when Deputy Mattie Walker finds a young mother dead and a hysterical toddler. During a traffic stop for speeding, Mattie observes a nervous driver and a teenage passenger frozen with fear. A quick sweep of the car with her K-9 partner, Robo, reveals a dangerous mix of drugs and suspected human trafficking. Mattie’s husband, veterinarian Cole Walker, notices suspicious activity during ambulatory calls at dog kennels, indicating yet a third crime lurking in the shadows. What begins as isolated incidents quickly reveals a chilling truth: Organized crime has infiltrated their rural mountain community. Every clue leads to more questions, and each answer brings them closer to greater danger.
Crooked Lane Books | 9798892426701 

FURY IN DEATH by J. D. Robb (Mystery/Thriller)
The victim’s corpse is so mangled and damaged it’s hard to believe a lone, unarmed assailant could have managed it. The killer was clearly unnaturally strong --- and smart enough to find a way into wealthy biotech executive Larry Chu’s highly secure building. Most of all, whoever did this was very, very angry. The excessive violence leads NYSPD Lieutenant Eve Dallas to conclude that this was a deeply personal act. And though the motive seems rooted in heated emotion rather than cold hard cash, she can’t ignore the suspicious bank account in the Cayman Islands, or the shadowy, profit-hungry company Chu worked for. The mystery only grows when it turns out that Chu isn’t the only victim --- and Dallas will need to tear through one layer of secrecy after another to reveal what lies behind this explosion of fury.
St. Martin's Press | 9781250414564 

MASSIF by Garth Nix (Science Fiction/Space Opera)
It’s business as usual for Ship Leader Parnell Shi-Sawahla and the crew of the corvette Sassafras. Ride a Massif to a new system, fight the enemy, repeat. For more than 200 years, humans have been hitching rides on these sentient, starfaring mountain ranges, colonizing planets and exporting an on-and-off-again war between Earth and Mars. But the big questions are always there, behind every battle, new colony and new star system discovery. Why do the Massifs carry humans to the stars? Why do they help us export our wars? What’s in it for the Massifs? Parnell and his tight-knit crew must try to find the answers, to save not only themselves but the future of humanity.
Harper Voyager | 9780063292017 

NO SONG FOR THE DEAD: A Department Q Novel by Jussi Adler-Olsen, Stine Bolther and Line Holm (Mystery/Thriller)
Carl Mørck, the former head of Department Q, comes across a disturbing audio recording and turns it over to his former colleagues, who are struggling to keep the old department up and running on their own. That is, until a new transfer unexpectedly arrives --- Helena Henry, a Frenchwoman who throws herself into the investigation with gusto, but who may also have secrets of her own. When the team realizes that the audio recording might shed new light on a supposedly open-and-shut murder-suicide case from years earlier, suddenly everything they thought they knew is called into question. Meanwhile, a spurt of seemingly random violence leads the Department Q team to investigate a possible connection to a different long-ago dark and sinister event.
Dutton | 9798217178513 

PICTURES OF YOU by Josh Malerman (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)
After a magical night out on the town with her boyfriend, Jack, Emily wakes up alone in a huge bed. But the beautiful, well-lit room is nothing like the hotel she and Jack rented, and she has no memory of this place from the night before. Where is she? A woman’s voice directs her to remain in bed. And beyond the end of the bed is a picture frame upon an easel --- a frame with no canvas, no painting, no art. But there is the silhouette of a person Emily does not recognize. A person emanating demand, danger and evil. And the way the woman talks...and the things she says. She’s acting as if Emily herself is the painting. The still life. The art. Emily is as scared as she is confused. But it’s immediately clear that Jack’s life is on the line with her own.
Del Rey | 9780593723159

THE PIRATE QUEEN by Ariel Lawhon (Historical Thriller/Adventure)
As the only daughter of a powerful chieftain, Grace O’Malley’s role is to secure a strong alliance and bear children. But when she’s sent to foster with a nearby clan, she falls for a clever and open-minded second son --- a man she cannot have. Married off against her will to a brutal warrior, Grace performs her duty, all the while gathering followers loyal to her, and consolidating her husband’s power, only to be ousted from his lands. But this betrayal offers Grace the opportunity to return to sea, finally leading clan O’Malley’s mighty fleet. Just as Grace finds true independence, Queen Elizabeth’s incursions into Ireland grow bolder. She must fight to defend her land, her ships, and the people she loves most against the cruel and power-hungry English deputies.
Doubleday | 9780385550345 

PLOT TWIST: Life, Craft, and the Messy First Draft: A Memoir on Writing by Harlan Coben (Memoir)
With 100 million books in print worldwide and over 20 blockbuster television and film adaptations of his work, Harlan Coben has much to teach us about the creative process. PLOT TWIST is a refreshingly honest look at the life of a writer whose stories have thrilled us for decades. Plumbing memories from his suburban childhood and his early years trying to break into publishing, Coben tells his own story for the first time. He reveals the real-world inspirations for some of his most beloved characters, as well as the innovative plots that drive his propulsive novels. Filled with useful tips and techniques on the creative process, Coben does away with the traditional “categories” of writing --- characters, plot, setting, etc. --- and looks at the process holistically.
Grand Central Publishing | 9781538784624 

QUEENIE IS WORKING ON IT by Candice Carty-Williams (Fiction)
Queenie is 33 and the editorial director for The Good Sis, a thriving media network amplifying the voices of Black women --- a far cry from her former toxic workplace. With a great platform and a renewed sense of purpose, she’s fighting the good fight. But when an appointment for research goes haywire and reveals startling truths about her own fertility, Queenie is confronted with a racing biological clock when she’s not even sure she wants kids in the first place. Surrounded by loyal friends who seem to fall in love with their person and get pregnant at the drop of a hat, and the reappearance of an old flame she never stopped loving, while being pulled into a series of confusing “situationships” that really do NOT go anywhere, means that time is running out in all parts of her life.
Gallery/Scout Press | 9781982178116 

STRANGE IS THE LIGHT by Sarah Maria Griffin (Dark Fantasy)
STRANGE IS THE LIGHT follows a passionately entangled group of childhood friends, fractured by the betrayals and secrets kept as they grew into adulthood. Now, after 20 years, Daphne, Ronan, Leonie and Finn will finally have to face the consequences of cutting their last adventure short --- having accidentally opened a rift into a dangerous alternate dimension while playing a mysterious RPG version of their childhood game. Daphne never took her final turn. And there is a debt that must be paid.
Tor Books | 9781250910882 

SWITZY by Emma Cline (Fiction) 
A private plane cuts through the winter night, somewhere over Greenland. David, a retired executive, sits back in his leather seat. The notebook in his jacket pocket is filled with familiar phrases, urgent reminders to himself, but he struggles to recognize his own handwriting. Cody, his assistant, will shepherd him along the voyage. A stopover in London. Dinner with his adult daughter. A meeting in France with an old friend, estranged for decades. His final destination is Zurich. David glides through hotel rooms, airports and foreign cities, running out the clock on his mortal life. His grasp on the present slips away, and the past rushes in. As David’s arrival in Zurich looms, an exquisitely rendered portrait of an unraveling mind emerges. 
Random House | 9780593595244 

TAIPEI STORY by R. F. Kuang (Fiction)
College freshman Lily Chen is off to spend the summer in Taipei at an intensive language program like so many Chinese American students before her. But a promising start quickly unravels. Her classes are grueling, her roommate is driving her insane, and a reckless trip to the hot springs with a guy she barely knows soon has her classmates viciously gossiping. She feels adrift, a foreigner in a country she thought would feel like home. Then shocking news arrives: Lily’s grandfather has passed away. The loss forces her to grapple with now-unanswerable questions about her family history. As Lily grieves, she’s drawn into a journey of self-discovery --- piecing together memories, stories and silences over a series of hilarious and devastating attempts at connection.
William Morrow | 9780063473744 

TEMPEST by Victoria Aveyard (Fantasy & Adventure/Romance)
Cat Rose knows what it is to live in two worlds and in two times. Before --- as Lady Catrine Rose of the Meridian Empire, chained to a loathsome lord with a dwindling fortune. And after --- as the Widow Rose, queen of a pirate tavern in the Lyrian Sea. But tides turn and winds change. The Meridian Empire looms on the horizon, the full weight of her navy falling on the Lyrian, bent on reclaiming the wealthy colonies and crushing the pirate republic once and for all. Ship after ship is captured, save for one, captained by a pirate who continually evades both noose and blade: the legendary Valerian Kane, the only man who might rally the pirates who remain. Desperate for victory, the Empire offers Cat a devastating choice: bring them Valerian or hang.
Harper Voyager | 9780063566224 

THOSE WHO ARE GONE by Laurie R. King (Mystery)
SFPD Homicide Inspector Raquel Laing lives with her adoptive sister, Dee, an online investigator for organizations all over the world. Trouble arrives with an all-too-common case for Inspector Laing: the homicide of a drug dealer in a deserted corner of San Francisco. But the everyday rapidly spirals into complications --- just as a simple search into the family’s ancestry is throwing Dee into her own world of turmoil. Raquel’s case blows up far too close to home. While her unique skills are too valuable for the SFPD to suspend her entirely, she is removed from Homicide and put onto the Cold Case Unit. This leaves her free to look at some disturbing facts about her past --- and at the devastating news that Dee has uncovered in her own search for the truth.
Bantam | 9780593874011

THE WITCHES OF CAMBRIDGE by Alice Hoffman (Historical Fiction)
By the 1950s, Cambridge, Massachusetts feels far removed from the legendary witch trials that marked its early days as a colony. Ava, a bright young woman from a small town in Maine, arrives for her first year at Radcliffe College. There, she meets Lauren, and both are recruited by the Lilith Society, a secret organization of witches at Radcliffe dating back to colonial times. They form a close bond that is put to the test as they learn to navigate their new power, friendship and love. While Radcliffe seems like a safe haven, the shadow of McCarthyism looms large. And as girls from the Lilith Society begin to go missing, Ava and Lauren realize that the witch trials of the past may not be as deeply buried as they once believed.
Scribner | 9781668074640 

On Sale the Week of September 7th in Paperback

September 8th

AMONG THE BURNING FLOWERS by Samantha Shannon (Fantasy)
It has been centuries since the Draconic Army took wing, almost extinguishing humankind. Marosa Vetalda is a prisoner in her own home, controlled by her cold father, King Sigoso. Over the mountains, her betrothed, Aubrecht Lievelyn, rules Mentendon in all but name. Together, they intend to usher in a better world. A better world seems impossibly distant to Estina Melaugo, who hunts the Draconic beasts that have slept across the world for centuries. And now the great wyrm Fýredel is stirring, and Yscalin will be the first to fall.
Bloomsbury Archer | 9798260201190

THE ELEMENTS by John Boyne (Fiction)
In THE ELEMENTS, acclaimed Irish novelist John Boyne has created an epic saga that weaves together four interconnected narratives, each representing a different perspective on crime: the enabler, the accomplice, the perpetrator and the victim. The narrative follows a mother on the run from her past, a young soccer star facing a trial, a successful surgeon grappling with childhood trauma, and a father on a transformative journey with his son. Each is somehow connected to the next, and as the story unfolds, their lives intersect in unimaginable ways.
Holt Paperbacks | 9781250413345

A GUARDIAN AND A THIEF by Megha Majumdar (Fiction)
In a near-future Kolkata beset by flooding and famine, Ma, her two-year-old daughter, and her elderly father are just days from leaving the collapsing city behind to join Ma’s husband in Ann Arbor, Michigan. After procuring long-awaited visas from the consulate, they pack their bags for the flight to America. But in the morning they awaken to discover that Ma’s purse, containing their treasured immigration documents, has been stolen. Set over the course of one week, A GUARDIAN AND A THIEF tells two stories: the story of Ma’s frantic search for the thief while keeping hunger at bay during a worsening food shortage; and the story of Boomba, the thief, whose desperation to care for his family drives him to commit a series of escalating crimes, the consequences of which he cannot fathom.
Vintage | 9798217008025

HAPPINESS AND LOVE by Zoe Dubno (Fiction/Dark Humor)
Delivered in a single hilarious, brutal paragraph, HAPPINESS AND LOVE is the story of an evening that slowly self-destructs, as the guests sip orange wine and await the arrival of a newly famous actress. When the guest of honor finally does arrive, she sets in motion a disastrous end to the night, laying bare the depravity and decadence of the hosts’ empty little lives --- a hollowness that the narrator herself knows all too well.
Scribner | 9781668063002

LAWS OF SOLOMON: A Martyr Maker Novel by Eriq La Salle (Thriller)
Paperback Original
After years of violence, Solomon leaves the brutal backdrop of New York and its underworld to find peace in California where he settles for the quiet life of a gardener defined by routine, restraint and a fragile kind of peace that had alluded him. Having been a former child soldier, mercenary and hit man, he is determined to put his past behind him. But as violence erupts on the grounds he tends, his hard-won tranquility shatters when he encounters a young boy named Gaby whose life is in danger. Protecting the child pulls Solomon back into a world he swore he'd buried. As they set out on an unexpected journey, hunted by men who will stop at nothing to get what they want, Solomon must confront not only the threat closing in but the darkness he carries within.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464257513

LITTLE RED DEATH by Alexandra Benedict (Psychological Thriller/Horror)
Paperback Original
For 25 years, DI Lyla Rondell has lived with one unsolved case: her best friend's disappearance. The only clue --- a poisoned apple --- earned it the nickname “Snow White.” It's haunted her ever since. Now, when a woman is taken in a crime that has striking similarities to the story of Cinderella, Lyla is charged with investigating. And as more murders take place, each one based on a different classic fairy tale, Lyla is determined to finally uncover the truth. But these deaths are far from the stuff of bedtime stories. And worse, it becomes increasingly clear that these killings, and the messages left within them, are addressed directly to Lyla. As the murders get more gruesome, Lyla becomes entangled in a web of crime and storytelling that goes far deeper than she ever could have imagined.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464296048

THE LONELINESS OF SONIA AND SUNNY by Kiran Desai (Fiction)
When Sonia and Sunny first glimpse each other on an overnight train, they are immediately captivated yet also embarrassed by the fact that their grandparents had once tried to matchmake them, a clumsy meddling that served only to drive Sonia and Sunny apart. Sonia, an aspiring novelist who recently completed her studies in the snowy mountains of Vermont, has returned to her family in India. She fears that she is haunted by a dark spell cast by an artist to whom she had once turned for intimacy and inspiration. Sunny, a struggling journalist resettled in New York City, is attempting to flee his imperious mother and the violence of his warring clan. Uncertain of their future, Sonia and Sunny embark on a search for happiness together as they confront the many alienations of our modern world.
Hogarth | 9780307744555

THE LOST PERFUMES OF PARIS by Christine Wells (Historical Fiction)
Paperback Original
Élodie Limeaux's beloved mother, Aurore, was the most legendary perfumer in France before World War II. Now in her 20s, Élodie longs to join the family business. Her father, however, has refused to let her follow in her late mother's footsteps. But Élodie plans to enter the Essence of Paris contest run by the French Perfume Institute, hoping that a win will secure investment from Swiss banker Monsieur Caspari. Impressed with Élodie's drive and talent, Caspari agrees to back her, provided that she collaborate with his son, Marcelo. When they join forces, Élodie is surprised to discover that Marcelo's passion for perfume is genuine, his obsession as deep as hers. With Marcelo by her side, Élodie battles family betrayals and corporate sabotage.
William Morrow Paperbacks | 9780063336919

THE MAGICIAN OF TIGER CASTLE by Louis Sachar (Historical Fantasy)
Long ago and far away lies the kingdom of Esquaveta. There, Princess Tullia is in nearly as much peril as her struggling kingdom. Esquaveta desperately needs to forge an alliance, and to that end, Tullia's father has arranged a marriage between her and an odious prince. However, one month before the "wedding of the century," Tullia falls in love with a lowly apprentice scribe. The king turns to Anatole, his much-maligned magician. Seventeen years earlier, when Anatole first came to the castle, he was regarded as something of a prodigy. But after a long series of failures, he has become the object of contempt and ridicule. The only one who still believes in him is the princess. When the king orders Anatole to brew a potion that will ensure Tullia agrees to the wedding, Anatole is faced with an impossible choice.
Ace | 9780593952320

THE MYSTERIOUS CASE OF THE MISSING CRIME WRITER by Ragnar Jónasson (Mystery)
One winter evening, bestselling crime author Elín S. Jónsdóttir goes missing. There are no clues to her disappearance, and it is up to young detective Helgi to crack the case before it is leaked to the press. As Helgi interviews the people closest to her --- a publisher, an accountant, a retired judge --- he realizes that Elín’s life wasn’t what it seemed. In fact, her past is even stranger than the fiction she wrote. As the case of the missing crime writer becomes more mysterious by the hour, Helgi must uncover the secrets of the writer's very unexpected life.
Minotaur Books | 9781250408280

PHOTOGRAPH by Brian Freeman (Mystery/Thriller)
Shannon Wells is a private investigator who helps women with nowhere else to go. Last year, a woman named Faith Selby came to Shannon with a strange request: Find out who I really am. Shannon soon discovered that Faith was hiding a whole other life, but was unable to penetrate the web of mystery the woman had built around her past. Now Faith is dead. The only clue to who she was and why she was murdered is an old photograph of a little girl in the rain outside a Midwestern motel. The hunt for answers takes Shannon from the hot beaches of Florida to a remote small town in Michigan as she peels away layer after layer of a shocking cold case that has rippled violently into the present. With each secret she uncovers, the danger around her grows --- and forces Shannon to confront the demons hiding in her own past.
Blackstone Publishing | 9798228960398

PORTRAIT OF A NATION IN PERIL by Michael Gellert (Social Science)
Paperback Original
A nation or civilization that has a strong heroic ideal or vision of greatness cannot lose it without itself collapsing. As Americans, we are beginning to lose it. This book argues that we’ve lost touch with our founding vision, our sense of purpose and direction, resulting in the sharp polarization splitting our nation apart today. We hear much talk about making America great again, but little about what this actually means. Does it mean economically great? Militarily great? Culturally great? Morally great? PORTRAIT OF A NATION IN PERIL explores our founders’ conception of greatness and their vision for America. Much can be borrowed from them for us to build upon.
Walrus Publishing | 9781940442570

THE PROVING GROUND: A Lincoln Lawyer Novel by Michael Connelly (Legal Thriller)
Following his “resurrection walk” and need for a new direction, Mickey Haller turns to public interest litigation, filing a civil lawsuit against an artificial intelligence company whose chatbot told a 16-year-old boy that it was okay for him to kill his ex-girlfriend for her disloyalty. Representing the victim’s family, Mickey’s case explores the mostly unregulated and exploding AI business and the lack of training guardrails. Along the way he joins up with a journalist named Jack McEvoy, who wants to be a fly on the wall during the trial in order to write a book about it. But Mickey puts him to work going through the mountain of printed discovery materials in the case. McEvoy’s digging ultimately delivers the key witness, a whistleblower who has been too afraid to speak up. The case is fraught with danger because billions are at stake.
Little, Brown and Company | 9780316563833

RIPENESS by Sarah Moss (Fiction)
Just out of school, Edith has been sent from her quiet English life to rural Italy. It is the 1960s, and her mother has issued strict instructions: tend to her sister, ballet dancer Lydia, in the final weeks of her scandalous pregnancy; help at the birth; and make a phone call that will summon the nuns who will spirit the child away to a new home. Decades later, a happily divorced Edith has made a life of contentment and comfort in Ireland. Then her best friend, Maebh, receives a shocking phone call from an American man. He claims to be a brother she never knew existed: a child her mother gave up and never spoke of again. As Edith helps her friend reckon with this new idea of family and how it might change her life, her thoughts turn back to Lydia and her own fractured history.
Picador | 9781250448279

SAVING NOAH by Lucinda Berry (Fiction)
Paperback Original
Noah is the boy everyone admires --- an honor student, a champion swimmer, a hometown success story. Until he confesses to sexually abusing young girls during swim practice. In a single moment, his future evaporates, and his family shoulders the fallout. After 18 months in a juvenile sexual rehabilitation center, Noah returns home. But the town recoils, and his father refuses to let him back into their family's life. Noah's mom, Adrianne, is forced into an impossible role: the mother of a child no one believes deserves saving. As devastating truths emerge, she must confront the darkest question of all: When does standing by your child become a betrayal of everyone around you?
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464292132

THE SECOND CHANCE CINEMA by Thea Weiss (Fiction/Magical Realism)
At the end of a dark alley, a magical cinema glitters with The Story of You on the marquee. When Ellie and her fiancé, Drake, stumble upon it during a late-night walk, they’re shocked to discover what’s playing inside the red-velvet auditorium: their formative memories. Uneasy about what the theater might reveal, Drake hesitates, but Ellie, haunted by a fractured night from her past she can’t fully remember, insists they return. As their memories projected on the screen inch closer to the present, they realize they’re both keeping secrets from each other. With their wedding on the horizon, Ellie and Drake must decide if revisiting their pasts will alter their vision of a future together.
Atria Books | 9781668080412

THE SECRET OF SECRETS by Dan Brown (Thriller)
Robert Langdon, esteemed professor of symbology, has traveled to Prague to attend a groundbreaking lecture by Katherine Solomon --- a prominent noetic scientist with whom he recently has begun a romantic relationship. Katherine is on the verge of publishing a breakthrough book that contains explosive scientific discoveries about the nature of human consciousness --- revelations that threaten to disrupt centuries of established belief. When a brutal murder catapults the trip into chaos, Katherine suddenly goes missing --- and her manuscript disappears. Desperate to find the woman he loves, Langdon embarks on a thrilling race through the mystical landscape of Prague, ruthlessly hunted by a powerful organization and a chilling assailant sprung from the city’s ancient mythology.
Vintage | 9780593313015

SOME BRIGHT NOWHERE by Ann Packer (Fiction)
Eliot and his wife, Claire, have been happily married for nearly four decades. They have raised two children in their sleepy Connecticut town and weathered the unavoidable ups and downs of a long life spent together. But eight years after Claire was diagnosed with cancer, the end is near, and she makes an unexpected request that leaves Eliot reeling. Confronted by a profound turning point in his marriage and his life, Eliot grapples with the man and husband he’s been, in a novel that explores the precious gifts and unexpected costs of truly loving someone, and the fears and desires we experience as the end of life draws near.
Harper Perennial | 9780063421509

TEN PERFECT GUESTS by Jonathan Santlofer (Psychological Thriller)
Paperback Original
When celebrated and enigmatic artist Victor D'Arcangelo dies unexpectedly, his nearest and dearest receive an irresistible summons: attend his weekend memorial --- or forfeit their inheritance. But once they arrive, the paradise begins to feel more like a prison. Someone knows their secrets. Someone wants revenge. As the weekend spirals into chaos, one question hangs in the sultry, tropical air: Who, if anyone, will survive? This time, the masterpiece may be murder.
Sourcebooks Landmark | 9781464234811

THIEF OF NIGHT by Holly Black (Supernatural Thriller/Dark Fantasy)
Charlie Hall may have finally met her match. After defeating Salt and stealing her lover --- the powerful shadow, Vince --- back from under the noses of the powerful Cabal leaders, she thought she’d won. Agreeing to become the Hierophant and risking her life hunting down dangerous rogue shadows seemed a small price to pay if she got to do it while being tethered to Vince. But Vince is no longer the man she loved. The tethering process wiped away his memories of the last year, leaving only Red --- the ruthless shadow who spent years as a killer for a cruel, mercurial billionaire. Red doesn’t remember Charlie and doesn’t like her. So when Charlie is ordered to track down the Blight responsible for a massacre at a local church, she’s worse than just alone, heartbroken and outmatched. She’s vulnerable.
Tor Books | 9781250812247

UNTIL SHE DIES by Kendra Elliot (Mystery/Thriller)
Paperback Original
When a search dog locates a mass burial ground in the Oregon forest, Detective Noelle Marshall is plunged into a hunt for a killer who’s hiding in plain sight. The key to her case lies in a decades-old secret: a lone survivor who escaped and is still out there, living in fear. The murderer is a phantom who left behind a collection of victims with nothing in common but their final resting place. As pressure mounts to identify the bodies and find the killer, the investigation draws in FBI Agent Max Rhodes --- Noelle’s partner in work and in life. They’ve hunted monsters before, but this one has spent years preparing for this moment, and he craves revenge.
Montlake | 9781662536465

WE ALREADY DUG THE GRAVE by Emma C. Wells (Gothic Thriller)
Paperback Original
Milly can't divine the future anymore, and maybe that's a good thing. Lately, her life has been bleak enough; she doesn't need the now-silent tea leaves to tell her. Meanwhile, her estranged younger sister thrives miles away in a shiny new life with a shiny new marriage. Milly doesn't blame Francis for wanting nothing to do with her. Not after what happened in that Tennessee meadow a decade before. But when Francis shows up on Milly's doorstep with a black eye and a plea for help, Milly can't say no. If the sisters don't kill Francis' husband, he'll kill her. And if they're going to plot a murder, the sisters have no choice but to return to the one place they'd left behind. A place where another body --- and a multitude of secrets --- were buried.
Poisoned Pen Press | 9781464218651

WE LOVE YOU, BUNNY by Mona Awad (Fiction/Dark Humor)
In the cult classic novel BUNNY, Samantha Heather Mackey was first ostracized and then seduced by a clique of creepy-sweet rich girls in her New England MFA program who call themselves “Bunny.” An invitation to the Bunnies’ Smut Salon leads Samantha down a dark rabbit hole (pun intended) into the violently surreal world of their off-campus workshops. When WE LOVE YOU, BUNNY opens, Sam has just published her first novel to critical acclaim. But at a New England stop on her book tour, her one-time frenemies, furious at the way they’ve been portrayed, kidnap her. Now a captive audience, it’s her (and our) turn to hear the Bunnies’ side of the story.
Scribner | 9781668059876

THE WELLNESS RETREAT by Dawn Kurtagich (Psychological Thriller/Horror)
Paperback Original
Jaimie Vane used to measure her life in concert halls and standing ovations. Now she measures it in symptoms. The chronic illness that ended her career as a cellist doesn’t have a name or a cure --- just a long list of things her body can’t do anymore. When her wild child younger sister, Sybil, reinvents herself as a live-in staffer at an ultra-exclusive wellness retreat, Jaimie assumes it’s another phase. Until her messages stop. Until the voucher arrives. Talamh Dhubh, a black-sand island in the middle of a wintry sea and home to Saoghal Spa, is a place for guests to be reborn. The founder, the enigmatic and glamorous Cyan Blache, promises restoration. Jaimie tells herself she’s only there to find Sybil. But the longer she stays, the lighter her body feels. At Saoghal, healing is real. And so is the cost.
Hanover Square Press | 9781525809934

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